strapless fairy wings: a tutorial of sorts

Perhaps this comes naturally to some people but I had to seriously think my way through making five sets of fairy wings for girl child's Grimm play. Actually, it was even worse; I needed The Man to help me figure out how to attach the darn things.

The problem was two fold. First there was the wings, which couldn't be any old wings, given that this is for the theatre and not Halloween dress up (the difference I'm still a bit hazy on but have been assured that they are not the same). The five fairy girls, who are to float around the fairy godmother, are all wearing identical, beautiful, dance dresses.

That is girl child in her costume, looking very much like a urchin who has just stepped out of a rain shower. Seeing her all week in full make up and hair and now in this picture looking like a damp dishrag is creating a little cognitive dissonance in me but since the girl wakes up looking like this in last night's hair:

I think we can all agree she could use some freshening.

And, here are the wings:

You can see by the style of dress that we could not use straps to secure the wings to the fairies.  In fact, given that the fairies do cartwheels, dance and even lay down, having secure, durable yet flexible wings were the only thing that would work for eleven shows.  Also, the wings had to be quickly removable during the second act when the fairies would have to be in close proximity with other cast members without taking out some one's eye.

First, was to make the wings.  These wings are a cut out of a non-fraying polyester weave, secured to wire only along the top edge.  The material has just a bit of weight and it holds the shape well while allowing floaty, ethereal movement.  They look incredibly twinkly under theatre lights.

The base of the wing, as you can see, is a coat hanger.  To make a fairy wing base,

Duct tape worked well to tape the sharp end of the the bent hook end of the hanger and add a bit of strength to that post, which is important for securing the wings into position. 

To attach the wing, cut your desired shape of wing out times two and then either sew down a fold on the top portion of the wing to create a tube to slip over the wire frame or use a glue gun to secure the material.  I did both.

For rigging the wings to the dresses, I used a double ring looped around the base of the straps in the back.  The straps are attached in the middle of the back.  If you have your own dress or top where straps are not attached in the middle, you can sew on your double ring or, even better, a D-ring in the center.  The post of the wings are inserted down through the ring between the dress and the back.  A tight dress is best.

The wings are prevented from twisting or shifting by a couple of small lanyard hooks that hook directly to the wire arms of the wings. 

And there you have it, fairy wings, attached without straps.  Times five.

window art with wax crayons

We're going to call this a mini-tutorial.  What it is is a project that boy child can get right into because it involves:

1. Dismantling crayons
2. Tools that heat up
3. Scary monsters - if you so desire

And anything that gets the boy child involved in craft and art is exciting to me.

 Materials:
- wax crayons of various colours
- wax paper
- an iron you don't mind getting a bit grubby with wax
- craft scissors
- optional: permanent marker, puffee or 3D glow in the dark fabric paint

First step is to remove the paper from crayons (some of us are really good at this part).

Use your sharpener (one with a larger hole in it will be helpful) to flake the crayons onto a sheet of wax paper.

When you feel like you have sufficient wax piled on the paper (or your hand is tired of sharpening), cover with another sheet of wax paper.

With heat on a low setting (mine was on 'wool'), iron over top of the wax paper to met the crayon wax.

When the wax has cooled, you have a couple options.  One is to draw and cut out a shape.  Or you can just free form with scissors.

What ever shape you cut, it will look absolutely brilliant when the sun shines through.

Another option is to use some glow in the dark 3D fabric paint to trace out shapes.

The paint can give shape and character to your wax window art.

And still be visible at night after the sun goes down.  We made a number of monsters out of our more or less random melted wax to decorate for Halloween. 

wonderland revival

I recently did something I never thought I'd do.

You see this book?

This poor tortured book?

I had bought it in this terrible condition, enthralled with the illustrations (though despising the condensed, dulled version of the text) and have been holding onto it for years.  I'm a sucker for hard luck stories, and I'll take home every ripped up, abused, and broken book I find.  I try to rescue these orphaned books and give them the love and care that they so obviously did not have with their former owners.  I like to think of myself as their savior and protector, a guardian angel to mishandled books everywhere.

Which is why what I did last week is so shocking.

I don't know what came over me.  The fact was the book wasn't going to get better and, frankly, the text was seriously shoddy and skewed.  I thought, instead of having this half book gather dust on my shelf, not to mention suffer the indignity of  yet another move, why not give it a new life?

So I did.

The Man's cousin married had herself a wedding last weekend and, embracing my husband's tradition of giving a recipe box as a gift, I salvaged as many pictures as I could to make dividers and to spice up some recipe cards.

