Showing posts with label Crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crafts. Show all posts

Sewing Kit - Felt Craft

I love felt embroidery, and I do not know why I don't do more of it.  So simple!  I didn't have a pattern for this, I saw one in a catalog (or website?  I can't remember which) from Hopechest Legacy.  My daughter and I were working through her Needlework Skills Book 1 together at the time, and this looked like a simple additional project.  It was.  :-)

Sadly the Hopechest Legacy site has pretty much closed down, we love the books and patterns we have bought from them, and there are still a few good freebies on the site. http://www.hopechestlegacy.com/index.php?page=free-resources (Freebies are listed on the red sidebar to the left)

The inside pockets hold a pencil, scissors, embroidery floss, needles are stored under the flap on the top right, the heart shaped pocket holds a thimble and my needle threader, and the center bottom is a stuffed pincushion full of pins.  

It was such an easy project that my 12 year old daughter made herself one at the same time.  

   
The Hope Chest Legacy Website is gone, but the books are still available on Amazon:
 https://amzn.to/2QBQFP6

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An Index Of My Craft Related Posts
https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/crafts.html
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A Few Of My Favorite Soap Making Resources

A Few Of My Favorite Soapmaking Resources & Supplies

 Disclaimer - You should never, ever make soap until you have researched it and know what you are doing.  As much as I love to "wing it" - soap making it not a wing it activity.  

Basic Resources:

The formula for Crisco has changed since the early 2000s. It now incorporates a fair amount of hydrogenated palm oil, which is good for making soap. If you're using Crisco, be sure to know what kind you are using and and adjust your lye calculator accordingly. Most lye calculators have a setting for "old Crisco" and "new Crisco." If your label lists "hydrogenated palm oil" as one of the ingredients, use the "new Crisco" setting.

Soap Making Recipes:

This is the soap making book I started with.
Great, simple, recipes, with lots of herb additives.
It has a great format, and is easy to follow.

Simple & Natural Soap Making by Jan Berry is my current favorite soap making book.
My favorite book does change frequently - but this is a nice balance between the simple book above, and the very complex book below.  And it's pretty.  :-)
https://amzn.to/3t8Wrih

The other soap making book on my shelves.
This one is not as pretty as the Sandy Maine Book, it's more, well, like a BOOK than a magazine.  But it is SO full of great information, my copy  is marked with bunches of sticky notes. https://amzn.to/2QLfybp
Bramble Berry Project Ideas (Formerly The Soap Queen)
Bramble Berry is a supply site, and to inspire you to purchase their products, they offer great projects!
https://www.brambleberry.com/


Soap Making Supplies:


Soap Mold & Cutter
https://amzn.to/37vMQ4U
I have a lot of wooden molds, which I either grease with crisco or line with wax paper before using.  But silicone really is sooooo nice when making soap!
And these cutters are great!
You can make soap without an immersion blender.  If you do not mind stirring really hard for HOURS.  :-)
Seriously, this makes it so much faster and easier!
https://amzn.to/2FhEX7i

An accurate scale is an absolute essential.
Make sure it can measure in both ounces and grams
This is not the one I use, mine is a 20 year old postal scale - but this one looks nice, and is reasonably priced.
https://amzn.to/2QCwjFA
Lye is getting harder and harder to find - our grocery stores no longer carry it.
I can still find it at lowes, by the drain cleaners
Just be sure it is 100% lye - and nothing else added.
Thankfully, there is also Amazon Prime.
https://amzn.to/2FbwnXE



A nice selection of colors to start with - 
https://amzn.to/39B6jTx
I used to buy dried lavender at the health food store, to add to my soaps - but it's cheaper to buy it online now.  Here's an assortment of additives - 
https://amzn.to/2ZMmwku



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Peabody's Tail


Each year our peacock loses his tail.  I have a LOT of peacock feathers.  I saved one tail separate from the other feathers, so this swag is one complete peacock tail.  :-)  It looks so simple, but you would not believe how long it took me to sort those feathers and get them all pointed in the right direction!
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Tissue Paper Flowers


From the Martha Stewart kits at Big Lots last year. The kids and I finished these up today.



Yes, there is a dog on my coffee table.  That's because school is done for the day and the dining room table is now a dining room table and no longer a school desk.  When it's a school desk she sleeps there, but when the computers go away it once again becomes a dinging room table, and obviously dogs are not allowed on dining room tables.  Obviously.


This is all perfectly logical to me these days, which is a little scary...  but really, once you get past the cashmere goat sleeping on the front porch rocker, the dog on the coffee table ceases to seem the least bit weird.  (Piper is back in her pen at the minute..  but she's a Houdini goat and will escape periodically and come up to the front porch to sleep)
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Martha Stewart Paper Flowers - Easter Decor

These were originally from a Martha Stewart tutorial that I can no longer find.
But OhAmanda! did a step by step, using the same tutorial - 
https://ohamanda.com/2011/04/15/paper-dogwood-craft/

This was LONG before I had heard of a cricut!
Now I have a LONG list of free templates & SVGS for making paper flowers, here:
Did you know a peacock loses his entire tail every fall, and grows a new one in time for spring mating season?

The eggs I made a couple of years ago - they are just wooden eggs, painted, then a design is scratched in.  I coated them in wax before scratching the paint off, it seemed to scratch better that way.  For the light colored ones, I scratched out the design, then painted the darker color on and rubbed it off.  Where the wax was left, on the off white color, the paint did not "stick", leaving me with a dark design on a light egg.


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