fuzzysheep crafts. all the craziness that ensues...

Tutorial: Silver Sea Creatures

2011-06-13T08:44:00.019-05:00

Photo Source: Pottery Barn

While wandering around my local HomeGoods, I noticed a ton of “silver” sea themed home decor items. I fell in love, but not with the price tags… even at HomeGoods. What can I say, I’m cheap! Pottery Barn has a silver sea creature theme, too – but OH MY GRAVY those prices are REDICULOUS.

What’s a girl to do?!

Simple. Go to Michael’s and buy a $2 giant Sugar Starfish and a $1 Lions Paw scallop shell with coupons, of course!

Pretty Sugar Starfish!

Lion's Paw Scallop

$1.75 total so far. Now what?

Stop into Home Depot for a $3 can of Rustoleum “Bright Coat” Metallic Finish. You can see in the above photo that I gave the creatures a quick blast with some leftover spray primer I had around the house. I figured it would help the “metal” shine more.

Now attack them with the silver spray paint. Go with very light coats, allowing them to dry about an hour between. I have 3 coats on my creatures and I am pleased with the finish. I only coated the outside of the Lions Paw because I loved the natural colors of the scallops’ insides. I have plans to polish it up somehow, but I haven’t figured that out yet.

Let dry and put where everyone will see it! I mounted my starfish on the wall by using a small 3M Velcro picture hanger.

You can see the scallop on the vanity. It doesn’t have quite the impact the starfish does, but I love it all the same!

My favorite picture of Xiris and the kids.

VIOLA! Pottery Barn Knockoffs for about $4... even less if you have the spraypaint on hand!

Tutorial: Snowball Cupcake Ornament

2010-12-17T08:00:00.006-06:00

Let’s expand on my tutorial from yesterday just a bit. LittleMiss loves all things cupcakes, and said she also wanted to hang cupcakes on the tree made from snowballs. How she comes up with these things, I have no idea! Anyway, on with the ornament.

Supplies:

Styrofoam balls (2 1/2”)
white glue
SnowFlakes (found at Michaels for about $3 a bag)
chopsticks
Christmas berries pick
tin foil cupcake liners
beads to simulate sprinkles
ribbon
Clear Coat
Hot Glue

Please refer to yesterdays post for details on how to coat/cover/spray your snowballs. The only difference is that you only need to cover the top portion of the ball, maybe just over a half.

This shot just shows our balls drying. I am including it because SpacePirate took it and I think he’s got a great eye for such a little guy. Good job, buddy!

Once everything is dry, run a bead of hot glue along the inside edge of a cupcake liner. Carefully press your liner around the uncovered part of your snowball. I tried more white glue, but that didn’t work. Hot glue is my duct tape! Fixes everything!

Once everything is set, snip a berry from your pick, being sure to leave enough wire to stab into the snowball. Use this wire to poke through the center of the ribbon you’ll use for your hanger. Add a dab of hot glue to hold everything together.
(man I need my nails done!) use the wire again to poke the cherry into the cupcake. If you want to make sure it’ll really stay, run a dab of hotglue along the wire just before poking it in.
Add a few dabs of white glue here and there, and toss on a few beads to simulate sprinkles for extra cuteness!
VIOLA! Snowball Cupcakes for your Christmas Tree!

Tutorial: Melt-Free Snowballs!

2010-12-16T09:00:00.003-06:00

We got the BEST tree this year, but it is a bit more… umm... rotund than we usually get, so our usual ornaments didn’t fill it out as well as I like. Then LittleMiss came in out of the blue and announced that she wanted to hang snowballs on our tree. I can do that, little one… just you wait!

Supplies:

Styrofoam balls (any size desired, these were 4”)
white glue
SnowFlakes (found at Michaels for about $3 a bag)
chopsticks
ribbon
Clear Coat
Hot Glue

Gently press a chopstick into each ball to serve as a handle. Paint your ball with a good thick coat of the white glue. The more the better as the glue soaks into the ball. Because the ball is white, and the snow is what, if you miss a spot or two don’t worry.

Now for the messy/fun part! Dip your ball into the snow flakes and coat everything. Use your hands to press and smoosh the flakes into the glue. This helps things adhere and means less flaking off later.

