Crafts with Krista

This weekend I went to Michigan to spend time with my sister and she had a fun craft planned for us, state art! First we went to Michael's to get scrapbook paper that coordinated with our decor then we went to Ikea (!) to get frames.

Krista printed out our states, Michigan and Indiana, on copy paper. We cut our states out and traced them backward on glitter paper.

It was very important to double check and make sure that the states were traced BACKWARD onto the glitter paper so the glitter would be face up and the state correctly oriented. Then we cut out our states and a heart in a coordinating color.

Next we glued the states and hearts onto the backgrounds.

Some masking tape, pop the hangers on, and replace the back. Craft complete!

Once I was back home I eagerly hung my new art. I chose to do two states, one for both places I have lived as a married lady.

This was a super simple project with big impact that anyone could do. I would highly recommend you give it a try! (Please ignore our dinosaur television, it just won't quit!)

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is a little sneak peak at the Valentine cards I intend to send to a select group of people. Winter is dreary and seems to drag on forever. I fight the winter doldrums with cheery Valentine cards. These are really straight forward so I won't bore you with the details. If you like them just CASE them. (Copy And Share Everything).

A little birdie told me.

Just a little bit of vintage stamping.

Fun with punches.

A variation with the punches.

BLIZZARD BUSTER

Recently I was talking to my brother when he mentioned how hard it has been for his grand kids to be cooped up in the house. Their mom is running out of ideas to keep them engaged in wholesome activities. That was when I remembered how much I loved sewing cards as a child. I had some fancy cards from the store and I really felt special every time I got them out to use them. When they got a little worn my crafty grandma set to work to make a home crafted version for me. So here is my rendition of that memory.

Cut 12 x 12 cardboard into quarters.

I started with a 12 x 12 piece of white cardboard. You can use anything you have on hand. If you are desperate you could even use a breakfast cereal box. Get creative and use what you have on hand. I decided that because this was a craft for young people the sewing cards shouldn't be too big. It seemed natural to divide the cardboard into quarters. That made each card a 6 x 6 square.

Start your art work.

 Now is the fun creative/crafty part. You need an image on each card for the kids to sew around. You may use a stencil, a photo from a magazine, trace a picture from a coloring book, or in my case sketch something because it was faster than finding the coloring books in our house. The design needs to be fairly simple and have a strong outline. I sketched a lady bug, goldfish, bird and tulip. Then I added color to the picture. As soon as you have your picture colored you will want to add the holes that the sewing will go through. They should be evenly spaced and place them near the edge of the outline. You can see that I used a hole punch for some of the areas and a islet hole punch for the inner areas that I couldn't reach with the regular hole punch.

Add the well placed holes.

 Next choose your "thread". It can be anything that you have on hand. It might be yarn (mine was) or string or a shoe lace, embroidery floss, or ribbon. Just use what ever you have. I used some Scotch tape to create a stiff end to the yarn. If you use a shoe lace this step is already completed. If you have a child that is old enough to use a plastic darning needle you won't need to do this step. You be the judge of what would be safe for your special kiddo. I found that if you wrap a piece of tape around the yarn before you cut the yarn into two pieces it seems to work more easily.

Create the "thread".

Close up of the thread end.

 Once you get the end of the yarn stiff enough to sew with you just start anywhere that works for you. My grandma never made me start anywhere special. She usually told me not to knot the end. (Smart grandma). This is not only a good way for the kids to do something quiet, but it really helps to develop eye/hand coordination and a sense of order. Each kid will inevitably end up with some giant knots. Let them try to undo what they did. Let them struggle a little with cause and effect before you rescue them from the dreaded knot.

Finished sewing card.

Here is what the finished sewing card looks like. This is a good old fashioned quiet educational item. Think about trips in the car, church services, or any other time little hands need to busy with an indoor activity. It really is a good "blizzard buster".

Cute Lil' Pumpkin

Well aren't these little guys cute?

This is a nice economical craft for any age. These pumpkins are really made of a fat quarter of fabric, some raffia, a scrap of green fabric or a silk leave and a piece of twisted paper bag or a stick from the yard, (and here is the trick)a roll of toilet paper.

Start by gathering your supplies. Any fabric will work. I think realistic pumpkin colors are most pleasing. The cheaper rolls of toilet paper fit the fat quarter of fabric better. Set the fabric in the center of the fabric, and tuck the fabric into the center of the roll of paper. I like to manipulate the fabric a little to eliminate clumps. When that is accomplished you insert your raffia, stick/twisted piece of bag and a silk leaf or a scrap of green fabric. I was recently able to apply this same principal to a gift wrap situation here.

This pumpkin still needs a little attention to the fabric distribution to look its best.

This is a great decoration for someone that doesn't have room to store seasonal decorations. We also found that it was a nice little decoration for a hospital room while our father was there for a lengthy stay. I hope you will get crafty and try this seasonal craft yourself.

