Red Heads Craft More Fun: Aunt

Showing posts with label Aunt. Show all posts

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Where have I been??

Ok, ok, ok, I KNOW it has been awhile since I posted last, like yes, a whole month! So what in the world is my great excuse. (I always tell my students I am happy to listen to their great excuses, but it doesn't mean I will believe them.) So yes, my great excuse as to where I have been these past few weeks is as follows:

My Aunt and I decided to do a craft show! Let me tell you. They. are. a lot. of. work. Oh my. But it was so fun! So, between getting things ready for the craft show, working full time, and conferences at school, I was one busy lady. It was well worth it. My Mom and bestie/cousin were HUGE helps too!

Here are a few pics of our booth.

If you are interested in learning more about our little side project, click here. As soon as my Aunt gets her website up and running, I will pass that info along as well.

Oh, and thanks for being patient while I try out this new endeavor. I am not giving up on Red Heads Craft More Fun and I can't wait to show you some of the cool things I have been making. Thanks for stopping by and can I just say, it's good to be back!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Market Bag (Recycled Coffee Bean Bag)

Every now and then, there comes a project that does not go as planned. Perhaps it is a project like the apron I made, where it takes A LOT longer than expected.

Case in point, about a month ago my Mom, Aunt and I tackled another sewing project. (I think we are going for one epic sewing project a year.) We made market bags out of recycled coffee bean bags and used pillow cases to line them. Please don't laugh if this sounds easy to you or if you are able to produce a market bag an hour. (Ok, I guess you can laugh a little bit- hehehe!) It may have taken us a few evenings of work, but I just love a project that uses your whole brain to figure out how exactly to do it. I think they turned out great. What do you think? They are nice and spacious and will fit everything the Farmer's Market has to offer!

I'll be linking to these parties this week.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Sea Shell Plaster Mold

Hey everyone! I am back from Spring Break in South Carolina. The weather was great and we were even able to fit in a fun craft thanks to my Aunt's brilliant idea. This would be a great craft to do with the kids on the beach. It's easy and fast and so much fun!

Start with a shell of your choice and push it into the sand face down.

Use an old frame to also push into the sand.

Carefully remove both pieces.

Fill the hole with Plaster of Paris.

Continue to fill it all in.

This is what it will look like.

Let it dry in the sun while you go swimming.

An hour or so later, gently pull it out of the sand and rinse it in the water. And now you have a mold of your favorite shell to remember your favorite vacation.

I will be linking to these parties!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Bird Ornament

This past Thanksgiving, my Aunt had a great idea for a craft that the family could do to remember my Grandma. She gave each of us a bird ornament (the kind that clips on to the tree).

We removed the old tail feathers of the bird by gently pulling them out. Then we replaced them with feathers from an old hat my Grandma used to wear. We used glue to make them stick where the old feathers had been. I love how it turned out and it is an extra special way to remember Grandma at Christmas time this year.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Day of the Dead - Part One

As a Spanish teacher, I enjoy learning about Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). As a Halloween-loving human being, I enjoy anything skeletal/creepy during the month of October. Put the two together and it makes for a *spook*tacular combination. You may remember my teaser a few weeks back, and I have been really excited to share this with you, so here goes!

The initial inspiration for this project came from my Aunt Sue, who saw it in a crafting magazine. We ended up changing it up quite a bit in the end.

I know it sounds weird, but, start with a wedding cake topper and a hacksaw. (Yikes! I am smiling as I type this.)

Don't worry, this Bride and Groom are having so much fun, they won't even realize their heads are falling off...

Now take some skeletons (available at Michael's and The Dollar Tree) and chop away some more. The following picture looks like a scene out of a scary movie.

Hot glue the skeleton heads onto the Bride and Groom's bodies.

Be careful, they fall off very easily!

Next, use your fingers to put modeling clay all over your figurines and let it dry completely.

I wanted to add some fake flowers to my lady's dress, so I stuck them into the modeling clay. If I did it again, I would have just hot glued them on, they would have stayed better.

After that, I spritzed mine very lightly with a bit of white spray paint.

When the spray paint is dry, I used some stencil paints to color in my people. I used some browns, grays and even a blue for the Groom's tux.

Paint on some bone details to their hands, chests and teeth with white. Now you have one ghouly groom and bride!

You can stop here and put your creepy couple on display, or you can join me next weekend for part two, to see how I am displaying mine. I will also have three other versions to show you since my Mom, Aunt and cousin all made one. Until then, our Bride and Groom will have to live Hauntingly Ever After...

I will be linking to these parties this week.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Heart Pillow

Hey y'all! I know it has been awhile, but I am still around! It has been a few busy, difficult weeks since my Grandmother's passing, but I also find that it's times like these where I find inspiration in areas least expected. I also want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your kind and encouraging words. I feel truly blessed to have such wonderful, caring readers, and your kindness will never be forgotten. Your comments got me through these last few weeks, and for that, I am forever grateful! Thank you!

