Jellyfish

I'm postponing my Craft Book Club update until the end of March, I am not yet done with my The Call of the Wild craft.

Today I am sharing another Craft Book Club project from Wendy. She made cute little crochet jellyfish inspired by the Huxley airships in Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan! After reading the book I made a jellyfish too! You can read a tiny bit about the jellyfish-type airships in the Leviathan series on my jellyfish windchime post.

Have you made anything for Craft Book Club? I would love to see any of your projects, even if they're from a book we read two years ago!

More B&W

Still taking black and white Hipstamatic photos. Here are a few from the last month:

Charity Hat I

I've been working on my craft resolutions! One of my intentions is to make crafts for charity and I'm making a few hats to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Here is my first hat:

This hat pattern is Cannon Hat by Annina Päivärinta and is free! I made it kind of large, I think I'll knit another one that is smaller.

Project Linus Blankets

The local Project Linus chapter had a Valentine's Day event, collecting and making blankets for children. Friday my friends and I got together and made three blankets to donate!

We used fleece I had on hand (I was going to make myself a blanket years ago), cut them to size, and snipped & tied around the edges.  It was totally easy and a really fun evening!

Goat Mask Free Printable

Lunar New Year is February 19th! It's the year of the goat and I made a goat mask printable to celebrate!

view goat mask.pdf

You can see and print more masks by going here!

Gem Blocks and Kawaii Dragon

Saturday was my friend's child's first birthday and I made him some cute things!

I made these gem shaped blocks from wood scraps! With the help of my father and his various saws, we took a piece of 2x4 and cut it into small angled blocks. (It was a little bit tricky, but we still have all our fingers!) After the blocks were cut to size, we sanded them and I painted them with some fun neon colors.

Deciding on the container for the blocks was a little difficult, but I was at the store and found a plastic gem shaped box to use that ended up being a bit large so I had to add an extra something.

That knit ball I shared last week was turned into a cute dragon softie because dragons and gems go together. All dragon parts that weren't the ball don't have a pattern, I made it up as I was knitting. 

And I have to share the cute wrapping! My mom showed me a trick to make unwrapping presents easier and I think I'll be using it often. You take a length of ribbon and place it under the wrapping paper, putting a piece of tape at the bottom to hold it in place and looping it at the top sticking out so you can pull it. See the picture below, my explanation isn't very clear.

To open the package, just pull on the ribbon loop and it will tear open the wrapping paper! So Much Fun!!!

Knit Sphere

Originally I had planned on sharing a plant stand that I am making, but the weather isn't cooperating for my spray painting so you can see some work in progress photos of another knitting project I'm working on instead.

This ball was made following the Oh Balls! pattern by Marcie Nishioka. I made it larger than the written pattern and stuffed it with plastic bags (I found if you cut the plastic bags into smaller pieces they are less lumpy). Check back next week to see what I'm doing with the ball.

Boot Forms

Bent over tall boots are annoying. I've been propping mine up in the corner, but decided I needed to make inserts to help them keep their shape. Here are my boot forms:

To make these I found fabric scraps, stitched them together and into tubes, then stuffed them with plastic bags! Upcycle! They were really easy to make and now my closet is a little bit more cute.

Chocolate and Raspberry Ice Cream Cake

I made an ice cream cake for my coworker's birthday! It was yummy and a little bit special so I'm sharing the recipe!

Chocolate & Raspberry Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients:
Brownie Recipe (or mix)
Raspberry Sorbet, 1 pint
Vanilla Ice Cream, 1.75 quarts
Hot Fudge Recipe (or jar)
Fresh Raspberries

Instructions:

1. Make the brownie base.
1. Follow the mix up instructions for your brownie recipe or boxed mix.
2. Pour into greased springform pan and bake until done.
3. Let brownie cool completely. Freezing this portion is optional.
2. Let the raspberry sorbet soften and spread evenly over brownie base. Optional: Freeze this portion now for straighter layers.
3. Add a layer of softened vanilla ice cream on top and freeze.
4. Serving the ice cream cake.
1. Remove from springform pan.
2. Warm the hot fudge and pour over cake
3. Top with fresh raspberries.
4. Serve & Enjoy!

I went a little overboard with the hot fudge; I definitely added too much for the top of my cake, but everyone enjoyed scraping the extra hot fudge off the pan.

B&W

I've been taking lots of black and white Hipstamatic photos. Here are a few of my favorites: