Remember the Heroes from 9/11!

We have much to be thankful for, but especially for the courage and strength of all those who acted bravely on this day in our history.  May God bless them and keep them safe from harm always.

‎ Niblet & Biscuit Doll Tutorial

Here is a wonderful tutorial I found on Gwenny Penny that I know you will want to try.  This site is full of tutorials and beautiful photographs and I encourage you to visit there, especially if you like this tutorial.

These are the cutest little dolls.  I can see me making several of these in the near future for presents.  Don't you know someone who would simply love to have one?

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Let's get to it...

Materials you will need to make one 7 inch doll (either Niblet or Biscuit):

• Flannel for head, ears, arms, and legs – ¼ yd
• Cotton for body – fat quarter or large scraps
• Felt – small scraps (black for eyes, pink for Niblet's inner ears, tan for Biscuit's inner ears and muzzle)
• Embroidery floss (black, pink, tan)
• Polyfill
• Coordinating thread
• ¼" hole punch
• Optional: ribbon, buttons, fabric scraps, round cord elastic, and ¼" elastic for dressing up

Remember to backstitch every time you start or stop a seam.

Click here to download, save, or print the templates for the dolls.

Part I: Sewing the Head, Ears, Arms, and Legs

Step 1: Print and cut out all templates.

Step 2: Trace templates onto flannel and cut out. You should have 2 head pieces (template A), 8 arm/leg pieces (template B), and 4 ear pieces (template C or E). Trace template D or templates F and G onto felt and cut out. You should have 2 inner ear pieces (template D or F). If you are making Biscuit you should also have one muzzle piece (template G).

Step 3: Place two arm/leg pieces of flannel together. Sew around ¼" from the outside edge. Repeat for the other three arms/legs. Turn all four arms/legs right side out.

Step 4: Take one flannel ear piece and center one felt inner ear piece on top, lining up the bottom edges of both pieces. Hand sew the felt to the flannel using 3 strands of embroidery floss that match your felt. Repeat for the second ear.

Step 5: Match up one blank flannel ear piece with one felt/flannel ear piece. Line them up with right sides together (felt should be in between the two pieces). Sew around ¼" from the outside edge. Repeat for the other ear. Clip your corners. Turn both ears right side out.

Step 6: Now it's time to create the face. Use the face templates provided for placement of eyes, nose, and mouth. For eyes, use a ¼" hole punch to punch two circles out of black felt. My punch didn't go all the way through the felt, so I finished the cut with scissors. Hand sew black felt eyes onto one flannel head piece using 3 strands of black embroidery floss.

• For Niblet, embroider the nose using 3 strands of pink embroidery floss and the mouth using 3 strands of black embroidery floss.
   
• For Biscuit, place the felt muzzle on the flannel face. Attach using 3 strands of black embroidery floss to make three French knots on either side of the muzzle. Embroider the nose and mouth using 3 strands of black embroidery floss.

Step 8: Turn your head right side out. Stuff the head with polyfill. Tuck the raw edges of the gap inside the head. Sew the gap closed. You now have a complete head!

Part III: Finishing the Doll

Step 13: Tightly whipstitch the very base of the head to the very top of the body. Double up your thread when you do this to make sure it's secure. Trust me, we've already had a casualty in our house.

Niblet's Skirt

New Tutorial -- The Sylvia Headband by Nancy's Couture

Here is a delightful tutorial that I found  while looking for something else.  This has got to be one of the best tutorial for a most beautiful headband.  I would be proud to wear this, but I think I would have to fight off my friends.  I guess I better get busy and make one for everyone; that way, I get to wear my own!

This tutorial is from Nancy's Couture where you can read her blog and check out all of the rest of her really cute tutorials.  Leave her a comment when you visit and tell her I sent you.  Oh, if you want to see pictures of this process, you'll have to go to her site.  She has wonderful, up-close photographs that show you exactly what to do. 

