Just Make: Homemade Halloween

In order to compensate for the challenges of trick-or-treating in a rural community, our merchants shut down the roads in town to allow walking traffic only and pass out candy.  We had an unusually moderate night temperature-wise last night, which allowed for lots of chatting and admiring costumes.  And although the whole event is a mixed bag for me (I can get pretty worked up about fair trade chocolate and high fructose corn syrup), I do love to see the inventiveness that shines through in people's costumes.  Homemade costumes are definitely the norm around here, ranging from simple (cardboard box Legos, Minecraft, etc.) to elaborate (an oyster shell where her head sticking out was the pearl).

My youngest settled on being a Hedgehog pretty early on.  I was able to keep an eye out for brown clothing at our local thrift store.  The one elusive item was the shaggy fabric for her "spikes".  Last weekend I picked up a white bathmat just in case our trip to the city didn't pay off either.  Surprisingly, we struck out at a huge fabric store, too.  I ended up dyeing the mat brown and sewing it to a resized men's sweatshirt.  We scored an off-white velvet top for her belly and paws and finished off the look with some women's leggings that I also resized.  She was very happy with the whole thing and said it looked just like she pictured.

Considering CNN reported that Americans throw away 40 million pounds in Halloween garbage each year, and that much of that is plastic costumes, making your own out of repurposed clothing is a good way to put a dent in those numbers.  A lot of people also first experiment with sewing and upcycling making costumes.  Hopefully, they'll gain confidence and realize the same techniques work with everyday clothes, too!

Just Make: Melissa & Doug Shadow Box

Sometimes it is hard for me to believe certain toys in our house are over ten years old.  Part of that is due to how unbelievably quickly the time has flown since we had kids, but I am also amazed at the longevity some of these toys have had in our lives.  The toy kitchen (affectionately known as Tiny Kitchen) along with our wooden play food sets are among our oldest items that still get used regularly.  My youngest still has the Tiny Kitchen tucked away in the corner of her very tiny room and loves to play restaurant with her friends.  However, long gone are the days when we carefully put each set away in its appropriate tray.  As we were streamlining our toy collections this summer, I set these Melissa and Doug trays aside, sure I could use them in some way.

Sitting empty, they reminded me of the old printer's trays people often repurpose as shadow box displays.  I simply wiped them down, sanded any chips in the wood, and then painted them.  We already had black all-purpose spray paint on hand, so I used that.  Obviously, your options are endless when it comes to painting.  I also lined some of the sections with dictionary pages and wrapping paper.  By just using double stick tape, I figure I can change it out if I want.

This was such an easy project that has a lot of versatility.  I'm still deciding if I want to mount them on the wall or leave them lying flat to corral our more varied collections, like my youngest's French collection above, or some of our more special ornaments over the holidays.  Either way, I'm happy to keep these in our lives just a little longer.

Just Make: Papercut Window Art

I have long admired papercut art, from the big names like Nikki McClure and Rob Ryan, to the hobbyists selling their work on Etsy.  One of my biggest celebrity thrills was talking to Nikki McClure when she called our little bookstore, concerned we hadn't place our annual calendar order.  (Her concern was warranted because we were, indeed, going out of business).  She was just as gentle and sincere as you would guess she would be from her artwork.  

The appeal of papercutting, I think, is that it is very basic, like drawing.  If you have a piece of paper and an X-acto knife, you can cut.  Just like if you have a piece of paper and a pencil, you can draw.  Similar to drawing, I am sure you can invest in various cutting tools and upgrade, but you really don't have to.  And, the last thing I need to take on is another crafty hobby that requires a lot of tools and supplies!

Our family has a sweet tradition of making paper snowflakes during the holiday season.  The snowflakes are then on display all winter taped to a window.  This year we put them in the window of our front door, and were pretty reluctant to take them down.  (Also, March 21st often still feels like winter in the Pacific Northwest).  But by the beginning of April, the weather took a turn and I felt snowflakes were no longer appropriate.  As a compromise, I said we could put something new and spring-y in the window.  

Over the last year I have done a few small papercut projects, incorporating quotes and lyrics with basic shapes.  I knew we needed to stick to that format for time's sake and to feel successful.  I could not find our large roll of butcher paper anywhere and decided to use newspaper instead.  I may never papercut with anything else!  It is thin enough that it does not take much pressure to cut, but durable enough that it doesn't tear easily (like tissue paper).  It was really a dream to work with and I like what the text and advertisements add to the shapes.  My youngest and I worked together off and on for one morning.  She had fun adding the little animals, while I cut out the quote.  Plus, since the investment of time and materials was so inconsequential, I will have no qualms putting it in recycling when we are ready for a change.

Right now, it still makes me smile every time I look at it, but I am already on the hunt for a good quote for summer and have a hard time imagining our door will ever be blank again!

Just Make: DIY.org

Source: diy.org via Dave Jenni on Pinterest

Our former neighbor recently filmed some promotional videos for DIY.org.  We have been describing this website as a modern day Boy/Girl Scouts, except your troop is all online.  There are badges to be earned for all kinds of skills ranging from the traditional ones like Camper and Medic, to craftier skills like Stitcher and Potter, and even very 21st Century skills like Web Designer and Front End Developer.  Needless to say, it's become a bit of an obsession around our house.

The whole website is designed for kids and is very safe and user friendly.  Kids choose an animal face avatar and are either assigned or create a Nickname.  As you complete your projects to earn badges, you post a picture or a video documenting it to your profile.  Once it is approved (usually within 24 hours) your profile acts like a mini blog that people can follow, favorite, or comment on.

