The Violet Hours

9 Days 'til Christmas: Happy Holiday Elf

I'm a big fan of wine corks as a crafting supply. (This in no way reflects how much wine I drink. It doesn't. Really. Ok maybe a little.) But I've never actually made anything with a champagne cork. (Bubbly gives me the hiccups.) After making this little elf, my mind is racing the the characters that a champagne cork can become. Bring on the Veuve!

What you'll need:

• Champagne cork
• 2 skewers
• 2 toothpicks
• 4 beads
• Felt
• Scissors
• Scallop shears
• Black straight pins
• Tacky glue
• Washi tape

Make it:

1. Hat: Roll a small piece of felt into a tall cone shape and seal along the seam with tacky glue. Trim the bottom edge so it's straight. Add a 1/4" band from contrasting felt and glue it around the bottom edge. (I cut it with scallop shears, but you can use regular scissors.) Glue hat to the top of the cork.
2. Eyes: Push 2 black ball pins into the face about 1/2" apart. 
3. Scarf: Cut a 6"-by-1/2" piece of felt and fringe the two ends. Tie it around the "neck" of the cork. Glue down if necessary.
4. Arms: Push 2 toothpicks into either side of the cork's body and trim down to about an inch. Glue a small bead to the end of each as a hand.
5. Legs: Trim skewers to 3". Wrap washi tape around them and press the points into the bottom of the cork. Glue beads on as feet. 
6. Put your elf on your windowsill, your mantle, or a bookcase. Or fine, you can also put your elf on the shelf. 

10 Days 'til Christmas: Paper Tree Ornament

Don't get me wrong, I love a good time-consuming craft undertaking every once in while, but sometimes it's fun to whip up a quickie with nearly immediate satisfaction. Like this Paper-Strip Christmas Tree Ornament, for example. You can make this with kids as young as 3 years old (my toddler son Oliver made one that looks more like one of these fake-tree-cell-phone towers), and you likely already have the supplies around the house! Here's how you do it...

What you'll need:

• Tongue depressor
• Green craft paper
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Glitter paper
• Enamel dot stickers (Doodlebug Designs: Sprinkles)
• String

Make It:

1. Cut green paper into thin strips, about 1/4" wide to 1/2" wide.
2. Use the glue stick to cover about two thirds of the stick in strips of green paper, overlapping as much as you'd like. Trim the edges to form a tree shape.
3. Cut a small slit into the ends of each strip (optional).
4. Adhere enamel dot stickers as ornaments.
5. Cut 4 1" strips of glitter paper (you can use yellow paper or glitter your own if you don't have this) and glue them together as an asterisk. Adhere a dot in the middle then glue to the top of your tree.
6. Cut a 3" piece of string and glue it to the back of your tree ornament.

Come back for the next 9 days for more fun craft ideas to make these days before Christmas fly by!

Countdown to Christmas!

You may not realize it, but your kids do—tomorrow marks the final 10-day countdown to December 25th. Need some distractions to make the time fly by? Starting tomorrow, come and visit daily for some new and spontaneous ideas!

Introducing....PROJECT KID, the book!

It's been almost 2 years in the making, but my book, Project Kid, is ALMOST here! After months of crafting, then months of copy editing, my first kids' craft book is at the printer, on its way to being a real, 3-dimensional object. While it looks like it actually exists by the look of the photo, this is actually a digital rendition that Artisan made for the publicity materials. 

To my patient blog readers who have dealt with my comings (having a baby) and goings (having another one just 18 months later) and my very erratic posts, I promise there is much to look forward to!

Please LIKE my page on Facebook, and you can go to the Artisan Books website to read more!

Gobble, Gobble! It's Turkey Craft Time!

I'm always on the hunt for turkey Thanksgiving crafts that feel fresh and new. And strangely, it's kinda hard to find really good ones. First off, they are always brown, yellow, orange, and red and they are usually made from construction paper glued to a pinecone or a hand cut-out. Now I have no issue with those colors, or those materials for that matter, but I feel that the turkey craft deserves a little more attention, don't you? 

Being that Thanksgiving is in the crisp season of fall, I always feel that a turkey craft should feel warm and cozy, so this cutie is made primarily of felt and yarn. Wanna make one? Here's how!

What you'll need:

• 4" tall plastic cup
• Scissors
• Yarn (a multi-colored yarn and yellow)
• 2" styrofoam ball
• Magenta, gold, white, red, and black felt
• 2 white buttons
• Tacky glue
• Pipe cleaners

Make It:

1. Cut about 16 vertical slits in your cup (make sure it's an even number and that they are relatively evenly spaced). Cut all the way to the bottom of the cup.
2. Weave the multi-colored yarn in and out of the cup slats starting at the bottom of the cup. Once you've made it all the way around, continue weaving, going under where you went over the last time. Keep weaving until you've made it to the top of the cup. Cut the yarn from the skein and tack it to the inside of the cup with a dab of glue. 
3. Head: Wrap your Styrofoam ball in the yellow yarn until it's completely covered. Glue the yarn ball to the bottom of the cup (open-side down).
4. Scarf: Cut a 12 by 1-inch piece of magenta felt and fringe each end about 1 inch. Wrap and tie the scarf around the turkey's neck. (This will hide the bottom of the plastic cup.)
5. Beak: Fold a piece of gold felt and cut a 1" skinny triangle on the fold. Glue the crease to the middle of the turkey's head. 
6. Feet: Cut 2 pieces of felt, about 3/4 x 1-inch and cut 2 slits in each piece to make the turkey's tallons. Glue those pieces to the bottom of the cup.
7. Waddle: Cut 2 1-inch teardrop shapes from the red felt and glue them under the beak.
8. Eyes: Cut 2 small circles of black felt, glue them into the center of the white buttons, and glue above the beak.
9. Feathers: Cut about 6 feathers from the magenta, gold, and white felt. Glue a pipe cleaner down the middle of each. Glue the feathers to the back of the cup with the pipe cleaners facing towards the back. 

