Guest Post: Thoughts on Faith and Crafting

Hi everyone! 

 If you're looking for a crafty, crapt-filled post, you're not going to find it here.

Today I'm sharing some of my thoughts on crafting and my faith over at my friend Lisa's blog, About Proximity.  I'd love it if you came and visited me there.

See you later!

Melted Perler bead braided bracelet

Maybe you're like me.

You rushed out to buy a huge tub of Perler beads because you had to make an awesome Perler bead bowl.

But now you find yourself staring at a huge tub of tiny colorful cylinders, wondering what you're going to do with all of them.

Well, how about making a braided Perler bead bracelet?

Oooh.  Arm Candy.

Materials:
- Colored hemp cord
- Perler beads
- Wax paper
- Baking pan
- Scissors
- Tape (or clipboard, or you could just use your foot)
- Button
- Ruler

Voting for Earth911's "Stash your cash" Design Challenge

Let's imagine that you're traveling somewhere and you wanted a sneaky and DIY way to hide your cash from would-be robbers.  What would you make?  How would you make it? 

Go on, take a moment to think about it.  I'll just twiddle my thumbs and wait.  *Twiddle, twiddle* 

Why do I ask?  Well, about a month ago, I was posed this exact question by the staff of Earth911, a neat website providing people with information and ideas for reducing everyday waste. (Can you tell?  These are definitely my kind of people.)

They invited a couple of bloggers to participate in their "Stash your cash" design challenge.  Each blogger had to think up one sneaky way to hide money.  We were allowed to make whatever we wanted, but our solution had to incorporate upcycled and recycled materials.  

Here's my entry:  The Chocolate Bar wallet.

Very crapty... and pretty sneaky.   All the materials were destined for the garbage and now they get a second James Bond-esque life hiding some cash.

If you have a free moment, I'd love for you to vote for your favorite entry here.  The other challengers came up with pretty great ideas, so they're definitely worth checking out.

Hope you have a great start of the week.  We're still battling illness here, but things seem to *hopefully* be on the mend.

What's up Chuck?

Hi everyone! 

We're still battling the remnants of illness here, blech.

Here are some photos of our life lately....

1.  Chuck feeding his best friend, Pink Pig

I have no idea why... but Chuck loves this little pink pig.  She's his best friend.  He loves her so much that every time we eat a meal, Chuck has to feed Pink Pig too.  He places her on our couch and puts those two cups in front of her.  Then, when we're done eating our meal, he cleans up his pig's dishes too.

Super cute.


2.  Fun with Cars

Move over balls, cars have now stolen Chuck's heart.  We've already built several racing ramps and today Chuck and I mixed it up and built a large parking lot.

(Oh boy, do I wish parking in our neck of the woods was this plentiful!)


3.  Potty Humor 

Lately, Chuck has been adding "poo poo" to a lot of strange words and then giggling hysterically.   I've now heard, "Eat poo poo," "Poo poo rawr rawr," and "bad poo poo."

He also likes making his stuffed animals poo into different containers.  I'll let you interpret the above photos on your own. :)


4.  Putting on our shoes

Chuck really is  his father's son... because he loves shoes.  He especially loves wearing mismatched ones.

One day I found him wearing these two shoes and walking around the apartment.  I was so proud of him because he put them on all by himself. 

5.  Baking with Chuck  

I'll let the video do the talking.


P7226875.AVI from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.



Hope you have a great weekend! 
I'm hoping we all feel 100% better by Sunday....



(Psst- I did the unthinkable. I jumped full force into social media and got myself an Instagram 
and Twitter account. Yes I know.  It's kind of overwhelming... scratch that... very overwhelming.  I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm pushing hard to try new things... eeek.)

Contact paper and cellophane stained glass windows

Our weekly baby and toddler music class has now morphed into a music and craft class.  The kids are getting more mobile now, so we figured it was good to give them something to make and do with their hands.  (Otherwise, they go straight to grabbing the lovely books on the shelves or pushing the furniture around.  Cute, but slightly disruptive to the library.)

But what kinds of activities could the kids do?  Well, the activity had to be
- Suitable for children from 1-3
- Easy to prep
- Easy to set up
- Super easy and quick to clean up
- Made from cheap materials
- Fun!!! (Of course.)

Because of my love for stained glass, I wanted to try a simple stained glass activity with the kids.  Instead of using glue (too messy for the younger kids), we used contact paper to attach our colored cellophane.

Materials:

• Two identical rectangles of contact paper (I just bought a small roll from the Dollar store instead of buying the expensive large roll from the department store)
• Masking tape and clear tape
• Frame cut out from a cereal box (Note:  Make the opening of the frame smaller than your contact paper rectangles)
• Different colored pieces of cellophane cut into small rectangles

 
Directions:
1.  Carefully remove the backing from one contact paper rectangle and use masking tape to tape the sheet sticky side up to your table. 

