DIY Macaroni Angels: a Christmas Craft Gong Show

DIY MACARONI ANGELS--FOR THE ADVANCED CRAFTER

 When I was about nine years old, my mom went on a Christmas ornament-making binge. This in itself isn’t unusual; Mom is very creative, though she doesn’t let it out nearly enough, and Christmas has always been an opportunity for her to shine. I remember that particular Christmas, however, because that was the year of the macaroni angels.

Mom slaved away for hours. Days, in fact. At the end of it, she had produced several dozen perfect little macaroni angels, made of four different kinds of pasta, white enamel paint, and wooden beads. I was too young to understand why I wasn’t allowed to help with this specific craft, and I have wanted Mom to do this one again now that I’m older and am certain I would be a better helper. So last Christmas, as the last two surviving macaroni angels were visibly chipped and damaged, I demanded we craft these anew. With a turn of good luck, Mom found the right farfalle, and we were good to go!

The last of the original angels.

In the end, this craft took:

-three days of crafting

-four adults working on them

-one-and-a-half tubes of smelly glue

-enough ingenuity to create something far more useful, like a cold fusion machine.

Let me walk you through it.

YOU WILL NEED:

-farfalle pasta

-penne rigatoni pasta

-gorgonzola pasta (or chop up macaroni into quarters)

-macaroni pasta

-E-6000 glue

-glue gun and glue

-wood beads for heads

-small beads

-white enamel paint (not acrylic)

-extra-fine tipped sharpie or other permanent felt tip pen

DAY ONE: ASSEMBLY

1. Use your E-6000 glue to:

            -attach the head bead to the penne body,

            -roll the head in the gorgonzola, after applying glue to the head, to make hair,

            -glue on the farfalle wings,

            -glue on the macaroni arms.

2. Let them dry, preferably for a couple days to be sure the glue is set and isn’t off-gassing.

If you are a sane human being, you will make one, maybe two dozen of these. You will do it in a well-ventilated area. If you are absolutely nuts (or are aiming to become nuts), you will assemble 100 of these angels; you will also do the gluing part all in one go, on a cold day when it sucks too much to open a window. You will do it with your mom while your sweetheart and your dad play with powertools in the basement, until they come upstairs and find the two of you giggling uncontrollably after two hours of inhaling glue vapors. At this point, they will demand dinner and you and your mother will continue to titter, and attempt to engage in witty quips, like, “What’s for dinner? I dunno. You’re for dinner!” At this point, both partners will take the glue away and hide any unfinished angels. It brings new meaning to the phrase, ‘Angels we have heard on high.”

DAY TWO: BEADS AND PAINT

3. Pull out your glue gun and glue a bead onto the head of each angel. This is where the string will go through.

4. String fishing line through each bead and tie a good knot. If you still have E-6000 glue (and your partner hasn’t hid it on you), you can dab the knot with some glue to make it permanent.

5. Hang the angels off of a dowel, broom, or other stick-like thing. This isn’t strictly necessary, but it helps detangle the fishing line.

6. Dip each angel, one by one, into the enamel paint. You may need to take a paint brush and fill in little areas that somehow elude the paint.

7. Hang each angel onto a dowel, broom handle, etc. Beware: the angels will require more ‘breathing room’ from each other than they did before. Let dry for at least a day.

By day two, Mom and I realized we were outnumbered by the angels, and recruited the others to help. How many A-type personalities does it take to paint 100 angels? The answer is four: one named Mom to dip and direct, one named Jordan to string the angels onto broom handles, and both to then harp at Dad to find more brooms, dowels, and sticks. Oh, and number four, my own sweetheart, to quietly help string up angels, wisely keeping his mouth shut as the other three nag each other about the ‘right’ way to do this.

