penny carnival

12 Days of Crafting, Day 5: Repurposing vintage Christmas cards

OK, so I'm 23 hours, 45 minutes into day 5, but it's still day 5 so take it or leave it.

Today's tutorial for my 12 Days of Crafting series over at Dwell Well is not so much a tutorial but a list of ways you can give new life to vintage Christmas cards.

You can find the cards in an antique store or just search through Flickr. 

I have more details over at Dwell Well, but here are some pictures of the things I made ...

Cupcake toppers (or cookie toppers if you didn't have time to make a batch of cupcakes):

 

Might be cute to cut these with a scalloped-edge scissor or pinking shears.

Garland:

 Place cards for the dinner table:

 

Napkin rings:

 

And gift tags:

Any other ideas? 

 

 

 
 

Repurposing a quilt top, this little piggy, and my sweet Bo

It has taken me 10 minutes to start typing this post because my hands are busy feeding my mouth a big hunk of bread that just came out of the oven. I would like to tell you that it's some earthy, nutty, whole wheaty bread, but it's not. It's white sandwich bread, made with overly processed flour. There's butter melting on top of it. And I'm in heaven.

First, congratulations to my friends Carolyn and Scott and their daughter Joey, who welcomed baby Julian into the world today. I always get weepy when that much-anticipated e-mail comes (or Facebook update, I should say. E-mail seems so old fashioned now, doesn't it?). Good work, Mama. Now cuddle up with your little bundle and get some rest.

I have a partial update from Saturday's trash-to-treasure presentation. As a reminder, the newspaper gave me $25 to buy some junk at the big indoor yard sale they host, and then I had 24 hours to come up with a plan to repurpose it. Then, in front of a (very small) audience, I transformed it.

One of the items I bought--for $5--was a quilt top. I don't think I'm going to win any points for creativity here, but I basically just used it like I'd use any fabric and turned it into an Emmeline apron:

This was the last project I did at the show because I knew it would take a while, so I sent the audience off to do more shopping while I sewed it up. They came back at the end (well, some of them did) to see the result.

Thanks again for everyone's encouragement before the show. It went fine. Later this week, I'll show you what I did with wooden alphabet blocks, an old picture frame, and a soda-bottle crate.

Now, shifting gears ... to poverty.

There have been a couple of pivotal moments in our 4-year-old daughter Bo's life. One was when she saw the Broadway production of "Annie" last winter. It's probably not P.C., but she still likes to don the Annie dress I made her and scrub the floors "like an orphan." Hmm ...

A second pivotal moment was when her beloved preschool teacher Miss Kathleen quit her job at the school to go back to social work, helping homeless women and children find permanent housing. Ever since then, Bo has been on the lookout for homeless people. She also sometimes asks me if Miss Kathleen has found a home for Annie yet. (After which I fruitlessly try to explain the difference between fiction and reality and then give up and assure her that Annie is with Daddy Warbucks now.)

Anyhow, on a more serious note, Bo's concerns about poverty--especially children without enough food to eat or without a place to live--has been growing. I asked her last week if she'd like to do something to help, and she said yes.

Together, we came up with a plan: she's going to make crafts that she'll sell at a local farmers' market and then donate the money to a crisis nursery here in town. So between now and Oct. 10, the date of her sale, we'll be stocking up on crafty-kid inventory.

She got started tonight with a project I've eyed for months now.

Presenting Bo's very first papier mache pig puppet:

 

(Turns out an empty thread spool makes a great snout.)

The little pig is drying now, and tomorrow he'll get a coat of paint and something to wear.

I'm sure we've all read articles about kids doing good things for charity, like donating their birthday gifts to a cause. I love seeing that, but I have to admit I've always been skeptical about how much the parents are pushing it rather than it coming from the kid. Not that it'd be a bad thing that they're pushing them to do. On the contrary. It's just the pushing I don't like--or the assumption of pushing, since it's just the cynic in me that questions the kids' motivation.

But I can tell you this crafting project of Bo's is coming straight from her heart. It's the first thing she talks about in the morning and the last thing she says at night ("are we going to help the people tomorrow?"). I'll never question those feel-good articles again.

It's enough to warm a mama's heart. 

Bread warms up other parts of me. One more slice before bedtime ...

From trash ...

... to treasure. Soon.

