Loving is Listening ReCraft-Along: Part 3

Today marks THE END of the "Loving is Listening ReCraft-Along"! I'm so glad I did this. You know what? I quite enjoyed the easy-going pace of this little event. No hurries, no worries... And, in time, something pretty gets made. Joys! I will definitely be exploring the craft-along idea again in some form... Oh yeah baby.

As of last time, I believe we had made the birdie family which we set aside for the moment. And we had attached the lettering, like so...

So let us end our spring recraft-along on a high note. Let us build a nest for our chicks, get our mama bird settled in, and grow blossoms on our tree! You with me? Walk this way...

Loving is Listening ReCraft-Along: Part 3

Nest-Building

Step 1: Start with my secret little move, which is to remove that shiny layer of paper from a section of cracker or cereal box. Just stick your fingernail (or you could use a craft knife too) under the layer of shiny paper in one of the corners of your piece of cardboard and peel away that paper. You'll want to prepare a few differently-shaded pieces of cardboard in this way.
Step 2: Now cut your pieces into tiny strips. Mine are quite narrow, about 1/16"( 1.5mm) wide. Cut some of these tiny strips from the differently-shaded pieces of cardboard.

Step 3: Now, between the two major shoots of that bottom branch, start glueing on the strips every which way without going too far beyond that top branch. What I do is I round each strip between my fingers, apply glue to the center of the strip only and glue it on randomly. The ends of each strip should curl up.
Step 4: Continue adding strips until you've added about 20 of them, rounding each between your fingers and attaching them to the box to form a very rustic nest shape. Don't worry about ends that stick too far out. We will be trimming them once we've glued everything in place.
Step 5: Once you've added roughly 20 strips, it's time for the chicks to move in. You made those last time remember? Apply glue only to their bodies, allowing their heads to stick out freely beyond the upper branch. Continue glueing on the tiny strips behind, beside, below, and even directly onto the chicks themselves (to hide the bottom half of their bodies).

Note: This nest-construction process is so organic and so much fun to do. I want you to trust your building instincts and enjoy it!

Step 6: Now, I prepared a few curly strips to add extra dimension to the nest. Curl the strips by wrapping them firmly and carefully around a large yarn needle (or you could use a wooden skewer). Keep them on the needle or skewer for a few moments so they retain their curly shape.
Step 7: Apply glue to a couple spots on these curly strips and attach them to the nest in a few different places. After the nest has dried, trim it as desired. Pay particular attention to the word "Listening". I found that I had several strips obscuring it and needed to trim them up quite a bit.

Mama Moves In

Step 8: Now it's mama bird's turn! Glue her onto her branch as shown below. And as per the Loving is Listening Birds and Details Template, copy and cut out a worm and glue both wormy pieces under mama's beak. Yummy.

Bring On The Blossoms

Step 9:  Using the carbon paper and the lightest colour of cracker/cereal box cardboard, copy and then cut out several flowers. I made nine flowers all together.
Step 10:  Using a regular hole punch, punch out 9 pieces of confetti from a darker colour of cracker/cereal box cardboard. Glue a confetti circle to the center of each flower. To give each flower dimension, place each flower center on the eraser-end of a pencil and firmly bend down the petals.

Step 11:  Glue the simple flowers onto the branches. Finally, into your beautiful box place two or three jars, and fill those jars with flowers or twigs or sedges or whatever your little heart desires!

And now I think we're completely done... Aaah yes... It's a very pretty thing, isn't it? With Mother's Day just around the corner, I think this will do nicely, don't you?

Now, I will be keeping my eyes peeled for action in the Loving is Listening Flickr Group to see what magic pops up over there. The intent, of course, is to feature your versions of this craft right here on the blog. I'm very much looking forward to that, so don't forget to post your photos!

♥M

Previous posts in the Loving is Listening series: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2

Loving Is Listening ReCraft-Along: Introduction

Hi!

Guess what.

I'm starting this new-to-me year of blogging with something I've never done before: a craft-along! Actually I'm calling it a recraft-along because there are no new materials used in this craft, aside from the glue that is. The project is made entirely of paper recyclables. I invite you to join me 'cause it'll be fun fun fun and the result will be very pretty!

What are we making?... A valid question.

When I was toying with the idea of doing a paper craft-along, I was reading a booklet called "The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember". Numerous times in this little gem of a book, Mister Rogers mentions how important listening is when it comes to truly caring for others. And I, for one, 100% agree with him. Unfortunately I am far from being the model listener. I'm so distracted with everything I do, I often tune out even my most beloved people. And worse still, I sometimes fail to listen to my own heart. Know what I mean?... So, I thought I'd make myself a gentle reminder. I distilled Mister Rogers' message to simply say "Loving Is Listening" and created a spring flavoured design to go along with it.  And then I thought, if I could use this reminder, then maybe others could too? Thus, the recraft-along was born.

Now, you could simply take the design, and produce it on a flat piece of cardboard and frame it. That would be great. Personally, I'll be refurbishing a cereal box. I'm thinking my altered cereal box could be used in a few different ways. It could serve as a fancy gift box for Mothers Day, eh? Or as a decorative storage box? But it might also work as a sweet flower pot. In fact, that's how I'll be using mine. I promise to show you pictures of my flower pot a little later on. So the final use of this thing is entirely up to you!

If you choose to work through the recraft-along with me, there are a few things you might want to keep in mind.

