Duct Taped Gift Bag

Hmm - it seems that many of my posts have been about gifts I've been giving instead of about crafts I've been getting done. I've been making a lot of things, and I'll catch up on that shortly.

My sister-in-law graduated from college last weekend, and my husband and I tried to give her something practical - kitchen gadgets that all nest together for easy storage as she gets her first apartment.

My husband's sister likes duct tape, so I thought it would be fun to dress up a plain gift bag with duct tape in her school colors. A lot of members of the family - myself, included - seem to have chosen schools that include blue in the school colors, so we tend to have a lot of blue decorations around, but the only gift bag I could find wasn't the right shade. Even the wrapping paper is blue.

I was going to just cut out triangle shapes from my blue duct tape to decorate the bag, but found a fantastic tutorial on making duct tape stickers here: http://www.richelafabianmorgan.com/2013/06/making-duct-tape-stickers.html

This required:
Duct Tape
and
Parchment Paper

Basically, the duct tape goes onto a sheet of parchment, and then you can cut out the shapes you want.

I used a circle punch instead of cutting out shapes freehand.
This was a pain in the butt because the shapes didn't always cut out right, so I started holding the punch upside down when I punched my shapes, which was helpful.

I laid out the circles in an allover polkadot pattern, but less of a design would still look cute and be a lot less work. (Yes, this picture was taken right before gifting the bag, because I didn't get any when wrapping the night before.)

If I'm going to make my own bow for a gift bag, it's going to be a giant, curly bow. They're just fun. For a regular wrapped present, I'm still waiting to try getting those cute recycled magazine bows to work out for me.

Obviously, there are also sheets of duct tape available at craft stores. They'd make this sort of project a lot easier, but it also means going out and buying them. As it was, the duct tape on parchment slid a bit, but it worked just fine for what I needed it for.

Crochet a Sparkly Ruffle Skirt for American Girl and other 18" Dolls

I'm getting closer to publishing this fun pattern! Here's another look at this cute ruffle skirt to make for American Girl dolls and other similarly-sized dolls.  It can also fit slightly slimmer dolls, like the Journey Girls and Gotz Hannah.

With the nicer weather we've had, I finally got to get outside and take pictures of some dolls in my creations. The light was just right in one of my favorite spots - a colonial-style garden hidden away in Independence National Historic Park, right next to the Todd House and not far from Carpenter's Hall.

Easter Treats: Paper-Bag Treat Bags for Sunday School

Our nearest Dollar Store is actually pretty far away, for a city, and it's down a busy road, but for a while, I kept insisting on going there to pick up themed treat bags for every little holiday. I put together holiday treat bags for my Sunday School kids when I can, but the trek to get them was getting out of hand. Plus, I felt bad handing out clear bags because other kids could see what they got.

I don't remember which holiday it was when I ditched the usual treat bags.  Instead, I turned to a pack of paper lunch sacks I keep on hand for various kids' projects - paper-bag puppets and the like.
I just choose stickers or stamps related to the holiday, and put that and the children's names on the outside, fold the top of the bag over, punch two holes near the fold, and tie a short length of ribbon in a square knot to close the bags. Target always has cute seasonal ribbon in their dollar section, and each length of ribbon can tie two bags.

These treat bags are simple, and don't require running out to the store all the time!

I used the time I would have spent running across the city to the dollar store to trek across the city the OTHER way, to the Ukrainian store, and was able to get the kids cute egg shrink-wraps - some with pretty pysanky designs, and one set with cute baby animals for the youngest kid.

I think the kids made out okay...

The pencils, pencil topper erasers, and food-shaped erasers are all from Target's dollar section.

The egg stickers are from Target, too, and I love that a lot of them look like simple pysanky designs.

The wooden eggs are the kid-friendly pysanky I made earlier this week.

The cross stickers are from the Neumann Shrine gift shop.

Any candy treats were left up to parents, as that's their prerogative this time of year (the kids gave up different treats for Lent), especially since the treat bags were handed out after liturgy last night, when most people have not broken their fast yet. No need to tease the kids with a treat they can't have yet.

 The intent of these bags was just to share a small nod to our religious and cultural traditions for this holiday. I had so much fun making the kids pysanky that they don't have to worry about breaking.

