Tooth, Teeth, Dentures

Tooth Fairy Pillows. silly, right? We all just stuck our tooth under our pillow and magically the next morning there was a quarter under our pillow. Sometimes we wrapped the tooth in a hankie/kleenex but the results were the same. MONEY!

Seems in the crafty world there is a trend to make toothfairy pillows. That way the toothfairy doesn't have to slip under the pillow and possibly disturb the the sleeping toothless giant.
Some of the pillows are cute and very feminine. But there is also a trend to make more masculine ones. Monsters are the most popular. Here are a few of them.



Now I have nothing against these artists. I found them all on Etsy. And you know I really like Etsy.
I just know my grandsons and their friends (4-7 year old boys). And those pillows don't really speak to a boy's idea of a tooth fairy.
then I found this artist and I was inspired. SkellytonArt
Take this face and hide something in it.


Are you with me? This artist does many cute things with skeletons. and they are all cute not gruesome.
So here is the prototype. It is between Baseball and Softball in size.


I like the face but the fabric was not working. and the hat was way out of scale.
I wanted a kind of coin purse feeling to it. Where you could turn the face around and put the tooth/money in the back. I tried using velcro for the opening and I really didn't like the puckering.





The purpose of the "tooth fairy pillow" should be two fold. To use for the tooth and to hide things in. I always wanted a place to hide stuff from my brother. I ended up using the sleeves of the kimono to my Geisha doll. He never found stuff there.
Anyway. This character who I have dubbed Smilin' Jack. Can be used for hiding things beyond tooth time.

Here we have Smilin' Jack in his almost complete front face. His Rastafarian hat is custom for one particular grandson (Kentucky). I will be making other colors.





Now pop Jack out and turn him around and you see Grim Jack. Grim Jack has a "hidden zipper" for a mouth. Closed he looks grim. Unzip it and you see his tongue and he is not so grim. This is the pocket for the tooth/money.
I used Duck cloth and painted it with sealant then did the face with a sharpie pen. The cap was crocheted with cotton. I am going to try a different zipper on the next one.


With a hanger to loop onto a bedpost Jack will be ready for the Toothfairy delivery.
My camera tends to make the white more yellow. sorry. gotta work on that more.

I would love some feedback on what you think.

Bowling in the dark

A 6 year old's birthday party is one they will remember. And in this case it is the first one that Kentucky got to invite schoolmates as well as cousins and family friends.

Glow in the dark Bowling at the Tigard bowl. Watching Emery & Josiah & Joy handle the bowling balls was a treat. they did a fair job of hefting those 6lb balls and "rolling" them down the alley, and in some cases following after the ball and slipping. . . .too bad I did not have my camera ready for that scene as cute as it was.
2 year old bowling -






Josiah & Korban







The boys were active and silly. And just as a warning DO NOT stand in Korban's way when he is ready to throw the ball. . .THROW is the key word here. That kid can run with an 8lb ball and throw it. I fear when he gets to be 13 and hormones kick in with his strength. (Football?)
THE GANG - Owen, James, Damien, Kentucky & Korban.



Pizza!






Candids
Joy & Aunt Sarah



Birthday Boy Kentucky


Korban


Mason, Joy & Colin


Tammi & Josiah


Mason & his girlfriend (Joy)

It never ends

Even though the holidays are over I am still madly stitching. Here is the Room sign for Joy's room. All in Wool. the initial design (fairy in the window) comes from a wonderful German craft book I picked up the last time I was in Hamburg. I have never regreted the German books I get on each trip. The Germanic countries have GORGEOUS craftsmanship on everything they do. I learn so much.
The actual name comes from a font on my home computer. I just loved it and knew it had to be a part of this project. Took a bit to get the detail work since this is all done by hand not on a machine!







Now for 3 more stockings.
New Years resolve. . . . to enrich my mind.

My monday morning

Here is a hint as to my Monday Morning after staying up to sew pajamas for kidlets.
I like this guy's creativity.

Deck the Halls Zweintel (Part 2)

My apologies to my German friends. I looked up the spelling of Part two and didn't find what I wanted so I had to guess.

