Stained Glass Geode Night Light

Okay, I've gotten on a bit of a run with the stained glass, but they are so pretty. I finally made one of my geodes into a nite lite. Simple pattern, just traced my geode onto poster paper and drew a shape around it. With each geode being naturally formed therefore different shaped, I will need to make a new pattern for each one. My daughter loves this one. My son can't wait for his.

Happy Birthday to them both!

Important: Use Lead Free Solder if the kids will be handling!

Stained Glass Window Replacement Project

A New Stained Glass Window for a TV Entertainment Center Door.

I traced the shape through the opening on to a piece of poster board. Then I measured the overhang on the wood door, and added this measurement to my traced shape. I cut out the shape along the most out side line.

I test fitted the poster board into the opening to make sure it fit very well. Make sure everything fits just how you want it to. Then proceed drawing your pattern. Remember that some of the edge of the project will be hidden by the wood on the door. Just don't have any detailing or beveled glass get hidden behind this edging. From here on out the project is just like any other stained glass project.

Here is a picture of all the glass cut and numbered before I started putting the copper tape on the edges.

 

Up Close Picture of the completed project.

Christmas Gifts - Stained Glass

 Greens and Oranges - this is one of my first patterns I did when I learned how to do stained glass. Usually I do a heart beveled glass in the center, this time I tried it a little different.

 This Stained Glass piece is for my mom. She wants a garden trellis with stained glass, not of anything thing and with lots of color. I finally found I project to incorporate one of my Geode Slices - yeah! I also included some flat marbles, leaving some open holes and a dragon fly for remembering my sister and my grandma who both have passed away. If you've never heard of the dragonfly project you should check it out here.

This one is to send rainbows all over the place.

Home Made Peanut Butter Cups

1 24oz package of Chocolate Almond Bark
2 cups Peanut Butter
1 Stick of Butter
Small Paper Candy Cups (Mini Cup Cake Papers)
Double Boiler (You can make one using two different sized saucepans, just be careful not to let the water boil to hard and splash water into your chocolate.)






Melt 6 squares of Almond Bark in a double boiler with ½ cup of peanut butter and ½ stick of butter. Stir often, and once melted turn down temp to simmer.

Lay out candy cups onto cookie sheets while melting.

I use a tablespoon and put the chocolate mixture into each paper cup. You want the chocolate to be about ⅛” high in the bottom of the cup. It really doesn’t matter, more is good too. Once your tray is full place in your refrigerator until cool. If the chocolate doesn’t level itself out in the cup try adding a little more butter.

While the first layer cools place 1 cup of peanut butter into double boiler and melt.

Layer the melted peanut butter over the chocolate layer and repeat cooling process.

Now melt the remaining Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Butter in the double boiler, and spoon over the cooled peanut butter layer.

Rainbow Crayons

James and I were talking about his crayons and he said, "They should make a rainbow crayon." I told him, "My mom made one for me when I was really little, I'm sure we could do it." So I looked online to see what all the possibilities are. I found this website and decided that was what we were looking for.

 

Sorry I didn't take any photos along the way.

We took all the broken crayons we could find. Sorted them by color and unwrapped enough to equal 11 full crayons of each color. Broke the pieces up even more so nothing was over an inch long. Placed the pieces into an old bread pan - Purple First.

Put the bread pan in the oven at 350 degrees. It took 7 minutes to fully melt. Give the melted purple crayons a stir to mix the pigments and wax back together.

I tried putting into the freezer to cool faster but it cracked. So back in the oven, and then this time in the fridge for 5 minutes. Let the melted crayons be just barely warm to the touch. If they are in the fridge too long, let it sit out on the counter to warm up to room temp before adding the next layer of wax. If the wax is too cold, the next layer doesn't stick very well and when you cut apart at the end, the colors come apart.

Next we melted the Blue crayons in another pan in the oven and once melted, stir and pour the melted crayons over the hardened purple. Back in the fridge. Continute on for each color you want to add. Each new layer took longer and longer to cool. By the Orange layer it was in the fridge for about 10 min. Still a tad warm to the touch. As the layers cool, they pull away from the edge of the pan. so new layers of colors seep below. Jut take your knife and scrape the colors off.

Once done, I put in the freezer for 5 minutes to get cold enough that it popped right out of the pan. I let it warm up to room temp. and I placed the block of crayons into the microwave for 30 seconds. Heated my knife up under hot tap water and cut into small rectangles. I ended up with 9 rainbow crayons. The two end ones are a little warped because of the roundness of the pan. But they worked great.

