Fairytale invitations

To make the invitations for Hannah's party, I started with a piece of white scrapbooking paper and painted the general shape of hairdos, faces, dresses, crowns and wings all over the paper, being sure to paint a little askew and messy. After the paint dried, I used a black gel pen (G2's are my favorite) to draw the fairies and princesses. I took the idea from the Usborne book, 50 Fairy Things to Make and Do, which gives lots of cute examples to copy, although the princess crowns were my own idea, as were some of the hairstyles, wings, etc. After the ink dried, I cut out the shapes. The pink paper is also sturdy scrapbooking paper and the clouds paper is a digital scrapbooking paper by Emily Merritt, overlaid with a low-opacity box and text in Photoshop and printed on normal computer paper. Fonts are mostly by Kevin and Amanda. A double-sided foam tape would add depth to this kind of card, but I didn't have any around. I think it is cute without it but it would add a nice touch! I ended up with a few left-over fairies so I decorated each envelope front with them. I expected to have lots of fairy and princess rejects, but oddly enough I only threw one out! I guess the style is very forgiving... and they sure are cute!

My portable craft station

I have the best husband. This Christmas he got me this amazing craft organizer and it has saved my sanity where crafting is concerned. I had previously "organized" my supplies by trying to keep track of 15 different shopping bags with items from 20 different projects, a FedEx box of fabric, a baggy of yarn, a gift bag with a knitting project, a paper bag with a half-finished doll, a drawer full of fabric pieces, elastic and a couple patterns, a shelf with knitting needles and tulle, scissors hidden in one of those bags, a tape measure was around there too, no clue where that pin cushion got to.... I could go on, but you get the point. Total. Chaos.

So on Christmas Day I brought arm loads of supplies downstairs, piled them up and started sorting. In the end, I had my well-stocked organizer, a box of fabric, a bag of yarn, and no more clutter! Now, when I need scissors or a tape measure, or a safety pin, or a specific thread color, or anything, I know right where it is! I love how easy it is to haul around too. It is getting heavy with all I have packed into it (much more than in the pictures!), but I have saved myself so many trips upstairs and down just by keeping all my supplies in one tote that I can bring to any part of the house.

The grand tour:
Front: Scissors pocket for sewing and craft scissors
Pocket for rotary cutter and seam ripper
Pocket for knit fabric scraps (for doll necks and noses)
Main compartment has pin cushion, safety pins, craft sand, cellophane bags, size 0-15 circular needles
Tiny pockets for crochet hooks, cabling needles, yarn needles, metal and leather thimbles, machine oil, machine lint brush, machine needles of various kinds, dressmaker pencil, regular pencil, chopsticks, doll freckles pen, ballpoint straight pins.
Sides: pocket for pattern envelopes, pocket for my homemade patterns, velcro, straight knitting needles, rubber bands, embroidery thread, dental floss, red beeswax crayon
Back: pockets for buttons, tape measures, hand-sewing needles of various kinds
Main compartment for lint roller, bandaids, ribbon, size 0-15 DPNs
Zipper pocket: elastic, twill tape, short cotton stockinette lengths
Inside area: thread box and cotton yarns

Mary Jane slippers

Yes, yes... I know I didn't need to start ANOTHER knitting project right now, but I had to face facts. My feet are cold and my slippers had huge holes. I guess I got too jealous of my dollies all getting toasty little knit slippers so I broke down and started knitting. I'm making the pattern up as I go, starting with a simple toe-up sock method, cast off about 1/5 of the stitches and continued on. I intend to crochet around the opening in sock monkey brown and add two straps of some kind to the top.

Remember when I said I turned Ginny's first blanket into a bunch of tiny projects? Here's more of that yarn... Caron Wintuk (heavy worsted weight). The sock monkey brown was for that blanket too. Good thing it was a cute combo even if the blanket didn't turn out!

Also, remember when I said I was having trouble with my double-pointed needles? It turns out Caron Spa yarn is extremely slippery and extremely splitty, so it turns out I have having yarn trouble, not needle trouble. DPN's with a normal-textured worsted weight yarn was just as easy as everyone said it would be!

Wordless Wednesday: Free fonts!!!

Yes, I adore this fonts site. Check it out. It's all free.

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/

A note on thread

I am in love with Gutermann. There, I said it. I am a thread snob and proud of it. I used to use whatever was cheapest, but I got so fed up with breaking threads and clogged sewing machines that I switched completely to Gutermann and think everyone else in the world should to. It is fabulous stuff.

Why? Well, it might seem redundant, but because you don't have to worry about clogged machines and broken threads. Gutermann 100% polyester is the best all-purpose thread out there. It sheds less fiber than other threads and is stronger than other brands. If you sew with regularity, using Gutermann extends the time between machine services, so really, the few cents extra per spool pays for itself!

