Full Circle

What the Dandelions Gave Us

As we were plucking dandelions out of the yard the other day, I noticed my hands were beginning to turn yellow. I remembered that dandelions can be used to make a natural dye and since we had SO MANY, I thought we should put them to good use. You know, the "making lemonade out of lemons" idea ;)

So, we separated the heads from the stems...


and put them in a large pot.



Since this was an impromptu craft, I wanted some simple directions and found them here. I liked how they just added the mordant (alum) directly to the dye (step 5 in the instructions) instead of getting out another pot and doing it separately as I had read in other directions. The mordant is the ingredient that sets the dye and an easy one to use is alum. It can be found in the spice section of the grocery store. 

Little Brother is stirring his white T-shirt in the dye...



The finished T, dyed a light dandelion yellow!



We thought we'd take it one step further and add a freezer paper dandelion stencil to the front.

Little Brother has very limited vision and had to get up close to make his drawing. There are lots of good freezer paper stencil tutorials, here's a link to get you started. He's drawing directly on the freezer paper.



I helped by cutting out the drawing to make the stencil...



Then, I placed it on the T-shirt and ironed it on, shiny-side down...



Now, it's time to add the paint. Put a piece of cardboard between the front and back of the shirt so the paint doesn't bleed through to the back side. Little Brother started dabbing on the fabric paint and then I helped to make it complete.





Pull off the freezer paper, let the paint dry (follow directions on your fabric paint bottle for drying) and you have one happy customer!



A dandelion drawing on a dandelion-dyed T-shirt!

Over Under, Over Under

When we were visiting the gallery the other day, we learned they were offering a free weaving class hosted by Minnesota artist/instructor Becka Rahn. To my chagrin, I've never really been excited about weaving. I tend to pursue crafts that are not only creative and beautiful, but have a practical aspect as well. Weaving, to me, meant wall-hangings, and, well, I just don't need a wall-hanging. But, we've enjoyed getting out lately and this was a free class for the family, so I thought, what the heck, let's go ;) Well, we had so much fun and Becka showed us such an easy technique that I must say I'm now a convert. I still don't need a wall-hanging, but I've discovered there are many other practical uses for weaving, i.e. rugs, place mats, coasters, etc. I thought I'd share with you the technique we were taught. This is appropriate for any beginner (there was even a 3 1/2 year old at the class).

::Materials::

yarn, as many colors as desired
styrofoam tray (like a meat tray)
scissors
masking tape
something to use as a shuttle (a popsicle stick, a bone tool, etc.)
large plastic needle

1. Tape one end of yarn to the backside of the tray at the bottom corner as shown.



2. Wrap the yarn around the tray, back to front, until the whole tray is wrapped. Try to make the wraps equally spaced apart and finish with an even number of wraps. In this photo, I've wrapped around 8 times.



3. Turn the tray over to the front. The parallel lines you've just created is the warp. Now, cut some yarn about the length of your arm. You can use a new color or keep it the same. Tape one end of the yarn to your "shuttle". In the class, we used popsicle sticks, but at home I used one of our clay sculpting tools.



4. You're ready to start! Place the shuttle over or under (doesn't matter which) the first yarn and continue going over/under pulling the yarn through. Leave a nice sized tail.



5. If the shuttle finished by going over the last yarn, then go under the same yarn when you return and vice versa.



6. The yarn being woven through the warp is the weft. When you've used your length of yarn, cut, leave a tail, and tape on a new piece of yarn. Anytime you want to change colors, use the same technique. Again, if the shuttle finished by going over the last yarn, then start the new yarn by going under. If you finished under, then start by going over.



7. Here, I'm changing yarn colors. I'm using a bone tool as a shuttle and instead of taping the yarn, I'm just tying it through the hole.



8. I'm finished with the weaving part.



9. Turn the tray over and cut the thread through the center and un-tape the ends to release your weaving.



10. Now, you're ready to tie up all those loose ends!



11. Knot off the warp ends (the ones on the top and bottom) by tying in pairs.



12. The knot-tails can then be threaded through the weaving using your plastic needle. Don't do this step if you want to leave the threads for fringe.



