Toys

I've already mentioned that Pixie has a birthday coming up and all the gifts I'm making for her have a rainbow theme. When thinking about all the little things I'll be crafting, I thought (dangerous past time, I know :) that I needed something to put them in. Back in the 80s I was really into using the upholstery cording to make all sorts of things. I haven't used it in years, so I decided, what fun! So, here are the directions for Pixie's Rainbow Coiled Rag Bowl. I'll be sharing my "stuffings" as I get them done!

Materials:
new or used light to medium weight cotton
(I bought 1 yard each of 6 rainbow colors and have tons left for other projects)
1/2" upholstery cording
(I bought 10 yards and used 9. Yardage depends on the size of the bowl you cover)
embroidery floss (2 strands) or quilting thread (needs to be heavy duty)
sturdy needle

BEFORE YOU BEGIN… IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT TACKING: As you start assembling your bowl, you will be asked to tack the cording together to form the bowl. When tacking, you must go through 2 pieces of cording; the piece already part of the bowl, and the new piece you are adding. The method I used was to go through the center of a new piece, and bring the needle out halfway through the cord below.

I would then push the needle back into the cord, close to where the thread came out, and angle my needle so it comes up through the center of the strip of the new cord that has not been tacked down yet. (Sounds much more complicated than it is. Check out the photo!)
Pull the thread tight enough so it holds the coils together but not so tight that it begins to dimple the cord. I then put a very small tack stitch where the thread came out to stop the threads from loosening up.
When tacking your bowl together, you want to keep the outside of the bowl stitch free. So as you form your bowl, think about how the next piece of coiling will be added to the bowl, and make your tack stitches so they will be hidden by the next row of cording. On my final row you will be able to see your tacks, but if you use matching thread, and evenly space your tacks, it will not detract from the finished bowl.

Directions:
Pick a bowl you want to use as a form. My bowl was 4" at the base, 8" across the top, and 5" high. Turn the bowl over so the bottom is up.

Rip your fabric in 1" strips. Again, how many strips you need depends on the size of your bowl. I needed 4 strips, 1 yard long of my purple, blue, green and 3 strips of yellow, orange and red. I suggest you rip as you go, so you only rip as many strips as you will actually use. You will also need a 2" square of the first color you use.

Begin by wrapping the end of the cording with the 2" square of fabric. I wrapped my matching embroidery floss around the outside of the fabric to hold in place before I tacked it to the cording.


Take your first color and place the end of the strip near the tip of the covered end of the cording. Pin in place. Begin wrapping the cording with a strip by wrapping on an angle, always overlapping the previous piece by 1/2". Continue wrapping the cord firmly, slightly condensing the cording as you go. Stop when you are about 3" from the end. Pin the strip to the cording so it does not untwist.

To start forming the bowl, begin coiling the covered cording, tacking as you go. (See note above about tacking.)

To add a new color, you can either sew the pieces together by simply overlapping and stitching, or you can tuck the new color under the old color by 2” – 3” and continue wrapping as if they were 1 continuous piece. The tacking and wrapping you do will hold them together, and since this is a rag bowl, some unfinished ends showing are acceptable HOWEVER, make sure any of the unfinished ends are in the inside of the bowl, not the outside, and you can trim back some of unfinished ends on the inside to “neaten up” the bowl when you are done.

To begin with, you can work on a flat surface. Periodically place your piece on the bowl bottom. When your coil is as big as the base of the bowl, continue wrapping the cord with the strips as you have been, but now, as you coil the wrapped cording, use the bowl as a form. Wrap the cord around the bowl, pinning the cording to the previous coils, on the angles the bowl is creating. Continue tacking in place as you build up your bowl.


When your bowl is as tall as you want, cut the cording. Then, taper the last 4” of the cording before wrapping it. Wrap in the same manner. The cording will diminish in height, but you should keep the width the same. Pin in place, and tack as before. You may want to put a couple of extra tacks in at the very end.

