Travel Embroidery Caddy

We leave for California on Sunday. We will be visiting my in-laws until the 31st. I am preparing several embroidery projects to bring along as well as selecting three (or four, or maybe five, or six) books to read while we are there.

I wanted something to corral my embroidery floss. I also thought it would be nice if it had a pin cushion on top as I have a bad habit of sticking my needles into the arms or cushions of chairs where they get lost.

I got the image of the woman mending from The Graphics Fairy.

I printed the image on fabric and sewed it onto the burlap - the rest is hot glue history.

Here is the inside of the my needle book, I got it from a friend several years back. Isn't it cool?

fabric gift bags

I made more than the ones I shared but these are so basic, I figured a taste was all you needed.

because I am so tedioulsy predictable - more boxes

This box features an Eloise Wilkins picture. It is the box that the Klogs that I got as a birthday gift came in.

This is a box that Christmas bulbs came in. The following photo is the back of the same box.

My favorite craft supplies are old books, old music, jute rope and twine, burlap, ivory lace, and ivory trims.

I can now add a new favorite. Jean seams. :)

The preceding boxes include tins for Pirouline Wafers, cardboard tube-box for bread crumbs, and a jewelry box.

I will be sharing this at:

Yoda or Things that Will Make Your Friends and Family Question Your Sanity

I am really jazzed about this Yoda box I made for my BIL. It was a total stash bust and it turned out just how I imagined it.

The Yoda Box is made of a tin canister that I covered with burlap. Members of my family might question my sanity, after spending a nice chunk of time embroidering Yoda, I grunged him up with coffee!

If you want to know the process step-by-step, I wrote some instructions.

Supplies

• Embroidery piece for the top of your container
• Instant coffee
• Spray bottle
• Cardboard
• Quilt batting
• Tin Canister
• Burlap (my burlap comes from coffee bean bags I pick up at the coffee shop)
• High temp hot glue
• Fulled wool sweater (optional)
• Trim material for embellishing (I used the sewn edge of a coffee bean bag, jean seams, and jute rope)

Staining Your Embroidery

1. To stain the embroidery, I made a weakish mixture of instant coffee. I put in the spray bottle and misted the entire embroidery piece with it.
2. I then made a really thick mixture (almost half and half) of instant coffee and water. I spattered it off a spoon, I dribbled it off a spoon and I simply poured it where I wanted it.
3. Let the embroidery dry then iron it.

Covering the Canister

Cut at least two discs out of cardboard to fit inside the lid and bottom of the cannister (cut three discs if you don't use fulled wool for the inside bottom.

Cut out several layers of batting to the same size as a disc. Cut a circle out of the fulled wool the same size as one of the disc (if you don't have batting, I think that some thick fulled wool or several layers of fleece would probably work well). 

Trim your embroidered piece so that it is several inches larger than your disc.Cut a piece of burlap about the same size.

Use hot glue and carefully glue the burlap to the one of the discs. Stretch and pull as you glue it down so that it is nice and smooth. Wrap the excess around the edges of the cardboard and glue it to the back. (Wrap a second disc the same way if you plan to line the bottom of the canister with burlap).

Cut burlap an inch or two taller than the height of your canister (and long enough to wrap around the perimeter if possible). Glue the the burlap to the cannister, avoiding gluing beyond the ridge that the lid settles down onto.

Hint: Glue slowly - an inch or two at a time. You will get better results. The reason for using high temp hot glue is it doesn't firm up (dry) as quickly so you have more time to work. 

Trim the burlap and glue the excess to the bottom of the cannister.

Glue the burlap covered disc to the bottom of the cannister to cover up the excess fabric.

Cut some more burlap so that it is an inch or two taller than the height of your canister (and long enough to wrap around the perimeter if possible). Glue the the burlap to the interior of the canister. Make sure to glue it all the way to the top edge - add extra glue just under the lip to insure that the burlap is completely secure. Trim the burlap down to the top edge.

Glue a fulled wool disc to the interior of the canister (or a burlap covered cardboard disc).

Cut a narrow strip of burlap to fit around the edge of the canister (I used the seam of the coffee bag as one edge of the burlap  so that I had a nice woven look to butt up against the lip of the lid).

Glue the strip around the lid and overlap the top slightly.

Lay your batting on top of the second cardboard disc. Lay your embroidered piece on top of the batting. Wrap the edge of the embroidery to the bottom of the cardboard and glue it down. It works best to glue one point on the circle then glue the opposite point then glue the next two opposite points (so you've glue 12,6,3, and 9 on the clock face) then go back and start tacking the fabric down between those places.

Glue the embroidery covered disc to the lid of the canister. Decorate the canister with trim.


Recognizing my Inspiration

I got the idea for covering a tin cannister from  The Twisted Stitcher.

I got the idea for using jean seams as trim from one of my favorite bloggers, Michele of michele made me.

I will be sharing this at:

Pop Art Self-Portraits for Kids

These Pop-Art Self-Portraits for kids are a blast to make.

A short description of the process would read like this. Convert photos to coloring pages, glue to a cardboard canvas panel, drill holes in the top of panel. Allow kids to color and embellish. Thread with a piece of hemp for a hanger.


Converting Photos to Coloring Pages

Start with a basic black and white photo (most photo-editing software allows you to convert color photos to black and white). Enhance the contrasts.

Use your Edge Effects option to Find All.

Fiddle with brightness and contrast until you have a decent looking coloring page.

I've found that using an Edge Preserving Smooth function sometimes  helps clean-up and enhance the edges.


Applying Page to Cardboard Canvas Panel

Drill holes into the top two corners of your canvas.


Use Liquitex Matte Gel Medium to adhere the page to the canvas. You could use glue or Mod Podge. There are two reasons I didn't:

• First, I wanted something a little neater to work with (I didn't want to accidentally get glue on the front of the image and I find a gel medium easier to work with). 
• Second, I feel that the gel mediums create a tighter bond and these were going to take a beating from the kids. 

Let the Kids Make Pop Art

Let the kids color their portrait. 

Have the kids choose gems for their decoration (if you have time, it would be fun to let the kids use glitter paint or glue to embellish their picture too).

Have the kids arrange their gems. Put down hot glue dots for them to put their gems on (I had the kids use crayons to color their image and regular glue doesn't stick well to wax. So if you didn't use crayon, you could probably let the kids use regular white glue to glue the gems down).

Have the kids choose their beads or other embellishments for the  hanger.

Thread the hanger through the holes so that the tails of the hanger on the front of the canvas allowing embelishments to hang down in the front.

I brought washers for the boys to use if they didn't want to mess with gems or beads.


I think these are fun expressive pieces of artwork and I am jazzed to hang my girl's portraits up in the house.

picture jar display project for kids (great grandparent's gift)

Here is the latest craft I did with the homeschool group. We made 'Cute as a Button' picture memory jars.

These are a variation on a button memory jar I did back in January, which you can see here. I made labels and a circle template that read "Cute as a Button" for the kids to cut out, decorate, and glue on the lid.

This was a very easy project to do with a group. I loved how all the jars looked standing in a row waiting for the kids to take them home.


Kicks and Jollies

My youngest, K, loves music boxes. Earlier this year, she found this little girl that plays Edelweiss for a couple of dollars at the thrift store. 

This music box has a particularly nice sound. She loves to play it and sing Edelweiss along with the box.  

 

The trees that you see in the background are the ribbon trees that the girls and I made together.

Here is a Santa Mouse music box she picked up a couple of years ago. I don't recall what he plays since she likes to turn both on at the same time!!