Crafty Tuesday

Hi folks, its Sizzle and I'm sorry to say I don't have the framed magnet board to show you - hubby had to work this weekend so I didn't get any time away from the kids to do projects. Sooo I thought I would share some kid crafyness. My oldest boy recently won a coloring contest and recieved a cash prize. However, that was not his best work so I thought I would show you some of his best (what I consider his best) and some other projects on the web that have inspired me this week.

This was the winning picture (above), the one below is one he drew of our family on a ship about 6 months ago.  I love it.

The above picture was inspired by my magnet board:

- while I was making the little people - he was creating this.  It is so detailed and I have no idea where he got it from.  It just shows you that when you are busy creating and your kids see you they want to create too.   He is 4 and to me that picture looks like a 8 year old could have done it.  I try to frame all his work.  I used to have little clotheslines in his room where we could hang up his artwork but it got to big and we switched around rooms but now I think I need more frames....

Or THIS

 

My new favorite blog is Knock-off Wood.  She is a carpenter and teaches you how to build the stuff you see in magazines - like pottery barn, land of nod etc yourself.  Talk about right up my alley - now I just need some tools - like a saw.  You can find the tutorial for these clip art rails here and Ana's amazing blog here.

Another tutorial on the web for making magnet boards using an old picture frame and this AWESOME magnet board by Kim at twice remembered. 

Childrens Artwork into Art

Hi it's Sizzle again. Tuesday I showed you how to use fusible web and today I am going to show how you can turn children's artwork into fabric art. Sounds fun huh.

I had a son who goes through 50 pieces of paper a day. I but copy paper in BULK because of him. He makes monsters and dinosaurs etc. These aren't just drawings - he makes each part, colors it, and glues it together. I have tons of things like this all over the house:

I can't bring myself to throw them out because I admire his creativity...and man to be 4 and draw like that! Recently I decided to take pictures of them all and plan to photo shop the pics and make a book out of them with his creations as the main characters - but that's a project for another day.

Today's project started when this same son (I have two) came to me and said he wanted a purse like I made Abbey. I had to explain to him that it wasn't a purse it was a wall hanging and then I thought "I really should do something for all of them that shows their personalities." I was going to do a 8.5 x 11 wall hanging based on the first letter of their name but what starts with W? Mmmm. I couldn't think of anything that resembled this little boy then I thought of the word WONDER.

That word describes him to a tee.

So he and I brainstormed. What are things we wonder about? Of course, space came about and this was his drawing:

I developed a pattern and got his okay:

Then I traced all the individual pieces onto the paper side of fusible web:Ignore the B - it is a boo-boo from a previous project.

The I cut out all the pieces leaving a little extra. I went through my fabric stash and choose the fabrics I wanted to use and then ironed the fusible web onto the wrong side of all my fabrics. Then I cut them out.

I decided to use a denim material for my background so it would look like the night sky and the frame (when I frame it - I am not done yet) it would look like a window.

I placed them about where I wanted them, took the paper backing off and ironed them one. I made sure to do the back pieces first (the head, then the eyeballs, then the dots, then the eyelids). It went really fast! I promise.

This is what it looks like with the fabric. When I took this picture I was stitching his mouth. If you look closely he has one tired eye, one surprised eye and one angry eye.

This project isn't finished. I still am outlining all the pieces with a blanket stitch and then I am going to add a W and embroider W is for Wonder; frame it and hang it in his room.

You can see how the blanket stitch brings the details out like his hands. Lots to do.

Then make something for my other son using a D word. I am thinking dinosaurs and dragons (what boy doesn't like those things)