If Tim forgot our anniversary I would be far from understanding. How could you possibly forget something so important? Well, it just occurred to me that our 2nd Anniversary of Wee Folk Art was on July 29, and being knee deep in life, neither Michelle nor I remembered! Geeze! Anyway, we are a couple of days late, but wanted to acknowledge the event. It is hard to believe we've been at this for 2 years. It seems we've hardly scratched the surface of all the crafting we want to share. But we have time :)

Tradition has it that people usually have a give away on their anniversary. But before I say anything more about that, just wanted to let you know what the kids and I have been up to this past week. I just purchased a nifty little braiding disc from Magic Cabin. It is a must have for old and young alike. It is a great way to introduce children to the wonder of fibers. Using 7 strands of cotton yarn and the wooden disc, you can braid a wonderful cord which can be used for chokers, bracelets, ankle bracelets, shoe laces, headbands, drawstring cords and much, much more. And what's great, is even 3 year old Pixie can use it!

So, I bought a star braid kit for myself, but very soon the kiddos were asking to borrow it. The solution? Get 3 more. The problem... although I was willing to pay $20.00 for 1, I'm not willing to pay $80.00 for four. The solution? Make our own, of course! So, that is exactly what Tim and I set to work on yesterday afternoon. The children were over while Michelle and assorted visitors were off golfing. The children watched as their Othy cut out the wooden braiding discs. (They will be doing the sanding and finishing.) 

Fairy: Can I paint mine?
Pixie: Me, too.
Bug: Yeah, let's paint them all different!

My wooden braiding disc has a natural finish, which I really love. But, if the kids would like to paint theirs, then of course they should. The project reached a standstill when the golfers returned. There is a good chance we will not get to them again to later in the week. But when we are done, the children will get to paint theirs, and I will make a couple extra for...

Our 2nd Anniversary Give Away!

So, be a bit patient with us. Michelle has jury duty this week, I'm moving my parent's into their new condo on Friday, and the girls are in princess camp this week! Somewhere in there, we will hopefully be able to get these finished.

As soon as we do, we will have the give away, PLUS, I will be doing a tutorial on how to make your own wooden braiding disc and how to create a 7 string braid. The children can't wait to get their own. They were talking about making bracelets for Christmas gifts. Brilliant idea, right? And I can't wait to get a couple done so we can give them away on Wee Folk Art. Watch for more later in the week!  

 

The next two weeks are non stop busy. Time to put away the crafts and focus on what's important, right? Well, for me, crafting is important. And the busier I am with life, the more important crafting becomes. It's how I find balance. It gives me serenity.

That is why, at the beginning of my week, with enough on my plate to sate an elephant, I decided to make 1 more shower gift for the Little Lady. Meet Baby Doll. (Name to be given someday by her mommy!) Her body was knit from merino wool and her hair is a combination of organic cotton and bamboo. Her little sleeper was made from organic cotton flannel. She is so soft and cuddly. I know that someday the Little Lady will love her dearly :)

I don't have time to share the pattern right now, but I did want to share the Baby Doll before she left for her new home on Saturday. The doll was made using our Basic Knit Doll pattern with a few changes. I knit it in the round instead of flat, I added hair, and a face. I also made a very soft little sweet-pea sleeper. I'll be sharing the directions soon.
 
Just a note... in the past, whenever I've crafted toys, they have always been for Michelle's children. For the past several weeks, Bug, Fairy and Pixie have been watching me create things, then put them away for the Little Lady. Although they totally understand the logic behind this, it is a little difficult sharing my creations. Both girls fell in love with Baby Doll. Although they know this one is being given away, they have both made requests for dolls for their fall birthdays.

"No problem", I tell them. "What color should I make the hair?"

There are many different variations for beeswax crayons, but most use equal weight amounts of beeswax and white bar soap. This is the recipe I've used with great success over the years. How do these compare to the Soy Crayons we made several months ago? I find the beeswax crayons to be harder than the soy, giving the ability to add more details to pictures. Both are wonderful and VERY child friendly. BTW... I found out that little puppies LOVE to chew on these. Shocker, right?

BEESWAX CRAYONS

(Use equal weights of soap and beeswax.)
1 part soap, grated (inexpensive bar white bar soap)
1 part beeswax, chopped into pieces
Paste or liquid food coloring or a veggie based colorant. Note: You can use tempera paints or fresco pigments instead of food coloring for deeper colors, but they should not be ingested so they are not safe for small children.
2 cup Pyrex measuring cup or other microwave safe container
Molds – see note in directions
Veggie spray or shortening

Chop up beeswax into pieces and grate soap.

