BUG A BOO CORNER

Easy Fish Tacos !

2012-02-11T20:51:00.000-08:00

So I decided this week our dinner menus would come from some of the Pinterest meals I've been collecting. I went shopping today for all the ingredients that I needed. And I decided tonight to start with something simple since I had such a busy day. I decided on Fish Tacos Yay! These were so simple and yummy :-) I found the recipe at Behind the Bites.com. Since they had such a fantastic picture of the process of making their tacos I did not bother taking any pictures of mine, but I will tell some changes that I made with mine.
#1 Instead of shrimp I made Fish Stix because my husband does not like shrimp :-/ but it would taste great with either.
#2 In my sauce instead of jalapenos I used green chili salsa.
#3 I wanted to make mine more like Cafe Rio so I used packaged cole slaw veggies. I also added some lettuce in it.
#4 I topped mine with crumbled Mexican cheese.
They were so yummy! and easy :-)

Audrey Hepburn Quote

2012-02-07T19:28:00.000-08:00

I love this Audrey Hepburn picture! And I love this quote by her. So I decided to put them together :-) I think it is inspiring to all girls and women no matter what your age!

Hand made baby gifts.

2012-02-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

A while back I made aprons for a wedding reception for my friends daughter. Well today I was able to attend her baby shower :-) She has such sweet new baby girl! I got to make some fun baby gifts that I have wanted to try for a while.

Her little girls room colors are Hot pink, black and white so that is the theme I went with :-)

I had some leftover Onesies from a previous baby shower gift project so I decided make a Faux Pearls Onesie. I don't need to tell you how I made it because there is already great tutorial at The Crafted Sparrow.

To match the cute Onesie I made a cute Tutu :-)

This was so simple to make I could not believe it!

You can find the tutorial for this at Skip to my Lou.

Instead of using my leg I did mine on a paper towel roll and I also used a ribbon instead of the stretchy cord. Although for my 3 year old I think I will do the stretchy cord. I also made the flower with a all three of the mesh colors and the ribbon together. A great flower making tutorial is here at My Sparkle. I also made another flower hair clip. So here is what the whole outfit looks like together :-) It is so much cuter in person too!

The next project I did was a Waldorf inspired teething ring gnome doll. I have been wanting to make something like this to sale in my Etsy shop so I was excited to finally try one out.

I saw this tutorial at Craftster. I liked how simple this doll was. And since I decided to make this yesterday I thought this would be a pretty simple one to make. Here is how I made mine. I followed her tutorial pretty much the same, but I added ribbons to the hands and feet and connected my wood teething ring to one of the hands. Instead of using watch cloths I used a hand towel so that it would be a little bit bigger. Instead of felt I used a cute black and white fabric, but because it was a thinner fabric it did not want to stand up so I had to put stuffing in the hat.

I don't think mine looks like a gnome. It looks more like a clown or a wizard, but I think it turned out cute.

Kokeshi stuffie doll stitchery

2012-02-02T11:35:00.000-08:00

First before I talk about my stitchery check out the flock of birds that were hanging out at my house this morning!

It was incredible! at first they were all on my front lawn then by the time I got the camera they had flown up in the trees.

Okay onto my latest project :-)

This is a cute little stitchery that I worked on and finished last weekend. She is going to be a little stuffy doll for my 3 year old daughter. I have had it on my list of things to do all week and other things keep getting in the way, keeping me from finishing her up. So I thought I better at least post just the stitchery part so in case it takes me awhile to finish her. By the way you can find this adorable free pattern at Melly and Me.

I also started on this valentines day stitchery that I designed. I am right in the middle of it still, but I thought I would give you a sneak peek :-)

I actually this is 1 of 3 Valentine stitchery designs I created about 3 years ago for a neighborhood stitchery club I was involved in.

You can find the finished example of this one above here.

