**VALENTINE'S CRAFTING RE-RUN**PART 2** Crafting With Cats Valentine's Special ~ Catnip Hearts and Kicker Toy and Come Say Hi to Young Melvyn (Melvyn's First Time on The Blog in February 2019)

 Welcome to

Supurr Furbulous Greetings Pawesome Pals

Thanks for joining us for Part 2 of our supurr fun Crafting with Cats re-run. We thought we'd get a head-start on the Valentine's Crafting, as the big day is just under a couple of weeks away, so if mew want to make anything, mew should have plenty of time! 

If mew missed Part 1, click here to see how we made an epic heart-shaped crinkle mat.

Stay tuned for more epically epic crafty fun!

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 for purrrsonal/home use only.

  So purrlease do not copy for commercial/resale purposes.

Copyright ©BionicBasil 

*     *     *

This time we're making 

What Mew Will Need:

Felt squares

Cotton fabric of your choice

Ribbon

Tailor's chalk or similar fabric marker

Scissors

Thread and Needle or Sewing machine

Stuffing/Wadding

And we used lots of homegrown BBHQ catnip and catmint

Optional Cat ~ Parsley was today's Craft Room Snoopervisor

Here's our selection of fabric

Ooooh what purretty colours!

Making The Catnip Hearts

1. Parsley was snoopervising today's session and making sure all Health & Safety protocols were carried out.

2. Cut out a cardboard template of your chosen heart.

3.  Pick which colour felt square and trace 2 x heart outlines. 

4. Repeat No. 3, then cut out hearts and place right sides together.

5. & 6. If mew don't have a sewing machine, that's ok. Mew can hand stitch the hearts together.  We used the sewing machine and left a good inch so we could turn the right sides out.

7. Turn right sides out, and your heart should look something like this.

8.  Get your catnip and stuff to the brim, then hand stitch the last part of the seams together.

Making The Catnip Heart Kicker Toy



1.  Take your chosen fabric, we used this lovely cotton print. Cut a rectangle, mew can make to a size of your choice, though ours is approx 8 x 4 inches.

2.  Fold the rectangle along the long edge [in-half] and sew along the bottom and long edge, either by hand or with a sewing machine. 

3. Turn right side out and get your wadding ready.

4.  Stuff kicker toy, alternating with wadding and then catnip until full.



5.  Cut your ribbon into approx 4 inch lengths and add to top edge, tack in place if mew need to.  Stitch securely along the top edge to fully secure ribbons. 

And mew should now have something like this - some epically epic toys and a crazy cat or two, or maybe even three! MOL



Smooch was loving it!

Here's Melvyn's very first photo on the blog in 2019 - what a cutie! 

Before we go any further, we need to make a quick introduction, my young nephew Melvyn has just moved in so purrlease say hi, mew can see the furrmily resemblance, can't mew? What a cheeky little chap he is! MOL 



Even crotchety Amber got stuck in too.



In total from start to finish, these 3 toys took about 25 mins to make. It would have been quicker but the P.A. couldn't see to thread the needle - PFFFFTTTT - OLD TIMERS!

As mew can see the Valentine's toys were a total hit, the P.A. said she'd never seen so much cat drool and made a note on a post-it to use less potent nip next time - though we promptly ate said post-it note as we really like the extra potent nip! MOL 


And that furriends furry sadly brings us to the end of today's fun Crafting with Cats post, we do hope mew liked it and if mew decide to make your furry own Valentine's toys, we hope mew enjoy them as much as we are still enjoying ours! 

Epically crafty purrs and don't forget to...

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

mewsic used under paid licence www.audiojungle.net

**VALENTINE'S CRAFTING RE-RUN**PART 1** Crafting With Cats Valentine's Special ~ How We Made A Valentine's Heart Crinkle Mat

Welcome to

Supurr Furbulous Greetings Pawesome Pals

Thanks for joining us for our supurr fun Crafting with Cats re-run. Today, we thought we'd get a head-start on the Valentine's Crafting, as the big day is only a couple of weeks away, so if mew want to make anything we share mew should have plenty of time! 

Stay tuned for more epically epic crafty fun!

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 for purrrsonal/home use only.

  So purrlease do not copy for commercial/resale purposes.

Copyright ©BionicBasil 

*     *     *

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 - tailor's chalk or similar - ruler

Optional Cat ~ Smooch was today's Snoopervisor

First, we suggest measuring one of your kitties to see how big your fabric needs to be, as not all kitties 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 together and sew around the edge.  We used a zigzag stitch.

Your heart should now look like this.

Take your ruler and tailor's chalk, then 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 a 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 our instructions!

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

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

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

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And that furiends furry sadly brings us to the end of the first Valentine's Crafting With Cats post, we do hope mew liked it 

And if there's anything mew'd like us to make, leave a comment.  

