hehe Yeah. The fun part about it is that it cost me less than $20 for the yarn because most of it was just leftovers I had laying around or from Mary Ann. And you don't use up a whole skein of each color for the sleeves so you could probably get 3-4+ sleeve pairs out of each. The body was just about 4 skeins of wool-ease (would have been 4 for the XL size).


And I'm just copying this PM I sent to Jan. I'm hoping to get some input from everyone:

Kris - I like all your ideas, I really do! I definitely agree that the first person to post should be the one to get to post the next challenge, but I also like the idea of rewarding people who enter a lot of challenges in a row with some kind of siggy or something (it should definitely be some kind of craft related siggy, perhaps showing balls of yarn or whatever!) And I also support the idea of having people vote on the entries to determine a winner who gets a slightly bigger prize, because I really do think this will encourage more people to enter and to do better quality work. As it is now, I have a feeling people are discouraged from putting in their entry when they see that someone has already won the challenge. They might wonder, what is the use of my entering, someone's already gotten the prize? (Not to say that they do, but it's a possibility.) I think these things would get a lot more people involved.

Posting in the challenge in the appropriate FCs is always a good idea. Tiffanie posted the DE challenge in the Graveyard, and I posted it in the Severus Snape (after Jan PMed me!), Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange FCs (those two on my own).

GREAT idea, Linda! What about a tally (like our post counts show how many posts we've made) that shows how many challenges we've completed? That'd be kinda cool! Or extra credit for submitting more than one project to a challenge?

We could also pool resources to give prizes to crafters for their longer term achievements, like 'most projects completed in a year' or something (ooh, especially if those projects went to a charity in the name of SS or JKR!), and we would send the person a small collection of trinkets we've made/collected for the purpose of giving away (hand made bookmarks, donated hooks/needles/beads/yarn, CafePress gear, crafted items).

I agree I haven't gotten around to participating in one yet because of nine zillion other projects in the works, you know? Which is too bad, since crocheting is all I know how to do!

I love this idea! And maybe people could customize it! Like, "I want a Slytherin scarf but I want it to have this many stripes", you know? I know I have a bunch of stuff that I'm not going to use EVER

Yes, yes, I agree 100% with everything you said, Jan!

I was just thinking about the whole thing, the first person posting getting to post the next challenge, and that's all fine, but we should have the other things set up that we were talking about, as well. The first craft submitted could be very hastily and sloppily done (no, I don't think anyone has done this yet!), while some of the more intricate, better thought out stuff comes through later and takes a lot more work, thus should also be rewarded.

Ok, I haven't really posted in here before but I was surfing around and found an awesome HP crafty type thing that would be oodles of fun to do. Maybe it could be a craft challenge?

Why not make your own customised HP wand out of paper?

Now before you pfffft, take a look! I think they look pretty awesome and you can completely individualise them to suit each person like in the books...









I'd make one, but I don't have a glue gun. And I suck. Someone? *puppy eyes*

Dainsie - These are amazing! I love the idea and think it would make an awesome craft challenge. What do the rest of you think? Anyone game? I don't know why, but I feel especially drawn to the red one. Crazy, huh?

Those are so cool - and look so real! Hard to believe they're paper. Yeah, I'll definitely be making a few of these...

Too cool!!! Thanks Dains!

i think they look awsome

I think it's a shame that these challenges faded away. I think part of the problem was giving only two weeks. Maybe a month would work betters. Anyway, I've been giving myself brain damage trying to come up with some ideas for categories:

Astronomy
Runes
Astrology/Zodiak
Stained Glass Windows
Tapestry
Wands
Spiders/Insects
Candles/Illumination
What’s in the Lake?
What’s in the Forbidden Forest?
Dark Detectors

I gotta get out of Hogwarts more often and see what's happening in the rest of this site....

