Vintage Market 2018

Make Mine Vintage 2018

May 12, 2018

Hello again my blog friends,

I have been super busy! I had kids at my street markets asking for more Pokémon and pokéballs. Last month Squirtle made his debut. This month I've added 3 more pokéballs: Park, Captain's, and Green.

In addition to making Pokémon,  I wanted to add a little vintage to the Make Mine Vintage Market by designing Kirby. It's fun to watch people of several generations recognize him.

The spring market season is over. It's almost time for a vacation. 22 weeks until the fall market season begins. If it's anything like last year, it'll be here too fast. Over the summer I'll be looking into designing purses in addition to a few more amigurumi cremations.

What would you like to see hit the streets and my Etsy shops?

To see more photos from the 2018 Clinton Make Mine Vintage Market, Click Here.

2018 Market Time!

This weekend I had my first street market this year. SPRING INTO GREEN. It was supposed to be last year, but our little city decided to have tornadoes instead. Due to the awful weather, there were a lot of schedule conflicts and the 2nd biggest market of the year was about half the size as it has been in the past.

Nonetheless, we had a blast watching little girls walk by wearing butterfly wings and marching down the street in the annual butterfly parade.

I started this year out with a new tent that has optional walls. What a buy! I could have participated in this market with light rain, unlike before.

Overall, we did ok. Squirtle made his debut appearance in my tent. People seemed to like him. Pikachu and Dobby are still the crowd faves.

I better get back to work. Make Mine Vintage is in less than 3 weeks!

The Harry Potter Birthday

For my daughter's 11th birthday party she wanted a themed party. All I could think was "EXPENSIVE!!" Being a huge Harry Potter fan turning 11, of course she wanted a Harry Potter party. And with my mom having a pool in June also means pool party. So, I had my work cut out for me. I was not going to buy a bunch of Harry Potter themed things. So, being the crafty person that I am, I made almost everything for this Harry Potter Pool Party. Thanks, Mom!

What did we need?
Gifts
Invitations
Food
Cake
Games
Gift bags
And since she was turning 11, she needed to be sorted.

I spent the entire month of April that year researching the internet trying to find the best projects that I knew I could do. I could crochet and paint, but otherwise my DIY skills were lacking. After this, I knew I could achieve anything. You should hear the story about my DIY wedding. But that's another post not yet written.

Scroll paper

Invitations
This was the easiest. We purchased scroll paper and printed the invitations ourselves using what looked like an Old English font. It was fun to sound like we were inviting them to Hogwarts for a pool party. That seems a very un-wizarding thing to do.

Food
I was cheap. I opted for a 1 PM party so I wouldn't have to serve a meal. We served chips, dip, and cheese and crackers. Not everyone has to be cheap. I've seen recipes for butter beer out there. You can buy butter beer at some places like Whole Foods. Pizza is always a winner too. I don't recommend a Hogwarts Feast though. Owl shaped cookies, jellybeans, and chocolate frogs are a few other ideas I had. A quick Pinterest search could give you so many ideas you'll have to create a new board.

Cake
Lucky for me, my daughter's grandmother is a professional cake baker. We had her make a white owl cake.  I've seen other cakes with the Hogwarts Crest, House crests, and even cauldron and broomsticks have been on cakes.
                                            

The Sorting Hat that I made.

 Games
 The Sorting Hat
This is where the fun really begins. There are a lot of sorting hat patterns out there. But the one that I found to be the best came from Allison's CRAFTYisCOOL Blog. Crocheting has been my passion for many years, but this looked complicated. But I succeeded and made this really cool sorting hat. Thanks, Allison!

Sorting
I put a few drops of food coloring into plastic cups and put them randomly onto a table before the party. As each child walked into the door, they would be whisked away to the Sorting Chair. There, they would pick a cup, write their name in sharpie, then add sprite. The color would reveal which house they now belonged. Red for Gryffindor, Blue for Ravenclaw, Green for Slytherin, and Yellow for Hufflepuff. Then we had a sorting ceremony for my daughter. About a week before, she took her sorting test on Pottermore, but I wouldn't let her see her results. I had already written her name on a cup and put in the color she was assigned. Red for Gryffindor!

Pool Quidditch 
Ok, so Pool Quidditch was nothing like Quidditch. That game is hard to reproduce especially for the few kids who were not Potter fans. We separated the kids into their Houses and tossed pool rings into the pool. We did 3 races to bring in the most rings. Gryffindor VS Hufflepuff, Slytherin VS Ravenclaw. The the 2 winners. I can't remember who won the Quidditch Cup.

Gift Bags

We used the top set. #29 on Tip Junkie

Bookmarks
When best friends work together, crafting is extra fun. Mandalyn and I printed these templates from Tip Junkie (#29), laminated them, and cut them out. Everyone was given a set of 7 and the paper cost less than what one bookmark usually costs in a store. Thanks, Mandalyn!

Candy
Of course we put candy in the gift bags. What kid doesn't like candy? I recommend butterscotch and find Jelly Belly's every flavored jelly beans if you can find them. I couldn't find them. But I know they exist. I also know they aren't cheap.

