Craft Review: Lion Brand Crafted Mama Octopus

My daughter asked if she could make a craft after school today. And since she got all her homework done before getting home, we had plenty of time to make an Octopus we found on Pinterest. We mostly followed this Lion Brand (yarn) pattern. We only made the Mama... and we didn't tuck her legs under. Click the link if you'd like to see their photo.

Susie the Octopus

Materials needed: 3 inch craft foam ball (I used Styrofoam), small piece of black felt,
craft glue, clothespins or binder clips, plenty of yarn.  

Cut 84 strands of yarn, each 36 inches long. We used four different colors,
21 strands each. Apply glue to a spot on the ball. This will be the top
of her head. Take 5-6 strands of yarn, fold in half to find the center,
and place the center on your dot of glue. Repeat the step over and over
until the yarn is gone, each time turning the yarn to cover the entire ball,
and placing the glue in the same spot each time.

When all the yarn has been attached, take a strand of yarn and tie tightly
at the base of the ball, making sure the yarn is spread out to completely
cover it. Then take a break and let it dry a bit.

Separate the yarn into 8 "legs" with about 21 strands each and
use the clothespins or binder clips to keep them separated.
I used small bag clips.

Braid each leg and tie at the end with a long
piece of extra yarn.

When we had all eight legs braided, my daughter decided she wanted to keep the legs hanging down. If you follow the Lion Brand instructions, you need to fold each leg under, one at a time, and tie the yarn that you tied at the end of the braid, to the top of the braid. Go back up and click the link to see their photo, and you can understand that instruction a bit better if you see the pictures.

In the materials, I mentioned that you needed a bit of
black felt. That was supposed to be to make the eyes.
But we decided to glue on googly eyes instead.

For the most part, my daughter made this Octopus all by herself, and it was great practice for her braiding skills. She named her Susie, and I'm sure Susie will be having great fun swimming with Barbie Mermaids soon.

But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29

Tribute to a Cat

Our cat, Dart, died last Thursday night. She was 13.5 years old and her health had been in decline, so really it was something we were expecting to happen soon. But you can never really be prepared.

Dart was a really beautiful, sweet cat. She wasn't the type to come and sit on your lap every night, but she was always nearby, at least in the same room, or at the end of the couch. Unless, of course, you were trying to crochet a new pattern, then she would sit on your lap, preferably on top of your pattern.

We took Dart into our home in 1998. Her mama, a stray, had been hanging out around the neighborhood. When we returned home from a short trip, we found the mama with her 3 beautiful kittens. So we named them Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. The next day we realized there was a fourth kitten, and we named her d'Artagnan. The vet told us d'Artagnan, Dart for short, had feline leukemia and needed to be quarantined. So we brought her inside and kept the other three outside. After a few days, the three musketeers took off and we never saw them again.

As it turned out, Dart did not have feline leukemia.

Relaxing in the Barbie pool.

She was a good cat. And we will miss her.

After we buried her in one of our gardens, my oldest wanted to make a grave marker for her. She said she wanted to put stickers on a rock spelling her name, then paint it, and pull the stickers off. This is something we did last spring. I remembered having trouble with the paint peeling away when we took the stickers off. So this time we did it a little different. We used spray paint. 

After we removed the stickers, I used black paint to outline the letters as we didn't get a good contrast between the rock and the paint. And because the rock wasn't as smooth as we'd have liked, we had a little paint seep between the sticker and the rock. But it was no matter. We didn't need perfection. Just something special to remember our friend. Because this will be outside, I sealed it with a clear coat.

He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.  Isaiah 25:8

Craft Review: Beaded Bugs

I have a kid home sick today, so we passed a little time making some Beaded Bugs from FamilyFun.com. These instructions come from Family Fun, but I changed a few things, mostly the length of the wires to be cut, as I felt like some of the pieces were too long and we had to cut off the excess.

Dragonfly

You will need 20 gauge wire, ruler, wire cutters, plastic beads
(12 mm, 8 mm, 6 mm, and 4 mm), needle-nose pliers.

To make a Dragonfly

To make the body, bend a 12-inch length of wire in half. Use the needle-nose pliers to curl up the end (at the bend) to form the tail. From the other end, slide nine 6 mm beads onto the doubled wire, followed by two 8 mm beads and finally one 12 mm bead for the head. Set the body aside and make the wings. 

