Educational and Pretty Memory Game

Baby Bear... *ahem* excuse me!  Little Bear has decided that she is much too old to be called Baby Bear.  "Baby Bear is for babies, but Little Bear is a good nickname for a kindergartner," she told me.

Little Bear's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. B, sent home three sheets of pink paper last week.  They were printed with rectangles, containing pairs of the words the class has worked on.  The instructions included with these sheets directed me to cut the rectangles out and play a memory game with my child.  Of course, I couldn't just cut them out and leave it at that.

First of all, if the light was behind them, you could see the word right through the back of the cards.  To fix this problem, I got out my Valentine's Day cardstock.  I covered the backs of the sheets of sight words with my trusty glue stick and laid them on the cardstock, making sure the cardstock pattern was going the same direction on all of them.  If the pattern isn't consistant, Little Bear would probably notice and she would remember the backs of the cards, rather than the words I was trying to teach her.  I cut the cards out and then realized there weren't very many.  Using plain paper and the remaining heart-patterned cardstock, I added some more of the sight words for kindergarten, referencing the list Mrs. B sent home last month.  Once I had gotten as many card pairs as possible from my piece of cardstock, I decided they needed a box.  Every good card game needs a box, right?

I went to the cabinet under my kitchen sink, where my recycleables live until I take them out to the big recycling bin in the back yard, and found a allergy nose spray box.  **I feel the need to pause here and ponder the possible justifications for double-packaging things.  I realize that those boxes are easier to stack than the bottles, but what a waste!**

Okay, I'm back now.  On the open top of the box, there are four flaps.  Of the two longer sides, one flap is smaller than the other.  I cut that one off at the crease, taped it to the larger flap, then trimmed it to the size I wanted.  The idea here is to make a flap that folds over the top of the box and tucks into the other side.  I covered the box with some pink floral scrapbooking paper, adhering it with double-stick tape, and trimmed off the excess around the flaps.  I folded the bottom like wrapping paper on a gift.

On a scrap of pretty cardstock, I wrote, "Kindergarten Sight Words Memory Game."  Catchy, right?  I stuck the label to the box with more double-stick tape (what did we ever do without it?).  Little Bear was thrilled with the result and insisted on showing Gramma and Mrs. B her pretty new memory game.

More Junk Mail Origami

I got the Pier One Christmas catalog in the mail today and did I shop?  Oh, nosiree, I did not shop!  I cut the pages apart and folded them into a crane, an owl, a bow, a tortise and a pine tree, of course!

I have LOTS of pretty squares left over, also, which I will fold whenever I get the chance, plus plenty of too-small-to-fold scraps, which I intend to cut up into holiday confetti.

Freecycled Fabric Bag

Ok, so, every time I do a sewing project I end up with a pile of fabric scraps like this one.  Not pretty, right?  Well, I'd been sewing like crazy and not picking up after myself for several days this week, then looked down to find this mess around my chair.  I decided I couldn't just throw these pieces away - No! Not me! - so I had to find a home for them.

I noticed the half t-shirt laying close to my pile, left over from the construction of Baby Bear's penguin costume, and decided to whip up a little bag.

In the picture you can see that I sewed three sides of a rectangle on the shirt.  Next, I cut the excess fabric off and turned it right side out.

The excess fabric included both sleeves, so I made use of their shape.  I cut a 1 1/2 inch strip from the shoulder edges of each sleeve and sewed one strip onto each side of the bag, using several lines of zigzag stitches.

There you go - 5 minute freecycled fabric scrap bag!

Personalized Notebooks

When my baby brother, M, turned 12 last month, I just couldn't seem to settle on a gift.  He loves Pokemon and Hot Wheels, but I'm so tired of buying him more of the same thing.  I was browsing through the kids' section of Artmart and feeling quite frustrated, when I called Mom.  I told her my dilemma, as well as the fact that I kept circling back around to this display of blank books with plain white covers.

Mom, being the great mind that she is, suggested I make him a book to write lists in.  It might sound strange, but M loves to make lists; lists of Pokemon characters, his classmates, toys he has,  people in his family, etc.  I could go on and on.  Whenever he spends time with Baby Bear and I, weeks later I will find a list of made-up baseball players folded up in my purse, or will flip open my notepad at work and find a list of all of the fire Pokemon characters.

Working from Mom's genius inspiration, I bought two plain composition books at the local department store for about a dollar each and customized them for M's list making.  I chose the paper I wanted to use, then coated the front cover of the first book with my glue stick.  I lined the paper up with the binding, pushing it just under the edge of the black strip, and smoothed it onto the book.  Once it was firmly adhered, I opened the cover and trimmed the paper around the edges and did the same to the back, and then to both covers of the second book.

I cut shapes from coordinating paper using plastic templates and layered them on the front covers.  I titled the books "Book Of Lists" (original, eh?) and made a matching bookplates for the inside covers.  Next, I labled the first several pages with items to list, such as family members, favorite baseball players, years of Hot Wheel cars, teachers, etc, and wrapped them up. 

I thought it was funny when he opened them and smiled, then asked me why I thought he liked to write lists.  ;-)

Sweet Nothings On My Ear

My girlfriend's daughter turned 11 this weekend and I was at a loss for what to give her.  I do love making gifts, but what do tweens want?  I know that her mom is a consummate accessorizer, so I decided to go with earrings made from Fimo clay.  I used Fimo soft clay in brown, purple, red, yellow, and blue to create these.
 