At one point, we realized we’d accidentally bought acrylic paint. Why is this bad? Because acrylic paint is water-based, and it made the pasta go soft, which meant that some of their stringing beads fell off. Along these lines of pasta storm troopers, we’d hear the occasional fwap as an angel fell several feet to the table top with a splatter. Dad started nagging that my bead idea hadn’t worked, and I said, “Whoa now, everyone! Out of  dozens of angels, only a couple have fallen. I think we need to look at the bright side here.” This caused me to break into hysterical giggles and point out the theological parallel: that another Creator had reportedly made angels and a few had fallen, and before this moment He was probably the last person to make the exact comment I’d just made. My parents, cool Christians indeed, had a good chuckle.

DAY THREE: FACES AND TOUCHUPS AND GLAMOUR

8. Inspect each angel, now dry (and no longer soggy, if you accidentally used acrylic paint), for any exposed pasta. Use a paint brush to fill in these little spots.

9. Grab your Sharpie and draw a little pair of eyes. If you look at our troops, every angel is a little different because no one could follow instructions; but I have more faith in you out there, so here they are: draw two smiles from two happy faces for eyes. Add some eyelashes if you feel like it. Now put the pen down.

 We ended up having to paint over many of the angel’s faces and start again. There was just too much temptation for my own sweetheart, A.D.D. man that he is, to try out different faces. Somehow, whenever he veered from the prescribed eye-painting method, the angel would end up looking angry or unhappily surprised, like she’d sat on a tack. My dad couldn’t seem to get the knack, and my mother just kept painting the eyes the wrong way-up. I couldn’t believe it. The years have really mellowed my mom, who, twenty years earlier, made every angel meticulously identical. Her new que sera sera philosophy should have pleased me, but it turns out, I have inherited her perfectionist streak and so I found myself having minor heart palpitations as she handed over angel after angel with upturned eyes.

10. Hot glue fun things into the angel’s hands: harps, books, holly, pompoms, etc.

A bonus of mom’s relaxed crafting mood: she was totally on board with putting all sorts of nonsense in the angels’ hands. When Mom made these angels the first time ‘round, she painstakingly glued a piece of creased ribbon into each of the angel’s hands to function as a choir book. This year, Mom and I went to the dollarama and gathered all manner of tiny decoration. Technically, I think it detracted from the angels’ classy-ness, as I’ve always seen Mom’s angels as the pinnacle of Martha Stewart-worthy crafting. But it was more fun, and it was a nice splash of sparkle.

SUCCESS: A HOST OF ANGELS

Oh, Boba Fett, what have you done.

In the end, we had one hundred perfect little angels. Do you remember that scene in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones when Obi-Wan Kenobi sees all the lines of identical storm troopers that those weird tall aliens have been manufacturing? Take a good look at the rows of angels. Yeah, there’s a parallel there. What I loved about this craft was doing it with my mom. I agree wholeheartedly with her that this is not a kid’s craft, so I completely understand why I couldn’t help out when I was little, though even then, it was fascinating to watch her work. But now, as an adult, learning one of my mother’s secrets arts, the experience had a feeling of deep importance. I have inherited my mother’s ability to MacGyver a pile of sequins, pipecleaners, pompoms, and toothpicks into an adorable chotchkie; and for this I’m eternally grateful. Mom’s ability to craft something out of nothing has always been an enviable brand of witchcraft that I hope I will one day master as she has done.

Next year, we’re going to make new crepe paper angel tree toppers. Mom’s is twenty years old and badly torn, and I don’t have a topper at all yet. This will require no toxic glue and we’ll only be making a couple, so I suspect it will be less of a gong show.

But I did enjoy the gong show.

Adorable!

On the tree.

Dad, monitoring the troops.

.

.

Top Secret Christmas Craft 2: Gift for the Geeky Roomie

I’m live-blogging some of my Christmas crafting this year, so I’m going to have disclaimers: WARNING: if you spoil the surprise for a receiver of one of these gifts, bad Christmas karma WILL get you. Be sure of it. And if you are my roommate, this post is about YOU and DON'T PEEK.

So my roommate is a big nerd, and I love him for it. We bonded early on over Lilo & Stitch for reasons that are deep and meaningful and complex...and cute and fuzzy. In the movie, they talk a lot about 'ohana'--family. Because Bruce came in and became a part of my hodgepodge family, I felt the message was suiting. 

