First of all, I believe in our judicial system and my civic and moral obligation to serve. The other reason I didn’t mind so much was that I knew that I could catch up on my crafting with all that waiting around!

Image from Instructables.com

So after a quick think about what to take, I settled on my knitting looms. They are great for traveling and short bursts of time because:

• of their compact size
• they hold your stitches for you
• they practically eliminate tension issues
• you can drop what you’re doing in a minute & not lose your spot!

I know I’ve also mentioned that everybody I know AND their cousin is expecting or has had a baby, so I also thought that the smallest loom would be great for baby hats (newborn size.) Come to find out, I can crank out a baby hat in about 2 hours. Perfect for sitting through kids Karate practice and baseball games, too!

In progress- using 2 strands

Completed in 2 hours

One moret thing- I got about 4 hats from one skein of yarn. I only made them about 8 inches long, and with this size you can REALLY make a lot of hats! Tres economical, no? Also great for using up those leftover bits and bobs of yarn…because babies just need warm heads!

I decided it would be nice to donate a few to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) while I’m on a roll. Because crafting warm and fuzzy hats for charity makes me all warm and fuzzy inside! ; )

One interesting aside: there were at LEAST 6 folks who saw me knit using this loom and asked for a demo. So many people want to knit but are are put off by needles, or who just can’t use them anymore. I showed the “askers” how to cast on & I’m pretty sure at least one lady was driving to her craft store on the way home from jury duty! It’s a good reminder to CRAFT IN PUBLIC and share what you know with others…. so many people are really hungry to make things with their own hands, they just don’t know how to go about getting started. Maybe YOU are that person to share a bit of knowledge and encouragement!

Look for my post on CraftsUnleashed.com soon on making hats as Christmas gifts for the “Christmas in July” series!

Image from the TCC website

Last month I reviewed some of the Wood Craft Kits from Total Class Creative, so this time I’m going to talk about the cardboard doll furniture kits.

These kits are different from the first set I reviewed. First of all, they are made of pre-cut, printed cardboard (chipboard weight.) Also, you need to glue the pieces together and therefore you cannot disassemble them. However, they are similar in that you get everything you need to put together your furniture, the patterns are on-trend, and   you get a great assortment of stickers, gems, and other goodies to “glam” up your doll’s furniture!

As you may know, I have a couple of great “assistants” in my studio for certain kid-friendly projects;  and for this one, my dear 5 year old daughter helped out!

We opened up the Princess Fashion Doll Furniture Kit and I was blown away by all the goodies in the pack. This kit includes the materials to make a bed, a table, and two chairs, and will fit a 12″ doll (Like a Barbie.)

Lots of fun goodies!

While Little Girl tried to slide the pieces together to build the doll chairs, it was just a bit too challenging for her. So assembled the pieces, and she started decorating the pillows & pieces with the included felt stickers and rhinestones. By the time I got to the part where I asked her help me glue on the seats, she had run off to go get her dollies!

Here’s how our table and chair set turned out:

I proceeded to assemble the bed, which went together easily and only needed a little glue. Little Girl did all the decorations on her own (including cutting out the heart shape, which was not included.)

This kit took only 1/2 an hour or so for us to assemble together, but she played with it for days and days. At one part there was a virtual Barbie Hotel with all the dolls in that bed!!!

Now, as far as I can see, there is only one drawback to this set- it’s prone to…um…. squishing. My Little Girl stepped on the bed when it was on the floor, and of course the cardboard gave way. (Not unexpected though, right?) Considering her age, I’m thinking that she puts a LOT of wear and tear on these items and they won’t last particularly long. However, for slightly older kids- who are more careful with their playthings- it’ll probably last longer!

Overall, I love these kits for the fun & economical price- you get both the fun of making them your own AND then the plus of hours of creative play.  I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one of these kits to give as gifts- wouldn’t they make great birthday presents?

