Christmas is just around the corner

Really, it is only 20 more days until Christmas. What is Christmas like for your family? Our family uses this time to get together and enjoy the company of each other on the holiday. It is not about the gifts for us it is about the memories that we share together. One of the activites that we enjoy together is to have a gingerbread house making contest :-) You never get too old for that!

Close | Send to Printer

Hula Hoop Rug

by Nicole Blasenak Shapiro 

• 
• Rated by 127 members

What does it take to transform a pile of old T-shirts into spectacular works of woven art? Just a spare hula hoop or embroidery hoop and the techniques we'll show you here. The oversize looms and easy-to-use loops of T-shirt fabric make these projects particularly appealing to beginning weavers. Learn the basic hoop weaving technique by crafting a colorful accent rug to brighten up a room. And if you want to take the weaving a little further, check out our basket and chair pad weaves

Before you begin, some terms you need to know: the warp is the material you string on the hoop, the weft is the material you weave with.

Materials

• Scissors
• About a dozen T-shirts

• 33-inch hula hoop

Total Time Needed: 2-3 Hours

Instructions

1. For the warp, cut 1-inch-wide loops from the bodies of one or two tees (we found a boy's large worked best on our 33-inch hoop), removing the hem and stopping at the sleeves. Ideally these loops should all be the same color; we used two colors for clarity in our photographs. You'll need a total of 11 loops. For the weft, cut at least 50 loops from the remaining shirts. Save the unused sleeves for the basket project.
2. Stretch one warp loop over the hula hoop, as shown.
3. Add and secure a second loop, perpendicular to the first.
4. Repeat, filling in the spaces, until all 11 loops are in place.
5. Push together two warp loops at the top of the hula hoop, as shown. This creates an odd number of warp spokes in your wheel, which allows the overunder pattern of the weft to alternate with each new row.
6. Secure the first weft loop to the center of one of the warp spokes (we chose the doubled spoke from step 5) by wrapping it around the warp and then looping it back through itself.
7. Begin weaving the weft over and under the warp spokes, forming a tight spiral. For now, treat both parts of each warp spoke as a single unit, weaving over or under the two together. As you work, push the weft material toward the center of the hoop and keep it just snug. If you pull the weft tight, the rug will develop lumps or bends. When you reach the end of the piece of weft, add a new loop by threading it through the end of the first and back through itself.
8. When your rug is about 8 inches across, begin treating each warp spoke as two individual strips instead of a single unit, weaving over or under each strand instead of going over or under the doubled spoke. This increases the number of warp spokes, improving the structure of the project. When you get to the two warp spokes that you pushed together at the top of the loom, separate them. Treat one of the spokes as two individual strips, but continue to treat the other as a single spoke. This maintains the odd number of warp spokes.
9. When the rug is the size you want, but no closer than 8 inches from the edge of the hula hoop, snip open your weft loop.
10. Tie the ends around a warp spoke, and tuck the ends into the rug.
11. Cut the warp spokes off the hoop one at a time.
12. Tie the ends in pairs, then trim them to make a fringe or tuck them back into the rug.

How to make roses from maple leaves

How to make roses from maple leaves

I wish we had these types of Maples Trees in Florida! These Maple flowers are so cute!

Stumble

After reading some of the chats in the Promotional Frenzy Team's wall located on Etsy; I saw that a few people had mentioned Stumble. After joining based on curiosity and just scoping it out for a few minutes I have found some pretty amazing things, check them out:
*  http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/18JaKB/www.fludit.com/inspiration/incredible-and-scary-3d-pencil-drawings-by-17-year-old-fredo.html     Although I am not a fan of gore this 17 year old's work is  AMAZING!
*  http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/ATpD9I/www.streetartutopia.com/%253Fp%253D2014   Street art and grafiti has always been something that I am totally intrigued with.3
* http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/8zAfKY/24flinching.com/word/gold-seal/inspiring-artists/drowning-beautiful/
I am thinking that Stumble pulls up all items fromthe internet based upon your selected interest? i did see some great craft blogs with tutorials :-) that makes me happy

Starting over

After a few large orders I am offically sold out of 90% of my play food. Woohooo! Now on to starting new items and restocking. I have my work cut out for me :-)

Peep peep

It has been really busy latley and have been working on a lot of new and exciting items. I had made a new line of Easter items and sold out! So until next year you may not be seeing any more peeps :-)

Home sweet home

After a very busy month I am finally home and ready to get back to my normal routines. It seems as though I have not stopped and relaxed for as long as I can remember. I visited Tampa for a long weekend, had family down for a week and house sat for a week. After all is said and done I am finally back to the place that I call my home or at least my home for now.