Felt Ball Mobile

I had visions of this mobile dancing above Ollie's crib when he wasn't yet born, and well into his second year, I finally got it made. 

Making it was fairly simple. I just gathered some fallen branches from our backyard, soaked them in bleach, and let them dry.

Then, I cut them to the sizes I wanted, and laid them out in a general mobile shape.

 

I used embroidery floss to sting the felted wool balls, and tied them to the branches, using triple knots and securing them with glue so it's nice and strong.

And then I hung it with a piece of leather cord, and let my little guy enjoy it. Finally.

Avery's 5th Birthday

The main event in celebration of Avery's birthday this year, was a trip to Disneyland the following week.  So, we kept the fanfare pretty low key on the actual day, but I never like to let a birthday pass without a little fuss.

 

So I decorated with this hair-bow bunting featuring her cute little face, placed a giant balloon on the table, and had a strawberry shortcake family-breakfast-party before school. 

Then, I tried to get a portrait of her before she headed off so we could remember what she looked like on the exact day she turned five.

I got exactly zero photos of her smiling and looking at the camera. She was in too big a hurry to get to school and get her birthday badge, and was annoyed by the whole thing. But, these are actually a pretty accurate representation of her personality these days. Spunk and zoom. And she cares nothing for getting her picture taken or clothes. Except she loves purple, so this polka dot birthday dress sent by Aunt Nessie was perfect. 

  

A few days before her birthday, Avery's friend cut all her hair off during a play date. When the girl's mother brought her home I was really sad about the haircut, and sad for Avery who was really devastated.  I could write quite a bit about my unhealthy attachment to my kids' hair, but I'll save it for another day. 

At any rate, I thought some new hair bows would be a fun gift and a fun way to celebrate change and her cute new bob (which I love, but would never had done so... silver lining) , so I made half a dozen, and then clipped them onto black and white photos of her that I'd printed out on cardstock.



I got the idea from Stephanie Ford, who blogs at Simply Radiant. She did a similar bunting but with paper party hats. I was pretty proud of how mine turned out. Functional and festive.  And Avery loved it, so-- win.

And just in case you're worried that she did not get enough party in on her birthday, we finished the day at Chuck E. Cheese with a few friends and family, horrible pizza, a Costco birthday cake, and  some thoughtful gifts from all who love her. And we told her about Disneyland and then had the longest week of anticipation in history.

I love this girl. My little Avery. Five years old. I remember vividly the day she turned five days old. I was really sad about it. I wrote a whole hormone-induced letter to her about how she would never be five days old again. I am not someone who is in a hurry for my kids to grow up. I really enjoy the little people that they are-- exactly as they are, and so the thought of anything about them changing is hard for me. But if the new bob has taught us anything, it's that change can be good. So I'm trying to let it come. But I wouldn't mind if it slowed down a tad.


*Dress from Boden
*(Some of the) Ribbon and Balloon from Darlybird

Holst + Lee Inspired DIY Rope Necklace

Holst + Lee Inspired DIY Rope Necklace Tutorial





Back in August I posted a tutorial for this skirt, and mentioned that I'd be posting a tutorial for the necklace I made to go with it also. Well I finally got around to doing it! I entered my tutorial at Kollabora, for a chance to win a free ticket to Alt Summit this year. Check it out here, and please repin it from that site if you want to pin. The more pins it gets the better chance I have to win!

DIY Drawer Liner Tutorial

I'm a big fan of DIY projects that are economical, functional, and durable-- like past the life of the photo-shoot, if you know what I mean.  After purchasing and installing ready-made drawer liners in Oliver's dresser, I thought it would be fun to see if I could come up with a less expensive, more customized version for Avery's drawers too.

You guys-- this is a gratifying project. It took about ten minutes to complete, and came out looking neat, tidy, and pretty cute if I do say so. And the paper options are pretty endless. You could use scrapbook paper, wrapping paper, old maps,  or print your own!