2.  Let your child stick the cellophane rectangles onto the contact paper. (Chuck loved this part.)

3.  Remove a portion of the backing from another sheet of contact paper.  Then, slowly stick the second sheet of contact paper on top of the first (sticky side down), smoothing it, and removing the rest of the backing as you go.  (This was the toughest part. When we got bumps or bubbles, we just lifted up the top sheet of contact paper and tried again.)

 4.  Tape your contact paper rectangle onto your frame.   Decorate the frame however you want.


Results:

Here are some of the mommy and children's actual work (My sample item is in the one on top in the middle.)

Review:
They were fun to make and came out super colorful and cute.

We struggled a bit with the contact paper, but I didn't care because some of the 2 year olds actually sat still for a couple of minutes and stuck the colored cellophane onto the contact paper.  What?  A couple minutes of concentrated effort?  Awesome.  I'll take it!

One very pregnant mommy even said that this was the longest time that her almost-2 year old sat still.   She didn't want to leave because he was behaving so nicely.

Ahh, music to my ears.  Her comment just made my day.

I love seeing moms and children engaged in an activity and enjoying time together.

Happy crafting!

Make a hockey stick hobby horse and dragon

Did I make a hobby horse from a hockey stick?

Yup.

And why stop there?  Why not make a hobby dragon too?

Rawr.

Tin can stilts

What do you do if you're stuck at home all weekend?

That's the question we were faced with this weekend since we were all under the weather.  Blech.

With a couple of empty cans, duct tape, scissors, and string, we made ourselves some tin can stilts.  (I removed the labels and then washed and dried the empty cans.  Then, hubby drilled two holes on each side of the can to fit the string through.  I covered the bottoms and the holes with duct tape just to make sure that Chuck's fingers wouldn't get hurt on any scratchy edges.  Then, we poked the strings through and tied them tight.)

The tiny tuna fish cans were for Chuck to try out.  He still doesn't quite have the coordination to actually move the stilts by himself, but he seemed to enjoy trying and copying mama.

Tin can stilts one day.... real stilts the next?  Maybe Chuck will be a circus performer when he grows up.....


Happy crapting!

What's up Chuck?

You know that line from Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times?"

Well, this past week kind of felt like that.

We worked to fight computer failure.  But it's now official, the computer is dead.

We battled illness.  (Chuck had a cold.  Then I caught his cold... and then I caught some sort of tummy bug.  Ick. I'll spare you the details.)

And throughout the week Chuck and I engaged in some pretty epic battles of wills.  (His new favorite word is "No.")

But amidst all these tough spots, we've also shared some wonderfully sweet moments.  As Chuck gets older, he's also becoming more aware of the things and people around him.   One of his favorite things to do is copy others.   

He copies the older kids at the sprinklers

He noticed that I wore a ring, so he wanted to wear one too

He and daddy wore matching outfits to church

He saw some kangaroos on tv and wanted to have a baby kangaroo in his own "pouch" too

Pretending to be a kangaroo from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.


Life is tough, but there are also such beautifully sweet moments sprinkled throughout. 

Have a good weekend, friends.  Stay cool and we'll see you next week!

6 things to do with gummy bears

I thought you might need a giggle, so here's a list of six things you can do with gummy bears (besides eat them).

6 Ways to Play with Gummy Bears

Make a Cardboard Taxi Bank

The last time we visited New York, Chuck got the chance to ride around Manhattan in a taxi.

He absolutely loved it.  Not only did he not have to sit in a baby seat, but he got to ride alongside mom and dad.  Whoa!  Too much coolness.

Now whenever we see a taxi (or really, any yellow car), he calls out, "Taxi! Taxi"

His love for those yellow vehicles and the ever growing pile of cardboard diaper boxes in our apartment prompted me to make him a small taxi bank.

Beep Beep! 

It was a pretty simple craft to make.  Older kids can help with making or assembling the pieces and younger kids can help paint the car once it's built.

Materials:
- Cardboard <-- crap!
- Scissors
- Exacto knife
- Masking Tape
- Packing Tape
- Paint
- Paint brushes
- Mod Podge
- Foam Brush
- Black Sharpie Marker

Directions:
1.  Cut out two identical car pieces and two long rectangular strips out of cardboard.  The strips should be identical widths.  Cut out a small slit in one cardboard rectangle for a place to insert your moola.

3.  Slowly bend and tape the rectangular strips to the edge of one of your car pieces.  Use packing tape to tape the cardboard together.  When you reach the point to where you want the trunk to be, cut out a small opening (for coins to escape.)  (Note:  I kept the non-printed brown side on the outside of the car because I thought it would be easier to paint later.)

