The Violet Hours

The Art of the Valentine's Day Cookie

I love a pretty cookie. I really do. But I come up against a very confusing battle of the senses...a stand-off between my eyes and my stomach. 

I want to eat this, says my tummy.

I want to admire this, say my eyes. 

Tummy wins. Sorry, sense of sight. You'd win at the museum.

Check out these amazing cookies over on my other blog, Everyday Fun on Parents.com. 

1 Day 'til Christmas: Glossy Christmas Tree Trunk Stands

 

One of the best parts about living in New York City during the holiday season are the sidewalk Christmas tree vendors. Every few blocks, you walk through a tunnel of yummy pine air, over a temporary, trampled carpet of green needles. And you see people walking home with a tree slung over their shoulder, just ripe for the decorating. 

To give the tree it's best chance at a lasting through the month, the vendors will slice off the bottom of the trunk (kind of like cutting your roses before putting them in water). So the sidewalks are often littered with small tree stumps that are just tossed out with the trash. Tree trash is a crafter's treasure.

To make these lovely, glossy candle stands, I primed then spray painted pieces of tree trunk with bright spray paint, and then topped it off with a gloss varnish. (Here are the colors I used: Ketchup and Frozen Strawberry by Montana Gold, and Prussian Blue by Liquitex) Use these as place cards, food markers, candle stands, dessert stands...you name it!

Well, dear readers, this craft marks the last in my 10 day series of projects leading up to Christmas. I hope you were able to keep yourselves (and your kids) busy with creative pursuits over the last ten days. And if not, I hope you will pin them for next year!

Have a very merry and bright Christmas!

xx

2 Days 'til Christmas: Half-Craft Wooden Gifts

'Twas almost the night before Christmas and...you have to stuff some stockings, mass produce crafty gifts for your book club, or keep your kids busy and away from the television. Here are 3 fun crafted gifts that satisfy all of the above. 

I call these gifts "Half Craft" because they are just dolled-up basics. A little paint, a little bling, and they feel special and unique! Here's how they started...

And here's what I did...

Necklace: I painted 1 whole bead (beads from Oriental Trading) in pink nail polish, and 2 half beads to match. I let them dry, then twisted a very thin gold wire around the center one. I strung them on simple white cord and there you go! A pop of color for a dreary day (and a fun, homemade gift). 

Paperclip tree: Ok, I had to buy this little paperclip tree from Muji when I saw it. It seemed like it had so much potential! Mostly I was thinking that it would hold my daughter's eventual colorful hair clips. Here, I wrapped it in yarn and then unfolded a gold paperclip and reimagined it into a star. Cue the awww......

Yoyo: So I'm sure you don't have one of these raw wood yoyos hanging around (no pun intended), but you can paint one that you do have and then glue on some sequins to bling it up. I added little dots of glitter glue in the center of each sequin to fill the hole. And to take it to the next level, I replaced the string with pink yarn to match. 

3 Days 'til Christmas: Faux Cross Stitch Gift Tote

At this point, you're either...

1. Wrapping gifts
2. Scrambling for that last minute gift
3. Needing something to keep the kids entertained during the start of winter break.

Here's a craft that satisfies all three of those needs. You can use it as gift wrap, as an actual gift, or as a distraction from the fact that it's only 3 days until Christmas and your kids are bouncing off the walls!

Here's how you do it...

What you'll need:

• Small tote
• Fine tip Sharpie
• Tape
• Paint pens

1. Print out a cross stitch pattern to the size that you want it (leave a few inches on each side of the image for a border on your tote). I used a snowflake from Made to Treasure.
2. Cut out the cross stitch grid pattern and tape it to your tote.
3. With a fine-tip Sharpie, poke through the paper and make a dot onto the tote. Keep going until you've completed the whole grid. Don't forget to make a dot around the outside border of the grid.
4. Following your pattern, use paint pens to draw x's in the shape of your pattern. Use colors that are contrasting enough that you can really see the design clearly.

Here are a few pics of the technique in progress...

7 Days 'til Christmas: Simple Sticker Gift Tag

Have you finished all of your holiday wrapping? I'm going to venture to say the answer is NO. I am all about simple wrapping paper (yes, butcher paper is my fave) with fun tags and decorations. But with the volume of gifts that we wrap this time of year, they can't require too much labor.

When I started making this tag, I had the ornaments hanging from a glued-on stick. That felt too fragile. Then I created a tree branch out of yarn. That felt too laborious. So I tried it with this very simple design, using the circle stickers as ornaments to house each letter of the recipient's name. Honestly, it's really easy, fast, and you can let your kids help! 

