Knitting Zeal

Crafting a spring ribbon wreath

I used to make wreaths frequently, back when I had more time on my hands than I knew what to do with, you know, before parenting!  I forgot how much I enjoyed it.  This year I've been working on finding my lost creativity, slowly.  I made a fun pompom wreath for Valentine's Day/month that I really hated to put away, I liked it so much.  I replaced it with my latest creation, a ribbon curlicue wreath in spring colors. 

I was inspired to make this after reading some posts by Nikki of Nikki, in Stitches.  She posted a how to for a really great red and white Valentine's themed ribbon wreath a while back and the concept just stuck in my head.  I love ribbon, especially grosgrain ribbon, and always wondered how to make those corkscrew curlicues with it.  She posted great instructions for how to make them that I loosely followed and had great results. I chose to make my wreath a bit different than hers, using hot glue as opposed to straight pins for assembly, and I loved the results I had.

Spring Ribbon Wreath!

ribbon and trim detail

love those curlicues!

I debated about adding something like bunnies or colored eggs to the wreath, but I didn't want it to be an Easter wreath, as I wanted to leave it out for all of spring.  I found these butterflies at AC Moore and they were a perfect addition.  They even just clipped on!  I'm thinking about doing another pompom wreath for the summer in bright summer colors.  My son wants me to make him a rainbow pompom wreath!  I have to dig through my yarn stash to see what colors of yarn I have on hand.  I think a red, green and white ribbon curlicue wreath would look great for Christmas time.  So now I've discovered two new ways to decorate wreathes.  Thank you Pinterest!

Rainbows for St. Patrick

It's a week late, but then I just realized that the cold/sinus infection I've been nursing is going on week four, so I clearly have lost all track of time.  

I was not up to making a rainbow cake or cookies to celebrate, as in years past.  But, there is always time for jello, which is ridiculously easy! The kiddo even helped a bit with the mixing. We made a rainbow out of jello using six different colors/flavors.  Normally, I limit his consumption of food dyes, but make an exception from time to time.  Silly me thought he would find the rainbow jello delightful!  Nope!  He said there were too many colors and he didn't like it.  He's not a jello kid.  Oh well, it still looked pretty and I enjoyed some of it while feeling blah.

A is for adorable craft with crayons

So my Pinterest addiction has inspired me to be much more crafty lately.  I love it for giving me ideas of craft projects or even reminders of things I had seen but never made.  Back before Christmas I saw an idea to make an initial/letter out of crayons.  I think the originaly pinner was making them as teacher gifts, but I thought it would be a great decoration in my son's room.  I have a certain love for the Crayola crayon and the alphabet.  I have a slight obession with the alphabet, and it helps that my son is at that age where he knows his letters and is just starting to write them.  We are also in the planning stages of redoing his bedroom, so I wanted to make him his initial in crayons.  It was supposed to be a Christmas present.  Then it was going to be a Valentine's gift.  Well, now I just finally did it, so it isn't a gift, but was well received, nevertheless.

 

To make, I bought a new box of 24 Crayola Crayons, a box style square frame from Ikea, and made a template of the letter A on my computer and printed it large!  I used plain white glue and a piece of cardstock.  I used the letter template as a means to measure and cut the crayons into appropriate sizes, scoring the crayon with scissors and then snapping it.  It was a bit more difficult to get the crayons in the right sizes than I anticipated, but certainly this was not a challenging project.  

 

Once the glue was dried, I added a written line and framed it in the box frame.  I love how it turned out and my son was excited to see his 'A" in crayons.  I may make some as gifts now!

 

 

Crafting a pompom wreath, an easy Valentine's day project

My addiction to Pinterst has led me to be more crafty lately, which is really a good thing.  I have neglected my crafty side for too long.  I saw a variety of different wreaths on Pinterest and came up with an idea to make a pompom wreath.  Eventually I found one very similar, in different colors, on Pinterest too.  I used to make wreaths all the time, and even sold some for a while at local craft shows.  That was at least 18 years ago.  More recently I made Christmas wreaths.  I have not made any Valentine's decorations lately, so this project was overdue!

