The unPlugged version of Art-at-home

Without even realizing or trying to, I realized that I have recently been spending more of my time "unplugged" than ever before. I have put down and away my phone and other electronic devices more than ever and I have spent less time trolling the web. This has allowed for more time to paint, invest myself in creative processing (of all sorts), and spending time with my husband and almost 5 yo daughter. One of the highlights of all of this happened this past weekend when I got the notion to finally put together a fairy garden for my daughter...

Give Handmade | DIY Sharpie Mugs

So this is kind of unoriginal of me but that isn't the point. You know those Sharpie mug tutorials that are all over pinterest and the DIY crafting blogs? (Perhaps I am behind the times and they were actually all the rage last year or something. Whatever.) Well, last week I made some of them as gratitude gifts (just in time for Thanksgiving!) for the three gals from work who I call my #bffl (best friends for life, if you didn't know).

Some things about us:

• We call ourselves many things including the "Multi-culti Crew" but more often "The Unicorn Club" because it seems so girly and middle/high school-ish and silly.
• We sometimes talk in hashtags to our kids and to each other because it is ridiculous, annoying, and also endlessly entertaining/amusing.
• We are all so fluent in the language of sarcasm that it might as well be our native tongue at this point. 
• Last year we used to do this thing on Thursdays (when we all had a planning together) that we called "Thursdates" where we would skip out and go and get ice creams or smoothies or coffees of whatever. The point was simply for us to just get off of campus for a little bit on a day that was almost Friday.
• We are all so different but at the same time very similar and we have a unique and wonderful bond where we can be somber and (sort of) crying for one another in support as much as we can pray together as much as we can busting our guts and laughing in the next moment. 

I love these ladies like nothing else. I really do. They are such a God-send and I am thankful for their friendship every day!!! And for all of these reasons, last week I made them all some gifts of gratitude where I made some giant Sharpie mugs with personalized designs for each lady. See below...

This was for the original unicorn of the group. On the side of the mug you can't see it says "#unicornstatus"

This was for the original unicorn's little sister. I have mentored this lady in the ways of professional photography and she is an outstanding talent in the way of portrait photography especially! 

This is the mug that actually started it all. I posted the one mug I made for a student on instagram and this lady saw it and showed it to her awesome mom and they laughed for 15 minutes straight and then she told me she had to have one. 

It's hard to tell but these mugs are actually gigantic. I got them all at Michael's and I have been scoping them out for (literally) years. You can't just give a gigantic mug to someone though, y'know? I mean... you can but it can be taken in the wrong way or at least not fully appreciated. For my fellow unicorn ladies though? I knew that they would appreciate them completely AND they would use them!!! It is this reason why I did gigantic mugs and not just standard ones. The point was that they mugs would make a statement and that's why I opted to make them as big as possible. (See below the picture of me holding the one. That's not forced perspective, people. The mug really and truly is that gigantic. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!!!)

See the giant mug in relation to a standard sized one? I tell you what. Gigantic mugs RULE. 

I might only do Sharpie mugs in extra-large/gigantic size from here on out. Seriously. I mean, they are awesome but (also?) I always automatically enlarge things so the larger surface area was a lot easier for me to work on.

So there you go. The Sharpie mug on the gigantic scale. If you are interested in making some for yourself you can pick them up at your local Michael's or other arts and crafts superstore. I would hyperlink them here but I can't find where to buy them online. They were about $10 in the stores though if that helps you at all.

Just for fun: Sculpting with Biodegradable Packing Peanuts

What is your experience with biodegradable packing peanuts? (They are also called cornstarch pellets.) They are an alternative to styrofoam packing material that appear to be the same thing but really are not. They are made out of cornstarch and they dissolve completely in water. Here is a video I found on youtube of some in a glass of water...

