The Story of the Stamped Tea Towel

This is the story of a lovely project from The Makers' Box which I thought I could customise to suit my rainbow heart but which all went interestingly wrong!

It started off with the best of intentions. I had my project supplies all ready, I had my instructions read, and I had ideas of how I wanted to change it up. The original project takes you through a lovely stamped triangle design on a linen tea towel. Great instructions with troubleshooting advice to boot. A fabulous quick and easy project if you like monochrome. Which I do. But I love ROYGBIV more.

So arming myself with an array of reinkers I dampened my tea towel and set to work dropping and smooshing a combination of yellow, orange and pale pink onto it. But after I hung it in the sunshine to dry the strangest thing happened. Pretty much all the colour except for the darkest of orange spots faded away to nothing and I was left with an almost white tea towel again!

Now lets be honest, I did no research into this. I didn't use fabric dye, it's not even a permanent dye. I don't know if the tea towel was treated with something and I should have washed it first. I don't know if it was the sun that did the fading. All I know is I experimented with something new and it didn't quite work out as I imagined! But that's ok. What is creativity if not to try, fail, try something different and succeed?

So moving right along I added some darker colours next. Blue, green and mint. I also dropped on more pink and a touch of yellow. Once again when it dried I was left with just the blue and pink. What a mystery! Still, it's a bit pretty and I decided that was enough - on with the stamping!

I'm not naive enough to think I can actually use this now to dry my dishes. I'm pretty confident that if I washed this now all the colour would come out completely apart from the stamped triangles and I'm back at square one. I've actually moved it into my craft room and hung it on the end of my Raskog. If nothing else I can use it to wipe my painty hands on it - that might do the trick to keep some colour on it!

Something I had much greater success using my reinkers for was this great little art-meets-science activity I did with my girls last holidays. I wrote an article about creating with kids which you can read in Issue One of the Makers' Magazine. It's free and it's out now!

Delving into The Makers' Box

Things at The Makers' Collective have changed this month. The previous (slightly confusing) membership system has been simplified so that all members will have early access to purchase each month's Makers' Box at a deeply discounted price. There is no obligation to buy a kit each time if it's a project that doesn't appeal to you. Alternatively, if you wanted to gift a Makers' Box for a friend as well then you have the opportunity to get more than one! 

Here's what I got in my Makers' Box this month....

Firstly, there were tassels. And you all know my recent addiction to tassels! I've been adding paper tassels to my layouts and cards like crazy, so the fact that this project came with instructions on how to make these miniature ones out of embroidery thread was a huge winner for me. The kit includes three different coloured thread and 5 different size jump-rings so you can already make five tassels with HEAPS of thread left over for more later.

Next up was the (slightly more tedious) task of threading beads onto elastic. A bit difficult given that the elastic was quite a snug fit through the hole in the beads. However, what I love about this now is that the beads don't move around on the elastic and make that annoying clicky sound when you walk or wave your arms :-)

Straight up I made these two bracelets for my girls - letting them choose what colour tassel they would like. Moriah, who had previously been obsessed with all things purple has shifted her attention to blue since it's the colour that features so prominently in the movie Frozen, so that's what she chose. Whilst Bethany was rather taken with the bright yellow.

Of course, I tried them on for size. Quite cute hey?! I definitely need to be making myself some next. The project kit came with enough black beads to finish these two bracelets with some left over (but not enough for another full one). There is heaps of the elastic left though, and as I said, at least another three tassels already made. So I'm thinking I just need to stock up on the beads and I'll be all set to make a bunch more of these, especially since the process was so quick and simple I was able to complete them during one of Judah's naps!

 To sign up for a Makers' Membership check out all the details here.

The Story of the Macrame Jar Project

The second project that was included in my Makers' Box was a hanging macrame jar kit. To be completely honest, macrame was one of those terms that I've heard of before but didn't actually know what it meant. A quick trip to Wikipedia informs me that it's a form of textile-making using cords tied into a series of elaborate knots that's used as a decorative or hanging item most commonly.

Now that I had that straightened out I could better visualise where I was heading with this project. The item that I would be hoping to hang was this glass jar which comes with it's own snugly fitting glass lid. I say hoping because at first glance of the instructions I was wondering if I would be able to master this retro craftform! But I figured I could just tackle one step at a time, so lets start with something I know.

