Monday, July 2, 2018

How to Make a Wood Burned Leather Bookmark

Some time ago, I bought a package of leather scraps from RSVPhandcrafted on etsy, so that I could introduce crafting with leather to Syd. Leather isn't a material that I, personally, have a ton of interest in, but Syd is a gifted artist and an avid crafter, and it's one of my homeschool goals to introduce her to as many facets of arts and crafts as possible.

Unsurprisingly, she took to leather crafting like a natural!

To make a wood burned leather bookmark, first use sturdy scissors to cut a bookmark out of leather. I used another bookmark (we make them often!) as the template.

Next, use a pencil to make your pattern. It's helpful to decide what tip on the wood burner you're going to want to use, so that your pencil marks are suitable. You can get quite narrow and detailed lines with the right tip, but Syd wanted to use something a little wider, so made sure to make her lines suitably wide.

Then get out the wood burner and trace over your pattern!


You'll notice that Syd does the busy mom trick of listening to her audiobook with only one headphone on--the other is off her ear so that she can participate in conversations. It means she only pays half-attention to whatever is going on, but like her sister (and, frankly, like me...) she's gotta feed that brain with stories or she'll squirm out of her skin!


Here's the part that I think is the coolest: after you've finished wood burning the leather, you can get a set of permanent markers (Sharpies would work, but here Syd is using Prismacolors) and embellish the bookmark.

Notice that Syd has another piece of scrap leather by her side to test colors, because the tan leather gives unexpected results, sometimes:


Finally, you can use an eyelet setter, an awl, or the wood burner to put a hole near the top of the bookmark, then thread through embroidery floss and knot it. And then admire your bookmark, because doesn't it look pretty!


We have so many books constantly going in our family, that making bookmarks is somewhat of a collective obsession of ours. Here are some other bookmark projects that we like a lot:

  • Upcycle a coloring book page into a bookmark. I love these for preserving the sweet coloring pages that the children complete, without adding another thing to my stack of keepsakes.
  • cardboard record album bookmark. The duct tape is optional for this project; I generally only use it if the back of the album cover looks gross.
  • upcycled cross stitch bookmark. I buy a ton of old picture frames at Goodwill, and this one had an elaborate, but not to my taste, cross stitch creation framed in it. So I gave it new life!
  • upcycled Girl Scout cookie boxes. Seasonally, we have endless supplies of these, and so we have endless supplies of bookmarks made from them!
  • favorite quote bookmark. This is a fun way to fancy up plain cardboard for a bookmark.
  • comic book bookmarks. These are my favorite!
  • downloadable coloring page bookmarks. It's actually easy to find bookmark templates online for printing in cardstock and coloring in. We found lots of ones for TV shows and comics that we love.
  • secret bookmarks. This isn't a bookmark tutorial, but when Syd was a Brownie, the Take Action Project for her World of Girls Journey was these "secret bookmarks" that she hid in library books in the children's department of our local public library. It was such a clever project, and so perfectly suited to a Girl Scout her age!
I don't have concrete plans for the rest of the leather scraps in the package that I bought, although Syd has made other bookmarks and a few other projects. If you think of something else awesome that we should do with leather scraps, let me know!

P.S. I post more WIP pics and crafting and homeschool resources every day over on my Craft Knife Facebook page. Come find me!

Saturday, June 30, 2018

How to Make a Decoupaged Wooden Plaque Jewelry Holder



I freelance over at Crafting a Green World, an eco-friendly crafting blog. Every now and then, on a non-regular basis, I'll share one of my favorite tutorials with you..

...such as this one! I originally published this decoupaged wooden plaque jewelry holder over here on Crafting a Green World.


 

Want a lovely way to display a few special pieces of jewelry without having to make even more room on your crowded dresser? Why not hang them from this handmade, decoupaged jewelry holder made from a wooden plaque? Here's what you'll need to make this super cute--and super useful!--project:
  • Wooden plaque. You can buy these new from craft stores, although you'll want to be aware of the provenance of store-bought wood. An even better option is a thrifted wood plaque--I dare you to find someone's old commemorative award plaque and make it over!
  • Acrylic paint. Both craft and artist's acrylics work for this project. Use whatever you like!
  • Paper to decoupage. For this particular set of wooden plaque jewelry holders, I'm using comic book pages (in case you haven't figured it out yet, I loooove to craft with comic books!). Scrapbook paper is another great choice, especially as it tends to be acid-free, but I wouldn't let a worry about archival-quality paper confine you from the really cool paper of your choice.
  • Mod Podge and paintbrush. This is all the glue you'll need for all parts of the project. Mod Podge rocks!
  • Cup hooks. These little hooks are cheap to buy and easy to screw into your plaque.


1. Paint the sides of the wooden plaque. If you're upcycling a wooden plaque that has previously been sealed or varnished, you'll likely have to prime the plaque, or at least sand it before you can paint it the color of your choice. You only need to paint the sides, as the front will be covered by your paper, but there's no harm in painting onto the top edge, as I did.

