Build a Fairy House

I have wanted to build a fairy house for forever.  My younger sister Cera loves nature and crafting, so we decided to give it a go!  We collected a few rocks from around my dad's farm and gathered up some branches, moss and anything that we thought looked neat.  We started pretty late at night so, we had a sleepover and one night to think of what we were going to do with all of our new found treasures.  I could not wait until morning to start build this thing.  I had a million ideas going through my head.  I was up at the crack of dawn, equip with my glue gun and some fairy furniture sketches.  We found a huge piece of fools gold and some pieces of bark to make archways over the rocks with.  We started by covering everything in moss and stuck a few fake flowers into it.  It already looked pretty cool.  We put moss on the ground all around the fools gold house, and made stepping stones with some smaller rocks leading up to it.
This house was looking pretty cool, but not quite lived in yet.  It was time to build some furniture.  The night before we had made a couple fake mushrooms, plates, cups, and a cake out of polymer clay.  I knew we were going to need a table and chairs. Cera wanted the fairies to have something fun to do, so she made a swing-set.

The ideas just kept pouring out!  Before, I knew it we had the chop saw out and were cutting up sticks we found lying around the yard.  We made beds, a lamp, a couch, a table and chairs, a swing-set, a sink from a seashell, and some brooms to sweep up the kitchen with. It wasn't even noon yet and the fairies could have moved in already. To top it off we put a door going into the tree with a ladder and some steps leading up to it.  There is a spot behind the main rock with the archway that we put a tea light candle at night (safely!).  The whole house was glowing beautifully! The kids think the tree is now full of fairies!  Who knows, maybe it is! =)

We had a lot of fun making this!  Building a fairy house was a great activity to get the kids working together outdoors, looking at nature in a different perspective.  You don't need to get as crazy as we did with a chop saw...a glue gun, a little nature, and some imagination would be plenty to make your very own fairy house.  This was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.  I can't wait to make an indoor play version!

Be sure to post your fairy house pictures on the Whim Wham Craft Blog Flickr group.  Help out the homeless fairies in your neighborhood and Build a Fairy House! =)

Travel Tissue Cover Tutorial

Today was the last day of Jam Junction (an after school program my daughter liked going to at our church).  She really liked going and is bummed that it's ending for the year.  So to thank the Pastor and all the volunteers for the fun she has had, I decided to make little "Bless You" travel tissue covers for her to give as gifts.  I am sure there are plenty of tutorials out there on how to make these, but I am going to share my version anyway. =)

I made them with 2 different fabrics- 6" x 7"outer fabric and 6"x 8" lining fabric.  These dimensions will give you a 1/4" border around the opening.  If you want more lining fabric to show, creating a thicker border, cut the lining fabric bigger and the outer fabric smaller.  For example- for a 1/2" border, cut a 6" x 6 1/2" outer and a 6" x 8 1/2" lining.  Another option is to put all of the lining fabric to one end, creating a wide border only on that end (making that the side you use when you overlap the ends). Confused yet???  Maybe some pictures will help!

I made 4 covers with a 1/4" border. (as you will see by the multiple covers in the photos)

First, cut out 1 outer and 1 lining fabric.  With the right sides facing together, sew along the 6" side on both ends with a 1/4" seam allowance (the lining fabric will be kind of bunched up in the middle).  Once you have sewn both ends, turn right side out and iron. (Here is where you can either put a 1/4" border on each side, or 1/2" border all to one side.  I chose to put 1/4" on each side).

The next step is optional, but sure makes the cover look a lot nicer.  It's time to embellish it!  I chose to use decorative stitches on my sewing machine.  I chose a flower pattern with the words "Bless You" (since these are for our church).  I know not everyone has a decorative stitch option, but instead you could sew on some ribbon, ric rac, appliqué, buttons, hand embroider it, or just sew some zigzags!  Anything you want!

Now that your cover is embellished, it is time to finish sewing it together.  Find the center and overlap the borders on that center line (not overlapping more than 1/4").  Make sure to put the side you want to show more of, on the top (for example- I put the "Bless You" side on the top).  Here is where you would also overlap the one sided border on top, if you chose to put all of the lining fabric to one side.
We are going to make a french seam, so we will be sewing it together how the finished cover is going to look.  Sew very close to the edges- about 1/8" seam allowance. Do this on both ends.  Trim and cut any stray threads, then turn the cover inside out (use a chopstick to push the corners out nice ).  We are going to be enclosing our seam to give the cover a nice smooth lining.  Sew another seam (a little over 1/8") enclosing the raw edge of our previous seam, like in th photos below. Do this on both ends.

