Make-It-Monday: Pom-Pom Mice

I've always had a thing for mice.  When I was a little girl, I drew little pictures of them in the margins of my school papers (with frowny faces on the ones on the math papers!).  I think my childhood love of mice was influenced by "An American Tail", which came out in 1986, when I was 4 years old.  I liked "The Secret Of Nimh" too, but "An American Tail" was my favorite.  (I had a pet mouse for a short time that I named "Fivel")  When I was older (around 9 or 10), I read books like the Redwall series, and about Reepicheep in "The Chronicles of Narnia".   What is it about mice that is so enchanting? (In fantasy movies/books at least.  In reality, when one gets into my house, I am kind of glad my cat is there to catch it!  But if I can, I try to get it away from her unharmed and put it outside).  

Anyway, my craft show friend Amy of Sweet Pea Felts makes adorable little needle-felted mouse soft sculptures (you can see photos on her blog or on her Facebook page.  Recently, she made pom-pom mice with her daughter, and then decided to post a tutorial on her blog.  As soon as I saw it, I HAD to make one!

This mouse has unleashed my inner little girl.  I just want to play with it and pose it, and take pictures of it all day!

I haven't decided on a name, but I imagine him as a brave little scamp!

"Touche', Pussycat!"

I made him some armor from bottlecaps and gave him a T-pin as a sword. My friends on Facebook said "It's Reepicheep!"...convenient, since the bottlecap has an "R".  I'm also reminded of books like "The Mouse And The Motorcycle" and "Ralph S Mouse" by Beverly Cleary, as well as "The Tale of Despereaux" (I've never read the book, but I saw the movie)

My poor animals endured my attempts to take some staged pictures...

This shot of Luna sniffing (and consequently knocking over) my mouse makes it look like an action photo of the mouse doing battle!

"Really, Mommy?  What is up with the mouse?  I just want to nap."

I've since made 2 more mice (and have been suppressing the urge to make more!).  I made one brown mouse to experiment with using a different textured yarn, and another white mouse to give as a belated birthday gift to my friend's daughter Lydia, who just turned 10 last week.

(The Sweet Pea Felts tutorial is for personal use only, so I will not be making any of these to sell.  If you'd like one, you can make one yourself!  The materials are inexpensive (I had everything already on-hand in my craft supply stash) and the tutorial is super-easy!  Or you can contact Sweet Pea Felts.)

Make-It Monday!: Fox Stamp

As a continuation of my stamp-making frenzy last week...I got the idea to make a fox stamp from this post I found via Pinterest.  (*I just looked at the actual post for the first time...I didn't even realize she made her stamp the same way I did!  I thought she carved it out of a stamp-carving block from looking at the Pinterest image!)

I used a hole-punch for the eyes...that's why they're so big and perfect and round.

Real graffiti?  Nope...it's really just a book!

The book is called "Tag This! A Doodle Book".  It has photos of different urban environments that you can unleash your inner graffiti artist on and doodle to your hearts content!

Make-It-Monday: Rubber-Stamped Fabric Keychain

Here was my process for printing the fabric for my keychain...

I was going to use Staz-On ink for this, but I couldn't find my black inkpad.  But I did remember that I had bought some black fabric paint awhile back. (I must have bought it for some project, but I can't remember what that project was).

So, you can do this with your own rubber stamp. All you need is... 

• A Rubber Stamp (mine is a custom hand-carved stamp from Jackbear Stamps, but you can use any rubber stamp)
• Fabric Paint
• Foam paintbrush (you could also use a cheap foam sponge)
• Small artist's paintbrush
• Fabric you want to print on (I used both a cotton muslin and canvas)
• Small piece of scrap wood (optional)
• Iron & pressing cloth (I used a scrap piece of my cotton muslin)

Squirt a bit of the fabric paint onto the foam brush.  Use the artist brush to spread the paint around and into the foam.  The foam will be like a stamp pad. 

My stamp was a bit larger than the foam brush, so instead of pressing the stamp down onto the foam, I held the stamp in one hand and used the foam brush to dab the paint evenly onto the stamp. (I tried doing this earlier with a regular paintbrush before I decided to use the foam brush, but the paint went on gloopy and uneven, which made for a uneven, gloopy-looking print. So I definitely recommend using the foam instead.)

Press the stamp down evenly onto your chosen fabric.

I used a piece of scrap wood to help make sure the stamp was pressed evenly.

Lift up the stamp, and Voila!  Stamped fabric!

My bottle of fabric paint said to let the paint dry for 24 hours and then heat set it with an iron...but I have to confess, I only waited maybe 1-2 hours, since it seemed plenty dry, and I was anxious to make my keychain!