To make the wings, thread eighty... yes 80... 6 mm beads onto a 20-inch length of wire (Bend the ends to keep the beads from sliding off). Shape the upper portion of the strand into a figure 8 for the top set of wings (25 beads per wing); then shape the lower third into a smaller set of wings (15 beads per wing). 

Set the body on top of the wings and attach by wrapping the wire ends of the wings around the body wire between the 8 mm beads. 

Finally, place a 4 mm bead near the tip end of each of the remaining body wires and curl them to form antennae.

My daughter (she's 7) needed a little help in forming the wings, but other than that, this was a very easy project for her to accomplish.

The neighbor girl was here for a few hours, too, and she
made a caterpillar.

Neighbor Girl is 3, and she found it too difficult to thread the beads onto the double wire. She didn't stick with the project for very long, but she did enjoy playing with her caterpillar once it was made.

To make a Caterpillar

Bend a 14-inch length of wire in half and curl the bent end to form the tip of the tail. Slide five 8 mm beads onto the doubled wire, then two 12 mm beads, then two more 8 mm beads, and finally one 12 mm bead to make the head.

Place a 4 mm bead onto the tip of each wire coming from the head and curl them to form the antennae.

For legs, cut three 2-inch lengths of wire. Tightly wrap the center of each wire once around the body wire between beads and then shape the feet. We put the back set of legs between the 3rd and 4th beads, the second between the 5th and 6th, and the 3rd between the 7th and 8th beads.

Cute Caterpillars

To make a Baby Beetle

Cut two 4-inch lengths and two 2-1/2-inch lengths of wire and thread all 4 through a 12 mm bead to make the bug's body. Bend 2 ends of the 2 longer wires upward and slide on an 8 mm bead for a head. Bend the rest of the wires down to form 6 legs. Thread a 4 mm bead onto the tip of each wire from the head and curl them to form antennae. Finally, shape the feet.

Baby Beetles

These bugs have come to life. My daughter really enjoyed making one of each, and the Neighbor Girl was proud to show hers off to her Paw Paw when he came to pick her up.

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy -- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. —Jude 1:24-25

Recycle That Lunchbox

Against my better judgement, I bought my girls pretty embroidered overpriced lunchboxes from a little embroidery shop down the road. I convinced myself that they would be able to use them for more than one school year. But... hello? We're talking about a first grader and a preschooler. Actually, my youngest didn't use hers last year, and hasn't used it much this year, either. But for my oldest, hers lasted through her first grade year and about half way through her second grade year. After such use, the inside silver insulating lining is torn, and numerous spills and wet places have caused what appears to be mildew to show in the seams of the bag.

My oldest DOES NOT like to throw things away. If she saw me tossing her lunchbox, she would be devastated. With a capital D. In order to effectively throw it out, I'd have to wrap it in layers of plastic bags and hide it at the bottom of the trash can, or take it to a public dumpster... and even then she would eventually start asking what happened to it. And then she would cry. But even I was having a hard time parting with the pink and green polka-dotted bag with her name embroidered on it.

My husband suggested I cut out the part with her name on it and use it somewhere. And that statement got the ball rolling. Time to refurbish. After all, the outside of the bag wasn't in bad shape. And it has a built in zipper pocket. I think I can turn this into a small coin purse.

This is what it looked like before. Sort of.
Actually I'd already cut out both panels
as I didn't think to take a picture before I
started cutting.

Back panel with the zipper pocket.

Two cut panels side by side. I also cut off the handles. I'm not
sure how I'm going to do that part yet.

Have I ever mentioned I am not a seamstress? I have a sewing machine. I sew small blankets. You know, squarish stuff. Mom tried to teach me to sew when I was a kid, but I took no interest... until I was about 32 and decided I wanted to sew a taggie blanket for my baby. It's a good thing this will be squarish.

Back to the handles. I decided to make a small corner loop.

Finished! My daughter was THRILLED! She filled up the
little pocket with her lip balm stuff, and just kept saying
over and over how neat she thought it was.

Back side with the pocket.

It was such a hit, my little one came to me and asked me to make one for her from her lunchbox.

See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. Matthew 18:10

Boredom Buster: Torn Paper Activity

My oldest LOVES paper. If she acts bored, sometimes all I need to give her is colored construction paper, scissors, and glue. She will spend literally hours making something from it.

So I took a piece of construction paper and drew a picture on the paper. Then I instructed her to take other colors of paper and tear them into tiny bits and glue them to the picture. So instead of coloring the picture with crayons or markers, she colored it with paper.

Getting started. I drew an owl on yellow paper.

