[tutorial] grow capsule animal mobile

Today I am going to show you how to make a quick, cute and inexpensive mobile!

1. Gather supplies!

You will need grow capsules (found at any major store in the toy section, and also often in the dollar sections), scissors, a hand needle, clear thread, and half an embroidery hoop (luckily I had a broken one just waiting to be used!)

supplies

2. "Grow" your capsules!

drop capsules in warm water

 3. Watch the animals (or whatever shapes you have) appear!

and watch them grow!

 4. Continue watching. It takes awhile.

there's a lion!

 5. Squeeze out the excess water and allow your spongy animals to dry.

let the sponge animals dry

6. Thread the needle with an arbitrary length of clear thread. 

7. Gently slide the needle through the center of the back of a randomly selected animal shape, so it will hang nicely. 

8. Tie the other end of the length of thread to the embroidery hoop with a double-knot.

9. Repeat for all the animals.

Sassy wants to eat my animals while I work 

 10. Tie three extra-long strings to the embroidery hoop equal distances apart. Tie a knot of the three strings together.

 Hang and enjoy!

completed mobile!

NB: Clear thread is slippery and difficult to see. For an easier equally cute alternative, use strands of colored embroidery floss!

[wip] dresser colors

it's getting there!

Here is (another) update of my dresser. Now you can begin to get a sense of how it is going to look finished! I'm still working on the six colors for the top drawers (but I only have two left to do!), and I have yet to paint the dresser body the glossy white. But the primer is close enough in color to get a sense of the final look. The chalkboard top is done, and Adam tested it last night. It works great!

You can definitely see the corners/edges that I didn't repair, but it doesn't bother me. This dresser will get knocked around plenty in the future, and I kind of like the imperfect look. It's supposed to be fun and functional, not sophisticated and perfect.

I am so excited! Now if only it would cool off so I could paint more...

[completed] decoupage picture frames

black and white

On Monday, I had an awesome craft day with my new friend. We stopped at Wal-Mart to gather supplies, and she found these awesome sets of hanging wood frames. The frames were simple undecorated wood, and my friend suggested that we decoupage the frames with scrapbook paper. I picked up a pack of black, white and grey printed papers, and we were off!

This is the result! It took way longer than I had expected to cut out and mod podge the pieces of paper on the frames, but I love the result. (Hers turned out even cuter than mine, but sadly I didn't take any pictures!) We watched Mulan while we crafted. It was a great time!

I already had a set of six square black and white photos just sitting on a shelf. I recently got rid of the cheapo Target frames the pictures had been in, and was at a loss for what to do with them. This project was perfect for them! I chose three of the six photos - one each of my mother and my sisters. I plan to get another set of the frames and do the whole process again (but different, of course) for the other three photos.

look how pretty my family members are!

P.S. The mirrored bug? $0.25 at Michael's. Isn't it cute?