**Spooky Crafting With Cats** **RERUN ~ PART ONE** How We Made Primo Nip Cat Toys featuring Bertie the Bat, Yummy Plumpkin Tartes and the Purple Peril Kicker

Welcome to

Supurr Spooky Greetings Pawesome Pals

Thanks for joining us for our supurr spooking Halloween Crafting with Cats rerun. Mew know we have so much fun making all this stuff, and we hope mew enjoy seeing it and/or making it too! 

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**Purrlease Note**

All Crafting with Cats ideas and creations are of our own design and we share them for purrrsonal/home use only.

Copyright ©BionicBasil 

This time we're making these pawesome 
Primo Nip Toys!

What We Used:

Felt squares
Ribbon
Floof 
Needle and Thread
Sewing machine - optional
Stuffing/wadding
Primo Catnip - lots of 
2 x small pom poms
White embroidery thread

FYI: As the there was a big jar of catnip in the craft room the P.A. actually banned us during the construction phase for her own sanity! MOL

Bertie the Bat

1.  Cut out a simple pattern
2. Place on felt
3. Trace shape
4. Cut out two pieces

5. Sew pieces together, either by hand or on machine, leaving a small gap.
6. Get stuffing ready
7. And the catnip
8. Stuff Bert and sew up the gap

9. Use remaining felt 
10.  Trace wing pattern
11. Cut out one piece
12. Fold top edge of wings in centre

13. Tack the folds together

14. Attach to Berts back.

15. Bert should now look something like this

16. Cut out eyes and fangs and hand sew 

17. Take white embroidery thread and hand stitch the mouth and then securely sew on black pom poms for his eyes

18. Bertie the Bat is ALIVE!!!! 

Purple Peril Kicker Toy

1. Cut out the size mew want

2. Fold and sew up two edges

3. Turn right way out and stuff with wadding and catnip

4. Add the floof and ribbons to top edge, tack in place

5. Stitch securely along the top edge to fully secure ribbons and floof

6. And your finished kicker toy should look something like this

Yummy Plumpkin Tartes    

1. Mark the size plumpkin mew want on the felt

2. Cut out four pieces

3. Cut wadding slightly smaller add catnip

4. It should now look like a biscuit  

5. Pin all pieces together and sew edges

6. It should now look like this

7. Cut out leaf shapes and hand stitch to plumpkin

8. Your finished yummy plumpkin tartes should look something like this

Mew should now have some cute toys that look like these and it shouldn't take more than an hour to make them all

Mew may be wondering why the P.A. didn't glue things on... well, she said, and I quote. 

"Even though the glue I use is non toxic, I prefer to sew the smaller items like eyes, fangs and pom poms on by hand as there is less chance of them becoming detached due to vigorous play - I also wouldn't recommend using those plastic stick-on boggle eyes or the like as they could come off and be a choking hazard. I also recommend that you do a toy check regularly and throw away anything that is coming apart, is fraying or has any loose components."    

Ohhh that was good advice from the P.A. - Thank mew! MOL 

Now the really fun part...

In the testing lab

Smooch did get all of the toys while I went and had a little snack... but then I came back and ruined everything! MOL

As mew can see we were best purrleased with the new toys, we have more videos but this post is long enough! MOL



And that furriends furry sadly brings us to the end of our first Halloween Rerun post, we do hope mew liked it and feel free to post your pawesome crafty pics on our Facebook page at:

Bionic Basil & The B Team @Facebook

We'll be back on the morrow with Amber's first book review of the new season, and her confession as to why she was falling off a dragon!!!! Yep, that really happened...

Spooky purrs

MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA

Wing Commander Basil and The B Team

Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable fur any injuries to person/s and/or cat/s, crafting addictions, glue on cats, paper cuts, misplaced pins and needles, cats stealing your supplies, broken scissors, cat fur stuck on your projects, or your project not turning out as planned.  By using this information you hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless BionicBasil and staff from and against any and all claims for personal injuries or damages of any kind arising from use of any Crafting With Cats posts we may share.

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com 

**CRAFTING RERUN** Crafting With Cats ~ Part XI ~ Valentines Special ~ How We Made A Valentines Heart Crinkle Mat

Welcome to

Supurr Greetings Pawesome Pals

Thanks for joining for us for a rerun of Part VII of our Crafting with Cats segment. Mew know we have so much fun making all this stuff, and we hope mew enjoy seeing it and/or making it too! 

If mew missed any of our previous CWC posts, here's how we made:

Merlin's Wizard Hat

Smoochie's Supurr Hero's Cape

 Magical Kitty Lantern

Supurr Luxe Pom Pom Hammock

Kitty Observatory ~ Cativity Centre

Halloween Catnip Toys

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**Purrlease Note**

All Crafting with Cats ideas and creations are of our own design, and we share them for purrrsonal/home use only.

Copyright ©BionicBasil 

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This week we're making a pawesome 

What We Used:

Fabric of your choosing, ours is red

Wadding/padding

Lining fabric

Plastic shopping bags ~ yes we're doing our bit and recycling

Sewing machine

scissors - cotton - pins - needle - tailors chalk or similar - ruler

Optional Cat ~ Smooch was today's Snoopervisor

Furst we suggest measuring one of your kitties to see how big your fabric needs to be, as not all kitty's are the same size.

Take your fabric and give it a quick iron.

Fold it in half and draw half a heart shape directly on the fabric with your tailors chalk, so your heart is symmetrical when mew open the cut fabric out. It's so much easier than trying to draw a complete heart on the fabric.

Cut out your heart.

Cut out two pieces of lining fabric and one piece of your padding using your furst heart as a template.

Take your plastic bags and see how many mew need to fill the size of your heart.

We used 5.

Optional kitty for testing if there's enough rustle! MOL

Pin your padding between your main fabric and one piece of lining fabric, pin them together and sew around the edge.  We used a zigzag stitch.

Your heart should now look like this.

Take your ruler and tailors chalk and mark your quilting lines.

Mew don't have to do this but we think it looks really nice.

Sew along your quilting lines, we sewed larger squares as it looked better, and your heart should look something like this.  Use a piece of fabric off-cut to rub any tailors chalk off the heart - it should come off furry easily.

Next, take your quilted heart and place it and your second piece of lining fabric 'right-sides together' pin and sew all the way around the edge with a straight stitch leaving about half an inch / 1cm seam width.  Leave about 5" or 13cm gap so mew can turn it the right way out and stuff the bags inside.

Position the bags inside the heart so they aren't lumpy or bunched up together, then hand stitch the remaining seam closed.

And mew should have something that looks like this:

It took approximately 90 minutes to make from start to finish, as we always make it up as we go along.  We have an idea of what we want to make, and then we just dive right in.  So we think it shouldn't take more than an hour to make with destructions!

And here's Smoochie testing it, watch for Pandora's total eclipse! MOL

All in all, each of The B Team have had a try and give it all paws up!

In fact Fudge, much to Smoochie's chagrin got himself on it and refused to move!

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And that furiends furry sadly brings us to the end of this Crafting With Cats post, we do hope mew liked it and feel free to post your pawesome crafty pics and ideas on our Facebook page at:

Bionic Basil & The 'B' Team @Facebook

And if there's anything mew'd like us to make, leave a comment and we'll do our best.  

We'll be back on the morrow with another crafty Valentine's post, so do stop by, as mew know how much we love your company.

Epic crafty purrs

Basil & The B Team 

Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable fur any injuries to person/s and/or cat/s, crafting addictions, glue on cats, paper cuts, misplaced pins and needles, cats stealing your supplies, broken scissors, cat fur stuck on your projects, or your project not turning out as planned.  By using this information you hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless BionicBasil and staff from and against any and all claims for personal injuries or damages of any kind arising from use of any Crafting With Cats posts we may share.

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com 

Crafting With Cats ~ Part IV Revisited ~ How We Made An Epically Epic Rainbow Pom Pom Hammock

Supurr Monday Greetings Pawesome Pals

Thanks fur joining for us for a revisit of Part IV of our Crafting with Cats segment. 

If mew missed any of our previous CWC posts, stop by the Crafting with Cats Page and see all our previous projects, and mew don't have to be an expert in anything to make any of them. Plus, we offer workarounds and no-sew projects for those who don't like to sew.

**Purrlease Note**

All Crafting with Cats ideas and creations are of our own design and we share them fur purrrsonal/home use only.