1. This craft was designed for the intermediate crafter. But no worries. If you want to do it, it doesn't matter what your level is. The recraft-along is here for you and so am I. But also, I would NOT suggest this craft for kids as there are craft/utility knives involved.
2. If you have a question, leave a comment in the comments section. I will do my best to answer any recraft-along questions within the comments section so that everyone has access to the answers.
3. Despite how it looks, this is not the quickest craft. It will probably not get done in one sitting. I mean, it is possible to get it done in one sitting, but it is unlikely. And in fact, there's no need to rush it. You'll get better results if you don't. So take your time and enjoy the process.
4. There's a newfangled "Loving is Listening Flickr Group" somewhere... Oh HERE it is. Upload process and finished photos there if you like.
5. You can do what I do, but you don't have to do what I do. In other words, feel free to take the design and make it your own, change things up, move elements around, use completely different materials. See, I don't know everything you like. So go bananas and totally do your own thing with this! And then post photos to the Flickr group so I can check 'em out! 

Note: The "Loving is Listening" design is made available for personal use only. Please do not make items for sale from this design. Thanks.

One last thing, I'm still working on a craft-along button. It should be ready for next time methinks... Okeedokey, I think that's it for now.

Oh and here's the button now! (If you wish to get a button for yourself, the button code is located at the very bottom on the blog!)

Next up:  The Loving Is Listening ReCraft-Along officially begins for real... Wahoot!

♥M

All "Loving Is Listening ReCraft-Along" posts: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 (finish)

Decorative Gift Handles

Don't even bother with a bow. Make a nifty handle out of a cracker box. 

Attach it to your inside-out cereal box with some nifty brads.

Place the goodies inside. And see that? It's a nifty gift.

♥M

Long-Term Experiment of the Cereal Box Kind 2

This is the progress on my long-term cereal box "experiment" after 5 cereal boxes and 9 cracker boxes.

To see how far I've come since the last time (not that far), click here.

Really, we eat that much breakfast cereal and crackers at our house. It is widely known that my body is 68% Cheerios, 20% crackers and the rest, lemonade, with trace amounts of other gunk. Does that mean I am insanely happy yet a tad sour?... Never thought about it until now.

Anyway. Thus far, the "experiment" is 8 inches (20 cm) tall and 5-1/2 inches (~14 cm) in diameter.

Note that I've added a "base" to the ball... Yep, that's a base with a ball on it alright. And no, the thingie has zero to do with that great American sport known as baseball, in case you were wondering.

Now go! Have yourself a super-fine day! I'll be back...

Long Term Experiment of the Cereal Box Kind

This is the very very start of a very very long-term project involving the recycling of many many cereal boxes and cracker boxes into twine to ultimately create something for our home. I won't reveal what it will be yet. I'll leave that to your fertile imagination for now... But here's what I've done so far.

After 1 cereal box, it was a ball measuring ~3-1/2 inches (9 cm) in diameter.

Now after 3 cereal boxes + 1 cracker box it is a ball measuring ~ 5-1/2 inches (14 cm) in diameter.

I'll keep you abreast of my progress, recording numbers of cereal and cracker boxes as I go. And eventually... eventually... I'll disclose its function. Until then, fingers-crossed that it'll all come out as I see it in my brain. It's an experiment, you see... What do you think it'll be?

Oh yes, and to find out how to make cereal box twine, see this little post here.

Going to eat my bowl of cereal now... See you soon ;)

Series 4 - The Candy Wrapper Chain #4

Happy Tuesday!

I welcome you today to Series 4 - The Candy Wrapper Chain#4, the finale! To see previous posts, check out Series 4 on the Series page.

As usual, today's craft, the cracker box bracelet, comes to you straight from the recycling bin, the best place to shop for craft supplies in my opinion. As its name suggests, it is made from a cracker box, plus I've given it a little "je-ne-sais-quoi" by topping it with painted egg carton bits which you may or may not recognize from here.

If you want to take a cracker at it, look no further!

Tutorial: Cracker Box Bracelet

I used the same method outlined here to create the bracelet chain. Only, instead of telephone book pages or junk mail, I made the links out of a painted cardboard cracker box. The links are also significantly smaller: 3/16" (4 mm) wide and 2-1/4" (5.6 cm) long.

Note: I must tell you that this bracelet was not easy to put together. If I were to make another one, I would think twice before using cardboard. Because each link is so small, its thickness and rigidity when folded makes it hard to work with. The bracelet material should remain flexible even when folded on itself. I suggest making your links out of junkmail or some such recyclable paper, folding each link the way Gary Dushl does with gum wrappers in his video tutorial.

That said, the cracker box did make a very solid and pretty bracelet. The niftiness of its construction becomes quite apparent with the use of the thicker cracker box cardboard too. It's just a bit challenging to link together and definitely requires patience.

Here's the finished band.

Now to make those egg carton doo-hickies:

1. Cut out the center square bits of your egg carton using an Exacto knife.

2. Trim the edges of the cut-out bits.

3. Smoosh the corners of the cut-out bits between your fingers.

4. Repeat 1-3 a few times. In the end, I used only three egg carton cut-out bits.

5. Give your cut-out bits a primer coat. I used gesso but white acrylic paint would do the trick nicely. Let dry.

6. Paint them with orange liquid acrylic paint - or whatever colour you wish - all over. Allow to dry. Apply a second coat of paint. Allow to dry.

7. (not shown) Paint the edges with a few coats of metallic acrylic paint. When dry, glue the egg-carton doo-hickies onto the bracelet. To make your bracelet super-strong and long-lasting, coat it a few times with varnish or Mod-Podge.

And there you have it, your very own, cracker box bracelet!

A dandy thing about this bracelet is that, to a degree, it is elastic! When I slip it over my hand, the links will lengthen. But I can then tighten it up around my wrist again by pushing the links close together once more. Isn't that sweet?... I say!

Now please, enjoy your day, and I'll see you again soon!

Linking to Get Your Craft On!