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®

*     *     *

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.

*     *     *

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.

*     *     *

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

Crafting With Cats ~ Part IV ~ How To Make A Supurr Luxe Rainbow Pom Pom Hammock with The B Team

Welcome to

Supurr Monday Greetings Pawesome Pals

Thanks fur joining fur us fur a revisit to Part IV of our Crafting with Cats segment, and one of our all time favourite crafting projects which we still love today, and young Melvyn has really taken to it since his arrival! MOL  

If mew missed any of our previous CWC posts, here's the links:

Merlin's Wizard Hat

Smoochie's Supurr Hero's Cape

Magical Kitty Lantern

Kitty Observatory ~ Cativity Centre

Halloween Catnip Toys

Valentines Heart Crinkle Mat

Puzzle Treat Box ~ Fish Fur Treats

Catnip Pumpkin Toys and The Spooky Haunted House Photo Set 

Valentine's Catnip Hearts & Kicker Toy

Easter Catnip Eggs

*    *    *

**Purrlease Note**

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

  So purrlease do not copy fur commercial/resale purrposes.

Copyright ©BionicBasil®

*     *     *

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 fur 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' fur loose pom poms, and yes, they're all firmly stuck in place.

*     *     *

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.

*     *     *

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

 I actually spent the weekend convalescing on it, so I can safely say the hammock was a total hit, so much so that the P.A. is making two more smaller ones so there's plenty to go around! 

*    *    *

And that furriends furry sadly brings us to the end of our crafting with cats post today, 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

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 Wednesday with The Pet Parade Blog Hop, so do stop by and hop around the wurld with us, Dash Kitten and Barking from the Bayou as mew know how much we love your company.

Bestest crafty purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team xox

Follow Basil & The B Team @BionicBasil® on Instacat, Twitter and Facebook

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

FLASHBACK FEVER! BionicBasil Revisited #24 ~ Crafting With Cats ~ Part V ~ How To Make A Kitty Observatory ~ Cativity Centre

Welcome to our 24th Flashback post!

Today we are going back to 26th August 2016 and revisiting one of our Crafting with Cats posts:

 How To Make A Kitty Observatory ~ Cativity Centre

Let's jump in the time dilation vortex and go way back....

Woo hoo, that was fun... not too swirly either! MOL

Supurr Greetings Pawesome Pals

Thanks fur joining fur us fur Part V 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! MOL

If mew'd like to see our previous CWC posts click here and learn how to make Merlin's Wizard Hat.  And if mew missed out on how to make our Supurr Hero's cape, click here. And fur the Magical Kitty lantern click here, plus the amazing Pom Pom Hammock click here.

**Purrlease Note**

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

  So purrlease do not copy fur commercial/resale purrposes.

Copyright @BionicBasil.com 

*     *     *

This week we're making this!

The Observatory Cativity Centre

So mew can really be the centre of your own universe! MOL

What Mew Will Need:

Timber and wood screws

Saw

Drill

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Fabric + wadding + lining 

Cord to hang planets, stars & hammock bed

Spheres for planets & sun

Non-toxic paint for planets

Glitter fur the sun & stars - gold & silver

Non-toxic glue

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

 Ribbon or trim

Optional flooring, we used some surplus laminate flooring

Optional cat/s fur snoopervising and general assistance

Are mew ready? Of course mew are...

Furstly lets make the cube  

We used 2" x 1" timber 

Mew will need 16 x identical lengths, ours are 20" 

Take four pieces of your timber and screw together to make the bottom square. Repeat fur the upper square.  Attach the four uprights and then flip offur to attach the remanding square and mew should have something like this below.  

Next take your remaining 4 identical lengths to make the top pyramid.  Mew will need to cut the ends at an angle so it sits flush on top of the cube and that the top joins together properly, see arrows.

Now mew can attach the pyramid to the cube, as mew can see we pre-drilled holes in the bottom of the pyramid, as Dad said that made it easier to attach.  

Now it should look like this below.

Wow that was easy and supurr quick too! MOL  But seriously take your time putting it together, remember measure twice and cut once.

