rhubarb soda & pop can tab belt

Last week we made a special summer treat--rhubarb soda.  I really want our own rhubarb plant!

And over vacation I made my pop can tab belt--wow, I sure love it!  I need more tabs to make more--Grace and Mamie each want one.  It would be fun to do this with elastic for bracelets, too.  Tutorial here.  I had a lot of trouble finding a tutorial--many had wordy directions and fuzzy pictures...this one was about the best I found.  Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy.  Using a crochet hook helped immensely.

want. to. make.

this belt.  from here.  we don't drink soda though, so acquiring the needed tabs (about 150) is a problem.  can you help?  if so, i would love to recycle your tabs!

cutest round stamp ever, pipecleaner christmas tree, and jean patching

I had a coupon code for Sweet Papery and got this cute stamp.  I've wanted one for years!  sweet papery

I love it.  Lily did the cutting there.

And I've been meaning to make this, from Martha Stewart.  Hint:  you need to double up the pipecleaners when you make the 'snowflakes', otherwise they're way too flimsy.  At least the pipecleaners I used.

And I am trying to get my mending done.  I wondered how best to patch the 4 holes (one on each top corner of my jeans pockets) and then I got some embroidery floss and sewed side to side and then wove it in the length of the hole.  I'll see how it holds up--hopefully no more underwear peeking through!

And this (darn fuzzy camera!)...I saw this a couple years ago now somewhere--it's like magic I swear.  To tie a knot--put the needle point facing the thread end as shown.

Wrap around a couple times, hold on and slip down the needle and length of the thread.

And you have a knot! It always stops about an inch before the end of the thread.  Amazing!

making magnets

This is so easy and satisfying.  I have this delightful collection of bottlecaps and for the most part, I like to collect things that I can make into something useful as well as aesthetic. So I got the idea to upcycle these into magnets. It couldn't be easier--purchase 1 in. wood discs (you can get them at a craft store) and magnets (craft store also) and hotglue the wood disc into the cap, then hotglue a magnet on. Voila!

And here's another kind which is also really easy and satisying.  A great way to recycle cards or magazine pages into something useful. 

Take those wood discs and a 1 in. paper punch and punch out paper to your hearts content. (Another cool thing would be to take these cardstock circles and glue them spaced out back to back with a thin piece of ribbon sandwiched in between--and voila--garland).

Glue the paper to the disc with UHU glue, hotglue a magnet on the back, and finish with this paper glaze. It adds durability and a smooth waterproof marbly surface.

Package in a metal tin (this gift card tin is from Michaels--$1) and there you go.  Great for teachers, friends, cousins, anyone.  You could also print the alphabet on cardstock and do a whole bunch, or a child or friends name, anything!  I need to go get more supplies and make more! 

felted wool stuff & pillowcase apron

We made these felted balls and felted rocks--so tactile and colorful!

And I found this pillowcase at Goodwill for .99 and made this apron out of it.  Pretty easy, since the bottom of it is already hemmed.  I have enough left to make a smaller one for Lily, so we'll have matching ones. 

Wow, I can't believe christmas is 4 weeks away.  I have lots to do!

paper journal tutorial...and magazine paper envelopes!!

Several people have asked me how to make those paper journals I blogged about awhile back, so here is a tutorial. They're super easy! It's best to hunker down with a stack of paper and make a bundle of them assembly line like--then you have a bunch on hand for little quick gifts for your friends, drawing books for your children, journals for yourself, etc.

First you need some scrapbooking paper--I bought a stack of it at JoAnn's on sale.

You can make these journals any size--when I laid the white paper on the scrapbook paper it fit perfectly (you want that slight overhang on the edges since that is the cover of the journal), so I only had to make one cut at the bottom. Note--you could leave the extra at the bottom if you want a pocket in your journal. Just fold it up and sew or staple the edges of the journal to enclose it. Also, this 'full size' journal will only work if you can sew it. You can of course make smaller ones and staple the pages in, as long as you make a size that the stapler can reach in the middle. OR, you can make these larger ones without a machine if you punch holes with a hammer and an awl (I have also done that) and hand sew with some twine, that's cool too.

I didn't make a pocket, so I cut off the excess. Save it! Makes great bookmarks or you can make itty bitty books. I love miniatures, so I'm inclined to make some dollhouse books. Then I could skip the machine, use one staple, and voila! So, you don't need a paper cutter, scissors will work fine.

Now take your paper. I used 8 sheets--you don't want so many that you can't sew or staple them all. Fold each one individually if you want a crisp, clean look. And with the paper--this is also a great way to recycle used paper--I have used papers from the children that only have printing on one side and made journals with them.

Now unfold and stack them all together.

Center them on the cover, leaving space all around. If you're sewing, you may need a denim needle. Use a basting stitch, if you use a tighter stitch it will tear the paper (ask me how I know!).

And there you go! Sewing paper is fun!

oooh-look at what my friend Jill gave me! I was delighted to get these. It's genius! You're recycling magazine paper AND making something useful and beautiful. I just love it.

'superfrog' is found and new school bags

I moved the piano the other day in order to plug in my sewing machine...and found this little guy--Eric's lentil-stuffed beanbag frog (made from the cool crafting book 'A Children's Year'). He had been stuck there for who knows how long. Since he's Superfrog, I wonder why he didn't fly back out?? Anyway, he's back into the light of day now, fighting froggy crime again hopefully.

After taking the big kids to school, we decided to make Lily her own bag and pencil pouch for her 'school'. Following the montessori approach of sandpaper letters (on my list to make) I sewed her name on the bag in wool felt letters and showed her how to trace them with her finger. Here are the completely unstaged (and completely awesome) outtakes from the bag photo shoot.

And here's Grace with her new messenger style bag. She was thrilled to pick out the fabric and it turned out pretty well & she loves it, so I'm thrilled too. Note: we've never been to Aeropostale. The shirt is a resale shop find as is most of her wardrobe--yeah. Grace isn't label conscious at all, and I'm thankful for that! She loves this shade of green.

re-working and calvin's photo book

I had Rob install these shelves last weekend above the play kitchen and it works so much better. It's nice to be able to display some of the nice kitchen items on their own shelves, just like we like to arrange our 'real' shelves with nice things.

on to my sewing table. I'm over the pink and looking to paint it aqua. I'm going to buy some Mythic Paint (non toxic! No VOC's!) and paint it soon. I am also going to make a simple machine cover, since I'm also over leaving my maching 'out' all the time and sewing stuff sprawled everywhere.

Not the greatest pictures (looking for a 'new' used good camera!) but I had to take pictures of Calvin's photo book of his first year, heaven forbid anything happen to it! Each photo (beginning with July 08) coordinates with one of the photos we took of him in that month.