She started with his beak, tearing a little bit
or orange paper and gluing it in place.

More paper bits to color the owl and the tree.

Finished picture.

"Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever." Psalm 125:1

Craft Review: Recycling Craft - Carton Cuties

Today is our first "snow" day of 2012, and what am I thinking about? Butterflies. Well in our defense, it's just a dusting, not enough and too dusty for a snowman. We did, however, have a brief snow-dust fight. 

This recycling craft was in the April 2010 edition of FamilyFun, and I guess I've been holding onto it for the perfect day. Like today.

For this craft, you'll need an egg carton, Mod Podge or white glue,
colored tissue paper, glitter, and wire.

My egg carton is actually the clear plastic lid of a large 30-egg carton. I used Collage Pauge, but you can use watered-down white glue if it's what you have on hand.

Spread glue onto a section of the egg carton,
preferably the section between two eggs.

Cover the glue with torn bits of tissue paper, then apply another
layer of the glue.

My girls enjoyed getting creative with colors, and what can be better than tearing up paper?

Add in some glitter. This step is not a part of FamilyFun's craft.
We just decided it needed some extra bling.

Allow all the glue to dry. Now might be a good time to take a lunch or snack break, or go play in the snow, depending on how much time you might need for it to get good and dry.

When dry, draw a butterfly shape centered between the
carton cups. You can use a pencil, but I needed you to see
the drawing in my photo.

Carefully cut along your drawn lines. If you centered your
butterfly between egg cups, your butterfly will have a nice
3D shape

If you like you can add some antennae for your butterflies. Fold a thin strip of black card stock in half, then curl and trim the ends into points. Attach the antennae with tacky glue. I actually left this part out on ours.

With clear tape, mount your butterflies
to lengths of 18-gauge aluminum wire.

I used green floral wire, not sure of the gauge. I curled and twisted the wire and placed them in a recycled bottle vase like a floral display. I have them as the centerpiece at our kitchen table. A little bit of Spring on this snowy day.

The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him. Proverbs 20:7

Craft Project: Snowman Door Wreath(s)

Do you Pinterest? If so, you might have recently seen a snowman like this. There was no doubt that I needed to make one for my own front door. It wasn't a project I was able to do before Christmas, but around here, we don't see much snow or snowmen until January and February. So I think it's okay that Christmas is over, and this guy will still be on my door through January. In addition to the big one on my door, both of my girls wanted to each make a small one, so we did.

If you can catch a craft store with a sale, you can get some
grapevine wreaths at a discount. Be sure to get three different
sizes, keeping in mind how big your snowman will
be with all three wreaths laid in a row. It's okay to lay
them out on the floor at the craft store.

These are the smaller wreaths we picked out for
the girls' snowmen.

I painted our wreaths white using a white gloss spray paint. However, I've seen others who have made similar snowmen using the natural wreath.

In addition to the wreaths, you will need a half a hat and a scarf, as
well as something to attach the pieces together. I used white pipe cleaner
to camouflage.

For my large snowman, I found a foam hat in the craft section at Hobby Lobby. For the smaller snowmen, I found a smaller felt-like hat, also in the craft section at Hobby Lobby. I crocheted all three scarves for our snowmen. If you don't want to worry about crocheting or knitting a scarf, you might already have an old scarf that would get the job done for a large snowman. If you're making smaller snowmen, you might find some scrap fabric that you could use for a scarf.

Use the pipe cleaner, or wire, or whatever you have on hand to attach the three wreaths together, but try to hide it inside the wreath so it isn't visible on the front. Cut the hat in half, and glue it to the top wreath. I used a small bit of black wire to attach the hat to the large snowman as I was afraid the glue wouldn't hold up. My older daughter wanted to made sure her hat was crooked, and my younger daughter made sure her hat sat straight on top of his head. Add your scarf and any other decoration.

I added some jingle bells to the big snowman.
They hang from some cord attached just under the scarf.

I also added some ribbon around the hat, along with a fabric flower.

These are the girls' snowmen. Given the smaller size, we
didn't add any extra decoration. I only needed one hat
for these two snowmen. One snowman has half of the hat
and one snowman has the other half.

I put my older daughter's on the wall
in the dining room.

My younger daughter's on the wall
in the living room.

Yes, it's after New Year's and I haven't taken down my Christmas decorations yet. I've been having too much fun playing. But the girls go back to school tomorrow, so I won't have any more excuses.

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Hebrews 1:3