Crocheted Dog Beanie

Difficulty Level: Medium

Hello Crafters!
 Judy the St Bernard loves her new beanie! And it's pretty easy to make too! Use the same technique you used for this hat but when the top is as big as you want, don't crochet in the inside. Just stop adding stitches and continue crocheting until it's as big as you want, and omit the last step. Oh, and something else important... drop stitches on either side for ear-holes! When you're done, do one more row around, but skip every other stitch so that it's tight around the brim. If you know how to crochet, it should be easy! Have fun!

How to Make Tin Foil Earrings

Difficulty Level: Not hard a'tall! 

Hello Crafters! Today i'm going to show you how to make tin foil earrings! This is what I made for my mom for Mother's day.

Materials;

A square of Tin Foil about 1 foot across

beading wire, regular wire, or thread

wire cutters or scissors

two earring hooks

a needle that you can thread wire through

They were very simple. To start I took a sheet of foil about 6 inches by 3 inches and crumpled it up and poked and prodded it till it was a good looking ball shape. then I took another square of foil a little smaller and crumpled that up to. It actually took me several tries for me to get two that looked pretty close in size. I chose this design but you can do anything you would like to, add different colored beads, use more then one ball, color the foil, anything. I did a little ball on top of a larger one. 

Ok, once you have the four balls that you would like to use you take a peice or wire about 14 in. long and fold it in half. first string your earring hook on to the wire so it falls where the fold is. Next take your needle and thread the two ends of the wire through it and hold it so they don't slip out. Then take the smaller ball and right in the middle, poke you needle all the way through, Then slide the bigger one on, right above the little one. Take the needle off but make sure your foil balls don't fall off. Lastly tie a knot at the end of the big one. You should probably double know it just to make sure. Cut the wire and do the next one. It's really very simple once you get the hang of it. If this is confusing I hop to make a video tutorial, but I can't promise that anytime soon. 

So there you go! These are simple, pretty and stylish. They will go with anything. Thank you and Have fun Crafting!

Oil Pastel Bottle!

Difficulty Level: Medium

There's no tutorial for this, but I thought I'd post it. It's a bottle drawn with oil pastel! It took a lot of layering, but it turned out nicely! (The judges in the art show thought so, at least... they awarded it with a 2nd place ribbon!)

Cherry Blossom Cake!

Difficulty Level: Difficult

Isn't this cake adorable?! It took quite a while. We made two yellow cakes and a simple glaze with powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Then we made the fondant for the flowers and leaves. We melted down a bag of marshmallows in a saucepan. MAKE SURE TO GREASE THE PAN WELL!! If you don't, all that sticky marshmallow will stick to the sides and take a long time to clean. When the marshmallows were completely melted down, we poured it on the table. Yup! Poured the melty goop on the table. Of course, we coated the table in about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar too. Then we kneaded the powdered sugar into the marshmallow. Make sure that it's not too hot! When it's completely mixed together, it should be tough but not too hard to squeeze and shape. We added food dye to the fondant and shaped the flowers and leaves. This took the longest- an hour and a half! But it was worth it in the end. We glazed the whole cake, used chocolate frosting for the trunk and branches, and then stuck on the flowers and leaves. It was almost too pretty to eat! (Almost)

Oil Pastel Fox

Difficulty Level: Medium

Hey there, Crafters!

I used a layering technique on this fox. I started with a yellow color, then an orange, a deep red, and finally dark purple. With oil pastels, you can scrape away some of the color, so when you use your fingernails, all of the colors underneath show through. Wondering about why I added purple? Believe it or not, purple makes a much better dark color when it's on top of another color. Just plain black makes it look flat. Have fun crafting!

Chain Loop Earrings

Difficulty Level: Medium

These chain loops are cheap and you can make a lot of amazing jewelry with them! Take these earrings for example. We simply made a linked chain of eight and connected it at the ends. Add earring hooks and you're all set!

Origami Bouquet!

Difficulty Level: Medium

Make a whole bunch of origami flowers and turn them into a bouquet! Use pipe-cleaner stems and colorful paper. Them put them in a vase! You can make a flower like this one or a lily like this or these, or create your own. The only limit is your imagination, so get crafting!