Monthly Challenge for April: GREEN

This month's theme - GREEN - is a chance to apply green to our creative juices. I'd love to see your interpretations. Projects could incorporate the color green, reflect a "green" mentality towards the planet, perhaps figure out new ways to save some green (money), share tips on keeping yards/gardens green, etc. I'm excited to see what evolves. At the end of this month's challenge, the author of whichever post most tickles my fancy will receive this assortment of 10 miscellaneous hand made cards: A small token, I know. : ) But incentive nonetheless.

Good luck all!

That's Not Trash - Scoop

A quick last minute project and post. Literally, because I got about an hour before my husband unplugs the computer and packs it up. And I will not see it until the weekend.
The following pictures are horrible, I took them last night while I was cleaning.

 Here is what I started with. An empty buttermilk container. I cut, glued the lid on, measured and ...

 now I have a handy scoop for my flour bin. The picture does not show, but it is a large 5 gallon bin. We have several with flour, rice, even popcorn in it. It is much easier to reach in with the scoop than with little measuring cups. Also, I need to give credit to my husband. He thought of it while I was brainstorming out loud what I could do for this month's challenge.

Wish me luck! I am off to finish moving.

By the way,  I am excited about next month's challenge. Lori is hosting it, so watch out for her post come April 1st! (It will not be an April's Fool Joke.)

Origami/Kirigami Lily - Trash

For a long time I've been wanting to combine origami (paper folding) with kirigami (paper cutting) and I finally sat down to try it out today. I still have a long way to go, but I'm not displeased with today's efforts.

First I took a page from an old Bonsai Arts magazine, folded the lily and marked where I wanted to cut away some designs. Then I unfolded my flower and saw that I needed to cut in the corners.

Before folding the next lily (on thinner paper from a catalog), I cut out different patterns on the corners (or edges of corners) to see which cuttings resulted in what look. I only really like the one where both the top and bottom layers are cut away, although some of the others would probably also look good if I had had a contrasting inner/back side of my paper. (Next level, I guess!)

Then I took the cover of the catalog (I decided I needed something more stable since folding cut paper is not trivial I found out plus I liked the colors) to make my final product for today:
I folded and cut the corners all with the same completely-cut-away pattern, opened it up flat then folded it into the lily.

Simple Solution for Glasses

With a household of 8, we tend to go through glasses very quickly, so we have a lot of them. I like to stack the glasses in each other to save space, but they tend to get chipped that way. The other day I finally came up with a simple and happy solution: make little separators out of craft foam (of which I had plenty sitting around). For the simple round glasses I made an X of two strips of foam since they still tapped each other with just a single strip. A few spare separators are standing in another glass in the back.

Wall, bench and Knobs

Beadboard Wall:

This is a project that I was excited about. I'm trying to recall if I did any of the work on the beadboard wall. Oh yeah, I did the painting:) My husband was the muscle behind this project. I found the idea and tutorial at this site. We bought birch plywood and sheets of 8x4 beadboard. We cut the beadboard down to 4x4. Originally I would have liked it to be a bit taller, but then we would have had to buy three sheets. I'll live. Above the beadboard "we" attached 8" tall plywood, then a 4" shelf and added a molding to create a lip to the shelf. Good work Hubby, I love it. Now I need to decorate...I have some ideas.

These are my two little girl's baby blessing dresses. They were hanging in the closet gathering dust, so why not gather dust where I can enjoy them. I found these knobs at Hobby Lobby. Each is the first initial of my daughter's names. I have them hanging on either side of the window.

  

Clearly we will be switching out the old cream light switches and sockets for white ones. I painted the beadboard with a color we matched to the shutters in the room. I wanted to paint the walls a very light touch of pink. Ah-hmm. The photos are not coming out true to the color, but you can see that it is not a light touch of pink. I am not decorating in pink, I just wanted the walls pink. I haven't given up on the color yet, but if anyone has a pink color they LOVE, please share.

Bench:

Hubby and I worked together in the garage and created this baby. We used the left overs from the wall project. I measured the space and drew up the plans. Cut plywood is not a pretty thing. So with the use of our friends: caulk, fillstick, wood glue, nailgun, clamps, sand paper and of course paint, we made a very pretty thing.

I am also showing off the cute owl my sister-in-law got my baby for her birthday:)

This is the same room I made this framed art for.

Japanese Flag Clay Pendant

I have been wanting to put this post up for a while, but my camera disappeared for a few days before I had a chance to download the pictures. Finally, I found it today in the panrty. In the bucket of rice. I wonder was it my 5 year old or almost 2 year old? Most likely the almost 2 year old miniture tornado.

