Baked Architecture

I have been stuck at home with sick kids this holiday season, thus bored.  I decided to try out something I have wanted to do for a very long time: make gingerbread houses from scratch.  I created the patterns and made very simple houses for my older two boys.  Then I decided to make my own mid century modern-inspired gingerbread house.  I am a novice with gingerbread structures, so this was just a first attempt.  And my frosting was not cooperative.  I think next time I might go for a butter-based frosting instead of the traditional royal icing, which was thick and difficult to work with.  Also, to prevent a bunch of frustration, I did hot glue the pieces together initially (all in discreet places that would never be noticed).  And here was my MCM gingerbread house in progress and the final product.  I have to say that I was totally pleased with the way the beams fit into the structure - they were actually quite sturdy and support the roof!  Other tips I can offer: pez make excellent bricks, chocolate neccos work well for that slate-walkway style, and gumballs work great for those globe lights.  If only I could have found a way to suspend the globe light from the roof, that would have been truly awesome.

Bunny Garland

Since St. Patrick's Day and Easter are so close together this year, I decided to forget about St. Patty's and go straight to decorating for Easter.  Sorry, but I don't have any Irish lineage.  My five-yr-old is perhaps disappointed about this since green is his favorite color, but in my opinion, Easter wins.  Besides, we are in charge of bringing drinks to his school's St. Patrick's Day party and I'm pretty sure I can redeem myself in his eyes with some green Gatorade and green shamrock pancakes on Sunday.
Anyway, last year's Easter garland craft turned out to be too delicate to last more than a year (it was string dipped in glue and wrapped around water balloons to make eggs - a serious pain), so I made a new one.  I loved all the variations of bunny-butts with cotton ball tails so I made my own template and got to work.  I don't have a die cutter or access to one, so I traced and hand-cut all 30 bunnies.  I used 1" white pom-poms for the tails, punched holes in the ears and strung them on some plain white grossgrain ribbon.  The bunnies are made out of colored cardstock, which I am regretting a little bit.  I like this garland so much, I wish I had made it out of something that would last a little longer.  Maybe when this one gets faded, I will remake it out of felt or foam.

I had a hard time finding a suitable template so I am posting my own here, should anyone else want to use it.  (Click on it to enlarge it, then right-click to download.)

Belated Mother's Day Gift

I saw this idea on pinterest and immediately knew it was perfect for my mom.  My mom loves strawberries, sewing and has dreams of opening a tea-party-cottage someday.
What is this made out of?  A teacup, a fat-quarter, an egg-shaped piece of styrofoam and a little bit of piping. 

Banners or Bunting?

I'm not really sure what these pendant-thingies are called, so we'll call it a banner.  Anyway.  I had a bunch of brightly colored felt hanging around from some flowers I neglected to make and I decided to make a "Welcome Spring" banner.  This is another very easy craft that anyone can do if you have a bunch of felt, a rotary cutter, some double-fold bias tape and can sew in a straight line.  It's also an honest-to-goodness CHEAP craft.  You could do this one for about $6 or less.  Here's what you do:
~~Cut your triangles out.  Mine are 5" wide at the top, 6" long at the point.  (I wanted a banner that was big enough to go over my ugly blinds.  Seriously.  Why hasn't somebody come  up with a more attractive solution to sliding-glass-door covering?)  Keep in mind that bias tape usually comes in 3 yard lengths so if you want a banner that is longer, you'll have to piece together a second length of bias tape.
~~You can either purchase sticky-back felt letters or make your own.  I couldn't find 2" ones, so I made my own.  To do that go on the computer, find a font you like, type out all the letters you want and size them to whatever makes sense and print them out and use them as stencils on the back of a sheet of sticky-back felt (making sure to trace them backwards so the fuzzy side is right-side up).  It's not as terrible as it sounds.
~~Even though the letters are on sticky-back felt, you absolutely need to use fabric adhesive as well.
~~After the glue has dried, sew the pendants into the fold of the bias tape with a straight stitch.  You could also embellish with rick-rack, ribbon, etc.  The nice thing about the bias tape is that it is automatically folded under and finished on both sides.
I liked this so much, I made a Happy Birthday banner too!  The possibilities are endless and these are sturdy and store nice and flat.  Banners for every holiday!

