A Very FPS Christmas

Living overseas, it's important to get started on your Christmas cards pretty early.  I wish I could say that I've learned this, but it's a completely intellectual knowledge that doesn't seem to affect real life at all.  This is the 5th Christmas that I've waited until the end of November and then flipped out. As if I didn't realize Christmas was coming.  If only retailers would start reminding me before Halloween...

Which is why this year I came to the sudden realization that if we were going to be sending out Christmas cards, we needed to take the pictures the very next day before my husband left for a few weeks.  And that meant I had to figure out what we were all wearing that very night.

Sparkle Mod Podge and freezer paper stenciling to the rescue!

Did you know Mod Podge can act as a fabric medium when added to acrylic paint?  I'm not sure how well it really works since the shirt was still pretty stiff where it had been painted.  But I think it's softer than it would be without the Mod Podge, and rumor has it that it will soften with each washing.  (rumor=Susan)  So, armed with that knowledge, I cut out these words out on freezer paper, ironed it to my shirts (which were swiped from their wardrobes, leaving none of them with a plain white tee, but who needs those anyway?), and painted using metallic acrylic paint mixed with sparkle Mod Podge.

Because why use the regular stuff when you can use sparkle, right?

 

You can't so much tell in these pictures, but the sparkle plus the metallic paint was a really cool effect and gave these shirts that extra oomph that doesn't normally occur when I make something within hours of it being needed.  Actually this might have been my biggest win as far as last-minute-crafting goes.  (the family pics, not so much.  Guess how many good pictures we got out of 397.  I dare you.)

And happy birthday to this little bundle of joy!  She's been around for a year now and we think we're going to keep her. 

Clean and Modern Wall Map: A Tutorial

Putting art on walls is hard. I like decor, but I also like open space around me. I like lightness and brightness and room to think without being distracted by lots of visual noise. When we moved to this house over two years ago, I wanted the walls of our living room to stay light and bright. 

We renovated the kitchen and the laundry room area as soon as we moved in. The laundry area adjacent to the kitchen had big folding doors that were more in-my-way than helpful, so I took them off, chose one, turned and hung it in the living room as a large blank canvas. 

To make your own super-sized art, all you need are:

• a source image
• a big wall space
• thread
• tape
• a ruler
• markers and/or paint + paintbrush

In choosing my graphic, I did a quick google image search for "world map" with the "line drawing" option selected.  I chose one that I thought was a good fit for the clean and simple look I was going for, and set about enlarging it. Enlarging via the "grid method" really doesn't require much artistic skill. You're concentrating on one little box at a time and it's fairly forgiving. At least I hope Australia and a few other countries will forgive me for what can be called "creative license".

I measured my "canvas" and then drew grid lines on the source map to correspond with the size of the canvas, an easy task because the proportions were so similar. To create the grid on the canvas I taped all four sides of the canvas with masking tape and used a ruler to mark the grid lines on top of the tape. 

Then I taped thread at the horizontal lines all the way across, and worked with just two vertical lines at a time that I moved across as I worked. Why thread? In smaller works you might just draw the lines with a pencil and then erase them. Obviously, that creates another step in the process that's time-consuming. Thread creates a thin, movable line. Easy to remove when you're done.

To keep the thread from drooping in the center I added tiny bits of tape. Even if the graphic were a lot more dense, these bits wouldn't be in the way. Once your grid is in place, you're reproducing each square from your source image on your larger canvas.

I drew the entire map with a Sharpie, but for whatever reason (light exposure? acidity?) it faded pretty quickly. As a longer-lasting solution I painted over all of the drawn lines with a gray acrylic and a small, round nylon brush. When finished, it's a nice, light, open space.

It still offers plenty of room to add something seasonal or celebratory, like the sweet banner that Minted Party Decor sent over.

My favorite scene, of course, is the sleepy old beagle enjoying his spot.

Bright, light and happy. My kind of hang-out space. We've spent a lot of time snuggling on this couch over the last few days. I can't even bring myself to write about Sandy Hook, it just hurts too much. I burst into tears at the mention of it. For now, my coping mechanisms are crafty things and hugging my children until they tell me they can't breathe. 

Card Stock + Mod Podge = Ornament

All of these ornaments were made with multiple layers of cardstock mod podged together.  See Susan's tutorial for more information.  I cut these with my silhouette, but you could cut simple shapes by hand, or use a decorative paper punch.  I really love how the multiple layers of card stock make these ornaments look and feel like they've been routed out of wood.  They are super fun, easy, and addicting to make and would be a perfect craft for ladies' craft night or for older kids.  I dare you to make just one!

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm spending mine enjoying my very last day of being 30!

A Pony Birthday Dress

Our sweet little friend turned 4 last weekend and had a party at our local equestrian center where the kiddos got to feed horses and take little pony rides.  I thought it would be fun to make her a dress to tie into the theme, and I just happened to have this ages-old Heather Ross fabric in the stash.  Kinda perfect, huh?

 I just used my standard bodice block that I use for all my dresses and added a gathered skirt.

 I love how the very narrow darts give even a little girl dress some shape and classiness.

I made a little cross over for the back bodice.  It's my second time making this kind of back (um, yeah, I guess I never blogged the first one....that I made 2 years ago...oops.) and I'm still working on my proportions a little, obviously.  I got lucky on this one and was able to move the button over an inch and eliminate the sagginess you see here and the bunching in the front.  (The updates aren't photographed because, per usual, this dress was finished within minutes of leaving for the party.  Someday I'll learn.  Just not today.)

I also made it a little easier by inserting some pipe-less piping between the bodice and skirt.  In the front it's just a nice little contrasting trim, but in the back it becomes the casing for the elastic.

