Lulu and Luna

Our nieces from Charlotte visit every summer with their family and I try to find time to sneak away with them for a little craft time. Ron's sisters are both very good at making time for each niece and nephew, so I've joined them in this tradition. This year I had promised Ingrid and Annika that we would make stuffed animals or dolls or something they could hold. Last year we made tote bags.
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After seeing the cute dolls on Black Apple when she appeared on Martha (thanks to Layla, who brought this to my attention!), I decided these dolls would be just perfect to make with the girls.
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The girls dug through my fabric stash and found remnants of my past projects to integrate into their dolls. As a team, we ironed, traced, cut out, sewed, turned right side out, stuffed and sewed Lulu and Luna together. Such fun!
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Ingrid and Annika got to spend time with their other auntie later that evening and made a trip to Michael's Crafts to work on making faces and accessorizing them.

A Book Class and Retreat

My friend Kristine and I taught a handmade book class at the women's retreat we attended recently. We were invited to teach a craft and settled in on making small, handmade books we called "chap books," that could be used as a place to keep important quotes, fun pictures, memories, random thoughts, or interesting ephemera. Of course we had to wear old school aprons, both thrifted and full of someone's memories. The weekend was a wonderful way to relax, renew and remind ourselves why we do what we do and why it is so important to continue to seek ways to bring joy to ourselves and those around us. Don't their hands look beautiful and relaxed?

The Idea House

I have found my dream craft room and it is within walking distance of my house. Oh my, it is a beauty! Think anyone would notice if I casually pulled my minivan into the Bachman's parking lot in the middle of the night and casually absconded with the contents of this room? I think it would be perfect in our future farm house.Bachman's Floral and Garden Center, a Minneapolis landmark of sorts, is celebrating their 125th anniversary and has decided to feature this house that was built in the 1920's for some members of the Bachman's family on their property. It stayed in the family for quite some time, but it appears that up until recently it was a rental property and not very well maintained. They have now decided to host seasonal home decorating shows at the house, each of which will feature new things, seasonal ideas and general eye-candy for the people. It costs $5 to enter, but your entrance ticket can be used as a $5 coupon towards any home furnishing item in the store.

The dates are limited for each season, so make sure to check their calendar. Have you been yet? What was YOUR favorite room?

Multigenerational Chicks

I picked up an adorable kit at Paper Source last week. It is something that I'm sure I could have figured out myself, but sometimes, it is just nice to get all the pieces in one package.
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The kids and I drove out to visit my grandma and thought that she might enjoy doing a craft project with us. The chicks were a huge hit! I can now see using the same idea and making squirrels, owls, bats and more....

Encouraging Creativity... I think.

Many days when Louise, Gus and I are home together, I allow them to have time with the art supplies at the kitchen counter while I'm in a nearby room, cleaning the kitchen, or running up and down the stairs doing laundry. Most days, they get along well and create pretty fantastic things. Recently I was folding laundry in my room and came down to find them in the kitchen looking like this.
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Fortunately, they were washable markers. Unfortunately, even washable markers require some elbow grease to remove them off of delicate body parts. You should have seen the smiles at the grocery store. Adoration or stifled snickering, I haven't a clue. I smiled proudly.

I love...

I'm a few days late coming into the game, but I'm joining some friends for a month of "things I love..." posts. You can check in here for a list of other bloggers working toward the same goal. It is meant to be an exercise in daily blogging (or occasional, in my case) and capturing the simple and wonderful aspects of our daily lives that we appreciate and love. Stay tuned.
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My first love for February? Working on projects with my kids. Our pretzel house didn't happen this year at Christmas, so we are calling it a Valentine's house this year. We're on our way. The roof, frosting snow and valentine candy decor happen this afternoon while Louise naps.

A Sneak Peek

I've been spending some evenings with a few girlfriends lately, crafting late into the night. We look at our watches and cringe when we realize that we need to be getting up in a mere six hours, yet continue to glue, stitch or paint just a little bit more. This project isn't complete yet so I won't share the whole thing, but I thought some of you might appreciate a little sneak peek.

