Mother's Day Crafts for Little Peeps to Make

Thank you for all your comments on my knitted flowers and the bird photos.  I've always enjoyed watching birds from the time I was a young girl.  My mother encouraged my interest in the birds, and we'd often identify the birds we saw on our country property together.  Mom would always collect any feathers she found in the woods or down in the field, and I now have her very sentimental feather collection.  One day I'll have to think of something to do with them to display them properly.  Sitting in a shoebox isn't the fate I want for them.

 

The knitted flower that I designed myself was a hit, and the little girl I gave it to was quite proud to have it pinned to her spring coat.  I've been trying some of the other flowers in the book now, and lavender is turning out to be quite interesting, although I should've used a finer yarn as was suggested (I just didn't have any lavender coloured sock yarn in my stash).  I'll show that another day as it's still in the development stages at the moment.

 

Mother's Day is just around the corner, and I thought those of you who have small children, would enjoy these simple crafts to do with your child, or to give to someone special. 

 

The first craft is a Fingerprint Pendant made with Sculpey clay.  A full tutorial is found on The Crafty Crow, a site that has so many fun crafts all year round. 

 

 

First we rolled out the pink clay using a fat marker.  Then we cut the clay with a small round cookie cutter I have and poked a hole with a skewer.  Then we pressed one finger into the soft clay.  We made up some additional beads with the same clay mixed with a bit of blue swirled through.  We poked a hole through each bead as well.   The lot of them were placed on tin foil and baked at 275F for about 15 minutes.  Once beads came out of the oven and cooled, we strung them on some cotton string.  A masterpiece that the mother is hopefully going to really like!

 

 

The second craft is Finger Paint Prints, and one I've made for a few years, but I cannot remember where I got the idea.  Apologies to the original creator, and if I can find the post I'll update this.

 

 

(Above photos) My husband cut some clear Plexiglas into small rectangles 6 x 8-inches.  Any size will do, but these are a good size for the task.  Pour very small puddles of different colours of acrylic craft paint onto the Plexiglas.  Then have your child swirl the paints together (I suggest using one finger so it doesn't get out of hand).  Keep a close eye on this part since you want to whisk that little painting away from your child before they make the paints all one colour (which will probably just look like mud).  Also the acrylic paints dry quickly and you need them to remain wet.

 

 

(Above photos)  Now carefully pick up the Plexiglas and lay it paint-side down, centred as best you can, over a piece of thick white paper.  It's best to use thick artists water colour paper so that the paper won't warp.  Press down very gently on the back of the Plexiglas so the paint adheres to the paper.  Don't press so hard that the paint all oozes out the sides.  There will be some distortion to the finger painting, but not to worry.  Now carefully pull the Plexiglas up off the paper and you have your print!  Sometimes you can do a couple of prints from the same finger painting and it's interesting to see the variations as the paint dries. 

 

Are these prints worthy of framing?  You betcha!  Everything looks better framed ;)

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

 

Wendy

Flowers in the Backyard!

Now that I've got your attention ... there really aren't any flowers blooming in my backyard yet.  I think the only way I'm going to see any blooms this year is if I knit them myself :[  And that's just what I've done!  I have a book 100 Knitted and Crocheted Flowers that I purchased last year.  I hadn't made any of the flowers in the book, but there are quite a few really fancy ones I've been wanting to try.  Check out this link for some gorgeous photos of flowers made from the book.

 

For the last couple of nights I've been playing around a bit with the yarn and this book, and came up with these:

I really only made two.  The one in the bottom photo on the left is from a pattern in the book (which I knit up first), and the one on the right is one I made the pattern up myself.  They were fun to knit, although a bit fussy, and there are a lot of ends to weave in at the end.  I think I'll give the smaller one to a little girl I know and will pin it on her coat!  The large flower measures about 3" across.

 

Even though there aren't any flowers out there yet, and the temperatures are all over the map lately, we've been having a nice selection of birds migrating through.  We're directly in the flight path of many birds as we live fairly close to a large marsh area along Lake Ontario.  I see some nice birds during the spring, but then I'm left with the rather common birds for the rest of summer. 

 

Last night I spied this beautiful Brown Thrasher (below) in my yard as we ate supper.  My family endured my photo snapping session while they ate, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to catch this guy on 'film'.  Isn't he gorgeous!  I love his markings, and the very beautiful fox red of his back.  His golden eyes have a very intense look about them.  I first saw one of these where I grew up below the Niagara Escarpment, and I had to look him up in our bird book to identify him.  I remember feeling quite proud of myself for figuring out what he was.  I think this beauty was tired from a long day of travelling as he wasn't very interested in food, just standing and looking about him.

Brown Thrasher

 

There have been a few pretty sparrows flitting through too.  I saw a chipping sparrow last night (didn't get a photo), and he is so sweet and delicate compared to the chubby house sparrows that usually take over the neighbourhood.  The White-Throated Sparrow has been hopping through the grass regularly, and I was able to get a few shots of him (below).  Also the goldfinches are back, and the male birds have molted their winter olive green feathers and have nice bright yellow again. 

