Swan mask }{ Tutorial Thursday

Today's tutorial was inspired by Angelina Ballerina, one of the few cartoons N. actually watches once in a blue moon. (we gave up the tv years ago, but that's a story for another post)

At the end of each episode of Angelina, she narrates a short segment called "Little Stars" where they show young girls in ballet classes doing all sorts of activities. In one particular segment they were showing the little ballerinas making costumes and playing in character for a short while. N. was fascinated by the costumes - and one of them I figured I could actually make! This is my version of the mask they had for the swans in the "Little Stars" Swan Lake.

Materials

• paper or styrofoam plates
• ribbon or elastic
• markers
• orange and white construction paper
• scissors or craft knife
• glue
• feathers (or any embellishment you want to add, we kept ours simple)

How to make it

Step 1: cut the plate across where your nose will be.

Step 2: cut a small triangle to fit over the bridge of your nose.

Step 3: draw and cut the eyes.

Step 4: cut a medium triangle of orange construction paper and fold 1/8" of its base. Make a half cone shape and glue the folded part over the nose triangle on the plate. 

Step 5: trace the outside of the plate on the white construction paper. Cut the paper about 1/2" below the shape you traced (so you'll have paper to glue on the plate). Cut triangular shapes of different sizes and directions around the line you made on the paper. These will be the swan "feathers."

Step 6: Glue the paper under the line all the way around the edge of the plate. At this point, make one small hole on each side of the swan mask to hold the elastic or ribbon.

Step 7: using a black marker define the edges of the eyes, then using a pink or red marker make swirly "eyelashes" or any shape to make the eyes stronger and more interesting.

Step 8: glue feathers (or other embellishments) to the paper feathers on top of the head. warning: the feathers I used to do this made a mess in my workspace! Even after vacuuming I'm still finding little pieces everywhere. They're taking over my craft area. *sigh*

Step 9: add a piece of ribbon to each side of the mask ti-eying it through the holes made in step 7. These will secure the mask on the wearer's head. I prefer using ribbon because then I can adjust the size depending on who's wearing it, but elastic works wonderfully too.

Here's the finished mask.

We had a lot of fun pretending to be swans and "dancing ballet" around the living room today.

Have you ever been inspired by a show your kids watch? Where do you find your inspiration?

Paper flower card }{ Tutorial Thursday

And I'm back with a card tutorial!

Are you sick of them yet? They are just so easy, quick, and you can use them for so many occasions, even just a simple hello to an old friend.

Back in April, I made some paper flowers based on a Creative Jewish Mom tutorial. I wasn't very happy with how I used them, but I loved the flowers themselves. So I let some ideas brew in my head of how to use them. This is one of those ideas.

Materials:

• cardstock in two coordinating colors
• green patterned paper
• red and light pink tissue paper
• scissors
• glue
• buttons
• permanent marker or pen

How to make it:

Step 1: Choose a card stock backing for your card and then a coordinating top panel. I choose a simple blue backing with some sparkling off white for the top panel to get some glitz in there.

Step 2: Cut the top panel on all sides slightly so that the backing shows, then glue them together. My backing was 4.5 wide by 6.5 long, and I cut my top panel down to 4 by 6.

Step 3: Cut the green patterned paper the same width of the top panel, and about 2 inches long. Cut the top in narrow strips (about 1.5 inches)  to make it look like grass. Glue it to the top panel.

Step 4: Draw the stem on the top panel.

Step 5: Make the flower with tissue paper following the tutorial on Creative Jewish Mom. The only change I made was that I didn't secure the petals together with paper brads. Instead I glued them down on the card and on top of one another.

Step 6: Glue a button on the center of the flower.

You can add whatever sentiment you want to the card or leave it as is.

Here's another one I made with a paper flower:

I really like how the flowers pop out of the cards and create some dimension.

How would you use the paper flowers? 

Origami

I love playing with paper.

And have you seen some of the things you can do with it? A-mazing!

So yeah, I'm not anywhere near being anything more than an amateur, but it's so much fun. And I love making boxes to put snacks or candy for the little one or my friends.

And, since it's *almost* full on Spring (it snowed here yesterday........), I decided to make a little birdie with eggs in its nest. 

And if you want to check out more origami, including easy ones, some for kids, etc, check out this site: origami-fun.com.

Junk mail jewelry

I love to craft with garbage.

Ok, not quite. But I love to use materials that I would otherwise just throw out, like egg cartons, junk mail, cardboard, old magazines, newspaper, etc. It's amazing all you can do with stuff that you find around the house that otherwise is just junk.

Today, N. and I took a bunch of junk mail catalogues and decided to create some jewelry. Then of course, we played princess. But for that part she told me "no, mama, no camera." This princess would not deal well with the paparazzi.

Sometimes you just have to remind yourself that with kids it's all about the process, not the product.

Do you repurpose, revamp, or recycle old or unwanted things? What do you usually do with it?

Scraftzophrenic

Lately I've fallen in love with paper. Yes, I know I already have my strong and lasting relationships with the needle arts, my blossoming flirt with drawing and painting, and several recurring one-night stands with random crafts.

I guess I'm just not a loyal, one-craft woman.... Good things crafts are pretty forgiving.

Back to paper. My mom's birthday card, made with love by the super team of me and the little one.

(The picture doesn't do it justice this time. It looked much cuter in person.) 

Is anyone else out there "scraftzophrenic?" What are your lasting love affairs with creative activities and have you had "others" on the side? (feel free to ignore this very personal crafting question)

Happy Valentine's Day!

(yeah, I know I'm just a little bit late)

Here's what I ended up doing to give away for Valentine's day.

I hope you had the sweetest day!

Valentines for a toddler

Is it already February? Really? Wow. Time for Valentines!

This year the little one is going to take valentine cards to her daycare friends for the first time. I wanted to do something where she could participate in the making of the cards, so...

What I did was choose some patterned paper and cut it into hearts. Then I cut white card stock into smaller hearts.

I machine stitched them together and then let N. have a go. I gave her some supplies (red paint, stamps, red and white glitter, sponges, and crayons) and let her decorate them however she pleased. 

Each card is one of its kind and made specially by her (well, a lot of it) for her friends. Easy peasy handmade toddler valentines.

Card-making, merry-making

I couldn't resist. I was inspired by Scarlett at Blue, Purple, and Scarlett and her beautiful cards and just had to go try some of my own. Ok, ok, I know I'm not anywhere near as good as she is, I mean wow! But I wanted some card-making fun anyway.

So, here's what I did:

First I found some colors and patterns that I liked.

I measured everything to scale and to make sure it was centered.

Then I cut up the papers and pasted them together.

Added some embellishments

Until I thought it would do.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day!