I've made a decision!

I've decided that I'm going to share ALL of the stuff I make!  Good and BAD!  I know, I know, you're probably saying...this has been the GOOD stuff!  YIKES!  Well, just wait til I show you the 'other' stuff...you'll probably agree.  :)

So...here is the ugly doll I made yesterday:

Back-story: I'm going to try to make some dolls for the kids at the hospital (the nurses use them for all sorts of games and explaining 'stuff' to the kids).  So, this was my first attempt...well, to be honest, it's really my second attempt, the first one came out with a giant head and one leg sewn crooked, so that my sister said it looked like it had a broken leg.  So I took it apart (love those seem rippers!), re-did the head, and sewed it back together.  Better, but still not great.  But the little one I made it for really likes it, so that means a lot.  (She get's all my trial projects...:)  good and bad).

 She named her Shirley Temple, and insisted on sleeping with her last night.  :)  Maybe next one I make, I'll try and do a tutorial, and then everyone can make ugly dolls.

Second 'bad' project revealed! :)

Recycling old Crayons-
So crayons are on sale EVERYWHERE right now, so of course, I've bought a few boxes.  But the kids already have a TON of old crayons...(but who doesn't love a box of brand new, never been used, freshly sharpened crayons???  I DO I DO!!!).  Anyways, I decided to find a way to use the old small and 1/2 pieces of crayons to make a fun project, and make way for new crayons!

Here's what we did:

• Strip the crayons down.  (I think that was the most fun part of the whole thing, sitting and chatting with my daughter while we went through all the crayons.)

• Then we laid out some wax paper on a cookie sheet and Lilly got to pick out different colors and I cut them with scissors into small pieces.

• Then I covered it with a second piece of freezer paper and used an iron to melt the crayons.  It kind of felt like it was going to ruin my amazing and expensive iron, so I tried to put a towel down, but it wouldn't get the crayons hot enough to melt.  So I risked it, and I think the iron came out fine.  The project...not so sure about that.  Here's what it looked like:

• It was supposed to look like a "stained glass window"...ummm, not so much.  So I pulled the pieces apart to see if they looked any better.  Not really....

• Well...one side was salvageable at least.  So we cut out our 'frame' (Lilly chose a heart shape...of course!).  And since only one side of the wax paper looked ok we used some tissue paper on the other side.   Final result!

Not quite what we intended, but it will still make a great gift for Grandma in St. Louis.  So there's my first tutorial on a wonderful craft project I'll never do again! :)  At least not with 3 kids tugging on my pant leg...literally....  And we've still got lot's of left over crayons, so I'm sure we'll be trying more crayon projects in the weeks to come.  Wait with eager anticipation for those! :)

But THIS makes it all worth it..over and over again!!!