November 2009

Next Sunday, November 29th is the first Sunday of Advent .  And this is the wreath I will be using to celebrate the season.

For those of you unfamiliar with the meaning of the Advent season, or who may want to know a little more about the history of Advent wreaths and calendars, check out Advent and the Wreath.

The symbols on each candle are designed to remind us :

      trees  -  to respect the earth and protect the natural world
   
      hearts   - to express gratitude and appreciation for all that we have

      stained glass  -  to be charitable and share what we have with others

      people paper chain -  to promote good will and understanding among                                              among all people on earth          

After the candle is lit, each family member can offer a few words about the idea behind the candle, or  what it means to them, or perhaps some way they can demonstrate it's meaning during the next year.

Wouldn't it be nice, during this often times hectic season, to create a little time of reflection on what is good in our world and how we as individuals can make it even a little better.

My friend Liz, who lives on a tiny island off the northern tip of Michigan, teaches school, has two lovely children, takes beautiful pictures of island life and writes a blog called The Quilted Turtle is responsible for planting the seed for "growing" my advent candles!  This is her post!  And thank you Liz, for allowing me to share your picture!

She got her inspiration from Lina who lives in Montreal and writes a blog called Linaloo.  She posted this tutorial for  decorating candles using stamps and tissue paper.  (And by the way, when you visit her site, be sure to check out the adorable patchwork holiday star ornament tutorial she posted just recently).

This was the idea I started with.  I decided if Lina could melt white tissue into to her candles, I could melt colored tissue and create a stained glass effect.  I tested it out and it worked great! 

It seems to me that children would have so much fun cutting shapes and decorating candles.

I don't intend to give you a tutorial here - Liz and Lina have done a great job of that already.  But I will give you a few tips for how to create the candles using colored papers.

Once you figure out your design, create a pattern. Of course if you are going to use the stained glass design, all you need are squares and rectangles - easy!

Little hearts cut and ready to be melted onto the candle.

Follow Lina's tutorial to melt the paper onto the candles.  Be sure to wear a kitchen mitt.  (You can see mine are well used!) The blow dryer gets HOT!

If you are sharing this project with children, be sure YOU are the one holding the paper around the candle. They can hold the hair dryer or be on melt patrol.

You are going to love playing with these ideas Lina and Liz have posted!  And I imagine many of you will come up with ideas of your own while you are playing!

My friend Heidi (we make pinatas, pesto, cookies and gingerbread houses together!), was having difficulty coming up with a symbol for "preserving the earth".  All of a sudden I thought of the pages and pages of dried flowers I have stashed away.

The dried flowers worked perfectly! PER-FECT-LY! !

Just place the wax paper over the dried flower , hold tightly in place as you heat the area with your blow drier and presto - the dried flower is now part of your candle! We were dancing around the room like a couple of 10 year olds who just discovered gold!

Liz modified Lina's technique.  Instead of stamping the design, she gave her children Sharpie pens and let them draw designs onto pieces of pre-cut tissue paper.  So I decided to give it a try since we were obviously on a roll!

So here goes!

oops!  Nothing like a little failure to bring you back to earth and make you humble, is there?

I did not allow the ink to dry completely.  I had this mistaken idea that Sharpie ink dries instantly.  Well, it does not!  And it is very important that the ink be completely dry before moving on to the hair dryer.

Thorough drying makes a big difference.  And be extra vigilant about not heating the wax any more than is absolutely necessary to make the tissue edges disappear.

A WORD OF CAUTION!

Do not use standard tapers for this project.  The candle might catch on fire as it burns down. 

Pillar candles over 2" in diameter are best to use, but NEVER leave any candle burning unattended. NEVER EVER!

I just love Heidi's candles! 

She is sending them as a gift, along with a wreath, to someone she loves very much!

Her designs represent:

hearts  -  charity

flowers  -  protecting and loving the earth

stain glass hexie quilt pattern  -  we are all one - connected together -  parts of the whole

hands  -  gratitude

I hope some of you will follow my lead and make candles to celebrate each Sunday of the Advent season.

