Birthday Prep, Series 1, Part 2 Heart Garland Tutorial

I made a heart garland last year, decorated with it for my oldest daughter's birthday and then moved it to her bedroom as a whimsical touch. Both my girls have since moved into the same room, rearranged their furniture a countless number of times and the sweet garland finally fell apart.  In preparation for the birthday party, I decided to make another heart garland. This time, I used several different colors and I made the hearts all different shapes.  Sorry for my grainy pictures, Paradise does deliver it fair share of gloomy, dreary and rainy days which are never optimal for picture taking!

I used about 4 sheets for Felt, purchased a whole package (x2!!!) but I know I'll put the rest of the felt to good use eventually.  I still want to make a Happy Birthday garland and my little guy asked if I could make him a green circle garland for his bedroom.

I started cutting hearts by folding the felt sheets in half and doing it the good old elementary school way! I cut enough hearts to fill up the length (and then a small bit more) of our 108" sliding door.

You can hand stitch the hearts together in whatever pattern (or non pattern for my project) I would recommend using embroidery floss.  But, I did this the quick and easy way and just straight stitched them all together on my Bernina machine.

And your garland is complete! I'll have to keep this one safe until the birthday girl's party!

Birthday Prep, Series 1, Part 1 Tutorial for art roll

Being far away from home, moving every 2 years or so, means that my kiddos are always reestablishing themselves in a new school, with a new group of friends and a new way of life.  Birthday  parties, therefor, have never been a big to-do with us but this year, I am feeling a little more organized and the girls have been having a few more play dates than at any of our other duty stations. I decided, this year will be the year that I'll throw the girls a birthday party.  (The little guy is still going to wait a few more years until he knows better)

So, the first birthday bash is coming up next month. I figured if I do a little at a time, the task will be fun, creative and not overwhelming.  We decided on an art theme birthday party.  Miss V plans on inviting 5-6 girlfriends.  We'll have the table set up with canvases, a few options of pre-drawn art that they can transfer to their canvases (or if they want to draw/paint their own ideas, even better!). I have decided for favors, I will be making art paintbrush rolls & aprons to go along with the canvas they will paint.  The centerpiece (i hope!) will be a tiered cake stand filled up with a variety of acrylic paints.  It's all drawn out on paper, imagined in my mind.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that i can pull this off and make her 10th birthday extra special.

Because some of this stuff is simple yet fun, I thought I'd create tutorials to go along. So check back for my next installment which will probably be the aprons and then maybe another installment for decorating (I'm thinking polka dots, streamers and balloons!) Until then, I hope you enjoy this simple tutorial for an art roll!

You'll need a ribbon (approx. 30" long, 2 pieces of fabrics, sewing machine, scissors, paintbrushes)

All of my art rolls are made to my paintbrush set measurements, they are just a generic brand from my local craft store.

• Cut 2 pieces of fabric, 12" x 10" of the main fabric, these will be used for the interior and exterior of the art roll. 1 of these pieces I used some fusible interfacing for some added form.
• Cut 1 piece of coordinating fabric 13" x 13" which you will fold in half & iron
• Cut 1 piece of ribbon approximately 30" and fold it in half too

I started by adding a single straight stitch along the folded edge of the 13" x 13" piece of fabric. This is the fabric that will hold the paintbrushes in place.

Attach this piece to the 12" x 10" piece of fabric, right sides facing up.  Stitch along one edge only.

Don't worry about uneven lines, these will be hidden when you attach the exterior pieces.  Next, I take the longest paintbrush and slide it carefully between the fabrics to see where the bottom stitch should be placed. I mark it and then stitch all the way across the bottom. (this stitch line will also be concealed when you attached the exterior piece)

With my paintbrushes as my guide again, I see how far apart each stitch across will need to be. I want each paintbrush to have it's own slip pocket.

Now it's time to add the ribbon which you have folded in half, I use the raw edges of the ribbon and I sew them at the center point (paintbrushes removed of course). You'll cut at the fold at the very end, stitching this way ensures, for the most part, that your ribbon will be of equal length.

Time to attach the exterior. Right sides together you will be stitching along 3 edges leaving 1 edge to turn and finish later.  

