Handmade Holiday: Bookmarks, Magnets, and Shortbread

Almost a month after the fact, I am finally finishing putting up our holiday crafts. I know, so uncool, but "late" is a perpetual state of being for me, so I, for one, am not in the least bit surprised. This is the last one, I promise! And these are simple little random projects, so I will make it brief. Kaia made Papa and me bookmarks, (gosh, was I surprised when I unwrapped it! ;) ) I cut long rectangles out of stiff paper, and she punched a hole in the top of each, and drew on them. She wrote "Mama" and "Papa" on one side of each of ours, respectively, and drew a bunny on the opposite sides.

When she was finished, I "laminated" them with a strip of packaging tape on both sides, trimmed them to size, punched the hole back out, and Kaia threaded and tied a few strands of yarn at the top. She was really happy to make and wrap something for us.

 For my Brother-in-Law, who brews beer, we collected different bottle caps to make magnets with. We even got other people to save some for us. (let's just say... I wouldn't drink some of the beers these caps belonged to. ;) ) We included some local Michigan brews, which he lives away from now, and glued magnets in the backs to make a set. I ended up putting a good dollop of glue in each, letting that dry, then adding another to attach the magnets with so that they would be flush with the caps instead of inset. Without doing so, they would stick to the fridge, but were not strong enough to hold anything.

We also made vegan-style Scottish shortbread, mmm! We cut some into snowflake cookies, and I also tried my hand at using our large wooden shortbread mold. It was a lot harder to accomplish than I had bargained for! As a matter of fact, when I say, "tried my hand", there's more to it than that. I even ended up putting the thing on a stool, climbing on top of it with my knees, and putting all my weight on it to push the design into the dough. I took a hammer to the back of it. I surely must be going wrong somewhere, I'm pretty sure shortbread is not supposed to be forged, but I was unable to find any useful information on it. I completely forgot to take any pictures of the finished products, (sad time,) but here is one of Kaia helping make the dough, and our wooden shortbread mold.

That's all I am putting up for this year, I also made some mugs, and a few other random things, but I am beyond ready to move on here. Next: unicorns, rainbows, fairies, dragons and other fantastical things, yay!

Handmade Holiday: How to Make a Channeled Rice Heat Pack

 Okay, very nearly through with the holidays. Most definitely, though, a rice pack is something you can make any time, for yourself, or as a gift for any occasion. They are very simple to make, and oh, so rewarding. If you have never used one with channels for the rice before, you will never go back after trying it. I have gone through a few over the years. The rice will eventually shrink quite a lot, and they stop staying warm for very long after a couple years. Or your husband lights it on fire while you are in labour. 

They are awesome for sore muscles, to lay across your shoulders, or back. They are comforting for a sick child, to hug or put on a sore tummy. I love warming mine up and tossing it into bed before me so my feet spot is nice and warm. My daughter likes to warm hers up for bed in the Winter, too, to snuggle with and keep her nice and warm. My husband will heat his up before driving to work in the cold, wrapping it around his neck before getting in the car. I'll plunk mine on my head or neck for headaches. I've used it for breastfeeding woes, (plugged ducts, mastitus, etc.) and I wouldn't give birth without one. I finished one the night before having Katalin, because I desperately wanted it for labour again, it helped so very much to ease the back pain and contractions. (I'm pretty sure my body wasn't going to go into labour before it was done.) You can use them to keep food warm in transit, and you can also freeze them for use as a nice, flexible, fabric covered ice pack.

So, those should be plenty enough reasons to make one. Even if you're not having a baby. Now make one. I always use fleece, it's soft and fuzzy, and stretches when you pack it full of rice. The size is up to you, I like to make a rectangle long enough to be able to throw over my shoulders or around my neck without having to hold it in place. (Keep in mind that you will need to fit it in your microwave, though you can curl it up or fold it in half to do this.) Cut the fleece twice as long as you would like your pack to be, and fold it in half, right sides in.

