paint cut paste

i’m a big fan of prayer flags or anything that resembles them. and what better thing to pay homage to than food? (well for me. eat, pray, love – right?) anyway, i saw this awesome idea on alphamom to do a fourth of july bunting using starfruit. i fully intended to do this before the holiday, but after combing 5 grocery stores/produce markets here, there is just no starfruit to be found. we improvised and took a different path.

novi and i gathered up some fun and sturdy shapes at wholefood’s produce section. then i sliced them in half and let them sit face down for about an hour on a towel, to absorb any extra moisture.

to prepare, the night before i had cut up some natural-colored linen (i purchased some from jo ann’s fabrics – you could also use white or cream burlap or other fabrics) into 8″ by 5″ rectangles, with a little help from my cat. i frayed the edges by hand because i love the raw look of that.

novi and i chose some colors from our fabric paint stash (you can also use acrylics) and began to paint the flat sides of the fruits and veggies to do some printmaking. (you can dip them in the paint, but we went this route so we wouldn’t waste any paint by leaving it in a dipping pan.)

we chose different colors for each of the different pieces of produce, and pressed them firmly onto the linen, toward the bottom of each rectangle. (this is to leave room for a pocket at the top for the rope to go through to hang them later.)

it was so much fun to see the colorful shapes emerge on the fabric.

we let them dry all afternoon, while we admired our work.

the next day, i pinned and sewed each flag across the top to make a pocket for a rope to go through.

sadly, i was impressed with my ability to do this. i am NOT a sewer.

alphamom’s blog said you could use fabric glue instead to create the loop for the rope, but i used this as an opportunity to practice using the sewing machine my dear friend gave me before she moved to bali. (i mean, this was the next best thing if i couldn’t move there with her, right? wow, this is becoming an eat, pray, love post in a coupla ways.)

i got some nice rope at the hardware store for 14 cents per foot. after putting the rope through the loop at the top, we were super-pleased with the results.

the banner/flags/garland is now hanging in our kitchen window… where else?

during the printmaking process, we got a little overzealous about the fact that cauliflower makes cute little trees, so we made an extra banner of all of the “tiny trees” we printed.

more ideas:

• i got word that there’s a shipment of starfruit coming in tomorrow to a local grocer, so you just may see some star bunting in our future, after all… it’ll be more on the aquatic-colored starfish side of things than fourth of july though.
• another thing i’d love to do with all of our extra lined rectangles is to do some leaf printing on them like the artful parent shows here.
• you can also print letters to spell out a word or name.
• it would be great to do a different child’s handprint on each piece of fabric, say for a school class banner (think: teacher appreciation) or to give to a grandparent who has several grandkids, or for yourself, (if you have enough little hands and feet in your house to make a decent length garland of your own kids’ paws.)
• printed fabric squares make for lovely garland, flags, pockets to sew onto aprons, book-covers, etc, etc, etc…

let your imagination run with it and string it up on the wall!

summer officially begins today, the summer solstice. what better way to ring in the season than to brainstorm with your little one(s) about all of the fun things you can do together in these beautiful, expansive months ahead?

when i saw this idea for summer fun cards on teach mama, i knew that novi would be really into it. she used index cards, but i thought i’d check our stash of scrap papers to make these. then i realized i had a pack of blank index cards in our stash already, so it was kismet. white cardstock is good for illustrating, though you could do this with any papers you have around (think: brown paper grocery bags, used gift wrap, etc.)

novi and i thought of all of the fun summery things we’d like to do together when the weather is warm and the days are long and there’s no preschool in session. i wrote these things on the cards in marker. then i passed them to novi to illustrate any way she’d like, with some dry media: markers, crayons, and colored pencils.

here are a few of the finished ones that novi drew. i drew on a few of the cards (not pictured below), as well… we had TONS! novi loved learning about what illustration means by doing this project.

then i used a hole punch to make holes in the cards, and we strung our cards on colorful yarn. we hung them in novi’s playroom….

…where we can be reminded of all of the potential…

that these long summer days hold.

happy summer! have a blessed solstice!

on memorial day weekend, our family just had a little stay-cation here in northern california. one of the days, we drove along highway 1 to check out some sights along the coast. we rolled the windows down and cranked the alexi murdoch, and set out over the coastal range and through the redwoods to the beach…

when we arrived at the beach, we realized that it was a good 26 degrees cooler on the shore than it was 36 miles away at our house, so we threw on our jackets and scarves and enjoyed the sand anyway!

whenever i go to the beach, i barely see the vistas, as i keep my head in the sand.

that is, i am an avid sheller! and i think it is hereditary, as i got it from my mom and i gave it to my daughter.

we gathered some lovely little shells that day…

we spent the afternoon having a lovely organic lunch at davenport roadhouse and visiting the lighthouse at pillar point. (yes, i’m getting to the art part, but i have to share these lovely views with you all!)

back at home, we looked through our beach booty once it was washed…

many of the shells along that stretch of sand were like white Os, which begged to be strung.

("O shells" in bottom right section)

sure we made a necklace (for a friend’s bday)…

(and i was tempted to make 100 more)

but then novi chose some seafoam green embroidery thread, and we began to tie the “O shells” to it about 2 inches apart.

voila – lovely garland for novi’s bedroom as a reminder of her day at the beach.

i think we’ll make a strand with a new color of thread for each local beach trip this summer, and perhaps hang them vertically and curtain-like (hey, i’m a child of the 70s) in her room by labor day. but for now, this garland above novi’s bed is sure to invite some beachy dreams…

(p.s. my first sewing project since 1987 is over there on the left)

a good friend introduced me last year to what has become one of my favorite seasonal crafts – festive leaf garland! each is so earthy and naturally lovely!

all you need is wire (any bead or floral wire will do,) assorted beads (i love wooden and glass beads for this project,) beautiful fall leaves, and just about 10 minutes of time.

materials

then just string the beads onto the wire (i loop the wire back through each bead a second time to keep the bead in place) and weave the leaves onto the wire, too. easy as pie!

we had a little craft brunch for some friends, and the kids and parents made theirs together. (it’s good to have parents’ help for little ones, especially if your wire has sharp ends.) kids like to choose which leaf and bead goes onto the garland next — they make fabulous designers!

little leaf stringers

so cute to hang across doorways, hearths, on fences all season long!