Here's what I'm up to today...

I love quilting or rather the idea of quilting, the look of quilting, but facing facts, I am the last person that needs to rack up another hobby.

As an homage to quilting, however, I decided to make a paper quilt to hang on the wall.

I'm working on it today.

I purchased a few sheets of coordinating patterned paper from the scrapbook section of Roberts Craft and I've been creating squares using a Marvy Uchida paper punch (it's about 1"x1") I'm using a variety of paper brands including: Rusty Pickle, Chatterbox, Crate Paper, DCWV and My Mind's Eye. I'm using a large stretched canvas that I picked up at Tuesday Morning over a year ago. For my adhesive I'm using good old Elmer's Glue.

I'm really excited to see how it all turns out. I'm going to be using strips of paper to 'bind' it around the edges.

I'll post the finished work in the next day or two along with one of my other posts.

--C

My Latest Scrapbook Project

I am a chronological scrapbooker. This essentially means that I have a large binders in which to put a record of my family's life. It also means that there is no real end to the project that is scrapbooking. That is precisely why this mini-album of my trip to New York was so much fun to make! I made it for my husband for Father's Day. This was the first visit to New York for both of us. I started with a post-bound album from the Target dollar aisle. It already had a 'window' in the cover and I applied Making Memories rub-ons for "New York." Cover page.

The paper used throughout the book is from an 8x8 Cosmo Cricket Paper Pad called "Hello Sunshine." It included a several of the sayings I used here.

There's still some journaling to complete, but I want my husband's help. Husbands are not easy to pin down for crafting time.

When I ran out of pages in the album, I just cut some creme colored cardstock to size, punched holes, unscrewed the posts and added the pages. On the final page, I used put a photo on the back cover to utilize all available space. Most photos were 4x6 but I did have a few printed as 5x7s.

I think cropping my photos first helped make this a really quick project and using items I already had on hand (I only bought my photo prints) made it very inexpensive.

The best part? My husband loves it. That quick turn around from the experience to the recorded memories really worked for him (I made it within two weeks of returning from New York). He's taken it on all his recent business trips to show his co-workers and it's going with him this very day to Seattle. He's having dinner with his sisters and wanted to show them too.

--C

Inspiration Everywhere

A few months ago I thought I'd take a page out of Anisa's book and use home decor catalogues as crafting inspiration. Well, I found a great one, just my style in CHiASSO. Now finally, I have taken the first item of inspiration and done something with it! This is a clock made of resin, but as soon as I saw it I knew I could recreate it in paper. This is made up of 48 strips attached strategically to create this wavy design. I cut 36 strips, one inch wide and twelve inches long. At first I thought I would use brads for the attachment, but I didn't like that there would be the ugly side of the brad showing. Taking a second glance at the catalogue I could see the answer: Glue Dots!

I started by attaching two strips at a time at one end (here after known as 'the top'). I completed this with all the strips for a total of 18 joined pieces.

Next I lined the strips up on a square inch grid, with the top on the left side of the grid. I put another glue dot on the inside of the strip at the seventh inch and at the right end (see purple indicators). I repeated this with the rest of the seventeen strips. Next, I took one of the joined pieces, placing a Glue Dot on the outside of the strip at the 3 1/2" mark and the 9 1/2" mark (see red indicators) and stacked the next piece on top. I repeated this with the rest of the pieces.

See how it's coming together?After all it's all stacked in a row, it'll look like this.

The unstuck ends now need to be attached.

Once these are glued you can spread out the medalion and it looks like this: I like this in it's simplicity but it could be embelleshed in a lot of fun ways. It could probably also be made into a clock if you added another twelve strips, opening the center more.

I plan to hang this on a wall. To combat the weakness of the paper and its tendency to droop, I'm going to use fine pointed pins in several places to hold it up instead of hanging it by one point. --C

Blog Hijacking!!!

For the month of July, Cami, Anisa and Angie are each taking over an entire week each on Twiddle-Thumbs! Stay tuned for all the ideas and fun!

A Simple Gift

Today was my 1st graders last day of school and we wanted to do something special for her teacher. This teacher has fostered such a great love of general learning and specifically reading in my daughter. Normally I like small, simple, inexpensive things, but this year I opted for a nice gift card to Barnes and Noble. Being a crafter, I couldn't just let it go at having my daughter hand her beloved teach a gift card! So-with a little inspiration from my mom and Skip to My Lou, I came up with this cute little flower/sucker bouquet. I cut my flowers using the Cricuit and the George and Basic Shapes cartridge. The suckers are homemade, but you could easily use store bought suckers. Stick the suckers down the middle of the flowers and into a floral foam piece inside the pot. I didn't have any ribbon that coordinated with the flowers, but I did have a different piece of patterned scrap paper that would work. I trimmed it to fit the rim of the flower pot and adhered it with double sided tape. This in itself would make a cute little gift for a friend, teacher, coworker, etc. If you want to add a little gift card though, take a plastic fork, stick your card in, and push the fork handle into the foam as well. As you can see, it looks like the card from the florist.

Cute, easy, and fast. (How fast? I did it this morning as my daughter was getting ready for school. Can we say procrastinator??:) )

If you want to make your own suckers, here's the recipe:

Supplies you'll need:

-candy thermometer

-sucker molds

-sucker sticks

Suckers:

1 c. sugar

1/3 c. light corn syrup

1/2 c. water

1/2 tsp. food coloring (or as desired)

1/2 tsp. flavoring

For fruity flavors: 1/8 tsp. citric acid crystals dissolved in 1 tsp water

Set up sucker molds with sticks on marble slab or aluminum foil. Spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

Boil water, sugar and corn syrup til about 290 (just before hard crack stage). Remove from heat; add food coloring and stir. Add citric acid if desired. Add flavoring. Stir and pour carefully into sucker molds and allow to cool. Remove gently from molds. Wrap individually or place in Ziploc bag. Enjoy!

Free Patriotic Iron-On Downloads

Here's a craft that is practically done for you. We designed some images to put on a t-shirt for your Fourth of July weekend. You just download the images by clicking on the link and print them with your ink-jet printer on to special iron-on transfer paper like this. 

You can get it online or in any craft or fabric store. These were meant for white t-shirts. To download the image for the God Bless America iron on click HERE To download the image for the America the Beautiful iron-on click HERE

To download the image for the Let Freedom Ring iron-on click HERE --C

Anisa was featured!

Angie and I just wanted to toot Anisa's horn for her and let you know her towel beach bag was featured on U create! Way to go, Anisa!

If you somehow missed her awesome tutorial, click here.

--C

Easy Baby Gifts (with tutorial and free pattern)

First, we have a felt toy. This can be used in a variety of styles. There is a basic oval shape which can be used for a bear or a spaceman (see below) or a monkey or a rabbit. Endless possibilities...First gather yourself a bunch of felt. I used for a template my Creative Memories cutting templates and traced them with a fading fabric marker. The measurements of the ovals are: Bear is 6 3/4" x 4 1/2" and Spaceman is 5 3/4" x 3 1/2" (starting dimensions).

Before cutting begins, draw a single antennae or ear for what ever you're making. Cut around the shape, but only until you can match up the widths' ends and trace around the one cut out antennae or ear so that you have a matching set (I use this method because it's hard to get a matching set, especially free-hand as I like to do).

Cut out the same shape out of another color for the back, but do not cut out the smaller inner circle. Choose a piece for the face (it doesn't have to be pretty) and free-hand cut out some hair for the spaceman, or none for the bear. Then line them all up, pin together and front sew them all together with just a tiny seam. Draw a face on the felt with your fading fabric marker and embroider it BEFORE you sew the piece together.

Place right sides together, pin and sew with a 1/4" seam.

Stuff it (sorry, switching to the bear) with Poly-fil AND the secret ingredient...a used baby-wipes wrapper or other crinkle-y, plastic-y type item (not shredded, whole, for safety) and give the baby the noise he wants!

Second item: a crocheted baby wash-mitt.

Using COTTON yarn (I used The Original Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn in Cool Breeze Ombre) and a size H hook, chain 21.

Turn and single crochet (sc) in first chain from hook and in every chain across.

*Chain one, turn and single crochet in first sc from hook and in every sc across.

Repeat from * approx. 44 more rows (total 46) or the measurement of the adult had it will fit with the crocheted strip folded in half. After the strip is at the desired length, do not finish off, but leave approximately 32" of extra yarn attached. Pull it through the last sc so the strip doesn't unravel. Thread the yarn into a large eye needle, fold the strip in (over the hand) and whip stitch up on side. So that we don't have to cut the yarn and weave in multiple ends, lead the yarn over the top of the mitt uniformly in the loops all the way across, then whip stitch down the other side. Weave in any stray ends and your mitt is done. Put it over the top of a bottle of baby wash and it makes a charming gift. (If you want a bit more of a decorative touch, I replaced two sets of two rows with one row each of double crochet following a pattern (from the regular sc row) chain two, double crochet in first sc from hook. Double crochet in next two sc, *chain two, skip next two sc, double crochet in next two sc. Repeat from * three more times (end) then continue the sc pattern. I only recommed the decoration for the back of the mitt and not the front where you'd use to wash baby. )

email us with any questions: twiddlethumbs@rocketmail.com

--C