Stick Figure Saturday- Stick Cat!!

 

It's Stick Figure Saturday!!! Sorry I missed last week. Life got in the way. 

Today's is a cat, because I found out that this year is going to be the 40th anniversary of "Built for Speed" by the Stray Cats and it just made me smile thinking of it. It's such a fun album. 

I hope you're enjoying this series. Any suggestions for future installments? I'd love to know. 

Click the images below for larger versions to save/print/color

Stick figure cat coloring page- small jpg:

Stick figure cat coloring page- large transparent png:

Kitty Mandala

Hey everyone! I hope you have fun with this kitty mandala to print and color.

Click on the images below for a larger version to print and color.

small jpg kitty mandala:

large transparent png version:

Cat face coloring page

This cat is an experiment in breaking through my discomfort with drawing animals and doing something new. My son thought it was cool so it's today's coloring page. I  hope you like it too.

Click the images below and print on landscape settings.

Cat coloring page-
Small jpg format:

Large transparent png version:

Book Review- Crafting With Cat Hair

Crafting With Cat Hair : Cute Handicrafts to With Your Cat by Kaori Tsutaya and translated by Amy Hirschman is written by the author of a popular site, and is Japanese craft style in a very feline way. Using the soft hair you brush from your cat as well as store bought wool felt, you create projects for your home and as accessories for yourself.

Just so you know, I'm a cat lover since I was a kid. My very first pet in fact was a parakeet. I named my 'keet Pretty Kitty just to make sure my mom knew that a parakeet wasn't a cat and I still wanted a cat. People owned by cats can be a bit dotty about them. This review is for those people. The cat people who understand why we needed a book on crafting with cat hair.

The author loves cats, and gives lots of tips on proper brushing, using just the hair that sheds naturally and taking good care of your cat.

The projects are felted using the soft, fluffy undercoat that cats have in the winter and that brushes off in what seems like incredible amounts in the spring. The top hair, the hair you see and feel when you pet a cat and that seems to wind up everywhere tends to tangle and doesn't felt as well.

It starts with a cute wet felted finger puppet which is the image on the cover. Her instructions are clear on how to make the template and how to felt the puppet and she gives advice on making little collars. After that project, the rest are needle felted on a backing fabric. Wool felt is recommended. These is a great technique for lightly felted thrift store sweaters.

She gives instructions on how to sew, glue and make the projects in the book. There are adorable badges, trinket boxes, little zipper pouches that can be handsewn, pin cushions, purses and ideas for needle felting on clothing and accessories.A lot of the projects have their own little stencils you can trace from the pages. They are incredibly charming and sweet silhouette poses.

She also explains how to wash and care for your cat felted items since cat fur doesn't bond as strongly as wool does when felted.

With all the information, the projects and the love for cats that the author clearly has, this is a just a wonderful and inspiring book. Some of the projects as written repurpose things for crafty use. A lot of the rest can be done using thrifted sweaters lightly felted.

The full color photos of cats and the projects are well done. The instructions are clear, the technique is simple and the book is just charming.

You can get this book directly from Quick Books My reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Pumpkin Butter- recipe and printable page

My family always gets pie pumpkins for Halloween. They don't make the best carving pumpkins, but they have a lot of seeds for their small size and the best pumpkin "meat" for making pumpkin butter.

Pumpkin butter doesn't have all the fat that pumpkin pie filling has and it's a fantastic source for vitamin A and C. It does have a fair amount of sugar, but I don't mind that as much knowing that it's not all empty calories. 

Pumpkin butter is not a good candidate for home canning because it doesn't have the acid necessary to keep botulism from growing. So I put it in the freezer. We carve our pumpkins on Halloween itself and put them on plates with led lights in them. I leave them out over night because it's just cold enough here to do that. They won't rot, but without the plates they might freeze to my stairs (it happened once! They were stuck there until a passing moose came up the stairs to eat them)

Click on the images including the one above for larger versions.

Pumpkin Butter - make 5-6 pints

Ingredients:

3 Pie Pumpkins

1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 Tsp. Cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

Apple Juice

To Make Pumpkin Puree

Cut pumpkins in half and scoop out the center fiber and seeds. Pie pumpkins have a lot of seeds, so set them aside to toast and eat or to plant next spring.