Disclosure

First, a bit about Cloud Clay is not polymer clay, but rather an air-dry variety. It’s also VERY light and has a foamy feel…but we’ll get to all that in a minute. Here’s how Amaco describes Cloud Clay:

Cloud Clay™ is as light as air … AP certified non-toxic and safe to use! This soft, puffy, and pliable modeling material is fun to squeeze, shape or mold. Cloud Clay has more ‘stretch’ than other brands, so fibers won’t break when pulled apart, projects are more durable, even for the smallest details.  Sticks to itself and not to hands. Colors blend well and mix with acrylics! Shrinks very little, so it can be used over armature including balloons!

This product is primarily marketed for children and/or classroom use, so I thought, “OK! Let’s let my kids be responsible for testing it!” I’ve got a 9 year old son and a five year old daughter, and it didn’t take any convincing at all that they should play with this clay and tell me how they liked it.

So I got the kiddos all set up and off they went. Now, I asked my son to tear the clay, because it says it’s stretchy. See for yourself:

Oh! The expresssion of effort!

He even said that it was difficult to tear off into chunks. (We just got scissors, then, and cut off the amounts we needed)

That being said, let me re-iterate that Cloud Clay is an air-dry clay (!!!) and you should only cut off what you need and store the rest in air-tight baggies. Our house must be super-dry, because we found that in the space of an hour, the clay was starting to “set up” on top and there was a bit of a skin on it. (Kind of like when you set bread dough out to proof too long.)

While the kids were working on their creations, I gave Cloud Clay a once-over. Here are my impressions:

• Soft, almost foamy feel.
• There is a mild odor. It’s hard to describe, but it’s not entirely unpleasant.
• The colors are really vibrant and fun! (There are 8 colors.)
• Fairly easy to roll out with a clay roller, and cut very well with mini cookie-cutters.
• Great price point, around $3.50 USD for 4 oz. ( It’s comparable to Model Magic by Crayola, which is usually at least a dollar more for the colored clays.)
• Not great for color-mixing. (More on that next review.)

So, after an hour or so of craftiness, here are the two projects my kids made:

I’m also pleased to announce that clean up was super-simple! Since the clay is so elastic, there are no crumbly bits! If your kids play with either Play-Doh or polymer clay, you’ll know what a lovely mess that can be. But with Cloud Clay, there was no sticky residue on the table or crumbs to contend with. Yay!

Also, when asked, both my kids said that they liked the clay and would play with it again. My little one was also thrilled the next day when the sculptures were dry and she could actually play with them. So far, they are still intact, too- which means that Cloud Clay has great tensile strength, as well as being super light-weight.

So for the first part of our review-for kids- I’m saying it’s a winner. Now I’m excited to try it out for some more “arty” applications. Stay tuned!

Any questions? Comments? Things you want me to try?

Disclosure

With my Cricut, 2 colors of vinyl, and my Indie Arts cart, we hooked that bad boy up and now it’s SAH-WEET!

Cut images from the vinyl at Speed=3 and Pressure=3

Clean the surface w/ Windex before adhering the vinyl stickers.

Now my boy will be "cool" AND safe.

So, you can take this idea many places. You can really “upcycle” hand-me-down bikes, helmets, etc, and the new owner will feel like it’s really been customized for him/her. Great for sprucing up yard-sale finds!

Any suggestions/comments? I’d love to hear from you!

Coffee filter blooms are a great recycling craft!

Yeah, I know this one is kinda an “oldie-but-a-goodie,” but I had such a good time making them today that I thought I’d share it here, too…just to remind you how much fun you can have with the garbage you generate!

