Craft: Hand-made Hanging Decor

Another of my mom's crafts...

She made the Bird Hanging Decor when she came over for Ana's birth. Yep! My mom made these lovely pair of hanging bird decor four years ago and they have been adorning our living room since and I hadn't thought of posting it until now...

Basically, cut a template for the bird in thin cardboard or cardstock paper and have it handy as we need to make many similar pieces; then cut various fabrics to the required shape, sew it leaving a 2"-3" gap for stuffing; stuff with the usual poly/fiberfill stuffing used for baby toys; sew up the gap; decorate with ribbons and beads and what-not. Finally string a few of the stuffed-and-dressed birds together using beads to separate them evenly. Attach a cute little cowbell at the bottom and it becomes a gorgeous decoration for the home.

Of course, once my mom came to know that we were setting up an Ocean-themed room for Ana three years back, she had to make a few to go with the scheme. That's how the four Sea Creatures Hanging Decor with starfish, fish, crab and other sea creatures came about. These rustic-looking one-of-a-kind Sea Creatures Hanging Decor has been adding sweetness to Ana's favorite room.

Now, if we can settle on what Og's room is going to be,I am sure my mom will be eager to start something like this for his room as well. Of course, we are leaning towards waiting long enough so Og can bunk with Ana and we can just leave the kids in the same room and let them work it out...

I haven't attempted making these, it just seems too much work and I am a lazy craftswoman, I don't have the patience my mom has to think up patterns and sew it all by hand :) Someday I'd like to make these with Ana - maybe she'll do most of the work and I can just sit back and watch in awe!

Crafts: Stocking fabric creations

Little bits of stocking fabric, some thin craft wires, some tape, glue, fancy decorations and some imagination is all that is needed for this stocking fabric craft that my mom does on and off.



My mom made the butterflies with a little button magnet stuck on the back so it can adorn the fridge door. The flowers are just for fun, she said.

So, Ana and I decided to try our hand at this craft. Ana wanted to make a fish. Now, being my first, I didn't quite handle the body and fin joint well, so, this looks like a mutant fish, but, it was fun making it - took less than an hour. The frustrating part was to stretch the stocking fabric over the shaped wire. According to my mom, I should have stretched more, made it almost transparent. Well, maybe next time...



Ana helped stick on some of the decorations and we let it dry for a bit. Good old Fevicol™ works better than fabric glue, even fabric glue made for stretchy materials.

The raw materials were handy as my mom usually stocks up on her craft supplies.

Craft: Decorative Cylindrical Hangings

These gorgeous decorative hangings are another of my mom's creations, possibly inspired by some show or article in a magazine, she can't seem to remember...

It looked a bit daunting at first, but not anymore, not after my mom showed me how to do it. Perhaps there is a reason magicians don't reveal their trade secrets :)

Basically, take some velvet or felt-like fabric in two or three bright colors, cut into desired size strips, top triangular tapers, and shaped bottom fringes. Sew together as shown. Decorate to your heart's content. Even if the top triangles are not sewn right it is fine, mistakes barely show in this.



Then, join the long edges, right sides together and sew to form a tube-like piece. Decorate to cover the joined edge. Gather the top tapering triangles, sew a little ring or a piece of chain to hang from.

Now, the trick is to find a way to hold the cylindrical shape as the fabric will simply hang limp.

My mom used some of the old X-rays she had - simply roll the old X-ray films to desired size and push it inside the tube to hold shape.

Ideally, if using X-ray film for insert, measure the X-ray film first and then cut the fabric to match. Additionally, use some thermocol (polystyrene) from packaging - cut into cylinders or a few disks to hold the shape.

Else, some PVC tubes can be used. Even thin cardboard that will bend freely can be used. Or, for slimmer, smaller hangings (for practice) use 1 liter water bottles as inserts.

Just get creative!

Craft: Simple Tube Flowers

Now, my mom likes to try out different craft activities on and off. She patiently hunts and gathers the raw materials, tries out a few till she is satisfied, and puts it away to move on to another activity.

This here is one such simple thing she tried sometime back, before my visit. It looked quite pretty that I wanted to record it here.

Materials used: thin wires, colorful hollow designed tubes, green tape

Simply insert thin wires into the hollow colorful tubes and bend the wire to shape the petals. Group these petals in a flower shape, add the stem wire, and bind it all together with the green tape.