Treasure Chest Gift

04 Tuesday Dec 2012

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NecklacesMy late great-grandmother gave the best gifts.  She would show up to every family event with brown paper grocery bags full of vintage costume jewelry, old toys and flowery hats.  I remember a particularly amazing pin that contained a real bee encased in clear resin.  The bee horrified the adults at the dining table but I thought it was beautiful.  Gram was an incurable yard sale addict and she never paid much money for any of the treasures, but they were always my favorite gifts.  She seemed to know what would be magic to us little girls.  As woman who survived the Great Depression with three young children, I am sure she enjoyed being able find and give these treasures to her great-grandchildren.  I found a bunch of inexpensive costume jewelry on Ebay and have been putting them in a box for Christmas for my girls.  (Here are a few listings).  Maybe I should wrap them in a brown paper bag.

Here are a few other posts about Gram and things her thriftiness has inspired:

GramBlanket1Basket

BlueJar

DIY North Pole Forest

03 Monday Dec 2012

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Mantle1Trees3Trees2

Ada came up with this project. We started out with paper Christmas tree shapes for her to decorate and she decided she wanted to make a forest with animals that would live with Santa. (Yes, that includes tropical fish). We used these animal image stickers and Ada cut paper into mountains and used crayons to color the water. After gluing paper squares together we ended up with a long picture that fit perfectly across the mantle. To make your own North Pole Forest you will need:

*Construction Paper in Various Colors

*Scissors

*Snow Glitter

*Feathers, Pom poms, Sparkles, Etc.

*Crayons, Marker, or Colored Pencils

*Animal Stickers

*Craft Glue

1. Glue paper squares together.

2. Cut out tree and mountain shapes.

3. Glue down stickers, pom poms, and feathers and add coloring. (We added glue behind our removable stickers).

4. Lastly glue snow glitter over the trees in your Northern forest.

5. Allow to dry flat and then hang up. Ho!Ho!Ho!

Inspiration

30 Friday Nov 2012

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Inspiration

Instagrams from the week:

*Ada’s Dessert

*Washi Tape Stack (Ready for holiday wrapping)

*Enamel Wash Bowl, Pearl River Mart

*My Pin Jar and Sequins

*Butterfly Flock, Pearl River Mart

*Sister Breakfast, Bedford Hill

Have a wonderful weekend!

DIY Embroidered Jumper

29 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by in Likes, Projects, Vintage

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This dress is a variation on Purl Bee’s lovely Embroidered Denim Jumper. I love the Purl Bee blog!  The Purl Soho store in Manhattan is an amazing place to visit- it looks like a bright candy store and is full of yarn and fabric and books and projects.  I used some vintage plaid to make this dress for Ada.  The jumper made up so quickly and easily I can’t wait to try the pattern out in other fabrics.  Etsy has some pretty plaid choices here.  The jumper requires very little machine sewing and it was fun to play around with new embroidery stitches.  This dress is the first of the sister dresses for this year.  (Here are last year’s).

Family Portrait Ornament from Child’s Drawing

28 Wednesday Nov 2012

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We have started a little yearly tradition here. When Ada drew her first family portrait last year it made me cry (in a proud and bittersweet she’s-so-grown-up sort of way). We liked the drawing so much we decided to have it made into a made into a ceramic ornament for our Christmas tree. (Which have cost about $15 each including shipping). It occurred to me that we should have the kids draw a family portrait for an ornament every year, then give them as gifts and save one for our tree. Josie is still too little to draw anything that resembles us, but when she’s old enough both girls can make a yearly ornament. I love how Ada’s drawing style has evolved in a year and I look forward to a tree full of these as the girls grow up. To have your own Family Portrait Ornament made you will need:

*White Paper Cut to Desired Ornament Shape (circle, oval, etc.)

*Markers, Crayons, Paint, Colored Pencils, etc. (Ada used marker last year and crayon this year)

*Camera or Scanner

*Ribbon for Hanging

*Internet Access to Transmit Image

*Photoshop or Other Photo Program (To perfect image)

1. Have the artist make the portrait. We found that bright contrasting colors worked best. Encourage child to use up the whole paper space and you will have to do less cropping.

2. Photograph or scan portrait. Be sure to photograph image straight on to avoid distortion. If you are scanning, use a high resolution. We used Photoshop to clean up, size and save our image as a jpeg.

3. Select your favorite custom photo site, choose a ceramic ornament style and follow their directions to crop and upload image. Be especially aware of crop areas so you don’t lose part of your image. If you use the same shape paper and finished ornament design you should be able to easily adjust the image to the template. We used Personalization Mall for this year’s ornament.

4. Wait for the mail to arrive. (The artist will be excited by the results!)

5. Change the ribbon and add text to the back of your ornament as desired. (We used a sticker on the back last year. Some ornament sites will let you order with text printed on the back).

6. Trim the tree!

We also used the drawings for our holiday cards. This year we worked with MOO and like the results. Happy Holiday planning!

Transition

26 Monday Nov 2012

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We are half way between pumpkins and snow here.  Ada finished her last piece of coveted (and formerly forbidden) Halloween candy today and moved directly into making Christmas decorations.  A mysterious box arrived in the mail from Aunt Laurel, containing a full advent calendar in the shape of a stuffed elf that is as big as the girls.  Aunt Anna came up with the idea of filling and mailing the advent calendar to a different member of our family each year and Ada is completely intrigued by the elf’s full pockets.  There are lots of beautiful advent calendar ideas on the blogs this year – Oh Happy Day and You Are My Fave have some great ones.  The change in the season always brings on a flurry of making around here.  We have surrounded ourselves with yarn, glitter, felt and fabric and are excited about secret gift plans.  What are you getting excited about for the upcoming season?

