I’m feeling a bit more on top of Christmas this year than last year.  Now if I could only get my advent calendar done, I’d feel superfantastic.

Usually I spend a day the week before Christmas baking cookies, then we drive all over town delivering them.  I enjoy it, but I wanted to try something different this year – something I could do ahead of time that could be delivered whenever and that didn’t need to be given fresh.  Huge thanks to Cindy for the idea.  Her tutorial is here.

I started off with pieces of the boy’s artwork that I’d been saving up for a few months.  I cleaned them up in Photoshop to take care of random marks and smudges.  Then added lines and sent the files off to the printer.  They printed and cut the sheets in half.

The super cool stuff  in this project is the padding compound.  It’s a fun pink that dries a deep red.

It took me a while to learn that I do better rubbing it on with my finger.  After that it took me a while to get the pink off my finger.  In fact, several hours later and it’s still a pretty pink. 

Here’s a little sampling of my boys’ work.

Soon after making crayon cars I tried making soap cars some bars of Dove soap.  It involved a cheese shredder (what was I thinking?), the microwave, and a kitchen that smelled like soap for a few days.  The soap looked funky, but it held it’s shape and has worked just fine in the shower.  But it wasn’t gift-worthy.

So yesterday I went looking at soap-making supplies at Michael’s.  Am I the only one that didn’t know making soap was so easy?  I got myself some glycerin, fragrance and coloring and went to town.  I melted the glycerin, added color and fragrance, and poured it into the mold.

Clear glycerin with blue coloring and vanilla fragrance.  Mmm.  Vanilla.

Now melting crayons is just plain fun, but soap making?  That seems like an art.  So I’m not going to pretend to know anything about the *art* of  making soap but here are some tips in case anyone decides to try.

• Grab your craft store coupon to use on the glycerin.  $10 for about 4 -6 bars of soap isn’t cheap.
• Don’t spray the baking pan with cooking spray.  The oil tended to bubble up through the soap and was hard to rub off.  See the bubbles?

• White glycerin colors very girly.  Have you ever seen a more feminine bar of blue car soap?

• The liquid glycerin cools and hardens fast so pour it to the top.  Going back and topping off later might not leave you with a smooth bar of soap.
• To get the soap out of the mold, wait until the soap has cooled and hardened.  Then turn it upside down and put it in the freezer.  After an hour or so, bang one end of the pan on your carpet until the cars fall out.  I think I burned a few calories with all the banging.  The carpet was the only quiet thing I could bang it on, with the kids sleeping, you know.

My son Timo was so happy with our soap that he volunteered to go take a shower just so he could use it.  Now THAT’S the sign of a great craft for boys.

Car cake pan here.

The first issue of Stitch Magazine I ever purchased was in May.  I had purchased some advertising with a few other crafty businesses and I wanted to see the issue.  It probably isn’t a great business idea to purchase advertising in a magazine you’ve never seen before, but I couldn’t have been happier.  The advertisement looked great and I was contacted by a distributor who saw the ad.  The advertising was definitely worth it and when I went through the magazine I was impressed.  I’ve been feeling pretty ho-hum about my current magazine subscription which I won’t *cough*cough* mention here.  Each issue was starting to look the same and wasn’t providing much inspiration or good bathroom reading.  The only problem is that Stitch only comes out twice a year. 

But then at Quilt Market I was walking by the Interweave Press booth and saw it – the latest edition of Stitch.

Isn’t it beautiful?  I mean really, how can a tote bag look that good?  I feel like this is one editorial team that has their handle on the pulse of the crafty blogging world.  I had to have one but they weren’t just giving them away.  If I wanted to walk out of Quilt Market with a copy of Stitch,  I had to become a wholesale customer.  So I did.  Really, the magazine is that good.  They’re in the shop here.

If you have a favorite sewing magazine, I’d love to hear about it.  Right up there with Stitch is Cotton Friend which is really hard to come by in this part of the world but provides plenty of good *cough* reading and inspiration.

Ahhhh.  I’m in the point of pattern writing that feels great – second only to finally finishing the pattern itself:  the place where I’m 90% done.  The place where the worst is behind and good things are ahead – where I can be excited about what is to come.  It’s a good place. 

The name of the pattern is still undecided.   See how I conveniently covered the working title with my Ginghers? 

Pattern designers seem to be popping up everywhere!  I was surprised at how many new pattern lines were out at Quilt Market and it was exciting to see what everyone was creating!  I’ve found designers to be so friendly and helpful and overall just a fun group of people to hang around.  I’ve decided to start a page here on this blog for Indpendent Sewing Pattern designers to share their blogs.  Mostly so I can keep track of them, but also for any of you who are interested.  Requirements for listing:

1. Have at least 3 non-quilt patterns published on paper.   Quilt designers are welcome as long as they have 3 non-quilt patterns as well.  I’m not trying to exclude pdf pattern designers, but designing pdf patterns is a lot different than designing for paper and I’d like to create a list for paper publishers.

