A Birthday Amigurumi

A roommate that I had last year had her birthday this past Monday. She comes over a lot and it's nice to have her over. She always seemed to enjoy the amigurumi that I made. She even threatened to take some of them when I wasn't there. So I finally got around to making one for her.

For this amigurumi I used camouflage, white, and pink yarn. The camouflage yarn gives a nice striped texture to it. It actually gives me an idea for a present for my younger brother this coming Christmas. I just need to get a hold of some yellow/orange/red yarn to do it. ;) I'm not entirely sure how long this amigurumi took to make. I had to rush it since I started making it on her birthday. I think it turned out pretty cute. I almost wanted to keep it myself. xD

Easy Halloween Jar Lights

At the beginning of October I made these to give to my visiting teaching sisters:

I got the idea here, and noticed my cousin and her neighbor made some at the same time I did (here). Instead of using stringed lights or a real candle, I put a battery-powered flicker light at the bottom and stuffed them with candy.

These are REAL easy to make, so if you don't have anything up for Halloween QUICK--- find an empty jar, some tissue paper, mod podge (or something similar), construction paper--- and MAKE ONE (or two)! Here are the steps:

1. Clean out your empty jar and cut the tissue paper into strips.
2. Apply a base coat of mod podge to a section of the OUTSIDE or your jar then GENTLY press the strips onto the jar until the podge is covered. Repeat until the whole jar is covered. Let dry for a few hours.
3. Using the construction paper, cut out a face for your creation. Once the first coat is dry, apply podge to the back of your face pieces and place onto the jar.
4. Wait a few minutes and then apply a even coat of podge over the whole creation and let dry overnight.
5. After dry, place your preference of lighting into the jar and enjoy!

I also made some for my family too, since they were so easy to make. My picture is on the camera and my transfer drive went into a hiding amidst the move, but I made a pumpkin, ghost, Frankstein and Spider. Frank was made from a tall Pace jar and Spidey was a jar of unopened baby food leftover from Little Knight's pureed days.

NOTE: Since we moved into our house, I haven't been able to get to any of my craft stuff. My darling husband says it's getting me ready for the couple months after Little Girl is born; I say I'm wasting my 'nesting' energy. (I'm actually using it to get a few things organized and decorated) :)

So, my goal is to get a couple more things done before Little Girl is done, but I guess, like everything else in our lives right now, it's a wait and see... so ya'll will have to as well!

UPDATE: Here are my jars...

Gospel Quiet Book

Don't forget to follow us, if you haven't already!!! My next few posts are not new crafts, but things I did right before we moved into our house (hence the reason for the lack of posting).

Now that I've finally mailed the second book, I have no hesitation in posting the page pictures.

The only template I used was for Joseph's coat (found here); every other page is a Ambo creation. So, if you happen to enjoy the pages and use them as inspiration, please link here and give credit.

After baby girl's birth, I just might make templates, if there is a big enough demand and we somehow get more readers...

Picture 1: Noah's Ark--fill with animal finger puppets, Tree of Life--sliding people & snapable fruit, Pioneer Wagon--lace cover & attach wheels, Temple Puzzle Page---build temples, & Time for Tithing--pay tithing with envelope and slip inside
Picture 2: Joseph's Coat--colors snap on and off, Jaredites' Journey--boats unbutton from glowing stones, Singing Voices--felt note and beads slide, Puzzle Storage--for temples, & My Scripture Case--pack scriptures for Sunday, can even put real pencil and paper for drawingPicture 3: Temple Puzzles for puzzle page
I made these all for a friend and, after taking a long, much needed quiet book break, I will have no choice but to fulfill the urge to make some for my own children. :)

Freezer Paper Stenciling

I discovered this a few months ago and did a bunch for both my Knight and future Princess.Since it's really easy, it's really really addictive! All you need is a shirt, Freezer Paper (I only found it at Wal-Mart), acrylic or fabric paint, exacto knife, brush, iron and an idea. The possibilities are endless.

Draw your own design out on the paper, print it out (after cutting it to fit your printer), or trace it onto the smooth side of the paper. Cut it out with the exacto knife (cut out the small pieces first). Then iron it onto the shirt with a full piece of paper also on the other side. Paint the design, wait for it to dry, then take off the stencil. Last but not least, iron one more piece of paper over the design to heat seal it. Wait for it to cool down and TA-DA!!! A new shirt for your child!!!

Last week, I made this Halloween shirt for Little Knight.

Isn't he cute?!?!

Gospel Quiet Cards

I wanted something 'little knight' can look at during those church moments where he seems to be on his last 'good behavior' leg. So, this is what I came up with:










Basically, they are Gospel Flash Cards. Wanna make your own, it's real easy! The great thing is that this project is so flexible you can make as many or as little cards as you want!

What you need:

• Clip Art and/or Pictures for each subject
  
• Book Ring or Ribbon
• Any kind of Publishing Software or scrapbooking supplies for all you handy scrapbookers out there!
  
