It's a Fairy Party

Well, technically we weren't having a party but I assure you, the fairies will be!

For the last 6 weeks, I have held a craft class after school one day a week.

We have made salt dough and hardened it in the microwave, we made some posters about our teachers based on information they shared about themselves, we made wire hearts, and we made stuffies out of sweater sleeves.

This is one of my favorites!

 

 These were a few that I made with my older girls at home to take in as examples.  

Cali and I made the caterpillar and Cali's friend Joe made the duck.

During the first class I brought a fairy house book for Cali to look at while she was waiting for the class to end. It turns out it was pretty popular with all of the kids. Our fourth week I asked the kids what they would like to make next and they were unanimous in wanting to make fairy houses, so we did!

Today ended our six weeks of class and also the culmination of fairy houses. We started them last week and finished them today. Here are the results.

This fairy house has a welcome sign and a wonderful path.

 

I know this picture is blurry but I wanted to show you all the jewels this little girl thought her fairy house needed!

Yes, that sign does read 'Casino'.  This fairy house was made by a couple 6th graders.

And every casino needs a toilet!

I must say all the color in the room was energizing. I am starting a 'energize yourself' project when we return from spring break and one of the things on the list is to wear bright colors. After today, there is no doubt in my mind it works. I know I left the class today feeling pretty peppy and I am certain is was the bright colors and thoughts of spring and summer.

This little girl wanted her little stuffie in the picture. :)   She layered her tent and don't you love the flower-pool of jewels?!

This is a fairy flower forest.

 And here is another one.

That is a flower chair and against the wall is the t.v.  Do you notice the armrests?

Evidently a mean fairy lives here!  :)

Here is Lucy's Garden. Look at the little acorn overhead. So sweet!

And this little girl finished early so she made a sweet little fairy with a darling acorn cap-adorned hat!


It's been a while but I'm hoping to do it more often. I'm joining in at the Magic Onions- Friday's Nature Table-you should too!

Gobble, Gobble

I have been wanting to make one of these. Today I finally did it. 

And now, I have to make more.

Getting Ready

Cali is going to be 6 on Monday. I can hardly believe it. Uggg, baby no more. Well, really she'll always be my baby. They all are! But still 6??? Where did the time go.

As much as I don't want it to happen, it shall. And to celebrate it we shall party! Candy Land style!

I started these buggers a couple weeks ago. I finally finished tonight. (Her party is tomorrow!)
I think I made about 30 of them.  Necklaces for the girls, backpack key-chains for the boys.

I used Fimo and Scupley oven-bake clay.

 I started with little balls of a color. Rolled each into a snake. (or a thin line) I lined 2 or 3 colors right next to each other. Twisted them (don't braid) then rolled that whole thing into another snake. Coiled that into a lollipop.

For the stem, I just rolled white into a snake. I cut into segments, flattened one end laid the lolli on top and smashed ever so gently.

 For the stem, I just rolled white into a snake. I cut into segments, flattened one end laid the lolli on top and smashed ever so gently.

I added bows to the by making a small rectangle, pinching to curl the edges, making another smaller square, pinching slightly and laying it on top of the rectangle.

Put that where the lolli and stem meet. Ta-Da!

Oodles of lollipop necklaces. :) And now I don't want to make any for a LONG time!

One more thing

See, maybe it's back to stay. My mojo that is!

I have one more thing to show you.
I made these a while back. I saw them somewhere, haven't a clue where. It's been a while.I remember loving them so when I saw them. I actually made them almost immediately but never got around to hanging them up.

Now I will admit, they were harder to make than the person made it seem. At least they were for me. Might be my plaster-of-paris mixing technique. Maybe I bought an off brand. Not sure but my issue was that it dried faster than I could spread it on my leaves.

I persevered because I loved the texture but they are not, I repeat are not uniform in any way. The mixture did not paint on smoothly. I threw several bowls of it away as it dried to breaking-off bits before I could use the paint brush. And when I finally strung them today with the twine, the plaster-of-paris broke off most of the stems.

All that being said, I adore the simplicity of the white in my home. And the best part, Cori came home tonight after being gone the whole day and right when she walked in she said "Mom, I really like your leaves!"

When the teenager notices something like that over her head on a pass-through, it's all good my friends!
Grab yourself some plaster-of-paris, mix according to directions, paint both sides of some artificial leaves and your golden!

A New Spin on Art

SO, Daddy did it! He finally built the spinning art drum thing I'd been bugging him to do.

Cali and I have been talking about this thing since we saw this really cool version here.  Well actually, I first saw one here then followed their link to  Teacher Tom's.  Anyhow, I'd been bugging Scott and he finally did it.  He really did it!

It was finished on Friday and we really wanted to test it out but Cori was having a sleepover for her 13th birthday celebration and therefor monopolized the majority of my time Friday night.

So Saturday, Cali and I decided the girls should go watch the Kenai swim meet then the homecoming football game so we could spin and paint, and paint and spin.

I set the thing up on our table although it would have just as simply worked on the floor.

