Cloth Doll

Just a quickie.

Reusable Swiffer Pad Tutorial

I live in an apartment, so the only places that I ever need to mop are my tiny kitchen and my tiny bathroom. Each is so small that having a mop and bucket to clean the floors seems a little ridiculous. Originally, I used a sponge and got down on my hands and knees to clean the floors, but with my current back problems, that's not happening.
So, I went out and bought a Swiffer mop (the regular kind, not the wet jet). The Swiffer is perfect for my little floors, but I absolutely hate everything about the Swiffer pads. The way they smell leaves me walking around the house with my nose wrinkled going "What is that -smell-? It smells so weird." Until I remember that it's the stuff they put on the Swiffer mop pads that smell like that. I also find that they leave my floor sticky. It's not just my floor, but my mom's floor was always sticky after she used her Swiffer. So, I decided to remedy these issues.

No pictures today, but this is so easy, you won't need any.

Materials:

Swiffer Mop
Fleece
Spray Bottle
Floor cleaner of your choice (I use PineSol)

We have two hooded rats who get to sleep in a little basket filled to overflowing with fleece. (They love it and it keeps them super warm in the winter.) Because of this, we're always picking up fleece remnants from the craft section at Walmart or from Joann's. The remnants are usually marked down to a very reasonable price (we won't buy any that costs more than $1.50) for anywhere between a yard and a yard and a half. - The point of this oversharing was to point out that you could get fleece remnants for cheap.

Take your Swiffer mop and lay the fleece over it. I like to go ahead and push it into the little hole thingies that hold the pads in place. Cut the fleece. Tada!

Now, you can cut several more since you now know the size you're going to need.

To mop your floop, fill your spray bottle with water and add a little of your floor cleaner. I'd check to see what the recommended water to cleaner ratio is and do a little math to figure out what you need to put in your bottle. Spray the contents of the bottle onto the floor. Use Swiffer with nifty fleece pad to mop up.

For stains and heavy soils, you'll probably need to just get down there with a sponge...but you have to do that with the regular Swiffer pads, too, so no big.

That being said, since I now have Pinesol in a spray bottle, I use it to clean everything. PineSol can be used on a variety of surfaces, so I take my bottle around with me every day, spray it on the surface I want to clean, wipe it down and off I go. It's cut my cleaning time down to about 1/3 of the time I used to spend because I don't have to get 50 thousand different types of cleaners just to clean the stuff in one room.

To clean the fleece pad...wash it. Stick it in your washer or, like me, wash it in the sink and hang it to dry.

And, since I'm talking about cleaning anyway, I want to share a nifty little tidbit with you for cleaning windows.

Do. Not. Use. Windex.

Seriously. Just don't. Windex is the devil and it leaves a waxy residue on your glass that builds up over time.

Get a bucket (or spray bottle) and fill it with warm water. If you're using a spray bottle, add a few drops of dish soap (yes, dish soap). Shake it up. If you're using a bucket, squeeze dish soap into the bucket for 4-5 seconds. Stir it up. If it's your first time, consider adding a drop or two of vinger (more for buckets) to cut some of the waxy build up from your other window cleaning products.

I understand that not everyone had squeegies and whatnot, but I really recommend going to Home Depot or Lowes and buying a good, professional squeegie. They come in all sorts of sizes from tiny, tiny to bigger. Don't buy the crappy plastic ones. They're not the same.

Use a sponge or cloth to apply the water to the mirror/window/whatever (or spray it on really heavy with a spray bottle and then use a cloth to wipe it around). Pay extra attention to greasy spots or finger prints. Honestly, you don't need to wipe too hard on otherwise just dusty or slightly smudged glass with this method. Once your mirror/glass/whatever is thoroughly wet, use your squeegie to remove the water (keep a rag handy to clean up the water that will end up on your counter top or windowsill). You can use a downward motion to just bring it all down or you can use arching motions to get it all in one swoop. If you don't have a squeegie, just wipe it off with something. A clean, dry cloth or paper towels or, the favorite of many folks, a rolled up newspaper. Clean up any dripped water or water left behind on the mirror with a terry cloth rag (or whatever rag you want) and TADA! Clean, streak free windows.