• Scissors
  
• Some type of lamination (I did mine at Kinko's for under $5)
• Single Hole Punch
  

Instructions:

1. Go through and pick however many gospel topics and/or principles you want for the cards. If anyone needs inspiration, here's my list: Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, First Vision, Book of Mormon, First Presidency, Twelve Apostles, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, Atonement, Sacrament, Temples, Priesthood, Articles of Faith, Plan of Salvation, Tithing, Word of Wisdom, and Second Coming.
   
2. Once you have a list then find pictures and/or clip art to go with each card. (I used a lot from Free LDS Art).
   
3. Then, using your publishing software (word, publisher, etc.---I used my lovely scrapbooking software) choose a size to make your cards (mine are 4 x 6) and put the picture with the right card. Some of my cards have more than one picture because I didn't want the picture to look all pixily.
4. Onto the back: write a little bit about the subject for the back of the card. For example, on the Jesus Christ card, I wrote: Jesus is the Son of God. He died so we can live with Heavenly Father, Him and each other forever. He is our Savior. (Remember to make your back the same size as the front).
5. You can either choose to print them front to back or separately, either way, print it all out. Match them up and go get them laminated. If you happen to have a friend who has a machine, borrow it! OR you can you Contact Paper (not as durable and kind of tricky) OR go to Kinko's and use their machine. If you don't know how to use it, they'll show you!
6. Cut out the cards, leaving enough room at the top to punch a hole, and string them through the ribbon or extra book ring!

Now you have a set of gospel cards that your kids will use plenty of Sundays. Our little knight loves to look at the pictures, he even sits quietly in my lap during sacrament to look at the sacrament picture and watch the boys (he's 17 months old). Trust me, you'll have smoother Sundays if you make these cards!

Humanoid and Tutorials

This was the amigurumi that I did before the cupcake and onigiri. It is, by far, my favorite. If you know Beth Doherty and her work, then you'll see some resemblances. I'm inspired by her stuff. She's great at what she does.

I wanted to create a humanoid pattern of my own that I actually liked. I thought that he came out great. Although, he did come out a lot tougher than the drawing I did beforehand. xD Someone also on Gaia Online wanted to know how I embroidered my amigurumi and how I made clothes. So I made some tutorials. Here they are:

Embroidering
Shirt Tutorial
Pants Tutorial
Crochet Hat w/ Ear Holes Tutorial

My First Quiet Book

About a month ago, I spent two weeks of my extra time sewing, hand-sewing, ironing, cutting, cursing felt and a missing zipper foot, I did what I set out to do--- I made a quiet book for our kids.

It's not perfect, but I made it and that makes it all worth it.

I used a lot of resources, most stemming from the blog: How to Make a Quiet Book. I changed a bunch of things to my liking, however, I recommend this site for anyone who is silly enough to attempt their own.

I just recently finished a gospel-themed Quiet Book (yes, two in two months and my husband and child are still alive) for my best friend's daughter, but I'm not posting that until I send it off... so stay tuned!

I'll expound on them at a later date, maybe even throw in a couple of templates (especially the gospel one because it's more of my brain-child), but, for now, I have a few other things I want to accomplish while my son attempts to sleep... we're having a rough day.

Here are the pages:

All of them pre-sewing binding

The finished numbers page (props to my husband and his mad knot-tying skills or this page would still be unfinished)

Amigurumi Onigiri and Cupcake

Here's the deal. I'm going to start with my most recent crafts. There way too fetching many for me to post on this blog. (I do have over 2 yrs. of crafts and that's a lot to fish through.) However, I might go back and find my favorite crafts to show. It just won't happen instantly. Without further ado...

Last month's Ami-Along theme was food. I was able to finish these a few days ago and still was able to post them up on Gaia Online to show the other amigurumi enthusiasts before September was over. I also wanted to do a doughnut but I ran out of time. When I make more cupcakes in the future, I'm going to fix that icing edging. It doesn't look as wavy as I want it to be. I think I figured out the problem though, so it should be really simple.

I'm also debating if I want to share my patterns. Mainly I don't want to share them because I want to sell these things someday. I do know how cool it is to find something you love for free though. I enjoy the internet for that reason. I just don't know if I'm ready to give out the patterns just yet. ;)

Past Craft: Nursing Wraps

I was only mildly aware of this trend when I first had 'J' (what he'll be known as from now on) and by then I already had a blanket which worked rather well. I say rather well because once he could grasp the blanket I had a few awkward Mother's room moments. So, when we found out #2 was joining us I priced check these bad boys, all costing around $40. I knew from the little sewing experience I had, I could beat the price with my eyes closed; the only thing left was to find a pattern.

With the invention of blogging my task became simple because I found template here and here. I did a combination of the two because 1---I wanted D-rings and 2---I wanted it to be reversible. I also changed the length of the boning to 13 inch. 18 inches was WAY too long. The first one took maybe 6ish hours and the second only 3!

So, for the same price as one store bought 'hooter hider' I made four! Now I just have to wait 6 months to use them! ;)