Toys

A few days ago I shared a little Black Eyed Susan flower that I made with felt and a wooden peg. When you pushed the petals down, you discovered a little flower fairy. I began thinking about other flowers, focusing on the petal shapes. I came up with 4 different shapes, keeping the necks the same size on all of them. I'll share some of the flowers I made, but the sky is the limit! Look at your favorite flowers, pick the petal that comes the closest, and before you know it, you'll have a bed of your "bestest" favorites :) Or, throw caution to the wind, get wild and crazy, and mix and match petals and colors, to create unique fantasy flowers. The choice is yours. For now, let's get started and learn the basics.

Materials:
wooden pegs - 7/8"x 2 3/8"

Make a copy of the pattern found HERE.

Begin by painting the body of the peg green. MAKE SURE TO USE CHILD SAFE PAINTS.

Paint the heads the color to match the flower you are making.

Pick your petal shape and cut out 8 petals in the desired color. You can make the petals all the same colors, or multiple colors for variations. You can even cut out 1 or 2 petals in green to represent leaves.

Many flowers have ridges or scallops on the outer edge of their petals. You can cut saw teeth or scallops at the edge of the petals.

Using quilting thread or 2 strands of matching floss, starting at the edge of the first petal, sew a running stitch to the middle of the neck.

Take the next petal, and overlap the first, and continue the running stitch sewing the two together. Stop at the middle of the second neck.

Continue adding petals in this overlapping fashion until all 8 petals have been adding, stopping in the middle of the 8th petal. IMPORTANT: when making your running stitch, make sure you do not overlap the stitches. You will need to pull the thread to gather around the wooden peg's neck.


To join the petals to the wooden peg, wrap your petals around the neck of the peg, overlapping the 1st petal over the 8th. Sew a couple more running stitches connecting the petals.

Pull firmly on the thread until it is tight around the neck. Tie off.

Work the thread in and out of the petals a couple of times to hide the end of the thread, and clip the thread close to the petals.

Using a fine tipped, permanent marker, add a face and some "seeding looking" designs to represent both hair and seeds. Using paint, add a touch of pink for checks.

Here are the flowers I made... loosely based on real flowers :)

Petal A - Black Eyed Susan. Might also be used for dahlias, cone flowers, chrysanthemums, leaves etc.

Petal B - Poinsettia. Might also be used for irises, ruffled tulips, leaves, etc.

Petal C - Poppy. Might also be used for tulips, peonies, violets (scallop the edge), etc.

Petal D - Chicory - Might also be used for daisies, asters, coreopsis, etc.

Where can your imagination take these flowers? Have fun creating your own flower bed.

When I was a little girl, I fell in love with Black Eyed Susans. They weren't flowers in my mother's garden, but rather they grew wild in the park by our house. I was intrigued by how alike and how different they were from daisies, another favorite. Once I had a garden of my own, I filled it with Black Eyed Susans. Who knew I would spend the next 3 decades in a love/hate relationship with the flower! I still love them, but I'm always battling them to keep them under control (They can be so pushy :)

Anyway... this year, like all of my plants, my poor Black Eyed Susans are looking a bit frumpy from the heat. It got me to thinking, and before long, I decided to make some playful Black Eyed Susans for inside. I have visions of surrounding the gnome house with flowers!
Of course, who wants flowers around your gnome house unless they have personality? So, you simply push the petals down and...

tah dah... meet our newest little flower fairy. We will be sharing the pattern later in the week, hopefully with some variations to chose from!

What flower is a "must have" in your garden?

It's summer... time for camping under the moon and stars. Whether you throw a sleeping bag on the grass in the backyard or trek into the wilderness, there is nothing like lying on your back, on a clear night, and looking up at the wondrous night sky.

Naturally, our gnomes also enjoy star gazing. Here are our latest gnomes and there sleeping bag, perfect for a night under a blanket of stars and the moon!

To complete this project, you are going to need to do a little scavenger hunt through our site. You will need:

The Waldorf Inspired Gnomes found HERE.

The basic Sleeping Bag Directions found HERE.

The directions for how to make the woven stars found HERE.

And the actual pattern for THIS sleeping bag found HERE.

And, in the event you want to set up your own campfire scene you will need:

The campfire found HERE.

The felt trees found HERE.

And the mushrooms found HERE.

Okay... I think that is everything :)  To embellish your gnomes, simply add some woven stars on their hats and capes before you sew them together. And for all of you that accuse me of flawless crafting... just know I make mistakes ALL the time. I'm just a master of covering them up. For example, when appliqueing the moon and stars on the blanket of the sleeping bag, I appliqued them on sideways by mistake. So, when you look at the pattern, it will look wrong. I meant to do it like the pattern, but after spending the time, I was not going to go back and redo the silly thing. So, I left it. And, if anyone in the future questions the look of the moon, I'll just tell them I was striving to create a lunar eclipse!

NOTE: On the pattern you will also find an applique to make a sunny sky sleeping bag. I was going to make both and ran out of time. If you would like to make one, and the design on your pattern is too light, I simply took our Sunburst Applique Block and reduced it to 40%.

