Brrrrrnie Sanders

Like most people, I loved all the Bernie memes. Approximately 97 people sent me photos of crocheted Bernie dolls, and since I've made dolls like that before (Warren G. Harding and Alexander Hamilton), I knew that I could make a Bernie doll. I also knew that I didn't really want to. They take a lot of time, and I would have needed to go out to buy wire, and I just wasn't feeling it.

But when CraftyIsCool, one of my favorite designers (in fact, the one who created the Hamilton pattern and whose instructions I based Harding off of), released a pattern that didn't require wire, I was suddenly all over it. I downloaded the pattern and hopped on Amazon to order doll glasses and a chair!

Two days later, he was done! He is currently watching me write this, and it's hard to tell whether or not he approves. 

More Fun Presidents Day Ideas!

A couple years ago, I wrote a post with actual FUN ideas for Presidents Day. Since then, I've made a lot more craft projects that could be fun for you and/or your kids. (When I say "fun," I mean "actually interesting," not just gluing a penny onto a picture of a log cabin and calling it a "fun activity.")

So here are some things to keep you occupied and entertained:

Give Andrew Jackson a Tattoo
It's more fun than a regular coloring page. More information about Andrew Jackson's tattoos here.

Color Chester A. Arthur's Pants
Also more fun than a regular coloring page. More information about Chester Arthur's pants here.

Make a Presidential T-Shirt
You only need a few items and a bit of patience to make one of these cool-looking shirts. And you don't even have to limit yourself to Herbert Hoover! Find full instructions here.

Crochet Something
It might help to already know how to crochet, but if you do, you can make some of Ida McKinley's Slippers or a doll that looks like a president (or Founding Father).

Make a Woodrow Wilson Articulated Doll
If crocheting isn't your thing, you can still make a presidential doll---in two dimensions. (It's a lot faster and easier than crocheting one, too.)

Make Some Easy Andy Warhol-esque Presidential Artwork
This is a perennial favorite in my house. I found the idea on this site a few years back, and my kids (and I) love it. You just print out four identical coloring pages of the president of your choice, go to town with crayons or watercolors, then arrange them on some construction paper.

Do Some Refrigerator Poetry
I created a free, printable Donald Trump Refrigerator Poetry Set. So...you know...you could do that.

Make Some Racing Presidents
The Washington Post created templates you can print out and put on toilet paper tubes so you can have your own version of the Washington Nationals' Racing Presidents. My friend Sunny's kids put hexbugs inside theirs to make them "race" for real.

Make Some Patriotic Jello
This is far easier than it would appear. Find full instructions here.

I have lots of other presidential recipes, which you can find by clicking the "Cooking with the Presidents" tag/label at the bottom of this post. You could have a whole meal! (Primarily consisting of desserts.) You can also find other crafts by clicking on the "crafts" label.

If you make any of these things, please let me know! Have a safe and happy Presidents Day!

Presidential Valentines, Harding-Style

Many of our presidents have been amorous-type fellows, possibly none more than Warren G. Harding. Actually, if we're going strictly on numbers there are likely some who exceed him, but none who were able to put their love into quite the poetic...beauty...Harding was.

I figure there are a lot of people out there searching for the perfect Valentine for their sweetheart (or if you're like Harding, sweethearts), so why not get a little help from the man himself?

I've taken a poem Harding wrote to his paramour Carrie Phillips and have made Valentines out of the various verses. Feel free to print off the one you find most appropriate and give it to your flame. Throw in some chocolate, too, because even Harding knew that a Valentine printed off the internet wasn't gonna cut it.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Crocheted Alexander Hamilton Doll

How do some yarn skeins, crochet hooks, couple of eyes

And some gold beads, worked up in a frenzy of bold speed

(Ignore needs of my family), from pattern slightly altered

Turn into a cool plush doll Founding Father?

I present to you the gift I made my mom for Christmas this year: a crocheted Alexander Hamilton. (Technically a crocheted Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton, but whatever. HamiLin?) 

I wish I could say I came up with this idea on my own, but I did not. I used a pattern from Allison Hoffman, although I did make some small changes to it, like making his coat blue instead of beige. I also made some technical yarn-type changes, but I'll spare you the crochet minutiae here. (If you'd like a detailed explanation, you can visit my project on Ravelry.)

The Retro Ornament Throw,
which also got done 

Anyway, I'd wanted to make this project all year, but I didn't start seriously thinking about it until October. At that point, however, I was working on another very involved crochet project (a retro ornament throw for my grandma) that I knew might not get done in time for Christmas, so I wasn't sure HamiLin would happen at all. As fate would have it, I ran out of yarn for the ornament throw and had to wait two weeks for the new yarn to arrive. In the meantime, I went ahead and started the doll, which only took a few days to make, working an hour or two here and there.

