Bendy playsets...the addiction begins.

i warned you there would be more Bendy doll posts! Here is a sneak peak of a few of the Yule Gifts i'm making Sage this year. i've drawn inspiration for these from a couple different places. i know i mentioned the enchanted cupboard etsy shop before, which is where i drew my inspiration of the box playsets. i also love the Weefolk art blog! The blog is full of inspirational craft projects and tutorials!

So, this is the first play set i started. i haven't finished it yet, still trying to find the perfect flower stickers for the background. i really like the 3-D ones, but want something whimsical in similar colors. i found a few i liked, but wasn't sure they would actually match. So i think i'm going to just take the box into the store and match them up there.

Most of the accessories are finished for the fairy tea party set. i keep thinking of a few others things i want to add. i found a wooden tea pot that i still have to paint, and i need to add wings to the bendy dolls. i love how nicely they all fit inside for storage. i just need to finish up the box, then it will be done.

On the outside of the box,
i've attached this 'pre-painted' dragonfly i found at Michael's craft store. i'm going to personalize it with my daughter's name in either painted letters or stickers and maybe add a bit of glitter. :)

While making bendy dolls, i of course had to make a few mermaids! Sgae caught on to what i was doing, and requested 'Ariel' on the right. These are made the same way the regular dolls are made, except that you do not wrap the legs. You give the pipe cleaners a twist about half way down to make a tail shape. Bend the ends of the tail in so that there is no sharp wire on the end. Then the tail is cut from felt, stitched up the sides and sew in place.

i've been having so much fun with this set!!! The decorations on this box are 3-D stickers. i haven't actually stuck them on yet, just set them where i think i want them placed. So they will fit a bit differently once they are stuck in place, and there will not be the glare from the clear plastic that is visible in some of the photos. The large seashells and sea stars are made from felt and hand stitched.

You can't have an underwater scene without a snail named 'Gary'.


Did i mention the clam shells are sleeping bags and the sea stars are pillows??? :) i am seriously having too much fun with this set!! The pink sea anemone is a combination of wood and felt, i still need to make another. i'm working on a sea 'table' and these will act as the stools to go with it. i also haven't finished decorating the outside of the box yet. i do have another underwater sticker (came with the same set) to put on the front, and i'd like to maybe glue a real seashell (or possibly one made from polymer clay) on the front.

There is so much you can do with these boxes and a few blank wooden accessories. My creativity juices are flowing, and i have so many ideas i don't even know where to begin.
i'm already thinking about a woodland faerie set, a flower faerie set, a pirate set, Alice in wonderland, Harry Potter...and maybe even Wizard of oz....:)

i've had a lot of folks asking if i will be selling these. i do plan to have a few bendy dolls for sale, and i may do a few play set on a very limited basis. Right now these are such an addition, i will eventually have to sell some just to support my habit. :) i just ordered a bunch of materials, and will get started on them as soon as they arrive. :)

It is really nice to change direction for a while, and find something that i can be excited about again. i tend to burn myself out on certain projects/crafts and then need to take a break for a while, before coming back to it. i feel like i've been a hiatus for quite some and i'm excited to slowl get back into it. i would love to hear your feed back and ideas on what you would most like to see.

Wordless Wednesday- nasturtium

~*Nasturtium still blooming.*~

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New Bendy dolls and Tutorial

i LOVE bendy dolls. i really do. i remember first making these back when i was in girl scouts as a kid. Of course the ones i make now are much nicer, but the concept is still the same. They are very easy to make, and kids love them. i've had a lot of requests from folks asking just how they are made, so i thought i'd put together a tutorial.

After repairing a bunch of bendies that the puppy chewed on, i decided to make Sage a few news ones for Yule. i'm working on putting together a few full play sets, i'll post pics of those later. Alice was a special request, but i'm feeling inspired to make a full set...including the Mad hatter, Queen of hearts a few of the card knights and a needle felted white rabbit and Cheshire cat. :) Okay, that may be a bit too ambitious for me. :)


i've also started an under water mermaid set. Of course when Sage noticed i was making mermaids she requested Ariel. i love making mermaids!

Okay, on to the tutorial. All you need is pipe cleaners, wooden beads for the head, embroidery floss and a bit of craft glue. For the hair you can use wool roving, yarn or embroidery floss they all work well. The clothing can be made from felt, fabric or silk flowers. You can embellish them with other items and you can be as simple or as creative as you want.