See, I have a love for the pompom.  There isn't much use for them in daily life, especially when you are an adult.  I'm not sure why I love making them so much, but as far back as I can remember, I always enjoyed wrapping yarn and snipping, snipping, snipping the ends until I had the perfect pompom ball.  

So, after deciding my color theme for my wreath, I dug through my yarn stash and added a skein of very inexpensive yarn from the craft store.  Then I dug out my Clover pompom makers....they are a great little tool for making various sized pompoms.  It took about a week or so on and off in my spare time at night to make all of the pompoms.  Sharp scissors are really important!  I ended up with around 40 pompoms in various sizes and colors.  I also had lots of yarn dust everywhere from all that snipping and shaping.

 

Starting to assemble the wreath

 

Using a styrofoam wreath form, I wrapped it with a single strand of red yarn until the entire wreath was covered.  I tucked the end in, although I suppose it could have been glued too.  At first I thought I would pin the pompoms on the wreath, but then decided to hot glue them instead.  It was quick and easy to do and it turned out great. Before gluing, I decided on placement of the largest pompoms, then added more and more going from largest to smallest, filling in the gaps with the smallest ones.  

 

Once all the pompoms I had made had been attached, mainly to just the front surface of the wreath form, I hung the wreath and decided it needed more pompoms.  Seeing it on the door at a different angle helped me see the gaps where I needed to add more.  It cost under $10 to make and looks great!  My son has requested that I make him one for his room in rainbow colors.  Time to search the yarn stash again!  

Valentine's Day Pompom Wreath!

 

Crafting FAIL!

So, I had the brilliant idea to make heart shaped crayons for Valentine's Day.  I figured it would be a good way to use up the big box of broken crayons we accumulated and the kiddo could give them out at school to his classmates for V-Day.  I found decent sized heart shaped ice cube trays in the $2.50 bin at Target.  

I spent Sunday morning peeling off labels and chopping up crayons.  

chopping up naked crayons into bits

(Tip:  use an exacto knife to score the label of the crayon and then peel the whole label off in one piece.  It will protect your manicure too!)

I then filled my heart molds with chopped up crayon bits, set the tray on a foil covered toaster oven sized cookie sheet, and preheated the toaster oven to 250 degrees F.  Then I baked the waxy bits for about 15 minutes or so, until they looked melted enough.  I've made molded/repurposed crayons this way many times before.  It smells like melted crayons.  This time it smelled a little stronger.  I chalked it up to using mostly non-crayola brand crayons.  (We had an assortment of brands and non-brands from various restaurants, along with washable toddler crayons mixed in.)

The first batch of heart crayons turned out ok.  Once they were melted I swirled the colors around a bit with a toothpick, then let them harden.  They were not shiny like crayons I've made before.  Again, I figured it was the result of inferior crayons.  (Really, Crayola brand crayons are the best.  They melt well and they color the best, in my opinion!)  

Melted wax ready to solidify into crayons

So, I made a second batch, since I still had a good amount to chopped up crayon bits. This time, thankfully I was still in the kitchen, there was a lot of smoke along with the bad smell.  My mistake: using an ice cube tray!  It felt like silicon, but apparently was not!  The tray melted.  

Notice the melted mold/ice cube tray! FAIL!

So, after opening windows and turning on fans to ventilate probably toxic fumes from my kitchen, I learned that I should suck it up and spend the extra money on acual silicon molds that are definitely oven safe.  

We did end up with some crayons, but I'm not sure of their quality at all.  They will be used here, as they are not gift-worthy!  

heart crayons!

Chocolate chip cookies with love

For my niece's birthday I made her chocolate chip cookies to take to school for her lunches.  I'm not sure if they lasted long enough to go to school, but my thought was, being the oldest of four kids, it might be nice to have a baked treat that she didn't have to share with her sibs, since it was her birthday. I saved about half the batch for us, so that my kid could enjoy some cookies too.  I used the basic Nestle Toll House recipe, but added an extra 1/4 cup of flour to it to give the cookies a thicker density.  I've been searching to find "the best" chocolate chip cookie recipe and found one that uses cake and bread flours along with chilling the dough for 24 to 36 hours.  I'll have to test that recipe out soon.  I'm sure my family won't mind being taste testers.

