Hi folks,

I know I've told you that when I'm getting ready for a trip, I like to make a new bag to take with me. Well, when I'm getting ready for company, sometimes I like to make new throw pillows. You might remember this proverb quilt that I posted about last week:I was really intrigued by the idea of letter quilt blocks, so I headed home that night with a project in mind. I don't have time for a full quilt right now, but I do have a big pile of scraps, and I enjoy free-style/improvisational piecing. After a couple false starts....

If seam ripping is required and it's after 10 pm, it's time to quit for the night.

...I woke up in the middle of the night on Friday and thought: Foundation piece it! Last night I finally had the chance to sit down with my scraps and my sewing machine to turn out this pillow.

I made it from scraps left over from the stacked coin quilt I made as a couch throw (you can see part of it there on the left), and once I had the foundation-piecing breakthrough, the pillow came together pretty quickly.

The fabric is Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope from Free Spirit, (with some plain brown cotton from Fabricland). I backed the pillow with a square of the cheater print from her County Fair line.

This is a great stash-buster project and I think it would make a great present for a child who's just learning his or her letters – or for someone who loves unique monograms.

Hi friends,

Every once in a while, some tiny tidbit of news or a silly little fact shifts my crafty mind into overdrive. It's impossible to predict, but it usually results in a lot of fun, and that's exactly what happened yesterday when my coworker Lisa mentioned that today is National Punctuation Day.

Now, I know that getting excited about punctuation is probably something that only happens to copy editors, but I'm always happy to grab the first excuse for cupcakes and crafting that comes along! In addition to baking some treats, I decided to make some simple crafts to help my department celebrate Punctuation Day in style.

First up, punctuation pins. I couldn't find a button-maker at my local art-supply store, but I did find a sheet of clear plastic self-adhesive bubble stickers in the scrapbooking aisle ($2.10). In the jewelry-making aisle, I found a package of pin backs ($1.75). At home, I experimented with different fonts and sizes of the most common punctuation marks until I found a look I liked, then I printed them on cardstock. I stuck the stickers over each mark, then cut around them. Finally, I glued on the pin backs. Easy!

I had half the package of stickers left over, so I decided to make some fancy paper clips, too. Following the same procedure as for the pins, I created a punctuation collage, this time printing on yellow card stock. I had some fancy paper clips stashed away; a little bit of gorilla glue and they were all punctuated up.

Next, I thought it would be fun to make little punctuation keychains. I'd found a sheet of plastic needlepoint grid ($1.80), a package of needles ($1.10), and a handful of embroidery floss (5 for $2) at Mary Maxim, and I bought a package of cellphone charm chains at the art store ($2.50). I printed the punctuation marks out at 144-point size, then placed the grid over the paper and traced the shapes with a Sharpie. I threaded my needle with a double-thickness of embroidery floss and got to work...and phew! needlepoint takes longer than I remembered! (That keychain is just 1.5" by 2" – and took me almost an hour.) By that point it was almost 11 pm (!), so in the end, I made up little craft kits instead.

Put it all together and what did I get? A little treat bag that brought big smiles to the faces of my fellow copy editors! (And all for less than $12!) I think that with a little adaptation, these would be great things to make as party favours, or on a rainy afternoon with your kids.

Happy National Punctuation Day to you!

Good morning, friends.

Do you remember topsy-turvy dolls? They were the dolls that had two faces: the one you were playing with showed, the other was covered by a long skirt. If you wanted to switch, you flipped the skirt up over the doll's head, turned it over and voilà, you had a different doll to play with! The dolls I remember seemed to split into three categories: awake/sleeping, everyday/party dress, and Red Riding Hood/The Wolf.

I'm thinking about these because Make+Do reader Laura sent in a request for some help finding a topsy-turvy doll pattern for her to make with her young granddaughter, so this morning I spent a little while poking around the internet to see what I could find.

Unfortunately, I didn't find any free sewing patterns, though I did find blog posts about topsy-turvy dolls people had made for themselves. There's a very tall topsy-turvy doll at TreeFall Design and a slightly smaller one at Wee Wonderfuls. Also check out this post from SouleMama about a flip doll she made, using a kit from Umbrella Prints.

There did seem to be a wide variety of topsy-turvy doll patterns for sale. (Keep in mind I'm not endorsing these sites, they're just ones I found with a Google search. Buyer beware, etc.) There was a Red Riding Hood/Wolf doll pattern available here for about $10; or find 21 different doll patterns, some vintage, each about $5, here.

If you'd like to crochet a tiny Red Riding Hood/Grandma doll, make sure you go here. And if you're looking for a no-sew option, these spool dolls look neat.

It might also be worth searching Etsy and Ebay, or even taking a trip to the fabric store. You never know what you'll find in those pattern catalogues! Come to think of it, why not go to your local library and see what they've got in their craft book section. You never know...

Oh, and here's a history of topsy-turvy dolls in the US.

