The Evil Ornament Challenge

My co-blogger was kind enough to start a challenge this Christmas: The Christmas Ornament Challenge.  The inspiration for her challenge was cleaning of all the crazy things.  Anita moved her craft room downstairs and in the process did some cleaning and organizing of the cool bits and nubs one might find in a well stocked craft room.  The new room looks amazing, is quite spacious and comfortable, and the windows let in the crazy amount of light so as to inspire your inner most artist, tres awesome!  While working through this transfer of creativity she found several four packs of glass ornaments she had purchased at a deep discount for a Craft Club project two or three years ago.  Well what does one do with several boxes of plain ornaments, you trick your friends and relatives into taking them while baiting them into a false sense of security with a smile and a gentle tone of voice.

"Hey would you like a box of these? I have several and I can't use them all".

"I bet I could think of some....."

"Too late! You touched it now you have to take it! This is the Ornament Challenge, you have to create four different ornaments and post it in December".

(this whole exchange she did with a big ole smile on her face)

These little glass squares brought me much consternation as I pondered my approach to the challenge at hand. I could think of two or three different styles but I could never quite get to four.  Alas, would I never be able to complete the challenge and be saddled with these little glass squares of doom until the end of eternity?  I think not, the idea finally came to me on my commute home one day.  Kids crafts!  I would decorate my ornaments using the mediums I so adored as a child: clay, glitter, paint, and collage.    

The first one was Paint.  I wanted to make a snowman out of one for sure, I had that idea right away when I was still unsure of how I would approach this bunch of Christmas cubes.  I sprayed him white, used a Q-tip for the eyes and coal smile, and painted on a cute little carrot nose.  He is so happy looking.  This guy took all of ten minutes, not including dry time.

My second inspiration was Glitter!  Oh how I loved glitter as a little girl.  I wanted glitter on every craft project I did back then.  I got some glitter pens and drew different colored glitter snowflakes and all four sides of ornament.  I tried to make them all different, which is why they kind of really look homemade but that makes me love it even more.

The third option was Clay.  The only clay I had was some Sculpy so I went with that.  I was jubilant to find I had a dark green in my stash as my idea was to do a Christmas tree.  I had to make it thin enough to be lowered down into the cube through the hole in the top.  I decorated the tree with colorful seed beads and gave it a curly top for an increased sass factor.  I glued him to the bottom of the cube and poured in some extra seed beads, they sound so nice tinkling around on the glass.

Finally I did Collage.  The ornament was created by cutting out lots of brightly colored clippings from a Pier1 catalog and modge podging it onto the glass.  I peeked in through the hole in the top occasionally to make sure I wasn't leaving any naked holes in the paper. I added a little touch of lace to the top to dress it up, it needed something to bring it together and helps it look a little more antique-ish.

I like how happy it made me getting to delve back into my past and make these ornaments.  Three of them were attached to small loaves of pumpkin walnut bread and donated to Animal House Shelter for their bake sale.  There was one I liked too much to give away, the clay one, so I kept it for my craft room for inspiration.  Keep on keepin on, the 2015 crafts will be here soon!

You're up Anita!

Kelly

Charity dresses

This post is a long time coming but I promise it will be worth the wait.  Every January the Craft Club chooses a charity and bases that month’s craft around the needs of that charity.  We have made quilts and blankets for kids in hospitals, crocheted red and blue scarves to show support for Special Olympics athletes competing in Illinois, and made quilted pet beds for animals in shelters.  It’s a great way to give back to a world that has given us so much.

 

This year we chose to make pillowcase dresses for Dress a Girl Around the World.  This amazing organization is part of Hope 4 Women International.  The objective is to create a simple and easy to care for garment for a little girl in need.  These dresses will travel all over the world to countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and even to young ladies right here in the United States.  “We dream of a world where every girl has at least one new dress” is the mantra this charity is based on and it reverberates in the heart of each person who sews a gown for these little ones.

Every girl deserves the dignity of owning one nice dress.  A garment that fits correctly, gives them a sense of pride, keeps them covered with a renewed feeling of safety.  Some of these young ladies live in societies where woman are not respected as they should be and these dresses show them that each of them is loved and cherished.  Pastors in villages where these dresses have been donated report that these garments give the girls a protected and cared for appearance which may discourage a would-be predator.  Additionally, a Dress a Girl Around the World tag is sewn in a visible location on each dress so that others know that this girl is under the care of an organization, hopefully adding another level of safety for her.  It’s amazing that one dress can add so much beyond what we think of in a garment.

