Bat Cane- art and instructions

This is my spare cane. I picked up an inexpensive walnut cane from the grocery store to have as a back up, and couldn't resist decoupaging it. 

First I measured the circumference of the cane, which was right about 3 inches. Then I created the design. 5 inches long sounded about right to me. Click on the image to download the full sized 300 ppi version.

I printed that on a decorative paper. My choice was a coffee leaf paper that TerraCycle used to make and that I've been hoarding for special projects. A mottled, marbled, or other light colored design looks good for this. After printing, spray the design with a sealer.

Pull out the glossy Mod Podge. Cut out the design and check to make sure it wraps with the ends just meeting or just barely overlapping. Cover the back of the image with Mod Podge and glue it in place on the cane.

Then I cut strips from some of the remaining decorative paper, and glued them on to decorate, and to finish the edges. 

Cover the whole thing with a light coat of Mod Podge, going beyond the edges a bit to seal the edges. Let dry for a bit, repeat, repeat.

Let the Mod Podge cure for 24 hours, then I added an extra coat of sealer to make it very durable. I used a polyurethane spray because the color of the paper means some yellowing won't mess up the design. I sprayed it, let it dry for 10 minutes, sprayed it again,, let it dry for 10 minutes, sprayed it again. Using a high gloss polyurethane, it's very shiny! Let the polyurethane cure for 24 hours.

End result is a Halloween cane for about 10 dollars. If you don't have polyurethane or Mod Podge, it may cost a little bit more initially, but you'll be able to use them on canes for other holidays or canes to match dressy outfits. 

Other recent projects include this tassel necklace. You can find instructions on Beadwork at BellaOnline.

And these copper projects. The ankhs I made last week. The beaded messy necklace I made last night. They are made in copper and darkened with liver of sulfur. I wiped off the excess with a 3m synthetic steel wool pad. First time I used one, if you click on the image you might be able to see a couple bits of fluff I missed, but compared to regular steel wool on wire projects like this, there was very little shred. The size is a nice one for jewelry projects as well. Tiny little rectangle shaped pads!

Aliens-Box, coloring page, and a blank template

Click on the images as usual for the full sized versions.

This week's contest at Spoonflower is Kawaii. My entry is this little alien with his rainbow ship. You can check out all the very sweet and kawaii designs and vote here.

My daughter made a loud "Awww!" at this design, and thinks it would be cute boxer sleep shorts.

Since I have so many blank box templates in my Etsy store, I decided to post a sample of what my box templates are like in PNG format. Some of the templates also come in 300 ppi format as well as the web ready 100 ppi format I use on this site. This template is 100 ppi. Click on the image for the full sized version.

Commercial use allowed once it's decorated. Please don't redistribute my blank templates, refer people here instead.

If you want to buy the alien fabric- check out my alien fabrics HERE

Halloween Bats- slide boxes!

'Tis the season to be spooky!
Little slide boxes, like the ones for the Andes mint boxes, except these are sized for Hershey's miniatures.
Click on the images for the full sized 100 ppi versions. The boxes are printed on card stock, and the wrappers are printed on paper.

Check the labels for more bats and other Halloween printables.

You can get the blank template from my Etsy shop. There is also a slide box template for Andes Mints available there.

Spoonflower Fabric Swatches

I recently got swatches of a bunch of fabrics, and I did put them all up for sale after getting the swatches. A couple of these I designed with specific plans for the fabrics. Others were just for fun. Designs can be resized on Spoonflower after they are in your shopping cart. Click edit on the item in the shopping cart to edit the size it prints out at. It needs to be a minimum of 150 ppi, so if a design is at 300 ppi or more you can make it bigger, if it's at 150 ppi, resizing it  to print in a smaller size will mean they print it at a higher and better ppi.

This one was actually not an 8x8 swatch. It's a fat quarter, and 4 dolls are on one fat quarter at 300 ppi, so if you resize it to 150 ppi, you get 4 dolls on one yard. The little medallions I thought could be used on hair clips or with the dot background to make headbands and such. 

Inspired by 50s wall paper. I really like this design for a possible purse. 

This WILL be a purse. I'm planning to order the fabric for the purse next month. I really like this design, my son helped me with the colors on it. 

Bright and cheerful. This is one of my daughter's favorite designs but she hasn't decided what she wants to make with it yet.

This was just for fun. It's circus-y looking isn't it?