Thank you Heidi, thank you Liz and thank you Lina for helping to make my season brighter.

Felted Dala Horse!  A perfect ornament to make to celebrate Santa Lucia Day on December 13th!

Stepping away from traditional red because my eyes love this gorgeous teal blue,  But I have one cut from red wool to work on during a blogging break!

I have chosen to make mine from my stash of colorful Pendleton blanket weight wool scraps, but wool felt or felted wool sweaters or felted wool fabric would work equally well.

You will need:

wool felt fabric
roving or worsted yarns
wool or perle cotton embroidery yarn
needle with a large eye to accommodate the yarn
felting needle
foam felting pad
scissors
a bit of fiber fill for stuffing
paper and pencil

Begin by making a pattern.  I did a little internet search and drew my own, but you could trace one if an image is available to you!  Or you may "borrow" mine!

You can see it took me several tries to get the back end to look the way I wanted!

Cut out your pattern. 

I cut two horse patterns so I could make absolutely sure I placed them on the fabric facing opposite directions.  This is important - otherwise you will end up with two fronts or two backs!

I also cut patterns out of wax paper so that as I  moved them around the designs on the Pendleton fabrics I could see what they would look like.  A wax paper pattern would be very helpful if you are planning to use a patterned fabric for your horse - or any other animal for that matter.

Ready to begin felting!

Just for reference, here is a closer shot of my little practice sample.  Notice that worsted wool yarn felts very well and is easy to use when you wish to create an outline.  However, to fill in an area, roving would work best.

Draw the outline of the design onto your felt with a pencil or sewing chalk.  Your horse should be lying on the foam pad right side facing you.

Pull off a piece of roving about the diameter of a pencil and twist as you see shown above. Place the roving along the line. 

Holding the felting needle as close to vertical as you can, begin attaching the roving to the felt punching the needle through the roving, and into the felt and the pad.  Don't be timid.  You need to be a bit aggressive to push the roving into the felt.

But don't be careless.  Stay totally focused on what you are doing while needle felting. Pay special attention to where you are sticking the needle.  These needles are sharp and I can't even imagine what it must feel like to gety stuck with one.  All those barbs - OUCH!

Roving loves to return to it's untwisted state so you will need to continue to twist as you work you way around the design lines.  Cut excess roving off at the fabric edge, being sure to felt the ends into the fabric.

Back view!  Just so you know what it should look like!

To make the coils, secure your twisted roving (or yarn) in the center of the circle and then begin winding the roving around and around, felting in place with the needle as you go.

When your circle is complete, cut the roving leaving a tiny piece to be felted onto the coil.

If you want a dot of contrasting color in the centers of your circles, felt them on after completing the coils.

Add bits of yarn for the bridle attaching the ends to the inside surface of the horse. Use the image at the top of the post as a placement guide.

Place the front and back of your horse together, right sides facing out - wrong sides together.  Leaving the belly open, blanket stitch around the outside edge of the horse..

Fill lightly with fiber fill and blanket stitch the belly closed.

Attach a yarn loop for hanging.

I only felted a design onto one side of the horse, but you could felt both sides before you stitch them together if you wish.

My Pendleton Dala has a different design on each side!

This little guy was very easy!  Just cut out, blanket stitch around the edges, stuff and hang!

I love how the Pendleton woven design almost duplicates the look of Swedish Dala designs.

Everyone needs at least one Dala horse on their tree! 

I hope I get time to complete my red one before the 13th!

I am having way too much fun playing with gourds and I just have to share!

      - I decorated the two larger gourds in the background last winter and I have enjoyed them so much I decided to make a couple tiny ornaments using the same designs.

       - I had one little gourd that just begged and begged to be a snowman! 

       - During the past year, I tried my hand at drying  a bunch of those colorful, knobby, little gourds we see in every fall produce display.  And I found a very simple way to make them very festive!

