Confessions of a Crafty Failure

I want to be crafty. Really, honestly, truly, I do.

But I'm not.

I don't know if it's lack of skill, lack of innate ability, or lack of confidence, but much as I would like to be a arts and crafts kind of girl, I'm just not. I seem to have a predisposition to not following instructions. When this is accompanied with a general lack of talent, the results just aren't pretty.

I'm OK with it, mostly. I can sing. I can act. I can direct a choir. Just don't ask me to paint the sets or sew the robes.

Still, I'd like to set aside some time for crafty creativeness. And so, with the new year upon me, I dragged out my tattered and well-used Managers of Their Home book, known in large family circles as M.O.T.H.

Caveat: I recommend this book with reservations. The author writes from a much more conservative position than I come from. She has very strong feelings about discipline, scheduling babies, and traditional gender roles. But when I set that aside, she has fabulous ideas for organizing and caring for your home, especially if you have a larger household.

While her schedules are strict "every 15 minutes" affairs, my schedule tends to deal more with targets. From the time I wake up until 8:30 AM, I'd like to get in a quick 8 Minutes in the Morning session, a morning devotion, breakfast, shower, and personal care, a quick kitchen tidy, and a jump start on the laundry. At 8:30 we start school and all it entails, and at noon it's lunch, dinner prep, and a downstairs tidy for all. By 1:00 I like us to all be settled in for a read-aloud, and then in the early afternoon I try to fit in any music help for the kids (piano lessons, tuning instruments, helping them learn choir stuff) and a little bit of planning and prep for school and household stuff. I also like to check in with God around this time. By this point, He and I usually need to have a nice chat. This is where I also tucked in a bit of time for sewing/crafting/scrapbooking. Around 4 we all come together to do our deep clean. Each day has a room assigned to it. 5-ish is dinner and clean up, 6:30-ish starts some family time and bedtime routine.

See that sewing/crafting/scrapbook time? Yep, I did it. I made space for something important to me. Yesterday I cut out the pattern pieces for some pants for Daniel and a jumper for Katie Grace. Today, I was firmly resolved to do some crafting, except...

I have no idea what to make. Five billion bookmarks, and not a clue where to start.

Sigh.

I'd like to have something handmade for each child for Valentine's Day, and maybe something for the hubby as well. If you have suggestions for easy, Annette-proof gifts for a two-year-old boy, a six-year-old boy, an eight-year-old girl, and an almost eleven-year-old boy, I'd love to hear them.

Chunky football crayons!

This morning the older kids all made a gift for Daniel, who is obsessed with football. First, we peeled and broke up little bits of crayons, being careful to keep crayons in the same color family. We used a silicone football mold, but any mold or muffin tin would do. Spray with cooking spray first!
We turned the oven to 275 degrees and baked the crayons until they melted, about 10 minutes.
We put them into the freezer to cool them down. We didn't quite wait long enough--the red and pink crayon got a little boogered up-- but we just couldn't wait to pop them out!
Daniel loved them!

Window Stars!

Nicholas and I enjoyed making window stars this morning. You can find a simple tutorial here.

He then made a Christmas tree transparency by using star and hole punches to punch holes in a Christmas tree and then gluing a sheet of yellow kite paper behind it. It looks beautiful in the sunshine, but unfortunately, all we got was a rainy cold picture!

I am a crazy mad genius

If I do say so myself.

While working on the Advent book- and it's almost done! YAY!- I suddenly had a brainflash about my dirty beeswax crayons. Complete non sequitor, I know. This is the way my brain works.

Anyway...

I thought to myself, if Goo Gone works to remove crayons from the tables, walls, other toys, and whatever else my toddler decides will make a good substitute for paper, maybe it would work to clean up my grungy crayons.

And OH MY GOSH! it did!

You can definitely see a huge difference between the before and after. And they still color beautifully. I think tomorrow night I'll tackle the stick crayons. I may need to buy more Goo Gone, though.

Beeswax crayons are lovely, but expensive. However, they're definitely worth it. We've had these for almost 5 years now! The biggest problem is that they bump up against each other in the basket and mark each other up. I do have a felt crayon holder, but it was frustrating for my little ones to get the crayons in and out of the tiny compartments. Now, we keep them in a lovely Longaberger basket.

How do you store and clean your crayons? I'd love to know.

Halloween and Autumn Crafts!

Felt Make-a-jack o' lantern


Sponge painted candy corn and see-inside jack o' lantern cyclops

Jack o' lantern window transparency

Beeswax owl and tree from Autumn Seasons of Joy

Starting with knitting...

As I posted a few weeks ago, Katie Grace really wants to start knitting, and I really want to be able to give that to her. So I got out the sewing machine and whipped up a little bag to keep her knitting stuff in.
And then she finger-knitted a cord for a drawstring.

This week we'll actually start with casting on. I haven't decided yet if she's going to make her own needles or not.

I Am a Robot

Nicholas still has a thing for robots and loved this recycling project-- take an empty orange juice carton, some toilet paper rolls, some recycled tin foil, and other odds and ends, and you have a robot! The front is an old sucrets tin. Nicholas likes to hide stuff in there.

Handmade Christmas

I'm not the craftiest knife in the drawer, but wanted to share some of my handmade Christmas gifts.

When we asked Nicholas what he wanted for Christmas, he would say:
You! (Cute)
One big happy family! (Cuter)
A giant robot to destroy Michael. (Not so cute)

Giant robots being hard to come by, I made him a "Make Your Own Robot" Kit instead:








I gathered a bunch of beads, blocks, and other wood findings and painted them a metallic silver. I added a silver glitter to some as well. I added details with a Sharpie and then used adhesive velcro. I threw in some silver pipe cleaner lengths as well. I was afraid the velcro would fall off, but so far, so good!


Nick loves his robot army.


And so does Daniel!

Handmade (but NOT by me!) is this great robot shirt I bought from Bellflower Textiles on Etsy. Ignore the chocolate dribbling out of his mouth.


For Katie Grace, I made this hair accessory organizer:


I bought this great handmade-by-someone-else diaper for Daniel from Tot Wraps at the Hyena Cart website:


And my friend Lisa knit these longies for Daniel before he was even born, but I never had a shirt to go with them. Thanks to Marisa at The Funky Giraffe, I do now!




And look- I made them myself!

From my notebook...

Baker's Dough

2 cups of flour
1 cup salt
3/4 cup water

Mix all the ingredients together, adding additional water if necessary. (If you want colored dough, add the coloring to the water)

Knead until the mixture forms a smooth dough.

Have fun!

From My Notebook...

How cute are these little cork trolls from Family Fun?

I did it!

Remember this post? The one with the killer squirrels and renegade clothespins? Well, I whipped out my trusty sewing machine and one of Katie Grace's baby dresses, and I made this! I added the step of tacking the dress to the hanger. The best part? I keep catching Katie Grace staring at it, as if in amazement that she was ever that little.

Peg o' My Heart

How serendipitous! My clothespin bag was attacked by killer squirrels (or something, I didn't see) and I need to make a new one. When I google searched, one of the first sites was from one of my favorites, Tipnut.com!

11 free clothespin bag patterns

This one from myluckychicken.com is cute, but the button holes might be too much for me.

And this apron from Mother Earth News is lovely, but again, beyond me.

I'll probably settle for this easy-peasy recycled shirt bag. Looks easy enough even for me!

Maple Leaf Roses

I have a migraine for the second night in a row, but stumbled upon this on another blog:
How to Make Maple Leaf Roses

I thought this could be sweet on a nature table!