DIY Pinky Pie Pop Up Card

Pinky Pie 

Pop Up Card

If there is a My little Pony that would throw a birthday party it’s definitely Pinkie Pie.  So when I our youngest daughter wanted a My Little Pony theme for her birthday party it seemed natural that Pinkie Pie would be the one sending out the invitations.  Pinkie Pie loves parties, birthdays and making people happy.  She pops up out of nowhere surprising people and I can’t picture her not using her party cannon at a birthday party.  So it seemed natural to make a pop card with Pinkie Pie using her party cannon. So after I researched how to make pop up cards I got to work.

Step #1

I found a drawing of Pinkie Pie with her party cannon.

Step#2

 

I drew half of her body on one sheet of paper.

Step#3

I drew the other half of her body on another sheet of paper. This part was harder since I couldn’t find any picture of the back of Pinkie Pies body. So I had to do some guessing on what the back of her body.

Step#4

I cut out macaroni and cheese boxes to so that it looked like a book cover. Then glued paper on top to cover the macaroni and cheese labels on the box.

Step#5

I traced the rectangles of the macaroni and cheese box onto the bottom of a sheet of paper.

Step#6

 

I traced my pencil drawings of Pinkie Pie in black permanent marker.

Step#7

I traced in pencil the marker drawings I did of each side of Pinkie Pie onto sheets of paper.

Step#8

I water color painted the pencil drawings of Pinkie Pie. Then when it had dried I traced the edges in colored marker.

Step#9

I took a pair of scissors and cut out as much of Pinkie Pie as I could. I left the gaps that were in between her legs and the cannon.  I also left extra paper beyond where the cardboard from the macaroni and cheese box would be.

Step#10

I took an exacto knife and cut out the parts between her legs and the cannon.

Step#11

I put glue on the rectangular part of the paper then pressed it down onto the cardboard macaroni and cheese box.

Step#12

I cut slits at the corner.

Step#13

 

I glued the overlapping paper to the other side of the cardboard.

Step#14

I repeated steps 11-13 with the other paper that would be the other side of Pinkie Pie.

Step#15

 

I put glue on Pinkie Pies hair and party cannon then pressed them together.  Then set it to dry with pinkie standing up.

Step#16

I printed out the party information and cut it out in strips.

Step#17

I folded the paper party information like an accordion.

Step#18

  

I trimmed the ends of the strips to fit inside of the cannon. Then I glued the strips to the inside of the cannon.

Step#19

I folded the strips inside the cannon so that when the card was opened it would look like paper flying from the cannon.

Step#20

   

I printed out the paper I

 wanted as the cover of the invitation. Cut it to the right size to fit the cardboard. Then glued it to the front of the invitation. Then let it dry.

When the invitations were finished our daughter was really happy with them which made it worth all the drying time between stepsJ

Materials

Mac and cheese box –                         0.00

Glue- left over from homeschooling              0.00

Water color paint-made from home items   0.00

Markers- left over from homeschooling        0.00

Total Cost  

                                                      0.00

Tomato Cages from Scrap Wood

Uncaged

Walls feel like they are pressing in, a slight feeling of panic creeps up  my body and I feel the need to breath like when you are under water and you feel the need to come up for air.  For me that is what it is like when I spend all day inside away from sunlight and a fresh breeze blowing gently across my skin. 

Spending all day inside is just not good for me emotionally.  So when I got home from a meeting that had taken a little over half the day in a room with no windows I felt a pressing desire to go outside in my garden.

I didn’t have much daylight left however I was determined that I could accomplish something with the little time I had left.  I looked around after watering in our greenhouse and saw our uncaged tomatoes. “Ah ha!” I thought, I may not be able to make all the cages I need but I can make some.

We have truly been blessed with so many tomato plants that I ran out of cages; I need to make at least 20 cages.  So I determined to make at least one cage before the sun went down.

Step #1

I grabbed 4 slates from a deck that we are taking apart.  They may not work as a railing anymore but they can hold up tomato plants.

Step#2

With a pencil I marked 12 smaller sections of wood for the cross sections.

Step #3

I cut the 12 smaller cross sections of wood.

Step#4

I laid down 2 tall slates of wood. Then across the 2 slates I laid 3 smaller sections of wood.

Step#5

I screwed down the smaller sections.

Step#6

I then repeated the process for the opposite side of the cage.

Step#7

I stood the 2 sides I had built on their sides. Then laid 3 smaller sections of wood across the 2 sides.

Step#8

I screwed these 3 smaller sections down.

Step#9

I flipped over the side I had just screwed down so that it was now on the ground and the 1 unfinished side was facing up.

Step#10

I placed the last 3 smaller sections across the sides.

Step#11

I screwed down the 3 smaller sections.

Step#12

I took a rubber mallet and pounded the corners of the cage into the wet dirt.

As the sun went down I had completed two cages and I felt like I could breathe again.

