Crafting Secrets

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Kathleen Frances Shares HandMade Dolls

Get set for an Amazing and Fun project my daughter just loved…

There is always some fun part of a project for almost any age.

Some folks just like store bought items and that’s okay too.

Last year I gave these handmade dolls to Lily.  I thought a cute idea might be to make one that looks like her and then sew one that resembles Lily.  I have this idea where they are happily playing make-believe with their respective dolls (quietly of course, it is a dream).

Choose the yarn for the hair with care; alpaca works for straight hair, and bouclé has built-in curls.

For shorter curls, embroider mohair yarn directly to head and brush slightly.

Fold a 10-by-18-inch piece of washable fabric (for body) end to end, right sides facing; lay template on fabric with dotted lines of shoulders on fold, and cut out along solid lines; pin.

From a nearly 10-inch square of cotton jersey (for skin), cut a 3-by-7-inch strip (for head) and four 2-inch squares (for hands and feet).

Starting at the fold, stitch a curved shape across short end, as shown, and continue stitching down open side; snip away excess fabric, keeping 1/8-inch seam allowance.  Cut three 2-by-7-inch strips of wool or polyester batting; lay in star shape, as shown.

Bring strips up and around ball; use a chopstick and your fingers to push batting inside head.

Use pins to mark placement of features. For features, insert a needle threaded with embroidery floss through the back of the head and out at a pin.

Get the Whole article with step-by-step instructions at:  Handmade Dolls by Kathleen Frances (Thanks Kathleen;)

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FUN Crafting a Molly Monkey

All new Molly Monkey directions with the face embroidered on before sewing that piece to the head.

Also, if you are having trouble with the placement for the face, you can print an extra pattern piece for the face, then cut the eyes out and poke holes with a large pin on the lines for the nose and mouth.

At long, long last, I’ve discovered the perfect the Molly Monkey pattern, and the link is down below here for you to download, gratis.

Uncompressed, it turns into a nine page PDF file, which can be opened and printed by a variety of PDF readers, like Acrobat.

Get the whole thing with the Molly Monkey pattern here at no cost to you

Kids Delight: Playsilks

I finally worked my way into a friend’s house with a microwave to dye some playsilks with Kool-Aid…

Fun, F-U-N,  -F U N . . .

We thought we’d dye two scarves at a time in each color, but it turned out that there was just room for one at a time.

And the color from the Kool-Aid was gone from the water after one silk was dyed so we couldn’t reuse it.

Here’s the gist of the project: First soak all undyed silks in hot water with a dash of vinegar (we used distilled white vinegar) for half an hour.  Then for each silk, mix 2 cups water, 1/2 cup vinegar, and 3 packets of Kool-Aid in a glass bowl–the kids helped with this part.

You’re supposed to let it sit for three minutes, stir, then repeat the microwaving and sitting three times total for each silk.

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Make Kool-Aid Playsilks with Your Kids

Others had commented on how dark the silks get and I wanted to try for a lighter playsilk, so I just did the whole process once for my silks.  Rachel wanted to try two rounds of microwaving for hers, although I don’t think the color was appreciably different.

Get ALL the details in this article: Kool-Aid Playsilks

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Picture Perfect Crafts: Gingerbread Bunting using Recycled Bags

This is a perfect way to dress up your home for the Holiday’s and teach your kids a little recycling.

Your kids will love you for it!! Instead of making real, edible gingerbread men make these up and let them decorate them with puff paint (aka “frosting”).

You can also add embellishments such as buttons, ribbon and rick rack to give them a little extra cuteness.

Just glue any extra’s on.

Get the the whole article with step-by-step instructions

in a detailed pdf here: gingerbread from recycled bags

-your gonna just love Molly Bermea-

The Flint Journal – MLive.com

Mt. Morris students sell arts and crafts items to buy toys for kids in need The Flint Journal – MLive.com Emerson, 9, and 25 other classmates from Moore Elementary spent more than a month making crafts to sell to the school in order to purchase gifts for Toys for Tots. This is the 10th year Paquet has done this fundraiser with her class and she said they usually raise between $250 and $300. The reason beyond the arts and crafts gets the students motivated and excited to participate, she said.

View full post at arts and crafts –

All of us have been gifted by the almighty with some kind of creativity. Some people may be good in painting, some in cooking, some people are talented writers and poets and so on. crafting is something that showcases your creativity and nurtures your talent, especially of your children. There are many easy craft ideas, which may be helpful not only enhancing your child’s creativity but in many other ways, as it gives you an opportunity to spend time with your child and get involved with him. This will make them involved as home craft ideas are always very interesting.

If you run short of the ideas, there is a plethora of websites having thousands of home craft ideas.  You can use them as it is or modify them as per your choice.  Children need support from their parents to complete any craft project and when the project is completed it enhances their confidence and gives them a sense of accomplishment.

While selecting a craft project for your child, you must consider his interest and age. It may as simple as making a ship using matchsticks, or making different masks from chart papers and so on. Making handmade greeting cards on various occasions also is a good idea of showcasing your talent and saving money at the same time. You may use different material for making these cards from paints, to glitters, to mirrors, talk sheet etc. You may not need to spend a lot of money every time, there are many craft ideas which can be made by using many waste materials from your home.

Doing creative work not only improves ones skills but also helps in the development of the overall personality of a person. Craft work also saves a lot of money too and at the same time helps you spend leisure hours doing some creative work. In their free time your children will do craft work rather than wasting their time in watching T.V. Instead of spending money on those expensive lamp shades, you can just buy some textured or handmade paper, colors and some sparkle to make your own lampshades at home. Doing this work with your children will help them gain interest in such activities and help them bring out their own imagination. Apart from that this will give your house a warm look and present your creativity.

It can be even more fun doing it with your friends and family. You can tell your child to ask his friends to come over and hold craft competitions like paper bag making competition, wrist band making competition, card making competition etc. For this you can provide them with material like paper, scissors, glue, ribbons, glitter etc. This will help them to understand community living and sportsmanship. Further it will help them in exchange of creative ideas and views. You can also hold best out of waste competitions among your family members with waste carry bags, cloth pieces etc. This way your waste too won’t go waste. At the end this will help you as well as your children to broaden their imaginative horizon and improve their skills and way of living.

Visit Crafts Advisor website to know more about home crafts and  craft ideas.