Holiday Crafting 2013

So I've been busy planning and teaching lessons for November and December and decided to post them here since I actually have a few minutes to do so : )

In November I wanted to do something with squirrels - I came up with a cute acorn squirrel but decided it would be too hard to teach because of the hot glue gun being the primary tool to make it - but it's cute and easy to make...

I cut the feet out of brown felt - they are one piece - and two ears.

I hot glued the two acorns together and then glued a pipe cleaner behind the body in the middle to create the arms.  

I used bumpy chenille for the bushy tail, glued the legs and ears and drew the face with a Sharpie.

Then I came up with a printmaking project with a Squirrel

Using large styrofoam plates I trim off the edges so there is just a flat piece of styrofoam.  

Students use dull pencils to draw their squirrel and leaves etc... onto the foam.

I used a directed drawing to help them with the drawing part and discussed using pattern on the squirrel in a few areas.  A stencil for just the outline of the squirrel might be helpful as well.

The very dark areas are created by taking the pencil and indenting the foam in the shape desired.

Next we inked the plates using a rubber brayer and yellow water based block printing ink.  

I chose brown paper for the background.

They use their hands to press very hard on the back of the foam to create the print.

If they want to they can create more than one print.

This is a fun project because students really like removing the foam and seeing the image they created underneath.

For December I am making Wooden Bead Elves, North Pole SnowGlobes, & Winter Angels

So the wooden bead elves are an idea from Pinterest, but I chose to use colored wooden beads to make him just a little more fun.  

At http://www.parents.com/holiday/christmas/crafts/christmas-kid-crafts/ 

The Snowglobes are also from Pinterest -  My So-Called Crafty Life.

I changed them a little bit too - I like putting a puffy snowbally pom pom at the top for the hanger and wrapping white sparkly pipe cleaners at the top.  

They are made out of plastic wine glass tops ground down with a Dremel tool, see the link for instructions.

I have been intrigued with the cute peg dolls I have been seeing on Pinterest so I decided to try and come up with an angel.

You start with a 2 3/8" Peg Doll and paint the bottom white, seal the head with Mod Podge so the paint doesn't bleed when you do the face.

The coat is a half circle cut out of felt, the hat a triangle, and the wings

 are a heart shape.

Using a hot glue gun I glued the hat into a cone shape and also glued in a length of pipe cleaner so I can shape the hat later.

I glue the coat, the hat and the wings onto the doll.

Then I added the Halo out of some tinsel garland that I found at Wal Mart for mini trees.

I finish with the buttons and bells and draw on the face with oil based paint markers.

I'm just going to have mine stand up as a decoration, but you could add a hanger easily for a Christmas ornament.

Trick or Treat!

I have been busy with some fun Halloween styles!  I decided to try making the little magic potion vial necklaces for the first time - super fun - Miniature Spiders, Powdered Love, Magic Shrinking Potion, Angel's Breath and Butterfly Sparkles.

Then I made a few more of my Pumpkin Earrings and Acorn Necklaces...

Love the tags I found for the acorns : )  Then I couldn't resist these candy corn beads ...

So I made a few sets with those.  Happy Halloween!

Inspired by Fall

The kids are back to school and even though it's still hot here it's still starting to feel like Fall -

 My favorite time of year!  

I have been wanting to learn how to stamp into metal so a couple of months ago I ordered a cute owl stamp.  I went online and looked at tutorials and then practiced on some blank circles of metal.  After some practice I stamped real brass charms with my one stamp - the owl.  The stamping isn't hard, but the antiqueing and polishing afterwards is a quite a bit of work.  I'm thinking this may be my only stamp I ever get! Here are a few of the designs I came up with:

Then I made a brass charm bracelet with some other charms I have been collecting over the summer.

This could be worn all the way until Thanksgiving!

I can't wait for those sunny but crisp fall days!

Many Good Witches To You!

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 I started to make a few more of my witches for fall and I couldn't stop - I ended up making over a dozen.  They are so much fun to make, I love seeing how each one turns out a little bit different.  Here is a new owl or Wise Witch I came up with - very Fall!  As you can see, my witches cast only good spells - not scary at all!

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I found some green sparkly tulle to decided to make a few Elphaba (from Wicked) inspired witches.  This witch looks like she's getting ready add her pumpkin to the windowsill of her cottage - or maybe to her cauldron : )

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 Another Elphaba using different materials - love how she turned out!  I made a few with purple tulle too.  I don't know why they can't keep their hats on straight!

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And - if you are dressing as a witch this Halloween Season these earrings are the perfect addition to your outfit!  If you haven't seen Wicked I highly recommend it!  I'm a Wizard of Oz lover from way back...

How a New Design is Born...

I've been working on getting everything together to create a new bracelet for over a month now and today all the planning and acquiring materials finally paid off in some new designs I'm happy with.   As I was photographing the new jewelry I started thinking about everything that goes into creating something new - from idea to packaged product.  I wondered if the person who purchases the design has any idea how much goes into a handmade piece.  So here is a rundown:

I purchased a kit with instructions to learn how to make these "fringe" bracelets in December of 2011.

I finally sat down in July and created about 10 of them.  A couple were done twice to learn the technique : )  You have to sew each fringe into the bracelet - time consuming but nice when it's done.

Once I learned how to make these I immediately wanted to design my own and I LOVE FALL!  So I started thinking about golds and browns and acorns, squirrels, owls, leaves etc... So I had the inspiration - now to get all the materials....

There was a bead show in July so I searched for charms and clasps and beads there.  I found some of the beads - seed beads and leaves there, but no charms or clasps.

I went online and searched for nice charms for fall and found the squirrels and owls.

At the craft store I found a few more beads in the color scheme I had in mind.

I am still looking for a fallish clasp - but did find an antique brass one so decided to finally sit down and see what I could come up with.  I laid out all my materials, counted the number of beads for each component and went to work.

About 2 hours later, not including interruptions, the bracelet was finished.  Yippee!

While I was working on the bracelet I came up with some ideas for earrings too - so made those.

Now time to make earring and bracelet cards.

I went online and found a cute owl graphic, created a printable page of them and printed them onto kraft paper cardstock.

Now it's time to cut them with my printing press and metal dies into shapes.  Place a backing on them, put one of my logo stickers on, find some complimentary string to attach the tag and FINALLY - it's done.

Oh - forgot - photograph the jewelry in my little light box and edit the photos.

You have to really enjoy the process or you would go crazy thinking about how much time goes into each item you create - in this case at least 32 hours - Yikes!  Oh well - now I have everything and the next one will only take me a couple of hours - I think : )