  

2. Fussy-cut the image for the front of the plaque. To get the correct template for the front of the plaque, I lay a piece of paper--usually, the paper that I'll be using--over the front of the plaque, and then press my fingernail along the edge of the plaque, creasing the paper in its exact outline. When that is done, all I have to do is cut along the creases, and I'll have a perfect template of the plaque's front! Make sure that the placement of any design on your paper is exactly where you'd like it to sit on the plaque before you cut.

3. Glue the paper to the front of the plaque. Paint a thin layer of Mod Podge onto the plaque, and then place the paper. Wipe away any excess glue from the edges of the plaque.

  

4. Screw in the cup hook. Store-bought wood plaque blanks are made of wood so soft that you can easily screw a cup hook in by hand. If you're upcycling a plaque made from harder wood, pre-drill the hole, then screw the hook in by hand.

  

5. Seal the paper with several layers of Mod Podge. Mod Podge will seal the surface of the paper, make it wipeable, and, if you choose the glossy kind, make it shiny!

  

 I LOVE the way that these decoupaged plaques look as jewelry holders; group them and hold all of your necklaces and bracelets, or just mount one or two among the rest of your wall art and turn your very favorite pieces into your new favorite display!

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

I Took the Kids to Dayton for Fighter Jets, Possums, and Doughnuts

Dayton, Ohio, is only three hours from our hometown, but this is just the second time that the kids and I have visited. We've gone several times to the similarly distant cities of St. Louis, Chicago, and Louisville, but it's only been the last year or so that I've been discovering all that there is to do in Ohio.

And it's not even entirely all about the airplanes!

Well, I guess technically it was all about the airplanes last time we visited Dayton, and it was all about the airplanes for part of this visit, too. I made our first stop the National Museum of the US Air Force, because I'd heard great things about it when I was researching.

It's completely free, people said. It's better than the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, they claimed.

It IS completely free! And it IS better than the Smithsonian!

Check this out! It's part of the malfunctioning propeller that caused the crash of the Wright Flyer, killing Lt. Selfridge. We learned a lot about this last year at the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, but I had no idea that there were still artifacts from it!
 



The kids studied aeronautical charts as part of earning their Girl Scout Cadette Aviation badges, so I made sure that they saw this early example of an aeronautical chart. Can you tell that the route is basically just following railroad tracks? Brilliant, because it's a direct route and allows for visual navigation.

Here's another awesome exhibit. We've studied World War 2 three times in our homeschool (with a fourth run-through scheduled for next year), and once we even spent an evening LARPing the London Blitz. So it was super cool and interesting to see one of the bombs from that Blitz! See the tubes around the sides? Air moving through those as the bomb fell would make a screaming sound, just to make the bomb even scarier.

The kids are supposed to be looking terrified about entering Communist Russia, but I think Syd might be a collaborator...

We didn't have the whole day to spend here, so each kid got to choose one gallery to explore. Syd chose Early Aviation, and Will chose this gallery of the Cold War.

And then I made them pose with a thermonuclear bomb!



Check out the spy stuff! All of these artifacts have listening devices embedded in them. There were plugs, and a watch, and an umbrella, all with hidden microphones!

And these are things that have secret compartments to hold spy stuff! My favorite was the coin with a secret compartment, specially weighted so that it still felt like a real coin.




I found my favorite plane! It's the SR-71 Blackbird. I wish I still had my die-cast metal model of it from when I was a kid.



This is another awesome jet, the F-117 Nighthawk. Stealth planes are my favorite.




Syd was getting progressively louder about afternoon snacks and hands-on museums by the time we'd explored both kids' galleries of choice, so we headed to the car for sandwiches, and then to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery for the rest of the afternoon:




Look what we found--informative posters created by Girl Scout troops! I bet anything that these posters were created by Brownies as the TAP for the Wonders of Water Journey.



There was a really interesting exhibit on the intersection of geology and myths.


And there was an entire small zoo on the second floor!


I love to see how captivated the children are by animals. 



Look how busy the sloth is! It was coming over to eat that carrot stick, and after it had munched it down, it fell back asleep. A woman standing next to me said, to no one in particular, "The sloth is my spirit animal."
Syd has a thing about doughnut shops, so I try to find one for her wherever we travel. This time, we left Boonshoft, found Jim's Donut Shop less than a mile from our motel, and bought ourselves each something delicious. Then it was to the motel for doughnuts and dinner (mostly consisting of doughnuts...) and swimming.

And it turns out that if you're swimming in a motel's outdoor pool a mile from the airport where the Blue Angels are performing tomorrow, then the Blue Angels just might be out for some practice flights while you're swimming. And if they are, they just might buzz your swimming pool!

Monday, June 25, 2018

Take Your Kids to an Air Show

I took my kids to the Dayton Air Show, and it. Was. AWESOME!

The trip was somewhat spontaneous, in that I *only* started planning it a month or so ago. Will's interest in Aviation Challenge led us all down the rabbit-trail of aerospace studies, including the girls working on earning this Girl Scout Cadette Aviation badge. When I started researching activities for that, I suddenly remembered something that I haven't thought about in probably 20 years, at least: when I was Will's age, I was really into airplanes, too! How could I have forgotten that?