These dresses are made from new pillowcases and can be made in less than an hour by even the most novice sewer.  The website provides you with links and PDFs to walk you through sizing your dress, cutting armholes, sewing the shoulder ties, and even ideas on how to embellish the dress to make it unique.  You can purchase a new pillowcase or make your own using the super simple Sausage Pillowcase technique.  Cotton is the fabric of choice for these dresses for many reasons: it’s strong and durable, soft on the skin, easy to both sew and wash, breathable, and offers coverage for the girls, no see-though fabrics here!

With only a few simple steps the pillowcase is transformed into a cute yet functional dress for a girl to be proud of. We chose bright colors and patterns of cottons to really brighten their days and help them enjoy life as a child.  These are children after all and they deserve a touch of wonder in their world.  We added pockets, ruffles, and buttons, embellished with rick-rack and embroidery, even made our own bias tape for some of the shoulder ties to keep the dresses up-beat and happy.  Along with the colorful fabrics we employed bright threads and stitch patterns, using all of our faculties to show these sometimes forgotten girls that we are thinking of them and are working to improve their lives, even the smallest amount, when they cannot.

I am so proud of these Craft Clubbers I worked with on this craft.  We made 23 beautiful well-made dresses for this charity!  Everyone worked hard as a team: some cut armholes and measured pillowcases for sizing, others sewed in elastic and worked on the shoulder ties, and still others sewed pockets and tags on the dresses finishing them off and getting them ready to be donated.  A few of us were so inspired we made a few extra on our own to add to the growing pile.  Twenty-three dresses were donated yesterday to our Illinois Ambassador to be provided to little girls of all ages.   Pinks, blues, yellows, purples, and greens of every shade, beautiful hues that I hope bring smiles to the faces of these deserving girls.  I wish I could travel with these amazing Ambassadors to these countries to hand deliver a dress to each of these young ladies.  To make even a greater impact, so show them personally that we care about them, that we want them to have the best future there is.  Perhaps someday I will be able to go, to give and receive hugs, but until I do I will sew pillowcase dresses with love sewn in with every stitch I take.

If you have a great idea for a charity we can help through crafts please let us know about it in the comments.  Be happy and healthy out there, always do your best!

Kelly 

Art for Animals Contest

There is a wonderful art contest currently running over at the National Anti-Vivisection Society.  It's called Art for Animals.  The theme for 2014 is : Show us what compassion means to you. I know crafters are a very compassionate group, it is evident with all the amazing charity work I have seen out there on the nets! Here is a great opportunity to show off your talents and get the recognition you deserve.  

A little bit of info from the website:  "Consider addressing topics such as humane education; proper care of companion animals; the use of animals in biomedical research and product testing; passing and enforcing animal protection laws; and concern for endangered species. Your artistic talents can inform, inspire and help spread compassion for animals. 

Past submissions have been chosen to illustrate NAVS publications, posters, stationery, and other media. In addition, NAVS recognizes 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in three age categories as well as Best Photo and Best in Show - all of whom are awarded cash prizes. 
Feel free to spread the word! Send them to our website where they can download our entry form. Or post our entry form in your classroom or community bulletin board. To receive an entry form via fax, mail, or email, please call 800-888-NAVS (800-888-6287)."

The contest is open to all forms of art, even the spoken word! I am going to crochet a piece having to do with protecting Endangered Species.  One year I got honorable mention for a small quilt I made of two guinea pigs in love.  With three age groups to compete in this contest is great for everyone in the family.  

I know some of the topics presented can be difficult if not impossible to talk to children about.  Looking to the positive ideas such as proper pet care, protecting endangered species, and compassion to all living things helps them learn in a supportive nurturing thought process, focused on the good we can all do! Now is as good a time as any to introduce these concepts into their lives, if they haven't already been exposed to them.

I hope you will give this contest a try, you will feel so good about yourself know how your art helped make a difference.

Thank you for reading!

Kelly

Petite Blueberry Banana Breads

Animal House Shelter, which is my local animal rescue, always hosts a picture with Santa for pets and kids to help raise money.  While taking pictures with the big guy or looking for that new best friend they sell baked goods to earn a little more for the shelter needs.  I baked some small loaves of banana bread and decided to perk them up with some Michigan blueberries.  I wrapped them up with wax paper and string to make them look cute and hopefully worth a few dollars to the shelter!

Petite Blueberry Banana breads

1&1/3 cups (2 large) mashed very ripe banana
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs, or egg substitute equivalent
2&2/3 cups Bisquick
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, if frozen rinse and drain

Heat oven to 350.  Grease bottom only of four small loaf pans.  Mix all ingredients except Bisquick and blueberries until blended.  Partially stir in Bisquick than add in the blueberries and finish mixing.  Divide among the small loaf pans.  Bake 40-50 minutes, start checking at 40.  Let cool in pans 10 minutes then remove to rack to fully cool.

