General Crafts – Page 4

DIY Bee and Bug Houses

One of my many autumn projects for the blog is a series of roosting houses for our winter birds made from dried craft gourds and decorated with pyrography and colored pencils. Along the way to the creating these kettle gourd houses I wanted to first play around with ideas on making different roof styles. Most DIY birdhouses use the stem area of the gourd for both hanging and as the roof area, but I wanted something different.

So I picked up some smaller dried craft gourds off of Ebay.com – nest egg gourds, small bottle gourds, and some dipper gourds. Next I got out my bench knife, my boxes of craft supplies, my dried flowers and grass, and began experimenting.

I never meant to use these practice pieces here on my blog, but they were so fun to create and have so many possibilities that I just had to share them with you. One of the little delights, shown below, is made with a nest egg gourd, approx. 2 1/2″ high by 1 3/4″ wide, with a corn husk roof, grapevine twist and barberry seed accents.

I was only going to make one or two to figure how the easiest method of adding a roof to a gourd. I ended us with over a dozen in just a couple of day’s play. As I experimented with several different roof material ideas I also came up with a multitude of uses for these small gourd houses.

Some of these miniature gourd birdhouses will become Christmas ornaments, some are made to go out into my garden as bee and bug houses, one became a little garden scene shelf decoration. But my favorite so far is my larger, 4″ x 5″, seed house that will be my sister’s Christmas present. Inside of this gourd, before I added the roof, I added 3 Red Oak trees, 5 Tulip Poplar trees, 6 White Dogwood trees, 6 Chinese False Dogwood trees, 6 Golden Chain trees, a huge bunch of marigolds, and 12 nest egg gourds – all viable seeds from my Maryland garden to her new Colorado home! (Shhh! – Please don’t tell her!!! It’s a surprise!!!)

So join me this week as I share the steps with you for making your own DIY Bee-Bug-Seed Houses for your Christmas tree and autumn gardens. Then at the beginning of October we will start the pyrography roosting gourd houses with a free Lora S. Irish pattern.

Let your friends on FaceBook, Twitter, and Pintrest know so they can share the fun.

Lora ~

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Doodle Applique Quilting

Leave a Comment / Quilting / irish

We have been working with doodle patterns in our wood burning and pyrography projects this last week. Today, let’s see what happens when you bring those doodle designs to your favorite applique quilt project.

While I have stitched quite a few small applique quilting projects, I have finally started my first full-sized quilt work. I wanted something fun, something easy, but something extra special since I know I will be working on the quilt top for some time. I chose a classic, simple wildflower daisy pattern with long stems and lots of leaves over a four patch neutral toned block pattern.

To add that extra, I chose to get out my fine point permanent marking pen, a variety of tone-on-tone bright cotton fabrics, and the doodle patterns we have been using for our pyrography. This is a great idea for the quilt top that has been lying around the sewing room because you just didn’t feel it had enough pizzazz to finish.

Wash and iron your fabric. Click and save a copy of the free applique quilt pattern. Trace a copy of each pattern piece onto the back of a piece of 220-grit sandpaper. Pin or tack the fabric to a piece of foamboard. Lay the sandpaper pattern pieces on the fabric and trace around the outer edge with a water-soluble pen, allow space between each pattern piece for seam allowances.

Click and save the full-sized pattern above – another free pattern by Lora S. Irish.

Now, using your permanent marking pen, have fun doodling patterns to the fabric. I chose black for my designs, but also consider using multiple colors for pale toned or neutral fabrics. When the doodling is done, remove the fabric from the foamboard and iron. You are ready to move on to your favorite applique technique. Fun, easy, creative, and a one of a kind show stopper.

For more doodle designs and doodle fill patterns, please see our New Pattern Package – Pyrography Doodles at Art Designs Studio.

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Wood Spirit Gourd Masks

Marker Quilt Squares

Leave a Comment / Quilting / irish

A nice selection of permanent colored marking pens are a great media to express your creativity on your next quilt, pillow, or tote project.

Supplies:

100% cotton fabric
Assorted color selection of permanent marking pens
Fine point black permanent marking pen
1″ wide masking tape
clip board
printed pattern – Mushroom Wood Spirits

Do a test square on the fabric you will be using before you begin painting your quilt square. Some brands of colored permanent marking pens can make other brands bleed.

1. Begin by choosing a pale color fabric. You can use a solid, tone on tone, and even a pale colored print. Cut your fabric to the size of your quilt pattern instructions plus 2″ on the wide and 2″ on the length.

2. Tape your printed pattern to the center of your clip board. Center the fabric square over the pattern, fold the excess fabric to the back of the clip board and using masking tape secure the sides. You will see the printed pattern lines through the fabric.

3. Permanent markers not only come in a nice, wide range of colors they are also available is several sizes of pen tip widths. For my mushroom tote and quilt square owl I used medium sized tip points for the main coloring and a fine point black marker for my outlining and detailing.

Since the marking pen colors are translucent some of the color of the fabric will effect the final color of each area of your painting. If you are working on a pale green fabric with a bright yellow marker the area will become a bright yellow-green color. You can use a scrap of your fabric as a test square for each color that you want to use.

4. Begin each area with your palest color, then add layers of gradually darker colors to create realistic shading and gradual changes in color. You can work several layers of marker color over one area, allowing each area to dry for a few moments to intensify the final color tone.

5. Complete all of the color work then let your fabric dry thoroughly. Now use the black fine point marking pen to add your details, outlines, and to sign your artwork.

6. Set your colored art using a dry, cotton setting on your iron. That’s all you need to do to turn any pattern into an original painted quilt square.

When you get your’s done I would love to see it!!!!!

My sample is worked on a finished block size of 8″ x 11″ with 2 1/2″ orange boarders. The Sides of the tote were cut at 3 1/2″.

These two samples are ready to become quick, fun throw pillows.
Retro Owls

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