What To Do With a Bad Book - a Craft Tutorial

I'm a total book worm at heart. So when I come across a bad book (you know, bad story lines, too many cuss words, or whatever your reasoning for not liking a book), I usually just throw it away.  Well, I found a good use for those books with less than stellar reviews.  I make them into fun Christmas decorations instead.  

So, start this project with one bad book. Its time to put this book to better use!  Take the book and divide it into about 100 pages by slicing with an matte knife right down the spine of the book.

Gather together these supplies:

FYI:  I found the glass candle stick holder at my local dollar store.
You'll also need:

• tacky glue
• scrap of golden yellow paper
• 1 rounded toothpick

STEP 1:  fold pages from spine corner (top) to the bottom corner of the page.  I use a plastic bone folder to crease the pages.  Unfold.

STEP 2:  Fold the page from spine corner to the fold you just created.  Crease.  Add glue to the underneath side of that fold and press flat toward the fold line.

STEP 3:  Add glue to the top of the last fold and press toward the spine.  Make sure the original fold is not altered.

STEP 4:  Watch a good movie or listen to Christmas music as you fold the rest of the pages using these same steps because this will take a while.

STEP 5:  Fan out the pages so they form a paper tree.  Glue the first and last page together.

STEP 6:  Turn the candle stick holder upside down.  Add epoxy glue and spread the bottom of the pages over the center of the candle stick holder.

To add more height you can stack two candle stick holders into each other, just make sure you glue the holders together with epoxy glue.  

• To add a star on top of your book tree, download this free start pattern HERE.  
• Using this pattern, cut the star out of golden or yellow paper.  
• Add tacky glue to the star.  
• Lay onto the center of the star a rounded toothpick and press the other star on top of the toothpick and the star.
• Trim stars to match one another if needed.

I hope you enjoy your "bad book" now! It's probably much better this way (at least it's a lot cuter). Happy folding!  xoxo Grandma

A Pinkalicious Outfit - Kids Sewing Week

Last week, I sewed along for Kids Sewing Week where you commit to sew 1 hour a day for 7 days.  I'm taking Sunday off - it's my official "day of rest" but trust me, I've put in way more than an hour a day sewing. I spent one of the days doing nothing but cutting out fabric for projects, which is definitely my least favorite part of sewing. 

Anyway, here's one of my latest creations I concocted for my very girl granddaughter. Its a pink fleece jacket, a pink and white shirt with lace accents, and pink tutu pants, which are a staple in her wardrobe lately.  She likes anything frilly, pink and with ruffles. So these items fit that mold. I try to accommodate her likes into what I sew for her as she has developed quite the opinion lately.  

I used the book "Pinkalicious" as my inspiration.  This particular two-year-old loves this book.  After I made this jacket, I found out she also loves to practice her zipping skills. The jacket is modeled after this one I made her older brother, included with the letter "A" for her name. 

After the jacket, I made her a white and pink long sleeve top.  I inserted a three inch lace strip onto the top of the bodice for some extra girly flair.  For the tutu pants, I gathered some pink lace and pink netting, both of which were the same length and width.  When I cut out these leggings, I eliminated the waist band so that the lace could be inserted into the top of the pants.  I then cut out a wide waistband and sewed it on top of the tutu. This cute little lady owns a few other pairs of tutu pants, and wears them almost daily. I was happy to help expand her wardrobe a bit with this new pink pair. 

After she received her box of new clothes, included with a few Halloween surprises, she called me to thank me for her outfit.  She said she would wear it.  For an opinionated little girl who has three favorite outfits, that is huge news!   

I'd like to thank her mother for taking these photos of her.  She's not easy to get to hold still, unless she's being read to or looking at books in her comfortable pink chair.

Are your children or grandchildren opinionated too? Heaven help us all! - xoxo Grandma

Tickle Monster - a GIVEAWAY, Costume Tutorial & Free Pattern

My Halloween costume-making frenzy continues!  Check out this post and this one to see other costumes I've made this year. 

This next costume has a GIVEAWAY included, so read on my friends for a wonderful surprise that could be yours! 

This particular costume is for my rambunctious two-year-old grandson. My daughter suggested that I make him a monster costume for Halloween.  Knowing how two-year-olds can act, I decided he needed to be some type of kind or silly monster, so he wouldn't torment his baby sister. Then the idea hit me, why not make a Tickle Monster costume? Have you ever heard of the Tickle Monster? I hadn't either until my daughter received this book and Tickle Monster gloves as a baby gift: 

It's a colorful, whimsically illustrated book about a monster that tickles. The boxed set comes with Tickle Monster gloves too, so you can tickle your little one while you read to them. Isn't that the cutest idea for a kid's book?  I love it. The set makes for a fun interactive read.  It can be purchased from the publisher, COMPENDIUM INC. The exciting news is, you'll have a chance to WIN this gift set... so keep reading to find out how!