Decorating gourdsis a great project for kids.  Artistic children get especially engrossed in drawing designs and pictures on their gourds.

So... just how did I get from these cute little jewelry gourds...

  

to these tree ornaments?

Here's how to decorate a gourd ornament using Sharpie pens.

1. If you don't have gourds on hand, I have provided, at the end of this post, several links to farms who will be happy to ship you some! 

Note:  I  used a tiny little jewelry gourd to make the poinsettia ornament. (I put a quarter in my treasure chest of jewelry gourds so you could see how little they are.) 

The ornament decorated with flowers and the snowman below are made from small gourds measuring 3" x 3" .

2. I ordered cleaned gourds, but if you wish to spend a little less money and clean your own, gourd cleaning instructions can be found in Diane's tutorial written for Craftstylish.

3. Draw your design on the gourd surface with pencil.  The pencil lines will erase easily if you need to make changes.

4. Using Sharpie pens, color in your design. 

I like to finish my designs with a very thin, black sharpie, but that it optional.

Note:  Drawing on gourd surfaces with Sharpie pens seems to be an activity enjoyed by almost everyone - young or old, boy or girl!  I hosted a gourd decoration class during the Harvest Festival at the Pumpkin Patch over Labor Day.  I provided cleaned gourds and a bunch of washable felt pens.  It was very obvious that everyone who came to play really enjoyed the experience.  (And of course the one thing I forgot was a camera!  Next year!)

Here's how to decorate a gourd ornament using colored pencils

1. For the flowers I use Berol Prismacolor pencils.  I think most color pencils will work.

2. Again, draw your design with a regular pencil and then begin filling in with color.

3.  Because the gourd surface is uneven and is covered with tiny pores and pits, the pencil color does not lay down smoothly.  I cut a Q-tip in half and use the cut edges to blend the pencil lines together.

Since my design is influenced by the beautiful flowers painted on platters and vases in Mexico, it was necessary for me to also blend colors together.

Before blending -

and after blending!

4.  I find that this particular design seems to look better if I outline it with a thin Sharpie.  Notice that I used the same Sharpie to add a few stems.

In case you wish to duplicate the design, here are views of the other sides!

Here is my little snowman ornament!

Acrylic paints work great on cleaned gourds.  I used three coats to achieve an evenly white surface.

The hat is a bit of red paint edged with fleece.  To create the tassel, I painted the stem and then dangled a couple little pompoms from the tip.

I can't help but smile back at him every time I walk by!

Out of nowhere I got the impulse to spray paint the knobby gourds I purchased last fall and dried over the winter. 

Ever since they finished drying out in May, I have been trying to figure out what to do with them.  I used them in a fall basket, but really missed the original bright colors.

I haven't quite decided just how to use these during the holidays, but I just love how beautiful they are!  Any shape gourd would look festive spray painted in silver or gold.

Here are the promised links to gourd farms.  Have fun!

Welburn Gourd Farm: Organic gourds grown in California

Amish Gourds: from Pennsylvania Durch Country

Martha's Gourds: delivers nearly flawless gourds

Northern Dipper: Canadian Gourd Suppliers

Check out every site because the all have great gourd decorating ideas and tips.

And here is a great gourd shape identification chart provided by Amish Gourds.

 This beautiful collection of holiday trimmings,  a collaborative effort between six super-star crafters, offers six easy and festive projects that can be used as ornaments, garlands, gift tags, and stocking stuffers.

Since almost everything you need is probably already in your house and the book includes full size templates,  you can start your holiday crafting the minute the book is downloaded!

And a part of every single purchase goes to support Project Linus! If you don't have time to make a blanket to comfort a seriously ill or tramatized child in need, buying a copy of "Crafty Tree Trimmings" is a really great way to lend a hand to this worthwhile effort!

I am inspired!  And I am going to show you why!

