Epsom Salt Painting -- adds a crystal sheen!

Have you ever painted using Epsom salt water?  We were doing this as a science experiment at first, using just food coloring  (equal parts Epsom salt and water, heated on med heat -- with stirring-- to dissolve).  Here is one of the pictures made with the food coloring solution:

You can see the gleaming of the crystals; this painting is DRY, but it looks shiny as if it were wet.

This was very interesting, and added a new dimension as an art medium, so I wanted to try using actual paint instead of food coloring, and see what that would look like.  It worked well, except that on my first try I let the water and Epsom salt get too hot-- they were boiling-- and the mixture turned crystally and thick instead of being clear and liquid (as it should look when dissolved completely).

Here's what the too-thick boiled mixture looked like after mixing in paint:

If you paint with this, it is very globby and doesn't stick well to the paper; so after trying it out I decided to start over, and make sure to watch the mixture while cooking.

To my new batch I added acrylic paint (about a teaspoon in each small cup) and stirred it well. 

Here it is before and after stirring:

The paint mixture was less watery than when we used food coloring, but it was easy to use-- it flowed along on the brush just fine. 

Here are some pictures made using the paint:

Would you like to make some crystally pictures like this?  It's very easy to make the mixture (equal parts Epsom salt and water, put on medium heat and stir just until dissolved); I think next we'll experiment with using Kool-Aid as a dye; I'm wondering if we can get bright colors but keep the watery feel.





Fuzzle Family Felt -- Day 37 of I Homeschool Network 40 Days of Christmas

TODAY there is a giveaway -- for Fuzzle Family Felt pattern set, by Gentle Shepherd (continuing through Friday, Dec 13).

 

It is part of I Homeschool Network's "40 Days of Christmas" advent calendar . . . 6 winners will receive a pattern set (PDF ebook) with patterns for people, clothing, house, car, trees, bushes, dog, cat, and more . . .

 

Making up felt stories is a lot of fun for kids, and these felt toys are quiet, soft, and flexible-- easy for kids to handle, and convenient to store or to take traveling.

 

Today (Dec 10) is day#37 -- Here is a link to the calendar:

 

http://www.ihomeschoolnetwork.com/40-days-of-Christmas

 

Here are some more pics from this felt toys pattern set--

 

Homemade Button Drum -- from a CD canister

I wanted to make a handmade drum . . . and was looking around for possible materials.  We happened to have an empty CD canister, and it looked like a good size for a child's drum-- so I thought about what to do next.

 

I tried cutting up big circle out of a plastic bag, and then putting that over the top with a rubberband; that didn't work very well -- it seemed too flimsy, and it was easy to slip off, too, even with more than one rubberband.  The sound made was not very impressive, either.

So went back to searching for materials -- if only I had a large enough balloon to use, like one of those punch balls . . . that would be sturdier and make a nice sound.  But no, nothing like that  . . . I tried a normal sized balloon but it was way too small.

After taking out all the fabric scraps I had, I came across a brown piece of vinyl from an old purse-- yes, this would probably work, so I pulled it out.  Also there was a smallish scrap of fake fur in brownish tones, so I decided to use that on the other end of the drum.

I cut out a circle a couple inches bigger around than the canister top diameter, from the vinyl, and made the fake fur circle about an inch bigger than the canister bottom diameter.

But how to get the end pieces to stay on?   I knew they would also have to be as taut as possible, so thought buttons could be used as something to put lacing around, holding both pieces onto the drum; the ends would both be pulling towards each other.

The next step was to pencil a circle on the underside of each of the fabrics, the same size as the canister top.  I got out some buttons and found 20 that kind of matched the brownish theme, and sewed 10 around each circle (on the right side of the fabric) on both the vinyl and fake fur.

 

Then I needed to lace the whole thing together.  We had some cotton twine, and this was a good fit for the small buttons I was using.  Doing the lacing was really not so easy; I had to get out some duct tape and tape the fabric circles in place so it would be easier to lace while also pulling the ends towards each other.

 

But it worked!  After lacing all the way around, I tied a knot at the top, and since there was a lot of twine left, I was able to make a slip knot a few inches down so there could be a loop-- for holding onto the drum, or hanging it up.

