IC 2013 Challenge 2: Orange basket

This "week" the challenge was the color orange.  And for me, that truly is a challenge since, it's no where near my top favorite color.  But, I did happen to have some orange fabric in my stash and I also had some more organizing to do.

In our kitchen, there's a small counter next to the refrigerator that is for the phone.  But our phone mounts on the wall, so we use it to keep the girls brushes, etc right now since we still help with their hair some and usually do it right after breakfast.  The problem is it is always looking cluttered.

I took a box that I had, covered it in white fabric (I just hot glue it to the outside of the box) and then I sewed a liner for it out of the orange floral fabric I had.  Then, I put all the tall bottles and the hair brushes in the box.  Now, there is actually counter visible and we're not constantly knocking stuff off.

For more great Orange projects, check out the IronCraft Flickr pool.

IC 20: Homemade Pop Tarts - a test

I love pinterest.  There are so many great ideas on there!  Even before pinterest though, I'd seen homemade poptart recipes and thought about trying to make them with more whole wheat flour.  Then this recipe popped up on pinterest.  As with most of my pins, it aged a bit on my pinboard, but I did get to it!

Part of my desire here is to cut back on the sugar that my kids eat the other is to avoid so much processed food and dyes.  But, I wanted to test out how open they were to me making pop tarts instead of the store bought ones.  Baby steps, right?

So, I started with the dough in the recipe above and made it exactly how it says in the recipe.  I split it in half and used half for something else (which didn't work so well), but I think you could get at least 6 pop tarts out of the dough.  The first in my baby steps was to replace the filling, I just couldn't bring myself to use jelly for the filling, so I made some unsweetened strawberry applesauce by cooking a chopped apple and a handful of strawberries until they were soft then, I ran them through the food processor (I'm really missing my immersion blender, it would've made that easier!).  Then, I used that for the filling. I didn't add any sugar. I forgot to taste it until I had already filled a few of the pop tarts.  It really could've used some sugar, it was pretty tart!

After I filled the pop tarts with the applesauce, I put the top on, crimped them around the edges with a fork and poked the top with the fork too.  In retrospect, just one fork poke wasn't enough because the tops cracked.

 

However that's ok because as I said, I'm taking baby steps here, I'm pretty sure that if I were to give these to the kids they'd reject them flat out since there's no frosting.  In fact, I bought unfrosted pop tarts once and they rejected those.  So I had a little bit of frosting left over from some cookies I made a while back that I put on the top and then added sprinkles (because everything is better with sprinkles!). 

 



I layered the frosting on a bit thicker than I really wanted to, in part because the frosting was too thick and in part because of those cracks.

The result? The girls each ate a whole one and said that they liked them.  Which for my youngest is an improvement over a lot of the store bought ones. My oldest asked that next time I use just strawberries for the filling. I suspect she's reacting to the tartness of it and her thoughts about not liking applesauce.  Next time I might increase the strawberries, but I don't think I'll eliminate the apples completely.  I would never put them in the toaster (actually mine puffed up so much they wouldn't fit anyway), but they could be heated in the microwave if you want.  I had one at room temp and thought it was pretty good. Not really a pop tart but still really yummy.

I made these as part of Iron Craft Challenge 20 (Edible Crafts) at Just Crafty Enough.

IC15 - London - Crown for 18 Inch doll

With the Olympics under way, the theme for the Iron Craft Challenge is London.  When I think of London, I think of Big Ben, West Minster Abby, the Queen and scones.

So for this challenge, I decided to make a crown.  Originally I was going to make it from wire, but the silver colored wire I have is too difficult to crochet with, so I reverted to crochet thread.

RD1: Use the chainless base and make the equivalent of 44 stitches. Join to make a round (careful not to twist it!)

RD2: Ch5 skip 3 stitches and sc in the 4th stitch of the previous round. Repeat around until there are 4 stitches left in the first round, ch3 dc in the same stitch as the first chain.

RD3: ch 5, sc in the middle of the next ch 5 loop, repeat around (end with a slip stich at the base of the first ch 5 of the round).

RD4: sc3, picot, sc3 in the first loop, ch 6, picot, ch6 and slip stitch in the sc between the two loops of the previous row), repeat around, join, fasten off.