Trim excess fabric, cut the corners (but don't cut the stitch lines!) then turn and press flat.

The open side will need to be turned under, pinned and then stitched shut.

Time to trim that ribbon, I like to add a "V" shape in hopes that the ribbon wont unravel.

Now just put them paintbrushes in, roll it up and make a pretty bow and your favors are ready to be handed out!  Please share your creations, I love to see the color combinations people put together. For me, I used a Japanese fabric with little girls, flowers and whimsical mushrooms, and a heart fabric to coordinate. I switched out the ribbons so each girl got something a little different.

Bags, Bags and more Bags...plus a little bit of painting

I've been busy working behind my machine.  I've been so enthralled with my new projects that I find it hard to step away from them some times to do my needed errands.  I wanted to share an art bag that I just recently finished.  I'm really excited with how it turned out. I used a slashing technique to add dimension to the fabric. The female is hand drawn, painted, free motion stitched by me and then appliqued on to my custom designed bag.  So excited to share with the world!

Little man and I had some fun making non toxic paint yesterday, the coloring up the backyard for nearly 2 hours and joyfully washing away our art with the water hose.  Have any of you ever made cornstarch paint? (1 cup cornstarch, 1 cup water, food coloring)  I'm happy to report that we got the paint ALL over ourselves, including a white tshirt (which i set aside for painting so not a big deal) but when I threw our clothes in the wash last night, every last bit of cornstarch paint came out of our clothing without a trace. And NO,  I did not use any bleach. So it is a messy yet fun project that cleans up better than kid intended paints and markers.  Here are some pictures from our messy fun!

1 cup of water, 1 cup of cornstarch, mix, mix, mix. Pour into their individual spots and add food coloring.

Not so good for paper but...

A little liquidy, did not work so well on paper but was a lot of fun on the ground (and rocks, and hands, and...)

The colors we began with.

a splattering of color

Something gooey and colorful to stick your hands in.

I'm thinking this could make for an interesting Halloween Costume next year. Incredible Hulk anyone?

We started off with yellow, orange, purple, red, green and blue. We ended up with light orange, neon orange, turquoise and a whole bunch of....

paint on the ground. I wish I could have captured this craziness on paper, that would be an interesting backdrop to an illustration!

Christmas is just 4 days away!  I'll try to write again but if not, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. Thanks for being such great, supportive followers of Threads and Pencils, the support means the world to me!

Almost Christmas, creative ventures flourishing just in time for the holidays!

While my son is taking a quick break from jumping couch to couch, I thought I might sit down to write. Sometimes the task of writing seems overwhelming. I feel like my words are repeated over and over again, or i haven't any new ideas to share and think perhaps sitting down will just make my readers bored.  I hope not, but I think about these things.  But today, I wanted to share a few of my latest creations. 

I've been having a lot of fun with my sewing machine, a little bit of art mixed in, bento box preparations are still a hit (though some nights I am so tired that I wonder why I just don't make a sandwich for everyone) and today a small greeting card "box" idea that is NOT my own idea but totally worth sharing as I LOVE it!   I'm not one for buying the mass produced greeting cards, I feel that I have enough crazy ideas swirling around in my head that i should be able to sit down and make my own cards. I feel this way about my girls too, I encourage them to make their own before thinking of buying something.  So we tried out a new "card" idea today.  Instead of a card actually, it is a banner in a box. Perfect for a birthday but I think it would do for any holiday or occasion that "requires" a card. 

I started out with a simple $1 box (though I'm sure if you AREN'T in Hawaii you might actually find such a box much cheaper!) I decorated the top with the name of the recipient.  With a bit of card stock, scrapbook paper, glue or tape, ribbon, I made a Happy Birthday Banner with a couple of extra circles for loving messages from my girls to their friend.  I'm pretty sure this is all self explanatory, make the larger circle still small enough to fit in the box...space the circles on the ribbon far apart enough that they can fold like an accordion into the box.  For a special little touch, with your scraps cut out confetti shapes (sorry Mom!), much easier if you have one of those funky shaped hole punchers.   And watch your friend smile as she opens her greeting box.