Cut your pipe cleaner in 2 pieces, so you'll have one 4" piece (arms) and one 8" piece (legs). Fold the legs in half down the middle, and you should have something like the above picture.

Now your going to put your bead on and push it down a bit. Open up the top of the pipe clear to create a loop. i tend to snip some of the 'fuzz' off the very top of the pipe cleaner. It makes it fit inside the bead better, and leaves less fuzz sticking up in the hair. Choose your material for the hair, cut it the desired length.

Place the hair inside the loop so you have an even amount on each side.

Then pull the pipe cleaner through the bead as tight as you can. Don't worry if a little bit of the pipe cleaner shows. Later on you can add a dot of glue to it and cover it with a few strands of hair.


Now take your 4" piece of pipe cleaner and twist it in place for the arms. This will be secured with the floss, so you really only have to twist it once.


Now grab your embroidery floss and begin wrapping. Start at the torso, make an X over and under the arms. Once you get this area covered well, begin moving down one arm.


Wrap the floss all the way to the end, trying to cover as much of the pipe cleaner as possible. It's okay if a bit shows through, you'll be going back over it. When you get to the very end, begin wrapping back toward the body about 1/3 of the way down. Then bend over the hand, making sure to leave extra that will help secure it to the arm.


Wrap the hand very tightly. Do not wrap too close to the end or the threads can come loose, i like to leave about 1/4" unwrapped. Continue wrapping tightly, and begin moving back down the arm, wrapping evenly and covering any pipe cleaner fuzz. When you get back to the torso, wrap a few times around the neck, criss-cross around the body and then continue on to the next arm. Following the same steps as above.

When both arms are completed, continue wrapping the torso, until you have the waist covered. You can then continue with this floss and cover the legs. Or switch colors to create 'tights'. If you chose to switch colors, i like to tie off my original thread but leave a bit of a tail. When i wrap the legs, the tail will be covered in the wrapping.


Beginning at the waist, start wrapping your new color. If you want striped tights, use two different colors together. Wrap down the legs, and finish the feet the same way the hands are done but fold back a bit more for the feet. Wrap back up the legs paying special attention to the pattern. Go around the body a few times, then begin wrapping the second leg.


When you get back to the top, wrap around the waist a couple times again, and then tie off your thread. i like to leave a small tail. i place a few drops of craft glue on the knot, and wrap the tail around the body through the glue 'gluing it' down.This will keep the knot from unraveling.


With the hair, i like to put a little glue on the back of the bead, and glue some of the under layer of hair in place. i leave the top free, and if the pipe cleaner is visable at the top of the head use a tiny bit of glue and arrange the hair over it.

Now you can customize your doll! i like to make simple clothing out of felt. i use a blanket stitch to sew it together and it gives a decorative edge. The clothing can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. If i was better at embroidery i'd be adding flowers and little details to these.

Sometimes i add faces, and sometimes i don't. You can use paint pens, gel pens or regular paints. i decided this girl needed some wings. i cut them out of felt and did a simple blanket stitch around the edge. Then sew it on her back with a few quick stitches.

Here she is complete.

Here she is hanging out on my nature table. She looked so nice on it, i had to post a second picture. i've had a few folks ask if i sell these, and as soon as i get some more wooden bead heads i may make a few and put them for sale on here. i'm going to play around with some different themes, but you can probably expect to see a few posts on these.

i hope my tutorial was helpful. Feel free to let me know if you still have questions!

You can also purchase these directly from me. Visit my the bendy doll folder in on Facebook page to see what i have available.

Insectlore Review and Giveaway CLOSED

Many of you may remember earlier this spring when i posted about the Insectlore Butterfly Garden. We love to raise butterflies, and had the chance to raise and release painted lady butterflies with the Insectlore Butterfly Garden Kit.

The Insectlore Butterfly Garden comes with everything you need to raise and release your butterflies. It includes this colorful pop-up habitat suitable for hanging or free-standing on a countertop, one cup containing 3 to 5 butterfly larvae with special food, feeding kit and complete instructions. Our also came with an Insectlore catalog, and both of my kids have started a wishlist of bug habitats and other cool and educational toys.


We received 5 healthy caterpillars. They are totally maintenance free, the cup contains all the food they will need. The clear cup makes for easy observation. The caterpillars grow quickly.


They form their chrysalis on the paper at the top of the lid. This is then hung inside the butterfly garden. Once they are in this form the will emerge in about 10- 14 days.


