I Love to Create - Weenie Dog Pull Toy

When you think of Austin events like SXSW and ACL probably come to mind. A lesser known gem happens right down the road from Austin that blows both of those festivals away. I'm talking about the Buda Weenie Dog Races. To commemorate Tallulah's first visit to the races I made her a weenie dog pull toy that she can race any day of the year.

SUPPLIES
Pen
Scissors
Aleene's Tacky Glue
Wooden Dowel
Wooden Wheels
String
Small Wooden Bead
1" thick piece of wood
Crafty Chica Little Chica Paint Pack
Household Drill
Husband
Cardboard Box
Paint Brush
Sandpaper
Celluclay Paper Mache
Water
Quarter
Dremel Tool
Ribbon
4 Screws
Screwdriver


CARDBOARD WEENIE
Draw a profile of a weenie dog onto a piece of cardboard. You can find applique pictures online if your freehand skills are not up to par. Also remember you can make your pull toy any animal your little heart desires. Next cut out 2 ears, 4 legs and 18 quarter sized circles.


ARMS, LEGS and EARS
One side at a time you need to glue stacks of 3 circles on the two leg spots and ear spot. Use Aleene's Tacky Glue between each disc and limb.


Allow to dry completely and then flip over and do the same thing.


PAPER MACHE PARTY
Once the glue has dried completely mix up a batch of Celluclay Paper Mache.



I worked in small batches and put my dog on a cookie sheet in the oven at 200 degrees to speed up the drying process. I did a section at a time to build up his body.


PETTABLE PUPPY
Let your paper mache weenie dog dry completely. For me this meant overnight and a few hours in the oven. When the dog is dry lightly sand him with sandpaper to smooth out any rough spots.


FINISHING TOUCHES
Once your puppy is smooth to the touch paint him brown. For a little added bonus I tied a pink ribbon around his neck that I glued in place with a little Aleene's Tacky Glue. He was the belle of the ball at the Weenie Dog Races.


THE BASE
This is where the husband comes in handy, not that I could not have done this by myself. My fabulously handy husband Chris offered to do the "heavy lifting" in the project. You will need a rectangular piece of wood for your base thick enough to run a dowel through. Depending on what size dowel you have drill two holes that size through your wood. What size wheels you get will also depend on the size dowel you have. We used a Dremel tool to sand the tips of the dowel so they fit into our wheels a little better. We also used another dab of Aleene's Tacky Glue to make sure the wheels stayed in place.


WOOD ADORNED
Plain wood will just not do. Gather up your Crafty Chica Little Chica Paint Packs and get to adorning. I mixed my red and white to get pink. I used a trick the Crafty Chica herself taught me on an episode of Craft Lab which is to use the end of a pencil to create a polka dot effect with your paint.


MAKE IT PULLABLE
Once your paint has dried go back with your Dremel and drill a small hole in the front center of your wooden base. Using 1ft of yarn or thread tie a small wooden bead to one end of your string and attach the other end to the base of your toy. This is how you will pull the toy.


PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

Getting the legs on your paper mache wiener dog even is tricky business. Using small screws I attached the legs to the wooden base. I also added more Aleene's Tacky Glue under each paw.


Lucky for me when I started looking for instructions on pull toys good ole' Martha Stewart pulled through with advice. I tweaked the original design a bit and love the daschund I ended up with. I'm pretty smitten with the little guy and more importantly Tallulah is too.

Stylelicious - Picture Perfect Accessories

Tomorrow on the DIY Network at 6:30 AM Central tune in to Stylelicious. Here is the blurb from DIY....A picture is worth a thousand style ideas! Host Karly Hand shows how to make a camera case, accented with a transparent pocket to showcase your latest photo. Host Jesse Kelly Landes personalizes a photo pet collar. Host Jennifer Perkins makes a one-of-a-kind pendant with shrunken photos. Every Thursday get your craft on with the Austin Craft Mafia.


I have a few other picture perfect suggestions for ya...
Personalized Appliques
Father's Day Beer
Cupcake Topper Necklaces
Customized Thank You Notes

Homemade Queso Blanco

Greetings Naughty Secretary Clubbers! It's Chris, Jen's ball 'n chain, and I wrote today's blog. It's a little recipe for making queso blanco. Enjoy!



After whipping up a couple of batches of beer with my friend Jeff, I thought it would be cool to try my hand at something else that rots: cheese. Unlike the beer, I did this on my own. Cheese doesn't really seem to lend itself to the buddy environment that beer does.

Since I don't own any cheesemaking equipment or have any experience, I started out small by making queso blanco. It seems weird to call this cheese because I made it in about an hour and there was no fermentation necessary. It also doesn't melt when it's heated, so keep that in mind.

Ingredients
4 Cups Whole Milk
1 Tablespoon White Vinegar

Supplies
Cheese cloth
Colander
String
Saucepan
Thermometer
Wire whisk

Instructions
Line the colander with cheese cloth and set aside. I don't have a proper colander, so I used the steamer basket that sits in a large pot, which worked nice as a drip bucket.