Happy crafting

Jewelry

2012-01-31T09:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, Michelle, here are the promised photos of the jewelry I've been making lately. This jewelry making technique is called bead weaving. I know they are not high quality pictures, but I didn't want to procrastinate it anymore, plus, let's face it, I'm not a professional photographer. :D I can't find my regular camera so I just used my iPhone. I'm curious to know what you think about me possibly selling my jewelry on Etsy and, if so, what you think I should charge. I haven't moved forward with it because I've been a little unsure. I've found a lot of patterns online and I've watched hours of tutorials on YouTube. I've given a lot of my jewelry away so I don't have pictures of everything I've done, but this gives you a pretty good idea. :) Anyway, let me know what you think!

Wood burned wood eggs

2012-01-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

So I have had a little bee in my bonnet for a few weeks now to use my wood burner on wood eggs to put in my Esty shop for spring/Easter time.
I had a fantastic Christmas Holiday season at my Etsy shop selling my Nativity puzzles. My first puzzle sale for the season was November 4th and between then and now I have made and sold about 70 puzzles! How did I do this you ask? My family lost their wife and mother for a couple of months that's how :-/ It was crazy! By far the version that sold the most was my wood burned water colored dark stained puzzle pictured below.

My personal favorite is the wood burned two tone stained version.

Anyway needless to say I am Nativity puzzled out for now and need a break from it!

So I was super excited yesterday to get my wood eggs finally in the mail from Casey's wood! I have been dreaming in my head of what I would do with them once I got them. So yesterday was one of those days. You know those days when you are in a funk? Well I was having one of those days until my wood eggs came and then it was like I was the energizer bunny! I immediately got to work on them! Here is what I have come up with so far. I will be posting them soon on my Etsy store as soon as I have them painted and stained :-)

I also tried my hand at wood burning one of my little Peggie's :-) I am curious how she will look once she has been painted. Wood burning things this size takes a lot more time and concentration I can tell you that!

Happy crafting!

Michelle

Hoosier Redo

2012-01-13T08:18:00.000-08:00

One of the hobbies I love is redoing old furniture and making it look new or totally different. One of the latest redos I've done is this Hoosier. My dad grew up with one is his home - his mom used it daily in their kitchen. He saw one many years ago somewhere and bought it with the idea of fixing it up but it sat for years and years with no luck. I was lucky enough to have it come to me when my dad decided to clean some things out. I immediately went to work on it, not wanting it to sit forever in my garage. I love how it turned out!! It's become a great storage area. I wish I had room for it in my kitchen so I could use the counter top, which pulls out to make a larger space. The other cool thing about it is that it has a flour sifter in it, which I don't use, but it's still cool :) The top cabinet on the left is where my grandmother would have put her flour, and the bottom cabinet on the left is where she would have put her bread bowl to catch the sifted flour.

When redoing furniture, the key to making a painted peice come out really nice and smooth is too sand or strip or prime it evenly, then paint and then sand it again. Lightly sanding between each coat of paint keeps the peice nice and smooth. I sand it heavier if I want an older look, like on this Hoosier. To seal the paint, I use Minwax Finishing Paste, which is a kind of wax. They use it on wood floors and stuff. I apply a light layer of that and let it sit for 15 or 20 minutes, then I buff it with steel wool. This way of finishing the peice of furniture gives a really smooth, professional look. I like to call it the Amish finish, like finished furniture would have looked back in the old days. I happen to really like that look. To finish this peice off, I sprayed all of the original hardware with an oil rubbed bronze spray paint, which really makes a nice contrast to the white paint on the Hoosier. I also painted the inside of the cabinets, drawers, and shelves a light sagey green, which was the original color I found while I was sanding it down. Someone else over the years had painted a bright red over the green, but I loved the subtleness of the green, so I went back to the original.

I'll try to post some of the other redos I've done soon.

Back Yard Chickens in the Winter

2012-01-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

I love having Back Yard Chickens! It is one of the best choices I have ever made :-) We are going into our second winter with our Chickens and if you have taken the plunge at getting your own back yard chickens and are unsure about how take care of them in the winter, I thought I would let you know what I have learned over the last two years.

