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Christmas Tags

As a gift to my sister I made masonite tags for her to use on her neighbor gifts. I also made several for myself to use the same way. I love to tie these to gifts because once the goodies are gone, the recipient still has the little tag to hang on their tree or display on a tiny stand.

And because they are made on masonite and have a protective layer of Mod Podge on the top, they are quite durable and should last for years.

I made these exactly the same way I did my CHRISTMAS ADVENT TAGS.

First Friday Art Class for December 2013 - Christmas Angels and Doodles

Today our focus was Christmas. We began with some fun Christmas doodles. We did ornaments, strings of lights, presents, bells, bows, and letters accented with snowflakes.

Here's a Christmas Doodle worksheet of all the doodles we did. (The optical illusion bells are from texasdoxiemama).

We did all these doodles together with me working on a white board and the girls working in their sketchbooks or on a blank piece of paper.

These doodles are really fun and easy to do and they look so sweet. And if you add color to them, they really pop!!

We then moved onto some sweet Christmas angels. These took me back to my elementary school days. Do you remember making angles with doily wings? :)

Paper Doily Angels

Supplies needed:
Paper doilies (I got mine at Joann's in the baking section--they are about 3-1/2" across)
Scrap paper for the dress and face
Colored pencils
Black markers
Glue stick (for the paper)
Glue gun (for the accessories)
Gold paint (optional)
Misc. items for accessories (pearl trim, gold thread, heart punches, brads, beads, tiny buttons, ric arc, etc.)

What you do:
1. Fold a paper doily in half, unfold it and cut along the fold line. This half circle becomes your angel's wings.

2. Draw a head on white paper. Color it and outline the features in black pen. We tried to remember to make them look very serene and sweet.
3. Cut out the head.
4. Using the wings and the head as size references, cut a triangle to be the angel's dress.
5. Glue the head to the top of the triangle dress and glue the wings to the back of the dress.
6. Accessorize your angel and add any other finishing touches you'd like to add. (We dry brushed some gold paint on some of the wings to give it a little shimmer).

Here's back view to help you see the construction of the angel:

Here are the girls' darling angels:

You could make a whole choir of these angelic cuties. You could also glue a magnet or clothespin to the back of them or mount them on a Christmas card.

Okay, now get out there and do some doodles and make some angels! :)

See you next month.

Gray Knitted Cowl - Free Pattern

Gray Cowl

Needles: US 8

Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton – just under 3 skeins

CO 40

Row 1 (RS) – Knit

Row 2 (WS) – Purl

Row 3 (RS) – Knit

Rows 4-12 – k4, (yo, k2tog) to the last 4 stitches, k4

Row 13 (RS) - Knit

Row 14 (WS) – Purl

Row 15 (RS) – Knit

Row 16 (WS) – Knit (this knit row on the wrong side creates the purl ridge on the right side, in the middle of the stockinette segment)

Row 17 (RS) – Knit

Row 18 (WS) – Purl

Row 19 (RS) – Knit

Repeat rows 4-19 until desired length. (I did them 22 times)

Repeat rows 4-12 1 more time

Repeat rows 1-3

BO loosely

Seam the two ends together.

My finished size before blocking was 8" wide and 50" around.

Masonite Tag Christmas Advent Calendar

Using this exact same method, my daughter and I made 25 advent tags to hang up to countdown the days until Christmas.

Each one started on a 3" x 3" x 1/8" piece of masonite. Of course you could make these using just scrapbook paper, but mounting them on masonite means they are quite sturdy and will last from year to year.

We cut the base paper just under 3" x 3". We tried to make sure we didn't have two reds or two greens right next to each other. (We only used paper we already had--our goal was to not have to buy anything for this project).

Then we stamped the dates on kraft paper and cut a contrasting slip of scrapbook paper.

We went through and attached all the base layers to all 25 tags using Mod Podge. So by the time we were back to the first tag to do the 2nd and 3rd layers, the first layer was dry.

Once all 3 layers were attached, we did one more layer of Mod Podge (matte--I don't like the shiny) over the top of the entire front of the tag. This will help to protect them. Then we let them dry for several hours. Our last step was to add ric rac, tulle, and ribbon to the tops of them.

Then today we hung them up on a long piece of jute with little pieces of bakers twine. We'll cut them down as we count down the days to Christmas.

Interested in making some tags of your own? I have the blank masonite tags for sale in my ETSY shop now!

Don't Worry, I'm a Ninja

My nephew just had a birthday and he loves ninjas. I had a lot of fun changing THIS ALIEN PATTERN into a little knitted ninja for him.

