Category: Craft

Coloring sheets

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

My youngest loves coloring books, but it is difficult for her to find uncolored pages in the bound books after a while. I took my heavy duty guillotine paper cutter and cut off the spine of the coloring book, freeing the pages so they could be sorted into colored and uncolored.

Photo description: 400 page capacity guillotine paper cutter with a deconstructed coloring book, with a colored page and uncolored page pulled out of the stack

My youngest was pleasantly surprised with the fresh stack of ready-to-color sheets, and I was pleased with how fast and clean the cutter worked. Tearing sheets out of a book is often messy and frustrating. By cutting a 1/4 inch off the spine, the pages are freed from the glue easily.

Once my concept was proved, my youngest agreed to let me process the rest of the books. Any book that only had one or two colored pages I left alone, but the books that were mostly colored were cut and sorted.

Photo description: hanging organizer with coloring books at the top and individual coloring sheets at the bottom

I now also have a stack of colored sheets that can be displayed and scanned easily for posterity.

Throwback Thursday: doodled fish

On By CarynIn Craft, throwback

In June of 2016 I was experimenting with the 3Doodler, a pen shaped device that extrudes hot plastic, like a 3D printer, but hand driven rather than computer driven. I decided to make a walleye fish, for my Dad, to experiment with construction.

Photo description: getting started, with the 3Doodler pen on the right, doll eyes, sheet of glass for flat components, and a glass drinking glass for curved components, along with a reference illustration
Photo description: body constructed and onto the fins, it worked best for me to make the component, then attach it to the base rather than build up from the base, especially for the fins
Photo description: fish complete, but I wanted a better position than it resting on its pectoral fins
Photo description: translucent blue “waves” doodled flat then added as a base for the fish
Photo description: finished piece titled “Hooked” made from extruded plastic with a 3D doodler pen, red and white lure also doodled with plastic, then melted smooth, and plastic doll eyes

The biggest frustration with the project was the tool. The version of 3D doodler I was using needed more breaks than I did, and I would have to walk away and let it rest, which is not ideal in the middle of a creative storm.

Rewrapping a cat post

On By CarynIn Cats, Craft, Life Hack

The favorite scratching post in the house needed a fix-up.

Photo description: cat scratching post with the jute rope broken and falling off

When I last rewrapped this post, I took some of the carpet off the top to provide a higher area for scratching since I have longer cats. From the picture, it really wasn’t necessary, even the big cats scratch the middle of the post. To rewrap this time, I purchased 160 feet of 1/4 inch jute rope.

Photo description: bundle of jute rope, pliers, and a staple gun for the rewrap project

My future self is not going to be pleased with me, because as I wrapped the rope, I stapled it down on the back every few inches. Last time, I only stapled the top and bottom, which made it easy to remove, but I believe shortened the time of use. The last wrap lasted slightly less than a year.

The most helpful thing this time around was that my eldest held the rope above the scratching post, so it was easier for me to wrap the post from the bottom up smoothly.

Photo description: freshly jute rope wrapped cat scratching post

The new rope, while marketed as 1/4 inch, has a smaller diameter than the old rope, and a tighter twist. It will be interesting to see if it holds up better.

Throwback Thursday: New Year’s Day

On By CarynIn Craft

I went into my photo app and searched New Year’s Day for my throwback today. I found a quirky little project I did back in 2016, where I was experimenting with small alternating blocks of Tunisian crochet.

Photo description: four squares of Tunisian crochet connected as stitched, sometimes called “sew as you go”, made with red, green, and white variegated cotton yarn
Photo description: nine square swatch with a crochet border
Photo description: same nine square swatch, but labeled with the order number and if the rows were done from the right or left

I think the variegated yarn and Tunisian crochet made some interesting pooling variations. When I washed this swatch, though, it puckered and buckled aggressively, so I did not pursue the technique farther.

Happy New Year, may your year be filled with successful experiments!

Jumbo bobbin two

On By CarynIn Craft

I spun up three more bobbins of single spun Teeswater wool and plied them into a three ply yarn.

Photo description: three full bobbins on the bobbin storage shafts built into the Ashford Traveller wheel
Photo description: small bobbins depleted, one empty, two partially depleted
Photo description: three ply yarn on two jumbo bobbins, the left was done previously, the right recently plied

I think I have enough Teeswater roving to do one more jumbo bobbin of three-ply yarn, which means I will have to transfer yarn off a jumbo bobbin as I only have two. It will take me a while to spin though, so I don’t have to transfer yet.