make a memory catcher

When ander and zaza were visiting we hit up our favorite beach for some rock collecting, climbing, creek walking, and of course...crafting.

We decided to call these mini weavings memory catchers as a cross between a dream catcher and a memory jar. To create your own all you need is a mini embroidery hoop, embroidery floss, and scissors.

Wrap a long length of embroidery floss around the inside hoop making sure to cross over multiple times. Because the hoop is round, you will want to anchor your wrappings but doing a double wrap every now and then (wrapping your floss around the rim of the hoop twice before stretching it across to the other  side), otherwise your floss will slip and your nice spider-webby pattern will just be a jumble of floss.

 

Tie on with a knot and end with a knot. Don't worry about excess thread, it kinda looks happy dangling along with your memory bits. If you prefer, use your scissors to trim the tails. Once your ending knot is secure, anchor the outside hoop over the webbed-up hoop and tighten. Now it is time for some weaving of sorts.

 

The more wrapping and webbiness you add to your hoop, the more non-linear items can be added. You can weave long strands of seaweed in and out of the crossing threads or you can poke and coax smaller pieces of wavy seaweed and pebbles in between the threads.

When you wrap your thread around the hoop, you will be wrapping on both sides creating a bit of a pocket between the threads to tuck non-weavable items into.

There you go, a little memory catcher to remind you of your day by the ocean...or in the forest...or at the lake. Try weaving flower petals and different grasses, or small ferns and happy leaves. Just make sure to stay away from poison oak and ivy and if you are in a protected area, take a picture instead and preserve the prettiness.

adventures with ander and zaza: an impromptu pom pom factory

This past week ander and zaza came for a visit. I had made a pom pom wreath for the 4th of July and zaza asked how I made all those pom poms. Out came the yarn and scissors and the next thing I knew we were in pom pom city. It was pom making all the time. There were pom poms here, and pom poms there, here a pom, there a pom...you get the picture. It was also a complete blast! Here are some things we learned...

 

 

Pom pom making with younger folks is really easy even without a pom maker (it's also easily portable). I demonstrated the HANDmade technique maybe two or three times and the children were off and running. We had to make a special trip to the craft store to bulk up on lovely yarny goodness.

The most difficult part seems to be tying the yarn around the center of the pom-to-be tight enough so that the snipped yarny bits don't slip away. The color choosing and wrapping went by lickety split.  We began by wrapping up our little pom packages until we had a happy pile and then we went to trimming them. The little packages were just as pretty as the poms themselves.

If your child is having trouble wrapping around their hand, they can use a tp tube, piece of cardboard, and/or a wooden spoon or spatula. We tried most of them and learned that a too tight wrap didn't exactly like to slide off the utensil it was hugging. Oh, and for a smaller pom, use two fingers for wrapping instead of four.

 

We also learned that if you wrapped three or four colors around at the same time, your pom-to-be bulked up quicker and displayed a lovely confetti effect. Even more so if one of the yarns was variegated. It was also a lot easier to wrap directly from the skein of yarn. The kitchen floor was covered in happy skeins and sometimes they got tangled but they tangled up a lot less than if we cut out yards of yarn before wrapping.

 

 

First timers can trim their poms just a little, creating a shaggy bit of pom happy. As your kiddo gets more practice and used to the trimming aspect of pom pom making, they can snip away to create a trim ball of happy. Fabric scissors work best and yes, they do look alarmingly long when in the hands of a kiddo. Our mantra to the kiddos as they got all snip happy was to think of their pom as a bonsai tree. Snip just a little at first and trim as you go. Their first round of poms were happy shaggy bits but as they became pom pom masters they trimmed them up tight. I think they even went back to their first poms and trimmed those down as well.

 

There is a lot of yarn waste when making pom poms. Use a large tray or plate to catch all the bits that fall. We saved the trimmings in big plastic bags for a future project. There are a few ideas and maybe they will get made, we'll see.

