Category: Tutorials

 

Today as a beautiful day and we went outside for a couple of experiments. The first one was bouncing balls. I found this recipe for them the other day on the internet.

These do not make the typical store bought balls that you get out of the little vending machines at the grocery store, but it was fun to make them ourselves. The balls will dry out in a couple of days, so this is a project that if fun to do again and again.

What you will need:

2 Tablespoons warm water

1/2 teaspoon Borax (I found it in the laundry aisle at the store)

1 Tablespoon school glue (the recipe says that using white glue will give you an opaque ball and using clear glue will give you a translucent ball. That’s not accurate. We made them both ways and they were all opaque. Once you add cornstarch, it’s opaque so I’m not sure where they got their info)

Food coloring (optional)

2 paper cups

1 craft stick for stirring

 

 

Directions for making the ball:

Place 1/2 teaspoon of Borax and 2 Tablespoons of water into one of the paper cups. Stir to dissolve the Borax. Set aside.

Place 1 Tablespoon of glue into the second cup. Add a few drops of food coloring and stir.

Place 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch into the cup with the glue and food coloring.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of the Borax solution to the cup of glue and cornstarch. Wait 15 seconds before stirring so the ingredients have time to interact.

Stir until the mixture begins to stick together. Once the mixture is a globby mess, but stays in one piece, remove it from the cup and put it in your hands.

Start rolling and kneading the mixture. It will be quite sticky at first, but after you keep rolling it and kneading it, it will start to smooth out and become less sticky.

After a couple of minutes of rolling, it will form a smooth ball.

The ball is then ready to bounce. We found it bounces a bit higher on carpet than a hard surface.

Store the ball in a Ziploc bag to help prevent it from drying out too quickly. I’m not sure how long they will last, but they were fun for the afternoon.

 

Since we already had out cornstarch, water and food coloring, we used equal parts of cornstarch and water to make sidewalk paint. After adding a couple drops of food coloring and giving it a stir, it was ready to go. The mixture goes on wet and dries looking like chalk. After a bit, our sidewalk looked like some pop art.

 

I made a hospital gown for an American Girl doll. A friend of mine was doing an awesome thing and donated part of her liver to her mom. I wanted to do something for her. I made her a hospital gown to wear and I made one for her daughter’s American Girl doll, in hopes it would help ease her fears about her mom and grandma’s surgeries. It’s been a long time coming, but here’s finally a tutorial.

First, draw the simple pattern. You only need one piece for the gown. It will fit on a sheet of copy paper. It’s easiest to begin in the upper left corner. Mark a dot one inch down the page and another three inches along the top. Connect these two dots with a slightly curved line. Follow the diagram below to complete the pattern piece.

Cut out the fabric pieces. Place the left side of the pattern on the fold of your fabric. Repeat one more time to get two identical pieces. Flip the pattern piece over and cut one, not on the fold. You will need to make one alteration. Place the full size back piece, right side up. Draw a line from the armpit to the top of the neck curve. Cut off this sleeve portion.

 

You should now have your three pieces to make the gown.

Fold the fabric on the neck towards the back twice, Iron the pieces to make stitching the curved portion easier. Stitch along the neck for all three pieces. I didn’t do this the first time around so I had to rip part of the gown apart to complete the neck since it was just too tight to easily stitch after the shoulders were sewn. I went ahead and did a sample to show you the part with the neck stitched, and just pretend the pictures following this step have the neck completed.

Place the back pieces on the front with right sides together. Line the shoulders up and stitch using a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Use pinking shears to trim the seam allowance and iron open. You can also serge or do a zigzag stitch to finish the edge, but I find pinking shears work fine on doll clothes.

Fold back the end of the sleeve two times (about 1/4 inch for each fold is sufficient) and stitch.

Line the sides up and stitch from the end of the sleeve to the bottom of the gown, using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Pink the edges.

Fold back and stitch the remaining sides to finish the edges on the back pieces.

Hem the bottom of the gown and attach fasteners of your choice. You can use snaps or Velcro. Placing one at the neck and one along the side. With this design, the back flap stays closed.

