Featured at:  Best of Craftster 2008
|
Happy Birthday to my impossible-to-buy-gifts-for husband! He hates surprises and tends to buy things for himself before I get around to it. Add in the fact that his birthday comes just over a month after Christmas and a week before Valentine’s Day, and I’m usually scrambling for ideas. But this year, I think I did pretty well. I got him a new sport coat for work, a subscription to “Backyard Poultry” magazine (unless I talk him out of it, he insists we are getting chickens in the spring) and this notebook cover I made at the last second by taking one of my son’s drawings (that’s Daddy and our cat, Sammy), transferring it onto linen and then embroidering and painting it. I’m sure it would’ve turned out better had I not started it a mere two days before the big day, and had I taken 20 minutes to go buy a better paintbrush instead of using one I swiped from my son’s art kit. And I really do not know how to embroider. But given the design, I think it’s ok that it looks like a 5-year-old made it.
It’s been so exciting to see my son’s first real attempts at drawing, and I’ve been so eager to incorporate his creations into some kind of project. I was inspired by the wonderful bookmarks Amanda Soule made with her children’s artwork, and probably should’ve stopped there, with just outlining the drawings with embroidery. But a few days ago I stumbled upon the painted embroidery by Melissa Crowe at Checkout Girl. Please take a look at her amazing artwork, and you’ll see what a pale, pale imitation my attempt is. I’m envious both of her talent and location (Portland, Maine), where I once lived and probably would’ve stayed had my job not been temporary. (Actually, Amanda lives in Portland, too. There must be something in the water!) To make the notebook cover, I followed this tutorial at Bloom And Blossom, though I ran into a bit of trouble. The directions called for cutting the fabric 1.75 times the width of the opened notebook, but that seemed like way too much, so I just ended up wrapping the fabric around the notebook and figuring out how much I needed to cover it and make the flaps. But I really like the tutorial overall, because unlike a lot of other notebook cover tutorials out there, there aren’t a lot of layers of fabric and bulky seams in this one.
I’m finally getting around to posting what probably was my son’s favorite Christmas gift, and it is one for which I can take only the smallest sliver of credit. I suggested to my husband that our 5-year-old might like a mini treehouse like this one, but I was sure we could make one for far less than $130. (Of course I now see similar items on Amazon for about $60, but at the time there wasn’t much out there. And even $60 is a lot). He took some cut-up tree limbs and branches from a friend’s debris pile and bought the round cuts of wood and greenery at the craft store. My father-in-law cut the pieces to make them level, and my husband screwed them to the round cuts. The ladder is made out of popsicle sticks hot-glued to string.
I still want to do something to the base (I would’ve painted it to look more like grass … but was happy to leave the construction to someone else), maybe add some wool felt, or a felted stone wall. The wooden furniture is purchased dollhouse furniture. We’ve turned the armoire into a refrigerator, and filled it with some little charms like the ones I made for his girl friends and cousins, minus the jewelry findings.
Santa also managed to find a little Huckle figurine on eBay, who is right at home with the other animals.
I have no idea what we’ll do this year yet, but last year I made 20 tissue cozies for my son’s preschool classmates. I’m sure the kids would’ve preferred candy but figured the parents would appreciate the tissues during cold and flu season.
Depending on how far you want to carry the theme, attach a card with the following message:
“Knock, knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Ah-choo!”
“Ah-choo who?”
“Ah-choose YOU for my Valentine!”
Grown-ups may gag at the punny sentiment, but at least a tissue will be close at hand.
You can click here to read the how-to article I wrote for AP. This really is a very easy project, but the written instructions make it sound more confusing than it is, so here’s my attempt at illustration via Photoshop.
I’m hoping to find an idea for this year here:
I just spent three days with my best friend who lives much, much too far away. In addition to the good company and good food, I also got a chance to see her family and inspect whether they REALLY liked the Christmas gifts I sent them. Though I’m sure it’s possible they only took them out for display purposes before I arrived, they did seem to genuinely like everything I sent.
Here’s the Mommy & baby Black Apple dolls I made for my friend’s adorable daughter, featuring pigtails heavily inspired/directly copied from Larissa at mmmcrafts. If I was smart, I would’ve made the baby doll using the full size pattern and then enlarged the pattern to make the Mommy doll, but I didn’t decide to make the baby until after I made the Mommy. It was pretty tricky to make such a small version, and I ended up leaving the entire bottom edge of the body open to stuff it. (but here’s one smart thing: if you’re adding pigtails, leave the opening in the head where one of the pigtails will be, so when you turn the doll right-side-out, you can cover up your messy hand-stitching with a bow)
And here’s the recipient with an armful of babies:
I made my friend’s 6-year-old son a personalized space-themed pillowcase using my tutorial, and tooth pillow using Larissa’s darling pattern. It’s the same pattern I used to make my son’s tooth pillow, but this time I also made a little hat.
Another successful gift! I made this needle-felted farm back in October (see more pictures and a mini-tutorial HERE) but didn’t add the finishing touch — the pig — until last month, just in time to give it to my 4-year-old niece for Christmas. And I found the Charlotte’s Web book I had bought for her on sale maybe two years ago and promptly lost in a laundry room drawer. I had grand plans to make some of the other critters but ran out of time….
Tomorrow I’m giving the last of my Christmas gifts to my cousin’s four little daughters and their baby brother. The baby is getting the color book I made back in October. The girls are getting cupcake and ice cream charms I made last month and this Princess and the Pea book and play set I finished this morning. (the advantages of not seeing them until after Christmas!) I’ve been wanting to make a set like this since seeing Amanda Soule’s version.
