Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011 Crafting & 2012 Craft Challenge


I kept track of how many craft items that I made during 2011.  Here is my tally:

Total Items Made: 789
This includes 37 quilt blocks.
January's total: 106
February's total: 52
March's total: 73
April's total: 48
May's total: 89
June's total: 17
July's total: 50
August's total: 18
September's total: 96
October's total: 42
November's total: 65
December's total: 133

This was all apart of my New Years Resolution to make 365 items during 2011.

As you can tell I did it.  In fact I more than doubled that amount.  My my 2012 New Year's Resolution is to make 700 craft items.  I did not want to run myself ragged trying to out do myself from 2011, but I did want to set a higher goal.

Here is my little tag for my 2012 craft challenge.  Feel free to post it on your blog if you want to take part in this challenge.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Diamond Overlay Dishcloth

I finished crocheting this dishcloth the other day.  Making the diamonds was a new technique for me.  Its always good to learn new techniques.  This pattern came from one of those thin booklets, "Contest Favorites Dishcloths: 17 Best Designs from the Crochet With Heart Dishcloth Contest."  I got it for Christmas from my parents.  I'm currently crocheting a 2nd dishcloth from the book.  Right now I'm concentrating on the single color dishcloths from the book.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Making Butter


What you do is put some heavy whipping cream in a jar, and shake it until there is a lump of solid (butter) in the liquid.  You separate the lump from the liquid, and now you have butter.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Kid Made Wreaths

These 2 wreaths were put together by kids for our church's Winter pageant.   We gave them the supplies, and they arranged them.  I hot glued anything that needed to be tacked down for them.  I think that they did a good job.

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Reindeer Games

Earlier this month I helped out during my church's holiday fair.  One of the places that I helped out at was in the kids' craft room.  They made cards, ornaments, and reindeer hats.


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Gingerbread Men


Today is the last drop in craft day at our library for a few weeks.  We made gingerbread men, which are super easy but very festive.
They provided the kids with foam pieces, glue sticks, crayons, and pipe cleaners to decorate their gingerbread men with.
My son's gingerbread man is on the right and one of his friend's is on the left.  I cut out the background because it had to many kids' faces in it.  I'm ok with showing my son's face, but I don't feel right showing his friends' faces without permission.  Anyway, the kids had a great time making this craft, and now we have something else to decorate our walls with for the holiday.  

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Christmas Ornaments & A Tree

My son made this snowball / snowflake ornament using a paper circle, some packing peanuts, glue, ribbon, and a stapler.  So easy and a great way to recycle those packing peanuts.
I love to go shopping after the holidays.  I found some blank wooden candy shapes for about 8 cents in the after Halloween sale bin.  I thought that they would make great peppermint candy magnets for Christmas.  However my son really wanted something to do, so I gave him these to color and put foam stickers on.  It took a little bit of time and some muscle, but I got my small hole punch to go through them so that they could become Christmas ornaments.  He is giving them to his friends for Christmas.
This one is supper easy, just cut an ornament shape out of construction paper and let your child decorate it.  Then punch a hole at the top and attach some ribbon or yarn to it.  Don't forget to date the back of it so that you'll always remember when your child made it.
I saw this at a preschool recently and I just loved it.  All you need are some green circles, a yellow star, and a brown rectangle, add some glitter glue and some sequence and you're good to go.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Kitty Mask

This week's craft is a kitty mask.  Now the example one is a paper plate, but we used a recycled food box to make ours.
Here is the cat face traced onto a food box.  I cut it out for my son, and he colored it.
We now have 2 other kids (sometimes more) who we meet up with every week at the library to make crafts with.  
After my son was finished coloring his rainbow kitty, I punched a hole on each side, attached some yarn, and tied it around his head.  The eye holes are to high, and we need to recut them.  He loved making this mask, and I love that it used a recycled material.

Monday, December 5, 2011

365 Items in 2011: Update

Since this is the last month of the year, I wanted to bring up my main New Year's Resolutions.  It was to make 365 items during 2011.  Well I have almost doubled that.  So far I have made 688 items this year.   I'm thinking that next year my goal will be 650.  I know that I've passed that number, but I don't want to kill myself trying to out do this year's total.


Total Items Made: 688
This includes 37 quilt blocks.
January's total: 106
February's total: 52
March's total: 73
April's total: 48
May's total: 89
June's total: 17
July's total: 50
August's total: 18
September's total: 96
October's total: 42
November's total: 65
December's total: 32

Who else has participated in this challenge /  resolution?

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Hat Ornaments

Yesterday and this morning I made these 8 hat ornaments.  Two of them are on my Christmas tree right now.  I'll save 2 more of them for gifts, and the others will be donated to my church's craft fair.  I have a lot more to make before the craft fair's deadline (this Friday).  

Below is the video tutorial that I made last year on how to make these hats.  All you need are scissors, a toilet paper tube, and yarn.  The new ones use a wire hanger instead of yarn to hang them on the tree from.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Red Angry Bird


I just finished crocheting this red Angry Bird for one of my nephews for Christmas.  Now to make one for my youngest son.  The pattern is available for free through ravelry.

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Dress Me Up Scarecrow

This is an oldie but a goodie.  We did this one last year, but it was fun making a new one with friends.
We took one paper with the outline of a person on it and one paper with a hat, shirt, and overalls on it.  While I cut out the person, my son colored the clothes.
My son is really into using scissors when I let him, so he cut out the overalls.  Then he let me cut out the hat and the shirt.  Then he glued them all on his person.
Here is his scarecrow.
Here is his friend's scarecrow (yes she likes pink). 

Monday, November 21, 2011

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Turkeys

Here is a fun craft that we did at the library on Friday.  First my son traced my hand on the paper.  Then he placed his hand inside of the drawing of my hand, and I traced his hand.  Next he glued the body of a turkey over our hand prints.
Then he colored his turkey.  The two hand prints are the feathers.  
Then during school, he made a turkey with 10 feathers.  The feathers are a way to practice his speech.

I hope that everyone has a nice Thanksgiving week.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Kitty

This is a super cute project to make.
The supplies are cat faces on card stock, markers, 3 popsicle (2 cut in half), scissors, 2 chenille stems, and either glue or glue dots.  
My son colored all the parts separately.
And then we assembled all the parts with glue dots.  For the tail we twisted two chenille stems together and glued them to the back of the body.  When we got home we glued magnets to the back of the cat.  I think that it is really adorable.  This project was inspired by the librarian's cat.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Purple Crochet M&M Minis Cozy

I have been crocheting this cozy for a few weeks.  I finally finished it today.  It took a long time because I used thin crochet thread and a 1.90 mm crochet hook (size 5).  I used a modified spiral pattern to create the stripes, that way the stripes are seamless.  I slipped stitched the last round, which makes it stay on easier.  This cozy and empty container is for my swap partner who likes purple.  She can put small craft supplies in it, like sewing needles, buttons, stitch markers, etc.
The cozy was a little to plain, so I added a flower made on the peg loom to it.  I used the same 2 colors of purple, and wrapped them around the loom 3 times (thus getting a 6 layered flower).  Then I used 2 strands of the lighter colored purple thread for the center.  Next I added a dot of black glitter glue to the center of it.  My partner likes the color black as well.  
Here name starts with the letter B, so I turned the M on top of the M&M minis container into a B with some black glitter glue.  Why did I choose the lime green container?  I asked her grandmother (who I am friends with) which color she would prefer: red, light blue, green, or orange.  Those are the colors that I have been able to get a hold of with the M&M minis.  I hope that she likes it.  I really like it, and now I want to make one for myself.