Category Archives: Crafts

DIY – Oilcloth Tablecloth

by Adel Posted on August 27, 2012

Remember our recent camping trip to Pinnacles? What I did not mention in that post was the fact that we went during a high fire-risk time. What does that mean? No open fires!! It was our first time camping without a fire. We did bring our tabletop propane stoves to cook, but we were baffled as to how to enjoy our favorite camping treat – s’mores!!

Well after much brainstorming, Rachel and I decided to make tinfoil packets of chopped chocolate, marshmallows and crumbled graham crackers! Then we heated them in a pan on one of our burners! Clever yeah? Except I pulled one off the pan and laid it directly on the plastic tablecloth Rachel had brought, and BURNED a hole right through it! Talk about dumb.

Well to finally get to my point, I felt so bad, I wanted to replace Rachel’s camp tablecloth I had stupidly melted, with something pretty and homemade. Hence here we are at this post for a Do-It-Yourself Oilcloth Tablecloth! Phew! I know, it took me awhile to make my point…
After much browsing Pinterest and Google, I finally decided on a simple enough method I liked. Here is the link to Momtastic’s post on a DIY Oilcloth Tablecloth

I also browsed the web for places to buy pretty oilcloth by the yard. Boy there are a ton of options. I ended up purchasing the Seafoam Dot Pattern and Beige Dot Pattern from Fashion Fabrics Club. Yeah I made one for us too!

The jumbo Ric Rac I ordered from Amazon
I measured and cut about 96″ (8 feet) in length and left the width what it was – 48″(4 feet). Then used a large dinner plate to draw out the curved corners and trimmed them.

Since I had most of our living room cover in oilcloth, this one had a field-day running and rolling all over it!
It was a little tricky sewing the ric-rac to the edges of the tablecloth. On the first one I had trouble keeping my sewing line on the inside edge. Whoops. But I got the hang of it after a few hiccups! And the finished product looked just lovely. If you don’t scrutinize too closely…
I had a bunch of leftover material so I decided to sew up a simple pouch for the tablecloth. After folding it up I measured out a rectangle that would fit the dimensions my folded piece. I came up with a rectangle measuring 23″ x 15.5″. Folded it into thirds and sewed it up right sides facing then turned it right side out. I eyeballed a lot of this part.
I decided it needed a trim so I used some of the extra coordinating ric-rac and sewed it on the flap edge. Voila. Total overkill for a camp/picnic tablecloth!
It’s so pretty I’m actually reluctant to take it camping with us now and get it all dirty!!

Posted in Crafts | Tagged diy, oilcloth, tablecloth | 2 Comments

The Lemonade Stand

by Adel Posted on August 12, 2012

I’ll be taking a break from the blog for about a week or more. Before I leave you guys I thought I’d share some shots of our Lemonade and Cookie Stand we made for our garage sale over the weekend!
It sat in the middle of our living room for about a week while I worked on it
It satisfied the crafting urge I’d been having. I’ve been so caught up with summer activities, trips and photography workshops, I haven’t had much time to sew or craft!
And of course my two little sales people had to look the part!
He was so proud to man that stand. It was cute.
Our street does not get much foot traffic. However our garage sale was part of a neighborhood-wide one so there were plenty of people already shopping garage sales that morning and some stopped by ours. Most were happy to oblige my kids and purchased some lemonade or cookies from them.
It was a fun way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon. And we managed to make a few dollars too!

See you guys in a week!

Posted in Crafts, Family | Tagged cookies, garage sale, lemonade, lemonade stand | 1 Comment

Makeup Art

by Adel Posted on June 17, 2012

Summers around here have become more challenging now that I have two. My oldest is getting increasingly harder to please when it comes to craft projects and activities.

Yesterday’s GAK was a success but it isn’t always that way. These days just pulling out plain old paint is “too boring” for my picky 6 year old.

Jack-Jack though is still easily entertained with almost everything I throw out there. Including some old makeup that I almost threw away when cleaning out my closet. Instead I had decided to save it for her to “play” with.

I should have led with the old makeup. Maybe then Rex would have stuck around. Instead since he had gotten tired of paints, he had moved on to his Legos and would not be enticed to return to play with makeup. Oh well. Jack-Jack of course LOVED it.

I’m still a little worried about the message I’m sending with all this makeup play. But she’s so happy messing around in it all I’ll take my chances.
By the way, I just love how she holds the lipstick like a crayon!

Posted in Crafts | Tagged art, crafts, makeup, paint | Leave a comment

GAK Fun!

by Adel Posted on June 16, 2012

So we made some GAK the other day.

What is it? It’s like a less slimier version of slime. It’s homemade and is made up of water, Elmer’s glue and Borax powder. And a little food coloring for fun! I found the idea on a blog I follow here. I pinned it on my Pinterest board and tried it a few days later with the kids.

This is one craft project that was a total win! Hours of entertainment to be had!

