Day Eighty Seven: Play

My son had a friend over this afternoon, and we were presented with the opportunity to play with our food.



Marshmellows? Check.
Pretzel sticks? Check.
Grapes to raise the good nutrition quotient? Check.
Mango lemonade to wash it all down? Check.
Three kids that wanted to make something with their snack foods? Check, check, and check.

While they made buildings and other "structures," I also played, but not with food. I made a tiger print on a brown bag:

The black stripes are acrylic paint on brown paper bags.

Now I'm presented with the question "now what?" As in "now what the heck do I make with this thing?" Of course, a brown bag tote is my first instinct. But I'd like to think that I was more than a one trick pony, though. Oh, decisions, decisions.

As for my little cork map project, I've discovered that my sewing machine Kenmore is more than capable of sewing on cork tile. This makes my fingers very, very happy. The last time I made a cork map, I embroidered everything by hand. Let's just say my iron thimble got a lot of use.

Let's hear it for Kenmore! Yay!

Slowly coming together. You'll see...

I love being around kids and being influenced by their sense of play. It reminds me that whatever I do should always be fun and never a chore.

A Crafty Ending

We had our last Crafty Girls meeting last Friday. Can you guess that we had ourselves a little ole par-tay?

Dancing Girl swigging back a bit of the swill...okay, she's just pretending. And because I asked her to. I just thought her little champagne glass was too cute to pass up this photo op.

We got a little crazy with the mummy game. Oh, do you know what the mummy game is? Well, let me tell you, it involves a lot of toilet paper. I tried using the Seventh Generation brand so I wouldn't feel so guilty about the waste. Don't worry, no one suffocated!

The gal on the right (with her head sufficiently wrapped) is TGYH. I'm not sure who the person on the right is.

We were celebrating the end of our Spring crafting season and a job well done. The girls finished their book and I was able to print and bind 24 copies. We had 10 to keep and 14 to sell at our school's carnival. Here are pictures of some of the craft projects that appeared in our book.

Thrifty Piggy Bank drawing by Good With Words.

Good With Words holding her finished Thrifty Piggy.

Drawing of the elephant pinata by No Socks. She originally wanted to make a monkey, but changed her mind later on.

The finished elephant pinata. And yes, there's candy in it!

Singing Girl's Wacky Doll design. Meet Pablo S.

The finished Pablo S. Ain't he somethin'??

Go, Crafty Girls! You made me proud this year.

xxoxRichela

An Open Response to A Close-Minded Question

Two stick puppets from the Sheldrake Spring Festival, May 2nd 

Someone recently asked me why I craft with kids. The question directed at me was more like, “So what do you get out of it?” And it was quickly followed by, “I don’t get it.”

Yikes.

I wasn’t quite ready with a response because the question came as a surprise, like someone was questioning my motive. And for a split second I felt dirty, like I was doing something wrong. What do I get out of crafting with kids?

I don’t really charge a lot of money when I run crafting classes, and I volunteer at a lot of local events, as in “you don’t have to pay me for what is obviously a lot of work.” A bit sadistic, I suppose. But what’s the difference between me and someone volunteering to coach a little league team? Why don’t we question his or her motive? When I think about that little nugget, I start to get angry.

At every event, I do have the opportunity to promote my latest craft book, so it’s not completely a one-way street. And crafting is something that I share with my daughter, a crafty gal if I ever knew one. My husband Dave coaches our children’s various sport teams, from basketball to softball, so why I can’t I be a “crafting” coach?

Last Sunday, I finally got my answer to this stupid “what do you get out of it?” question. As per my usual m.o., I volunteered to run a craft at the Sheldrake Spring Festival in town. My daughter and her friend—yes, they are two of my Crafty Girls, My Girl and Singing Girl—were with me while I was making stick puppets with an endless stream of kids. I thought that they were just there to hang out at the festival, but I was pleasantly surprised to see them handing out materials and helping younger kids put together these stick puppets. Not only were they patient with the kids (and their hot and tired parents), they were poised and secure in what they were doing. It made my heart swell with pride to see how much self-confidence they exuded.  

And then there were the kids that I had seen before, which made the volunteering experience more of a two-way street. They knew me, I knew them, and we all shared a positive experience.

So what do I get out crafting with kids? A lot of good kharma, that's for sure. A happier life because I'm sharing something that I love to do. A closer community because I'm doing something for kids that my own children might see on the playground or at school. 

And to the person who asked me that question:

if you still “don’t get it,” then MOVE. Or else stop asking me dumb questions.

Sheldrake Spring Festival--Choose Your Hairstyle!

These 10 hairstyles are for the stick puppets I'll be making at the Sheldrake Spring Festival this Sunday,
May 2nd. And if you really must ask what materials I used, then I'll 'fess up: brown bags and cereal boxes. (What else?) Thanks to all my friends who lovingly donated their recyclables for this craft.

Hope to see you there!

For more information on the Sheldrake Spring Festival, click here .

Recycled Cardboard Stick Puppet

This is the cardboard stick puppet that I will be making at the Larchmont-Mamaroneck Sustainability Expo on April 24, 2010. Doesn't he look happy?