All 5 of our caterpillars survived, and transformed into butterflies. We kept them to observe for a few hours and then released them. Painted Ladies are indigenous to all of the lower 48 states, so they can safely be released into the environment after they emerge.

We also just recently won an incredible frog kit from Cookies and Clogs and Insectlore. The kit included a grow-your-own lily pad, a package of frog lifecycle stages figurines, a Frog Lifecycle Floor puzzle and an eco-aquarium with two Dwarf African frogs. We received the puzzle, figures and lily pad kit first and our eco-aquarium with frog were delivered separately a few weeks later. These are really great tool to help teach kids about metamorphosis and the life cycle of a frog. This would be such a great set for home-schoolers and classrooms. i think it would go great with the frog bog. So kids could watch the tadpoles transform while learning about the process. Insect Lore also sells a Butterfly Bundle,which includes the butterfly garden, a butterfly feeder, butterfly life cycles puzzle and butterfly life cycle stages figurines. Perfect for teaching the butterfly life cycle.

i was really impressed with the life cycles puzzle. It's made from a thick foam, and shows the life cycle of a frog. The frog figurines are also pretty neat. They are made from very hard durable plastic, much nicer than i was expecting. The kids put the puzzle together and took it apart many times. Sage likes to match the figures with the images on the puzzle.

The floor puzzles are 20” by 30”. i also really like the Butterfly lifecycle floor puzzle, the image is just gorgeous!!

Both of my kids were really excited when our frogs came! The Eco-Aquarium is a complete aquatic ecosystem environment that requires no chemicals, filters, or aeration. Change the water only once every 3 months. You do have to use natural spring water, but that is the only real requirement. Special “living gravel” acts as a natural filtration system for the aquarium. The frogs are fed twice weekly, making this a really low maintenance pet.

The Eco-aquarium kit includes aquarium with lid, overnight delivery for two African dwarf frogs, 1 year supply of frog food, cleaning care kit, bamboo plant, large rock and a decorative tip-proof base.

My boy was able to put the aquarium together himself. He placed the 'living' gravel in the bottom. Then he added the decorative gravel, and placed the bamboo and decorative rock in place. We filled the aquarium with room temperature spring water and then i added the frogs.

The frogs are really fun to watch, and are very active. The aquarium is quite small, and the perfect size to keep on your desk, or tv console.

i really love the products that Insectlore sells. We are a family of nature nuts, and bug fanatics. The products that Insectlore sells are fun and educational, and really appeal to kids and adults! Both of children have items from Insectlore on their holiday wish lists. My boy would love the Carnivorous Creations plant growing kit and a Buzzerk Mantis mask, while my girl has her heart set on the Kids K'nex lifecycles set and the tree frog puppet. i admit, i've spent as much time looking through the catalog as they have! So many cool things!

Now for the GIVEAWAY!!

InsectLore has offered one reader a Butterfly Garden of their very own.

*please read directions carefully!

MANDATORY ENTRY

Head over to Insectlore and look around, comeback and let me know what is on your wish list!! This is your first entry!

*Please include your e-mail address or make sure it is visible in your blogger profile so i have a way to contact you if you win. Otherwise a new winner will be chosen!

EXTRA ENTRIESPlease leave a new comment for each extra entry. If you qualify for 5 entries, leave 5 separate comments.

1. Follow Insectlore on Twitter leave your twitter ID in a comment, 1 entry.
2. Tweet about the contest include @insectlore and leave a link to your tweet. 1 entry (can tweet daily)

3. 'Like' Insectlore on Facebook 1 entry

4. Join the Insectlore Mailing list (bottom of left column) 2 entries, leave 2 comments

5. Follow my blog The Enchanted Tree 1 entry
6. Blog about the giveaway link to this post & Insectlore website. 3 entries, leave 3 comments.
7. Add my button to your page (upper left column) & leave a link where i can find it! 1 entry.

*Disclaimer* I was not paid to try out these products, i won them in other blog giveaways and recieved a product to review ffrom Insectlore. Opinions posted on this blog are 100% mine. We Love insectlore!
**Rules**

• Giveaway ends Oct, 27, 2010 at 11:59pm EST
• Winner will be chosen via Random.Org., and contacted by email, and posted on the blog.
• Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen
• This giveaway is open to US addresses only

Wordless Wednesday- Giant Sweet Potato

It weights 4 lbs and 2 oz.

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