Glittery Grinchy Ornament

I babysit six-year-old twin girls.  Thing One and Thing Two.  We wanted to make ornaments for the Christmas tree.   I asked them if they had any ideas for what they would like to make.  Thing Two was just happy to be making something, but Thing One wanted glittery red hearts incorporated.  So, armed with this information, I turned to Google. A quick search led me here where I found the perfect idea.  Well, perfect enough.  It had glitter and hearts.  And they had recently watched The Grinch so this seemed perfect.  As we all know, the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that special Christmas day.

I didn't think that glittering the ornaments with the girls would be a good idea so I did that part at home.  I read so many tutorials online for how to do that that I can't give my source.  They all said the same thing.  The reason that I checked so many different sites was because I could not believe that something so simple actually worked.  After reading about six different tutorials, I decided that it must work and took the plunge.

First I wanted to jazz up the toppers, so I mooched some red and white glossy paint from Hubby.  

Red for the tops...

And white for the hangers.  I was thinking that the tops would mimic Santa's hat when I chose these colours.

I carefully washed four glass balls.  Once they were dry, I swirled some rubbing alcohol inside because a few of the tutorials suggested that this was a key step in preparing the ornaments.  Since I really did not want this to fail, I took that step.  This prep work is what took the longest!  Mostly waiting for the insides to dry.

Once the ornaments were dry I squirted a little bit of the floor polish in.  No need for a funnel like most sites say, there is a squirt top on the bottle that works great. Then I carefully swirled the polish all around the ornament, being careful not to shake as that would cause bubbles.  One or two ornaments needed an extra little bit of polish added.  Once the ornament was coated with polish, I left it upside down for a moment over a small disposable cup.  Not much drained out at all.  Then I poured a little Grinchy-green glitter inside.  Again, I didn't need a funnel because my glitter has a small hole for pouring that worked perfectly.  I swirled the glitter around carefully at first, but soon realized that it was okay to shake now to get the glitter to reach everywhere.  I dumped the excess into a clean disposable cup.  I should mention that I did each ornament one at a time.  I didn't (and still don't) know how much time I had before the polish dried too much in the ball.  I think it took less than ten minutes to glitter all four of these ornaments.  I left them overnight to dry.
Using a low-temp glue gun, I glued the red tops onto the balls.  Then I was ready to decorate!

The person who gave me this idea sewed her hearts together, but I thought that was more than the six year olds could handle so we just cut hearts out and glued them on.  I went for the cartoony look and coloured the edges of mine with a Sharpie.

Thing Two knocked hers off the table so they ended up having to decorate one between them.  They just cut out hearts (all by themselves) and they placed them, carefully, after I applied the not-too-hot glue.

Pretty awesome huh?
If you were keeping count and wondered where the fourth one went, my sixteen year old said she wanted to do one too.  But it is still sitting, unfinished, on a table.

Thanks for stopping by!
:)

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Halloween Fun!

Better late than never!

The post, that is.  All of this was done in plenty of time.  Well, the costume was finished the night before Halloween, but everything ELSE was done in good time!


First, the 6 year old's that I babysit made ghosts with me.
I brought over all the ingredients that we needed and we got to work on one rainy afternoon.

We started by making the forms that our ghost bodies would be made on.  We could have used just about anything, but I chose to wad up some foil so we could make the size and shape we wanted.

We tested to make sure that our ghosts would fit in our jars.

Then we covered the "bodies" with cellophane for easy ghost removal later.

Then I watered down some white glue a little and we soaked our pre-cut cheesecloth in the mixture and draped them over our forms.
And waited a WHOLE day for them to dry.

Then we carefully peeled the ghosts off the cellophane, hot-glued some eyes and a mouth on them and 'caught' our ghosts in a jar!

 A very successful craft, in my mind, that worked perfectly with a six-year-old attention span.
One thing I would do differently is that I would use a "whiter" glue.  Mine has a bit of a tan tint to it and I have noticed that the ghosts are darkening.  It still works though, it gives them an aged look.



 I also made Monster Snack Bags!  I just LOVE how these turned out. I found the tutorial here and followed it very carefully. I gave five of the six away.  The last one is in my own drawer.

This is how they turned out!  Aren't they adorable!  I am constantly amazed by people's creativity.  And by the way people share tutorials so freely online!  Hopefully one day I will manage to create something on my own (instead of following someone else's instructions) and make a tutorial myself and kind of pay it forward.

And last, but not least....

This year's Halloween costume.

Last year when I made and posted the Rapunzel costume I had said that  if my daughters want to post their faces online that  was their choice, but I wasn't going to.  That is why she is blurred.  

My daughter plans to alternate Rapunzel with Morgana for a while so I am off the hook for creating costumes for her for a few years!

I am unfamiliar with the TV show Merlin, but my sixteen year old loves it. She wanted to be the character Morgana this year for Halloween.  This costume cost about $25 to make and was a little easier than the Rapunzel costume last year.  Clearly, I learned a few things.  My work is far from perfect, but for a costume, it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself!  And she was happy with it, which is the most important!

