Wool Eggs... Hatched!

Oh, my! The egg started cracking about a week ago. And, then...

Cheep! Cheep! This chicky was joyfully discovered after he hatched and has been out of his egg and traveling in pockets, so his face is a little smooshed right now, but still so cute. He lives on our nature table.

Dying Polyester?

My dad and a bunch of his buddies are celebrating their 60th birthdays this year. So, we just had a big bash for them that had a 60's theme.

--Enter me, offering to help with something I wasn't really experienced in.--

I tie-dyed something once about 15 years ago. So, I figured it was safe to volunteer to tie-dye 50ish napkins for the party. I already had a bunch of polyester (blend?) napkins that had been discarded by a hotel and given to me by a former student's grandma who cleaned said hotel.

After attempting to dye the napkins twice, with two different brands of dye that was supposed to work on polyester, I thought perhaps the napkins had been treated with something to resist stains. I was ready to give up, when I discovered that iDye has a polyester formulation. The Sewing Dork had shown beautiful results with iDye, so I thought Okay, one more try...

Ta-da! It worked! I will forever be an iDye fan.

Put your family on the wall.

I hate to admit this was a last-minute wedding gift... I should really consider changing my blog's name to "The Master Procrastinator", though I'm sure it's already taken by a kindred spirit.

I got J involved in this one by asking him (at dinner the night before the wedding... yes, really) to cut a piece of wood for me. After telling him of my gift-making plans for the evening, I believe his exact words were, with eyebrows raised, "Are you serious?" He was pleased to find in the garage not only a scrap piece of wood already cut in the dimensions I asked for, but also a belt sander to quickly accomplish my request of sanding all of the edges.

The next steps were for me to apply the base color, the crackle medium, the top color, paint on the lettering, and paint on the varnish. No, it did not happen that quickly. There was a lot of drying time in between each of those steps. It was a bit of a long night, but I got my craft on so it was worth it. Here's the finished gift (If I ever finish a project in the daylight hours, I will have a non-crappy photo to share with you. Please, don't hold your breath.):

Though it is laying on a rug in this photo, it is intended to hang on the wall. The newlyweds' home features black and red accessories (as discovered on their registries), so I think I am safe with the colors I chose (red base coat, black crackle on top). I hope they have a white wall on which to hang this, as I think that would look smashing. I am so happy with this, that I plan to make one for our wall, too. Some day night...

May Day Baskets--All Finished and Filled!

Last week, I started my students on a May Day basket project. Today we finished our baskets and filled them with paper flowers.

Cute, huh?!

To make the flowers is simple. If you ever helped make a float for high school homecoming, 4th of July parade, or something like that, do what you did then. If you never did any of those things, do this:

Take 4 squares of tissue paper.

The squares can be any size, really, but ours were about 4" square. Stack them neatly and fold them accordian-style.

Tie a pipe cleaner in the middle of the paper accordian.

Gently pull each piece of tissue to the center and then fluff to your liking.

See? Easy!
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Earth Day May Day Baskets

Being the me that I am, I had to figure out something to do with my students to celebrate Earth Day today. My lesson plans for the day quickly evaporated, as one thing led to another (as is often the case). But, I still managed to pull this one off. The project is not finished, as we did not have a long enough chunk of time, but we got to talk about the good Earthy stuff on Earth Day, so I consider it a success in progress.

We started making baskets for May Day.

I've been collecting used strawberry baskets as I use/find them. And, we have a nice cubby filled with scratch paper. So, we reused those two items to begin our May Day basket-making, and had a brief lesson in reuse, as well as doorbell ditching etiquitte. It took me back to 20ish years ago when my sister and I would make May Day baskets, fill them with Spring flowery goodness, ring the bell of an unsuspecting well-loved neighbor, set the basket on the porch, and run... Good stuff.

And, you can do it with your kiddos, too. You just need colored paper that has already lived a good, used life (remember, we're talking reuse here), scissors, and a strawberry basket.

Cut strips of paper that will fit through the spaces on the sides of the basket, and weave them in and out.

Keep doing this until your basket is completely decorated. I do not have any pictures to show you for this. Not sure if we'll have time to tackle finishing these tomorrow. We'll see. They will be finished by next Thursday, for sure, and I will post the finished product pictures. Here's what is sitting in my classroom right now; come back on Thursday for the finished basket pics!

Welcome, Spring!

I felt the need to welcome Spring in an "everlasting" sort of way, that everyone who visits our home can enjoy. Grandma gave me a wreath form (not grapevine, but some other sort of sticks woven together), so I used that as my starting point....

Gathered some tissue paper, Mod Podge, ribbon, and two paint brushes (so Little Munch could make a spring craft of her own--GOBS of Mod Podge were used, so it's still drying and I can't share pictures of her final product yet, but here she is in action)...

Voila! Welcome, Spring!

The butterflies are from my wedding bouquet.... I knew I would need them for something someday!!! This wreath is still missing something... I think I will add some flowers for the butterflies to enjoy.