Tessellated ice cream cones. I have 2 of these, this is the smaller design and I think I like the curves a little better than the other one.

The larger design. Yum yum!

I already had this design in black and white, but I wanted to see how it looked in pink and white. I prefer the pink and will use this for an apron.

You can find my fabrics at Spoonflower here. 

Pudding! Recipe and printable recipe sheets

I love making pudding as a treat for my family. It's a major sense of accomplishment for me. When was learning to cook, pudding always failed for me. Too impatient, cooked it at too high a heat and wound up filling the house with the delicious smell of burnt milk and chocolate or vanilla. 

Now it's a fairly regular treat because we almost always have the basic ingredients for pudding, and it's an easy dessert to make for weekends. 

This week I made a chocolate butterscotch pudding because butterscotch chips were on sale at the local grocery store. 

Here are some printable recipe sheets, including the recipe for the chocolate butterscotch pudding. Click on the images for the full sized 100 ppi versions.

To make the pudding:

In a mixing bowl- 

1 egg lightly beaten

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup butterscotch chips

In a sauce pan:

2 Tablespoons corn starch

2 cups milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

Whisk the ingredients in the pan well to dissolve the corn starch. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thickened. Pour the hot pudding slowly over the egg and chips whisking until the chips are melted and it's all smooth. Put into individual dishes or just cover the bowl and chill for 2 hours. 

Makes 6 half cup servings and is wonderful with fresh whipped cream!

Ghost Box

Halloween is a favorite holiday in my family. So I'm very excited to be gearing up for lots of Halloween crafts.
I hope you enjoy this first Halloween box for this year. It's the same template I used for the Gravestone treat boxes last year. Click on the image for the full sized version.

A couple new book reviews. Right here at DETP is a review of the new Zombie Felties book. So very cute. 

At Beadwork at BellaOnline, there is a review of a really good new polymer clay book. 

Book Review- Zombie Felties

What's the most adorable and disturbing thing you've seen recently? For me it has to be Zombie Felties.
I really loved the first Felties book, so I was fairly sure that this one would be just as much fun.
Felties are tiny little dolls made from craft felt. They are stitched with embroidery floss and thread, accented with beads and sequins and embroidery techniques and are just wonderful little projects for gift tie-ons, making into brooches and as small gifts. They are quick, affordable and a great portable craft or craft to do with kids just learning to hand sew.
The Zombie Feltie book focuses on the creepy side of this craft. Just perfect for Halloween really, and the projects stitch up fast enough you could make a whole bunch little creepy cute brooches to wear through October. There are a bunch of just wonderful patterns, sewing instructions and tips on making felt easier to work with in small scale. The projects include, as you'd expect, a few regular zombies. Then the authors got creative. A diminutive zombie fairy holds a scepter topped with a skull, zombie vampires, a dead duck with little bullet holes and blood, a pumpkin head zombie has sequin brains coming out of a break in the pumpkin. It's gruesome, it's adorable. It's one of the cutest and most clever takes I've seen on horror themes in crafting.
16 full sized patterns and instructions. Just perfect for your favorite little ghoul, as long your favorite ghoul is old enough. The finished projects do have small parts and some of them have jagged edges.
You can get the book directly from the publisher, Andrews McMeel Publishing or below from Amazon.com (The link is an affiliate link and helps pay some of the costs of maintaining this site.)
U.S.A.U.K. Also, for printie loving crafters, the end of the book has a little coffin you can copy and make coffins to keep your little zombies in!

Rubber Duckie Box

My elephant box was the first box that I made in this size. It's 3 inches wide, 3 inches deep and 4 inches tall. Just the right size for the little amigurumi style toys I make every so often.
This one is a duckie box, inspired by a bead graphing article I wrote. You can find that here.
Click on the images for the full sized 100 ppi printable pages. It takes 2 sheets of card stock to make this box.

Coffee box and coloring page

My husband and I are starting a new blog together. It's going to be a review site for local coffees and beers, including descriptions of some of the places to get locally roasted coffee and locally brewed beer. It's called AKBrewReview. In celebration of that, here's a couple coffee themed printables!
Click on the images for the full sized version.

When I give friends coffee, instead of giving them little vacuum packed bags of ground coffee, I usually just put some beans I'm really enjoying in a sandwich bag. So the box is my 3x3x1 inch box which will fit enough beans in a bag to make a pot.