I added a heart decoration to each cookie!  They started off in the middle but slid to the side of the cookies while baking.

I wrapped up a pair of cookies in heart bags and boxed them up for her.  I heard she liked them!

Teacher's knitted gifts

For Christmas, I decided to knit up some very simple washcloths to pair with awesome bars of goatsmilk soap that I bought at the Lititz Farmer's Market in apple cinnamon scent. I wanted to give a knitted gift to my kid's three preschool teachers, but didn't have time to do anything elaborate.   Wrapped up with a pretty bow, I think they turned out nicely.  I also gave each teacher a gift box from Penzey's that included two spices and a mini cookbook.  

I figured that the teachers did not need junk sitting around their homes, so useable and consumable items would be appreciated.  About two weeks before Christmas we received a message from two classmate moms asking for contributions to the "group gift" for the teachers!  Not being familiar with preschool protocol, I debated what to do.  In the end I contributed the money, which wasn't much, but I think I will have to rethink what I do next year.  

This past week we received two thank you notes from two of the teachers.  One thanked me for the potholder.  Seriously.  I haven't corrected her yet.  I guess it could be used as a potholder?  It's cotton, so it won't melt.  I did tie it to a bar of soap, but I guess that wasn't a good clue.  C'est la vie!

Photo gifts and cards are great keepsakes

I've been a big fan of Shutterfly for their quality of service and products.  Every year I create a photo book for the monkey boy to commemorate another year of life and fun.  Instead of feeling guilty about the box of photos and empty albums in the house, I use my digital images and create beautiful photo books that are bound and complete with my son's story.  I've even created some for gifts too.  I've also used Shutterfly for Christmas and Holiday cards and found the quality just as great as their books.  

While planning my next photo book, since the kiddo just turned four, I clicked over onto the Christmas cards section of Shutterfly.  There are so many great card themes this year, once again I had a hard time picking just one design.  Something that I noticed that Shutterfly is offering this year are story cards complete with top ten lists of the year for the family.  What a clever idea!   I think this would be a fun card to receive!  It's an alternative to those long newsletters some people send, but conveys the essential information.  I think this type of card is perfect for sending to those family and friends that want to keep up to date with your family.

I'm often stuck for gift ideas for certain relatives (ahem, parents/inlaws,) and have created photo calendars to use as gifts.  I'm thinking that might be a great option for my mother in law this year, as her birthday is on Thanksgiving and I know she'd love to get a calendar filled with photos of her grandkids.  I have also created photo magnets in the past that make great photo gifts. Last year I made one for my son with our photo from when we "met" Thomas the tank engine.  He loves that magnet.  I also made ornaments for the tree.  I have a photo ornament from evey Christmas of my son.  Someday, when he leaves me (sniff) I'll cover my tree with his face.  (Won't he just love that!  HA!) I've given them as grandparent gifts as well. 

I'm always amazed at all of the products that can be customized with a photo.  Creating keepsakes is easy and fun.  I can cross off some gifts now from my list for this year!

 

 

Disclosure:  I am and have been a happy Shutterfly customer.  The views here are honest and based on my experience with the company.  I did receive a code for 25 cards in exchange for sharing my experience.  No monetary compensation was received. 

Making a simple pinata at home, a tutorial

My son recently turned four and decided sometime this past summer that he had to have an Imagination Movers themed party. If you are not familiar with the Imagination Movers, they are a fun preschool rock band based in Louisiana and were picked up by Disney to have a TV show.  Unfortunately, Disney did not capitalize on them and has not marketed anything with their logs/brand.  Lucky for my son, the band does have a small online store so I was able to purchase some merchandise for him.  But, there are no party goods available with the Imagination Movers!  I found some party planning crafts and activities online, surprisingly on Disney channel-Asia's website!  My son really wanted a themed pinata, so we ended up making one!

