'Grimm Style' Diorama Easter Egg!

As a kid, I used to absolutely love those Easter sugar eggs with the little scenes in them.  I'd image a little story with each one of them- But this one beats all!

See the chicks attacking the bunny!  Notice one chick has had it's head bitten off by the giant bunny.  Try to find the severed head in the moss!  Don't miss the floating mushrooms on the inside walls of the egg!

This scene could have only been conceived by a 13 year old boy- and that it was!

This was one of the projects my friend Shade and I did this afternoon.  Shade is the son of some good friends of ours that had a massive brain stem injury about 8 months ago.  You can read his story here.

I've been doing 'art therapy' with Shade since last September.  Shade keeps me inspired to think up projects that will not only challenge his brain and motor skills, but will  be cool for a 13 year old boy! 

I'll tell you right now that Shade is making an amazing recovery.  He went from a coma and not even being able to breathe on his own to eating, talking, and even getting around by himself!  His dad, Vince, has chronicled everything here on his blog. I credit Shade's recovery to his amazing loving, devoted family, and his sense of humor, which has remained 100% intact!

Anyways, Shade's dad encouraged me to share this project.  I'll be featuring other projects as well in the future.  Vince thought they may be able to help someone else, too.  That would be awesome!  But anyone could make these babies. They are seriously fun!

Grimm Style Diorama Easter Eggs

Materials:

• balloons
• Rigid Wrap plaster infused gauze (Michaels)
• box cutter
• liquid acrylic paints (we used Martha Stewart's)
• foam dot brush
• aerosol clear varnish
• hot glue
• glitter
• moss
• easter wind up toys or figurines (Dollar Tree)
• baby chicks (Michaels)
• fake mushrooms, flowers, etc
• plain jar lid

Instructions:

• Blow up a balloon to desired egg size.  Tie off as tightly as possible.  Trim off balloon end close to knot. (otherwise you'll end up with an egg with a bump!)
• Cut Rigid Wrap into 2" by 2" squares.  Dip into warm water and apply to balloon, smoothing as you go.  Apply at least 3 layers.
• Let dry for a day.  Pop balloon! Yay!
• Mark an oval on front of egg and cut out with a box cutter.
• Hot glue oval cut out to inside bottom of egg to form a base for your scene.
• Spray with varnish to seal.  Don't skip this step- it will keep the egg from getting soggy when you paint it.

Shade painting interior of his egg neon green

Shade with pals Liam (left) and James (right) who wanted in on the fun

• Paint inside and outside of egg with acrylic paints, using a different color for each.
• Use foam circle painter to paint polka dots on outside of egg if desired.
• Hot glue scene on inside of egg as desired.

Shade expertly applying glue

• Brush a thick layer of glue on cut edge of opening.  

The more glitter the better!

• Shake on lots of glitter.  Shake off excess. 
• Let dry.  Set on plain jar lid to hold egg upright for display.
• Make up a story to go along with your egg like Shade did!

Voila! Creepy and festive rolled into one!

William B. Morris wears a Kafflower....

OMG. That's the Kafflower pattern featured on the one and only Barbara Brackman's blog!!!! See the Kafflower adorning the Willam Morris portrait, then scroll down to see close-up of a Kafflower made up in Barbara's delicious William Morris fabrics!! A total honor...

Ping Pong Ball Light

So I was a-thinkin' that to preserve my title as 'La Todera' (Spanish for jack-of-all-trades lady)  I'd better share a non-flower related project once in a while.


Ergo- my son Liam's new ping-pong ball light!


Liam had a problem light.  His room has those 70's low ceilings, and by necessity, had one of those very flat appliqué lights in the center of his ceiling.  This was unacceptable for Liam, the style maven.
The rest of his room is very cool looking.  Unfortunately, it is uber-unphoto-worthy at the moment due to the giant mess brewing in there...


Fast forward to this Christmas when Santa brought Liam a ping-pong table.  Ping-pong is the new craze in this house!  One day while tucking Liam in, it occurred to me that ping-pong balls covering the light plate might be just the ticket.  They would look cool and they are semi transparent!   See for yourself:

What you'll need:

• Glass light fixture
• One tube clear pure silicone sealant
• Enough pingpong balls to cover light plate (at this writing they are available at the Dollar Tree in packs of 8)

Instructions:
Detach light plate from fixture and give it a good scrubbing so the glue will stick.  Let dry.
Starting in the center of plate, dab a ping-pong ball with a dime sized dab of silicone.  Stick onto lamp.
Now surround the center ball with a row ping-pong balls.
Continue adding rows till plate is covered.
Let dry 24 hours.
Re attatch plate to fixture.


The most important part of this project is to use pure silicone sealant/glue, found at your local home center.  Other glues will soon peel off (ask me know I know!)  The silicone also has enough body to help the balls stay put while they are drying.  You don't want those little guys sliding around after all of your hard work!  


Next I want to try the ping-pong balls on a round light fixture.  My husband said, "Cool!  That would look like a giant golf ball!  He would say that...

Mmmmmmmm.... Daffodils!

Hi everyone!


So I just released a new pattern:  The Double Daffodil Brooch.
Daffodils may mean Spring to most people, but to me they also remind me of my very earliest childhood memory- eating a daffodil!


I was born in Springfield, Illinois.  Unbeknownst to me, this pretty urbane factoid would make me oh-so- fascinating when I moved to Argentina- everyone seemed sooo impressed that I was from the actual city from where the Simpson hail!  hey, I'll take it...)
I digress.  So I've been told that I had a fascination with flowers ever since I was a toddler. (Hence the flower patterns 40 some years later?)


I guess I liked daffodils soooo much, that I decided it would be a good idea to eat one!  On the very day we were moving from Springfield to our new home in Park Forest, Illinois!  Daffodils, being mildly poisonous, gave me an upset stomach, and then a rather technicolor vomit (eeew!)


