Sometimes having children is about revisiting the past. Do you have any of your childhood toys left? Lucky for me, my mother is a bit of a packrat and kept many of our things. Now we regularly drink from Smurf and Muppet glasses, my children play with my old doll house and use my handmade wooden doll beds. It’s nice to see things come full circle.

But these Ant and Bee books were a different story. I had them squirreled away on a shelf, intending never to share them with my children as they are too precious. The books were originally printed in the UK in the ’70s with a re-print in the late ’80s and early ’90s, but are  now out of print. They are selling for rather outlandish prices, as you can see here. But mine aren’t in very good condition and what’s the point in having something that you can’t share? So I pulled them down from the shelf and had a flood of memories as my daughter read them aloud. So sweet — and really great books. As my seven-year-old was reading Ant and Bee and the Rainbow, my five-year-old followed along reading the names of the colors. Angela Banner’s words and illustrations are still relevant today. They should print these again.

Then my friend Laura brought the girls a super awesome gift – her Barbie townhouse that she had as a girl, still in its original box and in perfect condition. My husband said this was the Death Star of Barbie toys. I took one look at that elevator and remembered that I also had this as a kid. Somewhere down the line it didn’t make it back to me, but it’s so nice to complete the circle. My younger daughter especially loves Barbie, though I have rather mixed emotions. But then I do that “Well, I played with them as a kid” thing that we as parents often do. You know, since we turned out so well. And this Barbie house has a working elevator. Now that’s just cool.

Check out the new downloadable book from Lark Books – Fa la la la Felt. The book includes 45 decorations, ornaments and stockings made of your favorite material — felt!  I’m excited to have three projects featured in the book.  So if you’re ready to deck the halls, head over here and buy the book instantly for $14.95.

And as a special gift, Lark Books is offering a free tutorial for this cute little mushroom ornament from Cathy Gaubert.  Click on the image below to download the .pdf file.

I’d like to make this in a brown twill for fall.  Wouldn’t that be nice?  This is the slouch bag from Akiko Mano’s book Linen Wool Cotton. A very nice book full of simple, natural designs.  If you don’t have this one, it should go on your holiday wish list!

Check out the 20 free patterns from STC Craft publications.  Sewing, knitting, felt, and embroidery patterns from some of your favorite craft books.

This is it!  My first published work.  It’s strange to think that just a few years ago I didn’t know how to sew and now it’s all I want to do.  Thanks to all of you who read this blog for your comments and encouragement.  You guys are really nice.

I have seven projects featured in the calendar, all of which were previously posted on this blog.  With over 100 sewing projects on pull-out pages, this really is a nifty little calendar.  I wasn’t sure what to expect; but the editor, Megan Smith, did a nice job of pulling together projects from some talented sewers and bloggers including elsie marley, Bella Dia, Lucykate Crafts, UK Lass in US, Made with Love by Hannah, Pink Chalk Studio, goody-goody, Skip to my Lou and so many others.  It’s nice to be included in such fine company.

So, I thought I’d give a few away.  Three calendars are up for grabs.  I’m willing to ship internationally, so everyone is eligible.  Just leave a comment here before Sunday night (August 23 at midnight eastern) and you’ll be included in the random number drawing.  I’ll announce the winners Monday morning.  And if you don’t win, you can always go here to pre-order the calendar.  Not sure when they will actually be in stores.  Thanks for playing!

COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED!  Thanks.

This week we read Hansel and Gretel as re-told by Cynthia Rylant and beautifully illustrated by Jen Corace.  The Grimm Brothers told some creepy stories, didn’t they?  They were the fear-mongers of the 19th century; now we just have cable news.

This faithful re-telling of the story starts off:

It has been said that guardian spirits watch over and protect small children, and that may be so.  But there are also stories of children who find the courage to protect themselves.  Such is the story of Hansel and Gretel.

I really don’t recommend this tale for the littlest of children, but my four-year-old and six-year-old were able to handle it now that they have some semblance of rational thinking — enough to realize that there are no children-eating witches (but they are not ready to read The Road yet).  The illustrations have a handmade aesthetic with Hansel and Gretel sleeping under a very nice quilt and romping through the woods in cool indie clothes.  Ooh, and I love the witch’s wallpaper.  That witch has great taste.