 Like everyone else, our family has been following the events in Japan. My boys felt very sad and upset at what happened. Even scared a bit. As I was reading the news online, I would share with them what I read and show videos. I could see how the suffering and the hardship the people of Japan are facing right now touched them deeply. We home school, and we have learned about Japan before, but I knew it was time to take out books again from the library. All about Japan and natural disasters. We watched a National Geographic movie on tsunamis along with reading books. Learning about the devastation these powerful waves cause, made me think about what we can do. To show our support we made Japanese flag clay pendants that my boys wear now all day long. The boys had the wonderful idea to make a bunch of these and sell them, than donate all the proceeds. But we are in the middle of a move and I am not Super Woman.

Used the same method as with this leaf pendant and just put them on a leather cord.

We made a few others that were inspired by Japanese art. Still, they wanted to do something more to show their support, other than wearing the pendants. They decided to donate part of the money they earn (my oldest has a summer job and the younger kids are getting paid to do extra chores). Aftre we move, we may go ahead and make those pendants to sell, if we do, we will let you know!

 So, where are we going to donate all those quarters and dollar bills?
We are LDS. Mormons. Therefore we are donating through our church. One thing that sets aside the LDS Humanitarian Fund from others is that 100% of your donation goes to providing needed items . The church absorbs its own overhead costs. If you would like to donate, please click on this link.

There are of course many other wonderful organizations who provide relief in need. Here is a list of organizations compiled by another site. No matter how small your donation is or which organization you choose, every little bit helps!

Ugly Stick- Trash Challenge

I found a 3ft stick next to the trail I was walking on this morning. Someone had thrown it over their fence as garbage.

Have you ever heard the saying,

"Looks like somebody hit you with an UGLY stick!"

This is an ugly stick.

Jewelry Clay Pendant

After I made the Clay Rose Bracelet, I knew I found another craft I want pursue. Although,  I had to wait  making colorful clay canes, meant to be sliced and turned into gorgeous beads, flowers or buttons. Right now my attention is needed for more pressing matters, like moving or fixing my knee. Knowing that under normal circumstances I would spend every spare moment learning about my new obsession, I had to satisfy my craving with one more quick project before I packed up the few supplies I got.

I have always liked simple designs, shapes and just a few colors when it comes to pendants. Something like this.

 All I used was Pardo jewelry clay, a knife, 1 small leaf cookie cutter, a rolling pin from the kids' Play-Doh bucket, a 9 mm jump ring and a drop of Gorilla glue.

 1. After warming up the clay and rolling it in my palm for a few minutes to soften it up, I rolled it out about 1/8 inch thick, and cut 2 rectangles. Using the smallest cookie cutter I had on hand, I cut a leaf out of one of the rectangles.
2. Condition green clay, roll it out to 1/8 inch thick, cut 1 leaf shape out and insert it in the silver clay rectangle. Pretty simple. Next I just put the other silver rectangle behind. This is really not required, you could just make 1 rectangle (just make it thicker), I wanted the pendant to have design on one side and be plain on the other.
3. Added a few details with a toothpick to the leaf and baked it according to the directions on the package.
4. Glue jump ring to the back.
That's it. Now you can use it any way you want. I made a matching necklace out of labradorite and green garnet stones.

Baby Gifts 2

In the last remaining hours of the "pack-up-the-sewing-stuff-because -we're -moving-in-less-than-2-weeks" deadline, I managed to finish the diaper bag for my sister-in-law. I had the diaper changing pad ready for a while, just needed to finish up the bag. I am mailing them in the morning. That's one less thing to worry about. All of my craft supplies are packed up. Well, almost. I did find a couple of circular needles and some hand painted sock yarn hiding behind my craft cabinet. They must have fallen there a while ago. I think I can get away with knitting a pair of socks during all this chaos. It is my only way to de-stress right now. I digress.

The diaper bag.

I followed the Hip Mama Diaper Bag Tutorial. Mostly. I skipped the zippered back pocket and on the side I pleated the top a bit, since it felt too big and wide. I am thinking about making a version for myself. After we move of course.

I loved making this changing pad. It was a lot of fun. Jill's amazing tutorial is perfect. I used regular vinyl, not iron on and I just put white felt in the middle for padding. That's what I had on hand and it worked great. I also made my own bias tape to match the set. The striped material is what I used for lining the diaper bag, by the way.

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Rainbow cupcakes

This is simply a show-off post. I saw these here at http://www.livinglocurto.com/, and thought they were an adorable spring treat. My daughter needed birthday goodies for preschool, and these were easy enough for her to help me. And did I mention super cute? Alas, my sad amateur photography skills don't do these credit. We used Wilton gel to color the frosting, stuck gummi worms on in the shape of rainbows, and then piped white clouds on to hold the rainbows into place. She was so proud to share them with her friends!

