Kitchen Table Crafting

Nope! Not crafting on the kitchen table.  Crafting a kitchen table.  Our kitchen dining area is an odd size which I really needed to maximize.  After more than a year of searching for the perfect table in the perfect size with the perfect price tag I had to call it quits.  It just wasn't going to happen.  So what does a crafty girl do?  Makes what she needs!

 Thanks to woodworking plans by Ana White and a long holiday weekend my hubby and I were able to build and sand this 36x 72 inch table in about 10 hours.  The hardest part was waiting for stain, paint and poly coats to dry.  The finishing of the table took me about 2 additional days.

 We used a cross between the Ana White Rustic Table and the Farm House Table. Our wood was just common pine from Home Depot.  I think the 4x4's are actually some other kind of wood. Not sure.

 I used two coats of stain after a coat of wood conditioner.  The first was Minwax English Chestnut.  It made the wood far to red.  Then I put a coat of Minwax Provincial over it and that worked pretty well on the top and apron.  However the legs just did not accept the stain the same way.  So in the end I painted the legs and apron.  Which was actually what I really wanted.  Hubby did not : )  The legs and apron are painted in a flat paint which I will wax today. 

This weekend I will be building two of these by myself ! This is the Vanessa X Bench.

I will change the plans a little bit as these will be used inside.  I will also be making covers and cushions for the tops of the benches.  Like these from Coastal Living Magazine.

Appreciating Teachers

All three of my children landed three of the most gifted teachers one could wish for.  I scrambled a little bit to pull together Teacher Appreciation gifts for this week.  As all three of my darlings are home sick from school today.  There just isn't much time for shopping or crafting for that matter with sick little people in the mix.

The plastic Flamingos just add that touch of class...don't you think?

They crack me up and I know they will give our teachers a bit of a chuckle.  Especially here in rainy Washington. I picked up the little sea grass totes and flamingos from the Target "dollar" bin for $2.50 each.  The potted lillies were $9 each from Lowes.  Easy Peasy!

For the flower tags I used up some scrap booking supplies that I had on hand.  The center medallion which reads "Thank You for helping me GROW up great!"  was found via  Skip to my Lou available as a free printable.  The creator of the printable and absolutely darling project to go along with it was Kami from Nobiggie.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Sonja

Mothers Day Bracelet Tutorial

Its a challenge to come up with Mothers Day projects for kids to make that is something other than their hand print.  Hand prints are darling and I do love all those tiny fingers and wrinkles and what not.  But after turkey hand prints and angel hand prints and tree hand prints I am ready for something a little different.  This year with my sons kindergarten class we are making bracelets (no colored macaroni in sight!).

This is such an easy project with absolutely darling results.  The kids loved making them, the materials are easy to come by and its a relatively speedy project.  Working with one child at a time I was able to do 13 of the 26 children in about 1.5 hours.

Tutorial 
For materials you will need:
Wool Felt ~ I think the wool ups the aesthetics of this project and makes it feel special. 
Buttons ~  I used shank buttons, buttons with holes and self made fabric covered buttons too.  Mainly in the 1 inch size. Bigger is better!

Sewing Needles ~  I used large eyed blunt tip needles for several reasons.  I wanted to minimize the stick factor and I wanted them to be easy to thread.

Thread ~  I gave the children the choice between embroidery floss and seam binding ribbon (vintage style) depending on the style of button they picked out.

Tools ~ Sharp Scissors, Pinking Shears, Rotary Cutter, Straight Edge, Cutting Mat, Brad Hole Punch

My Process:
Step one:  Let the child pick their button first
 
Step two:  Let the child pick the felt color
I pre-cut some of the felt in the colors that I thought the children were most likely to pick to cut down on time. They could also pick from all the colors I had with me. Using my rotary cutter, cutting mat and straight edge I cut my felt to 1.25 inches X 10 inches. 

Step Three: If the child selected a shank button (the hole is on a stem on the back of the button) or one with four holes I let them choose the color floss they wanted to use and helped them thread the needle.  If they picked a two hole plain button I gave them the option to sew it on using vintage style seam binding ribbon to make it a bit fancier. 
***I made a point to make the knot on the floss large and keep a tail of several inches after the knot to make tying it off easier at the end.
 
Step Four:  Using my brad hole punch I put holes in the felt to make sewing easier and neater for the kids.  Not necessary, but a nice touch if you have this tool already.

Keep the button about an inch away from the end of the bracelet. That way when you cut the slit for the button felt with show through the slit and not skin. 

Step Five:  Let them sew away!  Start from the back of the bracelet when sewing with floss.  Start from the front of the button when sewing with seam binding. Tie off your floss on the back of the bracelet and trim floss so that it doesn't hang over the edge of the felt.  Knot seam binding on the front of the button and trim ends in a V shape to prevent unraveling.

Step Six:  Cut the button hole (slit).  I tried to make the bracelets 8 inches around with my hole placement.  Make the slit slightly smaller than the button.  You can always make it bigger but you can't make it smaller once you have cut it.

Fold over the tail end of the felt and using sharp scissors cut your slit.  *** Remember that if you cut 1/2 and inch you have just made a 1 inch whole because the felt is folded. 

Trim the end of the bracelet into a shape or using pinking shears if the child desires.

Happy Mothers Day!
Sonja
 
Ps: I will come back this evening and add a little link love to this post to show you can purchase similar supplies!

Trying to do SPRING

Could it rain anymore?   No, please don't answer that.  I already know that in the Pacific Northwest it can indeed.  I handled the winter dreariness just fine.  But the Spring dreariness is putting me over the edge.  In an attempt to stay sane I have been trying to bring a little spring into the house.

It killed me a little bit to buy this old window.  In Minneapolis I could have picked up a more interesting window everyday in an alley or by a dumpster for free.  This window required a trip to an antique stall and $35 dollars.  The egg plates are from my collection.  I had a slight obsession with collecting antique book plates in the 90's.  I especially love the ones of eggs.

Originally I was going to prop a larger framed egg print in front of the window.  There wasn't enough depth to my mantle to do that safely.  So I was so happy to find that I had prints just the right size to fit in each pane.  I used removable glue dots to adhere the plates to the front of the glass.

Lightens things up a bit I think.  Now I need to find something to put on the floor to the right where that wood corbel is.  Any ideas?
Happy Decorating!
S~

The thing I did Instead

Instead of the things that I should have been doing. It's not that often that I am granted an afternoon to craft or sew. I usually tuck such indulgences for between 5:30 am and when my first little person rises sometime around 7:00 am. That's my free time to do what ever nurtures me. Today was an exception. My dear friend Karen had Soren and Dunn over to play date with her two kids. The wee Ella took a nice long nap so I had about three hours of free time. Free time which really should have been used to get caught up on chores. But instead of mama washing the windows and prepping for dinner I made something new.

I have been working on a couple of owl patterns for felt. One to sell in my shop and the other for potential publication in a crafty book for Spring 2010. Creating PDF's is hard! Not the PDF part but the drawing of patterns, scanning them in to the computer, fiddling with them for hours, making them pretty and printable. Hard! I have so much appreciation for pattern designers now. There must be some good software for such things. If you know of any please pass names my way.

I love projects like this owl which use up all kinds of little crafty scraps. Crafty scraps accumulate at my house like crazy. It's like they get together when I am sleeping and reproduce. I also spent some time today sourcing wool felt for owl kits that I would like to put together for the fall. Finding wholesale sources for supplies is so time consuming. So, if you know a wool felt distributor pass along that info to me too please.