In your microwave melt soap and beeswax in Pyrex measuring cup. Caution: the liquid will be very hot! You can also melt the soap and beeswax in the top of a double boiler. Watch the mixture closely. You do not want it to boil or it will foam up putting air bubbles in your crayons. If this does happen, let it set for a couple of minutes, gently stirring to remove air bubbles. 

When the soap and beeswax have melted, carefully mix in color. I used paste food coloring. Obviously, the more you add, the more vibrant the color. I also wanted to make 4 colors so I divided the hot liquid before adding colors. Note: If using a veggie based colorant, you may have to return it to the microwave to completely melt the tart.

Lightly grease the mold you will be using to pour the liquid into. Possible molds are ice cube trays, mini muffin pans, depressions in artist clay, disposable mini paper cups, or make your own mold using foil paper.

Pour the melted mixture into your mold and allow to dry completely. Note: If the crayons have become "gloppy" and you are using an oven safe mold, pop them in a 350 oven for a few minutes to melt a bit. Be careful not to let them go too long or they will begin to foam!

Remove from mold and use!

BTW… I have had parents tell me that if you use glycerin soap the crayons will be harder. I have not tried it yet, but you may wish the experiment.

Excerpt from The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende:

Everyone in Fantastica knew what the medallion meant. It was the badge of one acting on orders from the Childlike Empress, acting in her name as though she herself were present. It was said to give the bearer mysterious powers, though no one knew exactly what these powers were. Everyone knew its name: AURYN

When Atreyu, the little boy hero, accepts the Great Quest bestowed upon him by the Childlike Empresses, a quest to save Fantastica from the Nothing, the medallion is placed around his neck.

"AURYN!" Atreyu repeated with awe. "I will be worthy of the Glory."

A couple of days ago I watched The Never Ending Story with Bug, Fairy and Pixie. They were enthralled. I promised them that the next time they were over I would begin reading them the book. Bug said, "I need a thing to put around my neck like Atreyu.

Well, of course he does! I did an Internet search to see if there were any metal ones out-and-about to purchase. There were, but all of them were pricey. So, I set about making one for him out of felt. When I gave it to him today, I know he couldn't have been more pleased if it were made out of gold. He immediately changed into what he considered appropriate attire (his Pirate Shirt Michelle made for him, although I'm thinking of actually making him an Atreyu costume), and he was more than willing to participate in a photo shoot!  Although I did make this as a medallion, if enlarged slightly, it could be used as one of our 6" applique blocks. Hope you have a little boy hero to give AURYN to! Enjoy!

Materials:
wool felt
embroidery floss
lid of wide mouth Mason jar
1mm satin cording
pattern

Make a copy of the pattern and cut out the necessary pieces. (Directions for cutting out felt can be found HERE.)

Using the pattern as a guide, place pieces on top of pattern, weaving them together following the pattern. Note: It is easier if you make 2 copies of the pattern; one to lay the pieces on and one to refer to for weaving the pieces correctly. Pin the felt together so it will not shift when you move it.

Position the snakes in the center of one of the felt circles. Pin in place. Stitch the snakes to the felt circle following the stitching lines on the pattern. Embroider eyes. (BTW... the pattern calls for a "stain stitch"... this should read "satin stitch"). Note: When cutting out the 2 large sections of the snake, you cut through the snake's body. This is necessary so you can intertwine the snakes. When sewing the snakes to the felt DO NOT sew along this edge because it is suppose to look like one continuous piece of snake. Instead, from the back side, tack this edge to the felt, making sure you do not go all the way through the snake. You do not want to see the stitching from the front but you want to make sure it lays down flat. Instead of tacking it from behind, you can put a little tab of fabric glue under this edge to hold it in place.


Lay the embroidered felt circle on top of the other. Pin in place and blanket stitch half way around the 2 circles.

Slide the wide mouth Mason jar lid between the 2 circles. This will give it body. If you do not have a wide mouth Mason jar lid, cut a circle from a rigid piece of plastic (mayo or peanut butter jar lid will work). The circle needs to be smaller than the felt circles since you need to blanket stitch around the outer edge. Finish blanket stitching around the rest of the circles.

Cut out a piece of felt 1" x 2" the same color as the felt circles.

Fold the piece of felt in thirds creating a 2" long, skinny loop. Sew a running stitch down the middle to hold the folds together.

