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I believe this tutorial may be slightly out of date, but it remains quite popular.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!

Some Fun holiday stuff from Last Year, while you’re waiting…:

• Make a Shrink Ornament Santa HERE (includes template)
• Lemon Pie – Decorate with a winter snowflake theme HERE
• Some great ideas for Holiday Up-cycling!  Finalists in last years Dabbled Upcycled Craft Contest… Here!
• How to Make Homemade Eggnog. Try it! HERE
• Make and Freeze Homemade Stock (Any of those holiday recipes that call for broth will be better with homemade!)- HERE
• Holiday links: Click here for cute holiday links. And Click HERE for bunches of ornaments and tutorials.
• Printables: “Uncoventional Santa” Xmas Card. CC licensed, so print it for personal use if you like!
• Make Oatmeal Cookies! Tutorial here.
• Christmas Tree Cookies:   Make ‘em here.
• Robot Scarf.  A fun gift, and makeable by a novice. Info Here.
• Dabbled Classic: How to make a Blueberry Pie. Check it out here.
• Tutorial on making a cool boy-toy! The homemade sweater snake.
• Go Green for the Holidays – Tutorial Links

So why am I showing you this now, since Halloween is a whole year away?  Well, I think it would be a fun (though not overly healthy!) kids meal any time of year, and what an awesome food to serve at a kids party..!

Here is the tutorial/experiment! (And stay tuned tomorrow for an even weirder take on this!)

I decided they looked an awful lot like cephalopods or sea creatures of some sort , and figured we’d play around with different configurations of noodles and see what we got.

Exhibit A: Octopuses (now Jellyfish)

For the first batch, I used the ends of the hotdogs only, and stuck the noodles in one side only.  I was thinking octopus, so 8 noodles per piece, each noodle being about 1/2 length.  (For future, I would shorten the noodles to make them easier to eat.)  Once I put these in to boil, I decided they were much more like jellyfishes than octopuses, especially the way the floated on the water, so that is what they became. (See pictures at the bottom)

Exhibit B:  Tentacle Creatures (or spiders, or cephalopods)

These were the original version, with the hotdogs (slices this time, rather than endpieces) stabbed through with the dry noodle.  So 4 noodles means 8 legs.  The length of these legs was a little better than the Jellyfish, I think.

Exhibit C:  Sputnik

As I was doing these, I was thinking worms, but with the dry noodles still sticking out of them they looked like a Tinkertoy, or maybe a Russian satellite!  These really showcase the creepy aspect of the noodle just sticking out of the hotdog.

How-To

Not much recipe needed here: Just hotdogs (big fat ones) and dry spaghetti.

See the Notes below, and under each of the pictures for more detailed info.

Click on a photo below to see larger or to view as slideshow.

Notes:

• Put your biggest pot on to boil FIRST! That much water takes a while.
• And enlist the help of children if available, this can be time consuming!
• Boil 5-9 minutes, according to pkg directions, or until your spaghetti is done enough for your tastes
• For a more ‘adult’ version, smoked sausages might be a nice touch
  

My brother, Brett, wrote up this Tutorial for me, and I love it.   When we visited him in North Carolina, he took us all down to the river to look for fossils and sharks teeth and whatnot, and it was a fun adventure.  This would also be very cool to use at the beach for shells.  It’s a perfect end of summer project– Do something fun, especially with your kids!

Most kids like dinosaurs, sharks, and such, so when The Boy and Dot came to visit I decided to take them to creek to look for fossils from dinosaurs, sharks and such. We had a great day, and The Boy found all kinds of shark teeth from millions of years ago. Now while The Boy (3 years old at this point) seemed to be more interested in digging than actually finding things, many older kids really enjoy finding fossils and artifacts. After all, finding stuff is fun! It’s also great to get outside and get some exercise. Anyway, I decided to make a new screen recently, and figured I would document the steps in case anyone else was interested.

Keep reading for the supply list, and all the steps, well documented with pictures!  You don’t have to be a carpentry expert to do this…

Materials

1 1”x4”X8’
1 1”x2”x8’
1 Roll of ½” or ¼” Hardware Cloth
8 2” L Joints
2 Pull Handles with Screws
24 ¾” #6 Wood Screws
28 2” Deck Screws
1 Swimming Pool Noodle
6 14” Zip Ties
A Whole Bunch of ¼” Staples
About 6’ of Nylon Clothes Line (optional—for a leash)
(I believe everything but the pool noodle is available from Lowes.)

