handmade christmas: thumb-print cards

We had fun making these cards. My tot and I thumbed out penguins, frogs, mice, rabbits, elephants, and more.

I have been thinking about other animals to try ever since -- ladybugs, hippos, giraffes, hedgehogs, deer... oh my.

handmade christmas: cross stitch

Life in pixels!

My family got pixelated portraits this year for Christmas. This was my first attempt at cross stitch since high school and I am hooked. When I had completed my family, I kept going with one for the in-laws. (Thanks to good ol' Martha Stewart for the idea.)

The stitching is very therapeutic. (Unless of course you are stitching while bouncing on an exercise ball with a sleeping baby strapped to your chest. I can't recommend that too much.)

But actually I had the most fun with the design phase of these. Trying to capture an age and stage in just a few pixels was fun, even though I went through quite a bit of graph paper to get the details right. In some cases I still fell short (that darn baseball cap! glasses look like unibrows!) but I'm happy with the results overall. Hairstyles make a big difference, as does choice of shirt.

But man, you think you know someone until you try to remember the details... what colour are their eyes? what colours do they usually wear? on what side of their head do they usually part their hair?

I have one more in mind to make for another sweet family, but then I'm not sure where to go with this new addiction. I don't really like a lot of the cross stitch patterns I see. I mean, I love the stuff Wee Little Stitches does, but what to do with all of it when you're done? I don't really see myself with lots of cross stitches hanging on my walls. So watch out family and friends, that means I'll be giving it away.

my brother's sweater vest, my favourite detail 

paper crafts

My toddler goes nuts for scissors and glue and anything she dubs "arts and crafts" so I'm always on the lookout for stuff that fits the bill. 

Mr Printables fits the bill!  It's got a ton of cool paper crafty stuff for kids, and the cone girls have been a big hit around here.  

And PaperMatrix has some beautifully intricate paper crafts for those of you up for a challenge. I want to try my hand at those hot air balloons someday.

(Thanks to How About Orange for the tips.)

magic ribbon stick

dowel + ribbons + duct tape = 1 magic stick and 1 happy kid

Thanks to curious bird for the idea

roses are red...

I'm not a big 'hearts and flowers' kind of gal, but I do love an excuse to craft in red.

A few ideas for this year, or next...

make fortune cookies the hard way... or the easy way (I've now tried both)

valentine's crackers (a la Christmas surprise crackers)

order a heart-shaped sparkler 

make soap you want to eat

insta-decorate with heart garland

animal print

There are four frames in the kid's room that I had every intention of switching up often. That was my plan prior to the her arrival, anyway.

First, the frames held pages from a picture book. And then they sat for a year and a half before I got around to changing them up with these animal silhouettes.

I started with a kind of A is for Antelope, B is for Bird theme, but then I liked the idea of a kangaroo too much to continue with that plan. I only wished I had one more piece of bright, some-what matching paper lying around, because my little fish are a hard to see -- especially against a similar pale green wall.

I can't decide which is my favourite. Today, I think it's the antelope.

e-i-e-i-o

This project started with a bit of hubris, an 'I could make that!" declaration in a store. The store-bought play kit had a fold-up barn made out of cloth and a cute collection of felt animals.

I quickly decided my barn would be a much simpler drawstring bag, but I didn't really intend for my animals to be quite as, ahem, rudimentary as they turned out. I think it goes without saying that I didn't use a pattern, but just whipped out these critters with little regard for the details. I like the horse, but all of my animals kind of remind me of what you'd get during craft time in kindergarden. But whatever. They looked enough like animals for my kid say, 'oh, this must be a cow!' or in her words, 'mooo.'

And then I saw these felt animals at Ikea -- too cute! I had to buy them. I planned to just toss my animals and let these new ones live in the barn, but now I can't bring myself to throw mine away. I've grown attached! And I'm kind of touched that my kid doesn't seem to have a preference for the professional-grade barn animals.

So I think we'll keep all of them for a little while longer. Mine will fall apart soon anyway.

his and hers

DIY deodorant update: I am in love with my all natural lavender deodorant! I made a sage-scented batch for Jeff. Very studly. We smell great.

bathing with animals

Ever since my friend gave us a little washcloth bunny, I have been meaning to add to our bathtime zoo with repurposed towels. After cleaning out the linen closet over the weekend, I had the old towels I needed -- including a striped one just destined to be a zebra!

The zebra, which admittedly looks a little piggish, and the puppy dog are puppets -- a simple zigzag stitch around the embellished pieces. The bunny is a sew-right-sides-together constructed washcloth.

Isn't it crazy how a little embroidery thread and some felt can turn a simple blank body into a recognizable animal? I mean, that one little patch under the eye is kind of an ingeniously simple way to indicate 'puppy,' don't you think? (Thanks to Martha Stewart -- the puppy puppet washcloth is in her fabric & sewing crafts encyclopedia.)

