Two Projects from the Weekend

This weekend I went to the baby shower for a good friend's future grandbaby. Her son is in the Army so I thought it would be fun  to make some camo-bibs for the little girl. You can learn more about these bibs from the first time I made them.

On Sunday afternoon, I made these ribbon trees with the girls. Mine is the middle tree, their trees flank mine. Fawnda at Fireflies and Jellybeans has a good tutorial for these. The girls used straight pins to attach their ribbon. I used hot glue.

I made a serious mistake when I made these with the girls I sat criss-cross applesauce on the floor. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving our whole family found itself watching  YouTube videos (we watched silly videos like Ray Stephens, Homer and Jethro, the Royal Gaurdsman etc). I sat criss-cross applesauce on the floor with K (who ways over fifty pounds) on my lap. I stretched something out of shape and aggravated it again on Sunday when I made these trees! :) I guess I am getting old.

P.S. The Styrofoam trees were from Dollar Tree. The straight pins and most of the white ribbon was from my stash (I bought a couple of rolls of white/off-white gross grain at Dollar Tree. I wish I hadn't, I didn't need them).

I will be sharing this at:

3 Blistered Fingers Later

We had the most amazing laid back and relaxing Thanksgiving. After a mellow day at home with just the four of us yesterday, we stuffed ourselves at supper (our Turkey feast) and afterward  watched Pumpkin Chunkin. One of the things I did yesterday (besides make the meal which included turkey, ale bread, corn, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie -- (Lisa, the StoveTop stuffing got ate be for T-day)) was work on gift boxes. I really like all of these and one of them is possibly my most ornate box to date.

The Ornate Box

The back, which is not so ornate. If the hot glue comes out again before I wrap a gift in this box - I will glue some rope across the top.

The front - which includes layers of ribbon and some tassel trim.

I am not sure if I have ever shared why I have so many boxes that feature Norman Rockwell. If you haven't heard, here is the answer Some dear friends of mine like to give me stuff they don't want to see what I will do with it. When they wanted to bind some family history that was printed on odd shaped paper, they bought a coffee table book of the complete Norman Rockwell. They gutted the book and didn't want to throw all the artwork away and so they gave it to me. I will be using it for years to come unless I come up with really big project for it.

Front

Back of preceding box.

I didn't decorate the back of this box.

Pyramid shaped poster mailer.

Side view of mailer. The strings on the bottom are for tying it shut.

A very special gift for my nephew will go in poster mailer if it fits.

Currier and Ives always shouts Christmas to me even if it isn't their Christmas work. I have several C and I calendars that have been given to me. I also have a C and I book that my sister who is a librarian gave to me when her library got rid of it.

That is a twig glued to the box.

Who doesn't love Eloise Wilkins' artwork?

The boxes represented here are shoe boxes, a large sized media mailer, a poster box, an American Girl accessory box, and a beading kit box.

I will be sharing these at:

Ribbon Turkeys

I made two different turkeys with the students on Tuesday. I had hoped to show you both but I am not quite ready to share the second one. So here are the ribbon turkeys I made with the kids.

There was a bit of prep involved with these little guys.

• I pre-cut the body, beak, and wattle shapes and cut the ribbon and hot glued it in loops.
• I also cut a cardboard background shape for the pin and glued the pin to the cardboard shape. 
• I bought glue dots for the kids to use to stick their ribbons to the cardboard background. once they had arranged the feathers, I hot glued the body on top of the background. 
• Then the kids glued on the google eyes, beak, and wattle.

All the materials prepped for one turkey.

I got this idea from the wonderful Maridith at Strictly Homemade please check out her turkeys.

My turkey.

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Oh and here is a commentary on the depth of my stash. This is all from my stash.

Finger Puppets, Log Cabins, Teepees and Social Exhaustion

Log Cabins and Teepees

Today was our big Thanksgiving holiday celebration at our homeschool co-op. I did several crafts with the kids, which I will share with you tomorrow. In addition to crafts, we made foodstuffs. I ended up making the log cabin with the children. It went really well.

