Potato Stamps: Make an Easy Fall Banner - Contributor Post

Today, I've got an amazing craft from Samantha over at A Day Well Spent. A great way to use potatoes and a great way to spend an afternoon!

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It doesn't quite feel like fall here just yet, but it is September, the kids are back in school and that is a good enough reason for me, to start fall crafting.

I have always wanted to give potato stamps a try, and I thought Ava would really enjoy them as well so we gathered the materials to make a fall leaf banner using potato stamps.

Yes, she was trying to grab the knife, you have to watch out for Ava. ;)

What you need:

a large potato

a knife

assorted leaves

pencil

paint 

paintbrushes

muslin 

To create the stamps cut in half your large potato. Trace your leaf onto the potato. Once you have traced the leaf you can go ahead and cut out around the leaf. The idea is to have the traced leaf sticking out of the potato, like so:

potato stamps!

 Next step is to paint! Once you have paint on your stamp, lay it flat on the muslin and press down hard. Carefully life straight up so you don't smudge the paint.

this is my favorite leaf, painted by Ava.

After you are done painting, you can hang up your muslin to dry. Once dry, you can then cut out the individual leaf prints and string them up. Then hang your banner up in a spot where you can admire your work for all of fall. :)

Erupting Colors - Contributor Post

Today, Samantha Williams, who now blogs over at The Day Well Spent, gives us a tutorial on how to make the most beautiful paintings ever.

Erupting colors.

What you need:
a pan with edges (a cake or pie pan works well)
food coloring
milk (we used whole milk, my cousin used 1% and the results were not as good)
dish detergent (I recommend basic blue dawn)

What you need to do:

1. Pour milk into the cake pan until the bottom is covered. 

2 Sprinkle several drops of food coloring on the milk.

3. Add a few drops of dishwashing detergent in the centers of the largest drops of coloring. 

4. Watch the resulting eruption of colors. 

5. If erupting slows down, try adding more food coloring and then more detergent. If the experiment wont work after a while, begin again from clean milk and add new drops of color and detergent.

6. When experiment is complete, pan washes easily in warm water. 

7. Take lots of pictures because the results seriously look like art.

To take it a step further, we then laid paper on top of the milk to see if we could transfer the images.

This is the result:

The Enterprise Dress (Sewaholic Cambie) - Contributor Post

Amazing sewing extraordinaire, Amber Snommis, is at it again. She just finished this incredible project, which I am happy to share with you. Make sure to track all her work and how-to articles on Miss Parayim.

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It’s been a month since my last completed project post, but I’ve been busy! I’ve been working away at my version of the Sewaholic Cambie dress. I decided a while back that the a-line version without the sweetheart neckline (thanks to the handy dandy tutorial on Tasia’s blog) would be perfect for my favorite fabric.

I finished the dress over a week ago- just in time to debut it at the super awesome fun time that was Play On Con. So, while I usually have tried to post my projects within a day or 2 of completion, I am doing this a little late because I had a lot of sleep to catch up on.

I love the shape of this dress. The A line has a little bit of a late 1960′s feel, but is not so obviously retro. I like that there is a little flare still in the skirt. It doesn’t feel as sultry bombshell as a straight or pencil skirt, but it’s much more tailored than a fuller gathered or pleated skirt, and I only had about 2 yards of the fabric, so I wouldn’t have had enough for that anyway. I think it’s a good balance between the two, and just right for showcasing a large scale, busy print.

The main fabric is silk, and is probably the softest, floatiest fabric I have worked with so far. I’m glad I did some test stitches on scraps because I very quickly discovered my feed dogs were hungry, and they think silk is delicious! To avoid disaster, I pinned a strip of tissue paper to the feed dog side of every seam before I sewed it. It was a pain, but it worked. I also reduced my stitch length to 1.6 (my machine default is 2.5). I thought puckers might be an issue, but that was fine. I noticed in my test scrap that the seams with a longer stitch length were pulling at the fabric, and I could see the holes where needle and thread had gone. Shortening the stitch length helped prevent this from happening, and kept the seam together and strong.

I tried to be soooo careful in laying out this pattern. I even made myself a chart of each piece of the garment, and where the enterprise would wind up- left or right, top or bottom. But I must have had the pattern piece for the skirt back wrong side up when I went to cut it because I ended up with 2 enterprises on the same side in the back. Oops! It doesn’t bother me too much- especially since I don’t look at my own back, but I was kind of annoyed when I discovered the mistake.

The back of this dress ended up being a little bit tight, but nothing some spanx couldn’t make better. I’m not exactly sure why that happened. I muslined the dress 3 times, and it seemed like it would be OK, but I wound up having to take it in at the neckline, and maybe I got a little over eager at that point. Or maybe the zipper in my muslins wasn’t placed well. Or maybe I gained 5 lbs in between starting and finishing this dress. Who knows. I really like the pattern, and I’m not too disappointed with the fit, but I will definitely be re-mulslining it if/when I make it again, and will probably add a side dart and a real FBA instead of only monkeying with the back and side seams, which is what I did here.

