CHARM IT! Bracelet Giveaway

Did you have a charm bracelet when you were a child?  I had one, it was a purple plastic chain and it had giant plastic charms to go with it.  Anytime my mom took me shopping, there was a chance I might get a charm. I still have some of the charms today and even briefly wrote about it here.  So when CHARM IT! contacted me about doing a giveaway, I was happy to hop on board.  I completely get the charm thing.  Picking out charms that match your personality.  Seeing how many you can collect.  It's just fun.

CHARM IT! let my daughter choose three charms from their site www.shopcharm-it.com and she picked out the jellyfish, mushroom, and pup in a cup (top photo).  I've got to say, she chose well.  The jelly fish is adorable.  I like how it has tiny swinging chain tentacles.  Ever since my daughter got the bracelet, she's been wearing it.  She really likes it and as you can imagine, has added some charms to her Christmas wish list.

For the giveaway, CHARM IT! sent me this box of three charms with a bracelet to giveaway.  What makes these charms special is that they were all designed by girls.  Every so often CHARM IT! hosts contests for kids to design charms (by the way, there's a contest coming up in the spring so look for it).  How I would have loved to design my own charm as a child.  Heck, I'd like to design my own charm now.  Which brings me to the giveaway.

To enter, please share what charm you would design if you could in the comments. One entry per household. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you win. The last day to enter the giveaway is Friday, November 29,  2013. I'll announce the winner Saturday, November 30, 2013 on this post. If I do not hear back from the winner after two weeks, I will choose a new winner. Open to US Residents only.

Contest Closed

Congratulations to Danna who is the winner of the CHARM IT!  giveaway!  Thank you to everyone who participated.

Knitting Christmas Gifts

To say I'm late to the "making gifts for Christmas" party is an understatement.  I'm really attending the after party at this point.   Over the weekend I sat down with by knitting needles and began to get to work.  I started with a pair of mittens for my daughter's American Girl doll.  And yes, I've shared about these mittens two other times (here and here) but it's such a great pattern.  They're quick to make and use barely any yarn.  What's not to love?

Anyone else making Christmas gifts this year?  Please share.  Feel free to add a link to your projects in the comments if you want.

Last, check back tomorrow for a fun giveaway I have planned.

Play with Your Soap

 

 Photo Credit: Lush

A couple weeks ago I was at our mall checking out the new Lush store.  I wanted to check out the shower jellies  but came across something much more interesting, FUN soap.  It's soap with the consistency of playdough and you can actually make stuff with it.  Once you're done creating, you can use it to wash up.  It can be used as soap, bubble bath and even shampoo.  

 Photo Credit: Lush

Originally, I purchased a roll of the soap as a gift.  But as it sat in my room, I began to get more and more curious about it.  I started to justify why I should open it:

1.  I can always buy another tube to replace the gift, right?

2.  It's practical, it's soap, we would use it everyday.

3.  My daughter is about to run out of shampoo, why not use this one.

4.  I could write a post about it.  Craft research?

And before I knew it, my daughter and I were creating hearts and other fun things with the soap.  I also had her use it as shampoo.  It seems to work well.  I discovered you only need a piece the size of a marble or less to wash your hair.  I only let her take about that much into the shower otherwise it will all disintegrate in the shower. We purchased the cotton candy scent and the fragrance is very strong. 

Anyhow, I thought this would make a fun gift for Christmas so I'm sharing.  Hey, that's another good reason for me opening up the soap, to help you with your holiday shopping *wink*.

Kaleidograph Online

Have you heard of  Kaleidograph?  It's a design pattern toy for kids and a design tool for adults.  The toy comes with  a set of  geometric shapes that can be stacked to make unique layered designs.  Well, I was poking around the Kaleidograph site when I stumbled upon the online version of the toy.   So of course I had to test it out and I must say it's very therapeutic. So if you need a little distraction or inspiration, stop by site.  But I'll warn you, it can be very addicting.  Let me know what you think.

Screenshot of online Kaleidograph

Handsewn Felt Food & Tea Bags

It rained all last week which kept me inside most of the time. I was crafting away but couldn't take pictures to share with all of you due to the weather. On the upside, I was able to get some projects finished. A while back I started working on a birthday gift, a tea party in a box. I made the tea bags but kept putting off making the cookies. As you can see, I finished sewing the cookies and was able to cross another UFO (unfinished object) off my list. That always feels good.

The patterns to make the cookies above came from the book My Favorite Felt Sweets. It's one of my favorite felt craft books. What makes it unique is that it also has patterns for traditional Japanese sweets.

I made the tea bags from the pattern on the Tori Jayne blog.

I packaged up the tea bags in a cellophane bag with some pretty purple card stock.

And to seal the bags, I used deco tape with smiling tea cups and cakes. I tried to get a close-up of the print for all of you to see. If you click on the image, you should get a larger view.

Anyone make anything over the weekend? Please share. If you posted about it, feel free to leave a link in the comments.

Mini Shatsu

I usually don't share about kids clothing but I thought some of you might be interested in Mini Shatsu (mini shirt) which I just discovered. I was doing my normal routine of checking the sales on My Habit when I came across this unique brand. The shirt above specifically caught my eye. It looked like a little kokeshi doll sitting in a baby sling. It was just my style my daughter's style. I knew it would be a perfect gift for Girl's Day and purchased it along with a dress. The clothing was a little pricey even on sale but worth every penny. I love all the detail of the prints (front and back) and the little pink flowers are velvety.