This is my daughter's stick puppet:

Here are the MATERIALS that you will need to make it:

9 brads

2 food box panels (cut up one box for the front and back sides; the one in the photo is a cereal bar box)

1- 2 inch square (cut from the same food box) 

2 coffee cup protectors (I don't know what to call them--it's those cuffs that you use around the cup so you don't burn your hands)

1 coffee cup protector, cut in half

1 pair of bamboo chopsticks

1 brown bag handle

4 pieces of cardboard from a t-shirt or sock insert, cut to 4 1/2 inches x 2 inches

1 magazine

1 roll of duct tape

Tools:

1/8 inch diameter hole puncher

scissors

glue or gluestick

pencil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Punch 4 holes into one of the food box panels, one hole per corner. The hole should be approximately 1/2 inch from each edge.

2. Punch 1 hole at the bottom and 1 hole at the top of each of the 8 white cardboard pieces. Attach one white cardboard to the top left and one white cardboard to the top right of the food box panel with the holes.

3. Attach the remaining two white cardboard pieces, one on each side. These are the arms:

4. Attach the coffee cup protects to the bottom holes of the food panel. These are the legs. Cut up the brown bag handle and glue to the food panel in an upside down "T." This is the main body of the puppet. Using whatever paper you might have around the house (magazine, brown bags, used printer paper), decorate the shirt. 

5. Glue the 2 inch square to the top of the puppet's body. This is the neck. Draw an oval on the remaining food box panel and cut it out. This is the head. Glue the head onto the neck. Decorate the head with markers or cut up pieces of magazine paper to make hair, eyes, nose, and mouth.

6. Cut up the remaining coffee cup protector to make hands. Glue the hands to the arms. To attach the stick to the right hand, add a piece of duct tape to the end of one chopstick. Punch a hole through the tape. Punch another hole through the base of the finger of the right hand. Attach the stick behind the hand. Be sure to push the brad through the front of the hand so it looks like the puppet is wearing a ring.

7. Turn the puppet around so the back is facing you. Attach the remaining chopstick to the back with a piece of duct tape.

Voila! You have just made a cardboard stick puppet. The only materials that you might have to buy are the brads. But you can also use rope or twine. I happen to have a box of leftover brads, so this was (at least for me) a completely recycled craft. 

Enjoy!

Cereal Box Bird

This is Fawkes, a cereal box bird made by PCJL of my Crafty Girls. While my crappy photography does not do it justice, you can still get a sense of how meticulous PCJL is. She chose each cereal box "feather" based on color and spent a better part of an hour glueing each one to the bird's body. It now hangs from the ceiling of her bedroom, attached to a sock eye screw by a string, and slowly turning every so often. I'm usually not one to make a craft just because it's pretty to look at. (I want function, too, darnit!) But this is certainly one craft that makes all the kids "ohh" and "ahh." I like to think it's more art than craft, especially when someone like PCJL gets her hands on it.

MATERIALS: 1 cereal box, undone at the seams; 2 cereal boxes, cut up into 1" diamond-shaped pieces; white glue;  string 

TOOLS: pencil, scissors, bone folder

TIP: use a paper cutter to cut up the 1-inch diamond shaped pieces. It'll save your hands--and your sanity!

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place the undone cereal box on your work table so the folds of each panel are vertical.  There should be two wide and two skinny panels. Cut off the outer skinny panel. Fold the box in half vertical at the middle skinny panel. 

2. Place the folded box on your work table with the folded edge at the top. From the upper left corner, draw a rounded diagonal line  down toward the middle of the bottom edge. Cut along this line UNTIL YOU GET TO THE FOLD BEFORE THE BOTTOM EDGE. Then cut horizontally along this fold until you get to the right edge. Remove the excess pieces of the box. Be sure to cut through both layers of the box. Set aside the excess pieces of cardboard.

3. Open box and lay down with the unprinted side facing up. Then bend the piece sticking out at the right side at a diagonal and push the cardboard up. This is the neck. And now you have completed the base of the bird.

4. Take one of the excess pieces of cardboard and fold in half. Cut out a triangle with a base measuring at least 2 inches. This is the head. 

5. Glue the head to the neck of the body. You may need to trim the neck down if it's too long. Then start glueing the diamond-shaped pieces of cereal box to the wings. These are the feathers.

6. Attach the string to the spine of the base. Try to find the spot on the base where the bird is balanced by holding it up on one finger.

7. Tie the string to a beam or a sock eye screw and let the bird "fly." 

Pop Up Book Magic

These are the pop up books that my Crafty Girls made. We worked on the following techniques:

lift-the-flap

the single-fold pop-up

the wheel

the platform pop-up

While most of the girls have not had much time to color in their creations, they put a lot of hard work into each character and speech bubble. My photos do not give these lovely books any justice. Here are three that I'm hoping can transcend this not-so-perfect medium.

STORYTELLER

Storyteller did an AMAZING job. The main character of Storyteller’s book is Old Bear, which is based on her much loved and abused stuffed animal that shares the same name. I would post a picture of the real Old Bear, but Storyteller told me that Old Bear is afraid of cameras. This mental image of a cowering bear is a contradictory to his barbaric threat to “beat you like an ape” if you feed him strawberries (see top photo, bottom right speech bubble). What if there wasn’t anything else to eat BUT strawberries? C’mon, Old Bear. Be reasonable!

