Christmas Eye-Candy - Details, Details, Details!

You may have noticed, there were a few things finished on the first day that I hadn't talked about.  That's because both Julie and Jodie were, of course, also busy on their parts of the project while mom and I set the groundwork. 


Julie took charge of some house decorations, a snowball fight in the back yard, the gingerbread people, and the trees in the forest.

It was her idea to make a little window in the back, with one panel lit up from "inside".

She also had some fun adding to the snow fun in the back by making a little wall and some snowball piles.

Ah, yes, sisters playing in the snow together....

Mom had previously made some little "snowmen" that decided to be the participants in the snowball fight.

When she was not busy with that project, Julie was busy dressing up the gingerbread people that came with the kit.

The little rebels decided to take on hawaiian themed outfits, because of course that's what you wear in the middle of winter when you're a gingerbread person!

Her other last little project was putting together some paper trees, which had also been previously made, but came along to join the party, thus adding her personal "leaves"/nature touch.

Sometime in the middle of the day...

We ran out of frosting, and made a point of documenting the extremely interesting process of separating the eggs needed to make more.

Meanwhile...


Let's not forget about our last AuralArtists' member!  Jodie took on the responsibility and pleasure of turning the gingerbread trees into truly special pieces of artwork.

The finished products?

Now, there's a family story behind each of these trees...

The one on the left is covered in a fruit loop chain. This comes from one Christmas YEARS ago, back when we were all living in the same house. We spent one evening watching It's A Wonderful Life and making a garland from fruit loops.

It still graces the tree every Christmas, well over 10 years later.

The one on the right might seem a little abstract. And after you explain "it's elves and spiders", you will probably get some weird looks, until you tell them about this:















Mom makes ornaments for everyone every year. She's been doing this as long as I can remember. In two different years, she made elves and spiders. It's become a family tradition that when we decorate the tree, the elves and spiders HAVE to be hanging together in some kind of "story".

(In this case, the left guy is trying to catch the spider, the middle one is riding it, and the right two are playing Spider Volleyball. Also, you can see the legendary fruit loop chain back there.)



On to Page 4 - Putting It All Together!

Christmas Eye-Candy - Architectural Plans

After I (Jeanne) caulked up the cracks in the house, Mom was in charge of decorating the roof.

She figured, frosted mini-wheats should do the trick!












































This was followed by some fruity-loopy edging






She was especially pleased with the top of the roof.

Meanwhile...

I took command of the Gumdrop Bridge and Candycane Road.

Jodie had gotten the crushed candycane from a white elephant exchange, and was more than happy to donate it to our road.

The bridge was my AuralArtists' "rainbow" theme addition to the project.

Some mini candycanes formed the perfect fence to our road, as mom's "hearts" theme.

Additionally....

I was actually multi-tasking the whole time. As mom had to work on different sides of the house, we had to keep spinning the board around in circles. So, during the times I was looking at the backside of the setup, I went ahead and built a little igloo.

It didn't actually get completely finished until the next day, though.



By the end of Day One, we had completed the basic layout of our little plot of sugary goodness. 

On to Page 3 - Details, Details, Details!

Christmas Eye-Candy - Better Late Than Never

Over Christmas, there was a rare spotting of all four AuralArtists working on a project together. This post, along the following three, document this rare and exciting experience.


The Set-up

Mom bought this gingerbread house kit after Christmas in 2012, in preparation for the 2013 holidays.

We set it up a few days in advance.

But it took us until just two days before Christmas for all four of us to finally make it to the same house at the same time.

On to Page 2 - Architectural Plans

Crocus in Bloom!

The crocus are beginning to bloom in our yard! My first real sign of Spring. What does this have to do with AuralArtists?

Do you see it?

Hearts. Hearts everywhere!

Primary Pillows

Completely unrelated to artist trading cards, I finished a new project!
 

 

 

I've had 4 pillow forms sitting around for two or two and a half years. Originally I was going to make pillows for my living room, but I never got around to it because my mom encouraged me to try a zipper. I have nothing wrong with zippers, but any time I sew more than a straight line, I'm impressed with myself. So I thought I'd screw up. The pillow forms sat and sat and moved apartments with me.

 

I'm moving in 4 months, though, so I'm trying to finish up whatever projects are sitting around so I don't move as much. I'm not totally sure this is sound logic, but it's what I'm going with for now. And the person I'm moving in with already has very nice throw pillows for the living room.

 

Last July I realized I wasn't going to make the original pillows, but I had an idea to make primary colored pillows that said READ. I thought I'd put them in my library. So the project sat around, again, until just last week. I decided it was time to make the pillows.

 

I was going to use fat quarters for the fabric. Then I had a dream last Thursday night that I should use t-shirts. When I went to the store for my material, the fat quarters were going to be $20 while the t-shirt idea was about $13. The shirts were on sale 4/$10 and then I bought the fancy felt.

 

I won't bore you with too much detail of the process, but I'll highlight a few parts:

 

 

 
I used the bottom hem of the shirt as the side I'd hand sew. I'm sure there's a technical term for what I did, but basically I sewed the bottom seam as a hidden seam by sewing on the inside layer of the hem. From the outside, it just looks finished. I'm really proud of that part. It took several hours.

I also learned and used the buttonhole stitch for final letter attachment. My mom came to my rescue and suggested I first glue the letters down. I used tacky glue. Then I did what she suggested and did a buttonhole stitch to really affix the letter.

I'd already sewn the pillow shut, so I had to be extra careful I only sewed the felt and jersey without getting the pillow form. It also took hours, but I finished it last night.

I'm giving a special thanks to my friend Jessica who actually drew my letters. I gave her the material, a pencil and paper, told her what it would say, that I wanted it all in caps, and let her figure out what the letters would look like.

 
 
 These pillows are so much fun. I'm really excited they're done and totally useable.

And you can connect the "read" to leaves by way of books. It's not perfect science, right? 
 

 
 
 

April Challenge

I think all four of us had fun with the March Clothespin Challenge. I must say that I am partial to Julie's giraffe and Jeanne's little old lady with the walker. All were creative!

from kasiorka

Our group challenge for April is to make a set of Artist Trading Cards. Make at least four in your series so that we can exchange them with each other. Make more if you want to share with a friend!

from Mahlica Designs

Artist Trading Cards do have a few parameters:

• They are the same size as a baseball card: 2.5" x 3.5"
• Start with cardstock
• Use any medium that works for you: paper, fabric, painting, collage, found objects, etc. It can be as simple or elaborate as you wish.
• Make it a Spring or Easter theme, incorporating your personal theme. I'll find a way to put a heart or two on mine.
• Sign the back with your name, date, the name of your series, the series number, and perhaps your email address.

from Marleyart

For inspiration, take a look at our Pinterest board. There are lots of ideas already posted, and you can add more. If you need some directions on how to get started, check out this article on WikiHow.

from Terri Stegmiller Art Quilts

Ready? Set. Go!