A Little Paint

When Gus does art, he really does art. He has never been a color-in-the-lines kind of guy. In fact, I think he'd prefer that there would never be lines. So when he suggested to me that he could help me paint the trim on the back door, I decided he needed a little more freedom in his paint project. Here are the results: pure Gus.

A little junk= a lot of fun

For Christmas my brother and sister-in-law gave my boys an adventure day certificate. Recently they cashed it in for a day with my brother. I figured that they would eat a meal together, maybe do a craft project or two. They were gone for EIGHT hours. I think it was a present to me.

He picked them up right away in the morning when they woke up and took them to a local favorite breakfast joint for pancakes and apple juice. Afterwards they went to an asian grocery store to browse the seafood tanks for live crabs, lobsters and more. They spent a few hours at the Science Museum of Minnesota then headed off to lunch. The highlight of the day was going to Ax-Man Surplus, a local junk store filled with parts, what-nots, doo-dads and everything in between. They were each allowed to spend $5.00 on supplies to build the robot of their dreams. As they sat later at Erik's kitchen table building, I think these boys fell uncontrollably in love with my brother. They've always loved him, but to them, a chance to use a glue gun, tools and have his focused attention is probably better than a Liberty Custard cone with sprinkles.

Check out the finished creatures. They came home happy, full, crafty and confident.

Birthday Fun

For Carl's birthday, we had a few kids over for a belated celebration. As part of the festivities the kids got to create their own t-shirt design, following Amanda Soule's freezer paper stenciling technique from "The Creative Family."

We didn't have freezer paper, so we used parchment paper instead. It didn't have the sticky effect that ironing the freezer paper does in her instructions, so we just used a bit-o-duct tape. The kids drew their designs with a pencil on the paper and I cut them out with an X-acto knife. Using fabric paint and stencil brushes, they painted in their designs.
We let them dry in the sun in the porch for a while while they played in the yard and each child left with a new shirt and a big "I-did-it-myself" grin on their face.

Altered Books:: Part 2

I taught the Altered Books class last night for a group of eleven librarians. They were a very attentive and interested group, full of information about altered books that they shared with the class. We started out by viewing the holdings from an altered books association to familiarize the group with the possibilities of what lay ahead of them and to allow time for arrival. As they finished, they sat down at a large table where they found a packet full of fun goodies. Ephemera galore!

After a basic introduction to the art and craft of altered books, we covered five techniques. They got a chance to practice all of them. If we had had more time, we had several more techniques to share, but due to the facility closing early, we weren't able to finish them all. 'Til next time, perhaps? An Altered Books II maybe?

I LOVE the citrasolv transfer method.

::Take a fresh photo copy (1-3 days old) and cut out an image that strikes your fancy.

Place the image face down on your book in the location where you'd like to place the transfer.

Using a Q-tip swab doused in Citrasolv, liberally rub the back of the paper with the image.

Once the image is well-soaked, take a bone folder or popsicle stick and vigorously rub the

image, transferring the ink to the book below. Peek under one edge, making sure not to move

the image, then either rub more with the bone folder and add more citrasolv or peel away the

image to see your handiwork.

Blocking out text with a Sharpie. You can also remove text on old books by placing masking tape on the text you don't want, then rubbing with the bone folder or popsicle stick. The text sticks to the tape.

An example of the accordian pages with hinges made from beautiful papers. (I love this photo: a man's hands! So many of my attendees have been women. It was a nice change to have men in this class... a different perspective.)

This woman used an extra copy of a Dr. Seuss book. What fun! I can just imagine pockets and hidden goodies within. Her kids will love to discover the book's insides.

We purchased some of the beautiful papers at Paper Source. They have such wonderful papers.
I had previously only thought of old books as sources for Altered books. This one was a newer one, maybe off a sale table at a local bookstore. The pages were shiny, so she couldn't do the masking tape/text lifting method, but it was a beautiful choice for altering. Lovely flowers and text.

Do you have a favorite technique? Please share and I can link back to you, if you have a pic!