Upcycling with kids: How To Make a Drum

by Jessica Burko

It's no secret that I love to make use of everyday objects and what other people might call "trash" to create my own artwork and also to do craft projects with my kids. A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post featuring my then 3-year-old son making a drum from an oatmeal container, and since then we have made many, many musical instruments with recyclables. Recently my almost 3-year-old daughter made a drum for her friend's birthday and I thought I'd share this updated DIY post for a slightly different way to achieve child-made drum greatness!

This project is appropriate for any child able to sit up and hold a paint brush, with a parent along side of them providing age appropriate assistance. Especially good for toddlers and children ages 2-4.

Materials:
• cardboard container - - such as an oatmeal container
• dry pasta - - any type but we prefer penne
• liquid glue - - white school glue or glitter glue
• paint - - the washable kind is recommended!
• paint brushes - - foam or bristle with an easily grip handle

Instructions:
1. Select your container. Any size will do, and the best ones will have a plain cardboard surface.
2. If your container has a removable label, peel it off.
3. Once you have a blank "canvas" you're ready to begin creating your percussion masterpiece!

4. A cardboard egg carton makes a perfect paint pallette
5. Dispense one paint color in each egg cup and set-up your brushes

6. Before you paint add a couple of handfuls of dry pasta to the inside of your container. This adds a great additional sound to your drum while playing and also allows the instrument to double as a shaker.
7. Depending on hand size, 2-4 handfuls of dry pasta should do the trick.

8. It's important to glue the lid to the container top after adding the dry pasta so that the drum stays intact while being played by small children.
9. Any liquid glue will work. My daughter's favorite is purple glitter glue so we used that. Make sure there's an adequate amount all around the interior edge of the lid but not too much so it drips down the outside of the container.

10. Begin painting the outside of your container and paint it some more!
11. Anything goes for the decoration of you drum and it's guaranteed that your toddler will love getting into the painting process!
12. Once your drum is painted to your child's satisfaction let it dry completely before playing.

Bonus step (not pictured) is to cut the letters of your child's name out of colorful construction paper, and using a glue stick, adhere it to the outside of the drum so your toddler can feel even more pride of ownership! Have fun!

Handmade for Kids: How to make a puzzle using a cereal box

by Bev Feldman of Linkouture

 Here is a really simple project that you can do with your children's drawings so that they can be enjoyed again and again in a new way. Just make sure to check with your children first that they don't mind cutting up their pictures!

All you will need for this project is:

• A drawing (or even a photo your child took, enlarged to fit a sheet of paper)
• Cereal box
• Glue
• Scissors

Cut open a cereal box and cover it with glue (I recommend using a glue stick or spray adhesive) and adhere the image to the picture side of the cereal box. Make sure the entire picture is securely glued onto the box; you don't want to miss any spots, otherwise it might not stick properly after you cut out the pieces. 

After the glue has dried, trim any excess cardboard.

Now comes the fun part! Flip it over and turn to the plain side of the box and draw in puzzle shapes. You can make the pieces as big or small as you would like (depending on your child's age), and draw whatever shapes. There is no right or wrong way to do it! Or, if you need help, you can download a puzzle template and glue it to the cardboard. 

Once you have all the shapes outlined, cut along the lines.

Your child's puzzle is down! Now it's time to put it all back together. 

DIY alert: How to sew a child's birthday shirt

by Jessica Burko

This post must begin with a disclaimer: I am not a professional seamstress. Where crafting is concerned I have no idea what I'm doing really, I just wing it. A better description of me is that I'm a creative mom who likes to make special things for her children, especially for their birthdays. I did not grow up in a house with sewing, I do not have any handmade clothes from my grandmother, I have taken one short sewing class ever. I don't have a fancy iron, I use a tiny table top ironing board, my sewing machine is 20+ years old. That all being said, if I can do this little project, so can you.

For me, a big part of this project is getting to reuse and upcycle old clothes. I've been making these birthday number shirts for my kids since my son turned two, and I've always found fabric supplies in our old-clothing bins. With his fifth birthday coming up I found a seldom worn plain gray shirt in his dresser, and a scrap of green patterned fabric on my sewing shelf.