I hope you enjoy the recipe and have a safe and healthy Holiday season!
Kelly

Snuggles find a new home

I delivered my box of Snuggles to the Dekalb County Animal Shelter on Saturday, May 4.  Saturday was May the fourth be with you and I thought that was the perfect time to do some good works.  As I flock to the good side of the force I want to make the time these animals spend at the shelter as comfortable as I could.

In the box we have 16 small Snuggles, 6 medium snuggles, and 3 large Snuggles.  I even have the paperwork all done for them!

I hope every kitty and puppy that gets a Snuggle feels the love I put into each one.  And for every pet who is waiting for their forever home may it come as soon as possible. Is it time you saved a life?

 

Keep giving,

Kelly, the origami ninja

 

 

 



Cross Stitch Peegs!

So this post is going to start out with a little love for my co-blogger Anita.  I have many crafts that need doing, so many in fact that I oft get overwhelmed by them.  I get to a point that I have no idea in what order to do them in, so much so that I actually do none instead.  I wish I could assign them an importance ranking like at a job so that I knew the pjs for the husband come before the string wrapped eggs for Easter. 



I think to myself Anita seems to have all her crafts in line like baby duckies behind their momma maybe I should ask her.  I admit she does have a lot of crafts up there in that nugget of hers, but she can whip one out and get it done in any situation, boy scout style! Sinking ship, no problem, Anita has a craft for that.  So I asked her how she gets this all planned out with no stress. No kidding she had the most simple answer ever: is it family/dog/tv time, then your craft is one you can work on with just your hands, alone/day off/or can't take another minute of daytime tv time, you pick a more long term craft and settle down for the fun.  Why? Why has this taken me so long to figure out? I know a smart thing when I hear it, so as I set off down the path of tv and husband time, which included NASCAR and a very shirtless Bond movie, I pulled out a cross stitch craft I had started in, I kid you not, 2001.



I recently cleaned out my craft binders, also known as the keepers of all my "some day" craft ideas, and found a partially finished guinea pig cross stitch bookmark I had started forever ago.  With Anita's words ringing in my ears I set to work.  I may have underestimated the time required to complete each piggie on the canvas, "oh yeah I bet I can do one piggy in 20 minutes", um no, but I have completed it with pride and on time for blogging.  This bookmark is going to be donated to the Critter Corral guinea pig rescue to help raise some funds for them and the awesome work they do.  It is time to send out our donation and I think this little something extra will fit quite nicely in the envelope. We have adopted several guineas from them and love their rescue dearly. 



A big thank you to my friend Anita who shined light on a very smart bit of crafting wisdom and showed me the way.........to the sewing machine.

Keeping it moving,
Kelly, the origami ninja



P.S. Wednesday night my man gets to play Red Dead Redemption on the PS3 so sewing craft it is!

February Craft Club

Let us take a quick moment to check the weather outside, yep still cold and snowy, we now return you to your regularly scheduled blog entry....

February, while we do get a nice break in the middle with the warmth of Valentine's Day, is a very chilly month.  It's a good time to turn to hot stick to your ribs food and crafting that warms the soul.  Our craft was a simple one for this issue of the Craft Club: pet beds.  Hugs for Homeless Animals is a great little web page that provides all types of information about helping homeless animals.  They have a Lost and Found Pet section, help with Anti-Cruelty campaigning, provide direction to different types of animal services, and post pets needing their forever homes.  As Anita and I have seven adopted animals between the two of us this is a cause that fits into our daily lives.  So when February Craft Club came around this was a great way to warm our inner being with some charitable creativity.

H4HA has a whole section dedicated to helping comfort those animals waiting in shelters, it's called the Snuggles Project.  A Snuggle is a handmade bed that is given to a homeless pet by a caring soul that wants to make their time at the shelter easier.  The Snuggle can be sewed, as we did, crocheted, or knit.  This bit of comfort stays with the animal, even traveling with them when they are adopted into their forever home.  Not all of us are able to physically help out at shelters, but still want to do more than donate money or supplies, and this is a great way to do it. 