I found this great heavy handmade wrapping paper at World Market. You could definitely just line your drawers with paper, but for kid's drawers, I want those suckers to be durable and stay in place. And these do!

Scroll all the way down for the full directions.

Herringbone Fabric Printing Tutorial

I'm bringing a few of my tutorials home. Today I'm sharing the technique I used for printing the fabric for my "boy" look during Project Run and Play season 3. Printing fabric is fun and opens up so many creative possibilities, especially if like me, there is a certain look you are going for, but can't find the exact fabric you want.  This method could be tweaked in so many ways! 

I hope this gets your printing juices flowing! 

--Danielle 

***************** 

I am excited to share with you how I created the herringbone print on my shawl-collar pullover. I hope this will open up creative possibilities for you if you've never tried printing your own fabric before.

You'll need:

Speedball Linoleum Cutter



These are used to carve linoleum blocks traditionally used in paper printing.

E-Z Cut Printing Blocks (softer than linoleum blocks)



This is traditionally used to print on paper but worked well for this application of fabric printing. I found these and my cutter at an art store but they might carry them at craft stores too?

Delta Textile Medium + Acrylic Paint



Basically, you mix this fabric medium 2:1 with any acrylic paint to make washable fabric paint. It makes the paint softer, and helps it penetrate the fabric so its not just stiffly sitting on top. It also helps make it more durable in the wash. There are lots of different fabric inks and paints that would work to do this, but I like this method because fabric ink colors can be limited or hard to find, but this way you can use any color acrylic paint you can get your hands on, so there are more options.

Start by cutting your block to the desired size (I started with a 4x6" block and cut it to 2x6"). To make my herringbone pattern, I then cut a very shallow score line all the way down the center of my block. Don't cut too deep or your block might break.

This will help the lines we carve later on to end sharply and uniformly in the middle.

Next, decide what angle you'd like your lines to be at, and cut off the top corners accordingly.

Then mark several guidelines down the length of your block that are parallel to your top angles.

Now, switching to a v-shaped carving blade, start making grooves along the guidelines . You can eyeball it and stagger the spacing and width of these slightly, for a more irregular look.

You'll do the same thing on the other side. I staggered my lines so they mostly didn't meet in the middle because that is the look I was going for. Obviously you can do it how you like.

When you get to the bottom of your block, cut out a triangle so that you'll be able to seamlessly repeat your pattern. Make sure that if you are staggering your pattern, you don't leave both bottom and top edges raised, but rather carve one edge down, so your printing will be seamless when you repeat the stamp.

Apply paint lightly with a sponge brush (or you could use a brayer which is actually the tool designed to do this). Be careful not to get paint in the grooves or it may leak onto your design. I found that painting the whole surface of the block and letting it dry first, helped the paint go on more evenly. It helps the paint stick to the block in an even coat and gives you more control over the application.

(this was my test printing)

Finally, lay your block onto your (pre-washed and dried) fabric by setting it straight down and lifting carefully off. You might want to practice a few times on test fabric to get the hang of spacing and pressure etc. but I found it pretty forgiving. Its not meant to look perfect anyway so just go for it! (FYI I used a knit fabric and it worked great, but I'm sure a woven would be even easier to print on).

Once the paint is dry, set it with your iron according to the directions on the textile medium.

And that's it! You're ready to get sewing!

Neon Friendship Bracelet

Is it obnoxious to make yourself a friendship bracelet? Well... I did.

I'm trying to remember to be a better friend to myself, and well-- I needed something to do with my hands during all 6 hours of "Hatfields & McCoys'".

I'd have done a tutorial (in case you didn't go to summer camp when you were ten), but Purlbee has already done such a fabulous one, I didn't bother.

To make one like mine you'll use 4 lengths of string (2 in each color) doubled over. To get the stripes follow their "Basic Stripes" instructions, left-knotting all the pink first, and then all the taupe.

To end, group the strings in 2's and twist them counter-clockwise, while wrapping them together clockwise, and knot at the end.