But that's how much I love flowers!

If you'd like to make a daffodil, rather than eat one, click here to buy the pattern!

Gazing into 2012

Happy 2012 to all!!!

Don't you wish you had a crystal ball to tell you what the future holds for 2012? 

At least you can make a crystal ball like this one to decorate your favorite room!


This craft brings back memories for me.  It's actually a modern take on the water-filled rose globe my grandma always had sitting on top of her television set when I was little.  I just loved to stare at it, you know, wondering how that (fake) rose stayed so vibrant year after year! 

Looked something like this....

  


You can set your crystal flower ball where you please... ;)


You'll need the following:

• (1) Fishbowl with a 6" opening* (found in the floral supply section at Michaels Arts and Crafts.)
• (1) 6 3/4" Round wooden plaque*  (this one found in the woodworking section at Michaels- it's for making a clock.)
• Primer
• Acrylic paint (this one is Martha Stewart all purpose paint in 'Surf.')
• Fabric flowers (these are all made from my La Todera patterns- see sidebar or click here to order.)
• Green tissue paper

*  Make sure that the wooden plaque that you buy be slightly bigger than the opening of your fishbowl.

Instructions:

1. Paint the wooden base with primer.  Let dry.
2. Paint wooden base with 2 coats acrylic paint.  Let dry.
3. Set fishbowl down, opening side up.  Place 1 flower on bottom, and prop several flowers around sides, front sides of flowers facing out.  Add crumpled tissue paper to hold in place.
4. Continue adding flowers and tissue paper to completely fill bowl.
5. Place base on top of opening, and carefully flip assembly right side up.

Done!  Happy Gazing!

Classes at Houston, Part Dos, Kaffe Fassett

Back again.  So the second day of classes, Cecilia and I took the Kaffe Fassett 'Gridlock' class.  Now anyone that knows us knows how much we love Kaffe and his fabrics.  So taking a class together and with Kaffe was paradisiacal!


If you have never taken a class with Kaffe, you should know the following:


It's the best color class you will ever take, bar none.
Doubtful that you'll ever think of color the same way after a class with Kaffe.  You won't even be able to explain what's different.  They must pump something thru the air conditioning...


It's a totally new way of learning.  
Liza and Kaffe give you a brief overview of the project.  No sewing, just layout.  Then you get to work.  The best music you can think of (Beatles, Grace Slick, James Taylor, etc) is playing loud enough that you can hardly hear yourself think.  So you just give in, start singing along.  Before you know it, you are not really thinking anymore and just working intuitively.  Kaffe strongly encourages you to work quickly, and the only way you can do that is to trust your instincts!  Better to get something up on your design wall and change it later than to over think every little piece of fabric you put on your design wall.  Forget any notion about your fabric being precious.  If you end up not using something you cut, make a pillow when you get home, for God's sakes. (verbatim).  That brings me to point #3:


These classes are not for the faint of heart.  Just hang in there.
Kaffe tells it like it is.  Some nuggets from the gridlock class:

• "If I give you a suggestion, just try it.  If you come in her and do only what YOU think is a good idea, well then you will learn a lot about... YOU."
• "Stand back and look at your work from afar.  I've seen a lot of people who never step back.  They think their quilt looks great until they step back at the end and it looks like cat vomit."
• That fabric next to that one looks just... wussy.  (said to me!)

In fact, there were 2 different women that just up and left in the middle of the class that day because they didn't like Kaffe's instructional method... (their loss, and more room for me!)


So you cut, put up, and stand back. Repeat. Repeat another 100 times until about 4pm when it's time for the group critique.  


Then Kaffe goes around to everyone's project and gives it a critique.  It's the juiciest part of the day.  You learn soooo much from seeing what others have done within similar parameters and what Kaffe has to say about that.


When the time came for my critique, I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen.  I hadn't talked to him about my quilt much that day. (Later I would find out that was a good thing!)  I used very little Kaffe fabric that day, as I had decided to use my stash of striped men's shirts from home. Most people used about 99% Kaffe fabric, so I wasn't sure that NOT supporting his fabric line was going to lend itself to a very favorable critique.  Well, watch for yourselves (and note the empty wall space where the 2 women ripped down their design walls- not even bothering to remove the tape! :0  )

So I left exhausted, but happy that day.  Here are some other photos from the Gridlock class:

A cuttin' and a grinnin'

Ceci and her quilt design (on right)- both gorgeous!!!!!

Critique

During Critique

Critique of my quilt- see tape to the left!!

Kaffe, don't stand still too long- your shirt would look great in my quilt!

But Kaffe and Co. let me know about a spot that had opened up in the following day's class.  So the next day, I went back for more!!

This time, the class was for the quilt "Big Bang".  An amazing take on the Texas Lonestar quilt.  Of course, the only fabric I had with me was the shirt stripes from home, so that's what I used.  

Another really demanding day.  I told Kaffe and Liza that that class kicked my butt!  Verrry challenging, especially with cutting stripes on the bias.  But, I was there to push myself, and that I did.  I've decided I need this color tuneup at LEAST once a year! 

Some photos:

The classroom at lunchtime

Hard at work, probably belting out some Beatles song!

Dame Liza Prior Lucy.  Love her.

Kaffe and Cecilia

Kaffe and I in front of my quilt.  My favorite pic of the trip:)



ps,  I need to thank Cecilia for some of these pictures that she kindly took and lent me.  Thanks Ceci!!

Giveaway over at Blue Moon River Quilts!

Mornin'!


Want to win a free La Todera Pattern?


Scoot on over to Susan Brubaker Knapp's gorge blog where she it having a Sew Thankful Giveaway!


Click on image:



Good Luck!!
Julie