Category Archives: Other crafts

Apr7

MCAL part #2

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MCAL part #2

It’s been a fun week. I had a craft fair last Saturday that kept me pretty busy tagging and setting up. My dad made me some awesome shelves to display my stuff. Due to work, my husband stained them.

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Now I have to make bags to protect the dulcimers my dad has been making as payment. That’s my plan for tomorrow afternoon. My daughter decided it was fun to be the Easter Bunny. She had a great time in that suit and even posed for a picture with her dad.

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Seriously, she’s 14, posing with dad is her least favorite thing. At least the rabbit ears make her taller than him.

I also decided to play with resin to make some necklaces/keychains.

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Sadly, the resin for the first set of ten refused to harden. I hate it when the resin gets all soupy. Thankfully, my second set of ten was perfect and order was restored to my world.

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I also got this book from the library.

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I can’t stop myself. I have made the flamingo, the camel

and I am working on the alligator.

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Don’t judge me as he is propped up against a wine bottle.

I’m trying to get as many done as I can as I have to take it back to the library soon.

Oh! MCAL. Here’s the next part. It starts right where last week’s ended.

Round 24: (7 SC, DEC) 6 times [48].

Round 25: (6 SC, DEC) 6 times [42].

Round 26: (5 SC, DEC) 6 times [36].

Round 27: (4 SC, DEC) 6 times [30].

Round 28: (3 SC, DEC) 6 times [24].

Start stuffing here.

Round 29: (2 SC, DEC) 6 times [18].

Round 30: (SC, DEC) 6 times [12].

Round 31: DEC 6 times [6].

Fasten off. Leave a piece for sewing. Thread string through last 6 stitches and pull up tight to close opening.

Any guesses what it is yet?

Here’s the instructions for the feet.

FEET (Make 2) – in orange neon

Ch 4
Round 1: SC in 2nd Ch, SC in next 2 stitches. 3 SC in last stitch, working in the unused loops from the chain, SC 2, 3 SC in last chain. [12].
Round 2: 3 SC, 3 INC, 3 SC, 3 INC [18].Round 3: 3 SC (SC, INC) 3 times, 3 SC (SC, INC) [24].
Round 4: SC in BLO [24].
Round 5: 2 SC, 5 DEC, 3 SC, 3 DEC, SC [14].
Round 6: SC row [14].
Stuff foot
Round 7: DEC 7 times [7].
Round 8: 5 SC, DEC [6].
Rounds 9-11: 3 rows SC [6 stitches per row].

Stuff legs firmly and sew to bottom of the body. The legs need to be stuffed firmly.

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Jan7

String art!

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String art!

This year, I want to try something new each month. I need to branch out with new crafts and work my brain. This month, I chose string art. It was a challenge. The first board I bought wouldn’t hold any nails. I hammer them in, they fall out. Then the backing fell off. Disaster.

I decided to try again with a pine board.

First it was boring without any color. I decided staining would take to long so I just grabbed a tube of acrylic paint (paynes gray) and using a lot of water with a big brush, liberally applied it to the board.


Then it was the very tedious prep work. All the tutorials I read ahead of time didn’t warn me about this.

1st you put down your pattern.


I just used scotch tape to hold it down. It pulled my finish up a little, but the strings hid it.

Then you start nailing. I did put down a towel to protect my table.


And nailing,


And nailing.


I had to use tweezers to hold the nails as i could get them close enough otherwise. These were tiny finishing nails 1/2 inch long. Make sure your tweezers have a flat part to hold the nails. My other pair of tweezers didn’t have this and the nails kept slipping. However, my mom is still working on hers and she says needlenose pliers are the way to go.


Finally done with the prep. It took about two hours to hammer in all those nails.

The heart is off center for artistic reasons and to encompass the part of the state with my little town.

Using #10 white crochet thread, I started string.


This was the fun part. I would recommend counting the nails in your border and dividing that number by the ones in the heart so you know how many repeats per heart nail. It would probably give your finished piece more consistency. But …. it was finally the fun part so I eyeballed it.


Just keep stringing!

When I got all the way around, I tied off the thread. Glued it down with some epoxy 6000, and cut off the ends. While stringing, I found pushing the thread down close to the board kept my tension right.


Finished! I need to put a picture hanger on the back, but it’s all done.

Next month, I think I’m going to try cupcake flash drive keychains. It’s made from sculpey.