I also purchased this dress that has a faux apron printed on the front and back. Mini Shatsu also makes clothing for boys. I didn't buy anything for my son because all the styles/sizes I wanted were sold out.

I'm curious, have any of you heard of this brand before? Do you have a favorite kid's clothing brand you like to splurge on? Please share in the comments.

Knitting Cupcakes

Last weekend my daughter was invited to a birthday party so I decided to knit up some cupcakes for the present. Unfortunately with that nasty flu I had last week, I only managed to knit up one. Which is probably for the better anyways because as soon as my daughter saw the cupcake she claimed it as her own. In fact, when I was knitting the cupcake liner, the cupcake mysteriously disappeared along with my bag of poly-fil (later to be found in her play kitchen). I don't know what she was doing with the poly-fil but it was everywhere. It looked like a blanket of clouds touched down in her play area. And, I'm still missing a knitting needle!

I found this free cupcake pattern over at Bee Knits. It's two pieces, a cupcake and a cupcake liner.

Lego Kirigami

Now that I've got some of the basic kirigami principles down thanks to my new book, I've been experimenting with different shapes. I thought it would be fun to take the traditional person paper cut and change it to a Lego person. Below is a template with instructions on how to make your very own Lego kirigami.

Supplies:
Yellow paper ( 4" x 11") - light weight
Scissors
Lego template
Right click image, copy, save, and scale to 4 inches in height. Print and cut out for template.

Fold yellow paper as directed above.

Trace template on folded paper. It should look like the above image.

Cut out shape, unfold, done.

Craft Project: Hedgehog Pom Pom

About a week back a reader (Nina) asked me if I had any craft projects on hedgehogs. The answer was no so I decided to come up with something. Well after a little thought, I decided to make a pom pom hedgehog. It came out just as planned (and trust me, that's rare).

Simple directions below to make a hedgehog pom pom.

Supplies:
Brown and Cream yarn
Cream Felt
Brown embroidery floss
Fabric glue
sewing needle
scissors

Wind brown and cream yarn around two fingers at the same time. Cut yarn.

Now wind just the cream yarn around your fingers slightly overlapping the other yarn.

Slide yarn off your fingers. Secure yarn by tying a strand around the center of the ball. If you've never made a pom pom before, there's detailed directions here. Cut the loops as usual. Trim into an oval shape.



Left picture - what the top of the pom pom should look like.
Right picture - what the bottom of the pom pom should look like.

With a small piece of felt, cut and shape into a cone. Sew together. Embroider the nose and eyes on the cone. Glue the cone with fabric glue to the the pom pom. Refer to pictures. Done.

Craft Tutorial: Hina Doll Set

I made this Hina doll set last weekend. I'll be giving it to my daughter for Hina Matsuri (Girl's Day) tomorrow. It's so easy and inexpensive to make that I thought I would share the directions. I was able to make it in one night so there's still time if you want to give a set for Hina Matsuri.

Supplies:

wood eggs - they're flat on the bottom so they will stand up on their own, can be found at the craft store for under a dollar
acrylic paint - any colors of your choice
acrylic varnish - gloss
paint brush
wood burning tool (optional)
pencil







1. The first thing I did was sketch out on paper how I wanted my Hina dolls to look. A good place for inspiration is Flickr. You'll find the dolls come in all different shapes and styles. Next draw out all the details on the wood egg with a pencil.

2. Now you can either use a wood burning tool to outline the detail you made on the egg or use black paint. Either way looks nice.

3. Paint the entire egg as desired. Let dry

4. Paint two coats of acrylic gloss varnish onto each egg. Make sure to let the eggs dry in between each coat. Done.

I found a Girl's Day handkerchief at the thrift store for only fifty cents. Unbelievable! I'm going to use it to wrap up the Hina doll set. Below are some pictures of images on the handkerchief.

Easy Ways to Personalize Children's Clothes Hangers

clothes hangers from my husband's childhood

Children's clothes hangers can make the most charming gifts. They're cute, practical, relatively inexpensive, and timeless. So I thought it would be fun to come up with a couple ways to personalize/decorate child hangers. Below you will find two ideas.
One cute way to personalize a child's clothes hanger is with an initial or monogram. In the picture above I used a wood burning tool to make the letter "O" on the hanger. Simple directions below.

Supplies:
wood burning tool - can be found at most craft stores
tracing paper
child wood clothes hanger - I buy mine at Ross $5.99 for 5

Print out the reflection of a letter in the font you like. Make sure the size of it will fit easily on the hanger. Trace the letter with a pencil onto the tracing paper. Transfer the image to the hanger (refer to picture).







When you lift the tracing paper you will see your image. Next take the wood burning tool and trace over the letter. Add a ribbon if you wish. Done.






If you don't want to go through the trouble of using a wood burning tool, I came up with a second idea. Using scrap book rub-ons, transfer the rub-on image to the hanger. Then to insure the rub-on will not wear away, coat it twice with acrylic varnish. Done.