Mom…..I’m Bored! – Craft Gossip

I enjoy the peace and tranquility of my craft room. The hum of the sewing machine puts me into an almost zen-like state. I become so focused on what I am doing that nothing else seems to exist….until….”Mom, I’m bored!” I’m sure this has happened to all of us, but don’t fret, take this opportunity to tap into your child’s inner crafter. Teach them that they can create something beautiful with just a few things and alot of imagination.

Be prepared for these opportunities by creating a box of craft supplies just for your youngster. This is a great beginning craft for you to do with your child. Find a large cardboard box and decorate it with paints, fabric scraps, glitter, whatever you have on hand to make the box something they will know is theirs. Now the really fun part begins, searching for new and fun crafts to fill the box.

What would you fill your child’s box with? Please keep in mind that all items should be age appropriate. I wouldn’t put a hot glue gun in my four-year-old’s craft box, but I would toss in a couple of glue sticks, some safety scissors, different types of paper, crayons, pencils, the possibilities are endless. There are many websites that offer really cool arts and crafts supplies for children.

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Lately I have been feeling like all of my clothes are looking a little worn or feeling a little tired. I don’t want to buy new clothes, though, so there’s been a lot of mending, altering and adding special touches to things that otherwise might get overlooked or not worn at all.

As an example, not too long ago I added a little bit of embroidery to a T-shirt, which was a lot of fun to do and made me start eyeing all my solid-colored garments and wondering how they might look with some stitching added.

Of course you can cross stitch on garments, too, whether T-shirts or woven tops, skirts, pants and more. But it can be tricky to transfer cross stitch designs to your garment to make stitching easier.

Much like with embroidery, it’s great to use a water soluble stabilizer to keep your fabric in place while you stitch and to transfer your design (or your cross stitch grid at least) while you’re stitching. Then you just wash away the stabilizer when you’re done and it will look like the stitching has always been there.

Ashley General Handmade uses Sulky Stick ‘n Stitch, which is a product I use, too. It’s easy to use and washes away cleanly.

To make it even easier, she designed some printable cross stitch grids at different counts that you can print out to draw your own cross stitch designs, but you can also print the grid right on the Sulky, so you can stitch on top of squares and then remove them when you’re done.

Brilliant, right?

She has pages as big as 8 count and all the way down to 20 (remember: the bigger the number the smaller the stitches will be) that you can download and print to make your own designs and also use to make stitching on clothing easier. I’m definitely going to try this the next time I want to cross stitch on fabric!

You can grab her printables over at Ashley General Handmade.

[Photo: Ashley General Handmade]

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