We did the first batch while the babe slept. Rex just loved it. He is not one for getting his hands dirty or sticky so he was hesitant at first. But he quickly warmed up to the gooey stuff and started all kinds of imaginative play with it. Yeah there were more than a few Lego minifigure casualties!

When Jack-Jack woke she decided she wanted in on the action too. So I let them mix up a 2nd batch. I love that she is old enough to participate now. Under close supervision mind you. But at least she can take simple instructions.

But that whole icky gooey consistency though? She would have none of it. So Rex had at it again. The child was having a blast!

I have to say, when I first saw the post about GAK I thought it would be a fun little craft the kids would enjoy for an hour, tops. 3 days later I’m still cleaning out little Lego clone troopers!

If you have not tried this with your kids, I highly recommend this simple craft!

Posted in Crafts | Tagged crafts, GAK | 1 Comment

Sewed Paper Favor Bags

by Adel Posted on April 29, 2012

A few days ago I signed up to help a friend with some favors for her child’s birthday party. A quick search on Pinterest yielded lots of options. These though jumped out me! Paper and a sewing machine? I had to make them!

I have an abundance of colorful and patterned paper in my craft stash. I used some scrapbooking paper for these bags. They come in a 12×12 size so I cut them down to 9 x 12 pieces. Basically a straight line down the middle. Easy.

I used InDesign to layout my text, but that’s just because I used to pretend to be a Graphic Designer once and it’s what I’m familiar with. You can just us MS Word or any other word program. I printed the text directly on the 9×12 pieces.

Next I experimented with a few different stitch patterns and settled on a plain zig-zag stitch to stitch up the top and side. I did this on all the sheets of paper so I could fill them all at once when I was done.

There you have it. All ready to be filled with whatever you want. I filled mine with some personalized M&Ms my friend supplied me with and some stickers.

After you’ve filled them, just stitch the bottom the opposite way the top is stitched (if that makes sense). The photo shows how better than I can explain it

They’re real simple and quick to put together. Especially if you have a sewing machine. And they make such a pretty presentation

Next time I’ll have to try it with brown craft paper. I used up my entire roll for my Paper Easter Eggs and haven’t replenished it yet that’s why I went with the scrapbooking paper. I do like the colors and look of them too. So many options to make these!

Posted in Crafts | Tagged favors, paper, scrapbooking paper | Leave a comment

Paper Easter Eggs

by Adel Posted on April 5, 2012

I’ve been busy. I know. I say that a lot. But man, it feels like I keep getting busier than the last time I said it. If that makes sense…

Anyway, it’s Easter this Sunday (duh). So I’ve been on the hunt for simple Easter projects this year. I found many. This one though jumped out at me! You know I have a thing for brown paper right?

I didn’t have many paper bags from the grocery store since I always bring my own bags when I go grocery shopping. I had this one brown bag. But I had a whole role of brown craft paper. It’s something I always keep in my home since I use it for anything and everything. I ended up using the entire role for this project.

One of the main reasons this little craft appealed to me was that it would get my kids involved. I set up stuff they could use to decorate the paper “eggs” while Rex was at school. I cut my egg templates (I started out with 2 sizes), brought out my stamping supplies and cut the rectangles in preparation for it.

By the way, I’m not going to do a step by step tutorial since the link above has pretty detailed instructions on how she did it.

For the first time in all our crafting lives. Jack-Jack go full participation in this project! Well, I say full. But really I kept her away from the markers and ink pads. She didn’t even notice.

It’s been awhile since we crafted. I’ve let my photography workshop and travel take over for awhile. They were super excited to be involved in creating something again.

I’m no artist. I’ve said so here A LOT. So I rely on things like stamping to create and decorate. I love our Star Wars stamps. I brought them out again for this.

After all the decorating of the rectangles, it was time to trace the egg shape templates and sew. (Yes I made a Storm Trooper egg! How could I not?)

I experimented with the different stitchings and colors of threads I had. This part was fun for me!

After sewing, I trimmed each egg out to within a quarter inch of the hem. And then I filled them! This part is also fun! For the most part I used non-candy fillers.

But I couldn’t deny my kids at least a little sugar….

After filling them all, I decided to staple them to keep the contents in. Just in case. Ta-da! They’re ready to go for Sunday!

I’m not going to lie. These make me SO MUCH HAPPIER than those bright plastic eggs that tend to stick around for a year after Easter! And my kids were involved in creating them too. That’s a huge plus in my book!

Posted in Crafts | Tagged brown paper, easter, easter eggs | 2 Comments

Paper Napkin Flowers

by Adel Posted on February 2, 2012

The other day I had a sudden urge to make something with my hands. I get that way sometimes. Something therapeutic about working with your hands. I’m no painter or sculpter. Hence I craft Love Pinterest and the huge craft blogging community. There is always inspiration to be found for the simplest things.

So anyway, I made some flowers. It feels like spring time around here these days. Might as well add some flowers to my life!

I made these on a whim. While the babe napped. I scrounged around all my leftover scraps from previous projects and found enough of what I needed. The napkins were from Jack-Jack’s birthday party last May! I have trouble throwing materials away as you can tell.