What you'll need:

• Colored cardstock or scrapbook paper
• 3/4" circle stickers (67 colors from InStockLabels.com!!)
• Small letter stickers
• Scissors
• Silver pen
• Skinny ink pen
• Hole punch
• String

Make It:

1. Cut tag to fit the recipient's name. The tag should be about 2" wide and for a 5 letter name, a 4"-long tag is the perfect size. Add a little length for every additional letter. (For names like Charlotte, Henrietta, and Jonathan, consider using just initials!)
2. Adhere one sticker to the far left in one color, then the correct number of stickers for each letter in the name (or initials) to the right of that in a different color.
3. Adhere the words "to" or "for" in the single colored sticker and the letters of the name in the following circles.
4. Use silver paint marker to draw a little square on the top of each circle. The draw a line up from that square off the top edge.
5. Punch a hole at the far left and thread string through. 

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!

My Favorite Kid Gift This Year!

Ok, so I often read about new toys or products being developed, and I think, wow, that's a smart person. I want to be that person, or at the very least, know her. I read about this great new product Toy Mail this weekend on The New York Times and not only did I read the article from beginning to end, but I actually gave money to their Kickstarter campaign.

Here's how it works. You download an app to your iPhone and record a message. You hit send and it delivers that message to one of these cute little critters (adorably named and ironically shaped like a streetside mailbox). Your kid, at least one old enough to push a button, gets an alert and then can push the button to hear the message, and even press another button to record one back.

And then, there's the story of the co-founders and best friends, Gauri Nanda and Audry Hill. Nanda created Clocky and then pulled in her BFF, registered nurse, and mother of 3 Audry (no background in product design) to work on this with her. Love that!

Time for Confetti

{via I Spy with my Salad Eyes}

If you don't love confetti, you don't have a soul. Ok, maybe it's a mess to clean up, but even the cheesiest of metallic confetti has a glittery, sparkly, ephemeral impact. Check out these surprising ways to use it....

Put a packet of confetti in your wedding invitation. I'm beyond in love with this one that I found on Pinterest!

 

How awesome are these tube confetti throwers from Oh Happy Day? Love love love...

 

I still love the confetti gift wrap that I blogged about two years ago!

 

Love the look but hate the mess? Try a stamped table runner (you can use a pencil eraser, a wine cork, or a sliced carrot) that gives the illusions of confetti like this one from Love Luxe.

Time for Instagram Love

I am so not alone in my love for Instagram. It has definitely pulled ahead as my favorite form of social media. At this point in my life, I have time to look at pictures and not much else!

Some of my Instagram pics are among my favorite I've ever taken (like this one of my daugther Sommer at her first music class), and I'm desperate to free them from my digital devices and let them live in my world so I can actually touch them. Here are some great ways to do that...

LMNOP blogged about Origrami, a service that prints postcard-quality prints of your Instagram photos. And then packages them in that amazing box. I'm doing this. Even if I have to pay shipping from Australia.

 

I love the way A Beach Cottage arranged Instagram photos of a beach vaca on a wall in the shape of a heart. Because face it, who doesn't love the beach? And Instagram. So if you are a shutter-happy photographer on one subject, this project will visually link the imagery and colors nicely.

 

Seriously, this is a dream of mine: a huge frame with hundreds of Instagram photos. If only I had the wall for it. Found via Because I'm Addicted.

 

Young House Love framed their Instagram photos in jewel cases. Always a fabulous, photograph vehicle. (PS...I'm so proud to share a book publisher with them! How on Earth did that happen?)

Time for Map Crafts

I'm so attracted to maps, both for the actual use (navigation) and for their design and craft aesthetic. Obviously I'm not alone in this, as maps have been decoupaged on everything from coasters to lampshades. But these crafts, like this amazing map dress by Elisabeth Lecourt, are taking maps to new destinations...sorry, it had to be said!

This looks crazy hard I know, but I think the artist just covered this cardboard deer head in maps. Love. Found via Babble.

 

This could be a very cool abstract embroidered design, but it's actually the Paris Metro system. By Needle & Compass on Etsy.

 

I love the link between transportation and navigation with this folded paper map boat by d. Sharp Journal.

 

A travel scrapbook made with map pages? Yes. Found via Scrapbook.com.

 

Ok, so I'm ending with the decoupaged map chair found via Pins for Your Home because I just love it.