Absent

It's been a whole week since I last wrote something. I had plans of writing about some things, making some things, and now I don't feel like it at all. Some things have happened in the last week that has taken, or rather, sucked all the desire to do anything out of my life.

Instead of crafting, and sewing, and enjoying the sunshine we still have, I have been enveloped is a cloud of sadness that I cannot seem to shake. Maybe I am over thinking things, maybe I am being selfish. Whatever the reason, I may be absent from here for a while.

isn't this fabulous?

First attempt

So. Paint chip art. I am sure you've all seen it. It's everywhere.
Lately I have been finding and coming up with a bunch of "make it my self for pennies" ideas, from things I've seen online and things I've seen other do. So, paint chip art. Pretty simple. I wanted to make a really big one, so I gathered my stuff. After trimming my paint chips to size I had a container of narrow pieces, and not one to let things go to waste, I decided to do a trial run. Boy I am glad I did!

You will need:
*A canvas, any size will do, I used a 12x12
*Paint chips, I got mine at Home Depot, you may want to make several trips to get yours. I don't have that luxury  living where I do, so I am the crazy lady at the Martha Stewart Paint display with 122 paint chips stuffed in my purse. I got the Martha Stewart chips cuz they are 5 inches by 2.5 inches. Big means less cutting!
*Mod Podge, I got the glossy kind, cuz I like shiny stuff
*Time - do not start this 12 minutes before a wild baby comes over. It will result in a lovely art project glued to the carpet.

To do this:
Paint your canvas. ALL of it. Trust me, you do not want white canvas showing between your paint chips. I only painted the sides, and a bit of the surface, I wish I would have painted it all.

Cut your paint chips to whatever size you want. It helps if you live with a mathematician, so he can do all the fractional crazy math. My paint chips very from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch wide. Glue the chips down in any order

Cover with at least 2 layers of Mod Podge

Hang! Which I haven't done yet, I am waiting for the Engineer to get home so he can make sure it goes up straight!

Crayons Again

So, I loved making my crayon art so much I wanted to make more, but who really needs to have 12 canvases with melted crayons on them? Well......Nobody. I bought the supplies to make a bunch more anyway, and took them to my sister's house. Sister1 has 4 children ages 7-15, and they all got a kick out of making something fun for their rooms. We had quite a good time making these, the children got to chose their crayons, and they glued them in the order they wanted. So without any ado I give you3 of the 5 we made. Sorry for the completely junky cell phone pictures. Some of us forget our camera when we go on a trip.

Chachi:

Hammy:

Little Bear:

The Other Canvas

So in an earlier post I used a canvas to make some cool art (here) and I had an extra canvas leftover. SO! What does one do with a 16x20 canvas? Well, we find another idea we can copy and make it for super cheap! So, here is another project that whips up in minutes and is just the right size to fill that empty spot above my bed.

You will need a canvas, I used the extra one from my crayon project.
You will need some chipboard letters, or I bought thin wooden ones at Wal-Mart for $3.
Craft glue, which I had & Spray paint. I used glossy white, also bought at Wal-Mart for $5.

Super easy directions. Glue letters in desired phrase, in desired location on canvas.

Sprat paint it chosen colour, I used 2 coats.

I wanted mine to have a splash of colour, so I bought a flower stem from Michaels when it was 40% off, and took apart the flowers, I had these rhinestone brads kicking around, and used them to secure the layers of the flowers together.

I then trimmed the stem, and shaped it the way I wanted it to look, and glued it to the canvas, then glued the flowers in place and TA-DA!

Pumpkin Patch

I have never been into decorating for Halloween, never been into Halloween either. This year, I really wanted to decorate for fall, but not have an overly Halloween themed house. Now, this craft is not one of those super cheap ones, but it is one that I can use over and over. I wanted to celebrate fall, and the harvest, and Thanksgiving. Since Canadian Thanksgiving is squeezed into the beginning of October before Halloween, I think it largely get ignored. I mean, it's not as though we delicate an entire month to decorating and celebrating it. This year, I decided that I was going to make something that incorporates both days. So was born my pumpkin patch.

I don't like pumpkin as a general rule. Not in pie, or muffins, or the like. I don't carve pumpkins with Little Bear because I cannot stand the smell. So, I saved my pennies and waited for those fake pumpkins to go on sale at Michael's (Canada's version of Hobby Lobby).

