enrouge winner!

Hope you're having a wonderful Saturday! I'm just popping in to congratulate the recipient of a new tiny framed print by Enrouge!

The luck winner is:
~ joey ~ said...
Oh her prints are beautiful!
Thank you!
~ joey ~
Please contact me with your mailing info and I'll pass it right on to Karla!

colors

We celebrated the return of color all week long. What colors have you been spotting in your neighborhood? Happy Friday!

mother's day giveaway from sponsor: enrouge

In celebration of Mother's Day,  Enrouge is giving away one of her new tiny framed prints. Karla is an incredible artist that sensitively captures the tenderness between parent and child in so many of her delicate paintings. Any of her prints would make a perfect gift for your favorite mother, or just to add a little love and gentleness to a corner of your home.  The best part? The winner can choose choose their favorite print to put inside and she'll gladly ship it anywhere!  Read more about Enrouge in her spotlight here and check in at her blog. In addition Karla is offering maya*made readers a 20% discount on any item in her shop through Mother's Day. Just use the code: BABYBIRD at checkout. Thanks Enrouge!

Please leave a comment (with your email info if not linked by blogger) in this post before Friday at 9pm EST. I'll announce the random winner on Saturday. Good luck!

Enrouge shop

on new designs and process

It was so fun for me to show you another corner from our home yesterday. I'll have to clean up the books and blocks on the north side of the sun room before I show the rest. But now you know where (and why) I take almost all of my close-up photos... the room with windows and a well used wooden plank bench.

Not being able to share the bazillion things I'm working on (book stuff) has been challenging for me in so many ways. I feel like my creative soul is tucked into that pouch above and can't wait to be unzipped. So, it's with great pleasure that over the next few weeks I will be able to introduce you to at least a couple of new designs that I'm working on for the Squam Art Fair on June 5th. The art fair is on the last night of the retreat and has been an amazing experience to be a part of over the last few years. It only lasts a few hours, but is always filled with a happy swarm of enthusiastic textile-loving folks. Mostly I'll be bringing out the tried and true burlap/linen/printed items that have filled my shop in the past. I cut cut up coffee sacks until 1 am the other night! But, I'm also trying to use up my scraps in new, fun ways... I finally got around to a opening a big bag of vintage zippers that I scored at a flea market a few years ago.

 And have been carving again! Hallelujah for carving stamps... makes my heart sing. I have had a yarn stamp idea for over a year and finally got to experimenting. These are the preliminary sketches with a magic marker. I often jot down ideas alongside my kids, so I just grab whatever tools they're using. Markers offer a thick line which helps to visualize the positive and negative spaces of a print. They were just right for these doodles.

In the end, I always illustrate in pencil (this one had a very poor eraser, thus the smudginess) and then flip it over and transfer it to a carving block.



The first prints of a new stamp are always a surprise and with luck- a delight!

These worked out nicely for such little stamps... so I'm printing them on fabric, too. More on that soon.

bunnies and benches

I just wanted to share a little peek at one of our favorite parts of the weekend. Saturday evening we continued my childhood tradition of the bunny line up.

The house was scoured for every single rabbit available, and then they were all arranged for patient waiting. Come dawn, each one miraculously had a jolly bean in their paws or lap... and even a few between the ears. Might I love this more than they do? It's quite possible!

When I was a girl, I lined them up by my bedside, but I was an only child until I was 9. With two children, the sun room bench has become our spot. I don't know what we'd do without that bench. It extends along all the windows and makes the perfect place to sit, work and play. Our dollhouse has moved onto it and gets far more attention than it did on the floor.

If you have a growing child, may I suggest raising dollhouses and the like a foot or two onto a low table, crate or bench. It is just the shift their bodies need to make play inviting. I took a few extra shots when we made our butterflies last week. Here's our very full dramatic play corner on the south side of our sun room. With the rising temperatures we have all enjoyed returning to our favorite (3 season) room.

TYV Crafting with Kids: giveaway winner!

Good morning and happy Monday! It's always fun to begin the week by giving one of you a gift. Congratulations to the winner of a signed copy of Crafting with Kids byJennifer Casa:

 

M said...This book looks wonderful! I am ALWAYS looking for crafts to do with my kids.
Thanks for the chance to win!
~Michelle

Please email me with your mailing info and I'll forward it over to Jennifer. Thanks!

glimpses

This has been the most elusive spring I can remember, so when the sun does come out:
we throw open the windows...

take our creativity outside...

jump in the puddles that are more like ponds...

say yes, yes, yes to muddy toes...

blow bubbles until the jar runs out...

eat baby chives with every meal and even in between...

salute the very first magnolia blossom...

Dear Spring,
We are especially grateful for your gifts this year. Please stick around!
Love,
me

Blog Tour- TYV Crafting with Kids: review and giveaway!

