May the odds be ever in your favor

Yesterday when I came home from work I found my brothers in their new favorite location - family room in front of the TV watching "Heroes". I told them that they should go away and read some books or play a game or something. Gav said he wanted to make a shirt for The Hunger Games premier and since I had this pin, I knew we could do it!

The pinsipration:

http://kojo-designs.com/2010/11/gifts-for-guys-guest-craftiness-is-not-optional/

PINNOVATION

(Prepare for mind blowing awesomeness...)

We found images online to create our own designs. Gav wanted to stick with a theme - mockingjay and Peeta.

Burke decided to be a little clever...

(He wasn't confused...but I bet you are!)

I had to adjust the pictures so they didn't use too much ink when we printed since we were running low. I changed it to a grayscale print and used draft mode. (For our designs, click on the links below.)

Mockingjay design                      Team Jacob design

Then we got to tracing on wax paper. Yes I said wax paper. My tired brain didn't think to actually read the post before starting. I got to thinking while tracing and realized that I was doing something wrong. I went back to the post and realized I should have been using FREEZER PAPER. We got ready to head to Wally World, but Mom came in with a delicious dinner - stuffed peppers (she used quinoa!). So we ate our tasty dinner and then made the excursion to the store to get the magical freezer paper, paint, shirt, ink cartridges (they still ran out) and an extra X-Acto knife. On a side note - who knew that having a 14-year-old boy pick gold paint could be such a time-consuming process?

So we returned home triumphant and began again with the tracing the images, but this time on the magical freezer paper (paper side, not the shiny side).

We cut out the stencils using x-acto knives or scissors. (You have to cut out the part that you want to be on the shirt and leave the outline.)

Then we ironed the freezer paper stencil to the shirt (paper side up or you'll make a mess with the iron).

We painted on the shirts with small sponge brushes using a mixture of 2 parts normal acrylic paint mixed with 1 part fabric medium (available at a craft store - Michael's or JoAnn).

We figured out that the best way to avoid the paint getting under the edges of the stencil was to paint away from the edge.

We let the shirts dry (the boys may have pulled out my hair dryer to speed the process along) and then applied a second coat of paint mixture.

When the second coat was dried, then the fun began! We peeled away the magical freezer paper to find that the paint didn't seep through the edges except in one place!!! Like I said - that stuff is magical!

Gavin was excited while we peeled away the stencil...

Then we repeated all of these steps with the other part of the design to create these wonderful specimens.

Yeah, I know you're jealous! (My brothers are adorable, right?)

And "may the odds be ever in your favor"!

T-shirt fun

A few months ago I saw this pin

                          

and knew I wanted to try it. But being the person I am (who hates patterns and being too copy-cattish, I wanted to make my own design).



I bought a plain white t-shirt and used a pack of fabric markers I had.

 




A sign leading to New Orleans and GG's house (that's what they call my mom)

 



Quilt Clock

My mother-in-law is the ultimate crafter. She can embroider anything and sews like a mad woman. In a good way. I'm in awe of her skills. When she and my father-in-law built their current house she had a special craft room built which I am thoroughly jealous of. As much as I loved it, it needed a bit of pizazz. So I made this for her a few years ago.

Her name is Charleen, thus the nickname of Char. If you want to know how I made it ask.

 Fast forward a few years and I saw a clock made out of fabric, buttons and a quilt hoop and I though this would be the perfect addition to her room. Yes, I'm living vicariously through her craft room. I can't help it. You would too if you saw the built in storage/fabric closets and drawers and amazing embroidery machine!

So first off, I bought the hoop. Next I got a simple little linen fabric for $3 a yard at Joann's (I only used about a quarter of a yard. But I am using the rest to make some other items in the near future). A few days later I stopped back at Joann's to get a bag of buttons to match the bright colors of the yarn on the above creation (you can't really tell since my only camera right now is my phone, but it's bright orange, silver, a bright royal blue, and kelly green). I ordered the clock part on ebay for $4 and everything was in place. Fast forward to the week before Christmas and I thought it was time to approach this task.

