Halloween Coasters

With Autumn and Halloween comes sitting back with a cup of hot cider, or other yum-e-ness! 
Enter-the need for a coaster.

Since it’s Halloween, why can’t your coaster be adorable?  These are made out of that counted plastic canvas and yarn!  Love them!

These are my Mom’s genious-ness!

My Mom made all of these, too.  I have more, too.  One set for each month to be exact!  Check out this post to see a tutorial on working with counted plastic canvas.

Now don’t your coasters need to be cute, too?!

Rebecca
Happy Drinking!

A Bushel of Apples to Play With

 
I loved my Mom’s crocheted apples so much that I had to make up some polymer clay ones!

These were so quick and easy to make.  Then, I let my kids play with them!

After I made my tiny apples, I made up this paper to use them with. 
I keep adding to my list of manipulatives for my children to play with.  There are so many ways for the kids to play with these.  They can sort them by color, do pattern work, use the above sheet and sort by numbers, etc.  I love this kind of stuff!
Rebecca

I'm joining the following fun parties; Its A Blog Party, Blue Cricket Design, Sew Much Ado, Just A Girl, ABC and 123,

Great Summer Activity-Boondoggle

I grew up making things like boondoggle and friendship bracelets in the summer.  I can’t believe I haven’t done this before with my children.  I grew up calling this boondoggle.  However, it is also known as plastic lacing or scoubidou.
This has been an amazing summer for us so far!  I love having so much time with my kids.  Last night I had a house full of giggling kiddos because we had a sleepover.  As a parent, nothing is better than giggling happy children!  LOVE IT! 

Well, I busted out the boondoggle last night and was so surprised that my youngest daughter found it so easy!

Here she is working on her boondoggle creation.  I showed her how to one knot and off she went!  I was just going to have them do the simple square.  However, she saw I was turning in mine and wanted to try it.  She adapted to this with no problem as well!

Here are the four variations that were worked on last night.  I love the color combinations that they each chose!

Here is the basics of how to make boondoggle:
I think that looking at my pictures will be more helpful than my directions! ;)
Cut two long strips of the plastic, which is called gimp.  We chose lengths of 30” and our boondoggle turned out about 3”.
At the halfway point of each strip you overlap them in a +. 
Bring your gimp that was going up and bring it down.  You want to make a loop of it.  Then, take the gimp that was going down and bring it up, again making another loop.  Hold the end that’s at top with your pointer finger and the end that’s now on the bottom with your thumb.  This frees up your other hand to do the next steps.  Refer to the picture above.

Now you will move your sides to the opposite side.  You are going to weave your sides through your loops going over the first loop and under the second one.  This is the same on both sides.  Again refer to the picture above.

Now you can let go of your gimp and pull the knot tight.  I pull two strands in one hand and two in the other.  Then, I alternate the two strands that each hand is holding and pull again.  You want this knot tight. 
Repeat these steps over and over again to finish the whole project up.  For a uniform look make sure to keep your gimp straight and don’t let it have a twist in it.  Also make sure to pull all the knots uniformly tight.  You will see if one section was not pulled as tight as the others.  I have heard you can pull too tight on this plastic and it will break.  However, I haven’t had a problem with this.
    
Are you ready for a variation?  Lets do the spiral now!
You are going to do the same basic thing of making two loops and then weaving in the side loops.  However, instead of making the top (right) loop come straight down and the bottom (left) loop go straight up you are going to make the loops diagonally. 
See the top gimp is to the right of the one going down?  Well when you form the loop bring the gimp to the left of the bottom gimp.

Next, you will take your bottom gimp that was on the left of the top one and when you bring it up to make your second loop you are going to cross diagonally over and to the right of your top gimp. 
Notice they aren’t crossing each other.

You will weave your side weaves the same way you made your top and bottom loops. 
Your gimp on the right side is below the left gimp.  So you will weave your right gimp over and under the loops, but you will want your gimp to end up above the left gimp.  See the above picture.

Now you will take your left gimp and weave it over and under the loops, but you will want your gimp to end up below your right gimp.  See the above picture.
Finish off by pulling this knot tight as you did with the straight square knot.  If you continue this you will have created a spiral design.  You can switch back and forth between knots in your design for whatever look you want to achieve.
     