Tools

• Tape Measure
• Carpenter’s Square
• A Pen
• Wire Cutters
• Staple Gun
• Circular Saw
• Drill with Screw Driver Bits and a 1/8” drill bit.

Always use safety goggle when using tools

Instructions

Step 1- Cut your boards!

Note: I suppose this step is optional as you could have the folks at Lowes do this, but what’s the fun in that?

Measure and cut your wood 1×4 into 2 30” pieces and 2 18” pieces. These pieces will be the walls of your screen. I measure and cut my first 30” piece, and then use it to measure my second 30” piece. This helps make sure they are the same length. I then cut the 2nd 30” piece. The remaining board should be about 36”. Measure it to get the exact length, and then cut it in half. Your 2 halves should be about 18”.

Next, repeat the process with the 1×2. These pieces will be the bottom of your frame and help hold the screen in place. When cutting my 1×2 pieces I generally use my already cut 1×4’s as my measuring sticks.

Step 2—Assembling Your Frame Walls

Use your #6 wood screws to attach 2 of the 2” L joints to each end of each of the 30” 1×4 pieces- make sure the L joint is flush with the end of the board. Next, attach the 18” 1×4 pieces to one of the 30” pieces. Finally, fit the 2nd 30” piece with L joints across the other ends of the 18” pieces, completing the rectangle, and attach using the L joints. Note, when assembling your frame, the 18” pieces should be inside of the 30” pieces. Next put a 2” Deck Screw between the L joints on each corner. These should pass through the 30” 1x4s and into the ends of the 18” 1x4s. You will probably want to drill the holes (with a 1/8” bit) for the screws before doing this to reduce the likelihood of splitting your boards. I didn’t do this, but note the beginnings of a split in the photo below.

Step 3—Assembling the Bottom of Your Frame

Lay your 1x2s out in a rectangle—be sure to keep your 18” pieces inside of the 30” pieces, so they will match up with your screen walls. Put 2” Deck Screws into each corner to hold the rectangle together. Again, first drill holes for your screws using a 1/8” drill bit.

Step 4—Cut your Screen

Warning: You may want to wear gloves for this step. Hardware cloth has many very exposed wire tips. It also comes tightly rolled and has a tendency to roll back up often causing those sharp tips to inflict painful damage to the unprotected hands and arms of those ignore this warning.

The first thing you will want to do here is cut off those pesky points. Take your wire cutters and snip the sharp edges off the hardware cloth. Once you have done this unroll the hardware cloth lengthwise over the bottom of your frame, and cut off a section approximately the 30” length of your frame. While you want to screen to cover most of the 18” end pieces, you will only want about 1 square of wire (2 squares for 1/4” hardware cloth) on each of the 30” side pieces. So, lay your section of hardware cloth over the bottom of your frame, lining it up so that only one square width (2 for 1/4″) is covering one of the side pieces. On the other side, mark the first row of squares covering the side piece (2nd for 1/4″) and cut off the remaining rows.

Once you’ve cut out your rectangle, use your staple gun to attach the screen to the frame bottom. Remember, the screen should cover most of the 18” end pieces, and only about 1 square (or 2) of the 30” side pieces. This is so sharp edges will not extend beyond the area covered by the 1×4 walls. Now, I have no idea how many staples are required, but staples are cheap, so I use bunches. Start by stapling a corner, putting a vertical stable just inside the vertical wire and a horizontal staple just inside a horizontal wire. This should keep the wire from slipping. Then stretch the screen as tightly as you can and staple all the way around the screen. Now you have the bottom of your screen!

Step 5—Attaching the Frame Walls

Now lay your frame walls on the floor and place the screen bottom on top of it. Line it up carefully, and then use 2” deck screws to attach it to the frame walls. Again, first drill holes for the screws using a 1/8” drill bit to prevent splitting. I use about 20 screws here—5 per side.

Step 6—Attach Handles

Place a handle in the center of each 18” ends and screw them into place.

Step 6—Make your screen floatable!

Take your pool noodle and cut it in half. Place the halves along the sides of your screen on the flotation ledges, and use zip ties to hold them in place.

