First Friday Art Class for January 2014 - Inchies!

There is a really fun art trend going on right now and we jumped right onto the bandwagon! Have you heard of inchies? They are itty bitty pieces of art - 1" x 1" that can be used for tons of different things or just stand alone as a tiny, little masterpiece.

I got all my ideas for today's class from THIS POST on Craftster by Phizzychic. And also THIS POST from Kira Nichols.

Before class, I cut strips of paper to be 1-1/2" wide (I decided that 1" x 1" would be just a little too small for us to work with--so our inchies are a little bit bigger). I painted the strips with juicy, wet watercolor. I dripped on them and let them be smeary and irregular. This adds to the interest of the little squares later.

I just used basic white card stock for these and they turned out great. 

I would have loved to have the girls do this step so they could do this project from start to finish, but there just wasn't time in class to paint them and let them dry and then cut the squares.

So once the strips dried, I cut them into 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" squares.

BUT...first things first...our treat today was PRETZEL TREATS because they are tiny, cute squares and they are very colorful--just like our art was going to be today!!

When the girls arrived I showed them some samples and then we discussed things you could do with your finished inchies. 

You can:

Make a book out of them (this is what we did in class today)

Add them to a card

Frame a bunch of them in a large frame

Make a bookmark

Add one (or more) to the front of a plain journal or notebook

...or about a million other fun ideas

And then they got to work. 

With very little instruction, they were busy and excited to make their little books. They each did 8 separate inchies.

We took those 8 inchies and we glued them back to back using a basic glue stick, punched holes in the side, and attached them together using jewelry jump rings. (ETA: we had a bit of trouble with the jump rings. We couldn't always get them to close enough and some pages fell out. A friend of mine did these later and used safety pins to hold hers closed and it looked really cute. She tied a tiny ribbon on each pin. You could also very easily just tie them with some bakers twine or sting. Just don't tie them so tight you can't turn the pages. I also wonder if you could use those earrings that look like little continuous circles?? If you find a great solution, leave a comment and let me know.)

And their books turned out wonderfully! And so fun and colorful!

I'm hoping each girl will go home and create lots and lots more little inchie artwork!!

See you next month for a sweet treat themed February class!

Newest Name Signs

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.