DIY: Stair Basket

Our accumulation of hats, scarves, and gloves has really gotten out of control. I'm a full-fledged freak for those cheap $1 stretch gloves. I need to have a pair that matches every coat I have. And, of course, I've projected that onto my son.  Anyway, the hats and scarves were taken up too much space on the coat hooks and racks. I was starting to leave them on the stairs and on the half moon table in the foyer.

Well, I started searching for storage options on the world wide web, and the images for a stair basket popped up. Well, at $25.99 and up, I was turned off....until....

I was staring at the pile of recycling that I was procrastinatingly leaving in the hallway, and it occured to me:  The diaper wipes box was the perfect width for a stair basket. 

I grabbed a knife and started cutting up the diaper and wipes boxes. 

Duct tape, the handy man's secret weapon, brought the boxes together.

A hotglue gun and a pile of upholstery fabric I had left in my stash covered my duct taped masterpiece.

If I were a more thorough person, I would have ironed the fabric.

The front part of the basket is two stairs deep; the back is one.

I adorned the front, where there were obvious seams from my fabric, with twine, extra fabric as a ribbon, twigs, and fabric remnants rolled to look like flowers or pinecones, or something like the such.

I must have had corsets on the brain.

It's working beautifully, and it cleaned up my staircase. And it cleared off my half moon table so I can start piling other type of junk on there.

It never ends...

Yankee Doodle Dandy,

– TYG

DIY: Photo Glass Bulb Ornament

OKAY, homemade Christmas Gift #2 was a glass ornament filled with beads, mistletoe, and a picture of my little MonkeyBoy.

I created a lined pattern in PhotoShop, along with a 1" x 1.5" image of my son, and a tiny "2012" placard. These three images are layered to show dimension using small pieces of foam sheets.

I rolled the image and stuffed it in the bulb. With a tweezer, I then arranged it, put in a piece of green mistletoe, and stuffed some pearlescent bead-ribbon to fill the space.

This was a time-consuming project using the tweezers to try to get all the components to cooperate, but I'm fairly happy with the results.  I used wire ribbon for bows to adorn the top, and I found gold ornament hooks at a local discount store for 25¢.

I ended up making six ornaments. I only spent $8 for the mistletoe and a quarter for the hooks (50ct). All other supplies were on hand. I had purchased empty glass ornaments YEARS ago (like 15+  years ago), and I finally had a reason to use them. Not bad for $1.38 each!







Until the next!

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
– TYG

DIY: Single-Color Watercolor Portaits

I can't believe we're almost a month out from Christmas, and my family is still trying to get together for the holidays.  MonkeyBoy, the hubby, and I went out to Ohio for the big event this year, and ever since we've been back, we've been near-missing my local family with flus, colds, noroviruses, pink-eyes, and who knows what else. This past Sunday, we finally got together with my mom and dad, so MonkeyBoy had Christmas #2. And that means my family has started to open their gifts from me, which, of course, were all home made. I've been waiting to post my DIY's so I wouldn't spoil the surprises.

The first item I'd like to post is this fabulous tutorial I found on Grow Creative for easy watercolor portraits. And, wow, it was easy AND it came out fantastic. Here's how I did it with my resources.

ITEMS USED:

• Digital photograph
• PhotoShop CS4
• Printer (Black and White)
• Watercolor paper
• Soft and hard pencils
• Kneaded eraser
• Dollar store watercolors
• Paint brush
• Water

This project only cost me $1 for the watercolors, since I had all the other items on-hand from my ancient art school days, and $3 for a frame.

Step 1:  Make image of your choice two-color and blocked. I accomplished this in Photoshop decreasing the threshold. You'll need an image with contrasting color in order to get great shapes on the face.

Original

Crop to the size you want.  I cropped at 8"x10" in order to frame.

Step 2:  Print out your image black and white, cropped at the size you want,  then use a soft pencil and color in the entire back side of the image. I used a 6B, one of my softest pencils, but really, any No. 2 pencil will do.

Step 3:  Use a hard pencil and trace the blocked images onto the watercolor paper. Again, any No. 2 pencil will do. I had the stuff, so I wanted to use it.

I had a large watercolor pad on hand that my son and I had been using for coloring until I bought him some much cheaper newsprint. Using watercolor paper to sketch on is not particularly cost-effective, as young starving artists know. Not that I'm young. Or starving for that matter. I mean, I did buy the pad....ahem....20 years ago.