Silly (personal) backstory about these packing peanuts: 

I was first introduced to cornstarch pellets over 15 years ago when I was in high school doing yearbook. Some of our materials were shipped to us with them and going "green" was just starting to be a thing to do. I heard about them originally in science class and I was fascinated with the idea of them (I love things that are inventive and of out-of-the-box problem solving) so I was excited to finally see them in person. My science teacher had told me that you could eat them so I told my yearbook staffers (I was the editor-in-chief) that and I actually convinced everyone to eat one. After we had our fun laughing at one another and also being surprised by the fact that they were indeed edible, one of the staffers actually kept eating them! 

(o_o)

Yeah. *shrug* To each their own. 

Anyway, because I strongly dislike shopping in real time and at real places I do more online shopping than anything. Recently an early Christmas gift was delivered to me with the amazing-ness that IS cornstarch packing peanuts! I recalled my weird high school memories about them along with randomness I have read(and mentally bookmarked - as I do with everything) about using them for kiddie crafting and art.

The way it works is this: Put out a clean wet sponge, paper towel, or rag and then simply wet the end of one of the packing peanuts and then stick it to another one.

That's it! SERIOUSLY!!!

Here is my 4 yo daughter in action making a crown for herself...

You definitely have to be careful to not accidentally give your kid a glass/cup of water and just use a wet sponge or paper towel because if you don't you can bet they will just sit there and drop the pellets into the water and watch them all dissolve completely. So long as you don't do that though and your kids pay attention long enough to make something, you can even let them color what they made with markers!

I mean, I suppose you could try painting them but I wouldn't if I were use. I mean, you DO remember the video of how they interact with liquid, right?

The other night, my daughter pulled out the packing pieces and asked me to join her with sculpting and crafting. I had just put her flannel bedding on for her so I had elephants on the brain and so I ended up mindlessly making a baby elephant for my daughter. She was thrilled with the finished product:

If you interested in doing this sort of thing at home and want to order packing pieces you can either from a shipping company like Uline. You, of course, have to buy in bulk but if you are doing this for a project for preschool or other early childhood activity setting, that could work out. Also, here are some other blogs who have also adventured into the arena of sculpting with the packing pieces:

• Kids Activities Blog by the Quirky Mommas
• Special Education Services of Plano Independent School District
• Straight Dope Dad blog
• DuPage Childrens Museum blog

Just for Fun: The no-sew Superhero cape | Give handmade

Do you sew?

Strange to lead off a posting (on here) with such a question but it occurred to me the other day that of all of the kinds of handmade arts that are out there, the kind that involves or requires sewing does not appeal to me. I don't know what it is about sewing but I am just really REALLY not into it.

Now, this doesn't mean that I haven't attempted to sew or like sewing in the past. I have! And pretty much every time I've done it, I have pretty much failed miserably.

Well, wait a minute... one time I DID succeed (in grand form) when I made a giant teepee out of PVC pipes and Harley Davidson fabric for my nephews for their Christmas/Easter present (no pattern - it was all improvised from pictures I found online).
So, correction: I can sew and I have done it in the past but usually it's for purposes of novelty and/or amusement and not usually things that can be/are intended to be worn.

Anyway, all of this sidetracking is my way of sharing with you all something I stumbled upon in my avoidance to sew (ever). I would like to introduce you to the No-sew Superhero cape!!!!! (see above for a picture of one)

To make the No-sew Superhero cape, you need the following supplies:

• A crew neck t-shirt (this will be the cape itself) - any size but if you do something much larger than the person's standard size, you might have to cut the neck strap and treat it like a tie-on cape
• A pair of sharp scissors that can easily cut through fabric
• A marker or fabric pencil (to outline your cutting line) 
• Things to embellish/decorate your cape - fabric markers/paint, sticker appliques, fabric glue etc.

And this is how you CUT (not sew!) a t-shirt into a pretty legit superhero cape! Check out this... the dotted line is the path that you need to follow with your scissors in order to cut the t-shirt into a cape shape...

And here are some actual pictures that I took doing this myself...

This cut line of the back view of the t-shirt - so the cape portion that flows down the back..

And this is a cut line of the front of the shirt at the neckline.

