From Socks to Fingerless Gloves

So my daughter really wanted a pair of fingerless gloves, but the selection of  gloves is town appeared  limited and the sock selection seemed bountiful, so she asked me to make her some.  Being a very easy project, I knew she could do this one on her own, but being that I do not know how to knit and she does and she is in the middle of making me a painstakingly slow-mustard-yellow scarf, I figured I would let her focus and do this one for her.  I looked it up on Pinterest so you will see the original pin on my "Craftlandia" Board.

Step 1:  Cut off the sock just under the heel so you have only the tube part the covers your leg.

Step 2:  The cut end will become the top of the glove that will sit on your upper arm.  Just fold over the cut edge to hem it sewing it to the inside of the "glove".

Step 3:  about 1 1/2 inches from the other end cut a small hole for your thumb folding the cut edge in and hemming it to the inside.

Step 4:  Put on your new Fingerless Gloves to pep up your ensemble as see above.

Now what do you do with the foot of the sock you have cut off?  Well, you could make some sort of stuffed animal out of it, but I only have so much time on my vacation so I choose something much simpler diy craft.

Cut the other side right below the heel and slip over a tin or jar that you are using to store all of your crafty bobbles.

Displaying Our Doodles!

So, all of you who love and adore us already know that we have an Etsy store that at this point, carries mostly "Hair Doodles".  What you may not know is that we also sell them locally around town.  In the beginning, we were carting around bags of doodles and it was just a mess, but then Julie had a very convenient crafting tragedy that worked to our benefit.  After returning form the local Salvation Army with a mirror that was destined for spray paint and then the bathroom, the mirror unexpectedly cracked-a mirror crafting nightmare-which left a jazzily painted frame with no innards.

The frame sat in the garage for a while, but then after a visit from the Pinterest Fairy, Julie headed to the hardware store to pick up some chicken wire.  After cutting the prefect size of fence and fighting with it to get it in the frame as it rolled and curled, she scratched that piece, laid the entire flatten roll of wire on the back of the already painted frame, attached it with the mirror hooks already on the back and the cut off the excess.

Now when we need to transport our wares, we effortlessly grab our frame of "Hair Doodles" and head to our desired location.  We are currently working on a display for carefree headband hauling so stay tuned...

Isn't it A Small World?

Everyone just keeps having babies and we are always dreaming up new themes for the Shower.  This one was inspired by the ride from Disneyland, It's A Small World.  We had a friend of ours make large flat wooden trees and flowers decorated in cartoon-like bright colors, then placed pinwheels from the dollar store all around to give the backdrop to our shower a colorful and festive feel.  

He was also kind enough to make a charming umbrella center piece for the game station.  Large party decorations like these are always great to have and make a big wow statement as the guests enter the celebration. To add color all around the yard several of us made topiaries out of brightly colored fabrics, ribbons, gum balls and sewing pins. 

 Our adorable scrapbook paper birds were simply made by rolling two mismatched strips of paper on a toothpick then gluing the circles together, then once they dried, we shaping them accordingly (we found the directions from a Family Fun Magazine). 

We adding fabric covered boxed to the table for even more color and to give our accessories and centerpieces height so they would not be lost in the many platters of refreshments.

 

Our food theme was "Things Skewered".  We had  Salad Fixins' sliced thin on skewers with dressing to dip; Rigatoni and Meatball Spears with marinara and pesto for dipping; Chicken and Potato Salad Lettuce Cups pierced with a toothpick; Fruit and Muffin Kabobs; and Cake Pops.

  I threw in Banana Pudding Filled Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting and a Banana Chip on top last minute because the Mommy-to-Be loves banana.  I figured we could make just one exception to the food theme for her.

For our simple and sweet party favors, we used a heart shaped punch to create these edible flowers.  We just punched out four hearts and punched a small in all four at the point to slide the dum-dum stick through.  We simply held the "flower" up-side-down, arranged the flowers around the sucker and taped them together.  I printed the parents names on green paper and then cut each leaf out by hand, hole punched it, placed it on the stick then tied a small ribbon to secure the papers in place.  We then placed them in tin pails as arrangements and used them a center pieces on the small bistro tables around the yard.

