Soccer Mom of The Bearded Child!

I just had to share this.  My little girl has always been kinda full of weird behavioral surprises, but this one takes the cake!  A friend of my Dads likes to give Cora quarters for the vending machine at a restaurant we go to for lunch, and what does my daughter buy with them?...A moustache collection!   The bad part is she insists on wearing them to soccer practice and games.  I told her I thought it would be best to leave them at home, but she was really set on wearing them to soccer.  I figured the other kids would laugh at her and cure this bizarre phase, but my plan backfired.  They all thought she looked cool.  So it looks like I'm the soccer mom of the bearded child! Awesome!

How to Make a Snail Ribbon Hair Clip

I saw a little girl wearing one of these in her hair, and thought..."I have to make that!".  I don't work with ribbon very much, but being a crafter, I had plenty of it laying around.  I don't know if I made this right, but I think it turned out well enough to pass on to the crafty community! =)

Here is what you will need to get started-

• 4 pieces of ribbon. 3 1/2" for the body, 2 1/2" to cover the clip, 1 3/4" for the antenna, and 21" for the shell
• wooden skewer or dowel rod and clips to make curly korker ribbon
• hot glue gun
• scissors
• lighter (not shown). This is used to seal the ends of the ribbon to prevent fraying
• snap hair clip

First seal all ends of the ribbons by placing them near the flame of the lighter.  Test this on a scrap piece first to get the hang of it (warning- do not do this with cotton ribbon. It will catch on fire. Only polyester- the silky kind).  The end of the ribbon will melt a little, giving it a nice sealed edge.  Next, we are going to make the korker ribbon for the shell.  Clip one end of the 21" ribbon to the end of the skewer and wrap in around in a spiral, securing it with another clip (as in the photo to the left).  Once your skewer or dowel is wrapped, place it on a cookie sheet or tin foil in a 275 degree oven for 20 minutes. 

While the korker ribbon bakes, we will make the rest of the clip.   The clip I saw the little girl wearing was an alligator clip.  I however didn't have one, so I had to improvise and use a snap clip.  I wanted to cover the front of the clip with ribbon for 2 reasons.  I thought it would look nicer, and I also needed a surface to glue the snail on to.  This is a little finicky, but it serves its purpose well.  I took plenty of pictures to better help explain my poor writing skills! =)

The first thing you want to do is unsnap the clip.  Place a thin bead of glue all around the top part of the clip, just do not put any on the middle part that snaps open.  Quickly put your 2 1/2" piece of ribbon on top of the glue before it sets, and smooth it out as you close the clip.  Open and close the clip after it cools to make sure the center didn't get glued shut.  Next, cut around the clip leaving a tiny bit of overhang.  Being careful not to burn yourself, pass the cut edges near the flame of the lighter (I find it easier to use a candle lighter).  You will see the edge of the ribbon shrink in a bit as it seals.  Do this around the entire clip.  We now have a blank clip all ready for a new snail to live on!

Let's make the snail body.  Take the 3 1/2" piece of ribbon and wind it around like in the picture below, making the tail narrower than the head.  Once you have it the way you like it, place a couple dabs of glue to hold it in place.  Make a slight bend in the body for the snail head, and glue it onto the clip.

What's a snail without antennas?  To make the antennas cut the edges off of the 1 3/4" ribbon and place them on a cookie sheet or aluminum foil.  We are going to run the lighter over them several times, allowing them to melt and shrink.  This will give them some more stability and keep them from becoming a frayed disaster.  Once your antennas are to your liking, place a dab of glue in the snails head.  Put both antennas into the glue and squeeze the head closed.

By this time, your korker ribbon should be done, or close to it.  Once it is done, remove it from the skewer.  The snail shell is made by winding the korker ribbon around in circles like a lollipop.  Start by rolling one end in and gluing it as you go.  Make sure to keep the curl in the ribbon tight.  Run a bead of glue along the edge of the circle you are forming, securing each ring to the next.  When you are done it should look like a ribbon lollipop (a great idea for another clip, right?!).  Place some glue along the snails back and on the clip above it, and glue the shell into place.  You now have a cool snail hair clip that any kid is sure to love!

The clips lay nicely against the head.  My sister was kind enough to model  for a photo.  I made 2 snail clips today.  One for my niece and one for my spoiled daughter of course.  They loved them!

Have fun making your own snail clips and be sure to post your pictures of them at the WhimWham Flickr Group!  Questions and comments are welcome as always! =)

How to Make Glass Gem Marble Magnets

I made a quick craft project tonight with Cora.  I had some iridescent glass gems that Cora loved to play with, so today at the store I picked up some clear ones hoping to make some magnets with her tonight.  The clerk however, did not give me all of the bags from my purchase, causing me to have to drive 25 miles back to the store again to claim them.  So after that adventure, I knew we were definitely going to make these magnets tonight!