Break Out the Glue Gun

Last year, due to attending multiple Easter egg hunts as well as receiving more than one Easter basket, the boys were swimming in plastic Easter eggs.  It felt like a complete waste to throw them all away after Easter was over, but the thought of them continuing to take over our living area was not an option either.  So, I decided to be good and pack them all away in a bag for next year.  All year long they have been driving me nuts in the closet - always in the way.  So many times I have almost tossed them.  Last week I decided to pull them out and see if I could make a wreath out of them - upcycling is in, right?  We live in a building with an indoor hallway and I love being able to hang festive things on the door for holidays.  I thought I had everything I needed on hand.  I had a 12" wire wreath frame that I had purchased for a project I never made, a bag full of plastic eggs and a glue gun.  I started tying the eggs onto the wreath before I pulled out the glue gun.  I mainly wanted to see how many eggs it would take, how to place them, etc. I only wanted to use the regular-sized plastic eggs with the little hinges.  It became apparent that 1) I didn't have enough eggs and 2) I would probably need to use at least two sizes to cover up the wire frame sufficiently without a lot of gaps.  I ended up having to go out and buy MORE eggs!  Lots more!  I am pretty sure this wreath required close to 100 eggs!  There are about 6 dozen regular-sized plastic eggs and about 3 dozen of the mini-sized eggs.  Another tip I can pass along is to make sure to use the cool setting on the glue gun (no, I didn't have any disasters, I figured this out before I began glueing).  The bows are attached with hidden twist-ties.

In the end, it was a very easy project and it turned out to be pretty cute.  We'll see if I get to my next Easter-decor project.  I'm thinking my sewing-bug may be coming back.  I made a pair of fleece pants for my older son yesterday and the ease of making them has me considering making a bunch of fun shorts for my boys this year (since they are so skinny, most store-bought clothing requires alteration anyway).  A pair of cute fleece lounge pants in half-an-hour from start to finish?  This definitely requires more practice.

Boxcars, Etc.

Awhile ago, my husband and I purchased a few unpainted wooden train cars.  They came in a Thomas the Train kit, but we really just wanted the pieces.  On Valentine's Day, we decided to pull them out and paint them for a little family-bonding activity.  The kids were thrilled.  Since wooden train play takes up most of their waking hours, they were excited to make their very own cars.  The little one chose the caboose and painted it his favorite color: blue.  The bigger one chose the tank car and painted it his favorite color: green.  My husband and I split the three boxcars.  He painted one orange/silver and I went a little overboard with the other two.  I wanted to create some unique cars that would appeal to the kids.  It turns out that they fight over the pickle car so maybe I did too good of a job.  It's fun to have some trains that nobody else has.
You can find this Thomas kit on Amazon for about $20.  Or, if you're lucky, you can find them on ebay for a lot less.  I just used cheap craft-store wood paints and covered them with clear varnish.  I haven't painted anything in years and as funny as this little exercise was, it felt surprisingly good. 

