paint cut paste

i think this is one of the cutest ways i’ve seen to upcycle those random buttons you might have around… make button christmas trees! (wow, i’m on a tree kick this holiday season, huh? most of our holiday artventures have been tree-oriented.)

i first saw this idea on modern minerals, via pinterest (pinned it this summer for later use.) we modified her tutorial a bit to make it more kid friendly, and let me say that it was a total hit! in lieu of using string to bind the buttons together, we used pipe cleaners – so easy for small hands to maneuver. N and i gathered up various buttons we had around (including a lot of white and green ones,) some pipe cleaners, and a few shank buttons (the kind with a loop on the back of them) we had around to use as “tree toppers.” (you can see the shank buttons on the left in the pic below.)

(yes, as you can see we've also been painting more wooden ornaments - we do this each year)

we started by bending the pipe cleaner in half, and putting the shank button on first.

then we put the two ends of the pipe cleaner through two opposing holes in each button, working from small button to large button.

it was fun to experiment with various color schemes. N was really into making pink and purple trees!

here are some of our trees before we cut the pipe cleaners off of the bottom. (they’re kinda cute like trees on sticks – i bet they could be used so many ways like this, too!)

then we twirled one side of the pipe cleaner around the other side to create a “trunk” look at the bottom. [you can also use small brown (or other color) buttons for a trunk.] i cut the extra length off of the pipe cleaners.

we tied a bit of baker’s twine through the hole of the top shank bead and hung them on the tree. (and tied a few to some lucky gift recipients, as well.)

(some of these remind me of wedding cakes – with the right color scheme and topper, this could be modified for weddings or bridal showers in some way, too!)

creating garland out of the natural beauty of autumn leaves is always a favorite activity of ours. this time, we made it even more vibrant!

we have gone on many leaf collecting walks around our neighborhood these past few week, and brought home some beauties. we pressed them for about 24 hours or so to flatten them out.

the opportunity to mod podge our autumn leaves passed us by last year somehow, but this year we were able to do so. after the leaves were pressed, i applied a coat of mod podge to each side of each leaf (in the evening – thus the dark photo – sorry.) this preserves the color and returns some suppleness to the leaves — like magic!

notice it doesn't say "modge podge" on the bottle, folks.

once they were dry, N and i got out our wooden beads and some wire to string the garland.

we wrapped each bead through twice, to hold it in place.

we had fun interspersing beads with the leaves, and it looked pretty when finished.

now we have it hanging over our balcony for thanksgiving time… (but secretly, i’m sooo ready for christmas decorations instead!)

a few evenings ago, we noticed a little bag of silver pendants in our art cabinet that we had yet to use — and i have my friend, rachelle of tinkerlab, to thank for passing them along to us! so, thank you, tinkerfriend, for these great blank “canvases” of the jewelry variety! they provided N and i with some enjoyment, as we decided how we wanted to design our pendants.

N wanted to make a “nature one” and a “beady one.” so we gathered some pebbles and shells from random buckets of beach treasures that are still in our backyard.

then N rooted through my seed bead collection and found some colors she liked.

she arranged the seed beads in the circular metal pendant, and put a white shell in the center of the square one with some pebbles and a few random neutral beads around it.

once she had them arranged how she wanted them, i squirted dimensional magic onto each, and let it dry for 3 hours. after it dried and encrusted all of these jewels to keep them in place, N wore her new beautiful mandala necklace!

and she decided we should give the “nature one” to rachelle and her little artist, N, as a thank you gift.

happy fall, y’all! (ooo, my quasi-southern roots are showing.) today is the first day of autumn, even though the sf bay area seems to just be getting the summer started. regardless, in my body and spirit, it feels like it’s time to bust out the chet baker and a scarf. to celebrate the season, i gifted my little one with a basket of autumn goodies today…

among the treasures was a strand of mala beads i strung just for her. i’ve always intended to make N one of her own (as she covets mine) and i was inspired by this one i saw on little. lovely. i just used 108 (in the buddhist tradition) blonde wooden beads i had on hand and some stretchy cord.

after they were strung, i looped embroidery thread around my fingers, snipped it at one end, then laid it over the cord. i tied another piece of thread around that to keep it in place. this made for a cute tassel.

i also included two wonderful autumn books in N’s fall basket — i just love both of these seasonal series. one is autumn, an alphabet acrostic by steven schnur and the other is by the light of the harvest moon by harriet ziefert. we have the other seasons from both authors, but somehow didn’t yet have these autumn treasures.

