paint cut paste

if you follow me on pinterest, you know that i’m a sucker for garland. and prayer flags. and anything resembling these celebratory, sacred, strung-up beauties. so recently when dreaming up handmade and meaningful decor for two friends’ baby blessing ceremony i co-hosted, garland came to mind, of course! specifically, i was inspired by a pin i saw by a beautiful mess. i knew this would be a sweet touch to this particular ceremony.

my fellow art therapist friends and i love to create unique rituals for participants at blessing ceremonies we have thrown for one another and for other family members and friends. many of these art rituals have been featured on my blog already, such as the  woven watercolor blessing, the blessing nest, the blessing sunburst, and momma birthing necklaces or sibling blessing necklaces. this blessing garland fits right in, as it is a simple, collaborative project that can be easily done at a gathering (of any sort!) and it is not an intimidating art project in the slightest.

first, i combed fabric stores to find five colors (in this case, along the nursery color scheme) of lovely fabric. i scored with this silk and a pretty golden cord to tie them to.

once i got the supplies home, i began to tear the fabric into strips that were about a half inch wide.

i love the look of the torn edges

then i cut each one to about 8.5 inches long to make several strips of fabric in each of the colors.

i performed some experiments with markers and pens to discover which worked best on the silk. this is the way party-goers would be able to write their blessings onto the fabric. in the silk’s case, gelly roll pens worked best, as the sharpies and even the fabric markers ran and bleed on the fabric.

i tied blank silk tabs onto the golden cord in a random color order. this way the garland could serve as party decor before guests were able to add to it.

at the blessing, i placed many silk strips and glitter pens into a bowl near the garland with a note, asking guests to write blessings for the baby on the way on the silk, and tie it onto the cord wherever they would like.

after each guest added a blessing or two to the cord, the couple put the garland around a doorway in the baby’s room. they plan to hang it in the birthing center when they are ready to meet their daughter.

i love how such a simple, little touch added another artful element of love and support to this blessing ceremony and to this growing family!

this is yet another installment of things-i’ve-made-from-pinterest: the valentine edition. yes, maps are all over the place in the world of upcycled-crafts, trending much like tp rolls, paint chips, and pallets. with my sagittarian wanderlust and zig-zagging moves across the country and back, this project seemed like a fun way to say “happy valentine’s day” to my sweetie, who has stuck it out with me through all of the bubble wrap and mail forwarding involved.

i’ve seen it done with a “where met met, where we married, where we live or honeymooned” sort of theme (or some rendition of that, like this one from minimoz.) but i went with the four (so far) cities where we’ve lived together: new york city, boulder, richmond va, and the sf bay area. (in that order.)

i had an old atlas that i didn’t mind cutting up. i mean, we have google maps and GPSs for that these days, right? i cut out a folded heart on construction paper first. then i traced it over the maps where the cities where we lived were included within the heart. (that way the actual map wouldn’t have a fold, and the hearts would be identical in size and shape.)

then i used elmer’s glue dots to affix the heart maps to a piece of large card, gray cardstock from michaels.

i put it in an unused frame we’ve been storing in our garage, and presented it to my valentine along with a teeeeny giftwrapped compass from the world’s smallest postal service (have you seen this cuteness yet? check it out, if not. i met the artist, lea, at an art fair over the holidays, and she’s as lovely as her mini-art!) the note inside her prepackaged compass reads, “where would i be without you?”

cutesy, sure. but i’m finding it to be a fun walk down memory lane to look at our old roads and landmarks in this way. knowing us, this piece is likely to expand. we’ll probably need a larger frame at some point in the next few years. that is, if the past is the greatest predictor of the future. let’s hope not – i’m not a huge fan of cross country moves.

i decided to title the piece: “wait, they don’t love you like i love you.” because it’s pretty much the only lyric in the yeah yeah yeahs song that’s strangely titled maps.

now that the birthday cards have been cleared from our mantel, we gave our hearth a fresh (and heartful) face for valentine’s day!

just a simple one, really. i created these LOVE letters like some i saw on this super-awesome crafty malaysian blog i found (via pinterest) called bloesem kids. it’s so easy… just twist together pipe cleaners and bend them into cursive letters in a word of your choice.

they looked pretty cute even like this, yet kinda crude where the pipe cleaners twist together. i’m not a huge fan of the cadmium red color of the pipe cleaners, so…

the next step is to yarn bomb them! i wrapped them with a lovely nubby alizarin crimson red yarn i’ve had for ages. (seriously, i knit my first scarf ever with the rest of this yarn in autumn 2002.)

then i strung the LOVE sign up on my trusty salvage yard window pane using white thread.

just adding a touch of red glass votive candles and some red berries from the tree outside gave it all the valentiney punch it needed.

i was tempted to bring in the paint chip heart garland and these candy jars…

but less is more, and 2012 is all about simplicity for me.

