Gnomes!!!

Updated to include tutorial instructions and a kit purchase option!

This past weekend I decided to make something with my girls. It had been a while since we'd done a big, cover-the-kitchen-table crafty morning and I needed it. I think they needed it, too.

My girls and I make things all the time, but as they've gotten older, they are much more independent in their making. We may all be in the studio, or the kitchen, creating, but we are not often creating the same thing. It was fun to work through the steps together and have them each, independently, making their own versions of the gnomes. My seven-year-old decided the gnomes MUST have feet and arms. The wine cork bodies weren't enough. She got out 16 gauge wire and wire cutters, a bench block and hammer, and beads to make tiny feet wearing bead 'boots.'  My eleven-year-old grabbed colored yarn and made hers with stripey hair, to match a favorite Manga character. Then she added feet wearing roving-wrapped boots to hers. We shared scissors and a glue gun, passed the seed bead jar around and tried not to stick ourselves with the felting needles. 

My crafty momma-heart was in heaven. 

I could have made gnomes all day, snug around the table with my daughters. 

What we used:

Felt balls (these are all pretty, but any colors will do)

Wool roving (you can find it here)

Felting needles and a pad for working

Seed beads for the eyes, sewn on with these needles and this thread

Yarn and fabric and ribbon scraps for the scarves, we have ribbon mix bags here that would be perfect

Wine corks (we had those lying around, but if you don't, try asking a friend or checking with a local wine store, they will have them!)

Scissors, glue gun

I will publish a tutorial for these on Friday (12/20/13) and you can receive a free copy in our Newsletter (subscribe here.)

I'll also be teaching how to make this gnome at our shop, December 20-24th. We are having a Crammin' For Christmas make-a-thon and this is going to be one of the fun make-n-takes. Join me if you can!

UPDATE

click the picture for the full tutorial

Shop for kits, including paper hats and tiny paper instruments right here. 

Let it SNOW!

I just returned from taping Beads, Baubles and Jewels in Cleveland, Ohio. This morning, I stepped through 10 inches of snow to rush into the airport. This afternoon, I was back in Raleigh, NC, disoriented and looking at pansies and green grass.

I don't really miss the snow, but I did think it was absolutely beautiful last night as we headed into our hotel. The flakes were big and falling fast, and my boots were very useful in navigating from the car to the door. The Christmas lights sparkled with a softened, expanded glow through the snow.

Ahh, that's okay. This afternoon I'll walk my dog around on nice, clear sidewalks. The only snow I really like is these wire snowflakes. 

click here to see more snowflakes, plus our favorite beads for making them

August Project of the Month

there is still time to make a Decopatch Lantern at our work table. This $5 project is a great way to learn how to use Decopatch papers to decorate your life. The waterproof glue/varnish is easy to use and so permanent. These lanterns can hang outside or in. 

Join us any day in August to make this project!

5 Family Crafts That Travel Well - My Favorite All-Ages Crafts for Traveling

My family is headed off on a big vacation this week. It's a mountain trip, this time, to a bare-bones cabin. We have to bring just about everything we want for the week, and we tend to travel like Victorians anyway. This means we have to take sheets and towels, but our trusty minivan will also be loaded with rugs, hanging lanterns, speakers for the ipod and that big skillet I use to make paella.

Oh, and the craft stuff. We can't go anywhere without taking some making activities. What makes a good travel craft? For me, it needs to be portable and packable, easy to clean up and, most important-sharable. We're taking this trip with a big group of friends and any craft that gets started on the picnic table can attract a crowd, fast.

Wait, I have one last criteria for a good travel craft; it can't be trashy. It needs to be lovely. I want to make something (or help my friends make something) that I want to keep. I'm not a fan of time-killer crafts; the junky things made from foam stickers and paper plates and google eyes that keep your hands busy but really need to be popped in the recycling bin immediately when you get home. I try to find crafts that are engaging, interesting and look beautiful when they are finished.

This is my list of Great Travel Crafts:

1.Needle felting
Needle felting is a fabulous travel craft. You can embellish items that you are wearing or plan to wear, you can make toys, you can make felted book marks. Needle felting is appropriate for anyone old enough to hold the needle. Yes, I just wrote that. My children both needle felted at age 3 and no one lost a finger. They made dearly-loved balls of wool with eyes and ears and tails. I think they were supposed to be hamsters. Or kittens. Imagine a very young child's drawing, but three-dimensional. Children can also make snakes (long, ropey things) with ease. The wool is inexpensive, the tools are reusable and the clean-up is absolutely minimal. If you want to read an amazing needle felting blog, check out Puffy Little Things from New Zealand. Her work and tutorials are super incredible.
What you need:

1. Wool Roving (get an assortment like this)
2. Felting Needles (I like this tool to hold the needles, it is safer)
3. Extras-yarn scraps, needles for stitching the yarn, buttons for eyes (you can also felt the eyes!)

