penny carnival

Let the Christmas crafting begin!

OK, I should have written this post three months ago (maybe I did?), but I'm ready now to start knocking off my Christmas to-do list. More than ready. I have that poundy-in-my-heart desire to spend the next five weeks banging out the crafts. My friend Nissa suggested coffee, candy and illegal substances to power me through, and I told her as long as hot glue guns count as illegal substances I'm all set.

I'm not confident that it's going to be a 100 percent handmade Christmas this year, though, as originally planned. The clock is ticking and my freelance gigs are piling up. Plus, there's at least one cookbook on my wish list and I know J isn't about to write out all 1,080 recipes by hand.

So, drum roll please, here's Christmas Craft No. 1 ...

Felt dot garland!

This was inspired by a Martha Stewart project several years ago where she (or I should say, "her people") made garland out of string and those round stickers you use for garage sales.

This felt version is super easy. Just cut circles of whatever colors you want, then run them through the sewing machine one by one, overlapping just a bit as you feed them through.

I'm actually multitasking here because this is going to be part of a how-to article I'm writing for the newspaper about Christmas tree ornaments.

This concept doesn't have to be limited to Christmastime. Wouldn't it be cute to cut a bunch of red and pink hearts, sew them in a line and hang them from doorways on Valentine's Day? But that's another to-do list for another day ...

Turkey tabletop tutorial for the t'kids

I mentioned the other day that I've been crafting up a storm for several stories I've been writing for the newspaper. Well, here's a slice of one article that's supposed to run tomorrow.

The story is about handmade decor ideas for Thanksgiving, and I couldn't resist including something for the kids. The crayon holders you see here were made by me, but little ones definitely could participate in making this craft. 

Thank goodness I made two because both girls have really taken a liking to them. Bo, of course, claimed the bigger one with the "big girl pencils" and Magpie really just wants to roll hers on the floor and suck on the crayons. Hey, anything to keep them occupied for five or ten minutes. 

Here's an excerpt from the article with directions:

Any parent of small children knows how hard it is to keep a youngster at the dinner table on a typical night. Add the excitement of having cousins or friends over, plus the length of a multi-course meal, and you might have a recipe for disaster.

Take a tip from restaurants: distract the children with a set of Crayons and a paper placemat for coloring.

The paper placemat can simply be an 11-inch by 17-inch sheet of white computer paper. Or, drape long sheets of butcher paper over the “kids table” to serve as a doodle-able tablecloth.

To hold the Crayons, you’re going to turn an empty aluminum can, such as one that once held tomato paste or string beans, into a turkey.

Rinse and dry the can. If there are sharp edges around the rim, cover them with masking or electrical tape.

Cover the can with a scrap of fabric by applying glue to the can and rolling the fabric over it. Trim away any excess fabric.

Cut feathers from different colors of felt. Tip: wool felt is much easier to work with than craft felt. Yes, it’s more expensive, but you’ll only need a small amount for this project.

You can reinforce the feathers either by doubling up the felt and gluing the two pieces together or gluing a popsicle stick inside two layers. You also could make fan-like layers of feathers or use real feathers instead.

Now fold a small piece of brown felt in half and cut out two identical turkey heads. Cut one small wattle out of red felt and sandwich it in between the two brown turkey heads. Either glue or sew the heads together, leaving the neck area somewhat open so it can spread onto the can. 

(Looks like I should have stitched up my jeans while I was at it.)

Using a hot glue gun, glue the feathers and the turkey head to the can.

Fill the can with crayons or colored pencils and you've just added a few minutes to the duration of Thanksgiving dinner.

Here's Bo in action. A pleasant site, except for the fact that she was supposed to be at the table with us eating dinner.

Poor penny

My poor neglected blog. I realize it's been several, several days since I've written. Even my brother-in-law asked me tonight what was going on with Penny Carnival. He doesn't exactly sew.

Ironically, I've been busy crafting! Well, last week the election had me totally distracted. (On the subject of current events, did anyone notice First Lady-elect Michelle Obama's orangey-red dress today? Gorgeous! I don't care if it's sexist of me to be concerned about her dress. She looked great.) As a journalist, I can't share my political opinions willy nilly on the Internet, but I will say it was an emotional, powerful week and I still well up with tears when I think of it all.

