Squirrel Picnic

Handmade with Love and Stuff

Tag Archives: crafts


by 4 Comments

Charm Exchange Part 4: Community

Our bracelets and necklaces are nearing completion as my friends and I met for another round of the charm exchange. I really admire how each artist has chosen to address the different themes, and it’s been really interesting to see how the variety of mediums used work together in each collection.

One of the things I have enjoyed most about this experience is the sense of community. Most artists spend a lot of time working on their craft alone in their studio or workshop or craft space. Collaborations like a charm exchange allow us to meet up with other artists, share our talents and expertise, learn about new mediums and techniques, and be inspired by the work of others… in addition to chatting about life and enjoying a good meal together.

Have you started a charm exchange like ours? Do you get together regularly with friends for craft nights? Let me know how you have developed a community around your craft and I’ll share your experience next time when we wrap up this series with our final charm exchange. Stay tuned for photos of our completed jewelry pieces and more information about how to start an exchange of your own. Until then, here are the newest additions to our charm bracelets and necklaces. Continue reading →


by 21 Comments

Charm Exchange: The Teeny Tiny Crochet Continues

Crochet Kokeshi Doll Charms_Squirrel PicnicI have been looking forward to working on the charms for Alexandra’s charm bracelet since the beginning of this exchange, because I’ve been dying to try out the kokeshi doll pattern in Sara Scales’ book Mini Amigurumi.

It was so much fun to crochet these! For the first time, I feel I am starting to get the hang of mini amigurumi. The learning curve is greater than I originally expected. I mean, it’s crochet. I can crochet, so why is this so hard? Well, here is what I’ve learned…

It takes a lot more patience, dexterity, and keener eyesight than regular crochet. Good lighting really helps too. You have to be very conscious of your tension. Because I was working with fine thread (No. 8 crochet thread), I found it a little more difficult to get the same grasp I would with yarn. I wanted my tension to be tight enough that you wouldn’t be able to see the stuffing through the stitches, but not too tight that I would have to struggle to insert my hook into the stitches. I also discovered that invisible decreases don’t work as well with thread or maybe with this scale. It created larger holes than a standard sc2tog decrease.

So now that I’ve had a few months of practice, I’m ready to try out all the mini amis in Sara’s book. They are all so cute! But first, follow me as I show you how I made these kokeshi doll charms. Continue reading →


by 6 Comments

Announcing the Make It! Challenge Recipients for 2015

The response to my call for challenges was the best ever this year! As exciting as it was to receive so many Make It! Challenge proposals, with only three slots to fill, it also made for a very difficult decision. Thank you so much to everyone who submitted their ideas. I wish that I had the time and resources to pursue all of them. If your idea wasn’t chosen this year, please don’t be discouraged. Keep working on your idea to make it truly unique and resubmit it.

I think you will be very pleased with the challenges that I’ll be tackling. I’ll be trying a few new things and maybe even writing a knitting pattern! But before I ruin all the surprises, let me just announce the winners… Make It! Challenge 2015 RecipientsCongratulations! I’ll be emailing each of you in the coming weeks to let you know my schedule for the year and when you can expect for me to complete your challenge. I hope you are just as excited as I am to get this new year of challenges rolling.


by 20 Comments

A Ripper Aussie New Year’s Party

Each year, Mayor Snack Frog hosts a New Year’s Eve party at his pad and invites all his friends from the picnic and beyond, including you! This year, special guests flew all the way from Australia to attend. These delightful amigurumi characters by Sharon Pridmore of gentlestitches.com included a bushy-tailed possum, 3 foxes, a crocodile, dogs, and zombie bunnies. Australia is filled with dangerous creatures, so Sharon sent along some Easter brown snakes and a red-backed spider as well, all of which we found to be very well-behaved despite their reputation.  You can find patterns for Sharon’s crochet creations on her website or Ravelry. We were also very excited to see that she sent along MEAP2, which she made with my cuddly robot crochet pattern, so MEAP had a girlfriend to dance with all night.

We hope you enjoy this very amateur stop-motion animation, and we wish you plenty to smile about in 2015!