I think my love of astronomy, turned into a love of astronauts and then the space program, was my gateway, because I found Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff and read it, and it's just as much about the astronaut's careers as test pilots as about their careers as astronauts. I read The Wild Blue, too, and loved it, and Catch-22, and didn't really understand it. I pored over those glossy coffee table books of fighter jets, and oh, my gosh, I actually owned little die-cast metal airplanes. I was for sure older than Will. Wow, I really have been a dork my entire life, haven't I?

Most of all, though, I loved the air show that my little hometown used to host every year at their tiny regional airport. It was also an Air National Guard base, and the big draw was always that they got the Thunderbirds to come and perform every year. I remember going when I was little enough that Pappaw took me, and going when I was big enough that I took myself and met up with friends there.

So when I was researching enrichment activities for exploring aviation with the kids, it was only natural that I'd look to see if there were any air shows around here this summer. And when I found one, only three hours away, it was only natural that I'd get us tickets.

And that's how we ended up back in Dayton, hanging out at the airport, at the kids' very first air show and my first air show in at least twenty years. Squeal!

We spent a few hours in the morning touring all of the aircraft on the ground, and still didn't see everything:



The kids thought that it was really cool to be able to actually see inside the cockpit of this American Eagle. You don't think much about it, but kids these days don't get to see the cockpits of commercial jets:


They also quite enjoyed sitting in the first class seats and pretending to be fancy. "Bring me some champagne!" Syd called, in her snootiest voice.



Look what we can see in the distance!



It's the Blue Angels!


This is a big FedEx plane. The kids were the most impressed with the cargo lift:




The FedEx pilots have a MUCH roomier cockpit than the American Eagle pilots do!


This plane was super cool:


It's the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, with a classroom, exam room, surgery, and recovery room all inside:




We didn't tour half of what you could see--


--or get enough time to check out the Air Force band--


--before it was time to fly!

Syd was very dubious about this entire trip, going so far as to call it "Mom's weekend" to make clear that it was me forcing my children off on a self-indulgent getaway. She dragged her feet through the Air Force Museum we'd visited the day before (more on that another time!), perked up for the hands-on museum we'd visited afterwards, was happy about the special doughnut shop I'd found, but declared the motel swimming pool that she'd been looking forward to was "too cold," was disappointed--not bratty about it, but still disappointed--that I wouldn't buy the children frozen lemonade or tickets for the jump houses, and rather sulked her way through touring all of the ground aircraft.

This was not her thing, she tried to make perfectly clear. She was trooping, but she was not having fun.

And yet, about a minute into the opening ceremonies--








--this was her face--



--and I assure you that it remained so for the next four and a half hours.

Everything was completely thrilling. The US Army Golden Knights had smoke bombs on their feet:




I'm bummed that I don't remember who this stunt pilot was--I guess I should have bought the $5 program!

 


This, though, was the Memphis Belle recreation. I don't think I've ever seen a bomber in flight before. It was suitably impressive:


Here's Redline, another duo of stunt pilots:




Here are our seats. I paid more for "pavilion" seating, which meant that we got special parking, a shuttle bus, and a table, chairs, and umbrella. It was for sure worth it, especially after we saw how crowded the general viewing area was--the kids wouldn't have been able to see a thing, and I'd have been anxious and miserable jockeying to get them a view.



I'd thought that the Blue Angels would be everyone's favorite, but this stunt pilot, Vicky Benzing, was Syd's actual favorite. She was thrilled to see a female stunt pilot in action!



This was Will's favorite, and possibly my secret favorite, too, although I just can't bring myself to say that I didn't love the Blue Angels the best. This, though, is the F-22 Raptor, the coolest plane in the world right now:


My photos of it aren't very interesting, because it was too fast and didn't leave contrails, but imagine it screaming around overhead, crazy loud, afterburners glowing, knowing it wasn't even showing off a tenth of what it could do.



When I was looking at the schedule of the air show, I side-eyed the "Tora! Tora! Tora!" show, because somebody turned the bombing of Pearl Harbor into entertainment? I guess it's been long enough that we can do that?

I guess it has been, because it was super cool!


You actually did get the effect of total chaos in the sky, with the planes diving and things exploding and an air raid siren going off and the announcer screaming a play-by-play:




The Screamin' Sasquatch performed while the air cleared--




--and then, when we could not possibly get more hyped, we got the Blue Angels!












I can't even explain to you how beautiful their performance was. You have to go to your own air show and see them. The kids later told me that they'd preferred the more chaotic stunt pilots, but they did admit that nothing compared to the Blue Angels' impeccable choreography. It was breathtaking.



And that was the kids' first air show! Four hours later, we were back at home with Matt, the dog, both cats, and all the chickens, nothing but sunburns, smiles, and a thousand photographs to show we'd ever been away.

Except that Syd finally admitted that she'd had a lot of fun. And Will has a favorite fighter jet now. And I have a new connection between my children and a happy part of my own childhood that I thought I'd left behind long ago.

And I put The Right Stuff on hold for me at the library, so that I can re-read it yet one more time, and then pass it on to Will.

P.S. Want to see the selfie that I took after I lost BOTH of my children at the hands-on museum in Dayton? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page, because it's really embarrassing!