Light Bulb Snowman

With a fresh layer of snow on the ground in the last 24 hours, I thought I would put together a tutorial for a fun snowman craft.

And this little guy has the added bonus of being made from a spent light bulb.

For materials, you will need the following:
1 - flood-light style light bulb
1 - 4" x 5" piece of fleece for the hat
1 - 3/4" x 16" piece of fleece for the scarf
1 - 3" x 3-1/2" piece of fleece for the muff
1 - 6" length of paper-wrapped wire (this is usually found in the floral supply section)
1 - small triangle of orange craft foam
1 - small rubber band
1 - small snowflake embellishment
For supplies, you will need white spray paint, sugar, scissors, black marker and glue.

Begin by preparing the light bulb. Spray a coat of white paint, covering the whole light bulb except for the screw end. To keep from getting paint on my fingers, I put my hand in a plastic bag before handling the bulb.

Immediately coat the light bulb with sugar by pouring the sugar over the wet paint, covering any wet paint. Apply another light coat of paint to set the sugar in place. You should be able to set the light bulb down to dry with minimal damage to the paintwork.

Next, begin the hat. Fold the largest piece of fleece in half, so that you have a piece that is 2" x 5". Fleece is usually more stretchy in one direction than the other. It works best to have the stretchy direction running the 4" length, since this is the part that will need to be stretched around the light bulb.

Sew or glue the open side opposite the fold, leaving about a 1/4" seam allowance.

Turn the hat right-side-out.

Gather the fleece about 1" from the end and secure tightly with a rubber band.

Use scissors to cut strips in the fleece from the open end to the rubber band.

Optionally, use pinking shears to finish the opposite end.

Fold back a short section of fleece to form a cuff.

Place the hat onto the light bulb, covering the screw end.

Next, sew the muff. Fold the med-sized fleece in half to form a 1-1/2" x 3-1/2" piece. Stitch the edge opposite the fold.

Turn the stitched piece right-side-out.

Tuck in the ends of the muff.


Next, put the wire through the muff and fold up the ends.

Glue the muff to the front of the light bulb, and position the arms.

Next, use scissors to cut fringe into the ends of the scarf.

Tie the scarf around the neck of the snowman.

Glue the nose to the face of the snowman.

Use the black marker to place eyes on the face.

Glue the snowflake to the hat.

Isn't it great to make something fun out of something you would have thrown in the trash?




Enjoy!! See my inspiration here.

And be sure to check out the endless list of inspirational ideas at my home page childmade.com.

Mini Mittens

Christmas is over, but unfortunately there's lots of winter still to go. It seems such a shame to have to take down all the decorations and lose the festive spirit so early on, before cabin-fever has even had an opportunity to set it. Seems to me a little bit of festive decorating would help lessen the winter blues. So I thought I'd present an idea that can be the seed for many other decorating projects, and one that is very simple too.

These cute little mittens take less than 10 minutes to make. And if you make more than one, the time needed for each set is even less.

You'll begin by making a mitten template from cardboard so you can trace around it. I have two templates I use: the one used for this tutorial, and one that's basically the same but a little taller and narrower. My templates are about 3" tall, but you can make them any size, even super teenie if your eyes and fingers can take it.

Take a piece of fleece or felt and double it. Begin tracing the pattern for as many mittens as you'd like to make. You'll probably need a marker to be able to write adequately on the fleece. Leave about 1/2" between each pattern for a seam allowance.

After you're finished tracing your pattern, sew the mittens, stitching directly onto the traced line. At the cuff of the mitten, reinforce the stitching so that it won't unravel when you try to turn the mitten right-side out. Do not stitch across the cuff of the mitten.

When finished stitching, your project should look something like the picture above.

Next, cut the mittens out, trimming the fleece to withing about 1/4" of the stitch line.

Cut the cuff of the mitten straight across.

Now turn the mitten right side out. Use your fingers to get a good turn on the seam, paying special attention to the thumb section.

You now have the base for your mitten. But these are pretty boring, so you need to dress them up. This is the fun part! You can use any sort of embellishment that you like or have on hand. For my mittens, I've used ribbon, rick-rack, yarn, sherpa, buttons, fleece, sequins, ribbon and more. This is a great opportunity to apply your own creativity.

I start mine by finishing off the top. I did one with a blanket stitch, but I didn't like it more than my other approach, plus it was a lot more work. My favorite method, and the easiest (coincidence?) is to use fancy yarn.

I have several types of yarn, but almost anything will work. This yarn I used for this example is rather fluffy.

Cut or wrap 4 to 6 pieces of yarn about 6" long. This length will vary depending upon the size of your mitten. It needs to be able to reach all the way around the cuff of the mitten, with a little excess.