TRASH challenge: Juice Top Bling

During Spring Break this year I found a way to incorporate Janice's trash challenge. Instead of tossing the plastic tops to our orange juice cartons, we cleaned them up, made designs on the plastic seals with glue, and then finished decorating with different glitter colors. The pull-tab part goes around the finger, and the plastic seal becomes the decoration. My son was kind enough to model some of our favorite designs:

We decorated a few with magic markers, but all agreed that the glitter made it feel lots more like "real" jewelry.

NOTE: After a day or so, we found that the dried glue -complete with the glitter decoration- slid off of the smooth plastic surface. I simply glued the intact design back on with super glue. Gotta love that stuff...

The Death Star Birthday Cake

I love making fun birthday cakes for my kids and usually I show them a list of options that I feel I am capable of successfully constructing. But, this year my second son made a request for a Death Star cake! I contemplated purchasing a sphere cake pan, but really that sounded like a disaster. In brainstorming I came up with the idea of covering a Styrofoam ball with fondant and wondered if that was doable. In Internet research, I learned that it was very doable. They make fake wedding cakes all of the time to cut the cost.

It is important to wet the Styrofoam with either royal icing or water. I chose to spritz the ball with water. The fondant adhered to the ball very well. It was scary doing the bottom half, as you do not want your fondant to get wet. It will take on a shiny look. I used plastic wrap as a shield. I tried to be even in making the "equator", but I don't know if it really mattered...

One think I noticed was that I had to deal with a lot of air bubbles. I poked them with a pin and rubbed the fondant smooth. I was concerned that the moisture would seep out of the pin hole and wet the surface, but I didn't have that problem.

I tried to have organization on when applying the darker grey fondant. It did help for the top and bottom, but as I made my way to the equator of the death star, the pieces needed to have straight edges not curved. That's when I just winged it.

Lovely...

When covering the cake with fondant, I first covered the cake with buttercream frosting (all the cake experts seem to use buttercream, I do not know why) to seal in the crumbs and chilled it. I loved that step. When I frosted it with chocolate frosting, it went on SO smooth. I have always known about this cake tip, but haven't had the time to do it. Covering the cake in the fondant was tricky. It was a large surface. When I was rolling it out, I kept rubbing my surface and the fondant with powdered surgar. In the end I couldn't rub the excess sugar off, so there is white patches. Oh well, it didn't stick. It helps to think of it as the milky way:)

I accesorized with Wilton Sugar Pearls (stars) and Wilton Sparkle gel and Black Decoration Gel. If it is hard to tell, I put light sabers around  the perimeter of the cake NOT paint brushes (heehee). All depends on how you look at it:)

I have to say I was very happy with the finished cake.

I do not think I will be taking requests in the future.

I used this blog: I crave cake as inspiration. After I already committed to this endeavor, I browsed her blog and was blow away by her amazing talent. I though, "what did I get myself into?" I made this cake the night before the birthday. I wanted my son's birthday to be about him, not about the cake. I learned that when storing fondant, it is best to leave it out on the counter. If you put it in the fridge, freezer, or airtight container, the fondant may become glossy and slippery, due to the condensation build up. I was really nervous that I was going to wake up in the morning to find a melted cake sitting on my counter. It was fine and the cake was still moist because the fondant locks it all in :)

Shorts For A Little Boy

I am sneaking in some sewing between packing, dealing with my knee and keeping my 5 year old from breaking more bones. I was told by my husband (who obviously has no clue how to multitask) that I need to pack up my sewing stuff. By the end of the week! To me that meant, I have until the end of the week to finish all projects that have been cut out.

One project I was able to finish is shorts for my almost 2 year old.  In fun cotton prints! I got some white onsies and added matching applique.

They are a bit long, all of them fall bellow the knee, but I like that look and he is too young to disagree. He just likes the 'bobots'!

Cool Sling For a Broken Arm

Do you tell your kids not to jump or climb on the couch, because they will fall and break a bone? As of last week, that's not just a threat in my house. It is exactly what happened to my 5 year old. He broke both bones in his right forearm. He got a nice blue cast on, but no matter how cool his cast looks, it is heavy! We got a sling from the hospital, but he is a pretty messy kid and after a couple of days the sling looks....well, pretty bad. So, I decided to make an extra. He even got to pick out the fabric.

He loves showing off his cast and his sling. Now I just need to finish the Spiderman shorts I promised him.

Stick-Figure Irish Dance Dolls

Actually, these are my 3-D version of my jumping Irish Dancer stick figure. A couple years back, I started decorating t-shirts and little bags with this stick figure and decided to expand that for a little consolation prize for our dance school's upcoming raffle this Saturday.



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