Here are our two finished boondoggles so far!  However, as I’m typing this up the other two are being finished up and we are starting up some harder designs.  There are tons of different knots out there to try.  I looked through a bunch of kits at the stores and really did not care for their directions.  The best directions for more complicated knots that I have found is at Boondoggleman.   His site has wonderful directions with pictures and a large variety of knots to try!


How cute are they?  My kids love putting things like this on their backpacks so I’m sure this is where they will end up.  We will be going on a big (for us) vacation this summer with the kids (4 days in the car) and I had planned on breaking out the boondoggle for our road trip.  However, I’m so glad that I broke this out earlier as these giggly kids just loved it!  Now I wont be trying to explain how to do this at rest stops on the road!  I’m sure we will come home with lots more of these to show everyone!
I told a few friends that we were making boondoggle and they had never heard of it.  Have you?  I thought everyone grew up doing this at summer camp!  I’d love to hear everyone else’s ideas of if they did this or what are the other activities that they did as a child, during the summers, to keep them occupied!

This was a must do summer activity for us!  All five children from ages 5-12 gave it a thumbs up! ;)

Rebecca

Linking to the following parties:  Life as Lori, KoJo Designs, Fingerprints on the Fridge, ABC and 123,

Crayon Etching on Metal Tins

These tins were given to my Father-In-Law by my children.  He works with lots of tiny parts and so this application of crayon etching on metal was a perfect project for my kids and I, to give to him for his Birthday!  The pictures are actually etched right onto the tins and they were drawn directly onto the tins by my children!  Stay tuned this week because  I am finishing up the tutorial on how we made these out of just crayons and salt water! 

This will actually be a 3-part series on etching into metal!  The projects are all finished, I’m just writing up the tutorials! 

Rebecca

Nana’s Stitched Canvas Infant Blocks

Welcome everyone from Craftzine!  I'm so excited to find these blocks on there this morning!!!

Be forewarned…this post may lead to sugar-induced coma!  Too much sweetness overload!  Or make your ovaries ache!

Isn’t my Nephew Model just the sweetest thing?!

Oh I could seriously eat him up!  sigh.

OK back to the real point of this post.  Nana (my Mother) saw these infant blocks at a church event she went to.  They were making them as part of a humanitarian aide thing.
 
Though, leave it to my Mother to improve on something already too cute!  This heart was her idea.

The blocks are made with that counted plastic canvas.  You make up each side with a different shape, then stitch the edges together to form cubes.  There is also a bell hidden inside for extra fun for the kids.
 
My Mom came home and right away made these blocks for my Nephew’s first Birthday!  They were a huge hit!  My Mom also came up with the idea of doing a numbers, or dice, block.  See, where our crafty genius comes from?  It’s in our genes!  I don’t think I’ll ever be able to say enough about the women in my life and how they teach and inspire me!!
 
My Mom’s next endeavor with these awesome blocks is a color block.  She is stitching up each side with a different color and then is adding the name of the color to it. 
 
I had to point this out.  The above block, yeah that’s the back side.  When I work on plastic canvas I don’t concern myself with the backs.  But my Mother’s are as beautiful as her front side!
 
This is the front side, just for your comparison.
 
She just wings all of this, no patterns!  Insane, right?  That’s what the pink side above is.  It is her trying out the color names…they are just a test, as my Mom does know the difference between red and pink!
 
I’m guessing that anyone that is going to do this craft knows how to use plastic canvas.  But for those that don’t here is a close up of how to stitch the side.  You do a diagonal stitch, going up one row  and down the next.

Crash course for these blocks:
My Mom’s squares (sides) are 18 holes X18 holes.  So, you first cut your 6 squares (sides).  Next you start stitching your first row.  Notice the block with the white yarn?  That is how you start the square (side), by sewing your end right into the block.  So as you stitch you are wrapping the yarn around the end, which holds the end in as well as leaves a nice finished end that you don’t even see.  Next, is the orange yarn where you just keep stitching up one row and down the next.  And above the orange are all the other colors that are finished and waiting to be stitched together at their edges/corners.
   
One last cuteness picture!  Can you stand all those baby parts?!  Goodness, I can’t. 

Don't forget to join our linky party with your fantastic craftiness or DIY-ness!
Rebecca

PS Thank you, Nana, for making these adorable blocks and inspiring me as always!!