HAND PAINTED PHOTO FRAME

YOU WILL NEED
Plain wood photo frame
Pencil
Paper
Printer (optional)
Paints and brushes
Permanent fine point marker
Water based varnish (eg Delta Ceramcoat gloss interior/exterior varnish...available at the craft store)

WHAT YOU WILL DO

1. Decide on your image. Here, my image is Stitch, and some skateboards. Draw these on paper or print them off the computer.

2. Scribble onto the back with a graphic pencil so that the entire image is covered (on the backside) with graphite. This will cause your piece of paper to basically work as carbon paper.

3. Place your paper onto the frame so the image is where you're going to want it to be when it's finished. Trace the image with a ballpoint pen. Be firm. The graphite will now transfer, fairly lightly, onto the frame where you have traced.

4. Paint your background. I used acrylics for this frame because they're versatile and I can use them thick or thin. For the background, I watered down some yellow simply by adding some plain ol' water to some yellow acrylic on a plate. Then I 'washed' the whole frame with the yellow. Don't worry, the pencil markings will show through.



5. Paint your character. I can't give you a whole lesson on how to paint here. But if you're nervous, choose something that doesn't have shading. For example, many cartoon characters don't have shading (look at The Simpsons, generally speaking...other TV cartoons, too.) Or stick to more abstract shapes, like flowers and stars and so forth. I'm a long-time painter, so my Stitch looks pretty accurate. Don't worry if yours doesn't; it's still going to be super thoughtful!

7. Let it dry, then outline the character's lines with permanent fine tip pen. Let that dry at LEAST three days. It needs to off-gas or it could smudge.

8. Varnish the whole thing with a soft-bristled brush and your water-based varnish.

Done!

FOR THE ADVANCED CRAFTER:

Freehand your art...I freehanded my lettering. Just remember: if you mess up your pencil lines, you'll have to paint with a thicker paint to make them disappear. So at least try to get your pencil lines right the first time.

Top Secret Christmas Tutorial: hint: it's a mustache theme

I’m live-blogging some of my Christmas crafting this year, so I’m going to have disclaimers: WARNING: if you spoil the surprise for a receiver of one of these gifts, bad Christmas karma WILL get you. Be sure of it. And if you are a gay male couple I know, play it safe and assume this post is about YOU and DON'T PEEK.

We’ve got a newlywed couple in our lives—two sweet guys who are painfully adorable and very in love. As a nice Christmas gift, we’re assembling a ‘date in the snow’ package. We got two ceramic travel coffee mugs with “MR” and a mustache on each of them, plus some coffee and some bath salts. The finishing touch were a pair of bathrobes. The gift will come with an explanation: this is for going out in the snow with your coffees, then coming home and having a hot bath and rolling up together in your robes. Awesome, right? But I wanted the robes to be matchy-matchy with the rest of the gift, so I decided to make them into mustache robes. You can do this (or another little embellisment) very easily.

YOU WILL NEED:

A fleecey robe (we got some inexpensive ones, in case I screwed this up)

Aleene’s ‘No Sew’ fabric glue or equivalent

Scissors

A template

Chalk

A piece of felt

WHAT YOU WILL DO:  

1. Print off a template. In this case, I had a mustache. You can also just draw one.

2. Place the template on your piece of felt. Use the chalk to draw OFF the template, so you create a sort of ‘sunburst’ effect.

3. Cut out the template. It’ll be easy to see: it’s the part that DOESN’T have chalk on it.

4. Follow the instructions on your fabric glue.

5. Adhere the felt shape to the fleecey robe (and you can wash the robe in advance to ensure best adhesion).

6. Let it dry, wrap it up, and make someone smile. 

This is super easy, and you don’t have to make the whole robe from scratch. It’s just as special this way. If you don’t want to do the whole gift package, put something in the pockets: candy, or a USB drive with movies, or a gift card. Or even look up an easy-to-sew hot water bottle cozy, and include the bottle and cozy with matching embellisment.

