“Santa’s Workshop” Produces Princess Land

The benefit of the short one only being of preschool age is she knows not to wake up early on Christmas morn to shred wrapping paper. She rose at the very civil hour of 8 am, rubbed her eyes and said “Presents now?” After opening a few gifts from out of town family, in town friends and exploring her stocking filled with sweets I asked her how she was feeling about Christmas. She said “I’m happy – now can we have bacon?” I told her Santa left a gift in her room (she slept in Mom and Dad’s bed on Christmas Eve) and I lead her down the hall to see what the big guy made with his elves. I (that would be Santa with no elves) worked at night for the last two weeks on a series of three Princess Land panels that would be inserted into the play area under her bed once she was asleep. I set out mini Princesses she already owned as if they were having a party in the space. I also installed battery LED lights under the mattress slats so she could see better. When she saw it – she was speechless, thrilled and jumping up and down. This might be the real reason I want to keep Santa out of it – I so deserve the credit for all this work!

Castle on the hill painted on a masonite panel

shot of the village painted on a masonite panel

shot of the cottage in the woods painted on a masonite panel

Close up of the Dress Shop

Close up of the shoe shop where the glass slippers and dance shoes are made

Close up of the bake shop where the pink cupcakes and birthday cakes are made

Close up of the clouds with the silver lining

Close up of the rainbow for the ponies in unicornia

Close up of the splashing mermaid pond

Close up of the pink carriage

Close up of trees bearing magical pink princess fruit

Close up of the wishing well

Close up of the pink castle

Close up of the tower with the ladder for the Prince to climb up

Close up of the pink island, pink treasure chest, crown and gold bars spilling out

Close up of the evil witches woods

Close up of the cottage (think Snow white)

Close up of the cottage garden

December 25, 2009labfive 1 Comment

wonky style gift wrapping from scraps

No seriously, I am so into the holidays. I normally don’t even do the gift thing but this year I am magically finding perfect little giving opportunities for the people in my life. But the best part for me is the gift wrapping – that is where the fun is to be had. I have a ridiculous studio that is so fabulous and it is filled with things to pull from for any project. I am an organized, focused hoarder. I love, love, love the personal label maker – so I know where everything is right now. Easy! Buy the bins, buy the label maker – make it your New Years Resolution. okay that is another post let us focus on the wrapping of the gifts. This was so much Fun – yes capital F! Descriptions of what the materials are in the captions below each image.

Faux wood contact paper, creme constructions paper, found maroon ribbon and a white felt circle

Sports section of the newspaper, thrift store found rubber stamp "I love Grandpa", snowflake stamp, blue ribbon and blue cardstock

Tissue paper, school "practice writting" paper, "happy holidays" rubber stamp, peppermint striped bakers twine, candy cane stamp and colored card stock

Paper IKEA tablecloth, brown pok-a-dot ribbon, orange grossgrain ribbon, cardstock, rubber stamp tree from Anthropology

Tissue paper stamped with a bicycle (rubber stamp from Anthropology,) orange ribbon, green felt circle

White tissue paper stamped with snowflakes, vintage silver tinsel ribbon, blue card stock

School "practice writing" paper, creme construction paper, stamps and drawing with a LePen

Homemade Disney paper: 1$ store wrapping paper, 1$ store princess rubber stamps, cotton ribbon, creme construction paper. Stamp princesses all over and everywhere

Orange 1$ Store wrapping paper, Vintage orange plastic drawer liner (cut into a strip), white poof balls on a ribbon, stamp, drawing on creme construction paper

Vintage, yellow, faux canning, plastic drawer liner with a cotton ribbon covered in buttons and a red button snowflake ornament

Banking leger paper, bicycle and house stamp from Anthropology and red bakers twine

December 18, 2009labfive Leave a comment

YUDU fun with my gal pals

What fun we gals had playing with the YUDU screen printer. It was a little slow going because my pregnancy (at the time) brain was a bit forgetful of the rules. Such as don’t peel the plastic sheet off of the emulsion before you burn the screen. I also had to have help from the crowd to remember where the plates went when burning and when printing. I also think I want to get a softer squeegee as the hard one that comes with the system is a bit tough to pull. I am going to do a great deal of YUDUing this fall as I prepare for our annual open studio event on December 12. I can’t wait to print up a ton of onesies. If you’re having a baby or know someone who is – you’ll have to check them out. During our night of gal pal fun we printed onesies, baby bibs, greeting cards, tee-shirts and Sarah even printed an apron. Rosie’s project really turned out the best. She used her Cricut machine to cut out a couple of ducks and Sarah helped her cut into the big one and place the smaller one inside to create a nesting image. She cut them out of black card stock and her design really worked well. Those of us who did drawings directly on the transparency really need to use thicker Sharpies next time as we lost some of our lines. We also audio recorded our chatter and once this is edited I will post the pod-cast I am making with the help of my friend Adam. More YUDU pics to come as I play more throughout the coming weeks.