At first I thought I should trace around the hoop and cut that shape to work with for my clock. WRONG! Cut a square a decent bit larger than your hoop so you can pull the fabric and keep it taut while you work with it.

I've never been one patient enough to deal with measurements or numbers or really anything. So I didn't measure the distance between the buttons. But I eyeballed it. It is pretty much even so I'm glad my eyes didn't fail me.

Buttons all sewn on.

Paper Bag Rudolph Puppet

Kaycee here...

At work I'm on the Function Planning Committee (think "Party Planning Committee" from The Office). My responsibility for the in-house Christmas party was to acquire the materials for a kids' craft. Of course, I turned to Pinterest for an idea. I had to tweak it a bit to keep it simple enough for a short office party with minimal supplies.

The PINSPIRATION:

http://pinterest.com/pin/203365739393116874/

The PRODUCT:

 

(I think it looks like a muppet, but maybe that's just me.)


What you'll need:

• Brown paper lunch bag
• Medium red pom-pom
• White craft glue
• Construction paper: brown, black
• 4 jungle bells
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Pattern

How to make it:

1. Use craft glue to attach the red pom-pom to the flap of the bag.
2. Print this page on white paper.
3. Cut out the eyes. Color the eyelids brown and pupils black. Use the glue stick to attach the eyes to the front of the bag above the pom-pom nose.
4. Cut a strip of black paper the width of the paper bag, about one inch wide. Cut a small piece of black paper for the nametag hanger. Glue the small strip to the center of the larger strip so that it is hanging down.
5. Color the nametag in your favorite color. Use a pen to write "Rudolph" in the center of the nametag. Glue the nametag to the bag, overlapping the small black strip (hanger).
6. Use a generous amount of white craft glue to attach 4 jingle bells to the black strip (collar). (Be sure to keep out of reach of the littlest elves.)
7. Trace child's hands onto brown/tan paper and cut out. Use glue stick to attach the hands to the back of the bag as the antlers.

Tips:

1. You can use a black pom-pom to create other reindeer - Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner or Blitzen.
2. Instead of hand print antlers, you can simply cut simple antlers from brown paper or an extra brown paper bag if you don't have brown paper on hand. Or use white paper for any of the items and color them the color you like.

3. You can use large wiggle eyes instead of the pattern. (Be sure to keep out of reach of the littlest elves.)

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Melted Crayon Art

We've all seen it. The melted crayon art. The crafter takes a blank canvas and a ton of old crayons- because Heaven knows we all have tons of them lying around the house. Well, most of us. I don't have kids, but I do work with kids at church and after a bit of cleaning the closet I had 2 BUCKETS worth of crayons. After seeing this pin, I thought, "Why the heck not?!"

So I toted my buckets of crayons home and did what I usually do with newly acquired craft items... I put them in my craft corner (we're young and college students- space is at a premium, so no craft room for me) for a few weeks. My conscience and growing pile of craft goodies got to me and I finally caved. So here goes nothing!



I used an exacto to help me peel the wrappers off of the crayons. I didn't want wrappers on because they weren't all the same brand and I didn't want it to look tacky.



I used a glue gun to glue the crayons to the canvas. Nothing fancy here. Put the crayons in whatever position you want. I am not a perfectionist so I put them a bit willy-nilly. I'm good at doing that.



Sturdy.



I would recommend using something underneath your work area. My canvas was only a 12X16 and once the crayons start melting they spread quickly. As my carpet can attest. Shh! Don't tell anyone! Luckily we have green carpet to hopefully it blends in.

Psychedelic.



I had these stickers lying around from when I made a journal. I will be adding white flowers to replace some of these pink ones.

Overall, the project cost a whopping $3. It worked pretty well. I started it at aroun10:15 and finished in 30 minutes. Peeling the wrappers takes some time (thus the use of the Exacto), but everything else went quickly. Shoot, to melt the crayons with the blow dryer took less time than it takes to dry my hair with the same blow dryer.

My recommendation? DO IT!
Check out the original pin here. 

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