things I made this Christmas

I like to create a few things for Christmas time to balance out everyone's and my own urge to consume. I didn't have to buy anything for these crafts except cute bags for the cookies and a box of crackers.

First off is baking: I made everyone in my family an individually wrapped, handful of ginger molasses cookies. They are just about the only cookie I can make well. I also tried a vegan version of "Christmas Crack" which is just sugar and butter (toffee) poured over saltine crackers with chocolate chips melted and smeared over the top. You can add whatever topping on the chocolate; I picked chopped pecans. It's pretty good but I'd have 2 layers of crackers or waffle shaped pretzels next time for more crunch.

Then I wanted to make Nick a quick stocking. I traced mine and learned how to put it together with the help of youtube, my sewing machine and material I had on hand. Complete with lining, a cuff and no raw edges! I was pretty pleased with the stocking because I don't have much experience with sewing construction and it worked! The embroidery was just a quick solution but at least Nick has a stocking now.

My Christmas card is not my favorite this year, but here it is anyway. I suppose I did have to purchase the printed cards for everyone but drawing it was free!

It was supposed to be a reboot/continuation of this one i did 2 years ago. The older version is way better!

And finally, I cut, glued and embroidered these tiny pennant banners for ornaments for some people in my family. They're good on the tree or all year round.

What did you create this Christmas?

halloween costume 2015: sloth

all i knew was that for halloween i wanted to create some kind of headpiece art from scratch. from there it was just about setting my priorities straight.

--if i have to work on something for awhile, i need to love it....sloths!
--if i have to wear something on my head, this year it needs to have big flowers on it....hibiscus!
--if i'm going to put a sloth on my head, it has to be reaching out at people...obviously, because that's the dream: a sloth reaching out to hug you while it noms on flowers.

everything was made from cardboard, paper, foil, masking tape and paint. except the leaves. i had planned on making all the leaves, but i'm really glad i didn't.

in total, this costume cost me $15 because i used what i had and what i used was negligible. i only purchased the fake leaves and a thrifted baseball cap that i didn't end up using.

from concept to costume contest winner!:

this was one of those extremely rare projects that sorta came out exactly as planned.

i sized some cardboard strips to my head like a triple headband and started building.

starting to look pretty cute!

40 painted paper hibiscus petals & papier mache

adding color and painted texture w/ hibiscus prototype.

i forgot to take more in progress photos so it magically looks completed.

a sloth mantra.
i also like "live gently, do whatever you want, and don't worry about dying" but it's not as catchy.

nick finally put together his cool but socially awkward costume.

i won a prize! 

until next year, Halloween!

fabric doodle

even though this is  a teacher exemplar, i'm excited about this process for myself. it's another one of those "i've been meaning try this out for an embarrassingly long time" things. turns out, it's fun and almost exactly what i had hoped for. the watery painted shapes is a common element in my work so this is also a sampler for myself as well.

first, i brushed some clean water onto some spare fabric. i added more colors after i took this shot:

i expected it to spread a LOT more. i might have to soak the fabric and let it drip dry for a bit when i do this again for myself.

i skipped some steps here but i added more color and water. i was really try to get a tie-dye effect. now, you could just draw and sew right on this and it'd look pretty cool. but i think this next step is going to be a hit with the kids. i used some fusible webbing and ironed it on the back of the painted parts i thought looked the best. then i cut out those patches from the fabric. fusible webbing is great!

then i cut out shapes that i wanted, peeled off the paper and ironed them on my final fabric. since it's a "doodle" i didn't plan this out too much.

i used a mark b gone pen to doodle a bit. the lines disappear with water.

the drawing and colors are all made with kids in mind so i don't think i picked colors and the doodling i would have if it were purely for myself. not too much drawing either because the more lines you make, the more sewing you have to do! i don't want students to see something i might work on for weeks and go nuts drawing lines they won't have time to sew. eventually this will be turned into a small "no sew" pillow that the kids will make. again, fusible webbing is awesome.

pocket of stars

maybe this is an extension of the "where is my birthday project?"

your birthday is also in the sky.

capricorn: looks like a (blurry) banana

some back stitches and a few french knots.

holiday makings part 3: hair piece

decided to make some snazzy hair pieces for holiday parties. my clothes tend to be pretty basic and boring, so it's fun to have what i coined in college as a "formal head." at least i can usually rely on my hair and sometimes even my face to look okay.

some of the materials:
i ended up not using the starry paper or the headbands. let's face, most of the time headbands are uncomfortable. i pulled apart 2 cheapo holiday floral picks to get the snowflakes, strands and balls.

i wanted one to be noticeably dimensional so the base had to help defy gravity a little, hence the foam ball (cut in half).

with the magic of hot glue and foam, this one one turned out REALLY snazzy and i didn't even have the courage to wear it out. too much attention drawn. but it's so pretty! (and maybe a little dangerous to others??)

i knew that i might chicken out in wearing that one, so i made a bobby pin with a single one. this was easy to wear.

bobby pin accessories also need a base to attach things to. i painted & glittered some painters tape and simply hot glued the remaining snowflake and ball on to the tape.

glitter, glitter everywhere!

holiday makings part 2: ornaments

thought i'd make these look like glittering gem stones or geodes. the plan was to make 2 small ones and one large one for most of the ladies in the family, myself and one family friend (a total of 18).

i attempted smaller versions and different shapes...it just wasn't happening. wrong paper, the paint made it hard to fold and glue...so i made 6 large ones and they're just okay. i decided to make open ones because gluing is easier, but i don't like the gold color glitter i bought. the brown glitter is AMAZING though. everyone should have brown glitter on hand, just in case.

these are extremely difficult to capture on camera and they look better in person (so sparkly you might call it 'dazzling'), but still moderately weird. these will not go down i history as the 'cute' ornaments i'm known for. i'm okay with that. but they made good present toppers and they are VERY sparkly.

some process photos

i did figure out a way to make little "tents" though! filing away for a different project....

the glittering process was actually way less messy than i imagined.

only 5 or 6 shown. mine's already hanging on my tree at this point. 

nearly impossible for me to get the glitter effect and a clear photo.

sorta looked like abstracted pine cones as present toppers

holiday makings pt 1: cards

tis the season where i'm happily distracted with holiday craft and gift making. everything always feels like it gets put on hold in December to make way for XMAS.

a block printing sample i made for a workshop came in handy for my own holiday cards this year.

the owl one ended up being very cooperative to print and i felt up to the challenge of making 50 cards with my bare hands! maybe not surprisingly, the most difficult part was using the computer printer for the text inside. super frustrating.

so what do 50 greeting cards look like?

i just wanted to see many owls in a tree!

Happy "Owlidays!"