My daughter's third birthday is in a couple of months and since I was sewing anyway, it seemed like a good idea to make her birthday shirt too, and then her shirt took on a life of its own. I was only able to find a blank short-sleeved shirt in my daughter's dresser and with a cold weather birthday she really needed a long-sleeved one, so I added sleeves made from an old pair of her leggings before beginning the main event of adding a number to the shirt front.

How to Sew a Child's Birthday Number Shirt

Level of difficulty:
Low, but it's recommended that you've sewn a few things before this project, like curtains or an apron or something.

Total time to complete project:
Depending on your level of experience it could take from 30 minutes to an hour, but if you have all your materials assembled before beginning I can't imagine it would take longer than that.

Materials:
a plain cotton t-shirt
a small amount of patterned cotton fabric
a piece of fusible interfacing as big as your patterned fabric
a spool of thread
a sewing machine
a few pins
a scissors
a hand-drawn or printed number
an iron
an ironing surface

Optional:
a pair of cotton pants that your child has outgrown

1. Select a blank shirt from your child's existing wardrobe, or purchase one at a used clothing store, or purchase a new one. An all cotton shirt works best. If you want to add sleeves to a t-shirt also procure a pair of soft cotton pants (girls leggings work great). Use any color combo that you like. Make sure all the fabric you use in this project gets washed before beginning the project. If you don't want to add sleeves to your t-shirt, just skip down to the next set of images.

2. Cut off the pants legs at a length that makes sense for your child's arms. Use a long sleeved shirt from their current wardrobe to get a sense of the appropriate length, then add an inch to have room for sewing. You can eyeball it.

3. In this project the pink t-shirt has a cute little ruffle at the edge of the sleeves so I decided to keep that visible and add the long sleeves from the inside, giving it that *very cool* layered look. Slip the widest part of the pant leg into the t-shirt sleeve about an inch and pin all around so it doesn't shift when you're sewing it. The hem of the pants leg will now become the hem at your child's wrist. Slide the shirt onto your machine, choose a stitch pattern that you like (because it will be visible) and sew all around the sleeve edge.

4. Repeat for the other sleeve and then you'll have your blank canvas for adding the birthday child's special number.

5. Create your number template either by printing it from your computer or hand drawing a big bold number. Make sure the paper you select isn't very thick because you want to be able to see the number outline through the other side of the paper. Standard photocopy paper works great. Size your number as you like, using the shirt as your guide. You will be cutting and ironing your number in a reverse position so that the final application to your shirt is in the proper orientation. Yes, you could draw or print your number in the reverse however for those of us who get a little confused about the right side/wrong side of fabric in these types of situations, I find that keeping the template oriented properly allows me to be extra conscious of when I'm using it in reverse.

6. Meet your new best friend, fusible interfacing. Discovering this material completely changed my crafting life. With this simple magic paper you can do all kinds of appliqué without the edges fraying. You can purchase it in small amounts as pictured above or you can buy yards of the stuff on big rolls. Either way, it's great. When you first take it out of the package it is paper on one side and a sort of tacky/sticky surface on the other side. The tacky side is what gets ironed onto fabric, and then the paper side is removed revealing another tacky surface, so it can get ironed on to another piece of fabric or clothing. The photos as we go along will help explain this.

7. Turn your template right side down and pin it to the paper side of the fusible interface. Yes you can pin through paper, and no, it won't harm anything you are working with.

8. Cut through the template paper and the fusible interface, around the outline of your number.

9. Take the pins out and remove the template paper.

10. Iron the tacky side of your fusible interface to the wrong side of your patterned fabric. The number will look backwards, and the right side of your patterned fabric will be face down on your ironing board.

11. You don't need to iron very much and it will be good and fused. I used a setting for cotton and no steam. Once your number is fused to the fabric cut through the fabric and fusible interfacing around the edges of the number. I used a regular scissors for this project but if you will be doing a lot of sewing projects you might consider purchasing a good pair of scissors that you designate for fabric only so they stay really sharp.