The website has shelters in over 36 countries and all 50 states, and there are even links to locations where you can donate the Snuggle to help wildlife too.  A snuggle can be made in three different sizes to help fit a standardized cage depending on the animal in need.  Cat beds have a finished size of 14 x 14, 24 x 24 is for large cats and small dogs, while 36 x 36 is for medium to large dogs.  The Snuggles Project web page has all the information you need on how to construct the Snuggles, a ton of great patterns for inspiration, and the forms needed to donate as the web page moderators keep track of all the Snuggles donated.  There are links to shelters that participate in the program, and if your shelter isn't on the participant list they help you get them included!  You can form groups to make beds or work with a organization such as scouts or church groups to have Snuggle-create-a-thons.  This project is great to help boys and girls learn how to knit, crochet, or sew.  They can complete a project in short time and feel great about helping a needy animal in the process.

The four of us worked on sewn Snuggles and very quickly got into a grove.  Anita and Laura worked on pre-cut ones and churned out a huge stack of 14 x 14 Snuggles!  I cut out and assembled bigger Snuggles and then passed them to Sarah who did all the sewing.  We got three 14 x 14, one 24 x 24, and one 36 x 36 snuggle complete.  As a group we got over 27 snuggles made! All the 14 x 14 ones we made that evening will be donated to the Animal Rescue Foundation.  The three larger beds went home with me as I have other large beds to make and when they are completed the whole lot will be donated to the DeKalb County Animal Shelter.

Since our craft was a simple one we decided that we each had to try a new recipe and the theme was Asian.  We had some awesome pot stickers, delish mung bean salad, fantastic veggie noodles with peanut sauce, and yummy red bean rice cake.  My tummy could for some of that right now, it was such a good meal!  It's has been a long time since we have zoomed through the craft to the point of crazed laughter over four running sewing machines and it was marvelous.  I can't wait to see what rolls out next month, see you then!

Keeping it thoughtful,
Kelly, the origami ninja



Snuggle update and guinea pig love

The cutting of the fabric has commenced for the snuggles.  The Snuggles website has the beds divided into three sizes: 14 x14 for kitties, 24 x 24 for small/medium doggles, and 36 x 36 for the big guys.  I try each piece of fabric to fit the 36 x 36 sized bed and then go from there.  So I cut and cut and cut.  This is all the fabric I have to go through and get sized for beds.  I can't wait to see how many of each size I can get out of all of this.  Just keep cutting, just keep cutting.........

 

I hope the kitties like Hawaiian fabric and the doggies don't mind the John Deere! The small/medium guys are in luck, all their beds are solid colors.  I am working on the soft filling next, lots of fleece and quilt batting to make a soft warm bed for them at night. 



During all this cutting I have had nothing but lip from our peanut gallery: the guinea pigs, AKA, Oreo and Libby.  The bunny, he doesn't say much, he just glares at you interrupting his me time.

Several weeks ago we lost our piggy, Nutter Butter.  She was a good pig and friend of Oreo.  We didn't want Oreo to be lonley so we adopted Libby from PAWS Humane Society to keep her company and give her a pal to sass with.  She was the first guinea pig ever adopted out from PAWS and we are very happy to have her.  She is very chatty and social, always giving her opinion of my cutting.  I had no idea guineas had so much to say about siccors and fabric.  They make me so happy!

 

I hope everyone is having a great January! Remember those less fortunate and think of some fun crafty ways to help where you can.  Crafters unite!!!

 

Kelly, the piggy momma

 









January is a good month for giving

I still have a few Christmas gift to give to co-workers I don't see very often and then I'm done!  It sure seems like the holidays get longer and longer every year, they start in November and go until sometime in January, and one person always pops up at the end that I am unprepared for.  Now that all friends and loved ones have been celebrated it's time to look to the New Year.

Charitable giving is a great way to start of 2013 here at the Rhinestone Beagle.  I have been saving these boxes of fabric for a very long time to make into beds for homeless dogs and cats in shelters. Hugs for Homeless Animals is a website that helps connect shelters in need of beds with savvy crafters through The Snuggles Project .  A snuggle is a bed provided to a needy shelter pet waiting to find their forever home, when the adoption day comes the bed goes with them to help them feel more comfortable in their new surroundings.  Snuggles can be knit, crocheted, or even sewn, which is obviously the way I am going. 



I am tired of these big ole boxes in my craft room being in the way and not out in the shelters being helpful.  So January 2013 is going to be all about the snuggle.  I am going to cut and sew all of this into as many snuggles as I can for shelter pets and I am going blog about it to keep me on track.

I hope you are having a wonderful New Year with tons of great crafty ideas!
Kelly



Everybody needs a good bed!

Animal Shelter donation

Just a quick update of things going on.  I have been working on some simple gift baskets for my favorite animal shelter to help them earn some funds.  Animal House Shelter had their Pawfest yesterday and I hope it was a huge success for them.  I put together one cat and one dog themed basket.