I lined the dress in a quilting cotton I found at Jo-Ann. I didn’t plan to line it in quilting cotton, but when I saw the print, how could I not? I wanted something breathable since I’d be wearing this at “Nerd Camp”, and while a lawn or voile would have probably been softer and more drapey, the cotton did the job of ensuring against transparency, keeping me from sweating, and providing some support to the bodice. Also- ENTERPRISE!

You can see in the final muslin/lining fit photo there’s some gaping around the neck area. I thought this might be self correcting once I attached it to the silk, and wasn’t looking at seam allowances, but no such luck. Doing the fix at that point in the project was definitely not ideal, and another reason for a new muslin next time.

I finished off the hem with piping I’d made from leftovers of the sleeve and pocket fabric, and I covered up the ugly with this sparkly blue trim. I’m a sucker for the sparkly. I look for excuses to work it in. That contrast fabric has a little bit too.

I originally thought about using the piping around the neckline, to make a clean, sharp, seam with that floaty silk, but it was suggested I understitch it instead, and that worked just fine. I’m glad I didn’t use the piping there because it does add a little bulk, and I made sure I packed my trusty iron for the con to de-wonk the hem before heading out, and that helped.

Sewing the dress was a good experience. I sewed a fabric I had never worked with before, and while it isn’t perfect, I don’t regret it. I feel like I learn something new with every project, and this was definitely no exception! I didn’t even get into the genius way the invisible zip is installed, but I know I’ll be using that technique in the future.

I really like the pattern, and I think I will definitely make it again!

 

Rock Painting - Contributor Post

Today Alex from Alex Nguyen Portraits is here to talk about one of her other passions...crafting!(And since it's summer time, I'm going to need all the help I can get, so I am eternally grateful.)


If your kids are anything like mine, they like to collect things like rocks. (And sticks. Sometimes I get a surprise and it's something that's alive such as a worm or beetle. Or baby spiders, although that is totally another post once I recover from the trauma). Then, when you try to tell them that their "treasures" belong outside the house, you get tears and lots and lots of wailing. Here's a simple craft you can do to occupy them, decorate up their "treasure" rocks, plus it's actually pretty fun.

What You'll Need:

• rocks (cleaned and dry - my kids love giving their rocks a "bath")
• paint
• brushes (don't be limited to just paint brushes. We also used pencil top erasers, toothpicks, and q-tips as "brushes")

Start off with some cleaned rocks

Our painting set up. I have box lids for the actual rock painting, just so there's not accidental floor paintage

Then, get your paint. I set mine out in paper plates for my boys. 

Then, let them paint!

Here's what dot painting with a pencil end looks like as well. 

Some of our finished creations. 

My oldest was super proud of his Captain America shield rock. 

We even glittered some rocks to make them look like real "treasures" 

In rock land, Hello Kitty and Batman live side by side in peace 

We painted some to look like caterpillars and bugs 

And my youngest loves all things ladybugs. Happy crafting!



Don't forget to check out Alex's blog, too, for more fun crafts and photography!


 

Rice Painting - Contributor Post

Do you have vinegar, rice and food coloring? Then you have an afternoon of entertainment! Samantha from Heart-shaped Leaves gives a tutorial that even I can follow!

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A while ago, a friend of mine passed on a link to a tutorial for colored rice and I was intrigued. So I bought the necessary ingredients (rice, vinegar and food coloring) and set Jack up at the table. We poured I think it was 2 tbsps of vinegar into four small bowls and then added 4 drops of food coloring. Then we added 1 tbsp of rice and let it soak.

After soaking we drained the rice and sat that out to let it dry.

After it had dried we went in search of the glue only to be unable to find it. This drove me crazy, but I still forget to buy any when I went to the store. Fast forward to later that week when I accidentally found the glue in the box where I looked earlier. I still haven't found the glue stick though.

So I set Jack back up at the table, this time with heavy paper (I used the back side of some watercolor paper), the rice, glue and a paintbrush. The only suggestions I gave him were to keep in mind that lots of glue meant longer drying times and that he couldn't glue the paintbrush to the paper. 

and the finished product

Check out more of her amazing crafts for kids on Heart-shaped Leaves!


 

Happy Earth Day

Earth Day was always a big deal to me growing up. I would grab my brother and sister and trot down our seldom-used road and pick up any bits of trash we saw on the way. It was fun and frivolous at the time, but it was enough so that I started to become conscious about the world around me, and to this day, when I do something green or something that would favor Earth over my convenience, I'm reminded of those Earth Days of years' past.

But picking up garbage is just one of the tiny and multiple ways you can get the message across to your kids.

Joella over at Fine and Fair has easy ways to live a greener life without it being a battle! Check them out, and while you are over there, make note that her post is actually a blog carnival in itself and there are tons more green goodie posts at the bottom!

(And if you want to start submitting, check out her monthly carnival.)


Meanwhile, Alex at Alex Nguyen's Portraits has a stunning craft making bracelets out of bicycle tires. I know, when I say it, it doesn't sound cool. But check this out:

Way cooler now, right?


And a lot of us feel pressured to go hard or go home when it comes to going green. Jackie over at Accidentally Mommy realizes that's just not possible for all of us. Even the small steps we take are appreciated and should be recognized.