2.Kumihimo or macrame knotting projects
Friendship bracelets and stacking bracelets are such a trend now that just about everyone in your group will want to make something colorful and knotty to wear. You can use a kumihimo braiding board or print out and make your own. You can also embrace your inner love-child and create some macrame bracelets. I love the bracelet tutorials on this site for macrame and knotting.

What you'll need:

1. yarn or cording of some kind (I like this hemp assortment)
2. kumihimo braiding boards  (I like this assortment of shapes)
3. scissors! I like these cute ones!
4. a ruler or yardstick is also helpful

3.Altered books
Creating an altered book while on a trip is a nice way to make the scrapbook in the moment. Especially if you are travelling with school-age children, this can be a good way to insert some quiet time into your day. We've do this on beach trips. We borrowed a small photo printer from a friend and each day the children could cut, paste, paint and stitch their pages describing the activities that happened the day before. I'm one of those people who has boxes of photos and ticket stubs and maps that I want to add to a scrapbook 'someday' - doing the book ON the trip means nothing else has to go into that box! To create an altered book scrapbook on your trip, take along some scissors, glue sticks, rubber stamps, ink pads, markers, an old book and a photo printer. The rest of the embellishments can come from your trip. For inspiration, you can check out this book.

4.Apothecary bottle necklaces
These tiny glass-bottle necklaces are a great travel craft. You can fill them with beach sand, sharks teeth, a feather, a leaf or a tiny rock from the mountains. This craft is EASY PEASY and perfect for the 'I am not crafty' set.
You'll need:
tiny glass bottles (find them here)


5.Decopatch
Decopatch requires a bit more of a work space, and some drying time, but it's a great rainy-day-on-vacation craft. You can cover a paper-mache animal, or a box, or you can even Decopatch a pair of shoes! This craft is also good for the 'I'm not crafty' crowd as it involves little more than paint brush strokes and really, you can't mess it up!

5.Metal-etching
Don't laugh at this last one. I am trying it this week in the mountains with a group of friends. We'll take some copper discs and decorate them with words or images using Sharpie markers. We'll etch them and then use a punch to turn them into pendants or key-chains. Handmade souvenirs, voila! This meets my criteria for a not trashy craft, and I don't think it will be super hard to clean up.

Do you have a favorite travel craft you think I should try? Leave it below in the comments.

Indie Kid Crafts at PopUp Sunday

Are your kids crafty? Mine are. They love to make things, and they love the idea of selling their creations. Starting this month at PopUp Sunday they can sell their work at our Indie Kid's Craft Tent. There is an application to fill out, and a table fee, just like an adult craft show. Each child will be responsible for ringing up their own sales (we are using calculators!) and handling their own customers. If you want to get your child involved, download the application here on the PopUp blog. The next PopUp is Sunday, May 19th.

(these pics are of my girls making altered art journals, which may or may not show up on their table...)

Organized for the summer...

I'm already thinking about our summer plans here. I'll be in the garden, of course, and there will be hours at the library (the BEST a/c,) movies, long afternoons at the art museum. There will also be a bit of travel, to and fro, for errands and trips to visit friends. There may be unexpected long car rides, and times when quiet stillness is called for. My two girls are mostly self-sufficient when asked to wait; one pulls out a book to read, the other a pad of paper to draw on. Still...sometimes the wait can drag on too long and the book gets finished, the drawing looses its appeal. I love this idea from the Lark Crafts blog. It's a shopping list organizer, but I think that with a bit of tweaking this could easily be a great little organizer for a small writing pad, a few colored pencils, some crosswords or mazes or word searches. Slips of paper with writing prompts could be tucked in that pocket, or a few photos or a sheet of stickers.

A thing like this, properly stocked, could result in a few extra minutes of quiet waiting time and making these books would give me a bit of joy.


Read the full directions here. If I manage to make a few I'll post pictures. If you make one (either tweaked or the original version) please send me pictures to share.

Kid Craft Love

Toilet paper owls by Flora.

 (I'm fortunate to be surrounded by LOTS of amazing crafty people, some of whom just happen to be children. I am going to post pics of the most compelling projects here as I find them.)

Fabric Scrap Necklaces

I've been having a nice stretch of time home with my girls. I've been in the store a bit this week but we had some computer problems that caused my husband (and business partner, and reluctant Tech Guy) to have to work A LOT.

I tried not too act TOO overjoyed when he had to rush in to work while I lazed around with my daughters, making more hot cocoa and deciding what we'd do to occupy ourselves.

See, that's the way it works in our family-we trade off. When he's at work, I'm probably with the girls (unless they are someplace else) and when I'm at work, he's probably with the girls (unless they are someplace else.) Sometimes we are both at work, but not often. There is school and playdates and Grandma, you know, but there are also teacher workdays, and summer break, and holiday break. His emergency need to be at work meant that I had to stay home as we would usually switch off days over a school break.

Which makes me happy. Yes, I love my job but you beady people will be here for a long time. These two girls won't always be nine and five-and-a-half and they won't always want to hang out with Mom for a long, late-December day.

