Make a Corn Husk Doll

Today we're going to be making a corn husk doll!  I love Summer time because it means that two of my favorite  foods (watermelon and corn) are stocked in stores and super cheap.  Yum, yum!  Lately we've been eating a lot of corn.  Too lazy to stand over a boiling pot of water, I just throw them in the oven (husks, and all) and roast them for about an hour.  Deee-licious.

Even though I really enjoy eating corn, I'm always slightly disturbed at the end of the meal.  Have you ever noticed just how much we toss out once we're done with the corn?  Those corn cobs and husks are quite heavy and take up a lot of space  in comparison to the tiny yellow kernels 

So, I thought I'd try making something from the castaway bits.  Here's my little corn husk doll.

Corn Husk Doll

Materials to Make Corn Husk Doll:

- Corn husks (I used corn husks from about 5 ears of corn.  But note-  since I roast my corn, I was only able to get a couple leaves from ear.  You could probably do it with fewer ears if you use up all the leaves.)

- Yarn

- Scissors

- Paper towels

- Baking pan 

- Shallow Pan

- Sharpie marker

- Water

Directions to Make Corn Husk Doll:

1.  Rip off the leaves from your corn.  Set them out to dry.  (We live in an apartment, so I just placed them on a baking dish near a sunny window.  After a couple of days they just shriveled up.)  Note:  If you make the dolls with the green leaves, all your bindings will come loose once the leaves start shriveling up and drying.

2.  Once your leaves dry, re-hydrate them in a  bit of water.  (It took my leaves about half an hour to plump out.)

3.  Now you're going to make the head and the body.  Pick out 4-5 nice large leaves.  Tie them tightly together with a bit of yarn.  

4.  Flip the leaves over your yarn.  

5.  Straighten out the leaves and then tightly tie a piece of yarn to make your head.  (Make sure that the leaves are smoothed out and  cover each other.  Try not to have any gaps where the yarn is visible.  I wasn't too careful and my poor doll's head had a bit of gap once the leaves started drying again.)

6.  Now you're going to make the arms.  Find another nice large leaf.  Cut two slits on one side of the leaf.  Then, cut two slits on the other side of the leaf.  Braid both sides and secure the braids with bits of yarn.   Trim off the ends.

7.  Open up your doll's body and slide the braided arms in.  Tie another piece of yarn to create the waist and hold the arms in.  

8.  Now you're going to make a skirt.  Take a bunch of nice big leaves and wrap them around your doll's waist.  Tie these leaves to the waist with another piece of yarn.  Then, trim off the the ends of the leaves to create the skirt.  (If you wanted to give your doll pants, you could also just split your leaves up into two piles and tie those off to create trousers.)

9.  Now you'll create a shawl for the doll (which will help cover the ugly waist bit.)  Take two nice leaves and criss-cross them over and behind the dolls body.  Tie off your leaves with yarn.  Trim any excess bits.  

10.  Now you've got yourself a doll.  Once the doll dries, use a Sharpie marker to draw a face on it.  Voila.  Now you've got your very own corn husk doll.

Not sure if Chuck was a big fan of the doll, but I enjoyed the experience of taking something destined for the garbage and giving it a second life.

For more information on making corn husk dolls, check out these three great resources: GardenMama blog, Acorn Pies blog or this YouTube video  They really helped me to figure everything out. 

Happy crapting!

What's up, Chuck?

Warm, sunny weather is finally here... and we are loving it.  I forgot how much I missed the sunshine.  Here are some photos from a recent outdoor play date with friends.  We spent the morning eating, chatting, and splashing in the water.

It's times like this that I wish summer would never end.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  See you on Monday!

Make "quill pens" out of straws (and dye paper with coffee and tea)

When we visited Williamsburg a couple of weeks ago (click here or here to see photos), hubby and I purchased a quill pen to try out.  After writing with it for a bit, we were inspired to make our own crapty "quills pens" out of straws and use food coloring as ink.

To make our straw "quill" pens, we sampled several different types of straws:  a bubble tea straw, a normal straw, and a stirrer.  We cut the tips at an angle to mimic the quill pen.

I also used coffee and tea to age some watercolor paper.  To do this, I let the paper sit in cooled black tea (or coffee) for a couple of minutes.

Then, we set the paper out to dry on some pieces of paper towel.

Here are the results of our paper dying.  Left- Original paper,  Middle- Tea dyed,   Right- Coffee dyed
As you can see, coffee made our paper quite brown.

And how did our  homemade "quills" work out?  Check them out below.  I first used all four writing instruments to write in print and then to write in cursive.

Top line- Written with a real quill
Second line- Written with bubble tea straw
Third line- Written with normal straw
Fourth line- Written with a stirrer  (Eek!  Please excuse my scary monster handwriting.  It was really hard to get the ink to flow out.)

 Happy crapting!    

Make Grass Egg Heads and Grass Stocking Heads

This post brought to you by Miracle-Gro. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have a black thumb.

This past year I've already killed four plants.  Sad, right?  Apparently plants come to our apartment healthy and alive, and leave in garbage bags.

That's why I had basically given up on the idea of having any plant life in our apartment.   But when I heard about Miracle-Gro's The Gro Project, I felt inspired to pick up my trowel and try again.



Here are my  two small planting projects:  Grass Egg Heads and Grass Stocking Heads (which remind me of Chia pets)

Materials:
- Miracle-Gro's Moisture Control Potting Mix
- Grass seeds
- Eggs
- Knife
- Safety Pin
- Googly eyes
- Permanent marker
- Glue
- Nude stockings
- Scissors
- Spoon
- Cup

Directions for making grass egg heads:
1.  Using a safety pin, I poked a couple of holes (spaced far apart) in the bottom of my egg head.  (I'm hoping these holes will allow excess water to drain out.)  Using a knife, I gently tapped the egg where I wanted it to crack open.  (This gave me a neater break.) Then, I poured out the egg's insides.

2.  I rinsed out the eggs and set them to dry.

3.  Once they dried, I glued on googly eyes and used permanent marker to draw a smile.  (Permanent markers won't wash away with water.)

4.  Chuck and I filled the egg heads with grass seeds and soil.  Then, we watered the eggs and set them out near a sunny window.


Directions for making grass stocking heads:
1.  I wrapped a stocking around a small cup to make it easier to fill.

2.  Chuck scooped a bunch of grass seeds into the stocking.  Then, we piled on the dirt.

3.  Once the stocking was stuffed to our liking, I tied it closed and trimmed the excess material.

4.  I glued on googly eyes and drew on a mouth using permanent marker.

5.  Chuck watered the grass stocking head and we also placed it on a sunny windowsill.

Cross your fingers for us, ok? The potting soil that we chose is supposed to protect our seeds from over watering and under watering.  I'm really hoping that we'll see lots of grass sprouting so we can give them hair cuts.  (Hrrm.. a mowhawk perhaps?)


**Update-  Guess what?  They grew!  We just spritzed the little egg heads and thoroughly soaked the stocking heads in water daily.  Here's what they looked like after 2 weeks.

If you're interested in turning your thumb a bit greener, you can check out Miracle-Gro's Pinterest page for more fun garden projects.

((Many thanks to Miracle-Gro for sponsoring this post.  It's my first sponsored post and I'm really thankful for this new opportunity.))

Painted Mosaic Styrofoam Tile Picture Frame

June is the month of Father's day and birthdays.  Chuck and I wanted to make gifts for hubby and my parents, so we made these mosaic picture frames out of painted Styrofoam plates and cardboard.

I'm so glad with how they turned out.  They're happy and colorful and made out of stuff that we had right at home.