Needles: US 5
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in black
Other Supplies: white felt, red felt, black paint (for the eyes), metallic thread (for the ninja star), white thread, black thread, and red thread (to attach felt pieces)

He may be small, but he's lightning fast, silent, and deadly. :)

Flower Turkeys

Yesterday on her day off of school, my daughter had some cute friends over. We had a crafting day. We made flower turkeys. (We first saw the idea on Our Best Bites and it's also on Crafting in the Rain).

These are quick, easy and really cute. Minimal supplies needed. You may even have all or most of them around your house right now. We glued ours onto clothespins or hair clips.

I have LOTS of silk flowers lying around from when we made a bunch of hair flowers. So I was thrilled to find a new and oh so clever use for them.

 

More Owls

My sister does an art day each week with her kids. This week they drew owls using my How To Draw An Owl handout from our November First Friday Art Class.

Here's my niece's sweet drawing. (She's almost 8 years old).

I love that she named them all. Don't they each have such great personality??

Not My Circus...

My sisters and I got together several months ago. When we're together we like to share a few of our current favorite things and also some favorite quotes that are inspiring to us at the time. I was excited to share with them a simple, sort of silly quote that can have great meaning in your life if you let it...

Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys

Meaning? Not my problem. Or some things are not in my control.

Love it!

My sisters loved it too. I knew as soon as I saw their reactions I'd would make them a painting with this phrase on it.

I already had the masonite tags which made the perfect canvas for this project! They measure about 5" wide and 8" tall. Each of the monkeys are hand drawn and colored so they each have their own personalities.

I had to keep them a secret for a while since I sent them out individually for birthdays. I made one for me too. I have it on my dresser where I see it every morning and it reminds me that some things are just not my problem. I don't have to fix everything. :)

IF - Secret

What would you secretly wish for if you had a Fairy Godmother?

Illustration Friday - theme this week is SECRET

First Friday Art Class for November 2013 - Owls Extravaganza

It's owls, owls, owls around here this week. My daughter loves owls and her birthday is coming up so I decided that our theme for art class this month could be owls.

We began class with a set of instructions. I didn't tell the girls ANYTHING about what we were doing today. When the girls arrived there was an envelope at their spot with the following instructions inside...I called it a Mystery Drawing.

INSTRUCTIONS:

No talking. Don’t look at anyone else’s drawing and don’t let anyone see your drawing. Don’t worry THIS IS NOT A TEST! :)

Draw two circles right next to each other—like a number eight lying down.

Draw a circle inside each of the first circles. Draw a black dot inside those circles.

Draw a bib shape below the lying down number eight.

Draw a triangle pointing down right below the lying down eight, right in the center.

Add two small triangles (points up towards the top of the paper) above each of the circles that make up the lying down eight.

Add an inner bib shape the same as the one before only smaller.

Add three tiny elongated circles at the bottom of the large bib shape—do this twice, once on the left and once on the right.

Add a straight line directly under your drawing.

NAME THAT OBJECT…WHAT DID YOU DRAW?? (shhh, don’t tell anyone yet).

They came pretty close for the most part. And once our theme was revealed, it was time to reveal our treat for today--Owl Cupcakes.

We then drew the owl together using the same steps, but with me doing them with them on the white board.

Here's our handout for the basic owl:

We then talked about all the ways you could change or enhance this basic owl. Here are just a few ways:

Here's one of the girls' cute owl drawing:

We then dove into the sculpture part of our class today. We made metal owls.

These are really fun and leave so much room for personalization and creativity.

Here's what you'll need:

You'll also need a drill if you want to hang them and add the wire feet at the bottom. I tried just gluing the twig at the bottom, but wiring them is your best bet. The glue just won't hold the wood to the metal lid.

I found that E6000 works really well for this. The girls assembled their owls and brought them to the "Gluing Station" where I helped them glue all the pieces together. I also did the drilling for the top hole and feet holes. 

Basically you put glue on both surfaces (for instance, the eye and the spot on the body where they eye will go), let it sit for 2 minutes and then stick them together. They hold pretty well after about 10 minutes and will be set after about 24 hours. I had the girls carry their owls home on cardboard pieces and instructed them to set them aside somewhere to cure until tomorrow evening. 

And here are their finished owls...

 We also did some Owls on masonite tags using large buttons as the body...

I love that some of them took the pieces I had in the "Beak" bowl and used them for wings. Such creative girls!!

We were busy, busy, busy today and the time just flew by. It was fun!

See you next month for our Christmas Class.