Busy Pinning

Right before Christmas, I finally did it: I joined pinterest.  I wasn't really resisting for any other reason besides lack of time.  Once my projects were done, I decided to check it out.  I've had a lot of fun having a place to store all the neat things I come across in my online-wandering.  I have found some great recipes, stored some beautiful architecture and I even found a great idea for my son's valentines (stay tuned).  It has also inspired me to keep making the homemade holiday decor.  I found a great tutorial for making a Valentine's Day garland that looked easy enough and so I made it!  I wonder where people come up with these ideas originally, I certainly never would have thought of sewing a felt-sleeve so that it could be cut into a heart.  HERE is the original tutorial.  I made mine slightly different, since making yarn-balls seemed not only cheaper, but easier than the felted balls (?) that are shown in the tutorial (although of course I found a tutorial for making those as well, the materials were somewhat spendy and this is just holiday decor after all).  I also made mine quite a bit bigger than the original.  My hearts are made from 7" strips of felt.  The yarn balls were made using 1.25" and 1.5" styrofoam balls.  I love it!  It is so cheerful during this dark, dreary time of the year!  I can't wait to see what I find for Easter.  I'm sure my husband is just oh-so excited too.  He loves it when I announce that I am off to JoAnn's.
(Every time I photograph anything related to our windows I think I should have put curtains up 5+ years ago when we moved in, but since we rent, at this point it seems far too late for that kind of effort,  hence my need for holiday garland of all kind.)

So now you can:  !  Happy pinning!

Blossoms o' felt

Awhile ago, I randomly came across THIS wreath and fell in love with it.  It was the inspiration behind the pom-pom wreaths I made, but the whole time I was making those, I was very much wanting to make this one.  I've been curious about making those felt flowers for quite some time. 
I decided I wanted to make a sort of neutral front-door-wreath to put up when it was time to take down the Christmas wreath.  I wanted to make a smallish one, but they only had 12" circles at the craft store, so I had to go big.
I decided to go with a rusty-color of yarn.  I used Vanna's Choice - isn't it hilarious that Vanna is the new face of yarn???  If that doesn't make all of us feel old, I don't know what does.  Anyway, it is incredibly soft and I loved working with it while I wrapped that styrofoam for two whole hours.
The felt flowers turned out to be pretty easy to make.  I used fabric adhesive instead of a hot glue gun (I hate hot glue guns).
I love how it turned out.  In fact, I love it so much, I went and bought a bunch of nicer wool felt to make more flowers.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with more flowers, but I love them lots and lots.

Buying LOTS of Ribbon

Somewhere around November, I was randomly on etsy and I saw the cutest advent calendar I'd ever seen.  It was a row of white mittens all cutely embellished and numbered.  It was selling for $150.  I was somewhat incredulous.  I could totally do that, right?  How hard could it be?  And wouldn't it make a cute gift?  Feeling over-ambitious (and forgetting about the other work involved in the upcoming holidays and my sons impending tonsilectomy in early December), I figured heck, I could make what? 4? 5?  I bought tons of supplies and set to work.  And found myself having to table this craft for most of the holiday season.  I ended up making them for my two sisters and figure I will get to mine sometime before the next December 1st.

All in all, this was not too terribly complicated, just time-consuming and somewhat tedious.  I sort of invented this project as I went, and learned lessons along the way.  I used white felt for the mittens, white grossgrain ribbon about an inch thick sewed into a double-layer to connect all the mittens.  The embellishment is mostly rick-rack and various kinds of ribbon of different patterns and textures.  I love ribbon so it was not hard for me to buy many, many spools.  I am excited to have lots left over.  I ran into small wrinkles such as not being able to find pre-made numbers made out of felt that were the right size so I had to create stencils and cut them all out myself.  It turned out to be not as terrible to cut out all those numbers as I thought it might be.  I found that I could get all the numbers I needed out of a single 9x12 sheet of sticky-back felt.  Oh, and note about the sticky-back felt: I still had to use fabric adhesive to get the numbers to stay put.
The first calendar I made is of the red/green persuasion and all 24 mittens are different (I'm really proud of that).  It turned out very cheery and festive!

The second calendar is more a wintery-theme in blues and silvers.  It has four different mitten-styles and I made and used pom-poms to embellish the top.

I love them both.  I am still trying to decide how to do my own.  In keeping with most of my Christmas decorations, it will probably be mostly red.  At the moment I'm kind of done with sewing for awhile, but I will get back to it someday, I will, I will!  I love these sorts of advent calendars because they allow the flexibility to count down to Christmas however you would like: stuff them with candy, activities, scriptures, you name it.  It is a great way to create a holiday tradition.