I'm on my way to a big indoor yard sale, where I'll be demonstrating how to turn castaway items into something better. The good folks at the local newspaper gave me $25 to spend at the sale yesterday. With Magpie at my side (and oftentimes very far away from my side--going junking with a toddler is challenging, to say the least), I spent the money on these items:

There were a lot of quilt tops to choose from, but this one for $5 caught my eye:

The cookie cookbook, well, it's full of cookie recipes. What can I say? For $3, I had to have it. The plan is to use it to decoupage, though, so I'd better pull out my favorite recipes now.

And am I the only one with a crush on these vintage metal trays? Mint and red. 'Nuff said.

Wish me luck! I'm going to be on a stage, which makes me a bit nervous. You would laugh at me if you saw how little the stage is, though. It's really no big deal. It's just that I'm used to crafting in my basement while wearing pajamas, not while wearing platform shoes with people who've actually taken sewing lessons in the audience. Eek!

I survived a make-and-take craft booth

As I just wrote on my other blog, I need a T-shirt that says that.

I'm back from 5 fun-filled hours teaching eager crafters (most of whom were darling little kids) how to make stuff out of secondhand materials at the North Idaho Fair. 

Take a look at some of their creations:

The one this kindergarten teacher made was one of my favorites:

How cute is this little monkey?

He sewed a pillow instead of a flower. And charmed my socks off in the meantime.

This is how the booth looked:

I displayed some of my crafty stuff to show folks how they could repurpose old objects.

And, yes, that's Amanda Soule's new book Handmade Home sitting in that wire basket. I bought it two days ago but haven't had a second to look inside yet.  

You can see more crafty photos from the booth here.

My only regret about the fair is that it fell on the night before the first day of preschool and I feel like I haven't properly ritualized the whole going-back-to-school thing with Bo. I think we'll have to get up extra early and go out for some pancakes to make up for it.

There's so much I could say right now about how inspired I was by the crafty kiddos at the fair, many of whom had never used a needle and thread before, and their ability to turn old sheets into beautiful objects.

Instead, though, I'm going to bed. G'night.

Tutorial: no-sew triangle pennant banners with kids

I'm gearing up to run that make-and-take craft booth at the North Idaho Fair tomorrow. Basically that means my hands ache from cutting, cutting, cutting fabric and my head aches from trying to remember everything I need to bring.

The easiest of the three crafts we'll be doing is the triangle/pennant/birthday/circus banner/garland (or whatever you want to call it), so I'm hoping the littlest kids will enjoy this one. Plus, I think the finished product comes out pretty well. Definitely something you could hang above a child's bed or use at a birthday party. Big impact. Minimal effort.

I posted a tutorial for a sewn birthday banner several months ago. This is a no-sew version. 

Just to prove how easy it is, here's Bo (age 4) putting one together this morning.

And then quite thrilled by her results:

She insisted on draping it across the rooster, as if there isn't enough going on in that corner already.

Some of these steps might need to be done ahead of time by you, depending on the child's age.

By the way, all the fabrics you see here (and the cord!) were found at thrift shops. Most were originally sheets or shirts and were purchased for a fraction of what yardage costs at a fabric store. You could probably even cut up some of your own old clothes for this project.

Enjoy! 

You will need: fabric, pinking shears, glue (Elmer's is fine), a disappearing-ink pen or chalk, cardstock or an empty cereal box, and either string, twine, bias tape or yarn.

1. Cut out a triangle template from a cereal box or cardstock. Mine is 7 inches across the top and 9 1/2 inches down the sides.

2. Fold a piece of fabric so that it's overlapped by 9 1/2 inches. Place the triangle template's 7-inch side on the fold. Trace around the triangle with the disappearing-ink pen or chalk. Cut along the lines. You should have just cut a diamond shape (once you unfold the fabric).

3. Repeat several times, depending on how long you want the garland to be.

4. Cut your cord (or twine or yarn or bias tape or string) as long as you would like the garland to be.

5. Place the diamonds where you want them along the cord with about two inches between each diamond.

6. Sandwich the cord inside the diamonds, folding the diamonds so that you form a triangle again. The "right sides" of the fabric should face out.

7. Unfold each diamond one at a time and place glue inside, along the three sides of one of the triangles. Press down to seal the triangles shut.

8. Repeat the steps until all triangles are glued to the cord.

9. Allow to dry, then hang wherever you want to add a bit of festivity.

P.S. A few things I'm loving right now:

-Tutorial on making a wall-mounted deer head out of foam core. Squeal!! I cannot wait to do this.

-Tutorial on making a ruffled girl skirt out of an old T-shirt by Epicurean Style. Super cute.