4. Now you'll have to be dextrous and tape the other cardboard car piece on top of your structure.  (I used packing tape and tried to tape everything on the inside.)  Then, use masking tape to cover your edges.  (The masking tape gives the piece a less crapty, cleaner look.  Plus, it helped to keep everything attached together.)

5.  Paint your car white.  (This will make sure your colors pop.)  Then, paint your taxi.  You can also use a Sharpie marker to outline shapes or write out the license plate numbers. 

6.  Cover your car with Mod Podge to protect your lovely paint job.  Voila!  Now you're done.

Hmm.... looking back I probably would not have made cardboard wheels.  Instead, I would have made them out of milk caps so that they could really turn.

I added a small rectangular piece to the trunk to give Chuck something to grip.  Eh... he ended up ripping it right off.. so I'm not sure if that was too important to do....

Taxi, taxi!  (Don't worry.  Chuck's leg isn't hurt, he's just likes wearing hubby's leg band.)

Right now Chuck has about five cents in the bank.  Hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?  We're hoping that by the end of the year, he'll have enough to buy something from the 99cent store.  :)

Happy crafting!

Make Perler bead bowls (and words)

Today's post is a bit late because my computer died last night.

RIP, dear friend.

I knew that it was going to happen sooner or later (but I just wish it was later.)  Boo.  I also wish that I had backed up my stuff (double boo.)  Hubby's performing some intensive surgery on it, so hopefully we can get my documents and photos back.

OK, enough heavy shop talk... onto today's craft.

When I saw Poppy Haus melting Perler beads to make bowls, I knew that I had to try it too.  Melting plastic beads in the oven?  Too. Much. Crafty. Awesomeness.  Sign me up!

Definitely check out her results, because they were much classier (she used two colors.)  I, on the other hand, went whole-hog color crazy.  Here are my results:

Bam!  It's like a whole bunch of sprinkles and confetti exploded to make this bowl.  We're currently using it to store fruit.     

Two-ingredient homemade ice-cream

What can I say?  The title pretty much says it all.

A couple of days ago, I found Kevin and Amanda's recipe for homemade ice-cream. It immediately caught my eye because it didn't require an ice-cream machine or rock salt.  Plus, you only needed two ingredients to make the basic vanilla recipe.

Say what?  You must be kidding.

Nope.  They were serious.... ice-cream serious.

So of course I had to try it out for myself.  The results?  Take a look below:

It was yummy and had a light texture and super creamy taste.

Chuck ab-so-lutely loved it.

We tried their cinnamon bun ice-cream recipe.  I've put the recipe below, but you can find other yummy flavors on their blog like Nutella peanut butter chip, Krispy cream, and hazelnut mocha fudge swirl.  Yum, yum, and double yum.

Cinnamon Bun Ice-cream Recipe (from Kevin and Amanda):

Ingredients:
2 C heavy cream
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
3 T of melted butter
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1.  Whip heavy cream into stiff peaks.
2.  Thoroughly whisk the butter, cinnamon, vanilla, and condensed milk together in a very large bowl.
3.  Fold the whip cream into your butter/cinnamon/vanilla/condensed milk mixture.
4.  Pour everything into a 2-qt tupperware container.  Cover and freeze until firm.  (I waited overnight.)

Then, enjoy (and feel like a cool foodie because you just made ice-cream from scratch).

Have a great weekend.  See you next week!

Make Batik-style cloth (using glue)

I'm currently still in the process of decorating our walls with colorful and affordable wall art.  After seeing how easy it is to make Batik-style cloth, I thought I'd use the method to create a cloth wall hanging.

Here's my fishy batik wall art:

Are these fish wearing argyle sweaters?  Hrmm....

Materials:
- Cotton cloth
- Paint
- Water
- Paint Brushes
- Blue gel glue
- Saran Wrap (or wax paper)
- Tape
- Pencil, markers
- Paper
- Old tooth brush
- Iron
- Dish cloth

Directions:
1.  Prep your fabric.  (I used some leftover muslin from our rollie pollie bean bag chair, so hubby hemmed it for me.  I also ironed it.)

2.  Draw out your design.   Outline it with a marker to make the lines darker.

3.  Tape a piece of saran wrap over your design (so your glue won't stick to the paper).

4.  Tape your cloth over the design.  Trace your design with the blue glue.  (Remember, the glue will protect your cloth from being painted.  So, any cloth covered by glue will remain its original color.)

5.  Let your glue dry.   (I waited overnight.)

Left- Wet glue on cloth                                       Right- Glue dried by the sun

6.  Add a bit of water to your craft paints to make them a bit more watery and easier to spread. Channel your inner artist, have fun, and paint.

