Happy Seamstress » round-up

Spooky and Sweet Projects for Hallowe’en

Ilana — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:20:47 +0000

Hallowe’en is today, as it turns out, so I suppose this round-up is a wee little bit last minute, but if you don’t have anything else going on for this most special of days, these fun projects might give you some good ideas!

Spooky Cupcakes

Cupcakes are appropriate for any occasion. Instead of serving tons of packaged candy at your Hallowe’en party tonight, try serving up some of these delicious holiday-themed treats. Studio 5 has instructions for pumpkin, witch, spider, ghost, and mummy cupcake decorations. My personal favourites are the eyeball cupcakes shown here, made with marshmallows, life-saver candies and tiny black jelly beans… and of course red icing for those creepy veins.

Fanged Pumpkins

If you don’t have the time or patience to carve out a regular jack-o-lantern, try making one of these fanged pumpkins from Martha Stewart. They’re made by cutting one hole for the mouth into a smallish pumpkin, inserting some of those cheap dollar store plastic fangs, and using a couple of thumb tacks for eyes. There’s even a video tutorial, in case you need it explained in explicit detail.

Glow Stick Lanterns

There’s nothing quite like eerily glowing things to complete your Hallowe’en decor. To make a glowing lantern (or a bunch of them!) just activate some glow sticks, which you can get for cheap at the dollar store or pharmacy, cut the tips off them, and dump the contents into a glass jar. Then swirl the jar around to evenly coat it.

Wriggling Snake Wreath

Here’s another one from Martha Stewart: a wriggling snake wreath! From a distance, this would look like a regular wreath, but once you get close, you can see that it’s a squirming mass of creepy snakes, perfect for scaring trick-or-treaters! It’s also really simple to make. Just attach a bunch of rubber snakes to a simple grapevine wreath using floral wire or by coiling them around the wreath.

Candy Corn Cookies

Candy corn is by far my favourite Hallowe’en treat. It has that perfect mix of texture and flavour that I find absolutely irresistible. These chocolate dipped candy corn cookies, created by Be Different Act Normal, look almost as good. They were created by adding orange food colouring to a simple sugar cookie dough, cutting the cookies into triangles, and dipping one end in white chocolate and the other in dark chocolate.

Hallowe’en Crackers

Crackers aren’t just for Christmas anymore! With a toilet paper tube, some coloured crepe paper and a few Hallowe’en-ey decorations, you can create these adorable Hallowe’en crackers, again from Martha Stewart (she’s just full of good ideas!). Then fill them with lots of tasty candy!

Toothy Jack-O-Lantern

If you have a lot of time and a ton of ambition, you can test your carving skills by attempting to emulate this impressive Jack-O-Lantern. This work of art was seen at a local coffee shop and snapped by Leya at Curious Bird. I love that toothy grin, and using the stem for a nose is a really original idea. If nothing else, this is great inspiration!

Nerdy Crafts Round-Up

Joanna — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:18:51 +0000

10 things to make while getting your nerd on

As you have probably figured out by now, I love making nerdy stuff. I also love looking at nerdy crafts that other people have made as a great source of inspiration. So with that in mind, I give you this 100% nerdy round-up of geek crafts.

Space Invaders Cutting Board

From Captain Sideburns (you gotta love the name!) comes this fantastic and well-executed Space Invaders cutting board, made of precisely-cut cubes of high quality wood, glued together with FDA-approved food safe glue. Check out his blog for the instructions.

NES Controller Coffee Table

This kicks so much butt on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin. This coffee table made by Ultra Awesome is not only an impressively accurate representation of the classic NES controller blown up to giant proportions, but it actually functions as an NES controller! If you want to nerd up your own living room with one of these (and who could blame you) you can get started here.

Lego Halloween Costume

Check out CraftZine for the instructions to make this awesome/adorable/slightly strange Lego costume made of a box and plastic food containers. All you’ll need to do is find a kid to bully into wearing this thing…

Giant Super Mario Quilt

This one might just put my Mario Sweater Vest to shame. This is well over 6 feet of geeky goodness in the form of a crocheted quilt. Me like!