Weave in ends then block and stiffen.  to block mine, I rolled a newspaper up (so it was the same diameter as the inside of the crown), covered it with plastic wrap and then slipped the crown on the outside.  I then took some straight pins and pinned it in the correct shape all the way around.  After that I brushed on some white Elmers glue and left it dry.

IC 8: Recycled Garden tags

This week's Iron Craft challenge was another recycling challenge, where we were to use something that was going to be thrown out.

I decided to reuse an aluminum pan that came with some IKEA cinnamon rolls to make some garden tags, so I don't need to remember where I planted what.


Materials:
aluminum foil pan
pencil
old scissors
Sharpie
Styrofoam tray (or other soft surface, an old phone book would probably work too)

I cut the pan (using old scissors) into rectangles.  Then, I carefully folded over the sharp edges.  After that, I sat them on a styrofoam tray while I wrote (pressing hard) on them with a dull pencil.  Finally, I went back and used a black Sharpie to write again so it would stand out a little more.

IC5 - Can you spare a dollar? Bag and weekly calendar

One of my favorite challenges this week!  The dollar store!  Have you seen Dollar Store Crafts?  It's how I found out about the Iron Craft Challenges.

A few weeks ago, I'd stopped by the Dollar Store to get some yarn to make my friend's grandson a bag.  I'd made her one and he ended up confiscating it, but it was pink and purple, so she asked me to make one in colors that are better suited for a boy.  I was having problems finding colors that were for a boy.  For some reason all the cotton yarns tend to be pastels and really girly colors.  But I was as the dollar store and saw that they had some navy, so I picked up a couple balls.  When this craft challenge came up, I thought I would make the bag.  But, the more I thought about it, the more I questioned if it was really in the spirit of the challenge.  It's not all that much of a challenge to go to the Dollar Store buy a single craft supply and make something with  it.  So, I put that project on hold and decided to make another trip back to the Dollar Store.

I was at a friend's house a few months ago and she had this cool weekly calendar on her wall, where she used a dry erase marker to write the family's events.  I really liked the idea and admired it.  She said the hardest part of the whole thing was finding a frame that had that many opennings.  Using this as inspiration, I decided to create a weekly calendar for my family.  When I was at the dollar store though I ran into a problem, there weren't enough of the frames that I liked (and that were suitable).  So, I decided to settle on doing five for now and I'll add another one for the weekend later.  I'll just have to be very careful when I go back to make sure I get one exactly like the ones I've already bought.  It's amazing how much those frames look alike!



So, I bought 5 frames that were the same and had square sides.  Then I took my hot glue gun and just glued them together in the configuration I wanted.  Picking the configuration was the hardest part for me, I'm not good at layouts.  After that I found some printable scrapbook paper and used it for a background to the days of the week in my word processor and printed out a rectangle a bit bigger than my frames.  I cut the paper to size and put it in. 



If I were to do this again, I'd use a little less hot glue.  Some seeped through the front and is visable.

And then, I went back and finished the bag :)

IC 3 - Catalog Creation - Jewelry tree.

About 6 or 7 years ago, I saw these whimsical jewelry holders at a craft show.  They were pretty simple, so I didn't purchase one at the time, figuring that I'd make one for my daughter.  I bought the stuff to make it, painted it, glued it together and then waited to get some holes drilled so I could get the cup hooks in.

Up until last week, it was still waiting.  Furthermore, I now have TWO daughters and was in need of a second one.  So I made another.

Materials:
1 wooden ball (mine had a flat spot on it)
1 wooden candlestick
6-8 cup hooks
paint and paintbrush
glue
drill

1. Paint the candlestick and the wooden ball.
2. Glue the ball onto the cup for the candlestick.  Allow the glue to dry well. I used a wood glue for this.
3. Mark where you want the hooks to be.  I recommend looking at it from the top and the sides to make sure you get them spaced evenly.  I placed 4 on the ball and 2 on the candle cup in between two on the ball I would've done 4 on the candle cup, but ran out of hooks.
4. Using the drill and a bit that is just smaller than the hooks, drill pilot holes at your marks.  I recommend going in the full length of the screw portion of the hook because the wooden ball is really hard.  I didn't make my holes big enough the first time and ended up breaking some of the hooks, they twisted right in half.
5. Put one hook in each hole.