Your fabric should be doubled up, with the fold to the side.

 

Sew shut both long sides, first with a small straight stitch, then again over that with a small zigzag. You need these seams to be strong. Trim the excess off. Cut close enough to the seam not to clog the channels you will be adding, but leave enough that your stitching won't come out under stress. Because you are going to put it under stress. Your pack should now be closed on three sides, with one short side open.

 Turn your fabric right-side-out. If you are good at sewing straight lines and eyeballing equal spacing, awesome, go ahead and do that. I am terrible at it, though, so I measure and use a vanishing fabric pen to mark out my channels. Small channels are nice, but they are very difficult to fill. I make mine two inches apart, and I wouldn't suggest going too much smaller than that. I've done it, but it wasn't worth the effort it took to fill enough for me to want to do it again.

 Now sew your channels, again with a short straight stitch followed by a small zigzag stitch on top.

Now for rice. If you would like to scent yours, now is the time. For some of these rice packs we used clove oil, and for others I added crushed dried lavender. I've also used tea tree, nutmeg, and vanilla, and you can pretty much use whatever takes your fancy, provided you don't add too much moisture to the rice. Mix it into the rice before filling.

We use a funnel and a chopstick to fill our packs. The funnel for obvious reasons, the chopstick to get the rice moving when it jams in the funnel, and to use as a ramming device (with the wider, flat end,) to pack the rice in tight. And you do want to get it as tightly packed as you can, because, as I mentioned before, the rice will shrink and the more you can cram in, the longer your pack will last. Run your fingers down the channels to move the rice down. Leave about an inch unpacked at the ends to sew. Yes, I totally handed this job over to my husband while I worked on sewing more packs. He found it helpful to put a clip on the first channel to keep it from spilling while he filled the rest, and I am pretty sure he would have clipped all of them had he been able to find enough clips.

I forgot to take a picture of this last bit, but it is simple enough. Sew a basting stitch as close to the rice as you are able on the last side, and then do your straight / zigzag stitch routine just outside that, again, as close as possible. Pull out the basting stitch, and trim the excess off. You are done!

To use your rice pack, pop it in the microwave for about two minutes, less if you made yours small, more if you made it larger. Aside from rice pack size, the length of time you use will depend on your microwave, the age of your rice pack, and the humidity, you may find you need more or less time. It will catch fire if you put it in too long, so start at two minutes and add time in 30 seconds increments if you would like it warmer. As your rice pack ages, you may be putting it in for longer. If your rice pack stops holding heat well, give it a few lights sprays of water and it will perform better again. Microwaves with hot spots can be a problem, so if you have one, please take care and keep an eye on your pack while warming it up.

Enjoy!

Handmade Holiday: Sugar and Spice

Continuing with covering our handmade holiday this past year, (and hopefully being done soon and moving on with all the fun things we've been up to since!) we made some yummy rubs, soothing bath salts, and herbed olive oils. I made a couple of these rub sets, and I really wish I'd made some for us, too! They turned out pretty delicious, and now I am going to have to make some more.

I searched around the internet for blends that sounded tasty, and tried a few out. I used herbs from our garden and our little blade grinder to make them. I was happy to see them all come out different colours, too, made for neat little sets. These are the recipes I ended up following. They are "meat rubs", but, in reality, they are spice blends and are good sprinkled on all sorts of things, or used on tofu, and seitan, too.

All-Purpose Rub
BBQ Rub
Jamaican Jerk Rub

We bought some little spice canisters, slapped some canning labels on them, and packed them up with some basic directions on portioning and so forth.

We also used dried herbs from our garden to make a few sets of herbed olive oils. They are so, so good made with freshly dried herbs! After the response we got from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law when gifting them a set for their wedding, we thought we could spread them around a bit more. I bought empty oil jars, filled them with herbs, and topped them up with extra virgin olive oil. I tied labels around their necks telling what each bottle contained.

Oh, the labels... I just bought a large piece of cardstock that was gold on one side and silver on the other, cut one tag shape to use as a pattern, then traced and cut the rest, using a hole punch on one side.