I cut out the design and zig-zag stitched it onto a piece of printed cotton, then made a simple, tiny pillow, stitching in a bias tape loop for the split ring to attach to.

I got this orange & white polka dot cotton fabric from a box of fabric scraps a friend gave me.  I don't work with quilter's weight cotton a lot, but I have lots of scraps with different prints that I've accumulated from friends, so I am looking forward to making more of these in different patterns!

Make-It Monday!: Cutting City Map Hearts With A Cricut

I've seen a bunch of projects on Pinterest (like this one) that involve cutting shapes (usually hearts) out of maps.  Usually it has to do with cutting out a specific place or city that holds personal significance.  I've been wanting to do one of these projects, but didn't trust myself to cut a perfect heart shape with scissors, and I didn't own a paper punch big enough for what I wanted.  I have my Cricut, but wasn't sure how to be sure it cut out a particular city...until I decided to "play" a bit yesterday and figured it out! 

So I decided to do a blog tutorial (mostly to show my mom how I did it) and, conveniently enough, it's Monday...so we have a "Make-It Monday" post!
(tutorials are a bit picture-heavy and long, so be warned!)

I used the heart shape on the "George and Basic Shapes" cartridge (ie: the cartridge that originally came with my Cricut)

I used the "real size" setting and made 3 inch hearts

(I had this scrap piece of paper that I already used to cut a heart.)

The piece we need is the outside "stencil" shape. (you can save the inner heart to use in another project)

 Unfold your map and decide what city you want to cut out.  I have a bunch of road maps from my grandma left over from when she and my grandpa traveled the US in their retirement.

Then use the "stencil" as a viewfinder to determine exactly where you want your city to be oriented in the heart.  

I chose Rochester, NY (even though I live off to the west of it now...a little bit north of Medina.  You can see it at the left of the picture.)   But out of all he places I've lived in my life, I lived in Rochester the longest.  My parents still live there, I have a lot of friends there, and my husband makes the commute and works there. And it's only an hour away, so I still go there all the time to shop and visit my parents.

 So when you've determined the placement, use the stencil to cut out a square. (the most important edges to have exact are the top and left edges, since those are the edges that will be aligned in the corner of the sticky mat.  The bottom and right edges don't have to be exact, but I find it wastes less of he map.)

 Place the map square onto the sticky mat.

 I double-check to make sure the edges are right so the heart cuts in the correct spot.

 Load the mat into the Cricut, then use the keypad to choose the design. (obviously, be sure to have the same size and design as you did when you made the "stencil").  Then...the moment of truth...press the "Cut" button and let the Cricut do its thing!

 Then "unload" the mat from the machine...

 Carefully peel the pieces off the mat. (you can save the outer map piece to use for other papercraft projects)

Speaking of Rochester and maps and crafting...check out my fellow RNESTer, Ally's shop Soft Shell Crafts for some cool handmade recycled-map journals! (I'm actually donating a bunch of maps to her when I go through the rest of mine and decide which ones to save for myself to craft with!). 

Happy crafting!

Make It Monday!: Button Stamps from Spools & Craft Foam

Awhile ago on the blog, I showed you the button stamp I made from an empty spool and craft foam. There's a link in the post to the tutorial that originally inspired me, but I've finally gotten around to taking photos for my own tutorial!

Materials:

• Empty plastic spools (you could also use old prescription bottles)
• Craft foam (the kid you find in the kids' craft section)

Tools:

• Hot glue gun
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Marker, pen, or pencil

Use the spool you want to use to trace 4 circles onto the craft foam (I did 2 circles on blue and 2 circles on red.)

Cut circles out.

Take one circle and punch 4 holes in it to look like button holes (you can do 2 holes if you'd like).

Use the hot glue to glue one of the blank circles to the top of the spool. (You could also use chipboard if you'd like. It might even work better. The first circle is just a base to glue the other part to.

Glue on the "button" foam circle.

And there's the first stamp!

Take the second red circle and use a smaller spool to trace a circle.

Cut the circle out so you have a hole in the middle. The circle should now look like an "O".

Glue the blue foam circle onto the other side of the spool, then glue the "O" on top of it.

Remember when you used the hole punch earlier? Salvage those little foam dots from your hole punch. These will be the "button holes" for this side of the stamp.

Carefully glue the dots in the middle of the "O" to look like button holes. And now the second side is done!

One stamp...two designs!

Note: Be sure to clean your stamp off after using it!...especially if you plan on using the other side right away. Failure to do so will result in inked-up hands! I usually use cheap baby wipes from the dollar store.

I did a smaller one with a two-hole button design.

Happy Stamping! :)