Egyptian Minecraft Project

I showed you the Tudor house that the rest of my family created on Minecraft a little while ago.  

They have been working on a number of other projects since then, mainly inspired by the kids school work, or by their hobbies (we have an open air gymnastics stadium on Minecraft too.  All the projects have been created in Survival mode too, so they have been learning about collecting and managing their own resources!)

This time I want to show you the Egyptian project they decided on.  The Sphinx.  It is pretty big and you can see if from quite far away - just like the real thing!

As you get closer the details become clearer, you can see the colours they used - made by dying sheep so that when they sheared them, the wool was the right colour already.  You can also dye the wool after the sheep have been sheared, so it is more like real life if you wish, but it takes longer and uses more dye.

Now you can see the sand blocks on either side are in fact his legs.

From a slightly different angle he still looks cool.

I'm always impressed with the amount of work they are prepared to put in, especially when this is coming from pictures, either on the internet, or in books.  He has some glow stone eyes, so he looks pretty cool at night too.

Whilst I'm Crafting...

...the rest of the family have been doing something pretty special.  They have been building, gardening, farming, mining and even doing a bit of forestry.  Ok, so it was on Minecraft, but still, quite impressive. 

They worked together, the Husband gave the kids jobs to do to help with the building.  

One Tudor House.

Many hours of work has gone into this development.  it progressed over the last couple of weeks.

Once the building was complete, the gardens were next.

We looked at pictures of Tudor gardens to give us ideas.

The Husband has started on the interior, but they still need to add a load of furniture.

For those that play Minecraft, this was all made in a survival world.  There have been several near misses. Creepers coming to close, and when setting light to a fire in a building made of wool and wood the brick chimney really does need to go all the way round and all the way to the top of the building!

You can see the, now, fully enclosed chimney in the above picture.

I'm hoping they produce a huge dining area.  I think I may have to Google for Tudor furniture to see what should be in there!

I'm looking forward to see what they create next.

Finally...One Creeper Cushion Cover

So after what has seemed like the longest project I've ever crocheted, though certainly not the biggest it is done:

I am pleased with him, and I enjoyed playing with the squares, but the sewing together of all the squares took a long time, and then creating a back for the cushion seemed to take even longer.  I simply used double crochet (American Terms) all over the back in the same colour, slip stitching to the sides.  It was dull and it took a while, especially when I wanted to create a sort of flap, so I had crochet some elements of it twice.  Sigh. Here is the back.

Looks smart don't you think.  And here is the edge, where I slip stitched to the granny squares.

So as a learning experience, although I would use this method to create blankets/cushion covers again, I would use smaller cushions and try to use more of the same colour, so that at least the sewing together wasn't quite so tedious!

Off to find a new crochet project now...

Card Making and Creepers

I rarely buy cards now, normally I make them.  Sadly this doesn't take me any less time.  However, it does mean that I can create one fairly quickly even when the shops are shut.  Handy if you need one for a birthday right away.

I decided some time ago that taking an hour to make a card was kind of pointless, so you'll notice my cards don't tend to look perfect.  That's the charm of home made stuff!

My latest fave design is very minimal:

I love it because it will work with any shape.  You could use stickers too.  I mainly use paper punch shapes - as I appear to be addicted to buying them and I have a lot!

I've been working on another project too, another cushion cover.  I've always loved the designs made by quilters, but as I cannot sew with a sewing machine at all, I've never been able to see how I could create something like that.  Then just recently it came to me, I could use crochet squares.

So I started crocheting in the colours I needed and I kept going, and soon I had enough to make a start.

I don't sew well by hand either, so it is taking me time, but slowly, slowly,it is coming together.  I add a few squares each evening, and I think eventually it will be an eight by eight square of Minecraft Creeper awesomeness.  I've already mentioned that our family is Minecraft Mad at the moment, so I don't think anyone will object to this cushion cover once completed, in fact I have a horrible feeling that requests for more of the same will be made!

Despite the slow going sewing, I already want to do something more using this technique.  You can see that I am using a traditional Granny Square for this project, but the options for textured/patterned squares are endless.  I realised that any Minecraft project would be ideal for using Granny Squares because the game is based on squares too.  Whether I stick to Minecraft related square projects or branch out to something else has yet to be decided.

I'm still slowly sewing squares together, but hopefully it won't be too long before I can share this as a completed project.

Minecraft Mad

This describes our house at the moment.  If my Husband, or the kids aren't playing we are talking about it and to be honest, the only thing stopping me having a play too, is that I struggle to make the computer do as I tell it and get a little frustrated.

So it was only natural that when they have had their allotted time on minecraft that they want to do crafty minecraft things!  I found a couple of colouring pages they can do  here and here, which they quite like, but creating minecraft blocks out of hama beads has so far been the winner.  Here they are all together.  Now we need more hama beads, ideally in colours that are better for minecraft creations!

As everyone seems into Minecraft I am planning on giving something a go. I saw it in my Save With Jamie book I got for Christmas; Zombie Brain!  I am yet to make it, but something tells me that trying to feed my Husband celeriac, which he hates (and I'm not all that keen either) and therefore the kids have never had, with mushrooms which the kids dislike is probably not going to make it onto our favourite meals ever list.  Mmmm, got to be worth a try though.  I'll report back on the success/failure of Zombie Brain.