EKO's Crafty Life

This past week was a week for re-purposing  some fabric to add some touches to her room. earlier in the week she asked me for a garbage can.. and while I had a few plain white ones kicking around that was just not going to do for her room so following the instructions to make the  Crayon Holder  I made last week, I covered an old garbage can that was not being used with a receiving blanket that was also no longer being used.  then to help her keep the bag in her garbage and add a little decoration I made a band  That I had seen earlier in the week, the flower is the same one I make for the flower hats  earlier this year. DD's Trash can for her used Tissues! she quickly filled it by pretending to blow her nose! lol! Then another project I had been meaning to do was make something out of my daughters out grown favourite shirt, I had a little fabric left over from the reviving blanket s...

Mini Marker/ Crayon Holder that is "baby proof too" My eldest daughter recently got some mini pip sqeak markers and loves using them however there are so many of them that they often end up all over the table or floor and her little trouble maker of a baby sister tries to take them away from her! Solution Create a pretty tin to keep them in so that she can see all the colours at once, they dont roll off her table and when closed her sister can not get to the markers! Materials Needed 1 can with plastic lid that will fit your crayons or markers 1 peice of fabric that will cover the sides of your can 1 can of spray glue 1 Fray check 1 can of clear spraypaint (optional) 1 quilting ruler and rotary cutter (optional)or ruler and scissors) 1 scissors 1 can of clear spraypaint (optional) 1 peice of  card stock (not pictures I used an old file folder also optional) I ended up not using the glue gun  I started by Spraying the outer edge and inside of ...

Save your Dried out Play-Doh Sick of taking out your child's Play-doh toys to play with and find it full of dried out Play-doh?  or open that container that was only used once to find it is kinda dry now?  Dont throw it out you can bring it back to its old Play-dohey goodness! Step 1 Divide your dried out bits into piles of like colours or colours that will blend well together to make a nice new colour.  There is a lot of red ( the container was left open) It is better if a bit of it is a little ply able like the blue to the right here, it is not necessary but will make the process go a bit quicker.  Step 2 Place the like colours in a sturdy plastic bag (un-used breast milk bags are great for small amounts or freezer bags for larger amounts)  with a small amount of water,  just a few tea spoons trust me (you will see later what happens if you use to much) you can always...

After my sister saw the hat I made for Winterama she instantly requested I make a pink one for her little angel. After a difficult search for soft chunky pale pink yarn... seriously it was so hard to find one in a nice pink! Here are the results.  I think if I make this hat again with out the stripes I will avoid the seam formed by slip-stiching each row together and just crochet in the round.  also since this hat was for a slightly older child I decided to not add the ear flaps this time. My daughter modelling the hat before sending it off to my sister.

I have a small collection of wine corks and am always thinking I kneed to do something with them but never quite seem to get around to doing anything with them so when I saw a pen over at  paper plate and plane  I knew I had to give it a try, especially since I had a bag of then pens that I got at the dollar store and have been meaning to do something with for a while One thing I would definitely suggest is a drill press if you have once to line up the holes at right angles to the bottom of the cork, it is quite hard to do with a hand held drill.

Happy Ground Hogs Day Everyone Yesterday I was looking for a craft to do with the toddlers in my house and I came across a cute little stick puppet toy at Making Learning Fun   although I did not have any pompoms but I managed to cut out a face shape and had them colour it in.  My daughter has been going around all evening last night telling me that tomorrow is ground hog day and he is going to come out of his hole and look for his shadow. There is a little poem on the grass that says: "Silly Mr. Groundhog, pop out your head and say, will there be six more weeks of winter or will spring time come our way?" This craft was great practice for my daughter with scissors as she is not accustom to using them yet.

A Valentines Day Wreath I was inspired by a wreath I saw over on Uruguay White Life via Craft Gossip   However I did make a few changes besides the colour and lack of bow I did this in a crochet style instead of knit.  It was pointed out to me that this could also have been made with one of those little finger knitting(also called corking I believe) style, that would be easy for a young crafter to do. This whole project only cost me ONE dollar since I had most of the material on hand.  I already had some red sparkly cotton left over from some dish cloths and towels I made recently (pictures to follow soon) and ribbon I had picked up on clearence last year after Christmas, one thing i did not have was a wire hanger so I did have to go to the dollar store and pick up some garden wire, this was excelent to work with since it is ment to be bendable it was easily fished through the long crocheted tube and th...

I hope this hit the marks while reading Craft Gossip the other day ( one of my favourite sources of inspiration) I cam across a cute little felt rose ring over at  Smile Monsters    she included a great tutorial so please visit. here is what I made in less than 10 min I have a ring for each of my teenage nieces. they loved them, I actually need to make some for their friends as well.

A few years ago,  I saw a book called The Elf on the Shelf and instantly loved the idea, but did not want to pay for something that I could do myself.  This year I went found a tutorial for an elf over at the  Make Baby Stuff   blog and then a letter all ready to print off from Santa over a  Organized Christmas for the elf to arrive at our house with. The basic of the idea is that Santa sends an elf to the family to watch over the little ones and report back to Santa on Christmas eve and let him know how naughty or nice the little ones were this holiday season, after reporting on Christmas eve Santa leaves his gifts and takes the elf back to the north pole with him..  The one problem is that the elf is a mischief-maker and likes to roam the house in the evenings and is therefore always found in interesting places every morning... think flower pots, sock dr...

A little while back I was in need of a gift for my husband from the the girls so after a quick trip to the dollar store, and then with a few supplies from home we made dad a gift that he is proudly displaying on his desk at work. We picked up a simple wooden frame and then my daughter went to work painting the frame with her favorite colours. the little artist at work. After the paint was dry I took a sharpie added a caption to the bottom of the frame,  and then sprayed a coat of clear spray paint on top of the paint job and then printed a picture of the two girls. Here is the frame on display in Dads office (I forgot to take an after pic)

Making a "Stain Glass" window Start by drawing a picture on a piece of plasticized paper, options are freezer paper mack-tack ( what I used because I had it on hand) or even regular paper covered in plastic wrap,  just use what you have on hand. Use pencil to draw that way if any of the lines transfer you can erase them from the finished project. Sorry it is hard to see the lines but my mack-tack had a fairly bold print. Next make the glue, you could use watered down pvc glue but I jsut make my own: Mix 1 Cup water  1 tablespoon flour and 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil  keep at a simmer until thickend, cool and you are ready to go. Also rip up small pieces of tissue paper in the co lours you would like to use for your picture. Now we start the picture.  place a thin layer of glue on your drawing ( you can see the butterfly better here)   Next place pieces...

Faux Stain Glass Window My daughter and I made this last week, I took lots of picture and will post a how to soon.