My recycled objects were all collected after breakfast:

• 5 or 6 coffee filters (per flower)
• egg carton (yields 12)
• cereal box

Plus you’ll need some not-so-recycled objects, one each per flower:

• bamboo skewers
• chenielle stems
• button for the center

And some general crafty items:

• colored spray mists (I love my Radiant Rains- read my review of those HERE- but you can use Glimmer Mists or plain ol pan water colors)
• Hot Glue
• Floral tape OR yarn and white glue for wrapping the stem
• scissors

To start, you’ll need 5 or 6 used coffee filters. After I brew a pot, I usually just take out the filter, grounds and all, and lay it on a plate to dry out. That way I get interesting color variations on the filter. When they are dry, I just brush the grounds off of the filters with a stiff paintbrush.

I like to use 3 colors per flower- 2 each of a dark, medium, and one or two of a light shade. I used a dark pink, and orange, and a yellow for mine. (If you want the exact colors, just leave me a comment.) I placed the filters in an old box lid and gave them a nice spray of color:

The coffee staining adds nice shading.

While the filters are drying, cut the bottom cups out of the egg carton. I specifically only use a fiberboard egg carton, as the color spray won’t stick to the foam ones. After you cut out the cups, you can color them with a green magic marker or hit them with some fabulous green color mist.

If you want to paint them, use the paper egg cartons!

You can also rough- cut some “leaves” out of the cereal cardboard- just make sure to leave a 1/2 inch cardboard stem on each. I also sprayed the back (unwaxed) side of the cardboard with my green color mist.

When everything is fairly dry, crumple the “petals.” Do this by grasping the center of a filter, then pulling the edges up and crumpling as you go. It just adds some nice pleats that are reminiscent of a carnation:

Next, stack all of your filters in the order you’d like them: the center color on top, darkest color on the bottom. Poke holes in the middle of the filters using a craft blade. Also make a small hole in the bottom of your egg cup.

Now it’s time to assemble your flower:

Loop top 1/2 inch of the end of your chenielle stem through your button, and twist it on tightly. Then thread on your filter petals, in order from top to bottom. Lastly, thread on the egg cup. As you pull the button down, it’ll pull the filters into the cup and force the petals up. Be gentle doing this, and arrange your “petals” as you go:

Now take your bamboo skewer and place the pointy end in the hole in the egg cup. It’s going to make a nice, rigid stem. You might with to add a dollop of hot glue to the bottom of the egg cup to keep the stem/skewer from pulling out, or the head of the flower from flopping over. (I didn’t on my sample, and I wish I had.)

Now take your floral tape and start wrapping from the top of the stem (by the egg cup) and, pulling and winding as you go, wrap the skewer and chenille stem together. After you’ve wrapped about 2 inches, add in your cardboard flowers if you like.

OK, there you go! A little more trash OUT of the landfill, and a little more art in your life. I have to think that this would be a fun craft to make with older kids- either for Mothers (or Grandparent’s) Day, or to decorate for Earth Day.

Have fun and happy crafting!

Disclosure

Well, here we are, Easter is over, and now we have copious amounts of those annoying plastic Easter eggs. (Well, actually we’re down a few because Ginger the cock-a-poo has discovered their charms!) But anyway, even if you don’t have scads on hand, they’re on sale everywhere for cheap, cheap, cheap! So here’s a coupla good reasons to get crafty with ‘em….

Make your own Egg Rattle Snake complete with rattler! If you’ve got a dremel or drill handy, this is made only with eggs and some stretchy cording. This site has full step-by-step instructions. What little tyke wouldn’t enjoy this? (My cute nephew Ben would!)

Image from Instructables.com

Here’s a great idea using your eggs as molds – making your own egg-shaped sidewalk chalk. You simply mix powdered tempera, water, and plaster of paris and then pour in into the eggs. Wait till it sets up, and voila! Egg-shaped chalk. And now that spring is springing, it’ll be time soon to get out there and decorate the driveway.

Image from FamilyFun Crafts

My personal favorite is making Rhythm Egg Shakers. I’ve made these in my career as a music therapist with folks ages 3 years to 90. Really. If found a nice link for explaining how to decoupage with Mod Podge, if you’d like a refresher, but really the process is simple.