We are joining in the fun at the following Linky Parties;  Remodelaholic, Blue Cricket Design, Thrifty Thursday,   , somewhat simple, Trendy Treehouse, Feature Yourself Friday, Life As Lori, Treasures For Tots,  KojoDesigns, Flaunt It Friday, Finding Fabulous, It's Fun To Craft, Tatertots and Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Making the World Cuter,  Keeping It Simple, Between Naps On The Porch, The DIY Showoff,

Autism Awareness Month and a Flower-loop-bow

April is Autism Awareness Month and April 2nd was World Autism Awareness Day.  I made the above pin to wear in honor of my children.  May Arts blog has a wonderful tutorial on how to make flower loop bows using ribbon.  They are very easy to make.  Instead of just layering ribbon I added a silk flower in the center of mine.  I used craft glue to hold the flower in place and added a pin on the back.  This would be fun as a hair bow, on a gift, in a frame, in a bouquet, topping a pen or pencil, as a magnet or anything else you can think of to add it to.

Here are a couple of pins from last year.  Autism Awareness Felt Broach and a Polymer Clay Autism Awareness pin.

Lately I have taken a step back from blogging because there is a lot going on in my life.  Actually there has always been a lot going on in my life this is nothing new.  In January we got confirmation that our 5 year old is Autistic.  His older brother was diagnosed in 2004.  Just a few months after his brother was born.  My oldest was diagnosed at 2 1/2 years and my youngest was diagnosed at 5.  That is a big age difference.  So why did it take so long if we already knew what Autism looked like?  Because they were two totally different babies.  Though as they have gotten older the similarities are much more apparent.  Some of it has to do with the fact that my 5 year old idolizes his brother.  He wants to do everything he does.  He is also higher functioning in many ways.

I could write a post that goes on and on about what they are like now and what they were like as babies.  I could write about the story of how we came to getting their diagnosis’ but I have a feeling that it would be more of a mini book than a blog post.

What I am going to say is this.  If you have a child that you feel that there may be something “different” about them.  Something that you can’t quite put your finger on.  You really need to get them evaluated and the sooner the better.  My other bit of advice is that some times Autism might look like typical age appropriate behavior when they are little but the difference is that their issues impede them from being able to do tasks.  If you get them evaluated and you are told there isn’t a need for further evaluation but they still think your child needs speech and occupational therapy and qualifies for preschool through early intervention keep your eye open. (This is why my youngest wasn't diagnosed at 3.  They thought his issues were learned behaviors.) Better yet if you think they are wrong then talk to your child’s Dr. and get a referral to have your child evaluated by either a Developmental Pediatrician or a child psychologist.  Talk to their teacher and be involved.  That way you will know if your child is making progress.  You will know if they have outgrown what was “typical” behavior at age 3 or not.  You can have your child re-evaluated (here it is every year).  If the concerns you had for your child at age 3 have not resolved then you need to consider having them re-evaluated.  Education is far to important to not get all the support your child needs to be successful in school.

Having your child evaluated does not hurt them and it isn’t invasive.  In fact they think they are playing.  What can hurt your child is not having them evaluated when you suspect something isn’t right.  Early intervention is crucial to their development.  Think of it this way, you can help train their brain while it is still growing and before they get set in their ways.

Some resources are http://www.autismspeaks.org/  and http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer  There may also be a local chapter of the Autism Society in your area.

There is no cure but you can change their future with intervention.  There are many many interventions out there, join a forum for Autism or go to your local Autism Society and you will find hundreds of parents just like you, willing to share their stories.  They will share what worked for them and what didn’t.  Unfortunately, what works for one child may not work for another.  We have been fortunate that all the interventions we have done have made a difference.

Life with Autism isn’t easy but there are lots and lots of bright spots.  You just have to look for them.
I wouldn’t change who my children are for the world.  If I could go back and do things such that they would still be the kids that they are with out the Autism, I would.  However, I cannot change genetics.  Autism runs in my family.

Katrina

Technorati Tags: autism,awareness,ribbon,flower pin

Rebecca here:
Thank you, Katrina, for this post!  I am so thankful for all of the children in my life that have special needs (my own kids are part of this bunch)!  My life would not be as full without them.  As far as Autism goes, I am so thankful that my Nephews have Katrina as their Mother!  She is so hard working in getting them everything they need!  This is something that is an epidemic and we all need to do something about it!  We can all start with not judging others, as you never know what that person's situation really is.  I think a big thing with Autistic children is that they look just like everyone else.  There are no telltale physical signs that let you know that child has Autism.  If you saw my Nephews, you'd see what I mean because they are absolutely gorgeous boys!