On a completely different topic... you guys will be on your own for the next 10 days as Michelle's family and mine are vacationing. Although we will have access to computers, we will only be using them to check-up on things from time to time. If you need to talk with us, best way to contact us is through email at weefolkart@yahoo.com. We will be checking emails daily. So, have a wonderful week, and if you are really missing us, great time to thumb through past posts and projects. BTW... if you ever find a mistake, i.e., a broken link or an incorrect photo, please email us with the link and problem. We would really appreciate it. We will see everyone back here on Monday, July 18. We well :)

Anyone who knows me well, knows I NEVER make "just enough" food for dinner. When I make chicken soup, you would think I planned to feed the villagers... and, in fact, sometimes I do :) But here is my philosophy... it really doesn't take that much more time to make a pot of soup for 20 as it does for 6. Then, after we have dinner, and eaten to sate our appetites, I'm on easy street for the next few days. I now have enough cooked chicken to make chicken casserole, chicken cacciatore, chicken salad sandwiches, and... well, you catch my drift. And, I have something on hand to feed unexpected visitors AND the expected wee ones that grace my table on a regular basis. Some people might look at my dinner table and say "excessive". I look at it and say "brilliant" :)

Well... I have basically the same philosophy when it comes to designing and crafts. Why make a design you will only use once? If you put the time into designing something you like, look for other ways to make use of the design. Just makes sense! Example: take our basic gnome design. We've put that puppy through the paces. It's been featured in felt, woven fabric, wooden pegs, cut wood, and yarn. Today, I'm adding paper.

I had a copy of the pattern that I had used to make the Old World Wooden Gnomes sitting on my desk. While on the phone, I was doing my ubiquitous doodling. I colored the little gnome, when I thought, Hey, this would make a cute bookmark. So, I simply blew the design up 200%, and wah lah, a pattern for a bookmark. 

You can make the bookmarks out of heavy cardstock and color with pencils or markers. (You could you crayons but you do run the risk of smearing wax on your book.) I chose instead to do mine on 140 lb. watercolor paper. One 9" x 12" sheet will make 5 bookmarks if you lay them out close together. I then used watercolor pencils to color the gnomes, and then used water to paint over them. You could also use regular water colors. Here are the simple directions, using watercolor paper and watercolor pencils.

Make a copy of the pattern found HERE. Cover the pattern with packing tape and cut out the front and back pieces. The tape will make the gnome firm, making it easier to trace. And you can then use them as templates over and over again.

Trace on the FRONT of the watercolor paper. Note: It is very important to trace on the front of the paper... the bumpy side. This side will give the best results when you watercolor, and since you will be looking at the front more than the back, make the front side the nicest :) You should be able to get 5 gnomes per page if you place them close together and flip flop them, top, bottom, top, bottom, top.

Cut out the bookmarks. 

On the back side of your pattern pieces, rub pencil lead on the lines. Tip: hold the patterns against a sunlit window to see the designs through the paper.

Place the front template on top of the front side of the bookmark. Using a ball point pen or blunt, pointy object (knitting needles work great) trace the lines of the pattern. When you remove the template, there will be a light marking of the pattern on the bookmarker. These were made from the pencil lead you rubbed on back of the pattern. Do the same to the back of the bookmark.

Using a fine tipped, water proof marker, copy over the tracing lines. Do this to the front and back of the bookmark. Make sure the sign and date the back of the bookmark :) Then proceed to color the bookmark, front and back, using watercolor pencils. Use darker colors to highlight the design.



Then, using a brush and water, "paint" the bookmark, front and back.

To prevent the bookmark from curling, when the bookmark is partially dry, I place it between 2 pieces of clean paper and weight it down, and let them finish drying.

If you would like, you can cover the front and back of the bookmark with clear contact paper to make it more durable. I personally prefer to leave it natural.

Now, go find a good book, and get reading!

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The other day I shared our latest gnomes... the Old World Wooden Gnomes. In the past we've made Peg Gnomes, Knit Gnomes, Sewn Baby Gnome Dolls, and Michelle even designed Gnome Pillow Panels that you can buy from Spoonflower to sew and stuff. So, it only seems natural that we would eventually have gotten around to making wooden gnomes :)

NOTE: For general instructions on how to cut out wood, prepare it for finishing, then painting, and finishing, including the beeswax and olive oil finish recipe, check out the post HERE.

I made these from 1" ash, but you can use any medium or hardwood. Click here to download the Old World Wooden Gnome pattern. Begin by cutting the gnomes out of wood. As you will notice, they aren't perfect. The saw blade had a mind of its own, but that's okay. Even the wonky ones turned out cute :)

Although I've been working with wood for the past couple of years, and not nearly as often as I should to advance my skills significantly, I tried something new this project. I finally used the wood burner Michelle gave me for Christmas.

Trust me when I tell you I'm new to wood burning. So new I couldn't even figure how to get the tips off so I just used the one it came with! (BTW... I figured it out AFTER I was done with the project :) 

I transferred the pattern for wood burning to the wood using a pencil.



I then practiced on scrap wood. Yikes! Not as easy as I thought it was going to be!

I moved on to the "real thing" and wood burned the pieces. I did not do a perfect job, but I was reasonably certain... or at least hopeful, that it wouldn't matter when they were all done :)


When I was done wood burning the pieces, I erased the marks, then proceeded to painting.

As usual, I mixed up milk paints, and painted each a bit different. It was amazing how the burned lines made it easier to paint... the secret to "staying in the lines".


When they were dried, I finished them with my beeswax/olive oil.

They have such an Old World look to them. The wee ones pounced on them when they came over. I know I will be making a whole village!

REMEMBER: For general instructions on how to cut out wood, prepare it for finishing, then painting, and finishing, including the beeswax and olive oil finish recipe, check out the post HERE.

The actual pattern can be found HERE.

Hope you have fun and populate your house with a bunch of gnomie friends :)