Once everything is well coated, allow to dry for an hour or two. I found it worked well if you just stood the chopstick up in a hefty coffee mug.

Once everything is dry, give a quick and thin spray of some clear coat. This step isn’t completely necessary, but I did it to help prevent flake-off, my grudge against anything glittered.

Allow the snow balls to dry again, for at least an hour. Do this in a well ventilated area, trust me.

Once dry again, pull your chopstick out. Fill that hole with hot glue and use your chopstick to help you push the ends of a length of ribbon in to hang your snowball from. Allow to set and hang on your try for a sparkly MeltFree Snowball for your Christmas tree.

Viola! Sparkly MeltFree Snowballs for your Christmas Tree!

Jack-o-Lantern: Recycled Craft {TUTORIAL}

2010-10-14T10:17:00.003-05:00

We shop at Costco for some of our most used staples- and one of those things is the GIANT tub of Snyders of Hanover SNAP pretzels. My kids don’t eat sweets, but we go through pretzels, Cheez-Its, and Goldfish like they are going out of style. I really dislike tossing out those tubs, so I like to come up with great uses for them. They hold craft supplies, legos, you name it.
Here’s a little Halloween craft project we came up with to recycle one or two of the pretzel tubs.
Supplies:

plastic tub, cleaned really well inside

craft paints (orange, black)
Sharpie marker
Permanent marker eraser *
selection of paint brushes (fine detail, sponge etc)
battery operated Jack-o-lantern light

Directions:
All the painting is done on the inside so things are weather-proof (and maybe so I didn’t have to buy any clear coat!)
Using your Sharpie, draw on your desired Jack’s face on the outside of your jug. I went with happy.

Using a small brush, paint the Jack’s face on the inside, following your design.

It may take 2 or 3 good coats to get a really nice dark result. Just wait about 20minutes between coats or the brush has a tendency to wipe off previous coats rather than paint on them. If you make any mistakes or you’d like to make your lines neater, you can scratch off any unwanted paint with a fingernail or craft stick.

While you have the black paint out, paint the lid. I think it’d be cute painted orange too, or green. This is when the Chaos Twins realized I was doing something fun and needed to get involved. :-) If you are going to be putting this out in the weather, I would suggest a clear coat for the lid.

I let the black paint dry for quite a few hours and then painted on the orange with a sponge brush. I liked the look of the streaks and squiggles in the paint, but you can take extra care to make it neater as you see fit. Paint right over the black areas, and do a few good coats. Allow it to dry for a couple of days with the lid off.

(sorry no pics of painting the orange. Fending off the Chaos Twins, playing with paint and trying to juggle a camera just don’t mix!)

VOILA! Jack-o-Lantern

I am keeping this indoors (for now), so I just popped a battery operated pumpkin light in the bottom. I suggest that you pour a bit of sand or kitty litter in the bottom to weight it down if he’ll be outside, it’s really lightweight. :-)

Just be careful, once you create him, he comes to life and gets all sneaky. Zips around the house and spooks people, silly little thing!

*Never heard of a Permanent Marker Eraser? I hadn’t either, until I bought a set of Corning Ware baking dishes. They came with a set of Erasable Labels for some reason, and the kit included a Sharpie and the marker eraser. I use the thing all the time – it even take the marker off of clothes and walls. I don’t know how it works, but it does. You should get one. I have not been able to find just the eraser by itself though, only in the label kit.

Let me know if you make any – we’d live to see them!

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Pumpkin Porchlights Tutorial {REPOST}

2010-10-08T07:14:00.001-05:00

I am reposting this because I thought it was cool… also, because I’m lame like that!

+=
I was wanting a simple, clean and *very* cheap Halloween decoration because our house was pretty much the only one on the street that wasn’t decorated. I guess they forgot to send me the memo! While I wanted to participate in the fun, I didn’t want to spend anything to do it. Materials:

existing porch light
Trick-o-Treat pumpkin (steal it from your kid, or go spend $0.99 at Target)
Tinsnips or other really sturdy sharp cutters

Directions:
1.) Take your pumpkin and snip off the handle 2.) Carefully cut down the middle-back of the pumpkin. The edges can get rough, so be careful. 3.) Now it’s time to remove the bottom of the bucket. Carefully cut around the lip that is the base and remove it. After the first pumpkin, we found it easier to cut all the way across the bottom so you can really stretch it out and cut the base out. (here is where I realized that I wanted help. It’s easy, but I am a ‘fraid-y-cat with big scissors and forcing things – so I enlisted the help from the super handsome and pumpkin-y Xiris)
4.) The end result: 5.) Carefully stretch the pumpkin around your existing porchlight. 6.) Wait for the sun to fall and enjoy your cheap-ass decoration!