From the front, mark the top of the medallion with a pin so you can see it from the back side.

Fold your loop in half and pin it to the back of the medallion so the top of the loop is 1/2" from the top.

Sew the loop to the medallion across the loose bottom edges and a few tacking stitches on either side near the bottom of the loop.

Cut a length of cord the desire you want. Make sure it will be able to slide over your child's head. String the cord through the loop and tie off the edges.


You are now ready to send your little boy hero on his own Quests!
 

I have some bad news to share... Last evening I was working on Part Two of Noisy Nora. I was sitting at the computer, banging away at the keyboard, my two Yorkies were curled up on my crafting table, and the two pups... soon to be 5 months old, were running in and out of the house to our enclosed deck and dog run. Pretty standard fair. Tim turned around and started chuckling.

"Oh, look. Now their playing keep-away with a dried leaf."

"Sweet", I said, absorbed in my writing.

I didn't process Tim's, "Oh no" until it was followed by, "I'm so sorry, Kim."

I stopped what I was doing, and reluctantly looked.

There, in his hand, was the leaf they were playing keep-away with. Only it wasn't a leaf... it was Noisy Nora. As a matter of fact, Father, Mum, Kate and Jack were also missing in action. We found pieces; some in the dog run, some on the deck, a random tail or ear on the family room floor, and we have to assume, the rest of the body parts were ingested!

I remained relatively calm considering I'm a woman on the edge right now. I called Michelle. She said, "Oh... you should post of picture of the decimation."

"No", I said. I would rather Noisy Nora was remembered as she was... full of life and mischief, not this broken and almost unrecognizable mass of matted alpaca fur!"

So, it seems for the time being, Noisy Nora has been silenced. Fortunately, I took pictures of the process, and I have her photos from the previous post to remind me of her and to write up the tutorial. I will get Part Two up shortly. Unfortunately, with my unbelievably busy schedule, I may not get back to remaking the mouse family until the Fall, and I can't make clothing for them until I have little mouses to model for me. If you have been waiting to do this project, at least I'll be able to have a tutorial on making the mice, sans clothing, soon.

You know how it is when you get your child's portrait taken and you must go through the agonizing decision of picking 2 or 3 cute poses out of 50?

So you ask a friend... "Which one of these 2 do you like better?"

She responds, "Oh, I thought they were the same."

"Oh, no", you protest, "See, in this one he's just breaking a smile and in this one he's just finishing a smile"!

Well, I wanted to give you a Noisy Nora progress report. I've got all 5 bodies done, with ears and noses, I just need to add arms, tails and face detail. I did finish Nora. Since I couldn't decide which picture I liked best, I included a few. They are different... really :) I've also been working on the clothing patterns for them. Hopefully, I will have Step 2 up in the next couple of days. In the meantime, let me introduce you to Naked Nora!

To begin making our little finger puppet mice for our Book Nook Book - Noisy Nora, I made 5 little bodies. Below are the directions. Before I get to that, however, I want to introduce everyone to a super cool lady and her outrageously cute alpacas! I "met" Maple of North Star Alpacas, when I first started Wee Folk Art. I am SOOOOO glad I did. I love working with alpaca roving, and Maple has the best I've ever worked with. I love how long alpaca fur is, making the roving and yarns supple and smooth and super easy to felt. She has beautiful colors and sells many of her rovings variegated. I love it! (BTW... I use the dyed alpaca roving to wrap around the branches in my gnome home to simulate foliage!)

I contacted Maple the other day after I had made the bodies. I just had to sing the praises of her roving yet again. Since I was going to feature her alpaca roving in this project, I asked her if she'd like to give our readers even more incentive to pay a visit to her Etsy shop. She generously offered for all first time customers 25% all yarns (they are gorgeous) and 15% off everything else in her shop. Trust me, you want to stock up. If you are interested in getting some great roving, don't delay. Her stock changes frequently, and if you see something you like, she might not have the same blend again. If you place an order, mention Wee Folk Art at check out and she'll Paypal you the savings as a refund. We've added her button under our Featured Sponsor so it will be easy to get to her shop.

Having said all that, time to move on to making the little mousey bodies. I used one of Maple's variegated rovings, with brown, gray and off white. So fun. Make the bodies so they reach at least below your middle knuckle, but they can be cut down later. I placed the finished bodies on pencils to dry. Make sure they dry thoroughly before you begin step 2... needle felting.
 
