Little Knitted Owls

These are a little surprise for my daughter and a few of her friends. They make me laugh every time I look at them.

Birthday Owls

Pattern: Little Tufty Owl Amigurumi from SweetBauerKnits on ETSY
Needles: US Size 5
Yarn: Cascade 220 (tiny amounts--this is a great stash buster!!)

Modifications: I added the feet--they just seemed to need them. And I whip stitched the eyes to the body rather than just tacking them in place in the middle.

Cute Little Paper Owl Cards - A Brief Tutorial

You will notice a trend this week. I will be doing several posts with owl crafts and owl art. My daughter loves owls and her birthday is coming up so we have a theme going on around here.

These little cards are very simple and oh so cute. These were inspired by THESE LITTLE OWL BAGS. We put information and greetings on the back and sent them out to family and friends. Keep in mind that if you do mail them, you'll need a rather wide envelope to account for the eyes.

They're very simple to make and would be a fun project to do with kids.

SUPPLIES:
Cardstock in bown, dark brown, white, black, and orange or yellow (or whatever other colors you choose to make your owls)
Scrapbook paper
Glue stick or school type glue
Scissors
Paper cutter (optional)
Circle drawing template (optional, but helpful)

INSTRUCTIONS: (none of these measurements are set in stone--change it up however you'd like!)

1. Begin with a long strip of cardstock for the owl's body. For these owls I began with a piece that was 7-3/4" x 3-1/2" for the longer ones and 6" x 3-1/2" for the shorter owl. (I thought my daughter would prefer the longer owls, but we both agreed afterwards that the short owl is just too cute!)

2. Fold the top down about 1-1/2" and cut from the center of the edge of the paper back to the fold (this forms the triangle head part).

3. Cut 2 eye pieces in dark brown (2-1/4" diameter), 2 in white (1-3/4" diameter), and 2 in black (1-1/8" in diameter).

4. Cut a bib piece from scrapbook paper that is around 2-1/2" wide and long enough to fit from about the tip of the triangle head part to about 1/2" above the bottom of your owl. Round the bottom edges.

5. Cut a beak piece from orange or bright yellow. You can do either a triangle or diamond shape. Whatever you prefer.

6. Time to assemble. Glue in this order - 1. Bib piece to body piece, 2. Eyes (I fully assembled the eyes and then glued them onto the body), 3. Beak, 4. Head fold piece (for this I put a dab of glue right at the point and then held it with a clothespin for a few minutes as my cardstock was quite stiff and it kept wanting to unfold).

That's it!

Whoooooooo's gonna make some?? :)

EL Fudge Ghost Cookies - It's That Time of Year Again

We have several Halloween treats we like to make around here, but we always go back to this one at least once every October. We love these EL Fudge Ghosts and they are fun and easy to make. (Here's my tutorial).

This year my daughter decided we needed a Charlie Brown ghost and she and I have been giggling about this little fella ever since. :)

Free Knitting Pattern - Raspberry Baby Washcloth

I just knitted this up for a friend and thought I'd share. The raspberry stitch (also called the Trinity stitch) is really fun and makes a knobby, pretty washcloth.

This makes a small washcloth - 7" x 7" - just right for a baby. If you'd like to add width, just add more stitches in multiples of 4.

RASPBERRY BABY WASHCLOTH

MATERIALS

Lily Sugar n’ Cream yarn – less than 1 ball

US size 7 needles

PATTERN

CO 36 stitches

Rows 1-4: knit

Row 5: k4, purl until there are 4 st left, k4

Row 6: k4, *(k1, p1, k1) into the next st, p3tog, repeat from * until 4 st left, k4

Row 7: k4, purl until there are 4 st left, k4

Row 8: k4, *p3tog, (k1, p1, k1) into the next st, repeat from * until 4 st left, k4

Repeat rows 5-8 until desired length (I did them 8-1/2 times)

K 4 rows

BO

Fuzzy Purple Mini Purse

I made this a while ago for my niece but it somehow never made it on a Knitting Update. This was done using Peyton's Mini Purse Pattern (link also on my side bar). 

I triple stranded the yarn and CO 20 and just knit for about 9”. Simple, simple. But the novelty yarns give it a fun look. These were random skeins I got from a friend. So I have no idea what they are but one of them has a bit of a sparkle to it. Fancy!

As usual sewing the liner (and thinking about sewing the liner) took me longer than the actual knitting. I really need a personal seamstress. The fabric is a pretty light blue full or flowers and butterflies. Perfect for my sweet little niece who was the recipient of this little purse.

And what do you put in your mini purse?? A mini book and mini pencil of course.

If you're looking for a simple, quick, rewarding knitting project, these mini purses are the way to go!!