The divider cards were mod-podged onto printed card stock to give it some weight.

Though, I did find the glue made it a bit wavy, so the whole lot had to spend the night under a stack of heavy (but less abused) books to flatten them out.

Of course, I couldn't just put the cards into any old recipe box.  I had to make a rabbit hole.

You may recognize the fabric, I've used it several times before for Smootch and Birdie's clothes.  It is lightweight, and seemed held the glue well.

Really, the whole fabric box was an extreme mod-podge experience, including odd make-do types of clamps.  Crafting perhaps not at its finest, but, at least for me, at its most usual.

But I like it.  I even bought another box so I can do the whole thing over again for myself.

My favorite part?  Besides the revival of some fantastic Alice in Wonderland illustrations?  Well, I'm feeling pretty pleased about actually being able to incorporate some of the the wedding invitation into the box, on the inside lid and here on the bottom.

All in all, I am surprised to find I am not feeling much remorse about my dissection of the book, seeing as it was already doomed and now it has a new life where it can be appreciate everyday.  The wedding was beautiful and I hope the bride an groom get some use of of the box and enjoy the illustrated recipe cards.  Food is elementary to us all, and I believe that it should be a wonderful experience from the very beginning, even when the meal is still just an idea, a sift through the old recipe box.  In fact, I'm so very much in love with the decorated recipe cards I've started to turn a predatory eye towards several other damaged discards...

messy art: how to not lose your marbles

I am sometimes asked how I handle my children doing messy arts and crafts. I'm not entirely sure if the askee is wanting to know what I do physically to facilitate and contain the messy activity or how I keep from going boinkers as paint works it ways into every exposed orifice on a toddler's body. Thinking about it further, both are probably so interconnected that I think I to talk about both. I hope the following discussion helps someone out who is trying to figure out how to set up a practical environment and mentally weather the challenge of a messy activity with small children.



My messy supplies like paints, glitter, and indelible inks are stored out of reach.  The kids have to ask before they can get a hold of them.  This way I can decide if the time is right and also to enforce the pre-messy craft rule: first tidy the house.  As a family we all blitz the house, straightening, putting away, and sweeping for about ten to fifteen minutes.  This quick tidy usually helps with my whole attitude towards my home and children and helps to alleviate feeling overwhelmed with mess.  Afterward, setting out the paint pots, I always feel calmer and better able to focus on facilitating the kids creativity.  Watching the way the children handle their art when we finish up and put away all other activities versus when we skip this step, I'm convinced they are also more purposeful and enjoy their art activities more with their environment being orderly.  A blank canvas, so to speak.



Most of my art and craft supplies are grouped together by activity so that they can be brought out and used at a moment's notice.  I also have a basket with the craft mats, newspaper and art smocks under the table so we're always prepared to protect surfaces and clothes.



I think the most important skill for helping children with their art is my attitude.  For me, keeping my head in the game instead of fretting about the glitter getting in hair or sleeves dragged through paint pots is very challenging.  There is usually no way to cut down on mess when mess is required, so I just try to roll with it.  Also, if I'm not directly needed, I'll pull out the camera and take a few pictures.  Partly this is for documentation and partly to keep my attention on what is important: the kids and the process, not the mess.

Most of the time clean up is done by all.  Today, however, we stopped painting prematurely when I offhandedly told Birdie, "Oh sweetie, you need more water for your paint," and he took it as his cue to dump his entire glass of brush water over his painting.  (Must always keep the literal frame of mind of toddlers when giving instructions.)  Rivers of watercolour and acrylic paint were running off the table and down into the cracks in our flooring.  To clean up what had started out as messy and turned into a small scale disaster zone, I shorted out the clean up process and hustled the kids into another room to watch a dvd while I brought out the mop and cleaning rags.



I have learned this so far with my kids: sometimes they can learn along side me and sometimes they need to get out of the way.  As long as there is enough of the first, the second makes sense when my sanity is on the line.

When dealing with wet, drippy works of art, depending on the project, I have several ways to set aside the results of a messy activity until it is dry enough for display or storage.  For wet pictures that need to dry flat, our previously tidy comes in handy.

I also have a number of clothes pegs ready to hang non-drippy projects out of the reach of kitties (an ongoing battle with the original curious creatures).



One last note about finished projects: label them with the child's name and date (or age) as soon as you can. It's hard to believe it now, but there will come a time when you will not even remember when this particular bit of brilliance was brought into being and by whom. I write on the back in a light pen the child's name, the date, and a title or description if one was given by the child.


"Dragon" by Birdie, age 2 1/2

Good luck!

crown me