Christmas in July

I’ve been seeing a lot of Christmas in July stuff, so I thought I’d go along. Originally I had wanted to make a gingerbread dollhouse, but since I don’t have anything to do with it once it’s done, it seemed like a waste. Then at cake decorating class, I saw that Joanne’s was having a sale on small birdhouses - $1 each. Perfect!

I bought a small birdhouse, some white squiggly fabric trim, wooden circles, a paint kit, and some beads. The total cost was under $10. First I painted the whole birdhouse brown, for gingerbread. Then I lined the bottom and roof with the trim for icing. I painted the stick where the bird sits white, and used a red sharpie to draw swirled stripes like a candy cane.



I painted the wooden circles white and used the red sharpie to make them into peppermints. I glued them to the roof, which was easier than I thought it’d be – the trim was thick enough to stop them from sliding off while the glue dried.




And after all of the shingles had been added, here’s how it looked:



My mom suggested I make it into an ornament for the tree. I like the idea, but I’m not sure how I’m going to do it yet. I’ve still got the beads I bought for this project – they’re called “berry beads” and they look like gumdrops, but I couldn’t find a place on the birdhouse where they looked good. Tomorrow I’m going to play around some more with making a hanger and using the beads. Here’s what they look like:



When I get it figured out, I’ll post more pictures. I just wanted to make sure I got this up before August 1st – otherwise, the whole “Christmas in July” thing doesn’t really work. Any suggestions?

Cake Pincushions

If you've got a little shop near you that sells stitching or quilting supplies and isn't a chain, I promise you they've got a cake pincushion hiding there somewhere.
The stores near me have these:

From Tastefully Crafted

(photo from The Embroidery Garden - I can only upload it with the "from TC" tag. Blogger's photo linking has been giving me fits for a week - anyone else having this problem?)

I also discovered another kind - a layer cake from The DIY Dish . On their site they've got instructional videos of how to make them. Here's what they look like.


Cute, right? I don't have one yet, but that may change soon...

Quilt with Food Fabrics

So it's a short post today. I got into quilting a few months ago during a shop hop with my mom. I'd had only ever seen traditional quilts before, which I wasn't a huge fan of. But once I got to the shops, I found tons of great food fabrics! Several of the places had used them to applique, and one popular pattern used summer fruit fabrics cut into jar shapes. Check out quilting shops in your area for fun fabrics, or look online (check here and search "sweets"). A lot of stores are doing specials now for Christmas in July or early Halloween projects, so there's a lot out now!

I decided I wanted mine to be candy and snack foods. It's a little busy, a little small, and a little uneven, but it's my first quilt. I'm happy with it. I used popcorn, jellybeans, MMs, pizza, oreos, and the like. It's currently at the quilt shop getting finished (you do the top piece and then take it to the shop. They attach the padding and backing, and embroider on the top). I'll post pictures of the finished version once I get it back. I've already started my second food-themed quilt, which is an applique. Any other ideas for food print fabrics?

Kid Craft: Felt Fortune Cookies (Asian Party 2)

Today's craft is from Craft Stylish. If you've got some felt and a sewing machine, you can have kids make their own fortune cookies (note: this does use a sewing machine, so you either want to do that part for them ahead of time or only do this project with older kids).

I don't want to step on anyone's toes, so I'm not going to post the instructions here. The link under the picture will take you there. This blog is not meant to infringe on copyrights - it's more a collection of food-crafts and where to find them, from the internet or stuff I'm doing.

I do have a few suggestions for this project. First, while the heart is cute, I think it would be fun to let kids make up their own fortunes. Substitute paper for the white felt and let them write whatever they want. I'd even turn it into a game: make these and put them all in a basket. After eating, pass them out randomly so everyone gets a new fortune, just like real cookies. If you wanted to, you could write them yourself as a prep for a game - put items like a heart or a star on them, and let the kids pair up for games by matching the items. You don't have to glue the fortune in - you can just slide it in.

