WFMW - Keeping track of the stylus

My kids got DS Lite's for Christmas a few years ago.  They don't play them often (we don't do a whole lot of electronics at home), but will take them on long car trips. After the first two trips and loosing two styluses as well as one of the girls chewing on the stylus and then swapping it with her sister's, and the constant tears from the back seat when someone dropped a stylus and couldn't reach it, I finally had enough.

I took a length of nylon crochet thread, feed it through the narrow slit in the end of the stylus and knotted the stylus on.  Then, the other end, I took through the hinge in the Nerf case (love this case by the way, the DS's have been dropped a couple of times and are still ok), and knotted it there.  The string is long enough (18 inches maybe?) that they still are able to use the stylus unrestricted, but now we're not needing to replace them.  The girls like it better too because if they drop it in the car, they can get it back and keep playing.

Tip: if you take a narrow strip of card stock, fold it in half and put the end of the string inside the fold of the paper, you can feed the card stock through that little slit and pull the string through easier.  Basically a simple needle threader.

I haven't looked at other DS styluses to see if they've all got that slit, but the DS Lite ones do.  And if you don't have a case to attach it to, maybe you can catch it in the battery door? or duct tape it on?

This is definitely working for us.  Check out more tips at We Are that Family.

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 48: Wreaths!

Iron Craft Challenge 48 is to create a wreath.

I decided to make an ornament.

Take a sheet of green felt.  Cut it into 4ths lengthwise so that you have 4 long strips.  Then, cut those strips into squares.  Mine were about and inch or so, not perfect, but that's ok.  Take each square and  cut it into a circle.  Just free hand it, if the circles are uneven, it will look better in the end.

If you held several pieces of felt together when you were cutting, separate them and out into a pile, so they get mixed up.

Then with a needle and thread, string the circles by inserting the needle half way between the center of the circle and the edge (If you do it in the center, you'll need more circles to have enough to make a wreath, doing it offset, allows for the center to be bigger with this amount of circles).  Once all of them are strung, tie them in to a circle.  I sewed around one more time just to make sure it was secure.

Then, I sewed a bow of red ribbon on the front and then I sewed a loop of ribbon between two of the green circles to hang it from.

I considered adding some beads or fabric paint ornaments, but decided not to.

IC 45, 46, 47: Fall, gift, and for the table

For the first time since I started the Iron Craft Challenges, I missed posting my craft.  It was for the Fall Contest Challenge.  You know what the sad part is?  It was one of the few times that I knew right away beyond a doubt was I was going to do.  And I actually did complete the challenge, I just never got around to taking a picture of it! Things are really starting to pick up here for the holidays!



For the Fall contest, I decided to do a Thankful Arrangement.  I cut out leaf shapes from scrapbook paper, punch a hole in them put some string through the hole and then gave them to my daughters to write things they're thankful for on them.  Then, I hung them from some branches that I placed in a vase filled with silk leaves and tied with a ribbon.



For Iron Craft Challenge #46, I got back in the game and made some fabric fortune cookies for my grandmother.

 I bought a plastic Chinese take-out container to put them in.  She'll be able to open one each day in December, or would be, if I had gotten them in the mail on time!


Iron Craft Challenge #47 was "For the Table".  My favorite center piece for the table this time of year is really simple.  I take a glass bowl (usually a crystal one), fill it with water, pour in some cranberries and then float about 3 floating candles in it.  There should be enough cranberries to cover the top of the water and I think that white candles look best.   But is that really a craft?  I was going to do anyway, but I forgot to take a picture of it before guests arrived for my party early on in the week and didn't have any more floating candles left to do it again.  So, all I had was this really bad picture.



Now, I think I'm back on track.  Stay tuned for my craft for IC 48!