Ukranian Easter Eggs and Family Stuffed Sock Bunny Workshops

 I took a late afternoon walk around our neighborhood yesterday with my daughter Celia and our wheaten terrier Maizy. It was so pleasant to have the sun shining on us in the late afternoon. The streams were rushing with the water from the weekend storms, providing  plenty of mud and puddles for the girl and dog to explore. There was an abundance of downed sticks and branches on the ground to poke into the mud and instigate a game of tug of war with the pup. Nature had created the perfect playground for my companions. I relished their happiness and started to believe that spring is slowly creeping it's way to Maine. 

I'll be giving my first Pysanky egg decorating class at Art Mind and Soul studios on March 28, 2-4pm. I was captivated by this technique as a child in Canada, a very kind neighbor spent an entire afternoon teaching me the craft. Although my designs are not authentic, the process is true to it's origins. If you become a committed follower of Ukrainian eggs there's an entire alphabet of authentic symbols to memorize and master. I love how easily this craft can be  modernized to suit your own creative style, in many ways its' similar to batik. A small stylus is used to heat beeswax over a candle flame enabling you to draw the wax directly onto an egg. The egg is repeatedly dipped in dye and more wax is applied after each immersion. The dramatic finish happens when the egg is heated over the flame and the built up wax is wiped away to reveal the colors and designs.

It might be because Easter falls close to my birthday but I've always loved this season of renewal! To celebrate I'm offering another spring workshop for parents and their children to enjoy together on Saturday March 27, 1-3 pm also at Art Mind and Soul Studios.We'll be cutting up socks, stuffing and stitching them together to make adorable stuffed bunnies.

Mark your calendars, and send me an e-mail I'd love to have you join in the creative fun!

Sweet Needle Felted Bunnies - free tutorial!

We enjoyed the most beautiful taste of spring in Maine this weekend. After a glorious walk on the beach we stopped at the pet store on our way home. To Celias absolute delight we stumbled upon a pen of baby bunnies. There was no chance of us adding to our menagerie, but our short visit was the perfect inspiration for this needle felt tutorial. If you haven't tried needle felting please do give it a second look, it's incredibly accessible. All you need is some wool roving and a felting needle to get started. I've yet to find a better medium for quickly making miniature furry animals. These low maintenance bunnies will be so popular you'll need to felt a whole litter in time for Easter!

Materials
Assorted wool roving: white, tan, grey and small amounts of black and dark brown for the eyes.
Felting needle (there is no substitute for the genuine barbed needle)
Piece of rigid foam insulation or a foam felting mat.

Finished size: 2 1/2" x 2 1/2"

1. Starting with the body, roll the main color into a tight ball as if you were forming a bead. Repeatedly poke it on all sides to stabilize the roving. Wrap additional strands of roving around the ball to increase the size. Be sure to needle felt it on all sides after each addition. Add more roving to one end so that the ball becomes an egg shape, approximately 2" long and 1" thick at the widest point.

2. To make the hind legs spiral the roving into a circle (1" in diameter). Fold the roving end several times to make a paw shape that extends 1/2" out from the leg. Add a couple more pieces of roving to thicken both the leg and the paw. Repeat the process to make a second leg.

3. Position the legs on either side of the body. Repeatedly poke the outside edge of each leg with your felting needle to anchor them body, let the paws fall free.

4. Fold a new piece of roving several times to make a 1 1/2" long arm. Wrap the folded roving with a second strand and then needle felt it to compress the fibers. Create a bent elbow in the arm by folding it and then needle felt the folded area. Repeat the process to make a second arm. Position an arm on either side of the body. Needle felt the top shoulder portion of of the arms to the body, let the paw ends fall free.  

5.  Create the head as you did the body starting with a tight bead shape. Wrap and needle felt additional strands of roving around the head until it measures 1"x 1". Position the head above the front paws and needle felt directly through the rabbits face to attach it to the small end of the body. Make additional pokes around the neck to insure it's properly connected.

