A Hot Project!

I have to admit something. I have, thanks to a co-worker discovered a site that makes my craftiness go off the charts. The site is called Pinterest, it is a virtual bulletin board that allows you to pin anything you like to it and repin what others pin. It is the mecca of crafts, humor, food and anything that you can think of. My new found site has me a little excited, in just a week's time it appears that I have pinned about 900 items. Of course with the intent to make or experience all of the items I pin. So craft item number one (number 2 on the overall pinning list-number one is on my cake blog) was something that pulled in several people from my office for craft therapy and research. The project, crayon art.
No we are not coloring with crayons, well not in the traditional way.  All you have to do is hot glue crayons (with or without paper) to a canvas. Then you take a hair dryer and turn up the heat pointing the air stream at the crayons and let the fun melting begin.  Those are the instructions I had so needless to say I have come up with a few tips.
My first piece was one of those trial and mostly error pieces. Being a 4-H Agent I thought I would be extra creative and tape off a section of the canvas to say 4-H and only melt green crayons. Unfortunately the heat of the melting wax and the strength of the blow dryer blew the tape off the canvass drastically effecting this experiment.  I also staggered the crayons on this top.  Now I know, The more crayons pasted at the top the better. Most importantly, you need to tilt your canvas while you are blow drying the crayons so that they melt in a downward pattern and don't splatter across the canvas.

As my co-workers worked the project we found out a couple of other interesting tips. Crayola Crayons work better than off brand crayons (more color less wax). Also taking the paper off and gluing the crayons straight to the canvas allows for a neater design. Use less crayon if you want a small drip pattern and you can also allow for a hand painted design in the white space when you get done. Also if you move the dryer across the entire canvas melting all the crayons at once versus one section and then another you get a smoother design. It does take some patience to melt the crayons and make the drip pattern fairly even. Overall you end up with a really neat design. My co-workers are now working on a circle and heart patterns as well.

If you would like to see more of my future crafting projects on Pinterest feel free to e-mail me with your e-mail address and I will be happy to send you an invite to the website.

Volunteering to Burn Up a Table

As many of you know crafting and cakes are my hobby and I have a day job. Fortunately my day job allows me a creative outlet on many days. Every February we have a state conference for 4-H volunteer leaders. It is a great chance for the volunteers to receive training, network, and they raise funds for the Volunteer Leaders Association. As part of the fundraising there are basket raffles, a country store and on the last night an auction. This year the district we are in is holding the auction, and I have a tradition of making sure there is something in the auction that will hopefully fetch $100 or more. This year I am unable to bring a really big item so I am making a table with the new 4-H logo on it.

I am starting with a round that I purchased at Lowes that is one inch thick and has a 15 inch diameter. Then I printed the logo from the computer and traced it with a good old fashioned piece of carbon paper under it. With the logo traced and in place it was time to start wood burning. That took a bit of patience with all the words in the new logo. A few hours later I had the entire logo burned in. I have to admit I took a couple of breaks because the wood burning iron got a bit hot, too hot to handle almost. After debating for a bit I took a paint pen to outline the words but the paint started to run. After giving it time to dry, a little sanding block allowed me to almost erase some of the run off paint. I chose to fill in the rest of the lettering with the paint pen but not outline it so it would not run causing the letters to run together.

With the green line and clover finished, it was time to let it dry. Then a few coats of polyurethane that allowed the wood to darken and have a nice sheen. After it was all dry it was time to attach three

Dish Cloth Mania

In earlier blogs I mentioned how my dishcloth stockpile has been completely depleted. Now it is time to knit like a crazy woman and start the stockpile again for another craft show. I made sure to buy extra cotton yarn so I could get started. These are very popular because they are green (people use them and throw them in the washing machine, then they can reuse them), and the ridges in the dishcloth are great picker uppers. The cotton yarn means they are gentle enough not to scratch anything but they are also strong and will last a long long time. The ones shown here are done in white and swimming pool blue.
It only takes a couple of hours to make one. The pattern is quite simple, and it's fun because you are knitting from one corner to another. Use the size needles as suggested on the yarn. Cast on four stitches and knit the first row. The second row knit two, yarn over one, then knit to the end of the row. Repeat row two until you have the width you want (anywhere from 30-40 stitches, I like mine big so I use 40 stitches). When you get to the desired halfway point it is time to decrease the stitches. Knit one, knit two together, yarn over one, knit two together, then knit to the end of the row. Repeat this until you have four stitches left. Cast off and tuck in your ends. Voila-dishcloth. Simple and easy. I charge a dollar per dishcloth when I am selling them. Happy knitting.

4 Yards of Scarves

My first project of the new year and it is an order from last year. I know I have told you about the elusive and wonderfully charismatic Mrs. Nell. She is a wonderful lady who knows exactly what she wants and what she wanted in December were two more of my fun fur scarves. Actually all in told she wanted three and left with one that day.

As I have mentioned before I have set up at the Robeson County Historical Museums home tour each year for the last two years. This is where I met Mrs. Nell. She took a fancy to my fun fur scarves and ordered several last year. This year she walked in and picked up a white one and went on the tour marketing my hand knitted scarves to everyone she saw. She asked me if I could also knit her a cobalt blue as well as a champagne colored scarf. Apparently she gave her champagne colored scarf to a friend last year but really wanted another one. I of course agreed and set out on finding the yarn. The champagne yarn I knew existed, it was just a case of finding it and I finally (after going to three stores) did. The cobalt blue however was a little more difficult. I found many blues but not cobalt. The two closest ones were a sapphire blue and a sapphire blue with variegated black which would create a dark blue scarf, a little closer to cobalt. However I know for a fact Mrs. Nell likes solid colors not variegated yarns or even the polka dotted fun furs so I went with the sapphire blue. The scarves are both between five and six feet long and furry as all get out. They are great doubled up and much warmer than you might think because they are actually very thin. I hope Mrs. Nell likes them and will continue to increase my fun fur scarf offerings for the show this year.