The Boy graduated from Pre-K the other day, and they made these cute graduation caps for them.  So I reverse engineered it (and improved upon it) to make it into a tutorial for you guys!

These mortar board caps are made from poster board and foam core… easy and fun to celebrate a graduation milestone.

Needed:

• Black foam core board – about 12 in square.
• Black poster board (cut to 22 in wide x 6 in tall)
• Gold fringe and gold floss (60 inches)
• 1 gold colored brad
• Staples & glue

Hat:

From your strip of black poster board, measure down 2.5 inches, and fold. Then and cut 6-8 slits straight down to to the fold from one side.  (See photo – note, photo shows an example using paper, not posterboard.) [Click the photos to see larger]

Staple hat together into appropriate size. (See second photo below).

Center on the square of foam core, and glue down.

Tassel

Take 48-60 inches of gold floss, and double, and double again, so you have 4 strands.  Knot each end.

You  have two options here.  Either use a 4 inch piece of gold trim, as shown here, or just make a tassel using gold floss.

Fringe version: roll up a length of fringe, then tie with the end of a of your floss.

Putting it together

Use the pointy end of the brad to make a small hole in the center of your foam core.  Use a toothpick to press the knot in one end of your floss through the hole.  Position the tassel string so that 1 inch or so of the string falls down over the side of the hat.  Inside the hat, knot the tassel string if necessary to secure.  Stick your brad through the hole in the top of the hat to secure the string as well.

You may trim off the excess floss from the inside of the hat if desired.

Here are the cookies I made as shower favors.  They weren’t overly difficult, but a tad time consuming. I’ll post the recipe in a later post if anyone is interested, but basically it’s a non-leavened sugar cookie, covered with royal icing.  With small skewers for sticks, inserted before the cookie is baked.

The octopus is drawn on freehand, and it doesn’t take artistic talent… Everyone is cute, unique, and just a little bit ‘wopty’!

See below for the how to.

The Base

First just ice the white circles.  There’s many good tutorials for this, but they generally involve using a stiffer icing around the edge, and filling in the center with a more runny version.  I didn’t do that neat a job with mine.  Let that harden before you do the octopus.

Here’s a great tutorial from Wisdom of the Moon on working with royal icing, with a ton of pictures, so you can get the idea.

How to draw the octopus head and arms.

You’ll need your royal icing to be a little runny (but not as much as fill icing typically is), so that it will expand to fill a little bit, but not too runny or it will just flatten out (leading to fat legged octopuses without as much dimension).  Add a little water to thin, and practice on a spare cookie or parchment. Let them dry before you move on to the real ones, as it may take a few minutes for the icing to flatten.  If the icing doesn’t merge together when you draw two lines next to each other, then thin it a bit and test again.

Now, here’s a picture of how to draw the octopus – it’s just 4 lines.  The head is created when the lines merge together.

Adding Accents

You can decorate the octos any way you want, but I’d suggest at least adding eyes.  Here’s what I did.

Eyes: 2 large drops of white icing, topped with tiny dots of blue.

Spots:  Random drops of blue

As you can see, they are all different, and not quite perfect, but that really added to the charm.

If you try this, I’d love to see!

You might also like…

I just realized I never posted the actual finished invitation, but the illustration for the invitation is here, along with instructions on doing a quick neat photoshop coloring job:

Published on: Feb 2, 2011

My FedEx Out of Office blog post is up for March, and I almost forgot to share it with you guys before St. Patrick’s Day!   This is a fun printable (with Dot artwork, naturally!) that your kids can fold up and have fun sharing with their friends.

You remember these from grade school, right?  You would make them out of a piece of notebook paper, then play with them telling fortunes until they were confiscated by a mean teacher!  We always just called them fortune tellers, but according to the internet, they are also known as Cootie Catchers.

I’ve got the printable and the instructions on how to fold it up, if you’re a little rusty, over at FedEx Out of Office.

EDIT: Apparently the FedEx blog is kaput, so here are the instructions! 

This is a fun project if you’d like an inexpensive way to make your own “canvas print”, and you like a retro, old fashioned feel.  It makes a great gift, too (like the one used in the tutorial, a great wedding momento!)

I did this for my December post on FedEx’s Out of Office blog.  It is easy to do, but be warned it is a bit time consuming when you get to the final step of removing the paper from the canvas, so I wouldn’t go any larger than 8×10″ for this project.

The photo for this project is by the fabulous Sarah Howell, of Kimball Bates Photography (recently relocated to North Carolina, for my readers up there–I highly recommend her!)