Epically crafty purrs and don't forget to...

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team

Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable for 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  

**Spooky Crafting With Cats** **RERUN ~ PART TWO** How We Made The Catnip Pumpkin Toys and The Spooky Haunted House Photo Set

Welcome to

Supurr Spooky Greetings Pawesome Pals

Thanks for joining us for Part Two of our Halloween Crafting with Cats Rerun. Mew know we have so much fun making all this stuff and we hope mew enjoy seeing it!

*    *    *

**Purrlease Note**

All Crafting with Cats ideas, and creations are our own designs.

Copyright ©BionicBasil® 

This time we made some spooktacular catnip pumpkins, and of course, we needed a pawesome Spooky Haunted House backdrop for them!

But before we dive in and show mew how we made it, we have to say

**This is a photo stage set** 

It is NOT an everyday playhouse for cats, and we wouldn't ever leave any kitties unattended with it, just in case they got a little too excited over all the fun things.

What We Used:

Catnip Pumpkins

Felt squares - we used orange, yellow, green and brown 

Embroidery Thread and Needle

Stuffing/Wadding

and lots of homegrown BBHQ catnip and catmint

For The House

A large cardboard box - we used an Amazon pantry box as they're supurr sturdy

Non-toxic paint

Non-toxic glue

Paint brushes

House Decor

Spooky accessories - this is what we used:

We got a wicked selection of spooky items from our local B&M store:

Mini Pumpkin Lights [battery opurrated] ~ A Packet of Glow in the Dark Skelebobs ~ A Packet of Spiders and Bats ~ The Net Fabric For The Roof

The other items we used were sourced from stock within our craft room

7 x 5 mm wooden dowels - painted white

Grey felt for the curtains

Paw print ribbon to tie the curtains open

Green fake fur fabric

Wadding to put inside the floor of the box

Pom poms for window/door surrounds and door furniture

Elastic thread

Trees

The trees were part of a castle set we made early last year

Fudge was today's Craft Room Snoopervisor

The Spooky Haunted House

Under construction...

Pics/text: upper left to upper right, lower left to lower right

1.  we used this box

2. then we carefully cut out large access in the side

3. and repeated for windows and front door

4. Fudge and his giant floof making a preliminary inspection

Pics/text: upper left to upper right, lower left to lower right

5. obtain Full Feline Paw Print of Approval before continuing

6. arrange the box lid into a purrleasing roof shape and glue - repeat the other side

7. our roof has a flat piece of cardboard glued on the top of the roof, but if mew like to look at the stars, leave it open 

8. find a cardboard strip and play with it for at least 27.342 seconds

Pics/text: upper left to upper right, lower left to lower right

9. it looked a little boring at this point, so we used a small cardboard box to make the chimneys

10. mega authentic wonky chimney's in situ

11 + 12. we painted the roof grey

Pics/text: upper left to upper right, lower left to lower right

The entire house got whitewashed, with the front and side doors getting a wood paint effect.

So there's your basic house, ready for anything!

Now It's Catnip Pumpkin Time

Pics/text: upper left to upper right, lower left to lower right

1. cut out a felt circle - this one is 8.5" in diameter

2.  take a length of embroidery thread and securely knot the end

3. thread the needle and use a simple running stitch all the way around the outer edge

4. begin to pull stitches

Pics/text: upper left to upper right, lower left to lower right

5. homegrown organic catnip and catmint

6. just because we thought mew'd like to see the product again

7. take a little wadding/stuffing and lightly line the pumpkin

8. add catnip

Pics/text: upper left to upper right, lower left to lower right

9. add catmint, then more catnip and then more catmint until full

10. place a small piece of wadding/stuffing in top of the pumpkin, pull the stitches tight and sew up

11. cut out leaf shapes

12. sew leaves to pumpkin

Pics/text: upper left to upper right, lower left to lower right

13. at this point, we decided that we needed more catnip pumpkins, so we made 3 more in different sizes using 2 different colours

14. finished catnip pumpkins ready fur action

And this is how our spooky house came out using the items above.

So our question to mew is this:

IS IT SPOOKY ENOUGH?

We think it turned out purretty neat, and the really good thing is we can take all the Halloween items off and use the basic house again for our Catmas Crafting with Cats post.

Smooch and Fudge even got dressed up! MOL

Smooch said, "Dude, the grass is definitely greener here!" 

[we think he found some catnip!]



Take a peek at the video:

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

Bionic Basil & The 'B' Team @Facebook 

We'll be back tomorrow with the first of our supurr spooky Halloween Selfies!

Until then...

Spooky purrs

MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team 

Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable for 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 its staff from and against any and all claims for personal injuries or damages of any kind arising from the use of any Crafting With Cats posts we may share.

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

mewsic used under paid licence www.audiojungle.net