I saved the face for last because I was terrified of it. The face is what really makes or breaks one of these things, in my opinion, and I don't know anything about embroidery. (You might remember that last year I used Allison Hoffman's book AmiguruMe to style my own Warren G. Harding doll, but his face wound up looking a bit more like the Shah of Iran than Harding himself. At least I nailed the "world leader" look.) 

Thankfully I discovered that Hoffman had created a YouTube video showing some face embroidery, so armed with that new knowledge (and a curved needle, which I hadn't even known existed), I tackled HamiLin's face.

It took a few attempts, lots of sweating and swearing, and more time than any other part of the doll, but I think I finally got it right. (It's not easy to capture those intelligent eyes in a hunger-pang frame...)

I wound up finishing HamiLin about two weeks before Christmas, and the suspense of not being able to give it until Christmas Day was killing me, but I made it. 

Mom, with HamiLin and a bottle of Federalist wine

Needless to say, he amazed and astonished.

First Ladies' Séance in a Box

Several First Ladies have dabbled in the supernatural, perhaps none more than Florence Harding. In fact, one of the coolest objects I've seen at a presidential site was Florence's séance chair: high-backed and elaborately carved with celestial symbolism. That chair is in Marion, Ohio, but Florence's forays into the supernatural extended to Washington, D.C., as well.

Florence first met a woman named Madame Marcia Champney in 1920 while Warren Harding was seeking the Republican nomination. Madame Marcia was a well known fortuneteller in D.C., and in fact served as Edith Wilson's go-to astrologer. Madame Marcia was able to see that Warren had many affairs (but who wasn't, amirite?), and predicted that if he became president, he would die a sudden death before the end of his term. Despite this ominous forecast, Florence vowed that if Warren won, she would make Madame Marcia the official White House astrologer. As we know, Warren did win, and Florence continued to consult frequently, even obsessively, with Madame Marcia throughout his (brief) presidency.

Many other First Ladies held séances, referred to horoscopes, or believed in other supernatural phenomena. For example, Julia Tyler claimed to have ESP. Jane Pierce and Mary Todd Lincoln held séances to try to communicate with their dead children. Nancy Reagan famously consulted with astrologers in the White House. Hillary Clinton seemed to have taken the "First Lady Occult Club" to another level when she was rumored to have communicated with a long-dead Eleanor Roosevelt. (Upon clarification, it turned out that she just imagined what it would be like to talk to Eleanor, like asking WWERD?...which is something we should all be doing.)

Hillary and Eleanor might not have communicated with each other, but there was another supposed instance of First Ladies picking up vibes from one another: One night Edith Wilson went to bed with an ominous feeling. She awoke to newsboys spreading word of President Harding's death. Ooooo! Coincidence, or something supernatural?

Anyway...in honor of all of our spooky First Ladies and just in time for Halloween, I present a DIY Séance in a Box. Depending on what materials you use, it's actually really fast and easy to make. (Or it can be really complicated and take more than a week. It's up to you.)

Here's what you'll need:

• Empty mint tin (I used a Trader Joe's Gingermint tin)
• Printed ouija board
• Glue
• Velvet or velvety paper
• Tiny printable tarot cards
• Glass marble
• Tiny picture frame
• Resin (optional) and resin molds (also optional)
• Other tiny spooky things

My project was inspired by these instructions. That kit uses a very cool Ouija mint tin, but I didn't have one. What I did have was a lovely tin that had previously contained Trader Joe's Gingermints, so I decided to make that work. You could use any mint tin, really, but it probably helps if it's one with a flat top, rather than one with embossed writing or details.

I searched for some Ouija board images and needed to go through a few before I found one with the right proportions for my tin. I just resized them in a document until I had one that worked, then printed it out on cardstock, trimmed it with scissors, and rounded the corners with a 1" corner punch. (But you can use scissors, too. Or leave them pointy. Whatever.)

I glued the board onto the lid with Tacky Glue, and then brushed on a coat of resin. Now, I realize not everyone has resin lying around. I love how it gave my board a hard, shiny finish, but obviously you can skip this step. I would recommend at least using some kind of top coat or varnish to seal it and give it a little more heft, but that's up to you. (If you want to give resin a try, though, it's really very easy and fun. I use Little Windows resin, but you can find other brands on Amazon or at your local craft store, too.)

The resin did make my board a bit translucent, so if you look carefully you can see some of the writing from the gingermint tin, but I think that gives it extra character. Next time I might add a basecoat or add an extra piece of paper or cardstock underneath, but I might not.

For the planchette, I used resin (colored with a bit of glow-in-the-dark paint) in a mold I got from Etsy. If you don't have resin, you could try forming a planchette out of polymer clay, or you could use a guitar pick like in that other tutorial I linked to. Or maybe carve one out of bone like they did in the old days. (I jest!)