So, I've also been busy with some deadlines for three craft-related stories going in the paper soon. One dealt with Christmas crafts (done. almost). The next relates to Thanksgiving tabletop projects (due Wednesday). And the last one is about giving new life to secondhand clothes (haven't even started).

Some stories fall together effortlessly. The Christmas craft story has been a comedy of errors. My original idea for it fell through. Twice. Then I got stranded across the state with a car that somehow attracted mice (maybe just one mouse. hopefully) who ate through the wires in my engine, making it impossible to get home to my craft room. Finally, the amazingly talented Arlene McComas of Heart Rocks Home saved the day with some of her Christmas crafts from years' past.

Take a look at just a few of the photos she sent me of her work, keeping in mind that everything here was made from recycled, unwanted materials (the gist (jist?) of the story).

(made from secondhand wool skirts. she made a basketful for each of her grandchildren after remembering how her own kids liked playing with "multiples" of anything when they were young)

(made from wood scraps and a quilting pattern. again, another gift for her grandkids. for each child, she placed entire nativity sets--including blocks you don't see here--in bags she sewed from old flour sacks)

(made from paper grocery sacks. she ties them onto gifts)

(made from junk mail and paint chips)

Thank you, Arlene. You saved the day.

In other blog news, Penny Carnival is about to become a big sister. No, I'm not pregnant (nor do I normally refer to my blog as a child). I'm going to be starting a new blog very soon. It'll be mostly geared for people who live in the Spokane area and will be a combination of home, garden, craft and green topics. And, get this, someone's actually going to pay me to do it. How's that for a novel concept? I'll post more about it here as we get closer.

Thanks for sticking around, folks. More crafts coming soon.

Pumpkin carving tutorial

After seven+ years as a journalist, having my byline in the newspaper doesn't faze me. My first clip--a story about couples who met through their dogs--was published in The Boston Globe back in 2001, and that was quite a thrill. But I quickly realized that my byline is there for only one reason--so people know who to call when they're grumpy.

There's something different, though, when my photos appear in the paper, especially when they're shots of one of my craft projects. It's more personal, I guess, and I always get a little red in the face when I open the paper in the morning and see my amateur photography, hoping the real photojournalists at the paper aren't rolling their eyes at my latest attempt. 

Bo could care less about any of it. When I showed her the pumpkins we carved in today's edition of the Spokesman-Review, she was like, "Yeah? So what, Mommy?" At least she isn't embarrassed by her mother yet. That'll come later, I'm sure.

In case you're looking for a unique way to carve a pumpkin this weekend, here's an excerpt from today's story and a photo tutorial. Just don't call me if yours doesn't turn out right.

(A) pumpkin-carving alternative involves scraping an image into a pumpkin rather than fully slicing and removing pieces of its flesh. This enables you to create a more detailed picture on your pumpkin than you might otherwise achieve.

The first step is to find a simple drawing of an image and either print it out or photocopy it. Consider nature-inspired drawings of leaves or animals, such as squirrels or owls.

Clip art programs and coloring books are good sources of images because their drawings usually have simple lines. There are several free coloring books online, including at familycrafts.about.com.

For this project, purchase a pumpkin that’s big enough to accommodate your drawing and that doesn’t have deep grooves. Wash and dry your pumpkin before beginning.

Next, cut a circle out of the bottom of your pumpkin or on top around the stem and scrape the pumpkin’s inside clean. Pay special attention to where you plan to scrape your image. Because you will be removing a shallow layer of the pumpkin instead of carving all the way through the pulp, you’ll want a fairly thin wall for the best illumination.

Now pin your paper image to the outside of the pumpkin using a few pushpins. 

Using another pushpin, puncture through the paper along the drawing’s lines. You will be transferring the picture from the paper to the pumpkin by poking hundreds of small holes very close together. Resist the urge to peek behind the paper as you go, which could shift your template and distort your image.

Once you’ve traced the entire drawing, remove the paper and discard it. Using a small scraping tool, such as the puncture tool on a wine key or can opener, carefully scrape away the pumpkin’s skin along the dotted lines. If you don’t already have a suitable tool in your kitchen, retailers sell pumpkin carving sets.

Once all the lines are scraped, rub petroleum jelly on your pumpkin to make your carving last longer.

