Dolly for a sweet girl

I made this little dolly with pretty rainbow hair for one of my daughter's friends. My 8 year old picked out the dress fabric because she loves turquoise and brown together, and wanted to use brown hair because the birthday girl has long brown hair. But one of the neighbor children was ready to play, so she didn't want to have to go to Hobby Lobby for brown yarn for hair. All the yarn in my stash is multicolored for some reason and I just this afternoon realized that! So my daughter was thrilled with Rainbow Hair Dolly, and I think she came out brilliantly! Hopefully the party girl will enjoy her as well! Doll is loosely based on the tutorial here

CPSIA Blog In Day

This is so well written from a fellow Etsian that I wanted to share with you.

(It's my first blog-in! I guess I'm a real hippie now, not just a wanna-be!)

As parents and concerned citizens I’m sure most of us at one time or another have been confronted with the question of lead poisoning. But have you asked yourself what your government is doing to protect your children from lead contained in toys? The answer? They're banning toys, taking books from schools and libraries, hurting low income families, killing entrepreneurial spirit and risking putting the economy in an even greater depression than we've seen in decades. I'd like to introduce you to their solution: the CPSIA.

Do you know about the CPSIA? No? Then I ask you to take a few minutes to find out about it.

The CPSIA stands for Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a new set of laws that will come into effect on 10 February, 2009 and will impact many, many people in a negative way. Make no mistake, this is very real. View it for yourself. If Forbes, the American Library Association and numerous other media are paying attention, perhaps you should too.

How will these new laws affect you? Well, here are a few examples:

To the Parents of Young Students:
Due to the new law, expect to see the cost of school supplies sky rocket. While those paper clips weren't originally intended for your student to use, they will need to be tested now that your 11-year-old needs them for his school project. This law applies to any and all school supplies (textbooks, pencils, crayons, paper, etc.) being used by children under 12.

To the Avid Reader:
Due to the new law, all children's books will be pulled from library and school shelves, as there is no exemption for them. That’s okay though, there's always television. Our children don’t need to learn the love of reading after all.
Article from the American Library Association http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=1322

To the Lover of All Things Handmade:
Due to the new law, you will now be given a cotton ball and an instruction manual so you can make it yourself since that blanket you originally had your eye on for $50 will now cost you around $1,000 after it's passed testing. It won't even be the one-of-a-kind blanket you were hoping for. Items are destroyed in the testing process making one-of-a-kind items virtually impossible. So that gorgeous hand-knit hat you bought your child this past winter won’t be available next winter.

To the Environmentalist:
Due to the new law, all items in non-compliance will now be dumped into our already overflowing landfills. Imagine not just products from the small business owners, but the Big Box Stores as well. You can't sell it so you must toss it. Or be potentially sued for selling it. You can't even give them away. If you are caught, it is still a violation.

To the Second-Hand Shopper:
Due to the new law, you will now need to spend $20 for that brand new pair of jeans for your 2-year old, rather than shop at the Goodwill for second hand. Many resale shops are eliminating children's items all together to avoid future lawsuits.

To the Entrepreneur:
Due to this new law, you will be forced to adhere to strict testing of your unique products or discontinue to make and/or sell them. Small businesses will be likely to be unable to afford the cost of testing and be forced to close up shop. Due to the current economic state, you'll have to hope for the best when it comes to finding a new job in Corporate America.

To the Antique Toy Collector:
Due to the new law, you'd better start buying now because it's all going to private collection and will no longer be available to purchase. “Because the new rules apply retroactively, toys and clothes already on the shelf will have to be thrown out if they aren't certified as safe.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123189645948879745.html

To the American Economy:
Already struggling under an economy that hasn’t been this weak in decades, the American economy will be hit harder with the inevitable loss of jobs and revenues from suppliers, small businesses and consumers. The required testing is far too costly and restrictive for small businesses or individuals to undertake.

To the Worldwide Economy:
Due to this new law, many foreign manufacturers have already pulled out of the US market. You can imagine the impact of this on their businesses.

If you think this is exaggerating, here is a recent article from Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/16/cpsia-safety-toys-oped-cx_wo_0116olson.html

And for those of you prepared to be stupefied and boggled, The New Law
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html

Did you know? If this upsets or alarms you, please react.

New regulations from the CPSC passed by Congress will prohibit many independent artists and designers from selling their work soon unless the act is amended quickly. Fellow etsy seller Shalom Shultz put together this great pamphlet detailing many of the items that you will no longer be able to purchase for your own children or make to sell.

As a parent, I am definitely concerned about lead in my children's toys, but I made a choice long ago to limit own own "consumption" of these plastic toys made by large companies for various other reasons anyway. To deny parents their own "choice" of making playthings for their children seems more than a little invasive. Please spread the word, contact your own congresspersons (I have) and let them know that while you support regulations monitoring what comes in to the USA from overseas factories with little quality control, you still think that what you make at home is safer for your family anyway. Thanks!

