Painted Birdhouse

From a family reunion Craft Station. (Who would figure with my family... )

A Tisket... A Tasket... A Basket..

Sometimes it's fun to go back and find things you made years ago that you still have around and still get some use. This basket is one of those things. I remember making it, but I don't remember where or how. It could have been 4-H, Girl Scouts, or something else. (I do come from one of those crafty type of families.)

Gifts Recieved - Gifts Treasured

 Over the years I find some of the greatest treasures to be those that were created or embellished by hand, not machine. Creation and art is life and means more than you can find at any superstore. We need to celebrate the hand made arts more, the people that create them, and the people who give them. They are truly beautiful.

The first is a hand made cross, I think it was crocheted. To be honest, crochet, knitting, and the like are things I know little about. (I'm just learning to knit on my own.) Someone made these cross bookmarks for me and my siblings but I can't remember who. An older family friend perhaps. (I feel bad for this, but I can't help it.) Some of them were of only one color, but I favored the one with the rainbow of colors. For years it hung on the bulletin board in my bedroom.

The little girl figurine was a gift from a my grandmother years ago for Christmas, crafted  by a friend of hers from church. The tiny book in the doll's in hand is "Christy." It is a movie and mini series that we shared. It doesn't sit more than 2 inches high.

The small chest was a gift fro a friend in high school. She found a small chest and stained it in a cedar to match the cedar chest I had made years before. I use it now to hold coins I've collected from different around the world as well as my small collection of pressed pennies. It sits on a shelf in my room amongst old family photos.

Embrace the gifts that mean the most because they were chosen just for you, made with someone's own hand.

4-H Woodworking

Bulletin Board

Book Shelf

I grew up doing woodworking, I took a cedar chest to state fair, I helped with 4-H State Fair judging, and I taught woodworking basics at camp. It seems the carpenter bloodline showed through. 4-H gave me great opportunities to build things and to learn new woodworking skills. It also let me build things for my room at the time, many of which I still use.

The blue bordered bulletin board was a 4-H woodworking project that I made for my room in elementary school and now use in my Craft/Sewing Room. At any time it can be holding any selection of instructions, patterns, sketches, projected (completed or in process). It was made with my woodcutting advisor in his wood shop, using the same pattern his daughter had used to make one before me.

 The year I made my bookshelf, most of the kids in that project had made a full size bookshelf, but I had a small bedroom and limited space. Instead, my advisor helped me come up with a smaller shelf that could hang from the wall or sit on my head board. (My bed at the time at build in bookshelf as the headboard and the width was perfect to sit this shelf on top of it.) I got to learn about making drawers. The shelf now holds many of cookbooks and herb books, a treasured piece that I use everyday.

The basket was a Club 4-H project on trees. We did all sorts of tree projects and activities; that included tree planting, trips to see the process of apple cider and maple syrup, and creating something from wood - in this case it was making baskets from wood strips.

My Cedar Chest

I learned how to work with wood at a fairly young age. Some of my fondest memories from my childhood were spent with my grandpa in shed he used as a woodshed and later working with him in his garage workshop. He was a perfectionist, better to measure twice and cut once.

As I stood by his side, learning to measure, cut, sand, and build he kept alive a long family tradition of woodworkers and carpenters in his grandchildren. Over the years he helped me with 4-H projects, including the building of my cedar chest in middle school. The rounded top cedar chest that had been carefully laid out and pieced together on his screened in front porch, got an outstanding at my county 4-H judging and was sent to State Fair. The day I went to state fair with it, we invited my grandpa to go with me and my dad, after all the time he had spent helping me build it. It sits in my bedroom and is in constant use.

My grandpa is gone, but I hold the memories of our time together close.

Wooden Dove

The wooden dove is from a pattern of my grandpa's. He made them and he helped us make them.The wooden dove is made from one piece of wood with a small wooden heart attached with clear fishing line. I have two that he helped me make that hang in my windows. They serve as a reminder that we need Peace on Earth everyday.

Middle School Shop Projects

Across the country school systems are struggling to keep art and shop programs. Budget cuts of arts programs are partly the cause as well as people who consider some programs obsolete. When I was in seventh grade shop was 1/3 of a life class required (along with home ec. and a language class), by the next year the seventh grade shop was replaced by a computer skills class for 1/3 of the class. A sad commentary on the changing of times. (At least in my mind.) I was one of those kids who took in both the required 7th grade class as well as the optional 8th grade class. These classes & skills are important, more important than some school officials realize & help give kids excess to skills they might not otherwise have access to.

The aluminum owl was a project from my 7th grade shop class while we were doing metal skill work. After the hot metal was poured and let to cool completely, we filed the edges to clean it up. I have memories of my  shop teacher adding aluminum cans to the melted metal, possibly using cans for the entire metal used, but I don't know or remember. Budget-wise it would have made great sense for a public school. (It hangs on my wall even now as a piece of my past.)

The scotty dog lamp was an 8th grade shop project. Often we were given an option between two projects at a time, one being harder than the other. This was the harder of one of those options, but I do not remember the other one at the time. It was a combination of wood and electric with our choice of fabric pulled over wire mesh. To turn the light on or off, you push the tail.

Don't let Middle School or High School Ssop classes be cut.

Camp Tales - A Girl & a Drill Press

One of the benefits of working at camp as an Arts& Craft Instructor, was being able to teaching basic woodworking to kids 9-14, a good portion of them never having any previous experience with it. This was especially true with many of the young girls. It was nothing too difficult; hammering (for string art), wood burning, sanding, and the drill press (for wood games using golf tees and wooden squares pre-cut for them). I had safety lines, safety goggles, and strict rules about no one using the drill press without my supervision and wood burners needing my supervision or the supervision of one of my counselors or other staff.

