Fastest, cheapest dog or toddler toy ever!

It took me longer to make the tutorial for this than it took to make the actual toy! So gather some supplies & entertain someone smaller than you!
I originally made this tutorial not too long after Easter, but I was having problems with photos & Blogger, so I put it off. So maybe you don't have any easter basket celophane sitting around. You can buy this stuff, too, if need be. Other things that work: the rinsed out and dried bags from cereal boxes and chips. Go see what you can find.

(I apparently am still having difficulties with Blogger and photos. But since I'm not winning any blogging awards anyway, I guess done is better than perfect, and I present to you my humble work.

Story Telling Blocks

aka. one long time wished for project completed - in 15 minutes!

I've wanted some of these story telling blocks for a long time now. There are some beautiful ones out there. But as you know by now, I'm cheap. Plus, I wanted to "do it myself." (gee, where do my kids get it from?) One evening a couple weeks ago, I was purusing OnePrettyThing while the kiddos were eating dinner & found Teach Besides Me's tutorial for making these things. What was best was that she listed all the phrases she used, so I didn't have to use any brain power trying to think of clever words. One of the things that has stopped me from making these in the past has been buying the blocks. I either forget when I'm at the craft store, or they are way more expensive than I thought they would be, so I planned to come back with a coupon. Looking at Karyn's blocks, they seemed to be smallish...just the size of the cubes inside the blocks that my kids happened to have spread all over the floor that very minute! So I grabbed nine and a sharpie. While my girlies were munching, I scribbled away. They were so interested, they couldn't wait for me to be done and take a picture. Since the blocks' creation, they've been played with by my children and several others we've had over. I'd say they're a hit AND something crossed off my "someday" list! Crafting win!

(P/S - I realize the photo is upside down. I have been having such difficulty with this shifting of photographs with Blogger lately. (Fine on my computer, upside-down or sideways on the blog...) It has been hampering my bloging actually. SO in the interest of having an imperfect post up vs. not ever getting any post up, no matter how perfect, I'm leaving this upside-down-yet-understandable photo up. Thank you for your understanding!)

Another UFO finished!

One night, at least two years ago, I awoke from a dream in the middle of the night and started working on this quilt. I had the quilt top cut out before anyone else was up, and it was assembled instead of breakfast that day. I even had the back ready: a donated flannel sheet, low-water immersion dyed in a beautiful turquoise. Somewhere in those two years, I even bought the batting. I have had, in my home, all the pieces to finish this for my lovely daughter all this time. I think I have a fear of finishing things, because it sat in this condition for a long, long time. So during KCWC, instead of sewing clothing, (I did some) I worked on this quilt. It was important enough to me to cheat. :) So during KCWC, I did finish (see pics of progress here and here - I quilted the top to the bottom, all machine quilting. I did not obey any quilting rules, so if you are a quilter, please avert your eyes. BUT, due to my short comings, I couldn't manage to finish the binding (even though I made the binding out of leftovers from the backing and it was sitting waiting), and I was coming up on the deadline for another project, so I had to put the quilt down again. But yesterday - yesterday was THE day. I machine sewing the binding on, also, so again, real quilters, avert your eyes. The binding is not as perfect as I'd hoped, but done is better than perfect, especially when you are considering the extended production life of this project. Thanks for listening to me blather about my sewing woes; here is the Dream Quilt:

I don't know why blogger rotated that last picture. I didn't edit it that way. Sorry for the acrobatics required to read the text. The stippling is my favorite and least favorite part of the quilt. I love the look of stippling, but I am inexperienced in using my embroidery machine for quilting. I should have done a lot more measuring. But I have some experience now and know what to do differently next time. I'm sure it will be used and loved regardless.

I am sharing my quilt and glorying in all its imperfections in the hope that you might be inspired to try something you've previously considered too hard and press on with the the mantra, "done is better than perfect." and then love it!

P/S - linking to Fireflies and Jellybeans, b/c I just ran across the opportunity. :) http://seanandsabrinastwinsandwich.blogspot.com/2011/05/kcwc-friday-saturday-and-sunday.html

pretty trash bucket

I transformed a costco laundry detergent bucket into a pretty trash can for the twins' room. It was easy peasy!

Supplies: ugly bucket, mod podge or white glue, scrapbook paper (or wrapping paper, children's artwork, see what you can find), a scrap of sandpaper, foam brush.



Measure the top and bottom circumfrence of your bucket. My bucket was slightly tapered, being larger at the top than the bottom. It ended up not being a big deal because of the papers I had available to me. However, if you are planning vertical stripes or a pattern, you will need elongated rhumbus shaped pieces, not just straight strips, if you have a tapered bucket.

Roughen up the surface of the bucket with the sandpaper. This will give more ridges for the glue to adhese to.



Cut your papers, or tear for a decoupauged look. I found a few pages that my kids had made and then abandoned, so I used those. After all, this was for their room. :)

Protect your work surface, and then paint the bucket with a layer of mod poge or some slightly thinned white glue. Lay your papers, smoothing from one end to the other, to push any bubbles and wrinkles out. If you don't like what you've made, you can pull off the papers gently while the glue / podge is still wet and reposition.


When you've covered your bucket, go back over the scrapbook papers with a good coating of mod podge / glue. If you have a lot of cut / overlapping edges, this is a good time to press the edges down and add mod podge.



Let cure. After drying, trim the papers that are hanging off the edge of the bucket. If any edges have lifted, or if you'd like a shinier surface, add another layer of mod podge / glue and let dry again.

Then enjoy your beautification!



You can see ours has a lot of depth, because I was using already "made" artwork. That accounts for a lot of the wrinkles I ended up with - the paper was already stiff with glue. I was worried that the dimension would lift or be foder for little fingers to pull, but it's held up so far through the 6-7 months we've been using it like this. (Just one tiny tear.) It's a waste basket in a bedroom - it's not like it's getting wet or kicked around. Have fun with it!

Stock.

What's that saying? "One man gathers what another man spills." I love taking something that is usually considered unusable & finding a use for it. Take, for instance, stock. Chicken bones, chicken necks & gizzards I've been storing in the freezer, the rubbery carrots off the bottom of the bin, a sprouting onion with some of the skin still on, and a green apple all found their way into my crockpot last night. I covered them with water, turned the crock on low and went to bed. This morning, yummy broth. If I didn't have a sicky kid (& volunteer duties at the school & karate & ...) this would have been dinner with some home made noodles. But I did have all those things, so this will probably be tomorrow's dinner. Or I'll freeze it & cook rice with it. My point is: I made something usuable out of things other people might have thrown away. And I love that.