Kid Crafting

Mardi Gras! Pancake Day! Fat Tuesday! end of carnival......

Whatever you want to call it, it signals the onset of Lent. My guess is that less eating and more fasting will result in more crafting. But that doesn't start until tomorrow, so here is the only crafting going on:

 

As upper elementary students, my kids are able to finish their school work between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. So they're watching the History Channel (Indiana Jones, oooo!) and making a latch hook rug and a model of wooden dragon.

Happy Scrappy Day

I spent ten hours working on scrapbook pages at New Life Church. It was a fundraiser crop (freewill offering) for their youth group's upcoming Appalachia mission trip. Although we have a new printer/scanner/copy machine, I decided to photograph my work from that day. Much faster.

I loved getting a bunch of pictures out of storage and into an album. I still have journaling to finish, but getting the pages laid out is the biggest hurdle to leap. Journaling is easy, doesn't take much space at home, etc. I finished 25 pages. I also started two big layouts, but found that each layout was missing one big photo. I think I must have been waiting to print the enlargements with the occasional Walgreen's "Free 5 x 7" special. I'm still waiting for that special to run, and I'll remember this time that I have images to print. I also organized some photos. Some photos from 2005 -- four years ago -- got stuck on a page (finally). Yes, I am pretty late.

Another notable detail about the crop I attended was that someone had just purchased a CriCut at WalMart (under $200) and brought it along. This weekend was the first time it ever saw use. I had never seen one. It was nifty and fun, even though we couldn't use cardstock with it. You can see some of the letters I cut with it here. It seems to have a lot more to offer than a Sizzix or QuicKuts.

I'm not finished embellishing all of my pages. With a self-imposed spending freeze of all craft supplies, I will pore over my idea book that I bought back in the days of yore, and create some awesome-ness that fits my style and current stock of supplies.

I also pumped out quite a few blocks for my crazy quilt and "I" of GAIN finished her pincushion on Friday. She plans to give it to a friend tomorrow during a play date. I made a few more after this photograph was taken. I recently saw a 'project improv'-style quilt where the stitcher made the back of the quilt with large scraps of fabric. I am considering the idea, but I like using a flat sheet, then tying it. The kids can participate in the tying, which is why our quilts are tied. (I have made two or three quilts that are not tied, and they weren't for our family to use.) I haven't made any decisions on finishing this, though. I don't even keep track of how many blocks I still need to sew. I may be done, but who knows.

Crafting in 2009

Not a lot of changes here. Prayer shawl ministry has supplied some yarn so I can do some mindless knitting when I need it. My remnant scarf is still a WIP (work in progress). It requires more thinking than most scarves, and I like that. Of course, my state of alertness tells me when to work on it. My crazy quilt stash is finally getting smaller! YAY -- I have no idea what the block count is. Funny thing is, even with all those scraps gone, my scrap drawer is still full. I think fabric fluffs out and compresses as the situation dictates. "I" of GAIN is still working away at her valentines. Biggest challenge is the envelopes. If they need to be mailed, we have to get a sturdy envelope. Future 2009 valentines will be made to fit a conventional envelope if they have to be mailed.

Lastly, check out the Crafty Crow. She has a giveaway!

This picture is the girls working on Chinese calligraphy, their idea. Happy Chinese New Year a bit early.

Our crafty week

The results of our crafty week:

Home school gathering. Decorating pencil bags. "G" turns his green bag into camo -- the miracle of fabric markers. "I" turns her pink bag into girliness thanks to sticky felt flowers and puff paint.



"I" had her birthday. Two crafts of note. Since the kids all get their (homemade) food of choice on their special day, we had to make "enchanted unicorn horns" for breakfast. An enchanted unicorn horn is a sugar cone (for ice cream) dipped in almond bark, dipped in sugar. Obnoxious (and probably noxious to some). So this is breakfast. The recipe came from The Princess Cookbook that she received for Christmas.
For his gift to his sister, "N" of GAIN took a stick (she LOVES sticks and has special relationships/memories with them), took the bark off of it (quite difficult and time consuming), then used the scroll saw to remove the twig stubs, and sanded it. She loved it. Maybe we should give up shopping for her in the future.

Next crafty thing was finishing the chenille scarf. I had the yarn left from a failed project and decided that it should be a scarf. It is not smooth, so it doesn't show cables even though I put a few in; it worked up stiffer than I imagined, but acted as I thought it should with the purl ridges I designed. It is soft and warm. "N" took this photo of me this morning (no makeup, Vickie!). You can't really tell that my hair is shorter, but I had it cut last week -- chin length with layers.

The last crafty item is a gift for my godson. I failed in my first attempt for his sister -- I just need to spend some mental time to create a better fitting pattern. It works out to be very cute in my head. LOL But the godson gift is a fairly mindless pattern in a divine combo of yarn. It is SO SOFT -- cashmere, baby llama, merino, microfiber. I followed the pattern, but hope that I have enough yarn. You never can tell with handknits. I usually knit larger than the recommended gauge. So if needed, I'll rip it out and work it up with smaller needles in order to budget the yarn. I cannot get more of it -- the one store closed and the other is in WI. And there are dye lots to consider. It is very fast (the "mindless" factor), so I'm not worried. I have the first half very close to done after half a day of off and on working. It will be completely done tomorrow. (I know when to say when!) Here it is earlier today:

You might notice the playing card to the side. It came from LEGO Creator, a board game that involves building things with bricks.

Flair

I told "G" of GAIN that I needed an upgrade of the napkin holder, something with a star, for flair. Here is what he came up with. he he

Kid crafting

Grandpa gave the boys a scroll saw two years ago for Christmas. "G" complained this weekend that since it's kept at Grandpa's house, he never gets to use it. So it came to live at our garage on Saturday while Mr. GAIN was gone and I was in between meetings.

Since we're still trying out the schedule, we've been light on school work. In an effort to keep people busy between my taxi service calls, I turned "G" to crafting his own toys. He chose to cut out a sword and a dagger from a leftover bluebird or bat house (cannot remember now) that the Great Ape Trust told me to make. The next week, I was told to not assemble or deliver it. So we had nice wood laying around.

While my business partner talked to me on the phone, "G's" little sister insisted that he also cut the scrap wood into toys for her. I made some sandpaper blocks for the two kids to use after the cutting was done. I had to call the cutting off when the scraps got too small for my comfort. Mr. GAIN came home from playing ball soon after this, and was surprised to see a saw in our garage. LOL

Since Monday, I've been trying to get the paper napkin deal at Walgreen's (500 napkins for $3). They were sold out on Sunday, but a new truck came overnight. When "G" was done with art class, he went to work on making a napkin holder for us out of K'nex. I first saw a K'nex napkin holder while at a Charlotte Mason meeting in Ankeny four years ago. Never forgot it. Since we have plenty of K'nex (I guess you can never have enough), it was no problem to donate a few for napkins.

kids crafting

quick note here to let you know that I am not crafting, but the children are. "N" of GAIN nominated himself to craft a banner to use during scout patrols. "A" of GAIN has a notebook to make for science. she finished the beehive crafting last month. the bees are installed and loving their queen. the bees were crafting their own comb earlier -- it's very white. "I" of GAIN has been loving the coloring book she got yesterday from a grandmother. "G" of GAIN had projects for an art pin for scouts. everyone is crafting but me. it's my legacy.