Hello everyone! Just wanted to let everyone know that our daughter Jordan is doing a bloggy give-away of one of her photographic prints! If you get a chance, go visit her website and check it out…
(Moms are officially allowed to blantantly promote their kids.)
We’ve been working on a few things here for Valentine’s Day… some for sale, and some just for gifting! And they have a story…
A long time ago, I asked for Michael Sull’s Spencerian Penmanship Kit for my birthday, and my sweet hubby ordered it for me! And, being the over-extended homeschooling Mom that I was at the time, I just never found the time to really delve into learning Spencerian penmanship. (It’s still on my list of things to do when life slows down a bit!) However, my then 15 daughter, Jordan, having used Mott Media’s penmanship program for several years, was able to pick up pen and ink and take off with it! A couple of weeks ago, I was cleaning out a drawer and discovered some of Jo’s penmanship flourishes and gave her a phone call! We planned some cross-country craft collaboration that will combine papercutting and paper weaving with her sweet penmanship sayings!
And guess what! My Mom came in this morning with Martha’s February Issue, and what do you think was featured? Spencerian Penmanship, framed up nicely for Valentine’s Day! I was planning on black frames, but they used white in the article, which looks equally pretty. How funny!
And then Mom told me to turn a few pages, and guess what else they featured? Puzzle Purses! I adore those little things! Sukey Harris taught a group of us how to make them at GAP’s Collection last May, and here are some of hers on a table in her little log cabin…
And so far I’ve made exactly THREE. Sukey was the recipient of the first one, Kate got the second for her birthday, and I’m still working on the third… they are definitely a labor of love! Here’s a peek outside…
… and inside…
Aren’t they wonderful little treasures?
We had a grand time this afternoon! It was a wonderfully messy, full-house sort of afternoon! A whole bunch of homeschoolers came over and we folded paper, twisted paper, and snipped paper to make pretty stars and snowflakes! It’s been a while since we’ve done a homeschool class, and I forgot how much I missed being around homeschooled kids. We talked about everything from raising chickens to Civil War dancing. Somehow we forgot to take pictures during the actual event, but I did pick up the camera before I picked up the broom, so here’s what was left…
Snowflakes cut from coffee filters! These are actually very good to use for younger children, since you can skip the steps of cutting a perfect square and rounding off the “tails” to get your pie shape. Coffee filters are also thinner than regular paper, so cutting through multiple layers of paper is easier. And… coffee filters are CHEAP. You can get a hundred or so for $1, and keep your little ones busy for hours! We ironed some of them between waxed paper, and some were just taken home “as is.” Snowflakes are pretty when taped to windows, and small ones can be put between lamination sheets, cut around, and used as ornaments! You can also use them as cake stencils… lay the snowflake on top of an unfrosted cake and sprinkle on fine powdered sugar or dust with cocoa. Remove the snowflake, and you have a pretty cake!
And Twirly Snowflakes! Chris and I first saw these at the Guild of American Papercutters’ Collection back in May… don’t they look pretty decorating the Yellow Barn at Landis Valley Museum?
I was excited when I saw my friend Michele was making these at Christmas… and she gave us the link for this tutorial she found! (Thanks Michele!!!) These twirly things were definitely a hit with the teens! They’re fun to make, not too difficult, and the sizes are variations are endless! Kate taught this project and really enjoyed working with the kids & Moms!
And Chris taught a group of brave souls to fold Moravian Stars! These are the smaller, folded paper version, (there’s also a paper folded large Moravian Star… very complex and lots of math involved! Maybe we’ll get Hubby to teach a class on that some day!) and are sometimes called Pennsylvania German Folded Stars. Chris is our star folding expert, and has probably made a thousand or so of these things! Our Freebie Friday Giveaway is the pattern… if you scroll down and click on the link, there’s a Word Document to download! Have fun!
There’s something about the sound of rain on a red tin roof. It makes me want to hunker down at home and DO things. I almost managed to stay indoors the entire day, except for the few seconds that I ran out in stocking feet to see why the chickens were making noise and except for the chocolate run that Kate and I decided was necessary after dinner. Chocolate soy milk, chocolate ice cream, and dark chocolate mini Hershey bars. For Kate, for me, and for Chris, respectively. We also bought Craisins, apples, and bananas so it didn’t look so bad at the check-out.
Other than those two ventures out of doors, I pretty much stayed in the art mode, and created quite a pile of snippings. It was a “play around and see what you come up with” sort of day, that began with e-mails to Jordan about Spencerian Penmanship (more to come on the results in the next few days!) and ended with a table piled with hole punches, coffee stains, watercolor pencils, silhouette paper, antique paper, scrapbooking paper, scissors, a compass, X-Acto knives, pencils, Micron pens, cutting boards, matboard, bits of paper, and a couple of “one of a kind” Valentines. Just me, art supplies, and a rainy day. Joy.
My family did eventually return home. Chris brought me piles of paper samples from his sister, a graphic artist, who is trying to help me find my favorite paper in larger sizes. (Sonja, I think I found it!!!) And Kate came home with stories of her day as a Nanny, and then headed up to the sewing room to work on a project that was begging to be brought to life. I think the rain was affecting her too.
I did manage to get some orders finished and ready to go this morning before I started playing… and even updated an old design with antiquing and a more intricate border to go on the website…
Hope you all have had an equally wonderful wet Wednesday!
I had a bit of fun playing around with a new “woven” border the other day… it took a while to figure out to make it come out even and center the “weave.” When painted, it should look like strips of woven paper instead of all one piece. At least that’s the plan! I don’t usually design the outside edges of a papercutting first, but the quest for a different border took priority. I had no idea what I wanted to put inside, so I let the whole thing sit a day or two. Tonight, after my evening nap on the couch, I dug through my books on fraktur, and found this wonderful piece for inspiration…
… and then sketched and snipped inside the border…
The original fraktur had Psalm 102, verses 1 & 2 as the text, but I think this papercut will have Psalm 42:1 on it… Can’t wait to start painting it!
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
One thing that is very fascinating to me about fraktur and other early American folk art is recognizing the things that inspired the artists… and then being inspired by their art to design something new today. When you look through examples of old fraktur, you can easily see that the artist copied or was inspired by illustrations in their Bible, fabrics in their home, printed broadsides or newspapers, or other pictures or designs they may have in their home. The original fraktur above looks an awful lot like Jacobean Needlework, which often has a “terra firma” section at the base of the panel of embroidery. Deer and other animals are portrayed frolicking on rolling hills. I like the idea behind the terra firma or solid ground sections… that despite the artistic liberty they may take with the designs of trees and flowers, they were realistic in having them grow from the ground.
After cutting that, I spent some time painting some Artist Trading Cards I’m getting ready to mail out, and then headed to the computer to discover a new picture of our grandboy Jack! He is getting to be one cute little guy!
And then I came here to post, and this post explains why I’m awake and it’s already tomorrow. I REALLY need to take my naps earlier in the day, and not just before bedtime!
Oh… we got a bit of snow today… it only lasted an hour or so before it turned to rain, but it was beautiful!
Have a great weekend!