Now you're ready to hang necklaces and bracelets on it.  I like hanging them up, so they're less likely to get knotted.  I couldn't find another candlestick that was the same height as the first one so they're two different heights.  Taller would be better so you can hang longer necklaces.

IC 2: Hearts!

For the second Iron Craft challenge this year we were to do something with hearts.
My daughters and I made this heart garland.  We took a piece of the stiff glittery felt and cut them in half (so they were approximately 8.5x5.5) and then each half I cut into strips (about one inch wide). Then, my daughters sewed (they're working on learning basic hand sewing, you could use hot glue or even staples if you wanted) the narrow end of two strips with the right sides together (this becomes the top center of the heart).  Then, we sewed the other two ends wrong sides together.  The felt needed a little shaping still after doing that, don't worry about it for now.  We did that with all of the felt. 

I got out some pink, white and red heart shaped beads and some fishing line. One girl worked on one end of the line and the other worked on the opposite end.  They strung some beads and then using a needle threaded with the fishing line would add a heart.  We went through both sides of the heart as well as the inner point of it, it's better if it's a bit closer to the top, I think, so it's less likely to flip upside down.  Then more beads and more hearts until we were done with the hearts.  On the ends of the fishing line, I threaded one more bead and made a loop around that bead (so the bead is trapped in the loop) to keep everything from sliding off the end and to give me something to hang it with. 

After doing that and hanging it, I noticed the beads had a tendency to slide and squish the hearts, so I got out my glue gun and put a little dot of glue on the heart where the fishing line went through to keep it in place. This also helped a bit with the tendency to flip.  Start in the middle and work your way out to both ends.  They still flip some, so I'm going to add some weights to the bottom (one I glued a bead in and that worked pretty well, but you can see it, so I'm going to try to get some fishing weights and hide them a bit more).

Overall the girls did it in a few hours and had a lot of fun doing it.

IC 41: Boo!

This week's IronCraft Challenge theme is Boo! Halloween crafts.

I saw this hanky tutorial and liked the way the edges were done.  So, I decided to adapt it a bit.

Materials:
1 yard of fabric
Thread
sewing machine
scrapbooking stencil with a neat edge
sharp scissors

Cut the fabric into squares I did fat quarters, but in looking at them compared to store bought napkins, they're a lot bigger, so you could do something smaller.



Then lay the stencil on the fabric and with a pen or pencil trace the edge of the stencil around the square of fabric about half an inch in from the edge.



With your sewing machine set to a zig zag stitch that's pretty narrow and close together, sew on the line that you just drew around the edge of the fabric.

Next with sharp scissors cut the fabric away, as close to the stitches as you can get without cutting them.
And you're done!


I also did my nails for Halloween this week:

But my nails don't often stay painted for long since I do a lot of typing. So I did them again later in the week:


Do you have any fun Halloween craft ideas?

IC39 - Hold it! Cell phone case

Over at Just Crafty Enough, the Iron Craft Challenge is Hold it.  We're to make a case or a bag.

I recently got a new phone.  It was a new model that had just came out and there aren't many accessories for it.  The only case that Best Buy had when I bought it was a black one.  I really was hoping to get something a little more fancy since I couldn't do that with my old phone. So I started thinking about making one, not one that is a pocket for my phone, but one that I can leave on while I'm using it.

So, I looked through my fabric stash, found a piece I liked and decided to try making my own.

First, I took a piece of paper and traced around my phone.  Then, I took a ruler and added two inches to the top and bottom and one inch (twice the thickness of my phone) to each side and drew a larger rectangle around the tracing I had made before.

Next, cut out the rectangle and use it as a pattern to cut out the fabric.

Fold the long edges down 1/2 inch (the thickness of my phone) and sew both sides.

Next lay the phone in the center of the fabric, with the RIGHT side facing up. Bring the sides up and hold them there with a couple of rubber bands.

Next fold up the ends to where you want them. Ideally, not covering the screen or any buttons, but in my case in order to stay on, it has to cover the buttons, but I can still keep it from covering the screen.

Now, with needle and thread sew the corners and up the side a bit so that the bottom is closed. Then trim the excess fabric.

Next, I took it off the phone, turned it right side out and tested the fit. It fit pretty well, so I did the same thing with the other end.



Then I turned it right side out and checked the fit.