I was also THRILLED to find this fantastic printable over at Many Mercies

These cards are so beautiful, and I love that they not only use our traditional Easter greeting - Christ is Risen! - but also include the translations. I think it's nice for the little kids to see our greeting translated into the other languages we use at church, even if they can't read the alphabets yet. 

I think it would be fun to print these little cards out on magnets so they could be hung up, and might do that next year.

Easter Treats: Hairbows Also Double as Cute Gift Bows

When we were out visiting over Christmas, I found the CUTEST little hairclips at a craft market in my husband's hometown. It's called the Old Sled Works, and it's worth stopping by if you're passing through the Harrisburg area. They had the cute, curly corker ribbon bows, and I even found one decorated to look like a little sheep!

The hairclips make a really adorable re-usable bow alternative to ribbons that just get thrown away, so I topped off their gift with a set. How cute is this?

I don't give anything food-related to the kids I sit for, because there are food allergies in the family, so they'll get a smallish gift instead.

Our local independent bookstore had a cute game. It's animal bingo, and it looks like they'll have a lot of fun playing together. It's rated 5+, but I think it can be simplified for littles if necessary. The illustrations look beautiful! I think they might have as much fun playing with the animal tiles as actually playing the game.

I wrapped that up, but still wanted to give each sibling a little treat. It turns out that the Imaginext figures - they make things like superheroes and knights - fit quite well into a large plastic egg, if you put the figures in a sitting position. Big Brother is really into superheroes, and Miss Munchkin really wanted a Wonder Woman, so I split up a two-pack for them. They also offer Wonder Woman and her Invisible Jet, if you're looking for a fun set for a young Wonder Woman fan.

The big eggs are great, because they have two little holes in the top and bottom. I threaded some ribbon through the top of each egg and taped it to the top of their wrapped board game. These make a good decoration to add to the top of an Easter package if you have small things to give.

I just love how this little gift ended up looking, all wrapped up!

Little Kids' Craft: Marble-Painted Egg Decorations

This week, the 2-year-old I sit for and I painted egg decorations to put up around her house.
She has been enjoying rolling marbles around a lot lately, so this seemed like a great way to show her a new painting technique.

These were easy to create from recycled materials. I traced some plates - little on top of big - to draw an egg shape on a paper grocery bag, then used that as a template to cut out more. (You can still see writing on the reverse side of some of the eggs, but that's okay because we hung the eggs up anyway.)  We taped a paper egg into a washed-out pie tray that I saved from Pi day. I used trays that have lids because there are some mild allergy issues in the family, and I didn't want her touching the paint just in case. Plus, the lid made this a good quick activity with much less cleanup! I used acrylic paint, because I had it on hand, but tempera paints are much more kid-friendly.

Then, Miss Munchkin had fun using her counting skills to count out four marbles to add into the tray. She also used her color-identification skills tell me which colors she wanted for her eggs. She picked out 3 colors, I taped the lid onto the tray, and she was off, shaking away. This might be a fun activity to do to music, too!

We ended up painting two eggs with our choice of colors. Then, I decided to turn this into a color mixing activity. I had the Munchkin choose a primary color, I chose either another primary color, white, or black paint. When she shook up her paint tray, she had to identify the new color that would appear among the swirls of paint on her egg. You can see this effect most clearly in the egg above that mixed blue and yellow to make green. The red/blue mix would have worked better if I'd have used a darker blue. It's not pictured, but the red/white mixture worked well, as the contrast between the red and the pink was well defined.

Big Brother returned home from preschool and had a LOT of fun identifying the new colors that appeared on each painted egg, too!

How to Make Wooden-Egg Pysanky for Kids

Confession: I bought a craft supply already. 

Set apart from the usual Easter things, over on the endcap of their regular crafty stuff aisle, Target had a little display of slightly quirkier Easter egg decorating supplies - small kits, big kits, and even sets of wooden eggs, neatly boxed up by the half dozen. Now, the craft supplies I use for egg decorating are a bit more specialized, can't all be found in any old big box store, and generally involve fire. But I knew exactly what I would use these for, the minute I saw them, so, of course I picked up two boxes and dropped them right into my basket, on the way to go get whatever I'd *really* gone in for. Oh, Target, you make that so easy!