6. Stay with me your bunny is starting to get cute... We're on to the ears, fold a piece of roving as you did the arms so that its an 1 1/2" long. Needle felt it and if necessary add another layer roving. My ears tend to get wide, I fold them in half lengthwise and needle felt the folded layers together. Create a second ear, and needle felt the base of each ear to the top of the head.

7. Take a small strand of beige roving and spiral it into a spot, needle felt it to one side of the face. Make a larger beige spot for the bunnies back. Roll the tiniest pinch of dark brown roving for the eyes and nose and use your needle to poke them directly into the face. The more you poke them the smaller they appear as they become incorporated into the head.

8. The final step is to roll up a loose ball of white roving for a tail and poke it directly into the back of the body.

Enjoy experimenting with different colors and ear positions. Here's 'hopping' we all get to enjoy warmer weather and longer days filled with sunshine!

Needle felted hearts and raspberry square recipe

Last night I enjoyed a wonderful evening sharing needle felting techniques with creative women at Art Mind and Soul Studios in the Fort Andross mill. This renovated brick mill sits beside the Androscoggin river in Brunswick Maine. The interior has been beautifully renovated into office and artist studios, the building is also home to restaurants and antique shops. Art Mind and Soul recently opened their doors as a center for the visual arts community. It's a wonderful place to hold workshops, create for an hour or two or rent a small studio space.

My approach to teaching this needle felting class was to hand everyone a kit full of supplies and impart as much technical knowledge as I could. I demonstrated wet and dry felting techniques along with flat and three dimensional construction. The joy of needle felting is that you immediately start poking fibers together with a felting needle. I was thrilled with the originality of the finished projects. They were stunningly beautiful raised designs abstract to illustrative on wool felt rectangles, charming three dimensional hearts and even a few white bunnies.

If you missed out on this workshop, don't fret I'll offer it again soon with a different theme and new construction techniques. I'm looking forward to sharing Polymer clay millefliori beads and stamped charms on Feb 23 and Pysanky egg dying on March 28. If your a parent of young children please click the sidebar link to find a listing of my inexpensive family workshops also held at Art Mind and Soul studios.

The other hit last night was my mums' raspberry coconut bar recipe named 'Louise Cake'
My parents are British, my mother kindly converted the amounts from weighted quantities. For the sake of the workshop I doubled the recipe and baked the bars in a 11"x13" metal brownie pan, I needed 35 minutes to brown the crust.

Preheat the oven to 350

Cream 1/2 cup of butter and 2T +2t of sugar together.
Add 2 egg yolks to the creamed butter and sugar.

Stir in 1cup +1T of flour and 1t of baking powder.
Press the crust mixture into the bottom of a greased 7"x11" baking pan.
Generously spread raspberry jam over the 'crust'.
Whisk the 2 egg whites until they're stiff.
Fold in 2/3 cup of sugar and 1 cup of sweetened coconut.
Gently spread the topping over the jam.
Bake 20 minutes until the top puffs and starts to brown at the edges, let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Victorian Beehive Valentines - Free project tutorial!

Who can resist pink, red and white papers, sparkly stickers and ribbons? Ever since I was little I was completely enamored with making Valentines. This year I've been entertained by watching Celia get carried away making hearts and running upstairs to secretly hide them in her room.

The magic of a beehive Valentine happens when you pull up on the center ribbon. The paper expands into a beehive shape to reveal the hidden message underneath. When I taught at the Des Moines Art Center, the education director Peggy Leonardo shared the instructions with me. She had discovered them printed in an old time Valentine craft book. I featured a gilded birdcage variation of this project in my book Simply Beautiful Greeting Cards, North Light Books.  When I recieved a gorgeous selection of papers and stickers from EK Success last month, I knew I wanted to recreate this 'vintage' paper craft. Fancy stickers and papers are inspiring but you can use any paper or rubber stamps you have on hand.