Ice cream cones:
    I mixed yellow and brown clay, then made two tiny cone shapes.  I used the edge of a metal ruler to create criss-crossing lines on the cones in a waffle pattern.  I made a ball of blue for the top, pressing one side flat so that it would sit on the cone.  I pressed my thumbnail into the blue ball, all around the edges, making it look like a scoop of ice cream.  I then made a hole diagonally through both cone and ice cream scoop with the earring stem then removed the stem and set the ice cream cones on the cookie sheet.

Chocolate kisses:
     I kneaded two small pieces of brown clay into "kiss" shapes, but wasn't satisfied with the result.  I decided it needed some other color to keep it from too closely resembling... um... you know.  Anyway, I rolled out a teensy snake of purple clay, then flattened it with a roller to make a ribbon.  I wound it around each kiss just once, then stuck the earring stem through, removed the stem, and added these to the cookie sheet.

Cupcakes:
     The bases are brown clay shaped into cylinders and squeezed so that they are slightly smaller at the bottom.  I used the same metal ruler that I used on the ice cream cones to make vertical lines around the outside of the base.  Then I rolled out another teensy purple snake and coiled it around the top to look like icing.  I left a tiny hole at the top of the coil so that i wouldn't mess it up with the earring stem.  I used two extremely tiny specks of red clay to make tiny cherries for the tops of the cupcakes.  I stuck the earring stems through and removed them, then baked all of the treats at 265° F for 30 minutes.  As soon as they had cooled, I put the earring stems back in and bent them into loops with my needle nosed pliers and attached them to earring hooks.

Once they were done, I cut a scrap piece of cardboard into a little rectangle, punched three sets of holes in it, and hooked the earrings onto it.  I decorated a dollar store jewelery box with some delish scrapbooking paper and made an attached gift card.  Sweet!!

Freecycle Fridays

I just love the ideas I find at Not So Idle Hands, especially Emily's Freecycle Fridays!  My favorite crafts are usually the ones I make without spending a dime, but sometimes it's hard to look at all of the things you have - things you see every day and have just become part of the backdrop of your life - and think of creative ways to repurpose them.  Thanks for the great ideas, Emily!

In The Spirit

My inner crafter (I call her Sabrina) woke me up at 5:30 am on Halloween morning.  I tried to shut it up so I could get some more sleep, but it would not be ignored.  You see, the night before I had been at Walmart, browsing the craft clearance, and had picked up a bag of random fabric pieces. Once I got home, I found that deep in this bag was a 6 inch wide strip of gray cotton, covered in skulls.  I knew I should use it for Halloween, but was too tired to come up with something.  Apparently, Sabrina had been hard at work while I was sleeping, because I had a picture of this in my head when I woke up.

I couldn't get a very good picture of it, for some reason, but there is a cute little floret on the top left corner.  In the picture it just looks like a blurry spot.  Anyway, here are directions if you have a little piece of extra fabric and would like to make one yourself.  In keeping with the Halloween theme, I used a piece of chain that used to hang paper lanterns from my ceiling as the strap.  You could use another piece of fabric or pick up some store-bought purse handles.

These are the pieces for the outside, which I cut from the skull fabric:
2 - 11"x 6" (front and back pieces)
2 - 4"x 8 3/4" (top for front and back pieces)
2 - 2" x 3 1/2" (to make loops for the strap)

Lining:
2 - 8" x 8 3/4" (inside front and back)
2 - 6" x 4" (inside pockets - optional)

There was also the chain for the strap and a little button that I had on hand.

1. I folded the top outside pieces in half lengthwise and ironed them.  Then I folded their edges under and ironed that, too.
2. I hemmed the inside pockets, then sewed them onto the inside front and back pieces.
3. I did a basting stitch across the top of the bigger front and back outside pieces, then gathered them slightly, so that they would match up with the tops that I cut. Instructions here.

4. I placed the gathered edge in between the folded edges of the top piece that I previously ironed, and sewed them together.  I did the same for both front and back.
5. With right sides together, I stitched the front and back pieces, doing the sides first and starting at the top edge, because when I start at the bottom, I always end up with uneven top edges.

6.  Before sewing the inside and putting it in, turn what you have right-side-out and check to see that the seams are all strong.  I got a little too close to the edge when I sewed the top on the front and had to fix it by hand, because I didn't notice until I had put the whole thing together.
7.  With right sides together, I sewed together the inside front and back.  I then put the inside into the outside and pinned the bottom to keep it in place while I got the top ready.  I folded the edge of the lining down, toward the outside, and pinned it in place.
8.  The 2" strips were folded in fourths, with the cut edges folded under, and I just did a zigzag stitch down the middle of each one.  I then folded them in half and stuck the ends in between the outside and the lining, then sewed around the top of the purse.
9.  I put a buttonhole in the front center and sewed the button to the inside edge of the purse.  Instructions here.

10.  The ruffled floret was an afterthought, created to cover my hand stitching.  I cut the remaining pieces of skull fabric into 1" strips and hand stitched through the center of the strips in a tight spiral pattern onto a piece of black fabric.  Once I had it the way I wanted it, I cut away the extra backing and attached it to the purse using a blanket stitch.

FYI: If you're using chain as the strap, learn from my mistakes and don't put it on until you're all finished with everything else.

Finally, Sabrina was satisfied and, since Baby Bear was with her daddy this weekend, I took a nap.  :-)