I was exposed to woodworking young through my grandpa and 4-H, debating in Middle School of becoming a Shop Teacher. I took woodworking projects in 4-H and even built a cedar chest that went to State Fair (for another story). I even helped with 4-H woodworking judging at State Fair one year (a great story for another time). I wanted my campers to be safe, but I also wanted them to know that the basics were attainable.

One sunny afternoon, I had the usual mix of boys and girls in the Craft Hall ready to take on the drill press. A little girl of about 9 or 10 crossed my red line into the drill press area, safety glasses on, her sanded & marked piece of wood in hand. She didn't act too sure about the powerful machine she had watched others use & was now standing before. I went over the basics again, encouraging her that she was just as capable of this as anyone else. There was no rule that said girls couldn't do woodworking or handle power tools. We lined up the first hole to be drilled as she took a hold of the handle, slowly and gingerly pulling the drill bit down into the wood, making the hole. As she raised the handle and released, I watched her change as her face lit up. In an instant, something changed and suddenly the little girl timid about a power tool knew that she could do it and knew that she had done it. There was excitement and a realization that come about in drilling that first hole as well as a truth that she was truly just as capable as anyone else. That day a little girl was introduced to woodworking and maybe to the power she was a capable of.

Perhaps, it's the feminist in me or a reminder of the little girl I was, going to woodworking judging surrounded by boys, but that afternoon a little girl realized that girls can and being a girl shouldn't stop her. That afternoon, I got to be make a difference in one little girl and I got to watch it happen.

Seashells by the Seashore

Beached Curtain with Shells

With thoughts of summer, my thoughts have turned to sun, sand, and beaches... with the thoughts of the beach and sand I think of seashells. (Between my trips to beaches and trips of friends, I have a fairly large collection tucked away.) Bring on the sun!

The beaded curtains were made years ago from a sturdy hemp chord (which I seem to usually have on hand), medium-sized wooden beads, and various seashells with naturally occurring  holes and places to string the chord. They were first made for a bedroom I had in the attic and followed me a new house and even to a cabin doorway I had. I love the natural look of the wooden beads with shells and a few scattered gold beads. A bit of a hippy-inspired 60s flashback, but that is one of the reasons I love having them and decorating with them.

The little seashell covered boxes were made from tiny plain boxes and decorated with a sturdy glue and tiny colored shells to create a design. (I have a bunch of these little shells, some dyed different colors.) They are great to sit with my some of my mermaid stuff (which I seem to have at least a  few things).

I am so ready for summer.

The Ladies Who Craft - Part 2

 

These are just a few more of the things we've done with the nursing home ladies. We often try to do seasonal projects and take into account not just the things I plan, but also things they have an interest in doing or sharing, just as the Indian corn pins made from triangle beads, pipe cleaners, a little raffia for decoration, a pin back, and a few drops of hot glue. Very festive fall pieces that can be worn or altered for other Thanksgiving/Fall decoration. (My grandma loved them and I still need to make her one for next fall/Thanksgiving.)
 
We painted little birdhouses, the added a touch of craft moss and faux birds and they are ready to hang in a window or sit on a table or dresser.

The jeweled fall leaves were a great fall decoration for windows or bulletin boards and super easy to make.

Jeweled Leaves

The Plastic Canvas Needlepoint Calenders were something the one of the ladies had done before, getting the pattern from someone she had been in another home with. We used the one she had as our original pattern. Each one was a different combination of colored plastic canvas and yarn (I preferred the fire colors pictured). It was something we could start together and then be worked on in the down time in between. I worked on mine at the hospital when my grandpa was in. (There are slots on the back not pictures to store the extra months and other pieces when no needed.)

Needlepoint calender

Camp Crafts - Part 3

Sand Art

Yes, there are still more camp crafts to share. (Multiple summers at more than one location it's bound to happen.) Hopefully you will find inspiration or memories with at least one of these.

The tiger is a sand painting that used pre-stuck templates that were peeled off one by one then covered with colored sand, color by color, until everything was filled. You can also use a paint brush and glue for the same effect with coloring book pictures or your own design. If working with younger kids you can find much simpler designs, but I love tigers and grew up with posters and pictures of them on my walls (much to my younger sister's dismay at times).

The teddy bear picture frame in the picture was decoupaged using torn pieces of tissue paper and Mod Podge with a piece of lace as a hanger. I had a stash of these that ended up painted and decorated in all sorts of ways. There are a few that hang on my mom's Christmas tree painted and with pictures of us kids. Some got ribbon or lace hangers while others had magnets attached to the back. (It still amazes how often the projects of young kids end up looking at lot a show girl to the adult eye, with feathers and glitter and splashes of color.)

Teddy Bear Picture Frame

The paper box is a simple little thing that can be made from pretty much anything. It was another one of those things I learned years ago, but shared with a lot of kids to keep trinkets, treasures, or to put gifts in. It involved two pieces of square paper, one piece slightly larger than the other for the lid, a pair of scissors to make a couple slits, and the no how to fold them. Over the years I have made them in all sorts of sizes and using various paper to make them.

The peace sign medallion was made using a woodburner to burn the letters into the slice of tree, then stained. Wood burning was a popular thing for a lot of the kids to do, but took a lot of care in making sure everyone was safe. There is something strange about basically handing a bunch of nine to 14 years old branding irons and pieces of wood and saying, "Have fun!" Yet somehow, they with careful instruction they went home unmamed and unbranded (at least from the Craft Hall). I'm a stickler for safety and wouldn't tolerate any less from my campers or the counselors that I worked with everyday. The peace medallion was probably inspired by one of the many theme weeks or a themed dance one of the camps had. ("Hey man, give peace a chance. Won't ya?")