Target's wooden eggs are going to help me share traditional pysanky egg designs with my Sunday School students in a way that can stand up to little kids!

When I write pysanky, they usually look like this:

These are more the Ukrainian style. Some are designs from the books published by the Ukrainian Gift Shop (Find them at: ukrainiangiftshop.com). Some are my own designs - both with traditional elements and some that I think are just plain fun, like a series of mayryoshka-inspired pysanky I made a few years ago. They're made with a writing tool - a kistka - that is pretty much a very tiny funnel on a stick. It's great for wax, but it doesn't translate well to paint.

These are a simplified version of the kind you might find made in the southeastern part of Poland, the eastern part of Slovakia, or western Ukraine:

We make these at my home church every year, as part of a larger effort to share our customs and to fill Easter "baskets" full of treats and traditional foods for friends and members of our parish who might need a hand carrying on our traditions that year due to health or life events. 

Last year, my husband and I were busy getting ready for our wedding, scheduled for just 2 weeks after Easter. Things were so crazy that making our own bread and cheese was just not going to work out, and it was SO amazing when we were surprised with a "basket" that had been put together for us by our friends! It really is such an amazing tradition, and the church ladies who spearhead this effort every year are simply wonderful.

This style for pysanky writing uses the head of a pin to apply the wax. This works very well with paint, and gives an effect much like the wooden eggs you'll find sold as souvenirs in shops across Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Russia. If you're really daring, try a toothpick for even smaller writing!

You will need:

wooden eggs

a plain wood pencil with a new eraser

metal-headed straight pins

acrylic paints in various colors

a palette or paper plate to use as a paint palette

paintbrush (foam are best)

egg drying rack (optional but VERY helpful)

shellac or sealer - I used milk paint sealer instead of my usual shellac, as I'm aware that the youngest recipients may need to be reminded not to put these in their mouths

Paint the egg your background color. Use your paintbrush for this step. Make sure you'll have a good contrast with the colors you'll choose to write your egg. You want the design to show up!

It took me 2 or 3 coats of paint to cover up the egg. I touched up my fingerprints on the eggs after applying each coat, after putting the egg down on the drying rack to dry. Be careful, the wet paint makes the eggs slippery!

Hint: I recycled the lid of a foam takeout tray as a palette, since my real palette is still awol.

While your eggs dry, look for inspiration. 

The Carpatho-Rusyn Center has an article about pysanky that is accompanied by some beautiful pictures HERE.

I also simplified some of the designs I found on Pinterest HERE.

THIS ARTICLE tells a bit about traditional designs.

A number of the clearer images I found describing traditional designs have clearly been scanned from the instruction books offered by the Ukrainian Gift Shop. You can find those books HERE, and I will not be reproducing them or linking to them on my page. 

However, THIS blog includes a scan of a sheet of the basic information offered by the UGC. Scroll down on the page to find the pink image. The story is also interesting! I have a copy of that very same paper around here somewhere, and it was one of the very first pysanky resources I was ever given, back when I was 7!

Push the point of one of your straight pins into the head of your pencil eraser. Hold your pencil upside down and, holding your new writing tool like you would a regular pencil, practice making dots. It should look like this: 

(One of our awesome church ladies demonstrating!)

Write your design! I start by finding the top and bottom of the egg and marking them with a dot, then spacing out where the rest of my work will go with more dots. I use finger-spacing as an indicator... for me, each egg is 6 fingers high. These wooden eggs are uniform, which is nice.

Do not try to do the whole design at once, as the paint needs to dry and it will be too easy to smear the paint as you change your grip on the egg. For some of my eggs, I painted the side band on first, and worked on another egg while the first dried.

Dip the pinhead in paint, then tap onto your egg for dots. Tap, then drag, the pinhead for a drop-pull effect. Both the heart shapes in the flowers above and the yellow design below were created using that drop-pull effect. The designs I used are intentionally simple, but skillful pysanky artists can form anything from waves to words with the same basic technique. This technique seems to work best with a paint that is on the more watery side, so cheaper acrylic paints will work very well.