The Bobbi Hat - Free Pattern News Boy Hat

I named this hat "The Bobbi Hat" after Bobbi who sent me a photo of a similar hat, and told me I should go into business and she would take one for the team and be the first one to wear it. So I made it as a gift for her. I found a free pattern on the internet for a news boy hat, but it wasn't quite the right shape, so I created this pattern which worked out much better for me. So I thought I would share this. This pattern is copyrighted by me. Which basically means, make as many hats as you would like for yourself or gifts. Please do not sell the hats you make from this pattern or sell or re-post the pattern. If you want to link to my blog for this pattern, please feel free to do so. I would love to see photos of your finished projects, you can email them to me, just put Bobbi Hat Photo in the subject line.

See the bottom of this post for some more pictures, and some alterations I did.

Double Strand Acrylic or Cotton size 4 Yarn – Just your basic yarn using two strands at once.

(I did discover Caron Simply Soft is too narrow the gauge doesn't match up for me any way.)

Crochet Hook - Size K / 10.5 / 6.5 MM

Gauge: 4” = 9 DC Stitches 4” = 6 Rows of DC

Way way at the bottom of this page I have a chart made up for the hat, for those of you who like to follow charts.

Hat: Start with a magic loop I like the magic loop because it gives a nice closed top to your hat, rather than leaving a hole in the top. It's super simple, click on the words Magic Loop and see a You Tube Video.

Round 1: Chain 3 (counts as stitch here and through out), 9 Double Crochet, Slip Stitch to second chain (top chain) of your first stitch on this round to join. Pull Loop Tight, do not turn (10 stitches)

Round 2: Chain 3, DC in same stitch, *2 DC in each stitch around * Repeat, SS to join round (20 stitches)

Round 3: Chain 3, *2 DC in stitch, 1 DC in stitch * Repeat, SS (30 stitches)

Round 4: Chain 3, DC next stitch, *2 DC in next stitch, 1 DC in next 2 stitches * Repeat, SS (40 stitches)

Round 5: Chain 3, DC next 2 stitches, *2 DC in next stitch, 1 DC in next 3 stitches * Repeat, SS (50 stitches)

Round 6-10: Chain 3, DC in each stitch, SS to join round, Fasten Off

Brim: Count 14 stitches to the left from where you joined the rounds

Row 1: 2 Single Crochet in this stitch, SC in each of the next 18 stitches, 2 SC in next stitch, chain 1 and turn (chain 1, counts as stitch here and through out) (22 stitches)

Row 2-4:1 SC in each stitch across, chain 1 turn (22 stitches)

Row 5: SC next 2 stitches together, SC next 16 stitches, SC next two stitches together, SC, chain 1, turn (20 stitches)

Row 6:SC next 2 stitches together, SC next 13 stitches, SC next two stitches together, SC, chain 1, turn (18 stitches)

Row 7: SC next 2 stitches together, SC next 11 stitches, SC next two stitches together, SC, fasten off(16 stitches)

Finished Edge: Reverse Single Crochet

Start right side where brim connects to hat. Single Crochet in this stitch, then basically just do a single crochet into each stitch but moving to the right as you work rather than to the left. It feels a little awkward at first but soon you will wonder why you never used this stitch to finish off your work before. The extra twist in the yarn gives the hat a very nice finished edge. Continue working all the way around the hat and across the brim to you are back where you started. Fasten off.

(If this stitch is more than you want to do right now, a standard single crochet all the way around will work too.)

Weave in all ends & trim.

Flower:

Use a single strand of yarn

Crochet Hook Size: F

Gauge is not important

Start with a magic loop again (3 Colors – Color A = Center of flower, Color B = Inside row of petals, Color C = Outside row of petals.)

Round 1: Color A - Chain 1, 6 Single Crochet, join with a slip stitch (6 stitches) (my chain one is difficult for me to crochet into here so I don't count it as a stitch, and just skip over it)

Round 2: Chain 1, SC in the same stitch, 2 SC in each of the next stitches, join with SS, fasten off (12 stitches)

Round 3: Switch to Color B = *SC in first Stitch, Chain 1, SC in next stitch, *Repeat, join with SS (6 Chain Spaces, 12 SC)

Round 4: Chain 1, * Into Chain Space 1 HDC, 3 DC, 1 HDC, SS into next 2 SC Stitches, *Repeat, fasten off (42 stitches)

Round 5: Change to Color C = Turn flower over to back side, SC into 1^st SS, * Chain 2, skip, next SS & Petal work, SC into next 1st SS of next group forming a petal, *Repeat, SS into first SC you made in this round to join. (You will have 6 chain spaces)

Round 6: Working in Chain Space, 1 SC, 1 Half Double Crochet, 1 DC, 3 treble Crochet, 1 DC, 1 HDC, 1 SC, repeat in each chain space around the flower, Join with a SS to first stitch you made in this round. Fasten off.