 

That’s it! As an alternative, you can use bias tape around the neck and to tie the gown closed.

 

 

 

I didn’t take pictures of the bag I made Katelyn as I went along, so I decided to make another one. This time I made it for her American Girl doll. Now they have matching purses.
I need to get a shot of the two of them together.

The measurements (obviously!) are different, but the construction is the same for each of the bags. So use the measurements for the size you want and follow the instructions.

Go here to see detailed pictures of the other things I made to put in this bag.

Here we go!

 

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These were a lifesaver during our Disney World vacation this summer. The night before our trip, I whipped up these cooling neck wraps and we were all so glad I did. Although the man in the family balked the idea of using one at first, the heat won and he wore his too.

To use the neck wrap to cool you off, you simply soak it in water to activate it and tie it around your neck. Polymer crystals absorb the water. As the water evaporates, it cools you off.

I made them different lengths for the kids than I did for the adult size. Here’s the tutorial for the child size cooling neck wrap.

Start with a strip of fabric that measures 30″ by 4″ and fold it in half lengthwise with right sides together.

Using a 1/4″ seam allowance, stitch the length of the wrap and one end. Zigzag or pink the edges. Leave one end open to fill the neck wrap. Turn the wrap right side out.

Measure 8.5″ from the bottom seam and stitch. This section remains empty.

You can find the polymer beads to use for the wrap in the floral section of craft stores. I found these small packages so I didn’t have to get a huge container. This project uses 1.5 teaspoons, so you don’t need much. These beads absorb water and swell up to much larger than their dry size.

Add 1/2 teaspoon to the neck wrap.

Be sure to get all the beads towards the bottom of the section so you can sew the sew the section closed and not hit any of the beads. They will break a needle! I found it easiest to ease the whole teaspoon down into the wrap before dumping out the polymer beads.

Measure 3″ from the first stitch line and stitch another to form a pocket to secure the beads. Repeat two more times in order to complete three sections with polymer beads. Fold in the end of the tie and top stitch to close the tie.

The two sections at the ends with no beads will be the strips you tie together.

Soak the neck wrap. It may take about 15 minutes to fully absorb the water. The polymer beads will absorb warm water than cold water.

Then wrap it around your neck and chill out. In this picture, it was untied, so it’s pretty loose around her neck.

Tips:

I made the adult size more like 45″ and made 4 pockets with the beads.

We soaked the wraps the first morning we were at Disney. Each night we put them in the fridge and quickly dunked them in water each morning. The beads remain large for days so it doesn’t take long in the water each morning to have them fully absorbed again.

When we weren’t using the neck wraps, we carried them in an open Ziploc bag in our backpack. If you close the bag while they are wet, they can mold and mildew.

Running the wrap under water to refresh it as you pass a water fountain really feels good when it’s hot.

We took the girls to Disney World and Seaworld earlier this month and it was their first trip to each. We had a blast!

I always have a fear of getting separated from one of the kids when we are in big crowds. Our kids know our home phone number. That wouldn’t work so well for them if we were away from home. They may also have difficulty trying to come up with our cell phone numbers if they are scared.

So I needed a way to attach our cell phone numbers  to them. I’ve seen things like wrist bands, temporary tattoos, etc to put on your kids so they always have your phone number. Those sound nice, but they can be costly and that also requires prior planning, which for people like me who wait until the last minute, that doesn’t always work.

The night before we left, I decided to drag out my Shrinky Dinks and make them an ID tag. I cut a circular tag shape, wrote our numbers on them and punched a hole. After shrinking the plastic, I strung each one on a ribbon to tie around for a necklace.

They worked perfectly. They also made it through water rides and didn’t fade, smear or smudge. We can also use them for the next time we go out in a large crowd. I love reusable!

The girls also loved having them. You can see the tags on the girls in most of the pictures  of the girls from the trip.

They were easy to tuck into their clothes.

I did find one downside to the ID tag. By the end of the trip, the girls were very disappointed that they never needed their necklace.