The Olaf at the top of this post was not made by me, but by my daughters.  Mostly my 20 year old.  "Some pumpkins are worth melting for" she says.  I thought he turned out really well and wanted to include him in my Halloween post!

Thanks for looking!!

:)

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The Making of "Super Bear"!

Several years ago, I made a toy/blanket for my little cousin's son.  I made it, gave it to him, and quite honestly didn't think much about it after that.  I am a parent.  I know how stuffed animals seem to multiply overnight.  I am also guilty of getting rid of some without the kids even noticing.  I kind of figured that the bear I made had served it's purpose and vanished.  This did not bother me at all, I know how it is.  In fact, I had completely forgotten about it.  

So, you can imagine my surprise and shock when my cousin asked me if there was any way I could make a second Super Bear, this time for her daughter because she is always trying to take her brother's and he wasn't giving it up!

Super bear?

What is a super bear?  I don't remember making a bear, super or other wise?  Remember, several years had passed....   My cousin managed to refresh my memory and explained that her son calls it his Super Bear.  

You mean he still has that?

Yes!  He plays with it all the time.  He sleeps with it.  He loves it!

You have no idea how happy this made me!

How can one say no to that???  So I got to work.  I found a bear to sacrifice for the project at the thrift store and ran it through the washing machine. It has to wash well or it is useless for this project in my opinion.  The bear washed great, so I went to my fabric stash to pick out suitable fleece and I found a pretty burgundy and some light pink.  Perfect for a little girl!!

I cut the fleece into squares.  I didn't measure this  I just folded one corner up until it looked like a good size.  I made both pieces the same size.

Then came the hard part.  Cutting the bear in half.  That first cut can be difficult.  Mentally, not physically.  Sacrificing a bear like this is not for the faint of heart. You want to cut it a bit lower than it's armpits to give you some material to sew into the blanket.  Remove the stuffing from the part that will be sewn up in the blanket to avoid excess bulk.
I also gave him a bit of a haircut around his eyes, the fur was blocking his sight.  I also wasn't a fan of the scratchy bow, so I removed that too.

Then cut one corner off the fleece about the width of the bear.

Then sew around, right sides together, from the edge of the corner you just cut, alllllllllll the way around to the other corner edge you just cut.  You will have an opening where you cut that corner off.  Trim, if you need to, and turn the blanket right-side-out.
Next you are going to fold the raw edges under and place your bear in the hole and pin him in place.

Then you topstitch all the way around the blanket, neatening up the edges and sewing the bear in place all at the same time.  Make sure you take those pins out!

That's it.  Super Bear is now finished!  Now all that is left is to give him to you little cousin (or some other lucky child).

Thanks for looking!

:)

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Stencilled 4-wheeling shirt or "Did I Just Run Over My Shirt?"

Here are my ingredients.  I actually used white paint in the same brand as my medium for the logo part of the shirt.  My little tube of white in this box ran out a long time ago.

This fabric medium is fantastic stuff. It only costs about two dollars.  You just mix one part of the medium with two parts any acrylic paint.  This makes t-shirt painting much more economical than purchasing separate fabric paints.  If you have a bunch of acrylics, you can mix your own colours and the possibilities are pretty much endless!  The box of paint tubes pictured was purchased at a dollar store.  Years ago.  And I have only run out of the white.  Well, the brown is almost empty now too.

Once I decided what I wanted on the shirt, I created a stencil on the computer and printed it out.  Then I taped my printout to a piece of freezer paper (shiny side down) and carefully cut out my letters with an exacto knife.  I was careful to save the middles of the letters (a,e,e,g) to iron on to the shirt.

Then I carefully placed it on the shirt and ironed it down.  Be super careful with this step!  I have a lovely shirt with an off-centre (maybe a little crooked too) design on it because I wasn't diligent enough when placing it.
I also made an interesting discovery during this step.  Normally, to save ink, I just print the outline of the letters.  With this one, I got the word "Jeep" off the internet in the correct font and it was solid so I made my other letters solid to make sure that they looked right.  The ink melts or something and gets all over the iron when you are lining up your little "middles" and using the printout for reference.  So, lesson learned.  Always use outlines for letters from now on.

I still need a new ironing board cover.  One day.

Once I was satisfied that I had a well placed logo, I slid the shirt over a wax paper covered piece of cardboard.  I keep this between two pieces of furniture and keep re-using it.  Much easier than looking for a big piece of cardboard whenever I want to do a shirt.  Then I painted it with white.

I hung it up to dry.

Once it was dry, I peeled my stencil off, being sure to pick out those little pieces inside the letters.

Now for the tire tracks.
I wanted to use the tread from our own tires to make it even more personal.  It wasn't until after I was completely finished that I realized that I made it look like my husband had been run over by his own Jeep!
This was a pain to do.  I have seen other shirts where the person painted the tire with fabric paint and literally ran over the shirt.  I didn't want that look though because I wanted nice, crisp, defined tracks, not a big smear.
After a few attempts, I got a usable stencil.  I watered down some paint (I thought I grabbed black, but it turned out to be dark blue.)  and I used a sponge brush to paint a section of the tire, then I pressed a piece of freezer paper on the tire (the non shiny side of the paper).  I got a messy, smudgy tire track.  I let that dry, then took a Sharpie to it and outlined each tread and the interior cut-out in each tread.