The kitty and me basket has a lucky kitty plate, a lucky kitty statue, a lucky kitty key chain, a homemade crochet heart magnet, a cat clip, kitty stickers, Swedish fish candy, and two handmade re-usable snack bags.

The doggie and me basket has dog spa spray, the paw embroidery  project from the Spring, poop bags, dog magnets, two dog squeak toys, dog cookie mix, and two handmade re-usable snack bags.

  

I hope the shelter got some good money at the Pawfest to help them continue the amazing work they do.  I love my shelter and I am going to help them earn money as much as possible. 

I know you guys are doing some great charity work out there and we would love to hear about it!

Keeping it moving forward,

Kelly, the origami ninja 





Guinea Pigs are for Loving

Last week I got to put up a new craft so now it is back to the craft grindstone and posting frenzy.  This weeks completed work is another item that was finished a while ago but had not yet made it to the blog for some love.  The National Anti-Vivisection Society has a contest called Art for Animals that I entered for the first time last year.  This was my entry for the 2011 contest and I even got an honorable mention.  In all fairness I lost to a HUGE art piece of a walrus, it was sweet.  They also have a kids contest too! Go over to the web page and check out this years contest to enter.

The little quilt is about the size of a large place mat.  I just made up the pattern to use up some fabrics that I had that I thought looked good together.  My two adorably loud guinea pigs were the perfect models for the smoochers and I learned basic embroidery to add the finishing touches to the hearts and piggies. 

Aren't they too cute?  After the Art Show I donated the quilt to The Critter Corral guinea pig rescue to help raise them some money.  I hope it helped them get some piggies some good homes.

I am enjoying watching my to do list slowly disappear and I hope yours is doing the same.  Let us know how you are doing on your projects and what is keeping you going this winter, we would love to know!

Keeping is moving,

Kelly, the origami ninja

Crafting Charity of the month: June

I like to knit. I kind of like to knit things with inexpensive acrylics that have great universal color that keeps me from having to worry about dye lots, cause I only really worry about dye lots when it's too late and I am almost done with the project and I just ran out of yarn. I REALLY like to knit things that give me a lot of bang for my proverbial time buck as well, as in " oh look at what I made, and in only 4 hours!"  This brings me to a very fine example of this crafter's paradox of producing an awesome craft in a short time: the knit baby hat.  It's cute, can be made in any rainbow of color combinations, and I have never know anyone not to be completely overjoyed at the gift of a homemade knit item for their baby.  They think we slaved for hours over this gift of love for them, but I know the truth.  I swear I will never tell how fast these suckers knit up.  Non-knitters never have to know our secrets and actual time taken does not detract from the love worked into the item.
 I have knit so many of these over the years...I am not that old, but I do have some very fertile friends and co-workers.  My favorite pattern is in the book Stitch and Bitch by Debbie Stoller.  It's the umbilical cord hat. I was a bit weirded out by the name, but once you have seen it all knit up in its glory the name works well and pearched on top of a fuzzy baby head, looks quite adorable.  This patterns knits up insanely fast and is as customizable as it gets.  You can add stripes, or duplicate stitch on patterns or letters, and I will sometimes leave off the cord and add in some hot pom pom action to top it all off.  Any which way you knit it this hat looks great on a baby's noggin.
With that chatty lead in I would like to introduce a new monthly event over here at the Beagle: The Crafty Charity of the Month.  I inherited some yarn from a relative that passed away, as I am the only yarny person in my family it all comes to me.  So with tons of odd yarns in hand I challenged a friend to a baby hat knit/crochet off.  She kicked my hiney royally, like 6 to 14 or something embarrassing like that.  But we decided to donate our competitive efforts to Caps to the Capital, a program donating baby hats to needy little ones.  Save the Children  identified simple, low-cost practices that can save newborn lives – like warming their heads with a knit or crocheted cap. They partnered with Warm Up America to help spread this simple message.  They collected caps from all 50 states made by all people from all walks of life, hundreds of caps all made out of concern for the saftey of a newborn life.  These little hats and any of the accompanying messages were taken to our Capitol as a sign that we are willing to do what it takes to save lives.  These wonderful gifts were then donated to tiny heads in need in Bangladesh and Malawi. 
I know I don't always know how to help when I want to do something more than just donate money.  Yes, a monetary donation is always welcome, but sometimes I want to get involved, I want to engage my skills to help others. Do you have a favorite charity that we could aid with our craftiness?  We would love to feature them here and get the word out so others can use their creativity to help. Let us know!

Keeping it moving forward,
Kelly, the origami ninja