Crafty Wrapping

Sometimes we put one thing off for a while because we have other things screaming for attention at that moment, and then the first thing also becomes a crisis. YIKES!! Well recently I accepted an invitation to a surprise 70th birthday party. I was looking forward to it and put it on the calendar, then life took over. On the day of the party I decided that an appropriate gift should be acquired THAT day at some point prior to the party. Good idea, hunh? Well the gift was for a recent widower that is still working as a over the road truck driver. I decided that a tub-o-peanuts was what we would give him. Well just exactly how do you wrap that? Then I thought of an old trick that I have used before. (story for another day) So I gathered my supplies and set to work. Can you guess what I did?

                 

I gathered some orange fabric, floral tape, a random silk leaf, and some paper shred.

I set the jar of peanuts in the center of the fabric and pulled it up around the jar. I secured the ends of the fabric with the floral tape, to make it look like a stem. Then I added the piece of paper shred to mimic a tendril from the pumpkin vine and finished by pinning the leaf near the stem and was ready to head out the door with a nicely wrapped gift in hand. Well that didn't turn out so bad for NO pre-planning, and the birthday party really did turn out to be a surprise.

Happy Independence Day

I have been seeing wreaths on Pintrest and in magazines with "poofy" net that I think are very attractive. I am  not willing to spend money for the net so I have created a crafty way to get a similar look with what I already have available.

Here I am back at it with  recycling the red net that fruit and onions come in. I think that stuff is indestructible and I don't want it in a landfill, so I find creative ways to use it. This is one example, and I have used it other ways in the past. You can see one way here.

I started my wreath with a pile of red net. It isn't all the same shade of red or same texture so I will be aware of that in construction and mix the color and texture for the most pleasing look. The frame of the wreath is the wire rack that sits down inside of the water bath to hold your canning jars when you are home canning.

I trimmed both ends of the net to get rid of any stitching or paper tags. I was left with a tube shape of net. I gathered that together like you would a sock before you put it on your foot. I slipped a small piece of wire through and attached it to the frame and just kept adding till I was out of net. One tip my crafty dad taught me was to make a small hook at one end of your wire before you try to attach it. That makes the joining process much simpler.

 I found this little item at a local tag sale and knew it was going to be crafted soon enough. Well today was the day.Good price don't you think?

To finish the wreath I added the flag front and center, and nestled some sparklers into the net for added interest.  I was pleased with the look and the final product. If you are feeling crafty and would like to try another patriotic craft you might like this one, or this one.

Girlfriend Birthday

Hello, and happy spring!

I recently wanted to give a small token of appreciation to a girlfriend for her birthday. I thought of all sorts of options. I realized that what I had at home already, could become a thoughtful and beautiful gift. A handmade gift would let her know just how much I treasure her. She is a very sunny type person, so I got crafty with stamps and paper to make a batch of greeting cards for her.

I found paper colors that I found pleasing together and seemed "sunny". I fell back on a card layout that I use when ever I don't want to think up something new. The stamp set is Sew Suite, a Stampin Up set from a while back. I am really happy with the end product. Happy Birthday Girlfriend.

 

Bulletin board

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am one of those girls who like to continually go above and beyond, so when I realized there was NO decorations for Thanksgiving at work I HAD to do something about it. What did I have available? A roll of yellow paper and a few markers. 

In other words, I was working to make two ingredients into a whole meal.

Bad analogy? You’ll deal. 

Anyway, if any of you care here is what I ended up throwing together in the 30 minutes I had, and a pictorial view of what I did.

Step 1: Sketch the cornucopia

Step 2: Color in/ Shade the cornucopia

Step 3: Add background items

Step 4: Start adding foreground items

Step 5: Continue adding detail

Step 6: Fill in any yellow places left with gray

Step 6: Another  example of filling in "white space."

Step 7: Add shading to anything else you want. I added a little more yellow shading to the under side of my cornucopia

Step 8: Add acorns. Just do it.

Final Product. Make due with what you have!

Now that's the spirit.

Star Bright !

I want to wish you all a happy Independence Day!

This fun little bit of crafting is striking and economical. This is a paper star made to mimic the look of a metal star. I think a star would be nice for a birthday party or Christmas, as well as celebrating most anything.

I started with a scrap piece of light weight cardboard, (cereal boxes work great), and a star pattern. I got my pattern from Google. I traced the pattern onto the cardboard. I wanted my star a little larger than a standard size piece of paper that the printer allowed. I needed to add 3/4 of an inch to each side of the star to make it the size I wanted.

The next step is to score the cardboard from the tip of each point to the opposite side of the star.

When you are done scoring each point all the way across, you can then fold hills and valleys to make the dimensions of the star.

                                     
 Then paint your star any color that you find pleasing. Acrylic paint is the best option. I spray painted the entire star white to start with, then added color to each of the points.  After I got done painting I wanted to add some stars. I used a small star punch and scrap paper and some glue stick to add them to the blue field of my star.

I used regular paper glue, but Modge Podge would also work well.

I used and antique medium that I have on hand from some other project to add an aged appearance. I just used a rag to wipe on and wipe off the medium. I have been known to use shoe polish in a crafting "emergency".

Here is the finished project!!  I am very pleased with the results and will have this proudly displayed in my home.

Painting Posies

I really like painting but haven't taken the time to paint much recently. Props to my neighbor and artist Heidi for inspiring me! I used acrylic and interior paints on this project.

Mid-project

Finished project, hanging on my wall!