Month: August 2020

summer craft camp.

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As a kid, I don’t recall going to summer camp, so I created my own! This week I hosted my first Summer Craft Camp via my craft biz. We focused on macramé and created three projects: feathers, trivets, and plant hangers. I also made limited edition Summer Craft Camp pennants (as seen in the cover photo). So excite! First up was macramé feathers! I saw these trending on the interwebs a while back and was determined to figure out the perfect recipe to create the fluffy feathered look. This has been on my teaching wishlist for a while now, and I’m happy I finally got to share! Why it brings so much delight, I’m not quite sure, but they make for lovely wall hangings. You can find my complete macramé feathers tutorial here. Then, macramé trivets! I wanted to create a project that was beautiful but also functional and came up with this trivet design, made completely of square knots. I love them so much they might end up in all my Christmas gift bags …

matcha.

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Earlier in the summer I attended a virtual spa night with Yelp Indy and Saidah of Shea Body Works. Saidah taught us how to create body scrubs and face masks out of common kitchen basics. As you can see from the screenshot, I didn’t participate live, but I was fully excited to learn all the things! Sharing my face mask experience today… All you need for a quick spa is: 1 tsp matcha (get the good stuff!) 1/2 tsp honey 1/2 tbs hot water a mug or small bowl cotton round/ball or mask brush spoon or small whisk Mix all of the ingredients. It will look a little soupy. Apply to face (and neck!) with cotton round/ball or mask brush, rub it in, and allow to sit for ten minutes. Rinse off with lukewarm water and allow to air dry or pat dry with a facecloth. Not so fun fact: The neck ages faster than the face. Protip: Anything you do to care for your face, you should also do to your neck! Saidah recommends …

flower garden crowns.

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I taught an expanded version of my felt flower crown workshop earlier this month. It was a special class because it was the first time in Feed the Fish co history that my Mommy and Niece were able to attend one of my events. They live in Southern California and all of my events so far have been in Northern California. Yay for virtual crafting! For this class I picked out a Boho Garden color palette from Benzie Design. It is by far my favorite color palette of felt. If you haven’t already discovered Benzie Design, here is your introduction. It’s like the butter of felt in all the dreamy colors. This was the sample I made for class, as modeled by Panda. See all these floral beauties in their floral beauties! Plus some sweet sentiments. I’m so happy everyone enjoyed class! My friend was inspired to create local flowers for her crown! If I could, I would make grand flower crowns all day. Felt flower crowns for all!

fluffy door thing.

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I made a fluffy thing! Ever since my Pom Pom Along last month, I’ve been busy creating lots of poms for a fluffy wall art piece. For this craft I gathered: Tassel and pom pom tool. I use the Loome XL Model tool for most of my tassel and pom pom projects. Alternatively, you can use a sturdy piece of cardboard in the same fashion. Yarn for pom poms. I used 5 rolls of medium weight yarn. How much you’ll need will depend on how many pom poms you want to make, how puffy they will be, and how much surface area you need to cover. A general rule of thumb is to have between 40-60 yards of yarn per pom pom. You can obviously use less/more depending how full you want your pom poms to be. Yarn for tassels . This can be a different yarn. I used hand-dyed yarn that I got on one of my yarn adventures. Again, the amount will vary on how many tassels you want to make and how …

you want it, you got it.

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More custom requests for my crafty biz keeping me busy this summer! Mask Up My crafty friend Vince ordered custom letters in Barnum font for his mask project. Excited to see these pop up in his mask photoshoots. A Trio of Lovelies My friend Angel dreamed up this trio with fancy fonts and added tassels. This has got to be my favorite order of pennants ever. Big Bro / Lil Bro Name pennants for the big bro and the lil bro. A cute idea for a growing fam! Fundraiser Pennants I felt (hehe, felt) like I should use my craft skills for some craftivism. All sales from any custom persist, love, or vote pennants will be donated to Black Lives Matter and ACLU. Unite! I made this Unite pennant with a trio of fists and it gained traction on Instagram, so I decided to sell them with half of sales going to The Conscious Kid. Off to Grad School My public health friend ordered these goodies for one of her staffers at the HPV Impact …

cardboard loom.

