The Next Craft Cafe - THIS Sunday, June 24th, 7 - 9 PM

Hi Everyone!! It is time for the next Craft Cafe...

Calling all green thumbs…the next Craft Cafe project is a small indoor/outdoor herb garden. Herbs are easy and fun to grow, good for your body (aid in digestion) and give all of your meals that extra pizzazz. This is an awesome project for those of us in the Rockies that find a hard time growing herbs outside with our limited growing season. Herb gardens are perfect for small spaces too, and are a lot of fun to create, so bring your kids. Any old pots, vintage milk cans, tin cans or interesting glassware would be great options to recycle into cute herb garden containers.

This workshop is on Sunday,  June 24th, 7 - 9 PM, Wild Flour Cafe in Banff (211 Bear Street in the Bison Courtyard)

Cost: For $30 you can pick a clay pot, stones, organic soil & fertilizer, 3 organic herb choices (options will include mint, thyme, parsley, sage, basil, oregano, rosemary) and a few items to make unique herb markers and decorate your pot.

Please sign up and PAY at the Wild Flour prior to the class. Advanced registration only. Please contact Tiffany if you would rather register using Paypal or Interact E-transfer.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Contact:
Tiffany oldesage@hotmail.com
Sheena sheenz6@hotmail.com

365 Days With Kiddos - #37 - Make "Stained Glass" Hearts Using Crayon Shaving

The first time my daughter used a crayon sharpener she got so into it that we decided to sharpen every crayon we own. This, of course, produced a large pile of crayon shavings. I seemed to remember using these in a craft when I was a child, and after thinking on it a bit, I remembered putting them between pieces of wax paper, ironing, and making "stained glass". This is a great way to recycle and upcycle your crayon shavings.

How to Make a Stained Glass Heart (or any other shape) With Crayon Shavings
By Tiffany Teske
For all ages (children will need adult supervision when using the iron)

You will need:
- crayons that need to be sharpened
- a crayon or pencil sharpener
- wax paper
- a cereal box cardboard for making a template
- an iron
- a dish towel
Optional - a table top or standing ironing board to iron on (we just ironed on the counter on top of the dish towel)
Optional - foil ribbon, glitter, confetti, or anything else you would like to add.

Instructions:

1) Create a template in the shape that you want the wax paper to be. We used a heart we saved from a box of chocolates from several years ago. You can preheat the iron now. We used it on a medium high setting since we ironed through the dish towel.

2) Cut two pieces of wax paper to a size that the template will fit onto.

3) Put the template on top of the wax paper and trace. Repeat on the other sheet.

4) Cut out the shapes along the traced lines.

5) Cut out pieces of ribbon to sandwich into your heart.

6) Place one of the wax paper pieces on top of half of the dish towel. Place ribbon snippets, crayon shavings, and any other optional items on top of the wax paper.

7) Place the other wax paper piece on top of the other. Fold the empty side of the dish towel over on top of the wax paper sandwich.

8) Iron, with the steam setting off, on top of the towel, checking from time to time to see if the crayon shaving are melting in the sandwich.

Iron....

Iron a bit more...

9) When the shaving have melted, remove the dish towel and admire your art work! Tape it to the window using clear tape.

Do you know a variation on this craft? If so, please leave it in the comment below. You could make these smaller, put them on a string, and hand them out as Valentines...

The Next Craft Cafe - Come Revamp a Trucker Hat

It’s a long haul on the open road… Ever wanted to design your very own hat? Come make one-of-a-kind hand stitched trucker hats featuring your own choice of a vintage stitched fabric panel. These unique hats have so many ways to stylize them… add funky fabric, recycled buttons, feathers, gems- the sky is the limit.