And while we're on the subject, who says it's expensive
thread? You can buy a small spool of 100 yds for $1.70 or so at most fabrics stores. Joann's puts their Gutermann thread on sale at 50% off very regularly--I think about once a month. That puts a small spool at about 85 cents. If you buy an economy spool (like my daughter is proudly showing off above and below) at half off, you will spend $4 for 1000 yards which works out to less than half the price per yard as the small spool. Not too shabby.

Lastly, I'll show off my current Gutermann collection because it makes me happy to think of how many projects I will get out of all those lovely colors! :)

My intro to soap making

I love a good DIY project. It is so satisfying to know I saved money, did something useful, and cut one more item from our list of store-bought necessities, but even I know that making soap seems a little... pioneerish. However, I had a problem. My normal soap shop, Bluehouse Soaps, closed temporarily for a family move last summer and has still not opened. Thankfully, just before closing, I ordered almost a year's worth of soap and hoped they would be back in business when my stock ran out, but alas... my last bar of all-natural "mermaid soap" is gone. I had to make a choice... try out a new online store (which I might not like, would likely cost more, and I would have to order a lot to justify the shipping), switch to all-natural soaps from a store (which aren't nearly as nice as homemade ones), or just make it myself.

Why even both with natural soaps? It's mostly a sensitivity issue for our family. All four of us react in one way or another to agents in most commercial soaps. I have to be extremely careful with Ginny's soap because commercial soaps make her miserable, but many natural soaps dry her skin too much, so it has to contain oatmeal and other natural moisturizers... try finding a soap like that at Target! I am also leery of introducing unnecessary chemicals when they can easily be avoided. Who knows what's harmful and what's not, so I'd rather skip the SLS, phthalates, and perservatives when there are plenty of chemical-free alternatives.

So, back to the soap making. After a shower with my shrinking bar of "mermaid," I set out to find out how hard it would be to make myself. I mean, I wasn't going to mix animal fat and ashes, but if there was an easier method it might be worth a shot. And I found one! A method known as "melt and pour" is the perfect start to making soaps just the way you want them with none of the nitty-gritty. Simply put, you buy a soap base, melt it and add your "extras" and let it harden again!

Like I said, we have sensitivity problems and Ginny needs that moisturizing element, so I went with two high-quality bases from Brambleberry: one made with olive oil for moisturizing properties and one made with goat's milk for soothing properties. I got a couple of nice scents for Hannah and I, one that smells like oranges and strawberries, and one that smells like cookies. For Ginny and Lee who react to scents, I got some grapefruit essential oil which, in my experience, smells just like lemon meringue pie when it's put in soap! I had intended to mix the bases together, but just for fun, I separated them in layers and scented it like cookies for my first bar. The bottom base (goat's milk) is normally a pure white, but I mixed in organic baby oatmeal.

Isn't it beautiful??? Who needs expensive soap molds when you have an empty margarine container! The soap smells like heaven too. In fact, my husband was so inspired by the delicious scent that he decided to make chocolate chip cookies while the soap hardened in the kitchen. Unfortunately, I had to cut the lovely bar in half so it would fit on a soap deck, but in doing so separated the two layers. They seemed to have melted together again, but I don't know how permanently! I guess mixing bases is a better way to start after all.

My last "mermaid" is now completely used up, so I put my new soap to use this week and I have to say I'm impressed! The goat's milk base lathers up very nicely for a homemade bar soap and with all the extra moisturizing parts (olive oil, oatmeal, and goat's milk), my skin felt even softer afterwards than normal!

Paper doll chains

This is a fun and easy craft for elementary-aged kids! Using a folded piece of paper, make a chain of dolls (or fairies, princesses, people, gingerbread men, etc.) to decorate! Your kids will love seeing their shapes unfold all holding onto the hand of the doll/fairy/person next to them!



You will need:
Paper
Scissors

Craft supplies to decorate with, for example:
Crayons, pens, markers, colored pencils, etc.
Aluminum foil
Colored paper pieces
Yarn
Glitter glue
Tulle
Tape
Magazines
Bits of fabric
Ribbon

Start by folding your paper in half the long way. Then fold it twice in the other direction. It helps your design to lay flat if you make these folds accordion-style. Next trace the outline of the shape you will cut out on the top section of your paper just like you were drawing on the front of a homemade card. Make sure that the hands extend to both sides of rectangle. I have created a couple of ideas for shapes here... the first can be used as a princess or a wizard and the second as a ballerina or a fairy. Once your design is drawn, cut it out through all the layers EXCEPT for the hands. Those need to remain attached on both sides for the chain effect to work. When you unfold them you will have two separate chains of dolls. You may use them separately, or tape them together. Depending on how you choose to decorate, you may wish to tape them together after they are decorated, or temporarily just from the backside.

Now use your imagination and supplies to create 8 different versions of your shape! You can use fabric bits to create clothes, yarn pieces for hair or beards, colored paper for wings, aluminum foil to look like metal pieces or add shine, cut faces or hands out of magazines for your people, glue some ribbon to your princess' pointy hat... you name it! Get creative and have fun!