Step 7—Attach a Leash (optional)

I didn’t do that for this one, but will probably add it at some point.

Cut about a 6 foot length of nylon clothes line and tie it to one of the handles.

Congratulations! You now have a floatable fossil Screen.

Happy hunting!

The Dragon Cake I made for my 4 year old’s birthday was so popular, that I decided I’d better do a tutorial. Note, I am not a professional baker, and i’m sure there are things I’ve gotten ‘wrong’.. but that’s one reason i did this tutorial to show that you don’t have to be a professional to attempt something cool!

PS: You guys better appreciate this! I actually didn’t do the best job of documenting my process while making the Dragon Cake, so I took some of the leftovers and made a mini version just so I could get some good pics of the process. And since I did put a lot of work into this tutorial, I would be tickled pink if you’d link to it, stumble it, or share it around!

So, you have a couple of ways to see it…

I wrote the whole thing up as an instructable, here. If you’re really going to try it (or want ALL the details) be sure to read the instructable, as it’s much more thorough.

Or if you just want a quick and dirty version I documented the creation of the mini dragon as a photo-tutorial here and below.

Oh, I’ll do an entire Dragon Party Wrap Up(cakes, invites, favors, etc)
this week, so stay tuned.

1. A possible skull material (the original dragon’s skull was modeling chocolate), 2. “Skull” modeled out of Tootie Roll, 3. The guts! (cake ball material-but I do recommend a light color instead of red velvet), 4. kneading, 5. Rolled fondant for head., 6. a platform for holding the cake while draping, 7. molded dragon body, 8. Place cake on an upside down cup, and drape fondant., 9. Tuck the edges under, but leave the neck and tail ends untucked., 10. Layout, and place skull., 11. Cover skull in fondant., 12. Shape tail out of fondant., 13. Roll out a contrasting color, and cut into strips, 14. Cover joints with strips of fondant, 15. Cut out a wing shape., 16. Shape the wing, and Attach to toothpick, 17. jun09 240, 18. Use a large straw (or larger circle) to make dots., 19. To make the eyes, 20. The eyes!, 21. Cover a Ball with fondant, Mold Foot from Fondant., 22. Mold the Claw, 23. Place the Claw, 24. Finished Mini-Dragon

Get the whole thing here:

How to make a Dragon Cake – More DIY How To Projects

Related “Dragon Party” Posts:

• Download dragon thank you note and party invitation
• Finished Dragon Cake…
• Cake Baking Day!
• Dragon Wings…
• Dragon Invitation Graphic
  

Now, it wasn’t a small party (not only his friends from preschool, but our friends with kids were there), so I initially made 20 of these. Hence they are NOT high quality heirloom construction. You could easily modify these instructions (adding hems and what not) to make these more of a “finished” product. But for my purposes, I figured the quick and dirty version would do just fine. I also kept the design pretty cheap – I figure each one was about $1 in materials cost.

These would be great not only for favors, but for the “dress up box”, or if done a little nicer, for a gift too!

I promised a tutorial for both this and the Dragon Cake (done!), so here it is… Instructions are after the mosaic picture, but if you need more info, just email me or post here.

Note, ignore the different colors, i made a variety and used the best shots for the tutorial. I figured a mix of orange, pink, blue, and green would work for a mix of kids, and any kids who didn’t want “wings” could call it a prince or princess cape. Each square of fabric makes 4 capes.

