Happy Accident Baskets

Sometimes best the best kind of crafting comes from happy accidents.  My friend Sian gave me a bag of yarn, a pattern and a request to "Make me a slouchy hat, please."

I tried.

I tried a different pattern.

I tried again.

But everything I created ended up looking more like a firm felt frisbee than a slack and slouchy beret.

So I decided to do a little research on the yarn and found that Bernat has changed their Softee Chunky yarn which is what the pattern called for.  Sian had purchased the new Softee Chunky.  The pattern was written using the old Softee Chunky.

Now it's a REALLY chunky yarn.  (And really soft, too.)

So, as the weather got a bit warmer and a hat seemed like a bit less of a necessary accessory, I decided to take a chance and make Sian a crocheted basket instead.

Three baskets actually.  I kept on crocheting until the yarn ran out.  The chunky yarn provides a surprising amount of structure.  Full disclosure: I loved these so much that I almost kept them for myself!  But I had a inkling that Sian would love them.  (She does!)

I think I would call these S, L and XL-sized.  If I had more yarn, there would be a medium one, too. But I will definitely be making more, and writing a pattern, too!

Close-up of the handles.

South Africa Souvenirs

This summer we traveled to South Africa.  I found a few greeting cards made by a local artist using recycled objects and thought they would make a great souvenir.  Ranging from 35 to 50 Rand each (between $4 and $6 Canadian) these were a thrifty purchase.  They were small and flat and easy to pack in my suitcase, too!

I knew from the start that I wanted to frame and hang them, but I had a little trouble because the cards were a bit 3D and I quickly realized that they weren't sized to any standard North American frame.

The solution was to purchase some "adjustable depth" frames from Michaels.  These provided some addition space between the card and the glass.

They're actually a really neat idea: just pile as many mini frames behind/in front of the piece of art as you like and get the depth you need.

I mounted each card on burlap printed scrapbooking paper trimmed to fit.

Right now the pictures are hanging in our 1970s rec room,  ready to be the inspiration for a modern makeover to that floor of the house.  I'm so very pleased with their cuteness and originality.

Mug Shots

I kept seeing this little craft on Pinterest, and after my sister-in-law tried it, I just had to see for myself how it worked.

We have had a run of bad luck with breaking dishes lately.  More specifically, we're busting more mugs than a punch-drunk boxer.  So I decided to get Dan some coffee cups for Christmas.  I love it when a gift can be practical and personal at the same time.

I like to drink from soup-bowl sized vessels, but Dan prefers small cups that he can refill so the coffee stays hot.  I found two cute little cappuccino cups in the housewares section at Zehr's (a local grocery store) for $3.00 each.

A few minutes with a Sharpie marker and a half-hour in the oven at 350 degrees produced these:

I was too excited to wait until Christmas with all of the presents under our tree, so I've been getting Dan to open a gift a day for a while now!

I sense a coffee date on the couch in our near future.

Name This Pattern!

Hello!?  What is this strange creature ambling across my deck boards?

Straight from the so-bizarre-it's-cute category, here is the hat I made last week with some leftover scraps.

The puff stitch is a good one to know.  It's so easy, too: if you're crocheting dc's, use tc's for your puff stitch.  Just start making multiple stitches in the same dc from the row below and it'll start puffing out for you.

The basic pattern here is 4dc, 4tc in the next dc, repeated around and around and around.  It's that easy!  I will post a pattern once I find out how it fits the baby I made it for.

The hat is currently on its way to its recipient, along with a larger project.  I'll post the other project once I'm sure the giftees have seen it first.

But for now, this hat needs a clever name.  Any great ideas?  Submit them by leaving a comment below.

I'm sharing this post at several of the link parties featured on the right-hand-side of my blog.

Table Upgrade

Today was Spraypaint Saturday 2012.  (You didn't know it was Spraypaint Saturday?  Oh, don't worry: neither did I until the whim struck mid-afternoon!)  I had 4 projects on the go.  Take a look at project number one.

The biggest project of the day was an IKEA table upgrade.  A before shot would have been a good idea, but I guess I missed that step.  This came from Dan's bachelor pad: can you guess why it had been relegated to the basement storage room?

No, he's not a hobbyist butcher or anything.  It's a combination of tea and black cherry juice stains.  Pretty gross.

Step One was to sand the table top.  The stains were significantly reduced with some 100-grit sandpaper (leftover from my ongoing dresser redo) and then I wiped down the table with a damp, dish-soapy rag.

Step Two was to give the table a skirt, made of newspaper and painter's tape.  I had fun reading the sale flyers while I made the skirt (they only arrived this morning; there are some good deals at Shoppers Drug Mart this week, by the way).

I got smart this time and saved what's left of our sunburned lawn with plastic drop sheet.

Step Three was to prime the table top.  This was my first time using a spray-on primer.  It is surprisingly messy stuff!

Now, the original plan was to paint the tabletop with the leftover Peacock Blue cabinet paint, but when I read the labels on the spray cans and realized that I could spray over top of the primer after only 20 minutes, well...I grabbed some leftover black paint and made quick work of it.