What I know is that I always want to add my own little special touches to these projects. So whilst the glass jar and lid was nice, it was made spectacular by the addition of some bright pink paint. Seriously, all I did was pour in some rather thin running paint, swirl it around a bit and then wait for it to dry. But it looks so much cooler don't you think?!

When it came time for the macrame bit I needn't have worried. I had it all spread over my kitchen table when my Mum came to stay. She's a crafty type person herself and curiosity had her investigating what exactly all these cords and instruction book etc were about. Once she saw the word macrame I could see her eyes light up with recognition. "I haven't done this in years, I wonder if I still know how?" she exclaimed as she quickly set up her own experimental knot-tying station. Let's just say that by the time I got home from running an errand, my macrame project was done! ;-)

It'a little uneven and the knots are a little wonky, but I'm thinking that adds to the handmade charm of it all. The bright pink paint complements the neon green cords and I love the overall appeal of it. Very retro isn't it? It looks perfectly at home hanging next to a framed vintage Sassafras Lass print above Moriah's bed. And as for the possibilities of what I'm going to store in this - well, they're endless. Small toys is what Moriah will fill it with, she's got a Squinkies collection that's looking for a new place of residence. Or I'm thinking of reclaiming it either for my craft room to fill with embellishments, or to turn it into an air planter and hang it in the kitchen.

I'm really enjoying my Makers' Box subscription - both this macrame jar project and the clay cloud magnets that I shared earlier in the month have been really fun and super-cool. Mikaela is up on the Makers' Collective blog sharing an insight into the latest project kit too. And if you want all the information about how to sign up for a subscription for yourself then you'll find that over here.

Happy Making!
xx

The Story of the Clay Cloud Magnets

Have you heard me talk about the Makers' Collective yet? It's a non-scrapbooking Design Team I joined recently. Yes, I said it's not about scrapbooking! What it is instead is a subscription based system where you get sent kits to make home DIY projects. The projects are interesting and varied in nature, and I'm here to share my February project from my Makers' Box (sorry, it's a little late!)

So I totally forgot to take the photo which showed you everything that came in this kit, but obviously it has everything you need to create these air-drying clay cloud magnets, with enough supplies left over for other projects. It also comes with a complete set of instructions which make it really easy to follow along. So easy in fact, that I knew my 5 year old was going to have a ball creating her own version of the project alongside me. So that's what we did!

The templates themselves are totally adorable, and the first step was to cut them out.

We rolled out the clay to about 0.5cm thick... or as much as Moriah could manage. Then placed the templates on top and cut around them. Obviously I didn't let Moriah use this sharp knife to cut hers, all I let her have was a butter knife, which actually worked just as well.

The best part was that the clay is air-drying so no need to worry about baking it. But it takes a lot longer obviously, and we left ours for 24 hours as recommended. After both me and Moriah had made our own versions of the cloud and raindrops from the template, we still had at least half of the supplied clay left over which meant that once Bethany came home from school and saw what was going on she wanted to join in as well. She didn't want to make clouds though, she preferred a flower. We simply printed off a flower shape from Google and then she followed the same set of instructions.

Now the project kit came with a couple of suitable markers for drawing on the simple cute face on the cloud that you can see on the template. But if you know me, I'm not usually one for taking the simple way out, and I thought we could get a lot more creative with paints instead... but these don't come with the kit.

Moriah doesn't need direction when it comes to this sort of thing, and she simply painted what she felt like, which was this fabulous block pattern. Bethany, suffering from a lack of patience at that point in the game went for a very simplistic approach with her flower. Not that it's any less effective!

Strong glue and magnets to adhere onto the back was what finished off the project. After I used up the supplied magnets on one set of the cloud and raindrops, I simply cut up pieces of those flat 'junkmail' advertising magnets that you probably have a thousand of if you're like me, and stuck them on the back instead. The clay is thin and light, so those flat junk magnets do the trick just as nicely.

Now whilst I'm super late on showing you my February project, I have already done my March project as well, and let me tell you, it's completely different whilst being just as fabulous. But I'll leave that sharing for another time ;-) All the details you need to sign up for the Makers' Box for yourself can be found here.

What I will tell you about in the meantime is the celebrations going on at the Makers' Collective right now!

Which means it's also time for lots of giveaways!!

Check out all the details on how to win this (and other prizes) here.