Finished dimensions: 4 1/2" x 4 1/2"

Materials :
Pink and red scrapbooking paper - K and Company Lovely Designer Paper Pad
Retro Valentine Stickers - EK Success
Glue
5" length of 1/4 inch satin ribbon

Tools:
Scissors
Paper trimmer - Optional

1. Trim the paper for the of the card into a 4 1/2" square. If you plan on sending the card in an envelope adjust the size to fit. Cut a smaller 3 1/2" square to fit in the center of the first. Next cut a small white piece of paper to place behind the sticker, mine was 1 3/4"x 2 3/8". Glue the three pieces together and then apply the sticker to the white rectangle.

2. Cut a second 3 1/2" square for the beehive. Select a lighter weight paper that will be flexible and won't retain the crease lines. Fold the paper in half and then in quarters. Cut rounded slits 1/4" apart alternating between the folded edges. Akin to cutting a snowflake its important not to cut all the way through to the other side. Unfold the paper and apply glue to underside of all four edges. Position the beehive over the center of the card, firmly press down the glued edges.

3. Thread the ribbon length through the top two slits in the beehive. Gently pull up on the ribbon to test your beehive. If necessary use your scissor tips to carefully extend any slits that don't open sufficiently. Decorate the border of the beehive with paper strips and sentiments trimmed from the coordinating scrapbook papers.

Easy embroidered felt heart sachets - Free tutorial!

I just finished creating these Valentine craft project samples for my Feb 8th visit with Curtis Memorial Library's fiber arts club. The children in the group are 7-12 years old. Felt is the perfect material for introducing kids to embroidery, its sturdy enough to hold it's shape without an embroidery hoop. I like to use a full strand of embroidery thread so the stitches stand out. A crewel needle has a sharp enough point to get through the felt without poking fingers. It also has a wide enough eye to accommodate the floss. To keep Celia happy while I created this sample I handed her a felt heart and along with a threaded needle. With a minimal amount of help she was able to stitch her favorite finds out of my button stash onto the front of the heart, she was so proud!

If you're local please preregister at 725-5242 ext 225 and join me for this free workshop. If not follow the directions below, break out the embroidery floss and buttons and get your kids excited about stitching!

Materials:
1/4 yard or less of pink and red felt - I love the felt National Nonwovens sends me. (http://www.commonwealthfelt.com/)
Embroidery floss, pink red and white - I'll use any excuse to break into the box full of colors DMC shipped me. (http://www.dmc-usa.com/)
Assorted buttons
Poly-fil stuffing (http:www.poly-fil.com/)
Scented plastic pellets - from plastic sleeve sachets (available at major box stores)
4" section of ribbon or cording for a hanging loop

Tools:
Scissors
Pinking sheers-optional
Crewel needles
Large heart shaped cookie cutter
Sewing machine - optional substitute sewing needles and thread

1. Use the large cookie cutter as your template to cut out the felt heart top, add a 1/4" seam allowance to all sides.
2. Thread the crewel needle with a full strand of embroidery floss and begin stitching flowers, cross shaped kisses, buttons even messages onto the front of the heart. If desired add a blanket stitch around the edge of the heart (see the red variation). Tie all knots on the backside of the heart and trim the ends.
3. Pin the heart to a second uncut scrap of felt, make sure it extends a half inch on all sides of the heart top. Position the ends of the hanging cord between the layers.
4. Machine stitch (or hand stitch) around the edge of the heart, approximately a quarter of an inch inside the cut edge. Trap the hanging cord in your seam and leave an inch and a half opening for stuffing.
5. Lightly stuff the heart and then pour a teaspoon of pellets into the heart. Hold the opening closed and position it back under your sewing machine presser foot to stitch the opening close (or hand stitch closed).
6. Use the pinking sheers to trim the heart backing so that it extends a 1/4" from the heart front.

Enjoy your sweet soft heart, make another and share the love!

loveable monsters - Free tutorial!

I'm so lucky to be able to create crazy creatures for work. Even more fun is to be able to share my crafty enthusiasm in magazines, books and workshops. I devised this pared down softie project for a free winter break workshop that will take place on Wednesday February 17, 10 am at Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick Maine. The goal is for every child to make a stuffed creation inspired by a childrens' monster story book. This stuffed monster requires minimal sewing and his shape is open ended. Children can easily customize the project adding horns, lips, even additional limbs to make a unique creation. If you're not local please try creating monsters at home, it's a parent and child activity. They'll need an adult to supervise the cutting, operate the sewing machine and glue gun.