Anyway, we decided to make a cake house for the story project.  Originally I wanted to make a printable paper house that the kids could color, but my kids wouldn’t stand for it.  ”It says that the house is made of cake and sugar!”  Okay, fine.  So we got a boxed cake mix and some hippie-style organic candy, and there you go.  Cake house.  Apparently our house has a pet elephant too.  I’m sure you can make something much more elaborate, maybe even with a house-shaped pan.  Give it a try.

This week we read one of my new favorites, Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein with illustrations by Ed Young.  It’s the story of a Japanese cat named Wabi Sabi searching for the meaning of her name.  She comes to discover that wabi-sabi is the simple, imperfect beauty that can be found all around us.  Its meaning might be complex for a young child, but I continue to be inspired by the book each time we read it and feel that the story offers a meaningful idea.  And since wabi-sabi is an essential element of handmade goods, I think it’s an apt concept for this blog regardless of your age.  Here is an interesting explanation of its meaning.

The story is beautifully written with a lovely haiku on each page.  Ed Young’s illustrations carry on the wabi-sabi philosophy with collages that include natural and everyday objects, humbly and beautifully woven into the work with an amazing sense of composition.  His final images for the book had to be created quickly because his original designs were lost while he was also undergoing a personal tragedy (you can read more about it here).  So Young changed his process and used splattered paint, magazine clippings, pine needles,  origami papers, cardboard and other found materials.  Take a look at this video interview with both author and illustrator here.

For our kid’s project, we read the book again and talked about the images while the children guessed how they were made.  We collected textured materials from around the house and in the yard including burlap, wool felt, bits of a rug pad, fern leaves and patterned paper.  My four-year-old enjoyed the splatter painting with watercolors, then she and I worked out the composition, cut the shapes and glued everything in place.  Then my six-year-old, who didn’t want to participate, came in and said that it wouldn’t be right until we scanned it into the computer and printed it out as a flat image.  She was right.  You can see the scanned version above.  Then she even began working on a collage book of her own while the four-year-old made a collage doll from scraps of paper.  It’s always interesting to see where new ideas take them.

I know, it seems like I’ve forgotten about the summer reading crafts, but here’s a project!

Eric Carle naturally comes to mind when thinking about children’s book illustration, so we decided to make these firefly lanterns based on The Very Lonely Firefly, the story of a firefly in search of friends.  You can learn more about Eric Carle’s process here.  I modified the process to make it simpler for the kids.  This is a two-step project because your tissue paper will need time to dry before you make the collage.  And you’ll want to work on a surface that is easy to clean.  Here’s how we made our firefly lanterns:

Supplies:

• recycled glass jar
• plain tissue paper
• paints (we used kid’s poster paints)
• brushes
• decoupage glue (mod podge)

1.  First, cut the tissue paper into small squares to make it easier to handle.  Then have kids paint the tissue paper.  To achieve the multi-layered effect of Carle’s work, I encouraged my kids to use several colors on their brush.

2.  When the kids finish a square, an adult can gently peel the paper from the surface since it tears easily.
3.  Set aside and allow the tissue paper to dry.

4.  Once the tissue paper is dry, cut it into shapes to make a firefly or anything else you can imagine.
5.  Coat the front of the glass jar with mod podge and apply the tissue paper shapes.

6.  Add another coat of glue on top to seal it.
7.  Light a candle and watch your fireflies glow.  Careful: hot glass!

This summer I’ll be doing crafts based on children’s books.  This week we read Elmer by David McKee.  Elmer is the story of a patchwork elephant who wants to look like everyone else, but soon realizes that it’s boring to blend in with the crowd.  At the end of the book the elephants have a parade, so the girls and I decided to make an elephant parade garland.

Click here to download the .pdf template if you’d like to make one too.

Simply print the template and cut out the elephants from card stock.  Let the children paint, collage, or color them.  Then string them together with twine.  A fun and easy project for a summer afternoon.  Stay tuned for more children’s book projects all summer long!

Sometimes I select books just for the cover art. I just bought a couple of new chapter books for the girls for that very reason. I love the artwork by Charlie & Lola artist Lauren Child for this updated version of the classic Pippi Longstocking by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren.

And My Father’s Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannett and illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannett, has such beautiful cover artwork (although sadly the inside illustrations are in black and white). Looks like a good story, so we’ll see if looks or substance wins.

I love this Eric Carle inspired project idea from Arounna Khounnoraj of Bookhou over at Bloesem Kids.  Instructions here.

Lovely letter pillows from Yvestown.  She’s now also selling the beautiful and hard-to-find Paumes books, so check out those too.