Not sure what we are going to do with all the poms but we did discover that berry baskets make excellent pom pom vessels.

scrumdilly-do! the year in review.

I hope you enjoyed all the handmade fun we brought to you this year! From cardboard tube kazoos to newspaper pom-poms to fingerprint valentines there was all sorts of crafty fun going on. And to think that I had even more in the works that never got finished. There is always 2012. Thank you more than kindly for following this little blog. I only hope we can grow bigger and better. You support means the world to us. Hope your 2011 was a superb one and happy 2012! 

*you can click through the archives to check out these projects. ya know...if ya like.

make a pixy stix garland

Make a holiday garland much like this one but instead of paper straws, use good old fashioned Pixy Stix (sans the sugary stuff)!

Materials:
*pixy stix
*sturdy thread
*pom-poms
*mini cupcake liners
*scissors
*fat needle optional (a tapestry needle works well)
*froot loops, cheerios, gumdrops and other soft candies also optional

With your scissors, snip off both ends of each Pixy Stix liberating the sugary sweetness inside. You may wish to dump the sugar before your kidlets get a whiff but you can also use it to "flavor" some fizz water or make some pictures using glue...draw with the glue, sprinkle powdery sugar on top and shake off.

With scissors, have your kidlet(s) cut each paper wrapper into two or three pieces and set aside.

Gather up your goodies and begin with a length of sturdy thread that has been doubled and knotted at the end with the needle at the other. A darning needle is fairly blunt and shouldn't poke your kidlet, never ever leave your child unattended when they are wielding a sharp object...I'm just saying.  Proceed to alternate cut straws, candy and/or cupcake liners until you have a garland that makes you want to dance. If you decide to use soft candies, you may wish to have a wee little capfull of oil handy to grease the needle to keep it from getting too sticky.

Make sure to leave your tail ends fairly long so you have some wiggle room for hanging your garland. Have fun!

refreshing pink

this is hardly the healthiest thing to make for yer kidlets but man it could be, kinda-sorta if you wanted to expand on it and use soy or yogurt though for the life of me i wonder why? save the healthy stuff for the rest of the time for now, all you need is a happy red fruity tarty juice (we like pom-cranberry and the tarter your juice, the more it tastes like a push-up, remember those?), gingerale (or fizz water), ice cubes (the smaller the better), half and half and whipped cream. throw in some happy straws and polka-dotted glasses and yer gold!

assemble glasses and add ice.fill halfway with juice & add some fizz.add a drizzle of half and half or cream (the fats may separate and appear to curdle but it's all good).finish with a dollop of whipped happy, add a straw and enjoy!

mummy makers

We went to see the Mummies of the World exhibit last week with our nephew as he has quite the thing for mummies (and zombies). Before we went, he and I sat down in front of the trusty laptop and did a little research. We looked at pictures and talked about the spiritual beliefs, the embalming process and the accoutrements that went along in the tombs and such. As we walked around the exhibit we all took the time to explain the different mummies, processes, eras and geography of what we were looking at. He surprised me by remembering much more than I did from our laptop research. I wanted to keep the mummy lurve alive (heehee) so when we got homeish (we're house sitting) I rifled through the materials on hand and proposed we make our own mummies. So we did.

What we used:

*popsicle sticks
*pipecleaners
*masking tape
*paper
*white glue
*corks
*poly blend "linen"
*burlap strands