Brilliant concept!  I can't give away any secrets, of course.  But I will tell you that Susan Beal has figured out a very clever, very easy process for making these colorful, sparkly baubles.  I can just see them hanging in windows catching the light and sending it bouncing around the room!

So many of you collect vintage buttons and beads.  Using them to create a "bead and button sparkle ornament" would be a perfect way to use part of that stash.  And if part of that stash was handed down through your family, what a beautiful way to create a family heirloom.

Family heirlooms were on Kayte Terry's mind when she created these cheerful scrap fabric ornaments designed from her childhood memories of vintage glass treasures hanging on her grandmother's holiday tree.

Kayte's template and easy to follow instructions let you dive into your fabric stash and create charming ornament gifts - for almost no cost. You could also use them as gift tags that will have a second life as an ornament! A perfect green, re-use project!

I have had several people mention to me that the fabrics shown in one of my recent posts reminded them of fabrics their mothers used for making Christmas crafts years ago.  If you have favorite "vintage" fabrics tucked away, why not use them to create "vintage treasure ornaments".

It's no secret that I love gingerbread houses!

Until I saw how Betz White put her "felted gingerbread house ornament" together - I would  never have considered attempting a three dimensional felt house!  But after looking at her template and seeing how cleverly she put it all together, I am so going to make one - or two or three!

It really just takes minutes to put one of these together! And once you get the technique down, you can decorate the house anyway you like!  I am putting little, felt cookies on the roof of my house - I always put cookies on the roof of my gingerbread houses!

I love that Patricia Zapata's "paper globe ornaments" are so versatile they can be used to compliment many different holiday themes - Hanukkah (blue and white), Scandinavian (red and white), and traditional Christmas (red and green). Make a bunch in silver and gold and hang them over the table for New Years!  Or take inspiration from the brilliant colors found in Mexican weavings and make a whole cluster in different sizes and colors - hot pink and lime green, marine blue and pepper red, parrot yellow and bright green. Beautiful!

Patricia's instructions and template put these within reach of every one of us!  Even someone like me who has had almost no experience with paper craft.  These only look complicated. The instructions are perfectly clear and show just how easy they truly are to construct.

There is no way any photo can capture just how really beautiful Diane Gilleland's little "gossamer thread tree ornaments" look glowing on a holiday tree.  But the fact is, these adorable trees are just as pretty in daylight!

Hopefully I will find a few of these tucked inside one of my Christmas gifts this year! But, if somebody doesn't take that great big hint,  then it is a good thing these glowing trees are much easier to make than they might look at first! 

Again, I can't give away secrets but just let me say that this is one of those cool projects you let sit overnight to dry and in the morning it has transformed itself!  It's magic!  Christmas magic!

I'm thinking that a bunch of these could be made in every color of the rainbow. Leave the top open, mount them over LED twinkle lights, and hang as a window or stairwell garland.

And they would be so pretty tied onto packages two or three at a time.

A perfect retro ornament for any vintage themed tree!  Or any other tree for that matter!  "Crocheted flower ornaments" remind me of the ubiquitous white snowflakes our great and great, great grandmothers used to crochet - except for one important difference - the gorgeous crochet thread colors Linda Perleman selected.  Well two differences actually - these are easy!

Linda designed this project so that even beginners can make them. She wrote the instructions out instead of using abbreviations.

I can't speak from experience since I have never had a desire to pick up a crochet hook, but her "flowers" really look like they would be lots of fun to make. If I am ever tempted to explore crochet - THIS will definitely be my first project!

The thought occurred to me that, crocheted in blue and white thread, these would make lovely Hanukkah decorations. And while you are at it, why not make up a few of Susan's bead and button baubles in blue and white and hang them all together in a festive blue and white mobile!

Beads, buttons, scrap fabrics, felt. ricrac, paper, crochet thread, cotton sewing thread, glue, scissors - no doubt you already have everything you need to begin most of these projects. 

All you need now is the e-book!  You can order that here.

Happy holiday crafting everyone!