Pick a “fill” material for your eggs. I like to put out bowls of rice, sand, lentils, popcorn, cheap plastic beads, paperclips, wood beads, etc. Part of the fun is seeing what things sound like inside the eggs. Have a sonic experiment! What sounds high? What has a “chunky” sound? Which fill is louder/softer? After you figure out what sounds best to you, close up your egg. You can give it a temporary seal with some masking tape.

Then you do your decoupage. Rip up 1-2 inch bits of tissue paper, wrapping paper, printed paper napkins, etc. (I use lots of leftover Christmas tissue.) Smear a thin layer of glue or Mod Podge over the plastic, and start laying down pieces of your tissue. Cover the whole egg, using a brush or your fingers to smooth the layers down. Make sure the tissue overlaps, and I recommend 2 layers to make sure the egg won’t break open if dropped. I like to put the eggs in a plastic egg carton to dry. About 2 hours later, flip the eggs over to make sure they dry on all sides.

Lastly, I like to do some surface decoration. I’ve used glitter paints, sequins, beads, micro beads (the ones with no holes) and glow-in-the dark fabric paints. I especially like glitter/fabric paints in the squeeze bottles. They make it easy to decorate! Make swirls, flowers, or other designs of your choice. Roll them in beads. Tap in sequins or rhinestones. Go crazy! I have a basket of egg shakers on the piano, and my kids love them for the different sounds, textures, and colors. (I kept the bead-y ones away from the toddlers- they like to bite them!)

Home made egg shakers are fun and decorative!

You can decorate your eggs for different holidays, or make a rainbow of them and use them in different music games. Too much fun!

The good news is that if you are an early adopter, this clever app is free for the downloading. It’s also easy to use and lovely to look at, if a little thin as far as content goes. But at the price you can’t beat it!

So here’s how it works: after it loads up, you’ll see a landing page that is similar to a magazine cover:

See that little turned page at the upper right? That cue you to swipe your finger from the upper right corner across the screen to “turn the page.” If you wanted, you could browse the whole app in just that fashion- just “turning pages” like in a magazine to see what there is. This is the first craft I ran across:

What’s nice is that there are easy-to-browse categories at the top right of each page- it’ll tell you about age-appropriateness and the length of time it’ll take t0 complete the craft. The materials list is usually below the photo box, and then it commences with the directions. If the extend beyond the bottom of the page (also known as the “fold”) , you can just scroll down to see the whole thing.

The grey box you see in the above folder is an animated add that redirects you to visit FamilyFun.com (which also effectively navigates you away from the app.)

So, if you don’t want to page through every thing- and there are a LOT of pages, you can use the search function instead. The little magnifying glass icon in the top left gives you a drop-down menu that enables you to search through the library of crafts by age, season, & duration, and looks like this:

Screen shot of the "search" drop-down menu

You change the search criterion by swiping your finger back and forth, and it rotates to the next category in the box. When you tap “Show matching crafts” that box is replace by a list of matching crafts with a thumbnail photo. Tapping on those will then take you to the appropriate craft.

My problem with this style of search/navagation is two-fold: first, there is no search “box”, which enables you to find specific crafts that include, say, pipecleaners. Secondly, after you select a craft to view, you are kind of stuck on that page- there is no “back” button to click to take you back to your search results. You CAN continue on by “turning pages”, but what is next may not necessarily match your search criterion. In other words, it’s a dead-end. To find other crafts with your criterion you have to go back to the drop-down menu and then search again.

So I searched through a number of crafts by age, season, etc, and for the most part found fairly easy, “do-able” crafts using common house-hold items. There is some confusion with the “PreSchool” category- some of them are crafts that you can actually DO with a preschooler, but others are ones you would make FOR a preschooler. (Such as the silly sunglasses.)

Also, there are a number of crafts in this app that are not…um… how do I say it??? CRAFTS. They are activities that may be age- appropriate, but having your toddler dancing with fabric is not a craft in my book. See for yourself:

This is NOT a craft.