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Tutorial: Apples for Teacher

2010-05-18T14:48:00.002-05:00

Today was “PreSchool Promotion” day for LittleMiss – so we thought we would like to give a gift to each teacher to say thanks for helping LittleMiss learn to play and share nicely with others. I wanted LittleMiss to make the gift herself, with as little help from me as possible, and I have to say that she did a GREAT job. Sure, there are drips and smudges – but I just showed her a picture of what I was thinking would be a good idea and she went right along. That said, this is certainly not an original idea, but this is how we did it…
Ingredients:

a large apple with a good shape
foam paint brushes
simple canvas tote bags
Matte Finish Soft fabric paint
a kiddo
paper plate
a protected work surface
cardboard that fits inside the bags
an iron

Step 1: Gather your ingredients and your kid. Slice the apple down the middle, making sure you cut through the center of the core for the best results.
Step 2: Slip the cardboard inside the bag to prevent bleed-through. Lay the bag out nice and flat and carefully paint the apple. For best coverage on the first use, use lots of paint and daub it on rather than brushing it on. Step 3: Turn the apple over and carefully press onto the fabric. Push down pretty hard for the best impression. step 4: Repeat process until you have your desired design. For our last apple, LittleMiss wanted a “bite take out” of the apple, so we used a small spoon to make “monkey bites.” Step 5: Allow bags to dry. To finish these, we stamped LittleMiss’ handprint on the back of the bag and I wrote her teachers’ names in a decorative little font. I also drew in little apple seeds here and there on the front. Once everything is good and dry, be sure to HEAT SET the paint as per the directions on your bottle. Some require just a quick trip in a hot dryer, others need a good hot iron (as we had to do).
It’s also TTA, so hop over and find some great new blogs to read!

Tutorial: Easy Window Hearts

2010-02-08T12:24:00.003-06:00

Certainly not an original idea – but they are so easy I thought I’d share with you how we did them.
Materials:

wax paper
crayon shavings
iron/ironing board
floursack towel or kraft paper (or paper bags)
scissors
fishing line
clear tape

Step one:
Lay out your towel/brown paper to protect your board. Tear off a length of waxpaper and sprinkle one half of the waxpaper with crayon shavings. Keep in mind that they really spread when melted. Fold waxpaper in half, cover with another towel or piece of paper.

Step two:
Set your iron on as hot as it will go, NO STEAM (in fact, if you iron is like mine, drain it of water, mine will make a very small amount of steam no matter what). Iron the waxpaper sandwich until all the shavings melt. It only takes a few seconds. Depending on how you smoosh the iron around on the paper, the shavings move around a bit, and will leak out (hence the craft paper or towel you don’t love!)

Repeat with more paper and shavings.

Step Three:

Allow all the new stained glass sheets to cool completely. Once cooled, they will crisp back up. Using sharp scissors, cut out hearts (or whatever shape makes you happy!). Lots of them! They’d be really sweet cut out with all those fancy scrapbooking scissors… wavy edges, pinking shears etc.

Step Four:
Once cut out, use fishing line and clear tape to hang them in your windows. If you sun ever comes out, they cast the prettiest light and fun shadows.

ENJOY!

xoxox,
CBear

{Tutorial: Jack-o-Lantern Porch Lights}

2009-10-18T22:33:00.001-05:00

I was wanting a simple, clean and *very* cheap Halloween decoration because our house was pretty much the only one on the street that wasn’t decorated. I guess they forgot to send me the memo! While I wanted to participate in the fun, I didn’t want to spend anything to do it.

Materials:

existing porch light
Trick-o-Treat pumpkin (steal it from your kid, or go spend $0.99 at Target
Tinsnips or other really sturdy sharp cutters

Directions:

1.) Take your pumpkin and snip off the handle

2.) Carefully cut down the middle-back of the pumpkin. The edges can get rough, so be careful.