12. Once the number is fully cut out, peel the paper backing off to reveal a second tacky surface.

13. Now (finally!) you are ready to fuse your number to your t-shirt. Decide where you want your number to be located on your shirt and iron it down, right side up, tacky side down, on the front of your t-shirt. Make sure you are happy with the location before you iron because once it's fused, there's no going back.

14. It looks like you're finished! But you're not. Well, you could be if you want, but it will look much better if you stitch around the number with thread. If you use heavy duty fusible interfacing the stitching is purely decorative, but it finishes the piece beautifully. You could hand stitch or machine stitch around the edges of the number.

15. I chose to machine stitch and used the same color thread that I used to attach the sleeves. I used a tight zig-zag pattern that I find works well with this type of project, but if you find an alternate type of stitch that you like that's fine too, just make sure to go around all the edges of the number.

16. Ta da! Now you have your number shirt ready for the birthday celebration! Even if the stitching is wonky, or something is not up to your usual high standards, don't worry, you see the imperfections more than anyone else and most important, your child will love it.

17. Of course I also made the number shirt for our son who is turning five this Sunday.

18. Here are the finished products! I know my kids will love them, imperfections and all.

I encourage everyone interested in sewing to try your own version of this project. It can be adapted to different sizes, and different appliques. It's fun, fast, and makes a great update to any wardrobe!

Handmaking a Banner or Sign for your Craft Business

by Laurie Lynn of Beryllina

Beryllina's new handmade banner!

I needed a new sign for my booth at craft shows that would clearly describe my work to passersby while enhancing the look of my booth. At a craft show earlier this year, I had the pleasure of having my booth next to fellow Boston Handmade member, Leanne Tremblay of Loomination, who had recently made her own sign for her booth. In addition to being inspired by Leanne's work, I was pleased by the idea that I could have an eco-friendly sign (unlike most banners that are vinyl - very UNeco-friendly), that would also fit the overall vibe of my booth, which includes unbleached cotton tablecloths, dark wood cases, a tree earring display, and purple accents! Though it took a few days to make the banner, I am so glad that I did it.

Here are the materials I used:

• thick canvas or fabric (5 feet long by approximately 28" wide)
• 5/8" dowels (quantity 3)
• duct tape (to attach dowels to achieve correct length)
• hemp string
• acrylic craft paint (one 2 ounce bottle)

I also used the following:

• sewing machine
• scissors
• iron
• pins
• small saw (for cutting dowels to proper length)
• pencil
• computer with design program (I used photoshop)
• projector
• ruler
• paintbrush

Starting with the thick cotton canvas (which I had leftover from the haybale-covers we made for the seating at our wedding!), I determined how far I would need to fold over each side to loosely encase a 5/8" dowel. I ironed and pinned this fold in place, all except for the last eight inches or so on each end.

In this unpinned area, I sewed a buttonhole on each corner (on the fabric that was to be folded over to encase the dowel), so I will be able to easily slip the dowel in and out as needed. This will make it handy for packing and bringing to shows! After sewing the buttonholes, I sewed the hem along the top and bottom, as well as the hem on the sides.

Using dowels to hold the banner are a trick I learned from my mother who is a quilter: a dowel across the top AND bottom will keep the fabric hanging straight and smooth with no weird wrinkles or puckers, and it will help hold it down during windy craft shows! Since the length of the banner was longer than one dowel, I cut the third dowel to make the additional length necessary and duct-taped the cut section on to each full size one. I drilled a hole in each end of both dowels, and inserted and tied a short piece of hemp string. I will attach either hooks or additional string to these loops, depending on how or where I would like to hang it (which may vary from show to show).

Once I had the banner fully sewn, I hung it up on my wall and used a projector to project the image for my banner which I had created in Photoshop. 

Next, I traced the projected image onto the canvas using a pencil with a light touch, and I used a ruler for the straight sections of tracing. I pressed the banner against the wall to trace, which meant that when returning after short rests for my wrists (tracing on a wall is more tiring than you can imagine!), I had to realign the traced sections before beginning to trace again. This ensured that there was no weird misalignment of sections!