 

Did you know that goldfinches are attracted to the colour yellow (like themselves)?  If you put a bright yellow bird feeder full of niger seeds (or thistle seeds) in your yard, you will get the goldfinches coming to your yard very quickly.  I didn't quite believe this years ago, and I tried it when I lived in Burlington.  I hadn't seen even one goldfinch in our yard.  I put the seeds in the yellow feeder, hung it up, and within an hour there were about six goldfinches flitting back and forth to the feeder!  They are such bright, gentle birds, and I like the little trilling song they sing, especially as they fly.  Where I grew up there were many birds around in our woods and fields.  I used to watch them flying, and began to identify the birds by the way they flew, each with their own particularly flight style.  Goldfinches always fly up in a sweep and then down again, and as they fly up they sing, and when the reach the top of their upward motion, they stop singing.  So their little tweets are quite noticeable because of the break in song when they reach that top spot.  OK, I had a lot of time on my hands as a child ;) 

American Goldfinch, White-Throated Sparrow

This morning I opened the back door to let the dog out, and I could hear a robin singing very loudly in a tree nearby.  Robins have such a loud, clear song, and it always reminds me of early mornings in the summertime when I lived with my parents.  We slept with our windows open, and I worked at a golf course in the summer and had to be at work by 6:00 a.m.  I always remember the robins waking me up closer to 5:00 a.m. with their loud singing, and although it sounded beautiful, I was dragged from sleep much earlier than I wanted!  I'm referring to American Robins (below), of course, we don't have the tiny English Robins here.

Clockwise from Top L:  American Robin, Brown Thrasher, Chipmunk, House Sparrow

No sooner did I fill up the bird bath with fresh water yesterday evening, than a little house sparrow jumped right in and had a nice splashy soak!  Birds just look like they enjoy getting a bath so much :)  A little chipmunk has arrived at my home too.  These little guys are adorable, but they worry me a bit ... I try to watch where he runs to as I don't want him creeping into my house somewhere.  The thrasher in the top right photo (above) wasn't too bothered with the rubber snake I put there.  It was supposed to be a deterrent for Resident Rabbit, but it seems to have little effect on rabbits or birds. 

 

Well hopefully I'll soon have some flower blooms to share with you all.  The bleeding hearts are the tallest shoots right now, but no hearts.  I'm hoping that by next week I'll have something out there.  I want to join up with Fishtail Cottage's Garden Party, which I noticed Tracie has started up now.  Have a look over there if you're in need of some inspiration for things to do with your gardens.  I just loved this party last year.  So many amazing things people share!

 

Thanks for stopping by everyone!  I hope your springtime weather is perfect and you're enjoying the smells & beautiful flowers of spring :)

 

Wendy

 

White-Throated Sparrow

 

Tiny Knitted Baskets

I didn't think I'd be back posting again this week, but I wanted to share the little knitted baskets I've finished up.

I changed the inside cuff on the pink basket to be a bit shorter, but I still turned it to the inside.  I had knit a couple of rows of purl stitches to ease in the fold, so it wouldn't fold outside well with the purl bumps in place.  I thought it looked quite cute once I got the handle on it. 

 

The blue basket has the cuff turned to the outside and I added a fancy picot edge to the cuff.  The handle is a 5-stitch I-cord.  I was going to get all fancy with the blue one and knit it in a basket weave pattern.  However, the pattern I have is for flat knitting, and do you think I could make it work for knitting in the round?!  I have no idea why it didn't work out (have I ever mentioned I do not have a mathematical mind?), but after several failed attempts and my anger starting to rise, I decided to um scrap it and just put a few rows of purl stitches in there for added interest instead.

The bottom was started the same way I make my coasters.  I have no idea what I'm going to use these tiny baskets for ... especially with Easter already behind us.  It was just something I had wanted to try to make.  I might just take a bit of yarn with me and knit on the four-hour drive to Leamington this weekend.  Gives me an excuse to ignore the boring scenery down that way ... flat, flat, flat ...

 

I think I'll write up a pattern for these and post it another time when I've played around with them a bit more.

 

The clouds are clearing up today, and whether it's the fact that bugs are waking up, or whether the birds were hungry after hiding out through two days of nasty weather, but I saw some new birds in the backyard this morning.  A little wren and a white-crowned sparrow, neither of which I was successful in capturing on camera.  However, I did get these shots and had a bit of fun editing them ...

Cardinal

 

Myrtle Warbler

Both images were taken through my kitchen window, and weren't all that clear.  A bit of editing on picmonkey made it all better ;)

 

Thanks again for stopping by!  And have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy and appreciate all your comments.  It's nice to see that people do stop by, but it's really, really special when some of you have a chance to say hello.  I always answer back via email, or else take a moment to visit back to your blogs.  I think it's so nice to have a little chat with you every so often, and hope you feel the same.  I hope you all have a good weekend my friends!

 

Wendy

 

(my original photos)