This is Happening

One of the reasons I am excited about participating in Project Run and Play (its really happening! they introduced me today as one of the designers so there is no backing out now;)) is that is forces me to finally unpack and organize my little craftroom space. With many many things on the house project to do list, it has been kind of near the bottom priority wise.

But it just does something good for my soul to know all my little things are finally being put away and that I'll have a shag-carpeted spot in the depths of the basement to get lost in when I need an escape.

See those bins? Inside I've collected all the supplies for my first few projects-- my attempt at organization. I can't wait to show you what's inside!

These little hoodlums are getting into all kinds of mischief while I am stealing some sewing minutes...and I am just letting them and facing the consequential messes later. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. PBS kids anyone?

(PS. Are you sick of my instagram photos yet? Sorry its just so easy, and I am too lazy to download actual photos...so you are probably going to be seeing a lot more of them)

and PPS. nobody has left a comment on my intro at Project Run and Play and it's making me self conscious. Yep I'll admit it. Was the My Little Pony (duh ponies, not pony's) thing too much? What if nobody votes for meeeeeee??

OK I'm done;)

Elfing

When we moved in to this old house the owner's family left several things. Some were awful (gross old couches) and some were delightful. They didn't leave the old bentwood coat rack I had my eye on, but they did leave this super heavy duty old-school paper cutter.

And now I have the perfect occasion to use it.

Printable gift tags here.

(I searched high and low for the original book the illustrations are from, but when I couldn't find it I further photoshopped the gift tags and printed and framed them...so cute and whimsical for little kiddos.)

Felt Ball Garland for Christmas

I meant to make a felt ball garland last Christmas but it seems lots of other folks had the same idea, because by the time I got around to ordering my supplies, they were super back-ordered so they ended up coming after Christmas. Which is perfect because I often buy things for Holidays and don't get around to making them until the next year anyway.

So here it is next year... and since I already had all the supplies, I've made it! And though I haven't actually started decorating yet (though I have picked up a few festive things from Ikea already), I thought I'd share it in case you'd like to make one too, you'll have time to do it this year!

Making a garland is easy as pie (can you thread a needle?).

What you'll want to know is where to get the felted balls.

You can either buy them (I got some here I used the 2 cm size, spectrum and retro).

Or make them. I did a bit of both.

To make your own felted balls:

Pull off a handful of wool roving and ball it loosely in your palm

Run it under warm water and form a loose ball

Add soap...enough to get a good lather (any kind will work as long as it lathers).

Start to roll the wool between both hands in a ball like you are rolling dough into a ball (Sorry I didn't have anyone around to take a picture of that). Roll gently at first. You can roll a little more vigorously once the ball starts to firm up.

The fibers will start to "felt" as you continue to roll while running wool under warm water and add more soap as it washes away.

Keep rolling and rinsing. You can alternate between hot and cold water to shock the fibers if you want...I have found it works with or without doing this.

Your felt ball will look like a ball and be firm-ish.

Sometimes you will get little cracks where the ball didn't quite come together. Don't worry.

Just wrap another thin layer of roving around the whole ball,

Add more soap, and roll between your hands again until the outer layer has felted to the under layer.

Perfect.

And perfect for little hands to help with too.

Now just thread that needle and string up your beads (I used embroidery floss). You could tie a knot in between each ball but I didn't bother because I kind of like the haphazard spacing. The felt grabs the string well enough that it stays mostly where you place it. I used about 70 balls for a 10 ft. garland spaced like I did.



What I love about these garlands is that they are really just festive for any occasion... I think mine is going in the nursery after Christmas and it might get hung for birthdays too. Why not.

Need some new Christmas music to listen to while crafting? I can recommend this. My favorite song is, "Baby its Cold Outside." Its so cute...she is singing it to him. Clever. (And are you watching "New Girl"? I love it. I hope it doesn't get canceled. Oh boy its funny.)

Anyway...

Happy Felting!