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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Crafts over the chicken



I am so proud of myself for this new idea. Since my late teens, I have wanted magnetic poem words. The cost really prevented, and still prevents, my purchase. My inspiration came this evening while looking at yet another dumb barium sheet magnet. How many can a person own? How much space is left on our refrigerator door?

I cut my magnet apart. I separated the words that were on it. In the blank areas, I wrote my own words. Then I found more magnets, lather, rinse, repeat. I have my own free magnet poem words, I didn't spend money, and the words on the magnets are randomly great!

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Laura's lantern


I have "I" of GAIN Academy reading _Little House in the Big Woods_, by Laura Ingalls, out loud every day. She read about Laura and Ma finding a big bear in the cow pen. Laura's job was to hold the lantern. I think Ma just needed moral support and didn't want to be in the dark by herself. I'm like that, too. Anyway, I asked "I" if she wanted to make a tin lantern similar to the one Laura used. She said yes, even though it would be a two day project.

We started by filling empty tin cans with water and freezing them. You can see her taking the next step, punching the holes. The can sat upside down in the sink, and after the ice melted enough, I shook it out and let the can dry. We placed an old wire hanger for the handle near the rim, put a candle in, and she and her sister played for a while. (They both made a their own lanterns.) I felt joy to think that my girls, at their ages, will play together every now and then. Mr. GAIN was quite impressed with the lanterns and the girls playing.

We talked about how much light came through her lantern, how much light you would need outdoors and how she would design one of a different size if she were Laura, etc. I think she may be looking for one the next time we visit Living History Farms.

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Friday, January 25, 2008

The Birthday Pillow


My friend and I have daughters who are the same age. When we made a date for working out at their new local YMCA, "A" of GAIN had a birthday gift to present -- a pillow from a well-loved and now outgrown T shirt. It was not just a regular T shirt, either. This shirt gets colorful when exposed to sunlight, and it has dolphins on it, which is a favorite theme. Here is "A" working on her pillow -- the fastest craft in the west.

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Saturday, January 19, 2008

The Jesse Tree


A Jesse Tree is craft related, so here is a sideways picture of ours. We use the Jesse Tree to count down the days to Christmas and mark the genealogy of Jesus before we celebrate His birthday on Christmas. Jesse, 1 Sam. 16:1-13 , is often considered Jesus' first ancestor since he was King David's father.

We use the ornaments from a kit (no longer available to my knowledge, the company closed its doors years ago) that I bought at a Catholic home school conference. Instead of a table top tree, we have a flat, paper tree on the wall or door. This saves us a lot of valuable, used-all-the-time counter and table space. The kids helped me with this year's "tree." Cole asks forgiveness if anyone thinks that the stand for the tree (the red thing at the bottom) looks like an upside-down pair of underpants.

You can choose your own ancestors and related ornaments for Jesus if you do not have pre-purchased ornaments like ours. You can see a close-up of the ram ornament. Our ram stands for Isaac. The ram took Isaac's place in Gen. 22:1-14.

The crafty part is the construction of the tree and ornaments. Our are made of cardstock, fit together with slits in 3-D fashion. Pretty easy if you have access to clip art and can manipulate the dimensions. Ours are slightly less than 3" in all directions (for the most part). Not the easiest to store, but everyone loves to get them out and have a turn placing the next figure on a branch.

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Sunday, January 13, 2008

Rag bag or shirt-bag

I have been on a crafting high, as you can tell from the daily posting. I want to share my crafting with the world! Today, I spent about three hours making a shirt-bag (or purse) for my niece. I made the pattern with the help of a tutorial at www.craftster.org, a website that may become my go-to source for inspiration. The bag was a piece of cake, which makes me happy. Instant gratification feels soooo good.

Here is the story behind the bag. My brother-in-law is in at least one band at any given moment. I have a T-shirt from his band Slopsycle. I can't remember how I got it, but it doesn't fit me or anyone else in the house. It's a tubular shirt, size adult large, nice sturdy fabric. Other family members have the same shirt in a size that fits them. I have a vague bad feeling when I see the shirt worn by everyone else. I see it worn in almost disrespectful, and definitely not edifying, situations. For example, "Let's get stinky and sweat a lot on this hot summer day, while we wear our (implied, "worthless") Slopsycle shirts for cutting down trees across the creek." The shirt ought to be worn in public, with pride, edifying the greatness that is Joe (and his band) rather than in a place for shirts that are almost ready for the "rag bag."

