paint cut paste

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!

over the weekend, we had the absolute pleasure of celebrating N’s fifth birthday with a bunch of woodland creatures! our little fox/owl/deer/bunny/bear-lover requested a “forest animal” birthday party this year, so i did my best to interpret N’s request and had an awesomely artful time doing so!

you know how we’re big on birthday themes over here. first we decided to ask my friend, meredyth hite, the one-woman show behind the amazing vegan bakery in the bay area, bliss bakery, to create nut-free, gluten-free, vegan cupcakes (to accommodate all of the dietary restrictions among N’s friends and ourselves!) after i perused pinterest for ideas, i asked meredyth to create fly agaric mushroom cupcakes, displayed in a rustic wood setting — and WOW! she sooo beautifully and deliciously delivered!

mushrooms are foresty, sure. but now i had to figure out how to incorporate the forest animals into the party, since that’s what N had specifically requested. i asked my talented friend, chris willow, of the mamaroots shop on etsy and of the inspiring mamaroots blog, to create five candle holders for my five year old — each a different woodland creature. i order her sweet candle holders as birthday gifts all the time for friends, so it was time that N got her own.

forest friends enjoying the party

our custom set of cute candle holders by mamaroots

and for some more forest animal action, i decided to make 36 (yes, thirty-six) felt animal masks to give to the children at the party. instead of sewing them all, like my mom and i did for N’s halloween owl costume, i used craft glue to afix the features onto the felt, and just sewed the elastic bands onto each one. muuuch easier for a bulk order like this. (reminder: you can click any of the photos on my blog to see them enlarged.)

the bday girl selected these for momma to make: bear, owl, deer, fox, raccoon, bunny

mask basket at the party

the masks were a hit — what a fun party favor!

in addition to the mask party favor, i decided to create some magical acorn necklaces with allll of these acorn caps N collected at the park one day. i just hot glued felted wool balls (here’s a nice video tutorial on how to make them) into the caps. next, i hot glued baker’s twine to the tip of each cap to make them into necklaces. in hindsight, i should have drilled a hole into each cap before putting the wool ball into it so i could thread the string through, but this worked out just fine and was (i imagine) easier to execute.

they looked so cute pinned to a giant redwood tree for the kids to see and select.

there's even a creek babbling by this woodsy park - perfect setting!

for decor, i wanted to keep it earthy, and decided to sew some fabric scrap garland to string between the trees. i used scraps of fabric i had leftover from my bean bag project, and cut them into circles. then i just fed them through the machine, double-sided (right sides facing out.)

strung between the redwoods

the party was basically a playdate in the park from 2-4pm, so being so brief and in between meals, we just served hot apple cider, water, popcorn, fruit, and of course, those adorable cupcakes. to keep things simple and eco-chic, i used compostable hot beverage cups, cloth napkins from my fav cloth napkin etsy seller – love for earth, and no plates. (who needs plates with this light fare?)

i even used our rustic rock picture holders for display signs around the party.

despite the chilly day and the muddy park, the birthday girl and her friends had a blast! N barely stopped chasing her friends around the playground for a sip of apple cider – but she did brake for cupcakes! also, can you tell i had a good time pulling this one off?

we created such beautiful memories of N’s fifth birthday — and now we get to celebrate again on january 26th, when she actually turns FIVE! i know people always say, “where does the time go?” but i feel lucky (and friggin’ tired!) because it seems like i’ve been there for every minute of it all. happiest of birthdays to the sweetest and most energetic woodland creature i know!

we’ve yet to really begin valentine creation over here. generally, we wait for N’s birthday party to be over before we go on to prepare for valentine’s day. but there is one little heart craft i’ve indulged in, because, as my pinboard says, i’m a sucker for garland. and paint chips. and hearts. and easy things to sew.

i pinned this about 6 months ago, originally from ohcrafts.net. so i’ve been psyched to do it for a while, and tiz the season now. i grabbed my trusty heart hole punch and some paint chips from my stash (yes, all of us crafty mom bloggers have paint chip stashes. we’re a weird breed.)

i punched away until there were hearts of many rainbowy colors.

even just this heart confetti is splendid to look at and to play with!

the little one had fun using the punched out paint chips as stencils.

cute as they were on their own, i still took it to the sewing machine and fed each one through while keeping a fairly steady, slow pace with the needle. it was easier than i thought, and the machine was forgiving if i had a few stitches in between each heart. for me, that was an experiment, as i am still learning how to sew.

stitched together

i heart this!

then i got heart-happy and stitched a few more hearts to some colorful paper. i think i’ll add these to some valentine’s day cards soon!

this garland looks festive in our kitchen right now, but notice that hearts are top heavy… expect some twists and turns, or maybe opt for sewing them up double-sided.

this also might make a cute addition to our february mantel, which i’ll share when the time comes (after birthday season!)

strung along

welcome to 2012, friends!

this time last year, i wrote a post about how the face and pace of this blog would be changing shape in 2011 and majorly s-l-o-w-i-n-g down. in january, it really looked like it would. then february hit, and it. did. not. happen. i continued to blog my fingers off all year long. and here i am, january 2012, with a similar resolution as last january.