Cut off and discard stems and cut the pumpkins into chunks.

Steam in 1/2 cup water until soft. Pull out chunks and scrap the pumpkin meat off the skin. Discard pumpkin skin and put the pumpkin back into the pan.

Use a stick blender or potato masher to make a nice soft puree.

Add spices and sugar, simmer over low heat, stirring often until it's cooked down by about half.

If it gets too thick, add some apple juice, if it's too thin to use as a spread, keep cooking it down.

Let cool and ladle into freezer safe containers. Put one in the fridge for immediate consumption and the rest in the freezer.

My family loves to eat grilled pumpkin butter and cream cheese sandwiches. We butter two slices of bread and spread pumpkin butter over one (plain butter side down). Then cut 1/4 slices of firm cream cheese and put that on the pumpkin spread. Put the other piece of bread over it, butter side up. Put it in a frying pan over medium heat and cook until it's browned and toasted on one side, flip over, repeat. The cream cheese melts at a fairly low temp so by that point,it's ready to serve. 

For the seeds- my daughter likes chili pumpkin seeds, so after cleaning off all the fibery bits, we toss them with olive oil and 1 tsp. good chili powder, 1/4 tsp each garlic powder, cumin, onion powder and oregano. Then spread them on a cookie sheet and toast until just barely browned. 

Another Halloween coloring page

I hope you like this little kitty and pumpkin coloring page for Halloween.  Click the image to download.

The font used is from Apostrophic Labs massive Komika family. Look here for the Komika fonts, Komika Boo is with the poster fonts. These fonts are free for personal OR commercial use. The readme that came with my download says " If you do use them in commercial projects in which you make some profit, please take the time to give a small fraction of that to your favourite charity."
It's a wonderful family of fonts that will fit all your comic book style font needs. Definitely recommended for digi-scrappers.

Witch box and coloring page

Every year, I draw a new witch. This year is a different style than usual. I decided on a chibi witch with curls, based on the Turnip Girl, who has great big dimples and pretty brown curls. She decided it should be a box as well as a coloring page. Click on the images for the larger versions. The box is my 3x3x1 inch template. I'll post a photo of the box later. The orientation on the coloring page is set to be printed on portrait settings which is why it's sideways. If you click on "witch" in my labels, you'll find several witch themed printables for Halloween.

Crochet Little Kitty Pattern

I like this style of doll because they are sort of like chibi figures. Very simple and quick to make and the details make the doll.

 In this case, one of the details are the eyes which I won from Suncatcher Eyes. If you don't know about Suncatcher Eyes, they are gorgeously hand-safety eyes that are like sparkling jewels. She has a bunch of variations. These are 9 mm cat eyes in pink. The eyes come with the washers to attach them. You insert the post of the eye into your project. With crochet projects, they fit easily between 2 single crochet stitches done using a size F hook. Slide the washer on the post on the inside of your project to lock the eye in place. Make sure you have them set just how you want them before sliding the washers on.

The other detail is a short length of ball chain with a bell attached. I got a whole bunch of short ball chains from American Science and Surplus, search for chainettes on the website. 100 6 1/4 inch lengths with connectors for 1.45. I use them for hanging my measuring cups and spoons as well as for craft projects. The bell is from my stash. A ribbon with a bell will work just as well.

As most my patterns, this is not worked in spirals, and the first ch doesn't count as the first stitch. Feel free to modify to fit your style. I don't mind the seam up the back, and prefer how tidy it looks when I chain 1 tightly, then work my sc in that space.

Supplies:

Size F hook (4mm)

Worsted weight yarn- I used Peaches and Cream (I think, unlabeled cone)

Yarn needle

Eyes, buttons, beads or safety eyes

ribbon or chain for a collar

stuffing

plastic pellets or plastic BB type ammo*

American terminology

ch= Chain stitch

sc= single crochet

dc= double crochet

hdc= half double crochet

sl st= slip stitch

st= stitch

sts= stitches

dec= decrease crochet, in this case it means to work 1 single crochet across two spaces. Insert hook in first stitch of dec and yarn over, pull loop through stitch, (2 loops on hook) insert hook in next st and yarn over, pull through stitch(3 loops on hook), yarn over, and pull through all 3 loops on hook.

