paint cut paste

i hope all the mommas and grandmommas out there had a lovely mothers’ day weekend! just wanted to share a little handmade mom’s day treat with you all – these cute felt flower pins that N created for her grandmothers, her great-grandmother, and a couple barrettes for herself and friends, too!

first, i cut out a bunch of various flower shapes from our felt scraps. (do they make kid-friendly fabric scissors? N’s kid scissors just would not do the trick on felt, so i had to do this part for her even though she wanted to, unfortunately.)

N selected groupings of small, medium, and large flowers she liked together. (she commented that it’s just like choosing skirts for her flower fairies she loves to make!) she chose embroidery thread from our cutely-stored stash to adorn the background circles for each pin.

she began to whip up some added cuteness with the blanket stitch she learned at school. impressive! of course, she asked while doing it, “um, why am i sewing one piece of felt to itself, mommy? just to be fancy?” why yes, sweetie. fanciness is important on mothers’ day.

next up – choosing buttons for flower centers. buttons are always a hit over here.

N learned to sew on a button with this project, and she basked in the glow of accomplishing this.

we found some adhesive pins at michael’s to affix to the back of each flower.

here’s a happy recipient (N’s gwee!) sporting hers on mom’s day sent via pix messaging.

i hot glued the few extra flowers to barrettes that N has been happily sporting for a week… and she saved a few barrettes for gifts for her girlfriends.

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!)

every year, i wrap our holiday gifts in natural kraft paper, which makes them sort of like a blank canvas for whatever ribbons and adornment we select. this year, i’m thinking butcher twine and these wonderful handmade tree tags.

i saw this idea on pinterest (of course because i live on there! wth?!) and had to try it out! i’m always the chick who’s pocketing paint chips at the hardware store, so that part was easy. i have a large stash of buttons and ribbon, and a glue gun, so we were set to go. N was excited to cut the paint chips into triangles together, and was a huge help in doing so.

after she cut these lovely green ombre triangles, i hot glued a loop of ribbon under a button to the top of each one. N instructed me NOT to put a brown trunk on each one, so we left the trees as they were.

they turned out to be so cute! now i just need to get the actual GIFTS made!

paint chips are so naturally amazing — in what sorts of artistic ways have you used paint chips?

just a simple little thing to share… one of N’s oldest (well, he’s 3 years young) so, i should say longest friends is celebrating his birthday this month. for a gift, we decided to make a fun little frame commemorating their friendship. (they now live on opposite coasts of the country and haven’t been able to see each other in a while.)

N watercolored an ikea wooden frame with her favorite color – purple. then we collected various trinkets, buttons, shells, her sculpey creations, some shrinky-dink designs, and other findings from our art cabinet, and set out to glue them onto the frame once it was dry.

N drew and wrote a cute little card for him, and we framed a picture of the last time they hung out together.

last weekend N and i went to our local waldorf school’s spring faire, where many crafts were being made… mostly with wool, true to the waldorf spirit.

while i didn’t initiate these (nor did i take pictures of them being made – sorry) i wanted to share what we learned and created so that you may be able to do this, too. the theme was spring, and we made some little friends to hang out with this season.

first was the pipe cleaner and wool caterpillar. he’s a fuzzy cute guy made by bending a piece of pipe cleaner in half, and fashioning some antennae out of the top, like so:

then we wrapped colorful wool roving around and around his body until he was all covered in fuzz. i curled his antennae at the end so that the pipe cleaner wouldn’t be sharp, though some kids at the faire coated the antennae in felt all the way to the tip, as well.

next we made a furry bunny rabbit. this was done in the “make a pompom” fashion, which if you’re a knitter or crocheter, you probably already know how to do. the cool thing is that N could do a lot of this on her own, as we were using very wide (about 1.5″) natural colored wool roving instead of thin yarn.

here’s how ya do it. sorry i didn’t take pictures of the process – it was sort of awkward to do so, as a kindergarten waldorf teacher was just sweetly whispering instructions to N as she did this, oh-so-quietly and slowly, while taking breaks to run screaming like a wild banshee normal 3-year-old through the grass in between steps, and asking the teachers “why is everyone just whispering here?” anyway, here’s the how-to, but you can google “how to make a pompom” if you are visual (like me) and need to see pictures.

• cut two piece of cardboard into the shape of a doughnuts. the bigger the bunny, the bigger the doughnut. (ours were about 5″ in diameter with about a 2″ in diameter hole in the middle.)
• hold the two cardboard pieces together and wrap the yarn evenly around the doughnut in a circle, working around the cardboard until the hole is full, but don’t wrap too tightly or cutting will be hard to do. don’t worry if you happen to run out of yarn – just leave the ‘tail’ on the outside and start with a new length of yarn. (this is the part N did with very little assistance. the rest is for the grown-ups.)
• once the wrapping is complete, use the scissors to cut along the edge of the doughnuts a few layers of yarn at a time until you reach the cardboard.
• pull the two cardboard pieces apart slightly, and using another piece of yarn, wrap it a few times along the middle and tie tightly.
• pull out the cardboard pieces or cut a slit through the cardboard pieces so that they can be pulled away easily.
• fluff up your little pompom bunny.

take a look at the figure and see which part could become the head. then tie a piece of white yarn around what would be the neck so that the head stands apart a little bit from the body. then you can gently pull two pieces of the wool roving up with your fingers to create bunny ears. and there you have your faceless waldorf bunny.

except that when we got home, N said “where’s his face?!” so she opted to glue buttons on for eyes and a nose… “blue eyes just like mine!” as opposed the the usual red rabbit eyes.

i imagine we’ll be making a lot of little springy friends this season, using various methods, so stay tuned and your spring altars, seasonal tables, and easter baskets will be chocked full of sweet little handmade creatures!