Weave in and trim off all ends but three. One strand that matches the center of flower, weave in until it gets to the center of the flower. Thread it through to the front of the flower. Use this strand to attach the button in the center if you wish to have a button. The remaining two strands (color that matches your hat best should be used here), weave in but don't trim off. I like to weave in so I have one end on the top of the middle section of the flower, and one on the bottom. You will use these ends to tie flower to hat after ribbon is attached. Stick both ends through around a stitch or two. Temporarily tie and try your hat on to make sure it is where you want it. Once you are happy with it, knot it well, and trim the ends.

Ribbon:

the crochet hat is somewhat stretchy, however the decorative ribbon is not. I found this part a bit tricky to attach correctly. To measure out ribbon, I put the hat on so it was stretched out to correct size. Measure around outside of hat, or just wrap ribbon around I found that easier. I placed the ribbon just above the reverse crochet stitch (finished edge) row. Add about one and a half foot of ribbon to your measurement for the bow. I used a hot glue gun to attach the ribbon in four spots. I kept the hat on and used a mirror, to wrap the ribbon around and get the ends hanging even. Pinched this area of the ribbon together with the hat. Took everything off and glued the ribbon ends right where I want the flower to be. My location was just behind where the brim meets the hat. Over lapping the ends just a bit with the tails pointing up to where the loops of the bow will be. Then I made the loops, and glued these ends down with the remaining tails pointed downward and some what out to each side. Make sure you are happy with how your bow lays before gluing. (note: If you have double sided ribbon you can just fold the ribbon over to make loops, it your ribbon is only pretty on one side, it is a bit more difficult, but you can make loops without folding the ribbon.) Then I put the hat back on my head. Straightened the ribbon again in the mirror. Pinched up the ribbon and the hat on the opposite side of my head. Hold these two together and go glue just a dot. Repeat for the front and the back. Attaching the ribbon in just these four areas, allows the ribbon to adjust when you are putting the hat on. When the hat in not on you will notice some slack in the ribbon this is normal.

Now tie your flower on over the center of the bow.

 

Little Girl version, Round 5 of hat I only did every other increase so I ended with 45 stitches, Row 10 I did as half double crochets instead of double crochets, to make it a tiny bit shorter. On the brim I skipped row 4 and row 7. I decided to weave the ribbon through. Under one stitch, over three, then hot glued the ends as above behind the flower.

This little girl hat I used Caron Simply Soft Yarn, so even following the pattern as written the hat turns out somewhat smaller. I changed this one up a bit just to add some more colors, in thinner stripes. Row 6 I did as half double crochets in a different color, Row 7 & 8, again as half double crochets and back to original color. Row 9 Double Crochets again. I wanted the hat to fit a little more snug around her ears, so I decreased together every 9 & 10th stitch so I was back to 45 stitches on this last row. I decided to make the edging show up a little more, did it with a single strand only of a bright color and made the flower to match.

Here is Aleatra's hat, same as Bobbi's.

Water Bottle Baby / Toddler Toy

My little one year old girl loves to play with water bottles. Always taking them, and me worrying she is going to get the top off and choke. She doesn't think they are very much fun with out the cap, they just go flat. So today she and I made her a new toy. We took the label off the water bottle, filled with tap water and left about 1 1/2 inches of air at the top. We have this ice cream bucket of mismatch beads my son bought at a garage sale (all by himself at age 4) for a buck. Two years later it is still almost full. So my little girl and I put the beads in the bottle until the water was right up to the top. She decided it was also really fun to take hand fulls of beads and shake her hands, so we had a few hundred beads to clean up, but at least she did help pick them back up too. Anyway, when we got the bottle full, I took some super glue and glued the cap back on. Now she can play with a really pretty water bottle, and I don't have to worry she will choke.

I did have to tell her, "No, no, no, that's mine." That made the bottle even more fun.

Tapping the Maple Tree

We all took a trip out in the woods today to watch Tony tap maple trees. Hopefully if all ends well we will have fresh maple syrup soon.