Hand-me-Downs and the Love that is a Sweater Shaver

Kids aren't always too keen on wearing hand-me-downs. I, on the other hand, was usually excited about it. It usually meant free additions to my wardrobe, and at an early age, I had a rather large and diverse wardrobe. I would receive garbage bags of old clothes from cousins and spend hours going through everything and trying things on.

Now, I'm not sure MonkeyBoy will care either way if his clothes are new or old. He has quite a mix of new, fashion-forward items, and great quality recycled items from consignment stores. However, these three new pieces hold a special place in my heart.

I come from a pretty crafty family, hence my interest in all things crafty and handmade. There's nothing quite like heirloom-quality curios to pass down through the generations. 

My mother came by and dropped off some sweaters. Sweaters that were mine as a baby. But better yet, sweaters that were handmade by family. No one knew if I was going to be a boy or a girl, so luckily for MonkeyBoy, the colors are gender neutral.

The first sweater is this fantastic orange, cable knit with matching hat. It was knitted by my Aunt Belle. She was from Ireland. I always loved her accent. MonkeyBoy will definitely look like a harvest Irish fisherman this fall.

The second sweater is a basic Shaker sweater design in blue, which will really bring out MonkeyBoy's eyes. Cuz MonkeyBoy LOVES to bring out his eyes.

My Aunt Barbara made this one for me. I love these tags. I have a batch for myself, but have yet to make clothing where I could use them. I must remedy that.

The third sweater is red and was lovingly knitted by my mother, again, in the Shaker style.

Now, these sweaters were pretty dirty and one big giant fuzz ball. I was very fortunate that a delicate wash took care of the stains and the miracle that is the sweater shaver took care of the pills and fuzz, turning these 37-year-old relics into brand new toddler attire for my son.




Now we just need the cold weather to hurry up and get here. I'm starting to wish for sweatah-weatah myself.

Sweatah-weatah
Sweatah-weatah
Sweatah-weatah

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
– TYG

DIY: Portable Hugs

So, the third post for DIY Father's Day/Dad birthday gifts was a portable hug courtesy of A Day In My Life that I put inside the cards. This is extremely easy to do with any paper you have, scissors, glue, and a marker/pen.

I had already traced my sons hands for Mother's Day gifts. I kept the templates figuring I could use them for Father's Day, too. I didn't think my son's hands were going to grow significantly in a month's time.

I was at Walmart before Father's Day, and they had some nice patterned paper on clearance for $4.00. I thought this would be perfect for this particular project, future projects, and découpaging.

First step was to trace my son's hands on the paper of choice. I traced on the wrong side so I didn't have to deal with erasing pencil marks.

Since the paper was thin, I traced a bloated hand behind it on a thicker stock to give it some strength.

Glued everything together with basic tacky glue. Be sure to have a left and right hand!

Next, with the same thick stock, I cut a strip out that I accordian-ed between the two hands.

After making the accordion, I glued the two end pieces to the wrong sides of the hands, and presto:  a protable hug to keep with you always!














I thought this was a nice touch to go inside the Father's Day cards this year to daddy and the grandfathers. I love simple, quick, and cheap!

Until the next craft event....

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG

:'(

1000% disappointed in my federal government and judicial system.

DIY: Customized Checkers

My hubby, NukeBoy, turned the big 5-0 this week. I had planned on a big Hawaiian vacation for this momentous occasion, but the arrival of our precious MonkeyBoy curtailed the trip this year. I'll take him when our off-spring is a little older to handle that kind of cross-global flight, and when we actually have money again. I LOVE staying at home with my little guy, but boy our we broke! Just keepin' it real!

In light of our new budget, I've been crafting up a storm for Father's Day and birthdays. So, the second of three posts this week is to demonstrate how I made a customized checkers set for my husband with all of our faces as the pieces. 

The first thing I did was buy a 12" x 12" piece of ceramic tile for $1 at a thrift store. From my fabric stash, I cut up 32 black squares from left over black felt that I have apparently saved from a Halloween costume I made for my "baby" cousin 15 years ago. (I guess it's good to be a hoarder, in this case!) I also cut out a 12" x 12" piece to line the back of the tile.

