Winter village advent calendar

My little guy and I have been excited about what kind of advent calendar to do this year. We found inspiration from several talented folks who've created some great paper craft.

Last year was my first attempt and it was good practice. A series of geometric trees to hide small goodies in. The problem was that I waited too long and ended up making it on small batches every few days to complete the set. This year I had a better plan and was able to complete the whole calendar on Nov 30. In the evening. I call that a win. We won't mention that I haven't filled the last few days yet with goodies. Whose to know? I also got smart this year and filled half the days with things to do instead of just trinkets and candy. Things like, read a Christmas book, have a cup of cocoa, draw a wintry picture. We have more fun that way too.

For the shapes, I used card stock in varying blues and greens to create a wintery village. Three sizes of cone trees and four styles of buildings and one large mountain backdrop in hand made templates. Gel pens, my new favorite thing, created the white and gold detail on each piece. I decided to free draw the buildings and numbers. I think it gives it a homey feel. Translation...it's a bit wobbly but I like it that way.  

Toward the end of building them all,  L decided he wanted to try so I have him the last building to do all his own. He wanted to draw a 2 and 0. So I saved that number for him. It gets a prominent spot in the village. Well, at least until he rearranges them again. 

I smile every morning when he paddles into our room...a little box in hand with his newest surprise. 

Crafts Part 2: Christmas Past

Happy Holidays! I'm a little late to this game but let's just pretend I'm getting a jump on next year's festivities.

This year, I was bound and determined to get some stockings made and I am happy to say that I succeeded finally. With about 10 min to spare. Actually I think Santa had to circle the city a couple of times while I finished up the last stitches so he could fill up the stocking in time. And my lovely mother sat up with me, or rather snoozed on the couch for a bit for moral support. But nevertheless I made it.

I wanted the stocking to have a Scandinavian feel. And I set to work making paper patterns for letters and details, and used white, red and dark red wool felt with corresponding thread. My sewing machine is in a few pieces right now so it was easier for me to hand stitch the stocking instead of figuring out how to put it back together. The stitches are far from straight or perfect but I kind of like how that made it look overall. The stocking is finished off with exposed edging with pinking shears.

Loose teeth and other projects

I am LOVING my adult summer break.  Besides regaining my sanity I've been slowly crossing things off my list. I have had a very long design project list looming over my head for years. Sometimes I would start a project and it would just sit there or I would just dream of starting it, making notes about how I would do it, sketches etc in random notebooks all over the house. But now I am dedicated to getting some of them actually started and/or finished. My son and husband have been great motivators. And my little guy is actually helping me do some which is pretty darn cool.

My two major projects are updating my online design portfolio. If you are a designer you know how much procrastination goes into this sort of thing. And when you finally start building it you most likely decided you hate the design. It's a vicious cycle but necessary for future employment.

My second is a children's book that I started writing last year, from an idea my son had one night while we were making up stories. I'm editing the story at this point but now also developing the test illustrations to figure out how it should look. I had no idea this part would take so long. Lots of redos and wondering why I decided to take this on. More to come as that project develops. But in between these major projects are all the little art, craft and home improvement things that I wistfully dream up and think I'll never actually do. The latest is my tooth pillow. Or actually, L's tooth pillow. I started this one last year way before my little guy was even close to losing a tooth. But now I'm racing to finish it since we a probably due a visit from the tooth fairy in the next month or two.

When I was little my grandmother made me a tooth pillow by hand and then started crafting them for every little one she knew in her small community. Did I mention she was a teacher? They are always thinking of little kids. A little bit of love scattered everywhere. Maybe this is what got me going. But it's such a right of passage for kids I thought it would be fun to think of a stuffy that they could use for all their toothless nights.

I created a simple tooth pattern from paper. Used white and red wool felt as the base. And set to work trimming out both layers with pinking shears so that the edges would match. I decided to use red thread against the white for extra pop. I left a small hole to push the stuffing through and tried to smooth out the lumps as best as possible. I used a natural batting to fill the pillow. Added button eyes and cut a heart shaped mouth in red to serve as the tooth pocket. Only sewing up to the two top humps of the heart so that the tooth fairy can easily get the tooth out in the dark of night.  I used red thread so the stitching wouldn't stand out on this part. I plan on making more pillows now that this one is finished. Perhaps I'll be ambitious enough to get a whole set of them going.

Valentine's...Pinterest style

I have definitely caught the Pinterest bug. I've been saving tons of kid's Valentines ideas over the last few weeks, determined to get designy crafty. I was pretty good at getting supplies but yet again was working the night before to assemble my four year old's cards. He was actually a big help but it wasn't til this morning that I realized I needed double to cover his entire class. The Star War's version was a last minute add-on to get us to the right amount. Luckily I had a tube of those glow bracelets from Target to get me by.

So here's my take on some ideas floating around the 'boards' these days.

Veggie Derby

We stumbled across this build-your-own-zucchini-car booth at a local car show. Fun easy project for kids. Zucchinis make a great base to build/decorate. All you need is nails, wooden wheels, pipe cleaners and fancy sandwich picks as base pieces. The rest is up to the imagination.

Back at it, finally

With our little guy's birthday coming up, I've finally had a chance to tackle a personal project. And boy does it feel good! With my day job work hours racking up, there hasn't been much time til now. But I've been itching to do my own stuff.

The design of the birthday invite is fairly simple. We created a balloon theme for the party because we bought a clown package at the school auction. Yes a clown. I believe there were some cocktails involved with that decision. That's another story.

The invite was designed around a balloon dog graphic I created and playful type. Since that part was simple I thought it would be fun to add a diecut shape in the center of the panel. I was lucky enough to get the Cameo Sillouette as a gift from my husband. And I needed a chance to start using it. Oh and actually figure the thing out. After cutting two mirrored shape sides (front and back)  I sandwiched different color transparency sheets to create a real balloon look.

I created a similar look with the goodie bags. I didn't want to get too crazy so I made a basic label with the same cut out shape and used red transparent bags to match the look of the invites.