12. Next, thread your plastic needle with a tail from the side and thread it through the length of the weaving. Continue until all tails are nicely tucked in.



13. All done!



Now, to give it a practical purpose, how about a nice cup of tea using your new woven coaster ;)

G is for Granola

Most every morning, I have homemade granola, vanilla yogurt and fruit for breakfast. I created this granola recipe based on some I used to purchase from our local coffee house. It's very simple (believe me... any recipe from me will ALWAYS be very simple)

:ingredients:

3 cups oatmeal, 1 cup coarsely chopped almonds, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, 1/3 cup sesame seeds, 1/3 cup flax, 1/4 cup millet, 1/2 cup honey, 1/3 cup brown sugar (all organic if possible)

preheat oven to 400º

mix first seven items together in large jelly roll pan, add honey and brown sugar, combine well

put granola in oven and immediately turn the heat down to 350º

bake for 15 minutes, then stir well

bake another 10-20 minutes (may depend on your oven, granola should be toasty brown)

remove from oven and stir

cool to room temperature, stirring very often to prevent sticking to pan, granola will crisp up as it cools

store in an airtight container

makes about 7 1/2 cups

Wilding Sticks and Nature Bracelets

This is an easy project we did the last time we went to the river. I call them "Wilding Sticks". All you need is a variety of colorful electrical tape, scissors, and some feathers. After you've collected the walking sticks, add the tape and feathers in whatever design is appealing. I think they're so cool to look at and the kids love using them.

We also made these nature bracelets which were very easy. Make a bracelet of duct tape with the sticky side out. Now, collect bits and pieces of flowers, seeds, grasses and other things you find and stick them on the bracelet. I like this project because it really tunes you into the variety of plant-life growing around you.

A Weather Birthday

Another birthday! Little Brother turned 7 and we had his party over the weekend. We tossed around a few theme ideas and decided on Weather. Sort of an unusual birthday theme, but, surprisingly, it offered a lot of fun ideas to try. Little Brother is "walking sunshine", always smiling and laughing and happy, so the theme seemed appropriate for him.

First, some fun information at Weather Trivia. The fact that fascinated me the most was this one, "The amount of sunlight reaching the earth's surface is 6,000 times the amount of energy used by all human beings worldwide. The total amount of fossil fuel used by humans since the start of civilization is equivalent to less than 30 days of sunshine." What were we ever thinking using fossil fuels when Mother Nature has provided us with an overabundance of free, clean energy to use? Astounding!

Anyway, back to the party... we made wind chimes... I bought embroidery hoops from the thrift store (very cheap) and collected an assortment of "dingers". Metal cookie cutters, a variety of bolts and washers, serving forks, etc. I bought some inexpensive windchimes and cut off the chimes to use, too. You can use fishing line to tie the pieces on, but I thought these threads were a colorful touch. I also thought it might be nice to paint the hoops ahead of time, too, but didn't think of that until it was too late!

Next, we made sun prints. I bought the paper at a toy store. It was a little more involved than I thought it would be and I can see that with practice you'd get some really great results. First you lay out your items on the paper in the shade. We then covered them with plexiglass to hold the pieces in place and moved them into the sunshine. However, the plexiglass seemed to block some of the sunlight getting through to the paper (you can tell by how the paper is changing color), so we took it off and exposed the papers a little longer. After a few minutes, you develop the papers in a tray of water and then let them dry. They will continue to darken over a couple of days.


Here's a couple of them finished...

We did a couple of really neat weather-related experiments. We got some ideas from the Steve Spangler website. First, we did the "Tornado in a Bottle". It was very easy to set up. I found the Tornado Tube connector at the toy store. We did the lamp oil version using blue lamp oil.



The next one we did was very cool, but a bit more complicated. Watch the video on the Steve Spangler site and you'll see a great demonstration of this experiment. I wanted the same "WOW!" factor as the one on the video, but when you read the directions, it's for one using smoke from a match. Not as impressive. So, we managed to put together the experiment as done in the video.