 

 

Now the drum was ready to play-- and I found that both ends had different sounds-- they both sounded nice; the lacing had produced a tension that pulled the circles fairly tightly, giving a "drummish" drum sound.

Have you ever made a similar drum -- or one that is different?  What did you use? What kind of result did you get? 

Kayla Aimee's Early Christmas Shopping Giveaway!

Kayla Aimee is a young mom who blogs about "faith, family," and her "favorite things."  She has created a series of three "Gift Guide" posts that feature shops of her readers!  I think this is really great-- these are crafters like me who have online shops in various stages of development.  Some are very established and others are just starting out.  They are all offering various discounts through coupon codes, and there is also a giveaway on the blog, for $50 (paid through PayPal) to go to two different winners-- for some early Christmas shopping money! 

It's easy to enter the giveaway; you just make a comment on the blog post. 

My "Fuzzlemania" business is included in today's group of shops.  This post features baby and toddler items. 

Anyone who places an order for felt toys from Fuzzlemania using the coupon code (given in Kayla's blog post) will receive a discount and also a free rabbit finger puppet.

The giveaway, using Rafflecopter, is continuing through this month (November).

See the blog post and giveaway at Kayla Aimee here:
2013 Handmade Holiday Gift Guide | Baby & Toddler Edition

Wild Creatures

Here are some wild animals --  have been having fun making different kinds, with felt.

a giraffe . . .

 

lions . . .

                                                                            ... a zebra

 

Some of these  can be found in my felt toys Etsy shop -- 

come go on a safari there :) 

 

www.etsy.com/shop/fuzzlemania 

 

All these wild animals are handmade from felt; and they are tame to kids

(not always quiet, but tame).



Facebook Frenzy -- You can take your time for this mad dash

Have you taken part in a Facebook Frenzy?  This is something new for me-- I am  one of the participating pages, and have found it interesting and fun.  The frenzy is happening RIGHT NOW!

 

       It will continue through Saturday, October 26.  There is a loop of 19 educational "specialists."  Each offers a freebie which is easily obtained after you like their FB page; then you can continue on to the next stop.

 

      On my Gentle Shepherd Facebook page, I'm offering Picture and Writing: Younger Ages as a freebie through Saturday night.  Just click on the "Facebook Frenzy" tab-- it looks like this:

 

 

Then you can click to see who is next, and go on to as many others in the loop as you'd like.

 

 

 

Since the FB Frenzy lasts for awhile, you don't have to be in a rush to go to all the pages at once.  But some people like me, who are task-oriented, might like to do it this way.  Once I got in a rhythm of clicking to like, accessing and saving, clicking to the next stop, I wanted to just go through the entire loop.

 

But it isn't a race-- you can start and stop at any time . . .  That said, here's one place to start-- 

 

Gentle Shepherd FB page: www.facebook.com/GentleShep

Bruchko

     "Read this book," my adult daughter told me.  She said, "it's about a 19-year-old who does what God says, and goes to a South American jungle by himself."

     I was curious; this sounded like an unusual thing for a 19-year-old to do; not sure if I'd be happy about my own kids going on such an adventure . . .  but I read the book as a read-aloud with my 13-yr-old son, and it is an amazing story.

     Bruchko, by Bruce Olson, tells about a man (Bruce himself-- it is an autobiography) who lives nearly all of his adult life with a certain Indian tribe in South America-- the Motilones.  There is danger and hardship-- but Bruce learns to know the Motilones, helps them with medical needs, and enters into their society.  This was a tribe no westerner had ever been able to visit without losing his life, and Bruce had come close to being another statistic . . . but God had other plans.

     This story describes the customs and beliefs of this native tribe in the Columbian jungle, and tells how "Bruchko" (their name for Bruce) learns to communicate.  It tells the incredible story of how the Motilones also come to meet Christ himself-- not because Bruce has made them western, taking away their native culture and forcing his beliefs on them; he did none of those things.  This is a story that instead demonstrates that the message of Christ is not a "western religion"-- it can be received and embraced by diverse people groups, even a remote and primitive tribe-- and expressed in unique cultural ways-- because it is for all people.