crafting notes

This was the scene in my kitchen at 6:15 this morning.

Gabriel's idea - and he took such pleasure in his ability to identify colors and guide the little beads onto his pipe cleaner. Behold, fine motor skills! It is not surprising that the two kids ran downstairs and immediately started in on some crafting. We've been stepping it up around here lately - and it seems to generate more and more projects (perhaps because we are terrible about cleaning up and there are bits of markers, beads, paint, felt etc all over the place and accessible, to inspire the next round of creative work.)

Besides awful clean-up practices (or rather, the lack of clean-up practices) I think Gabriel's new abilities are inspiring him, and in turn inspiring Frances. And maybe inspiring me, too. Look what I just bought!


I purchased this from a lovely woman via Craigslist. She was my age, and told me she had received it as a present for her 15th birthday. She was only selling it now because she had upgraded. I admired her in so many ways. A true crafter! It took having children, and the joy of sharing all sorts of artistic and creative endeavors with them, to get me started. Unlike so many of my friends, blog readers, and mother, I just didn't seem to have it in me. I was exposed to knitting, quilting, sewing, and gardening since I was a wee speck in her womb, so there's simply no excuse for my indifference. When I was fifteen I wanted to read novels in our hammock all day, the pleasures of stretching out in the warm sunshine and deepening my tan being secondary to the pleasure of checking out of regular life and spending open expanses of time in a world made of words.

Oh, that still sounds so good, doesn't it?

But back to the sewing machine. What will I do with it? I don't know! But I am very, very excited to try it out. If any of you have any suggestions for a beginning sewer, do pass them on.

I also experimented over the weekend with stenciling using freezer paper, a method I learned about in Amanda Blake Soule's lovely book, The Creative Family. So many great ideas therein. I used one of her images - I drew a larger picture by hand, to fit the t-shirt we were working on. This is a gift for Frances and Gabriel's cousin Lily, who is almost four, and loves giraffes.



It's simple to do and very satisfying: draw an image on a piece of freezer paper with the shiny side down. Use an exacto knife or a tiny pair of scissors (think manicure) to cut it out. I did this on a piece of cardboard. Then place your stencil (still shiny side down) on whatever you want to beautify, and place another sheet of freezer paper underneath the fabric (in this case, inside the shirt) with the shiny side up. Iron for a few seconds, to make the stencil 'stick.' Paint using fabric paint, let it dry for a few hours, then unpeel and voila! Your transformed shirt (or tote bag or pants or dishtowel) is finished.

As you can tell, this is a mostly adult project. Between the knife and the iron, I thought it best to work on it during naptime. But Frances did enjoy painting in the stencil and helping to peel it away. And she also loved coloring in the giraffe that was cut away to form the stencil to make a little birthday card. And I have all sorts of ideas for gifts to make for the kids using this technique...

Finally, I found these pictures on the last 'roll' when I uploaded this morning. Check out Frances and her friend Henry, decked out in their kingly best, reliving the joys of a first real sleepover the next morning.