Here is what we used to make them:

          
• clear glass gem marbles
• clear silicone sealant
• button magnets
• little pictures or images (from fabric,magazines, stickers, junk mail address labels, photos, etc.)

These were super easy to make and only took us about 10 minutes to make all 10 of them.  Pick out the pictures you want to use and place a glass gem over top of it to make sure it fits.  The gems magnify the image, so just make sure the part you want to show is centered.  The glass gems are all different sizes.  I sort  through them first, to make sure they were big enough to cover the whole magnet.
Once you have your image picked out, use your magnet as a template and draw a circle around the selected image.  Cut out the image and spread a very thin layer of sealant on the magnet to adhere the picture.  Then place a pea sized dot of sealant on the image, and smush a glass gem marble onto it (flat side down of course).  That's it!  Super easy huh?  If you are using stickers or address labels like we did, it's even easier.  Just cut them out, stick them on, and add the sealant and glass gem marble!
Let them dry overnight and give your fridge the ability to hold many more works of art, or useful reminders like this....

I hope you have as much fun making these as we did!

P.S. Just a word warning.  The new labels on all of the button magnets say they contain lead dust.  Make sure to clean up well!

Let Your Little Girl Be Alice in Wonderland for a Day!

My daughter loves Alice in Wonderland!  She has watched the cartoon so many times and is now obsessed with the made for TV movie of it from the 80's.  The littlest things that have to do with the movie make her so happy.  She found a pocket watch of her papa's and suddenly turned into the white rabbit looking for her gloves and fan.  She seemed to love pretend playing Alice so much, that I thought I would help out her imagination!
I bought a frilly dress at the thrift store for $5 and let her wear it out for a nature walk.  We also had to keep her hair down (which for Cora could be a knotted disaster, but it actually combed through relativity well later on).  So dressed and ready to go, off we went for a nature walk looking for rabbit holes!
 I walked along with her pretend playing that we saw the rabbit and the Cheshire cat.  We kept growing, shrinking, and crawling along.  We barley escaped when we had to run away from the Red Queen!
It was a fun time to spend together, making me reconnect with my own childhood.
Nothing beats a walk through the woods and a little imagination! =)

Whim Wham, We Have a Problem!

Sorry I have not wrote a post for awhile.  My hard-drive failed, so I have been out of commission.  It was a new hard-drive too, so it's failure came as kind of a surprise.  Luckily I did not lose a lot of information, and I have finally got a temporary setup going until my new replacement arrives.
A lot has happened here in the last 12 days.  My birthday was on the 12th, and  my daughter took me out to Chuck e Cheese to celebrate!  Wasn't that nice of her?
I also got a pretty cool present.  My long time friend from Korea came to visit me.  He also was kind enough to bring me 5 Japanese craft books too!  One of them is pretty cool.  It is a book of up-cycling and reusing clothing to make kids clothes. I will try to get some pictures of it on here later.
I went to Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights too and got a couple more Japanese craft books yesterday.  I tried to get something a little different this time, instead of the usual sewing patterns.  I chose a paper cutting book and another book that shows how to make fabric containers. (It is in French and Japanese...yeah, two languages I don't understand!)  I can't wait to make something from them!
These technical difficulties are cutting into my precious craft time.  I can't wait until I get it all resolved!
It has been a week of a lot of deep breaths!
I will do my best to catch up on some posts over the weekend! =)

Mr Fickle Felt Funny Bunny is an Easter Hit!

Happy Easter Everyone!

I don't know about you, but I kind of cut it close to the deadline with my Easter sewing project this year. Yesterday I made my daughter and niece a felt bunny. He's no ordinary bunny though. He is Mr. Fickle funny bunny- a faceless bunny that has an attached pouch/egg full of different eyes, noses, lips, teeth, mustache, flowers. hearts, whiskers... etc! The kids can arrange his face however they like!
I was pleased to see this morning that Mr. Fickle was a huge success!
Here are a couple pictures of some faces they made!

The little facial pieces and decorations are stored in an attached pocket and Easter egg!

Here is a picture of my little ones Easter basket this morning!

She has played with her bunny for hours! Yeah! =)

Have a great Easter everybody!

April Fools Day Everybody!

Did anyone get a nasty prank pulled on them today? It was surprisingly quiet around here today. That almost seems like an April fools in itself.
I haven't had anyone prank or trick me for years. When I was growing up, my mom would pretty much do the same evil thing every year,(Don't try to deny it either Mom!)and like an idiot, I fell for it more than once! She would tell us it was a snow day, and we be like"woo hoo! no school!". Then she would say "April fools!"
That's just sooo wrong!

Anyway, join me for a group therapy session and post a comment of any April fool's jokes that have ever been played on you!