Family keepsake

Christmas Crafts – Day 6

spaleksic4 Comments

I was making a craft today when my five year old asked if he could have a clear ornament ball which I was planning on using for my project.

He was very excited, and told me he was going to make the ball into a snowman with eyes, a smile and buttons. And he was going to sign his name. He got out the permanent markers and got to work.

When he was finished I suggested that we fill it with snow which like all the other materials, I had on hand. He was sceptical. I got out a jar of snow and got to work filling it up. He proceeded to show my other son and husband his masterpiece, which prompted the making of a second snowman.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true loves made…..

Spontaneous Snowmen.

Want to make your own snowmen? You will need clear plastic ornament balls, permanent markers, ribbon and powdered snow.

Start by drawing a snowman face on the ornament with permanent markers. Remove the hanger, fill with powdered snow and reconnect the hanger. Tie ribbon to hang.

So easy a five year old could design and execute it on his own.

Remembering

spaleksic2 Comments

Life is short and I am reminded of this everyday.  A child in my son’s preschool class last year lost her dad. Her father was a member of the Canadian military and died on leave on the way home to see his family.  I can’t think of anything worse for a child than to lose a parent.

As I was making the Christmas Sock monkeys (on a Saturday night after most of a bottle of wine) I got to thinking that if the socks had meaning the monkey would be more than just a decoration.  My mind went on a bit of a spiral and I ended up thinking about the family from Sasha’s class that lost their dad & husband.

Before I sound like a complete nutter, we see this family everywhere, our kids are the same age, they go to school together, our youngest go to a play group together and our kids have swimming lessons together. So in the school yard bright and early Monday morning I approached the mom.  I told her that I was thinking about them on the weekend and I explained my idea about turning her late husbands socks into sock monkeys for her kids.  It was a slightly awkward conversation  because I was asking for her late husbands socks and I have no idea how that conversation can be anything but awkward, but she brought me the socks a couple of days later.

When I started working on the sock monkeys I was in tears because one of the socks had pink paint on the toe and heel which I later confirmed came from painting their daughter’s room.  As I worked on these monkeys I thought about my own family and how I can’t imagine the pain of this family and the strength of the mom.  It’s my hope that these monkeys bring them a little joy even for a minute.

For a pattern and tutorial to make sock monkeys please visit Craftpassion.com.

 

 

Family Day

spaleksic1 Comment

In honour of BC’s family day I made this crafty piece.  Our names just happen to work together to make this scrabble like piece.  To create this on your own start with a shadow box (this one is 11×17), or a frame deep enough that you have space for the tiles between the glass and the back.  Then using matte board cut the piece that you are going to glue the letters on to, I took the back of the frame off, traced it and cut it with a utility knife.  Next using letters from a scrabble game I bought at a thrift store, I laid out the names, making sure that there was equal spacing on all sides.  Then using painters tape I made straight lines on the matte board to use as a guide when hot gluing the letters on.  You could draw pencil lines on too, but the painters tape is faster in my opinion.  Next using hot glue attach the first word to the matte board, continue placing painters tape, and attaching letters until all of the words are spelled out.   I taped the blue matte (11×17 frame with a 8×10 opening) using double sided tape onto the matte board with the letters.  Assemble the matte into the frame, and that’s it.  This craft should take an hour or so.

Materials

  • matte board or foam board (cream matte board) in a colour you like
  • scrabble tiles
  • glue gun/glue sticks
  • shadowbox frame
  • double sided tape
  • matte (blue in the example) sized to fit the frame

Happy Family Day, and happy crafting.