Shrinky Dink Barrettes

My daughter has a crazy head of thick curls, that is in constant need of some kind of hairband, barrette or something or other to tame it. We have an endless supply here, and she is pretty bored with them all, so I 

decided to personalize some for her.

All I needed was Shrinky Dink paper, my pencils, and some felt.

I asked her some characters she would like, and her list was endless....chickens, pigs, things I 

do not even know how to begin to draw! So we settled this time, for a cute hedgehog, a red bow, and

a cute Spring flower.

I just drew the images in pencil, and added color with colored pencil.
Shrunk per instructions. 

Then using craft glue, attached them to their felt backgrounds, adding detailed edges with 

pinking shears and scalloped edge scissors.

We already had tons of those metal hair clips and hairbands lying around ( and boy do I love using what I 

already have lying around!)   Then using the hot glue gun, just attached them to the clips or band. 

I was also going to try making headbands, but the images shrunk a little too small to work on 

the headband. Still getting the hang of, just how tiny the images get!

Now every hair is in its place, (ha! not really, but we try our best) and she is ready to go!

Loch Ness Nonster in a Planter ... Part I

My son really loves the Loch Ness Monster. While trolling the internet for images of his favorite magical creature we came upon this British topiary frame. It is a huge Nessie that would fit well on a  large field or perhaps a palace lawn. Also it costs around $500. I have a small and shady Chicago yard and limited money to spend on my son's Nessie hobby so we came up with a much smaller and cheaper adaptation. I call this "part 1" because I am not really sure what to do with the thing now that it is ready. Hopefully in a month or so I will be able to add some photos of a verdant and mossy monster. For now I will provide directions on how to get started so you can make your topiary and get it planted up before summer.

Gigantic English TopiaryI found for sale.-

This is how you make a small topiary. I made mine to remsemble a sea monster. You can get creative and make a heart, a dinosaur, whatever you want, Simple is better, obviously. I used lightweight chicken wire and pliers.

Take chicken wire and form it into the shape you want. I made a bunch of tubes and attached them to each other. I added pipe cleaner ears.

When the frame is ready, fill it with soaking wet sphagnum moss. I bought a bag of this at a garden store. It expands quite a bit when it is wet (soak it for an hour or more) so a little goes a long way.

I decided to place my sea monster in an Earthbox that we are not using. You could also put it directly into your garden. I used some bent wires (picture croquet hoops) to attach Nessie to the soil and keep her standing up.

I clipped some ivy and planted it into the moss. It des not seem to be thriving but it also seems to till be alive so we will see what happens.

The Parlor from Longbourn house

We are huge Pride and Prejudice fans. We are very excited to be included in the June issue of British Dolls House and Miniature Scene magazine as they celebrate the 200th anniversary of this beloved book. We made a tiny parlor, trying to include all the details that a reader would appreciate, down to book titles and accessories. Here are some photos from the room but there are many more, plus an article providing all the details, in the magazine. You can put it on your Kindle or Ipad!

Fairy Tale Peg Pendants

I have had a love for fairy-tales for as long as I can remember. They still influence

my art, and I am always pushing them on my children! (they went as Little Red Riding hood and the Big bad

wolf for Halloween a few years ago.)

So after seeing the adorable peg ninjas  Sarah made last week, and this cute link  she shared with me, 

it was quite natural that I would make these;

Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf pendants for my kids.

They really like them, whew!

I just used the simple wooden pegs you can find at any craft store, and painted them

with acrylic paint, also a little bit of Sharpie marker for some details. I used craft glue to add

some felt details on the wolf. Felt ears, muzzle, tail, and some fur on his chest, cut with pinking shears.

I screwed those little picture hanging loops into the tops of the heads first, and strung some cute 

rik rak  so they can hang around their necks. 

  You could also shorten the string, and it makes a really cute little 

character to hang on their backpack for older kids.

Cute and portable!

I wonder how many other characters we could come up?