N is making “mini-mantels” in her bedroom for each season or holiday, as well. here’s her valentine one so far…

for more valentine mantel inspiration, check out my friend, beth’s, awesome valentine linky round-up on her blog. do you and your kids create a valentine mantel? if so, i’d love to hear about it!

ooo, that title sounds yummy, cozy, and wintry! happy winter solstice! (which, by the way, is also my birthday!) we posted about paper snowflakes last year, but this year we let our coffee filters and cupcake liners help us out with creating snowflakes!

one of our advent activities was “make snowflakes!” and it came along with this lovely book full of photographs of real snowflakes, for inspiration. (since we can’t observe the real thing where we live.)

the thin papers coffee filters and cupcake liners are made from are so kid-friendly to cut in thick, folded stacks. their round shape is perfect for snowflakes and makes it easy to fold them into six sections, as snowflakes are six  sided. so we put on the christmas carols, prepared some pear cider, and got to work.

i also realized that if i left pre-folded cupcake liners on N’s art desk, snowflakes would spontaneously appear – like magic!

we taped ours to a front window in our home, to be admired by passers-by. day by day, the snowfall is thickening around these parts… happy winter!

i think we’ll leave these up all winter long!

this year we decided to forego our old advent calendar (which was a wooden box of doors filled with tiny toys, tokens, stones, and activities) and instead do a purely activity-based advent calendar. of course doing memory-making things together is much more lasting than having more trinkets littering our carpet. besides, that’s what stockings are for, right?

i purchased some red envelopes and a pack of stickers at michael’s (gotta love coupons) the other day. that night i set to work on decorating them after N was asleep. i figured this would be a mom-project, since it’s all for her to enjoy.

ugh, more dark nighttime-crafting photos

my husband and i brainstormed 25 things that we’d like to offer for her to do in december, and here’s what we came up with, listed here in no order at all:

• Tonight we’ll only use candlelight after the sun goes down
• Tacky holiday lights tour of the neighborhood
• Cut paper snowflakes and decorate the windows
• Let’s go ice skating!
• Today we’ll drink hot chocolate with marshmallows while making ornaments
• Family movie night with popcorn
• Make candles
• Decorate Christmas cookies
• Give a gift to a child who needs one
• Get a Christmas pedicure at mom’s spa!
• Make and hang bird/squirrel feeders in the backyard
• Bring a gift to a neighbor: card, ornament, and cookies
• Family game night
• Go to a holiday faire
• Go on a Starbucks date with mommy
• Family storytelling with cider by the fire
• Go to a special holiday show (the velveteen rabbit) in the city
• Fly on an airplane to see family!
• Visit your first home (while on vacation)
• Enjoy dinner with [her favorite babysitter] and give her a special holiday gift
• Dress up for a fancy family dinner
• Sing carols together
• Unwrap a new book to read at bedtime
• Hear the story of the first Christmas at bedtime
• Make a snowman (craft, because we don’t have real snow here.)
• Ho ho ho – open gifts!
  

i printed them out onto little cards and put one in each envelope. then strung them across the balcony in our hallway.

when N saw them in the morning, she was so excited, and is now counting down to december beginning on thursday! (that’s also when our elf-on-the-shelf, jasper, returns from the north pole.) N can’t read everything just yet, so i know that even if she peeks inside these low hanging envelopes, the surprises won’t be spoiled.

please share: what types of activities or things do you include in your advent calendars?

do you ever pin like 3,000 things and wonder when you’ll ever get around to them? welcome to my pinteresting world! i was kinda psyched that i finally implemented two inventive and artful tips last week that i had pinned. both were great ideas so i wanted to share. i’m usually in this mode when i’m on pinterest:

(this is from a pin, too)

the first one i undertook was simple. i finally bought a date stamp (yep, like old school libraries used. it was about $7 at a mom & pop office supply store) and i am using it to stamp the date on art work. it’s great for me since N produces zillllllions of pieces and i get so overwhelmed by this task each week. (this idea was originally featured in the now-defunct cookie magazine. who else out there misses cookie?)

since this little artist cranks out about 30 pieces per day (and i’d say at least half are “keepers”) now i just need to figure out if i should stick with the large 3-ring binder method i began last year to hold these works or if i should just start a bin (with monthly separated tabs, maybe.) what do you do?

the other pin-tip i undertook was to wind my embroidery floss around clothes pins. (on pinterest this links back to heather’s life blog, but in her entry, she sites finding the idea on pinterest. the wheel keeps on turning and turning and turning…)

anyway, the idea is simple, cheap, and helps keep it from knotting up. i marked the clothes pin with the number of the DMC floss, to keep track of what i’m using for a project (since that paper tab will be tossed.)

it’s also colorful and cute.

and extremely satisfying to look at when finished.

what clever pins have you tried out in your home?

as you have seen on the blog lately, i’ve been trying to spruce up my autumn mantel. i think it’s an ever-evolving process, but i do want to share a little creation i made at the suggestion of one of my readers – thank you anna lucia – felt leaf garland!

after creating the autumn wreath and the BOO halloween pumpkins, i did feel that something was missing in tying it all together. i was anticipating N making our favorite real leaf garland for the mantel or using our paper roll pumpkin garland again this year, but instead it seemed my mantel needed another touch of felt to bring the look together. i cut (freehand, be nice) various leaf-like shapes into the same colors of felt we used in our wreath. (you could trace real leaves for shape accuracy, but i was just freestyling it while watching tv the other night.)

i pinned them together, slightly overlapping, and set out to sew.

the sewing was quick and painless (even for a beginner like myself!) i just had to lift the pedal foot sometimes so as not to have a leaf’s tip get folded onto itself. no biggie.

the garland looks pretty cute on our halloween mantel, and it will likely stay there beyond the halloween decorations and until thanksgiving.

i’m not totally loving the mantel’s fall face, but there’s always next year to try something fresh, like maybe this amazing green autumn mantel. okay, now back to the KID ART, right? (sorry for the mom-tinkering and home decorating as of late – i’m a little preoccupied… and inspired!) do you create seasonal mantels in your home?