Recently in Crafts Category

These are Christmas trees D and I made on Friday. Yes, I know. It's crazy to craft Christmas when we haven't yet partaken of turkey on the national holiday of gluttony. I'm like the tacky stores with X-mas decor out before Halloween has passed. But you see, the pipe cleaners were out just as I happened upon the instructions for these trees. It was kismet.

The green one is for D's dollhouse. (See her tiny pumpkin there?) The white one is for me. I still have to find a better way to hold them up. And I need to try to straighten them more. D said that that made them more realistic. She's referring to our faux Christmas tree. No matter how hard I try, it is always a bit crooked each year.  

I like these trees. They remind me of Charlie Brown.

In my mind, there are certain things needed to have a proper Thanksgiving. One item required is canned Cranberry Sauce. I know homemade is supposed to be wonderful, but I don't care for Cranberry Sauce unless it pops from a can with a swoosh. Also, canned sauce loses all value when mashed up. It must be carefully sliced.

If you feel the same as I, you can imagine my joy and shrill shrieks of delight when I happened upon this:

No, your eyes do not deceive you, that is crocheted Cranberry Sauce. This was crafted (and photographed) by Alicia Kachmar. Isn't she creative?

Ah, but Alicia has been outdone by a blog reader, Robin, who added slices of Cranberry Sauce. Okay, that's it, I have to make this.

Time to look for Cranberry yarn in the stash.

Finally, a few days ago, D finished painting her clay pumpkin. Gracemom, she was inspired to finish after she heard your children also made pumpkins. She and I would love to see their handiwork.

This is such a tiny pumpkin. Really, it could be for a Barbie or GI Joe. D painted it black first. Then, she used pumpkin orange and some dark green for the stem.

I like it very much. It will not rot and can outlast those real things sitting on my porch table. I must find a safe place for it, though; I think it's breakable and we're a clutzy, wild bunch here.

I just came across two Scrabble gifts within 24 hours.

First, I discovered a custom, fabric and clay Scrabble.

Second, I spied a Scrabble bulletin board made from a thrift store find. This was an apropos gift for a friend who had earned an English degree.

Homemade games are some of the most fun. Years ago, I made the children a Monopoly game, unique to our family, to help them enjoy their chores. It was a simple thing - drawn with markers on a file folder - but we liked it so much that I have it saved. Don't forget that many common games, including Monopoly and Scrabble, were once homemade.

I had a few brass-colored lamps that worked still but did not fit in with my evolving style. I decided to try some spray paint and am very happy with the results.

In the background, you can see an original lamp. In the foreground, you can see a new-ish lamp. Amazing, I say. The paint is Rustoleum American Accents Metallic in Oil Rubbed Bronze. It's very dark brown, almost wrought iron looking, with tiny flecks of shine. 

As soon as I redo the lampshade, I will have a brand new lamp. Nice.

By the way, the rug is my rather large coffee rag rug.

Here, it was 50 inches in diameter; it's much larger now. I dye in hot coffee old, white or beige sheets from the thrift store, cut them into strips, and crochet them.

Last week, during school, S decided to make a quill and ink. He microwaved a few frozen raspberries for the ink and he took a feather from our nature table for his quill. It worked and I think he was quite happy with the result. It was pretty, pink ink.

Here is all that remains: a poor, tortured feather and raspberry bits at the bottom of the jar.

This is a quick and easy activity to do during the study of Colonial America.

Someone on Flickr asked if the Wax Paper Leaves were really that simple. Here is my reply:

Yes, it's so simple...even I can do it. :) Put the wax paper between two kitchen towels (not the terry cloth kind, the other kind) and set your iron on medium/dry. I think pressed leaves would work best, but we used leaves fresh off the trees and they were fine. Hanging them in the window gave us a great view to study the leaves. Have fun.

I hope any of ya'll who have not tried this craft before will go for it. It's very easy and diverting. (I looked that up in the thesaurus.)

D and S worked so diligently this week that we had some free time yesterday. We spent it by doing two fun activities with leaves.

First, we made wax paper leaves. Can you believe they've never done this before? I remember this activity fondly - from Kindergarten. Obviously, I have neglected my duties and deprived them of this easy craft.

The children collected the leaves they wanted to use and we ironed them between sheets of wax paper. Here they are in the living room window:

Next, we made a paper banner. I showed D this cute, newspaper bunting. She liked it, but also wanted to make a paper chain. We combined the two ideas to make this:

(The chain ends are even; I just had to take the photo from an odd angle because my chandelier was in my way.)

Unfortunately, we didn't have paint for the newspaper as used in the Maya Made bunting, so we substituted with poster markers.

D's piece de resistance was the addition of a Planetree leaf at each corner of the banner.

It was a fun, fall afternoon. I hope we have another one like it soon.

Bernat now has glow-in-the-dark yarn. It comes in six colors. Wouldn't that be cool for a child's afghan or winter hat?