Saturday, January 28, 2012

Rainbow birthday - the craft: rainbow garland from upcycled cardboard tubes



Is it the crafter in me, the artistic birthday girl, or the 12 children in the house on a winter day that called for a rainbow party craft?
I love that little E was soo proud of our enviro-friendly craft - the first thing she announced to everyone as they sat down at the table was, "It's made out of toilet paper tubes!"  Not paper towel tubes or wrapping paper tubes (which are both true!).  She's a crafter and an enviromentalist!

Here's what we did:
Materials: washable paint, glue, 8 rings (cut from upcycled cardboard tubes from you-know-where), paintbrush, hole puncher, yarn needle and yarn, cotton balls, large beads

1. Punch two holes on either side of each ring.


2. Paint seven rings (eight if you want to do a white coat under the cotton ball). With the lighter colors, you may want to do more than one coat.
3. Pull apart the cotton balls for a cloudy effect.  Glue them on the remaining ring.

4. Thread your needle.  If you double up the yarn and push the loop through the eye of the needle, you'll end up with a loop to hang the project when you are done.  Handy, eh?

5. Alternate bead and tube (oops - no cotton on that one - I glued it afterwards - with the kids, we skipped the white paint and glued the cotton before stringing everything so the glue could dry a bit).

6. Have fun and be creative with your color choices.

All strung...

...and ready to hang.



Perfect for a rainy day, or any day you need a little extra color!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Super awesome winner!

First off, THANK YOU for all the blog and bag lovin'!  I wish I could send a bag to each and every one of you!  As a thank you for such a successful giveaway, I would like to offer 15% off anything in my etsy shop until Feb. 5th.  Use coupon code GIVEAWAY1 upon checkout.

Okay, now the moment you have been waiting for.....

the winner of the BabyE Crafts handmade bag is....


plainjanesews who said, "the orange makes the bag pop. great color combo".

Hooray!  Congratulations, Jane!

(You may be wondering if there was some favoritism with the names here, but I assure you it was random!)

Jane, please email me and let me know where to send your new bag!!!

Thank you again for all your support and kind comments.  I'll have some more rainbow birthday posts in the next week, so stay tuned....




Sunday, January 22, 2012

It's a GIVEAWAY! (now closed - thank you!)

In honor of my chalk board mat tutorial being featured on Sew Can She, I'm hosting my first giveaway!

 
Would you like to win this bag?

All cotton fabric, with sturdy canvas interfacing...

...button accents...

...pleats...


...and interior zip-pocket.


To enter for a chance to win this BabyE crafts handmade, one-of-a-kind bag:
  • become an official follower of Jane of All Trades through Google or email (I just added the "follow by email" on the right sidebar)
  • (if you are already a follower, you'll be entered automatically)
  • leave a comment on which button color you prefer - orange or brown
  • cross your fingers for your name to be chosen!
I will choose one lucky winner and post it Friday, January 27th.  Check back to see if it's you!


Good luck! 


Friday, January 20, 2012

Handmade Fabric Doll for Miss M.

Our friend turned one at the beginning of January.  What better way to recognize this milestone than with her very own dolly.

This one looks just a wee bit like Miss M - blonde hair, blue eyes and super cute all over!

Her eyes are hand-embroidered, courtesy of this tutorial over at Sublime Stitching.

 I love these little feet - just like our friend who is about to master cruising all over!  And, the dress fabric is a sweet corduroy print my aunt sent from her stash (I should say, she sent along WITH her stash - all 70+ pounds of it!).

I hope Miss M. loves her dolly as much as little A. loves hers (see here).



Thursday, January 19, 2012

Trying it out for a while...

I've struggled for a while with posting ads on my little blog.  I blog to share ideas and be a part of a bigger crafting community.  Posting ads seems to detract from that mission.
However, if I am doing the blogging anyway and I can receive some compensation for posts I am doing anyway, it doesn't hurt, right?
Besides, I have my eye on a new lens and it would be really great to earn a little money towards that...
I hope the new feature doesn't detract from what I've worked to create.
Let me know what you think.



Monday, January 16, 2012

Yarn wreath tutorial

As mentioned in my last post, I found this great project in .  It's from Stash Happy: Felt by Jennifer Fitzsimmons
In the book, she calls for a straw wreath for the base of the wreath. 
As I didn't have one on hand, and didn't feel like buying one, I figured out the following.  I hope you can use it to make one of her beautiful felt blooms wreaths.

To make your own:

Materials: one 10" cardboard cake circle (or a 10" circle cut from a repurposed box)
                scrap battting
                glue gun
                chunky yarn

1. Decide how large an opening you want and trace.  Mine is a 4" diameter (leaving 3" around for the yarn wreath).  Trace the center circle.

2. Cut out the center circle.  I use an exacto knife (be careful!).

3. Roughly cut the batting to the size of the circle.  For mine, I cut two layers.

4. Glop on some glue and stick that batting on.  You just need enough glue to anchor the batting on.

5. Cut the center circle out of the batting.  Repeat with a second layer of batting if desired.

6. On the back, glue one length of your yarn.

7. Start wrapping the yarn.  You want the yarn to be snug enough to hold its place, but you don't need to over-pull.  The batting will squash down quite a bit as you wrap. 

8.  If the skein is too big, you might need to cut a long length of yarn to be able to fit through the hole. No worries. You can tuck and glue (as in photo above) ends and then start another.
When you are done wrapping, cut a length, tuck under the back yarn and glue in place.

9.  You now have one yarn wreath ready to create something beautiful!  Be sure to check out Stash Happy: Felt for Jennifer's gorgeous (and simple) felt blooms.

My favorite part of this project is that, by making the wreath base this way, I had all the materials on hand.  In my mind, that makes this a FREE project!  (Never mind I had bought them at some point in time, right?)

Wishing you some thrifty crafting thrills!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Rainbow birthday - the decorations, part 2

Once the holiday decorations come down, it's time to decorate for our January birthday girl.  That poses a bit of a question of what to put on the doors. 

This year, I found this yarn wreath in Stash Happy: Felt.  I tweaked the directions a bit (I'll show you how tomorrow) to make these two wreaths.

I love the pop of color against the natural color of the yarn and our weathered doors.  I think these fall right into the birthday decor and will be a favorite for years to come.

Wishing you a pop of color in your day!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Rainbow birthday - the decorations

Somebody turned five today!


She requested a rainbow birthday.


These are felt carnations from Stash Happy: Felt


They kind of rainbow-fy the room.


I'll share the yarn wreath I made from the book tomorrow.

Until then, wishing you a colorful day!

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