Advent Calendar - Tree

I always love the cute little advent calendars and I wanted to make one.  I found this wood Christmas tree at Hobby Lobby and picked it up for next to nothing since it was half off.  I thought I might be able to use this as an advent calendar.  The tree had pre-drilled holes in it for lights, but I decided to put little dowel rods in the holes.  Then I purchased some small muslin bags and with heat transfer paper I printed out numbers and ironed them on to the bags.

I filled each bag with a tiny ornament that could be placed on the tree once the bag was opened.  The kids are having a great time opening up the bag each morning to see which ornament is inside.

Wreath of the Season

I have a few things to post, but just haven't found time to get the pictures taken and uploaded.  You might start seeing some very random posts in the next few weeks.  Since we are all getting into the Christmas spirit. I thought I'd show you the newest Christmas wreath I created.  I used my favorite type of ribbon, Deco Mesh.  This wreath was made for a local fundraising auction.

Biplane Painting

I FINALLY finished this painting.  It's been sitting on my easel since this summer.  I made a point to get it finished this weekend.  I wanted a big painting and decided to make the biplane stretch across 3 canvases. To give you an idea on the size it's 6' wide by 2' tall.  It's for my son's room.  He is a typical boy who loves airplanes, trains, cars, dinosaurs, etc. I decided to go with the airplane theme.  My mom is working on airplane quilts for his room.  They are going to be fantastic!  I also have my husband working on dressing up his closet doors with molding.  I can't for the room to be all done.

Pumpkin Carving

This year the kids made pumpkin carving more complicated.  They wanted them to actually look like something.  I wasn't getting away with the standard jack o'lantern.  The requests were Sleeping Beauty and Spiderman.  Thankfully, I was able to track down a pattern to use for each of them.  The Spider-man was a little more difficult since the pieces were so close together.  I only ended up cutting out the eyes and the remaining I just dug out most of it, but left the inside intact for stability. I have to say that they resemble the characters I was trying to create.

Firestar Costume

This year for Halloween my daughter requested to be Firestar.  Her brother is going to be Spiderman.  I love that they like to dress up as a pair. As you remember last year they were Jessie and Woody from Toy Story.

This was definitely going to be a handmade costume since this cartoon aired back in the 1980's.  My daughter is discovering many new to her cartoons thanks to Netflix.  

To make this costume I used a white unitard and dyed it yellow. As you can find in my previous post. To make the flames I used a knit jersey material in red and orange colors.  It needed to be a stretchy material for it to work with the stretchy unitard. I was able to use the sewing machine to piece the orange and red material together, but the flames had to be hand sewn to attach it to the unitard.  At that time I added some sequins to the flames.  For the most part the costume is complete.  All that is left is the mask.  That will be my next post. 

Fabric Dyeing

I have never dyed anything. I found it a little intimidating, but once I did it I can't figure out why I thought it would be so difficult.  I did have to use an acid dye since the fabric I was dyeing was 100% nylon. I found the dye online at Dharma Trading Co.

I dyed it on the stove top in a big stainless steel pot.  I didn't want to try it in my washing machine since I have a front loader and I wasn't sure how to go about adding it into the washer.  Once I put the fabric into the dye it just soaked it up.  Wow!  It turned out exactly the color I needed for an upcoming Halloween costume.  After it sat on the stove in the pot for 30 minutes I rinsed it several times and hung it up to dry. It turned out perfectly.

Too early for Christmas...

As you can see at all the craft stores, Christmas has been here since July and it's all on sale.  In preparation for some upcoming silent auctions I started to make some Christmas wreaths.  Here's the first of the wreaths I made for an auction coming up in a few weeks.  I'm auctioning off a 2 hour interior design consult and decided to add a wreath as an eye catcher to get them to stop and bid.  I hope it works!