Trust me. I used to be a professional window washer.

Pink and Flowery Cloth Doll

I'm making an identical pair of these for my sister's daughter and a friend of said daughter. They were actually a lot of fun to make and I learned a few new things (like how to sew bloomers). I hand stitched both dolls and all of their clothing and embroidered the faces (which, I admit, could use some work). All in all, I think she turned out quite nicely.
The clothes, shoes and "jewelry" are removable so the doll could have several different outfits. The hair, which has two sections tied up into little pig tails, can be played with and styled differently by taking out the ribbons that are tying up the pig tails.

Oreo Truffles and Hot Cocoa Gift Tutorial

December is a busy month, so we're going to kill two birds with one stone by making a hot cocoa gift set and some Oreo Truffles to present it with. Plus, you get to eat the leftover Truffles!



Before I get started, I want to say that you can easily get a hot cocoa gift set like this at stores like Target and Walmart for a few dollars, but if you have some old bottles and some hot cocoa laying around, why not just use what you already have?

We'll start with the Oreo Truffles. These are cheap, easy and don't require any baking! Plus they're absolutely delicious.

Materials:
8 oz of cream cheese
1 package of Oreo cookies (off brand will do just as well)
Ivory bark (or semi-sweet chocolate chips)
Sprinkles, powdered sugar, colored sugar, or whatever you want to add
Finely ground nuts (optional)
Food processor (or a hammer and a LOT of time and patience)


First, put the Oreos into your food processor and finely grind them.


Then, toss them into your mixer (or you can hand mix, but it takes a while) with your cream cheese and (if you wanted them) nuts. I did opt to put the nuts in, but they taste great without the nuts, too. Soft cream cheese works better than the block stuff, but either will do.




Mix until well blended. You want your mixture to be moist.



Start rolling the mixture into 1 inch balls and set them aside. I use a cookie sheet with a piece of wax paper over it.



Once you have your balls made, melt your bark (or semi sweet chocolate chips) according to the package instructions. I cannot stress this enough. Follow the directions exactly or you risk burning your bark (or chocolate) and making it useless.

Drop your oreo balls into the melted bark (chocolate) and get them pretty well covered. I usually drop them in and then use a spoon to spoon the melted goodness over them. The spoon will also come in handy for removing the truffle from the bowl.




Set the truffle back onto your baking sheet (or whatever you're using) and decorate with sprinkles or nuts or colored sugar or whatever and, once you have them all done, place them into the fridge until the coating is completely hard. I usually go for 2 hours (if I'm feeling impatient) to over night, but I definitely recommend a minimum of 4 hours.

I don't recommend using food coloring in the bark. It didn't work out very well for me.



While those are setting, let's work on our cocoa.

Materials:
Hot cocoa
Bottles (I used 3)
Decorative yarn or ribbon
A small bell
Corks
A little bag
Small marshmallows (I used snowmen shaped marshallows)



I don't know that it gets much easier than this:

Before beginning, make sure to wash your bottles. Make sure, then, that the bottles are completely dry inside. I suggest doing this several days in advance.

Pour the cocoa into the bottles, stick the cork into the bottle.

Once that's done, tie a bow around the bottle neck (and don't forget to attach your bell!).

Put the marshmallows in the pretty little treat bag and viola!




I used three different types of cocoa, so I intend to add a gift tag with the type of cocoa in each bottle and how much to use for a cup of hot cocoa.

Line a decorative tin with wax paper (or just use another treat bag, however you want to do it) and line up the truffles. My tin was deep enough to do two layers of truffles.

Thanksgiving Centerpiece Tutorial

We're making a simple Thanksgiving centerpiece that doesn't require a whole lot of crafting ability (hey, some have it and some don't). You can click on the pictures to enlarge them if you need to.

Here is our finished product.