When it says repeat ** that means to repeat the instructions between the asterisks.

Pattern is worked from the top down, and 3 pieces total. The head/body and the 2 ears. 

Ch 1 or magic ring.

Rnd 1: ch 1 (does not count as first sc here or through out) 6 sc in ring or first ch, sl st in first sc to join. (6 sts)

Rnd 2: ch 1, 2 sc in same st, 2 sc in each stitch around, sl st to first sc to join (12 sts)

Rnd 3: Ch 1, sc in same st, sc in next stitch, 2 sc in next st,*sc in next st, sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, *repeat ** twice more, sl st to first sc to join (16 sts)

Rnd 4: Ch 1, sc in same st, sc in next st, sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, * sc in next stitch, sc in next st, sc in next st, 2 sc in next st,* repeat ** twice more, sl st to first sc to join (20 sts)

Rnd 5-8: ch 1, sc in same st, sc in each stitch around, sl st to first sc to join (20 sts)

I placed my eyes in Rnd: 7. 

Rnd 9: Ch 1, sc in same st, sc in next st, sc in next st, dec in next 2 sts,* sc in next st, sc in next st, sc in next st, dec in next 2 sts, * repeat ** twice more. Sl st in first sc to join. (16 sts)

Rnd 10: Ch 1, sc in same st, sc in next st, dec in next 2 sts, *sc in next sti, sc in next st, dec in next 2 sts, * repeat ** twice more, sl st to first sc to join (12 sts)

Stuff head firmly with stuffing

Rnd 11: Ch 1, dec across next 2 sts, dec across next stitches, repeat around.  Sl st to first sc to join(6 sts)

Rnd 12: Ch 1, sc in same st, sc in each st around. Sl st to first sc to join (6 sts)

Rnd 13: ch 1, 2 sc in each st around, sl st to first sc to join (12 sts)

Rnd 14: Ch 1, sc in same st, sc in each st around, sl st to first sc to join (12 sts)

Rnd 15: Ch 1, sc in same st, sc in next stitch, 2 sc in next st,*sc in next st, sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, *repeat ** twice more, sl st to first sc to join (16 sts)

Rnd 16-20: Ch 1, sc in same st, sc in each st around, sl st to first sc to join (16 sts)

Stuff about halfway to 2/3 with stuffing, using a hook or pencil to stuff in the neck. Pour in the plastic pellets or plastic BBs. I use high density plastic bbs because they are fairly heavy and come in a bottle with a nice pouring spout for these. The extra weight at the bottom is what makes these stand nicely. Put a bit more stuffing over the pellets, and start doing the decreasing for the bottom, hold the pellets in place with your thumb while you are working, or add a scrap of fabric and tuck the edges to hold them in place.

Rnd 21: Ch 1, sc in same st, sc in next st, dec in next 2 sts, *sc in next sti, sc in next st, dec in next 2 sts, * repeat ** twice more, sl st to first sc to join (12 sts)

Rnd 22: Ch 1, dec across next 2 sts, dec across next stitches, repeat around.  Sl st to first sc to join(6 sts)

Break off yarn and put the tail on the needle and stitch through all 6 stitches, and pull tight. Knot securely and weave in end.

Ears: (make 2) 

Ch 6- counts as ch 3 and first dc. 

In 5th ch from hook, work a hdc, in next ch, a sc, ch 2, and down the other side of the chain do a sc in the same st as last sc, hdc in next ch, dc in next ch. 

Ch 1 (doesn't count as sc) sc in same st, sc in hdc, sc in sc, 3 sc in ch 2 space, sc in sc on other side, sc in next hdc, sc in top of the ch 3. Break off leaving a long enough tail to stitch the ears in place.

Refer to the photo, I cupped the ears slightly and stitched them on the sides of the head starting in the second round of the head. 

Add collar.