Well, I finally finished up the reversible skirt pattern that I posted about last August. Visit my Etsy shop for details.
Artwork Collage
Last summer I posted about the Jan Eleni collage available at Love (for a hefty price), and I finally got around to trying it out as a Christmas gift for my husband from our daughter. We selected 28 pieces of her artwork, scanned them in and printed them on card stock. Each image was 3″ x 4″ and the frame was 24″ x 30″. You could definitely make them smaller and fit more. Then I just taped them down in case we want to change out the artwork someday.
My four-year-old just hasn’t accumulated a critical mass of artwork, so she made a collage of her own with paper and fabric scraps. It’s called So Many Houses on a Street.
Sprinkles
Just thought I’d show some photos of the girls’ birthday parties earlier this month. With two December birthdays, I made it easier on myself this year by having the parties outside of my house. And I kept the craftiness to a minimum. For my younger daughter, we had a mermaid themed party, so I made some starfish shaped chocolate lollipops.
My older daughter wanted a unicorn party, so I made these unicorn shaped cookies with royal icing and sprinkles. The chocolate cookies were pretty awful because I took the plain cookie recipe and added some cocoa. Needed more sugar, but the kids didn’t seem to mind.
I really hate goodie bags, but my daughter insisted. So we made these from a brown paper sack and a drawing that she made, which I scanned and printed onto sticker paper. (It was a bowling unicorn party). Inside each bag was a circle of shrinky dink plastic to be made into an ornament, crayons, string, a candy cane and some heart-shaped soap. I made this soap by adding several layers of color. I’m sure the kids didn’t really care much about the soap, but I had the supplies around the house already and it was better than some plastic toy.
Then I finally sent out thank yous today in the form of e-mail with a photo attachment. I’m being green and lazy this year since our holiday cards and thank you notes were sent electronically. We cut the letters from card stock and I sewed them together.
Embroidery Hoop Ornaments
With both children sick last weekend, we’ve had some down time for quiet projects (and lots of television, unfortunately). Anyway, my older daughter made the ornament above using a small embroidery hoop. She has pretty much learned how to sew at her Montessori school, although we work on it occasionally at home. I asked her to draw a snowflake (convincing her that simple was better) directly onto this linen fabric with a disappearing ink fabric marker. Then she did the rest on her own.
I am also working with my younger daughter on one, though I drew the design for her. We haven’t finished yet. You can see in the photo below that I shouldn’t have put that embroidery hoop on my lap while she was putting the needle through it. Ouch.
Potato Print Paper
We made some potato printed gift wrap the other day. We used tempera paint on butcher paper. Obviously, the simple shapes are easier to cut. This was a quick and easy project that the kids enjoyed.