You'll need: a "foot pump" bicycle pump, a #4 stopper (from a hardware store), a tire needle (ours came with the pump), a drill fitted with a #16 drill bit, and a clear 2-liter bottle. Drill a hole in the center of the stopper and insert the tire needle that's attached to the pump.


Add a little bit of hot water to the bottle, then pour it out. All you need are the water droplets inside. Now, place the stopper firmly in the bottle.


Someone has to hold it down tight, otherwise it will pop out before you get enough pressure for the cloud. Start pumping the foot pump. When it gets to 40 PSI, release the stopper and the bottle will instantly fill with a cloud!



My very patient son, Big Brother, helped me take the "Cloud in a Bottle" photos. It took a lot of tries to capture the water vapor escaping from the top of the bottle. You can see it a lot better in person, so I'd really suggest trying this experiment. Besides, then the kids can entertain themselves shooting bottle rockets across the yard for the rest of the afternoon!
To finish up, we did a sun pinata.
 
A fun, "fair" weather day for everyone!

Ancient Egyptian Birthday and Broken Bones

My bunny girl turned 10 at the end of May and we had her birthday party over the weekend. She had asked for an "Ancient Egypt" theme this year and it turned out pretty well! I was getting all the last minute stuff together when the kids came running in from the backyard to say Middle Brother had jumped off the slide and hurt his arm. Uh Oh. He was crying pretty hard, not the usual kind of crying that's over and done with, but the kind where you know something's really wrong. So, Dad ran him up to the hospital and sure enough he had a buckle fracture near his wrist. Poor baby. He was back to his normal self when they returned home and the party got started. Nothing like a little excitement to start the day!

So, first off, everyone had to have Egyptian eye makeup...

Then, they designed their Egyptian collars (with inspiration from a few books)...







An Egyptian Feast including flat bread, 4-bean salad, cucumbers, grapes, dates, and Fig Newtons ; ). I bought the paper goods at Target - a new line (at least for me) called Isabelle Party that I thought was really pretty and appropriate for our theme...



The kids traced an ankh pattern (an Egyptian symbol of life) onto flattened Sculpey and cut it out. I got the ankh template from this site. After baking, they painted them and added a coat of Mod Podge.





We played a simple game I made up called Crocodiles in the Nile. I made a path across the backyard lined with blue crepe paper to be the Nile River. The kids had to run the length one at a time, while the adults threw ping pong balls at them. If they got hit (bit by the Crocodile), they were out. Simple, LOL, but the kids thought it was fun.

I printed out templates from this website for the kids to make pyramids.



For the favors, I tucked the goodies into homemade mummies and hid them around the yard. The kids had to de-code some hieroglyphics to find where they were hidden. I used this site and this one for translating and printing the clues.





To make the mummies, I shaped some newspaper into a cone shape and trimmed across the top to even it up. Then, I added a paper ball head and taped it in. I bought two inexpensive white sheets and ripped them up for wrapping. I wrapped around the mummy one complete time, tucked in some favors, wrapped again, tucked in the rest of the favors and then a final wrap to cover it all. I spray painted them gold (only on one side though, as I was running out of daytime).




They all had fun unwrapping their mummies. The idea was to mimic when the Ancient Egyptians were preparing their dead for the afterlife and they tucked charms and amulets into the linen wrappings.



We finished up with a Nile birthday cake and presents...



I almost forgot, I also downloaded some Egyptian music from iTunes and played it in the background. I love getting themed music for parties, I think it adds the final touch.

 

Pinecone Bird Feeders

A little late posting, but this is one of the things we did to celebrate Earth Day. First, we collected a lot of pine cones, not hard to do in our area!

Then, we smeared the cones with peanut butter and rolled them in bird seed.

We made little slip knots and "roped" the pine cones with twine to hang in the trees.

It's helpful to have a sink full of soapy water ready-to-go for messy hands.

I was concerned about using peanut butter for the birds, seems like I had read somewhere it wasn't good for them, but I did a search and couldn't find anything to substantiate the rumor. I found this article that says it's not a problem.

Aren't they pretty? We made a dozen and hung them all around the yard. Now, we're hoping we get some hungry customers!