Melty Beads

Does anyone remember these things?

Melty beads!

I remember making lots of projects with these darn melty beads when I was a kid.  In a state of nostalgia last week, I picked up a few, ok a lot of these when I was at JoAnn's looking for my next project to do.  I had the boy with me, and I got him all excited about making fun stuff with them.  I've discovered a few things...those darn beads are a lot harder to work with when your hands are bigger than they were 20 years (yikes!) ago!  Also, the things that you can make are a lot more intricate than they were back when I would make things with them!  Seriously!  3-d projects and everything!  The only things that I ever made were things on the square and circle pegboards.  I think I figured out how to make a heart.  I do remember having a lot of magnets made out of these beads all over the refrigerator.  Feeling ambitious, I picked up one of the 3-d project kits.  Oh.My.Word., did my back hurt after being hunched over the table trying to follow the pattern and make sure I had the right colors in the right place!

Seriously!  Look at these patterns!

This was one of the easier ones.

I do have to say though, they look pretty cool when they're done.  I've still got a few more to go until I've got this whole set finished.  The poor boy wants to help so bad with this one, but the patterns are so complicated with the different subtle shades of color on a few of them.  It's somewhat hard for him to manage the small beads too.  I think if I would have picked up a kit with the larger beads, that would have made a difference.  Heck, maybe the larger beads would have been easier for me to pick up too!

3-d projects...who knew?!

I decided to pick up some off-brand $1 kits at Michael's thinking that maybe those ones would be a little easier for the boy to make.  While they're certainly easier, the quality isn't that great.  They didn't melt as nicely as I would have liked, and a lot of the beads split while they were being melted too.

All that being said though, it's still a fun project.  The boy is waiting for me to finish with the kit so that we can "make our own designs" with the rest of the beads.  So far we've done pretty well keeping them contained.  There haven't been too many that have spilled on the carpet (yet).  I'm fearing the day when one of us gets a little too excited and doesn't pay attention and knocks the whole container over onto the floor.  I'm not sure whether I'm going to cry or laugh if/when that happens!  I did read though on the manufacturer's website that there's this cool little "vacuum" that you can get to clean all the beads up!  I might have to look into that if I can find it!  Meanwhile, I think I may have to stock up on some smaller containers to keep all the different colors separated out.  It takes more time digging through to find the right color than it does to put the beads on the peg board.

Hubby asked me what exactly I planned to do with all of these once I was done making them all.  I stared at him blankly and retorted that the grandparents were all going to get magnets made with love by the boy for Christmas this year (Mom, you've been warned)!  At least these will be cooler than the (lack of) designs that I came up with as a kid!

DIY Kid's Pajama Pants

I will be the first to admit that I am not a great seamstress.  I know enough to get through a project.  Patterns sometimes tend to confuse me.  My mom used to make clothes for my sisters and I when we were younger, and I always wanted to learn how to do that too.  Other than starting to sew a pair of uniform pants together in girl scouts when I was in middle school, I've mostly taught myself everything I know about sewing.  One of my strengths has always been in spatial reasoning, and I can usually fudge how to put something together.  My mother-in-law, knowing that I was the crafty type, gave me her sewing machine back when hubby and I were still dating.  She was a crafty person, but had no clue how to sew.  I think she told me that she had either never used the machine, or had maybe used it once or twice.  I had somewhat of an idea how to sew.  I figured I was at least doing something right when I figured out how to get the bobbin filled and the machine threaded!  My first projects were blankets, and all that those consisted of was either putting a finished edge on some fleece, or sewing some binding to the edges.  There was one time, back when hubby and I were dating, that he was working in construction and needed a work apron.  I thought up a pattern in my head and went to work.  Not having a clue what I was doing, it turned out pretty well, and he wore it all the time when he was at work.
Anyway, I like to peruse pinterest for random projects to do.  I've got a board filled with sewing projects.  One of them caught my eye because it looked pretty easy.  That particular pin I found was this one:

Source: mycottoncreations.blogspot.com via Erika on Pinterest

After reading through the easy step-by-step directions, they looked easy enough to make, so I made a quick trip over to JoAnn's to pick up some material.  My first stop was the remnants bin, to see if I could find something cheap to do a first run on (just in case I screwed something up).  Since I had the boy with me, I asked him what kind of pants he wanted.  It was no surprise to hear him say that he wanted Thomas!  I found some fleece, and bought a couple yards.  I figured I could get a pair of pants out of it for him to wear now, and then have enough left over to make him another pair of bigger ones later.  I would make up a tutorial here, but seriously, the pin that I linked to is great!