DANCING GIRL

The main character of Dancing Girl’s pop-up book is a rock music lover named Big Ear Joe. He is from Boston and was born in 1988. (“That’s old!” according to Dancing Girl. Oh, the ignorance of youth…) I found it a bit disturbing that Big Ear Joe “loves skinny babys.” (See bottom left “Facts” on the left page.)   He also doesn’t like Smart Cars and considers Pop music “so 24 seconds ago.” It seems that Big Ear Joe has a lot of opinions!

DEN MOTHER

Den Mother’s soap opera-ish story centers around a big-headed baby named Cute Pablo. He is in love with a woman named Roberta and hates Big Ear Joe (for reasons that he does not care to reveal). And there is some reference to his much loved and abused teddy bear—could it be Old Bear??

  

I wish that I could share all the books with you. There’s a lot of detail and nuance that doesn’t translate well through photos—or my words, for that matter—on a computer screen. It can never replace the actual pop-up book in hand.

Pop UP Books For Crafty Girls

This is the sample pop up book that my crafty girls are... 

Saying the Right Words

Crafting with kids that you don’t particularly know can be tricky. Are they crafty? Are they good listeners? Are they terribly shy? Do they get upset easily when things go wrong?

(Are they a pain in the ass??)

One time while teaching a craft to a bunch of first graders, I found out that the at-first-seemingly-diminutive child was really the hell raiser of them all. And, boy, did he NOT like getting crafty with me. But, as you can guess, the feeling was mutual. Being the adult in the situation, I attempted to disguise my horror with a smile and a joke. I can’t say the same for the kid.

Despite the rare “oh-my-God-I-can-just-kick-that-kid-right-now” moments, I do truly enjoy crafting with kids, whether it’s one-on-one or with a large group of rowdy chatterboxes. Kids are surprisingly creative, resilient when least expected, and can cut through the bs like no one’s business!

I sometimes get caught up in giving out what I think are pearls of wisdom. But I’m no Ben Franklin, and the stupidity that drips out of my mouth is regrettable. So I have an apology to make.

I recently taught a book project and a kid asked me if her finished book was pretty. I gave a canned response: “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” What a cop-out! I am sorry. Here is the honest answer that you knew you deserved (I saw it in your eyes) and that I should have given you:

NO, your project was not pretty. It was delightfully strange. But it doesn’t mean that I didn’t like it or appreciate it. It doesn’t mean that your book is less important or relevant than the conventionally pretty one made by the kid who could cut pristine edges and could never have a glue mishap. Your book had personality and a sense of style that was all your own.

And that, to me, is a whole lot better than being just “pretty.”

On Holiday: A Travel Memento Book

Here’s a handy scrapbook for all those paper mementos we tend to collect from our various vacations. Ticket stubs, maps, pamphlets, napkins, and the occasional photo are items that fit nicely inside this soft cover book.

Of course, it all starts with a brown paper bag. Well, considering my vast collection of brown paper bags, it was either that or a cereal box, my other “go to” material. (Yes, I use a cereal box later on; I am really cheap about buying stuff.)

Materials

1 Brown paper bag with handles

Front and back panels of a cereal box

Maps, tickets, pamphlets, and other mementos from a recent vacation

Glue

1 Velcro tab

Tools

Pair of Scissors

Bone Folder

Brush

1. Cut the bag from the side, all the way to the bottom. Try to undo the rest of the bag from glued seams at the bottom. Lay bag flat on your worktable so the printed side (if there is a printed side) faces up.

2. Flip the bag over. Glue down the cereal boxes, one panel on each side, so the top edges are flush with the bag. 

3. Fold the bottom of the bag over so that the bottom edges are flush to the top. Make sure the bottom crease is tight by running a bone folder over it. Add glue in between the layers of brown paper bag and run a bone folder over the top layer to remove any air pockets.

4. Following the natural fold of the bag, re-fold middle vertical fold. Align the metal ruler to the left side of the vertical fold. Create a vertical score line by running the tip of the bone folder against the left edge of the metal ruler. Repeat on the right side of the vertical fold so that you have a scored line on the right. Remove the ruler and fold the bag along the two newly scored vertical lines. This creates an accordion in what will become the spine of the book cover.

5. Following the natural folds of the bag, re-fold the left and right outermost sides in to form flaps. Along the left vertical fold, align the metal ruler to the left side. Create a vertical score line by running the tip of the bone folder against the left edge of the metal ruler. This flap will be the book closure. Trim off excess bag so that the vertical edge is straight and smooth. 

6. At the outer right edge of the right flap, trim off excess bag so that the vertical edge is straight and smooth. 

7. You are now ready to add all your travel mementos. Glue tickets and pamphlets to the inside. Attach the maps to the accordion spine by punching holes with a hole puncher and using ribbon to tie each one down. Glue maps and other foldable items to the right flap. As you can see from my example, I’ve included a section plain white paper (100 lb. acid free) in the middle to add photographs later on.