Sock Rabbits

Day 34 - Sock Rabbits

I owe a huge thank you to my eldest daughter today as she has been my tutor in making these sock rabbits.  She's already experienced in the art of sock toy making as she has made and given these to friends and relatives.

I've already bought some patterned socks, so here's how we start.  The socks are folded out so that the heels are pointing upwards.  Then we cut from the toes towards the heel on both socks and snip the ends to make them a little pointed.  These cuts will end up being the ears and the legs.  The heels in the socks will become the face and the bottom. 


Although we have used a book to get the basic sock bunny idea, my daughter has adapted the instructions slightly from her own experience.  On one sock we cut off the top cuff which we will then make into arms and on the other sock we cut off a longer section from the cuff which we make into bunny jumpers - aah!

Once we have made all our cuts we turn the socks inside out and stitch up the ears and legs using a back stitch. We then turn the legs and ears right side out.

The bunny starts to take shape once we stuff the ears and the head.  To get a lovely rounded shape you have to roll the stuffed ears in your hands and try to use just one big ball of shaped stuffing to make the head. To finish the head we use a running stitch around the edge of the sock and pull gently until tightly closed.  





Having made the head we make the body and legs in the same way.  It takes a bit of rolling and squeezing to get the body to 'sit'.  Once we are happy with the shapes we stitch the head to the body.





Remember the cuffs we cut off?  The larger cuff we can now slip over the bunny's head. As I had bought a mixed pack of patterned socks, I've used the cuff I cut off another pair of socks to make the jumper for this one. With the second cuff we make the arms by firstly cutting it in two, turning each part inside out and stitching the edges together. We then turn them the right side out again and stuff them.  The arms are then stitched to the body.

To give our rabbits real character, we've stitched on faces and added buttons.  See what our bunnies got up to this afternoon!

I also need to give a big mention to my eldest daughter who took all the bunny photos - thank you!

I'm beginning to wonder what I'm going to do after the 40days project has finished - any suggestions??

Gingerbread Bunnies

Day 33 - Gingerbread Bunnies

I love cooking gingerbread.  The smell is warming and wonderful. Here's the recipe I use:

Plain flour 8oz/225g
Bicarbonate of Soda 1 1/2 tsp
Ground Ginger 1 tsp
Ground Cinnamon 1/4 tsp

Butter/Margarine 2oz/4tbsp
Brown Sugar 4oz/115g
Golden Syrup 3 tbsp

Milk 2 tbsp

I've melted the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan and mixed the flour, bicarbonate and spices in another bowl. Once the butter, sugar and syrup had melted I added the dry ingredients and the milk and mixed it all together to make a dough. I then left the in the fridge to chill for half an hour.

When I took the dough out of the fridge, I rolled it out onto a floured surface.  I decided to make my own rabbit head stencil to cut around, particularly as my only rabbit cutter snapped as I got it out to use. 










The bunnies then went for a 10-15 minute spell in a warm oven.


I left the bunnies to cool before piping on some ears, nose and whiskers and using smarties for eyes.  Yum!

Button Art

Day 32 - Button Art

So far this week there have been very little costs in the projects. I've used recycled magazine and equipment that I already had at home.  Tonight I'm also using materials that I already have at home. I've had this box of buttons for as long as I can remember and felt inspired to do something with them. Tonight's post is going to be written in real time as I'm blogging as I craft.

I am painting the canvasses I have bought (very reasonably priced from a cheap shop) purple - no particular reason. While they dry I am printing out a rabbit silhouette to use as a stencil. Now they've dried I'm using chalk to make a faint rabbit outline on the canvasses. 

I'm filling in the design with white buttons of different styles and sizes.  As it is already 10pm I'm going to glue the buttons into place as I work gradually building up the picture.

I think I could have done this project a little quicker but I'm doing more than one at the same time and I'm being choosy about the buttons I use.  I found one that sticks up so I've used it for the eye and I found a rectangular one that I used for the tail.  The hardest part is right at the end trying to find the right combination of buttons to fit the space you have left. 

I'm finally posting at 11.47 with the finished picture - it's late but I'm really pleased with the end result!

Lino Printing

Day 31 - Lino Printing

Day 31 - it feels like I'm on the homestretch now and I'm definitely marvelling at the commitment of those who take up the '365 make one thing a day' challenge.  Today's project is one I've been putting off a little as although I knew I wanted to dig out my lino printing set, I've not been exactly sure what to do with it. 

I have to confess that I've had this kit since I was at art college aged 19 (some 20+ years ago!), still have the lino cuts I made then but can't think I've ever used the kit since.  Most amazing is the fact that the printing inks with the kit STILL work.  Ooh, I tell a small lie, I have had the lino tools out fairly recently - I carved a pumpkin with them last Hallowe'en.