Tutorial Summary: Retro Canvas Print

Basically, you just need an inexpensive canvas, acrylic gel medium, and a image you want to use.  For the image you’ll need it slightly larger or the same size as your canvas.  Use an image editing program to reverse the image (so you have a mirror image) and to size your image appropriately.  Then you can have it color laser printed or get a color photocopy.

You’re going to adhere the image to the canvas (face side down) using the gel medium.  When it is dry, you’ll remove the paper from the canvas, leaving just the color.  You’d definitely have areas where the color doesn’t stay, hence the weathered, retro look.  You can then cover the whole thing with gel medium for a finished look.

Full Instructions, with photos (and Lessons learned)

I’ve got all the step by step instructions up at the FedEx Out of Office blog: Retro Photo Canvas Tutorial.

Also, a few lessons learned, based on trying this a few times:

• Like I mentioned, smaller is better due to the time consuming nature of the final steps.  It can take multiple (like 6!) times of rubbing the paper off the canvas.   Let it thoroughly dry after you think you have it all removed, then you’ll see more paper fibres.  Keep rubbing!
• Try a small test piece first.
• Experiment! You might find that it’s better to let the paper NOT dry all the way, and then just try peeling the paper off.  When I’ve done similar projects before (but with B&W photocopies) I’ve found that it was much easier, and worked just as well.  But with color I think it’s better to wait til it’s bone dry, which means much more work getting all the paper off.  But, it’s worth a try to attempt some experiments and see what works best for you.
• Related to that, here’s the technique I’ve used where you don’t let the paper dry all the way: Wooden Photo Ornaments

So way back in 2008, one of the first big “experiments in craft” I did for Dabbled was what I called the Shrinky Dink Test Lab.  I had run across the idea for using #6 plastic to make homemade shrink plastic (aka ‘Shrinky Dinks’) at various places on the crafty webs, but I decided to delve a little deeper.  I started with a basic project (Doodle Charm Earrings), and that led to other questions.  What about coloring with other materials like colored pencils?  How do you seal your plastic afterwards so the marker doesn’t rub off?  And successes and failures in all this also led to interesting effects that could be achieved.

So flash forward to 2012.   Blogs are prettier and fancier now, and more professional looking.  We have Pinterest and Facebook and all kinds of visually focused sharing tools.  The technology is cooler now.  Dabbled gets a bunch more traffic than it did back then.  I ran across a really cute tutorial to make a shrinky bracelet and it made me look back  at  these old Shrinky Dink Test Lab posts and they just look so ….old.   Well, I’m not going to totally redo them or anything, but I did think that perhaps an index of them was in order, for better referencing in the future, and maybe some pretty graphics, too –in case you guys..um…I don’t know… wanna Pin this? ;)

Part 1: HOW TO- Doodle Charms – Jewelry from recycled plastic

This section is a good basic tutorial on how to make shrinky jewerly from old takeout containers, with just sharpies, scissors, a hole punch, and a bit of creativity.  Be sure to read the comments, there are extra tips there about how long to heat them, and whether there are issues with fumes, and some other good points.

Part 2: What would happen if..? (The Shrinky Dink Test Lab)

This section is the first of the experiments.  We cover several cool ideas, like drawing on the front and back of the plastic.  Also we tried several ways of sealing the charm, which produced different effects.  You could totally incorporate these effects into your design.  The comments include several good suggestions for other methods of sealing the shrinky.

Part 3: More experimentation in the Shrinky Dink Test Lab

The second day of odd experiments included what would happen if you sealed the shrinky PRIOR to shrinking, as well as a really neat effect using spraypaint.  We also shrink non-flat plastic (the side of a to-go box) and make a ring out of it.  And we combine several of the techniques to make a giant suncatcher, seeing just how big a shrinky we can make!  Finally, we use colored pencils, rather than Sharpies, to color our design.

Part 4 of the Shrinky Dink Test lab: Successful sealing.. maybe

This is the post where the commenters really come through.  Not only do we have the (mixed) results of my sealing using polyurethane, the commenter pipe up with a bunch of other solutions, and several do their own tests to really give us all the data.  If you’re interested in sealing, this is the post to read (including the comments).

Shrinky Dinkies – Special Edition : Make Wraparound Wine Glass Markers

This is not really part of the test lab, but was a fun project tutorial to make temporary wine glass markers.  Plus the idea of doing a shrinky making party with your friends!