Jennifer Casa, of the ever popular blog Jcasa handmade, has just published a brand new children's craft book titled Teach Yourself VISUALLY Crafting with Kids. It's bursting with art and craft projects- 75 to be exact. Wow! It's organized by each season, but also includes:

• holidays
• gift giving
• party crafts
• games

Jennifer, with the help of her two girls, has created a fabulous resource filled with tried and true classics (play dough, marbled paper, tie die) with fresh approaches.  Plus tons of fun new ideas that will inspire children and their grown-ups, alike. It's the perfect book to have on hand for rainy days, vacation time and any time you need help coming up with an enticing activity. It's geared towards young ones, with each project having a step by step visual guide, but many crafts would be engaging for an older child to do on their own. I was honored when Jennifer invited me to be part of her blog tour and strategically requested the week that my children were off on school break. Seemed like the perfect time to dive into some fun art time. And it was, however, I must apologize to Jennifer... I am so off my game this week (absorbed in some family stuff with kids at my side), and somehow changed the date of my tour stop in my head. My calendar told me otherwise this afternoon  and I felt like such a bumbler!  So now I'm here, a day late, but gushing no less about her lovely new book
 Here's our first project that we enjoyed together:
At the beginning of the week, when the the temps were still so low, there was a need for  a colorful pick me up. These "stained glass" butterflies did the trick. They were made by grating old broken crayons onto wax paper and melting them together. Instead of using craft sticks for the bodies, I was inspired to sew them into a strand like this other project in the book which we'll make next:

They came out beautifully, but the process was the best part.We all had fun!

Don't they just glow in afternoon light of our sun room? Might have to make some more soon to go with our upcoming sun catcher strands... we have a lot of windows!

Crafting with Kids a fantastic book to have in any parent, caregiver, or teacher's library. And yes, I have a signed copy for one of you courtesy of Jennifer and our shared publisher,Wiley! Please leave a comment in this post between now and Sunday night at 8pm EST. Don't forget to leave your email if it's not linked to your blogger profile. I'll announce the random winner on Monday morning. Good luck!
Here's the whole tour schedule for more reviews, giveaways, and interviews:
Tuesday, April 5 (release date)  -  JCasa *handmade
Wednesday, April 6  -  The Crafty Crow
Thursday, April 7  -  Sparkle Power
Monday, April 11  -  WhipUp
Wednesday, April 13  -  A Stitch in Dye
Friday, April 15  -  Smile and Wave
Monday, April 18  -  Elsie Marley
Wednesday, April 20  -  Maya*Made (Oh dear!)
Friday, April 22  -  Stitches in Play
Tuesday, April 26  -  Aesthetic Outburst
Thursday, April 28  -  Artsy Crafty Babe

how to: baby clothespin bunny

I've had bunny making on my mind for weeks. There are so many great tutorials out there, but I couldn't find just the right one. I wanted something tiny... a pocket bunny, a fit-in-a-small-hand bunny. Inspiration struck when my daughter and I were cleaning up her doll clothes. Her tiny wooden clothespins were scattered everywhere. Turned upside down the tips looked surprisingly like bunny ears. I've seen many animals made out of wooden clothespins, but they were all hard. Usually Christmas ornaments (think Rudolph). I wanted something soft and sweet. Maybe I could make one similar to the fairies we like to create, but replace a wooden bead with a clothespin for the head. Faster and easier than a fairy baby... a miniature clothespin bunny was born! I know not everyone has doll clothespins,  but these types of wooden pegs are available at all craft stores in a regular size, and I think they'd be just as sweet. The instructions are the same for whatever size peg/pin* you have.

Need:

• wool roving
• felt scrap (mine is from a thin and light felted sweater)
• clothespin (without metal spring)
• pipe cleaner
• needle/thread
• fine tip sharpie pen

Make:
1. Fold piece of felt in half and cut out body shape similar to the one pictured here. The fold line is along the shoulders.


 2. Sew around the entire open perimeter by hand or machine. Do not sew over fold line. Cut a straight slit approximately 1" long down the center of the back.

3. Turn right side out through the slit. Poke out sleeves with a chopstick, pencil, etc.
4. Fold a section of pipe cleaner to form a T as shown. Make sure it fits the dimensions of the body.

5. Wind some roving around the wire and then insert it into the slit in the felt body. Keep adding little bits of roving until the sleeves are padded and the bunny's shape has rounded out.

6. Insert the clothespin deep into the slit and then begin stitching closed the opening.

7. Before the thread is snipped, poke the needle towards the front. Sew a few stitches around the neckline to ensure that the soft body is securely attached to the wooden head on both sides.
8. If you haven't already, draw a simple face on the front of the clothespin.

Done! Even sweeter than I could have hoped for. She fits into a pocket, a small hand, and even an egg cup! Now, just because I'm smitten with something, doesn't mean that it will meet my daughter's approval.  Although she's (almost) always polite, I know when she truly loves something or not, and my crafting ego is at her mercy.

But it was adored instantly! Yay!Those posable arms, round tummy, and simple little face won my girl over so much that Baby Bunny got the most coveted treatment of all soft animals... "Can she sleep with me tonight, Mama?"

That was last night. As I write this post, the two of them are still snuggled in bed together reading every book about bunnies that we have on our shelves.

*Because of the size, these are not intended for children under 3. 

Sewn by Hand- a winner!

Congratulations to the winner of the sewing kit and Susan Wasinger's newest book, Sewn by Hand ,is...
  
Johanna said...
I take my hand sewing everywhere we go! Long road trips (while hubby drives), to the park while my little one plays and beside me when I blog surf or watch tv.

Please contact me via email with your mailing info and I'll pass it on to Lark Crafts.


If you'd like to follow along on Sewn by Hand's blog tour, here's the schedule:

4/4 Blog tour kickoff at LarkCrafts.com and giveaway
4/6 Sew Daily blog
4/8 Click here for a free travel thread caddy project from the book!
4/11 Pink of Perfection
4/13 Artsy-Crafty Babe
4/15 maya*made
4/19 WhipUp
4/20 CRESCENDOh Blog
4/22 MummySam
4/25 Feeling Stitchy
4/27 Zakka Life
4/29 BurdaStyle blog