Baking for the Non-Baker

I have always wondered how those delightful cinnamon-cookie-ornaments were made and this year I figured it out.  Who knew these are made out of just applesauce and cinnamon?  I decided to add some other aromatic spices to give these more of a spicy-holiday smell above and beyond the cinnamon.
This is such an easy crafty holiday activity and your house will smell absolutely wonderful for days - it's worth making them just to have that holiday smell wafting through the air.  Even if you are not a baker, you can't mess these up. 
The dough is a little bit challenging to work with because it's kind of dry and flakes a bit.  I found that instead of rolling the dough out with a rolling pin, it was easier to just press it flat and smooth with my palms.  If the dough is too brittle, just add a little bit of water (in teaspoonfuls).  These were a little too delicate for my four-year-old to help with, but older kids could probably do this project without too much supervision (if you need something for your bored, house-bound cherubs to work on).
Also, did you know you can buy giant containers of cinnamon at Costco for about $4?
This recipe will make about 20 ornaments.

Spicy Cookie Ornaments
2 cups applesauce
2-1/2 cups cinnamon (it's about 4oz of cinnamon to a measured cup - so you need LOTS)
2 Tbls cloves
1 Tbls cardamom
1 Tbls nutmeg

Mix, knead all ingredients together until well combined into a ball shape.  Flatten dough on smooth surface and cut with cookie cutters.  Use a straw to punch out the ornament-string hole.  Remember that the ornament will shrink in the oven, so a skewer or toothpick will not create a big enough hole.  Use a toothpick to gently add detail if desired (I found poking worked better than dragging or scraping with the toothpick.)  No grease or flour is necessary.  Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake at 200 degrees for 2 hours.  Let cool, do not store in air-tight containers - these become more sturdy as they become drier.  Use a microplane or even just your fingernails to smooth rough edges (gently!).
Tie with ribbon or string and gift away!  I understand they can last for years.

Word of warning: DO NOT EAT THESE, unless of course you have some sort of intestinal parasite.  I am going to guess these do NOT taste good and would be quite spicy.

Bugs O' Love

I decided to be a bit ambitious for my son's very first year giving out Valentines.  I love these opportunities to make cute crafts to give to his little friends.  It seems to make more out of a holiday than just buying the pre-made ones and in the middle of winter when we've all been suffering with darkness and illnesses since we took those cheerful Christmas lights down.  As always, I picked something that, while adorable, took a lot of effort and supplies.  While I was working on these adorable bugs until after midnight last night I kept asking myself: why am I doing this?  My son would probably be just as thrilled giving out Valentines with his favorite cartoon character on them.  I guess I just need a project to do every now and then.  It is sort of like I have brief fits of craftiness followed by long periods of lethargy.  We'll see if I ever venture into the creative-Valentine-business again, but this year I had a great time and love the finished product.  I found these Love Bugs on the website of a woman with the same name as me!  It must have been a sign that this craft was meant for me!  I tweaked them slightly due to the fact that I couldn't find some of the materials she listed and I wanted them to sit on a heart to give them a place for my son to sign his name (aka scribble with a green marker).  I also used some adhesive craft ribbon around the outside edge of the lid to dress them up a bit and hide that black sharpie.
I had posted a tutorial here, but then reading her copyright boilerplate sort of scared me away, so I direct you to the above link if you'd like information on how to make these.
It took me about 4 hours to assemble 20 of these, to give you an idea of how labor-intensive they are.  They were a big hit in the preschool class this morning, and that made the effort worthwhile!  Thanks to the inventor of these adorable bugs - and again, I take NO credit.  Please don't sue me.