A Bag of Ninjas

 This week, I decided to use some extra tiny peg people that I have to make little Greek Gods for my children. My son was going to get a little Hermes and my daughter would be represented by the wise and powerful Athena. Unfortunately, I am not a very good painter. My little figures looked pretty bad. You can see by looking at these ninja figures that I am still not a very good painter but now I have a decent excuse for my figures to look sort of amateur-ish: I wound up changing the Greeks into ninjas and letting my six year-old son help me with the project.
My son Meka was home from school working on his own peg person while I tried in vain to make Greek gods. He took a large one and started painting and quickly transformed it into an adorable ninja. I decided to let him help me fix up the other two peg people into ninja apprentices.

This is a really easy project to make for a child or with a child. You can even use markers in a pinch. I used acrylic paint.

• Paint the entire peg person black.
• Add an off-white rectangle or oval where the eyes will go.
• Draw 2 eyes on with a permanent marker
• Use paint pens or other paint to make belts, sashes, etc.
• Varnish or Mod Podge. I used varnish and it smeared a lot of the paint around so I wold opt for the glossy Mod Podge in the future.

If you want to attach a sword or a coil of rope or any other accessories wait until the gloss finish is dry then affix them with super glue or colored tape.
I sewed a simple drawstring bag for the trio. You could also decorate a little box. Another cute option would be to put an eye-screw into the top of one of the smaller figures and hang it from a backpack.

Traveling Circus in a Suitcase

When I was growing up our neighbors had an amazing collection of antique toys. The father was actually collecting toys he had owned or had wanted as a kid.
They had everything from an actual carousel horse to old tin wind-up toys and I loved going over their house to see these things. My favorite of all was this model miniature circus tent, in a room dedicated to circus memorabilia  I was not allowed to touch it of course
but it was as big as a coffee table (at least in my memory) and I just loved
to look at it, and peer inside the tiny tent with trapeze artists flying through the air. 

Sarah and I were discussing new projects to make, and we had been meaning to make

 a circus, for some time.  The only thing holding me back, was figuring out what to make it in.

Then it came to me, a suitcase! And I was ready to go, already inspired by the memory of that 

toy circus!

 It is small and portable, and opens up to an amazing little world inside full of talented 

performers and animals just waiting to put on show. 

I made the performers out of wooden clothespins.

We have our Trapeze Artist,  The Strongman, The Ringleader, The Tattooed Lady, 

and of course, The Clown, juggling.
You can see how I made the animals here.

 I have been working on this for weeks, and my kids have been dying to play with it. This one is

totally kid friendly!

 I painted some circus animals and items on the front, using acrylic paint, and adding 

detail with a fine point black ink pen.  You can seal it wit Mod podge or clear varnish. This cardboard suitcase set works great, because it's kid size, and
easy to alter, by painting, or adding  craft paper.

For the curtain, I actually poked the wire through
the sides, and twisted it in place.
The curtain really does pull back, for a more dramatic show.

The tightrope was made from 20 gauge wire, chopsticks and wooden bobbins.  

 I used vintage circus images I found online, for the posters. 

Some of these posters inspired the real characters. 

Step right up!

To see how I made the animals, and hoop, visit this post here
.

Paper Mache Circus Animals

I have been working on a miniature circus, which you can see here.
I had it almost finished, but making the animals was holding me back.
Finally, I came up with a simple form in a paper mache style that seemed to work pretty well.

Using a 20 g. wire, and pliers, I made an armature for each animal.

Just sort of a line drawing in 3-D to hold the form.

 We have our elephant here.

a giraffe, 

and a tiger, to jump through a flaming hoop!

 Then, using tissue paper I had lying around, I stuffed it in and wrapped around

the shapes until they looked right, and secured with masking tape where necessary.

This sort of makes them look like poor little wounded animals in an
animal hospital, so let's fix them up quickly!

I used just what I had at home already,an made a sort of quick paper mache.

I tore strips of tissue paper ( used green b/c I was impatient, but white tissue paper would probably work best), and painted the surface under and over each layer 

with a watered down white glue mixture. This takes about 24 hours to fully dry. When they do dry

they are lightweight but very sturdy, and ready to be painted.

I did apply one coat of white primer to them first, before adding color.

They really came to life once I added the details: the spots, stripes and faces.

They just need some props!

 The hoop was made from 20 gauge wire with felt flames glued on.

 Then I painted some old wooden bobbins I had for the base.

These bobbins came in handy. They also worked as stands for the
elephant and the performers.

You can see the finished Circus these animals belong to here!