Materials:
roving (see comments above)

Break off about a 6" length of roving.

Pull apart the roving so it is thin.

Pull off pieces and wrap around your index finger, making sure to cover your finger tip well. It works best to always wrap in the same direction. It is better to use many very thin pieces of fiber instead of dense pieces.

Wet your finger with warm water and squirt with liquid dish soap.

Begin squeezing and rubbing your finger, agitating the fibers, to create felting. Add more soap and water as needed. 

Before long the fibers will felt. You will know it is done when the fibers feel dense, hug your finger and have an almost sticky feel to them. Rinse your finger.


Place on a pencil and dry upright. This will probably take 24 hours.

BTW... I just started needle felting faces. Here's a little peek. That will be covered in Part 2!

So, what do you think this is a picture of? Perhaps cat tail tops? Morels? Owl pellets? A cat's fur ball? No to all of the above. Actually, they are the bodies for Nora, Kate, Jack, Father and Mum from Noisy Nora.

Heeding several suggestions, I decided to make finger puppets, but I couldn't decide if I wanted to wet felt, needle felt or sew them using felt. My final decision... do all three! Figures, right? Anyway... I am sharing this project a little differently than I've shared any in the past. Generally, you do not hear about a project until I'm all done. What you don't know is there are some projects I make that aren't exactly blog worthy. Sure, some of them are close, and later I go back and tweak them to the point that I'm willing to share them, but others fall into the realm of dismal failures and I make a few mental notes and move on, never to revisit the debacle!

This project is different. As I told you at the beginning of the season, I was not going to be sharing as many crafts this summer. The gardens, family and a few non Wee Folk Art projects are claiming most of my time. Add to that a few more exciting outside projects, plus the baby shower AND moving my parents into a condo and I have about 17 minutes to myself all day :) (No complaints, BTW... this is all good stuff!) However... I don't want to go another week without sharing anything while I find time to make my Noisy Nora finger puppets, so I decided to share the project as I make it. But here's the rub... I'm not sure if they are going to turn out adorable (hey, they are in my mind's eye!) or if they'll be one of those dismal failures I mentioned, that you aren't suppose to know about.

So, there you have it. I'm inviting you into the whole creative process. Hopefully, at the end, we'll have something wonderful. But, in the event we don't... you can give me sympathetic words :) Oh, yes. I also have an old Internet friend to introduce you to, and she has a special offer for all our readers. More about that in the first part of the project... felting the bodies. Keep your fingers crossed this all turns out well! 

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At Wee Folk Art we strive to create designs that are natural, beautiful and safe for children to play with. But if we had to pick one of those attributes, hands down, it would be safety first! Have you ever wondered if something was safe for your baby to play with? Of course you have. And if you are like most parents, you always error on the side of caution. As I'm busy putting together a list of things I want to make or buy for Meghan and Drew's "Little Lady", due September 25, one of the first things I thought of was a No-Choke Testing Tube. There was nothing like this available when my children were young, at least not that I was aware of, but later, when I ran a preschool, they were in every room. 

It occurred to me, that many mothers may not know of their existence, so I wanted to take a minute to share them with all of you.

This little device is known as a No-Choke Testing Tube. It simulates a baby's (children 3 and under) throat. When an object is inserted in the tube, if it extends beyond the top of the tube, it is safe for a baby.

If it fits inside the tube, it is not. (Although in the picture below the Flower Bud gnome extends slightly above the top of the tube, it is close enough that I would not give this to a baby.)

Of course, you still need to use common sense. Even if the object extends beyond the top of the tube, if anything on the object has something that can be chewed off, it can still be a choking hazard.

So, how much would you expect to pay for this potentially life saving little test? How does $1.99 sound? That's right. Order one for yourself today and one for everyone you know with little children. Of course, we can pretty much judge for ourselves, but I was surprised to find that a few of the toys that I thought were safe slipped easily into the tube.

There are several different sites where you can find these. I bought mine from Toys To Grow On. 

FYI... there are many things we craft for our gnome house that are NOT safe for children under 3. And remember... this is a guideline for choke potential. You may have older children that still put things in their mouths. The age that you share small toys with even older children depends on their maturity.