I cherish the times when all the cousins are running around together with no thoughts to who "has" what!  No one says anything about my Daughter's speech delay, or my Son's hyperactivity, no one slows down when they see one of the cousin's with his back pack on that is feeding him through his stomach, and no one says anything when the cousins with Autism are overwhelmed.  I love that our children just love each other for who they are!  What a great bunch of kids we've got!  It reminds me of my own childhood and running around with my cousins.  We have kids of every nation, in our family running and playing together...not even noticing that there were differences between us.  If we could now get the rest of the world to be so wonderful!

Easter Carrot Boxes

Aren’t these carrot boxes fun?  I am filling them with Easter goodies like Jelly Beans.

I played around with different tops on them.  Which do you like best?  I thought I’d love the pipe cleaners best.  Then, I tried the regular green ribbon.  Then, out of the corner of my eye I spied the fluffy ribbon!  It’s called fuzzy cord and I got it shopping the after Christmas Clearance…$.10!  Oh yeah!  I had no clue what I’d do with it.  It came with red, but I used that for Valentine’s Day.  The consensus so far is that the fuzzy cord is the favorite.

Oh and PS I hate really dislike Easter grass.  I wouldn’t even use it until a few years ago.  It’s just a mess and unruly, to me!  The things I do for my children….

These are really just Christmas tree boxes upside down (and without the trunks)!  Easy peasy!  That’s a picture of the template that I came up.

I am playing around with some different papers and textures.  I’ll show them to you later.

Rebecca
I am also busy doing Easter crafts with the kids, so keep checking back as I’ll be posting a few fun (new to me) Easter things to do (and at least one oldy but goody)!

I am joining in the fun at the following parties; Somewhat Simple, Treasures For Tots, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Show Off, Between Naps On The Porch, A Soft Place To Land, Today's Creative Blog, My Frugal Family, A Silly Little Sparrow,Making The World Cuter, The Girl Creative, Persimmon Perch, Twice Remembered, Skip To My Lou, Blue Cricket Design, The Trendy Treehouse,  

Duct Tape Marshmallow Shooter/Ammo Belt

I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to finally get this tutorial up.  February crawled by with my family getting the flu just after my son’s party and then one cold after another all month long.  I have no idea what happened with March!  Other than I have been playing catch up and doing this and that at my boys’ school.  Anyway, enough with the excuses, it is time to get this tut on!  We also managed to make it to the Renaissance festival with Rebecca and the rest of the family.  It was fun watching all the cousins sword fight with their new wooden swords (thanks Papa).  By the way this kind of belt would work well for holding a sword as well. ;)
You might remember back in February I had an awesome Lego Agents party for my 8 year old.  One of the favors was a duct tape belt to hold their shooters and an ammo canister.  GO HERE TO SEE PART ONE OF THE PARTY.  GO HERE TO SEE PART TWO OF THE PARTY WITH THE BELTS  I promised a reader that I would post a tutorial.
First you want to measure around the child’s waist.  Make sure it fits a little loose and over laps about 3 inches in the back.  This is something you want to try to make ahead of time.  If you are unsure of how big the party guests are then you can make up a bunch of belts in various lengths.  The day of the party you can trim them down and add the Velcro closures.

This step is fairly simple.  Just fold up the bottom edge.  It can be a little tricky when doing this with a long belt.  Start at one end and fold over about 5 inches at a time.  This will be the finished width of the belt so don’t fold over too much.  About a half inch or so.

For this step I highly recommend that you leave the second layer of tape on the roll and unroll as you need more.  You will be lining up the bottom edge with the folded edge of the first piece of tape.  By unrolling the tape as you go you will have less trouble with the tape sticking where you don’t want it to.

Now flip it over and fold down the top edge.  This is your belt.

This is the tab or strap (whatever you want to call it) that will hold the shooter on one side and another for the ammo canister (film canister) on the other side.  Eye ball the length you need to go around the canister or shooter plus the width of the Velcro.  You can always trim it down if you need to.  Fold over the tape on itself (this is the part that will go around the shooter. 
If you were going to make this for a sword, I would just fold the tape in half at this point.  Make it long enough so that the sword will slip through plus extra on both sides to tape down.  Then trim it to the width of the belt.  Use a piece of tape on either side as I did in step 7.  I would suggest laying your sword between the belt and the strap to make sure you have left enough room to get the sword in and out of the belt.