Turn the cover right side out again and fill with a pack of travel tissue (Our Wal-Mart sells them in the travel sample isle, 3 packs for $1).   Be even more eco friendly and fill it with washable hankies! =)

These travel tissue covers make a great quick gift idea for almost anyone!  I hope you enjoy making them as much as I do!

As always all questions and comments are welcome! =)

Alice in Wonderland Apron

I had a busy weekend that ended with me and my daughter sick, and at the doctors on Monday.  I meant to post this earlier, but as you, know life happens!  So better late then never!

My daughter wants to have an Alice in Wonderland birthday party this year, and has been asking for me to make her a dress and apron.  Well I got on the web to do a little research and look for some ideas, when I landed on Amy Karol's (Angry Chicken) Tie One On blog.  She is having an Alice in Wonderland apron contest.  I of course had to participate.  I was going to be making one anyway, so I might as well, right?!
When I looked at the deadline, it said May 1st.  I originally wasn't going to make this apron until July, but 24 hrs works too!  So, I stayed up all night and frogged my way through an Alice apron.   I made it out of  a king size eyelet pillowcase and pink bias tape.  I had to use the seam ripper more than I cared for but overall it turned out OK.

There is a  funny ending to this story though.  When I went to send my pictures to Amy, I had to go back to the Tie One On website to get her email address.  The first thing I saw when the page opened, was that the contest had been extended to June 1st!  I laughed so hard!  So much for staying up all night!  It was my own stupid fault for not checking the main blog page for updates.  I only read the page I landed on in my search which said May 1st.

So, for once in my life, I am a month early in entering a contest!  Whoo hoo!

Now I can procrastinate on finishing the matching dress! =)

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!

Temp Tattoo Shrinky Dink Jewelry

I made this jewelry over the weekend and thought I would share with you how I made it.
The jewelry is made from shrink plastic.  I used recycled plastic containers to make mine.  Plastic that has a recycle #6 on it, usually strawberry containers or take out lids, works like shrinky dink material.  So save up those containers for some shrinking fun!

Anyway, here is what you will need for this project.

Shrink plastic or recycle #6 plastic
Sandpaper
Temp Tattoos and a damp towel
Hole Punch
Oven and a cookie sheet
Acrylic Sealant
Jewelry Findings




Let's get started!
If you are using recycled containers, cut out a nice flat area that contains no writing or label.  Rough up one side of the plastic with some fine sandpaper. Next, cut out the temp tattoos that you like (remember that these will shrink considerably).  Arrange them on the plastic to make sure they all fit.  Once you have them arranged the way you want, peel off the protective backing and apply the tattoos to the rough side of the plastic (just as you would on your skin with a wet towel).

When the plastic shrinks it will be very difficult to cut, so now is the time to cut the jewelry into the shape you want it to be.  Be sure to leave enough room to put a hole for a jump ring or cord. The holes shrink too, so I use a hole punch and eyelet maker to put some decent sized holes into mine. (The penny is there for size reference.)

It's all cut out, and the holes are punched!   Time for the shrinking magic!

Place the pieces tattoo side up on a cookie sheet or aluminum foil, and put them in an oven at around 250-275 degrees.  If the oven was preheated, the plastic will probably shrink right away.  Larger pieces tend to curl up, but usually lay flat again as they shrink.  Once the pieces have shrunk, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes.  Look at the size difference! The other cool thing is the tattoos shrink right along with it.  Neat, right!?

Just spray them with an acrylic sealer for added protection, and add the jewelry findings of your choice.  Enjoy your trash to treasure!

Hand Bound Mini Leather Journal

I love the rustic look of a hand bound leather journal.  The softness..the smell..ahhh, so good!
Anyway, I bought a scrap bag of leather at the craft store awhile back, and have been wanting to make a little journal with it for some time now.
Well, last night was my chance.  My grandpa gave me an old guillotine paper cutter, so naturally I had to test it out immediately.  I cut  the paper to 5 1/2" by 4 1/4" pieces.  I folded the pieces in half so that they measured  2 3/4" by 4 1/2".  I made 5 signatures, with 8 pieces in each, for a total of 40 pages.  I measured around the signatures and cut a piece of leather to match.  I also cut 4 slits on the spine to weave the thread through.  I poked holes in 4 different places in my signatures to match up with the slits in the leather, and sewed all of the signatures into place.
To find out more information on how to do this, Google sewing spine of book, binding books, hand binding... etc.  I am a severe amateur at this, but would love to learn more. Like I need to start another craft!  Right????