Once the entire image had been traced, it was time for the fun part: painting! I was quite nervous about this. Using purple acrylic craft paint on white cotton muslin meant there was no room for mistakes. One drip or mis-brush and it could be ruined! 

Painting was very time consuming, since I proceeded very carefully and cautiously. It was well worth the time though, as I am absolutely over the moon with my finished banner. Handmade, eco-friendly, and perfectly aligned with my business, jewelry, and overall style. Stop by one of my upcoming shows to see my new banner in action!

Handmade for Kids: How to Make a Travel Art Box

by Bev Feldman of Linkouture

Between summer vacation and trips to the beach, perhaps more than any other time of the year people find themselves constantly on the go during the summer months. I have days where I feel like I have barely unpacked my bag before I have to pack it all over again, and I haven't even gone on vacation yet this summer!The wonderful thing about making art is it can be done anywhere. All you need is your imagination and a way to express yourself. You can help your children express their creativity on the go with these easy-to-assemble art boxes using items you probably already have laying around your house.

Suggested items:

• Some type of container (I recommend a shoebox if you have one that isn't being used, you can even have your child decorate it)
• Writing/coloring utensils, such as colored pencils, markers, and/or crayons (just be aware if you keeping this in your car the crayons might melt!)
• Something to write/color on (scrap paper, construction paper, a small notebook, or a journal)
• Glue sticks and/or tape
• Recycled materials, such as paper towel tubes, ribbon, tissues paper, and egg cartons
• Scissors (but not if you're planning on take this on an airplane or if it is going to be used in the car)
• Stickers
• Yarn
• Buttons
• Paper clips
• Any other items you or your children can think of

You and your child can work together to hunt around your house to see what kinds of items would be fun to include. Keep the box stashed in your car, ready for long trips, or have your child bring it with them the next time you fly somewhere (just be sure to remove any items that TSA doesn't allow you to bring on your carry-on) and let your child's imagination run! You can even join in on the fun. After every trip clean it out and replenish any supplies that have run low and throw out any items that have dried out.What would you include in a travel art box?

Mining Garnets for Jewelry

by Laurie Lynn of Beryllina

To make my jewelry as eco-friendly and socially-responsible as possible, I mine many of the gemstones myself. This past weekend, my husband Jared and I went mining at a crushed stone quarry in Maine. Neither Jared nor I love mining at commercial quarries, as we don't enjoy seeing this large scale disruption of the natural Earth. But during this visit, we realized that we are glad to have been there, to rescue the amazing crystals that were created by the Earth from being crushed for gravel. Here's a picture of a perfect garnet, exactly how I found it. Isn't that color and shape incredible?!

Sometimes the garnets can be found loose, as in the photo above, and other times they are still in the host rock. Jared found a large rock that contained many small garnets, which he removed very carefully using a chisel and small sledge hammer.

It took some time to remove the garnets, but he was very happy once he got them out!

Here's a picture of one of the gorgeous garnets he removed from that large rock.

I can't wait to use this beautiful little gem in a piece of jewelry, using eco-friendly recycled sterling silver. I'll be sure to post it on my website and share photos with you once I do!

Why Handmade: Creating a Facebook Banner with PicMonkey, Part 2

by Lynn Mohney of Prunella’s Workshop

I hope over the last week you have been playing around with PicMonkey, becoming more familiar. If you have, you may already be comfortable creating a Facebook banner of your own. If not, I am going to walk you through, step-by-step making a banner. This tutorial will show you how to edit and resize a photograph, include your company logo, create a photo collage sized appropriate for Facebook, and upload it to your page.

Editing a Photograph

As I noted last week, you want to be careful editing product photos. The best solution is to take a perfect photograph with fantastic lighting, so that the only changes you are making are to the size and cropping of a photograph. However, if you, like me, are not a professional photographer, you may find you need to make subtle lighting and color corrections to make certain your photograph matches the actual product. This is not the time to correct mistakes you made during the creation of your item.