I was surprised by how easily it comes off and goes on.
I was also surprised that the buttons work ok even through the fabric (including the non hard ones).  So I don't need to cut a hole out of the bottom piece like I was originally planning to, unless I have problems remembering which one is which.  I'm planning on cutting holes out for the camera on the back and the top.

IC 35: Done Reading? phone book craft

This week's Iron Craft challenge at Just Craft Enough was to use a book.  We're all readers here at this house, even my kindergardener who can't read will have us read to her over and over.  So the idea of crafting with a book, even one that I didn't care for wasn't something I could bring myself to do.  (Although  afterwards I realized I think I've got some with water damage that might not be readable anymore I could use.)  I do however get an excessive number of phone books each year.  I need to look into asking them to stop but haven't gotten to it yet.  So I took a phone book and loosely followed these instructions.

And made a pencil holder:




Originally I was going to paint it all blue with a yellow center, but my daughters saw it and decided they wanted to decorate it, so for now, I've left it as is.

Any other creative uses for phone books?  I used to cover them with paper and then contact paper and use them as stools for the kids (I even personalized them), but our phone books here aren't as big and the girls no longer need stools as much.  I also use them as a working pad when I'm cutting or gluing.

IC 34 - On the Go - Candy Airplanes

This week's Iron Craft Challenge at Just Crafty Enough is On the Go.  So I made some of the candy airplanes that my Mom used to make for party favors growing up.

For each airplane you need:

1 rubber band

1 roll of Smarties

1 stick of gum

2 Lifesavers (they need to have the hole in the center, Breathsavers and some of the other brands do not)

Step 1: Feed the rubber band through the holes in the Lifesavers.


Step 2:
Hook both ends of the rubber band over the ends of the stick of gum.


Step 3:
Use a finger to spread the Lifesavers apart and slide the roll of Smarties in between the lifesavers and in between the rubber band and the stick of gum. Slide it so that the stick of gum is about 1/3 of the way back the roll of Smarties.


And you're done!

IC 33 - UFOs

This week at Just Crafty, the Iron Craft challenge is finishing unfinished projects.  Boy oh boy, is this one right up my ally!  Proof of that? I didn't find out what the challenge was until yesterday (Tuesday) but, still managed to have three things to share! 

I finished my backpack make over.

I finished this blanket for my friend who is collecting blankets to send to Mexico. She's been making the no sew fleece blankets with some other friends and saving the scraps of fleece.  I got a box of them over a month ago and started several quilts with them.  This one was pretty close to being done I just had to add a little bit to the sides to make it wider and then add the binding.





Then, I had this fleece blanket which was just a piece of fleece that I started to blanket stitched around the edge a few years ago. It's been hanging out in my laundry room waiting for me to finish it.  I'd bought it to make a blanket for my youngest to use for naps at Day Care.  However, she's going into Kindergarten this year and no longer taking naps.  Now, it's going to the same charity as the other blanket.



Had I found out about the challenge theme earlier, I might've picked the knit socks I've got hanging around, or maybe my Pi shawl, or maybe the quilts I'm making for my daughters, or maybe... Ok, I think we need to do this challenge again LOL.

IC 32: Summer Contest

This week's challenge is the summer contest.  I decided to make a sun catcher.  A friend gave me a big box of little jars of the plastic pellets left over from sun catchers.  It looked like someone had saved all the leftovers from various kits.  There were only a few of the metal frames in the box, mostly it was just the plastic pellets.  I'd been thinking about what I could use them for, various ways of making my own frames, etc.  I saw where someone had made frames out of soda cans.  Problem is we don't drink much soda here and didn't have any cans.  So I decided to improvise.




Supplies:
1) Extra plastic pellets left from the sun catcher kits
2) A metal cookie cutter
3) Foil
4) ribbon
5) A study cookie sheet (not shown)
6) Hot glue gun

Instructions:


1) Take the foil and lay a piece on the cookie sheet (at least the size of the cookie cutter)
2) Take another piece of foil and line the cookie cutter with it (I took strips a little wider than the cookie cutter was tall and ran them around the inside, wrapping the foil over the edges, trying to get it as tight against the cookie cutter as possible.
3) Sit the cookie cutter on the cookie sheet and fill it with the plastic pellets.  Since there's no frame to stabilize this when we're done, I filled mine pretty full (1cm deep).
4) Bake according to the instructions with the suncatcher plastic pieces. I did mine at 375 for 20 min.
5) Cool enough so you don't burn yourself when you touch it
6) Pop it out of the cookie cutter and peel off the foil
7) Glue the ribbon to the back with the hot glue gun



8) Hang it in the Window!  (funny how you don't really notice the screen, until after the picture's taken!)