What do we do at home? Well, we make stuff, of course. These fabric necklaces (picture above from Moomah) are on the list for this week. My older daughter wants to incorporate the sewing machine into hers. My younger daughter wants to use bells instead of beads. Me? I'm thinking waxed linen is just perfect for the stringing material.

Get the full instructions from Moomah right here.

Join the Patriotic Craft linky party at Craft Test Dummies

 Are you already thinking about Patriotic crafts for July 4th? It's not too early...the crafty folks over at Craft Test Dummies (one of our favorite sites here at the office!) have started a link party to celebrate Patriotic Crafts.

You can join in...just go read the instructions on their site right here.

I can't join the party (we are a 'selling site' and so prohibited) but I'll share some red-white-and-blue jewelry ideas that go a bit beyond the safety pin flags you made in 3rd grade all month.

What would I do with the items pictured here?

I'd string those beads up in a chunky necklace on red or blue leather cording and cut out some of my favorite states from the map and make charms using bezels and ecopoxycraftresin. 

Felted Egg

I love this sweet felted-egg tutorial over on Twig and Toadstool. Those crafty mamas always have really sweet family crafts that use quality materials to produce lovely objects.

My children are always in major production mode. Whatever craft they are currently working on WILL result in many, many multiples of the project. Beaded hair clips? My older daughter made 34 in a week. Tote bags complete with pocket but sized for an 18" doll? They made about 20. Resin magnets in bottle caps? We sent 50 out as gifts this past year. Teeny weeny books are the current obsession; we have a library of 1" books fit for a miniscule Alexandria. 

I'm a big stickler for giving the kiddos sharp scissors, good colored pencils, decent beads and nice fabric scraps. Why? Well, good ingredients give you a good product. Yeah, you know that with your adult crafts, but have you ever wondered why we stick the kids with the scissors that don't cut, creativity-zapping foam stickers, tacky plastic beads and garish ribbon? Is it because we want them to make us awful-looking objects?

We have a foam-sticker-free studio at our house. My girls have a giant basket of wool roving (cost $25 max and the # of projects is incredible!) We'll be raiding that basket to make some wool eggs for family and friends. Perhaps that can distract them from the itsy-bitsy books.

See the Twig and Toadstool project here.

A Diamond Glaze how to video for you

check out the tutorial here on our YouTube channel, OrnamenteaFineCrafts. Yes, you can subscribe.

This no-mix resin is great for using with teens-it cleans up easily and they can make really lovely projects so quickly. Oh, I like it a lot too, and I am about 20+ years away from teen-hood!

Acorn Bird Nest project from Twig and Toadstool

My friends Nancy and Jennifer are big fans of this crafty blog, Twig and Toadstool and I have to say I am completely smitten as well. The projects are family-oriented but there is not a puffy foam shape in sight. These are sweet crafts for children and adults that use real craft materials and natural materials. It always makes me sad when I see someone trying to promote crafts for children that use junky materials or lots of plastic-y, self-adhesive stickers. When my children make something I want it to be out of real materials. That creation they spend time on will be on display in our home for a long while and if it is constructed of pretty ribbons, nice paper and sparkly glass beads it will look all the better. The work of anyone, child or adult, benefits from quality ingredients. I know, you are thinking 'hey, that get's expensive!' It can. At our house we embrace hand-me-downs and don't spend money on the latest SuperMarketedPrincessGlitterMess video game and the companion tie-in breakfast cereal to keep the craft budget pumped up.

I have this tiny nest ornament on our list of to-dos and I can hardly wait to make some. We may make our own eggs from clay but the bean idea is great. Go read the directions and you can even follow the blog.

Photo used with permission from Twig and Toadstool.

Monday Kid's Classes at Ornamentea

These are from the first in our series of Monday Kid's Classes at Ornamentea. This class meets September 13th or October 18th from 3:45-4:45. Participants in this class will make up to 5 interchangeable resin pendants that they can attach to a choker-style necklace using magnets. This is a big trend in accessories for the tweeny set now: changeable necklaces. Sign your 7-11 year old up today by calling 919-834-6260. Class fee is $15 and includes all supplies and use of our tools.

See more details here. Other classes for crafters of all ages can be found here.

Oh, the projects can be tailored for girls or boys! Crafting is for everyone!

Felt Flower Hairbands

These easy decorated hair bands are keeping my girlies cool in hot weather. We sew them together by stitching right through the hair elastic with a needle and some thread. The sewing is pretty simple; my 7-year old can do one in about ten minutes. Her 4-year old sister has trouble getting the needle through the felt flower, but she picks out the color combinations.

Get some flowers of your own, right here.

Piano Hammer Necklaces

We'll be sponsoring a children's craft booth at the Crosscurrents Festival Music Day at Marbles on Saturday, July 3rd. The festival has hands-on music activities for children and adults and is a full day of fun. There are instruments to try, music-reading lessons and musicians galore. This is our project for the day; a necklace made out of a piano hammer. Did you know pianos even have hammers? Join us and learn all about it!