Pages

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Crafty Ladies, and Kids Too


Two of my sisters came to visit over the Fourth of July weekend, and Theresa even brought along her son, his wife and their three children. After the race on Saturday and the evening cookout and fireworks (more about both later) we were ready to settle down and be quiet on Sunday.

Both sisters have gardens and both love lavender, so we decided to make lavender wands. My lavender was a little past its prime but still fine for making wands so we cut a lot of stems and set to work. The concept was new to Susan, Theresa's daughter-in-law, but she was willing to give it a try. In the end, she outdid all of us, making a wand that was braided with three different color ribbons.

Hope, her granny Theresa and her mother Susan all work on wands.

I had some large glass beads in a bowl on the porch that I'd been thinking about using to make suncatchers. The beads were leftovers from a craft project I will be doing at a couple libraries this summer--the smaller beads in the packages I bought were fine but the big ones were just, well, TOO big. With so many willing hands available, it felt like just the right time to make the suncatchers. We used electric fence wire to string them and everyone picked out whatever combination of beads they wanted on their suncatcher.

Hope and her little brother Cade look hard at work, don't they?


My sister Maggie made the prettiest one, I think, in "ocean" shades, as she called it, and indeed the soft turquoises, blues, greens and clear beads were reminiscent of the ocean's colors. I wish I had taken pictures of the finished products because they were both imaginative and colorful. And all my beads were used, which made me happy. Maybe I will remember to post a photo one day of the ones I made myself. I bought the beads from Fire Mountain's online clearance sale and got a great deal on them; I made up over100 craft packets for my programs and still had about 50 or more of these big beads left.



When we were looking for ribbons for the lavender wands, Hope spied my box of supplies for spoon puppets. Of course we had to make those too!


Theresa was a good sport about helping with the finer bits of work--Garrett's puppet was colorful, with a metallic green dress and purple-pink hair. According to him and to Hope, they were making puppets to go with my story "Gracie's Cabin"--Garrett's puppet is Crazy Gracie, he told me.
Hope managed to do most of her puppet by herself. She made Annie Rose, I think, from the same story.



And here's Hope's finished product. To make these silly puppets, you only need a wooden spoon, some fabric about the size of a man's handkerchief, scissors to cut a tiny hole in the exact center of the cloth, some tape to hold the cloth around the stick after you put the stick through the hole, some glue (fast-drying is best!) to hold yarn hair in place, and markers, stickers, etc to make the face. In this case, we used peel-and-stick foam shapes. You can add ribbon, sequins, and all sorts of other things to decorate the puppets. To use them, just slip your hand under the cloth, hold the spoon handle with three fingers and stick out your thumb and index finger to make "arms" under the cloth. Simple, simple and yet I have seen children make the most amazing creations with these simple supplies.The spoons can be found at dollar stores, 4 or 5 in a package for $1.


It was a fun Sunday afternoon and evening, and when we were finished the kids had something to play with and the ladies had cool things to take home. And I had a little less stuff in my house, which is always a good thing.


Simple Puppets From Everyday MaterialsIf you need better instructions for making spoon puppets, try this book. It's the one I learned from and it has lots of other great ideas for making puppets with things you might have around the house. With the heat wave we're having right now, finding things for the kids to do in the house might be a good way to keep them occupied since it's too hot to be outdoors.
(Blogger has evidently made some big changes over the weekend, so please excuse any oddities about the placement of photos and text, etc in my recent posts. It's been a weird experience!).

6 comments:

  1. What an amazing time you made for those little ones, Sue. And the big girls too :-)! I have tried the suncatcher idea many times with copper wire, but never got the effect I wanted...now I know, electric fence wire! Hmmm, think Jackie will wonder why his wire keeps disappearing?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was feeling a little blue this evening as we unpacked from our trip. My same old lament....'I wish we lived in WV...' and Roger pulled my sun catcher out of one of the suitcases. It put a smile in my heart thinking about the good time we had this past weekend.
    Thank you my sweet sister of mine for having us up! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fun stuff!
    When I was a child, and when my Aunt would visit she almost always brought a craft for me to do.
    Good memories!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds like everyone had a wonderful time at your house. I'm sure the kids will be wanting to come back to your house and make some more craft projects!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It was a fun time! Maggie, I know that longing, it was how I used to feel every time we came to the mountains. Moving here finally quieted my heart. It's not an easy place to live, but rewarding always.

    I had so much fun with you guys, and with the little ones. Weren't they a hoot? The eggs have never been so assiduously gathered--they were still warm when the kids would hand them to me :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. It was wonderful, Susie, thanks again for the "funnest time ever" as the children kept (and keep) saying. They really enjoyed themselves. Hope really took to all the crafts you showed her to make. And Garrett and his stories...they kept us entertained on the way home. Another storyteller in the making? :) love you.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Comments are moderated so may not appear immediately, but be assured that I read and enjoy each and every word you write, and will post them as quickly as possible.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...