Some Other Shrinky Projects:

• Eco-friendly Charm Bracelet
• Christmas Ornament Template and Tutorial

So my 7 yr old came home the other day from camp and was like “Mom, we’ve got to go do this experiment, it’s so cool!”

And it WAS pretty darn cool, so I thought I’d share it with you guys!

These are his instructions, and he did the experiment and showed it to me:

You’ll need 3 jars.  Fill the first one 1/2 full with water (room temperature), second one 1/2 full with oil, and the third 1/4 full with water and 1/4 full with oil.

Then take food coloring, and put a few drops in the first jar, and stir.  See how the water mixes with the food coloring and now the water is all blue?

Then put a few drops in the second jar.  Stir it up as much as you can, and the oil and water still don’t mix!

Now for the REALLY cool one.  Put a few drops in your half and half jar–which will now have separated back out so that the oil sits on top of the water.  You’ll see that the food coloring is caught in the oil, and sits at the bottom of the oil, on top of the water.  Now watch and wait.   It may take a few minutes, but as you watch each droplet of the foodcoloring will “explode” like fireworks into the water!

Pretty cool, huh? Looks like my nail polish from this weekend!

Afterwards, we shook it all up and watched what happened. (We took bets on whether the oil would be blue when it separated back out.)
Now I just need ideas on what to do with a jars of oil and blue water… any ideas?? :)

I must admit that I’m not a nail person, generally.  I keep my fingernails natural and short, because I tend to be rough on them, between projects, typing, and just general life.  But, as I have recently discovered by discovering Pinterest, apparently interesting nail polish is very hip right now, and I figured why not try something wild.  The thing about most of the nail polish ideas I’ve seen, they look awesome because some professional nail person did them, on their totally perfectly shaped nails, with their nail person skill, and probably an assistant!

So what happens when a total amateur tries one of these fancy techniques?  And if that person was me, then of course I modified things a bit, too…  Let’s find out!

You’ll need:

• 2 colors of nailpolish (see below for details)
• 1 top coat
• glass of  room temperature water
• a bunch of toothpicks
• Nailpolish remover & q-tips for cleanup

So I’d seen some pretty marbling techniques pinned on pinterest, but those looked pretty complex.  I decided to simplify it a bit, and use colors that mixed well together, to get a tie dye effect.  I was out at Target yesterday (more on that later, I got some great crafty/foodie supplies there) so I picked up some inexpensive NYC nailpolish in a bright blue and a glittery lime green, and a top coat.  You can of course choose any combo you like, but I’d recommend some along the same spectrum (that would mix together for a good color) for this technique (like yellow and an orange red would work well).

I started out by painting the lightest color on as a bottom coat.  It was pretty sheer, so I used two coats, but if your first color is opaque you can just use one.  Then I used the technique in this video to create the tie dye effect.  But rather than using all the colors that she uses, I just alternated a drop of each of the 2 colors (4 drops total).  You’re not using as much polish in the water, so it’s a little easier to do, and you’ll get multiple shades from the two colors mixed together.

I also did two fingers at a time in several cases, just to speed things up.  Definitely tape your fingers as she shows, or else you’ll end up with a great deal of nailpolish to clean up.  Also, I’d get a friend to help you with this, primarily to clean up your fingers afterwards so you don’t risk your new nails with nail polish remover.

What do you think?  I did get a few small bubbles on a couple of nails, and I messed one (got a big glob of blue) and had to redo it.  But all in all, not that hard to do, especially with appropriate expectations to start with!

Not too bad for a girl who doesn’t do her nails.

What about you? Do you have any cool techniques to share?

So here are a few of the most popular in the last 30 days (counting down the top 8- if I have time tomorrow I’ll do some more–I should be working on my Dalek cake right now, but I’m procrastinating…)

How to Make a Paper Graduation Cap

This one makes total sense, since it’s June and we’ve just had Graduation season going on.  This is a quick and easy cardboard ‘mortar board’ perfect for kids graduation ceremonies.

Tumblr as a Portfolio Platform (How to)

I believe this tutorial may be slightly out of date, but it remains quite popular.  I’ve moved on to WordPress myself!

