DIY Canvas Art

Loved this idea! . . . 'Super Easy Canvas Art' from: http://davisdaybyday.blogspot.com/2011/10/super-easy-canvas-art.html

. . . so I decided to make it for our place!

We had some extra painters tape leftover from painting an accent wall - so I used it on the canvases.  I didn't paint the canvases, nor the tape, white first (as suggested in the blog).  But, I would recommend using your nails to really make sure the painters tape is in the grooves of the canvases.  After painting over the tape with green acrylic paint, and peeling the tape off, I had to touch up some spots with white because the green paint had seeped under the painters tape.

(This is a picture of just the painters tape on the white canvas)

I didn't cut the tape in half for the smallest lines, either.  The smallest lines are the regular width of the painters tape.  The thicker lines are 2 or 3 rows of overlapping painters tapes. 

Finished product! (I played around with the order of the canvases):

 

DIY Felt Ramen Set

Looking online (http://www.etsy.com/listing/105145742/diy-felt-colored-ramenjapanese?ref=exp_listing), I found inspiration for my next project:

A DIY Ramen set for my niece.  Of course, mine does not look as professional as the one in the link above!  But, I did what I could.

My niece loves to eat edamame and nori, so I wanted to make her something that incorporated both of those things.   In addition, when eating at restaurants she likes to play with the chopsticks - so I wanted to give her something to practice with.

The ramen noodles were the easiest to make.  I used a regular felt rectangle sheet, sold in Michael's, and cut 1/2" strips.

For the shiitake mushrooms - I just cut out the basic 'shiitake' shape from a darker brown felt sheet.

I did the same for the regular mushrooms, using a lighter brown felt sheet.  However, I added another layer - sewed two mushrooms together, to help make them a little thicker to pick up with the chopsticks.  I did not do this with the shittake, because I had already cut them, and they were a little too thin to sew neatly.  But, hey, this can help with her chopstick skills b/c she can learn to pick up thicker or thinner items. 

For the nori - I cut out 2 black rectangles, and sewed them together (to help make them a little thicker to pick up with the chopsticks).

For the chasu, I roughly cut out a 'chasu' shape - sort of round.  Then I sewed 2 pieces together by making a swirl with the sewing machine/thread.

 The kamaboko, I cut out three pieces of felt - 2 white and 1 pink.  I sewed the three pieces together, following the shape of the white felt.

For the egg, I roughly cut out 2 white felt pieces, and one yellow circle piece.  I sewed the yellow circle to one of the white pieces.  Then, I sewed the 2 white felt pieces together - with the yolk on the inside - leaving a little opening to turn the pieces outside in.  Last, I hand-sewed the egg shut.  I was so happy when my niece opened her present b/c she said "Tamago!" excitedly as she held up the egg!

I roughly cut out 2 green pieces of felt, to resemble the edamame shape.  I cut them out a little bigger though, to leave leeway for sewing.  Next, I sewed the 2 green pieces inside out - leaving a little opening to turn the pieces outside in.  Before hand-sewing the closing, I took a piece of thread and thread it through the top middle of the edamame, then the bottom middle, and pulled it snug - this helped to create more of an indentation (as if there were edamame beans inside).

For the chopsticks, I used disposable chopsticks from a take out order.  The chopstick wrapper was folded over and over again until a small rectangle.  This was placed between the 2 chopsticks - then a rubber band was wrapped around it all, over and over again, until tight.

My favorite part - seeing my niece feed her best friends, Bert and Ernie!