Firstly, here's a photo of the Tickle Monster, so you can see what I used as a guide to make the costume.

Next, was the fabric selection; I found a colorful stripped shirt which I used for the horns and tail. I used some scrap white and black fabric for his eyes, turquoise fabric for his ears and then purchased soft blue fleece, orange fabric and red fluffy yarn. I drew the pattern for his horns, ears and eyes HERE. (Free download, just make sure the "fit to page" is not checked...print full image.) 

From the shirt, I cut a squiggly shaped tail as wide and long as possible, making sure the stripes matched up.  Once that tail was cut, I then cut out the horns.  The nose was an oval, 6 1/4 inches x 8 1/2 inches. The hood pattern came from the crab version of Butterick #5597 pattern: 

Here is a step by step tutorial of that process:

1. Cut out all the pattern pieces.
2. Cut out the nose.
3. Sew the following together, once sewn, turn right side out: 

•  the black pupil onto the eyes. 
•  add the batting to the ears and stitch together.  
•  sew the horns together, clipping the top so it'll have a pointy top. 
•  sew the tail together, matching the stripes.  

    4.  Sew "ear" details using a sewing machine.

5.  Make a gathering stitch along the orange oval nose. Pull the stitches enough so that fiber fill or batting can be added to make the nose a nice round shape.

6.  Stuff the horns and the tail.

7.  Pin on extra wide white rick rack - 3 teeth per side.

8.  Here's how the back side of the rick rack looks before it's sewn to the hood.

9.    Decide where on the hood you want the eyes to be sewn.  Using pins, mark the spot.            Now, cut straight across the place you marked.

10.  From the right side, push the eyes through the opening you just cut, leaving the bottom of the fabric 1/2" past the hole. Sew the eyes in place.  ow stuff those eyes just a little.  Fold down the overhanging fabric and stitch closed. This step will hold the stuffing in place.

11.  Onto the lower middle of the hood, hand stitch the nose in place.

12.  Sew Velcro to the chin strap on both sides of the hood. 

For the yarn, I used Yarn Bee, Fleece Lite, color Stoplight #62, all of which I found at Hobby Lobby.  Then I made some light blue shorts.  Onto those shorts I attached this tail.  My grandson got shorts because he lives on a tropical island and I didn't want him to be too warm in his costume.  I was told he likes chasing his tail, around and around in a circle.

The jacket was an easy sew, I used a size 3 from this pattern:

The only thing I changed was to make the back one pattern piece instead of two.  My little Tickle Monster told me his jacket was soft like his blanket. 

 

If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll answer as soon as possible.  

I'm now done with my Halloween costume making for another year.  May all the sweet, little monsters in your life enjoy Halloween!    

Now, for the giveaway: to enter to win this Tickle Monster Kit (a $34.95 value), follow the rules below.  This kit has graciously been donated by COMPENDIUM INC..    If you don't win or want another kit for a gift, Compendium is having a sale starting November 1st for all their family and friends.  You can save 30% off your order by entering the code "thankyou30".  I was told that this is one of the few sales they have all year.

GIVEAWAY RULES:

1. Follow this blog.
2. Follow xoxo Grandma on Pinterest.
3. Pin your favorite image from this post.
4. Leave a comment & let me know who you want to read this book & tickle.  Include your e-mail so I can contact you if you're the winner. 
5. U.S. Resident only, DPO & APO welcome to participate.

You have until October 31, 2014 to enter. The winner will be announced on November 3, 2014 at 8 a.m. Eastern Time.  Best of luck!  - xoxo Grandma

Update:  November 3rd, The winner of the Tickle Monster Gift Set was Natalie Gleaves.  Congratulations and thank you to all that entered and left such kind comments.


Linked to: Project Run & Play, Totally Tutorials 

 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Costume

The theme for week four of Project Run and Play's season 10 was to create something using "My style".  My style is to create costumes and all other reasonable requests by my grandchildren or their parents..  I started creating costumes a long time ago and have continued this practice for my grandchildren. 

This year's costume making started a few weeks ago.  Let me explain a few things about this three year old in the above photo. She loves, loves, loves books.  She is also learning to read and is doing really well at it... it's really quite amazing!  Luckily, she got to spend several weeks at my house this summer while her family was in-between moves. 

When I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween, her first response was to be a princess. She quickly changed her mind when she saw a picture of the "Very Hungry Caterpillar". Creative, right?  We had to purchase green fabrics for this costume and I wanted her to help me in the selection. So, I took her to a fabric store and oh my, she was in heaven! She had never been to a fabric store before and loved touching all the fabric and seeing all the sparkly things.  It was quite entertaining to watch her delight as she explored.   