Laura, I hope this helps. If anybody's got more information they could share, we'd appreciate it if you left a link in the comments!

Hi friends,

Just a quick post today before the day gets away with me. This tutorial showing how to make a scratch-off lottery ticket just made my day. (From ArtMind, via Whipup.) If I thought I could get away with it, I'd be begging off work with a "headache" to go and try them out right now.

Hope you have a great day. (Oh, and isn't this cake fantastic?)

Hi folks,

You know, I'm glad I didn't run right out to the tiny plastic dinosaur store to find the perfect finishing touch for my terrarium. Look at this!

Gnome clothesline terrarium accessory from Doodle Bird Designs.

Seriously, that is too cute. See more terrarium accessories and terrarium kits at Doodle Bird Designs, or do an Esty search for a wide range of terrarium-related goodness. You might want to set a timer...I could spend all afternoon looking at this stuff.

If you're looking for more terrarium info or inspiration, here are a few links for you:

• Lauren from The Fern and Mossery stopped by to invite you over to her terrarium-centric blog. It's neat, go have a look!
• The Terrarium Pool on Flickr has almost 1,000 inspiring terrarium images to get you thinking.
• I bet that The New Terrarium would have lots of ideas. (Thanks Sherrie for passing this title along!)
• I love the mushrooms and gnomes in these cute moss terrariums at All Dressed in Blue.
• Check out this moss terrarium step-by-step from Make Something.
• These domed terrariums are great; I love the custom-made mushrooms and cottages (from Three Pink Trees).
• If you'd love a terrarium but would rather keep your hands out of the dirt, here's a pattern for a crocheted terrarium from Pepperberry's Etsy shop.
• I love this terrarium print from Gennine and this print from Postal Press.

That's all for now, I've got a magazine to make! (Well, me and about 20 others...) Talk to you soon!

Hi friends,

This weekend I finally had the time to work on a project I've been thinking about for a long time. Terrariums first started popping up in blogland over a year ago, and a quick Google search shows there are all sorts of resources out there for the intrepid terrarium DIY-er. I watched this video at Design*Sponge and had a look at this set from Hello Yarn on Flickr, and then I jumped right in.

First step: Go shopping. The jars and gravel are from Ikea; the charcoal is from Home Hardware (look for it in the aisle with the fertilizers for houseplants); the plants and soil are from my local Sobeys. I went to a couple florist shops but they didn't have what I wanted (or, at least, not for a price I was willing to pay). I washed the jars and let them dry overnight (I didn't want any mud!).

Step two: Cover the table with newspaper. That bag of charcoal had been sitting on a shelf in the HH basement for 20 years, I'm guessing, and it was dirty! Also, well, giant bag of dirt + small-mouthed jar = likely disaster, at least when I'm involved.

Step three: Place a layer of gravel in the bottom of your jar. This allows for drainage. You'll see here that I threw a small Ball jar into the mix (I got it for 25 cents at a rummage sale, gotta love that!). Don't bother using "pretty" gravel, like I did, because you're about to...

Step four: Add the pretty-gravel-obscuring charcoal. The charcoal acts as a sort of filtration system for this mini ecosystem, but (surprise!) it's not the cleanest thing going. (Look how dirty it made my homemade funnel – just a piece of cardstock, really – over there on the left.) The charcoal was in small pieces and filtered down through the chinks in the gravel, obscuring the colours of the rocks. Next time I'll save my $3 and just steal some gravel from the bottom of someone's driveway.

Step five: Add the soil. Make sure that you're using soil that's appropriate for the plants that you've chosen. Because I'd chosen a mix of succulents, I bought a bag of "cactus and succulent mix," which is sandier/drier than regular potting soil. My homemade funnel came in handy again as I poured in the dirt – I didn't want it to get stuck to the sides of the jars. The three layers should take up about a third of the height of the jar.

Step six: Add your plants. I shook the plants out of the dish they came in and gently separated them. I removed any dead/suspicious-looking leaves, then arranged them in little groups on the table until I found something I liked. I was going for a variety of heights and textures and wanted the plantings to be fairly dense. Keep in mind that the inside of the jar is smaller (and your hands are bigger) than you think. I ended up using the blunt end of a knitting needle to poke things into place.

Step seven: Add decorations. I was originally thinking "tiny plastic dinosaur!" but I'd run out of room for a T.rex. Instead, I added a bit more gravel on top to add some visual interest. Then I watered (sparingly), using a tiny jam jar and sticking my hand right down into the jar to prevent the water from splashing the sides with dirt.

Step eight: Line your terrariums up on a windowsill and admire. I left the lids open for a little while to dry things out (one of the jars got a little foggy). Don't keep your terrariums in direct sunlight because they'll get too hot and your plants could cook (think about the inside of a car on a hot day).

Any questions? Leave them in the comments and I'll see if I can help. Have you ever made a terrarium? Do you have any advice on how to keep mine alive? (I have a feeling that's going to be the hard part...)

And don't forget to enter this week's contest!