Clothespin Horse

Last week, I shared a standing horse craft, perfect for tweens and teens who are horse lovers or who live in one of the 17 states that have named a horse as one of their state symbols. Today I'm sharing a much easier version, better suited for younger fans of equines who need a simpler project. Affiliate links below. 

Clothespin Horse

Materials:

• lightweight chipboard
• scissors
• 2 clothespins
• Folk Art paint
• Sharpie

Steps: 

Use a pencil to draw a rough outline of a horse's head (including ears), body, and tail on the chipboard. Make sure the size of your drawing is proportionate with the clothespins, since they will be the legs. Cut outside of your lines to get a rough shape. Put the clothespins in place. 

Now it's time to make modifications. I trimmed down the nose and belly of my horse. I also removed the mane. 

When you are satisfied, paint the chipboard and the clothespins. I chose brown, but obviously horses come in other colors. 

When the paint is completely dry, add an eye, nostril, and ear definition using the Sharpie. Draw in the mane. I opted the snip slits into the tail to make it more hair-like, then colored it.  

Attach the clothespins and the horse is done!

You can use this same technique to make a bunch of different 4-legged animals. Give it a try!

Bunny Binkies

There are many joys to having house rabbits, but one of the most fun is seeing binkies. A binky is a happy dance that a rabbit does, a high, twisting leap often featuring leg kicks. Rabbits binky when they are feeling playful and full of joy. Rabbits who binky are healthy and feel safe in their environment. 

I get to see bunny binkies often, but they're really difficult to catch on camera since I never know when they're coming.... with one exception. When I clean the bunny area each week and move everything out of the way to vacuum, Tulip and Brayden are almost guaranteed to binky like crazy on the empty carpet. 

This week, I pulled out my phone and recorded video. I got four minutes' worth of bunny antics, which Steve cut down to just under a minute of binkies. Sorry for the vertical video - I wasn't thinking. Enjoy the binkies!

Trying a Cookie Kit from 'Because Carbs'

I love decorating cookies. I've taken two in-person beginner classes, used a commercial kit from the grocery store, and tried two at-home kits from Color My Cookie and one from Baketini. I loved it all. Neither Color My Cookie nor Baketini are in business anymore, so I was thrilled to find a local cookie artist who sells (and hand-delivers!) cookie kits. Alli of Because Carbs has appeared on Christmas Cookie Challenge on the Food Network, so she's the real deal. 

 

Here's what came in the 6-cookie kit I ordered:

I like when kits have duplicate cookies so that I can do a practice cookie and then learn from my mistakes on the second one. I didn't allow enough time for the icing to crust over on my first donut or coffee cup, so I allowed a lot more drying time for my future cookies. 

One of the things that appealed to me most about this particular kit was that it would allow me to try a technique I'd never used: breaking the icing on the ice cream cookie using the back of the scribe tool. It also gave me the chance to practice making royal icing transfers. I played around with a lot of sizes of red hearts and even tried doing some swirled designs. 

Ready to see my finished cookies? In each picture, the first cookie I made is on the left. 

First up are the donuts. I didn't allow enough drying time for the tan on the first cookie, so the pink settled right into it. By letting the tan dry completely on the second cookie, the pink sits on top, just like it really would on a donut. 

Here are the ice cream cookies. 

And finally, the coffee cups. They were the most difficult by far. 

I had so much fun with this kit! And I'm happy to report that the cookies were delicious. I'll definitely be getting another kit from Because Carbs sometime in the near future. 

My First Quilt

I never thought I would make a real quilt from start to finish, but I did!

 

When I first joined the newly-formed quilting group at my church, I didn't take on any tasks beyond pinning and hand-tying the quilts that other people sewed. Eventually, I agreed to help cut squares. I took a bunch of the donated fabric home so that I could cut squares when I had time. All of the fabric we use is donated and comes in different sizes, so I ended up sewing scraps together in order to make as many squares as possible from the fabric I had. Sewing the small pieces together to make the larger squares gave me the confidence to try sewing an entire quilt top. 

