Ric Rac Flowers: By SARN

For my birthday my dear friend SARN gave me a gift with this adorable ric rac flower tied on as a bow. A few weeks ago she taught me how to make them and gave me permission to share the directions on this blog. They are fairly fast to make and simple. They make wonderful embellishments for crowns, mittens, hair clips, bows and just about anything you can come up with. Oh, and they are fairly sturdy as well.
1. You will need stiff felt, ric rac, a button, and embroidery floss. I used red so that you can see the stitches, but you will probably want it to match your ric rac so it blends in.

2. Use a template to draw a circle on the stiff felt. Then cut it out. The circle I used for these flowers has a 1 1/2 inch diameter.

3. Sew an end of your ric rac with the edge pointing towards the middle of the circle. You will stitch over this later to hide it.

4. The side of the ric rac that goes up I call a mountain, the side that goes down is a valley. Stitch the valleys together as you make your way around the circle. (Use the photos for this).

5. This picture shows what it looks like once you have gone completely around the circle.

6. Begin your second layer. You will spiral towards the middle. Make sure to cover the stitches from the first row as you go.

7. Keep spiraling in until you reach the middle. Once there snip the end of your ric rac off. Fold it under and put a good stitch or two in to hold it in place.

8. This picture shows you what the back should look like at this point.

9. Sew a button into the middle of the flower and you are done.

Thank you SARN for letting me share this tutorial. What will you embellish with these adorable flowers? Have Fun!

New Things; Timeless Things

Good morning everyone. No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth again. Bear and I have been hard at work getting AppleCrateToys ready for this year's shows. There are so many things we are proud of and I thought that you might like a sneak peek of some of our projects in progress. We have lovely bunting banners of felt made from100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. There are a lot of these that we are working on but the one in the picture is my favorite so far. It features the Alphabet and is made with warm earth tones. Next to that is our version of a bendy doll. The wire we used for her core is lead free steel wrapped in soft rubber. This is another alphabet we've been working on. No lead or cadmium here either. Each square has been carefully cut and sanded from bass wood till it is baby smooth. Using a wood burning tool I then carefully burn in each letter. These make lovely tools for learning the alphabet and beginners spelling. They also are wonderful sensory tools. I may have to keep a set for myself. I love the way they feel; the ridges of the letters against their smoothness and the way the light hits them in my wooden bowl. They even retain a slightly smokey wood smell that is just delightful.
Since we are making alphabets out of wood it only made sense to make number sets as well. These squares number 0-9 and each set comes in a wooden box with counting chips.
And finally because they were just so much fun to make here are some tiny embroidered pins that I've made. Everything will posted very soon. Bear and I are very pleased with the direction AppleCrateToys is taking and we hope you all liked this sneak peek. Take care and Have fun!

Winter Cork People

Wow, I almost lost this whole week! Things have been hectic but I finally found time to post this craft. Do you remember my "Beach Cork People"? This is the winter version of them.
To start with you will need some red and white felt, q-tips (or pom poms or tiny bells), wooden beads (with or without painted faces) a cork and a screw. Cut a long strip of red felt start with for the scarf and a red triangle for the hat. Cut fringe on the ends of the scarf. Next cut two matching free form pieces of white felt for snow. Finally cut the tips of several Q-tips off past the stick part (but save the stick, they are useful for stir sticks or a number of other future crafts).
Attach the head (wooden bead) to the cork using the screw (a dollop of hot glue under the bead is helpful here to). Next glue on the hat and scarf. You could stop here but we wanted to make a land scape for this cork person.

Glue the two pieces of white felt together and glue your cork person to the 'snow'. Using the Q-tip tips you cut, glue the flat cut sides to the "snow" in a pile like rolled snow balls. I looked everywhere for my little bells or pom poms but could not find them, so I glued a q-tip ball to the end of the hat like a pom pom. This is the last step and you're done! Have Fun!!

Paper Snowflakes

Do you remember making paper snowflakes as a child?First you fold a piece of paper in half;

and then fold again and again till you are satisfied or just can't wait to start cutting. Did you ever ask your Mum if you could use her pinking sheers because they left such a pretty pattern and because they were thick and heavy enough to cut through anything?

Snip Snip Snip, Mum's gentle eye watching over you as you worked.Carefully unfolding and seeing what beautiful snowflakes you have created and then hanging them around the house or taping them to the windows for all to see.
This is a January Tradition that I will never be to old to make. Bear and I made these for New Years and had so much fun. It brought back such fun childhood memories for Bear and his brother. Grab a wee one and make some memories today. Have Fun!

Stockings and Stars

Little bits of felt and vintage sequins to make a memory. This year my sister asked me to make her boy friend a Christmas stocking. Our stockings are a tradition that my Great Grandmama started. When My Grandmama died I took over being the stocking maker for the family.Our 1950's stockings all look the same but have tiny differences. The first one is mine, made by my Grandmama 30 years ago, the second is the one I am hoping is finished by today for my sister's boy friend, and the last one is Bear's. I made it for him on our first Christmas and there were tears misting his eyes when he saw it. My Bear is such a softy. This is one tradition I will not let fade away.This star is the last of my ornaments I will post this year. I thought it was fitting that I should show it today. Layers of felt in alternating colors. So simple, yet so lovely.
I hope you are with family this day. To snuggle and to sip coco, to reminisce and make new memories. To laugh and to love. Merry Christmas everyone. Take care and Have Fun!

Hearts and Doves

These two ornament patterns just might be my favorites out of all the ornaments I made this year. The hearts are made with a heart template and embroidery floss for the lettering. The doves are made out of sparkly felt and their olive branches are embroidered with embroidery floss using a running stitch for the stem and daisy chain loops for the leaves. There is something about these that makes them so much fun to make. I hooked them into the garlands and lights around my windows and they looked so pretty. I liked them so much that I had a hard time taking some away from the windows to put onto the tree. My beautiful flock of Peace. Only one ornament left to post. I hope that you have finished all of your Christmas crafts and can just relax now. Take care and have fun!

Snowflake Ornaments and Friends

" Snowflakes swirl to the ground,

Softly to not make a sound"

Today's ornaments are made with a simple round template. The snowflakes are then stitched on with embroidery floss and then embellished with sequins and clear seed beads. They add that extra sparkle that was missing to our tree. Since I missed posting an ornament last week, I've added in a few that I helped my friend Elsa J make this past weekend.

Elsa J was worried because some pieces were cut uneven and the stitching is not evenly placed. She does not craft much and was worried that they were not good enough to give as gifts. They all turned out so whimsical that I love them all. They are all unique and beautiful. Just like people and snowflakes. What a boring world this would be if we were all identical.Yes I helped a little, but ' Elkie', your friends are going to love them. They are adorable, and personal, but most importantly they were made by you. The love and work that you put into them will be cherished. You are becoming quite the little crafter and I look forward to making many MANY more crafts with you. Take care.