Morning Art

I was just complaining to my inner self about how I should be a better journal-er. So many thoughts get only half processed these days because either I don't seem to have the brain cells to fully process or because some barely missed catastrophe with one of the kiddos truncates my thoughts. I need a small journal in every room to capture micro ideas so that I don't loose them to the frequent chaos of motherhood. I do get a few pockets of wonderful quiet time and those are like gold - one the best chucks of still bliss is morning craft time. Tess is very self directed these days and will tell me she wants to do some crafting and I set up her station which consists of the supplies of the day in her craft tray (aka big baking pan) and she is content for a hour or so to create away. I have been so surprised at what she comes up with just a little guidance. I usually wander away to do some laundry, check my mail or just unscramble and when I come back she has beautiful art and the best explanations. Here are a few of her projects.

Bean collage and magazine paper collage.

Cave Girl

The costume theme this week was time travel. If you know my husband you would assume that we would be making a techie costume for Tess since Dad is a big sci-fi nerd. Momma was super tired this week and baby Theo teething again so I opted for a quick & easy pre-historic getup. We watched a few clips from the Flintstones to get her excited and she quickly picked up the all important cave girl mantra, Yabba Dabba do. The only fabric we purchased was a 1/4 yard of the animal print the rest was left over from other projects so the total cost on the costume was less than six dollars. Cheap, quick and priceless. If you follow our costume adventures you might be wondering what happened to "princess" week. Well we ended up skipping that week because we were headed to Galveston for some family fun time at the beach. Whew escaped the princess theme...for now.

Materials
1 yard Utrasuede
1/4 furry animal print fabric
various wood beads for necklace

Easter Dress

I have been wanting to try to sew one of those pillowcase style dresses for some time but just haven't gotten around to doing it. I've was actually worried that once I made one of these dresses I would get pillowcase dress crazy and then every photo of Tess from now until she went to college would be of her in one these. But with Easter right around the corner I thought it would be the perfect quick sew dress project. After searching for a tutorial I found one that looked pretty simple at Prudent Baby and thought I would give it a go. The dress is linen and cotton and even though it's not the most festive of dresses I am still referring to it as the Easter Dress. Last years Easter dress was black with small white dots so by my standards this ended up being practically a carnival of color. The whole dress from cutting fabric to completion look less than 2 hours and just as I feared I can't wait to make another one. They make the perfect summer dress and when the weather starts to turn you can layer t-shirts under them and wear them as tunics.

Materials:
Fabric
Bias Tape
Twill Tape for the tie

Salt Painting

My new mission is to try to get more creative time in with T, she is like a sponge and wants to be trying her hand at new experiences everyday. Developmentally she seems to be transitioning from abstract doodles to more representational drawing so when I saw this cool craft over at Family Fun magazine I thought it would be a perfect fit. I was amazing at how she was grasping the concept of following the lines and enjoying a bit of structure, actually waiting and having fun at each step in the process. To do this project at home you need only a few things that you probably already have on hand. First step is to take some stiff card stock or you can reuse cut down cardboard boxes, we used watercolor paper that I cut in half. Next squeeze or draw out with regular Elmers/craft glue a design on the paper. Tess made her first ones pretty simple but once she saw that she only painted on glue she made the next ones more elaborate. After the design is done place the paper in a shallow pan and sprinkle with course salt until the paper is covered then shake off any excess. While the glue is still wet start dabbing wet watercolor paint onto the salted design trying not to drag the brush through the glue. Like magic the wet color spreads as the salt absorbs the paint. We tried regular Mortons table salt and course kosher salt and got better results the with latter. We also found that the more wet the paint the better the leaching of the color on to the design. Make sure to document the artwork because once it dries it tends to flake off and could make for messy storage.

Materials:
Watercolor paper or Card Stock
Craft Glue
Course Salt
Shallow Pan
Watercolors
Paintbrushes

Bath Towel

Long time no post. Sorry we have just been busy around here and finding time to craft is a luxury that mommy is going without these days. So here is a quick one I was able to pull off before the kiddos even woke up on Sunday am. T was in need of a new towel and when I looked online at the prices I was amazed at what companies charge for toddler towels - highway robbery if you ask me. After looking at some of her old baby towels it didn't seem like it would be all that difficult to sew one up, basically the towel construction is only three long seams plus a little extra work to add on some fun details. I purchased a 100% cotton standard bath towel for $3.99 and a hand towel for $1.99 from Target on sale. Sorry I didn't have time to completely document the process for a tutorial but here is a link to the basic sew online http://www.makeandtakes.com/easy-hooded-bath-towel. I promise this is a super easy project well worth the time and small investment. Since I've made another one in orange that was a little chicken as a gift for my nephew Zade and plan to make one for baby Theo. This just might be my go to gift project for all of T's friends.

Simple Baby Quilt

It's been a crazy few months. Getting ready for baby #2 who arrives in just 4 weeks while managing a toddler has made for a busy busy summer. I've been battling with mommy guilt over the fact that I have been so involved with T that I haven't spent the same attention on preparations for baby 2. By the luck of the draw (coming second) baby #2 is going to be getting left overs and hand me downs from his big sis but there are a few things that I wanted to make just for him. I was set on making a baby quilt and a (not yet tackled) room mobile. I have never quilted before and so for my first attempt I wanted something simple yet stylish. I found inspiration & great how to techniques online at Purl & on You Tube. The only thing special I had to buy was a quilting foot that enables you to sew multiple layers together without the fabric slipping. I started with batting or pinning the three layers of fabric together with safety pins then proceeded in sewing zigzag lines of different threads across the short length of the pinned material. I did this repeated and changed colors with each pass until I "felt" the quilt was "done". The last step was to trim the edges and attach binding material around the edges. My total budget for this project including the new sewing foot was $22.00 and total time was about about 3 1/2 hours.

Materials:
Cotton batting
2 contrasting colors of cotton material
Several thread colors
Safety pins
Quilting foot

Little Step

In just a few months Tess is will be turning two. I can't believe how quick these years have gone by and how big she is getting. In these next few weeks my plan is to work on several crafts that will hopefully serve as a reminder to me of these special "little girl" days. There are many pre-assembled kits for making baby prints that can be picked up at craft stores but we wanted to control the materials so that we would be able to make the same stepping stones every year to mark her birthday. We got all the materials at the local hardware store and spent less than five dollars on everything and we have left over for next year. We started out by mixing concrete as per directions and once ready scooped the mixture into the plastic plant liner we used as a mold. Next we rubbed olive oil on Tess' feet and let her press lightly into the concrete. To finish it off Daddy scribed TP2 to mark her birthday and we let everything dry for 48 hours before removing the liner. You can embellish with stones and marbles etc but we are saving that for when Tess can decorate them herself...that's for next year.

Materials:
Quickmix Concrete
Plastic plant liner
Olive oil
Mixing container
Stir Stick