Materials:
Funkin (or a pie pumpkin)
Basic tools (but a razor blade and small pin will do just fine)
Leaf mold
Glass candle jar things
Glaze (optional)
Liquid sculpey (optional)
Polymer clay in the colors of your choice (I used red, yellow, brown and orange)
A paintbrush (optional)
Sticks
Fake grass or moss
Glue
Styrofoam (I know there's a ball pictured here, but I ended up using a piece of a block because it was easier to cut into the shape I needed)
Baby powder (or corn starch)









First, cut a hole in the top of your Funkin (if you're using a real pumpkin, scoop out the insides, too). Then, cut the styrofoam to fit inside your pumpkin.


Next, start sticking sticks into the styrofoam (you can opt to glue the grass into the styrofoam first. I suggest doing this, although I didn't do it myself).


Continue until you are satisfied with the number of sticks in your pumpkin.


If you did not put the grass on first, this is the time to do it. Since I decided to go about it the difficult way, I used a small paintbrush to get glue onto the styrofoam and then used the back of the paintbrush to press the grass in place. Do this until you are satisfied with the amount of grass (at least until the styrofoam is covered).


Set this piece aside and get the leaf mold. Dust the mold with baby powder (or corn starch) to prevent the clay from sticking. Gently blow or shake off excess powder. Press a ball of conditioned clay into the mold of your choice.


Carefully use a razorblade of knife (or whatever you want to use, really. I do not suggest chewing the excess clay off with your teeth, though) to remove the excess clay on top.


Use the excess clay to get the leaf out of the mold by touching the excess clay to the clay in the mold. The leaf should come out easily if the mold was powdered well. Brush excess powder off of the leaves.

Do this for as many leaves as you would like. I used small leaves from the mold for the pumpkin and larger leaves for the glasses. I chose to do 6 small brown, 4 small red, 4 small orange, and 4 small yellow for the pumpkin. I chose a medium sized leaf from the mold and made two of each color for the smaller glasses. I used the maple leaf from the mold for the larger glass and made one leaf of each color. You can mix and match and do whatever is best for you. Expirement a little, you can come up with some really awesome stuff.

Use a needle to poke a hole in each of the small leaves. Make sure the hole is big enough to pass thread through, but not so big that it is immediately obvious.


Bake the small leaves according to the directions on the clay. DO NOT BAKE THE BIGGER LEAVES FOR THE CANDLE GLASSES YET. Each brand is slightly different, so please follow the directions to prevent burning and other badness. I use a toaster oven for small things like this. You can put a little tent of tin foil over the leaves to keep them from scorching (I especially recommend this if you are using a toaster oven).

Now, while those small leaves are baking, grab your glasses and begin to arrange your larger leaves on them. The clay should stick right to the glass. If you are having problems with it, you can use a little liquid sculpey or clear drying glue to hold the leaves on.


Once you have the leaves arranged how you want them, put the entire glass (or all of the glasses) into the oven and bake according to the instructions on the clay. Again, if you are using a toaster oven, I suggest the tin foil tent. Your little leaves should be baked by now, so if they are cool, move on to the next step.

While that's baking, take your small leaves and use thin thread or fishing line to .. uhh .. make something loopy that you can hang? Here, look at the picture.


Arrange these on your branches however you would like. (See the picture up top for the finished product.)

Once your glasses are done baking, leave them alone. Let them cool in the oven. You don't want to touch hot glass. It hurts. Once they're cool enough to handle (or totally cool), you can take them out and stick some candles in them.

Tada, all done!

Christmas Tree Craft Tutorial

Just a quick and simple project.

Supplies:

Elmer's school glue
Very small terra cotta pot
Pine cone
Paint (whatever colors you want for your tree and pot)
Glitter, beads, sequins, whatever you want to decorate your tree with
Toothpick
Paintbrush


First, paint your little pot whatever color you would like it to be. I went with red.












Next, paint your pine cone whatever color you would like your tree to be. I chose green.












Use the toothpick to add small dots of glue to the pine cone and then apply your "decorations."












Finally, put your "tree" onto the painted pot. It couldn't be easier!












I also made one to sit next to my haunted birdhouses for Halloween.

Corpse Bride Influenced Cake