Newest Name Signs

These were made for friends who recently had babies.

A Wee Little Knit Pig

Yarn: Cascade 220 (scraps of 2 shades of pink and a tiny bit of black)
Needles: US 4 and US 2
Pattern: My own improvised pattern based on several other patterns--it's a Frankenstein pig! :) If you'd like the details let me know and I'd be happy to send you the pattern.

This little piggy is for my niece. Totally fun to make and I think she's going to love it!

Decorated iPad Case

I recently got a fun, new toy--an iPad. And as with all new technology, the accessories are fun (and pricey!). I looked around a lot for cases. Well, a lot for me. I am NOT a shopper so I looked around Best Buy for about 20 minutes. I decided on the Folio Keyboard for iPad by Logitech. Mostly because I liked the color. And I told my husband in the store, "I want this one, but you have to be okay with me drawing on it...okay??". "I would have expected nothing less," was his reply. Ah, he knows me so well.

I left the case neked for a good day or two and then I just had to decorate it. I used Sharpie markers and just went for it. "You're not even going to draw it out with pencil?!?" my son asked aghast. He and my husband are the analytical ones in our house and my freehand Sharpie drawing stressed them out. I loved it! :) Any mistake you just turn into something else. No biggie! That's why I love doodling so much!

So here's the case before...fun color, cool texture, but oh so boring.

And here is my iPad Case now!

 The Front

 The Back

Laid flat so you can see the spine

What about you? Would you ever do something like this?

Baby Gift - Knitted Washcloth

 A quick little knitted washcloth for a friend's baby shower. This pattern is perfect for variegated yarn and THE PATTERN is free.

Tag for a Friend

A friend and I were visiting another friend on her birthday. First friend made a bracelet for the birthday girl, I made the tag for the box, and birthday friend received, most graciously, a pretty bracelet and fun tag for her birthday.

Paper and pen and ink on 1/8" masonite tag, tulle, ribbon, ric rac

New Tags in my ETSY Shop

Just added these little cuties to my ETSY shop today. They are great for party favors, gift tags, tied to treat bags, or used as ornaments on a Halloween tree. Each tag is 3"x3" and is made on 1/8" masonite so they last from year to year.

First Friday Art Class for October 2013 - Halloween Doodlin'

A very low key class this time as I was out of town until yesterday afternoon. But sometimes relaxed and simple is the biggest success. That was the case today. We just did some simple Halloween doodles and sort of let the time and our interest guide us.

We began with some crazy treats--Monster Doughnuts...and then, of course, the girls wore the fangs for the rest of class. :)

(This idea is not original to me. Found it on Pinterest. SOURCE. I forgot to add the tongue.)

Our first drawing today was a fun little bat. As usual I don't tell them what the finished object will be and we draw each step together.

SOURCE - Blue Tadpole

This is how I teach drawings like this...I liken all the shapes to things the kids are familiar with. It's MUCH less intimidating that way. 

So I start by having them draw a circle a little bigger than a quarter (head). Then give that circle a bib (body).

Now in the middle of the circle draw a rounded triangle (nose).

Give the circle two straight antenna (edge of ears).

Coming out from between the bib and the circle, draw a mountain on each side (tops of the wings). 

Add eyes and nostrils.

Add little fang type things at the bottom of the bib (feet).

Draw lines coming down from the tip of the mountain (wing veins).

Finish ears and features and finger and toes (no idea what they are really called on a bat).

Draw 3 little rainbows (or arch or bridge) on each wing to connect the points (bottom of the wings). 

Then I tell them they can add a hat or a bow or eyelashes or a shirt or whatever they'd like to add to make the bat their own. 

We then moved to spiderwebs.

This is a great, simple spiderweb to start with.

Here's the one that inspired us to add color.

We went back to our Zentangle days to do a spider web like this one. (We really could have spent the bulk of our time on this Zentangle Spiderweb, but we did have a few more doodles to do).

We drew some cute Halloween characters together. (We kept the bat on the board and named him Stevie). :)

We talked a little about art prompts and things that can get your imagination going. I showed them some calendar examples from Bob Canada's BlogWorld. We discussed other calendar ideas you could do--a flower on each day, a sweet girl on each day, a heart a day in February, etc. The ideas for this are limitless and those little desk calendars can be found very inexpensively around the beginning of the year. I will definitely be picking one up for myself! 

Here's an example Bob's blog:

SOURCE

The girls were really inspired by this. I had a calendar for October printed and ready for them with only the numbers on the days. They decorated the days with little Halloween characters (ghosts, monsters, jack-o-lanters, etc.) and wrote the word "October" at the top using fun Halloween letters.

Simple supplies, simple concepts, and a really fun Halloween-inspired afternoon!

See you next month!