My Daughter's Mad Hatter Tea Party

Baby Alice

The White Queen and One
of Tweedle Brothers

 My daughter-The White Queen- threw a Mad Hatter Tea Party for some of children we know.  She worked with a friend of ours to make invitations and party decorations for the big day.  The children were all allowed to wear an appropriate outfit if they wished and come together for tea and cookies, croquet and songs.

 They placed red roses from the 99 cent store in the already existing white rose bushes and made large playing cards out of poster board then placed on wire for the game.

Birdencil

Bread and Butterflies

The special characters were made from Crayola Model Magic and craft accessories.

The Mad Hatter himself

We decorated lanterns before the party to hang in the trees with tissue paper, alice pictures, pom poms and craft paper. Of course the table was set for tea.

The  moms were invited for appetizers and sangria and were each given a large hat to wear upon arrival (the sangria helps with the hat wearing).

Alice

We allowed all of the children to dive right into the cake with their bare hands.  It was funny to watch the children's faces as the first one dug in.  They all looked around to see if he was going to get in trouble and when none of the adults said anything, they looked at each other with shocked faces and and slowly put in one finger at first, but by the end were taking large scoops of cake.  Not something I would suggest for any party, but for a Mad Hatter Tea Party, it was perfect.

Craftlandia's Felt Foliage

We came across this idea on Pinterest (you can sign up with the link on the right) and thought it would be perfect for our craft room-or as we like to call it "Craftlandia".  It was fairly simple to re-create, you just need a little bit of time on your hands and someone to talk to during the monotony of cutting all of those circles.  The steps are as follows:

1. Trace and cut different size circles onto fabrics and felts that suit your fancy.  We ironed the fabric onto interfacing to give it a little less floppiness for handling purposes, but that is up to you and the material you choose.
2. on a large piece of felt cut from a bolt, you can pre-draw or cut free hand the tree trunk.
3. Now here is where we had to use our noodles and do some thinking.  Double stick tape would stick to the wall but not the felt and we didn't want to use anything that would damage the walls.  I ended up using 3m removable wall hooks.  Not the actual hook, but the sticky part that sticks to the hook.  You can by refill packs and just put 3 at the top of each circle, peeling and sticking, peeling and sticking, over and over again.

That's all there is to it.  We even got carried away with the circle cutting and had more left over.  If you know me, I cannot let anything go to waste so I took the extra circles and jazzed up my boring old clock as well.

Who Are The Old Yarn Girls?

The Old Yarn Girls are three amazing mom's who share the love of crafting and each bring their own style and pizzaz to their Etsy Shop.  When they are not busy trying to get a baby down for a nap or driving a teenager to piano practice, they are knee deep in felt, vintage fabric, spray paint and card-stock assembling creations for parties, friends, school and each other.

You may be wondering what is the meaning behind this bizarre term "Old Yarn"?  Well, to make a long story short: Two of us love combing the vintage, antique and thrift shops for unique materials, supplies and ideas, while the other one experiences a slight amount of anxiety when entering these emporiums of timeless and moderately used goods.  Now picture that old crochet blanket your grandma made you when you were little.  If you can, get it out...really take a good look at it.  See that yarn all pilled up and matted together-That freaks one of us out, whilst the other two look at it with fondness and feel a sense of cozy warmth as they wrap it around their shoulders on cold winter nights.  Therefore the term "Old Yarn"  has been placed on all perviously used or owned items that are currently one of the chief components in all of our products.  Two of us think that it is wildly hilarious that one of us now has to make frequent trips to the one genre of shop that the third of us once feared.  Don't worry though, the one of us with the old yarn phobia is getting accustomed to this new way of life.

Check back to not only see the latest items added to our shop, but to also get updated pix of our "Craftlandia" Party craft nights, the latest themed party we are putting together, and our own personal projects we create just for fun.