2. You must have a blog.  I’m not advertising for websites here (which might violate my tos), just making a list of blogs.

I’ve gotten the list started with some of the biggies as well as some people that I met recently.  Feel free to list your friends or your mom as long as they fit the requirements.  Leave a comment and I’ll work my way through and add them as I have time.  Thanks!

Every year I come back from quilt market with 2 distinct emotions.  On the one hand, I feel completely inspired, wanting to go home and create as much as I can.  On the other hand, I feel completely humbled by people who are able to inspire the masses and be productive.  While I’m putting out a pattern here and there they are writing patterns, writing books, designing fabrics, all while taking care of their children.  Besides the obvious creative differences, another difference is people.  I don’t have people.  No Craft Apple staff.  Wouldn’t that be nice to have people?  I chatted with Darlene Zimmerman about having people.  She was so encouraging.  She told me about starting her business in 1992 and only this year has she started hiring a housekeeper.  Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

So while I don’t have people, per se, I am thrilled to have dependable test-sewers and a supportive husband.  I’m so happy to have a sewing room - even if it needs a major cleaning - and a little buisiness to call my own.  And I’m always excited to be able to talk to a small part of the craft world through this blog.  Besides inspiring me creatively, those fabric heroes of ours have inspired me to work and to be focused.

Ready for some more inspiration?  Anna Maria’s book, Handmade Beginnings (sorry, can’t find a link) due out in May:

And Sandi Henderson’s book Sewing Bits & Pieces due out in April.

Both are published by Wiley. 

On a side note, do you remember the first few times you read craft blogs and noticed lots of pictures with people’s heads cut off?  It used to seem weird, but after a while I got used to it.  It seems that it has become a normal part of our culture.  So normal that both of these books have pictures without heads.  Funny.

It’s official.  I love spending time with these  girls at Quilt Market!  I’ve decided it’s not just because we get along and laugh together.  On a subconscious level I love not feeling short around them.

Great meeting so many new people -

* The fun and creative Sheree of Sheree’s Alchemy - love those wool bags, Sheree!

* Finally, finally, FINALLY got to meet my long-time blog friend Kathy of Pink Chalk Fabrics.  What a complete joy to finally meet you!  We tested eachother’s first patterns in what seems like forever ago.  I had to remind myself that we hadn’t actually met before.

* Great new pattern line by Lola Again for Izzy and Ivy Designs.

* I had to buy this pattern from Serendipity Studio.  It will be like wearing a Chemisette Handbag on myself!!!

I felt like I was taking  a ton of pictures, but I get home and realize I didn’t take enough.  These are two lines of fabric I can’t wait to get my hands on…

Anna Maria Horner’s Little Folks voile – this is going to be perfect for clothing.

And Heather Bailey’s  Nicey Jane.  Completely clean and crisp.

This couch was for those of us who swooned from cuteness overload.

And to the folks at Moda, I just want to say…

If there’s one thing that needs improvement in my mommy-ing , it’s to enjoy doing crafts with the kids.  As the kid’s homeschool teacher I do different crafts with them, but truth be told, I don’t enjoy it that much.  In fact, if given a choice, I always pick the least messy craft.  Doing crafts really brings joy to the kids, but I get frustrated with them mess.  I mean, the house is messy enough without getting out the glue and the yarn, the paint and the play-doh, you know?  I’ve needed help and there have been a couple of books that have been helpful:

• Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World.  We’ve been using this as part of our curriculum this year.  We’re currently studying Central America so I’ve been able to pick out different crafts from that region of the world.
• Green Crafts for Children.  This one had a lot of basic ideas – lots of stuff that I’ve seen online.  But it was inspiring enough for me to make pom poms with the boys and little cork animals.  It’s a nice one for the kids to look through and pick an activity out of.  My only complaint is that many of the crafts are aimed toward girls.
• Drawing With Children.  While this may not be crafting necessarily, I had to mention this book.  I love this approach to drawing.  It’s concepts are simple enough for the kids to understand but foundational to drawing.  Not being an artist myself, I’ve learned a lot using this book.

So let’s get on to the latest craft the boys and I did together.  It wasn’t too messy and was lots of fun.  Crayon cars. 

Melting crayons certainly isn’t new, but when I saw this car cake pan ($22 at Target), I had to try this.

1.  Peel the paper off of the crayons.  Sitting around peeling the paper off of the crayons together was fun!  A great fine motor activity that we all enjoyed.  My sons are pickers like me.  We sorted the colors so that the final cars would be different shades of the same color.