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Supplies Needed

    *
      Strips of fabric (mine range from 1" to 1.5" wide)
    *
      tulle (the soft kind)
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      Headband
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      Glue gun
    *
      Glue sticks
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      Scissors
Put a dot of glue on the inside of one end of the headband.
Put the end of a strip of fabric on the dot of glue.
Place a small dot of glue on the front and wrap fabric to cover the glue.
Continue wrapping the fabric around the headband.
Until you get to the other end of the headband.
Put a dot of glue on the inside and fold the fabric over onto the glue.
Cut of the extra.

For The Roses

Tie a knot at the end of a strip of fabric.
Put some glue on the knot.
Twist the fabric and push into the glue.
Continue twisting and gluing until you get the desired size rose.
Put some glue on the back of the rose and fold the end of the fabric into the glue.
Repeat making various size flowers.

Embellishing The Headband

Fold tulle in half and then in half again. Cut it 3" wide.
Put a generous amount of glue on the headband.
Push the strip of tulle into the glue pleating it as you go.
Put some glue on top of the tulle.
Press flower into glue.
Trim the tulle if needed.  I like mine to be a little shorter on the front than the back.  I also like mine to be uneven. I don't like the tulle to have a straight looking edge.  These are just my personal preferences.
Now you have a pretty new headband.

  Here is the finished  product again!  Don't you want to go right out and get the supplies?

Watercolors to go -- from Tip Junkie

Here is a wonderful tutorial for a wonderful idea!  This is something I want to try myself because maybe if I have this handy, I will be able to grab those moments when I feel inspired.  As it is, those moments are simply lost while I try to find things, or set up a place to work, or something. 

This is a great handmade gift to give to any children on your Christmas list, too.  I know I would have loved to receive one of these when I was younger.  Think how many hours of use this little kit will get from the busy and creative imagination of a child.

Hope you like it.  Hope you try it.  If so, leave me a note about the process, won't you?  You can visit the original site here to check out other ideas.

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Every winter my dear friend Catherine Newman gives my kids the most inspired gifts- both handmade and boughten.  Last year she gave Ava a fantastic book called An Illustrated Life, a book about illustrated journaling and sketchbooking and it was a huge source of inspiration for her.  When I get her permission, I will post some things she has been working on, but for now I will share with you a little gift that I am currently making for her as she fills her personal sketchbook with beautiful and funny and original work of her own.  There was an idea for this in the book that an artist shared that I have changed a bit but it will allow her to carry water colors with her and as long as she can find some water (usually not difficult) she can transform her black line drawings into something even more spectacular.  And, it's easy, to boot.

1.  a metal tin (I used a tin that a pair of scissors came in, which was a perfect fit for the "fantastix") polymer clay (sculpey or fimo- go for the soft type).
2. tubes of watercolors (I went for the cheap type from Michael's for this first try but you could use fancy ones)
3. Coloring tools such as "fantastix", which are inexpensive and you can find at any art or craft store. They are basically pens without the ink.  The body is filled with a sponge that holds water so you fill it with water and then can use it with the water colors without having a jar of water for your paintbrush.  You could even watercolor in the car!
4. White metal paint OR a piece of white plastic cut from a tofu or yogurt container that is large enough to fill (or mostly fill) the top of the tin (this is for mixing colors- you want white for that).
5. A tube of lip balm (you'll see why).

How to make it:

1. Take one pack of white polymer clay and break in half.  Roll each half into a snake as long as your tin.

Smoosh them so they are flattened along both long sides and then take your lip balm and press 6 wells into each smooshed snake of clay (use the top of the lip balm that is flat).

2. Follow the manufacturer's directions and bake the clay inside of the tin.  After this cools, you can fill the wells with paint.

3. Fill the wells with paint.  Tap the whole thing to flatten the paint into the wells, or use something (like a paintbrush) to flatten it.  Allow this to dry and it will be ready to use.

4. Paint the top of the lid with white metal paint or glue in a piece of white plastic to provide a white area to mix colors.

5. Now it is ready to go.  If you need to, tie a piece of string or use a rubberband to keep the lid secure.  

If you can't find a long tin like this one, you could always just carry the color sticks in your pencil/pen bag.