#1 Chickens are very hardy and do fine in the winter if you follow certain guidelines.

#2 If you want your chickens to continue to lay eggs during the winter you need a light in their coop to simulate the sun. Naturally chickens want to stop laying eggs in the winter and their bodies tell them to stop when the days get shorter. I gave my chickens about a month off from laying because it is not good for them to lay constantly, but it was hard on us because there is a huge difference between the taste of the eggs you get at the store and the eggs you get from your own chickens! (the store bought eggs have a sulfur taste) after going off our chicken eggs for a month my 15 year old daughter said she is never eating store bought eggs again!. If you have a small coop make sure the light is not directly on them because they will get too hot. I use a infrared light so that it is not so bright on them while they are roosting/sleeping.

#3 Make sure you get Chicken food with a higher protein content in the winter. In the summer they get plenty of protein from the bugs and things they eat while they are free ranging, but in the winter they don't have that luxury. I also throw a handful of dog food in with my chickens food each day and they love it! I like to get the lay mesh Chicken feed from the IFA store.

#4 It might be wise to get a water warmer bowl for the winter so that their water does not freeze. I have yet to get one because I am too cheap! So everyday I knock out the frozen left over water and pour in hot water that cools off quickly in the winter air. Chickens need plenty of water to drink to lay well.

#5 Keep their coop clean they like to lay eggs in nice fresh straw. I know it is cold and it is tempting to put it off so you don't freeze your hiny off, but it is worth it for you and for them.

#6 Keep your chickens moving. It helps them stay warmer. I like to sprinkle feed outside there coop so that it gets them out and moving on those colder days.

#7 Keep a heat/light lamp in their coop to keep them warm especially during the really cold winter months. Like I said Chickens are pretty hardy, but can't handle freezing temperatures without some help. My neighbor last year had her light go out on her with out her knowing and two of her hens froze to death when tempts went below freezing one night.

So that is my winter advice for chickens :-) Let me know if you have any questions.

-Michelle

Orange Cream soda Ice cream!

2012-01-09T15:46:00.000-08:00

Saw this on pinterest and had to try it :-)
The pictures below I took when it was at a sorbet stage, but if you want it like ice cream you need to run your ice cream machine longer until it is thicker.

Orange soda

Root Beer

2 liters of orange soda (if you want root beer float ice cream you can use root beer)
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
throw it in your ice cream maker and you get a yummy treat!

It turned out really good, but I am curious how it would taste if I did real juice? I am going to try that next time and and come up with something that tastes more like an orange Julius :-)

Make your own vintage calendar!

2012-01-05T10:05:00.000-08:00

I found this adorable website "The blue door" she has Betsy McCall paper doll issues from the 1950's -1990's.
Starting in 1961 every January issue they would have seasonal calendar pictures that you could cut out and past onto blank calendars that you could find at drugstores back then. Here is an example below.
I thought it would be fun to make My own cute vintage calendar with the modern tools we have now using these cute pictures :-) Go to The blue door to get the PDF form. I then used my "My Memories" digital scrap booking program to crop out each seasonal picture and then I found that Vista Print has a 50% off sale on all their custom printed wall calendars making it $7.99 (the cheapest price I found on wall calendars, but you can uses whichever photo center you would like) I sent all the pics over to Vista print and I dragged them into the blank calendar spaces for each month. Once you drag into the spot vista print lets you edit/ crop the photo so it is a perfect fit. Yay! It turned out so cute! I can't wait to get it!

This would make a great gift for family and relatives for Christmas! Or a fun January gift :-) That way they are ready for the new year with their new calendar with customized important dates :-)

2012 CTR primary magnet bookmarks!

2011-12-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

Ok people! I finally came up with 2012 Primary theme magnet bookmarks ;-) I could not find anything cute to make them until I found these cute CTR shields at Simply Fresh Designs.com. She has a bunch of other fantastic free downloads for primary for 2012 that you should check out! She has a regular bookmark download that is so adorable on her site too.

So just as a refresher if you have not printed out my magnet book marks before you click on the 2012 Primary bookmark pictures below to make them bigger.