Finally, carve a hole, about 1 inch by 1 inch, on the back of the pumpkin to allow oxygen to reach the candles. Light two candles then fit the pumpkin over the top of them or place the candles inside the pumpkin if you cut a hole around the pumpkin’s stem instead of its bottom.

If your carving doesn’t illuminate enough, add more candles or a bright battery-operated light or scrape away more of the pulp behind your image.

Meet the flockers

A year ago, when I started writing my HomeMaker column for the Spokesman, I declared myself to be a nonquilter in print. I admit. I was afraid. I'd attempted it a couple of times, and I think because I chose somewhat complicated designs, I totally, wholly failed.

I had already gotten over the notion that quilting was an old-fashioned craft. I'd stumbled upon Denyse Schmidt several years ago, so I knew there was great potential for modern quilts--i.e., quilts that didn't involve logos from the Green Bay Packers or images of cornucopia or something equally vomit inducing.

These days, I find myself day dreaming about making quilts. I cut a gajillion squares tonight out of my daughters' old baby clothes for a very simple baby mommy quilt I plan to make.

The next project, I hope, will be the Flock of Triangles quilt from Denyse's book. My plan is to use mainly turquoise fabrics for the triangles with brown accents and to make it big enough to use on J and my king-size bed. Daunting, huh? Damn that co-sleeping. We should have bought a queen.

Anyhow, from around the blogosphere, here are some other crafters' inspiring interpretations of Flock of Triangles:

From Hop Skip Jump:

From For the Joy of It:

From Gloriana07 on Flickr:

And a gorgeous multi-colored one that I can't seem to copy and paste from knottygnome. You can see it here.

Wish me luck.

My first attempt at felt food

You're probably not a true craft blogger until you've made two things: a birthday bunting/banner (check) and felt food (check, sort of).

I've been thinking that the subject of my next HomeMaker column for the Spokesman should be about making felt food. The perfect inspiration came my way last weekend when Bo and her buddy MK ate up some gorgeous cupcakes from Madeleine's bakery.

I've long admired the felt food of other crafters including Lilly Bean and sellers on Etsy, like Bugga Bugs.

So I followed a basic tutorial online tonight for a cupcake (I'm not even going to link to it because I don't want anyone blaming her for my rotten work) and failed miserably. If I hadn't placed the thing in a muffin tin in the photo below, there's no way you could even guess what it was.

I'll try again another day. It was just practice--I used craft felt (icky scratchy non-wool craft felt) and I didn't even worry about using matching thread. I was just trying to get the basic form down. I shouldn't have added the frosting flower--just makes it look like a flower not a cupcake. And I have some thoughts on the size of the circles that should be cut for the cupcake and its holder.

Anyone have a favorite tutorial for making felt food, cupcakes or otherwise?

The first photo below is my attempt--obviously. The rest are from Bugga Bugs. Isn't her stuff amazing?! Make sure you see that she's offering a free tutorial on her blog for felt strawberries.

The flower tutorial is up, including a video how-to

As promised, here's the tutorial from my latest HomeMaker column in the Spokesman-Review. (If you can't read it there, I'm pasting the text below.)
It's a guest tutorial from Mary Eberle of Anemone Paper Flowers, a company she runs with her husband, Nathan. They make amazing flowers out of all types of papers and beads, and they were generous enough to share their instructions for making a rose here.

Mary and Nathan got their start six years ago when they were planning their wedding and taught themselves to make paper flowers after looking up some vintage patterns. They made 600 for the wedding and haven't stopped since.

Lovely, huh? It gets better. Thanks to an idea from my genius editor, Carolyn, we have a video of Mary showing how to make the rose, which is available here. We're talking about doing this again with future installments of the HomeMaker column.

Happy flower making, everyone. My tissue-paper carnations are suffering a serious case of Napoleon complex tonight.

When my sister and I were young, we would make carnationlike flowers out of Kleenex. We’d lay dozens of Kleenex pieces flat, fold them together like an accordion, tie the bundle in the middle, pull each individual sheet toward the center, then spray the bloom with perfume.

I’m sure our mother was thrilled.

As an adult, I still make paper carnations – sans the perfume spritz and using colorful tissue paper instead of Kleenex. I use the flowers to adorn gifts or to decorate my daughters’ bedrooms.