This discussion is kind of like the one my son has in his third-grade math class: square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not necessarily a square. Ergo, making crafts is an activity, but not all activities are crafts. You know? And this is a craft app, so yes, I am splitting that hair.

(Gets down off of soap box.)

So, all in all, I’m glad I downloaded it and am giving it space on my drive- I’m sure we’ll try out a few of these crafts during some rainy days, and because it’s on the iPad, I can take it to grandma’s house, up in the studio, down in the kitchen, where ever. Thank you Disney, for breaking the ice and giving us crafters something to do with our iPads!

Disclosure

Wood craft kits from Total Class Creative- no tools required!

Total Class Creative is a totally new company for me- I have to admit that I’d never run across their products in a store before. However, one look at their product line and I was intrigued. The wood toys, storage items, and decorative products are really appealing and high-end, and I was so pleased when they asked me to try them out.

While they have a large product line, for this review I’m only reviewing their painted-wood items. Specifically, I tried out the doll furniture, fire engine kit, and Bunny table decoration & glitter eggs.

Fire Engine from Total Class Creative

When I opened the boxes, my 9-year-old son literally pounced on the fire engine kit. It’s part of TCC’s “Transportation Series” and he begged me to let him make it as a gift for his little cousin. How do I say “no” to that? The instructions say it’s for ages 8 and up, so I let him go. He pulled out all of the pieces and got to reading- and in less than 10 minutes he had assembled the entire thing and personalized it with stickers.

(Letter stickers not included)

The directions were easy for him to follow and maybe most importantly, require NO tools- it assembles with just slots and notches holding it together. The quality of the wood is great- no rough edges, and the pieces come pre-painted. While it’s easy assembly, you can be somewhat creative with placement of the stickers and extra embellishing you may choose to do. (My son added his cousin’s name on the side using some felt stickers we had on hand.) I also found it to be pretty sturdy- my 3 year old nephew will be able to put his toy cars in it for storage. (I wouldn’t advise actually trying to play with it like a fire engine- it’s more of a room decoration or storage unit.)

That being said, my good friend Stacy suggested that this would be an adorable baby shower gift- just assemble it, fill it with baby items, and wrap the whole thing in basket wrap. How cute is that?? Or you could use it as a centerpiece for a birthday party…let your imagination go wild.

The next item we tried was the wood 18″ doll furniture, specifically the table, chair, and bed kids. Like the previous kit, everything was pre-painted and required no tools- just slide the parts together. While my 5-year-old could not put together the chair kid, she actually figured out the table all on her own. I love the fact that the pieces are smooth and there are no rough edges- and the color schemes are so cute!

Easy to assemble & pre-painted

After an afternoon of vigorous play, I surmised that these kits are pretty sturdy- impressive! Also, I think it’s a real plus that you can disassemble the furniture to store it away flat. I would think that these would be great kits to have on hand for visiting grandkids or nieces; they put them together, play with their dollies, and then poof! They get taken apart and stored away for the next visit.

Easy to take apart, too, and stores flat.

Lastly, I put together the Easter Bunny table centerpiece- really it’s just sliding 2 parts together to make the figure stand up. Despite it’s simplicity, it really is classically elegant. I decided to dress up my bunny just a bit with some organza ribbon and silk flowers. (I adhered it all with Glue-Dots so I could easily take off the decorations.)

I also put together the pre-painted easter eggs, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the pieces came with adhesive already on them- all I had to do was peel off the paper sheet and sprinkle on the color-coordinating glitter. Easy-peasy, and so cute. Won’t this be sweet on my spring table?

Instant centerpiece!

To sum it up, these are great kits. The price points are affordable (for example, the fire truck is $11.99, and the bunny centerpiece is $12.99) , and because they are sturdy wood, you can decoupage and embellish to your hearts’ content without having to worry. (I may take one of those bunnies and do some serious mixed-media collage on it!)

