My Sister In Laws House Rules plus Canvas Transfer

 

Sometimes, when I get an Idea in my head, I can be a real idiot about it.  I had planned on making my sister in-law something crocheted, but bombed at my first attempt and then just couldn't think of anything better to make.  Well, one day, like an idiot, I'm going through pinterest (perhaps someday I'll talk about why pinterest is oh so very dangerous to my productivity levels) and see these great house rules.  Then, I see a canvas transfer and I'm like "Wheeee!  I'll put them together and it will look AWESOME! Plus, it will be way easier than crocheting something!" 

*disclaimer: when you can crochet a hat in an hour, attempting any new project such as this definitely should not be classified as "easier."*

Durrr.  I spent probably a total of 10-15 hours working on this blasted thing, partially because I couldn't find the rub-off  letters that I wanted (which in hindsight, should have looked harder for) and ended up doing stencils on the whole thing.  By the time I had all the white stenciled, I had smears and splotches and had to go back with the black.  

Let me state, photo transfers are awesome.  They're fun, they're cool and I guarantee that I'll be doing a lot more of them in the future.  I did two when I first made them, "Just In Case" and boy was I glad I did.  The first one I glued down onto the black and it looked terrible.  Their faces pretty much disappeared and I ended up painting white over it, and putting down the second transfer. 

They got their final coat spray the night before we left to go back to visit them, and wrapped sometime around 4 am....

Mosaic Aprons {Craft Tutorial}

Going off of an idea from the Disney Family Fun website for making your own mosaic shirt, I decided that this Saturday at our Play Day, we'll be making aprons for all of our artistic ventures. 

What you'll need:

Something to be your apron: By this, I mean that you can do one of two things:  you can A) go to the craft store, or the kitchen store, or goodwill or whatever and buy yourself a couple of aprons  or you can B) upcycle one of your old white T-shirts  or you can C) go and purchase a plain white T-shirt to upcycle.  If you want to upcycle a tshirt to an apron, all you have to do is cut the sleeves and back shoulders off (leaving the hole for the neck, and use the lower part of the shirt to cut a piece that can tie in the back). I shopped around and found several options for aprons that you could buy, and after looking on Amazon and seeing that the cheapest one was around $15, I decided to take my chances with the local craft store.  A stop at Michael's proved to be worth it, as I scored two aprons for just $1 each!

Carrots:  You will cut these into shapes and they will be used as your stampers.

Fabric Paint or Ink:  I used Fabric Screen Printing ink, since I had some lying around.  Just make sure that you follow any setting instructions that are included with the ink/paint.  Mine said to let it air dry for a couple of hours, then to lay a paper bag or Kraft paper on top, and then iron for about two minutes to heat set the ink.

Notes:
Unfortunately, while you're making aprons, you probably don't have one to wear... so make sure that you wear an old t-shirt that you don't care about when you do this project.  That way you won't mourn stains on your clothing!

Tip: Have everything all set up before you start.  Your kids will get bored quickly if they have to wait for you to cut the carrots and prepare the ink.  I laid out a piece of Kraft paper on my table so I wouldn't have any messes to clean up.

  Once you're all set up, all you have to do is roll up the kids' sleeves and let them stamp away!

When they're all done, let the aprons air dry for a couple of hours and then heat set per paint instructions.

My Mother in Law's Lapghan

 

This was the first Christmas present I started last year and also the first one that was done.  I started it at my mother in law's house over our christmas vacation because her house can get very cold in the winter.  She asked me what I was making and I said, "A blanket for your cold house," we laughed and I don't think she thought of it again.  I'm sure she remembered when she opened up the box!

This one seemed to take me much longer than things usually do, but I think I just couldn't work on it for very long.  I tend to like variety, but this one is pretty much the same pattern all the way around, so it worked up pretty easily, but very tediously for me.

My Mothers Decorative Afghan

 

When I set out to make my mother's gift this year, I wanted to make it something different.  She knows how to crochet and she's made herself afghans in the past, so I wanted it to be something that she would never make for herself.  I found a great pattern on Lion Brand Yarn's website, and modified the colors and removed some features to make this decorative afghan for her.   It is called the removed the tassels that hung from the sides and attached things a little differently than they had. 

I still feel that the afghan is missing something, if I were keeping it, I would probably add a border all around the outer edge, and I offered to do this for my mother if she wanted me to.  I told her to take it for a test drive and if she wanted me to modify it in any way I could.  

It was a challenging pattern, but visually striking I think!  (And my mother loved it, btw)

Holiday crafting, Loofah {Crochet Pattern}

I made a couple of these Loofah's for inclusion in my holiday crafting this year.  They're so easy to make and are such a great gift!

Copyright 2010-2012 LiLu Studios: This Crafting Life, by Lori Steffens. {http://www.thiscraftinglife.com/} Make it, Wear it, Love it, but above all, Share it, don't Sell it!

Materials:

Size H, I or J Hook
A cotton/acrylic blend of yarn.  (You can also just use cotton, I do not recommend using straight acrylic yarn however)  

Instructions:

ch 4, form a ring by joining with a sl st in first st 

ch 40 

sl st into center of ring (this forms the loop for hanging the loofah)

R1: ch2, dc 40 into center of ring, join with sl st

R2: ch2, dc 3 in each st around, join with sl st

R3: ch2, dc 3 in each st around, join with sl st

R4: ch2, dc 3 in each st around, join with sl st

Bind off. Weave in ends.

You can play around with the thickness of the loofah here too, by in the last row, working 2dc, then 3dc around instead.  It will give it a more ruffly texture and be a little looser.