Copy and paste it to your desktop or the location of your choice. Then upload it to your favorite photo printing store, Have it printed out as a 5x7 print because 4x6 crops off too much of the picture. Then cut the photo in half on the verticle line then fold it in half on the horizontal line. Last of all add magnets to each end on the inside so it looks like the example below (my 2010 primary bookmarks).

So there you have it! If you have any questions just let me know ;-)

Back to homepage

Happy Crafting

Michelle

YW 2012 theme bookmarks!

2011-12-28T22:50:00.000-08:00

The New Year is almost here! In the past I made bookmarks when I worked in the Primary, but now I work in the Young Womens program and so I made some to go with the new 2012 YW theme. I did not do these as magnet bookmarks like I have done in the past because I could not figure out how to make the cute sun work that way. (I wanted it high in the sky) so I just made regular bookmarks, but I think they are still cute :-)
So you just simply click on the picture to make it bigger and then copy and past it to your desktop or where ever you want to (that is just my favorite spot to past things that I want to find easily). Then transfer it to your favorite online photo store. Or if you have a good printer you can just print it out or photo copy it at a copy store.
Make sure you print them out as a 5x7 photo size! The 4x6 crops off too much of the picture. then simply cut them in half in the middle were the light grey line is. It would also be cute to mount them on card stock and even laminate them. Or you can just keep them as they are :-)

You can find my Primary bookmarks here :-)

Update: I made a matching a handout or Young Women event invitation with this theme. You just click on the pic and copy it like the bookmarks above.

Back to home page

Happy Crafting!
Michelle

Great Hair tutorials!

2011-12-28T11:40:00.000-08:00

So anyone who does not know I am a Hairdresser by trade. I have always loved doing hair especially Hairstyling and makeup. When I was in High School I did every ones hair and make up on our drill team before competitions and performances. So Naturally I went into that field when I graduated from high school. Right now I am not currently working in a salon, but do a lot of hair for friends and family still. My goal is to have a salon in my house in the near future to work out of as soon as my youngest starts Kindergarten. Anyway after sharing that boring background story on me I will move onto what I really wanted to share in this post.
I am always trying to keep up with the latest hair cuts and styles so I am often looking on the online for good ideas. The other day I came across this great blog called "The small things"
She is also hairdresser and she has amazing step by step tutorials on the cutest hairstyle ideas! At least I think they are cute :-) here is a link to her Hair style tutorials. Here are a couple of my favorites

the elegant half up.

and the Bouncey Curled under

A cute Nativity ornament!

2011-12-14T14:21:00.000-08:00

Check out this cute Ornament at WildOlive If only I had any time right now I would totally make this!

I love how it depicts the true meaning of Christmas.
Speaking of the true meaning of Christmas it is my turn this week to teach our neighborhood 3 year old pre-school. Tuesday we talked about why we celebrate Christmas and that it is Jesus' Birthday. We also talked about what kind of gift Jesus would want for his birthday. We decided that the best gift we could give Jesus is to be kind and loving to eachother and to share with eachother and to help eachother. So when I saw this little clip I knew that I had to show it to them tomorrow :-) It is the perfect example of a gift to Jesus!

Fun Handmade Gifts ideas!

2011-12-12T00:22:00.000-08:00

Tis the Season! My poor little blog has been so neglected lately! I keep thinking that my sister Paula will post some of her fun ideas from her Super Saturday she did a few weeks ago, but alas we will all have to be left in suspense :-) I am so excited about how well my Etsy store did this season! It has been such a blessing to finally master and conquer my fear at using the scroll saw because I am not limited at waiting on others to help me with my projects I can just go and cut them out myself :-)
I decided this year for Christmas that I wanted to take advantage of all the wonderful talent out in Etsy land and other crafters in my area by trading and buying from other hand crafters.

