Way back in June, I took a Gelli Plate Printmaking class from Celeste Douville at the Schack Art Center. It was a great afternoon of playing with paper, paint, stencils, and textures to create monoprints using a "gelli plate", which was new to me. I left motivated and imagining all the gelli printing I would be doing....

And, then I remembered I have a 3-year old, work part-time, and usually a million other things around the house that need to be done, so the my gelli plate went untouched for quite a while.

But, I was determined to get it out and try creating some prints for Christmas. My love of Christmas projects helped me carve out a few hours here and there to play. (I mean really, this is about the only time of year I get super motivated and have consistent blog entries. Maybe this blog should just be about Christmast projects...)

These were some of the "finished" printed papers. I didn't love how everything turned out, but it was a fun experiment and there were enough winners to work with.

I used some of the prints to make Christmas cards, which became an involved process of cutting, arranging, gluing, sewing, and more gluing. Mid-way through the process I asked my husband, Jeff, to remind me NOT to make my own Christmas cards next year. (Of course, come mid-November 2015 I will promptly dismiss any attempts by Jeff to stop me from making my own Christmas cards.)

Here are a few of my favorite cards... Can you tell I became a little obsessed with bubble wrap?
I also used a few sheets to create these paper balls, which I found on page 23 in the book "Handmade Scandinavian Christmas".  I found that the stiffer/thicker paper worked best for these, my music paper prints didn't hold the ball shape as well.

Merry Christmas!

I have decided that anything can be an ornament this holiday season. This new mindset started with some old, very old, jar lids.

I bought a tub of rusty, retro jar lids from an artist several years ago for $3. I love them. I used a few for this "wall art" piece I made right after I acquired the lids. However, since then the rest have been sitting in a tub in my laundry room.

They came to mind when I was a trying to come up with some ideas for new ornaments. I picked out the ones that were mostly red or green, punched holes in the edge, and added a hook for hanging.
Here are a few of my favorites





My next unique ornament idea came from my collection of travel spoons. Yes, spoons. I'm not sure why, but someone convinced me as a child that spoons would be a good collectible item to bring home from the places we traveled on summer vacations.

This must have started around the time we took the "Green Machine" (aka 1970's Dodge Van in two-shades of green) on a road trip down the West Coast to Tijuana, Mexico. I have many spoons to commemorate locations in California from Knot's Berry Farm and Disneyland to the Aeriel Tramway in Palm Springs.

I've had this small collection of spoons for years and I just can't get rid of them. They are one small piece of my childhood that I have grown attached to, but I've never known what to do with them. For years I've been trying to think of a clever, subtle way to display them.

Well, my new "put anything on the tree" attitude gave me a way to display those spoons. All I had to do was use a little silver polish to clean them up and add the hooks for hanging, which was easy since most had gaps/holes at the top. And, the hooks aren't permanent, so if I come up with a better display idea for the spoons some day, they'll be ready.

Here are a few of the spoons on my tree today...


Anyone else have any random ornaments to share from their tree? Merry Christmas!

But, when Henry suggested Thomas the Train as a Halloween costume back in August, I was instantly intrigued and excited by the possibilities.

It was definitely an interesting challenge and took more time than I anticipated. I didn't do a good job of documenting the process while I was working on it, so I only have the final pictures. Sorry!



I am happy with how it turned out and Henry seemed to enjoy it, although he didn't enjoy wearing for that long. I think it became a bit cumbersome and I made the mistake of joking about it disintegrating in the massive rain shower we had that morning, which might have scared him bit.

I will mention that many other folks have attempted this costume and there are some other quality versions to be found on Pinterest.

The suggestion by another blogger (sorry can't remember who!) to use a cylinder concrete form, which may be found at your local hardware store, was great. However this does make the front a bit heavy compared to the back. Just something to consider.


If you have any questions about any of the other materials let me know!

My son LOVES The Berenstain Bears. My mom saved all the books that belonged to my brother and I, then my cousin added some when her twins were young, so we have nearly ALL of them. (SIDE NOTE: We do not have many of the recent additions done my Mike Berenstain, which in my opinion are not as good as those by the creators Stan and Jan.)

When it came time to think about a birthday gift and party for my now three-year old son, I started to wonder if Berenstain Bears toys existed. And, the answer is...not really.

I did manage to find a set of Happy Meal toys from 1987 on ebay, which was exciting. I also decided that a Kenner Family Tree House from 1975 would work as the bears family home. I added a painted Scrabble board as the bears yard/garden. And, this combination of stuff became his "big" gift.

After I came up with this gift idea, I decided to make the whole party theme Berenstain Bears. But, it's not like looking for Elmo or Disney party decor.

I based the party color scheme around the character's clothes: Mama's blue and white polka dot dress; Sister's white and pink polka dot blouse; Brother's red and blue outfit; and Papa's yellow plaid shirt.

I also created a birthday pennant banner using an extra copy of "Messy Room", plus party hats and cupcakes toppers using images of the bears I found online. (Basic party hat template came from "Oh Happy Day".)




I also had a last minute game idea..."Pin the Bears on the Tree!" In the end, Henry was the only one who played it, but he sure enjoyed putting stickers on this blown up image of the bear family tree house.


I think he enjoyed the party and the decor. I know I had a good time creating it!

All I wanted were some fresh, local strawberries, so we went to the Marysville Strawberry Festival on Saturday. Turns out there really aren't strawberries at the festival, which was surprising, but on the way out of town I spotted the Biringer Farm stand. Yay!

I was just going to buy a pint, but then I compared the cost and decided it may much more sense to purchase an entire flat. Hmm... OK

When you purchase a flat of strawberries (6 large pints) and you don't have plan for using them, you quickly develop one.

Of course there were plenty of these lovely red berries to enjoy right out of the box. They are perfectly ripe when you buy them. But, that's the thing they won't last as long as the over sized, often tasteless variety you purchase at the grocery store.


And, my panic over losing them to the fruit flies led to....

I almost forgot to post this fun fabric bottle/vase project I made for my mom as a Mother's Day gift.  I used the directions provided by Lucie Summer in the book "Modern Sewing Projects". 
 

Underneath the patchwork fabric bottle is an actual small glass jar with water for the flowers. My mom has a love/hate relationship with crows, so the little blackbird applique was design element I added just for her.

The book isn't very long, only 16 projects, but they are all interesting, contemporary takes on traditional everyday items such as place mats, quilts, and slipcovers.



I especially love the fact that I actually made something from one of the many, many craft/sewing/project books that sit on my book shelf. I feel like I too often thumb through and admire the projects, but rarely complete one of them start to finish.


(Sorry these pictures are a little blown out and I didn't get one of the back, oops!)