Something really important to remember when doing this is to not cut too close to the neck ribbing and leave a little bit of extra fabric outside of the seam (where the ribbing is sewn to the body/torso of the shirt) because the ribbing with a little bit of fabric (maybe a quarter inch?) helps to add structure to the neck strap so it's more comfortable to wear and lays nicer when it is worn. Also, make sure not to cut off the bottom hem of the shirt (in the back that is the cape part) because it helps to provide structure in the way of being a little bit of weight to hold down the cape. The hems of t-shirts are usually tacked with a serger so it should be an issue that the fabric unravels itself OR comes undone all that easily.

In theory, you could use a pre-printed t-shirt with a superhero graphic printed on it but I kind of like taking a plain shirt and embellishing it with fabric paint/markers, etc.

I did this with a whole summer camp of children (ages 4-13) two years ago for "Superhero week" and while it was a lot of prep work for me - making sure every child brought in OR had a t-shirt to begin with, pre-cutting or tracing out the cut-line for the younger kids, having all different types of embellishments (to make a sort of embellishment "bar") for the kids to go crazy with and decorate their capes! All told, I think we made over 150 capes that week at summer camp. It was pretty rad (in the words of my kids).

So there you have it - the No-sew Superhero cape!!! And if you didn't have a Halloween costume planned for yourself/your kids? Well... now you can be your own kind of Superhero and NOT have to deal with the pesky chore of sewing it. Last-minute doesn't have to be a pain, right?

Give Handmade | The gift of Giving

Don't forget to enter the contest 

of this blog's first ever giveaway of my "favorite things!!!" 
It ends TONIGHT at midnight EST so I can announce the winner TOMORROW on the blog!!!!

REMEMBER: You have to leave your comments on the original blog post that announced the contest found HERE VIA THIS LINK (click this to access it!!) in order to be officially entered and considered in the final count to be randomly chosen for the prize package. Don't forget that there are (2) ways to be entered in the giveaway and the cut off time/date is TONIGHT - Tuesday, Sept. 25th at midnight EST!!

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******* Warning: This is a photo heavy posting not about classroom art education!!!*******

Something I really enjoy doing (but rarely get to do) is crocheting amigurumi. I fell into the artform when I was a new mother to my now four year old daughter and I needed something to do to pass the time and occupy my hands while I would wait for my little girl to wake up from naps to nurse in her infancy. (I have a hard time with NOT having something to occupy my hands at any given time)

I taught myself to crochet (after four years of my childhood best friend trying to teach me) in two weeks of watching youtube videos and reading online tutorials on other peoples' blogs because I was so enamored by amigurumi. (They are so charming!! How could anyone NOT fall in love with them.) I joined a social networking site that is purely meant to connect crafters of knitting and crochet called Ravelry.com.

My time when I was really into crocheting was before I was able to be an art teacher so I think doing such work fed my need to create. I started off with patterns but eventually learned that creating my own original works inspired by real objects was a lot more fulfilling for me. My first major undertaking ever without a pattern to guide me was this Thomas the Tank Engine for my daughter's first ever friend as a going away gift since he was leaving the daycare she attended when she was a baby.

The above took me so many hours and so much trial and error that I felt like a total champ when I was done and I become that much more inspired to try my hand at free-form soft sculpting more amigurumi toys. I naturally have an issue with following patterns/directions and so free-forming it really worked well for me. I would look at pictures of things online and then take what I like from multiple versions of an amigurumi idea and then try and make my own version of it. Below are some of my free-formed crocheting adventures.

Little girl elephant

Baby Harp Seal

Maryland girl crab

Baby Lamb doll

Little Girl giraffe without spots

"Sherman" the gnome (made this right around the time Gnomeo and Juliet came out in theaters)

A baby chick

I also made fun and silly hats (for novelty and amusement of my own) for my daughter. I have always been a HUGE fan of the Tom Arma babies in the face of what Anne Geddes was trying to do (Because come on! The Tom Arma ones are both hilarious and adorable all at the same time!!!) and making silly hats was my way of drawing inspiration from him. I have made hats for babies in the family but mostly I just make at least one hat for my daughter every year. It all started with the baby viking hat for me that I made for her around Easter.