2.  Break the crayons up.  Snap, snap, snap!  Break the longer pieces up.  The boys loved this part.

3. VERY IMPORTANT STEP:  spray your car shapes with cooking spray to help the cars come out of the pan easily.

4. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  Much hotter and your house will smell like wax for a few hours.

5. Fill the pans with crayon bits and pieces.  Here they are ready to go in the oven.

10 minutes later:

10 more minutes:

See how they aren’t full?

6. Add more crayons if necessary and put them back in the oven for another 10.

That’s better.

7. Remove from oven and cool. They should pull away from the edge of the pan as they cool.

8.  When completely cool, the cars should come out with just a little gentle encouragement.

In addition to using the crayon pieces we had around the house, I also purchased several boxes of 68 count Crayolas.  2 boxes ($5 total) made ~8 of the smaller-sized cars (we didn’t even try the bigger cars).  Not the cheapest little crayon, but certainly doesn’t break the bank if you’re giving a little gift to a friend.  I think we’ll be making some of these up for the boy’s buddies when we pass out Christmas cookies this year.  And for the girls?

These little hearts were made using mini silicone hearts cupcake cups I purchased around Valentine’s Day.

Sometimes, after making a gazillion of the same purse over and over again, I just want to try something new.  Something free and unplanned.  So I started with some pieces from my stash and just started playing.

After a few minutes it got to be about the size of a mini patchfolio cover… 

…so that’s what it became.

I needed to just play around in the sewing room.  It’s been too long since I’ve taken the time to do it for myself.

Did you know you can sew scraps of Warm ‘n Natural batting together for quilted projects (like the mini patch above) if it won’t be washed?  Cut the batting with your rotary cutter to get 2 straight edges and zigzag them together on the machine, holding the pieces together as they go under the presser foot.

Here’s the sewn line.  You can see it, but you can barely feel it.  There’s no bump where the thread is.  Perfect.

This may work with other sturdy battings, but I don’t think this would work with polyester batting since it isn’t as thick.

 And as for the gazillion purses?  I’ll post about them another time – closer to when the pattern is ready.

I finished my pants!  It wouldn’t have taken so long if I had just made them the way Joanna suggested.  But I just can’t do what I’m told.  I tried to get all fancy pants around the hem and finally settle for a raw edge.  Fancy, eh?

I spent the holiday weekend sewing my pants and reading ahead in the kid’s school book Kingdom Tales by David and Karen Mains.  Cried my way through – it was so moving.  I hope the kids are old enough to appreciate it.  (Book link here - scroll down to find it.)

 The kids took  the pictures of me in the pants.  Here’s my favorite:

Apparently his fingers were over the lens.  Good for me you can’t see how ugly the garden is.    I especially liked how easy the pockets were.  And I liked the big screw-in grommets that I got in the purse section at JoAnn’s.
 

Thanks for sharing all your tutorials, Jo! 

Comments are now closed.

The winners are #14:  Michelle of Greeting Arts and #42:  Sarah, blogless.  I’ll be emailing  you ladies shortly!  Thanks for plaing along! 

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Following the success of their books, Paper Fashions and Paper Fashions Fancy, Klutz books has a new book out:

When I’m offered free products to post on my blog, I don’t always participate.  But this book sparked my interest and when I was invited to participate in a design challenge, I got excited.  The book comes with glitter glue, ribbons, embellishments, stencils and paper to design a fantasy wardrobe.  It also has these itty bitty hangers to display your fashions on.  Perfect for girls 8 and up, wouldn’t you say?

So part of this promotion is that 2 copies of this book will be available in the next week for giving away to you, my dear readers.  Please comment if you’d like to enter.  There will be 2 winners chosen randomly.

The other part of this promotion is the design challenge I mentioned above.  While I love working with paper, it had been a while so I really had to stretch my brain to come up with something unique.  The entry is a picture of a fantasy design using the items from the book.  I decided that I wanted to have a nice background for my picture.  And that’s when I had the idea of making a diorama.  The first one I’d made since 4th grade Bible class.  I think I made one of Moses.  I have this specific memory of comparing my shoe box scene (I didn’t know they were called dioramas then) to everyone else’s and realizing that I *really* couldn’t draw. 

Well, nothing much has changed in my artistic skills since then except that I’m a whole lot better at using the computer to make up for my weaknesses.  I made a paper doll and lined a USPS box with felt.  Here’s my entry:

A little angel glowing in her dressing room.  And see that big pink skirt in the back?  The ruffle is a paper towel that I fed through my ruffler.  That was new to me and turned out well for paper doll clothes.

So if you have a daughter you like crafting with, or just enjoy playing with paper, you might consider this book.  This was a fun crafty project for me.  And for the record, I didn’t recieve any $ for saying so.