Small but Mighty– Hogwarts Uniform Part 1

 

I just completed a craft swap with the very talented tapestrymlp, as she is known on Craftster. It was called Invite Your Partner Fall Ball or IYP19 Fall Ball.

I was flattered because I have seen her some of her work, which I admire and I was itching for a challenging project.

When I found out she has a daughter who has an American Girl Doll and loves Harry Potter, I knew this was the project for me.

I used almost entirely recycled materials as this is a passion of mine. I have been a recycler since before it became “the thing”. I use mostly recycled materials for the felt food on my Etsy shop.

I have included the directions for the hand knit scarf as it was definitely a labor of love.

I used the pointy tipped turkey skewers because the finished scarf seemed to be more to scale. I sanded the heck out of the points but they were still pretty sharp. Next year’s turkey will probably be upset with me as I will have to jab him pretty harshly to get the skewers through his skin.

You may want to use sock needles as these will be easier on the tips of your fingers but make sure you do a test so your scarf doesn’t come out too large.

I used Coats & Clark Red Heart Classic Crochet Thread. I found mine at WalMart but it’s a standard thread available all over. The colors I used were:

Burgundy Color 0492	Goldenrod Color 0421

[Images of Thread Courtesy of RedHeart]

 

Hogwarts Doll Scarf Instructions:

9 stitches = 1 inch and 10 rows = 1 inch

• With burgundy thread cast on 18 stitches.
• K 1 row P 1 row (stockinet) for 15 rows.
• Attach goldenrod  P 1 row, K 1 row, P 1 row K 1 row.
• With burgundy P 1 row K 1 row  - repeat 1 and 2 one more time to make the striping pattern.
• Continue with burgundy in stockinet stitch for another 15 rows then repeat the above striping pattern.
• Go back to burgundy and continue in stockinet stitch for 10”.
• Repeat the striping pattern at the end of the scarf, making sure you have the 15 rows of burgundy stockinet at the end and cast off. 
• If desired, add fringes at the bottom out of the burgundy.

When you are finished working in all your threads from the various color changes (I worked them into the body of the scarf with a sewing needle), you will need to steam the heck out of the scarf with a wet pressing cloth. I actually added a wee bit of starch as it still wanted to curl on me. I found that pinning it to the ironing board also helped keep it’s shape and don’t move it until it is completely dry.

I heard that the little girl is so pleased she hasn’t taken the outfit off her doll yet.

I’d love to hear your comments and any suggestions you may have.

More Matchbox Mini Art – Part I

I recently completed another matchbox swap at Craftster and this time I decided to try using resin.  I have been wanting to experiment with this for a while, but never seemed to have a good enough reason invest in the resin.
I actually ended up using Quick Water which I found at Michael’s.  As I was working on such a small scale this product seemed to fit the bill and was more cost affective as well.
It allowed me to mix up a small quantity and the drying time is fairly fast (or at least I was supposed to be.)  This may have been user error, I am not really sure, however, the end result was satisfactory.
My first challenge was to find a container that would be the right size for the matchbox swap parameters. The boxes are the 32 count wooden stick matches and the box is 2 1/8” x 1 /8” x 1/2”.  I lucked out when my daughter, Amanda of SnazzleCraft came home with the best storage boxes EVER!  She found these interlocking organizers in the jewelry section at Hobby Lobby.
Next was to create the salt water fish which would be suspended inside.  I made these out of shrinky dink material.  The mermaid on a rock came from an old gumball machine and I mean OLD!  She is probably from the early 1980’s.
The aquarium plants were a combination of plastic and real dried plants which I coated with fixative before submersion.
The final touch was to create the curious kitty.  She had to be an orange tabby as my partner in the swap has an orange tabby cat.  The kitty was made of Sculpey and the details painted on after baking then also sprayed with fixative.
The only thing I had to figure out was how to get the tacky feel off the surface of the quick water and I accomplished that with a coat of Sally Hanson’s Hard As Nails clear top coat.
I had such fun with this I am already thinking up other projects.

Matchbox Aquarium VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Getting My Feet Wet

I work 60 hours a week as a car salesperson, where there is limited opportunity to get creative.  Art, for me is a way to maintain what little sanity I have left.
Through the encouragement of one of my creative daughters, I have decided to take a stab a blogging some of the “crafts” I have been doing lately.
I am a fairly active member of Craftster.  It is a great way to get involved in creating at a controllable level and to not feel so isolated as an artist/crafter.  Craftster offers swaps with themes so you can do a super simple one or jump in with both feet. If you have never swapped you might want to check out the website it’s really fun and rewarding.
I have just finished a swap using matchboxes.  I chose it because of the size and I figured it would be a no stress project.  I was right it was so much fun!
The swap parameters stated that you should fill a small matchbox (the tiny ones that wooden matches come in – not the big box of kitchen matches) with as much stuff as you can and get it there by a certain date. 
I did some detective work and discovered that my “partner” was interested in Nancy Drew books, liked mushrooms, like to create  “inchies”, does papercrafts and crochets. 
I was so excited that I actually had the perfect Nancy Drew book in my own book case and scanned it then sized it down using Photoshop.  The crocheted mushroom was a bit of a challenge as I used three strands of sewing thread and an incredibly small crochet hook. (there may have been a few unladylike words used in the process).  It became a magnet.
So here is what I came up with . . .

Nancy Drew Matchbox VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The second matchbox partner had some amazing things on her WIST. I decided to create a tiny magnet Matryoshka doll out of felt.  There was a lot of hand sewing and detail work.  I made a necklace with an owl charm.  I had the most fun making the miniature drop spindle and it even has Merino wool that I spun myself.
I found a printable micro scale 18th Century house online from About.com (here is the link to the original design).  I had to make many adjustments to the original design in order to have it fit the matchbox.  The assembled house was glued on top of the matchbox.  I then used a print of stones to represent the foundation of the house.
Here is the second matchbox . . .

Colonial House Matchbox VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I am already working on another swap.  This one has a Gnome theme.  I will post pictures when I have it completed.
So how am I doing so far?