FOR THE ADVANCED CRAFTER: You can sew the embellishment into place instead of gluing it. I wasn’t at all sure I could sew neatly enough around the edge of the mustaches to really do a nice job; but you can also get temporary fabric glue, so you can glue the mustache in place while you fiddle about with stitches. When it’s washed, the temporary glue will vanish.

Worth Keeping: an old bit of writing about kids

I found this old post and wanted to share it. Remember when Facebook had ‘notes’, which I think was their attempt to get people blogging right on Facebook? Well, that’s where I wrote a few things before I ever got a blog. Anyway, I found this ‘note’ about MJ’s niece and nephew visiting back when MJ and I were still dating, and I thought two things: 1. “This is so cute”, and 2. “My inability to comprehend mini-humans has always been the same.”

Enjoy.

THE NIECE AND NEPHEW VISIT

Lance is six years old; Kate is four. I had the pleasure of spending time with them this weekend. 

Kate seems to speak only in non-sequiturs; I find this highly entertaining and think I may adopt the behaviour, myself. 

Some of Kate's commentary included: 
"Mom and Dad? They mop a lot." 
"My mom wanted a red car, not a minivan." 
"Grannie can't eat wheat." 
"I want to climb up on the roof and destroy the house!" 
"Lance is a hotdog monster." 

When the sun went down, the kids wanted to go outside. I stood in the little pool of brightness from the flood light above the garage and tried to coax Kate to join me. She whispered that she would be right back, she was going to get the ghost and it was my job to keep the bullies away. Here I'd figured that the ghosts might be what she'd feared in the dark--but no, she was worried the bullies would beat up the ghost. 

When I picked her up and carried her into the dark to see the stars, I suggested she make a wish. She thought about it for a moment, and I asked her what she might wish for. She stated simply, "I wish for a doll with a head attached to its arm." 

When I carried Lance away from the house lights to see the stars, I reassured him that nothing would eat us because I was secretly a Jedi. Lance informed me that he was more than a secret Jedi. I congratulated him. I asked him what he might wish for, and he stated he couldn't tell me, but that he knew that wishes for toys didn't come true, but wishes for things like best friends did. 

As we stood on the lawn and the kids showed me how fast they could run, Lance pointed to a small rainbow flag planted in the garden bed and asked what it was for. I said it was a pride flag. Lance asked what a pride flag was. Unsure of how to proceed with someone else's child, yet unwilling to lie to a six year-old boy about such an important topic, I asked him if he noticed that some boys love girls, and some girls love boys; he said he knew that. I said, well, some girls love girls, and some boys love boys. He thought about this, his brow wrinkled as he processed. Wanting to give him a tangible example, I said, "That's what MJ and I are...that flag is our flag." He continued to look confused, so I said, "MJ and I live together, see?" Lance stared at me, clearly trying to work the concept through. Desperate for another example, I said, "It's like Ernie and Bert. We live together like Ernie and Bert." Lance wrinkled his nose, tilted his head, and said, "Well I don't see how that works for Elmo." I said, "Maybe that wasn't such a good example." Lance said, "Nope." 

Kate also informed me that she would be taking karate. I fear for her brother, classmates, and anyone else who is not impervious to viscious kicks from a combat-trained midget. It should be an exciting visit next time 'round.

DIY: How to make a T-Rex Plush Toy from Scratch!

I’m live-blogging some of my Christmas crafting this year, so I’m going to have disclaimers: WARNING: if you spoil the surprise for a receiver of one of these gifts, bad Christmas karma WILL get you. Be sure of it. 

I WANT A T-REX FOR CHRISTMAS

This Christmas, three year-old Blueberry made her one and only Christmas wish abundantly clear: she wants a dinosaur. I was thrilled, quite frankly, because it wasn’t something pink or over-the-top girly, so I was all on board with making this happen. Trouble is, it’s hard to find dinos for three year-olds that aren’t just the same ol’ plastic ones we’ve already got tons of. And plush can be prohibitively expensive. So I decided to make one.

But those who follow my blog know that I’m not really a ‘measure twice, cut once’ sorta girl; and I certainly never use a pattern. So this is the quick n’ dirty way to make a dinosaur plushie when you’ve never made one before. (Note: I’d call this an intermediate-to-advanced level craft, just ‘cuz it’s got a lot of steps.)