Materials

Wood slates- from a broken deck  0.00

Screws- from a broken deck             0.00

Total Cost

0.00

Repairing a Puffy Rug

Pulling some Strings

The feel of the soft mat under your feet, your feet just sink in and are cushioned around the edges. It’s emotionally relaxing to step out of shower or bath and step on a bath mat like this one. It’s made of this plush yarn that that is pulled through a sheet of fabric on both end.  This yarn definitely screams “touch me, I am soft “visually and the feel of the bumps that have been pulled up to create this bath mat are fun and relaxing to run your hand across.  Given all the pleasing sensations a mat like this generates I was not surprised that my nephew decided to pull some strings loose from this mat. A person could continue the sensations in the fingers by pulling the fingers along the yarn if the string was longer. It’s could be a great temptation.

As a child I could see the lure to pulling the strings out of the mat to play with it. I can also see the parents perspective in wanted that nice comfortable/comforting bath mat to be whole again.  So when my brother –in- law showed me the mat and asked “Is there an easy way to fix it?” I took the mat from him and looked at how it was made. I replied “Sure.” Internally I was thinking that I probably just needed to be pulled through again with a crocheted hook, a really tiny hook.

Step #1

I took a crochet hook that I have used for tatting and stuck it through the holes where the yarn was originally.

Step #2

I grabbed the yarn with my hook and pulled through.

Step #3

I twisted the yarn slightly after I pulled it through to re-twist the yarn.

Step#4

  

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Materials

Tatting crochet hook-  already had one from another project                                                                              0.00

Total Cost

                0.00

How to Fix Fraying Towel

Frayed at the Edges

There are some things I am good at noticing and other things not so much.  One of the areas I am not so good at noticing is when our towels are starting to get worn.    There is a little fraying at the edges of the towel, then maybe a small tear where it was frayed, finally the towel has pulled apart enough that it looks like one of my kids took a pair of scissors to the towel. I think I don’t notice it because I only see the towels once a day. In comparison to a pair of pants my kids wear or a shirt that needs mending, if my kid is wearing it I see it the whole day and I am visually drawn to it like a magnet to metal. As a result of this blind spot of mine, I usually notice that a towel needs mending when it’s pretty far gone.  This time however, whew-who I noticed faster.  The seam on one end of towel had come loose and was slightly frayed when I pulled it out for mending.

Step #1

I cut he frayed fabric off.

Step #2

I seem ripped the edge of the towel where it had come apart.

Step #3

I folded a new edge for the frayed edge.

Step#4

I pinned ribbon over where the new hem would be located. I chose to do this because if I just adjusted the hem a person could look at the two hems and tell that they were different.  Ok, maybe nobody would notice.  Who pays attention to that when they are getting out of the shower/bath?  The different seems would have bothered me, so I put ribbon on both sides to make them the same again.

Step #5

I stitched them down.

The towel is now mended and it’s before I have decide if I need to turn the towel into hand towels or wash clothes, yeah!

Materials

Thread- left over from another project                 0.00

Ribbon- left over from someone else’s project        0.00

Total Cost

                                                           0.00

Fixing a Fraying Sleeping Bag

Why sleeping bag ,Why?

 

There is no modern noise around; instead there is the hum of insects, almost like surround sound.  The fire is built high and warm in the pit. My kid’s faces are sticky from smores.  We have family prayer then tuck the kids into their sleeping bags as I read to them out of the current family novel.   Then my husband comments on a rip in one of our girl’s sleeping bag.  I pause briefly in my reading to lean over and look at the rip. 

At first I am only as annoyed as someone who drops their pencil on the ground when they need to be taking notes in school.  I continue to read to the kids till they fall asleep.  I enjoy the different kind of noise that camping is for our family.

When we get home we start cleaning things then putting them away.  The sleeping bag and some quilts go into the mending basket for fixing.  As I pull out the sleeping bag, I again wonder; why do companies usually make their sleeping bags out of such breakable fabric?  I would use this kind of fabric as a liner in a men’s suit vest, not a sleeping bag that needs to take a beating.  It could be too costly to do a better fabric, or the company picked it because it can if cleaned up quickly when it gets wet it stays dry.  It’s certainly not because it does a good job at keeping in body heat.  Maybe it’s because it is flame resistant. I am not sure of the reason, I have thought about it (it’s been like a mosquito bite in my brain) and I cannot figure out what the designer is thinking in using such a material.  The material frays easily, badly, it literally comes apart at the seams. It’s a material that is meant to be puncture as little as possible and treated gently. 

Despite my in-ability to figure out the reasons behind the materials that were chosen to construct the sleeping bag. I still have to deal with the results.  How to I keep “that” fabric from fraying again if I stitch it back together? Here is what I came up with to fix the sleeping bag rip.

Step #1

  

I took pink thread and loosely stitched down the rips.

Step #2

I took school glue and smeared the glue on the all the seams spreading it out ½ inch wide on each side of the seam and let it dry.

Step #3

 

I took ribbon from a reed hat that was broken beyond repair. I picked the hot glue off the ribbon.

Step #4

    

When the glue was dry I pinned the pink ribbon over the frayed seam.

Step#5

I stitched down the ribbon. Making sure to have my seams inside of where I had glued. I did this in hopes that the now stiff fabric would not fray from the stitches.

Materials

Pink thread- left over from someone else’s project    0.00

Pink ribbon- from a broken hat                                    0.00

Glue- from home school supplies                                    0.00

Total Cost

                                                                                               0.00