Then I had to cut the stencil out.  I checked the clock, give or take about three minutes, this took me an hour-and-a-half.  All those blue zig-zags are thin, thin strips of freezer paper.  It was about now that I realized that this stencil isn't long enough.  I took a deep breath and hoped that I could remove the stencil, reposition it and iron it down a second time.  I had no idea if it would actually work.

It worked!  As you can see, I have part of the stencilling done and the paper is now on the bottom half.  Picking those tiny, thin zig-zags was a bit of a challenge, but I managed it and didn't tear a single one!

So now my husband has a Jeep shirt with a muddy tire track from his own Jeep.

It is a navy shirt.  Why is it so bright blue in this picture????

Thanks for looking!
:)

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Sherlock inspired "Study In Pink" earrings

Have you ever seen something in a store or online and thought "I could make that myself"?  I do that all the time.

 

So does my daughter.

 

Except she doesn't think "I could make that", she thinks "Mom could make that".  I am flattered by her seemingly unwavering belief that I can make anything.  But time and time again, I accept the challenge.  And time and time again, she is right!  She has several items that prove it too.

So when she described some earrings that she saw, she asked "Could you make me some?"

 

They look like pills.  If you have seen the first episode of season one of Sherlock (Where Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead) these hopefully will look very familiar.

I had no idea where to start.  How do you make pills?  The capsule type.  So I went to Dollarama to scout supplies.  It was Christmas time when I went and I spied some of those capsules (!!!) that have little sponge shapes in them and you put them in water and the shapes "grow".  I hope you know what I am talking about because I didn't think to take a photo of the package.  I scooped them up and brought them home.

I wasn't sure that I could pop the capsules apart while keeping them intact but it was very easy.  These little capsules are sturdier than I had expected. 

 

Here are all ten emptied out and the sponge crumbs have been wiped out with a dry Q-Tip. 

Now, what to fill them with.  I looked at little pink and white beads, but they didn't look right with the holes in them.  I have some tiny clear/white glass balls that would be perfect but I forget where I got them and couldn't find any pink ones.  So, I did what any sane person would do.  I looked in my pantry and found the perfect solution.

I used sprinkles.

It took a while to separate the white and pink ones out, but I did it!

Filling the capsules was easier than I expected.   I only needed four, but I filled all of them to be sure I had spares in case I broke any.

Since the capsules I used are meant to be dissolved in water, the next step was to seal them.  I strung a piece of thread (in a colour I could easily see for removal later)  through them, then I hung them up in a cardboard box and forgot to take any photos.  I broke two during this process.  Good thing I made spares. When they were dangling in the box, I sprayed them with about four coats of clear acrylic spray, letting them dry between coats.  You couldn't wear them in the pool or the shower, but they should be a bit water resistant.

Once they were completely dry, I removed the threads and slid a head pin through the holes that I made while threading them and made a loop at the top of the pin.  I put a tiny drop of clear nail polish at the bottom where the pin went in for extra security.  Then I rooted through my jewellery supplies and found some thin chain (always keep odd/ugly/single earrings, you never know when parts may be handy!) and hung my pills from the chains and attached them to an ear wire.

Pretty nice, I think. Most importantly, my daughter thinks so too.   And all I had to buy special for this project was the package of capsules for $1.15!  Everything else was already in the house, and we still have lots of sprinkles for ice cream and cupcakes!

I like to think that Benedict Cumberbatch would approve of these.
Thanks for looking!
:)
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Made it Myself: Tablet Cover

 

My tablet rarely leaves the house, but I wanted protection for the odd time it does.  I didn't want a sleeve or pouch.  And I wanted to be able to prop my device up.   I knew that much. But I didn't know just what I wanted.

 

Then I found a perfect solution!  It was in a tutorial I found here, at Chica and Jo, while doing a Google search for  DIY tablet cover.  The instruction are super easy to follow.  I had to adjust the measurements a bit to suit my tablet.   The instructions call for chipboard, but I don't even know what that is. They suggested the inside of an old binder, but ours were all made out of corrugated cardboard.  That is no good!  I ended up using a piece of picture matting that I managed to acquire for fifty cents.  I used hair bands for the elastic.  I cut up a wide one for the corner pieces and used a thin one to hold everything shut.  I got both of those in a bunch for  a dollar, and I still have four or five thin ones left.  Everything else I already had on hand!  So not only was this easy to make, it only cost me $1.50 + tax!  it doesn't get much better than that!

 

 

I will let the pictures show you the awesomeness of this cover:

Here we are all closed up.  This is the front.

Still all closed up. This is the back.  Yes, I ironed first, but then I let it sit for a week....  don't do that.  Trust me.

Here it is all opened up.

And opened up with everything neatly tucked up in the elastic.

As you saw in the first photo, you can also prop your tablet up to watch videos.  I don't know what took me so long to make this!  I am glad that I made it though.

Thanks for looking!
:) Pin It