NYE – Party Hat Making

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

My son had a fun idea last night to make our own Party Hats. At first he wanted to make it a contest, but I convinced him to just have fun & be creative (he often has big ideas, but lacks knowledge to execute the way he wants).

So we gathered left over Christmas paper & gift bags, construction paper, tape, glue, etc and threw it all on the coffee table.

This was pretty fun & would recommend for adult NYE parties too. You’ll be amazed at what your friends can come up with 🙂

OH! And Avery also constructed his own Ball Drop contraption… not too shabby for an almost 9 year old & it worked….

Re-purposed gift bag, tissue paper, ribbon & pom poms

Monster Hat – construction paper, string, mylar

“Surprise Hat” – construction paper & string

“Ball Drop” using wood, condiment cups, ballon string, a cane, and one of those boppy balloons. Pebbles helped to move the balloon up & down 🙂

 

New & Improved Open Studio!

Here is a nice little article about The Importance of Art in Children’s Cognitive, Social and Emotional Development. Now let me tell you a little about Open Studio at Averyboo Arts…

Summer is the perfect time to come in for Open Studio. These are limited hours where you pay only $10 p/hr to use almost anything in the studio. From open art supplies & easels to blocks & creative play, kids 2-8 will have plenty of ways to exercise their imaginations and express themselves. Our studio is air conditioned and a great place to meet up with friends for an indoor playdate or have some unplugged time alone.

Open Studio now comes with an optional craft each week as well as face painting (cheek only). And, grownups, you can enjoy free WiFi and a complementary glass of ice tea.

We also have an online booking system so you don’t have to call for an appointment! Hope to see you soon ❤

 

Favorite Photo Friday

A small group of boys came in for Open Studio and made NINJA’s! These fierce little guys were made with corks, tape & match sticks. Cool, eh?
You can save 30% on your OS visit thru 6/29 *IF* you book through our new online system. Enter Promo Code OS30 upon checkout. See website>

Gift Making – Wet Felted Acorn Pendants

My son made these “acorn top” pendants for his cousins for Thanksgiving. These would also make cute Christmas gifts and could be winter-ized by painting the tops white or covering with snow glitter. The balls were made with wool and a wet felting technique. Little ones can do this with supervision as hot water is part of the process. Have fun!

Custom Birthday : Dino Egg Party Favors

I made these Dinosaur Eggs for one of our custom Birthday Parties at Averyboo Arts. The kids loved ’em!

If you want to try this yourself, keep in mind that the drying time is about 5-7 days. You want to keep them a little moist inside so that the kids are able to break them apart.

Mix together 1 1/4c dirt, 1 1/4c flour, 3/4c salt and 1/2c sand. Slowly add water until you have a clay-like consistency.

Gather your dinos!

Cover dinos in clay & shape like a potato.

Let dry in the sun for several days. I turned mine & reshaped a little bit each day so that one side didn’t become too flat. Drying times will depend on your weather.

Help the little dinos hatch….

And there you go! Have Fun 🙂

Our parties start at $250 and may be customized for your child.
See website for more info: http://averyboo.com/parties.html

Teacher’s Gifts

My son & I made our very first Teacher’s Gifts this week — the first of many to come I’m sure.

Avery goes to Little Owl Preschool, so when I came across this tutorial, I knew I wanted to make these cute little owl brooches.

I’ve been extremely busy at the studio and wasn’t able to start working on the gifts until the day before we needed them.  Although this was a fairly simple project, I had to make 9 owls, so it took me about 8 hours to finish all of them.

This is my favorite of the bunch

Avery helped me sew the bodies, iron, and stuff them with fluff. If we had started the project a few days earlier, I would’ve had him do more on his own. By 1am, my husband started helping me sew on the eyes so I could finally get to bed by 2.

Mounted on cardstock w/ signature

The child was delighted to see the finished product in the morning & promptly assigned which owl was going to whom. Avery was very excited to give his teachers their holiday gift and I was very happy to help 🙂

Ms. Sara wearing her brooch

Fairy Garden Workshop 11/6/10

This workshop was sooooo fun & super cute! The kids got to wear fairy wings and had a variety of choices for creating a sweet little garden. I will definitely offer this again in the Spring. Click image for larger photos.

preparations...

assembly

finished gardens

Primitive Pumpkin Workshop

I’m happy to report that everyone left our Halloween Workshop with finished pumpkins! Participants ranged in age from 4-8 years old and designed some fun plushies to add to their holiday decor this year. The little ones worked together with their mothers while the older children were given the freedom to create & learn a new skill.

1. Before we began, I showed them examples of Primitive Halloween decorations & objects such as dolls, pillows & quilts.

2. For the sake of time, I pre-aged the fabrics for the workshop. I explained how it was done & showed the kids “before and after” aging samples of the fabric. (see Coffee Dye post for the recipe & instructions).

3. Then we learned how to make a pattern for our pumpkin shape… cut the fabric.. and began to sew on the faces using fabric scraps & vintage buttons..

4. Once the faces were done, the front & back were sewn together & the pumpkin was stuffed. A twig was used to make the pumpkin stem and then they were complete 🙂

Very proud of the kids for staying so focused.
They came out great!

Coffee Dye Recipe

The original fabric is underneath the aged pumpkin.

This is the recipe I used to age the fabrics for our Primitive Pumpkin Workshop. You can use this mixture to add an aged appearance to cloth dolls, paper, wood, or anything else that is porous.

Coffee Dye Recipe
– 1/2 cup hot water
– 3 tbs instant coffee (for darker dye use 5 tbs)
– 1 tsp vanilla
– 1 tbs cinnamon

Instructions for Fabric:
Prewash your fabric before dying…Combine ingredients to make a liquidy sludge. Dip fabric & squeeze off excess (the more liquid remains, the darker & crusty it will become). You can also use a sponge or spray bottle to apply where you want aging to occur.

Bake fabric in a 250 degree (F) oven until dry (about 5-10 mins). Set a timer so you don’t forget the fabric is in the oven; else you may start a fire (like I almost did with burlap – oops!). If you want to avoid the oven, set your pieces out in the sun to dry.

Tips:
(1) I discovered that if you place the fabric on top of foil before baking, the foil can create additional texture in your fabric. If the foil is a little wrinkled, it will create a wrinkly pattern on the fabric. I’m guessing that the points where the foil touch the fabric get hotter in the oven & browns the dye further.

(2) You can add more grunge after your project is sewn together by sanding the fabric,  dabbing/spraying more mixture, and dusting with cinnamon.

Indoor Campfire

After experiencing record breaking heat in Los Angeles a few days ago, our weather suddenly turned chilly & wet. So, naturally, my son thought it would be a great idea to set up camp in our backyard… while it was raining… Full blown tent, BBQ and sleepover-in-the-backyard kind of camping.

This was a great idea except for having to set up in the rain, so we compromised. I told him we could make a campsite in our living room with an indoor campfire.

Materials:
– 1 paper grocery bag
– Scissors
– Red tempera paint
– A few large sticks