Crafting St. Valentine's

I made this one for V last year 

I feel really really sorry for kids today. The valentines I see in the stores are all tied to some TV show or movie character. Dora the explorer valentines? Are you kidding me? Gone are those charming old-fashioned valentines with dopey puns and silly rhymes. I loved the ones that had the flocked (furry) red hearts and the ones with the moving parts. When I was in elementary school, we spent a week making valentines during our art time. We would also decorate plain paper bags with our names on them and they would be affixed to the back of our seats. Then on Valentines day, there would be a party with cupcakes and red heart tarts. All the kids would deliver their valentines to the decorated bags. Back then, there was no ministry of political correctness so it was not guaranteed that you would receive a valentine from each of your classmates. So there was some suspense and anxiety involved, just like real life.

My mom would help me craft valentines. Sometimes we would just doctor up store bought ones with glitter. Some years we made cookies and piped on the names with icing and packaged them in tissue for delivery. My mom never made me give a valentine to everyone, but she did use the opportunity to discuss levels of expression. For instance, I was very disturbed by the notion of giving a lovey dovey valentine to a boy I didnt particularly like. She would look through the cards and find one with a monkey or a walrus or something relatively benign and reassure me that it expressed nothing more than friendship. And I remember even going to the trouble of cutting red hearts off a card just to be sure.

The Love Bug Ornament

I still enjoy crafting Valentine's day gifts. Its a bright and cheerful, if commercially imposed, holiday in the middle of freezing gray days. And it's right about the time people peter out on their new year's diets and go ahead and enjoy some chocolates.  I've been celebrating the holiday by making these LoveBugs for a few years, a logical addition to my Christmas ornament designs. And I make valentine garlands too.
I haven't put them together yet, I am still creating all of the elements.

Today I got out some of my materials and made a valentine or two before I leave town for a week. I was inspired by Susan at 29 Black Street who is way ahead on making hers. I have painted many valentine themed illustrations over the years but I tend to not use them to make my own valentines. Instead I try to craft the whole thing by cutting and layering paper. Here are my favorite tools for the job:

Lots of paper; you need heavier stock to build the card on and lots of other papers for cutting designs. You need solids and patterns. Heart shaped doilies, glitter ( I like "Art Glitter" brand the best ), great scissors like the "cutter bee" shown; a white pen and a fine point glue pen. I also use those tiny pieces of pre-fab sticky foam squares to lift certain parts of the card. I used a paper punch to make that frilly edge at the bottom of the card. Here's the finished card:

I'll be blogging from the road this week. Im going to see about my Mom. I believe the valentine I made for her today is the last one I will ever give her. I hope to have some good pictures from my travels and look forward to visiting your blogs while I am traveling.

Anybody have some cool corny valentine rhymes they want to share with me? 

It's a Party and You're Invited!

You are cordially invited to attend a cyber party of the bloggers on the eve of the fresh beginning. This New Years Eve celebration, hosted by ring leader Boxer, offers an evening of great company, great drinks and food, fashion, games, events and fabulous prizes....and its all for a good cause with money earned by playing going to charity. At this party you can have drinks with your friends without facing a gauntlet of law enforcement on the way home and you will definitely find a good parking place. Plus, you'll avoid contact with carriers of holiday cold and flu cooties. And you can wear whatever you want.

Koby say she wanna go.

Every blogger in the Ring of Boxer is posting their own New Year's Eve celebration to link back with the host Boxer. When you visit these blogs you might find great recipes, astonishing photographs, jokes, quizzes and contests, open bars and on this blog, an art activity. This is something I know Boxer wants to learn.

Oh hell no. another garland?

 

You need to find two free hours and these supplies: a glue gun, or "Zots" those pre-fab glue dots on a roll. You also need scissors, some kind of string or heavy thread like embroidery floss, a bone or tool to use to crease paper, a stapler and a selection of decorative papers. If you have left over Christmas wrap this is a good way to use it. You also need to print the PDF below of the letters that spell Happy New Year and the rabbits that divide the words. (2011 is the year of the Rabbit)

Happy New Year

Cut all the letters out and fold them in half on the gray line. Now prep the other papers by folding a two inch strip into one inch and cut them into sections to make filler on either side of the letters. I used some patterned paper that i thought would look good with black and white and some gold cardstock. Other great options are kraft paper or even printing the PDF twice so your garland is all "happy new year". Really tricking it out might include printing small photos of your family or friends or chickens and incorporating them into the design.

Use something hard (like a folding bone or barware) to make really good creases on your folded paper so that they hang on the string straight. Now for the stars or flowers - the part Boxer wants to learn. Cut a perfect square. I will cut two 5" squares and two 4" squares for my garland.

• Fold the square in half both ways so that when you open it up you see four even squares
• Now fold the outer edge in so that it aligns with the middle fold.
• Fold the outer edge in again. Flip the paper around and do the same thing on the other side.
• Open the paper up and you will find 8 even sections to fold back and forth like an accordion with the decoration part facing out.
• Staple the accordion on the middle fold going the other way.