And then it just took off from there. My personal rule for crochet has become that I don't do anything that can be functional (like sweaters or scarves or afghans) but I will do a hat if it can also be a little bit of silly art. My dream is to (at some point) crochet a yoda hat. Until then, this is all I have done so far. I have free-form crocheted all of the below.

Koala with red bow from two Christmases ago for my daughter

 

 

Blue monkey hat with flaps for my daughter's cousin two Christmases ago

Aviator style hat with flaps and goggles in heart-shaped (to make it more "girly")

20s style clochette hat with a flower for a cousin's little girl

Pink pig hat made from variegated pink and orange chenille yarn 

I was making toys and hats long before my daughter learned to appreciate them and the other day (in her mess of a toy room) she came upon a little turtle I made for her long ago in one of my very first every amigurumi endeavours. It looked like this:

This was made with a pattern found HERE from when I was first learning to crochet

My daughter had no clue I made it and when I told her I did she was blown away!! And she she promptly asked me if I would make her a pink shelled turtle who could be the "mama" because the above is teeny-tiny and handheld. I could not say no to her sweet request and last night I finished this up for her just in time for her to take it to show-n-tell today at playschool.

Much larger than the original and went along with the idea of the original but it was free-formed really.

I cannot tell you just how delighted my daughter was when she woke up (EARLY at that!) to her new turtle. She, of course, didn't hesitate to ask me to make a purple one that could be the "daddy" turtle. I... well... I would like to make her another one but I don't know when it will happen. *shrug* I get bored with doing the same animal over again (especially when it immediately follows one I just did) and I might be more inclined to try my hand at making her an Olivia piglet doll instead seeing as how that is her latest obsession and I am very charmed with Olivia myself.

Anyway, I guess all of this is nothing more than me tripping myself down memory lane (so to speak) with all of my random crocheting adventures but I thought I would share it just the same since it's the latest in my effort to give handmade this year. I have actually tried to teach students to crochet to try and get a little bit of a fellowship group going at both schools I have taught at (in my career) but many of them don't seem to have the patience it takes to learn the craft and then perfect it in order to be able to make (especially free-form) any of the things I have shown you above. I do have one student who graduated last year and is bound and determined to learn eventually but mostly? I am on my own with my quiet obsession and adoration for crocheting purely for my own amusement and novelty. If you are into it though? You just consider joining ravelry!!!! (My username on there is stuffshemakes if you want to connect with me) in addition to leaving me a comment on this posting so that we can connect and maybe be "accountability partners" in our crocheting endeavors. It is the one thing that is such a great stress reliever for me and I know that I probably should do more of if I can help it. Perhaps it works that way for you as well and if we are both doing it together? Well, there are two less stressed people in the world.

"In dreams, we enter a world that is entirely our own."

 ***If you don't care for "crafting" and/or things related to Harry Potter, you might not like this posting and just wanted to forewarn you about it.***

In keeping with my goal to live "a life more creative," I present to you my next creative endeavor/crafted project in my efforts for gifting of the handmade sort.

My new favorite thing is to dream up packaged gift sets that stretch a cohesive theme to its absolute limits. I will come up with one element of the gift and then just spin that and stretch it in as many different directions as I possibly can. For this gift idea, I took inspiration from the amazing collective that is the Harry Potter series.