Teacher gifts for this year were fun and easy. The girls made ribbon bookmarks and we also gave their teachers gift cards to the bookstore. So the teachers are ready for summer reading.

We used ribbon clamps and the girls made charms out of Shrinky Dinks for the ends of the bookmarks. I made myself one out of a fabric scrap and a bikini charm.

They were a hit!

To make them, cut a piece of ribbon about 10 inches long. Get some ribbon clamps (found at craft stores in the jewelry making section) and use a pair of pliers to clamp them to the ends of ribbon. Adding a charm to the end finishes off the bookmark.

The camps come in several sizes, but I used the same size with several different ribbons. I used a lighter to melt the ends of the ribbon just a bit so they wouldn’t fray if they extended past the clamp.

These butterfly hair clips are easy to make and are so cute to wear. I made these on a snap barrette, but with some modifications, you can make them into pins or place them on a headband.

You can also change up the design by changing the shape of the butterfly and how you choose to stitch the edges. On the one above, I stitched near the edge with a straight stitch.

With this red one, I did a zigzag around the edge with the sewing machine. With the yellow butterfly below, I hand stitched near the edge.

This tutorial gives you the basics and you make them the way you want.

Here’s a pattern I drew to make the butterflies. Butterfly template Clicking on the link will open a pdf that you can print.

To make a butterfly hair accessory, you will need scrap fabric, felt, thread, DMC floss, a needle and a hair clip. I used Heat’n Bond Lite, but it’s optional.

Cut out your butterfly template pieces. Use a piece of Heat’n Bond Lite and iron it to your piece of felt. Make sure the felt and Heat’n Bond Lite are big enough for your butterfly template piece.

Remove the paper from the Heat’n Bond Lite and place the wrong side of your fabric to the Heat’n Bond side of the felt and iron again.

Cut the butterfly shape and the body piece out of the fabric/felt piece. Cut the body out of felt or felt with the fabric to add thickness to the piece. You can have the fabric decorate the top or the bottom of the butterfly depending on the look you want.

Stitch the edges as desired and add any additional stitching or decorations to the wings before moving to the next step.

Fold the butterfly in half so the wings rest together. Stitch near the bottom of the fold. I leave about a 1/4 inch or so from the fold to the stitching.

Open the wings back up and place the body along the fold on the top of the butterfly. Use two strands of DMC floss or thick thread to stitch the body to the wings.

Cut 2 pieces of felt slightly larger than your hair clip.

Make a small slit in the bottom layer to allow the clip to slide through. Set this piece aside.

Fold the wings in half again and fold the piece of felt over the fold of the butterfly and stitch the felt to the butterfly.

Place the two pieces of felt together with the clip sandwiched in the middle. Pay attention to the direction you place the clip opening so it goes in the hair toe correct direction. Hand stitch the felt together and trim the excessive fabric.

You can customize this fabric basket to make it any size or shape you want. I’m going to give you the instructions for how I made this one, which is about 5″ x 5″ and is 8.5″ tall.

What you will need

If you are purchasing fabric for this project, each 1/8 yard of fabric will give you 2 strips so you need a total of 1 and 1/4 yards of fabric. The amount of fabric you need for each strip depends on how many different fabric you choose to use. I decided to use lots of different fabric for this project, but it can also be done using only 1 or 2 different fabric choices.

Fusible interfacing – you will need and equal amount of interfacing.

2 buttons

Making the strips

Start by making your strips for weaving the basket. Cut fabric 2.25″ wide and at least 24″ long. You will need 20 strips total for this pail. Place each strip on a piece of fusible interfacing and iron them down. I lined them up and did as many as possible at once and cut them apart later.

Once you cut the strips, fold one in half lengthwise and stitch along the side using a 1/4″ seam allowance to form a tube. Leave the ends open. Repeat for 18 more strips.Leave one strip alone for now. It will be the edge piece for the top of the pail later.

