Christmas Delights

 A lovely winter afternoon was spent crafting with a few dear friends. Every possible craft supply that may give inspiration to the heart and hand was carefully set around the creative space.

While making things, yummy treats sweet and savory along with Esprit de Noël tea and homemade hot chocolate with whip cream and teeny tiny chocolate chips sprinkled on top for the children were sipped and nibbled on while cutting, gluing and conversing.

Using these wooden spools was at the top of the list!

Before everyone arrived, I had a quiet moment to entertain my craving to craft. A few natural items created this pleasing piece. 

During the following hours some glitter was accidentally added to the tree and gave it that bit of sparkle it needed! Thank you dear friend!

A hand felted fluffy bird was the beginning of this colorful place marker.

 The first of the wooden spool place markers! The natural grooves in the wood sparked the stripes.

 Now for some pink!

  

Yay! The birch bark paper straws found a home in this piece along with the bell, inspired by one of our dear friend's creations!

 Searching through the whole collection of beloved deer, this one was the perfect size.

Our dear friend brought a gift of beautifully homemade wrapped twig ornaments... which inspired wrapping Lake Superior driftwood!

Gold,  hearts and some natural items were gathered and put together in an ornament.

 Using the same idea, my daughter added shimmery color to the letters and glitter! Love it!

 A couple more of her design!

String Art

For this Art Experience, we made string art!  

I've wanted to make this project for a long time and finally have the chance!  For this piece, I had inspiration from a drawing I did on the bathroom mirror earlier in the day. 

Even if it's raining and feels gloomy, the raindrops can shower us with color!

My daughter made the following beauty!

Sugar Crystals

When I was eight years old,

 

I went to Fort Snelling on a class field trip.  I brought some of my own money and was curious to see what was in the old time store. When I saw the glittering colors of the rock candy, I knew instantly.  It was the first time I had tried this sweetness of pure sugar and I loved it!  Thereafter, I looked for this candy at every place we visited. 

When I found out we could make it at home, my mind was racing to the idea of eating rock candy everyday! I followed the directions, waited, but it didn't work.  The disappointed was so deep that I didn't want to try again.  Though rock candy continued to be one of my favorites. Probably next to cotton candy.  Two of the candies that weren't readily available way back when.  

Now years later, my own children want to make rock candy.  They measured, poured and waited.  They wanted to add color, though we only had raw sugar available at the time.  It worked! And it tasted how I remembered!  Mila wanted me to share it with you, so enjoy the success and the fun we had sharing in an experience...with history! We'll be making these again!

Día de Muertos

My daughter has been watching some craft tutorials lately and asked if we could make a Day of the Dead mask. Of course I said Yes! We enjoyed it so much that we had a couple sessions of mask painting!

 These are my daughter's creations!

Felting

While browsing art and craft books at the library, I was attracted to a felting book all about food.  I showed it to my daughter and we each chose something we wanted to start with...realizing we needed a few more colors, we rode our bikes to the local farm.

Mila made the carrot and I began with a macaroon.  Well, what I began doing turned into a mushroom!  And then I began again...

It's so pleasing to find inspiration and go for it without delay!  We had most of the materials to felt right at home because we began this journey years ago while visiting the local farm for their events.  They have a cute little shop with everything you need to felt including a rainbow of wool, which is sheared and cleaned at the farm then sent out to dye.

As we were finishing up our first creation, my son saw what we were doing and requested a pizza!   

Paper Flowers

I'm helping a dear friend with wedding decorations and we began by making paper flowers using vintage books.  I had forgotten my glue gun, so I cut and curled many petals to put together at a later time.  I had so much fun gluing them together that I decided to make more...my gluing technique improved and I used some color pictures in the mix.

PS: While posting these photos, I noticed something in the flowers for my dear sister! Love, love, love.