To that sister-in-law and brother-in-law, we made "refills" for the bottles we gave them before. We put them in containers they can hopefully use in their kitchen, and included a stainless steel funnel.

I also made quite a few jars of organic bath salts. My little ones love both making the bath salts, and also the dumping into the bath and mixing it around. I was going to try to describe to you here how we make them, but I think another tutorial is in call. I know I make the basic recipe relatively the same, and mostly just change what scents we put in, but I will have to pay attention next time we make it to what those proportions actually are, and get back to you. :) We Christmased this batch up with nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and ginger until it smelled so much like gingerbread cookies that Kaia wanted to eat it, and Katalin did actually try it. (Not so great tasting, actually.)

I wrote directions for use, and the list of ingredients on the underside of the labels.

I think I can wrap of the holidays (mid-January!) in another post, maaayyybbbeee two, and then I can tell you about all the fun things I've been working on for Miss Kaia's Birthday party, in which she will be a unicorn, her friends fairies and dragons, and mushroom, rainbow, and castle decorations abound!

Handmade Holiday: Candle Sets

What? The holidays are over, you say? Okay, this may be true, but not only could I not post any of the things I made before Christmas lest one of the gift receivers see them, but I wouldn't have had time had I wanted to! So, I post them now, so they can at least be a reference for next year. And I tell you this, because this will not be the last post. :)

I made a number of little holiday candle sets for parents and siblings. I bought a great big package of clear glass votives at the craft store, and glass paint in red, green and gold.

After the glass paint dried, the kids helped me cover the outsides with Mod Podge...

...and roll them in Epsom salt. Ehem, why, yes, that is a leftover Halloween paper plate I'm using.

I found these little plastic snowflake ornaments in one of the craft boxes I was given, and mutilated them with my not-sewing-scissors. (Yes, they are labeled, I did it for the sake of my confused husband.) I touched up the cut edges with a silver paint pen, because the plastic turned out to be very dark and obvious.

I wrapped metallic silver thread around the candle where I wanted the snowflake segments to hang, and tied it off at the appropriate length. That done, I removed the circle of thread and hot glued the backs of the snowflake segments on. The easiest way I found to get them evenly spaced was to glue one over the knot first, then let it hang and glue the one opposite. Turn sideways, and repeat.

Once they were all glued on, I eased them back onto the candle. The salt holds them in place quite well. (The snowflakes in the following picture are not tied in a circle. That is because it is a picture I took before I got my system worked out. It is much easier to start and finished with them tied.)

For the gold candles, I cut cinnamon sticks in half and tied them together in pairs with raffia.

Then, with the knot to the inside, I wrapped the raffia around the candle and back again, tying it over the cinnamon sticks. You must keep both knots as tight as possible for them not to slip out. I tied a gold ribbon in a bow around the red candles.

All done! The green candles were the most time consuming, but they were not too bad once I had things worked out. I think they came out pretty cute, if I am saying so myself. Kaia wanted to bring our set up for her bath that evening. How could I say no? When it was gift giving time, she was oh-so-proud to tell everyone that she helped make them, as paint assistant, salt roller, and knot holder.

Handmade Holiday: Woodworking

The holidays are over! I have a little time to sit down and relax now. Over the last month and a half or so, every moment I could eek out has been spent on gift making. I swear again, as I do every year, next year I am going to start so much earlier! Time enough to complete projects at an easy pace, possibly even with time enough to find a few moments at the computer here and there. Now I can share the things I have been labouring over.

I had completely different plans for every child on my list up until I suddenly acquired a scroll saw. I am so excited about it! I haven't used one since... well, 6th grade shop? So it was a bit of an adventure, and very much a learning experience.