Turn each strip right side out. This may take a bit of time. I sat down with a cold drink and some trash tv to help pass the time. After turning each strip, iron flat. Now you should have 18 strips ready for making the basket and 1 strip ready for the handle.

Weaving the pail

Take the 5 strips you want to use for the basket and place them next to each other, going the same direction. Take the other 5 strips and start weaving them back and forth between the first 5 strips, one at a time. They will look like this. Get the weaving as close to the center as possible because this is the bottom of your basket.

Place an object on the part you just weaved to begin weaving sides of the basket. I used a box of saltines because it was the perfect size for what I wanted. Bring all the strips up the sides of the cracker box and use a rubber band to secure the strips.

Begin weaving strips to form the sides of the pail. Sorry these pictures aren’t the best, but I made this in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep well. So this is the best you get.

Keep the strips as close together as possible to make a tight weave. Overlap the ends and tuck them behind one of the vertical pieces. At the end you may need to wiggle some of them around, tighten them, etc.

Continue adding strips, until you get to the top. This one took 8 strips to complete the sides. (I think I mentioned that before, but I tend to repeat myself often…it’s a result of raising kids). Once you get to your last strip, fold the vertical ends over the top horizontal piece and pin into place.

Wiggle your strips until they are pulled tight enough and are even all the way around the basket. Hand stitch the ends of the horizontal strips to hold them in place. Run a zigzag stitch around the top of the pail. Trim the flappy pieces.

Finishing the pail

Take the remaining strip you didn’t sew into a strip. Fold the strip in half lengthwise with wrong sides together. Press flat. Open the strip and fold the raw edges back towards the center fold and press. Fold the ends in and press them also.

Place the strip along the top of the pail so the pail is sandwiched between the two sides of the strip. Overlap the ends and stitch near the open edge.

Take your remaining strip and fold the ends up a couple of times and stitch across to finish the end. Make a buttonhole on each side. Attaching the handle with button and buttonhole will allow you to put the handle up and down. Sew on a button to each side and you are finished.

These would make cute Easter baskets or Trick or Treat buckets too!

As usual, if something doesn’t make sense with this tutorial, please let me know!

I made a second hat in order to do this tutorial. I made the gray hat from a wool blazer and the second hat (shown above), I fashioned from a pair of wool pants.

Felting Wool

To make the hat, you first have to felt the wool. Start with a 100% wool. If you use a blend, it may not shrink evenly. Check the label for a I remove all the buttons and such before felting.

Felting is easy. Toss the clothing into your washer with hot water and a bit of soap. Allow it to run through a heavy duty wash cycle. Check on it every now and again to see how it’s shrinking. Sometimes I need to let it run through the wash cycle to let it agitate longer. Once you take it out of the wash, toss it in the dryer and dry it on high.

When you take it out of the dryer, it will look like it may fit a 3 year old! Wool will shrink that much. It will also be all fuzzy looking.

Cutting and Sewing the Hat

Now that you have your felted wool, it’s time to cut out some pattern pieces.

Cloche Hat Pattern

Open the pattern and print the pieces. The pattern will fit a 21 inch head. If you want the hat bigger, add a slight bit to the seam allowance on the triangular pieces, but keep in mind that the you need to multiply the amount you add by 12 to figure out the final size. For example, if you want the hat to fit a 24 inch head circumference, you only need to add 1/4 inch to the seam allowance on the triangular pieces. If you need a smaller hat, stitch the seam allowance a bit larger, but also keep in mind a bit off 12 sides equals a lot! I left about 2 inches of extra space in the brim to allow for expansion, if you need more, add a bit to the end labeled “back” on the brim pattern piece.

Cut 6 hat pieces and 1 brim piece from your felted wool.

Take 2 of the triangular hat pieces and place them with right sides together. Stitch from the top point to the base on one side using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Take a 3rd triangular piece and stitch it to the other two so you have half of the hat completed.

Repeat the process with the other three triangular pieces so now you have two halves of the hat. Place right sides together and stitch the two halves together. Turn right side out.

