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Fairy Wings and Toadstool Cupcakes
I’ve had this idea of making cardboard fairy wings with cut-out windows filled with tissue paper for the longest time. I probably thought it up when I was little but never was allowed to use a sharp knife or didn’t have the right supplies or something. So now that I’m a grown up, I’m making all my little-kid dreams come true. I love this part of being a grown up.
When I was down at Bethany‘s the other day, Annalie was kind enough to let me cut up her cardboard house that I made for her several weeks ago. We cut out a few sets of wings (utilizing the folding seam of the box for the fold where the wings would flutter) and got busy with some cheap craft paint.
You know what I love about visiting Bethany besides the fact that we’re really good friends and we stay up all night talking? I love it that I can whip up any old craft any old time and she NEVER complains about the mess. Maybe she secretly does when I’m gone but I’m thinking she doesn’t. [Editor’s note: I really don’t.] Plus it occupies the kids and that’s always worth something.
We painted, glittered and pretty much made Bethany’s patio into a sparkling wonderland of mess. I was a big fat happy grown-up princess in the middle of it. Of course the kids got bored of all the crafting way before I did and they wandered off to play fairies or something without the fancy wings I was making them. But that’s okay.
I’ve been thinking lately, as I do all these craft days with kids, that I need to have an adult crafting class. I try and try to cater my craft ideas to kids’ attention spans but that is a tricky, tricky business. It’s impossible, really. Maybe I could buy a bounce house or something and then finally have a satisfactory crafting session with adults that lasts more than an hour without someone wandering off. Just a thought.
The tissue turned out exactly like I wanted it to. I didn’t try too hard to make the cut-outs symmetrical or anything, because as you know I’m not a perfectionist.
Then we packed up our pretty wings and headed off to Jora‘s house to do our Alpha+Mom craft that I cannot reveal at this time. But yes, it does have something to do with fairies, gnomes and toadstools. I think this woodsy fairy kick might last a while.
The kids seemed to enjoy modeling the wings, which totally made my day. Bethany snapped most these photos because I was up to my eyeballs in the other craft that I cannot talk about right now. You’re going to love it. Stay tuned for that one. (Last Thursday of the month, like usual.)
We finished our magical fairy-filled day with something sweet: toadstool cupcakes! I don’t know if I’ve written this about Bethany before, and I’m sorry if I have (I don’t mean this to be a Bethany lovefest), BUT all you have to do to get Bethany to bake or cook for you is say something like, “Wouldn’t it be cool to make cupcakes that look like little toadstools?” and whoosh! She’s gone into the kitchen.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been focused on something when suddenly I hear her mixer going or some pots and pans banging. I’ll look up and say, “Oh, you’re cooking. What are you making?” and she’ll reply, “Well you said you wanted bruleed lemon bars/almond cherry scones/eggs benedict/croque monsieurs…so I thought I’d whip some up.” Seriously. Just dream up something and she’ll make it happen. No wonder I spend so much time visiting there.
p.s. I know somebody is going to want the toadstool cupcake recipe. It’s here, with lemon glaze frosting. All that is Bethany. I can take no credit.
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Felt Boards!
My friend Kate gave me a mess of felt today. She’s trying to go through her craft supplies and tidy up by hopefully getting rid of the extras that she and her kids don’t use. So when she called me up, hoping that I might want to help take some of her rejects off her hands, you know I was right there with open arms.
Of course this does not help my own problems with organizing craft supplies. I swear if I had a warehouse, I could fill it up in a month or less. Craft supplies multiply in the night like bunnies and they are a bear to keep organized.
A long time ago someone asked me how I keep organized. I don’t really. I operate on a system I like to call “Shove it in a basket or bin and rely on your excellent visual memory to remember where things are.” If everything is out of sight and a room can look neat and clean when you stand in the doorway, then that is considered organized to me. I am the queen of junk drawers. If it’s out of sight it’s out of mind. I call it Bren Shui.
This works for me because I don’t use any of my brain for math or numbers. All that empty space where normal people would store phone numbers or how to add fractions I store a giant catalogue of images. I don’t have a photographic memory but I do have a pretty good memory of what things look like. Well, sometimes. I do fail those Sherlock Holmes type tests but I’m pretty good about remembering where things are.
Back in the day when I was working in an office I had our entire library of stock photos memorized. If you needed a photo of a girl cutting a cantaloupe I could tell you it was on CD 34, the third page in, on the top right corner. It’s useless information now but it was totally handy when I was a graphic designer. I’m thinking that’s why having baskets and bins full of miscellaneous crafty crap in my closets and under my beds and hidden behind our cheap makeshift entertainment center works for me. It drive Toby insane but what’s a girl to do?
Why am I blathering on about this? What I really want to share with you is what I did with the giant pile of felt Kate gave me. It was sitting on my desk, waiting for me to find a home for it when suddenly I was struck with the idea to make a flannel board or a flannel graph or a felt board, whatever you call it.
My grandma used to teach Sunday School when I was a kid and she had the BEST flannel graph stories. I remember clearly sitting on the floor with other children watching her walk across her felt board with her felt characters. There was Joseph and his coat of many colors and all his brothers standing around talking about what they were going to do with him after they threw him in a pit. I remember the wooly white felt lambs in the story about the Shepherd. My grandma was the best story teller. She still is, really.
She’s spoiled me for any other Sunday School classes. I’ve taken Bug to many Sunday School classes in her short life and none of them have measured up to my Grandma and her passion for telling a good story. It’s sad really. I’ve walked out of churches dissatisfied and unhappy just because the Sunday School teacher didn’t do anything other than hand out a coloring sheet and read a book in monotone. I know teaching kids is tough and I’d probably get burnt out too but part of me secretly wants to be a Sunday School teacher. I know I could make learning fun. Of course I sort of need to find a church or meeting and become a regular member first but that’s a whole other story.
So anyway. I made a flannel board. I just took a piece of cardboard and wrapped it with a big piece of felt. I taped the back but it really wasn’t effective. Neither was my pathetically small stapler but it’s all I had and it sort of worked. I seriously need to get a real stapler one of these days. I’ve got crafts out the ying yang but only a stapler Hello Kitty would use. It’s insane. Now you know what to get me for Christmas.
Then I cut out some shapes and this is the part where I got completely engrossed in the project and Bug wandered away bored. That’s my problem sometimes. I’m more into these crafts than my three-year-old is. But thankfully when I started telling a story to go with my felt shapes she was back and quite interested. I opted for something not in the bible just because I’m not quite up to cutting out silhouettes of Adam or Joseph and I’m sort of on a gnome, toadstool, fairy kick right now.
It was a hit. Bug loved my story about the fairy who decorated the mushrooms in the daytime and the grumpy gnome who stole the decorations at night. We acted it out in several different variations. I think I could really get into this and add more, maybe some cupcakes and a spooky forest even but of course by the time I finished cutting out the shapes I did cut out it was time to cook dinner and I had to clean the whole mess up.
We shall definitely revisit this craft. I’d offer to make some templates for anyone who wants to try this at home but I already have about five things promised to you guys that I haven’t followed through on so I’m not promising anything yet. I need an assistant. Just kidding. But sometimes I hurt myself thinking about all the things I could do if I just had more time. I guess that’s the breaks. You have a kid, they inspire you to make a million things and then they use up all your time so you can’t. I wouldn’t change it for the world though.