In the past I've had fun working with paper mache to make pinatas and masks, but with a preschooler, indoors, I was not willing to go that route.  Instead I decided to just decorate a cardboard box and make a trap door pinata.  Definitely the cheap route, but it worked and the kids had a blast!

Here's what I did:

Supplies:

• medium sized cardboard box
• crepe paper (or wrapping paper)
• tape (Scotch and packing,) glue, hot glue gun, scissors, X-acto knife
• decorations related to the theme: I printed out the activities from the Disney channel and cut them out to use, including light bulbs and the characters/band members photos.  You could also use stickers.
• streamers or shredded paper
• wire or strong twine/string, about 12 inches long
• ribbons (the curling ribbon kind used for presents) in coordinating colors
• goodies for the inside of the box!

Directions:

1. Determine which side of the box will be the bottom of your pinata.  Draw a square on that side in the center of the box, making sure that your largest treat that will need to fall out of the box will fit.  Using the X-acto knife cut out three sides of the square, leaving the fourth side intact.  This will be the hinged door that will be pulled open by your party-goers.  
2. Attach the wire or string to the top of the box by cutting two small slits about two inches apart with the knife.  Loop the wire or string through and knot it or twist the wire shut inside the box. Seal the rest of the box with strong packing tape.  Don't tape the trap door shut!
3. Wrap the box, except the bottom, with crepe or wrapping paper.  
4. Flip the box upside down and fill it with the goodies.  I used a combination of small bags of pretzels, fruit snacks, chocolates and little toys (mini yo-yos, harmonicas, mini tambourines, finger puppets.)  
5. Cut lengths of curling ribbons to attach to the trap door.  I cut one for each party guest and added one extra, just in case.  Using the X-acto knife, cut two small slits in the trap door, near the open end, but not too close to the edge.  Thread one strand of ribbon through the slits and knot the ribbon.  I even added a piece of packing tape to the knot end of the ribbon.  This ribbon is what will open the trap door. It has to be as long, or longer than the other ribbons.  Using scotch tape, attach all the other ribbons one at a time with small pieces of tape to the the bottom of the box around or on the trap door. The idea is that the ribbons that are taped on will pull off easily by the kids, but the kid that pulls the ribbon knotted onto the trap door will actually open the door!
   
6. Then cover the bottom of the pinata to hide the way the ribbons are attached.  To do this, I cut strips of crepe paper and taped them on so that the ribbons could poke out in different directions and not all be clustered together.  It also hid which was the real ribbon! 
7. Then decorate the box with stickers or other cut outs to match your theme.  I also used shredded paper and hot glued it on the bottom to add some pizazz to the bottom of the box and further hide how the ribbons were attached. It helps to loosely knot all the ribbons together to keep them from tangling too much before your party.

 

The kiddo had a blast with this and it really was much cheaper to make than to buy a pre-made trap door pinata.  The best part of making it, though, was that my son could help with it.  We made it the day after he came home from the hospital and had to sort of stay calm and recover.  It was a fun activity that kept him busy and he was really excited about the project.  It helped that I let him preselect some treats before they were loaded into the box!

Creating a terrarium

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I attending a class at the local library on creating terrarium planters.  A local gardening expert taught the class and brought many examples of terrariums that she created, along with all the supplies for us to make our own, except the jar.  I chose to bring a lidded jar, an old-style mason jar I purchased at HomeGoods for under $4.  

We layered charcoal, gravel/rocks, and soil in our jars before adding some plants.  The plants we used were mostly small rootings from larger plants and even some succulents (for open containers only.)  I used three small plants, one variegated, one with tiny green leaves, and a purple leafed plant.  (I can't recall the names anymore.)  I really liked how my terrarium turned out. We used moss to top the soil once the plants were in place.

Sadly, two weeks later, I discovered that two of the three plants had rotted.  I apparently watered the jar too  much and kept the lid closed too long.  So, I need to start over!  I'll have to spend some time at Lowe's or Home Depot to find one or two replacement plants.  I'm also thinking maybe it would be fun to do an open dish terrarium with some small succulents.  I've seen some great varieties available on etsy, so if the local stores don't have any, I'll order a few online.