32 Toed Turtle – a story

Before I had children, I had a favorite author/poet/artist named Brian Andreas. “Still Mostly True, Collected Stories and Drawings” is one of his books (he also has art pieces known widely as “Storypeople” ). In his book, it seems many of the stories are from the hearts and minds of kids. They are blunt and innocent and imaginative. Some are very insightful while others just make you smile.

Since my oldest son has been talking, I am finding his stories, questions and remarks to be priceless. I write them down when I can – the funny ones, the sad ones and the oddly imaginative ones, too. But I want them to be more than just a saved file on my desktop.

Recently my son did a  drawing of this turtle. I love it! I asked him what it was and he said proudly, “a thirty-two toed turtle.” I put it in my file of keepers for later admiration. Well, this weekend is his best friend’s birthday party and Luke wanted to give him something he made. Also, with father’s day coming up, I thought some fun tee shirts were a perfect choice. But, the turtle needed a story.

So I asked him to tell me a story about the thirty-two toed turtle. He began to ramble about his drawing and I just typed…. and typed…and typed. Other than moving a couple of things around and omitting a couple of others, the story is in his words and I think it’s adorable!

I am currently waiting for emulsion to dry on the screen before I screen print this design to a couple of youth-sized tees. But there are so many other ways you could display your kids’ imaginations. Frame it. Or even make it a jpg and load it onto a photo site and have a photo canvas made.

I recently saw canvases for sale that were basically bits of prose typed out and printed. I’d much rather have my kids’ prose on the wall than someone else’s. These two images are a couple of examples of the random things that can be so great to use as art for your home. We use their handprints, right? Why not use their words, too?

Even a calendar with the quote-for-the-month paired with a drawing would be fantastic for your office or as a gift. Again, the photo sites offer these products, just load your file as if it were a photo.

If you haven’t saved your child’s ramblings – it is not too late. Just listen. My son’s latest has been made up songs about various things he sees. So cute. Their minds move a mile a minute and just start to spill over. Be there to catch it. Or do like I did and ask them to tell you a story about their drawing. Prompt them with questions, too. Some minor editing and we could all publish our own collected story books (again – it’s possible online, now. I swear you can do-it-yourself for so many things these days!!). As their innocent observations grow-up with them, you’ll have more than just a file on your computer (plus, it makes your walls interesting).

Vintage Photo Ornament

So here’s the story… about ten years ago my parents’ house burned down. All the walls were to the ground and the few things left standing were the brick fireplace and I think one shower. Most everything was destroyed. But because of the compressed nature of the books and photo albums (little oxygen) they were able to salvage some of their memories. On my mom’s side of the family, many of the relatives sent photos that they had, or could make copies of. My dad’s family, however, have all passed away for the most part, and he was the keeper of all the photos (that are now burned around the edges or have melted plastic on them from the albums they were kept in).

My idea stemmed from wanting to somehow display these old photos or create a keepsake. The originals are all pretty small and made smaller by the burned areas. Trying to restore them would be too time consuming or expensive to have a professional do it. During a trip through the craft store, it came to me:  a collage of the photos made into an ornament.

This was really an easy project. I scanned all the photos and made a couple of prints on my color printer, then cut them all out. I also created a vintage looking circle (using a cropped area of a photo edge) with my Dad’s initial in it and a dotted circle surrounding. I purchased a pack of clear glass ornaments (they make them in plastic, too) and used Modge Podge as my glue and glaze. They do make an outdoor version if you wanted to do family photos and put your initial on there to hang on your outdoor wreath or something.

I just started glueing and layering the photos, using the glue liberally. It is quick to dry! Then I gave the ball a couple more coats for a nice finish (I used the Gloss finish, rather than Flat).

If you don’t have vintage photos and like the look, you can create it by using different filters on photo applications. I’m considering doing this to make ornaments as gifts for the grandparents, one of each of my sons. I hope you (and/or those you’re gifting) enjoy this easy project, too.

Diaper Cakes

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I started making these diaper cakes when my friends started having their third, fifth and yes – sixth (!) child. Of course they needed little in clothing or toys and I wanted to give them more than just a pack of diapers. Now I get requests for these to be used as a centerpiece/gift for baby showers. Some of the themes have been fun to work with (garden, cowboy, airplanes) and some color schemes to match a nursery while others were just to use my discretion.

Other diaper cakes that I’ve seen have rolled up diapers and many other baby things attached or hidden within. They seemed very hard for the recipient to disassemble and actually use. I made mine so that all you need to do is snip the ribbon and string (hidden under the ribbon) on each layer and the diapers fall apart. The flowers are all glued to a piece of card board that is attaching the layers with a string or wire running vertically through the middle.