Here are a few details:

Check out a few other adorable turkey crafts on my FamilyFun blog, Everyday Fun!

String-Art Halloween Wreath

I have been known to love a wreath in my day, and more than ever, I feel that Halloween is a very wreath-worthy holiday. Now that my kids are of the Halloween-appreciation age, I'm so into making Halloween crafts (Full disclosure: I used to not be the biggest fan of crafting for this day!).

Like many other pinners on Pinterest, I am obsessed with string art! And I must say, it is so beyond fun to do. It looks hard and tedious but I swear to you it's not! Scroll down to read how to make this wreath and the super cute and friendly pom-pom spider!

What you'll need:

• 14-inch round foam wreath
• Spray paint
• Small black nails
• 3 colors of yarn (including black)
• Scissors
• 4 black pipe cleaners
• 1/2-inch white pom-poms
• Tiny black pom-poms
• Tacky glue

Make it:

1. Spray paint wreath and let it dry.
2. Insert 31 nails, evenly spaced, around the circle about 1 every inch.
3. Take the darkest yarn and tie it to nail number 1 (abitrarily chosen). Now loop the yarn around nail number 24 then to nail number 2 then to nail 25 until you have made it all the way around.
4. Take your next color and tie it onto nail 1 and loop it around nail 25, then 2, then 26, then 3, again until you have made it all the way around.
5. Tie your 3rd color to nail 1 and loop it around nail number 26, and so on. You notice that each level of yarn has created a narrower band around your wreath. Tie each yarn off on nail 1, knot, and trim.
6. To make the spider, wrap thick black yarn around your hand about 50 times and cut it from the skein.
7. Cut an 8-inch piece of yarn, slip the bundle off of your hand, and tie the yarn around the bundle securely.
8. Take all four pipe cleaners and slip them under the center tie and pull until they are even on each side.
9. Snip through all of the yarn loops, then trim the pom-pom until he is nice and round.
10. Glue small black pom-poms to white ones, and glue them in place as eyes. Glue spider to the wreath to cover nail number 1 where you tied off your 3 yarns.

 

5-Minute Pumpkin Crafts

I know, I know...it's been an eternity. I keep promising to blog regularly, but I keep getting distracted by other craft projects, magazine stories, and blogs! Speaking of blogs, I've started blogging on Parents.com at a blog called Everyday Fun. Check it out! It's very, well, FUN!

Now, back to the good stuff...Halloween! I love pumpkins and I've done my fare share of complicated carvings and etchings. But with 2 toddlers and too much work, I have no time or patience for a big production. So here are 3 super-fun, 5-minute pumpkin decorating ideas!

1. I'm obsessed with these neon spikes that I found at M&J Trimming. Just glue them on with E6000 for a strong bond. Punk-kins? Yep, I think that's their official name.

2. My son and I were at the farmer's market last weekend and he picked out this pumpkin that he wanted to bring home. It sat naked on the kitchen table for a few days and I realized it needed some flair. So I looked around the room and spotted a Mr. Potato Head body part...there it is. Oliver and I picked out the features to make this guy! I thought it was a genius idea of mine until I discovered that the Mr. Potato Head people already thought of it. But for a quickie decorating job, just use what you have (and change his features daily)!

3. Spray paint a pumpkin and glue on some faux antlers! I bought these at Jamali Gardens, but I'm sure you can find them at your local Michaels.

Literally, none of these guys took more than 5 minutes (except the spray paint took about 20 to dry). And they all feel unique and playful!

 

Introducing PROJECT KID

Wait! Stop! You're in the right place, I swear! Let me explain...

As most of my dear readers know, I've been working on a kids craft book for the last year or so, and finally, it's done! Yay! Well, my portion is done, least of which was the selection of the title.

(drum roll.......)

Welcome to PROJECT KID! It's the name of my book, and now my blog, and hopefully the name of many crafty endeavors in the future. 

For the time being, not much is going to change here except the name. The content, aesthetic, ideas, and point of view will be the same as The Violet Hours has been for the last three years. 

I'm super excited for the changes afoot...only the best is yet to come!

 

Time to Blog Again!

  

Ok, before diving straight into a new post about something lovely, creative, and amazing, I want to just recap the last 2 (or so) months of silence. What may seem like a "vacation" or "break" was nothing of the sort. Here's a quick synopsis...

• 7-day (straight) photoshoot for my book
• 2 days later, I flew to Hilton Head with my husband, kids, and husband's family
• While in HH, I wrote the text for my book
• Wrote and shot this story for Mom.me while in HH
• 7 days later, drove to Atlanta from HH to extend the family visit 
• Continued to write book
• Returned to NY and went to Alt Summit NYC 3 days later (more on that soon!)
• 4 days later, another 4-day photo shoot to shoot the how-to's for my book (on the last day we shot 96 pics!)
• The next day I flew to Denver for the most beautiful wedding of our dear friends Kate & Joel (more on that soon)
• The day after I returned from Denver, I had to turn in my completed manuscript

And now, 2 weeks later, I'm resuming my blog posts! I'm so excited to be blogging again...I have so much to catch up on!

{The photos are all from my photoshoot!}

Time to Craft!

I am so so sorry for my long absence of late, but I'm in the final days crafting for my book and even a spare hour to blog is impossible to carve out.

So...I promise I will be back in a few weeks with more great posts, and even some sneak peaks into the world of producing a 100+ project craft book!

Don't give up on me...great things are on the horizon!

(Here is a photograph of my son Oliver "helping Mommy work." His understanding of work is going to be very hard to clarify.)