Best-Laid Plans

This was one of those weeks where I had intended to do lots of things - I had three projects in mind.  Sadly, the babes and I got sick and there went Monday.  I had to spend most of Tuesday cleaning up from Monday (that's what happens when the mommy is stuck in bed all day).  Finally after the kids went to bed, I tackled the most important of my projects: making a few items for a couple of new babies arriving very soon.  I am so in love with the concept of freezer paper silk-screening that I have been wanting to do it again since I made the Halloween costumes back in October (there's a link in that post to a tutorial if you're interested).  If you've never tried this and you are at all decent with an exacto-knife (thank you, Architecture school), it's the best crafty project ever.  I love the range of this mode of crafting because the finished product looks pretty close to something you could buy in a store, but can be so personalized to a situation or taste.  One of these shirts is for a third child (because they are special too!!) and one of these is for the new baby of a childhood friend that I used to go on "adventures" with to the corner store a few blocks away.
Here is the finished product:

When I saw how well these turned out, I couldn't help but wonder why I never make stuff like this for my own kids???
I *MUST* get to project #2 since it's for my son's Valentine's Day party at school tomorrow, but we'll see if I get around to #3.  I may just have to accept that I am not Super Mom.

Brush with Creativity

So I've been seeing a lot of blog-buzz about freezer paper stenciling and I had to try it out for myself.  The process is akin to silk screening and it looks pretty good (depending on how good you are with scissors and an exacto knife).  I thought we should supplement the kids' zoo-theme costumes with some adult costumes too.  My husband and I will be the zoo keepers.  I made some official-looking shirts for us to wear (well, I've made mine, now to make his).  I created the logo in photoshop, printed it out, traced it onto freezer paper and then made the stencil.  Believe me when I say that tiny letters are SO HARD to cut out!  The stencil is then ironed onto the t-shirt and then you just brush fabric paint into the void.  I've linked a good demo at the bottom of the post.

Sadly, I think our three-year-old meerkat isn't going to want to wear his costume, so I am considering making him a "Lion Tamer" shirt.
The cuteness may have to be carried completely by this adorable one-year-old (here is a preview of his costume from a party we attended today).

I am totally stoked about this method and now I want to make all my boys' shirts!  Of course, it's not the easiest process with all the detailed cutting, so I probably won't, but the possibilities are endless!
For a nice demo on how to do this, visit my friend Tysha's blog.   Oh, and should you go searching, let me save you some time and let you know that QFC doesn't carry freezer paper, neither does Target, but I got mine at Safeway.

Being Festive

When I was a kid (say 5 or 6) a pad of construction paper, a roll of tape and a pair of scissors could literally occupy me for days.  I would build these 3d cities in my room and then play with them.  At one point I remember trying to make a vehicle completely out of paper and tape.
Imagine my complete thrill that my three-year-old seems to be developing a love of art projects.  He particularly enjoys gluing.  Since he is no longer napping, but the little one is, I have some hours in the afternoon that need to be occupied and the occasional art project seems like a better idea than endless Donald Duck cartoons (the old 1940s ones are his current fav).  I have been wracking my brain trying to come up with cute little projects for him that we can do together, that might be cute on a fridge somewhere and that teach him something (even if it is minor).  I'm not big on drilling the ABCs and 123s, I figure he's got the rest of his life to deal with that, but I do like planting little facts and data into his head because it gives him great confidence to know *stuff.*
The other funny part about my son's art projects is that he never wants to make just one, he needs to mass-produce.  I have to come up with stuff that can be easily duplicated by a little boy with a short attention span.
Last week we made pumpkins and he glued on the faces.  Earlier this week we made spiders.  My son has been fascinated with fall spiders this year and his preschool class has been spending a lot of time talking about spiders.  He loved it.  The whole time he was gluing, he kept saying "this is a really fun project, Mommy!"
The reason I am posting this is because I hear people say all the time "I'm not crafty" or "I have no artistic ability whatsoever" or "I'm not creative," etc.  People: if you have a little kid that loves this stuff like mine, you can very easily do some of these cute little projects without any talent really.  Here's how we made this one:
1) Get a bowl out of the cupboard and trace it on black paper for the spider body.
2) Get a glass out of the cupboard and trace it on black paper for the spider head.
3) Take a variety of colors of construction paper and cut them all to the same size for legs.  This is 9x12 paper cut into 9"x1.5" strips with a paper cutter.
4) Fold the leg strips like fans.
5) Glue head onto body.  Turn over and glue legs onto the back.  Turn back over and apply googly eyes - it's so much cooler if you put more than just two on.  My husband assures me that spiders have more than two eyes anyway.
...and voila!  You have yourself a cute, kid-friendly art project.  The cool thing about this one is that it's appropriate for varying levels of skill.  If your child is a beginner, just have him/her do the gluing or even just tell you where to put stuff.  A little more advanced kid can count out the appropriate number of legs.  My son did most of the gluing and sticking of all the pieces.  I helped guide him so he got the idea.  I love the finished product and he was thrilled too!

