Happy Yule!

Holiday WIP....

I've been hard at work creating a few items for holiday gifts as well as painting baseboards for my son's room. If my craft table and family room are any indication, it's been a flurry of projects in progress.

But I have a few things finished and a few more that are about half way to completion. Here's a couple of what I have done so far. 

I was really inspired by my art journal when I created these. It had been a while since I created a piece of artwork for my Oma and Opa (my maternal grandparents). My Oma is such a huge supporter of my artwork. She has a wall dedicated to every art piece I've created for her, including some pieces from when I was a child. This year, she will be getting 2 art pieces. One is a print we had made of one of the kiddo's artwork and the other is my artwork. And I also created one for my Aunt and Uncle as well.

Each one is mixed media on bristol board. To give them a personal touch, in the heart I included their wedding dates. 

It's a tradition in our family that each child gets an ornament each year. It was something my mother started for both myself and my sister. My paternal grandmother, the crafty lady she was, helped add to that. Every year, my grandmother made all the grand kids (8 of us) an ornament. When she passed away, I made sure the tradition was carried on not only for my son, but my cousin's children as well. 

Last year I scored big with a bunch of clear glass ornaments. I still have not made a dent in that bunch. I pulled out some paper clay (I love that stuff!) and went to work creating ornaments for the kiddo and my cousins' kids.

One of 2 little puppies that are dried and ready for painting.

And the ornaments this year, a penguin, 2 puppies and a bear. The little fabric pillows are for another project (stay tuned for that one).

So that's a few of the ones I have in progress. I still have something for my sister that is in the works, hubby, and the kiddo. I might even be whipping something up for my parents and the kitties as well (not sure yet though, haven't been inspired yet).

I'm hoping to get some more crafting done this weekend, but it's going to be a very busy one with a birthday party, base board installation in the kiddo's bedroom, and 2 holiday parties.

Yule Swap 2009

Yup another swap I forgot to post about. This package went to my very good friend Andreann. This was where we were partnered for the first time and it was the start of a very wonderful friendship.

 

The lot including presents for her daughter and boyfriend

This swap I played the Yule Faery and granted a lot of wishes. She made mention that she didn't have any pagan themed ornaments for her tree and that was where I started.

The ornaments I made for her were made out of polymer clay, painted with acrylic craft paint, and then sealed with a polymer clay gloss sealer.

 Red and copper spiral ornaments with goddess symbols

Tree of Life ornaments

Red star ornaments with pentacles and gold trim

While I was making ornaments for her, I swung over to her blog and saw that she made a post about her Yule Tree and made mention that she didn't have a tree skirt. Well that was something that just needed to be remedied. It just happened that making a tree skirt was something my hubby suggested making. It was made out of red cotton (her favorite color) with the Triple Goddess Symbol painted on with gold fabric paint. This was interesting since I've never made a tree skirt before, but it turned out well.

Tree skirt

I also made a Triple Goddess wall hanging for her to put above her altar. These are also made out of polymer clay, painted with acrylic craft paints, and sealed with a polymer clay gloss sealer.

Triple Goddess

I made a few items for her beautiful little girl who I just adore. The first item I made for her was a glove doll. The instructions for it where on Martha Stewart's website here. I didn't have a glove to use but being as resourceful as I am, I modified it a little bit. The directions were to use the fore and ring fingers as the legs. With my trusty pencil, I went ahead and traced my hand on a piece of card stock, and drew the sides of the body how I wanted them. I used an old t-shirt for the fabric, sewn the edges making sure I left the top open for turning and stuffing. I had to create a cutout pattern for the head. But the rest of the doll went together according to the instructions. And inspite of having to create a pattern for the body and head, the doll still went together pretty fast. Instead of stitching a face on, I used craft paint. And the clothes were pieced together with a velcro closure.

 Inspired by the Glove Doll

I also made an apron for her but I forgot to take a picture of it. But it was a simple half circle with a pocket and a wide piece of fabric folded over for the ribbon to tie it on (it's the light blue and floral fabric in the main picture). I also included some coffee, candy canes, and natural headache relief. I also included some of my favorite herbs that I use for just about everything.

Happy Crafting!

~K.Michele

Happy Yule!

Just a quick note to wish everyone a happy yule!

(clip art can be found here)

Happy crafting!
~K. Michele