I thought my flowers were clever and lovely until a couple of years ago, when I met Mary and Nathan Eberle.

The Spokane artists own Anemone Paper Flowers, a company that evolved in 2002 after they made 600 paper flowers for their wedding. The Eberles taught themselves the vintage craft after checking out a book on the topic from the public library.

Since then, they have continually experimented with the flower varieties they make and their methods for mimicking nature’s beauty. Their amazingly lifelike offerings include poppies, gerber daisies, calla lilies, roses and much more. The Eberles paint the paper by hand, and often incorporate beads into their designs.

They sell their bouquets at the Davenport Hotel’s gift shop, Pottery Place Plus and at Journey’s Boutique at Sacred Heart Medical Center and will have a booth at this weekend's Art on the Green event in Coeur d'Alene. They also sell flowers via their Web site, www.handmadepaperflowers.com, and rent out their floral collections for weddings and other events.Mary Eberle will teach two workshops on making paper flowers, both aimed at raising funds for the new Main Market food co-op opening this fall in downtown Spokane.

As a preview, the Eberles provided the following step-by-step instructions for making the paper rose pictured here.

Making a paper rose

You will need scissors, 18-gauge floral wire, 10-gauge wire, floral tape, wire cutters and paper. Mary Eberle suggests beginners use crepe paper because of its forgiving nature. Once you become more comfortable, move on to handmade papers, which are more challenging to maneuver, she says.

Start by creating your flower stem. Take six 18-gauge floral wires, cut to about 18 inches or to the length you want your stem to be, and wrap them together tightly with floral tape.

“This is the hardest part of paper flower making,” Eberle says. “If you can wrap floral tape on wire, you can make paper flowers.”

Next, cut your flower petals. Cut eight teardrop-shaped petals that are 1 inch long, eight that are 1 ?1/2? inches long and eight that are 2 inches long.

Now it’s time to wrap the petals around the flower stem with floral tape, starting with the 1-inch petals. After wrapping the first one, wrap the next one directly opposite from the first petal. Wrap the next petals on one by one around the two center petals. When you are finished with your 1-inch petals, move to your larger petals and repeat the process.

Once all the petals are wrapped on, set the flower aside. It’s time to make the leaves. Wrap three 18-gauge wires, cut the same length as the wire you cut for the flower’s stem, individually with floral tape. Cut three leaves out of lightweight cardstock paper and poke four holes across each of them using your 10-gauge wire. Weave the individually wrapped wires through the holes in the leaves and tape the leaf onto the wrapped wire with your floral tape.

Twist the wires with the finished leaves onto the finished rose stem and bend the leaves under to support your rose.

Finally, it’s time to add life to your paper flower. Curl ? the petals by rolling the paper over the 10-gauge wire, cut to 4 to 6 inches in length, using your fingers and ? thumb. Create the amount of curl you think looks best.?

Stop there and enjoy a single rose or make enough to fill a vase.

SIDEBAR:
Mary Eberle will teach drop-in paper flower-making classes on Aug. 9 and Aug. 23 at the Spokane Farmers’ Market and Liberty Lake Farmers’ Market, respectively. The Aug. 9 workshop will run from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the Aug. 23 event goes from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Spokane Farmers’ Market is at 20 W. Second Ave., and the Liberty Lake Farmers’ Market is at 1421 N. Meadowwood Lane. The classes are free and supplies will be provided, but donations will be accepted to help Main Market, a food co-op opening in downtown Spokane this fall, reach its opening fundraising goal of $250,000.
For more information about the classes or Anemone Paper Flowers, visit www.handmadepaperflowers.com.

A rose by any other name

I shouldn't spill the beans until it comes out in the newspaper, but I can't hold back my enthusiasm for the subject of my next HomeMaker column in the Spokesman-Review. It's going to be a guest tutorial you won't want to miss.

Here's a sneak peak at the photo and a big hint here. Stay tuned. It runs Aug. 1, so I'll post the how-to here after that.

C'mon. Everybody's doing it

Was it two weeks ago or three weeks ago that I promised a tutorial on making a birthday bunting (a.k.a. birthday banner)? I'm so sorry for the delay.

I know that every craft blogger in the universe (and boy, there are a lot of us these days) has their own version of this somewhere deep in their archives. So why couldn't I just follow someone else's plan and post a link to it here? If I could answer that, I could explain why I owned five pairs of fluorescent parachute pants in fifth grade.