While we are on the topic of inspiration, I wanted to share with you a craft that I truly put my *heart* into. My Mom and Aunt wanted a little pillow with which to send their mother (my grandmother) off to Heaven. They looked and looked at each of the craft stores/bridal areas, but saw nothing. That's when I knew that I had to channel my recent sewing skills and get busy.

My Aunt found me a print out of the shape of the heart. She also had boxes of vintage fabric and lace, some belonging to my Grandma and her sister and used for some of their dresses when they were my age.

I know this sounds cheesy, but I didn't really have a plan, I just let my creative spirit guide me, and kept in my head when I thought my Grandma would like. I was pleased with the end results, and I know my Grandma was too. She would have loved this!

Here are my supplies:

I cut out the heart (2 pieces- a front and a back) and then sewed the lace onto the front side of one piece of the heart. Then I pinned the front and back of the heart together (good sides facing each other) and sewed around it leaving a spot to turn it right-side out.

After flipping it right side out:

I stuffed it with batting and then had to hand sew the rest of it shut. This would be a great time to stuff in a little note or a trinket.

I then hot glued some silk flowers in the corner.

Here is the finished product:

I thought this pillow would work well as a decoration, or even as a tooth-fairy pillow if you modified it to include a little pocket.

Here are some parties I might link up to this week.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

First Sewing Attempt: Apron

Remember a while back how I said that I wanted to learn how to sew? Well, armed with my Aunt's trusty Kenmore sewing machine and my Mom and Aunt at my side to walk me through the steps, we set out to sew an apron. Mind you, this was supposed to be a simple, "easy" pattern as the package said. Hahahah! I beg to differ.

First off, if you are learning how to sew, and if you are anything like me (excited, focused, etc), you will need a seam ripper! I. used. mine. all. the. time.

Seriously, just when I thought things were going my way, I realized I wasn't sewing all the way through my hem, or my bias tape was slipping off. (Yes, I pinned and pinned and pinned to no avail).

About 20 hours later, (no joke)(ok, maybe a *slight* exaggeration,) I was finished! I couldn't have done it without my Mom and Aunt. The whole process was fun, only because they were doing it with me.

I can't wait to try to make some other things- I am *sew* excited for my newest hobby!

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Decorated Dress Form

My mom and Aunt had the idea to make decorated dress forms. When they asked me if I would like to join in, even though I had no idea what to use it for, I agreed. (Hello!- -addicted to crafting much?) After we finished (it took two days), I absolutely loved mine!

This is a LONG tutorial, full of pictures. If you want to see the end product, or if you hate the suspense, scroll down!

We started with table-top dress forms from Hobby Lobby. I have seen them at Michael's and JoAnn's too. We used gesso to create a nice, even base color.

We then used some strips of watercolor paper that my Grandma had previously painted on and we tore them down the middle. We did this because we wanted them thinner- you could have whatever size you want. I didn't cut them because I like the ripped look.

Some of these strips of paper we thought would look cool if we embossed them with our CuttleBug machine. Here is a picture of cute Grandma learning what the CuttleBug does.

After that, our gesso was dry, so we painted our dress forms. I chose the color pink just for the fun of it. You could use any color. I also wanted a metallic look so the craft paint I used was a pink metallic.

I also added some other colors lightly here and there.

From there I ripped some images (found online) of old tape measures to match the already ripped water color paper. You can use real ones if you have them! This step is optional.

After the paint dried, I ripped tissue paper and modge podged it to the dress form in various places.

Then, to add more decoration, I glued little diamond shapes in various places on the dress form.

I also glued little heart-shaped sequins into the middle of my diamonds.

Using iron-on transfer paper that we printed from the computer, I chose words, names, dates, and addresses that are special to me and printed them in a pretty font. Then I ironed them onto a scrap of fabric.

Rip or cut the fabric into strips (just like earlier with the watercolor paper and the measuring tape images).

Now you are finally ready to start gluing on your dress form's skirt!

And keep gluing and building layer after layer of watercolor paper, fabric, measuring tape, lace, ribbon, anything!

Eventually, it will end up the way you want it. Code for: put as much as you like on/in her skirt. I think at this point I looked over at my Aunt and caught her talking to her dress form telling her how lovely she is.

Here are the three "ladies" well on their way to bea-u-ti-ous!! (Not to mention that messy table!)

Then start to embellish her skirt. Use buttons, paper cut-outs (hearts, diamonds), tags, anything! We cut out some tags from an old poetry book using our Cricut. Here is a close up of my embellishments, sorry about the shadow of my head.