Underpants Gnome

I’m a huge fan of South Park, so I was so happy when I saw this cute crocheted Underpants Gnome. Based on the cuteness, you’d never guess that he’d want to pilfer all of your underpants. But it’s always the cute ones you have to look out for…

Cross-Stitched Super Mario Map

Another Mario-themed entry, this elaborately detailed Super Mario map made by the Cross Stitch Ninja is so impressive it almost takes my breath away. Even more impressive is that the Ninja made two others: Super Mario 3 World 1 and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

“Apple” Pie

I love visual puns, even more so if it’s also a dessert! Bonus points for the incredibly intricate latticework inside the apple. Find out how to make your very own here.

VHS Toaster

Finally something useful to do with those obsolete VHS players. As a bonus, now you can actually encourage your toddler to stick bread into your VCR! Learn how to make one with this tutorial from Instructables.

Where the Wild Things Are Amigurumi

I can’t get over how beautiful these crocheted characters from Where the Wild Things Are…are. Just look at how carefully the different textures of yarn were chosen and combined, and not a single detail overlooked.

jQuery Pumpkin

Finally, for you fellow coding nerds, is this pumpkin featuring a jQuery pun. See one more here, featuring yet another deliciously nerdy coding pun!

Cabin Fever Round-Up

Joanna — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:00:02 +0000

10 Things to Make on a Snow Day

With the weather outside being horrendous and snowy at worst, and damp and slushy at best, it’s a good time of year to get cozy in front of the fireplace and occupy yourself with making something. To help you while away those inevitable snow days, I scoured the internets in search of cute and funny things you can make in an afternoon (or two).

Jumping Frog

From the CraftZine blog comes this tutorial for making an adorable and slightly ridiculous jumping frog out of some paper and a paper clip. MacGyver would definitely approve. What better way to spend a snowy afternoon than by making a flock of spring-loaded frogs and racing them across the room?

Embroidered Logs

These embroidered logs from Design*Sponge would make any living room feel outdoorsy and cozy. A great project to get your power tools out for.

Recycled Hurricane Lamp Cover

Check out this tutorial for a great way to use up old paper towel tubes. This would look great alongside the embroidered logs above, or as a cluster of three different-sized ones on a mantelpiece. I found it on the talented Patricia Zapata’s blog, which you should definitely take a look at—you’ll find a lot more inspiring crafty stuff.

Crocheted Master Shake & Meatwad

Learn how to make this crocheted Master Shake doll from Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Instructables. Get the free pattern here. And while you’re at it, make a friend for him with this free pattern for a crocheted Meatwad.

Nerdy Perler Bead Coasters

Get your nerd on with this tutorial I found on the Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins blog. You’ll learn how to take a screenshot of your favourite video game character and turn it into a usable coaster.

Jell-O Fruit

Fill some hollowed-out orange, lime, and lemon peels with Jell-O with these instructions from the NotMartha blog. She says she loves food shaped like other food, and I would have to agree! It looks like so much fun, especially the weird orange slices filled with blue Jell-O.

Knitted Nautili

Fill your house with some cute creepy-crawlies with this free pattern to knit three nautili (or is it nautiluses?) from Knitty. Why not make a bunch of them and hang them from a mobile for an adorable under the sea-themed baby’s room?

Embroidered LED Froggie

Embroidery gets geeky with this tutorial from Sternlab, where you can learn how to combine LEDs into your crafts. You can also buy LED sewing kits from the online store. Why do I have a sudden urge to make a light-up Disco Stu jacket?

Paper Colbert and Paper Conan

Create your very own paper Colbert or Conan O’Brien with four free templates from CubeeCraft.

A Tiny Gingerbread House

To round out this cabin fever round-up, a tutorial for an actual cabin. Well, sort of. It’s an adorable tiny gingerbread house that can perch on a mug of hot chocolate. A great way to warm up on a cold day! This one also came from the
Not Martha blog, and she gives you ideas for lots of different rooftop decorations (my favourite is the crushed candy cane).