Thus, the YakPak rip-off in three hours or less. My niece will get a nice, meaningful gift, an homage to the creativity of Joe and his fellow band members. People seeing her will get a glimpse of the band that they ought to know but never knew it until they saw her shirt-bag. That is win-win! (No pictures here until the gift is opened.)

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Saturday, January 12, 2008

quilling on my own

After a few days of quilling, I have moved on to creating my own designs. I feel so free to be self-reliant! Depending on someone's patterns can be stressful -- finding them, then deciding to print out the page or take notes or quill near the computer, etc. At first, I need to pattern to get used to the shapes, form preferences, and basically figure out what works for me based on what other people have done in the past. Easy learning curves bring me joy. We need another quilling tool, and we're almost out of paper. So quilling may come to an end due to lack of supplies. But that's OK. I just discovered www.craftster.org

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Friday, January 11, 2008

Quilled snowflakes



We can't get real snowflakes, so we are quilling snowflakes. My 7 year old really likes it. Actually, everyone who has tried it, likes it. Here you can see "I" of GAIN and some of the snowflakes. The snowflakes are light blue, and I have a no-flash photo here. That means that the contrast and pattern of the snowflakes is great, but the resolution is lower than with a flash.

Interesting historical note that I read somewhere in cyberspace but cannot find any longer (story of my life): Quilling began when nuns would trim pages for books. The quills used for writing were used to wrap the trimmings to make decorations for pages, book covers, etc. You can see the wiki entry here, though it is not worded as nicely as the source I found earlier.

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Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Quilling





A new year, a new craft! -- quilling, or paper filigree, was started tonight for the first time in this family. "A" of GAIN and I spent a small amount of time making lovely little things out of paper. (Photos are taken against my pant leg in case you are wondering.)

Quilling came to my attention this year through my refreshing support group, HomeswithheartandCM. It is for fans of a Charlotte Mason education. The home where we met had a Christmas tree decorated with ornaments that were handmade. Right up my alley! A beautiful quilled snowflake was removed and shown to everyone present. The hostess had created it about 25 years ago and she still has the instruction book for us to browse. After reading a bit and observing people making quilling for a bit, I dove into the craft this evening after shopping at a local small business (always when possible).

A fellow member noted that paper filigree is mentioned in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility:

...Lucy directly drew her worktable near her and reseated herself with an alacrity and cheerfulness which seemed to infer that she could taste no greater delight than in making a filigree basket for a spoiled child... "Perhaps," continued Elinor," if I should happen to cut out, I may be of some use to Miss Lucy Steele in rolling her papers for her; and there is so much still to be done to the basket that it must be impossible I think for her labor singly to finish it this evening. I should like the work exceedingly if she would allow me a share in it."


I searched for a quilling snowflake pattern and found one that I liked. There are many more, as you can see here. I have decided on these for next year's smelted Christmas ornament for GAIN Academy and all the nieces and nephews.

I also want to make two related notes. One is that the handmade ornaments at the hostess's house were quite varied and fun -- cotton swab and foam ball snowflakes, LEGO figures, etc. Perhaps we'll expand our Christmas tree inventory so we can show more of our ornaments. We probably get 40% of our collection out each year. The other note is that a current local weekly "news"paper is about crafting among the new generation of young adults. Does that mean I can join the younger demographic because I share its love of crafting?

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More smelting

I knit my sister and sister-in-law each her own handmade dishcloth/potholder. One was a duplicate of the dishcloth I wrote about back in 2007. Mine has served me very well in it's once a week rotation. I also made a solid white dishcloth. Since its color is solid, it shows a pattern very nicely. In this case, the pattern is the King Charles Brocade stitch -- About.com has instructions. I found this historical tidbit at the jersey knitter blog:

The King Charles Brocade stitch pattern may be found in Barbara G. Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. It's one of several patterns in a beautifully knit blue silk vest (to modern eyes, a tunic) worn by King Charles I of England on the day of his execution in January 1649. (It's bloodstained.) However unsuccessful he was as a sovereign, at the end Charles showed manly style, asking for warm clothes to ward off unseemly shivering: "The season is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some observers may imagine proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation."

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Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Smelting, cont'd.



The finished sweater and some scarves -- Mr. GAIN's cousin was a knit-a-holic for a while, and produced scarves and soap socks, complete with soap, for all her cousins and cousins-in-law this year. She kicked some serious smelting butt and made us proud.

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