Crocheted easter bunny magnets for goodie bags at my 1st grader’s school party. They took a lot longer than I thought (I made 24 total).
Acrylic worsted with an E hook, 2 round sc circle and ch 6 up and sc/hdc down for each ear. Dimensional fabric paint with rexlace/gimp for the nose and whiskers; glued-on eyes and a ceramic magnet.
I started them on Monday morning and thought, “Great, these should be a snap
to finish in time for the party on Thursday!”
Famous last words.
The crocheting was easy enough, I could do them watching tv; and I was able to play with the ear length and spacing until I was happy with the last dozen or so. The ears were curling, but I quickly decided that was part of their charm. I could have done them a lot faster if I wasn’t experimenting with the faces in the middle of things.
My original plan was teeny pompom noses with pipe cleaner whiskers. But try looking for pink pompoms and white chenille 3 days before school lets out for Easter. Luckily I brought one of the little guys with me to the local craft emporium so I could size up my supplies (and let me tell you, I felt like a princess there, proudly clutching my own creation as I wandered the store.)
Since the faces are less than an inch and a half across (imagine a slice of pepperoni), the bigger poms were definitely out, and black whiskers were not going to make the cut on these cuties. I knew I didn’t want to do any sewing or embroidery for the features – just weaving in the ends makes my eyes ache. I don’t know how many times I crossed the aisles before I hit upon the magical combination of modern plastics that would make for a suitable bunny snout.
Features in hand, I put the first one together.
I found out that I’m not so much a fan of the whole assembly process – Elmer’s school glue was not “making the grade” (heh). Too much slipping and sliding and general unpleasantness. I had used Aleene’s tacky before, but I must have been traumatized by some kind of Christmas bazaar nightmares involving googly-eyes popping off their ornaments before I got them home to my mother, because I did not want my son’s friends to think he had the Mom who made crappy gifts that fell apart in their backpacks; I wanted some industrial strength adhesive, one that wouldn’t let the magnet backs pull off and stay stuck to the refrigerator either.
It turns out that “Craft Bond” takes quite some time to dry, which led me to my patented makesixpiecesatatimeandgluethembetweentwoheavybooks system. The nose/whisker combination took on a life of its own as well. Since the gimp has a slight curve due to the way it’s packaged, it wasn’t “behaving” on top of the bumpy crochet. The fabric paint is pretty viscous when wet, so globbing on a dot wasn’t really sticking the two crossed pieces to each other. Ultimately, I made them separately on waxed paper and affixed them with another dollop of paint once they dried.
Home stretch: Wednesday evening, son helps me fill the eggs and make a few sample goodie bags. Some buns are eyeless, others smushed under weights, and I have a whole tray of twitchy noses mocking me. Not to mention I didn’t have enough circle magnets and have to switch to that flexible adhesive magnetic strip that comes in a roll. My anxiety swells because all I can think about is the curling magnets coming off, or worse, not even sticking to anything. Which of course defeats the whole purpose of a fridge magnet, and I certainly wasn’t planning on making bunny pins.
We forego the traditional treat bag (holiday shortage again. Note to self: please plan ahead – these things should be 75% off or more by next week…) in favor of a big square of saran wrap which I wanted to use up because I bought it at wal-mart and the dang box is too wide to fit in my kitchen drawer. Yes, a real bargain that was.
It’s already after midnight by now and some of the poor things are not even started. I know some of the glue isn’t dry yet, but I put them in the bottom of the bags anyway, hoping that no toxic gas will be released once they’re in an airless environment, and tightly pressed up against plastic pastel easter eggs containing candy…
Whew. 3am and the last bag is wrapped, everything looks sturdy enough and the haz-mat team hasn’t paid me a visit. There are no extra bunnies. I wanted one for me, one that he could give to the teacher, plus some that I wouldn’t have to give out, like Mr. Bigface on the left up there who ended up with a few extra stitches somehow and some friends who were either crosseyed, fish-eyed or similarly out of proportion and who wouldn’t have won me a blue ribbon for consistency in design. I no longer care. Thank gooodness I didn’t volunteer to do this as a craft for the class because I’d be NUTS if they didn’t turn out right and someone got upset. The good news is that I actually did actually get one back. My darling boy had made a bag for himself, so one of the sweeties made it’s way back home to me.
The last I saw it, it was at the bottom of the toybox.
all the tv and the Oprah and I’ve read the amusing net backlash as well. (“Raytard”. Enough said.) I only bought the issue because cooking is not my forté and I’ve been hearing that a lot of her recipes are simple, and, for lack of a better term, man-pleasing. Superbowl steak sandwiches. Chili. She wrote a book called Guy Food, for goodnes sake, And since my beloved will barely eat what I do prepare, I thought she deserved a chance.
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