Of note, a Facebook banner is not for the purpose of actually selling the item pictured. Instead, you are sharing what your business is all about. You may choose product you have already sold. Some artistic license is acceptable as well, as customers are not linking to your banner with the intent to buy what they see!

Step One:

Click on the Edit Icon. It will automatically bring you to the files n your computer. Find your photograph, select it, and click choose in the right hand bottom corner.

Step Two:

I took this photograph using my camera phone. I like it because it has several pairs of earrings. However, it’s not the most visually exciting picture. Let’s see if we can liven it up a little without loosing the integrity of my work. I am going to start with the crop tool, so I can remove some of the cardboard box.

We are already in the Basic Edits menu. The top option is Crop. Let’s click on it now:

A menu pops up on your left. There is a dropdown (currently states No fixed proportions) where you can choose pre-determined sizes. These are useful if you want to select a specific part of your photograph and have it scaled to a standard photo size. As our image is not going to be printed, we will leave it where it is.

The actual size of my photo is currently 366 x 234 pixels. I can change the size here, or in the resize menu. This is useful if you need the photo to fit in a specific space. Keep in mind that if you do not click the “scale photo” box, the program will stretch the photo to fit your dimensions. This can have a carnival mirror effect that can be a lot of fun or give you a big headache!

We do not have a specific size, at the moment. We just want to get rid of part of the photo. When we selected the Crop menu, a grid showed up on our picture. The grayed out area is what we are cutting away. We can increase, decrease and move around the edges by clicking and dragging with our mouse. When you find something you like, click the green apply button.

Step 3:

Once cropped, you may find your photograph needs some minor adjustments. For example, under the Exposure menu, you can adjust the brightness and contrast of the picture, by sliding the circles on the bars. You may need to make huge adjustments, or just minor tweaking. Do not be afraid to play—you will get a preview of what you have done, but nothing is permanent until you hit apply.

Similar adjustments can be made under the Colors and Sharpen menus. These three menus will most likely not alter the integrity of your work, but they can resolve minor issues due to poor lighting or a difficult subject.

Step 4

Let’s talk about the Effects, Borders, and Textures Menus. Many of these options are not available unless you sign up for a Royale account. I’m not going to tell you whether you should or should not sign up. I don’t recommend using these for product photos as they detract from the item you are selling. However, there is room for some playing in a Facebook Banner. The menus work the same way as in the previous step. Each choice comes with adjustments you can make it uniquely your own. For example, in the above screenshot, I chose “Dark Edges” under Effects. The default uses black; however, I can choose any color in the provided spectrum for the edges (I chose teal as it compliments the copper nicely). I can also adjust how much of the edges are darkened, the amount of fade, and the intensity. Do not be afraid to play with these adjustments, as you can come up with some interesting effects. Nothing is permanent until you apply, and as always, remember to save often with a new file name, as it is easy to revert to an earlier saved version if you do something hideous!

If you venture into Texture overlays, you will find more options than in other areas. For example, under “Space,” there are three different options, depicted in three pictures. In the screen shot above, we are in the Effect submenu; however, if you click the “Move” button, there is another submenu where you can move the effect around by clicking the different buttons.

**Keep in mind that we plan to create a photo collage. Write down the effects you use for your first photo as you will want to be consistent with your other photos.

So here it is…so far. I chose to apply Sepia tones and dark edges from the effects menu and a Simple Edge from the Frames menu.

Step 5

Let’s talk Type and Overlays, because they are applied the same way. The Overlay menu (the Butterfly) has a wide selection of clipart, and I am going to choose a label. Once my label is placed, I will place type over it.

I chose my label, which appeared in a random location on my photograph. A pop up menu also appeared to the right (it may pop up someplace else on your screen) The label itself came with a white lined box with 5 handles. The middle handle will allow you to rotate the label by dragging it with your mouse. The other handles will allow you to change the size if the label. If you click in the middle of the label, you can drag it to the desired location. You can stretch the label by holding the shift key at the same time as you click and drag on the handles. You can change the color in the pop up menu. When you are pleased with the result, click outside the label and the handles and pop up menu will disappear. You can make them return by clicking on the label.

