Maker Monday on Wednesday stamping metal and making necklaces #maker #jewelry #kpop

I needed new projects to work on, but haven't had any inspiration to go with.  I finally went with the current thing in the house (kpop) and ways to support the groups.  The first photo is both the good and the bad.  I stamped group names on the front and engraved the Korean names on the back (or tried).  I got better as I went.

I did a necklace for my daughter and one for me.  This is my current finished product.  Not totally happy with it, so it'll likely change as I figure out how I want to fix it.

Selfie with daughter as I was trying to take my finished photo above.  If you look close enough, you'll see her over my shoulder above.

Wand Making with paper and paint #maker #crafting #HarryPotterinspired

My daughter and I tried this craft at Conjuration Con last year.  It was so simple I wanted to share it.  I didn't find a video of it and I really don't like my voice recording, so a series of photos is hopefully enough.  Basic supplies are paper (I used printer paper), paint, glue gun, regular glue and sand.  You can do it without the sand, but I think it adds a nice weight to the finished product.

Start by rolling your piece of paper.  I like fairly narrow wands, so I tend to roll it tightly.  If you want something fatter, that's up to you.  Once you get to the end of the rolling, put elmer's glue to hold the roll together.

Close the narrow end with hot glue.  Fill with sand through the wider end. I used floral sand.  You can use play sand or even clean kitty litter if you'd prefer.

Close the larger end with hot glue as well.  You can either snip off extra paper or fold the extra to help close the end.

From there you get crafty with the hot glue.  They created vines and such at Conjuration.  I created neat ends on my sample wand.  Then just wide enough for my hand to fit, I made a second band.  I did a wrap up one wand and a sample vine on the other.  You can't see the details as clearly here.

Paint.  Colors and designs are up to you and your creativity.  The green on the one wand is all hot glue.  The bronze on the other is all hot glue.

Finished products.  I put the two wands we made at Conjuration beside the two new ones.  The paint wasn't quite dry when we left the con that day, so there are flaws in the ones on the left.  Personally, I don't want my wand to be perfect, just fun.  I have an idea that I want to try when I get the chance.  When I do, I'll show you how it came out and what to do if you want to copy it.

Halloween crafting #spider #maker #crafts

When making stuff for Halloween, I prefer to reuse parts I already have on hand.  In this case, a large pot and some tubing I'd gotten for a different project.  I also used a black garbage bag for the head and attached the tubes/legs to the bag as well.  That way, when the holiday is over, I have less to clean up.  The eyes are coke bottle caps, the fangs are pieces of plastic that hold multiple bottles together (ie ketchup bought in bulk from Sam's).  He's "hiding" under my rose bush to cover flaws in design and implementation.

More crafty stuff #cat #hideaway #diy #easy

I was in a crafty mood the other week, this is one of the crafts I ended up doing. I snagged an extra of hub's shirts and used that. I didn't put a pillow in it, just the cardboard. My daughter's youngest cat really enjoys going in.

Mine with cat inside:

The pin I followed to make it:

Fun with #DuckTape @TheDuckBrand

My daughter and I played with Duck Tape this week. These are the results of some of our tinkering.

A hula hoop made out of irrigation pipe. We measured it to fit her size (a hoop of material diameter to her hip) and cut it. Then heated the ends, added a connector. My daughter took over at that point and decorated it with Duck Tape to her taste.

This was a challenge my daughter gave me. She brought me the bucket of Duck Tape and told me to "make something". I'll admit I went to the Duck Tape youtube channel for ideas. Then took about an hour and came up with the flower crown.

This was just for fun to see if I could. The base of the horn is a toilet paper tube. I then added aluminum foil to shape the rest of it and taped it on. Technically I used electrical tape, but this could easily be recreated with Duck Tape and be more colorful. The gold "striping" IS Duck Tape. The horns are taped on (by Duck Tape) to a spare headband my daughter had.  After it was all done, I went back and added a single feather to the tips of the horns.

Halloween Decorations part 1 (home made)

These are my totally home made Halloween decorations. The first is something I got from pinterest. I don't know if I'll add more of these little guys to my decorations or not.. their area seems somewhat bare. I may add ghost milk jugs with lights, if I do I'll show a picture of that later.

This was an old cat litter tub. I painted the main part of it green and the top black. It does have two bolts screwed into the 'neck' and the eyes will light up with led lights. This is just the 'head' and frame (a tomato cage).

This is after I added a black recycle/laundry bag on the top of the cage. I may add arms reaching out of the shrubs.. we'll see how the week goes if I get a chance to do it.

Turtle Tote!

I made the turtle first on a whim. The girls have been learning textile arts in American Heritage Girls, so I decided I wanted to weave. My challenge then became how to combine the two projects somehow. I came up with the turtle tote. Not sure I'll ever use it for anything, but it was fun to make anyway.

How Duck Tape is Made

After Friday's brief crafty-ness, I was playing on YouTube. My kids had asked me how they made the stuff, so when I found this one, I figured I should share.

Duck Tape Rocks!

My daughter wanted to do crafts with Duck Tape, so this past Christmas she asked for some to play with. This past week, I ended up on Pinterest and was goofing off. I found crafts for Duck Tape. So, my daughter allowed me to use some of her Duck tape to play with. This is the first thing I attempted to make. It was promptly snagged by my son to be his.

My daughter then decided she needed one as well. She wanted hers to be tye-dye. I added the trim.

Then, just to play, I decided to make a cell phone holder for my work phone. I even added velcro so that I can "close" it and not have the phone fall back out. Oh how to NOT do school work.

What Not to Wear

Nope, not about the show. I was coordinator for the activities on the recent pack camping trip. I came up with the wild idea of having the boys decorate shirts using fall leaves. (Thanks to howstuffworks.org for the procedure.)

After the boys were done, we realized multiple things.
1- the drought made the leaves have less juice.. which meant they didn't press (or beat) as well.
2- you MUST use the board in the shirt.. I didn't have any, so we used wax paper
3- hammers work better if not using the board and your leaves are dry, mallets work better in ideal situations..
4- when camping there are NO ideal situations.

So while the kids really enjoyed pounding those poor leaves into their shirts, several boys ended up with holes where the hammer rubbed against the slats of the picnic table. They only ended up with holes if they used a hammer. The leaves only printed well if you used a hammer. The leaves (even those taken off of trees) were VERY dry.

If you want to try it, make sure you do what they recommend. If you need to find alum, it's at the grocery on the spice isle. If it's not there, you can order it online from a company like AmericanSpice.Com.

Fun stuff

In the process of looking for stuff for me to do with my daughter (and son if he's so inclined) I found this site. It's got some cool origami projects that my daughter has now done 4 of. My poor printer. :)