Next, twist the pieces of yarn together and hold.

While the yarn is twisted, wrap it around and glue it to the cuff of the mitten.

Now your mittens should like they have a fancy cuff. Rather pretty for just a few pieces of yarn, I think.

Now you can add whatever embellishments you'd like. I added just a few buttons for a very clean finish.

Next, I added a piece of satin ribbon to the inside of the cuff to make a mitten hanger.

Isn't that simple?

And they add such a darling touch to a gift package.

But they can also be used for decorating.

I hosted a ladies craft night with a group of lady friends of mine, and we made this fun mitten garland. I did mine in colors that match my decor, so I'll be leaving mine up at least through January, and perhaps February too.

It was such great fun doing it as a group, because everyone had ideas on different ways to decorate the mittens, which inspired even more ideas. I don't have two mittens that are exactly alike.

Just make the mittens (without the ribbon hanger) and attach them to a "clothesline" with a mini clothes pin.

... fleece hearts and buttons...

... buttons and embroidery floss...

... sherpa strips for the cuff...

The very fancy yarn makes for a fun cuff.

I even used my embroidery machine to embellish some with a snowflake. (I had to do this before I sewed the mittens.)

... a little rick-rack...
... sequins and snowflake confetti... really the options are endless. I hope this sampling of ideas will feed your imagination.

In the last example, you can see that if you cut the mittens a little longer in the cuff, you can even cut the cuff with pinking shears and fold it back and consider it finished.

With this simple decoration, I can keep a little of the festive spirit alive, which is helpful when the thermometer reads 6 degrees as it does right now.

Enjoy!

And be sure to check out the endless list of inspirational ideas at my home page childmade.com.

Diningroom remodel

This post is a bit off-topic from my usual posts, but I just wanted to show that I am capable of handling a bigger tool than a glue gun. Plus, I hope my successes might encourage you to get up from the craft table once in a while and try something beyond your normal comfort zone.

We have 9-foot ceilings on our main floor. For years, I wanted to do something more formal in the dining room. One of the things I had on my list was a coffered ceiling. And I didn't just want something simple, I wanted a little pizazz.


I started by framing out the shape. I used 2x4's framed up vertically. I wanted just a bit more of a drop, so I added a horizontal 2x4 on the top just for fill. I made square frames for the corners, and rectangular frames for the sections in between. Measuring accurately is important for this step. After the frames were completed, my husband helped me lift them and mount them to the ceiling. The frames needed to be secured into the ceiling joists to support the weight adequately.

My next step was to attach the drywall. It wasn't necessary to be totally accurate with the drywall because I knew I would be putting up crown molding later. I installed the metal strip to the outside angle to help with getting a sharp edge.

Then I mudded the exposed areas of the drywall. I was going to have someone do the mudding but I thought the estimates of $400 and up were a little too steep for my budget. Especially considering I did it myself (an amateur) in about 6 hours. At that rate, I think I need to change careers. In any case, applying drywall is rather like icing a cake. You just have to be patient and really check your work because paint doesn't hide drywall blemishes. When the mudding was finished, I painted the drywall with several coats of ceiling white paint.

Then I put up the crown molding. The dental molding was chosen because it matches the molding on the corner cabinets. Crown molding is not nearly as difficult or as expensive as I once thought, so it's currently on my list to put in every room of the house.

We purchased two corner cabinets off Craigslist and painted them white to match.

The dining room is not very big, so the corner cabinets work much better than the large china cabinet I used to have in there.



We also decided to install french doors, so we framed out a transom on the top of the pre-existing door frame and mounted the doors. (The wallpaper in the photo went out later too, but that's a whole other project.)

The glass we installed for the transom has an etched leaf pattern in it.

I also wanted to have wainscotting, but didn't want to spend a lot (do you see a theme in my projects?) I decided to try it with drywall, partly because I thought it would be cheaper and easier, but partly too because I don't have a router. I cut the shape I wanted from the drywall and installed it over the existing drywall. I had to be very exact in my cuts.

Then, I purchased, cut and installed a wood trim to the inside edge of the frame. I used drywall mud to fill the seam between the drywall and the trim.

Then I installed a chair rail along the top edge, filling in the seam with caulk.

After it was all assembled, I painted it white. I'm pleased with the finished effect, but I'm not convinced this method was any faster, easier OR cheaper.


I painted the walls a cranberry red to match the carpet in the adjoining room, and the carpet in the diningroom was replaced with hardwood. I just wasn't up for spending the money on a new dining set when we only use the room once or twice a year. All in all, I like what we did, and it makes my little dining room appear more majestic than it is.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

And be sure to check out the endless list of inspirational ideas at my home page childmade.com.



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