Handmade Holiday: Pileated Woodpecker

And, last but not least, I needle-felted this pileated woodpecker for my (ex-step-)mother-in-law. She had mentioned last winter that she wanted a life-sized pileated woodpecker for the top of her Christmas tree (and as we have an elf on the top of our tree, and I grew up with a scarecrow as a tree-topper, this did not strike me as the least bit odd). This one falls just a bit short of full-sized, at 16" long. I hope she won't be too disappointed. He was a lot of fun to make, and my knitting group had a lot of fun watching me needle him, as many of them had not been around the year of the needle-felted flock.

And, like all needle-felted creatures, he didn't feel quite real (in fact he looked most ridiculous) until I put the eye on him. Z has put in a request for life-sized osprey and California condor. I think I'll need to get a multi-needle holder before I embark on anything that ambitious.

Provided all has gone as planned, we should have arrived home from Colorado early this morning (how odd to write that sentence 10 days in advance), and I'll be back next week with a report on our trip and a last post or two before grad school begins in earnest and I become scarce around this space. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, whatever you celebrate (we like to celebrate them all), and a Happy New Year!

Handmade Holiday: Kid-Made Pillows

M came up with the idea, all on his own, to make pillows for people using these pieces of turquoise velour that have been everything from capes to turbans to bed curtains to tablecloths in the boys' room over the last couple of years. We cut a couple of them up and I introduced M to the sewing machine. The fabric was not a good choice for a first sewing project, all stretchy and curly and pilly and slippery, but he forged ahead valiantly. We stuffed them with buckwheat hulls and lavender, and I have no photo of the finished product because he was finishing them up late the night before we left (in fact he has a few more to do after we get home).

And, apropos of nothing, I had to take a picture of this little sign M made when I took it down to make room for Christmas cards. What an awesome little radical he is. Take that, Charlie Summers!

Handmade Holiday: Kid-Made Twig Frames

One weekend I said to C, "can you think of any carpentry-type project the boys can make for the grandfathers?" And he said, "I dunno. Picture frames?" And I said, "Great. Can you spearhead that this afternoon?" And so I have no idea how these were made (other than they made liberal use of old pizza boxes for the backing). But I do think they came out great, and I think I kind of like delegating. I must do it more often.

Handmade Holiday: Kid-Painted Silk Scarves

For the grandmothers and granmotherly types and, ahem, the Mama, the boys painted silk scarves with Kool-Aid, just like we did at their birthday party.

I took a bunch of bandana-sized silk scarves from Dharma Trading (Kool-Aid will only work when dying animal-based fibers like silk or wool, not cotton), put them in a pot of water with a few glugs of white vinegar and brought the water to a boil. I mixed packets of Kool-Aid powder with a small amount of hot water and vinegar, laid a hot, wet scarf onto some big paper, then let the boys go at it with Kool Aid and brushes. They tried different effects with brushing, blotting, splatting and dipping. 

After they were done I hung them out to dry (above), then rinsed them in cool water to get the vinegar and Kool-Aid smell out, dried them again and ironed them to make them soft again (they get kind of stiff from the Kool-Aid, but soften up with use).

Handmade Holiday: Kid-Made Freezer Paper Stencil Shirts

I decided to have the kids make freezer paper stencil shirts for their peeps again this year. (We did a few two years ago). It's a relatively painless gift-making process that results in a useful object. Yea.

M made this for his uncle K, stealing a scorpion design from a book he's been reading:

When I asked Z's auntie E what her favorite color and animal were, she said "If you're getting me a pet, I want a unicorn with a rainbow mane." So that's what she got:

For E's uncle E, I used a picture he'd drawn at school of the Brothers in their Brothermobile, from the ongoing saga of The Gold and Silver Stone, which takes place in Tom Lighthouse's World.

M did some fancy lettering to make a #1 PAPA shirt for C, and Z traced some stars:

For Grandpoppy, M drew an owl. I've never in my life seen my dad wear a shirt with any kind of picture or lettering on it, so we went with small and subtle. Maybe he'll make an exception for his grandkids' work.

See this great tutorial on freezer-paper stenciling, see my friend Sara's blog. This time around, the kids got more involved than last time (when I did the actual tracing, cutting and painting after they went to bed). They drew the pictures, picked the colors and did some of the painting. I traced the designs onto the freezer paper stencils, and wielded the Xacto knife and the iron.

Handmade Holiday: Acornaments

Every Chrismas, I do an ornament exchange with my mom, one of my sisters and three of my aunts. I usually end up making lots of extra ornaments to also give to various other family members. Two years ago I needle-felted birds and the year before I sewed birds (last year I bought little wooden birdhouse ornaments on Etsy). This year, to keep things simple, I broke from the bird theme and made felted acorns.

In two separate sessions, I wet-felted a whole lotta balls, with some help from E and Z, and then glued on acorn caps and gold thread hangers.

Hopefully everyone likes them and doesn't think I cheaped out.

Handmade Holiday: Travel Journals and Stocking Stuffers

I made very few gifts this year, compared to years' past, and almost nothing for the kiddos. Instead I've made Etsy my best friend. But I did zip out these travel journals:

It's so hard to find ready-made notebooks that are short enough for a ten-day trip. I bought two 99 cent writing tablets--one lined and one blank--and, alternating lined and blank pages, stacked up 20 sheets of paper, folded part of an old Rocky Mountain National Park map over them for a cover and zig-zagged up the side with the sewing machine to bind them off. I hope to encourage the kids to write and draw something every day of the trip, especially since they're missing several days of school.

I had bought a lot of little toys and things for the road trip that never happened last summer, so I was pretty much all set on stocking stuffers (I did buy socks and undies out of tradition). For the two magnifying glasses I had for E and Z, I made these cozy drawstring bags, lined with fleece to protect the lenses (which are real glass). I did the world's worst job sewing up the bags, but hopefully the boys won't notice (I'll just tell them the elves were really really tired when they made these, which is true).