Just snip the strap so that you can fold over the exposed tape.

Cut another piece of duct tape and wrap it around the taped end of the strap to help it hold the weight of the shooter.

Trip the edges of the strap to match the width of the belt.

A little not about the Velcro.  I had bought some “Scotts” brand hook and loop with permanent adhesive on the back.  I found that it didn’t stick to the duct tape as well as the “Velcro” brand adhesive backed Velcro that I used in the first two I made for my son.  There was at least one belt that I ended up using staples to keep the Scotts from coming off again.  Just make sure the staple ends are on the Velcro side of the belt so the kids don’t get scratched.
The Scotts brand is in the photo above and the Velcro brand is in the picture below.  For some reason the loop portion of the Velcro comes in dots and the hook portion comes in a strip from the same package.

Here is the closure in the back with about 2-3 inches of Velcro overlap.  This worked out well because when you add the weight of the shooters to the belt it will weigh it down quite a bit.  Some of the kids needed us to adjust their belts a little tighter.  Also this will allow for them to wear these over other layers of clothing depending on the time of year. 
Katrina

Technorati Tags: duct tape,belt,marshmallow shooters,holder,tutorial

Cookie Cutter 101

 
I learned how to make cookie cutters, just in time to make myself a cute shamrock cookie cutter for St. Patrick’s Day! 

Seriously this copper cookie cutter is so beautiful!

I showed you, in my last post, many things I used this for and gave you a list of many more things you can use cookie cutters for, other than the usual cookies!
Now I’ll show you how to make your own cookie cutters:

Supplies needed are:
Roll of copper*, pliers, shears, printed design, eyelets, crop-a-dile II, measuring tape, tape

Use a tape measure to figure the length of copper needed (the circumference of your design), by measuring around your printed design.

When you are using this copper roll you should pull the copper from the inside of the roll so that it does not unravel.

Cut the desired length using metal shears.

You want to start and stop your design on the longest straight section of your design.  This is because where you join the copper together it will be where you stop and start and you want it to be the easiest to fit the crop-a-dile into.
 
Use your needlenose pliers or pliers to start bending your copper strip.  It bends pretty easily, especially for how strong the finished cookie cutter is and how well it holds it’s shape.

Please do not tease me for my manly hands.  I swear the camera adds not just 10 pounds, but also masculinety to a person! ;)  Actually that was my handy helper being a hand model for me.  Some tutorials are too hard to take pictures of by myself!

If you use needlenose pliers take into account that the nose part of these pliers is a diagonal edge and not a straight (perpendicular) one, so hold your needlenose pliers at an angle to make sure the bend you are making is straight (perpendicular to your long edge of copper).  Otherwise your cookie cutter will not be flat when you set it down.

As you make your bends line them up with your pattern to make sure you are staying accurate.
  
Continue bending all the way around your design.  I used objects that had curves the same size that I needed, to wrap the copper around for ensuring a smooth curve when necessary.
(How was that for a run on sentence?)

Once you have made your shape with your copper, secure it with a piece of tape.  This will hold adequately.
I like to finish things off the whole way so I used my crop-a-dile to attach eyelets to secure the ends of the copper together. 
 
I went through one layer of the copper at a time when punching the holes out.  Then, I attached my two eyelets.  Though in this case I am told they should be called rivets because this is metal we are working with and because of how we are using them.   If you finish your cookie cutter off this way you are going old school like good ol’ “rosie the riveter”.  This would be the skills you would need to build an airplane (the riveting part).

 
Now, tell me how cute this shamrock cookie cutter is!  I have so many more ideas for more cookie cutter shapes now! 
Rebecca

*I know I will be asked where to get the roll of copper from.  I ordered it online from Basic Copper.  This copper is made for making cookie cutters.  Basic Copper's website says, "Both sides of the copper strip have been lightly treated so that the edge will be smooth against your hand when pressing the cookie cutter into the dough, but still sharp enough to cut the dough easily. Having both sides treated allows you to use the cutter in either direction to make the most out of your dough."  So don't just use any kind of copper for this.  Basic Copper is offering my viewers a 10% discount on your order of cookie cutter copper with them!  How nice is that?  Just use the code, 10offrw!  


I am joining in the fun at the following parties; Somewhat Simple, Treasures For Tots, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Show Off, Between Naps On The Porch, A Soft Place To Land, Today's Creative Blog, My Frugal Family, A Silly Little Sparrow,