Finished dimensions 12"x 10" body arms extend 6-8 inches off the bottom and sides

Materials:

1/4 yard of fleece will make several monsters

2-3 sheets of stiff felt (available at Michael's stores)

Plastic (screw shaped) stuffed animal eyes that are packaged with metal or plastic disk backs (available at sewing and craft stores)

Fiberfill stuffing

Tools:

Sewing machine - don't worry (we're only making a straight seam!)

Hot glue gun and melt sticks

scissors

straight pins

1. Fold the fleece in half and cut a double layer monster body approximately 12" x 10", leave the top straight and round the bottom edges. Cut 2 legs arms eyes, eyebrows and a mouth out of the stiff felt.

2. Place the body pieces right sides together. Insert the arms and legs between the layers so that a half an inch of the felt sticks out beyond the fleece fabric edge. Pin the legs and arms in place, if necessary place additional pins to tack the fingers and toes away from the edge, you want to avoid accidently trapping them in your seam.

3. Starting two inches from the very top sew down one side, across the base, and back up the other side ending two inches before the top edge. Be sure to leave the top completely unsewn. Remove any additional pins, trim away any excess fabric and turn your monster right side out. Lay the monster flat and cut 1 1/2" slits a half inch apart across the top of the monsters head.

4. Lightly stuff your monster so that you can see how he's taking shape. With your scissor tips carefully poke a hole in one of the felt eyes. Thread a plastic eye into the hole. Determine where you want the eyes positioned and poke a hole through the fleece. Thread the back of the plastic eye into the hole and then reach inside your monster to firmly press the backing up against the the back of the eye. A layer of felt and fleece will be trapped between the two eye components. Repeat the process to attach the second eye.

5. Finish stuffing your monster and then knot the fleece strips together. This will seal his/her head closed while creating shaggy hair.

6. Hot glue the remaining mouth teeth horns and eyebrows in place. Let the glued areas cool before giving him a monster hug!

New Years Kringler!

Almost a week after we planned to make Kringler, Jon woke up making it his first task of the New Year. He’d already loaded the stand mixer, pressed the dough crust onto the cookie sheet and was stirring the pudding like filling over the stove top, all by the time I made an appearance downstairs . The recipe comes from his mother, my mother in law Jan whose mother (Jon’s grandma) is Norwegian. I like to think this is a family recipe that has been passed down although I need to confirm if that is truly the case. Jan would serve this Scandinavian pastry at the annual Boyd family Christmas in their Des Moines home. I have fond memories of feasting on this warm danish while the kids unwrapped their stockings.

If you’re beginning the year with a renewed commitment of health you might want to skip this culinary delight. It has only a few ingredients none of which make an appearance at the bottom of the revamped food pyramid. It’s an ideal treat for a cold winters morning when the pantry is bare. The main ingredients are butter and white flour the flavoring is dependent on the magic of almond extract. Relatively easy to make it has a wow factor when it emerges from the oven puffed up and golden brown.

Wishing you the sweetest of years filled with blessings, happiness, health and lots of crafty goodness!
 Heidi

Scandinavian Kringler
Crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 TBLS ice water

Puff Topping:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup flour
3 eggs
1/2 tsp almond extract

Frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 TBLS margarine
1/2 almond extract
2-3 TBLS milk
slivered almonds

Oven - 350 degrees Divide dough in half. Press each half into a 3 x 12 inch strip on an ungreased cookie sheet. Heat water and ½ cup margarine in medium saucepan to boiling. Remove from heat & immediately stir in one cup flour until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until smooth. Stir in ½ tsp. almond extract. Spoon ½ of the batter over each crust. Bake at 350 until golden brown and puffy...about 50-60 min. Immediately remove from the cookie sheet and cool. Topping will shrink. Spread frosting and sprinkle with almonds.