Category Archives: Stuff to make

Denyse Schmidt’s new book

Posted in Sewing, Stuff to make by

 

Denyse Schmidt’s new book Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration doesn’t come out until April (which happens to be the month of my birthday, fancy that) but I’ve already looked through the picture gallery on Melanie Falick‘s site (um) several times.

Denyse’s first book is really wonderful, and first got me interested in quilting. This next installment looks to be just as inspiring, so–in case you need something to look forward to after the holidays–take a sneak peak and mark your calendar for April.

Paper garland and wooden block village

Posted in Holiday, Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

A quick tour of my mantelpiece. Here is the finished paper garland, which was fairly laborious to complete–I cut out 120 paper flowers in all, and slowly slotted them together. It is a perfect activity if you want to feel productive while watching a marathon of Christmas movies. And my Christmas village! Met with approval by all. The houses were really simple to make. I ordered some plain wooden blocks in three shapes (square, rectangle, and triangle) and glued the triangles to the squares for the houses. I used a little wood filler to smooth out the seam. Then I painted them using “Folk art” acrylic paint. I used a fine point Sharpie to add the details, and then painted on the final touches like the wreathes.

Felt tree skirt

Posted in Holiday, Sewing, Stuff to make by

It’s a rare occurance when I am able to dream something up and then make it just as I imagined. This tree skirt was one of those lucky projects. I used Wollfilz felt by the yard from purl soho in red and ecru. This felt is so lovely and forgiving to work with. My first circle was a little ovoid, but it was easy to trim the felt into a nice round shape. For the design, I wanted something playful but not too cutesy, and I think the limited palette helps. I drew the animals on cardstock to make a template and then traced three of each animal directly on the ecru felt. Then I cut out the animals and sewed them onto the red background using a simple running stitch. I added some minimal embriodered details to give each animal a little personality. My greatest accomplishment?  Dusting off my geometry skills to figure out the measurements for the circle and the petal border.

The little houses are my next project. I am going to paint them this week, so will post the finished product soon! If anyone would like pattern details for the tree skirt, let me know and I would be happy to share.

Crafty Boys

Posted in Kids, Stuff to make by

My kids and some crafty friends got together for an afternoon of making stuff for this year’s Youth Craft Fair at our local library. They really want to top last year’s big profits ($7 each)! Here’s the equation:

Five boys + one afternoon + basic supplies (paper, glue stick, Fimo, magnet tape, duct tape, felt) =

Angry bird magnets!

 

Darth Paper (a la Origami Yoda)

Fimo (polymer clay) aliens

Wacky Package magnets

Matchbox House

Posted in Free Printables, Free Tutorials, Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

More elfin houses . . . for this one I drew floorplans that fit inside a matchbox.

    

If you take a childlike pleasure in coloring, or if you happen to have an actual child who likes to color (and has excellent fine motor skills), I made tiny coloring pages so you can make your own matchbox house.

The exterior wraps around a standard matchbox. Interior is supposed to fit the inside tray but may need some judicious trimming. I used Sharpies for saturated color and generous amounts of glue stick (after failed attempts with other sticky substances) to adhere. Enjoy! And send me pix, please.