Print your own fabric with kids

I had my girls make these sections of fabric for my mother in law for her birthday.  This would make an excellent gift for a sewist or quilter, or even to frame.

Supplies needed

foam

glue gun

PFD muslin or fabric

Fabric paint or markers

First I had the girls draw a single design three times so we could have a few to choose from.
Tip: The simpler the better, printing with children can get messy!

I took a glue gun and simply covered the drawing with the glue.  After it dried I used scrap cardboard handles to make it easier to print with.
Tip: Trim close to the image so you don’t get overlap of color where it’s not wanted.

I had the girls paint directly onto the stamp and then press onto the fabric.  You can get 3 or more prints with each turn.  I don’t recommend dipping the ink with this kind of stamp, it’s too messy and the image doesn’t come through well.

Allow to dry and then color in (or leave blank) the image with fabric markers.

After it’s dry, through in the dryer for 30 minutes on high and you’re done!

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Naturally dying eggs

We wanted to try dying eggs naturally over here after reading about it here.  We opted to go with the cold method of dying since it would take many turns at the stove and I wanted the girls to be able to do it themselves.

For the beets, blueberries, tomato, tumeric and blackberries we boiled them first.  I used about a handful of each to a 2 quart saucepan.  I covered each fruit of spice with water and boiled them each for about 10 minutes, added a big old splash of vinegar (the more you use the more intense the color) and poured that through a sieve, placed them into jars, and allowed them to cool.

For the coffee and tea I just used the leftovers I had from the past couple of days and added the vinegar to the jar.

We placed eggs in bowls, and covered them with the cooled ingredients.  The eggs were then moved into the fridge overnight.

I’ve heard you can run the dye through a coffee filter to avoid spotted eggs but we  liked the mottled look.

The results were:

Tomato : Almost no color at all

Tea: Light reddish yellow

Coffee: A soft brown, lovely and my favorite

Tumeric:  Bright yellow, beautiful.

Blackberry: Dark dusty blue

Beet: Deep raspberry and the least spotted

Bluerry: Dusty blue

We mixed blueberry and tumeric and ended up a great dark blue/green color.

The eggs also had a sort of film on them.  If you leave the film it will dry and be a part of the egg.  I wiped it off but if you leave it you get more intense color.

We also cracked a couple of eggs and decided to dye them anyhow and cracked them some more.  The result was the coolest dragon egg thing – check out the inside of this shell!  We may do another round of dragon eggs tomorrow.

Good luck and if you have any questions leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer!  I put pictures of the girls dying eggs in a slideshow for you below.
Peace,

Liz

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Dying eggs with silk

I posted this originally 2 years ago and it’s a great way to dye eggs.  The best part is you can keep the silk and reuse it!

Okay, pictures as promised! To do this all you do is

1) cut up a silk tie
2)wrap the egg w/the silk print “good side” touching the shell, close off w/elastic band or tie off w/twine – I did the elastic bc I’m a little lazy.

3) wrap the silk covered egg in some kind of cotton, I used old scraps of anything I had lying around and then tie that off or wrap w/elastic, again, I did the lazy route.

4) In a NON METAL pot, place eggs in, cover in water

5) Add 3 tbs vinegar, I just threw in a big ole’ splash of it.

6) Boil for 30 minutes.

7) Let cool off!  EASY!  and not messy at all.

Bunny tutorials

Looking for some cute bunnies to whip up?  Check out these great tutes!

Bunny Hand Puppet over at the Purl Bee.

Finger puppets over at the Purl Bee.

Betz White’s cashmere bunny remake.  I made one of these and it was adorable.

Of course I have my own little sweater bunny remake too, here.

Easter Craft Links

Here are a few links to pages I like for Easter crafting.  I’ll be adding a few for egg dying next week.  

 

The Long Thread – Always a good site for crafty ideas.  I visit Ellen’s site often when I am looking for something simple and beautiful, she has great taste!

 

One Pretty Thing – great roundups from the web, Easter crafts are no exception.  I like this particular one.

 

Martha Stewart – You gotta love Martha.  

 

WhipUp – Kathreen has a great Ezine for kids, called “Action Pack”.  It’s only $4 and filled with great ideas.

 

Thank you for continuing to stop by – I know I’ve been a lax blogger…We have been busy over here with the whole Homeschooling/Unschooling thing. So far so good!  My girls are starting to love reading again, filling pages in journals and meeting new friends.  I’ll have more on that for another post.

Cute and Quick! Valentines Day Tutorial over on Whip Up

Come check out a very easy and cute Valentine Tutorial I wrote for Whip Up today!  You can see it here http://whipup.net/2012/02/02/guest-post-stuck-on-you-valentine/

Composition Notebook remake

This is a short tutorial on how to remake a composition notebook, you can see more pictures here on this post, Back to School Party.

You will need

Composition notebooks

Bookbinders cloth tape (I used black cloth tape from Paper Source)

Adhesive (I used Scotch brand spray adhesive)

Sharp utility knife

Cardstock or any other heavy weight paper for covers.  Cut it to size but worry about finishing the rounded edges later.

Take your project outside when spraying adhesive.

Lay everything out on a piece of cardboard.  I used a pizza box.  We have more than we probably should.