Come out and craft on Friday, January 27th, from 7 - 9 PM, at Wild Flour Bakery in Banff (201B 211 Bear Street in the Bison Courtyard). Remember to bring any of your own favorite patches, or neat fabric to up-cycle! The Wild Flour will be open for delicious snacks, and drinks. Cost: 30$ Please sign up and PRE-PAY at the Wild Flour or request a Paypal invoice from Tiffany. This activity will fill fast. Space is limited. Spread the word and bring a style-savy friend. Remember, if you bring a new participant you get a $5 discount or can give it as a donation to the YMCA. :) Contacts: Sheena sheenz6@hotmail.com Tiffany oldesage@hotmail.com

The Next Craft Cafe - Cool Upcycled Scrabble Tile Pendants - August 14th, 2011

At Craft Cafe, we just can't seem to get enough of making awesome jewellery... next up, Scrabble Tile Pendants. I started making these several years ago, and this was one of 4 different crafts that I make that were featured in 1000 Idea for Creative Reuse by Garth Johnson (Quarry Books). Come learn how to upcycle Scrabble Tiles into personalized pendants or leave them as-is and wear your initials. These make great gifts and since this workshop only costs $20 to make TWO pendants, you can make one for you and one for a friend... PLUS you can make additional pendants for $5 each!

If you would like to use your own personal image it must be less than one inch square and printed with a non smudging ink, ideally a color copier print. We will have plenty of images and sources for images on hand, so if you don't have an image to use, just bring yourself, we have it covered!

The Wild Flour will be open for delicious snacks, and drinks.

Cost: 2 pendants for $20, additional pendants $5

Payment is considered registration. Please sign up at the Wild Flour to confirm your spot. Space is limited. If you prefer to pay via Paypal, please contact me in a comment below and I can email you a Paypal invoice.

Bring a friend, bring your kids, bring your mom...

See you there!

365 Days With Kiddos - #2 - Your Child's Drawings and Paintings - An Awesome Birthday Card/Wall Hanging Project

Yesterday, I started my 365 Days With Kiddos posts with a post on repurposing your child's artwork into cards, stationary, and envelopes. Today, I want to share a project with you that my friend, Dominique and her kids made for my daughter's 4th birthday. On very stiff paper, I would suggest a 300 lb watercolor paper, Dom had her kids paint with watercolors. Once it was dry, she cut the first initial of Quin's name out of the paper (Quin's "Q" is 13" x 17"). She then used the left over parts from the painting to cut out Quin's age, the first initials of her kids' names and the words "happy" and "love", which they then glued onto the front of the "card". So simple and so pretty! This was my absolute favorite thing that Quin received at her birthday party. It is on her bedroom door so we can look at it several times a day. Thanks for the awesome idea, Dominique and your wonderful kiddos!

365 Days With Kiddos - #1 - Your Child's Drawings and Paintings - Repurposing Them Into Cards, Stationary, & Envelopes

Happy Labour Day! It seems like a good day to start my 365 posts. Each post is an idea from our home to yours on ways you and your children can live a more creative life each day. These are all ideas we have used or regularly use in our home. Some are simple and require just a few minutes and some are more complex, requiring an afternoon or weekend. Most do not require purchasing special items but instead focus on activities that are little or no cost, often recycling or repurposing (upcycling) items you already have or can find at thrift stores and yard sales. I don't know which one is the best one to start with so I am just going to dive right in... To enrich each post with ideas and inspiration, please feel free to add your comments, links, and ideas.

Most children produce a plethora of drawings, paintings, and other 2-D visual art pieces. Home, school, and daycare, are just a few of the many places our kids make art, and our homes become filled with these amazing creations. Over the next few days I will give you my ideas on ways to view, store, and repurpose these works of art.

The simplest way to repurpose your child's art work is to make cards, stationary, and envelopes out of them. We keep a stack of Quin's art just for this purpose. When it is time to give a birthday card, to send a thank you card, or to write to my grandmother, we go to the pile and select a drawing or painting. For stationary we cut the painting or drawing down to a managable size and then cut out sheets using our rotary cutter (since I am unable to draw and cut a straight line to save my life!). If you prefer, you can always trace a template piece of stationary or use a straight edge to mark off the larger sheet to the smaller size you want, then cut it all out with a scissor. For cards, we cut out the part of the painting we want to be on the card, then fold. Voila! I often use stray envelopes that I have from old card and stationary sets, but we also make envelopes that match the cards. A great place for envelope templates is Mirkwood Designs. The templates are free to use and there are so many of them that just browsing is sure to inspire you to try other projects. Ruthann, of Mirkwood Designs, also has a blog. Friends and family will be happy to receive a personal card from your child. Have fun!