Here are a few fun hand made gifts that my family will be getting this year :-)

First the Etsy store Backwoods Toys

They have the coolest homemade bow and arrows, pea shooters, Rubber band shooters, ping pong ball shooters etc. I got what's pictured above for my 11 year old son who loves this kind of stuff! Don't let the homemade look of these items fool you into thinking they are not well made. When we recieved our package in the mail my husband tried the bow and arrow out first and before he could even pull the arrow back all the way he mistakenly let go too soon and it flew across the house! We tried out the all the other little weapons also and they worked great too! And it is safe because they have eraser tips on all the arrows :-)

Next I traded one of my puzzles for 3 crochet Mary Jane slippers from an Etsy store called Made by Mitzy

These slippers are so cozy and well made! I can't wait for my daughters to open them Christmas Eve with their new P.J's :-)

Another fun trade I made with a wonderful lady I met here locally at a craft fair I did. She makes the cutest Cat and owl dolls! She calls them scrappy cats. She made one for all my girls. I was just going to get one for my 3 year old, but thought they would be a perfect addition on my teenagers beds to add to their room decor! here are a some pics at what she does.

And they are even cuter in person than they are in the pictures.

She does not have a Etsy store yet, but if you are interested I can get you in contact with her just let me know:-)

I also think News boy caps like this are so adorable! I found these ones at Angelas studio1 at Etsy :-)

So think about adding some unique original handmade gifts to your list this year :-)

Happy Crafting everyone!

Michelle

Bugaboocrafts

Crazy busy!

2011-11-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

I have been super busy the last 3 weeks trying to keep up with my Etsy store. My biggest seller being my Nativity puzzles! So forgive me if I do not post much in December.
Today I thought I would show you my latest ideas that I am selling in my shop.

First off My Mini Nativity Puzzle.

I decided it would be fun to have a smaller version. I can't get my 3 year old to leave it alone! She really likes to play with it. I also thought this smaller version would be fun for super Saturday. I have done the bigger version before with success, but the smaller one is cheaper and a little less time consuming.

Next my Joy letters with baby Jesus.

So as you can see my wood burning is still going strong! This baby Jesus was fun to make :-)

The most popular thing in my store that everyone seems to want is my Wood burned, water color, dark stained Nativity puzzle.

so that is what I will be doing non stop until about mid December! but I will ride this wave as far as it will take me :-)

Happy crafting!

Michelle

Dinner rolls

2011-11-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I slacked at my plans to post Thanksgiving recipes all week :-/ I have been crazy busy making Nativity puzzles for my Etsy store. I have been getting orders about every day. I have 3 puzzles I want to have ready to go by tomorrow! So I will be spending my Thanksgiving day working on finishing them.
I am going to my Sister In laws for Thanksgiving and I have been asked to bring the rolls.
I have several roll recipes I like one of them being my moms, but I especially like my neighbor Shauna's rolls :-)
So I thought I would post her recipe. also I never got to the Turkey My mom had special ways to make a perfect Thanksgiving Turkey. She always said that you need to bake a turkey breast down so the fat and juices from the back settle into the breast and make it more tender. She had other things she did, but when she passed away she took that knowledge with her. So I found this link that is very similar to her way of roasting a Turkey so it is what I have followed for the last 3 years.

Now onto the roll recipe!

Shauna's dinner rolls

2 cups scalded milk (or better yet, 1 cup evaporated milk and 1 cup hottest tap water!)

¾ cup warm water

1 cube margarine, melted

***(you want the temperature of all the above liquids to be 90°-100° or about baby bottle temperature. So if you scald the milk or overheat the margarine, use cold water instead of warm water etc.)***

2 large eggs

½ cup sugar

2 tsp. salt

4 cups flour

2 Tbs. yeast

Add the ingredients in the order listed above, whisking in the eggs and adding the yeast on TOP of the flour (to shield it from the salt). Add 3-4 more cups flour, a ½ cup at a time until the dough cleans the sides and bottom of the bowl. Knead for 7 minutes. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Squeeze off balls of dough about 2 ¼ inches in diameter. Place about ½ inch apart on a greased baking sheet. Preheat oven to 400°. Cover dough with warm wet towel and let rise about 20 minutes or until double. Bake 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with butter and cover with a towel until serving. Here's a little video to show you how Shauna shaped the dough balls!

Wild Rice Cornbread Stuffing

2011-11-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

So today I am posting my sister Jana's Wild rice cornbread stuffing recipe.
My mom had really yummy stuffing, but I have to admit I like my sisters just a little bit better ;-)

Here is my sister Jana with her wonderful husband!

She is the third oldest in our family and was and still is the peace maker. She and I were really close growing up. We shared a room even though I was the youngest and she was one of the oldest. She is an awesome cook and wonderful mother. She also has the most loud and contagious laugh out of anyone I know :-)

Jana's Wild rice cornbread stuffing recipe

Make the wild rice the same as on the package, separately.

Cut up onion and celery and simmer with the water for the corn bread stuffing until tender.

Add the bread as usual.

Combine the cooked wild rice with the completed stuffing and drizzle on turkey drippings until the stuffing is the right consistency.

That's it! Easy and yummy!

Dollar store arm warmers

2011-11-17T20:08:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been looking for cute arm warmers/ open finger texting mittens for my teenage daughters, but I have not found any in the price range I want. So I was at the dollar store tonight and we saw some cute toe socks hanging on an end cap. I have always hated toe socks because I think they are super uncomfortable.! I think all socks are uncomfortable though ;-) Anyway the minute I saw them I knew exactly what to do with them!

Ta Da! Instant arm warmers/ texting mittens!

Mom's Pumpkin pie!

2011-11-15T18:01:00.000-08:00

I was lucky growing up to have the most motherly, homemaking kind of mother!

This picture below is was very typical! A big family of kids and grand kids and Mom/Grandma in the middle keeping everyone happy :-) But that is what gave her joy! (She is the one in the white shirt in the middle.)

My Mom and Dad a few years before she died of cancer.

We had the best childhood because of our wonderful parents :-)

I'm the littlest one in this picture and Paula is the one with the really short skirt ;-)

We have 6 kids in our family, This picture was taken sometime in the late 70's of us 4 youngest girls and our dolls.

My mom was a fabulous cook because she grew up on a Potato farm in Idaho and decided that she preferred doing all the cooking for her family instead of working in the potato fields. So she started cooking as a young girl. So with Thanksgiving coming I think of my Mom and her wonderful Thanksgiving meals!  My sisters pictured above are also wonderful cooks So over the next week I am going to post some of my Mom's recipes and other family recipes from me and my sisters  that always make our Thanksgiving Dinners super Yummy!

So first off Mom's Pumpkin Pie!
This recipe was passed to her from her Mother and I don't know where it came from before her, but it is wonderful! I have the best memories about this pie. We would eat our Yummy Thanksgiving meal until we were sick and thought we would pop! and then a few hours later (Maybe just a couple ;-) We would break out the pie with homemade whipped cream!   Then for the next two days we would live off Turkey sandwiches made with the super yummy leftover homemade rolls my mom would make and left over turkey and left over pumpkin pie :-) Those were the days when I could eat what ever I wanted and nothing happened to my body shape! Those days are long gone, but it does not keep me from gorging myself at Thanksgiving still :-) Two keys to what makes my Mom's pumpkin pie so good is #1 Don't add cloves! She said that is what makes other pumpkin pies taste too strong. #2 She used winter squash (usually grown from our garden) instead of canned pumpkin it gives a nicer flavor, but we have used canned pumpkin before and it tastes really good still. so with out further ado here is the recipe I don't have picture yet, but I will post some when I make my pies in the next few days, but just trust me! This recipe tastes so yummy! It is the only pumpkin pie my family will eat!

Mom's Pumpkin pie recipe
(makes 3 pies) heat oven to 350

4 cups squash or pumpkin
4 cups rich milk
1 cup white sugar
1cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp all spice
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl (blend well)
Pour into pie pastry plates.
Bake 45-60 minutes or until the center bubbles. (  bubbles mean big rolling movements in the center of pie. It almost looks like something is moving around inside the pie. ) It also works best if you put tin foil around your crust edges so they don't over bake.

