RAWR! Dinosaurs on Parade in Soap
RAWR!
Let’s face it, dinosaurs are cool. And it just so happens that the theme of our nursery décor is all about dinosaurs, which prompted our hugely successful (thanks to inspiration from @KatieDoyle and promotion by Think Geek!) Operation Geekling Dinosaur Project**. As you can imagine, we’re a little dino-crazy around our house right now between the growing geektastic dino nursery, this past weekend’s dinosaur themed baby shower, and preparing for the arrival of our little bundle of joy next month.
I crafted up these DINO-mite soaps as baby shower favors for friends and family. Each one is made from all natural ingredients and have a light powdery scent, reminiscent of cuddles and freshly washed onesies. As always, they’re also vegan friendly!
Ask and you shall receive; I had a lot of people request I make these available to the masses for purchase, and now these ridiculously adorable soaps are up in the GEEKSOAP shop just for you. Now you can rub dinosaurs all over your body, too!
Remember: RAWR means “I love you” in dinosaur :)
**What’s Operation Geekling Dinosaur Project? Read our Call for Submissions back in March, a recent update post, and check out the official Flickr gallery for lots of awesome dinosaur goodness.
The Beginning of the Baby Knits & Crochets
I feel like Superwoman. Thanks to all of you, I’ve been making soap constantly to keep up with demand. Thanks for helping me celebrate my soapy anniversary and making it such a success!
But it’s not ALL been soap in my crafting universe this week.
Last week we found out our geekling is going to be a boy, and we are just tickled at the news. The thought of a mini-Lucas makes me so happy I could burst! We’d already had the name Liam picked out for years, so a Liam he will be. It probably won’t come as a surprise to any of you that the very next stop after we left the ultrasound appointment was the yarn store; I had a list all ready of various blue and green yarn I needed to get a head start on knitting and crocheting things for my little boy.
Somehow this week I’ve managed to find time to squeeze in a workout (Hooray for #geekfit!), keep up with soap orders, play a little Rift, (More on that over on my gaming blog) AND work on baby projects each night after getting home from work. Whew! I’m excited to show off my first finished object(s) for Liam.
Crocheted Diaper Covers
Our boy is due at the end of June, and summertime in the midwest can get pretty hot. I have a feeling Liam won’t be wearing much more than onesies or even just a diaper during the hotter parts of the summer, and so I thought these cute little diaper covers would be perfect instead of pants. It helps that they are a super fast crochet project, too. I considered dressing these up a bit with different buttons, like shape buttons or something, but I really liked how the solid wooden ones turned out against the yarns. The pattern I used is the textured Beanie & Diaper Cover set by Danyel Pink. [Ravelry]
If someone were to ask me what our baby “theme” is, I’d have to say dinosaurs. Mostly because I just mean I plan to decorate the baby room in cute, handmade dinosaur stuff and do some digital scrapbooking with cute dinosaur embellishments and kits. (More on those kits in another post!) Other things on my to-knit or to-crochet list for the geekling include an adorable dinosaur long tail toque for the fall, some dinosaur/monster baby booties, a swaddling blanket, and dinosaur themed knitted burp cloths and bibs that I can’t wait to cast on. Sure a couple of “fancy” knitted cotton bibs and cloths will be something I spend hours making only to have them be thrown up on, but that’s not the point. (And cotton is washable!) I think it’s part of that “nesting” they keep talking about that’s making me yearn for the creation of as much handmade goodness to greet and surround my newborn with as possible. Stay tuned for lots of handmade dinosaur goodness that I plan to share here as we get closer and closer to the third trimester and eventually… baby time :)
Papier-Mache (Part 1) and a Crochet Huug©
This weekend I found a little time to get some crafting done. Mostly because one of my projects I started is also kinda school/work related, so anytime you can combine your hobbies with work it’s a good thing.
My students are going to have dinosaur week the week after next, and I’m prepping ahead of time to have some really cool things available to them. I decided to start out this papier-mache dinosaur egg project over the weekend because it would need around a week’s worth of time for preparation to ensure they were ready for the kids.
So how do you make dinosaur eggs? Well, I bought a package of 24 transparent balloons (any balloon colour would work) and two 12-piece packages of tiny little plastic dinosaurs. Both of these things I found at Dollarama by our house, so it was an even better score! To make dinosaur eggs, you first put one dino inside each balloon and then blow the balloons up to around “dinosaur egg size” (whatever that is!) and voila! You have a plastic dino inside of a balloon. Why do I want a dino in a balloon? Well, the balloon is a vehicle for papier-mache really. Later this week I’ll get to the messy part 2 and papier-mache over these balloons to create a nice firm egg, leaving a little opening around where the tie off for the balloon is for later. Once the papier-mache dries I can pop the balloon and discard it from within the egg, then add a little layer or two of papier-mache over the opening to seal up the egg for good. I suppose if you would rather add the dino then, as opposed to earlier you could, as long as you leave a large enough opening to fit the dinosaurs. I plan to take the hardened eggs into the classroom and distribute them to my students. After explaining that I found some dino eggs we can speculate what dinosaur eggs looked like and they can have fun painting the eggs however they want :) The next day when the paint has dried they can “hatch” their eggs and receive the little dino inside as a keepsake of the project. I’ll post about part 2 later this week :)
Now normally I would prefer the students make the papier-mache and do everything themselves, but our school has a policy about using balloons with the younger kids and I’d rather not risk it. Not to mention kiddos trying to fit dinos into balloons could be a bit of a challenge. Instead I really like the idea of sparking their imagination when I come in with a bunch of dinosaur eggs I “found” and letting them run wild when they get to paint them. I also like the element of surprise that comes with them having no idea what dinosaur is inside or what they’ll get when their egg hatches. All while they are painting their egg they will be able to hear their dinosaur rattling around inside but they won’t know for sure what it looks like or what kind it is until hatching day. I’m hoping this will be a memorable project for them — and hey, they’ll love being able to take something home with them as a result of the lesson.
As for crochet this weekend, I finished my crochet version of Huug the Hug Monster© — a character I dreamed up one day on the way to work. I originally created Huug a year ago and knitted the prototype Huug, but this weekend I decided to make Huug in crochet form. I think the newest one turned out pretty well! He is part of my recent retail plans, as I hope to be able to sell him in a boutique-y shop or two locally. I officially copyrighted the character and his knit/crochet patterns this weekend as well, dating back to last year, for the sole purpose of having that all registered officially on paper and all. Wish me (and Huug) luck!
crochet