Saturday, March 30, 2013

Happy Easter!

I hadn't been giving Easter much thought until Thursday, when I decided to go digging around in boxes, to see what decorations I could find. I rediscovered the large inflatable bunny, that I bought for Blaze when he was a toddler.

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The bunny and a vinyl table cloth were the only decorations I could find, but I think that's enough. The children have been having a great time bunny wrestling.

Yesterday, Blaze dyed a dozen Easter eggs.

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I made my own silly food decorating and made spinach calzones that looked like Easter eggs (using a mixture of milk and food coloring to paint the dough, before baking).

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Here is a link to the calzone recipe: http://overthecrescentmoon.blogspot.com/2010/09/spinach-calzones-vegetarian.html


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A Steampunk Gift Box

A few months ago I decorated a hatbox using pictures from last year's calendar, because the pictures were too cool to just throw away at the end of the year. http://overthecrescentmoon.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-hatbox-for-blaze.html
This week, I did a very similar project with a wine gift box that was on the "free blanket" at the park one Thursday (every Thursday, the local homeschool group has a special playtime at the park, which includes a blanket where families can give away things they no longer need). 

This is what it looked like originally:



I started by spray painting the box a solid color.


Then I added a large calendar page to the box, using Mod Podge. When it was dry, I went over the entire box with a coating of Mod Podge to protect the picture and add shine. 

I did the same thing for the box lid, but I used the small pictures from the backside of the calendar for the lid, along with a circle cut from scrapbook paper. 

I replaced the original cord with a thin strip of leather.






Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Catching Up on the Scrapbook

I got out Blaze's scrapbook, last week, and discovered that I had fallen WAY behind. The last pages I had made were done just before Halloween 2011, so I've been trying to get caught up on a year and a half's worth of pictures.

I'm not completely done, but I need to go buy more paper before I can finish. Here's what I have so far:

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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Wine Glass Lamps

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A very simple and inexpensive table decoration can be made using scrapbook paper, cheap wine glasses, and tea light candles or flameless candles.

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I recommend the flameless candles if you are using acrylic wine glasses, but a traditional tea light will be fine for glass, just light the candle before placing the lampshade on the glass.

If you are using 12-inch by 12-inch scrapbook paper, two lampshades can be cut out of each piece of paper.

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Print the template as a full page of letter-size paper. Trace it onto the back side of a piece of scrapbook paper, cut out and glue the ends together. I used a school glue stick, which worked fine.

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With real glasses, I think these would be nice as party decorations, but with the acrylic stemware, I think they would be pretty on a picnic table.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

My Fake Bun

I had never thought to myself, "I just don't have enough hair, " until I tried to do a more formal, Victorian hair style recently.

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I wanted a sort of "Gibson Girl" hair style, with a bun and banana curls in back, but in order to have the loose pouffy hair in front, I had to make a ponytail that was too short for a bun. So, I created a fake bun.

I started with some wool stuffing (left over from doll making), which I dyed with hair dye.

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yes, I know this does not look attractive. One of my friends said it looks like human skin.

After the wool was dry, I needle-felted it onto a bun form.
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The color was pretty good, but my hair is far frizzier than that,
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so I added some frizzy, red mohair (also left over from doll making).
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When I cut my bangs, I also added that hair to the bun, which made it even more convincing. I don't know if anybody ever wonder about this or not, but, yes, human hair can be needle felted.


The finished bun, held in place with several bobby pins:
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Saturday, March 2, 2013

Natural Bridge Battlefield State Park

We went to a small Civil War battle re-enactment near Tallahassee today, at Natural Bridge Battlefield State Park. I babysit most Saturdays, so this gave us a chance to get Steambaby all dressed up in the clothes I made her.

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I didn't catch the musician's name, but the dog's name is Dixie.
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The little skirt got lots of compliments and several people told the toddler how pretty she was.
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Blaze really liked the mono-goggles that we found in Steambaby's bag.
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We didn't stay for the battle re-enactment.

Crafty Crow