Crochet Challenge!! Day 26: Amigurumi

The definition of amigurumi: (crocheted or knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures.

 The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. 

Amigurumi's are my favorite thing to make and I've made quite a few of them. Here are some of the amigurumi's that I have made over the years. There are others that I have just not had a chance to photograph.

 

You can find the challenge on usscrafty's blog:

Crochet Challenge!! Day 25: White

The theme for today was white and I don't use much white for crocheting because it gets dirty to easily. So started this little bunny at 9:15 and it is currently 10:30. So it's a pretty fast project. He didn't come out so well and I think it's because I used to big of a hook which caused odd holes and made it not fold as nice. 

I found the picture instructions on Pinterest and I will post a link to it tomorrow morning. But for now it's bedtime. 

You can find the challenge on usscrafty's blog:

Easter Bunny Crayons

      I am filling a bunch of Easter eggs for a hunt at my college next month. Its kinda hard to find something to put in an Easter eggs for college students. You need to find something they would actually want while also not spending a fortune. Candy is something people want, but its not healthy so I only filled about half this way. Condoms are a very popular option but are kinda tacky and not every college student is sexually active and therefore have no need. So I racked my brain for a couple of weeks and searched pinterest when I came across this pin from TipToeThrough.

     College students are a little old for crayons but we still do secretly like them. Now I've only got a few eggs left to fill, I'll probably finish those off with sun screen wipes and maybe a couple condoms, because it is college.

     I found the silicone baking mold at Walmart for $3 and the 64 pack was on sale for $2. I did some research and the silicone ice cube trays from Ikea can also be used. I was worried that the cheaper crayons would be too oily for this, because they are not good for crayon melt art, but they turned out just fine. Which means I could make another 24 crayons for just $2.

     I like to set out all the crayons to see all the colors that I have to work with and to make it easier to grab groups of similar colors, but this is totally just my preference. You then have to peal and then cut/break all the crayons into smaller pieces. I found that the smaller the pieces the better.

      This is what they looked like all filled up. I started with mostly red then orange and then through the rest of the rainbow throwing in some extra pink in at the end, but you can do it however you want =) You place this in the oven at 230 degrees for about 20 minutes, check on them around 10 and 15 because they look best when not over melted.

Here is a video of how easy it is to remove them, if they are completely dry and a video watching the color change as they dry. They should be cool to the touch, if not they will crack. One of mine did crack coming out and I actually just remelted it in the microwave. Put it in for 5 minutes and then it dried much faster then any of the others. 

Finished Set =)