The Homemade (#6 Plastic recycled) faux Shrinky Dinks project 

This was a four part series of experiments around making, coloring, and sealing items made out of #6 Plastic.  Remains quite popular (for some reason, page 4 shows up in the top 10, but I’m linking to the start of the series here, for ease of reading).  There are several other faux-shrinky projects around here too, including: HAPPY FOURTH! (SHRINKIE GLASS MARKERS & HOLIDAY LINK ROUNDUP) and HOW TO MAKE A LOVELY ECO-FRIENDLY DISC BRACELET

Fusing Plastic: Make disposal grocery bags into a cool crafting material

This was a great tutorial by the very talented Brooke, of So She Sews.  Dabbled has had some AWESOME guest bloggers. She take the ubiquitous thin tan plastic grocery bags and turns them into an interesting material that can be used to make all kinds of cool items.

Perry the Platypus Cake

This tutorial for The Boy’s birthday cake, two years ago, remains one of the most popular items on the site– and it’s one of my favorite cakes I’ve ever done.  And yep, right now I should be working on his Dalek Cake which is needed for this weekend’s party.  That’s coming soon, but I’m having some ‘fails’ with my prototyping!

How to make an Awesome Flower Pinata

This was another great guest post- by Joanne of Ready, Set, Craft!-, and since this pinata is perfect for Cinco de Mayo, that might have been why it was popular last month.   But really, it would be great for any summer party, or a little girl birthday.

The Phineas & Ferb Perry Cake, but made from Twinkies!

After I published my Perry Cake (above) several readers tried their hand at it… And this reader (Janelle) decided to modify it, to make it from storebought Twinkie snack cakes.  Inspired!

So when I was invited to participate in the blog tour in promotion of the new movie coming out (in theaters March 2nd. Visit the official site for the movie preview, pictures, downloads and more!) I couldn’t resist doing a project featuring those wonderful trees.

The Truffula Tree-Shirt!

This is a simple “Freezer Paper Stencil” project. Just print out the stencil I’m providing, and follow the directions below. Any color will work for your truffula poofs, I choose Tangerine here.  Click on any of the below images to see them larger or as a slideshow.  Click Here for the Stencil.

Supplies:

• Tshirt (I used black)
• Cutting Mat & razor knife
• Freezer Paper
• Fabric Paint (I used cream and tangerine on a black shirt)
• Sponge brush
• Iron
• Printer to print out your stencil

Preparing the Stencil:

Place the Stencil.

• Heat up your iron on medium.
• Place a piece of cardboard inside the shirt to keep the paint from bleeding through.
• Attach the stencilI lined up the bottom of my Truffula image (the ground) with the bottom seam of my tshirt.
• You can clip the image to keep it in place.
• Carefully use the iron to adhere the image correctly to your tshirt.  It’s a little hard to work with this complex a stencil, so take your time. Once you’re sure everything is in place, iron the stencil in place on the tshirt.

 Paint

Want to see more The Lorax craft projects? Here’s a full list of the blog tour–go check them out, and maybe meet some new cool crafters!

Get Creative with The Lorax Blog Tour:

Feb 1 Today’s Creative Blog
Feb 2 Katydid and Kid
Feb 3 Zakka Life
Feb 6 Smashed Peas & Carrots
Feb 7 Whimsy Love
Feb 8 Little Birdie Secrets
Feb 9 Art Projects for Kids
Feb 10 Dabbled (You’re Here Now!)
Feb 13 Prudent Baby
Feb 14 Tonya Staab

Thanks to Universal Pictures for sponsoring this post!  I hope you all enjoy the project…

It’s a really neat technique that just uses acrylic gel medium from the art store– no toxic chemicals or anything like that.  The toner from the photocopy remains on the wood, so the white areas of your photo become wood colored, which is a really nice natural effect.   I’m planning on make a bunch using some wood veneer cards to use as keepsake gift tags for gifts this year.

For the tutorial I used one of my squid watercolors — in the example above I used a photocopy of a photo of The Boy, perfect for grandparent gifting! And it’s easy to do, though I will warn you it does take a little practice to get the timing exactly right, so plan on practicing on some scrap wood first.

I didn’t really go over how to use photos for the ornaments in the tutorial, and there’s a few things I’ve learned.  Pick a photo with a lot of contrast, and ideally use photoshop, or some other photo editing software, to turn it black and white and bump up the contrast.  In Photoshop, use play with the layer Levels to get a good effect.  Remember to reverse it, especially if you add text!  Make a bunch of copies on the same page (try different sizes). Then print it out, and photocopy.  For the ones shown here, I actually printed out the text separately, and put in on first, then put the photo on top of the text, so I get the ‘white’ background behind the text.

Wanna do it yourself? Go get the instructions…

(Past ornament tutorials: Resin Stars, Easy Gift Card Holder, Champagne Chairs, Sweater Photo Frames, Shrinky Dinky Santa)