Now go to the Type menu and choose a font you like. Select it and click “Add Text” at the top of the list. A text box shows up with similar handles, that work the same way. A pop up menu appears, where you can change the size, alignment and color. Click in the text box when you are ready to type your text. You can highlight your typed text to make any adjustments.

Step 6:

If you haven’t been saving all along, you should save now. There is a middle menu at the top of your screen where you can hit save. Make sure you save it as a .jpg, and you remember where you saved. Repeat this process for a few more photographs for our photo collage.

Stay tuned until next week, when we will create the photo collage for the banner. We will also upload it to our page. I hope you are having fun!

DIY Spring Project: Art and Earth

by Jessica Burko

When my 4-year-old came home from preschool bursting with excitement because his teacher told him the next day was the first day of spring, I knew it was time for some quick thinking and a springtime project. Yes, there's still snow on the ground in Boston, yes it's late March and we're all still wearing winter coats, hats and mittens, but we're forging ahead and starting spring anyway! This art and earth project is perfect for 3-5-year-olds who are getting used to using scissors, learning to read, and handling writing tools.

Supplies:
• seeds
• soil
• seed tray or small containers (cardboard egg cartons would work great!)
• paper
• child-safe scissors
• crayons/markers/colored pencils
• glue stick

Step1: choose your seeds
To completely invest my son in this project, I let him pick out the seeds. We spent some time talking about how we would grow the seeds indoors until it was warmer outside, then we would transfer them to our new garden, and that we would grow vegetables and fruit that we would eat. He chose all his favorites and is most excited about "growing Jack-O-Lanterns" and "corn on the cob".

Step 2: make your art
I went online and found free clip-art to make little coloring-book-style pictures for my son to color so that we could mark our rows of seeds, and because I love you so much dear readers, I'm sharing it with you here: Seed Markers PDF. Feel free to use this sheet for your own seed markers or use it as a template and add your own clip-art images based on what you will be planting. You could also just draw pictures of the fruit and vegetables you will plant. The idea is to make it fun for your little one however they best like to make their art.

Step 3: cut and paste
After making the pictures for your seed markers cut them out (we cut to a square shape) and make sure to provide a front and back for each marker. The front and back can be the same picture, or the back could be left blank, or you could use colored construction paper for the back side. Having both a front and back piece of paper helps the stability of your seed markers. Glue the front and backs to popsicle sticks and you are ready to plant your seeds!

Step 4: planting the seeds
We used a table spoon to fill the seed trays with one spoon of soil, then we put in the seed, then added an additional scoop of soil. We've been watering the seeds every day and looking forward to seeing them sprout. For some great tips on starting seeds check out this post from Organic Gardening.

I've got this theory that the more we can all act like it's spring, the sooner spring will actually get here. So please share your favorite crafty spring project in the comments section and let's all pitch in to make an end to winter!

Fun Process of Collage Making

By Shannon McDonald of McDonald Mixed Media

First step: Find some fun material

Materials: Paint, paintbrush, wood, adhesive (I am a fan of Mod Podge) and last but not least paper materials. Magazines are a great source.

I ask friends to donate them to me instead of recycling them.

I am always on the look out for some interesting paper.  I saved some stamps from a package my office received from Iceland!

Prep your wood. I purchase MDF board from Home Depot. They will cut it down for  you too! However, I have used found wood such a old kitchen cabinets or wooden shelves. Most crafts stores also have an unfinished wood section. I then prep the board with paint or gesso.

Let the fun begin! I have been using lots of cut outs of silhouettes lately. That is my starting point for this collage. 

Adding color is a must! 

Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty!

I will play around with the design before I permanently glue it. Maybe too many flowers?

Almost there! Just need to fill in some holes and glue it down. Once you are ready glue everything down. Apply a generous amount of Mod Podge to the paper and wood. I use a hard plastic card (similar to as gift card) to get rid of any air bubbles. 

After it dries you can seal it to protect it from fading. I use a clear coat that can be found at Home Depot. Make sure that you apply this is a well ventilated area.