Bento Box Adventures continued

I must admit, I'm quite enthralled with the lunch process these days. So much so that I told hubs he will not be getting his normal sandwich everyday...instead, he'll take part in my bento box craze too.  Tomorrow's lunch, you ask?  Teriyaki meatballs (combination of ground beef and ground chicken along with spices, cut veggies and egg), sweet potatoes (cut into shapes for the girls, mashed leftover shapes for hubs), and rice with nori seasoning. I'm quite excited about the meatballs. While we were in Japan, the girls and I were obsessed with the meatballs at the little supermarket down the street called Lala.  I never knew exactly what kind of meatballs they were, and until tonight, I was never able to make them but I finally found the recipe and they are delicious! The extra's made their way to our dinner table along with crockpot chili.

The second layer of food was cut veggies for M, cut fruit for V and a salad for hubs.

I used metal mini cookie cutters for the sweet potato shapes. I found the cookie cutters at Executive Chef in downtown Kailua.

On the sewing front, I have completed a few projects and I am in the middle of a new project, a tote for a sew-ist.  The exterior is complete but now I'll need to figure out and piece together the interior with enough pockets for thread, scissors and a pattern perhaps.  I used an adorable Japanese fabric.

Another outlet of creativity lately, has been art on fabric. I finished up a semi "repeating" pattern fabric which I turned into a young girls bag.  And the candy skulls have been a big hit as well.

Miss Foxy!

I have a few more projects up my sleeves, hopefully in time for the holiday season. I'll come back to share when everything is complete.  

Until then, if you have any bento box recipes you want to share, please comment! I would love to have more variety :)

Bento Box Adventures

It's been a while! Hope this posting finds everyone well, probably preparing for the upcoming holidays. It is hard for me to believe that NEXT week will be Thanksgiving and then a few short weeks later, Christmas! Wow. Perhaps it's living in Hawaii where the weather only changes from sunny to rainy but the temperatures pretty much stay the same.  Maybe I'm in denial.  Whatever it is, my mind has been elsewhere and I think I need a swift kick in the butt to get moving on holiday stuff.  What is your favorite holiday tradition?

I kind of got in to another rut here.  That seems to be happening a lot more frequently these days.  A rut with creating, exercising and making/preparing food. One of my ruts was with my children's lunches.  It seemed like I was making them the same thing every day and though they eat everything (sometimes) I make them I wanted them to have something a little bit "more"  so I started doing some research, saw some pictures of friend's lunches, looked up some cookbooks on amazon.  Ever since we were stationed in Japan, I have always been fascinated by the lunches Japanese Mom's made their children, the bento box lunch.  I found a wonderful book with quick recipes and how to's at the library, the book is called  "Yum Yum Bento Box".

I am on day 2 of bento box preparations and as I was adding the finishing touches today, my oldest daughter says to me that she would like to go to school on Saturday and Sunday just so she can have a bento lunch on those days too. I couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm and encouragement.

Yesterday, I attempted my first lunch which consisted of Spam Musubi, corn, asparagus, egg and cheese blocks/cherry tomatoes.  The little heart on the Spam musubi was made from a Japanese style egg omelette of sorts. You are supposed to strain the egg to make it "fine" and add some cornstarch and sugar. It came out a little bumpy and I had a little trouble flipping it but today, the process went more smoothly and it looked more like an omelette than yesterday's attempt.

This cool contraption is a hard boiled egg mold.  Burned my fingers trying to get this to work but the bunny was well worth it. The Bear didn't work out as planned, the ears did not form but I'm sure if I change the direction of the egg, it'll work.  Here are the molds with the hardboiled egg already in them, sitting in cold water for 10 minutes.

Putting everything together with cute little picks, forks and separators was the fun part.

For tomorrow, the girls get a rice and nori ladybug (I tried coloring the rice with Paprika but my portions are not right so it has a slight brownish tint only), sausage flowers, broccoli trees, wrapped sausages and Japanese style rolled omelette eggs with a side of cucumbers and cheese and fruit.  This definitely makes preparing lunch more fun, to add a little creative tweak to something always makes it more interesting.

Until my next adventure...or until I'm feeling chatty, stay well friends and enjoy Thanksgiving!