Tracy

Tracy - I agree 100% with what you're saying on the challenges. Perhaps a month would work better, and maybe it might be nice to recognize everyone who contributes in some way, not just the first person. (Of course, the first person would still get to post the next challenge, but perhaps there would be some sort of way of recognizing all those who contribute. An honor roll or something, or maybe special siggy and avvie creations, I don't know!)

Hmmm. Speaking of that, I remember that we were planning to keep the challenges going and that there was going to be some sort of craft olympics, it's too bad that never panned out. You know, I was kind of hyped on this idea, and was going to complete every single challenge at one point, but then things kind of faded away. It would be nice if we could think up something we might be able to do like this, to get people motivated and all -
Craft Olympics.

By the way, I love all your ideas! I will try to add more thoughts in of things that might possibly work, I think these would all be great projects to work on. Thanks for your input!

Thank you so much for the kind words!

I think some sort of wand making challenge is a wicked idea! Great idea, Dainsie!
..maybe a 'make a wand that mimics your favorite HP characters' wand'
kind of challenge? ..be it made of paper, wood.. etc.

Ooh, I for one would LOVE to have a title that said something about being part of this wonderful crafty forum

and I very much like the ideas that Tracy had for craft challenges

I really enjoy seeing all the things members come up with and create for the challenges and would be pretty sad if said challenges stopped.
Don't really have any ideas right now, but thought I'd show my appreciation for this awesome place

Being a newer member, and a crafter, I was so very excited to find a crafts challenge thread. Then I noticed, it seems to have died out.

I am just itching to get to make some stuff to enter..and this new blood might have some ideas to spark it up.

Any hope of bringing them back? I do so love to see what others do and get to share and improve upon my own crafts from seeing and getting ideas from what others have done. Sort of like the pilgrims finding the indians. (This being very appropriate with Thanksgiving so very close at hand)

A few ideas already are :

Class book replicas - The books have mentioned tons of book titles. This could be quite fun, and a great way to reuse and recyle an old book instead of tossing it out.

Luna Lovegood (don't tell me there aren't tons and tons of things you couldn't think to come up with with all the special things her and her dad believe in that noone else ever seems to have seen)

Portraits - Making replicas of portraits hanging in the Great Hall. These could even be stamp sized.

Create a Character/Creature - Make up a new character and try to bring them to light - whether it be with yarn, paper, drawing, painting, string, beads, Glue, Roving, chain or whatever you have around the house.

House Elves Exchange - make up a piece of clothing a house elf would be honored to possess. (ok, so that's not saying much, since they'd be happy with being presented with a dirty old sock..so hey, it's an EASY Challenge then! lol) This does not have to be your typical knitter or crocheted pair of socks either *(tho they are lovely, I'm sure)* [she attempts to say in her best Dumbledore impersonation when he talks to HArry in the beyond in book 7]. These could be in miniature form like how about a tshirt keychain? a cellphone fob pair of boxers? Shoot ..lets even make it 'wearables' instead of clothing..that way we could include things like lockets n such!

ok, nuff said for now. Don't want to give away all my ideas at once

I definitely love Dainsie's challenge idea. If there's one thing that I love the most about HP, it's the wands. You don't have to be ~*limited*~ to paper. Maybe you can carve out from dowels and make grips using sculpty. Or you can get old plastic rods in your house and paint them to look like wands. The possibilities are ~*endless*~! We should deffo give that out a try.

Agreed!!(:

Here is my wand. Plastic rod then just painted it. Planning to add a grip and some spirals for detail.



That was my old one. Carved from wood and painted. The shape was based on the Elder Wand. 8D

How about making Harry Potter Greeting Cards...like what you think the thank you/invitation card for Bill & Fleurs wedding should be...cards are challenging my mom makes them.

What about Harry Potter Christmas ornaments? I know it's a little late, but maybe for next year! I plan to make one of the Deathly Hallows symbol once I can find some silver wire...

I have a challenge thread that will be opened soon I hope! and I'm looking for ideas for the challenges! Please post here or send me ideas