I used napkins in 2 different colors, some wooden bbq skewers, electrical tape (I only used the white one) and my glue gun.

I cut the napkin into about 2-3 inch wide strips.

Then folded the strip from the short edge in an accordian-fold. And trimmed a rounded curve on one end.

I then opened the strip back up and applied a strip of hot glue on the straight edge. I quickly pinched it all together. (Be careful doing this as I burnt myself a couple of times. Not bad though.) Fluff out the petals and you’ll have a bunch of petals to use for your flower. I glued each petal bunch on to the pointy end of my skewer. I used 3-4 petal bunches per flower.

I used the electrical tape to secure the base of the flower to the skewer and hid the glue bits and give it a more finished look. Then I wound more tape all the way down the skewer till it was fully covered.

I kept making the flowers until I satisfied my crafting itch. Also Jack-Jack woke up. I had enough for a little bouquet

I ended up pulling a few out to take to a little girl whose birthday is today!

Happy Birthday L!

Posted in Crafts | Tagged crafts, flowers, napkins, paper flowers | Leave a comment

Fringed Streamers

by Adel Posted on January 24, 2012

So, do you want to see how I made the fringed streamer backdrop for my “Food” themed shoot?

I had seen this post on the Oh Happy Day blog awhile back. So pretty yeah? I bookmarked it for future use. I finally found a reason to make them last week!

Start with some crepe paper. They’re quite inexpensive at $1.80 each.

I worked on this on a dark and rainy day so my light wasn’t the greatest. Plus my craft table was still covered with Lego Police Officers and Station!

I trimmed about 2″ pieces off for each streamer and then cut the fringe toward the center of each side. I cut too close to the center on one of the streamers and it ended up falling apart when I pulled it open, so be careful not to cut too close.

I used two shades of yellow and one orange for this backdrop.

I carefully unfolded each one and hung them from the top of the curtain.

The babe was asleep so I used her baby doll for test shots

And I managed to salvage the one streamer that fell apart by throwing the pieces on the cuties she was eating! haha!

It was like a party in my living room for about an hour! It sure brightened up our living room on that rainy day!

Posted in Crafts | Tagged backdrop, fringed streamer | 2 Comments

Fake Cupcakes – The Star Wars Kind

by Adel Posted on January 12, 2012

I know. Fake cupcakes just sounds bad on so many levels. However, I had to work within narrow limitations for my son’s birthday celebration at school. Since his school has a “no sweets” policy, I tried to still give him a cake of sorts for his class party.

Remember my Lego Advent Calendar? Well it turns out that most of the 24 days consisted of these cute little miniature Star Wars battleships!

They are simple to put together and are made up of small but very few pieces. I was actually going to hunt down these pieces and pull them together for the contents of each cupcake, but I found out that most minifigure collectors had bought the Advent Calendar set specifically for the 6 figures that came with it and were selling the ships (unopened) for about $1 each on Ebay. That made my life a lot simpler! I ordered enough ships for the entire class (and a couple leftover).

Each ship came unassembled and with its corresponding instructions. I cut up the instruction card so that it would fit at the bottom of the cupcake liner. I stuck it to the bottom with some tape.

Then I just used some tissue and ribbon to package up the pieces of the ship. I fluffed out the top of the tissue and curled the ribbon to make it look like icing and sprinkles. Ha!

They were real easy to make and I finished all 22 in less than an hour while the babe slept.

Next I had to figure out how to stick a candle in somewhere. Since these cupcakes were made of tissue, I needed some kind of elevated stand for the candle… I went on a hunt in Rex’s room and came away with this. One of his many creations.

I was trying to figure out a cool way for the Clone Trooper to hold the candle but was pretty tapped out of ideas by then. So I just taped the candle to his back! Haha

I taped the Lego plate that the ship and troopers were on directly to the platter and arranged the “cupcakes” all around it. Voila! My fake cupcakes that passed the school guidelines for no sweet treats!

I brought it to school during snack time for them to sing happy birthday to my little man. He was a little embarrassed by all the attention.

The kids were all excited to get one! I think the fact that they knew it was a toy (and a Lego toy at that) made them forget that the cupcakes were fake!

This trick definitely works better on kids (or adults) who prefer Lego toys over cupcakes!

Posted in Crafts | Tagged cupcakes, lego, star wars | Leave a comment

Gift Wrap Madness

by Adel Posted on December 22, 2011

Everyone close to me, or who has ever received a wrapped gift from me knows I LOVE to wrap in brown paper! I’ve done it every year for Christmas since… well it’s been a long time. I’m not sure when I started really. Why brown paper? Well for one it’s cheaper than buying expensive wrapping paper. But mostly it’s a blank canvas and an opportunity to get reallllly creative!

So every year I try out a different themed approach to all my gift wrapping! I usually pick red. I don’t know why but I love red for holiday wrapping. And then just figure out a way to decorate my paper with reds and some accent color(s)

This year, after scouring pinterest for inspiration, here’s what ended up in my gift-wrapping caddy of sorts