The book is by Lauren Child. To make the doll, I scanned the picture from the front cover, removed the background using Photoshop and printed it on iron-on transfer paper. I used fabric I already had for the mattresses and used thin batting in between the layers. I think if I were to make this again I’d use thicker batting but overall I was pleased with the result. Two of the mattresses are made from pre-quilted fabric I had leftover from another project but for the others I didn’t bother doing any quilting. The blanket is cut from an old thermal blanket that was my son’s when he was a baby (and I will admit, even though he is now five and I am not having any more babies, it was a little sad to cut into it. Even though I still have several more.) Hemming the raw edges had the unintentional but pretty effect of creating a slightly scalloped border.
The pea is wet-felted. I can’t remember where I saw the idea to make a little pocket in one mattress for the pea, but it is a great one. The little pillow case is a tiny simplied version of my pillowcase tutorial found on my tutorials page.
My 5-year-old son has a thing for cats. For years, his favorite stuffed animals have been two cats named (accurately if not imaginatively) Fat Kitty and Skinny Kitty. He has an assortment of Garfields from my husband’s childhood, and of course the Huckle I made him for his birthday. He also likes to “read” Calvin and Hobbes, so I decided to make him a Hobbes stuffed animal for Christmas.
Looking back, it only took me three evenings to make, but it seems like much longer! The orange plush was very annoying to work with (and is more hunter blaze orange than pumpkin orange). I ended up using the same Simplicity baby doll pattern I used for Huckle. I altered it by scanning the pattern, then laying it on top of an enlarged picture of Hobbes in Photoshop. That worked fine until I realized that in doing so, I made the neck opening too small to be able to sew the head on as directed. So I had to sew the head on by hand after it was stuffed. Luckily, the wretched orange plush hides all the stitches. I sewed strips of black fleece to the orange before assembling the pieces, and then found it impossible to line them up when sewing the arms and legs together. And I’m sure there will be orange and white fuzz floating around my house well into 2010.
I’ve decided that I worked too hard on this to let Santa take credit. But I’m curious… how do you fellow crafters handle gifts that you make for your own children for Christmas? Do you let Santa take credit or do you give them as gifts from yourself?
Happy Holidays to all of you… especially those who helped me with encouraging comments and advice months ago when I first started this blog.
These are my first attempts at making polymer clay charms as gifts for all the little girls I know. There are soooo many cute projects in The Polymer Clay Cookbook, but I’m running out of time before Christmas to make more. I definitely want to try the bacon and eggs plate and some of the other savory dishes. I found them easier than expected to make. They require just tiny amounts of clay, and once you have the clay out it’s easy to make four or five at a time. The hardest part actually was wrapping the wire to make the little jewelry attachments.
In addition to the charms, I’m making some without the jewelry wire for my son, who I think will enjoy playing with them with all the little animal figurines he likes to set up.
Aren’t these little story dice adorable? I used to think so, but making them turned out to be such a frustrating process that I’m no longer sure! I was inspired by this wonderful set at The Small Object and this tutorial at Matsutake on transfering images to wood using glue and Mod Podge. But I take full credit for coming up with the CRAZY idea that I could make a set for each of my son’s (TWENTY-TWO) pre-school classmates. In the end, I made eight sets, enough for his closest friends and a few other friends and relatives.
The images I used are digital scrapbooking elements by Kate Hadfield. I already had a few sets, and I love the painted style. (And at the time, I justified the cost by figuring that if I divided it among 22 kids, it was a bargain! Ugh). I tried the Mod Podge technique but it didn’t work. Maybe I didn’t use enough glue or Mod Podge. Then I tried a rub-on technique using transparency sheets. No luck. Finally, I used this packing tape transfer technique I read about at How About Orange, and finally, that worked. (Note: this technique works with laser printed images and photocopies, but not inkjet prints)
With all that out of the way, this really is an easy project, but it is not a quick one. I’m happy but not thrilled with the final result. Some images didn’t transfer as well as others, or the final coat of acrylic spray turned a bit cloudy for some mysterious reason.
MATERIALS:
wooden cubes (mine are 1.25 inches)
a variety of 1-inch images (digital scrapbooking elements, clipart or hand-drawn)
laser printer
clear packing tape
scissors
small bowl of warm water
Mod-Podge
paint brush
clear matte spray
INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Print images using a laser printer. I used Photoshop to format mine in columns because they will be covered later with strips of packing tape.
2) Cover images with packing tape.
3) Cut out images. (Alternatively, you can leave the sheet of paper whole and cut the images apart later. It’s easier to cut them now, but the next step — rubbing off the paper — is easier using the full sheet)
4) Dip the tape-covered image in warm water to moisten the paper backing. I found that if I let them soak for more than a minute or so, the image didn’t transfer well. So just dunk it enough to get it wet.
5) Using your fingertips, NOT fingernails, rub the paper until it starts to come off. Continue wetting the paper and rubbing it until it is removed.
6) The images will still have a bit of adhesive stuck to them, so lay them sticky-side up to dry. I noticed that pieces that often appeared totally clear turned out to have bits of paper still stuck to them that didn’t show up until they dried. You can go back and rub them off again or just tell yourself that a 5-year-old is not going to notice or care.
7) Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to both the block and the image and adhere the image to the block. Repeat for remaining sides of the block. Allow blocks to dry, then seal with matte acrylic spray.
My husband is hosting seven of our son’s friends tomorrow for a cookie-baking party. I’m giving the four boys sets of the story dice. The girls are getting polymer clay charms (pictures coming soon!). Those were much easier, and very cute, but I feel a little bad giving the boys the more “educational” toys and the girls jewelry. I hate to contribute to gender stereotyping…
I apologize for the lack of posting lately… too many projects to finish before Christmas! Making matters worse is the habit of one member of my family to insert herself in the middle of projects…
Here she is in the bag of supplies that somehow will be transformed into a Hobbes stuffed animal… How can I disturb her?
|
|