As you can see, I found a different way of doing the teepees. We used waffle cones and decorated them according to the directions at the Family Fun website. They suggested frosting them white for an authentic look. The problem is that they look like snowed over Christmas trees!! However, I do like them and would do them again, I would just leave the cone natural rather than frost it white. (We were hesitant to add toothpicks for the tent poles because we were afraid of breaking the cones (several in the pack were already broken)).

We also made these marshmallow pilgrim hats from the Family Fun site.

Social Exhaustion

After the days when I help with reading or teach art to the kids, I am exhausted. I just took an hour long nap.  I used to have the same response when we volunteered at the nursing home before Grandpa Glen died. I would be drained after our visits with Glen. Last year I listened to reading lessons for two girls for whom English was a second language and I was always tired on those days. Putting yourself out there is hard work.

Finger Puppets

Guess what these finger puppets are made of.

Can't guess? Here is a closer look at the finger puppet I made.

Need another hint? Here is K's puppet with his mouth open.

Give up?

These little guys are made of old film canisters and flip lids from soap and salad dressings.

C calls hers Aunt Sam (as in a female variant of Uncle Sam). :)

Tonight we have small group at our house so I need to go and clean a bit. I also have to prepare the hams for Tim to take to work for his company Thanksgiving party tomorrow. Hopefully, I can get on later tonight and comment while I am working on nativity  photos.

I am sharing at:

Spicy Stars

What do you think these little star ornaments are made out of?

The shaker lid of a spice jar!! When we were making applesauce cinnamon ornaments, I noticed the star pattern on the shaker lid. I immediately checked the lids of the various spices in my cupboard (I've also checked out a few brands in the store ). The star shaped pattern in the shaker lid is common if not universal among spice shakers.

On the first lids we decorated, we didn't line the lids until after we threaded the star. Unfortunately, when we glued the back on we realized that the lids were more translucent than I first thought.

See the threads on the back? Aren't the blue and green colors of this star pretty? C made this one.

I lined subsequent stars with glittery craft foam then backed them with felt.

I will be sharing this at:

Edible Log Cabin and Teepees (think gingerbread but not gingerbread)

We wanted something fun to do for school on Tuesday (our last day of formal class before Thanksgiving). I got this idea in my head last night (for the record, I have never made a gingerbread house and I don't get along with frosting).

I made this Thanksgiving village off the cuff with the girls this morning. (I am sorry, I am not good at tutorials because I often come up with an idea and become so engrossed in the process that I don't think of photos).

I used the Basic Gingerbread House Frosting from Gingerbread House Heaven but added more powdered sugar so that the frosting's texture was like clay dough. (I mixed all four colors of food coloring that I had on hand for the frosting to make a brownish color. As you can tell, I needed two batches of frosting and I didn't manage to get the colors to match. I would suggest making a double or even a 2.5 times batch.

I used graham crackers for the interior to help support the pretzels as I built the log cabins.

The skins for the teepees are made from fruit leather.

I had some stale shredded coconut in the cupboards that I used for snow (you all keep stale coconut too, right?).

I am sorry that these are on ugly foil covered cookies sheets and plates. I thought once they were set I could move them. Unfortunately, they are cemented to the 'ground.' I am hoping to get another mom to make these with the kids at school. If it turns out cute, I will try to get pictures for you all.

If anyone makes these, let me know. I would love to see them.


A few black and white shots for fun.

Last Minute Thanksgiving Pumpkins at Dollar Tree

I'm sure most of you have seen these pumpkins around. Here is my Dollar Tree take on them, which I did with the art class at school

I bought toilet paper, Sham-Ease shammies, miscellaneous greenery, and cinnamon sticks. We spread out the shammy and then we placed a toilet paper roll on the center of one edge. We rolled the tp up in the shammy and tucked then ends into the tp roll.

Then we shoved the stem of a leaf down into a hole and followed it up with a cinnamon stick (I broke them in half so they weren't so long).

The kids thought they were great.

I am so sorry for not being a good commenter. I am trying very hard to get my act together so I can start blogging and commenting again.