Step 4: Pencil will show through watercolors. I forgot this on my first try. So, the next try I used a kneaded eraser to lighten the pencil marks after tracing the whole image. Pink erasers may leave marks, so you're better off using kneaded or white erasers.

Step 5:  Using much needed and obvious water and a paint brush on hand since the brush in the kit was too stiff, I filled in the shapes I had just traced. The variation of colors happened naturally as the brush began to dry on the page or if I used more water or more paint in some areas. I just experimented and let whatever happen, happen.

I went a step further and framed my artwork. I made sure to crop my image at 8"x10" so I could easily find frames. With sales and coupons, I ended up finding lovely wooden frames for just $3 each.

Very Andy Warhol.

I am so super thrilled with the results for this project, I have already printed out another image to make one for myself. I can see this project being used frequently for presents, so be forewarned my friends and family.

Until the next...

Yankee Doodle Dandy,

–TYG

***Disclamer****
Please note that I am in no way affiliated with the products used for this project by Strathmore, Staedtler, Faber-Castelle, and Adobe. The items used were the items I had on hand from my old art school days back in the early 90's, and by what was available to me at my college bookstore.

DIY: Bean Bag Toss and Board

I opted for a tractor themed, two-year birthday party for my son this year, since he's become tractor obsessed. I made a tractor cake, a tractor gift box for all his tractor gifts, tractor food, John Deere colors everywhere....I'll try to post about the whole party another time for those of you who'd like a little more inspiration for this type of themed party.

In the meantime, here is a run-down on how I made a bean bag toss for $2+.

My husband has been cleaning shop at his office, and one of the things he was throwing away was a large piece of plywood.

"Bring it home!" I pleaded.  Free is a magical word to me.

First, I measured out six 4" holes somewhat evenly on the board. Then, I drew tractors all over making sure to use the 4" holes as the wheels of the tractors. With acrylic paints on hand, I painted in my tractors with bright colors, making sure green was the highlight for the big tractor in the center (John Deere theme).

To make the holes, my husband borrowed a 4" hole saw, then sanded the inside edges to get rid of the splinters. I did some slight touch-up painting after the holes were made.

What I had to go out and purchase was green and yellow hankerchiefs. Strangely, I could find yellow at Walmart for $1, but had to get green at Hobby Lobby, also for $1. I did buy five of each color, but I only needed one hankerchief of each color to make the amount of bean bags you see here ($2 total).

I cut each hankerchief into 16 squares approximately the same size. I sewed them together, then filled them not with beans, but with rice. I had purchased a ton of rice for my son's sensory box months and months ago. Needless to say, I purchased enough rice that filling 16 "bean" bags barely made a dent in his rice supply. The bags come out to be roughly 4.5" X 4"; I eyeballed them.

Plus, as a bonus, filling the bags with rice has also made them mini heating pads that can be microwaved. Yay me!





All-in-all, I was really happy with the end result for a very quick (one-day), $2-dollar project.

It's just too bad neither he nor his friends actually played with it at his birthday party.

Such is life!
Until the next...

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG


Disclaimer:  Amy Joy Davis/TheYankeeGirl is in no way affiliated with Walmart or Hobby Lobby. They did not pay me for the "name-drops" in this post, nor would they probably want to.

DIY: Felt Board

I'm exhausted. I just spent the last 12.5 hours cooking, entertaining, then cleaning up after my son's second birthday party, yet I'm still blogging tonight. Glutton for punishment, I guess.

Well, today's post is a quickie on a DIY felt board. 

I've had this 16" x 20"  canvas board for so long, it's developed holes and tears from storage. I also had this blank wall that was itching for something to be hung for a certain MonkeyBoy entertainment area in the kitchen. I purchased this board about 10 or 11 years ago, but they are about $3-$4 at our local Job Lot stores.

Joann Fabrics had a pretty good sale this Thanksgiving weekend, so I took advantaged and bought one yard of green felt for about $2.00, and a couple sheets of pre-cut felt for another $1.00.

I cut a piece to cover the canvas, and used a staple gun to adhere it to the frame.

Next, I just cut out shapes to "stick" to the board. I opted for a farm seen with a blue tractor for the first board, since we just had a tractor party for my son. I thought the kids would have fun with it.

A little bit of fabric glue to make some embellishments to the cow and barn, and voilá!

As long as there is a tractor, or anything else with wheels, I think we have a winner for MonkeyBoy.

Yankee Doodle Dandy,

–TYG

To Etsy, or Not To Etsy...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE crocheting, making adorable toys and clothes, and creating new patterns while learning from new ones I find on the web and Ravelry.  The yarn community is HUGE, whether it be hook or needles.