Copyright ©BionicBasil®

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This week we're making this!

What We Used:

A gazillion pom poms [MOL just kidding 1000 x 1" should suffice!]

Glue gun and lots of glue sticks

Fabric backing

Timber and wood screws
Saw
Drill 

Paint - if mew want to paint it. [We used white gloss.]

Staple gun and/or upholstery tacks
A length of ribbon or trim

Now we made a supurr king size cat hammock, so if mew make a small one then obviously mew'll use less pom poms, glue and timber etc...

Optional cat/s fur snoopervising and general assistance

Are mew ready?

We'll start with the supurr easy bit

Furst, we'd suggest than mew sort the pom poms out, keeping the colours separate. Luckily we had a few spare baskets this week, absolutely purrfect timing as they ended up as pom pom sorters.

Next get your fabric, cut it to size and give it a quick iron, then place it on a flat surface.

Now we're hot gluing straight onto the fabric, so if mew luffs your table purrlease protect it as the glue will soak through and possibly ruin the finish.  Our table is purely fur crafting/sewing/painting etc... so we just give it a good clean between projects.

Ok, get your glue gun ready, oh and do make sure mew have plenty of glue sticks.

We ran out at this point and the P.A. had to do a quick re-order! MOL 

Thank Cod for Amazon Prime...

And voila approximately 800 pom poms later [MOL!] and we're ready to move onto the frame. I did have to come and snoopervise the P.A. at this point and do my 'quality control check' for loose pom poms, and yes, they're all firmly stuck in place.

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Making The Frame

I do suggest mew familiarize yourself with the wood mew are going to be using, I do take my wurk furry seriously so this step did take quite a while.

Furst mew need 8 cut lengths the same size and 4 spacers.

Check that mew are putting it together squarely, I had to intervene at this point with my purrtractor just to check! MOL  Aftur rigorous checking, the second one was made.

Place the spacers on the corners, then put the second square on top and screw together.  So mew have something like this below.  We suggest that mew pre-drill the screw holes, as this makes it so much easier.

So now your frame is complete, mew can either leave it au natural or mew can paint it.  We used gloss paint.

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Putting it all together!

Now comes the really fun part, putting the hammock onto the frame. Now mew'll notice here that the pom poms don't go all the way to the edge of the frame, well there's method in our madness which will be revealed in a moment.

So now mew need to place the pom pom hammock onto the frame and get a gentle fall happening towards the middle of the frame. Staple one side, then the opposite side furst, then repeat on the two remaining sides. Slowly wurk your away around the entire frame until it looks like the bottom right picture. Trim off any excess fabric, so mew have a nice clean edge.  Take the remainder of your pom poms and finish gluing them right up to the edge of the frame, so mew have a purrfect edge. Finally mew can use a wide ribbon or upholstery trim to cover the staples. We opted fur a nice wide blue grosgrain ribbon and glued it on as at the final hurdle the P.A. couldn't find her upholstery pins/tacks.

And finally, mew should have something like this ~ isn't it epically epic or what!?

So what was The B Teams verdict?

Well actually we luffs it, Amber got furst dibs when it was in the lounge.  Pandora and Fudge were circling like sharks as she got her boose comfy.

Then it was moved into its final position upstairs in the new office under the corner desk, where Smoochie promptly got himself, his catnip nana and Mr Ratty installed post haste! MOL

It was made in 2017, and still is a in 2021 a total hit at BBHQ, right now it's in the bedroom and Parsley loves it there.

If there's anything mew'd like us to make, leave a comment and we'll do our best, and don't furget that mew can now purrchase epically cool stuff for cats made by us, at our new Kwerky Kat Boutique at Etsy.

We'll be back on Wednesday with a spot of Gardening with Cats, so get your gardening gloves ready and let's get dirty! MOL

Epic crafty purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team

Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable fur any injuries to person/s and/or cat/s, crafting addictions, glue on cats, paper cuts, misplaced pins and needles, cats stealing your supplies, broken scissors, cat fur stuck on your projects, or your project not turning out as planned.  By using this information you hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless BionicBasil and staff from and against any and all claims for personal injuries or damages of any kind arising from use of any Crafting With Cats posts we may share.

Graphics created and used under paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com