I then picked out a sweet font, and made the type huge, I think it ended up being 460 or something like that.

Then I traced the letters onto my pumpkins.

Used some craft paint to fill them in.

And set them up outside, where, in this crazy wind they promptly fell over. So I drilled a small hole in each and put a few rocks inside to help them stand up. Not the cheapest craft ever, but one that I can re-use.

Gallery Wall

In Little Bear's room, I have started a gallery wall. We currently have 2 things up there, but there are many, many plans to add more. I enjoyed my first round of crayon art so much, I wanted to try it again. This time I used a much smaller canvas, 8x10 and some leftover crayons. Since Her room is grey and blue, those are the shades of crayons I used, with 2 white ones, and 2 black one thrown into the mix because I needed a few more.

This time I cut the crayons in half, I thought smaller canvas, smaller crayons. When melting the crayons this time I kept the canvas very upright, so there is very few places where the wax dried thick. After letting it sit for the night, I put up the first 2 pieces on the gallery wall.

I think I will just call this the Louvre wall.

TU-TU CUTE!

Yesterday while I was being all energetic and super crafty in-between loads of laundry I came up with another MUST DO project! I have mentioned Little Bears doll - Meagan before. I recently made a copy cat of 2 dance recital dresses for the doll, out of scraps. (see here) I was doing some tidying up in my craft corner and came across more dance costume scraps. I knew just what to make!

A copy cat rainbow tu-tu! It is the cutest thing ever! Total length is about 5 1/2 inches. I love it! It is exactly like the 12 I made for Little Bears ballet class, they are dancing to "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". I had it made in about half an hour, and so I dressed Meagan in it and set her to wait on Little Bears bed (really I just wanted an excuse to play with her dolls!) She was thrilled! I love the loud WHAAA!!!??? That came from her when she spotted Meagan in all her tu-tu cute glory!

Pretty Pillows

I bought throw pillows, 3 of them, about a year ago to put on my bed. I like pillows, Papa Bear does not, but since I make the bed he has no real reason to complain. Well, today I had all kinds of extra energy and ideas rolling around in my head and one of them had to do with my pillows. They are your standard 12 inch square pillow, found for $6 at a store that is supposed to be a grocery store, but I buy way more not-grocery stuff there than groceries. Anyway, I digress from my point. I wanted to dress up my pillows and since my car is on week 4 of not working (grrr.....) I used things that I had around already. I chose orange decorations on purpose! You'll have to wait to see why!

Step 1 - measure and mark the center of the pillow, I am no good at "eye balling" anything. Mark on the front AND the back so you can keep them both centered.

Step 2 Thread a long needle with whatever you are sewing with, DON'T knot it. I used an heavy thread, push the needle through the pillow, leave a long piece, thread on the button, then push the needle back through the pillow. Then repeat. You should have the long thread and the needle on the same side of the pillow at this point. I kept the tension very loose at this step.

Step 3 Carefully, and without yanking too much, pull the thread tight until the indent is how deep you want. Then simple tie the 2 threads in the back several times to hold it. TA-DA!! I then hot glued a rhinestone in the middle of the button to hide the thread.

The other 2 pillows I did I put a flower on. I followed the same method as I did when I put on the button. And again I hot glued a large rhinestone in the center to hide the thread.

Here they are on the bed. LOVE! Super easy, and super cheap if you get creative and use what you already have! I'd love to see yours if you make some!

Sew A Little Something

I took today to make a little something for my favorite Little Bear. I had a few scrapes of things leftover from my recent sewing frenzy, and I put together a skirt for Little Bears Doll. The scraps came from a sewing project I did for Little Bears dance class. So now her and Meagan (the doll) can match!

First: I took the lower leg from some old jeans, to cut the main skirt from. I measured the waist of the doll, then cut a length 1 and half times as long as the measurement. The jeans I used weren't long enough so I just sewed 2 pieces together. The length of the skirt is the measurement from the Doll's waist to the knee.

Second: I cut a strip of fabric 3 inches wide, and 3 times as long as the waist measurement to make a ruffle. Fold the width of ruffle in half, and baste together. Gather up the ruffle and sew onto the skirt.

 

Third: I made a casing for the elastic, threaded the elastic through and TA-DA! All done!