How we did it

The first thing you need to do is come up with a design. Each one of us assembled our own mummies from the same materials but we tackled it in very different ways. We used the popsicle sticks for the bodies and legs and we used pipecleaners and borken sticks for arms.The two corks became heads and since there were only two corks, I used wadded up paper for my noggin. More crumpled paper was used to fill out the bodies (I wish I used more on mine) and masking tape was used to anchor the mess together.The paper we had was the thin newsprinty paper we used in grade school to practice our writing. We tore long thin strips from the sheet and twisted them up all wonky so that they would be creased and look a little bit like bandages. The boys twisted theirs up tight while I took the scrunching method and applied my pie fluting skills to the whole shebang. Once the paper was good and scrunched, we unraveled it, added a dab of glue to one end, applied it to the body and wrapped.We continued wrapping until we were happy. Now it was time for finishing touches. You could stop right there if you wanted but to add a little more "authenticity" we tore strips from a piece of faux linen and pulled out strands from a chunk of burlap.
mr. a-go-gos mummy became a cat mummy using twisted paper and a few threads tied about. My mummy used the paper and then had a few threadbare strands of linen wrapped here and there topped of with a few strands of the burlap as well. The boy-ago-go used paper and then a large width of linen followed by a few thinner strands and some of the burlap. So there you go. I think we made some awesome mummies. Why not rifle through your craft boxes and junk drawers to see what you can come up with? I can't wait to see! Add your pics to the flickr group and maybe you'll see them here! More Egyptian fun:
Woodlands Mummies
The University of Chicago
History for Kids

Oh and we love, love, LOVE the Eyewitness books by DK Press.

knots and string and friends and things

Back in the 80s I was a summer camp counselor at the Los Angeles Zoo. We taught the kids all about the environment and how everything is connected. We taught them about all the odd animals that at the time people weren't super familiar with like meerkats and cassowaries. With all the zoo learning we also managed to throw in songs, fun and games. One of my favorite projects (since I never got to go to camp as a kid) was making friendship bracelets. So easy to make and quite addicting. I think I enjoyed making them more than the kids!

Since the 80s are back (again) and handicrafts are also back, let's make some friendship bracelets a la dilly-do! I've tweaked this tutorial only slightly so that smaller tots and can knot away. All you need is a good fat yarn!

Materials
*chunky yarn, a variegated color is perfect
*large safety pin
*scissors

You will need three strands of yarn to make this simple bracelet. Two of the strands will be long enough to tie around your wee one's wrist with an inch or two extra to make tying easier. The third piece will be two and a half to three times longer. Cut your strings.Knot them together at one end and poke your safety pin through the knot. Attach the safety pin to your wee one's pant leg or the back of the sofa. Wherever it will be easier for your tot to work. You will want to attach it to something stable as it makes it easier and aids in providing tension to that your kidlet can make the knots without too much trouble. To make this friendship bracelet, you will need to learn is one knot and only one knot. It is really super easy once you get the hang of it, but kinda hard to show you without me being there but I'll try. To start, grasp the two strands of equal length in one hand and pull them taught towards your tot so that they are perpendicular to your tot's belly, like a line pointing up and down.The remaining strand of yarn (the long one) is going to be the single string you knot over and over again to create the bracelet. To begin, single the string at a diagonal away from the up and down string. You can angle it to either side, depending on how it feels in your tot's hands to wrap (right handed vs. left handed). From the diagonal line, about three or four inches out, bend the string so that it heads towards to other two. This will look like a pointed number four or backwards four if you're me.Next, push the tail of the long string (the one that crosses over the other two) UNDER the other two strands at a diagonal that almost crosses the first diagonal. Look at all the pictures I hope they help. If they don't, I made a video as well.Now that you have the weird four shape and two strands of yarn pointing at your tot (or you) and one extra long string out, over then under the whole mess, you are ready for the knot. To make the knot, grasp thee two shorter strands in one hand and pull taut towards your body. With the ither hand, grasp the looped, longer thread and pull up away from your body. You will then have a little not somewhere up near the top of the whole shebang. Continue with the process...make the number four, weave over under and then pull. When you get the hang of it, your knots will form quickly and create a neat twisty pattern that spirals around the two base strands. When you have enough bracelet to go around the wrist, stop making knots and tie of the whole thing. If you're feeling creative you can go for a loop top by looping the yarn into a noose-shape and then tying the other strands around it. If you want to go more traditional, you tie the bracelet onto your friend's wrist and hope it lasts forever! Happy kotting!