I'm guessing we'll be doing lots of these little projects while he is interested so family members beware: you may be receiving mail.

Biscuits (and other stuff)

This morning I woke up and felt like something other than Joe's Os for breakfast, the problem was that we had no eggs. This did not leave many choices. I decided to go with biscuits, which I had not made in a very long time.
When I was a kid, my mom always made Bisquick biscuits. Then at some point, Bisquick went out of fashion and she got a William Sonoma breakfast cookbook that has the BEST biscuit recipe EVER in it. I will share this with you, with my own personal tweak, and then get to the real point of my post. You should feel very lucky because I just googled this recipe and could not find it on the web.

Beaten Biscuits (adapted from William Sonoma)
2 c flour
1 T baking powder
1 T sugar
1/2 t salt (omit if using salted butter)
1/2 c butter (cool but pliable)
3/4 c milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Mix together all dry ingredients.
Cut in butter.
Add milk last and mix until dough resembles a ball.
Roll and cut into biscuits.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 15 minutes (biscuits should be set but not brown).
The original recipe only calls for one teaspoon of sugar, but I like my biscuits a little sweeter and with a full tablespoon of sugar, these more closely resemble moist, buttery scones.

I decided to shake things up a bit and use animal-shaped cookie cutters instead of the traditional round. If you want to make fun biscuits too, I recommend using cookie cutters with fairly simple shapes so that the biscuit cooks evenly and the shape is discernible after the biscuits come out of the oven. This is a very simple way to make breakfast just a little bit more fun. My son (who rarely wants to eat breakfast) excitedly ate two elephant biscuits and then a bunch of strawberries (a bonus, yay!).
I love cookie cutters! I have great memories of my mom's cookie cutter collection which she kept (for whatever reason) in a sun tea jar. I never remember her buying cookie cutters, so she must have amassed her collection before I was born. I too have begun a cookie cutter collection. I find them so useful and because they only cost about a dollar each, it's not a big deal to grab a few here and there. We are lucky to have a cookie cutter store in our neighborhood (how it stays in business, I am not sure). At the moment I seem to be collecting cookie cutters that match my toddler's whims. I am inspired by this blog called AnotherLunch. This is a remarkable mother of four who makes her children the most amazing bento-type lunches where she cuts various food into shapes, etc. Check it out and you will want to run out and buy your own SassyBox just like I did (love. it.). Of course, my son still won't eat cheese, even if it's shaped like an elephant or a star.
I love to give cookie cutters as gifts also. Doesn't it sound fun to open a box full of all sorts of random cookie cutters? Personally, I would be delighted. My son would also. At the moment, he is into play-doh so we always have cookie cutters out for him to make "cookies" with. This is a great toddler activity, as I learned from an occupational therapist, because not only does it help children develop fine motor skills, play-doh is actually a great way to build hand/wrist strength. It makes sense, but who knew?Another great use of cookie cutters: kitchen and holiday decor. Check THIS out! I love it! I want to make one!
If that's not enough, here's a link to a list of 70 things you can do with cookie cutters:
Sweet Art Factory

Go spend $5 and enjoy!