Posted by a golden apple at 6:03 AM

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Happy 4th of July! Independence Day!

Here in Austin, as in most of Texas, we are having a fireworks ban due to the fire threat and the drought.  So, here is as close as we will get to seeing any fireworks this year, but I hope your firework display is spectacular to celebrate our nation's independence.  From us here in Texas to you where ever you are, Happy 4th of July!

I hope you and yours have a wonderful, safe, and relaxing holiday!

Patriotic Pinwheel Wreath--a tutorial

Here's a fun and easy craft to try with your kids for the upcoming 4th of July holiday.  I found this tutorial on AllFreeHolidayCrafts.  Be sure to click on the link to get to a site for printable pinwheel papers!

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Patriotic Pinwheel Wreath

With little time and energy remaining, we still wanted to celebrate this 4th of July weekend somehow. So my wheels were turning and I came up with this simple craft to decorate our door. Here are the 6 supplies we used:

- 1 paper plate, center cut out, 1-inch rim remaining
- hole punch
- scissors
- 8 brass fasteners
- white printer paper
- red construction paper

We made 4 squares from one piece of red construction paper. I found a printable pinwheel template at the Family Fun website, and made pinwheels. We punched holes in each pinwheel, pushed brass fasteners through, and then attached them through 8 evenly-spaced holes I had punched around the plate. Voila--a patriotic pinwheel wreath!

This idea was featured at Tip Junkie in May of  2010 and is also linked to:

Posted by Aiming4Simple at 2:29 PM

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Chronicling War Through Art

Image via WikipediaLet us remember those who gave all and the people who mourn them.  Today is about remembering sacrifices given so that we can be who we are today. 

We rarely think about the intermingling of art and war, but as far back as we go there have always been artists chronicling the destruction and devastation of war.  Many artists died in war, many gathered information to save lives, many simply chronicled the daily lives of those who live the war.

This article is from the Hartford Courant and is well worth the time it takes to read it.

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May 25, 2011Submitted by Michael D. Fay, MFA Student in Illustration, The Hartford Courant

Michael Fay drew this portrait from a photo he took of Lance Cpl. Nicholas G. Ciccone. The image shows Ciccone, a rifleman, immediately after dropping his heavy backpack upon returning from a nine-day battle with the Taliban in the mountains above Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2002. Ciccone committed suicide after his discharge from the Marines.

Michael D. Fay, of Fredericksburg, Va., is a student in the master of fine arts in illustration program at the University of Hartford. But from 2000 to 2010 Fay, who wrote this Memorial Day weekend piece for iTowns, was one of two combat artists for the U.S. Marine Corps, sketching scenes and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in stateside hospitals where they were treated for battle wounds. Fay, 57, has since founded the Joe Bonham project, which coordinates opportunities for artists to embed with soldiers, both overseas and at home as they recover from their injuries. For details about Fay and the Joe Bonham project, visit mdfay1.blogspot.com and joebonhamproject.blogspot.com.


Ex bellum ars: from war, art. This is the motto of The International Society of War Artists.


There's just a handful of working war artists, and none of us have consciously sought the title. For one thing, to become a war artist, you need a war.


During every conflict, from the Civil War and through Vietnam, artists have gone into harm's way to create a visual record of people and places embroiled in conflict. However, each of us has followed different paths leading to the front lines.
My path started as an official combat artist for the National Museum of the Marine Corps.
Here in America, both the press and our armed forces have maintained combat art programs since the Civil War.
Some of our nation's premier artists and illustrators have gone to war to create art. In 1861, Winslow Homer went off for Harper's Weekly as a "special"; his battlefield sketches would be transformed into newspaper images and after the war, he created a series of paintings informing America's perception of the Civil War even up to this day.
WWII experienced the greatest number of artists at war, and Vietnam was recorded by numerous official and unofficial war artists.
Since Vietnam, photography and film have largely overwhelmed traditional fine art in telling the story of war. During the ongoing Global War on Terror, photos and film footage continue to hold pre-eminence in telling the visual story. But a small group of working artists has continued to personally witness combat and create art...[read more]

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