paint cut paste

i hope everyone had a happy halloweeeeen! thought i’d share with you a little mother-daughter creation: N’s halloween costume!

by “mother-daughter,” this time i actually mean myself and my mom (N’s gwee!) N expressed that she wanted to be an owl this year for halloween… and that they are her new favorite animal now, trumping the fox?!? whaaa? of course, she does have owls all over her bedroom and her shower curtain and bathroom is covered in them, so this isn’t outta no where.

N's felt owl mask

i remembered how awesome all of my halloween costumes were as a kid because my mom made them all! i feel like such a loser that i usually go the pottery barn kids route each year, so when i realized that my mom was visiting us in cali a few weeks before halloween, i jumped on the opportunity to enlist her help with making this costume (and learning more about this sewing machine thing-a-ma-jig collecting dust in my guest room closet.) i was inspired by the artful parent’s post on making bird wings (which was inspired by ones she’d seen on prudent baby.) i figured these would work well for a little owlie girl on halloween night, right? so first, a trip to joann’s fabrics was in order so we could choose fabrics and a color scheme, based around N’s fav color (which is still purple, to my knowledge.)

then we measured N’s wingspan arm length, and i cut a pattern for the wings and “feathers.”

next my mom and i got down to business with a whole lot of tedious (but easy) tracing and cutting. (sorry for dark photos. most of this work was done at night after the little one was asleep.)

the sewing began. (and my mom showed me again how to wind my bobbin and thread my machine. somehow i do not retain this information, no matter how many times i’m told. probably because once it’s done, i don’t touch the machine for a year or more in between lessons.)

costume contains lots of love

the sewing continued and messes were made.

i created a mask out of felt while mom diligently sewed.

we also created an oval patch covered with the “feathers” that we tacked onto one of N’s shirts.

in the end, it was all worth it. my little lady was the cutest owl in town on halloween night!

N is making a lot of sweet new friends in waldorf kindergarten – friends who are great at handicrafts! a couple weeks ago, N received this adorable felt gnome gift from a friend in her class who sewed it just for her.

N was so impressed that her friend made this herself that she immediately asked me if she could learn how to sew, too. so, of course, i went to the waldorf school store to buy a couple pretty squares of felted wool (any felt will do for this.) i already had embroidery thread (thick enough to easily see,) a darning needle (blunt enough not to stab her,) and wool roving (fills without being poly-gross) at home, so i figured we had what we needed to create this gnome. the woman working in the school store asked me what my daughter would be sewing. when i mentioned the gnome to her, she said, “let me help you out with this pattern for that gnome.” ahhhh, awesome! i was (somewhat) prepared to totally wing it, but now i didn’t have to. and neither do you – i’ve scanned it below. (click to enlarge it to actual size.)

the bottom text was cut off on the original, but you get the idea...

at home, N chose to make the largest gnome, so i traced and cut that pattern out onto posterboard. i pinned it to the her chosen purple felt color and cut around it.

N decided to use green embroidery thread (from the basket of newly-wound embroidery threads – they’re like candy, i’m telling you!)

i demonstrated how to thread the needle. she tried until she got it on her own.

we pinned the felt together into the conical gnome shape, and the first stitches were sewn!

she was sooo psyched that this worked and that she was able to do it herself. i helped out when she got into a knotted jam or if she looped the thread around the gnomes head somehow. soon she was halfway there!

then she finished up stitching the front of the body.

next we tore off about a 7″ loaf of natural wool roving, and tied a knot in it. this knot serves as the rounded, harder part of the gnome face that peeks through the cloak. N stuffed it inside. then she set out to work on sewing the circle onto the bottom of the gnome, to hold the wool inside. at this point, she was a little tired and asked me to help with some of these stitches.

in the end, she had her own little hand sewn gnome, too! i am seeing more of these in our future… but i know that soon this particular little lady will figure out how to create animals!