My Harry Potter Wand

Wands
Yes. My husband (boyfriend at that time) used one of our free Saturdays alone to make Harry Potter Wands. God bless that man. This was one of those projects that took a lot more time than I realized. He stuck with it. He's not a crafter, but he says he likes spending time with me and was willing to help. No wonder I married him. It turned out it was very much worth the time. As far as I know, everyone still has theirs. They were a hit! 2 years later, people still talk about the time we made the wands. Some of my daughter's new friends have even requested that I make more. Maybe one day. A word of advice: It takes 2 days and don't do it while it's raining. Thanks, Mike!

My feather pen

Feather Pens
I learned a few things on this project. One of them being that it is better to buy cheap pens and take them apart than to buy ink refills. This whole project cost me $5 and 2 hours of time to make 20 pens. I bought feathers from Hobby Lobby and 2 packs of cheap pens from Walmart.

1. Cut the tips off the feathers. 
2. Take the ball and ink part out of the pens and cut off the end just above the ink. 
3. Put a little dot of hot glue on the end of the ink tube.
4. Slide into the feather tube.
5. Dry

The Gifts

What Harry Potter birthday wouldn't be complete without the entire movie series on DVD for $10? Yes, I managed that. First I found them for $20 at Barnes and Noble. Then found them at Target for $10. She had already received the Book Series in Hardback the previous Christmas. The movies were the next step.

Crochet Dobby the House Elf

Last but not least, a Crochet Dobby needed to be made. The pattern selection out there is terrible. Even the paid ones. I didn't want to pay for a pattern. I had already expended my tiny budget. So what's a girl to do? I had crocheted a phoenix at one time with no pattern. So, I took on the challenge. After 2 weeks, I finally wrote my Dobby the House Elf Crochet Pattern. 

The Results

Everyone had fun. Even the adults were getting sorted. I couldn't have done it without help though. Thankfully, I have friends and family who are always willing to help. Hopefully you can have fun creating your own Harry Potter themed party for your 11-year-old.

HAPPY CRAFTING!

The Final Basic Stitch

Learning to Crochet

Video #6: Slip Stitch

This is the last of the basic stitches. It doesn't get any easier than this one. The slip stitch (UK single crochet, I think I should make a chart) is just a connecting stitch. It's used to take up space, or even to put a unique edging on a project. 

This video will concluding the Learning to Crochet video tutorial series. I hope you've learned enough start crocheting simple projects. 

Happy Hooking!

Let's Go For A Triple

Learning to Crochet

Video #5: Triple Crochet

It's time for a challenge. This stitch (known as the Double Treble in the UK) is the most boring stitch. It just goes on and on and on... Thankfully, it is mostly used as a part of more intricate stitches, like the V-Stitch. 

All of these basic stitches can be put together in different ways to make bigger stitches. For example, one way to make a shell stitch is to crochet five double crochets into a single crochet from the previous row. 

It's a really long double crochet...

A 4th Stitch For You to Learn

Learning to Crochet

Video #4: Half Double Crochet

Welcome back! Let's get right to it, shall we. This week's tutorial is how to half double crochet. I know. I know. It makes no sense. Wouldn't a half double be a single? I don't make the rules, I just teach them. The UK calls this the Half Treble. 

The half double crochet is my favorite stitch. It's bigger than a single crochet so you can have fewer rows and work moves faster BUT it doesn't have all the open space like a double crochet. If your tension is right, this stitch can be used to put pixel images in your smaller projects because it takes up the same amount of space vertically and horizontally. 

So, grab your hook and yarn and let's get to learning!

Double the Crochet!

Learning to Crochet

Video #3: Double Crochet

Hello again! Did you make a dishcloth? I didn't. I made another video instead. So this week we'll learn the double crochet (UK Treble Crochet). If you can single crochet, you can double crochet. Easy peasy. Actually, if you can single crochet, all the basic stitches will be a piece of cake. 

So, are you ready to learn the double crochet? Well what are you waiting for? Click play. 

The Next Crochet Stitch

Learning to Crochet

Video #2: Single Crochet

I do hope you have been practicing your chain stitch. Today we'll move on to a very simple stitch, single crochet. This stitch is used for smaller projects and amigurumi. 

What? You don't know what amigurumi is? 

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of crocheting or knitting a stuffed toy.

Okay, now that you understand what amigurumi is, let's move on to learning the single crochet.

Oh, and as a side note, this is the UK Double Crochet, not to be confused with the US Double Crochet. 

Just watch the video below and start practicing. If you use worsted weight cotton yarn, you can make a square dishcloth!  Happy Hooking!

Do you want to learn to crochet?

Learning to Crochet

Video #1: Chain Stitch

Do you want to learn to crochet too? I can teach you! 

Start with some yarn (worsted weight is nice), a crochet hook (size G, H, or I is good to start with), and this video.

We start with a chain. It is the base stitch for ALMOST EVERY SINGLE PROJECT. It is also the most difficult to get right. Tension is everything. If the chain is too tight, you can't get your hook into for the next row. If the chain is too loose, your work may look sloppy. So practice practice practice. 

Did you know that other countries have different names for their stitches? All of my blogs and videos use US stitch names, but don't worry, I try to refer to the UK stitch name as well. This US Chain Stitch is called the Slip Stitch in the UK.

Ready, set, yarn over!