I digress.  As there was a wodge of paper within the kit I decided I'd make some notelet sets.  Firstly, I made some drawings that I then transferred to the pieces of lino using carbon copy paper. 

I began to cut out the designs from the hard lino using the specially sharp cutting tools.  To my own cost I've learnt that you really need to always carve in a direction away from your hands as the tools all too easily will take nicks out of your fingers and hands. I made three different lino prints: a sheep, grass and a flower. 

Once I had carved the designs out I squeezed the ink out onto a piece of glass and used the roller to apply the ink to the lino prints.  I practised printing a few times before applying them onto the paper and (what would be) matching envelopes. It's not an exact science but I think that's half the charm.  In the end I was really pleased with the effect.

On some notelets, the extra black became stems for the flowers.

I've decided to sell them as 'Notelets for Ewe', useful for occasions including Thank Ewe, Thinking of Ewe, Happy Birthday to Ewe - you get the idea!  I'm going to offer them in packs of four notelets and matching envelopes, probably bagged up and tied with ribbon and tag.  I can't actually bag them up yet as the ink is still drying but this is roughly what they'll look like.  

See 'ewe' tomorrow!

Glass Painting

Day 30 - Glass Painting

I've been looking forward to doing some more glass painting. Usually I paint on old coffee jars and fill with sweets for sale at Christmas or summer fairs.  However, I also found some lovely clip top jars that I'd bought ages ago for making peaches in brandy - disastrous! 

I've made up my own designs, with some internet inspiration and this morning I'm painting the outline reliefs.  Hopefully, they'll be dry enough tonight to fill them in. The jars are all soaked in warm water to get the labels off and I've found the easiest way to get rid of the glue residue is rubbing it off with white spirit.







Having wrapped the design into the jar I sometimes use paper towel in the middle to push the paper until it nearly touches the jar.  The coffee jars are ok for this because they are quite straight, however I found transferring the design onto the large jars harder as the shape curves  in at the top. Possibly something worth thinking about when choosing objects to paint onto. 

Here are all the finished outlines.

I decided to use black relief for the small children's jars and a silver relief for the daffodils. The photos show work part through. Once the relief was dried I began filing in the outlines with glass paints.  I have various brands of glass paints, some are better than others for different jobs; some are thick, some runny, some go on opaque to dry translucent, some go on much as it will look dried.   

These are how the chicks looked when they'd just been painted.

Though the method is quite like silk painting, unlike silk painting if you make a mistake you can usually correct it, when you're outlining or filling in.







Here are the finished jars......

With a flash on, the colours aren't true.  The bunny is definitely brown - not pink!

Oh I forgot - they're not quite finished, hopefully by Sunday they'll have a few treats inside too! 

These jars look great too, but the paints are still drying - again hope to update another day.

Recycled Magazine

Day 29 - Recycled Magazine Craft

Whilst trawling the internet for ideas for the 40days project I came across lots of uses for recycled magazine and newspaper craft.  Some of the ideas for making bowls were great but not really in keeping with the Easter theme. So I've decided to have a go at making woven Easter baskets.  The first thing you need is old magazines! I've used some gardening mags because I thought you might be able to see flowers. I did think of using children's magazines but they had none going spare.

The magazine needs to be cut into strips.  The length and width of the strips will determine the style of the weave. I've gone for strips the full length of the magazine by 10cm wide, again because I'm hoping to be able to see some of the pictures.

Each strip needs to be folded in half lengthways, unfolded and then folded from each edge into the middle. Next I've folded the strip over lengthways and secured with a PVA/water mix. You need to make quite a bundle of these.

To start the base of the basket, I've taken four strips - placed two horizontal and two vertical - and woven them together. I used a PVA mix to secure them, checking they are at right angles to each other by using the lines on my cutting mat. Gradually I added more strips lengthways and widthways to the weave until I had the right size for the base. 

To make the next part easier I went around the edge of the base folding what will become the side strips upwards. You then continue to weave the strips from the bottom up until the sides then reach the right height. 






To hold the strips together a piece of yellow paper was used to make another strip which I folded and stuck over the top rim. I've used a final strip to make the handles, put in place with split pins.  You could use this technique to make baskets square or rectangular, large or small, or even themed.

Although I'm not sure if this will work I've given the baskets a quick lick of clear varnish.  They don't seem to be collapsing but I'll see how they look in the morning.

Whilst making the baskets there was another project using coiled magazine craft that I was interested in. Same idea - you make very thin strips of used magazines - only this time you coil the strips into very tight pegs.  You can add more strips to make larger coils. I'll not tell you what I'm making but hopefully I'll update when it's finished.