Picture Pie for Paper Craft and Applique

Ed Emberley has a lot of really cute "how to draw" books for kids, so I went to Amazon to get my daughter one the other day.  Well ...while I was looking through them, I saw these neat Picture Pie books. I thought that they would be really cool to use in making appliques (and for paper applique as well). 

I think this would be a great way to use up those fabric scraps. I think I am going to cut up a bunch of the shapes from random fabric scraps, and keep them on hand for various projects.  It will be interesting and fun to see what kinds of animals and things Cora and I can come up with.  I always like to involve kids in projects, when I can.  This would be a great one to keep them playing, learning and occupied, while you sew or create something too!

I did end up get a drawing book for Cora too (since the Picture Pie books were technically more for me than her).  I got her a book on how to draw faces.  She is 5 years old, and seemed to have no problems drawing any of these faces.  The drawings are broken down into very simple steps of how to recreate the face you want. We both have had a lot of fun with this book, and she was so proud of herself after completing new works of art.  I think it has really given her a lot of confidence in her ability to draw new things too. 

Cora's magnadoodle board is getting some serious use the last couple of days, and now that school's out, I'm pretty sure I know what we'll be doing tonight!

We Made Paper Mache Jewlery with Inkjet Transfers Today!

So I saw a tweet today from SisterDiane linking to a site with a tutorial on making paper mache pendants.  The site is Make Paper Crafts.  It has lots of cool projects on how to make jewelry and other things, all out of paper.
Well, after reading the blog, I went into Cora's room and she was cutting paper into tiny pieces....so I thought, she's already got it started.  Let's make some paper mache jewelry!

First, I cut out some shapes from a thick cardstock.  We made a rectangle, circle, and heart.  Then we covered the shapes with watered down glue, and all of the bits of paper she had cut up.  Once they were dry, we painted them with acrylic paints.
The next part was the cool discovery for the day.  We wanted to put inkjet printed pictures on them. Transfers are cool, but inkjet transfers can be difficult.  I have heard of doing inkjet transfers with transparency film before, but I had none on hand, so I had to improvise.  For some crazy reason, I thought if I could adhere cling wrap to paper, I could run it through the printer.  So, that's exactly what I did.
I took a sheet of paper, and put a piece of cling wrap on top of it (both the same size).  Then on top of that, I put a scrap piece of fabric and ironed (on a low setting- poly/rayon) for a couple seconds.  The cling wrap adheres to the paper, but not the fabric.  I ironed it until all of the cling wrap was melted down.  It does shrink towards the middle, so I left the fabric on for a couple seconds before removing, so the paper doesn't distort before it cools.  Then I ran it through the printer (printing on the cling wrap side of course).  You have to adjust the picture placement, to make sure it prints toward the middle of the page on the cling wrap part, and be sure to mirror images for text.
There are 2 ways to use the transfer now, with the paper attached or you can peel the cling wrap off (yes, believe it or not, it peels off).  I found it difficult to use when it was peeled off, because it wants to roll onto itself, so I left it attached to the paper.  I just wanted the ink off of there, so as soon as the image printed, I cut it out and put it face down on my pendant.  I rubbed the back a bit, and the print was transferred from the cling wrap to my pendant!  Cool right?
Since this wasn't a flat surface, they are kind of blurry, but we were still happy with the results.  I sprayed them with an acrylic sealer too, so the ink doesn't run if it gets wet.  Here's how they turned out.  The transfers are the flower (very light and hard to see), the lucky clover (which I accidently smeared, because I'm not lucky), and the bird on a mushroom.  Hey, I got 1 out of 3!  I know...I suck, but you can always paint over them and try again!

I think it would be cool to try this cling wrap method in other crafts.  Maybe print a picture on it, let it dry, peel it off, and then iron it (with something covering the cling wrap of course- never iron directly) face down onto another surface...like napkins for a party or something.   Lots of cling wrap possibilities!  Wait...that came out wrong!  Anyway, you get the idea.  Give it a try!