Finally, seal the eggs. Shellac works well, but comes in pretty large cans, so you'll have a LOT left over. Craft stores like Michael's have spray sealer, and also little tubes of sealer right in their acrylic paint aisle. That's probably the most convenient. I used milk paint sealer because I had it on hand and wanted as nontoxic a seal as possible.

Take lots of pictures of your creations. You'll want pictures of your work to save long after you've gifted them all!

When your wooden pysanky eggs are dry, share them or display them!

For even easier pysanky images to share with younger children, check out the shrink-wrap style egg covers offered by the folks at Egg-in-Wrap. Eggs slip into the colorful plastic sleeves, and the sleeves will form to the egg when dipped in hot water. They're another great way to decorate real or plastic eggs with pysanky-style images that will brighten an Easter basket and (if made on plastic eggs!) can last for years to come. Check out their site HERE.

Happy egg writing!

Palm Sunday Handprint Craft and Some Easter Resources

Today was Palm Sunday, if you're a Christian who follows the Gregorian calendar.

After Liturgy in the Byzantine Church, we get anointed with holy oil, and then we get palms and pussy willow branches.

Why do we also get pussy willow branches on Palm Sunday?

Well, in the Bible, it's traditionally palm branches that were used as the people celebrated Jesus's entry into Jerusalem. But, in Eastern Europe - and in Southeast Pennsylvania and South Jersey, where most of our parishoners come from - different branches are in season this time of year. We use the pussy willow branches because they're usually the first branches to bloom in the springtime, and because they're what our ancestors used.

I help teach the little kids' Sunday School class at my church, and, of course, our craft today was all about Palm Sunday. I love the ideas over at Catholic Icing, and decided to use Lacey's adorable Palm Sunday hand and footprint craft (found HERE). Lo and behold, I introduced the project and realized that several of the children were uncomfortable with the idea of the sensory experience of cold, wet, sticky, paint on their toes! I'm dealing with mixed ages and abilities and really should have thought of that.

So, I ended up altering the project a bit on the fly...

You need:

Construction paper in GREEN and WHITE

GRAY tempera paint (washable!!!!)

Foam Paintbrush

Crayola Crayons

Glue Sticks

Scissors

(all these supplies were in my Sunday School classroom, or in the shared supply closet)

(This is my example that I brought home.)

First, I ditched the green paint, because it cut down on paint cleanup and because we were running low. Instead, the kids traced their own hands onto green construction paper. Some cut their handprints out on their own, some got help with that step. Everybody was able to use gluesticks to glue their palm-handprints to the bottom of their sheet of paper.

We wrote out "Hosanna!" in PURPLE crayon, because it's our traditional color for Saturdays and Sundays during Great Lent. (And because it was several kids' favorite color!)  Our Byzantine liturgical colors are slightly different, so, where Catholic Icing used RED, because it is the traditional Latin-Rite color for Palm Sunday, we could have used GREEN.

I solved the footprint issue by using a donkey handprint idea from another of Catholic Icing's great projects. I was admittedly winging it, so mine's a bit of a wonky donkey, but you can find out how to make a proper donkey on Lacey's site HERE. It is part of a larger fun-with-handprints printable project she offers that provides a craft for EVERY day of Holy Week, with the end product being a nice little book that kids can make themselves, and then keep. 

More Ideas:

If you're looking for more religious-minded ideas for Pascha/the Easter season, check out the long list of creative projects at

Catholic Icing's Religious Easter Ideas for Kids. 

Don't forget to check out her cute peg dolls while you're there!

Catholic Toolbox has a stack of Easter ideas for little kids HERE.

If you're looking for printables that incorporate our Byzantine greeting of "Christ is Risen!," check out the beautiful, multi-lingual cards shared on this lovely Orthodox blog, "Many Mercies," HERE.

Find a "Christ is Risen" coloring page HERE.

I've found that even the little kids are often fascinated by the ikons that we use in the Byzantine church to remind us of holy people or events. The imagery often ties into the songs we sing, which, in turn, help us remember the Bible stories about the events we're celebrating  Our Orthodox friends have compiled a resource of coloring-page images of various ikons on their Department of Christian Education website. Images including ikons of both the Entry into Jerusalem and the Resurrection can be found in their FEASTS category.