Tape Core Wreath

It may seem like a little early to be thinking about Christmas stuff, but I've been working on ornaments and such for our church's Christmas craft fair later this year. This is one of the ornaments I've made.

It's made from the little plastic ring left at the center of a roll of scotch tape, crocheted with worsted weight acrylic yarn. I was going to put little red bead berries on it, but discovered I didn't happen to have any. Pink berries just didn't seem right.

I can't take credit for the pattern. It's one I found on my early days of searching the internet for interesting crochet patterns. The pattern can be here found at JPFun Crochet Club.

15-Minute Writing Exercise Collage

One of my favorite writing exercises in college was quite simple: write for 15 minutes. It doesn't matter what you write, just so long as you're writing for 15 minutes continuously. I've often thought these stream of consciousness writings would make passably interesting art, but on its own it seemed kind of blah.

Enter the book I got, then realized was missing the first 20 pages. So what do you do with a book that is missing the first 20 pages? Make a collage out of it!

NOTE: I normally do not condone the mutilation of books. As a bibliophile it sends chills down my spine. I could justify it in this case as the book was of little good even as a reading copy. PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS WITH PERFECTLY GOOD BOOKS!

Materials:
Stiff cardboard (such as an old file divider or the back of a legal pad)
Picture frame
Old book (SEE NOTE ABOVE)
Spray adhesive
White acrylic paint
Fountain pen
Scanner
Timer

Instructions:
Cut carboard to fit picture frame. Frame size matters only in that you want enough room to be able to write for 15 minutes. Frame aesthetics are up to you. I had an old frame that had the beat-up, writerly look I was going for.

Cut pages from book. An Exacto knife really helps for this. Spray cardboard with spray adhesive. Place pages randomly all over cardboard, so that it is (ideally) completely covered. I personally think overlapping and different angles look better than straight, perfectly aligned, but again, aesthetics are up to you. When all pages are placed, trim edges even with cardboard (Exacto knife makes it easy again). You can even use the trimmed pieces to fill in spaces. My original thought was to découpage the frame with the trimmed pieces, but I found that was a little more involved than I wanted to do.

While you're waiting for the adhesive to dry, place the fountain pen on the glass of a flatbed scanner and carefully close the cover. Scan, then print. I have a high-quality color laser printer, so it came out VERY good. Carefully cut out picture of pen. (This step is optional. You can embellish however you want. This particular pen is a Parker Sonnet that I got on a trip to Ireland. It's one of my favorite fountain pens.)

When the adhesive is completely dry, paint with a wash of diluted white acrylic. Be careful not to dilute it too much. It will dry sheerer than it appears when wet, and if it's too watered down, it will cause your cardboard to curl, and may cause your pages to unstick. A quick shot of spray adhesive underneath the unstuck page will fix this.

When the paint is dry, break out your favorite pen and a timer. Set the timer for 15 mintes and begin writing. Write the entire time. It doesn't matter at all what you write, just so long as you're writing. I sort of cheated and wrote a very detailed meditation on the actual exercise. When you're done, don't forget to sign it. I pasted the picture of the pen on so that the nib was at the end of my signature, as if it had just written the signature. If you don't happen to have a fountain pen or a scanner, or just don't want to do that, feel free to embellish however you choose.

If you use a fountain pen, a roller ball, or a gel pen, wait until the ink has dried, then place in frame. Voilà, not-quite-instant art!

Quick & Easy Beanbags

A couple of weeks ago I taught the preschool class at our church's Vacation Bible School. Instead of doing the stations like the older kids did, we did all our activities in our classroom, including crafts. Coming up with crafts that held the kids' interest, were cheap and easy was something of a challenge. One of my co-workers, who works with infants and toddlers, suggested that we make the beanbags we needed for one of the activities as the craft. What a brilliant idea! This is one that my oldest son (who was in the class) made.



Materials:

Denim squares (mine were cut from an old pair of hubby's jeans), about 4 inches square
Self-stick foam shapes, for decoration
Dried beans
Hot glue gun and glue



Directions:

Each child gets two squares. Let them decorate them however they want. We used self-stick foam cut-outs, as that was easy and mess-free. If you have older kids, they could use markers or fabric paints, really anything you want to put on them.


When the child(ren) are done decorating, have them bring the squares to an adult manning the glue gun. Hot glue three sides and press together firmly. Important: Make sure you have a pretty even thread of hot glue all the way to the edges, and make sure the layers are pressed together very well. We were picking up stray beans for the rest of the week because we had gaps in the glue.


Put a handful of beans in the pouch, then hot glue the top and press together tightly. We discovered that they hold better if you let them sit for a while before tossing them around.

By the way, the black background in many of my craft pictures is another recycling project. It's a large box lid spray painted with matte black spray paint that I made especially so I could photograph items with no background glare.