The first pair I did were the green ones.  Using a pair of pants that fit him as a pattern, it didn't take too long to get them cut out and sewn together.  The longest part of getting the pants made was making sure that I had everything lined up correctly so I could cut them out.  I have a bad habit of not pressing my fabric, and also not using a measuring tape.  I tend to eyeball everything.  Sometimes, eyeballing things comes back to bite me!  The green pants ended up with one leg being a smidge shorter than the other.  Even so, it doesn't stop the boy from wearing them all the time!  He's growing so quickly right now that most of his pants end up looking like highwaters.  Having a pair of pants that had one leg a little shorter than the other didn't really matter much!  They were a trial-run, and just being used for pj pants anyway!  My second run was with the Thomas material.  I purposely made them longer so that he could wear them longer, and also so if I did happen to short one leg, it wouldn't be as noticeable!
Overall, I don't think I'll ever use another pattern for making pajama pants.  This one was so easy, and I had both pairs of pants finished within an hour total.  Can't beat sewing 2 seams, and then rolling over the top and the bottoms to finish them off!  As is typical with fleece, they get softer with each washing.  I did notice the other night that one of the seams had come apart, but it didn't take anything to pull out the sewing machine and fix them up real quick.  I think the next time I make a pair of these I may double-stitch each seam, just to give it a little more strength.

Christmas Gift Tags

I try to make tags for the gifts we give at Christmastime every year.  Usually I have grand intentions, but the execution of said ideas doesn't fully come to fruition.  I remember a few years ago, I just took to using a sharpie and writing everyone's names right on the wrapping paper!  So much for cute, homemade tags!  Last year, I got as far as getting the tags punched out and then just scribbled the names on them.
This year however, I had a few extra minutes to add some finishing touches to them.  I think they turned out pretty cute!  I used my Creative Memories tag maker and punched out as many tags as I could get out of a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock.  A quick dig through my stamps, and the perfect one was found!  Then, it was just a matter of stamping and embossing.  I used my versamark watermark ink pad, and some white embossing powder.  A blast of heat, and they were done.  All that was left to do was to write everyone's names on them.  They're not much, but I think they add just enough of a personalized, crafty touch.  If I can't find the time to make everyone's gifts, I can at least make some tags!

Teacher Christmas Gift

It's a safe bet to say that I have a huge addiction love of vinyl.  I love the look of it, and the fact that it can be taken down from the walls without damaging them.  This also means when I feel like changing something up it's as easy as designing something new, cutting it out and putting it up on the wall.  It's also great for other fun projects.  

For thanksgiving with my family this year, we decided to have some fun and decorated some tumblers.  The tumblers with straws seem to be all the rage lately, and they're easy to personalize with a little bit of vinyl.  I had a couple of cups left over when all was said and done, so I decided it would be the perfect gift to give the boy's teacher for Christmas this year.  He didn't want to wait until this week to give it to her, so she got it for thanksgiving instead, but the thought was/is still there.  It was so much fun to watch him run up to her and give it to her.

I got the hint at the beginning of the school year that she loves teddy bears, so I figured that was a good place to start.  I happened to have a cricut cartridge that had a teddy bear on it, so I picked out a few colors and went to work.  An hour later, and I had a finished gift!  I used outdoor vinyl because it stands up to abuse better.  The cup can be washed and the vinyl won't come off.  I've heard that it will survive the dishwasher, but it isn't recommended.

I used the "Create A Critter" cartridge for the teddy bear, and then fired up my sure cuts a lot program (which isn't available anymore, and is the reason I now have a Silhouette Cameo) and picked out a font that I liked and cut it out.  Layers can be kinda tricky because the vinyl really likes to stick to itself, but working slowly and trying not to do layers that are too big make it a little easier.