Figure out what you want you to be the front of the hat and pin the brim along the bottom edge. I usually make the front fall evenly between seam lines. Stitch the back seam.

If you have any remaining area from the end of the brim, just press it flat before stitching the brim to the hat.

Stitch the brim using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Finishing the Hat

After sewing on the brim, wet the hat in hot water. Take a stiff brush to scrub a bit at the seams on the hat to help blend them better. I like to squeeze the hat and remove the water so it’s no longer dripping and place it on your head to help form the rest of the shape. The cloche hat is pretty form fitting.

Place the hat on something to allow it to dry.

Embellish the hat and it’s ready to wear. I put a ribbon and fabric flower on one and a fabric band and clipped a flower on the other. The trim only needs to be tacked down in a few places. Wearing the hat can help determine the size of the trim. The trim may make the hat too tight otherwise.

Let me know if you have any questions on this tutorial. I realize that sometimes my directions only make sense to me and my quirky brain.

So who’s ready to make a lamp?

For this tutorial, I’ll show you how I made my lamp, but you may need to alter the directions a bit depending on the size of the lamp you have.

Things You Need

I started with a buffet lamp.

4 candle holders from the Dollar Tree (pretend you see 4 of them here). I bought 5, so we could practice with one, but I only needed 4 for my lamp. If your lamp is shorter, you may only need 3. Be sure that the stack nicely together.

And a diamond drill bit to make the holes in the glass. I used a 1/2 inch bit.

You will also need spray paint for the base and candle holders as well as some glue appropriate for glass.

Taking the Lamp Apart

Begin by disassembling your lamp. Disconnect the wires and from the socket part by loosening the screw on the sides and slipping off the wire. I marked the wire letting me know which wire went to which screw, but that may not be necessary. I’m not electrician, so I just try to reconnect stuff the way I found it. Leave only the base and the pole holding the electrical wires. The socket just screws onto the post and is easy to remove.

I didn’t take a picture of the naked lamp. Sorry!

Painting the Lamp

Take the naked lamp outside and spray paint it. I decided to use a glossy black.

It will take several coats. Use light layers and let it dry well in between coats. Just spray the base and don’t worry about the pole. You won’t see the pole in the end anyway.

I found that propping the small parts with a dowel helps you get paint on all sides easily.

I ended up needing to go back and paint another piece the lamp needed, but I didn’t know it until the end, so you may want to spray extra pieces to save time in the end. It was difficult to know how many filler pieces you need since you don’t assemble until the end. I don’t like taking the glass globes on and off more than necessary.

Drilling the Holes

Next, you need to make a hole in the bottom of each piece of glass. This part is a little tricky, but totally doable.

Take a piece of paper and trace around the bottom of your candle holder. Fold the paper in half from side to side. Form a crease. Open the paper and fold in half again, from top to bottom. Where the two sections intersect, you have the center of your circle. Mark the center with a dot.

Place the paper under the candle holder so you can see the center mark. Mark the inside of the glass with a Sharpie. It is important to place the mark on the inside because you will be using water in the next step and you don’t want to wash your mark off.

Drilling the holes is easiest if you have two people. I purchased an extra candle holder so we could practice cutting the hole on it.

To drill a hole in glass, you need a diamond drill bit. Measure the diameter of the center pole staying in the lamp. I bought a 1/2 inch bit because was big enough to slide the pole through, but not so big that the lamp would wiggle around. You can find these bits at any major hardware store.

My husband helped me with this part. For some reason he didn’t seem to trust me with combining water and power tools! That was probably a pretty smart move. I would have had a hard time taking pictures at the same time too. So I accepted his help.

Place a towel in the bottom of your sink to help secure the candle holder while drilling the bottom. Place the candle holder on the towel with the bottom turned up towards you. Use a towel you plan to throw away in the end. When we finished, we had lots of tiny shards of glass on the towel and decide it wasn’t worth the risk of getting hurt later by a hidden piece of glass, so we threw the towel away. Just keep that in mind when choosing what to use.

