Encaustic art

We have had a really busy week, and I don't have any of my own work photographed for craft day, but this is a great video on encaustic art.  This reminds me of the suncatchers we made in school by ironing crayon bits between sheets of waxed paper.  This is an exciting technique, and I can't wait to try it!

Thursday is craft day! Ornaments from soda cans!

 Well, Thursday was craft day, but I'm a little behind this week.  but I have a great quick  Christmas craft to share, next year I think we will cover the tree in these and not have to worry about the dogs breaking/eating all the ornaments and candy canes.  These look like they would be sharp, but really aren't, the kids could have helped me make them, if there weren't so many Christmas specials on TV...

First, I cut a soda can in half...

Then cut slits down the sides like this:

Fold down the fringe:

If you want, put a squirt of spray adhesive in the middle and sprinkle on some glitter.  You can also trim the spikes on an angle if you want.  I used a needle and some thread to make a loop for hanging.

This craft is so simple, the kids will love making them, too!

The MSI Finnish Christmas tree, covered in yarn elves!

This is a follow up to last Thursday's craft day, yarn elves.  We visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago today to see the Christmas trees of the world display, and they were all beautiful!  I had to share the picture of the Finnish tree, it was covered in yarn elves, made very much like the ones from last Thursday's blog.  The only major difference is that they used wooden balls for the heads (you would have to make the body shorter to do this.  And I love the little crocheted hats, they look just like the Finnladies from the Chicago Finnish-American Society, who coincidentally decorated the tree!

A fun Christmas bird ornament

While we are waiting for the natural light to improve so that I can get satisfactory photos of my paintings, I'll share another craft.  I found this one at a bit of this & a bit of that but she didn't give any instructions.   The author of that blog is from Finland, living in Canada now.  The bird shape is very popular in Finnish crafts and glasswork.  

My six-year old helper and I first cut bird shapes out of last year's Christmas cards.  Then we made pompoms, wrapping the yarn carefully around four of his fingers.

 We tied the pompom between his fingers (he said this was the painful part...next time we will wrap a little more loosely!).  After it was slipped off his hand and tied securely around the middle, we cut all the loops and trimmed up the pompom.

Next we cut a small hole in the bird's side and slipped the pompom through.  A paper punch hole for an eye, and a loop of string to hang it, and the bird is complete.  My helper was thrilled, I think we have found a great way to recycle and create unique ornaments!

Happy crafting

The 10 year tree skirt project and my favorite housework excuse sign...

The natural lighting is terrible again today, so I'll post a few more crafty photos.  Someone needs to remind me to take lots of photos on the next day when I have good lighting.  That may be awhile this time of year!  This is a gorgeous star/snowflake chain that my talented daughter made.  Her nimble hands can make the tiniest of crafts!  If you haven't made one yet, you can get the instructions in my Crafting for Christmas post.

We've been working on this tree skirt for almost a decade now.  I bought a big piece of felt and cut out a circle.  The gold trim is hot-glued on.  Every year we draw around the kids' hands with a marker, then trace it with gold fabric paint.  This year my oldest son's hand took almost an entire small bottle of paint!  The kids write their own names under the handprints, but I've removed the names from this photo.  I couldn't remove the chihuahua, though, she loves to lay on this tree skirt and thought I was spreading it out on the floor to make her more comfortable.  This link is to the paint I like to use, I had a different kind this year, but it didn't cover as well.  

Also, I should mention that when we first started, I tried to put the paint on the kids' hands and have them make a print.  It didn't work well at all, and was EXTREMELY messy.  The next year we just started to do outlines.  I let the kids write the year above the hands, lots of cute backward numbers!

And I will leave you with a little crafty painting that I made, it seems appropriate today, my house is a wreck with remodeling projects and the Christmas cookies we baked last night...if you would like to mess up your kitchen with some really yummy cookies, you can read about them here.

This is just a quick sign that I made up to use in case of emergencies.  It truly explains what is going on in our house right now.  Even the sign itself is painted to look a little dusty.

A flower still life for a dreary day

It is so dreary today that it is hard to get a good painting photo, but this one is acceptable.  While I've always been more of a tomboy, roses and sunsets have always been some of my favorite subject matter.  Must be a lingering bit of girlishness...  This one may be small, 8x10 inches on stretched canvas, but I really like it.  I painted it last month to demonstrate to my daughter how I painted a larger, similar painting when I was a teenager.  I'm not sure this particular bouquet ever existed, I think my painting teacher probably supplied some kind of picture, but that was decades ago.  For me, painting this small copy of my old beloved painting was like sitting in a chair at my teacher's house in a little house far away from here, feeling her hand on my shoulder.  Some days I can still hear her voice if I concentrate.  

Thursday is craft day! Yarn Elves (lankatonttu)

Thursdays are a difficult day around our house, the weekend is almost here, but not quite, and the kids have a lot of homework.  We all need a little break, so I'm declaring Thursday to be our official craft day, and I'll be posting instructions here every week.  Check back often, and craft along with us!

As many of you who read my other blog, Cooking Finland, know, my husband is from Finland, and I have been an exchange student there.  So a lot of our crafts will be following instructions from Finnish websites and other traditional Finnish crafts.  The Finnish school system really values handicrafts and practical arts, and there are a lot of really great ideas in blogs coming from Finland.  Also, I like for my kids to learn about their cultural heritage through experimentation.  Hope you enjoy this series, too!

Today's craft is yarn elves.  These are really cute and would make great tree ornaments or package toppers.  If you have ever made a corn husk doll, the instructions are very similar.  For anyone who can read Finnish or is motivated enough to figure out what Google Translate really means, these are the blogs that I looked at to find instructions, http://artturi.vuodatus.net/blog/1622303/lankatonttu/ and http://www.kookas.fi/articles/read/2499.

These are my supplies:  two colors of yarn, a DVD case (if you don't have a Finnish war movie like in this picture, I'm sure any other case would work...), and a pair of scissors.  You can use regular scissors, mine have all disappeared and I had to use kids school scissors.

Wrap the yarn for the arms around the short side of the DVD case (loosely!).  I wrapped about 15 times, you can do more or less depending on how thick you want the arms and how thick your yarn is.

Pull the yarn off carefully and tie one end a little from the end.  This makes the hand.  

It is REALLY IMPORTANT to tie the knots tightly, so I wrapped the yarn around about 5 times and tied again.  We don't want any little elves falling apart on us.

Now lay the arms on the DVD case as in this picture and wrap the contrasting yarn around the DVD long-ways.  This time I wrapped about 16 times.  I left the end of the yarn toward the bottom so that when I trimmed the feet it would disappear, but you could also glue it into the hat later if you start from the other end.

This time I just cut the yarn off at the bottom.  Very Carefully.

To make the head, tie, then wrap and tie again as for the arms.  Then I criss-crossed the yarn to make the torso, and tied and wrapped again for the waist.  All of this should be done with the same piece of yarn, don't cut it after you tie off the head.

Now it is time for the little elf to spread 'um.  I separated half of the yarn for each leg and tied off feet and wrapped and tied again, as with the arms.

After he is all tied off, you can trim his feet and hands carefully.  Don't cut any of the strings too short, he might unravel...

I cut a pie-shaped piece of felt, then hot glued it in back and to his head to make a hat.  Online, I found a picture that I want to try next, she crocheted the hat on, and they are adorable!!  Click here to look at it.

Happy Crafting!!!