Some of you may have seen my little "proud" moment on Facebook today showing the picture of Trina proudly showing one of the jean purses we made for her Market Place at school. She has been planning and working for several weeks now and I must say that I am so proud of how meticulous she was as she worked on her projects. As we brainstormed ideas as to what she wanted to create for this special project her mind was spinning with all the "tools" we have available to us because of my work.
The goal was to create things that other children would like to purchase with the "money" they have earned at school through performing their jobs, good behaviour, timeliness on turning in their work, etc. With the holiday season right around the corner her goal was to create items that the other kids would like to give to their family members or teachers.
Here she is proudly displaying one of the blue jean purses we created. We used the old blue jeans that she has just grown out of --- therefore making this a very cost efficient gift! She "pushed the gas" and I "drove" as we sewed her projects.
She then needed to turn the straps and decorative belt, as well as sew on a couple of decorative buttons.
Next came the neck warmers. For Halloween I had sewn her a Pebbles costume (from the Flintstones - you can tell how old I am because I was the one who suggested it to her - LOL!) Using the leftover fur like fabric we created these neck warmers. Now all one has to do is microwave for 2 1/2 minutes and then sit with your toasty, muscle-relaxing warmer on that sore spot.
She also made these darling bookmarks.
She simply stamped the butterflies on sanded Shrink Plastic using Brilliance ink. After allowing it to dry she then colored in the images using the Primacolor color pencils shown. Once completed we just heated them, shrinking them to about 1/3 their original size.
Being boys "don't like" butterflies she made a more masculine version. Her older sister is in highschool and their mascot is the Spartan - therefore the Spartan version. Tracing one of the decals Maddi has and then coloring it in gave her that much needed masculine bookmark :)
(The beautiful gold bookmarks are something that I had purchased quite some time ago from a jewelry making store.)
Now on to these beauties! Everything she made she wanted in groups of six - this is one of two in this particular color series. In addition she made others in the red and purple hues.
To begin remove the "topper" from the clear glass ornament and place a small tea spoon (from a child's play tea set - yes, they have all been confiscated for craft projects because they are just the perfect size - LOL!) of Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls inside the globe.
Using a mini mister squirt approximately 15 squirts of water inside the globe and mix up the Perfect Pearls so that all lumps are removed. You can also shake the ornament for a while and this will accomplish this task as well. The really cool thing about Perfect Pearls is that they have a binder in them and all that is needed to help them adhere is some moisture.
She then carefully rolled the ornament around and around until all surfaces of the glass were covered with the mixture. It is important not to have it too thin or the pearls will completely drain out when you set them to dry. Once this task is completed very little moisture was left to run out of the ornament.
She set them in little paper cups to dry overnight.
After selecting a series of three Various Ink Refills she dabbed approximately 3-4 dots of each color of ink on to a felt applicating tool. That's her daddy's hand that is the prop for holding the ornament as she worked. Her fingers were too small and kept slipping inside. This is as crafty as my DH gets - LOL! He was a good support and was quite impressed when the project was completed :)
This is just another perspective to show you approximately how much alcohol ink was on the felt applicator.
Voila - beautiful hand decorated ornaments for the holidays ahead. If you are looking to craft with your kids these projects just might be the ticket. Just make certain that they are wearing clothes you don't care about and work on a covered surface because the alcohol ink does stain --- althought a little rubbing alcohol does do a great job with the cleaning process. I highly recommend it!
These ornaments really do look spectacular!!! So proud of you my sweet Trina - perhaps she'll have to open her own store someday :)