Ta da!  My sophisticated, stain-free table is complete.  This is the start of the craft corner set-up in our rec room.

What is that black thing on the left?  It's Project Number Two, which should be dry enough to hang and share tomorrow.

Project Cost:

$0.00 for a table from the furnace room

$5.00 for a can of primer

$4.00 for 2/3 can of black spray paint

$2.00 for the drop cloth

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$11.00 craft table!  Hooray!

Go Your Own Way Easter Art

I work well with deadlines: the fact that Easter weekend is almost here was excellent motivation to complete a little craft project after school today.  These ten little woodcut bunnies were a dollar store find and I've been holding on to them since February.  Full directions are included below.

1.  Gather your materials: a picture frame, some scrapbooking paper, bunny cut-outs, glue tape, and a paper trimmer.  (Oh, and some ribbon, but that was an afterthought, so it didn't make the pre-craft photo!)

2.  Play around with colour combinations.  (I did like the purple bunnies on orange, but I wanted some kind of funky print.)

Crafting by lamplight.  It was dark by the time I got around to taking a photo!

3.  Trim a sheet of scrapbooking paper to 8x10 and place it in the frame.  (In true notMartha style,  I managed to break a nail and cut a finger while pulling apart the picture frame.  I learned that hubby's diabetic test strips make great little tools for folding back those pesky tabs on the back of picture frames without any damage to my finger!)  Use glue tape (or double-sided tape, or glue gun) to stick the bunnies right to the glass of the picture frame.  The geometric print paper made it very easy to line the bunnies up.

4.  I had to add a little non-conformist bunny in the corner...and give him a bright yellow bow to help him express his individuality.

How Much Did It Cost?

$2.00 for the frame

$1.00 for the bunnies

$0.00 for the glue tape, ribbon and scrapbooking paper from my stash

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$3.00 (A Happy Easter, indeed.)

Shared on Someday Crafts, Our Delightful Home, Somewhat Simple, These Peas Taste Funny, A Diamond In The Stuff and Not Just A Housewife.

Pinned It, Made It: Ruffly Flower

Since I'm home with time to blog every day this week, I was looking for a quick and easy project to finish in a day.  Inspired by my recent jewelry acquisitions, I decided to try this flower from sew ritzy-titzy.  (Follow that link for a great tutorial with photos at every step.)

Red, ruffly and waiting to be pinned on. :)

I made this flower using just shy of one 50g ball of crochet cotton and an H hook from my collection that's a little on the small side.  (I started to fret as I neared the end of the ball of yarn, but there was just enough to make this a one-skein project!)  This made a flower that's about 15-20 cm in diameter (BIG and floufy).

There was enough scrap left over to make four of these teeny tiny flowers using my favourite pattern from Lucy @ Attic 24.  I keep making these little flowers from scraps and then leaving them...well, I'm not sure where I'm leaving them.  In the bottoms of project bags, perhaps?  Yesterday I got smart and started collecting them in this vintage canning jar.  Hopefully I'll find the others before I forget about the jar!  The ultimate goal is to string them together as a garland.

Contained beauty.

Make: Tea Towel Holders

We're trying out something new in our kitchen this week: crochet tea towel holders that aren't actually attached to the tea towel!  I found this idea over at Simply Crochet and it seemed like a great one because:

1. This doesn't involve crocheting a topper for every single tea towel in my collection.
2. Any old tea towel will work--not just those with "crochetable" tops. (How do you like my new word, there?)
3. These take a very small amount of yarn and time to create.  (Who doesn't like a quick project?)

The brilliant part of this simple pattern: it uses a ponytail holder to make a stretchy ring.  I added a round of sc to clean up the edges, but it turns out that the pattern's creator was feeling the same vibe on the same day, because she added this update to her tutorial this weekend.  The full tutorial is available at Simply Crochet.  Do check it out.

Yarn: Lily Sugar 'n Cream Worsted Weight Cotton

Cost of this project:

-approx. 50 cents worth of yarn

-2 cents for an "ouchless" ponytail holder

-50 cents for a button.

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$1.02.  Nice!

Shared on Craft-o-Maniac and The Crochet Way.

Pinterest Make: Yarnwrapped Monogram

I am still in love with Pinterest.  It's the best of browsing the web and flipping through magazines, all in one (free!) spot.  Mostly, my Pinterest boards are full of dreams and somedays, but this weekend I used one of the ideas for a wedding shower gift.  The mission: give your letter a sweater.

One ball of yarn (Hello, Vanna!), a large wooden letter, and a glue gun is all you need for this project.

Wrap the tricky bits first.  (Thankfully, a J doesn't have too many tricky bits.)

Squeeze out a bit of glue, every so often (on the backside) and keep wrapping tightly.

Finished letters look good on bookshelves!  Hopefully the soon-to-be Mrs., Mrs., Mrs., Mrs. Jones....Mrs. Jones will find a good place for it in her new home. :)

There you have it!  In 15 minutes or less, you could have one, too.