FYI – it is hard to find diapers that do not have a design on the edges. Pampers Swaddlers seem to be the only ones I can find.

Also, I focused on the fact that this is a gift for the woman to appreciate and not the baby. So I made the ribbons and flowers less “baby” like (i.e. pink and blue bottles and bows).

Visiting a friend the other day, I peeked into her son’s room (now 18 months old) and found that she never used her diaper cake and has it as a decorative piece on his dresser. I laughed and she said it was her favorite thing in the room. While I’m flattered… she’s a bit crazy for not putting 100 diapers to use!!

Childrens’ Art: Toy Collage Canvases

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In an earlier post, I shared how fun making veggies out of polymer clay was. Well, now I’m sharing the fruits (pun intended) of that labor. The “Tractor” toy collage in its almost finished state (I’ve since added a bee buzzing around the upper left) along with three others I did.

I’d have to say the hardest part for these was finding the assorted themed toys in miniature.

Two of my favorites are the “Fly” collage (love that I found Superman!) and the “Yahoo” collage.

I’d type more on the subject, but we are in the middle of another paper maché project – a Pteranodon! Uhg. Enjoy!!

Gifting Your Kids’ “Art”

These projects make fantastic gifts for grandparents. Father’s Day prompted this t-shirt project. For this particular shirt, I borrowed a friend’s YUDU screen printer machine (which I’ve been wanting to try out). However there are several ways to make your kid’s art wearable, for Dad or even for them!

I started by having my son draw (paint) his favorite shape – Mr. Peanut (long story). Mr. Peanut comes in so many shapes and styles, it was hard to choose just one. So I scanned 12 of them. I saved them as black and white bitmaps and imported into a design program, but you could get away with just using a blow-up of a single drawing.

Now, here are your many options. You could go the YUDU screen printing route. A bit of cash outlay in the beginning, but the design will last the longest on the shirt. Second option, upload your design to either Cafepress, or Zazzle or one of those sites where you can custom print all sorts of products. Then you can even put your kids art on mugs, Flip cameras, aprons – you name it! The “direct print” method, however, fades a bit faster than screen printing and their turn-around time is at least 10 days with shipping. Option three, iron-on transfer paper. Find it at your local office supply store and follow the instructions. FYI, this will crackle and it fades quickly, but it still has the novelty of wearing your child’s art. Finally, you always have the option of fabric pens and a white tee. I’m not sure how it washes or fades, and you will definitely not have editing capabilities.

Another way of gifting these treasured drawings, is by making stationery sets. These are probably better suited for the women of the family. Many ways of doing these – using the Cafepress or Zazzle sites again, printing from your printer onto blank purchased cards, or taking the original art and cutting and layering with other papers – scrapbook-style. I scanned in water colors and gave them all pretentious gallery-like names. Then I used a stamp embossing in gold to embellish them further. Look out Pollack – here comes my kid’s abstract art! The cards pictured were called “Robins playing in snow” mostly because of the colors and a couple of brush strokes he did looked like bird tracks. I then made a bird track stamp to embellish them. The key to these was to “edit” by taking away the paper he was painting before it turned into a mess.

One more childs’ art project that you can gift, are these flowers. This was what we made for the grandmas on Mother’s Day. Pictured is my mother’s display of her gift from her grandson.

The idea for these came about when my husband brought home a huge pack of basket-style coffee filters from an extended business trip. He couldn’t bear to throw them out… but we don’t have a need for the basket filters. So they sat in the craft drawer until my son grabbed them out one day and started coloring them. He didn’t paint them to their potential – but it worked just the same. I think if you used watercolors and had your child paint the edges in different pastel shades, they’d be really pretty.

To make these, you’ll need basket style coffee filters, or tissue paper would work, too. Just cut into circles or squares. You will also need floral wire, floral tape and green cardstock or construction paper for the leaves.

1. Have your child paint several of the filters. You’ll use about 2 or three per flower.

2. Bend a long piece of floral wire in half and poke through (button – like) the center of one of the filters.

3. Then gather and fold the filter from the center to look like a flower.

4. Repeat with 2 more filters, bunching and gathering to get a full flower. Then pinch the bottom, including the wire and twist to secure. Twist the wire around its self for a stem.

5. Wrap floral tape tightly around the base of the flower. You may need to wrap several times to secure it. Then, stretching gently and twisting, continue wrapping all the way to the end of the wire.

6. You can cut leaf shapes and stem them with the wire and tape as well. Then just wrap the leaf stem onto the flower stem. When you’ve made enough for a bunch, gather them and wrap them in cellophane and finish with a bow (I used the left overs from the Easter baskets) or find a quaint vase, etc.