The Unblogged aka The Crappy Pictures Post

I love doing crafts with my kids, I do.  I spend loads of time pinning stuff we could do together.  I try to keep a few supplies ready to go at a moment’s notice.  And when I know we’ll have some time, I plan a few projects that we can work on.  And I almost always have my camera ready because hey! I know I’ll want to write about it.

But then.  Then one or more of these things happen.

• The project requires so much of my involvement that I can’t get any pictures of the process.
• The pictures of the process are horrible.  Girls moving too fast, bad lighting…
• The project doesn’t work out so well.
• The project pictures don’t work out.

And I end up never blogging the projects.  Well, today, lucky you, I’m sharing four projects that never made it here.  All were done right before Christmas.

First up, trees. I was inspired by this pin. I already had some cardboard cones handy but they weren’t pointy enough.  I tried to make a point out of sturdy paper but that wasn’t working either.  So pompoms.  Souricette 1 and I worked on these while souricette 2 was at birthday party with her dad.  We wrapped with yarn.  I taught souricette 1 to use a glue gun.  My style would have been more subdued but since these trees were getting the big old pompom treatment on top, I brought out some more embellishments.  I made an extra one for souricette 2 to embellish.  Or rather, for me to embellish according to her instructions.

I actually really like these trees.  I could see myself making some big ones to decorate the living room.  Sans embellishments, thank you.  Souricette 1 thought the wrapping process was a little bit tedious.

Next up, glass ornaments! I actually have two projects here.  There was a 2 for 1 on the glass ornaments at the store so we tried two things.

The one I really wanted to do was this one.  Melted crayons!  Stupid cat had peed in the crayon box so I had to buy new ones.  I included some glitter ones in the purchase.  Guess who was all over that!  The results were gorgeous.  The glitter really shows up.  But I couldn’t get pictures of the process because, it turns out, I had to do almost all the work. The girls had a hard time removing the paper from the crayons so I did it.  Then I had to cut the crayons up.  Then, the glass got too hot for souricette 1 so I did all the melting.  Very pretty results though!

Only you can’t really tell in that picture because I was in a low light situation.  Yeah, yeah, I knew what I needed to do but I wasn’t feeling so hot, okay?  The idea of getting the tripod out was just too much.

Since we had that second box of ornaments, we tried something else.  Paint.  The idea was to put paint in the ornaments and swish it around.  Each girl chose one color and I added one.  We had turquoise, purple, and white.  We used this stuff.  And because everything is better with glitter, I added glitter to the paint.  Bonus: glitter in the paint means it stays put and cleans up well.

I tried to use eye droppers to put the paint in the ornaments but it was too thick and wouldn’t come out.  So we put it in with a paintbrush.  The souricettes were quite content with painting the inside of the ornament but I wasn’t.  I tried thinning the paint with water but, by the time the paint was liquid enough, the color was too diluted.  Maybe you’re just supposed to use a lot of paint and drip it out of the ornament?  But then, how do you get several colors swirling together?

Oh well, the girls had fun, we ended up with 6 more ornaments, and you get another crappy picture.

And the last one.  The last one was a gift for Mr. Mouse.  I’d made some wet felted fabric with the girls before. So I thought we could make a scarf, easy!  I had a grey merino scarf blank.  The merino was prefelted.  Not completely felted, just enough to provide a base for more roving.  I divided the scarf into three sections and the girls selected roving colors that they thought their dad would like from my stash.

I did stripes on my end.  Souricette 1 went surprisingly wild, layering colors seemingly randomly.  And souricette 2, she of more is more, went minimalist.

I made a mess of the soapy water but eh, it’s soapy water.  Wipe it up and you can say you cleaned your floor!  We took the whole thing to the bathtub and rubbed.  Added hot water.  Rubbed.  Souricette 2 got sick of it first, then souricette 1.  And I just couldn’t be there all day either.  So I just made sure everything was sticking together okay, put the scarf in a laundry bag, then put it in a hot cold wash.

And here!

I think it could use another trip through the washer.  Some spots look thin.  Or maybe we were supposed to use more roving.

My stripes worked out and souricette 2’s part turned out quite pretty.

But for me, souricette 1 did the best job.  I confess I was unsure when I saw what she was doing but her portion of the scarf is the most artistic, isn’t it?  I love it! And it’s a good reminder for me to take risks.  Because sometimes, it turns out perfect.

And there you have it!  All that’s left to share from 2014 is my Peony.  I haven’t forgotten!  I’ve worn it twice already.  And I was wearing make up and I did my hair and everything.  But a party isn’t really the time for pictures, is it?  So I need to get all dolled up again to get those pictures.  Might take a while…