3.) Now it’s time to remove the bottom of the bucket. Carefully cut around the lip that is the base and remove it. After the first pumpkin, we found it easier to cut all the way across the bottom so you can really stretch it out and cut the base out. (here is where I realized that I wanted help. It’s easy, but I am a ‘fraid-y-cat with big scissors and forcing things – so I enlisted the help from the super handsome and pumpkin-y Xiris)

4.) The end result:

5.) Carefully stretch the pumpkin around your existing porchlight.

6.) Wait for the sun to fall and enjoy your cheap-ass decoration!

{Tutorial: Lovie Repair}

2009-08-20T06:03:00.001-05:00

Meet Lambie. She’s the well-loved Lovie of one MissPrincessZ. She carries Lambie around by her ear, twirls her ear and rubs it on her nose while sucking her thumb. As you can see below, she was in need of some repair – the lining of her poor little ear has been twirled/sucked/rubbed away. I admit that I left her like this for quite some time, hoping that MissZ would be okay with it. We have a backup Lambie, but I really wanted to save her for the moment when Lambie is lost/damaged beyond repair. One night MissZ woke crying saying that Lambie was very sad and broken and needed a “BooBooBaid” (translate: BandAid). I soothed her back to sleep telling her that we’d make a BooBooBaid for her in the morning – and you can bet that she popped up in our bed as soon as the sun was shining asking to fix her Lambie.

So – I got to work. This method works no matter the size of repair, and you can use it wherever fabric is missing. The key to this method is to have enough fabric for the repair to have a fold, and that there be a little fabric you are able to fold on the edge that your repair piece will touch.

First, I let her pick the BooBooBaid, and she jumped up and down when she saw this fabric in the box. MissZ is ALL ABOUT the polka dots. (As an aside, sorry about the picture quality, I had to use my cellphone at the time).

Lay out your area to be repaired and trace around it. Be sure to give yourself generous 1/4 to 1/2 inch seam allowances. I used a pencil here. Note that if your area has curves, cutting a bit on the bias will help you work the fabric around the curves. After you’ve traced it out, carefully cut out the piece and audition it to make sure you like the finished look.

Now it’s time to gather your supplies. You’ll need a hot iron, needle and thread, and your patient. I would suggest that for this part that you keep your child’s temperament in mind. My little one was not happy to see Mommy poking her baby, but once I explained that it didn’t hurt her and let her sit next to me and hold Lambie’s hand the whole time, she was okay.

Next take your repair piece and iron under your seam allowance. Really set the fold, as it’ll help you get the stitching in cleanly and easier.

Using a ladder stitch (or blind stitch), stitch the pieces together. The key to the ladder stitch it to take small bites of fabric on one side ON THE FOLD and to do the exact same is the SAME place on the other side. When you pull the stitch tight, it will bring the two folds together and the stitch will disappear.

Work all the way around, and VIOLA! One happy Lambie!

And one happy kiddo!

I hope this helps you out, and please feel free to drop me a line if you have an questions.

Gimme a hand... A Christmas Tutorial, Part 2

2008-12-08T04:41:00.001-06:00

Again, sorry for the picture - tree should be up soon!

Today's installment is the "Handy Reindeer"

Materials:
Same traced hand as yesterday
fun foam (brown, and the thicker stuff)
teensy googly eyes
teensy red pom-poms
slightly larger white pom-poms
hole punch
sewing needle
brown chenille stem (since when are they not called pipe cleaners anymore?)
ribbon for hanging
Fabri-Tac glue

Directions:
1. Trace hand onto fun foam, cut out.
2. Glue little red pom-pom on for the nose (end of the thumb works best, but you pick!)
3. Glue the teensy little eye on (here is where you can give them real personality)
4. Glue the white pom-pom on his butt
5. Punch hole for hanging with ribbon
6. Using sewing needle poke a hole and wiggle the needle around to make a hole just big enough for the chenille stem to go through
7. Thread the stem through and give it a twist. Turn each half into an antler by twisting and folding. Be creative! Viola! Make a herd of them!

I think mine came out looking a bit sheepish- almost as if they are saying "No Mrs Claus, it wasn't us that pooped on your carpets! Honest!"

