Children's Crafts Fair 2014

Once again--time for the Children's Crafts Fair, put on by the Los Osos Library--it's free for the kids to set up their tables and they can keep any money they made--a very great idea!  This is our fifth year--you can see our past years, here--here--here and here.  This year, my granddaughter and her friend made the crafts.  I've often posted about how I tend to help out a little too much--so much so, that the crafts turn into my creations flavored with the artistic designs of my granddaughter, but I have to say, this year I only helped with some exacto knife cutting, putting O-rings on the charms, and helping with the table and display--not bad for me!!

They sold all these pressed flowers...

People could make their own charm bracelets...

with Shrinky Dink charms!

We sold some left over items from last year's booth,

I bought a pair of round needle nose pliers--my granddaughter learned how to make nice round little loops for making her earrings--I did have to help her by twisting the wire around pretty tightly and clipping close with the precision wire clippers, that I also bought--(I like crafting tools!!), But that's all I did---really!

She and her friend got together numerous times to make batch after batch of play-dough--we came home with just a handful of these left.

Because I really took a back seat this year, I could tell that she and her friend felt a greater sense of accomplishment, pride in their work and had lots of fun--plus they made some pocket money!  Then there's  the mad dash of trading toward the end, which is fun to watch!

Summer of the Cupcakes

4th of July cupcake

We've been watching DC Cupcakes and Cupcake Wars--my granddaughter has been trying out frosting nozzles--baking minis and regular size cupcakes--cooking from scratch--some exploded in the oven--our attempt to melt a chocolate bar in the microwave went up in impressive billows of smoke, but these chocolate cupcakes came out delicious!

The frosting was a little too runny and these look sort of like they're topped with fried eggs, but don't be fooled these were very good!

Here is my granddaughter's favorite frosted mini.

On the Beach at Morro Rock

I did play with the colors a bit...

More Pots

I'm making those little eucalyptus pots again---I'm heating up the mixture of tree sap, charcoal and beeswax to seal the ends of the toothpicks on the outside and inside.

Lids and strings and beads attached.

These are small--can only carry very small things, like seeds, tiny shells and such.

Why do I make these?  I don't know--There is something very satisfying to me, to finish a little handful of pots.  My older pots are holding mostly flower seeds and beads--I lose track of what's inside and have to open them all up before I find what I'm looking for--kind of a drawback, but a fun one--I don't want to write any labels on them.

Book Mark

helps..........pass the time on a summer day.

Music in the Plaza

A free outdoor concert at the mission in SLO--(each Friday evening throughout the summer).  My grandson's second music festval--Music by,  Burning James and the Funky Flames

Sleeping Baby

Sound asleep.

FINAL Dancer Drawing.

okay the art show is tomorrow, so I squeaked this one out, sort of last minute, but I wanted to draw a boy dancer, there are only just a few.
Charcoal about 9"x 11" on Bristol paper

Father and Son

Two weeks old....

Final Dancer Drawing?

I finished this drawing today---I'm not sure I'll have the time to do another before the art show that's going up the first weekend in June.  I've enjoyed drawing and painting this subject of dancers--I have more that I want to do...we'll see.
Charcoal on Bristol paper  15"x 10"

Baby Boy

Stephen Michael---born Sunday May 18th---7lbs8oz

Wild Turkey

A wild female turkey jumping down off my fence.

Bracelets

I came up with this lesson for a 3rd grade class, for Mother's Day.  I wish I had pictures of these finished, but I was too busy putting the final crimp bead on each one.
The first day, the students were given about ½" square of yellow, red and blue polymer clay or Sculpty clay.  We mixed colors so they each had a little blob of not only primary colors , but secondary colors.  They rolled and pinched and put together beads.
Next day, the students strung their beads with a choice of other beads that I had brought in, to make their bracelet.  I put on the last crimp bead to hold it all in place--opened up the end loop and they were done.

I made some paper beads, so each student could have at least three paper beads if they wanted them, but it turns out not many used these beads--I was thinking of having them make these rolled beads, but the clay beads took up all our time, and these small magazine beads would have, most likely, been too difficult for them to make.

Here's a practice one I made at home.

The aluminum crimp bead.

Now, you might want to know about my spectacular ceramic bracelet?  I didn't mean for this to be a commercial in any way, but if your interested, check out my niece's web site, Kaitlyn Duggan Pottery.

The Belly Cast is Made...Now it's Time for the Baby!

I helped my son and his wife create a belly cast this past weekend.

They plan to decorate this somehow--I'm curious to see the final result, but I like the way it looks, with just the white plaster strips.

A Print of Young Dancers at the Barre

I tried a bigger soft cut print.  I wanted to print three times with the same plate, (cutting away for each color).  I didn't like the results after the third print, so this is a print using the plate only two times, (I used two colors for the second printing).  It's an interesting process that I want to experiment with!

Here's a close up of an attempt at a third color--I didn't get the second or the third printing lined up evenly on this one, and I didn't like the dark lines of paint on the dancer's skin--made them look like they had wrinkles!!

Baby Quilt

Here's why I needed to make this bias tape (which really isn't on the bias--doesn't need to be for straight edges)   While in Maui, I found a cool local store that sold everything including packs of Hawaiian cloth all cut into squares.

It's kind of bright for a baby's quilt, but my son and his wife went to Hawaii for their honeymoon, so it seemed fitting to use these squares for their baby.  I bought the orange material to piece it all together and for the backing.  This is only the second quilt I've ever made--I've never made a full sized quilt.  the first one was a baby quilt for my oldest daughter--she still has it.  That was about 35 years ago!

At the shower!

Natural Sculptures--From Yesterday's Walk

Bias Tape

I made this bias tape for a project, a secret project--will post about it later...