Stencil it!

My friend Jessica came over tonight to show me how she turned a photograph into a larger than life stencil. She had done one of a cute couple of friends all kissy face, and is planning to spray paint them onto a background that includes lettering and random designs. I don't have many pictures of me and my husband together (usually because we're the ones with the camera at this stage of life!), but I have plenty of my kids. I've never gotten around to doing the cool silhouettes of them as babies, but this is just slightly cooler on the crafty scale. Here's what we did tonight.

We started with this picture, taken of Molly this summer at a birthday party - I just love her little scrunched up face!



In Picasa, because I'm lazy and haven't had time to really learn GIMP, we turned it black and white, then used the "sharpen" tools for a little more contrast and then turned up both the highlights and the shadows until her features stood out. I saved this image as a new file so I didn't lose my cute original.



My camera is set to take high resolution (which makes uploading them to the photoshop take FOREVER, but my prints usually turn out great, so it's a worthwhile trade off) and large, if I were just to print them out they are like 16x20 inches or something ridiculous like that, so I try to remember to scale them down for emailing, but I often forget and then clog up someone's email (sorry about that, too!) But it works out perfect for this! In Publisher, I opened a blank document and inserted the whacked out picture, which did not fit on the one little page that Publisher gave me. I set the printing to print actual size as a poster, then printed using "draft" mode, because I knew it was going to use a bunch of ink, and I had messed with the image enough to give me enough contrast to trace the major parts I wanted. Anyway, we got 4 regular sheets out and then taped them together.




Next, we looked for options since we were working without the sun on our side. Ordinarily, I might have hung this up on my bedroom closet doors (great big mirrors) like I do when tracing off patterns like Ottobre, but Jessica had brought posterboard, and the photo wasn't visible through the posterboard when it was held against a wall or a window or the mirror. So we ended up tracing the photo over a lamp. This worked amazingly well, but I probably won't be allowed to do it if hubby is here next time! We just traced very simply over Molly's features.


With an x-acto knife we cut away the lines that had been drawn in the tracing. Jessica's photos that she had turned into a stencil had people with darker features, but I figured with Molly's baby features and little curls we only needed to trim smaller sections out to emphasize her features. At some point early on Jessica told me, "Just cut out the line you drew," and at that point it made a lot of sense and went very quickly.




For some people, this may be easier to do if you turn the tracing upside down. I learned about myself that if I can turn whatever it is upside down, at least in my head, then I quit worrying so much about what it actually is and can draw it because I'm just focusing on the simple lines of whatever it is. So turning the stencil upside down sped things up for me because I wasn't worrying so much about all those cute little curls or the little pucker of her chin, and I could just cut away the lines.



Here is what it looks like with just a few of my lines cut away:



You can see my tablecloth through the stencil as we were cutting (there was a box top we were using to hold the posterboard away from the tabletop, but at the very end we found out the using a scrapbooking cutting mat worked really well).


Now Molly's all cut out! Jessica is holding her up against the wall (yes, my living room walls are red - my favorite!)

The parts that were cut out were all removed (and were all tasted by Miss Molly herself as they floated to the floor) and those will be the areas covered by paint when I figure out what to paint her onto. Not the walls, at least not in this house since it will possibly be going on the market soon. Maybe a big canvas covered with something else or just a wash of soft colors. I can see a whole series of these as a family gallery grouped together for a really dramatic presentation.



And again - another perspective just with a different contrast (sitting up on the couch) . Thanks again, Jessica, for showing me how!!

These are a few of my favorite things....

Just a few of my new favorite handmade items I came across on Etsy:

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade babymoon.etsy.com

Krylon Paint on sale at Hobby Lobby

Hey, I just had to share this. At Hobby Lobby this week there is an internet coupon for Krylon Spray Paint. The FUSION is what I recommend for painting the pole of the Hobby Horse if you are making one from my pattern. I just thought I'd mention it because you can get that paint for 30% less with this coupon until this Saturday.

By the way, the FUSION is non-toxic when dry - I know that makes a big difference when we are talking about paint and children's toys!

Here's the direct link to the coupon.

What is a babymoon, you say?

babymoon - (n.) The brief but happy period of time when a family welcomes a new baby to their world.


I know, it's not what wikipedia says, but traditionally, the babymoon is the time AFTER the baby is born, like the honeymoon is the short trip AFTER the wedding, see?

So it's the time for the new family to get adjust to their new lives together, to get to know the baby who has recently show his or her sweet face, and for mom to get her land legs back (if you've ever given birth you know what I'm talking about there!)

Sometimes I get weird looks when I tell my shop name, so I just wanted to put this out there to clarify for everyone what I mean.

The funny thing is, since I have so many kids, I've gotten to have lots of babymoons! I am so thankful that I have a great family who helps out during the babymoon and super friends who go over and above to help with the kids who aren't always completely thrilled by the grittier aspects of the babymoon!