Inspiration (Thankful)

23 Friday Nov 2012

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We spent the week celebrating, adventuring and eating great food with good friends.  We are feeling thankful for healthy families and how lovely it is to see the little ones merge into the family of old friends.  I hope you are all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Here are some Instagrams from the week:

*The Costume Room Beside the Stage (Full of magic vintage costumes, at this amazing place.)

*Ada, Breakfast

*Spread at Scratch Bread (Some of my favorite baked goods ever, conveniently and dangerously just around the corner from us.  The Bourbon Wheat bread is insane.)

*Cat Tails for the City Girl

*Fruit in Chinatown on Thanksgiving

*Beautiful Gummybears, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

*Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate with Homemade Black Pepper Marshmallow, Scratch (Way too good to share with the kids.)

*Vintage Ballet Poster, Big Indian Springs (Home to a ballet school in the 1960’s.)

*Big Indian Springs

*Beaded Charms, Chinatown

*Thanksgiving Leftovers, Nha Trang  

*Decorating the Stage, Big Indian Springs

Have a wonderful weekend!

DIY German Glass Glitter Stars

20 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Party!, Projects

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German glass glitter is amazing stuff.  It tarnishes as it ages and creates a super-sparkly vintage look.  We used silver to make our stars, but the glitter also comes in lots of beautiful colors.  German glass glitter is actually made from glass, so you need be careful and wear gloves when you work with it, but the results are worth the extra care.  We made these star and moon decorations for a friend’s birthday party.  They hung on the edges of a stage and were bright in the candle and stage lights.  We took some home for Ada’s room after the party.  To make your own Glass Glitter Stars you will need:

*Cardboard (We used recycled boxes)

*German Glass Glitter

*Craft Glue

*Hole Punch

*Scissors

*Large Paintbrush (To spread glue)

*String to Hang

*Wax Paper

*Rubber Gloves (to protect hands)

1. Draw stars and moon shapes onto cardboard and cut out.

2. Punch a hole in each for hanging.

3. Lay cardboard shapes out on layers of wax paper and squeeze a generous amount of glue on each star.

4. Using the paintbrush, spread glue evenly over the entire surface of stars and moon.

5. Put on the gloves.  Sprinkle glitter heavily over glue and leave a thick layer of glitter as the glue dries.  Be sure to leave the punched hole clear of glitter.  Use a pencil to clean out hole if needed.

6. Carefully shake off excess glitter onto the wax paper when glue is dry.  The paper can then be folded and extra glitter returned to the container for reuse.

7. Flip stars and moon over and repeat glue and glitter process.  (Don’t forget to leave your hole clear for hanging).

8. When both sides of stars are dry, string them up out of reach of the kids.

*These stars would make beautiful Christmas tree ornaments or garland!

Some other sparkly projects you might like:

DIY Vintage Crepe Paper Flower Hat

19 Monday Nov 2012

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My Mother-in-Law gave me this amazing How to Make Crepe Paper Flowers book for my birthday last year and I have been waiting for the right time to put it to use.  My copy is from 1922 and contains the secrets to making realistic flowers from crepe paper.  Needles to say, I am in love with this book!  Ebay has several copies for sale here.  The flowers turned out better than I had thought possible and we used them to make a special birthday hat for our friend Sandy.  To make your own Crepe Paper Flower Hat you will need:

*How to Make Crepe Paper Flowers book

*Variety of Crepe Paper (We used this 100 gms paper from Papermart, and each flower used less than one roll of paper)

*Headband

*Floral Tape

*Floral Wire (We used straight 18 gauge wire)

*Craft Glue

*Scissors

*Pinking Shears (optional)

*Card Stock for Patterns

*Ribbon to Tie Hat (optional)

1. Prepare patterns.  Our copy of the book did not come with the original patterns, so we followed the drawings in the book and made our own from card stock.  Label each pattern for future use.

2. Following directions from the book, make up flowers and leave stem wires long until you are ready to apply to the hat.  We used 9 flowers to make our hat.  It is helpful to hold finished flowers in a vase or cup as you go.

3. Lay ribbon over ends of headband about 2″ and glue.  (Our hat was a little heavy, so we added the ribbon to make it more secure for dancing).

4. Wrap headband with floral tape up until the point you want to add a flower.  (Start on one side of the headband and add flowers up and over to the other side).

5. Put a spot of glue over the floral tape and wind a 1″ strip of green crepe paper around the headband over the tape, gently pulling tight as you go.  This will be the visible headband covering, so try to keep it neat.  Our strip was about 15″ long x 1″ wide.

6. Trim the wire on first flower to about 3″, position it and use floral tape to secure to the headband.

7. Wrap green crepe paper over floral tape as you go, covering the headband between each flower.

8. Position the second flower and repeat the wrapping.

9. When all flowers are in place wrap the floral tape and crepe paper down to the other end of the headband and secure crepe with a little glue.

10. Allow the hat to dry.

Get your party on!

You may also like these projects:

Inspiration

16 Friday Nov 2012

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Instagrams from the week:

*Crepe Paper Poppy (Secret birthday makings, post to follow soon)

*German Glass Glitter Stars (Post also to follow soon)

*Josie in the Park

*Josie at Dance Class

*Ladybugs and Coloring in the Park

*Crepe Paper Anemones