I hear that the birthday girl liked it.  That's pretty high praise coming from a 4 yr old.  But that could be because I cheated and covered my bases with some princess barbies too.  Somehow I think the excitement level of a 4 yr old for some prized and hoarded Heather Ross fabric isn't the same as mine.  Weird.

Feather Earrings: A Tutorial

Earlier this year I was totally wowed by this post by Jessica Jones of How About Orange. I'm surprised it's taken me this long to finally try it myself-- I love the idea so much. 

Because I fail miserably at doing things the same way anyone else does, I set about making earrings with layered paper, but used Mod Podge both to glue and seal and then finished with paint. I appreciate that you could use these as a girls night project and make a million of them with a very small investment in materials.

The supplies required to make these are so simple.

• Card stock
• Mod Podge
• Paint
• Earring wires
• Jump rings
• Silhouette

For this particular design, cutting with a Silhouette is pretty important. Not only would cutting this with an X-acto drive you to drink from the dusty and previously untouched bottle of moonshine someone gave you 5 years ago, the precision cutting required to then line them up neatly would be really, really hard to achieve. If you want to hand cut shapes, go with something simpler. I have a few options to share coming up. For now, on to the feathers!

I've shared the Silhouette cut file here. Mod Podge does a great job of stiffening paper. I chose to use 4 layers of card stock, but you could add more if you want them to be thicker or less if your cardstock is very heavy. So for one pair of earrings, you'll need to cut 8 feathers. Or 16 if you're putting two feathers on each ear. You'll see that there are two different sizes in the file, and of course, you can adjust the size/scale to your liking. I loved the negative shape that these create when you peel the feathers away. 

I like to work with Mod Podge on a clean sheet of freezer paper with the shiny side up. The Mod Podge doesn't stick to it easily.

Paper absorbs the Mod Podge, so you'll need to lay out your pieces and work with some speedy enthusiasm. Here you can see that one feather's tail is pointing right and the others are pointed left. We're going to give all four a quick coat of Mod Podge--

And then flip them one by one, adding a coat of Mod Podge before flipping the next.

Coating both sides before sticking them together gives them a solid finish when it dries, but also the tiniest bit of wiggle to adjust them and line up the sides evenly.

When you're finished with the assembly, pick up the feather and smooth the edges, seal the underside and all the way around and brush away any excess.

You may need to use a needle or pin to clear Mod Podge out of the hole that you'll use for the jump ring if any has gathered there. You can also adjust the shape with your fingers-- you may want it to dry flat or you may want it to have a bit or curl or curve to it. However you shape it up, gently plop it on a clean and dry spot on your freezer paper or non-stick surface to dry. Which won't take long at all.

And the jump rings and the ear wires, and you're good to go! And then there are 57 million options. Paint them any color you like.

And that's it. So simple, right?

Giveaway Winner Palooza!

We have 3 winners to announce tonight, so let's get to it, hey?

First up is the winner of 10 rolls of washi tape and 25 gift cards from Downtown Tape. 

Congratulations Jessica!  We hope you enjoy your new goodies! 

 

Next up is the winner of the Greenpoint Cardigan and Adrianna's upcoming mystery pattern.

Congratulations Megan!  I'm glad you agree about the nuts.  And I'm glad so many commenters agreed about the poor grammar, spelling mistakes, and mouth breathing (Hopefully you agree with my use of the oxford comma too.  I'm never giving it up.)  Maybe together we can rid the world of these evils.  I was surprised to see that nobody said "whistling" though.  One note and I'm homicidal.

Last up, the big winner of their choice of Spoonflower I Spy assortments!

Congratulations Michele!  We hope the kid loves it!

And that rounds out our big giveaway week!  Thanks to everyone who entered!  We'll be back next week with some fun crafty stuff for the holidays.  Have a great weekend!

How We're Celebrating the Season

There are a few established traditions happening around our house. The tree. The lights. Decorations. Some baking. Chocolate advent calendars. 

And there are a few new ones. First, there's Reindeercam. It's a 24 hour webcam that shows exactly what's happening at the north pole, in case you neeeeed to know. 

In the morning they're kinda slow and sleepy. Like me.

Later they perk up, of course.

In the middle of the day the antlered one decided to try to take out the stripey pole. I think it was scratching its antlers. Sharpening them? Or trying to shed them? Dunno, but he/she was intent.

And at 11am and 6 & 9pm Eastern, Santa comes out to feed the reindeer. He seems to also talk to them and tell them jokes, but you can't hear them. (One's imagination runs wild with how funny they must be.) He also checks the mail in his mailbox. 

There's a scrolling "nice list" in the upper right corner, which has K transfixed-- she's looking for her own name and any others she recognizes as friends. Previewed on Instagram. The site has more info on how you can get your own names on the nice list. You know, besides the requisite good behavior.

A second new thing is the fact that my car is decorated. I mean, I'm already driving a minivan, it's not like I can pretend I'm not a mom, so I might as well be a fun mom. The girls both flipped over it, and every time we open the front door to head out it's the first thing they look for, in case the car has been de-reindeer-fied. So far so good. I got them here.

image courtesy of the nice folks at Amazon

Lastly, we are hosting the elf. The one that sits on a shelf. I completely avoided this for the last few years, thinking to myself "ugh, one more thing to take care of during an already busy month". But as it turns out, my husband has happily taken this one on. He remembers to move it and *I'm* surprised each morning at where it turns up. We named him Charlie. You may've previewed him already on Instagram.

I enjoy overhearing the girls arguing over whatever the issue of the moment is and then hearing one of them whisper "Charlie can hear you!". Yes! That's a winner! 

What's been added to your holiday world this year?

P.S. Three giveaways close later today! Here, here and here.