1 Craft 3 Ways: Little Monsters

I was a little nervous doing something with monsters for October. Not that I'm scared of them. ;) I couldn't think of anything to make that had to do with monsters. Until this morning. My kids and I were hurrying home from running errands so we could play with a little friend of ours. A playdate....hmmmm....(Can you hear the wheels starting to turn?) The light bulb went on-a way to get my craft done and entertain the kids. They would do my monsters for me! Brilliant!

First I had my son and his buddy each draw me a fairly large and simple monster. This is what I got:

Next, I opened my overflowing box of felt scraps and started cutting, sewing, and adjusting as needed.

Let me introduce you to Fire Dragon and Hem:

And Fire Dragon with Hah (Hem's other side):

The boys loved them. Using the kids art work to create crafts was such a fun way to capture their little imaginations for a long time! Ang

I was so excited to do Monsters. I just recently bought monster bedding from Target for my little boy's room. But I hadn't gotten to the decorating part yet. So, I thought I'd do a little paper piecing.... It's not like I haven't done it before! -Anisa

I've got a couple of monster projects going on at the moment, but this is what was done in time for our post today.

Do you remember those ATC cards I mentioned a bit ago, checking for interest? Well I found an excellent site that regularly does card swaps and I joined a few of them. This is my first card for the theme of Monsters. It's a baby monster's first portait. How nice it is to kill two birds with one stone! I might toss another one of my monster-themed crafts onto the blog later this month, but in the mean time, come up with your own! October is an awesome month to immerse yourself in creepy-crawliness. --C

Thanksgiving Wood Craft Workshops

I can't believe October is half way over... where has this month gone?

Craft Projects this month.....

Square Wreath: $25. I am so excited about this wreath. I hunted all over trying to find these square wreaths... they are very hard to find. This wreath will make a perfect Christmas gift... get your gifts taken care of early!!! We will cut your vinyl out when you come to the class. You can personalize it with your last name or have it just say welcome. It would look great on the door or on a wreath hanger or hanging in your home. I think I'm making a few for Christmas gifts!!! I will have Black, White, Brown and Cream Vinyl. I have quite a few different paint colors, but if you have something specific you want, bring it. I will also have a few colors of ribbon. Turkey Trio: $8 (sorry I had to up the price a little, but these little guys have the bead board. If you still need the stands they are $3) Thanksgiving Yard Stake: $18 This trio is such a great decoration for Thanksgiving. For those of you who don't do the yard stakes, this will be perfect sitting on a shelf. I will make the sign a little smaller and make a base to put the trio on. It's about 12" tall by 18" wide. Dates: Tuesday, Oct. 20th 6-9 pm Wednesday, Oct. 21st 1-3 pm (I have added a day time class. Please don't bring children unless arranged with me. It will be hard enough with my own kids there, but if we don't have too many kids, I can do it.) Thursday, Oct. 22nd 6-9 pm Wed. Oct. 28th 6-9 pm Just as a reminder, this is how craft class works. I supply all of the wood, paint, brushes, etc. You come and paint your own craft and go home with a finished product. All you need to bring is your money and an apron if you would like:) Please let me know what you would like to make by this FRIDAY... Oct. 16th if at all possible.

Cupcake Hotpad

I had so much fun with my "name the dress form" contest last month!!! It was fun watching Brown Sugar and Poly Ester so close the whole contest. I felt bad when Brown Sugar only lost by 5 votes. So, I came up with this cute little hot pad for a consolation prize.

It turned out really cute and how fun to have a cupcake hotpad! I sent it in the mail a couple of days ago, so I hope you get it soon!

Super Quick Placemat Pillow

We've had fun with place mats in the past, (see here) and now we're going to have a little season fun with them. Behold the place mat pillow!

Instructions?

1. Find an adorable holiday themed fabric place mat.
2. Cut a piece of coordinating fabric to the same size as the place mat.
3. Place right sides together and sew around 3/4 of the edges with a 1/4" seam allowance.
4. Turn right side out and stuff to desired firmness
5. Discretely sew open end shut
6. Enjoy your fun new throw pillow that required no embroidery, applique or Ric-Rac.

Want another quick Halloween/Fall pillow idea? Check out this one at la*T*da!

The Holidays

I love the holidays. I love the changing leaves and the crisp air, making fun costumes and treats,

finding ways to show gratitude for my blessing, being with family, carols, brightly lit trees, etc. WAIT!!!!! Whoa, whoa, whoa....Hold on a second. What's the date? It's already October?! The holidays are here, like it or not.

I am not a planner when it comes to planning daily routines, jobs or meals. But when it comes to the big things, I like to think I do pretty well at planning and staying on top of things. I thought I'd share my holiday planner with you. Feel free to tweak as necessary to fit your family and needs, but please don't sell this. (Unless you send me some of the profits. wink, wink.)

My organization journey started about 6 years ago. I joined FlyLady and in the midst of all my emails from her was one that boasted a free downloadable (is that a word?) holiday planner promising a season of ease and comfort and free from the craziness and stress that unfailingly seems to creep in every season. I grabbed it from her site and have used it every Christmas since. (If Christmas isn't your thing, it would be pretty easy to alter to fit your December celebration needs.) Last year, I added a Halloween planner and making it's organizational debut is my Thanksgiving planner. I could not survive the 3 month holiday season without it. It is quite literally a portable brain.