So now we move on to the really fun part; decorating.

We painted ours in white gloss as the P.A. insisted it needed to white, but mew guys can paint it any colour mew like.

Aftur the furst coat of undercoat, Dad drilled the holes to hang the planets and stars from the pyramid, how many is entirely up to mew; we put 4 in each and also a single hole in the uprights to hang the hammock from, see arrows.

Finish the painting and it should look like this

[We must apologize fur the skewiff photo, we think the P.A. had a bottle of wine in the craft room with her... nuff said! MOL]

Now while that dries let's move on to your own purrsonal planetarium, we made 

10 x planets

6 x stars

1 x sun

We were incredibly lucky to find some paper mache spheres with a pre-made hole in at our local craft shop, but in hindsight mew could plastic Catmass baubles and repaint them.

We painted our spheres to kind of match the planets in our solar system, all went swimmingly well until the P.A. started to paint the earth, until see realized she'd painted it upside down! [Oops, too much wine! MOL] So we have an extra planet in our system called Catopia, it's only just been discovered through copious amounts of wine drinking. In fact its a miracle as no telescope was required whatsoeffur.

We did actually use a Catmass bauble fur the sun as we needed something bigger than the rest, we just cut the neck off it so it doesn't look like a bauble.  We applied a non-toxic glue and covered it with gold glitter.  Oh it's so shiny and twinkly!

Once your planets are dry mew can attach the cord.  We used white cord, and applied hot glue into the holes and stuffed the cord in with a straw.  Please make sure that if mew use the type of cord we did that mew put sellotape on the end to seal it tight, otherwise mew will neffur be able to push it through the holes on the frame.

Next we were also furry lucky to find some pre-cut 1" wooden stars on Amazon, we attached two together with a length of cord sandwiched between them and once dry covered them in the non-toxic glue and dipped them into silver glitter. 

Now let's move onto the bed.  We used some silver silk dupion that the P.A. had left offur from some curtains she made.  Cut your fabric 20" square and as silk isn't the most robust of fabrics we cut 2 x lining fabric squares to add extra strength.

We sandwiched a piece of wadding between the layers and stitched the wrong-sides together [inside out], leaving one edge open enough to turn right-side facing out.  Hand-stitch the last few inches and your hammock is ready.  Unfortunately at this point we think the P.A. had one glass too many and forgot to take some pics of construction - we have severely reprimanded her fur this and have since locked the wine away!

Get some more of the cord and attach it to the underside corners bed, we used hot glue fur this.

Attach the suns cord with hot glue under the top centre, then the planets and stars by poking cord through the holes in the pyramid and adjust lengths to suit and tie off, we did put a little bit of glue on the knots fur added security.

Attach hammock to the uprights and tie off.

Finally as some screws were still visible we added a 1" wide grosgrain ribbon trim top and bottom.  And if mew wanted a solid base like ours mew can add that too, but if mew don't want to, it wurks just fine without. 

So now mew should have something that looks like this:

How cool is that? Epically cool

What we really love about this pawesome cativity centre is that if mew get bored of planets, mew could hang:

 Fish = The Aquarium

Mice = The Nest

 Bees =  The Hive

Spiders = The Web 

Butterflies = The Cocoon

Tabbies of Troute Towne look away now

Burds = The Aviary

Or a combo of all the above

etc, etc....

and mew can remove the bed fur washing or even replace it if wears out. There are so many ways to dress this purrticular item and it'll last fur ages, fur future kitty generations too.

Smooch was furst to get his booty in it and as mew can see he wasn't going to share with anypurrdy not even me, and mew can see how miffed I was below! MOL

*    *    *

And that furriends furry sadly brings us to the end of our fifth Crafting With Cats post, we do hope mew liked it and if mew decide to make your furry own Observatory we'd love to see it.

Feel free to post your pawesome crafty pics 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.  

Thanks so much fur stopping by today and we'll be back with our next FlashBack Fever post before mew know it!

Bestest purrs

Basil & The B Team xox

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

Glitter Graphics  www.glitter-graphics.com