Instead of using real velvet to line my tin, I found some velvet-ish paper in the scrapbooking section of my craft store. It's very thin and more sturdy than fabric, so it was really easy to cut. Then I glued that into the tin with more tacky glue.

There are tons of printable tarot cards online, but I used ones from this site because it doesn't require a ton of paper (just one piece!) and because you can print a back to them! I printed that out on cardstock and spent about five minutes cutting out the tiny cards.

I tried making a crystal ball by gluing a marble to an overturned teacup charm, but I couldn't get anything to adhere to the marble, even after sanding it. So instead I have a "standalone" crystal ball, although I found that it fits nicely inside the planchette hole, so there's that.

I also added a little skull charm for some extra creepiness (I cut off the charm-nubbin with wire cutters and filed the little bits down).

And of course, I needed a picture frame (another charm) to help commemorate the dead. (Yes, that's a tiny photo of Florence Harding. I also printed out Edgar Allan Poe and a raven, because of course.) The photos are just printed on regular paper and then sealed with some packing tape. They slide in and out of the top of the charm, so it's easy to change them depending on what you're going for.

I had planned on adding a candle, too, but decided against it when I realized my interest in fire safety outweighs my interest in necromancy. A birthday candle would fit just fine, but be careful when burning it.

You can add anything else you want: Throw in some tiny runes, a few little crystals, a miniature pendulum, whatever floats your ghost ship.

And there you have it: A portable supernatural kit for all your conjuring needs! (This would also be useful if you have an American Girl doll who starts to show an interest in the occult.)

If you make one of these, let me know how it goes. And tell Florence I say hello.

Patriotic Jello

Okay, this isn't presidential, per se, but it's close enough: Patriotic Jello! And just in time for the Fourth of July.

This looks complicated, but it's actually really simple. It takes a few hours to set up, obviously, but the hands-on time is only about 15 minutes.

I first stumbled upon the concept of "stained glass Jello" in a Food Network Magazine a few months back. I was dying to make it, but my Aunt Cathy always makes the Jello for family gatherings, and she was hosting the next major event: Easter. Imagine my surprise when I asked what I could bring to dinner and she suggested Jello. Score!

Easter Jello

I used the recipe and technique from this website to make a multi-colored concoction, which was really fun and tasty. Everyone was so impressed that we spent a large portion of Easter dinner discussing other ways this Jello could be utilized, and that's where I hatched the idea for July 4th Jello.

This recipe only uses two colors of Jello vs. four, which means you can use two larger 6-oz boxes instead of the smaller 3-oz boxes.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 6-oz box red Jello (I used strawberry)
• 1 6-oz box blue Jello (I used berry--I'm not sure if there are other options)
• 2 packets of unflavored gelatin
• 1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk!)
• Containers for chilling the colored Jello
• A bundt pan
• Star-shaped cutters
• Cooking spray

You'll need to do this in a couple steps, but like I said, it's really easy. (I've put the main steps in bold so you can scan through more easily.)

Start by mixing the red jello with 2 cups boiling water, then repeat with the blue jello in a separate bowl.

Pour each color into containers to chill. You don't want the Jello to be too deep because you'll be cutting these into thin stars later. I divided each color into two Rubbermaid storage containers that I had very lightly sprayed with oil to help them unmold later.

Let those chill until set, a few hours or overnight.

Before you unmold those, mix together your white jello:

• Pour 1/2 c COLD water into a bowl and sprinkle the two packets of unflavored gelatin on top. 
• Let that bloom for a few minutes, then add 1.5 cups of boiling water and mix it together. 
• Mix in the can of sweetened condensed milk.
• Let this cool for a while at room temperature.

While that's cooling, unmold the blue and red Jello onto a cutting board (dipping the containers into hot water for a few seconds can help loosen the Jello if necessary).

Then the fun part: Cutting the stars!

I had gone to the craft store to buy a star-shaped cookie cutter, but the only solo one they had was really big. I found a set of four star-shaped cookie cutters, but only the smallest one would have worked. Better than nothing, though. Then I stumbled upon a set of six star-shaped fondant cutters. Perfect! I wound up using the third-smallest ones for the main stars, and also the smallest ones for some of the "scraps." Any scraps that were too small for stars got chopped up to be "fireworks."

Next it's time to arrange the stars in the (lightly oiled) bundt pan. You'll want these to stand up so each slice of Jello will have a star in it. At first I tried standing them up individually but they kept falling over. Eventually it occurred to me (der!) to stack a few together and then set them in. That worked much better! I alternated blue and red stars.

Once the bottom was filled, I still had a few big stars left over so I arranged them flat against the edges so that (hopefully) they would show through on the sides. I arranged some of my smaller stars so (also hopefully) they would show up, too.