As a trial, I first cut this little tree you see above. It was 100% an experiment, just to get the hang of the saw and to try out watercolour paint on the poplar wood I was using. It is unsanded, and the entire thing, birds and apples included, I cut free-form with the saw without so much as sketching anything out on the wood. They could definitely be nicer. I used our Dremel to round out the edges, and did quite a hack job, especially around the pop-out objects. Despite all this, the toy was snatched away the moment I finally agreed it was dry, and has been played with since. This gave me hope for the toys I was actually going to try on!

For my next project, which was for my 3 year old niece, I ran with the same tree / puzzle idea and made this owl set. This time, I took the wood burner to it and added more details. I have only a wide, flat edged tip for my wood burning tool and found trying to make small marks, or most especially the circles for the eyes, very difficult. I am definitely going to find myself some different tips, but the stores I tried at didn't carry them, and I didn't have time to order anything online. So I could be happier with this set, but I still felt like it came out okay.

I followed that with a teether for her baby sister, which I made from scrap cherry. My photos do not do the wood justice, it is so, so very smooth and soft, and after I oiled it the wood positively shone.

I sewed a little leash for the teether as well, with velcro closures so that it can be used on other toys.

For one of my four year old nephews I made a space set. By this time I was better understanding how to shape the wood, and starting to have fun going to town with the wood burner. I looked at a handful of astronaut pictures, and tried to make his suit more simplified, but still reflective of the real deal. The alien has got a butt, because... come on, what little kid doesn't love a butt? My apologies for the backdrop in the following pictures, I was in quite a hurry and just grabbed a piece of fabric out of my cloth bin, I did not take the time for lint removal. ;)

My 7 year old niece was a little tricky. I'm not sure how much toy play she does anymore, so I decided to go with something that could be for either play or simply decoration. I made her a set of rainbow gnomes a couple years ago, so a stacking rainbow (I hope) can either be displayed with them, or be played with together.

It was about at this point that I realized I should be using a wood cutting tool on the Dremel to shape my figures, rather than the sanding attachments I had been using to slowly grind things down. How did I not realize this? I have no idea, but I feel rather daft. Things got easier after that, as you can imagine, and I made this unicorn for my other four year old nephew. The cutting tools I picked up made it possible to separate the ears, make a horn, narrow the nose, and give the body itself more shape, things I couldn't really do with the sanding tools.

For the unicorn's mane, I drilled a series of small holes down the back of its neck and used non-toxic wood glue and a toothpick to insert short lengths of yarn nice and deep, two of each colour. Once the glue had set, I combed through the yarn to separate out the individual strands and make it look more like hair.

For my horse loving 13 year old niece, I made a horse as closely resembling hers as I could manage. It is intended to hang on the wall. I burned her horse's name into the side, and made her mane little nubs like my niece likes to do her horse's hair up for shows. To the back, I attached hanging hardware, and two brass chains. I finished a dowel rod and screwed two hooks into it to attach to the chains, so that she would be able to use it to hang things from.

I had fun attempting to add details like hints at muscle structures, and recessing the back legs.

I finished all of the toys in non-toxic paints. For the most part I used watercolours, I love the way the grain of the wood comes through it. There are a few exceptions, such as the astronaut and some small details here and there, which I watered down acrylics for. (I had no safe "white" watercolour paint.) I sealed them all with olive oil, aside from the horse at the end here, which is not a toy and I felt safe using wood stain and sealer on.

It makes me so happy to be able to give all the children toys that I made especially for them, and I hope they are enjoyed. I enjoyed making them... At least, aside from the insane amounts of sanding, anyway! I really did warm up to working with wood though, I am so excited to have the scroll saw to use. I feel like I learned so very much in just this batch of toys, and I am really looking forward to making more... At a more leisurely pace!

Next wood project is a doll house for Miss Kaia's birthday... that will be a new experience entirely, as well, so I am keeping my fingers crossed and cutting and taping myself together a big cardboard model. More on that later, though, I still have the rest of my handmade holiday gifts to share, and plenty of time to get a doll house done. Okay, actually I have just over a month, but after everything I have crammed into the last handful of weeks, that seems like a dream! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.