The logical next step to make this costume was to search the internet for a pattern. But wouldn't you know, after quite a bit of searching, I came up empty handed. Then I decided to wing it and see if this grandmother could figure out how to make a caterpillar all on her own.  I started by making a long dress with a green bodice and ruffled layers of three different green fabrics.  Then I added a little elastic vertically and then horizontally to make the costume poof-up.

Next, a sparkly band of wide green ribbon was added because she loved the ribbon!  I added brown fleece sleeves to keep her warm on Halloween night.  I sewed six extra legs onto the costume because a caterpillar has six legs attached to it's body and 10 pro-legs attached to it's abdomen.  That's a lot of legs!

 

Onto the body of the costume I sewed six more puffy parts to make her look like she was a long caterpillar.

The first time she put on this costume, she crawled around my house like any creeping caterpillar would do.  She fully played the part of a long, creepy bug.

For her hat, I originally wanted to purchase a red knit one but I couldn't find one in August...go figure!  Then it dawned on me that I had some red fleece left over from making my long legged Santa's.  I figured I could make a hat from that fabric and use left over fabrics for the eyes and nose.  The antennas were made from sparkly purple ribbon sewn together over pipe cleaners.  And voila! There you have it!  Another Halloween costume for the books!  I love how it turned out!  And my granddaughter did too, thank goodness. 

This hungry caterpillar indicated she was very hungry and needed some bread.  Good thing I brought along some bread to feed the ducks on this photo shoot.

I hope you enjoy this costume because my style is to be creative and what better way than to make a costume. Below are a few other costumes I've sewn over the years:

  

  

Happy creating!  xoxo Grandma

Linked to: Project Run and Play, 2 Crochet Hooks, The Dedicated House, Crafty Allie, Nap Time Creations, Project Run and Play Halloween and as seen on Sewing Gossip

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Participating in World Book Night

Today is none other than World Book Night.  Of course, you already knew this, right? ;)  It is also the UNESCO International Day of the Book, as well as Shakespeare’s birthday!  World Book night was chosen to be on this day in honor of Miguel de Cervantes, who died on April 23, 1616 (the same day as Shakespeare). In the Catalan region of Spain, the day is celebrated by giving a book and a flower to a loved one.  Isn't that a great activity?  World Book Night was first celebrated in the UK and Ireland in 2011 before making its way to the U.S.  I hadn't heard about this event until my daughter, who is a total bookworm, told me about participating in it a few years ago.  I've been involved with it ever since and have loved every minute of it. 

Here are a few fun facts about it:  

• It was organized to encourage adults and older children who are non-readers to read.
• On this day, 25,000 volunteers pass out books to about 500,000 "to-be readers".
• An additional 2,300 bookstores and libraries serve as a location for the givers to pick-up their books to hand out before this date.
• There's a huge list of companies that help to make this event happen like UPS, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads and a lot of publishers!  Here's a complete list of those who help in case you're curious.
• All books are given away for free!

Last year, I passed out the first book in a series of adventures about Percy Jackson, called "The Lightning Thief."  In this book, Percy Jackson discovers he's half-God.  I chose to give these books to a class of 6th graders, who live in a poverty-stricken area in my region. I coordinated this with a friend who was teaching at a grade school there.  

Today, I get to once again participate in this event by passing out 20 free books to the seniors in my community.  Before this event, I called my local senior center and talked to the events coordinator there.  I told her about World Book Night and asked her when a good time to visit on the 23rd would be?  Of course, she told me to come right before Bingo, when it was sure to be crowded there at the center. Well, she was right, there was quite the crowd waiting to play Bingo when I arrived.  I had fun talking to everyone, explaining what I was doing and handing out a large print copy of "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford to those who indicated they weren't readers.  I read this book a few years ago and loved it!  I hope they'll enjoy reading this book too.  These cute recipients couldn't believe that this book was free, some wondered if I was the author...ha ha!

World Book Night is such a fun way to try to lure people in to reading a good book. Of course, the hope is that the free book they receive will hook them on reading for life. 

As an avid reader, I have a few new recommendations for you: Last week, I finished reading "The Rent Collector" by Cameron Wright.  This was one of the best books, my full review on Goodreads is here.  In honor of the real reason for celebrating Easter, I also finished reading "Killing Jesus: A History," which I also thoroughly enjoyed. 

In honor of this day, go bury your nose in a good book.  What are some of your favorites?

-xoxo Grandma
Shared at: 2Croquet Hooks Snickerdoodle Sunday