Previously you may have seen my efforts to create a Halloween Village. The material was a plaster type paste that I sculpted while wet and let it dry then I sanded and painted, then added rock/sand/trees to create the landscape.

My efforts now have been put towards the Christmas village. Luckily I only have to deal with White as my main color. But there are textures and dimensions I must consider. This time I used Styrofoam. Not the crunchy kind that has holes, rather the kind you find in your boxes that is made up of small balls pressed together. The cool thing about Styrofoam is that it can be cut with a hot knife. And it is very lightweight. AND I don't have to wait for it to dry.

This time I made sure to make the pieces smaller so I can store them in a box in the attic.The shelf is the same one used for the halloween village. Also I added water. Another techique that I had to learn to do. This has been a great challenge. The expense of the Water (Epoxy) was more than ALL of the styrofoam for the whole village. I am going to have to find a better source for the Epoxy.


Below are the pictures for the village. Unlike the Halloween pictures, the night time lighting did not do well so I used a flash.

There are closeups to follow but here is what you see in this overall picture
#1 The village Duo, Cello & Violin
#2 Little girl greeting her father
#3 Paul's Pub
#4 The Dairy Shop
#5 The Winery
#6 The Milnery shop
#7 Joy's cottage
#8 The Inn

Here is #1 the Village Duo


#2 Little Girl greeting father.


#3 Paul's Pub and the arrow is pointing at the stairs I carved into the hillside. Also the Cheese Head guy that is selling cheese from the Dairy shop.



#5 the Winery


#7 Joy's Cottage



This is the play area from a distance. The town furniture store on the hill and all the children playing in the snow. The #1 scene is in closeup below.


I found the Snowball fight at a thrift store for $4.99 and it is a Dept. 56 scene. I got a good deal on it. The grandkids love watching it. Don't know if they think that snowball will fly off or what. The ball is animated and swings on the stick from one boy to the other.








This is the site of the Mill on the right side of the village.


Here is the largest of the two water techniques. There is irredescent tinsel embedded in the epoxy that shines at different angles and lighting. I also put "Buffalo Snow" around the edges which soaked into the Epoxy by accident, but it made the edges of the water look like it was turning into ice so it worked out great. After it all dried I added more "Buffalo Snow" to create a bank of snow on the edge. These are glued in. Buffalo Snow is a fake snow that is celluose based and will wash away with water so if next year I want to change it I just need to wet it down.



Those of us who live in the Canby/Oregon City area are familiar with the wood carver that lives along 99E highway. This scene is in honor of him. The log cabin and his stump out in front where he carves.


Here is the Alps section of the village.



#1 Placing the star
#2 Ski Lodge/Chalet
#3 Stairs I carved into the mountain side.


#1 Placing the star again such humor with these figures. Can you really believe the horse will stay still while you stand on his back to place the star???



#2 The Ski lodge/chalet plays music and the skiers go around. BUT when I bought this there was no lights. I opened it up and installed battery operated rice lights I bought at Ikea. The arrow on the left shows the RED tape I used. Only if you are down at kid level do you see this. The arrow on the right shows a skier that has an amputated arm. . .it broke off when I was installing the lights. So I call this event the Special Olympics Winter version.




We are still in the Alps section and this is a second mill. There are more deer here and a carriage goin to the mountain.
#1 Second water technique
#2 Deer eating snowman nose


Here is #2. . I just love the humor of this scene, the Deer eating the Snowman's nose (carrot). The grandkids love it too.



If you have reached the end of this blog then I am honored. Most people just look at the pics and that is good too. I put in the details for those of my friends that are interested in learning of hearing about the techniques, errors and successes I achieve during my creative process. If you can look at the pictures and see the village and scenes and never really notice the landscape unless I point it out. . .then I was successful. Every bit of that styrofoam was scupted and textured. I did not leave any of it in it's store bought condition.
The figurines have been collected over the past 10 years. The majority of them are the less expensive version. And many many of them I have picked up at thrift stores. I want all my villages to be kid friendly for 2year olds and up. So if something gets chipped or broke it now has a story behind it. . .and it makes it fun for me to shop for replacements.
Thank you for viewing and enjoying my efforts.