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

-sewing machine

-thread and needles

-buttons (at least 8)

-fabric (about 2 metres)—a heavier fabric will hold a more solid shape

-scissors

-chalk

-stuffing (eg cotton batton, polyfill)

WHAT YOU DO:

1. Fold fabric in half with ‘ugly side’ facing out. Chalk outline your dino shapes.

I made a sort of comma or kidney shape for the body/head. Remember to make your chalk outline at least a ½-inch wider all the way around than you really want your finished dino to be; this is because you’ll lose some size to the seam allowance.

2. I made leg shapes and arms shapes. (In the end, though, I found the arm shapes hard to use so I just made cylinders for the arms.)

3.a,b: Cut out your shapes. Make sure you’ve got ‘em all. Remember, you need two pieces for every shape (picture in your head that every body part is a little pillow).

4. Sew yours shapes shut with the ugly sides of both pieces facing outwards. Leave at least a 3 or 4-inch gap on each shape where you haven’t sewn it shut. I used a zigzag stitch to add strength. If you’re patient or a think-aheader, get thread that matches your fabric. I didn’t do that. My thread is black. I’m calling it a ‘rustic look’.

5.a,b: Take something like a meter stick and use it to finnagle each shape right-side out. This is a pain in the neck. You may need to use something more narrow like a ladle handle or paintbrush handle to push through some of the shapes.

6. Start stuffing your shapes. The more you stuff in there, the more solid and ‘stand-uppy’ your dino will be. I wanted mine really firm, so I used a TON of stuffing…about the equivalent of three throw cushions. It’s all about roughly stuffing the beast as full and hard as you can. (Stop yer snickering.)

7.a,b: Determine where your dino’s eyes should be. I decided when it was flat, but then I double-checked when it was stuffed.

8. Sew the buttons onto the dino’s head by hand. This is a bit tricky and you will likely have sore fingers. Sorry, but it’s the truth.

9.a,b: Sew shut your dino’s arms, then sew your dino’s arm into place by sewing it onto the body via a button. This adds strength (and styling) to your arm joint, and it inadvertently made mine posable.

10.a,b: Sew the legs shut where you left the gap for stuffing. (Unless you’re handy with the machine, you’ll likely do this by hand, as I did.) Repeat the button joint technique with the legs, but then you’ll also need to sew a few ‘anchoring’ stitches to help the hip stay in close to the body. Or skip the whole hip-leg shape and just do another couple cylinders for the legs. He doesn’t actually have to stand up, you know?

11. Note that I found the end of my tail shape to be too narrow to get the stuffing into, so I poured a cylinder of cheap seed beads down the tail first. If you do this, you need to REALLY stuff the stuffing down after it, or the beads will roll right through the whole tail. Honestly, mine still roll around but it still adds some weight to the end. Something larger might have worked better, like beans, but I wanted the dino to be at least a bit washable…no beans going mouldy.

12. Sewing the tail on was the last thing I did because it meant I’d no longer be able to stick my hand inside the dino’s body if I needed to fix anything. I first sewed the tail shape shut, then stuffed it into the gap I’d left in the dino (obviously at his butt area). I then hand-stitched the tail into place. Lots and lots of stitches, people; the child will likely carry this dino around by the tail, after all.

13. I added a second button to each eye by simply sewing it through the holes of the first one.

That’s about it! So, because I had the fabric on hand from another old project, I ended up spending about $8.00 in stuffing materials and that’s it. Well, that and four hours of time. But most importantly, the dino is made with huge love…a T-Rex by a T-Rex, as I am often dubbed because of my comically weak and useless arms. And we call Blueberry a T-Rex when she’s doing a good job on her dinner, so the T-Rex circle is complete.

Double check all your stitches for strength, and be prepared to repair as the toy is loved to pieces.

FOR ADVANCED CRAFTERS:

-Try different animals out!

-Add a mouth, spikes down the spine, or other accessories.