Yesterday, my youngest spent all day building a cardboard house to earn a Fort Builder badge.  At the end of the day she reflected how this could've been a long, boring Saturday.  Both siblings were gone all day (dance rehearsal/BMX riding), the neighbor buddy was off-island running errands, and attempts to schedule last minute playdates were thwarted by being too last minute.  Instead though, she had completed a project from start to finish and was very proud of the result.

I cannot gush enough about this website.  Every adult I've referred to it wants to join, too!  The community it has created online is so sweet and amazing.  It's very inspiring to see what kids are making and the acknowledgement they receive by posting it to their profile.  Best of all, the whole thing is currently free and isn't plastered with ads.  I'm not sure how they manage that or how long that will last, but it certainly makes me love it even more.

(Sorry for the round-a-bout link to her cute little tutorial video above.  I couldn't figure out how to embed it directly from the site.)

Just Make: Mini Memory Cards

Over the holidays we had an impromptu dinner with our neighbors and my youngest worked all afternoon on a felt snake toy for their daughter (complete with handsewn sequins).  About thirty minutes before they were set to arrive, I realized we should have a little gift for their son, too.  Like a lot of five year old boys, he is really into Legos right now.  We still have quite a collection of Lego magazines and catalogs from when our kids were younger, and I thought we could whip something up out of those.  The kids and I flipped through the pages looking for pictures featuring the same minifigure.  

We then cut them out and attached the pictures with doublestick tape to some playing cards from an incomplete deck.  In keeping with the mini-theme we cut the cards small, too, calling it a Mini Memory set.  Of course, this would work with pictures from any magazine or catalog (Playmobil and American Girl come to mind) and the cards could be kept full size.  It was definitely a quick craft for a quick fix!

Just Make: Painted Fabric Tips

 Next week's Project Run and Play challenge requires working with a white sheet.  Since everything I am sewing for this season will be part of our community's First Friday Gallery Cruise in October, I feel like each look is part of a "collection."  The theme of this collection is costumes representing characters from Alice in Wonderland.  The colors I am using are very bright and I am trying to mix and match a lot of polka dots and stripes.  After researching  a few techniques for getting stripes on fabric (resist dye, freehand painting) I decided to use a tip I saw on HGTV at one point and treat my fabric like painting stripes on a wall.

The first thing I did was iron the fabric to create a smoother surface.  I picked up this sheet at a thrift store a few weeks ago and it has been sitting, folded up on my sewing desk since then.  I wish I had been more aggressive about ironing, because any imperfections I had were definitely caused by wrinkles.  Next, I measured and taped off my stripes with blue painters tape.  I wanted the stripes to be pretty wide, so I put two strips overlapping to create about three inch stripes.  This is where the HGTV tip comes in.  Instead of just painting all over the fabric, "dry brush" paint the edges of the tape where it meets the fabric.  This means only put a small amount of paint on your brush,

and then, starting with your brush on the tape, paint onto the edges of the fabric along the tape.  The theory is, this prevents excess paint from seeping under the tape onto the fabric (or wall), and instead creates a nice, crisp line of paint.  Once the paint is dry where you dry brushed you can go back over and paint the entire fabric.  After this coat dries, you can peel the tape and admire your nice clean lines.  I was really pleased with the stripes, and my neighbor didn't even realize the fabric had been painted when I was trying the skirt on her daughter, so I count that as a success.  Tune in next week to see the fabric in Week 3's look for Project Run and Play!

Just Make: Peacock Necklace

All week I knew there was a get-together coming up for a friend's birthday, and I wasn't sure I would be able to finish her present on time.  But this afternoon, my oldest left early for a sleepover and my husband took the other two to the pool, and suddenly I found myself in an empty house!  These types of necklaces are so easy, you really can make the whole thing in less than an hour.  Also, although I did add some detail with machine stitching,  if you used iron-on paper, you could do this without touching a sewing machine.

Per usual, I began with a thrifted t-shirt and some scraps from my knit jersey bin.  I also pulled out my metallic silver thread which only gets used on special occasions.

To create the necklace I cut the hem off of the t-shirt and marked out two strips about an inch and a half wide across the bottom of the shirt.

After cutting the strips I held them at the seams of the shirt (or where the seams would be if your shirt doesn't have them) and stretched them as far as I could. I rotated them and held on at the halfway point and stretched again.   The material simply rolls onto itself hiding any raw edges.

Now I turned my giant circle into a figure eight and doubled the loops onto each other to form the necklace.  You can actually cut more strips and make a nice lush necklace/scarf using this technique as well.  Because it hit ninety degrees in our town today (highly unusual) I wasn't in the mood to make a scarf.

To make the pendant I approached it as an applique and used the techniques from my tutorial and used lightweight fusible webbing.  Any type of iron-on paper would work, too.  I drew out the front of the feather with all of the extra feathery details on one piece of fabric, and then just the main part of the feather for the back to add some stability.

After pressing those two pieces together I cut out the turquoise and purple pieces to form the eye of the peacock feather.

With the pendant and the necklace finished, the last step was to make a "jump ring" from fabric.  Cutting a strip from the sleeve I made a smaller strip of pulled and rolled fabric to work with. I threaded the strip through a couple of extra beads to add a nice detail and then sewed the strip closed around the necklace. 

Attach the pendant to the strip, and before you know it, the necklace is complete, just as your family returns from swimming. Of course, this necklace could be made with a variety of pendants.  I am already thinking of a nice fall-colored one featuring oak and maple leaves, or something more festive for Christmas.  What color scheme and pendant would you use?