• Now take the stapled accordion and make sure the open part is facing to your right.
• From the corner of the folded edge cut at a diagonal toward the staple and stop about a half inch before you reach it.
• If you want a flower make the cut curved (as shown); for a star, cut a straight line

Open the star/flower up and glue the two sides together. This works best with a glue gun. If you are in a pinch, you can use a stapler or a Zot. It doesnt work with regular glue because the paper is being bent in a way it will work against. Now take the other squares you cut and make some more stars.

Now that you've made all the elements, you are ready to string the garland. Tie a loop at the end of the string and begin with a few of the folded squares. Open them up and give them a little zig-zag of glue that goes across the fold. Then take the hot gluey piece and fit the fold right on the string. Press it down good to make sure it doesnt slide along the string. When you get ready to add a star/flower, cut the string so that you can glue the end into the crease of one of the petals as shown above. Continue on the other side with the string glued to a petal fold. Make sure you have it on the exact opposite side or it won't hang right. Now just decide on how long you want it to be and string the garland so the "happy new year" part is situated in the middle. I usually make mine about 6' long which is good for fireplace mantles, windows, stairwells and pianos.

The garlands look good incorporated into your left-over Christmas decorations and on your tree. I have some stretched across an arched doorway between two rooms. Or you can just lay them out on a table.

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Now for the charity part. For every blogger that makes this garland, or any other hand crafted decoration that reads "Happy New Year" and posts a photograph of it on their blog, I will give $10 to my charity which is called "Heather". You must come to this blog and leave a message that says you posted this crafty project in order to win. We all know many good and well known charities that we could donate to. But I am often frustrated by the administrative costs and the slow trickle down to the ones that most need help. In this case, I am familiar with my charity and can give the money directly to her. Who is Heather? She is the assistant to the Director of the Arts Center of Blue Ridge. She is young and single and she is foster parenting four children ranging from 14 to infants on her modest salary. When I found out she was doing this during an event this fall I was blown away by her selflessness and sweet natured attitude toward the hardship of it, because the stipend she gets from the state for the childrens' care is a joke. I plan to give Heather a minimum in case you all peter out on me and make nothing - but if you DO make something, Heather will get more. So mix yourself a cocktail if it helps, put on some music, get a snack and sit down to a crafty New Year's Eve eve.

*bonus: first person to find Coco in this post will win a photoshop tribute to appear on this blog New Years Eve.

DIY: Snowball Garland

Candy Santa Garland

Today is moody with wild swings from brilliant sunlight to dark lavender overcast with gusts of wind and oddly still lulls. Very tornado like. The wind is blowing away the unusual warm weather and promising crisp mornings once again.

I was up early working on Christmas garlands. I am making sets of them, boxed and ready for my mom to give to her caregivers at the nursing home for Christmas. This is the best gift I could give to my mom; her tiny room is already overflowing with family photos and dishes of candy; books and magazines. I know that she will want to gift people but has no way to get out and select anything. On the outside of each package is a handmade card that says "Merry Christmas from *my mom*" and there is a tiny description of what kind of garland is inside so my mom can pick who gets which ones. And of course, I am making one for her room as well. Several, actually.

The garlands are a result of my former hatred of Christmas: the whole thing had turned into this hideous commercial stress fest that was no fun at all. And certainly not in the spirit intended. So I started making all my gifts and I began to like Christmas again. I like using inexpensive materials. I thought I would share with you one of my favorite easy easy easy garlands.

The SnoBall Garland

You need: some kind of pretty and thin (but strong) cord. You could use metallic like I have here, or baking twine or even embroidery thread. You also need self adhesive labels - white in this case, but silver and gold are terrific modifications. A vodka Gimlet wouldn't hurt either.

dont get removable labels - you need the cheap kind that sticks for life

Im sure this photograph explains everything. Just sandwich the thread between two labels stuck to each other. Takes some practice to get them lined up perfectly, but you'll get it. Crafty!

Dim Sum Sunday: Peeps challenge

Over at the Karmic Kitchen theres an epic and iconic spring showdown brewing; the battle of the peeps. Peeps exist to rot teeth, fuel sugar meltdowns and provide sustenance to post-apocalyptic roaches.

They are not suitable for eating, only art. I didnt have time to make a museum piece like the peep kimona, so instead i went pragmatic. Peep wreath.

ingredients: peeps, glue gun, ribbon, flowers, cardboard, krylon varnish

I chose one sacrificial guinea peep to submit to varnish testing. I was concerned the varnish would destroy the peep, but nope, the peep took her coating with out so much as a...well, you know. It was clear the varnish and the peep were simpatico on a very molecular level.

i cut a cardboard form and made the bow.

started filling the board with peeps

I filled all the spaces in between the peeps with leaves and flowers.




The final

My review: the finished wreath has a truly sinister vibe. Its like a big plastic funeral decoration that mocks you on the way out. Perhaps this wreath could be the cautionary logo of a childhood obesity campaign. It looks innocent enough ( ha! Like marionettes do). This wreath reminds me of a Jeff Koons sculpture , whom ive always kind of hated, but now i think i will appropriate a koonsian stance and say this piece is an ironic statement on american culture.

This wreath should be as effective as lambs blood on your door when the weird passover smoke.... (you saw the ten commandments with charleton heston, right?...) comes creeping up your street. Happy Easter!