I share other tutorials on Facebook from other crafters from time to time, so be sure to ‘like’ Girl, Crafted on Facebook for more holiday ideas.

There's a New Pup Place in Ottawa: The Dog Run Inc!

Ladies and gents, there’s a new hangout in town, and it’s just for those of us with fur-babies.

The Dog Run Inc is a brand new facility, owned and operated by Jennifer Schutz. This indoor doggy place offers day care, overnight boarding, and even three hours of open play time every evening. (Learn more further down.) There’s a little bit of everything happening, and the Run opened just in time for Ottawa’s grossest weather season. I asked Jen some questions about The Dog Run Inc; here are her heartfelt answers.

Where did you get the idea for The Dog Run?

I got the idea for The Dog Run on a cold night out with my dogs on a particularly nasty Ottawa winter night. I wanted a warm, safe place for my dogs to get their energy out and socialize without freezing in the process! I have also had a life long dream of opening a safe cage-free kennel and daycare for dogs since I lost a very loved childhood dog to distemper from a dirty kennel. Since that loss, I have had a passion for safe and nurturing dog care. 

What services do you offer?

We currently offer Doggie Daycare at $20 per day from 7am to 6pm. Our cage-free boarding service is $40 per day. And what’s great is that we are open 6-9PM Mondays to Saturdays for an indoor dog run which is set up with agility equipment and coffee for our clients to come in out of the cold and play with their dogs in a safe environment. [You can play for the whole three hours for just $5.00/dog, or buy a monthly pass.]

We will soon be offering dog grooming services, dog training classes and seminars on dog behaviours, agility training, etc. - all of these new services will be advertised on our facebook and twitter pages (and our website is coming soon).

Why is The Dog Run a special endeavour for you?

Dogs are my life. I have been a dog owner for as long as I can remember. I find that they bring me great companionship and unconditional love that really can't be found anywhere else.  For the last few years, along with owning my own beloved Emma, I have taken in foster dogs for Hopeful Hearts. I am very passionate about my dogs and love to help out with local dog rescues.

Why do people love the Dog Run so far?

When clients come to the Dog Run, they find a place where they feel like their dogs can just be dogs. Socialization is really important for pack animals and play time is crucial for owners who want happy, healthy animals. Our clients love The Dog Run because it is warm, inviting safe place to bring their dogs for daycare, boarding or even just for supervised play time where they can trust that I will always be striving to enrich their dogs stay. I do my best to play with each dog in a way that they need while they are in my care.

You’re a true DIY’er, Jen: building your very own business. Tell us about yourself and why you love this work.

I love my job because I get to wake up every morning and do something that I am so passionate about. I get to play all day. What could be better than that?

A little about me? Well, I am originally from a small town near North Bay, ON called Callander. For the last few years, I worked as a machine operator for a recycling plant, and volunteered as a foster parent for dogs. I decided  this summer that I wanted to pursue my passion for dogs full time and opened The Dog Run Inc. I have never enjoyed my career more and hope to continue to serve the dog owners of Ottawa for a long time to come!

Where to find The Dog Run Inc:

Join Corben and me and Jen anytime down at The Dog Run:

20 Gurdwara Road, Unit 19 in Nepean (Ottawa)

--nearest major intersection: Hunt Club West at Laser St. in behind Powersports World

Follow The Dog Run Inc on Facebook

Tweet with The Dog Run Inc on Twitter

DIY Geeky Christmas Stocking: Best of GirlCrafted.com Tutorials

It's snowing here in Ottawa, and it's December 1st, so suddenly I'm all into Christmas. I was perusing
my stash of craft ideas when I remembered last year's coup d'etat, the Christmas stockings I made for a friend and his kids.


You can see the tutorial here, and I would classify this as a craft that's friendly for both the beginner crafter and beyond. You don't even HAVE to use a sewing machine--I've done stockings just with a glue gun, before I got my Singer.

If you want to see what other craft ideas I'm gathering from all over the internet, follow me on Pinterest. You can also follow on Facebook and Twitter. I'd love to hear from you and see what you're crafting, too!