I also made this the subject of my latest HomeMaker column in the Spokesman-Review, so I'm killing two birds with one stone here. Gee, that's an awful phrase. I'm petting two dogs with one hand. Better?

Anyhow, here's my take on birthday bunting. I'm off to work on a new invention now. It's round and rolly and it helps move things along. I think I'll call it a "wheel."

HOW TO MAKE BIRTHDAY BUNTING:
-First, determine how long you want your bunting to be. I wanted to spell out the phrase “hip hip hooray” with spacers in between the words and on the ends, so my bunting is 16 flags long.
Since each flag is 7 inches across the top and I left a small space between each one, the total banner length is about 14 feet.
-Now, create a template for your flags that’s about a half inch larger all the way around than you want them to be in the end. I cut a 7-inch by 10-inch by 10-inch triangle out of the cardboard from an empty cereal box.
-Trace the template onto your fabric scraps using chalk and cut them out all the triangles you will need.

There are so many ways to proceed from here.
-If you want to spell out a phrase, such as “happy birthday,” on your bunting, cut the desired letters out of felt and sew them to the flags, either by hand or with a machine.
-This is also the point when you need to decide whether you’re OK with your bunting having a “wrong” side or whether you want to cut out a second set of triangles so the bunting looks finished from all angles. I cut out a second set of flags from white fabric and sewed each white triangle to a printed one about a half inch from the edges.
-Now trim around your flags with pinking shears, whether you’re using single-layer flags or you’ve sewn two triangles together.
-Next, lay out your flags in the desired order. Double check your spelling, especially if you’re including someone’s name in the bunting. The last thing you want is to make a kid cry on her birthday.
-Pin the flags to a strip of bias tape that’s long enough to accommodate the length of your bunting, plus a foot or two so you can tie it to a table leg or tree or whatever. When you’re pinning, either tuck the top of the triangles into double-fold bias tape or lay single fold bias tape across the top of the triangles, depending on your preference.
-Sew the bias tape to the flags, removing the pins as you go.
There you have it! A vintage-inspired decoration that can used for years to come.

Alternatives rock:
-There’s no rule that says the buntings have to be made of triangles. You could make rectangles or circles or any old shape.
You could create shapes that fit the party’s theme, such as birthday cakes, graduation caps or Christmas trees.
-If you don’t sew, don’t fret. You could follow the directions above using paper, string and glue instead of fabric and thread. Scrapbook supply stores sell gorgeously printed paper—you could create something really beautiful.
If you want your paper bunting to last for a long time, though, consider laminating the flags.

A month without deadlines

I love my job (freelance journalist). Truly. Wouldn't trade it for anything, except maybe being a professional cheese sampler or a wave counter at the beach or a freelance journalist who is paid really, really well.

But the deadlines are piling up this month, so I'm finding myself daydreaming about being crafty instead of actually being crafty.

There are a few projects I will have to tackle no matter what--Fourth of July dresses for the girls, a gift for a new baby, a HomeMaker column that's due in a couple of weeks, and things related to Bo's birthday (a present for her, party favors for the buddies). And there are always the silly kids crafts we do to make ourselves forget about all the soggy rain (is there any other kind? I guess "soggy" is my placeholder for a superbad word I'd like to use instead) that's been coming down lately. Grrrrrr ...

But other than that, I'm pretty much glued to the laptop until our big, fat Italian vacation in July. Have I mentioned the vacation? Not in Italy. That was probably deceiving. We'll be in Rhode Island with the Italian side of the fam. For three whole weeks. That's right. Weeks. Not days. How I convinced J to do this, I'm still not sure, but we're all super excited to just park our rears on a beach for a while and spend time with the cousins and aunts.

Until then, if I weren't so booked, this is what I'd be doing ...

Making one of these for every baby on the planet.
Buying a better color printer so I can spend the rest of my life here.
Wasting countless hours here.
Reading this book.
Finding a clever way to celebrate the beautiful words to this song in our garden.
Finally, finally, finally remembering to watch my boyfriend's show on Saturday morning.
Doing more of this (that's not me, by the way).
And sleeping.

Good night.

(Photo below is from ohdeedoh.com)