When drilling through glass, you need lots of water to help keep the glass and bit cool. It also helps decrease the glass dust produced by the drill. So as my husband drilled, I used the sprayer from the sink and kept a low flow of water hitting the surface the whole time.

He had to apply a decent bit of pressure as he drilled. Do your best to keep the drill centered. Once you get started, it will form a groove and that makes it easier to keep the bit from sliding as you drill. As you get close to breaking through, the sound changes just a bit and you know that just a few more seconds you will have the hole. You need to let up some pressure at that point or you risk chipping or cracking the glass because the weight of the drill may hit the glass.

Repeat on all the glass candle holders until you have the holes finished. Sorry about the bad photos. I was working on a crafting deadline and had to take pictures at night.

Painting the Glass

I tried 3 different ways of painting these. I tried craft paint. I tried acrylic paint and finally, I got out my trusty, rusty can of spray paint. Painting it with craft paint and acrylic paint didn’t work well because it was so thick, took forever to dry and then peeled right off like it was never there. I started off with rolling paint around in the glass and it covered well, but like I said, it just didn’t hold up like I wanted. So her’s what I did.

Wipe the inside of the candle holders with white vinegar. Apparently this helps condition the glass so the paint sticks better. I didn’t do this until I tried the spray paint, so I don’t know if it would have helped the other paints, but it was a cheap and easy thing to try before my third attempt and since the final try worked, I’m also passing on that bit of info.

Hold the spray paint in one hand and the candle holder in the other. Using quick spurts, spray the INSIDE of the glass. Spraying the inside helps keep the shiny milk glass look to the lamp.

It will take several layers of spray paint before it’s fully covered. Be careful to not overspray and cause the paint to run.

Once the paint is dry, if you got some paint on the outside of the glass, you can wipe it off with acetone.

Assembling the Lamp

Once all the paint is dry, start assembling the lamp. Place the first globe over the pole and let it rest on the base. Continue stacking until all of the candle holders are on the lamp.

To help secure the lamp, you need to glue each of the candle holders together. I used E-6000, but using a glass epoxy will probably hold better in the long run.

Run a bit of glue along the bottom rim of the candle holder. I stacked mine one at a time and applied the glue once I got it on the post. There was enough room to lift up and run the glue under the candle holder. I took the top candle holder off to see how that would work and I managed to get glue everywhere when I tried to thread it over the lamp post.

Can you see the glue here?

Continue stacking and gluing the candle holders until they are all on the lamp post.

Place the remaining pieces on the top of the lamp. When I first assembled the lamp, I didn’t realize I needed the larger piece. So I took the original pictures without is since it was still waiting for a couple coats of paint. Replace the socket and place the wires over the correct screws before adding to top of the light socket.

I glued a circular piece of fabric to the bottom of the lamp to make it cute too…not that anyone ever sees it.

Now your lamp is complete!

Recovering the Lampshade

I’ll share how to recover a lampshade. It’s nothing new or different, but I figured I’d add it since it was part of the new lamp.

Since I used a  buffet lamp, the shade that was with it was not the size I needed for my new lamp. So I found a black lampshade to use instead. That shade worked, but was a bit boring and  I couldn’t find anything else I liked.

So I headed over to the fabric store and purchased 1/2 yard of fabric.

To recover the shade, iron the fabric to remove the center crease.

Place the shade in the center of the fabric and begin to draw a line approximately 1 inch above and below the lamp.

Roll the lampshade to the right and continue to draw the line above and below the shade. The lines will begin to curve upward as you roll the lamp. Be sure you have enough fabric to overlap the short ends slightly.

Cut the fabric on the lines and run a line of glue along the inside bottom of the lampshade. Take one of the short sides and fold the fabric back a small amount and glue it. This will give you a finished edge to the back of the shade. I didn’t take a picture of that part, but I can if someone need a visual.

Turn the edge of the fabric up and press into place.

Run glue along the inside portion of the lampshade at the top and press the fabric down along the top too. Run one more strip of glue where the ends overlap in the back and glue that down.

Place your new lampshade onto your new lamp and enjoy!