-This camping activity blanket. My girls would go bonkers for it.

-Tutorial on making a cake stand out of log cross sections. I wanted to do something like this last year for Magpie's woodland birthday party. And now I know how.

Stick-bound book tutorial

I've got food on the brain (when do I not?).

Our garden is on the verge of exploding. So far, we've been able to eat what it grows but I think within the next week it'll start outpacing us and J's co-workers will mysteriously find zucchini and patty-pan squash sitting on their desks in the morning.

Enter this recipe for ratatouille from The Leftoverist (A.K.A. Sarah, a friend of mine from high school who I've mentioned here before). I've got it roasting in the oven right now. The smell of the basil is killing me (in a good way)--not to mention the smell of tomatoes that's lingering on my fingers. 

I plan to eat it this way tomorrow.

I'm convinced that Sarah needs to write a cookbook. Her photos alone are stunning, not to mention the artwork her sister Naomi has done for the blog.

Now, if I were to write a cookbook, it would be this big:

In other words, itty bitty. 

This little booklet is one of the make-and-take crafts I'll be teaching at the county fair I mentioned last week. I'm running a booth as part of my gig for the local newspaper as a blogger for its "Down to Earth" Web site.

Everything will be made from secondhand materials, so I've been hitting every thrift store and garage sale in town over the last few weeks collecting supplies. Even the hole puncher we'll be using to make these books was a 99-cent find from The Classy Rack (don't you love it when thrift shops get clever with their names?). 

I figure this little booklet, which is bound with a twig and some twine (or yarn or strong string--whatever you have handy), could be used for grocery-shopping or to-do lists. If I were really great at entertaining house guests, I would print out the recipes of the food I made for them while they were staying with me, bind the recipes together this way and then give the book to my friends as a departure gift. As it is, my last house guests were lucky to get clean sheets and take-out pizza.

If you can find a use for this little booklet, please enjoy this tutorial:

1. Choose a front and back cover for your booklet. The paper should be cardstock-like, so consider using cereal boxes, softback book covers, old calendar pages, etc. In the pictures here, I used the front and back cover of a small coloring book from 1967.

2. Choose some filler paper. I like to mix blank pages with pages from old books, dictionaries or graphing paper.

3. Find a twig, pencil, chopstick or other short stick and a piece of strong string or twine that's about 15 inches long. (The length of your string will depend on how tall the book is that you're making.) 

4. You will also need a hole puncher, scissors and either a clothespin or paper clip.

5. Arrange the papers in your hand like a book, sandwiching the lightweight paper inside the heavier cardstock. Tap the stack on the table so that the edges of the left side are even and hold everything together with your paper clip or clothespin. 

6. If the papers aren't already all the same size and shape, trim around everything so all the pages (including the front and back cover) are the same size.

7. Punch two holes on the left side of the stack, a few inches apart.

8. Lay the stick on the right side of the holes. 

9. Poke one end of the string through the top hole of the book, pulling it through so that about half the length of the string is sticking out the front of the book. Wrap the string around the stick once or twice, then poke the string back through the hole toward the back of the book. Pull so the loop around the stick is snug.

10. Repeat that step with the bottom hole.

11. Pull tightly and tie the ends of the string together in a double knot on the back side of the book. 

12. Trim the ends of the string. Or don't. Whatever.

You're done!

The stick binding isn't practical for, say, a journal or anything else you'd be opening often and writing in at length. But it's kind of a cute, earthy way to present something special, like maybe a wedding program (grrr ... there I go again re-doing my wedding seven years later). 

While I have your attention, I just have to put a plug in for some amazing Spokane talent. Last night, J and I attended a fundraiser for a food co-op that's opening soon here. For an extremely reasonable price, we were treated to some top-notch entertainment, including book readings by 2006 National Book Award finalist Jess Walter and columnist Cheryl-Anne Millsap, both of whom are fantastic people as well as talented writers.

And then pianists Brad Greene and Kaylee Cole took our breath away. You can hear some of Brad's music on his site and Kaylee's here. I know we're all busy people, but if you get a sec give them a listen. 

Hope all is well, my bloggy friends.

 

Vintage toys, a country wedding and more farm charm

Is this the summer of the hoedown or what? I hope you guys aren't getting sick of my photos of country chic, but I can't seem to help myself. I keep going to these vintage barn bazaars and find myself leaving totally inspired.

