The Finshed rag cloth doll rabbit 18 inch Miss Surefooted

http://www.etsy.com/listing/68736269/18-inch-rag-cloth-doll-animal-rabbit

This is Miss Surefooted as she is now completed and in the Etsy store for sale. I think she came out pretty cute, I love her big feet and that is why I named her Miss Surefooted.

I plan on making another one but he will be male and I may make him an entire different way. There is lots I can do with this simple pattern.

What I am working on for Tuesday, rabbits

I actually started this Monday evening but I am continuing and will finish the the rabbit later today. I am using a wonderful old pattern from my collection called "floppy friends". The pattern was created in 1995. I am only using the body design of the pattern and making the rabbits my own way.

I designed my own facial features for the dolls and I am making my own clothes for the dolls. I am using Onsburg once again; I am also dry brush painting the fabric around the face in browns and a bit of light gray and pinks for the ears. The paints are acrylics, yes I just love my acrylic paints! I am making a dress with a applique flower on and green pantaloons you can see the dress in the photo it was some second hand fabric my aunt gave to me, a dress she was going to make( fabric was already cut out in a dress form). When I am finished the doll with be about 18 inches long.

New Recipe! What to do with left over Cabbage

A few days ago I had some left over cabbage and I was trying to figure out what to do with it because in my family cabbage is not a favorite food.

So I had some stewing meat about 2 1/2 pounds, some spinach, onion, instant rice, and cream of mushroom soup.

I began by tossing in about a table spoon of butter and letting it melt and coat the frying pan; then I added the cubed meat and browned it.

After it was browned I added the onion, cabbage and spinach and let it cook a little (stirring it often). Next I added 2 cups of water and the instant rice or you could just cook the rice separate in a sauce pan, I used 2 to 2 1/2 cups of rice. Then when the rice is done add it to the meat, cabbage,onion, spinach. In a separate bowl add the can of mushroom soup and 1 cup of water or add enough water to thin the soup out and mix with all the items in the skillet and let simmer about 15 minutes. This comes out tasting really good more so if you are a person not too keen on cabbage, I can get my husband and son to eat cabbage and spinach this way.

Recycled Denim into a 20 inch Rabbit

I had some old denim jeans that belonged to my hubby that I used to create this goofy rabbit. The Jeans had bleach stains on them, making them old and worn out so I decided to recycle the jeans.
I began by sitting down and doodling out some ideas of rabbits and came with this pattern for a rabbit; finally I came up with a 20 inch rabbit.
I decided to make the jeans look even more grubby by using an brown acrylic paint to stain the denim even more and sew the rabbit with the seams on the outside so that the fabric would fray and look old.
I used pink embroidery floss for his nose and mouth and white buttons for eyes and the final touch is some floral cotton fabric torn to make a loose fitting bow around his neck.
This is a simple idea to help recycle those old denim jeans that be headed for the trash, it was fun and simple.

A Second Crafty Idea on Making a Unfinished Wooden Jewelry Box Aged

Another howdy to everyone; this is the second half on what to do with those cute wooden unfinished boxes or jewelry boxes you can find in craft stores.

I have done this one a bit different, in that I used acrylic paints; I took some dark yellows and browns for coloring the unfinished box, some scrapbook paper, twine, cotton fabric and some little wooden decor to stick on the box.

Once again I suggest sanding the unfinished box with a light weight sand paper just so that you can get the paint to set better and stick in certain areas of the grain.

What I did was to first paint on browns and yellows then quickly wipe them blending the paints into one another and staining the wood. In this project you need to work quickly with the paint and at times let it dry and then add another coat until you get the desired look you would like. Now with this project it is not about being perfect, be messy and having fun. As you might see in the pictures I let the paint set in certain areas and did not wipe off because I wanted an ugly, old aged looking box to some degree. I decoupaged the paper on the front back then the fabric got put on top, once again let dry over night. I added a little more paint over the paper using the yellow and wiped off again.

The fabric on top of the box is cotton fabric with a bunch of chickens and once I let the fabric dry, I began to stain the fabric with strong instant coffee.

Some of the final touches were a bit of glitter paint that was applied then wiped; twine, and the little wooden decor pieces were added using hot glue.

This project took a little time and work but was lots of fun and interesting to play with the paints and get a different look.

A Crafty Idea; making a wooden jewelry box look old and primitive

Happy Super Bowl weekend to everyone; this weekend I thought I would share a project I just finished. I love hunting for these little unfinished wooden jewelry boxes in craft stores. I like to get them and aged them and I thought I share how I do them up.

What I did was measured some scrape book paper out and decoupage it onto the front the jewelry box and I tore a bit off on the sides to make the paper look old and used ; second I cut an old birthday card I had laying around that had this cute kitten on it and decoupage it on the front over the scrap book paper. But lets step back for a second before decoupaging I sanded the jewelry box down a bit with a light weight sand paper and roughed it up a bit to get some of the natural design of the box to stand out. When I added the scrap paper I let it dry real good for a day, then added the kitty and let it dry for another day. When it was completely dry I beg to stain with instant coffee, making the coffee quite strong with very little water. I then did a wash over the entire jewelry box and let it dry quite well once again ( using a larger paint brush)

Then I used a much smaller brush and dipped it into the stain but also dipping it into some dry instant coffee that I poured into a small dish causing an even darker stain and adding where I really wanted to age the box even more. Sometimes I would just leave the stain sitting in place letting it dry that way.

I have a ton of fun creating these aged jewelry boxes, because there is so many different ways to create them and a little later on I will share another that while back I posted about but will talk about again because that one is done an entirely different way and it is one of kind.

A Spice Sauce to Spice up Chicken for Dinner

This is one of my favorite recipes because in is all in just the sauce you make to pour over the chicken to bake in the oven.
Here is what you will need:

• A whole chicken cut up
• large baking pan
• 15 oz. can of tomato sauce
• fresh pineapple slices or canned pineapple
• 1 1/2 cup of vinegar
• large onion cut up
• 2 cups of brown sugar
• Optional Chili pepper

Place the cut up chicken in a well greased baking pan and set aside. In a bowl add the tomato sauce, pineapple vinegar, onion and brown sugar. If you like it hot then add a dash of the chili pepper. Mix well using a large spoon or whisk. Then pour it over the chicken and bake at 400 degrees until the chicken is done.

Serve this with a green salad and hot corn on the cob and you will have a spicy but good dinner for all