IC 31: Sculptural - Peanut Butter Playdough

Iron Craft has moved to Just Crafty Enough and this week's challenge is Sculptural.  We were to make something with clay.  If you recall, I used polymer clay back for the Hometown challenge. And while I'm not opposed to making beads or some other kind of jewelry, I was trying to think of something different to make.  That's when I remembered this playdough that I made a few years ago.  So I decided to make some of it and to make a teddy bear out of it.

Here's the recipe:

1 package (1/3 of a box) of graham crackers, finely crushed
1 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar (or to taste)

Soften the peanut butter in the microwave
Add graham cracker crumbs and sugar, mix well
Refrigerate before using.

You might need to add more graham cracker crumbs or powdered sugar to keep the dough from getting too sticky.

I embellished my bear with M&Ms,  Chocolate Chips and a sprinkle (for the nose).

IC 29: Button Up

This week's Iron Craft Challenge is Button Up.

I start out on Thursdays with all these possibilities, intending to do more than one thing each week.  Then reality hits and it's pushing me to be able to get ONE thing done.

This week I was going to create bookmarks this week and crochet a bracelet in addition to the bracelet that I actually managed  to complete, but I never made it that far.  Apparently getting the glue gun out is too much LOL.



I actually ended up making a bracelet.  This was actually very simple to make, I just connected the buttons with jump rings and used a clasp to close it.  Very easy!



I found my button collection rather limiting for this challenge. I think I'm going to be keeping an eye out for buttons at garage sales and thrift shops.

While I was doing this I ran across a button bracelet that I made back when I was younger and in my Laura Ingalls Wilder phase.  The one I made this week is quite different!

IC 28: Reuse - Reusable Sandwich Bag

I'm not the most green person in the world. Don't get me wrong, I DO recycle and try to reuse things before tossing them, but I don't allow a product's packaging to influence my decision to buy it.

One of the green things I do though is try to keep the waste from my daughter's lunch to a minimum.  I've sewn several cloth lunch bags, we use a thermos for her drink, a cloth napkin, a heavy reusable plastic utensil and I've made a few cloth bags for the stuff inside the lunch as well.

I've been needing to make a new sandwich bag. So, when Iron Craft announced Challenge 28: Reuse, I knew right away what I was going to make.

For this you need:
thread
the bag from a box of cereal (empty), cut open so it lays flat
fabric

I don't have dimensions right now but the fabric was about 7 inches by 16 inches, it was a scrap left over from another project so it wasn't cut straight, but it didn't really impact how this turned out.

Lay the fabric down and place the bag from the cereal over top. Trim the bag to be the same size as the fabric.



Next, sew the two pieces together. I just did a zig zag stitch around the outside edge.


Then, fold the bottom up with the fabric sides together so that the bottom edge is about 2 inches from the top and then sew (using straight stitch) along the sides.


Now, you're ready to turn it right side out and start using it! I've washed the other one when it got particularly messy in the washing machine and it's held up pretty well for two years.


I just tuck the open end down in the bag once the sandwich is in there to close it.  You could use velcro if you wanted.

For more great tips check out We are THAT Family and their Works for Me Wednesday post.

For more great crafts that reuse, check out The Iron Craft flickr pool.

What do you do to reuse?

IC 27: Stars and Stripes

This week's Iron Craft Challenge is Stars and Stripes. I decided to do the obvious and go with the patriotic theme and actually did two things this week.

Earlier in the week, I'd done my nails for the 4th, once my daughters saw mine, they wanted theirs done as well. I wasn't going to count mine for the IC challenge since I'd done it before the challenge, but since I had to do 4 other hands, we'll just count them :)

We started with a plain coat of red.

Then we took some white and drew on some stripes.

Then, we painted the tips blue and followed that with some white dots for stars.

In between each step, we left the paint dry well.

For this challenge I also created some new hair bows for the girls to wear. In the center of each one I put a star shaped cupcake topper (I trimmed off the pick part).