When I had my son, I was so thrilled that my old company was allowing me to work at home nights and weekends (and some days) in order to stay home with my little MonkeyBoy. I was adament about nursing.  And although, at the time, I was unhappy he wouldn't take bottles, in retrospect, I am so super proud of myself that I solely nursed my son for six months, then continued for another year after that...no bottles needed. I was utterly attached to my child for a year and a half; no babysitters, no nights off, no days off; but now that it's stopped, I realized how priviledged I was to have the ability to do this and to create an indelible bond between me and my son.

Well, the economy hit my company, which in turn, hit my job position. I, of course, needed to have a creative and adult outlet of my own and not just be the role of mommy. I felt like nothing was my own. My son had all-consumed me bodily (literally) and soul.

I started to pick up my hooks again.

Pinterest reintroduced me to the world of crocheting and to the world of Ravelry. I found so many patterns...for FREE...and I started to get my hooking-hands back in order. I started with creating playfood for my son, and it exploded from there. I've created animated dolls from his favorite shows, beanie hats, clothes, blankets, scarves; I've been going crazy. I would make things for my mom-friends for their child's birthday and gifts for my family for the holidays.

"You should sell these!" "You should start an Etsy site."I would hear that over and over.

However, my biggest strife is valuing my work in order to share it with the world.  After doing my research and pricing similiar items of mine out on  the world wide web, I feel I would have to undersell my items in order to compete. So much goes into creating my pieces: materials, time, love. How do you value you that?

Let's take my Pizza Play Set as an example.

I created this piece for a two-year-old birthday gift. I got the idea from several sites online, but the pattern was created solely by me.

It took me a full week to make this in between mothering and housewifing, so I averaged it at about 15 hours (which may be generous). Now, the materials aren't that much. I use Red Heart acrylic yarns (Made in the USA!), and at Walmart, they are about $2.77 a skein, which translates into $0.42 per ounce. The stuffing I use (also Made in the USA!) works out to be $0.19 per ounce.

The material breakdowns are very easy to calculate. It was about $9 to $10 in materials to make the pizza set.

But what about my time? That's 15 hours of my life I don't get back. Housework had to be sacrificed and a child had to be "ignored" occasionally in order for me to meet the deadline of a birthday party. And let's not forget the time spent photographing and posting it on my company site on Facebook.

The only thing I could think of was the minimum wage in my state, which is currently at $7.40 per hour.  So between materials ($10) and time ($111), this adorable Pizza Play Set just turned into a $120 item! Plus I feel I'm worth a little more than just minimum wage.

NONE of my friends would pay that for this. Oh, they would ooo and ahhh and love it, but Lord! Even I wouldn't drop $111 for this set even though I KNOW the time and effort and sweat that went into creating it. I had to sew all the individual toppings on top of crocheting them! This was a lot of work, but well worth it because it rocks, quite frankly.

I tagged a price of $40. Yes, this is completely undervalued, in my opinion, but I wouldn't be able to sell it otherwise. Yes, there may be a richy-rich market out there for people that appreciate this kind of thing, but with so many sites like Etsy, where is my niche in order to snag that market? Completely organic and green yarns would be a great sell, but let's quadruple the price just for the materials alone. Organic ain't cheap.

So, I guess the only thing I could do is sell the pattern. Since there are so many crafty people out there that love doing what I'm doing, but lack the knowledge in order to create a pattern on their own. I, myself, like to follow a pattern, too...no thinking involved, just lovely, mindless crocheting. And patterns are around $4-$8 dollars. Now people will pay that price, that is for sure.

Now, if I can only make heads or tails of my notes.

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG

PS: Please visit my company's site www.DavishireCrafts.com and be sure to like us on Facebook!

Been Making BLT's Wrong My Whole Life

Weave that bacon, then bake in the oven.

This has been floating around the web. I've seen at on so many sites, that I just don't want to link them all. Google "weave bacon" and you'll see what I mean.  

I am SO happy I finally got around to making this. When you weave the bacon, you have a gorgeous bacon blanket completely covering the sandwich. For a regular-sized sandwich, six slices (three across/three down) worked perfectly. Every bite had a delicious mouthful of bacon, and the bacon didn't slip out.

375℉ for about 10-15 minutes for 9 pieces of baking on a drip pan

Mmmmm...bacon.
My house has smelled like bacon for two days.
Mmmmm...bacon.

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG