Birthday Things

A birthday banner A and I made DH for his birthday.  A cut all the triangles out of scrapbook paper, put the stickers on and stapled the triangles to the ribbon.  He also used a sharpie ultra fine tipped pen to draw a border triangle around each piece.

A wooden frame A painted and put stickers on for DH's b-day.  He picked the color and everything!

A rotating tumbler A painted for DH's b-day.  He chose the heart stamp and color himself!  The pictures were chosen and cut by me in the interest of time.

A with the play town I made him for his b-day.  Oliver + S Little Things to Sew has the instructions and templates.  Instead of using foam as it suggested, I stuffed them with 90% organic cotton and 10% polyfill. I used the polyfill because I ran out of the organic cotton stuffing, but it really did give them more form, so I would consider it again.  The material is naturally dyed organic cotton, and is slightly heavier than the average quilter's cotton.  The windows are wool felt from A Child's Dream Come True, and the rich colors really made these buildings pop.  

This art satchel, made with a linen/cotton blend was made from instructions in Growing Up Sew Liberated.  Everything always takes longer than you think, but in this case, that's an understatement.  Whew!  But, I'm glad we'll have this, especially for traveling. The material is under Japanese fabrics over at Alewives Fabrics.



A birthday banner I made for A's b-day, the same way as mentioned above for DH's banner.

This is a bad picture of a really cool map.  The fabric panel, "What a World", is from Alewives fabrics.  I backed it with muslin and added ribbon loops at the top in case he wants to hang it up.  Maybe it will work more as a play mat.  We will see.  Right now, it is draped over the settee where he can check it out as he likes.  There are little people in local dress (or folk costume) in different regions as well as things that are common or known in certain places; like alpacas in South America and the Space Needle in Seattle.  Plus, the flags and time zones offer all kinds of learning opportunities.  The only thing missing is Antarctica, but we'll deal with that.  A fun intro to geography in any case! 

Haven't gotten to my weekly drawing exercise yet, but it's coming soon!

Catching Up- Handmade Christmas Gifts

"Race car" play mat made using "Sewing for Boys"- a wonderful book that will keep me in sewing projects for a long time!! All patterns are included: no need to enlarge, but you will need to trace them, often taping pieces of tracing paper together so it's big enough. This came together fairly quickly since I used all felt.  The felt is wool or wool blend, so it has a nice feel.  The colored pieces came from A Child's Dream Come True.

The wooden cars are from this Etsy shop.

Thomas back pack made with fabric from JoAnn.com and pattern/instructions from "Oliver + S Little Things to Sew".  This book is Adorable!!!  This project in particular was fairly long and detailed, but well worth it.

A puppet theater made from instructions in "Bend the Rules Sewing".  All the fabric came from JoAnn's.

This cute airplane puppet (and a royal family, doggie included plus pirate) were bought at Handmade Arcade.  The lady has an Etsy store, but after looking through 37 pages of puppets, I couldn't find the store. :(  But, they are adorable, so hopefully I'll find her card.

We are on to making Valentine's day cards and I've yet to show you what we made for DH's b-day.  Angelo's birthday projects are also underway.

Have a great weekend and Valentine's Day!!

Fertility Goddess Pendant

A pendant I made for my sister, who is due with her first baby any day now.  She gave me something similar   when I was pregnant with Angelo, so when I saw this stamp from Enchanted Gallery, I knew I would make her a paper clay pendant.  The purple is eco-friendly, non-toxic paint and the pearly white is pigment ink.  

Hand Made Gifts for Dana

My beautiful puppy, Dana, turned 7 yesterday! Time really flies! She is such a blessing, such a grounding and loving force in our lives. We had a party for her on the 13th since last weekend DH was out of town and this weekend is Memorial Day.

One of her presents I gave her yesterday was this bone shaped pillow. She is so snuggly and just adorable when she rests her head on a pillow, so when I saw this cute fabric, I knew I just had to make something for her and a bone shaped pillow it was!

