Go Fish

This year for Christmas I made my nieces a fishing game. I got the idea, as well as the patterns for the fish and worms, here.

I started with a large piece of green felt for the base, then cut out a pond from blue felt and sewed it onto the green felt. I then sewed three concentric shapes on the inside, following the shape of the pond, and added a lily pad. The brown tackle box in the corner holds the fish when not in use and is held shut by velcro.

To make each fish, I doubled a piece of felt, traced my fish pattern onto it, then sewed along the outline. I filled the middle of each fish with polyester stuffing to give it some volume, and used the alphabet setting on my sewing machine to embroider a letter "O" for the eyes. There are magnets in the head of each fish so that the fish can be "caught".
Keep in mind when sewing you fish that you will need to leave openings to insert the magnet and stuffing. Here's the method that worked best for me:

(Note: These pictures were taken after cutting out the fish; however I did all the sewing first, as shown here)



Start at the top of the tail fin and curve back around, leaving a small opening

Insert the magnet into the head



Sew the head closed and continue around the bottom fin



Add stuffing

Sew around the top and tail fins, closing the body of the fish

Add eye, mouth, and details to tail fin

The last step is to cut around the outline of the fish, removing the excess felt. You can follow similar steps to make the worms. I also added eyelets to the end of each worm using my crop-a-dile and attached string using small lanyard hooks.

I used dowel rods for the fishing poles and painted them to coordinate with the colors of the fish (purple, magenta, and goldenrod). Instead of using screw eyes, I just drilled holes through the dowel rods and tied the string through the hole.

Go fish!

Christmas Projects

I made more Christmas postcards this year. (See last year's design here.) I chose Luke 19:38 for this year's verse and embossed the front with a "peace" stamp.

Many of the people on our Christmas list got jars of homemade jalapeno jelly and spiced apple jam. (Both recipes are inside the Ball Liquid Pectin box, with more recipes available here.) The label template is courtesy of Merriment Design.

The spiced apple jam is great on just about everything, especially waffles, and I enjoy the jalapeno jelly on a slice of french bread with a little goat cheese.

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Before & After

I thought I'd share some before and after shots of two quick and easy projects. These candle sconces belonged to my grandmother. Here they are before:

 After a few coats of white paint...

This old picture frame is from Zach's mom (Thanks Renee!) and I decided it would be a good size for a chalkboard.

I already had an 11 x 14 piece of masonite, which was just the right size for the frame. All I had to purchase was a small tub of chalkboard paint. They have this stuff in just about every color now; I chose to go with the traditional black. I gave the masonite three coats of paint and 24 hours later it was ready to write on.

After

Minnie millery

Meet the two newest additions to my Etsy shop...

green monster softie

bunny softie

Fireplace Candleholder

Before we moved in, our house suffered a chimney fire. According to the home inspector, some of the tiles were damaged, making it dangerous to have a fire in the fireplace. It's now two and a half years later and we have yet to make any effort to repair it. Adding to our lack of motivation is the fact that we live in central Texas, and on this mid December day it's a sunny 70 degrees.

However, I was getting a little tired of the gaping black hole under our mantle and dreamt up a cheap and easy solution. Easy meaning my 24-hour on-call handyman Zach was there to assist me. (You can view our first fireplace project here)

We went on a post-Thansgiving walk in a wooded area near my mom's house, looking for logs to use for our project.

Zach cut the logs down to size using a miter saw, then screwed them together to form the base of the candleholder. We decided to use a variety of candles, including tapers and tealights. Using forstner drill bits, Zach drilled holes into the wood to hold the candles.

Howdy Doody!

I came across a Howdy Doody doll in an old trunk at my mom's house. It was a toy my siblings and I had as a child, and which my brother Ryan was particularly fond off. Ryan has special needs and has always loved playing with toy cars and trucks, and any toy having to do with Hulk Hogan! He was crazy about his Hulk Hogan wrestling doll. Hulk Rules.

Image Source

When I found Howdy Doody, his clothes were nowhere to be found. So I took him home with me and gave him a brand new shirt and pair of pants...although I confess I didn't stay true to his original attire.

This will be a Christmas gift for Ryan; I'm sure he'll be excited to see his familiar toy!

12 Days of Handmade Holidays Giveaway

Visit Think Liz for a chance to win one of my handmade needle-felted ornaments!

Giveaway ends Tuesday, December 14th at 10pm.