This gift is for another individual very close to me (and I am hoping they don't stumble upon this before I am finally able to deliver it to them) and this person is one seriously diehard Harry Potter fan. I started with the idea to crochet them a baby hat - amigurumi-style - in the likeness of Hedwig (Harry's owl).  I free-form crocheted it complete with ear flaps and long ties for under the chin. I stylized it a little by making ears that were adorned with cute black bows (do owls even have ears? Whatever. Like I said - I stylized it.) I could probably make it again if I wanted to but since I don't have a pattern, the hat is probably very much an original in and of itself for the most part. I added another crocheted piece - a scarf in the colors of Gryffindor house - and sized it for specifically for a baby in their first year. I readily expect that it won't probably be used/worn and I don't care since this whole set is mostly for novelty and gifty-ness anyway. The third item of the set is a child-sized wand made to resemble Hermione's wand. It was sculpted out of Sculpey clay with an aluminum knitting needle core and it's a little bit longer than a pencil. The fourth (and final) part of the set is something I didn't make and "outsourced" by way of Etsy only because I calculated out the cost of making it and figured it was cheaper to just buy it - a teeny-tiny Hogwarts acceptance letter!! The design is that for an American Girl-type doll but I also felt like it would be just the right size for a (novelty version) Hogwarts acceptance letter.

The final part of the gift set was something I really mulled over for a while. I wanted to package it up in a way that continued to play upon the Harry Potter theme but I just wasn't sure how/what I could do exactly that wouldn't make it too big to ship via regular postal snail mail. I liked the idea of putting it in a mini suitcase (of sorts) or trunk - like the idea that it could be carried right onto the Hogwarts Express or something and ultimately act as a conversation and functional storage element that could be kept around. When I did research on that option though I discovered it would be quite costly - both to purchase it (because I didn't want to deal with making it) and to ship it.

I must have walked around art and craft stores for upwards of 8-10 hours (that's what I do when I am brainstorming hardcore and trying to get a part of a creative venture right). Literally, I walked the aisles and brainstormed. Eventually I stumbled upon the idea of a book safe/hollow book and thought, "Hmm... I could do a faux spell book or textbook that otherwise could be a Hogwarts required text..." I sort of liked the idea but kind of hated it because of a myriad of reasons but was mostly centered around my own discomfort (even if it was just for novelty) of giving someone a spell book and not a Bible - I strongly adhere myself to a life inspired of and by scripture as much as possible.

Eventually, I was able to brainstorm my way to doing the fake book idea but using the inspiration of the fictional story within the Harry Potter books themselves of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard." It seemed exactly the perfect way to take things and I loved that it was not something of divination or magic and also something that specifically connected with Hermione. I looked up pictures of what the book looked like in the movie, etc. etc. etc. and then set to work trying to make it. Long story even longer? I totally had a craft fail moment that I don't even want to gratify with a picture. Just trust me. It was BAD.

I ended up having to buy a second hollow book and walked the aisles of Michaels and AC Moore (yet again!) until I found myself in the scrapbooking aisles (a department of art stores I generally hate to deal with because they never cease to overwhelm me with options). I brainstormed materials that seemed like they would make sense for creating the different elements of the book and then looked very specifically for them and also aimed to keep them within a strict color palette that I originally didn't even consider so that this time around it would match the child's nursery where everything might end up being displayed. After finding individual decorative scrapbook pages and some pre-fab stickers, I was finally able to get it all together enough to create the Harry Potter-inspired book safe you see below. I'm pretty content with how it came out and can only complain about how hasty I ended up being toward the end which will require me to fix it a little bit before I can actually send it up because I got a little sloppy toward the end of the assembly of all of the elements.

Was able to find corrugated paper that really imitated/suggest that their were real pages! Cool, eh?

The lettering is from a letter decal set and the tree is actually a low-profile three dimensional tree sticker/embellishment intended for scrapbooking in some way. I think it works well despite the fact that the movie version of the book is actually supposed to be a stump rather than a full tree.

So, that's that!!! I really like this gift set and though I don't know that I would ever recreate it for someone else, I did enjoy (for the most part) the challenge of both culling together the ideas that made it all come together as well as making them. Yay for being two for two in my endeavor to live and GIVE more creatively.

A life more creative

 It's occurred to me in recent weeks that while I spend my career encouraging creativity and creation by and for others, I do very little in the way "practice what you preach."

--__--

Seriously.

