First Craft of the Season

Hello to the three people who read my craft blog! I am so excited that it is summertime again and I can find every way possible to keep my kids from becoming summer screen zombies. 

You, too? 

Good--I knew we were meant to be friends. 

We have a tradition now of making the first craft of the season a tie-dye project. That way they can wear their creation all summer long. This year we had some western visitors (my sister and her three glorious children whom I would gladly adopt if she let me) and each of them got to make their own shirt. 

Here is the before:

And here is the after. 

The whole process is pretty easy:

1. Buy a white t-shirt (if you want your final project to look good, get a quality shirt that fits well) and tie-dye paints 

2. Dampen the shirts by putting them in the washer's rinse/spin cycle

3. Tie with rubber bands. 

4. Paint! There are lots of different techniques.

For instance, this is how you make a bulls eye:

Or, you can make a gradient or "fading" design by painting sections of your shirt with the regular, concentrated paint and then diluting your paint for the next section:

Several of us made spiral shirts by winding the fabric up in a tight pinwheel, securing the fabric with rubber bands and then painting:

Or, if you hate to follow directions, you can always just tie rubber bands where ever you want. The great thing about tie-dying is that almost anything looks cool...although with practice you can make it cooler.

5. Then you put each shirt in a separate plastic sack and let it sit for 6-8 hours to set.

6. After the shirts have set, and before you wash them, you must rinse each shirt to take out the extra dye. This is is an important step. If you skip this and you wash all the shirts together, there will be too much dye in the washer and your colors will be dull and greyish instead of vibrant.

7. Wash in washer on largest load setting and hottest water to help set the color.

8. Tumble dry

9. Wear and embrace your inner hippie. 

See you on the next craft....

Sew Lovely

Do you remember those cute "Metta's Magnets" we made back in June?

Well this, dear friends, is Metta.

She is a good friend and an excellent crafter. This week she came in person to teach the mermaids how to embroidery.

(oooo....aaaahhh)

First she pulled out all of these wonderful fabrics for the girls to choose from. How fun is that!

Then the girls drew a shape that they wanted to embroider.

The blue mermaid chose to draw a star.

The red mermaid decided on a heart,

...and the orange mermaid decided to make an "N."

The mermaids were so excited to stitch their shape with REAL needles and REAL thread and REAL embroidery hoops. It was almost as if they were REAL colonial girls stitching samplers.

Metta helped the orange mermaid learn to stitch. She was thrilled. It was at this moment that she exclaimed, "THIS IS A FUN CRAFT!"

(Probably because the day before I told her she was too young for needles.)

Concentration in the room was so thick you could poke it with a needle.

Hahahaha.

By the way, Metta's charming mer-baby came as well.

This is her, chillin' on my bed:

After the girls finished embroidering the shapes, (and no one's eyes got poked out,) Metta and I sewed the girls' stitchings on to a larger piece of fabric.

Then we tacked them with some other pieces that Metta had cut out and made

TREASURE BAGS.

Here are the finished bags :

(Metta's example is the one with the "M".)

Sew fun. Sew cute. Sew Metta.

Thank you!

Read My Lip Gloss

For our Mermaid Craft today we had our first official Guest Crafter. Our guest was Nicole Empey, the very same Nicole that designed the beautiful mermaid treehouse banner above.

Nicole's craft was to teach the mermiads the art of writing Ransom Letters. I will not tell you the details on how Nicole became an expert at this, but I will say that her experience is extensive.

The first thing we needed was something of value that we could ransom. Nicole, vigilant at a recent playgroup outing at the park, pounced on an opportunity and secured the perfect object:

Lip gloss.

Little does she know, but the young, unsuspecting child who "lost" this item will soon be receiving a letter.

First, Nicole gave some examples of ransom letters:

Then it was time to make our own.

The red mermaid and blue mermaid get to work.

(Or, at least watch Nicole work, which is much more fun. )

Meanwhile, the orange mermaid added eyes and I took a photo of the lip gloss,

...in obvious distress.

Then the girls delivered the ransom note....

...INCOGNITO!

[I will not post the photos of the actual ransom letter today, since then our rendezvous might be compromised. Date/time of rendezvous is in the letter. We wounldn't want anyone to meet us there to take the lip gloss and then ransom our ransom.]

What will happen to the lip gloss? Will the owner fulfill the requirements needed to obtain her precious cosmetic item? Will she meet us at the proper location? Or will she abandon her lip gloss, leaving it in the hands of the mermaids, who might use it all up any moment?

What will happen?

TO BE CONTINUED.......