Made by Emily

This crazy thing is my hanging cardboard aquarium. I got the idea here from Made by Joel. It’s simple and sweet. Instead of tossing this old cardboard box into the recycling, I cut out this “aquarium” frame and the 5 aquatic animals (2 fish, a turtle, a jellyfish, and a crab). Then you slice thin strips at the top and attach the animals by fishing wire to old vintage buttons. The girls had a lot of fun moving the buttons around and making the animals “swim”.

I also wanted to show you guys my nesting doll self-portrait, (another Made by Joel idea). I made these for Q for Christmas. So far I’ve played with them more than she has, but I was able to diffuse a gnarly temper tantrum by using the Mama and Q dolls as puppets.

And finally, an update on the playroom remodel. The carpet is in. The rocket ship is up. Some day soon I’ll do some curtains and pillows. And hopefully sooner than later we’ll do some painting or some funky wall art in there.

Spacey – and I’m Not Talking About Kevin

I got PZ a Color Me Rocket for Christmas and we’re thinking its the perfect focal point for the new kids playroom we’re setting up in the basement. Here are some of my favorite inspirational items, possible purchases, and crafty outer space tutorials I discovered whilst researching what to do with this room.

A Blast from the Past’s vintage Man on the Moon album and commemorative booklet of the Apollo 11 landing – Great atmosphere and educational too. Plus the Hubs would like this one so it would be a double hit.

Stories Divinations 1939 Solar System poster – this has major vintage appeal and would be great in the music room or the hallway leading up to the playroom.

Stickytiki’s Space Odyssey 1968 Reusable Decals – absolutely love the comic book feel of these.

Invisible Fountain’s original outer space painting Neal Footstrong – strange and delightful. I like the bright, bold colors and the bebop sensibility.

Cornflake Gurl’s Space Dog print –  really sweet and thought provoking all at the same time.

Fun Room for Kids‘ Outer Space hand painted, reusable wall decal kit – these are so fun and at $40 a LOT simpler than painting.

Martha Stewart’s carboard tube space ship tutorial – these would be fun to have hanging from the ceiling or just on a shelf as display.

Mad in Crafts Laundry Monster tutorial – great for stuffed toy and doll storage especially if mine were more of an alien and less of a monster.

5 Orange Potatoes’ Moon Phases Dream Pillow tutorial - this was on my to do list for Christmas, but I didn’t get to it. Such a lovely idea. Can’t wait to make a few of these to have around the room.

Katie Boyette’s knit rocket pattern from Ravelry – for all my knitters, you know who you are.

molo felt rocks at padstyle –  while I wouldn’t make them exactly like this, I like the idea of having wool felt pillows or strange foam shapes around the room and maybe even on the walls.

munk munk’s felt circle picture found on craftster – I think this is really pretty and would be a fun, easy if time consuming project that PZ could  help me with.

If you’ve done a kid’s space room or have seen/heard/made any good tutorials out there in crafty blog land please let me know. I’ve got practically no budget, but am really looking forward to making the room a place the girls can feel comfortable and have a great time in. The carpet guy is coming tomorrow and I’m still in shock that the room idea is happening. Man, when Hubs finally relents to one of my ideas he doesn’t waste any time! Hooray!!

Inspired to Create

First of all if you haven’t heard of Joel Henriques and his blog, Made by Joel then you need to drop everything you are doing and go there immediately. Seriously! I love this guy’s projects. One in particular that looked, (and was) easy and lots of fun is his fabric nesting dolls project. I made a set for two of our closest family friends and one set for my youngest, but these won’t be the last that I do I can promise you that! It combined both sewing and drawing, two areas where I’m really hoping to expand my talents this upcoming year. Drawing the little figures which I based on the actual friends I gave the dolls to, was such a kick! And the dolls themselves are very versatile. Since they stand on their own they can be moved as dolls or puppets. You could probably even turn them into game pieces if you wanted!

I joked that people would think my 4 year old drew them, but everyone seemed to be able to see themselves in their doll. Pretty cool since I consider myself someone who can’t draw at all. I’m realizing that thinking of myself as such has been a major barrier and I’m hoping to really get over that in the next months. Hmmm… sounds like what I said two years ago when I decided to start this blog and teach myself to sew and now look at me! I’ve been selling my hand sewn clothing and accessories for almost a year now!

I also had a lot of fun making a Pippi Longstocking doll for PZ based on Laura Child’s illustrations and a Lowly Worm doll for PZ’s best friend E from the Richard Scarry books.

The Pippi doll I made using my own adaptation of the Tag Along doll pattern from Hillary Lang’s Wee Wonderfuls book. (Great book!) The body is some of my favorite fabric, Denyse Schmidt’s Flea Market Fancy. The rest of the body is made from wool felt that I got  at Gossamer.

I’ve been wanting to make one of these ever since I saw one as a giveaway prize on a blog (sorry, can’t remember the name!) during last year’s Sew, Mama, Sew‘s Giveaway Day. It is super easy. I couldn’t find a tutorial anywhere, but it wan’t too hard to figure out. If you are looking for help on this one just let me know and I’ll try and dig up my numbers for this one.  Hubs put a thick wire inside of Lowly so he’s super bendy and tough. Just perfect for a 4 year old little guy.

I’ll have a post soon about what I’m hoping to concentrate on crafty wise for the upcoming year and a few projects I have floating around inside my noodle. Pretty crazy stuff in there, let me tell ya! Well, Hubs is tearing the tree down and the kiddos are running around like crazy so I better get back to it. Happy holidays!