And honestly? I kind of don't have a very good reason for this fact other than the fact that my life, my time, my overall efforts that I have to do exert on a regular basis, well... it's pretty much all "spoken for" and that leaves me with little to nothing.

As it has happened, I've recently been visiting some health practitioners in order to complete some diagnostic testing in an effort to put names (officially) to some very challenging issues I've had of late. One of the results that has come up with that I need to do a lot better job with "self care." Basically: I do a great job taking care of everything and everyone and I am rarely (or rather never) a priority. *shrug*

Well, all of that being said, I'm really working on doing a better job with self-care. It was suggested to me that I do yoga but I've tried that at least half a dozen times and it just doesn't work. What does work? Invoking divine inspiration that doesn't just drive me to create but throttles me forth into the realms of creativity and creation.

My challenge with getting into this mode of making things is that I have a hard time with it mostly because I struggle with the whole thing of art vs. crafts. While I definitely appreciate crafting, I much prefer to do things that are much closer to art. As I believe, it's heavily debated that the area that separates those two realms is pretty grey and hard to define where one ends and the other starts. This alone keeps me from either finishing things or even starting to make them in the first place. Lame-O, eh? I think so.

If it's not painfully obvious enough, I typically suffer from "paralysis by analysis." I'm so in my own head most of the time that I have been and always will be my own stumbling block, obstacle, and worst enemy. (I know right! Who would have *thunk* it?!!)

This past weekend I got it in me to just get over all of this. I mean, who cares if what I'm doing is technically an art or a craft? WHO CARES??!!!! Because the fact of the matter remains is this: when I am being creative and actually creating things, I am less stressed, feel more active in my faith, happier, and just plain more balanced overall. And this is where I need to be in order to be a better artist, art teacher, wife, mother, daughter, HUMAN BEING, etc. *fist pump of resolve*

Friday of last week was one of my first times in way too long that I gathered some real inspiration and got off my duff and made some things. Both of them were elements of a gift for someone I am close to who is having a really difficult time right now.

The first item is a corked bottle with the Emily Dickinson quote "Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in your soul..." written on the outside. Contained inside the bottle is a white feather hand stamped with letters that spell out the word "hope" and it rests on a bed of fine sand and the most beautiful gold glitter. I made it to symbolize the whole idea of some much needed bottled up hope that can sit wherever it ought to and be a constant reminder for someone that really needs it.

 

The second item is a piece of jewelry that is meant to symbolize a family that exists despite the odds that have been presented against it. It's meant to illustrate a mother's love and her fervent protection over the precious and beautiful blessings in her life that are her much loved children. I used beads and wire wrapping to be a nest of eggs and then a mod-style charm/necklace embellishment for the mother bird who is gently flying in to check on her nest. All of the pieces are carefully attached to a sterling silver chain-link necklace.

To be absolutely honest, I have been a terrible crafter in the past. I've done things that are nothing less than tired with played out cliches and symbols and it always happens that I realize this not even half way through the process and that steals both my momentum and joy for even finishing making any of them. With the above items though? I feel like it's the first time in m life that I have crafted things that are carefully thought through, put together, and infused with meaning. This is such a first for me.

All too often, people say to me, "I would love to see your house! I bet it's REALLY cool because artists MUST have really beautiful lives and living spaces." That's so far from the truth for me and I'm realizing that I need to do something about that. I need to live and breathe what I preach to my students, clients, and people I share my life with. It's not right otherwise and it makes me a hypocrite of the artist I call myself. I gotta stop and this past weekend is the beginning of that.

I know I'm going to get it wrong but I feel like at least I'm aware of it now and willing to admit what a problem it is. I'm pledging here (so there is some accountability, if you will)  to live a life more creative than what I have been doing - which is to say a LOT more creative since my life has been decidely devoid of creativity and creation. I'm going to do more of the dreaming, praying, and CREATING that I always should have been doing from the beginning so that this blog more closely adheres to all that I believe. Take this as my word and take this that I mean it.