A Craft A Week: Week 26 - Dream Catcher

 

Last week Wednesday I was walking around my backyard with Reed and I found a feather from our friend "Blue Bird".  Then another, and another!  It made me think of the SurpriseRide Blake recently received to make a dream catcher.  I started to look for some interesting twigs that I'd be able to bend into a circle.  Walking in and around the chicken coop I found a few nice feathers from our girls.  I brought my findings inside to soak and be cleaned.

 

Later that night we all sat down to experiment.   I pulled all the twigs from soaking in the water and started binding them together with some aqua twine I had in my craft stash.

Blake started in on making his tribal drum and dream catcher.  Chase already has a dream catcher in his room that he got from our sweet older neighbor as a THANK YOU to Chase for always helping him take down his trash cans on trash pick up day.  He decided to make a different craft instead.  Reed was playing with all the extra pieces that I wasn't using.

 

Friday night I attached one of my Grandma's (my dad's mom) doilies.

I also planned out how I was going to attach the feathers from "Blue Bird" and our Chickens.  I dug out my bead bin as well and incorporated some of my Grandpa's (my dad's dad) beads to the design too.

 

I strung the feathers using knots and a glue gun, slid on some beads, added knots and more beads.  This is what it looked like at the end of the night:

 

 

 

It needs more.

The following Monday I went to three thrift stores and JoAnn Fabrics and found some pretty ribbons and lace:

Hubby had a good suggestion to add something aqua in the doily.  I like the idea, but I haven't found anything yet.  My dream catcher is hanging in our Master Bedroom and my dreams are sweet :)

 

 

I have ideas to make one for Reed's room using yarn and beads and bright colors, I had an idea to make one with shells and one with spoons and then a really different one for a library that I don't want to share A) because it could be unbelievably awesome or B) it could be a horror show.

 

Leave me comments!  I love hearing from you!

 

Love, Jenni



A Craft A Week: Week 25 - Candy Sushi

Last weekend we had a very important celebration.  Our local family and friends came together to celebrate our son Blake's victory of being cancer free for a whole year!  He is very shy about it, some people have made him feel exploited, and he didn't want us to make it a big deal so we tried making it look more like a summer BBQ.

Look at him!  He looks amazing!  I love you Blake!

So the food for the party was Asian Cuisine.  Hubby made amazing food as usual and I pigged out as usual. 



My contribution and Craft for the Week was the dessert.  I made candy sushi!  Here is a picture of my inspiration:

http://www.lhj.com/recipes/dessert/other/cool-crazy-rice-krispies-treats-recipes/?page=9

Step ONE: Go to the store to buy Rice Krispies cereal, marshmallows, butter, Swedish Fish, and Fruit by the Foot.  I was not able to find green Fruit Rollups or anything similar so I just selected the best one and went home.

Step TWO: Make Rice Krispie Treats: http://www.ricekrispies.com/recipes/the-original-treats. 

Step THREE: Roll out half the treat mixture to form tube's for the Sushi Rolls.  The rest of the treat mixture will become the Nigiri Sushi: a Swedish Fish atop an oblong, compacted mound of Rice Krispie Treats.

Step FOUR: Once your Taste-Tester gives the sign the mixture is not poisoned, beg for assistance from anyone that is capable.  I begged my Mother-In-Law and Sister-In-Law to help me.  We cut the tubes in to little sections, wrapped the Fruit by the Foot around each one, and stuffed part of a Swedish Fish inside.  This was very sticky.  Then create the Nigiri.  This part was easier.  Clump some treat mixture big enough for a whole Swedish Fish to lay on top and then wrap a little section of Fruit by the Foot around it.

During the making process:

 

Plated for our party and already half gone.  Blake loved them!

 

A Craft A Week: Week 24 - Refashion a Refashion

Ugh.  I hate when I have nothing to wear.  I never have anything to wear to work, to workout, to go out, not even to hang out.  Ugh.

I guess that's why I have an obsession with clothing refashions.  I keep hoping that I'll be able to make something I currently have in to something cool that I actually like wearing.

So it was one of those moments where I was getting frustrated with my closet because nothing was cool.  Then I found this "cardigan" in my closet.  It was one of my DIY Cardigan's from one of my first crafts.

So really it was my favorite Vintage Old Navy T-Shirt that I cut open to make a cardigan to wear over... what?  I barely ever wore it.  I wore it more when it was a T-Shirt.

So, with those thoughts I went downstairs and sewed the shirt back together.

Now I have my favorite shirt back... with a seam going straight up the front.  Now what?

Well since that won't work... cut off the sleeves, slice off the top neck... Hmmm.  TARN!

I braided two strands of white and one red together and hand sewed them to the collar of my "new" shirt.

The shirt was a V-neck and now that it had a seam up the front, the V needed to go in the back to look somewhat normal.  I sewed the braid on so that the two ends would meet at the V in the back.

It turned out pretty neat and I like it, but because of all the alterations (let's not blame the extra pounds I've put on) it is a bit tight.  After all that, it is still not a staple in my wardrobe.

Back to the drawing board.

A Craft A Week: Week 23 - Curtain Tie Back

Have you ever felt the more you work on something the more work it needs?  So I added the fabric covered Styrofoam board as a valence to my bathroom window.  Then I sewed a very pretty curtain for it.  Then it needed a curtain tie.  So now I've made a tie... and I feel like it needs something else... like a second curtain behind the first of just lace to cover that ugly window.  Ugh.  I can't win.  3 points window - 0 points me.

Anyway, I don't really have much of a tutorial of how I made this and I didn't take any "during" photos.  Mostly because I sat down with my three sons and my bin of beads and we all just started messing around.  I made and un-made a few versions before I settled on this one. 

 

I used one shell I bought at Michaels in a bag of shells, a shell and a rock I found on the beach at Bolinas, CA that just screamed "make me in to something".  Then I used some beads from my Grandpa's bead collection, all strung together using some jute twine. 

Now here is an ugly picture of it all mashed together:

I liked it better without the tie, but then I like the tie.  Also, the curtain was too long.  So... cut the curtain and get rid of the tie? or add a second lace curtain (the right size) behind the first curtain?

It's the project that never ends.