Rub-a-dub-dub. Arf, arf.

papier-mache surprise eggs

Looking for a solution to silly plastic eggs? How about these beautiful papier-mache eggs!

Catch up with me next year and I'll have some photos to share. It's a little late (and my kid is a little young) to worry about making papier-mache surprise eggs in the next 24 hours -- but I love that we have a solution.

paper pinecone eggs

I don't like styrofoam. But I like this little project.

I need to find some substitute styrofoam eggs before Sunday.

Any ideas?

hand sewing

Finally stitched up some bunny finger puppets. So easy, you could make a bunny army -- a very non-menacing bunny army.

And I've been whipstitching some magnet letters à la this plush alphabet set. I doubt this will ever be a complete alphabet though -- hand sewing may be relaxing, but it takes time.

bunnies galore

Easter is fast approaching and I want to get some serious crafting happening 'round here because, as I've said before, my kid has a thing for bunnies. Imagine her delight with a whole holiday decked with bunny rabbits!

A few projects to get me started...

finger puppets, which I linked to last year, but I still really want to make

bunny bowling!

a sweet dancing margaret (also on scribd)

a recycled mooshy belly bunny (such a great name)

and because I'm gonzo for reversible toys, a knit bunny & duck.

And this peanut butter and jelly game is totally beyond my wee toddler, but it's so stinkin' cute I have to pass it along in case you know someone the right age.

diy deodorant

I smell like lavender. It's lovely, really. I'll let you know how it turns out in the long run, but right now I smell like lavender.

I've been wanting to try making deodorant for a while now. None of the 'natural' deodorants that I've tried really work that great, it bugs me that none of their plastic is recyclable, and I'm kind of scared of the ingredients in anti-persperants.

When I came across this recipe, I was inspired. I talked a friend into splitting the first batch: hippy party, check.

We had some trouble sourcing the cocoa butter (at a price we were willing to pay) and after much discussion with folks who seemed to know what they were talking about, we got talked into coconut oil instead. I was a little worried about having to cover up the scent of coconut (not my fave) instead of cocoa bean, but it was actually shea butter's strong scent that was the holdout. But given enough lavender essential oil, even shea butter can be knocked down to just a hint.

homemade deodorant

adapted from Amy Karol's recipe

makes enough for 2-125ml jam jars

4 Tbs shea butter

4 Tbs baking soda

2 2/3 Tbs corn starch

2 2/3 Tbs coconut oil

essential oil

Add all of the ingredients except the essential oil in a small glass bowl and melt in the microwave for about 20 seconds (coconut oil gets hot quickly.) Stir well. Start adding the essential oil and keep adding and stirring until it's the desired scent. Pour into jars and put in the fridge to set. Once it's cool, you can store it at room temperature (but it won't be as solid as in the fridge.)

projects for the new year

Check out this fantastic list of tutorials -- a roundup from 2010. So many of these projects are ones that I'd love to make. But first... I need to get organized!

I mean, I've got patterns printed and waiting in my WIP box, a ton of ideas bookmarked on the computer, pdfs saved to the desktop, inspiration jotted down on our fridge's whiteboard, my queue in ravelry... it's hard to keep it all straight, really. I need a master list somewhere.

What's your system? Is it paper or digital?

jar o' goodies

Still digging out from the holiday travel miscellany around here, but I wanted to drop in to say Happy New Year!

This little mason jar of craftiness (thanks to martha for pincushion lid idea) sets off a new year of making.

mrs claus never gets coal

I needed one more stocking to round out our set of three. Here's the one I made last year, and here's the one I made from a hideous sweater at the thrift store. It was just begging to be made into something new...

This one's for me. Doesn't it look like a stocking that Santa would fill for his wifey? Just call me Mrs. Claus.

But now I think the striped one from last year is kind of a weak link in our set, so I've decided it'll just be Jeff's interim stocking until I find the time to make another one. For sure before next Christmas, okay hon?

How could it possibly take a person three years to finish a set of three stockings when one is already store-bought? Ah, but a clue!

advent

Anyone who was reading this blog last year (thank you, so glad you're here!), knows I like advent calendars.

I don't have the one of my dreams yet, but that's mainly because my dreams keep changing. Each year, I'm swayed by other beautiful options like these, and well, I just plain can't decide.

But for someone who loves advent calendars to not have any... well, that seems a bit strange to me too. So now we have a calendar to tide us over until the next -- a wee box calendar from a kit found at the art store and bits of paper I had on hand.

Now I can relax, grab a cup of tea, and continue to hem and haw over my creative options.

cabled fingerless gloves 3.0

Another pair of fetchings (love this pattern -- made twice before)...

...and a stoic little sheep. I cut her out of from hunk of rubber like so, and she'll be tagging along with all my woolen gifts this year. Baaa.

ready for my cameo

I thought these silhouettes were so cute, I'm using the good gift idea for the great-grands this year.