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.

Crafty Girls With Big Ideas

As I mentioned last week, the Crafty Girls are putting together a book of crafts of their own creation.
Last Friday, I had the second group: PCJL, Storyteller, Good With Words, and My Girl (she was my helper for the session). The girls in the second group had some interesting ideas. The drawing above is by Storyteller. Meet Mr. Man, a mysterious character that's nobody's fool. The red scar near his left eye is the result of some untold adventure and Mr. Man is always prepared for a quick getaway. He comes with a triangle hat and "pack" pack, though I think that Storyteller meant backpack. But who knows for sure. Knowing Storyteller, she might have a reason why it's really called a "pack" pack rather than a backpack.

Good With Words drew a detailed diagram of her recycled bottle piggy bank:

I was completely knocked out by this drawing. Okay, I'm still unclear how exactly she's going to get that tail to coil up like a spring, but she's definitely got everything figured out.


PCJL already started making her denim jean lunch bag project. That kid really knows what she wants to do and how she wants to do it. I have pictures on my camera of the craft that I have yet to download. She's way ahead of everyone else, including me. I'm struggling to keep up.

This week we are going to write and take photos of each kid's finished craft. We have less than a month until Carnival, but I'm feeling really good about our progress.

Stay tuned!

A Crafty Writing Session

I’m really excited about the crafty books we are going to sell this year at Carnival.

This spring we embarked on a bookmaking journey, and I thought it would appropriate for my Crafty Girls to write, make, and sell their own books at the “Made By Me” booth. The idea is for each girl to write about a craft, make it, photograph it, and put together a book. And who in her right mind would help with the editing, designing, printing, and binding of this crafty book?

Me.

I can’t help it. The challenge of getting these girls to focus on such a crazy project just gets my juices flowing, I suppose. Or I like to suffer. Whatever the reason, I’m in this thing knee deep.

The smarted thing I did this spring was to split the group in two. Last Friday was the first group, which included My Girl, Irish Stepper, Dancing Girl, Den Mother, No Socks, and Bright Eyes. We talked about some of the ideas the girls had about their crafts and how to write instructional text.

I had an assortment of craft books and magazines piled in the middle of my living room floor.  The girls sift through the books and magazines, and then I handed out notepads and pencils so they could jot down their ideas. I made the mistake of including own book in the mix. Okay, it was more like books, plural, as in multiple copies of the one thick craft book I’ve written. Narcissistic? You bet. And as it turned out, 3 of the girls chose crafts from my book. And then started to plagiarize me. Which I guess is flattering, but my head began to hurt when I realized that I was correcting my own bad writing instead of a third grader’s.

Bright Eyes came prepared on Friday, with samples of her craft. We talked about writing down an introduction, and she took 30 minutes to come up with the following run-on sentence:

“Plain old doors can always use a little more pizzazz and this is the perfect craft to give your door more pizzazz because it’s got pizzazz.”

I don’t have the heart to change one word of it. If you could only see how hard she worked to find the right words--or, in this instance, just one word. Writing advertisement copy ain’t easy, especially when you’re only 9. 

I can’t wait to see what the second group comes up with this Friday. Stay tuned.

Crafty Girls: A Surprising Development

Last Friday at Crafty Girls, we made the Do-Si-Do book project from HOW TO MAKE BOOKS by Esther Smith (Potter Craft). It’s a very simple book project that gave the girls a lot of creative freedom. After making the basic structure of the book, I gave the girls access to my stash of leftover decorative paper, odds and ends from projects past. The sample Do-Si-Do book in the above photo was made by My Girl.

Only 4 Crafty Girls showed up for this session. I had known for days that it would be a small group and had been looking forward to it, mainly because I would not have to spread myself so thin. With a more intimate number, each girl would get a lot of one-on-one attention, which had been lacking of late. Because the group swelled to 10 Crafty Girls this year, each of our sessions always ends with someone not feeling satisfied with the work (besides me, that is). So I had a lot of expectations for this smaller group.

What I did NOT expect was tension. PCJL and Storyteller were really digging into each other and I just couldn’t get either of them to stop. Sadly, PCJL was better with the put-downs, which made me wonder if she spent time in the Brooklyn playgrounds of my youth. I half expected PCJL to break out with the “Yo’ mama’s so fat” jokes that still ring in my ears 30 years later.

PCJL had Good With Words and My Girl bent over with uncontrollable laughter, which egged her on until Storyteller couldn’t come up with any retorts. I tried to get the girls to focus on their project, and Good With Words made a valiant effort to change the subject. But this battle lasted for an hour. It was only when the doorbell rang and the first parent arrived for pick-up that the girls decided to stop.

Well, at least each of the girls finished the book project. But that unsatisfied feeling that I’m usually left with at the end of each session? It’s still there. Only now it’s for a different reason entirely. I do NOT want any of my Crafty Girls to be a “mean girl.” I may have to split the group up if this is where it’s leading.

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...