Saturday, October 16, 2010

Little A's little blue car

Little A's favorite thing is a vehicle of any kind.  I always look forward to recycling ordinary items into fun, new crafts-this time, he wanted a blue car!

I started out with a tissue box, and painted it using the blue acrylic of Little A's choice.



For the tires, I gathered four cardboard spools that once held some decorative ribbon.  Little A loves to help paint!



The tires, dry and ready to be attached.



I traced around the tires to mark where to glue them.  Then I used a Sharpie to draw a very simple design-doors, windows, handles, and a side-view mirror.  Using Magic tape, I taped off edges to isolate the car windows, for a nice, straight edge.



Windows painted on, I used aluminum foil to make door handles, and decided to add hubcaps to the tires as well.



I cut craft foam to create tail lights, and license plates for both the front and back of the car.



Painted water bottle caps became the headlights.  Finally, I used a small alphabet stamp set to print Little A's name onto the "vanity plates".  Using magic tape again, I covered the plates so the letters would not smear when the time came to varnish.






Two coats of acrylic glossy varnish, and Little A's little blue car is done and ready to race!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Mabon/Sukkot 2010

This year, Mabon fell on the first day of Sukkot!
We spent the week before making crafts for both-a hand print apple tree, a wind sock and a bumble bee to hang on the mini-Sukkah we built with Little A, and a few other odds and ends.

The morning of Mabon Little A and I husked our corn for dinner.  Time to make corn dollies!


Those were pretty small husks! Here's the start of our first-ever corn dolly!  We tied four husks together at the top.


Then we turned the bundle upside-down and pulled the husks down over the tied end.


We tied string near the top to form the head.


We used one short husk, rolled into a tight cylinder and tied at the ends, to form the arms.  We inserted the arms into the husk bundle, and tied with string just below, to define the waist.


 Another husk was wrapped behind the neck and crossed over the front-like a shawl.  This formed the shoulders.


 Five husks were bundled around the waist and tied on.  To make the "Daddy dolly", we separated the husks into two bundles and tied them in a few places, forming legs.  The "Mommy dolly" husks were left as-is, to form a skirt.


Here's the happy couple!


The festivities continued into the evening, with Hubby and Little A making challah to eat in the Sukkah.



The Sukkah Hubby and Little A built.  There's our windsock...


And here is the bee!


Our challah and honey, along with Hubby's home made chunky-sauce thin crust pizza!


Of course some fresh boiled corn on the side.


For dessert, an apple brown betty.  Happy autumn!