Review: DIY Steampunk Robot Felt Kit

A friend and I found this adorable Steampunk Robot Felt Kit on Etsy.  I purchased two kits so we could both make one as we crafted together.  

It took us 4 sessions ranging in time from 1 to 2 hours to make the kits completely.  The kits provided all the supplies needed except scissors, needle threaders (we're just getting old is all that proves), and the stuffing.  There was plenty of felt and thread provided in the kit (even when we had to cut a couple of new pieces due to sizing issues).

I'm sorry I didn't think to take pictures along the way but here's the finished robot I made:

The instructions provided were mostly well written but I'm glad they provided images too.

We started our first session by cutting out all the pieces (we shared the provided template page so we didn't have to cut up two of them).  Once all the pieces were cut, we starting on assembling and sewing with the provided directions.

It took me a little to get used to sewing and opening to make robot 3D.  Sewing the knobs on the head took a little bit of hand coordination.

I had initially made the arms and legs a little too loose so I detached them and tried again to get them looking more like I imagined they would.  

Finishing the small boxes for the hands and feet since one edge was already attached to the arms/legs was also a little difficult.

Closing up the head was harder than closing up the body.  I think this was mostly because I was also trying to work around the already attached knobs along with it being smaller than the body.

The very last part was sewing and then attaching the hat.  Making the hat itself wasn't too bad.  Though we had to re-cut the side piece and the bad because ours were not long enough for the circle used for the top (I don't know if that was an issue in the pattern or if I used the wrong pattern piece when I initially cut it out).  Attaching it to the head was difficult because you had to sew through the hat and also make sure you caught into the head.  I also think the brim on the hat needed to be a little wider but we make it work.

Final thoughts: Our Steampunk Robots turned out very cute, however I don't think I really like doing more 3D Felt crafting.  I think I'll stick with my mostly flat ornaments that I simply stuff to give them a little loft rather than doing full out 3D projects.

Mural: Friends are the Flowers

Inspiration: Since I had already created a family tree mural in my kitchen, I wanted to have some way to include friends on a wall in my home.  I thought why not include friends as flowers in a mural near our back door (since the wall space there was open with nothing eye catching).

How I Made It: I started by drawing out my thoughts for the ribbon on a piece of paper.  Then I drew it out life size on some butcher paper and used that as a template to draw the ribbons on the walls (it's two walls that surround the opening to the basement stairs).  Once I was satisfied with the ribbon in pencil, I painted it with a blue latex paint - several layers for the dark part and left the fold with only 1 layer of paint so it was lighter and made it look more 3-D.  I used a gold paint pen to do the lettering and to outline the ribbon.  The word on the left is "In the Garden of Life..." and on the right is "...Friends are the Flowers."

Then I started on the flowers.  My daughter also drew some and I used a rubbing technique to get her pencil marks on the wall and then finished drawing over them before painting.  All the flowers have been painted using acrylic paints.

In total so far, we drew and painted on 18 flowers.  As friends have visited, we've written their first names by a flower with a Gold Paint Pen.  As of today, all but 1 flower has a friend's name on it so the plan is to add at least 18 more flowers on the 2 walls over the next year.

More Photos: Thank to Amber of Blue Willow Photography for taking these additional photos of the mural.

Craft Kit Review: Pandacorn String Art - Be The Magic

 

I picked up this String Art kit at Five Below.  Mostly because I like Pandas and figured I could do the Panda without the "-corn" part.  However, this review is for the extra project since I still need to make that Panda part.

The extra project in the package is a rainbow colored multi-pointed star with Be the Magic inside it.

The instructions were pretty straight-forward.

The most difficult part was making sure the pins were completely straight and not pushed through too far.  When wrapping the string around each pin, I had to be careful not too pull too tight so that the pins didn't lean over.

The only other piece I'll not is that after stringing, you need to make sure the strings are at the same level on the pins (whether you're pushing them all the way against the backing or if you're keeping them raised either near the top of the pin or somewhere near the middle) and that the tautness in the string needs to be considered when you do.

Overall it was a pretty simple craft.  It made a nice piece to add to the wall in our entry (though I did need to re-seal the backing since the provided tape wasn't really sticky enough).