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I taught a weaving class with Craft Buzz back in May and we created cardboard looms. Since I haven’t restocked my acrylic looms in a while I thought I’d share the how-to for this simple, find-materials-at-home DIY, plus some weaving reference videos, so you can get weaving, too. All you need to create a cardboard loom: A piece of sturdy cardboard. The larger the cardboard, the larger you can make your weaving. The one I used is about 9 inches x 10 inches. A ruler Pencil/pen Scissors I like to leave 1-inch margins on the left and right sides of the cardboard (so I have cardboard to hold as I weave). Between the margins, mark every 1/4 inch at the top and bottom of the cardboard. Cut ~1/2 inch slits at each mark, at the top and bottom of your cardboard. That’s it! Prep and weave as you would on a wooden/acrylic/bamboo loom. For a quick weaving tutorial, view my short videos: Setting up your loom Tabby (basic) stitch Rya (tassels) Tabby stitch variations Finishing …

missing you.

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File these milk cartons under things I didn’t need but wanted to craft with. They are so cute! Also file these under pandemic crafts – I’m making Missing You milk cartons to send to friends. For this craft you will need: Milk cartons. You can purchase cartons precut and prescored with attached adhesive strips, or create your own with a template. I purchased mine from Impressed Cards, but I don’t see them on their website anymore. You can find similar ones at Michaels. Markers in a variety of colors Photos of your friends, preferably with you so it’s less weird (more on that later) Adhesive, if needed. I recommend glue tape or double sided tape. Treats to place inside the milk carton. Prepackaged snack packs work great, especially if you will ship them. How to: Add a photo: Maybe this craft is a little strange to be modeled after those missing kids milk cartons, but it cute. Also, I feel like it’s less creepy (and less like your friend is actually missing 🙈) if you …

sensory bins.

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My friend Robin of Messy Play Kits asked me to create a few felt pieces for her new sensory bin kits. Eee, I love making cute things like these in bulk because they are fun to photograph. I made three shapes — Picnic Baskets I made 50 picnic baskets for her Picnic Sensory Bin. The original design was a 3-inch cube, but we made it even smaller (2-inch cube) for extra cuteness. Somehow, they fit perfectly in this box for shipping out to Robin. Each sensory bin includes one of five picnic basket colors. I might need to make these as little treat bins moving forward. Suns and Rainbows I made 50 suns and 50 rainbows for her Weather Sensory Bin. An additional 50 suns will be used for an upcoming bin — can you guess what the theme will be? Thank you to Robin for inviting me to collaborate on these projects! It’s so fun to see all the kits she comes up with; her ideas keep on flowing and keep the littles (and …

mini leather.

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My friend Laura (of @laurabsewin) sent me a leather pouch kit. Omg yes. Ever since my class with Tilt Leather, I’m up for any leather hand sewing project. It was fun to refresh on a stitch I learned in class. The pouch kit came with a piece of precut leather complete with punched holes and a snap, thread, and needles. It arrived flat, so when I clasped it together I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was a bear pouch! So. Cute. I used a saddle stitch for the pouch, sewing with two needles from the top of the pouch to the bottom. Once I reached the bottom, I did a few backstitches, then knotted the thread in the back of the pouch. I sewed the thread back through to the front and to the back one hole to hide the lose ends, then trimmed. Bear! 🙂 Now, what to keep in this cute lil pouch? What fun crafty projects have you been working on lately? Share below!

diy kits.

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Some of my ‘vending at craft shows’ energy has been put into creating DIY kits for easy gifting and crafting. In all my years of designing workshops, I had yet to design a kit! I have released three new kits since April and I’m so excited for all of them. Check them out and tell me what you think! #1 Aloha Felt Flower Clips First to launch were my Aloha Felt Flower Clips. These were very much inspired by my hula days. I loved all of the floral and leafy head pieces I got to wear during performances. These are a great everyday alternative to my felt flower crowns, and it makes for a simple, quick, fun, and beautiful DIY. I had blue bags in my packaging stash so I designed the kit to fit the bags. I developed step by step instructions, and figured out how to create a compact felt stack both to fit the bag and to allow for lots of color options for the clips. Packaging everything up is definitely my …