First she opted to try painting with her feet which worked very well but I kept having to put oo more paint. Then she decided (her own idea I must say) to add hand prints to her masterpiece. These two things go together, she told me.

After we decided we'd gave that a good try we changed the paper and I gave her some paint brushes.  She had to tell me if I was to spin fast and s-l-o-w. She tried side-to-side and up and down. What she really loved was splattering the paint but when I realized it was making it's way to my front window, we nixed it for a sunny day in our near future.

I think the art rollers I'd read about were made a bit fancier than ours but Scott was able to use materials on hand so it didn't cast us any anything.  Grandpa got the drum at work 'cause he entertains my crazy ideas too. :)

I am hoping to take this into Cali's kindergarten to share soon. It makes a slight squeaking noise every now and then so I need to pad the screws. Also Cali says it need a handle and I've got to work on that.

In the mean time, we'll keep practicing art methods and design.

You know you want to try it. Admit it. It's OK, I did! :)

I am proud of this one

Not too long ago I went to a party. While there, I was popping off a bottle cop and decided I like the look of it and stashed it in my pocket. The friend saw me and laughed. We chatted a little about it and I told her I wasn't sure what I'd do with it but if she saved them for me, I was sure I'd come up with something. So far I haven't done anything with those, mostly because I think I need more, but I'll get around to it!

Before I left the party, I also managed to salvage a glass bottle from the trash. Again, the teasing began and again, I wasn't really sure what I'd do with it but I knew I'd think of something.

This friend has had a bit of a rough year, losing her husband to leukemia. Her second child is leaving for college and she turned 50. (That's not a bad thing but big news just the same.)

When I left with the bottle I decided I would make her something and leave it for her on the porch and see if she recognized it in it's new state. I finally finished it last night and here it is.

This started as a bottle of Chambord. The cap is a heavy metal cap in the shape of a crown. Amongst my friends, when a woman turns 50, she's becomes the queen! So I imagined that crown as the queen's crown.

I decided to drill a small hole in it and use it as a charm.

I debated last night as to what kind of flower to put in the vase. In the end, I gather twigs and sticks from the beach. And made my own, quilled flowers that I attached with hot-glue.

I love it's simplicity. I adore the fact that I made something lovely, in my own opinion I suppose, from the trash and kept one thing from the landfill. And I feel as though I truly expressed the philosophy I live by.


~for every person, every moment, every thing, there is a purpose~

*Edit-
Look... how lucky am I?

Yep, 1st place and Division champion. :)

Pretty Cool I'd say. What I love most is what the judge had to say.
"This is a very visually strong piece. The asymmetry relationship between bottle and branch is beautiful!"
Awww, isn't that sweet! :) Course I may have been the only person in my division for all I know but the ribbon is pretty. HA!

Just Because...Cupckes in a Jar

Cassi was having a little bit of a rough day a couple days ago. I needed to find something to appease her and help make her day better. 
I decided to have her make cupcakes.  She found some strawberry cake mix and went to town. Then I decided we'd put them in jars and give them to her soccer team to celebrate the last local game of the season. Every occasion is a wonderful reason for cupcakes, right?

Today we got the rest of the project finished. Tonight was supposed to be the last game.  (It was canceled but it's a cupcake night anyway!)

I had seen this idea around the internet many times. I found this website and she had the grand idea of making a butter cream icing from powdered sugar which was great because you can pretty much make it as thick or thin as you wish. I made our pourable which was perfect. We even added a few sprinkles on top just for fun.

We cut circles from this cute little soccer-monkey fabric, put a glue-dot on the lid, used a darling little stretchy. fringey, trim and tied that on. We stuck a spoon under the trim and viola, extra-special, extra-fun treats for the evening.

Quick and Easy- Creative Play and Learning

I just wanted to show you real quick what Cali and I made together today.

I started a little project in the kitchen and as a result of it Cali was searching high and low for something to paint with chalkboard paint. Originally I thought I'd give her a container to paint that she could keep treasures in. But after a little thought I decided to give her a clipboard. She loves to play school with her little friends and even her sisters on the rare occasion she can convince them to do so. I figured this was a great prop for dress up and school play and we can also use it for her to practice some penmanship, story writing and so on. We can even haul it with us when we go out to eat and in the car.

I gave her a sponge brush and let her paint the board. I had her do three coats, alternating the direction of the brush strokes each time. I did the section under the clip. 

After it dried for the third time I had her color the entire board gently.

To tie the chalk on, I actually used a hair tie or pony tail band. I used a thinner one and wrapped my finger three times.  Then I slid a long ribbon through it and tied a knot so the size of the band would remain. I figured this would keep me having to tie a new knot each time we changed the chalk. I also figured it would be a better grip on the chalk and thereby less chance of losing it. We added some cute ribbons with a school theme. (Sort of.)

Soon after we finished it, she brought it back with her first note.

Love that girl!

*I'm linking to We Made It! Friday Showcase. Go see some fun projects there.  ;)