Moving quickly, spray your new cover with adhesive, and place it on top of your notebook.

See how it’s not totally lined up?  That’s okay because you can trim it afterward.

Open up your notebook and place your bookbinder tape on the spine.  This gives it a finished look and also makes it a bit more sturdy.

Flip over your book and with your utility knife, trim the excess cardstock off.

Stack of finished notebooks.
Hope that helps those of you who wanted to know how to make these.  If you have any questions go ahead and leave them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them as best I can.

Cashmere Bunny Remake tutorial, just in time for Easter crafting!

Well, perhaps you’ve been looking at my Facebook page, and you see I’ve been crafting my husbands old sweaters into little bunnies for my nieces and daughters.  I’ve promised you I’d make a tutorial, so here you go!  I will warn you – I am a very ad hoc person – I don’t measure, I live for the moment of making and also I love the freedom to alter things as I go.  If you decide to use this tute and blog about it, I’d love a little link love.  And if you want to sell something you’ve made using my tutorial, more power to  you!  Just please give me a little credit when you do and link to my blog, thanks!

Okay!

Take an old sweater, this one is wool/cashmere blend

Cut off the arm of the sweater

Cut that in two

Use the widest part first, this is the bottom of the bunny and sew with a zig zag or serger.

Turn inside out

Stuff!

Then, take an elastic band, and cinch it to about 3/4 of the body of your stuffie.

Keep the rubber band on and use it to hold the shape while you sew around the top of the band.  This will separate the bottom of your bunny from the head.

Take off your rubber band, and you have a bottom!

Make a leg or two, I do this by going about 2 inches up the seam of the bottom, stitching straight up, and then pulling one stitch from the top to the bottom, and then anchoring it with a couple of stitches.

Next, sew up the face.  I invert the top, so that half of it is inside where the head will be.

Sew that up, and then sew a little across the inside, making a little triangle in the top (see above).  You may want to adjust how much you sew up, for the size of your bunnies face.

Turn right side out, and stuff!
For the ears, cut out two pieces of sweater, single thickness.  Select a fabric for the inside, I used a pink canvas weight.

Make the liner of the ear almost as big as the sweater ear.

Pin the sweater part so it overlaps.  There is bulk here, but it gives the ears shape and tone.

Gather stitches at the bottom, and attach ears to the top of the head.

Sew the ears on each side of the bunny head, make sure to tuck the ears inside the head.  I didn’t worry about seams and such since this is a recycle bunny after all and not meant to be fussy.

Here is  where you have to get creative and go with your senses – I sort of tuck and stitch the shape of the face, you sort of have to feel it out for yourself.

And lastly?  Button eyes and applique nose, and heart on the belly.  Also, no arms.  Why?  Because frankly I like the bunny better without the arms.  You can see the bunnies on my Facebook page.  But if you neeeeed arms, just stuff some sweater parts and sew them on.

I didn’t take pics of this bc this bunny isn’t finished yet and I’m going away for a few days but didn’t want to leave folks waiting for their bunny tute.

Voila!  Finished!
If you have questions or feedback, I would love to hear it!

Peace,

Liz

A special birthday

Millie at age 1

My second daughter, Millie is turning 5 today….I honestly cannot believe it.  Millie was born at lunchtime 5 years ago, a few things stand out in my mind about that day – how I was really afraid I was going to deliver in the car, it was like giving birth to a rocket ship (after the slow, 36 hour labor I had with my first) Millie was born in 3 1/2 hours.   How quiet she was when born, and the midwife and doctor were worried, but I just knew she was fine; how much I loved her from the start and how HUNGRY I was when the dust settled, and all I wanted to eat was broccoli.

Some things about her birth day make a lot of sense, she is quiet and lovely and smart and beautiful, she has no patience (this may be -ahem – a genetic trait I’m afraid) and that girl looooooves to eat – even broccoli.

Seen here eating the present Auntie Claire sent – a chocolate covered fruit basket

So here is a peek at what I made for my sandwich girl (I call her that because I tell her all the good stuff is in the middle, like her).

A camera case, complete with cupcake details – I bought the felt for this from Material Evidence Shop,(http://www.etsy.com/shop/materialevidenceshop) it’s real wool felt, which is pricey but to be honest, after working with the real deal I’ll never go back to craft felt, unless it’s to make some kind of enormous Halloween costume. The lavender trim is vintage blanket binding from my stash.  This was a pattern I made myself by simply measuring out what I thought I needed.

This is the first time in a long time I’ve done any embroidery and I can tell already I’m pretty hooked.

Here is the other side, I used a blanket stitch on the “M”, clearly I need more practice here….

And I lined it with soft flannel so the lens doesn’t get scratched by the felt, even tho the felt is really soft, I took  an extra measure to ensure that won’t happen.  I hope she likes her gift, it is so nice to make something special for my sweet girl.

A baby prezzie

My sister had a baby in November, a beautiful little girl named Fiona.

The girls and I wanted to make something special for Fiona so this is what we came up with – personalized tshirts that the girls made.  This was super easy, Gerber baby t’s and some fabric markers, easy peasy.

The girls had a great time making these.  I know Fiona will look adorable in them!