1. Start with a piece of fabric at least 1 yd square. (larger for bigger kids) I did some at 36 in square (about the minimum for 4 year olds) and some a tad larger, which worked better. Measure against the wingspan of your sample child to figure out how much fabric to buy. I found that with 44 in broadcloth, 44 in square (about 1.25 yds) worked really well.
2. Trim fabric to a square. Save the excess. If you want to make the wrist straps more unubtrusive (for a cape look) use strips of the extra fabric for that.
3. Cut on the diagonal, to make 4 equal triangles., Start at each corner, and cut in a big X. that will make 4 capes.
4. 4 triangles, Yep, this will be 4 capes. The longest side of the triangle is the width of your step 2 square.
5. You end up with 4 triangles.,
6. Cut 4 lengths of ribbon about 15 inches each (measure around a child’s neck to be sure of length),
7. Center the ribbon on the long side of the triangle, fold the ribbon over in two, sandwiching the cloth, and pin. Guessimating is fine, i didn’t measure. Then pin about 2 inches from the center pin on either side to help you when you stitch.
8. Cut out Wrist Straps, either out of the same ribbon or from a strip of the excess cloth (i did both)
9. Pin the wrist straps in place, location depends on child size. Use your sample child to get an approximation. I found for the 36 in capes (for a 4 yr old) the straps should be almost at the end, where as the 44 in capes were about 6 inches in from the points.
10. Sew on the ribbon neckpiece, start sewing at the far pin, and sew to the near one. Again, quick and dirty, i wasn’t going for looks here, just attaching.
11. Look at that incredibly straight seam! uh, yeah, moving on…,
12. Sew on Wrist straps, Not rocket science, just a straight or zig zag stitch back and forth so they stay on.
13. Sew velcro on each end of the Ribbon. You could of course skip this and do longer ribbon and just tie it (which I would have done with older kids), but I figured better safe than sorry. This was the biggest pain, but since i wasn’t too worried about looks, not too bad.
14. dragonwings, Here they are in full view! This is one of the larger versions.
15. Back View

That’s all there is to it! Hope you enjoy, and if anyone makes a “nicer” version of these, please share it here!

Related “Dragon Party” Posts:

• Dragon Cake Tutorial!
• Download dragon thank you note and party invitation
  
• Finished Dragon Cake…
• Cake Baking Day!
• Dragon Wings…
• Dragon Invitation Graphic

Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did… – Dot

How To Make Fused Plastic Sheets (from plastic bags)
…and then turn them into something neat!
1. Fusing Plastic Bags: Things you need, 2. Fusing Plastic Bags: The Bags!, 3. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step One, 4. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Two, 5. Fusing Plastic Bags: Don’t forget the Earth!, 6. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Three, 7. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Four, 8. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Five, 9. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Six, 10. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Seven, 11. Fusing Plastic Bags: The Motion in the Ocean, 12. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Eight, 13. Fusing Plastic Bags: Turn up the Heat!, 14. Fusing Plastic Bags: Aaaaand we’re GOOD!, 15. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Nine, 16. Final step!The description of each picture gives you the scoop on what’s going on, so click through the links above for directions, or you can see all the steps here.

So what to do with it now?

“Just behave as if this cool, fused plastic sheet were a regular piece of fabric! It sews right through on a regular machine (won’t get stuck or not feed feed properly… it will smoothly go through just like any piece of fabric would!).

When you are cutting shapes out of it, I recommend you draw your shapes on the backside of the fused plastic using a permanent marker (so that it won’t smear and get all over you), and then cut them out. Do this instead of pinning pattern pieces to it because wherever you put your pins is going to leave a tiny hole in the plastic.

Just use a regular or universal needle, no leather needles needed… this stuff is actually quite soft and easy for a regular sewing machine to pierce right through!

And if using a sewing machine isn’t your gig, try your “hand”… haha… at hand sewing through your fused plastic! I’ve made some wonderful little accessories by “whipstitching” or “blanket stitching” around the edge with colorful embroidery thread and even yarn!

There are so many possibilities for what to do with this new eco fabric… dream up something useful for your new recycled fused plastic!”

Thanks Brooke, This is really cool, green, and inspiring!

All About Brooke, of So She Sews

“Imagine a young Cindi Lauper with Bob Villa composure.
Haha! Ok, well you can already tell that I’m a bit of a jokester. What is life if you can’t have fun, am I right? Basically I’ve been amazingly blessed all my life to pursue having fun for a living. And having fun to me is at the very core of creativity. I adore things with color, difference, functionality and good design. I learned to sew when I was very young, thanks to my amazing Mother (who will appreciate the Bob Villa reference), and I’ve been cultivating it since. I’ve done everything from altering wedding gowns to cutting faux fur all day long as a professional fabric cutter in a mascot costume factory. My education was in Costume Design for Theatre but my passion for vintage fashion has just as much to do with my design style. I care deeply about my impact on the earth, and hope one day to have my own “eco-home” with a little veggie garden in the back, and solar panels to power my sewing machine!”

Buy her stuff (Pictured above): Owl Purses, Dresses, Wallets

Check her out at
http://soshesews.etsy.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soshesews/