Nalgene Upcycle Challenge

Today was the day. I have known for some time that Nalgene bottles can leach toxins into our drinking water. Yet, I thought that it would be fine if I just took precautions, like not letting water sit in them for more than the day and not putting them in the dishwasher (not really sure if either of these help). I have been meaning to get around to buying new water bottles for all of us, but due to expense, and feeling like our Nalgene bottles were still in great shape (which makes me feel bad about buying new ones), I had not. Then, my husband came home and mentioned how they are recalling Nalgene bottles and it got me in gear. Andre tends to think everything will be fine and poo poo health warnings he is not sure of, so if he is concerned, I better be!

The thing that disappoints me about Nalgene is the deception. They sell them at MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) a health enthusiast's favorite store. Something about that makes it seem like they are being not only recommended but endorsed by a company that values health and active lifestyles.

The truth is that most Nalgene bottles contain #7 plastics, which are dangerous in drinking containers, due to Bisphenol A.

As Reuters reports:

Bisphenol A is added to hard, clear polycarbonate plastics like those used in reusable water bottles and baby bottles, as well as the resins lining food cans and in some dental amalgams and sealants, said Aaron Freeman, policy and campaign director at Environmental Defence, an environmental advocacy group.

Research on lab animals has linked the chemical to changes to the genital tract, prostate enlargement, declined testosterone levels, pre-cancerous breast cells, prostate cancer, early puberty in females and hyperactivity.

Nalgene does make recyclable 12 oz bottle that is made from non-leaching plastic (see photo above)


Today, I went to Silver Spoon, a children's new and consignment shop in Canmore, to buy Klean Kanteen water bottles.

"Klean Kanteens are made from #304 stainless steel, the material of choice in the food processing, dairy, and brewery industries. Stainless steel is easy to clean, durable, inert, sanitary, toxin-free, and non-leaching."

Stainless steel bottles outlast plastic ones. And they don't take on odors. The only thing about these bottles is that you can't put hot beverages in them. But we have a couple stainless steel coffee mugs. I am happy to have made this change. We are ready for our upcoming road trip with our 12 oz sippy cup, and 18 & 27 oz bottles.

So now, I throw down the guantlet, and I hope you will rise to the challenge. First, dump your Nalgene bottle for a Klean Kanteen. Second, come up with a way to recycle your old Nalgene bottles. I thought about donating mine to the local thrift store, but then felt awful. I don't want to put other people at risk. So, I need to come up with a way to reuse and upcycle my bottles, three in all. There are obvious uses, such storing items in them. But, I am hoping to get more creative. And I am hoping to hear from others. Please leave a comment here if you have ideas. And send images to me at tiffany@oldesage.com.

Blame is On Sheasy

So I am going to "blame" my latest creation on Sheasy. She was the inspiration so I will thank her rather than blame her.



I made this for my friend who just had a little girl. The current pic is of my daughter when she was a new babe. I am going to replace it with a gift certificate for a photography session for my friend's little one. As some of you may know, before moving to Banff, I owned my own portrait photography business where I went to the homes of my clients and shot black and white images of them. You can still see this on my website, which is badly in need of a revamp... Whoa, got off the subject there. Thanks, Sheas!

Changing The Face of Time

A very very long time ago, as is often the case, I saw this craft, and thought, "Someday, I will do that". I even bought the clocks, one from Ikea and one from the thrift shop. And "someday" came this week!!



I would have to say this craft consists mostly of picking a beautiful paper, tracing the circle from the old clock face, and being something of a clock maker. The thing that took the longest, and to me was the most fun, was taking apart and putting back together the clock. For someone who is not always patient, I am actually really surprised how much I got into it. I was able to pull everything apart and to remember how it all went back together. And I didn't break anything. It was actually quite relaxing. The alarm clock was much more difficult than the wall clock. But it, too, is back together, AND IT WORKS! I love the confidence I get from completing a craft (or project, series, etc) that I set out to do. And it is great to bring those new skills forward to a challenge.

I plan to recycle/upcycle any decent clocks I can find with this technique...