Mom's Pie Crust

3 cups flour
1 cup Shortening
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp B.P.
3/4 cup water (add more if needed to make a more workable dough)

Roll out barely thin  and place in pie plate cut off excess dough from edges and then flute the edges.

Gobble!

2011-11-13T17:44:00.000-08:00

So here is the update on my first Craft Fair. It was kind of a bomb, but some good came out of it :-) This was the first year for this particular craft fair so I know each year will get better. I also had a poor spot for my booth that was not visable enough. Next year I know exactly where I want to be! Anyway I made about a $60.00 profit so it was not a complete failure, And I was able to make a couple of trades with other crafters that I am really excited about! Anyway I wanted to show off a couple of Thanksgiving crafts that I have made recently (mainly for this Craft Fair) since it is close to Thanksgiving.

First my "Gobble" letters. I really liked how these turned out. I saw something like this on Pinterest and once I found a font that I liked I cut out my own version ;-) here it is displayed at my craft fair booth. It was a big hit there and I was sad to see it go :-(

Next I made another one of my Thanksgiving Turkeys, but I painted it with water color paint instead of doing the scrapbook paper. I also wood burned the the beak and around the feathers. I like how you can still see the wood grain through the water color paint.

more puzzles!

2011-11-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

So I decided to add a background to my Russian doll puzzle and I also made another Russian doll puzzle and a vehicle puzzle too! You can order these at my Etsy store if you want a unique gift for a little one. My 3 year old has been having a great time playing with these puzzles this week ;-)

So there you go! Happy crafting everyone!

Michelle

Matryoshka doll puzzle

2011-11-08T23:34:00.000-08:00

So here is puzzle #2!
I was at a friends house recently and she had all these neat wood puzzles that were just simple and fun :-) A couple of them were even from her childhood. As I watched the kids happily playing with them I thought I bet I can make one of those! Wood puzzles are hard to find and when you do find them they are kind of expensive. I thought that they would make nice Christmas gifts for little ones (mine included). So I started looking on Google for simple color pages for some inspiration that would make good wood puzzles. I found some cute ideas! here is the Matryshka doll puzzle I made :-)

First I cut the doll shapes out of a carefully measured piece of pine wood. I also cut little notch holes at the bottom of each doll so that they could more easily be taken out. Then I glued a nice plywood on the back.
Next I drew my dolls. (Before I had the doll designs drawn on my little 3 year old thought they were ghosts :-) Any way then I took my new trusty wood burner tool and wood burned over my drawn design and here is what they looked like after that.

Then I painted them with water color paint.

Now before I stain it I am trying to decide if I need to put in some sort of back ground or put a title of "Matryoshka dolls" on it somewhere. Anyone have any ideas? Should I leave it be or add something more?

Michelle

A rainbow puzzle!

2011-11-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

I spent a big part of my day yesterday cutting out new wood crafts for an upcoming craft fair I am doing this coming week. I have never done a craft fair before and I am kind of nervous if people will be interested in my stuff. I am mainly saleing my my Nativity puzzles and then adding some other things on top of that.
I saw this stacking rainbow puzzle here. And decided I wanted to try something like it.
so this is what I came up with :-)

first I found some rainbow clip art and then transferred it onto wood and cut it out with the scroll saw.

Next I painted the wood pieces. My new favorite paint medium is water color paint! I like how you can get a nice vibrant color yet you can still see the wood grain.

Ta Da! The grand finish! I am not sure if I have the color order right, but my daughter assured me this was the color order since i was too lazy to get up and google it at the time.

I think I will do it on thicker wood next time so it would be more durable for little kids to play with.

I made 3 other type of puzzles too. I will show them later this week as I make them :-)

I decided to stain it ;-)

2011-11-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

I decided just to stain this one. And I decided that I love the wood burning tool:-)

Here is a close up on the texture around the star and sky.