additionally, i found a sweet little melissa & doug wooden kazoo, some pomegranates (N’s favorite fruit – she takes after her momma!) and one a replica of one of my childhood memories… a weather telling owl kinda like this one! when i was a kid, i had a ceramic owl exactly like this on my windowsill. he has little clear salt-sized crystals on his head that change color to tell the weather (or so i thought when i was a kid???) when one of these owls came up randomly on my etsy homepage this summer, my heard did a little flip flop of recognition, and i knew i had to buy it!

another fun thing about today is that we got to use the autumn side of our handmade placemats – ah, refreshing change! i can’t wait to have some fun with fall art projects now…

first day of autumn breakfast

happy autumn to all! did your family do anything special to celebrate autumn’s arrival?

our hearts go out to all of our east coast friends who have been dealing with hurricane irene and her aftermath. in our pre-cali stomping grounds of richmond, va, much of the beloved city’s beloved residents have been without power for days and huge trees fell and took out homes, cars, playhouses, etc. the photo below is one that my dear friend in richmond took of a fallen tree in her yard.

photo by amy howarth

this is the scene in many of my friends’ yards right now, and the work of cutting up the trunks and branches has begun. while these trees make for fine firewood for the winter, surely some little parts of these hurricane spoils could be repurposed into lovely branch art, yes?

photo by amy howarth

coincidentally i’ve been drooling over some tree-themed pins in the past few months (cannot. curb. pinterest. addiction.) and it seems that, while hurricanes are often tragic and never desirable, mother nature has left behind some art materials in my friends’ yards. so i’ve decided to share some ideas for how to make art out of this bad situation, for those of you who may have a lot of wood lying around. and a saw. (gosh, i want a saw.)

if you click on the images below, they will take you to the source of the image.

building blocks - i SO want these!

wall art (many other branchy ideas at this link, too)

love these gift tags - or stamp any image onto them & glue a magnet to the back!

i'm seriously making these in the fall (i heart mini-eco!)

weaving between the branches

how stylie are these hooks?

great table!

lovely beads

so beautiful above the bed

earthy candle holders

when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

when hurricanes give you fallen trees, make branch art!

my daughter received a build your own kaleidoscope kit for her birthday a few months ago, and we just broke it out this week to create our own. oh glorious light shining through color, you get me every time!

as my regular readers know by now, i’m not a fan of pre-fab art kits, so my hope was to figure out from this kit how one could make this from materials in your recycling bin. hmm…

at first glance, it seemed like the materials provided were adaptable enough: cardboard tubes, plastic film for lenses, plastic rings, 3 reflective strips, glittery paper and beads, and decorative stickers. once we unwrapped the kit, i realized there are four different diameters of cardboard tubes that fit together precisely, and the plastic rings that allow for things to be held together fit them perfectly.

so perhaps this particular model is not as adaptable as i’d hoped — you could use a paper towel roll and then raid your gift wrapping tubes for various diameters of tubes that fit tightly inside of one another, use wax paper and clear wrap for lenses, and get plastic mirrored sheets and cut three strips of those. there are some ideas for simpler models to make with household items at the end of this entry. regardless, N had a lot of fun with this.

filling the end with sparkly treasures

we assembled the kaleidoscope according to the very easy (6 step) instructions.

there’s a part where we had to wait for glue to dry, and i have to say that’s when we had the bulk of our fun. first we taped together the three mirrored pieces they provided.

then we folded them into a triangle shape and enjoyed looking at each other, things in our home, and our cat at through them and cracking up!

(putting my iphone camera lens up to the mirror worked well for photos!) click image to view larger

N cut up the adhesive colorful sticker sheets and decorated the tubes with funky patterns.

you know you want that shirt - cafepress.com/paintcutpaste

groooovaaay!

when we put the kaleidoscope together, it was so satisfying to see it working!

we spent a lot of the afternoon twisting and shaking (the kaleidoscope, that is) to find new and beautiful patterns.

i found a few online tutorials for making your own kaleidoscope:

• simpler model with paper towel tube
• with a pringles can
• and with pvc pipe

we’re going to try one of these homegrown versions soon… ah, if only pringles were gluten free, i could snack while creating! (if nothing else, after writing this blog i will forever know how to spell kaleidoscope!)

i’m curious – have any of you made your own kaleidoscope from household items?

…i believe you can get me through the nii-iiight… you guessed it! we created a dreamcatcher, and surprise: it’s WAY easier than i thought it would be! i wrote a guest post about our dreamweaving experience on allstate’s good hands community, so be sure to click over to check it out.

the weaving always looked kinda complex to me, but it so isn’t.

to clarify, it isn’t simple enough for my 4 year old to do herself, but she certainly assisted in choosing the branch from the yard to use for the loop…

and in choosing the colors and materials that held the energy she wanted in her bedroom.

check out our guest post on the good hands community to see a how-to and to find out why a dreamcatcher can be an empowering art idea for children.

sweet dreams!