The Math:  8 squares across divided into 12" = 1.5" per square (black and white).  I cut the black squares just shy of 1.5" so I could cut a boarder around the board with the same black felt. I eye-balled it.



With a basic tacky glue, I glued all the black squares on the board, along with the black boarder and the black backing. I used the rotary cutter to trim any excess along the sides.

Next step was to create the checkers. I purchased 1.5" wooden craft discs at the local craft store and used that measurement to create the pictures for the game pieces. I thought it would be cute if I used the faces of our family as the checkers. In Photoshop, I cut out faces of my son, hubby, and myself, then placed it on a red or black checkered background. That was for the front; on the back I took the same pictures of us and placed a crown on our heads to create Kings.

After cutting out 72 circles (ugh!), I glued them to the faces of the discs.

And there we have it!  A personalized checkerboard perfect for family game night.

Not pictured, I went a step further and sewed a drawstring bag for the checkers, and hot glued fabric to a box to create a fancy case to hold the game.










I think it came out great, but I still would rather be in Hawai'i right now!

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG

DIY: Photo Paperweights

Wow, have I been busy these last two weeks. Between Father's Day and my husband's 50th birthday, I've had Pinterest on overload and my glue gun HOT!

The first of three posts this week is my take on this post by inmyownstyle.com for decoupaging paperweights. I modified the project by using images of my son and giving the weights a rope border to add more mass.

The first thing I needed was some glass, so I found this old light fixture for $5 at my local ReStore and tore at it. Be very careful not to cut yourself on the old soldering.

After ejecting all the plates, I gave them a good wash in warm, soapy water.

Next, measuring. I used these measurements to edit photos of my son to decoupage onto the glass and also to cut a black, felt backing.

The one very disappointing turn this project took was that the decoupage didn't work with the glossy photo paper, and I didn't have the time to try to find out a better way to do this. So, I ended up using very small dabs of clear super glue to adhere the photos to the back of the glass plates. It didn't turn out so bad, and you can barely see the glus lines.

Once in place, I used basic tacky glue to put the felt backing in place.

I used my new fangled rotary cutter to cut out the pictures, the felt backing, and to trim around the glass once everything dried. 

Although cute, I felt the the bare glass was a bit unsafe. Digging into my craft tub, I came across some rope and hot glued it around the edges.

Voila!

The old light fixture ended up giving me eight glass plates. I made a set of four for my husband and another set for my father-in-law.

A little something precious to stare at during the course of a busy work day.

Until the next!

Yankee Doodle Dandy,

–TYG

Homemade Mother's Day Gift

Being a stay-at-home mom has made me very aware of our new, tighter budget and has motivated me to find cheap and free things to do and buy. One of the things I've accummulated over the years BM&K (before marriage and kid), is two giant tubs of craft supplies. And due to lack of space, I really need to start whittling those tubs down.

So, for Mother's Day this year, my son "made" these nifty floral pictures for his grandmothers.

First, I crocheted three very colorful flowers based on this pattern from Mimi. I only single crocheted 10 in a magic ring versus the 12 she patterned in order to have 5 petals instead of 6. For the stems, I just chained a row of green for each flower. I then glued the fridgies to a 12"x12" piece of fine cardstock.

The next thing I did was trace my son's hand on nice quality paper, cut it out, glue it to the card stock, then "wrapped" it around the stems of the flowers. This concept I found on Pinterest via TeachPreschool.org. There are a lot of great ideas on that site, so it's worth a look.








Next, I decided to use this idea from CarolynsHomework to frame the picture and bonus:  I got to prune the deadwood off one of my trees, so two birds/one stone. I tied the corners together with ribbon, then used twine as a hanger.

I hot glued the cardstock to the back of the frame.

Lastly, I had MonkeyBoy add his signature style with his favorite Crayolas.














Not too shabby with leftover craft supplies and yard clippings. I wonder what MonkeyBoy's going to make for me...for 17 months, he's pretty crafty.

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG

Quahoggin'

It felt like such a waste to throw away all those little neck shells after dinner one night. So, I cleaned them out, let them dry, and sealed them closed.

Now, MonkeyBoy can hunt and dig for clams in his sandbox. What's also great is the plastic net bag I saved from some toy he received. Works great as a clammin' tote.

Yankee Doodle Dandy,

–TYG