Second, if you don't want to get out the sewing machine, I do think you can use glue for the stitches (although the end product might not look as neat). I'd do this:

1. Fold the felt circle in half like a taco. Make one cut going inward (from the straight part going towards the arc).
2. Open the circle. Pull the flaps from the cut in, and glue them together.
2. Re-fold the circle. Glue the inside rim (along the arc) shut.

Again, it's just a suggestion. If anyone tries this, let me know what works best.

Origami Food

Sorry it's been so long since I posted - almost a week. Class and work were both busier than usual this week. I think I'm going to try and make this a twice-weekly blog - I know it's not as interesting, but since I don't have viewers submitting crafts, this is all I have time for.

So. Origami food. There are two different ways of coming at this: one is to make food into origami, the other is to make origami into food. Here's a great picture of the first kind:


(adorable picture from evilmadscientist, complete with instructions on how to make them.)

And of course, the more common method:

(picture from Gilad's Origami Page)

The internet has tons of patterns, but most of them use paper with the image of food printed on it, like sesame seeds on the top of a hamburger bun. Sorry, but I feel like that's kind of cheating. Have you tried to make origami food? Post a picture in the commetns!

Knitted Food

(adorable picture from http://kimberlychapman.com/)
I've never been a very good knitter. I spent last summer desperately trying to knit teddy bears to give as Christmas presents, but they all turned out pretty badly. My mom, on the other hand, is a great knitter. She got the stupid bear pattern right on the first try, and tried to change it so it would be easier for me. Still didn't work, but it was a nice thought.

Anyway, I've been seeing these pieces of knitted food everywhere. I think they're really cute, though I could never do them. They take a lot of skill - I mean, they include WORDS! Do you know how hard it is to do that? Switching out the colors that often, making sure your stitches are perfectly even...okay, maybe it's not that hard for knitters. But it is for me.

See? That's pretty precise. (photo from http://knittedtoybox.blogspot.com) If you'd like to try your hand, http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com has a list of free food patterns. Click around - they've got some great ones.

Kid Craft: Asian Hair Sticks (Asian Party 1)

This one is a great project to do with kids for a birthday party. Of course, my roommates and I did this for one roommate's birthday this past fall, which was our senior year of college, so I guess it's just fun for all ages. I'm sorry I don't have pictures of the process, but oh well - I've got one where you can see the final product. The party was Asian themed, so I thought it would be fun to make our own geisha hair sticks (I wore mine to the restaurant - I thought it looked really cool). I realize it may be a bit of a stretch to see it as "food related," but you DO use chopsticks to make them.

Traditional geisha hairstyles are very elaborate, usually including cascades of flowers and hair sticks with long chains or ornaments hanging from them. Here's one example:
(source: phototravels.net from a google search). I liked the look, and you can get it pretty cheaply.

You will need:
-pretty chopsticks (I found mine at Claire's, but there are also tons of websites that sell them in bulk. If you want to, you could get plain wooden ones from a restaurant and paint them).
-long, dangling earrings (I got mine at Claire's and the Icing)
-pliers
-superglue
-rhinestones (if you want)

Start by taking the backings off of all the earrings. Using the pliers, bend the wire end of an earring (the part that goes in your ear) around the thick end of a chopstick. Slide the earring off, and coat the end of the chopstick with superglue. Slide it back on and tighten with the pliers if necessary. Make sure all of the wire ends are glued down to the chopstick, or you'll catch your hair or scratch yourself. If you have any ends that won't lie flat, you can cover them with rhinestones. Remember to let it dry before you put it in your hair! And that's it! It only takes a few minutes, so kids won't lose interest. Here's what my final product looked like:
(click to enlarge) I'm on the left in the glasses, and my roommate Jen is on the right. If you try this, send in pictures - I'd love to see your versions!

Polymer Clay Jewelry

(sources: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mairerealtan/, www.icecreambites.com, and http://giddycrafts.blogspot.com)
I've been seeing this trend everywhere, and I must say, I love it. I haven't tried it yet, but hopefully I will before the end of the summer. I even got my ears pierced a few weeks ago just so I could wear the cute earrings. These are some of the images I found with a simple google search. If you're interested in buying these, there are tons of etsy pages specializing in them.

For those of you who want to make your own, you'll probably want this:

The Polymer Clay Cookbook. It's a step-by-step guide to making your own delicious clay jewelry. From what I've seen, it looks like the best guide out there for making food jewelry. I haven't bought it yet, but it's definitely on my list. Anyone know any other guides, or have any tips on making these?

Some links to great online shops that make these: MMagda, Roscata , and Inedible Jewelry.

Paint Your Own Stemware

My friend's birthday was a few weeks ago. She is a huge fan of our school (Georgia Tech) and she loves margaritas, so I figured that GT-themed margarita glasses would be the perfect gift. Of course, there are no official Tech glasses, so off to the craft store!

Finding an inexpensive set of glasses was easier than I thought. Amazon has tons, and I got mine at Target. The paint required some research. I ended up using PermEnamel Glass Paint that's oven-safe and dishwasher safe (even if you never plan to put it in the oven, you still need this kind of paint! Others can be toxic, so be careful). Joanne's had a little kit that came with 8 colors, the primer, and the liner. If you need a lot of one color, you'll have to buy them separately, but if you don't, the kit saves a lot of money.

You'll want to do this in a ventilated area. I used the garage with the doors open. First clean the glasses with the cleaner provided in the kit. You'll have to let them sit for a while, and in the meantime you can get your pattern ready.

Since I've never been good at freehand painting, I wanted to keep the pattern simple. Less chance of messing it up, better chance of it looking professional. I did dots of our colors (white, blue, and gold) around the glass. I did this on the outside, so it will never some into contact with the drink. If you're doing a pattern like this, do all of one color first, and add them on opposite sides of the glass (ie 12:00 and 6:00, before moving to 3:00 and 9:00). Then switch colors.

I painted the stems blue. It ended up just a little streaky - glass paint is a lot thinner than regular paint. It is made to be translucent on the glass, so don't expect it to be darker. On the bottom, I put the GT logo. There' a trick to this. Print out the image that you want in the correct size in mirror (or, if you can't, print it out and then trace the lines on the back of it. It will end up as a mirror image). Tape this to the top side of the foot of the glass. Flip the glass upside-down and trace the lines onto the glass with the tracing paint in the kit (it's much thicker than the paint). My dad was experimenting with this and he found that the liner was actually too think; he ended up using a permanent marker to make the lines. If you put enough on, the paint won't run. Let that dry, and then fill it in with some of the paint.

You can tape and trace any image you want, but remember not to put paint on the inside of the glass. I also recommend not putting any on the upper lip of the glass, where it might get into someone's mouth. This paint is supposed to be non-toxic, but don't take a chance. The whole process is pretty fast. Here's how mine turned out.




Click to enlarge. For my first time painting glass, I think they turned how pretty well. Happy crafting!

Food Travel Collage

Welcome to my new blog, and thanks for reading it! This is a blog for food-inspired crafts. If you have a project you're working on, or if you've seen one that you thought looked interesting, send it in!

Today's craft is my food wrapper collage. In the summer of 2008, I went on a study abroad trip across Europe. In each new city, I bought some sort of food and saved the wrappers. They were really easy to manage - they weigh almost nothing, and easily fit into the front pouch of my suitcase. When I got home, I bought a large piece of project board (similar to what you'd use for a science fair project) and put together this collage.


Click on the picture to enlarge. Look closely and you can see wrappers from all of the different countries. My favorite is the Burger King tray liner from Prague on the lower left corner. And now, instead of a scrapbook sitting on a shelf, I have this hanging on my wall where I can always see it. So if you're taking a trip soon, save the wrappers! It's a cheap way to make something really pretty.