This weekend was the Vintage Barn antique show in Rathdrum, Idaho. 51 vendors, home-baked goodness by women from a nearby Mennonite community, and live bluegrass music. This was the scene:

I thought this would make a great lemonade stand for the girls, but for $300+ I decided we'd stick with the card table for now:

Can you imagine the hours that went into this?

More tartan! This time plates:

Bo contemplates the "naughty chair." I'm not sure today's child psychologists would recommend this.

Wee! No buckles! No straps! A handle that can become dislodged and used as a weapon. 

Pretty paper flowers made from pages of vintage books, I assume:

I loved the sea of blues and greens in this booth by Wild Whimsy (photo above, too):

Given that my blog is named Penny Carnival, I couldn't resist bringing home this toy for $5:

Can you see the grumpy look on the Ferris Wheel operator's face? I love it. It's like me at the sewing machine when I need to use the seam ripper. Grrrr ... 

The girls each chose a vintage toy, too--a dog on wheels for Bo and a helicopter on a string for Magpie. Bo named her dog "Flower" and insisted we build her a dog house this morning.

There's something about painting 3-dimensional surfaces that thrills my children to no end:

That's why I rarely recycle cardboard boxes and I keep the hot-glue gun handy at all times.

Does anyone else buy their kids secondhand toys? The girls chose these vintage ones on their own, but on birthdays and at Christmastime, I always throw some garage sale finds into the mix. Just today, I heard a funny story about an old friend whose dad always bought his kids stuff from garage sales for gifts. So they'd be putting together a puzzle and get to the end only to discover that four pieces were missing. And one Christmas two of the brothers got bicycles--one bicycle worked and one didn't. That cracked me up, but it caused one of the brothers to vow to always buy new toys for his kids. You can probably guess which brother.

In other news from the weekend, we attended our nephew's absolutely gorgeous wedding in the, you guessed it, country.

I don't know if Bo was more thrilled by the bride and groom's kiss at the altar or the horse-and-carriage rides:

This draping was inside the barn where dinner was served:

Outside the barn looking in:

Inside the barn looking out:

At the risk of sounding completely unappreciative for the lovely wedding J and I had 7 years ago ... um, can I have a do over, please?

I did do some sewing this weekend, but it just involved adding straps to an otherwise revealing strapless dress. I'd show you the before and after, but the before shots would make this an x-rated blog. Not that I actually took before shots like that.

We did manage to hang my hammock in the backyard after it spent, oh, 15 years in storage. Literally. I bought this hammock while studying abroad in Costa Rica in 1994, lugged it all the way home on the plane, and then never hung it. Leave it to my task-master husband to get it swinging. That guy can plow through a to-do list like nobody I know.

It's dreamy to relax in there under the cherry trees, callused feet and all (don't zoom in. you'll regret it. I've been running a lot).

Speaking of cherries, I'm overdosing. I need an intervention. I just filled a small baby bottle with pits while writing this post. 

They're. Just. So. Frickin'. Good. And. Sweet. 

I mostly just eat them as nature intended, but we had J's cousin over for dinner last night so I made this dessert:

Bo took her job of making it snow on the clafouti very seriously.

OK, so she went a little overboard. What can I say? The kid is used to living under 4 feet of the white stuff every winter.

Going bananas for book slings, and randomness

A few random thoughts on this unseasonably crisp (but beautiful and perfect) summer evening.

-I sold another book sling in my Etsy shop! Yea-hoo! The buyer told me she wanted me to use the solid colors of brown and banana (read: yellow) as the main fabrics, and then gave me the creative freedom to add a bit of flair to it. Gotta love that. So this is what I created for her son, Nolan.

It looks a little wobbly there because the books are only on one end.

I made it reversible, so she can use either the lower case or uppercase side, or she can just go with plain brown or banana by flipping the whole thing inside out.

For you newcomers, this is what a whole book sling looks like (Bo's room was a mess today, so I didn't get a good wide shot):

Someone must have a put up a new link to my Etsy shop, because I'm getting a lot of book sling inquiries lately. You never know if a conversation with a potential customer will really pan out, though, so you might see more examples here in the near future. Or you might not. 

Selling on Etsy is way less profitable than my other life as a freelance journalist, but boy is it fun when someone honors you by wanting to buy something you made. 

-For you locals, check out my post on Dwell Well about what looks like another great funky junky fair this weekend near Spokane. It's called the Vintage Barn Antique Show, and it was featured in "Country Living" mag last summer.

-Cherries for sale! Cherries for sale! Organically grown, ripe cherries for sale!

And hopefully you don't get a cup with some of Magpie's half-eaten ones inside. 

Good to see the ballet recital costume is getting good use, especially since it never made it on stage during the actual recital. A repeat of her mom's (lack of) performance back in 1977.

Bo kept telling people a cup of cherries cost $5 instead of 5 cents. 

I'd like to build the girls a sturdy wooden stand like this one.

-My friend Joe alerted me to this. (WARNING! BAD WORDS.) I told him I need something along those lines for my front door warning people not to knock when the girls are napping. It's not quite as neighborly as what I had in mind, but it sure would get the message across, don't you think?

Update: Bo is sitting with me and just shouted "Mr. Obama!" when I clicked on that link. Cute.

-I'm in love with this nursery. Do you think it would translate well into a master bedroom? Hmmm ...

-And in other bloggy good news, Sew Mama Sew featured my daily planner today! Remember it? I'm so flattered. 

If you found Penny Carnival through that post, welcome.

Latah Creek Variety Market 2009

Another weekend, another funky junky fest in Spokane. This time it's the Latah Creek Variety Market, organized by nurse/restaurateur/creative guru/perpetual ray of light and cheer Celeste Shaw.  

Are these events popping up in your neck of the woods, too? Or is Spokane all of a sudden a hotbed for markets where creative vendors offer up the treasures they find (how? where?) throughout the year? The fun continues next weekend with the Two Women Barn Bazaar and I picked up fliers for future events, like The Mad Hatter Vintage Flea Market Oct. 2 and 3. 

If you first started reading Penny Carnival for a peek at my more modern tendencies, I apologize. Like I've said before, I'm a little bit country and a little bit rock 'n' roll. Really, I believe you can add vintage touches to a modern-style home. I don't think you have to be one or the other. Or so I tell myself.

Here are some shots from today's market, which continues tomorrow (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) if you're a local.

From the Rose Cottage Creations (jartzie@hotmail.com) and Forget Me Not booth:

From Bizi Furniture Etc., a shop owned by the lovely Jamie Anderson (I just met her today. She was a doll and an advocate of livin' green). 

From Mimi's Vintage Goods (mimisvintagegoods@yahool.com):

From Clare's Garden (509) 245-3889:

From a group of stay-at-home moms who sell their products together here:

(those are nursing privacy aprons)

The individual moms included Meaghan Primm (she pronounces her name Meeeegan, like me! Rock on, sister) of PNP Baby, Lauren Bergstedt of Miss Miss Creations and a shop called Joyful Baby.

Then there was a cheerful booth run by the equally cheerful Ariadne Rooney of Buttercuppity Design:

Ari recognized me from this blog, which is the second time that has happened in the last month. It makes me laugh and smile and blush and realize that Penny Carnival has a little community made up of creative, lovely, kind--and real!--people out there. 

From the Junebug booth:

From Nestting: 

(mmm ... tartan on metal ... my new obsession grows ...)

(Wouldn't that last one make a great little wee garden for a kid? Just imagine the fairies and elves who could live in there.)

And from the Sisters, who, when I asked if they had a Web site, replied, "We would if you'd make us one":

Not for sale, but completely coveted by me was this Mei Tai wrap:

I'm pretty sure my babies are too big to ride in one now (anyone know? Magpie is a whopping 29 pounds now), but I must do something with that fabric combination.

Another Emmeline; another Farm Chicks treasure

I'll spare y'all the soapbox today and just show you a few photos.

One of my favorite finds at the Farm Chicks sale was this rotary phone:

It works! Trouble is the only place we have a phone jack in the house is the storage room in the basement. Hmm ... I'm going to have to work on that. For now, the girls LOVE it. Bo "talks" on it for 30 minutes at a time. That alone makes it worth the $35 I spent for it.

Not according to J, though. When he saw it coming out of my purse his response was, "Please tell me that only cost $4."

I sewed another Emmeline apron, this time for an old college friend.

That side is Amy Butler gothic rose.

The other side, pink-on-pink polka dots, I can't remember who makes it. I don't think it's Amy Butler. Anyone know? 

The pink polka dots are from Anna Maria Horner. Thanks, Valerie.

Magpie wanted to get in on the modeling, too, so she threw on a bonnet I made a couple years ago (Amy Karol, of the Angry Chicken, pattern). She's wearing it backwards, though, so be sure to check out the pattern if you're in the mood for making bonnets. And, really, who isn't in the mood for making bonnets?

Life is beautiful, isn't it?