I free-handed the bone shape onto the fabric (used less than 1/2 a yard); cut out; stitched up leaving a hole for stuffing; clipped the curves; stuffed; realized 3/4 of the way through stuffing that I probably should have drawn on the "wrong" side of the fabric because it was looking more like a capital "I"; stuffed with organic cotton loose batting (a chop stick helped get it in the corners); used a blind stitch to close the hole; curled down the corners and stitched them to the sides so it looked more bone-like and less "I" like; gave it to the birthday girl and much tail wagging and doggie smiling ensued. :)

See how cute these doggies are? Remember how happy it made me just to serge the edges of this cloth? Actually working with it brought back those giddy feelings and they lasted longer. :)

This super sweet bag was Dana's Christmas present. Long ago, I tried ordering a bag with a black lab and Dana's name embroidered on it only to be sadly informed they were out of black lab bags. Having forever been thinking Dana needed something wonderful for travel, I made this. It is in dainty girly colors for my wonderful little girl.

You can see a little better here that I appliqued her name on it. You can also see the wrinkles better. Aren't you excited about that? ;)

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend! May you sit in peace when you remember those who have gone before us.

Namaste

Creatures and Monsters

Remember when I told you I would tell you what we did with Angelo's dried out play dough? That time is now. :) Though I tried to be diligent about asking Angelo to put his play dough away when he was finished playing with it and put it away myself at times, the inevitable happened and we ended up with lumps of crusty play dough. Inspiration hit after our wonderful friend got Angelo the Melissa and Doug "Decorate Your Own Wooden Airplane" and we were left with this wonderful box. Some googly eyes, glitter glue and Aleene's Tacky Glue later and we have a creature-scape. I had fancy dreams of adding a background, but that may never happen and I've accepted it. ;)

Angelo and I went to Handmade Arcade and really enjoyed ourselves. There's something really peaceful and inspiring about being around that many hand made pieces and the artists who made them. We especially loved the monsters! This one is at the Friend or Foe booth (sorry, there's no website listed for them).

This cute little guy by Cutesy but not Cutesy came home with us as an "Easter basket" present. Angelo insisted I hide it until he got his basket so it could be a surprise. This color combination, I've decided, is one of my favorite.

We were so excited by the monsters, that we decided to make our own. This one is made from craft felt and buttons (from a craft kit my sister-in-law got Angelo), stuffed with poly-fill. His name is Fred. We used glue to attach the facial features so Angelo could participate more and he helped a lot with the cutting and stuffing.

More Hand Made Birthday Fun

The first photo is Angelo playing while wearing the elf hat I made him using Amy Karol's pattern in her book "Bend the Rules Sewing". I posted about a sewing miracle a while back on Face Book. This was one of those miracles- I ran into a lot of obstacles due to my sewing stuff being packed up in the attic. I spent many hours looking for the (thankfully already cut out) pieces, and the book, which I eventually checked out from a "not as local", but still pretty darn local library. Once I had the book, material, the right color of thread and my sewing machine finally corralled into my kitchen, the actual sewing went pretty smoothly. It is made of wool felt, so I didn't have to finish the seams or anything! I made it a little bigger than the template so he would be able to grow with it (per the book's clever suggestion.) This is the only hand made item I actually was able to sew him for his birthday. I wish I'd been able to make more, of course, but I know that without a dedicated and organized sewing space, the obstacles were just too annoying for me. I did manage to draw some very simple pictures and staple them between some construction paper for a hand made coloring book. I didn't scan those, but they were largely based on the types of drawings they teach you to make in one of Angelo's books (so, it is for very young children and the drawings are very basic.)

Here, you can see that he is wearing a bow tie. A super-adorable, bow tie made from vintage material that I got at Baby By Stevie's Etsy store. This is the least blurry picture I got since he was so engrossed in play. :) He asked for a bow tie, by the way. Insisted it be a bow tie, when I thought he was talking about a scarf when he referenced a picture on a book. I was pretty happy to oblige. I also went to Etsy and got him some Mama K's Aromatic Play Clay. It is all natural, gluten free, and made with organic essential oils. It is now a lovely blend of colors and scents, of course. :) We all enjoy it even if only Angelo is playing with it. I'll show you what we did with his dried up play dough later. :)

I found some very yummy all natural gluten-free cupcakes in our Giant Eagle's gluten-free freezer. They are made by French Meadow Bakery. As you can see, Angelo really enjoyed them. :)