Ahoy, mateys! A pirate's spyglass tutorial

It has been nearly two months since Dominic's "pirate birthday", and I had promised a tutorial on his spyglass, which his sister, Una, made for him.  As we have had another request for one from another lad in the family, I have had the perfect opportunity to photograph the steps involved.

First, you have to find two cardboard tubes that fit one into the other.  There can be a bit of play between the two (we'll make up for that), but not too much.  Now cut a piece off the end of the wider one about 1/2" to 3/4" from the end.  If this leaves ragged edges, take a piece of sandpaper to them.

Now you will glue that ring of cardboard to one end of the smaller tube.  To make up for any play you may have in there, you can cut a strip of paper--any paper will do, but that cut from a brown paper grocery bag is quite good--the width of your ring and glue it around one end of the tube before slipping on the ring, so that you have no gaps between the two.

I used some 2" wide masking tape in the same manner at the other end of the tube to create a little friction, so that they were less likely to slip apart.

Test them out to see that they fit together nicely.

When the glue has dried, give the two tubes a nice coat of black or dark brown craft paint.

You can paint the ring of the eyepiece gold, along with the end of your spyglass.  When that is dry, give both sections a good coating of clear gloss acrylic coating.

And there you have your spyglass!

You are ready to go a-pirating with your favorite crew of cutthroats!

An easy, inexpensive skirt for Una

We found some pretty fabric on sale in the craft section of Wal-Mart, and Una thought it would make a nice skirt.  We purchased two yards of it.

I decided to try a gored skirt and make my own pattern.  I am a real novice seamstress, but I can often visualize what I have to do to make something work!  This is a tutorial for those who haven't a clue...

Since it was to have an elastic waistband, I took Una's hip measurement where it was widest and rounded it up to the nearest half-inch.  Then I divided it by four, since it was to be a four-gored skirt.  Then I added a half-inch to this measurement to get the width of the top of each panel.  The width of the bottom of the skirt would be the full width of my fabric which I had folded to create four layers.  Una wanted it long, so I took the length she wanted from waist to hem and added a couple of inches for the elastic casing and the hem allowances.

With me so far?  I folded the fabric again lengthwise and made my pattern on paper.  The top of the pattern was one-half the measurement I figured for the top of each panel.  I created a line from the top to the edge of the fabric at the predetermined length.  Then I just eyed a curve on the bottom, so as to avoid points where the gores met.  The pattern was cut out and pinned with the straight edge along the fold of the fabric.

The fabric was cut and I had four panels.  Here is where I wish I had a serger!  I did a zig-zag overlock stitch around all 4 sides of each panel, then began sewing the panels together..  I ironed the seam allowances flat, made my casing for the elastic and inserted it, and but a 1" hem on the bottom.  It turned out quite well, and I would love to try an 8-gored skirt some time!

There you have it: Skirt Sewing for Dummies!

If you want to take a look at what other, more creative souls have been up to this week, try visiting Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday.

Tutorial--another leaf votive lamp

Yes, there are at least a dozen leaf-motif votive lamp tutorials out there already, but I wanted to make one and to use something I have had hanging around in my filing cabinet for years:  a color copy of autumn leaves I collected about 10 years ago when we still lived in Charlotte, NC.

I had always intended to Modge Podge these to the inside of a white lampshade.  Well, can you believe it, we have not one single lamp with a lampshade in the entire house?  So I will have to save that one for some future tutorial.

Anyway, I decided to use the printer again, this time to print the leaves onto a sheet of natural (as in not stark white) vellum paper which I trimmed to 8 1/2" x 11".  They came out looking really nice!

From there on, all that was required was a suitable jar, a hot glue gun, a pretty saucer, a few acorns and things from outdoors and a piece of raffia.  And a candle.  With a bunch of pyromaniacal boys, I use the battery-operated ones most of the time.

All I did was hot glue the vellum around the jar to create a sleeve of sorts.  I tied it with the raffia, placed it on the thrifted saucer and arranged the little woodsy thingies on the saucer around them.  Pretty darned easy, which is the only kind of craft I can manage these days.

Rather a nice effect when lit!

Tutorial--Forest Friend in a Nutshell

My children and I share a fascination with tiny things, from doll house miniatures, to fairies and gnomes, to just about anything on a small scale.

An immature pine cone brought to me by Adrian

 My daughter draws teeny, tiny ladies in period costumes.  My son Sebastian has nimble fingers that sculpt amazing little things in Sculpey.

And a salvaged walnut shell

I have been charmed by little things for as long as I can remember.  I liked to make things--horse brushes and boxes of "horse treats" for my Stablemate-size Breyer model horses.

Hot glue in a ribbon hinge

I would cut the bristle part of the horse brush from Velcro and glue it to cardboard, adding a tiny hand-strap. I collected berries that looked like tiny apples from ornamental shrubs.

Add a needle-felted mound of moss

I still enjoy making tiny things, say, as Christmas ornaments.

A little section of a branch will make a good stand

We also occasionally will write one another tiny letters or cards in tiny envelopes, a la Tasha Tudor.

Glue in your hedgehog, with penned in eyes and nose-tip

Paint a little woodsy motif, and you're done!

Tutorial--trees for your autumn nature table...

...or any ol' display.

The initial inspiration came from a post where someone was using watercolored coffee filters as the material for cutting autumn leaves for a window decoration.  I spent nearly an hour haunting my favorite craft blogs trying to find it to no avail.  If you find it, let me know so that I can link to it.  [NB: thank you, City Wife, for finding it for me!  It is here.]

Anyway, I pulled out my coffee filters and my much-loved liquid watercolors and laid the filters out on newsprint.  Then I sprayed the filters with water, and dropped nice big splats of paint onto them.  I love watching watercolors spread out on wet paper.  I used yellow, green, orange red and brown.  My photos of the painted filters came out rather fuzzy and uninspiring, unfortunately.  While they were drying, I went out and searched our shrubs for some dead, tree-like branches for my trees.  I found some that fit the bill very well, and, because I needed them to have longer "trunks", I used masking tape to attach them to some sticks.

When the filters were dry, I folded them into eighths and cut little leaves from them.

Now comes the crazy part:  I hot-glued the leaves to the branches.  Other glues were not drying quickly enough.  So I burned my fingers and pulled off the countless glue-threads, and it worked pretty well.

Stick them in a vase or tuck them in somewhere for some autumn joy!

[For more autumn joy, here is another autumn leaf tutorial!]

Tutorial: Jar-Lid Matching Game

Well, this is hardly a tutorial, but rather another variation on a theme.  Matching games come in just about every form, and this is just the way I made mine.  Laminated cards would never have lasted as long as these things have, which is around nine years.  They are passing into the sixth pair of little hands now, with no signs of wear.

First, you save a mess of matching jar lids.  We used the same brand of coffee creamer for years.  The metal lids  from orange juice concentrate would work well, too.

I drew the pictures for the game, but one could easily find images online.  There are so many free graphics available now, but I was not computer savvy when I made this game; in fact, I think I may have made it before we ever got our first computer.  Another idea I love is to use photos of the people in your family.  Make two sheets of color copies of your images.  This way you may save the images for future use (you may make another set as a gift for someone when your lid collection is overflowing once again).  Now you have two of each image.

It is easiest to laminate the entire sheet and then cut out the images rather than cut them out and then laminate.  I found that hot glue, used thinly and quickly, held the pictures in the lids best.  And that is all there is to it.  I made my own set so that the youngest players can match the images thus:

But slightly older children can use one half of the set and match things that go together:  flower and watering can, mug and teapot, sun and moon, etc.

Tutorial/Recipe: How I make yogurt

With honey and granola, it's almost a dessert!

I have been asked several times how I make our yogurt, and this time of year I make it frequently.  Milk is abundant with the new grass, we eat more cold breakfasts and I make a lot of smoothies.  Gemma eats yogurt every day.  She likes it with pureed fruit, and she likes it plain, too.

Anyway, here is the way I go about it.  There are many ways to make yogurt, but they all are the same in the basics.  Since I make four quarts at a time, I start with a scant gallon of fresh milk, generally straight from the cow so that it is already warm and takes less time to bring to a scald.  I have tried making the yogurt without scalding the milk in order to preserve the enzymes, but haven't had luck with it.  It always turns out soupy. 

I rinse the pot with cold water before putting in the milk, as this prevents milk from burning on the bottom.  I pour in the milk and bring it to a scald on medium heat.  I use a dairy thermometer to watch the temperature.  It takes quite a long time for it to cool to the right temperature for adding the culture, 100-110 degrees.

In the meantime, I prepare my "incubator", which is one of these:

My heating element is one of these:

See the warning there?  That's me, throwing caution to the wind.  I like to live dangerously.  I've even been known to eat things past their expiration dates.  I turn the pad on to medium and put in my towels, and close it up to get warm.

When the milk is about ready, I fill my clean jars with hot water and set out my canning funnel and a sieve.
The milk will have formed quite a skin on top, so I carefully skim that off and plop it in the pig bucket.  My yogurt culture is just a cup of yogurt (about 1/4 cup per scant quart of milk) saved from my last batch.  If I am totally out, I'll use the Dannon All Natural Plain Yogurt, not the nonfat.  I let it warm to room temperature, or put it in a water bath to speed the process up.  Then I wisk it smooth and stir it into the milk.  I also add a couple of tablespoons of powdered milk and wisk that in as well.

Then I empty the jars, one at a time, and place the canning funnel in the jar with the sieve resting in it.  I pour the milk into the jars, close them up and place them in the incubator.

I insulate them with dishtowels, and place one on top.  Newspapers folded around them would work, too.
Then I let every thing sit for about 6 hours.  I tilt a jar gently to see if the contents look solid.  There will be a layer of yellow cream on top, and the whey will show (this disappears when the yogurt is chilled).  I let it set on the counter until it is room temperature before placing it in the fridge.

That's all there is to that!

Ridiculously Simple Tutorial--leaf prints on fabric

Beth of Acorn Pies has a neat tutorial on spring printmaking using plants and block printing ink, and I long to try it.  I love print-making, but am often trying to do such projects when the youngest children are napping--if I am so fortunate as to have them napping at the same time.  This method involves fewer materials, no cleanup, and a hammer--making it especially appealing and appropriate for young boys.

This is so easy, I'm almost ashamed to call it a tutorial.

Gather some nice leaves, some fabric (just squares torn from an old sheet here) and a hammer.

Lay your fabric down on a sheet of clean paper, and lay your leaf face down on the cloth.  Oh, and do this on a hard, smooth work surface.  One that can bear being beaten with a hammer.

Cover the back of the leaf with a piece of clean scrap paper.  Then tap away at the leaf through the paper.  The boys really get into this part.  You may have to remind them that the object is not to smash the leaf into oblivion.  With the littler children, you may have to help, so that the entire leaf has been tapped.

Peel back the paper, and you ought to have a nice imprint.  These will brown with age, and ferns look particularly nice, but alas, we have none on our property.

Thanks, Beth, for the inspiration...that's why I follow your blog, you know!