What do you think? I’d love to hear YOUR ideas!

FTC Disclosure

Acrylic Paint in a marker form

I hate to admit that I’ve never before used paint markers- must be something to do with the fact that I was never in a sorority! However, my world has opened up to paint markers, and I’m glad!

Elmer’s Painters, in particular, are opaque colors in a convenient marker form. To get them started, you need to shake the pen, then depress the felt marker tip until it recedes back into the tube. The paint will begin to flow through the tip, and then you’re ready to go!

For my review, I decided to try it on plastic, glass, metal and wood/paper, although the packaging says you can use it on clay, fabric, foam core, and terra cotta, as well.

I decided to start off trying it on plastic- my good friend told me that back in the day, she and her sorority sisters used paint markers to write their Greek letters on everything, including plastic tumblers. I couldn’t imagine that acrylic paint could stick to such a smooth surface, but I was wrong! I added some silly decoration to a retainer case, and it adhered well. Once it was dry, I could scratch it with a fingernail, so it might need a sealer coat to make it permanent.

For the next project, I decided to try it on glass and glazed ceramic. I love the idea of being able to decorate mugs or votives for the holidays and seasons. Again, I was surprised how well the paint glided on the surface and it’s nice opacity. Here’s how it the Elmer’s Painters performed on glass:

Elmers' Painters perfomed well on glass and ceramic!

One note about the mug, though: I did run it through the dishwasher about a week later, and all of the paint came right off. The upside of this is that you could have guests decorate wine glasses or mugs for a party, and then wash them clean for the next one!

I also thought to try them out on some metal bits (this one is from an old vegetable steamer I’m going to use in some altered art- again, it covered well. There were a few places where it got a little streaky, and I found that it was better to wait until the piece was completely dry before adding a second coat. If the paint is damp, it will lift off when then marker tip runs over it again.

Elmer's Painters are wonderfully opaque!

I also gave the markers to my littlest one (she’s 5) and let her decorate some craft sticks with the markers. Sadly, I didn’t get pictures of her creations, but she used them just the way she uses kid-type markers. I think the colors dulled a little on the raw wood, but I have a feeling if you primed the wood (or paper mache) first, the colors would really pop! I can also see my elementary-school-age son using these for school projects.

So, I really enjoyed the markers and feel like they’d be a great addition to your crafting tool box. I played with the primary and neon colors, but I’d love to see how the Pearlescent and Metal Leafing colors perform!

Some fast facts from the manufacturer:

• Opaque acrylic paint markers.
• Ideal for use on wood, plastic, clay, glass, metal, foam board, fabric, and terra cotta.
• Permanent & streak free.
• Non-toxic and acid free.
• Available in Ultra Fine, Fine, and Medium point.
• Available in sets and open stock.
• Sets retail for $10-11.50 (ish)

Do you have some of these? Love them? Let me know!

FTC Disclosure

• Snow Tie-Dyeing. Visit Bunk’s Blog for the step-by-step, but the idea is to place your fabric in a bin, heap snow on top of it, then squirt the fabric dye onto the snow. As is melts, the fabric absorbs the dye in a cool pattern.
• Snow Ice Cream. Got fresh snow? Scoop some up, mix with milk and sugar to make a fun treat. The recipe is via AllRecipes.com.
• Edible Snow Paint. Use Kool-aid and some clean mister bottles to make fun designs on all that boring,white snow. Thank you to Homemade Mamas for the inspiration & recipe.
• Snow Candy. Yes, just like in the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, you CAN make candy with just molasses, brown sugar, and snow. (And a candy thermometer wouldn’t hurt.)

And if you can motivate them somewhat, maybe you can inspire them to make cool ice sculptures. Here’s a quick video of a cool (pardon the pun) ice sculpting contest that was held in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Happy and Crafty “Snow Day” to all!