I arranged the squares in a pleasing pattern, took a photo, then waited until our next weekly get-together so one of our experienced quilters could teach me how to sew the quilt top. 

It was fairly easy at first: sew six squares together, one by one, to make each of the eight rows. 

The next step is to sew two rows to each other, add another row, and then another. Set that aside, sew the other four rows together, and finally join the top and bottom together. Each step was more tricky than the last, because there were corners to (try to) match, as well as a lot more fabric to manage. 

In retrospect, it would have much been easier to start with a quilt with 20" squares instead of 10" squares. That would have given me fewer corners to (try to) match. And, if I'd picked the fabrics, I would have skipped the directional one. I had to use my seam ripper more than once when I sewed one upside down.

Eventually, I had a finished quilt top! It was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it was sturdy and followed all of the requirements of our beneficiary, Lutheran World Relief. I ironed the quilt top and chose a warm tan fabric for the backing. I layered the back, batting, and top, then pinned everything in place.   

I gave myself a week to tie the quilt. We tie every five inches, so that meant 208 ties to complete it. I put the quilt on my lap and rolled it up as I finished each row of 26 ties. 

The last step was binding. That was probably the trickiest of all for me, but it was SO satisfying to get it done!

My first quilt very much looks like a beginner made it. There are a lot of mistakes, but it is warm and comfy and I made it with love. I am thrilled that it will go to someone in need, affected by a natural disaster or by war. I can't wait to start on my next quilt!

Standing Horse Craft for Kids

Did you know that there are 17 states which have named a horse as one of their state symbols? Thirteen states have an official state horse, including: Alabama (Racking Horse); Florida (Florida Cracker Horse); Idaho (Appaloosa); Kentucky (Thoroughbred); Maryland (Thoroughbred): Massachusetts (Morgan); Mississippi (American Quarter Horse); Missouri (Missouri Fox Trotter); North Carolina (Colonial Spanish Mustang), Oklahoma (American Quarter Horse); South Carolina (Carolina Marshy Tacky); Tennessee (Tennessee Walking Horse); and Texas (American Quarter Horse). Two more states have named a horse as their state animal, including: New Jersey (Horse) and Vermont (Morgan). Virginia has a state pony (Chincoteague). North Dakota has an honorary equine (Nokota). With so many state honoring this animal, it was the obvious choice for my next craft. 

In order to represent multiple breeds of horses for this blog post, I made my craft two sided. You can opt to make yours the same on both sides (like a normal horse) or different (like mine). Affiliate links below. 

Standing Horse Craft

Materials: 

• chipboard
• microtip scissors
• Folk Art paint
• embroidery floss
• craft glue
• binder clips

Steps: 

Create a pattern for your horse. You can draw a horse or find a photograph you like and cut that out. Trace the pattern twice onto chipboard. Cut out both horses. Paint each horse with a base coat of paint. (Remember, I made my horse two different colors intentionally.) Let the paint dry. 

Finish painting the horses. For my brown horse, that meant giving it a second coat and adding dark brown for the hooves. For the spotted horse, I added the spots and the striped hooves that are characteristic of an Appaloosa. 

Wrap embroidery floss around the four fingers of your non-dominant hand, going around 12 times. 

Use the scissors to snip below your pinkie to make 24 strands that form a tail. Glue the hair in place on ONE of the two horse pieces. 

Wrap embroidery floss around two fingers, going around 12 times. Snip that to make the mane. You'll be gluing it along the back, then folding it over toward the front. Start by putting a line of glue on the back of the horse, then lay the mane in place. Repeat as necessary until the mane and forelock are as full as you want. Let the glue dry. At this point, the mane will be sticking up. To make it lay flat, spread glue along the front side and press the mane into it. Trim as needed. Repeat the process for the second side of the horse, as desired.  

To make the horse stand, spread glue on the back side of the body, neck, and head of one horse. Do not put glue on the legs. Press the two sides together, then secure them with binder clips. (I took the picture before adding the rest of the clips. You'll want one by the throat and one over the tail. 

When the glue is dry, remove the clips and you'll have a horse that stands. I opted not to add facial features, but that's a personal choice.