(Side note-my favorite part of the planner is not only do they have a section for gifts to buy- but also one for gifts to make!)

For my planner, I use a regular 1/2" binder. I slipped a cover page in the front and each holiday has it's own divider (kept in a page protector). As you can see, I kept them simple but festive. Following the dividers are my planning pages for each holiday. There are places for shopping lists, traditions, decorations, food, etc. Be hind each set of planner pages I like to keep some notepaper for random notes that don't fit elsewhere. In the Christmas section, I do keep the Christmas card page in a page protector. It gives me an easy place to store stamps, address labels etc. until I am ready to put my cards together.

I hope this makes your holiday season go much smoother. It definitely has helped me.

Halloween:

http://www.4shared.com/file/136874795/5b3716e3/Halloween.html http://www.4shared.com/file/136874799/52815ac8/_2__Halloween.html Thanksgiving:

http://www.4shared.com/file/136874807/6fa78bbb/_2__Thanksgiving.html

http://www.4shared.com/file/136874798/25866a5e/Thanksgiving.html

Christmas:

http://www.4shared.com/file/136874805/81a9ea97/Christmas.html

http://www.flylady.net/images/HCJ2003.pdf More flying through the holidays help.

Happy planning!

Ang

holiday images courtesy Country Living and Better Homes and Gardens

1 Craft-3 Ways: The Essie Doll

One day, I was just thinking about my little girl and how nice it would be to make something sweet and simple just for her. I folded a piece of printer paper in half length-wise and drew one half of a doll shape. I cut, I tweaked, I reformed and THEN I used my new pattern to cut out the form in muslin and gave a set to Anisa, Angie and myself and we each made it our own. I made the doll, keeping open a side seam (thanks, Angie), made her dress separately and used acrylic paint for her hair and lips. I used a fine Sharpie pen for her face. Putting her all together, I realize that there's a lot more tweaking and enlarging to do, but she's sweet anyway. Very June Cleaver-ish as opposed to the little girl look I thought I'd captured.

- Cami

I took my fabric and chopped her limbs off to make a dress form... big surprise! I made her a tiny apron and I'm using her as a pin cushion. (she looks a little weird.. I probably should have cut the skirt shape off of her too.... sometimes crafting is such a learning process).

-Anisa

What started as one idea quickly turned into another completely unexpected idea with this sweet little thing. Originally, I thought of making the doll into a little elf that would show up around Christmas and "spy" on my kids. A few sample dresses later and I realized something. This doll was not meant to be an elf. She was meant to sit on top of my Christmas Tree!

Her leggings were fused on to the muslin cutout with some wonder under. The dress is a separate piece, but hot glued around the neck. The red trim around the neck is also hot glued. I used some curly doll hair that you can get at most any crafting store for the hair. Her face is drawn on with a fine tip Sharpie, and her heart shaped mouth is painted on in a deep red. She was looking a little drab still, so I added some of my own eye shadow and blush to perk up her face a little. I love her to pieces now and can't wait to see her on top of my "mommy" tree. (Anyone want to come decorate the rest of the tree for me though?)

Ang

Checking for interest in a new idea: Art Trading Cards

I learned about Art Trading Cards (ATC) a few years ago and was fascinated by the idea of random people trading bits of their own artistic souls to each other. The basic rules of the game of ATC is the cards must measure 2 1/2" by 3 1/2". After that, what you create is only limited by your imagination. You can use traditional art media: ink, paint, colored pencils, charcoal, pastels, stamping techniques, etc. You can embroider, layer objects, decoupage, USE YOUR COMPUTER AND PHOTOSHOP (and the like), paper piecing...the sky is the limit. What I am wondering is if there is enough interest out there for me to set up ATC swaps. Is there? See a gallery of examples of ATC here , here or here (the list to the right)

If there is, this is how it would work: I would set up small groups of probably four people. You would create four Art Trading Cards and mail them in to me as would the three others in the group. I would then divide the cards up amongst the four in the group (you'd get one of your own back) and mail them out with postage that you would have provided when you sent them to me in the first place.

If you are very, VERY intersted then email me at twiddlethumbs@rocketmail.com or leave a comment. If you think this is something you might like to do this then please click the "Gotta Try It" box below.

What I'm really hoping for is that a handful of people will join me on an initial swap and then you'll all be able to see how fun it is and then we can do more groups in the future. I'd really like to have younger ages participate in the future, like a 7-12 year old group and a teen group.

I know this is a little more arts than crafts, but I hope you'll let me know what you think. I would love it if you'd consider participating. --C

Fluff and Stuff for little Girls

My kids had a birthday party to attend the other day for a little friend of ours. Ever since I've dived more heavily into crafting, I hate buying store-bought presents. Especially since you can't get much for the amount I'm willing to spend. The little girl was having a costume party to celebrate and that gave me an idea. Being newly 5 she's into all things princess-y and girly. I found this cute wand (with an easy-to-follow tutorial) at Little Birdie Secrets and knew I was onto something. If a princess has a beautiful wand, what else does she need to go with it? A beautiful fluffy tutu of course! (Tutorial coming soon!) A few dollars at hobby lobby and a couple of hours later I had dress-ups made for the princess that she is-a curly ribbon wand, fluffy tutu, and with my extra curls I was able to pull a cute little korker bow together. Sigh...I love crafting.