7.  Once your paint dries (I waited overnight), soak your cloth in warm water.  Your glue will start to soften and soon you'll be able to brush it off with your tooth brush.  (My glue lines were fairly thin, so it only took about 10 minutes of waiting before I could scrub and scratch off the glue.  You'll probably have to wait longer if you used a lot of glue.)

8.  Lay your cloth out to dry.  Place a dish cloth over it and iron it.  Then, enjoy your very own hand painted cloth wall art.

And here's what the batik effect looks like up close:

Happy glue batiking!

Psst- Want to see more wall art ideas that are affordable and super easy to make?  Check these out:

• Faux Stained glass
• Painted Twig Wall Art 
• Paint Chip Wall Art
• Coffee Filter Pinata letters
• Egg Carton Wreath

Make Popsicle Bracelets

When I saw Mama Miss's Washi tape Popsicle bracelets, I was completely smitten.  Bracelets... made out of Popsicle sticks?  Super neat-o.  Count me in.

So today I present my version of Popsicle bracelets.  They were really fun to make and brought me back to my summer camp days.

Materials:
- Popsicle sticks
- Craft paint
- Paint brush
- Glasses
- Tupperware
- Water
- Painter's tape
- Drill
- String
- Scissors
- Fine sand paper
- Mod Podge
- Foam Brush

New Jersey Children's Museum

I don't know what the weather's been like where you are... but around here... it's been hot.  Really, really, really, hot.

So hot that the park across the street has been practically empty all weekend until 5pm, when some brave souls drag their stir-crazy children out.

So hot that I feel like a roasting chicken when I step out into our apartment's hot, stuffy, lobby.

So hot that our curtains are drawn practically the whole day so that we keep the sun's powerful rays out.

Blech.

With hubby home for the long weekend, we wanted to hang out as a family... but where could we go that was fun, kid-friendly, and indoors?

Luckily for us, Hubby found out that the New Jersey's Children's Museum is located only about a half hour away.  So, we spent one weekend morning there, hiding from the heat and having lots of fun.  We're so thankful that places like this exist.  They had lots of toys and interactive exhibits just right for young kids.  And, bonus- everything there is meant to be touched, pulled, pinched, dropped, etc... which is just perfect for us, since Chuck's super active and curious.  Here are some photos from our fun (and cool) day:

Need something demolished?  Chuck's ready to help out.

Fee-fie-fo-fum!  There's something awesomely cool about seeing things in miniature size

Perhaps Chuck's favorite exhibit- the sandbox.

Largest kaleidoscope I've ever seen- you had to turn a steering wheel to operate it

Chuck and a new four-legged buddy save the day

Ack!  These little wooden Wild West toys are just too cute.   

The super-humongous lite-brites board made us feel like kids again  (It would also be an awesome DIY to make one day... oh huubbbby.....)

Hope you had a good weekend as well.

Happy July 4th

Dear friends~

Happy July 4th. 

Hope you have a restful, refreshing, and reflective weekend.  

I'll see you next week!

Make your own trunk cover

****Update-  A lot of people seem to be interested in this trunk cover.  Full disclosure here... after using it for awhile, we've noticed that there's one big problem with the cover.  Every time we drive, the back bar pops out.  Grr....   So the cover holds up if the car is parked... but the back bar won't stay put if the car is moving.  So once hubby and I get some free time, we will tweak the design.  Does anyone have ideas with how to fix that problem?  Hrmm... I'll update you with our progress..... Sorry!*****



It's now been a year since we left Michigan and moved back to the East Coast.  Wow.  Time really flies.  

It's also been about a year since we lost our trunk cover.  Grrr movers!  We figured it was time to finally get a new one.  However, with trunk covers being so pricey, hubby and I took the thrifty way out and and made our own.  Here's what our trunk cover looks like:

It was really easy for us to design and hubby to sew.  In case you find yourself missing a trunk cover (grr, movers!), check out the directions below.

Materials:
- Two shower curtain rods
- Piece of fabric

Directions:  
1.  Measure the two distances (across the trunk) between the pairs of holes where the original trunk cover rested.  (These distances will determine what size shower curtain rods you buy.)

2.  Measure the distance between the two holes on one side of the car.

3.  Purchase

• two shower curtain rods that will span the two distances across the trunk
• a piece of fabric that will span the distance between your two rods (with an extra bit to create tube "sleeves" for your poles)

4.   Sew one tube "sleeve" to hold in one shower curtain rod.  Place your sleeved rod into the car and use chalk to determine how to sew the next curtain rod.  Then, sew your other tube "sleeve."   Insert your second rod in your sleeve.

Then, voila.  You've got your very own personalized trunk cover.

On the negative side, it won't be able to slide open and closed like your original one.  However, on the positive side, it covers the items in your trunk and was made for a fraction of the cost

Happy crafting!