Also - a little tip... if you plan to write the names/dates on the back with a Sharpie, do so, but wait a while before touching or turning over. I now have names and dates stamped backwards all over my biggest rotary mat.

Gimme a hand... A Christmas Tutorial, Part 1

2008-12-07T16:17:00.004-06:00

A mostly picture-less tutorial, because it's so super easy that my words will be enough for you to get it... trust me.

Today's installment is the "Glassine Handprint"
please forgive the picture - our tree isn't up yet, so you'll have to imagine what they'd look like on the tree with little lights twinkling though.

Materials:
A hand (I found it easiest to trace said hand while the owner was asleep, onto chipboard)
tin foil (the heavier gauge stuff, but not the kind with writing all over it (Reynolds No-Stick))
wax paper
iron set on SUPER HOT and SUPER DRY
ironing board
pressing cloths
Martha Stewart Circle Cutter
Hole punch
Sobo Glue
glitter (I used Martha's "SNOW" flaked glitter)
2 small paper plates
ribbon to hang with

Directions:
1. Trace around hand onto chipboard, paper etc and cut it out.
2. Trace around cutout onto the foil and cut those out (don't use your good sewing scissors!)
3. Cut out big squares of wax paper (2 squares per hand cut out)
4. Using the iron, press the foil hand to smooth it.
5. Put down your pressing cloth, add a piece of wax paper, the hand (centering it) and the second piece of wax paper.
6. Top with another pressing cloth.
7. Press with the hot iron. It is important to PRESS and not IRON, in that you set the iron down for 2-3 seconds in one spot, lift it and move it. Try not too overlap moves too much and don't heat for too long, otherwise all the wax will melt and not stick things together. Test with scrap pieces, as irons vary. My iron gets so super hot that more than 2 seconds ruined it.
8. Lift pressing cloth to check that all is sealed. Allow to cool.
9. Using your circle cutter, cut out a lovely shape. Punch a hole now for the hanging ribbon, add name and date (if desired. I would suggest a finer tip Sharpie than I used)
10. Squeeze some glue into a paper plate, and pour out a bunch of glitter in another.
11. Run the edge of the ornament in the glue and then in the glitter. Tap off the excess and allow to dry. The Sobo glue will dry clear, don't worry.
12. String onto a ribbon, hang on a tree and enjoy!

Check out the size and texture of that "Snow" flaked glitter by Martha Stewart Crafts. I picked it up at WalMart.

Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

2008-10-10T05:58:00.002-05:00

I have found a new love... I have gone a little overboard with the freezer paper stencils - I want to stencil everything and anything that will sit still long enough!

Here's a quick and dirty STEP-BY-STEP for those who are interested. Remember, Christmas is right around the corner! I've already stocked my closet with gifties!

First, make your designs that you want to stencil and decide which areas will be painted, and while will not. Here, white areas are unpainted areas. I used Adobe Illustrator and some clipies from the web to create my stencils. Print them out. (You can print right to freezer paper, but my printer does not like it, so I skip it.)

Here's the supplies I gathered:
Freezer Paper
Tape
Exacto Knife
Self-Healing Mat
Paint (I used Tulip Soft Fabric Paint)
Something to paint on (I used $1 section Target totes)
Paint applicators (I had a stenciling set on hand, anything will do)

Tape the freezer paper SHINY SIDE DOWN over the stencil designs and carefully cut out. Remember to save the little bits and pieces for your design, they get lost easily.

SHINY SIDE DOWN, apply the freezer paper to the item to be painted with a HOT HOT iron. For best results, leave a corner of the paper UNPRESSED. It helps to peel it off later. I press on the large part of the design first, and then the little bits one by one using a chopstick to hold them in place until set with the iron.

Apply the paint. I find that it works best if you sweep the paint on from the outside of the stencil to the inside of the design. This makes crisper edges.

Be sure to put something in between layers to prevent bleed-through.

Peel off the paper while the paint is still damp for the best edges. You can see there are a few smudges here, but that is because I was too lazy to go find the Exacto to help remove the little bits and just used my nails.

For best results, allow the paint to dry as per the bottle instructions and then press the wrong side to heat set the paint.

If you are impatient like me, you can use a hair dryer or the iron to hurry the drying process. If you use the iron, DO NOT TOUCH the iron to the paint! Just hover above it until dry and then flip it over to heat set.