my intentions this year involve devoting much more psychic energy and mind space to building my art therapy practice (and chasing the ever-elusive california LPCC by jumping through multiple hoops called three insane standardized tests. shudder.) that means that i reeally reeeally do need to treat this blogging addiction hobby of mine like what it has always been — a fun outlet. not a career, not a source of income, nor a book i plan to write someday. no stress. no pressure. no deadline. just the rainbowy icing on top – it’s a super delicious treat! so i’m needing to breathe space into the new year, and just let this blog evolve and grow naturally into what my life is becoming.

new years day

don’t get me wrong. i will be CREATING, ALWAYS. i will be MAKING ART WITH MY DAUGHTER, CONSTANTLY. these are also priorities in 2012. i will also be blogging about these on occasion. though, in all honestly, more of my own creations will likely show up on this blog than hers. with the onset of 5 mornings per week of kindergarten this past fall, N’s artistic time at home has been more focused on her true love: drawing drawing drawing for a couple hours each afternoon. and while “look at what my kid drew today! and today! and today!” makes for a nice blog for the grandparents (which is how this whole blog thing started way back in tha day) but, admit it – it’d be sorta boring for all of you wonderfully creative readers. seeing as i’m way too pinspired not to make homemaking creative and meaningful, i’ll share an early january creation with you all…

i wrapped a straw wreath from michael’s (super cheap and on sale) with yarn i already had at home (on new years eve. yep, i’m wild and crazy! but in my defense, my house was plagued by a stomach bug over new years so i didn’t have much choice.) N even helped to spiral up these lovely felt flowers (much like the ones we made for our autumn wreath.)

my poor baby has some dry winter hands right now

we hung it on the window pane we scored at that salvage yard last fall.

yay for yarn-bombing! doesn’t that wreath look cozy and warm? (it should – it’s about 70 degrees *outside* over here!) we dolled up the mantel with a few other warmy wintery friends.

and miscellaneous sidewalk finds and random objects from the back corners of cabinets.

N calls it “the winter circus” and says it’s her favorite mantel yet… AND she wants to be “totally in charge of” our spring mantel… so stay tuned for that! in the meantime, i will see you back here every so often. let’s just see if i can hold to my resolution to reprioritize where and how i express myself and allocate my energy… and maybe there will be a new year’s miracle that gives me the strength to step away from this pretty, colorful, friendly, flickering, alluring screen on some evenings… just maybe.

happy winter! happy 2012!

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!

since winter’s coming, we decided to help out our bird friends, once again. we’re definitely friends to the winged creatures around here — pimping their living spaces with our nesting orbs and birdhouses in the past, so this time we thought we’d help them dine on some fine holiday cuisine with a couple birdfeeders.

i’ve always been a bit wary of creating birdfeeders with my nut-allergic little one, so safety was key to this project. i found some great nut-free birdseed at the hardware store. it was still processed in a facility that has nuts, so we played it safe and donned dust masks and gloves while exposed to the seed.

the first type of birdfeeder we wanted to make is a cute sleeve feeder to put onto a tree branch a la the mofatt girls blog. all we needed was:

• birdseed
• a cardboard tube (toilet paper, paper towel roll, etc)
• nut/seed butter — we used sunbutter sunflower seed butter

N applied the sunflower seed butter to the outside of our tube.

we spilled some seed out onto a baking tray, and she rolled the sticky buttery tube through the seed to cover it (with gloves on.)

we ventured into the backyard and found a branch to slip the tube over… it’s in the same tree as three of our kid-painted bird houses. love that.

when we checked on our feeder a few hours later, we saw that we’d entertained some customers! and the next day, the birdseed was totally gone. see photos below:

the second type of feeder we aimed to make was more complex, but promised a little more aesthetic satisfaction. we followed the tutorial on mom ready for these birdfeeder ornaments. our supplies included:

• birdseed
• 2 packets of gelatine (we used knox)
• a jello/chocolate mold and/or cookie cutters
• string

first, N mixed up the gelatin concoction. we used 2 packets of knox gelatine with a half cup of cold water. (*note: this may be the wrong ratio – read on…) we put it in the fridge to wait for it to gel a bit.

after about 10 minutes in the fridge, we slowly stirred 2 cups of birdseed into the gelatine. in hindsight, i would have used less birdseed – maybe 1.5 cups – but when reading the mom ready blog, it seemed important not to have too much extra gelatine in the blend. i just think ours could have benefitted from more “glue” — thus, less seed or more gelatine.

then we used our gloves and masks while pressing the wet birdseed mix into our trusty heart mold tray (the one we usually make upcycled heart crayons in.) apparently you can also spread a layer of seed out on a cookie sheet and use cookie cutters to cut the shapes… but our loose seed blend was of no consistency to survive that.

once they were pressed into the tray, we used a pencil to poke a hole in the center (to allow for less string slippage) of each heart. we put them into the fridge for 3 hours to “gel” and then left them out for 2 days to “harden.”

after they were hard enough to pop out of the mold, we tied some baker’s twine through each hole. the ones that survived this looked pretty cute!

survivors

we trimmed a tree in our yard with these edible ornaments – waiting for a partridge, 2 turtle doves, 3 french hens, 4 calling birds, 6 geese, or 7 swans to swing on by our house. (gosh, there are a lot of birds in that christmas carol!)