Heat the milk in the saucepan on the stove at medium-low heat (3). Get that thermometer in there and keep stirring with the whisk because you don't want to burn it. Slowly heat it to 180 F (82 C if you're fancy).



After it's heated to 180 F, continue stirring with the whisk while slowly adding the white vinegar. The milk will curdle right away. Keep stirring at that temperature for another 10-15 minutes.



Pour the milk mixture slowly into your cheese cloth lined colander.



Let it sit there for about 20 minutes so that it can cool.



Next, tie the corners of the cheese cloth together with one end of your your string. Tie the other end to something and in which you can hang your cheese bag from, like a cupboard knob or faucet, above a pot or the sink. I didn't have any string either so I used a phone charger cord. I'm resourceful like that. Leave it hanging until it stops dripping. Maybe 30 minutes to an hour.



You can put in the fridge or use it right away. I put this in the fridge because I made it in the morning and because I wanted to give it a chance to solidify.



Queso blanco can be used on a variety of dishes. Anything you might put cheese on. We put it on black beans with a little fresh cilantro. It doesn't have a strong taste, so you can be liberal with the portions, and it's just an easy way to brighten up a dish.

Catch a Tiger Collection by the Tail

I promised to slowly, but surely reveal all of my collections to you. Today is all about my love of all things tiger. Heck I have a hot pink and green tiger tattoo on my arm, you know I'm a fan.


I know you guys all think my rubber faced dolls are creepy, but I love them. This one was my mom's when she was a teenager. Her high School team was the Troup Tigers.


I'm trying to start Tallulah out on the love of tigers early with this picture above her bed. Check out the rest of her nursery here.


Right you when you walk in my front door not only are you greeted by poodles in bow-ties, but also by a smiling tiger.


I even have tiger themed items in my wardrobe, lot's of them actually. Check out how to make your own El Tigre Hoodie here.


When I saw MIA wearing these tiger striped Converse in the video for "Paper Planes" I too had to own a pair.


A pair of bootyliscious saber tooth tigers stand guard on the north wall of my living room.


One of my favorite necklaces I have made in forever was adorned in tiger art by my sister Hope Perkins. Check out how to make your own here.


If a donkey and a tiger had a baby.


I have not one, but two tiger pillows in my possession. This cutie lives on the bed in my spare bedroom.


Pillow number two is an embroidered fellow from Vietnam that lives in my game room.


Also in my living room hangs a picture that used to be in my grandmother's dining room. My dad sent it to her from Hawaii when he was stationed in the army there.


I heart tigers so much I even burned a screen with one on my Yudu.


The south wall of my living room has a couple of tigers high up on a book shelf.

There you have it, a glimpse inside my tiger world. I leave you with a fcouple past blog posts that I think are pretty grrrreat!


Animals in the Army.


Go Fly a Kite.

Know of any other fabulous tiger goodies out there I need to add to my collection?

Handmade in Hollywood

Here we are with our second installment of Handmade in Hollywood, where we do craft spotting on the big screen. You might recall my fascination with suitcase conversions. There was my laptop case made from a suitcase, my suitcase craft room storage - heck I even did a round-up of my favorite suitcase conversions from the blogosphere.

That being the case when I saw suitcase shrines being made in the movie White Oleander I was pretty giddy with excitement.

I Love to Create - Polka Dotted Mushroom Stool

With spring in the air everyone needs a toadstool in their garden or on their patio. You could buy one from your local garden center or you could easily make one like I did.


SUPPLIES
White Felt
Foam
White Crafty Chica Paint
Red Felt
Concrete Pier Form
Batting
Liquid Fusion Glue
Staple Gun
Scissors
Fabric Fusion Glue
Paint Brush
Pen
Wooden Disc (several inches larger in diameter than your stool base)


DUMPSTER DIVE
Actually I didn't do any dumpster diving. What I did do was cruise my neighborhood during bulk trash week. On a nearby street I found several large cardboard tubes which I was later informed are concrete pier forms. They were also filled with lots of wooden dowels that I snagged.


PAINT IT WHITE
I covered the cardboard in 2 coats of white Crafty Chica paint.


POLKA DOTS
Using a mug as my template I traced 12 circles onto white felt. I then cut the circles out and used Liquid Fusion Glue to attach them to a piece of red felt.


STOOL CUSHION
I traced my wooden disc onto foam and cut it out with scissors. If your foam is super thick you may need to use an electric knife.


I glued my foam to the wood using Liquid Fusion Glue. I also padded my stool with some extra batting.


READY, AIM, FIRE
Once the glue dried on my foam I sat it face down on the non-polka dotted side of my red felt. Using my staple gun and scissors I pulled, tucked, stapled and trimmed the felt. I tried to make sure the felt did not pucker and was nice and taunt on the top of the cushion.


CAP OFF YOUR TOADSTOOL
I used a heaping helping of Liquid Fusion glue to attach my stool top to it's base.


Though my stool is not water proof on a sunny day it looks pretty dang cute sitting on my back porch just waiting for someone to pop a squat.


When someone is not sitting on my new polka dotted mushroom stool Tallulah enjoys playing with it. Next I need to make a giant paper mache garden gnome.