Chica Schmica

We’ve been doing so much running around lately there hasn’t been much time for anything at home. I’ve had a few chances to peak over at The Crafty Crow and, my goodness, all of those Thanksgiving crafts are just making my head spin! Turkeys everywhere! So, with turkeys on the brain and straw painting on my never-ending list of things to do, we set forth to paint some turkeys!

I dropped the first small dollop of brown paint on the paper and demonstrated to Annabelle the proper straw-blowing technique. The hardest part for her in the beginning was not getting close enough with the straw.

I’ve had to hold off on doing this activity with her until I knew should could blow out through the straw and not suck in. As it turned out, she proved to me just how big of a girl she is getting to be. Not satisfied with simply picking out her own colors, she insisted on opening and pouring them herself. It blows my mind every time I see just how independent she can be.

I forgot to thin out our tempura paint, which made it a little harder to distribute the paint around, but I like the results. Although, it would be interesting to see how the turkey would come out with a runnier consistency. Let me know if you try it!

Added: I should have known better than to post something when I still had some lingering curiosity about it’s potential. So, I added some water to our paints and tried it again. Here are the results. I actually think I like this one better. I’m going to try it again with Annabelle and see how she does with it, but I wanted to go ahead and get this image up to show you the difference and let you decide which way you prefer.

Just to recap, all you do is drip some paint onto the paper, then point your straw at the paint and blow!

This is Janie.

Janie was conceived from the Wee Wonderfuls Kit, Chloe, and Louise pattern and, after laboring over her for nearly a week, I was happy to introduce her to our family this morning at approximately 10:15.  She’s named after my grandmother (Marjane) who turned 74 yesterday.  Janie has spent much of her time in the yard and in the kitchen, and appears to be getting along splendidly thus far. She’s pretty quiet, but I think that might change once she really starts getting acclimated to our home. 

Welcome to the family, Janie!

My niece is turning 12. This weekend. In the past I have always resorted to gift cards when it comes to my nieces. Well, ever since they turned 8, that is. I have no idea what “cool” is anymore (or did I ever?) and it is undeniably obvious whenever I spend any time with them. Lately, however, I am determined to make the gift-giving experience a little more meaningful by making gifts myself.

Enter The Long Thread’s headband tutorial.

Simple instructions and a quick project make for a happy me. I made this one pretty quickly over the weekend and I think I’ll make a few more for her over the next couple days.

I’m pretty sure she’ll like it. Her wardrobe is overcrowded with pink and she’s always wearing headbands or hair ties to keep her thick blonde locks out of her face.

Have any other handmade gift suggestions for a tween girl?

My best friend from forever ago is having a birthday this weekend and I wanted to come up with something I could make for her. When I indiscreetly asked her for some hints, she suggested I make something that, when she looked at it, would remind her of me. She also happened to mention that she had been dressing the walls of her office lately.

Enter vinyl records of artists from our “wild” days. Ok…to give you an idea of our wildness factor, my search for records included Paul Simon, Bruce Springstein, and (brace yourself) Heart. Originally, I was just going to make a clock, but after seeing some of the other record crafts, I went ahead and did a few more things.

In addition to the clock, I made two bowls and some bracelets made from colored vinyl (above). The clock and the bowls were stupidly easy. For the clock, I used movements from a clock we didn’t use anymore and spraypainted them silver. And the bowls were simply placed in the oven over a form for about a minute or two. They quickly begin to melt into beautifully interesting shapes.

The cuffs, on the other hand, were kind of a bear. They were difficult to cut and I had to continually put them in and out of the oven to get their shape right. You can see the cuffs being totally rocked by their recipient below.

Happy Birthday, Christine. And long live Simon and Garfunkel!

Follow these links for more detailed instructions on making the cuffs and bowls.