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?

in creating our fall mantel (after plenty of pinterest research, of course) i decided we needed an indoor autumn wreath. i scored a really cool paned window at the salvage yard a couple of weeks ago, and it was begging for a little adornment. i’ve seen these cute little felt flowers all over the internet lately, and thought we’d give them a shot.

i purchased a $4 grapevine wreath from michael’s as the base. decor-wise, i straddle the line (not so elegantly) between rustic and modern, and the grapevine wreaths are definitely on the earthier side of things. i was hoping some sleek felt spirals would make them somehow more chic. N helped me to select some autumn colors of felt at michael’s, too. we decided to stay with just three colors. she had fun helping out in the whole process, which helps her to take pride in her creations as part of our home.

though i had seen the felt flowers around the blogosphere, i wasn’t quite sure where i first saw/pinned them and how to begin. after i conducted a search for a video tutorial, i coincidentally landed on my high school friend, beth’s, AMAZING blog, Home Stories A2Z, and she taught me and N how to do it! love that!

we followed beth’s clear directions, and it was suuuuper simple. N even made a flower of her own (but i did the hot glue part, of course.)

the flowers turned out rather cute! (i can see how it could get addictive… i now want to make N a headband with smaller versions of these on it!)

now to figure out the rest of the mantel… my painted pumpkin project for halloweening the mantel has been a total craft-fail so far. i’ll share about that soon…

a work in progress...

do you do a fall mantel or halloween mantel or switch it up? what’s warming your hearth this season?

we’re honored to be a part of this inspiring free spring crafts ebook put out by no time for flashcards and life your way.

click here to download it, and enjoy some springtime fun! including our nesting orbs and other creative projects you can do in the sunshine with your favorite little friends.

have an artsy spring!

if you read this blog, you know i’m not a fan of pre-fabricated crafts, but N couldn’t resist these grinch christmas craft kits when she spotted them at michael’s a couple weeks ago. our morning project was a kit of ceramic grinch-themed ornaments to paint.

she was so excited by the little pots of paint and the fact that she was painting “delicate glass!!!” as she said. i opted for real paintbrushes in lieu of the bad-hair-day brush that came with the set.

this was at least an hour of painting fun.

after they were dry…

we hung them on the tree, with pride.

in the afternoon, we embarked on our second grinch project of the day… grinch garland! this is essentially a glueing project, as all of the felt pieces in this kit are pre-cut.

the pieces

N picked out which ones she wanted to put where, and glued them together.

they were quite cute when finished, actually.

i strung the felt circles onto the provided silver thread, and hung them in N’s bedroom where she wanted to display them.

this wasn’t an expressive arts sort of day, with these pre-made crafty kits (blech!) but sometimes it’s satisfying to have a predictable product, i suppose…? given the choice between crafty kits and a seasick crocodile, i’d take the seasick crocodile!!! (nope, i’d take the art every time!)

school’s out for summer! this was N’s last week of preschool until it begins again in september. to celebrate, the parents hosted a little potluck party after the last class to honor the two preschool teachers who have been so amazing to our little ones all year long. and, of course, there were gifts…

we collaborated on a scrapbook for the school, where each child was responsible for creating a page for the book, complete with art and a photo of the child. here’s N’s watercolored page (recognize the rubber cement watercolor resist?) it’s complete with her picture, a self-portrait drawing, and her drawings of both of her teachers. oh, and it’s signed by the artist!

name and face covered for privacy

a few weeks ago, we gave each teacher their own handprint tote bag for teacher appreciation week, but we still wanted to make them a little something to commemmorate the end of the year. so, apples for the teachers. naturally. i grabbed two wooden balls (flat on one end) from my wood stash, and i used the woodburning tool to put each teacher’s name on an apple, the school’s name, the year, and N’s name on the bottom.

(school name blurred for privacy)

then N went to town painting the apples with watercolors.

we waited for the paint to dry, and then we polished each apple with our homemade wood creme.

then we cut out stems and leaves from green felt and i hot-glued them to the apples.

voila, an apple for each teach! happy summer everyone!