Then I just threw in the other scraps.

When I was done with that, my white mixture was still pretty warm, and the last thing I wanted to do was melt my lovely stars, so I went and watched an episode of the Simpsons. By the time that was over, the white gelatin was cool enough to pour.

Pour the white gelatin in slowly and gently so you don't disturb anything too much. If you have any jagged bits of colored Jello sticking out, you can push them down so they won't poke out the bottom later on, although I'm not sure how necessary this really is.

Then it's back in the fridge for at least a few hours, or overnight.

When it's time to unmold, again, dipping the pan in hot water for a few seconds can help. Put your plate/serving disk/whatever on top of the pan and then flip it over and wiggle it around until the Jello releases. (A tip I read about: sprinkle some water on your platter first so that in case the Jello isn't centered, you can more easily slide it into place. Jello is surprisingly immobile otherwise.)

See the stars???

Finally, slice into it! I was really happy with the stars on the outside and on the inside. A few of the smaller stars showed up, too, which was cool.

My kids loved this. My 8-year-old wouldn't stop squealing, "It's so cute, I can't eat it!" although eventually she did break down and eat it. Then she and my 5-year-old used their fingers to dig out the stars, so that was great.

This Jello actually tasted a lot better than the Easter one, also. The Easter one was good but because of all the different flavors (grape, lime, strawberry, and orange) it tasted a bit like a bowl of Froot-Loops. The strawberry and berry of the Fourth of July Jello go together much better. It was really tasty!

Now, go forth (Fourth?) and make some Jello for your next barbecue. Our Founding Fathers would be proud.

Warren G. Harding Doll

A few months ago I mentioned that I crochet and that I had made some replica Ida McKinley slippers. Slippers are well and good when your feet are cold, but what about when you want to crochet something less useful?

For a while now I've wanted to crochet a set of presidential dolls, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. Sure, I could probably figure it out on my own, but I didn't want to. I also didn't want to buy a pattern for, say, a Golden Girl and then need to modify it. What I wanted was a set of instructions that I could customize as needed, but that had most of the information there. Then I stumbled upon exactly what I needed: A book called AmiguruME by Allison Hoffman, the person who made the Golden Girls pattern.

Basically the book walks you through the steps of creating custom dolls. There are various head sizes, clothing options, etc. You can make celebrities, family members, whatever. ("Amigurumi" is the art of crocheting cute little stuffed toys, so the "AmiguruMe" name is a play on that.) I put the book on my Amazon wishlist then pretty much forgot about it until a copy arrived on my doorstep near my birthday. (Thanks, Mom!)

It took me a while to decide which president to start with. I wanted one with some kind of distinctive feature that would be easy to express in yarn. I also wanted it to be a president I liked. Lincoln was an obvious choice, but I rarely go for the obvious choices, plus I was a little intimidated by his beard and hat. Taft is always a favorite, but the instructions in AmiguruME don't include techniques for making a more corpulent body, and I didn't want to figure it out on my first attempt. Chester Arthur would be fun, especially with all the possibilities for different pants, but again, I was intimidated by the facial hair. So I settled on another of my favorites: Warren G. Harding. I know, I know: I do too much Harding (that's what she said). Sorry. But he seemed like he would be pretty straightforward, plus he has distinctive eyebrows. (John Oliver described them as "mozzarella sticks covered in...hair.")

On Christmas afternoon, once the kids were busily engaged in their new toys, I sat down to create mine. Although the book walked me through each step, I did make some modifications.

The book gives instructions for a short, wide male head or a long, narrow male head. Harding seems to have a long, wide head, so I went with the short/wide one but added a couple rows to make it longer. I also added a few stitches to create a more prominent chin.

For about a day, all I had was the head and an armless torso. My kids thought it looked like a creepy baby (they weren't wrong) but I thought it looked like the Shah of Iran.

(Frankly, even the finished product looks like him, but I'm trying not to think about that because it's supposed to be Harding, dammit!)

Within a couple days I had added the arms and legs and whatnot.

I do wish the book had given more detail/examples for embroidering the face and creating the hair. Those were the two most difficult parts, and also the features that really make a doll like this. It took me four attempts to get the hair "right," and I wasn't quite able to get the Harding frown down. Still, I think it came out pretty well.

I gave him a lovely hand-crafted wool suit (with removable jacket!) and a bright blue tie to jazz things up a bit.

My daughter asked me this morning what I'm going to do with the doll now, and that's a great question. She said, "It seems like such a waste to spend all that time on it and then just let it sit around." I'm not sure if she's hinting that she wants it or wants me to get rid of it. For now it'll probably sit on my Shelf O' Random Presidential Crap, next to my Hoover bobblehead and Woodrow Wilson puppet. After all, art doesn't need to have a purpose, right?