Easter Animals made from Pipe Cleaners and Silk Clay

The pipe cleaners have been shaped into bodies and silk clay eyes, beaks and noses etc. have been attached. The animals have been fixed onto a stand made from foam rubber.

1. Crumple up and squeeze together a pipe cleaner. You may let legs and ears stick out.

2. Roll small white and black silk clay balls for eyes. The white ones should be larger than the black ones. Also roll or shape a beak or a nose and attach these parts onto the pipe cleaner animal without using glue. Silk clay has the consistency which makes this possible, before drying.

3. If you wish to use these Easter animals as a decoration for hanging, then attach a piece of elastic beading cord or a piece of string onto the heads. If they are to be used for standing, form a small ball from silk clay and attach this between the pipe cleaner and a cut-out foam rubber circle or stand.

Autumn Lunch Bag Trees

Mod Podge, yarn pom poms, and trash. Yay! They're little Autumn trees made out of old crumpled lunch sacks.

First, cut off the bottom of the bag, then cut it open so it's a flat rectangle. Next, cut slits where I drew the dotted lines.

Now brush the entire surface with a layer of Mod Podge. I watered it down just a tiny bit.

Now sort of bunch it up in the middle. And separate out those strips at the top where you snipped it. Gently start twisting.

And twisting. Twist the trunk. Twist the branches. Twist the roots.

Keep twisting until it looks like a tree.

Let the Mod Podge dry. You can snip the roots and branches with scissors if you want them a bit shorter.

Plop some yarn pom poms into the trees. Add a dab of Mod Podge on the branches to hold them in place. And then photograph them all over your house.

Electrified Fox Lamp Tutorial

First, you need a stuffed animal. This fox pattern is available here, but you can use any animal you like as long as it's not made of fur, and you don't have to sew your own. I used the fox but modified the tail like this:

so that the light strand could go up the tail, too. I cut a curve into the side and then handstitched the tail on.

Next, I stuffed the fox and left the bottom open.

And now comes the fun part. You get to cover the whole creature with Stiffy! This stuff is so fun, I swear. You basically brush it on thick and let it dry. It turns the fabric into a hard shell. And it doesn't stink! Extra points for that!

Now you get to eviscerate your animal. After the Stiffy is totally dry, gently pull out all the stuffing. I used a pencil wrapped in duct tape to poke up into the far corners and grab the stuffing. Sort of spin the pencil around in there.

Like cotton candy!

Trim the bottom edge off so that the fox stands up straight. And cut a snip out for the light cord.

And stuff the light string inside and up the tail and into the head. Please use LED lightsso you don't burn down your house.

And voila. You can really use any animal for this, and you don't have to sew your own. Just coat it with Stiffy, and then cut an inconspicuous hole in the back to remove the stuffing and insert the lights.