2014 Color of the Year

Pantone just announced the 2014 Color of the Year.  2014 is the year of Radiant Orchid!

I'm somewhat surprised by Radiant Orchid.  Every single "spoiler" (all incorrect, as it turns out) named Dazzling Blue as the Color of the Year.  Of course, the same thing happened last year. The Spring Color Report came out and almost immediately there were claims that the Color of the Year would be something it turned out not to be.

According to the press release, "Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health." Sounds good!  I'd love for 2014 to be a year of confidence, joy, love and health for all of us.  However, as beautiful as Radiant Orchid is, it doesn't seem very versatile to me.  It's not a shade everyone can wear and it would look dated fairly quickly in home decor.  I'll be curious to see how this color manifests itself in the craft industry.  I haven't seen it showing up yet, while a lot of the others from the Spring Color Report have.  I don't scrap or craft often with the more feminine colors, so I don't see myself really embracing Radiant Orchid.

What do you think?

Grinch Art

As Editorial Assistant at Fun Family Crafts, I spend time every day searching through blogs to find cool kids' crafts and project tutorials to feature.  Art teachers' blogs are one of the best sources. Amongst the many that I follow, one of my all-time favorites is Kathy Barbro's Art Projects for Kids.  I've featured dozens of her projects at Fun Family Crafts.  She is an amazing artist who writes clear and succinct tutorials that are perfect for children.

When Kathy posted "How to Draw the Grinch," not only did I want to feature it, but I wanted to make my own!  And so did Trevor.  I printed out her pdf and used it to lead Trevor in a draw-along.  He loves doing draw-alongs.  We sketched in pencil, then traced over the lines we wanted to keep with Sharpie.  Both of our drawings turned out really well and very similar to each other, having both followed Kathy's simple instructions.

But that's where the similarities ended.  We each finished our Grinches in totally different ways. Trevor was inspired by the illustrations in Dr. Seuss' book.  The drawings in it are entirely black, white and red.

Trevor used soft pastel to add color to just the eyes and Santa suit.  He left everything else uncolored.

I was inspired by the 1966 animated show, which features a lime green grinch with yellow eyes.

 

I fussy-cut my Grinch out, colored the green skin and yellow eyes with Prismacolor markers, used oil pastel for the Santa suit, and added cotton balls as trim.  I mounted the whole thing on blue cardstock.

 

This was such a fun project!  Thanks to Kathy for this idea and all the other wonderful tutorials and project ideas she shares.

Crayon Melt Christmas Tree

You all know by now how much I love using the warming tray for crafts.  Before I put it away after making the Coat of Many Colors card, I covered a sheet of white cardstock with a large section of various shades of green, a small area of solid yellow, and a chunk of multiple colors.  

 

I set the paper aside for a few weeks.  When I came back to it, I used the trimmer to cut the green section into seven strips, each an inch wide.  I left one the full length and cut the rest progressively shorter, saving the scraps to make very short strips.  Then I used a hole punch to create colorful dots.  I glued these randomly onto the green strips. 

 

Next, I used a star punch to make a yellow star.  Then I cut a rectangle from an orangish section of melted crayon.  I set all the pieces aside.  

The next step was stamping white snowflakes all over a sheet of  blue cardstock.  I tore a strip of white cardstock and glued it to the bottom of the paper.  I glued the brown rectangle down next, then layered the green strips in place, starting with the longest and working my way up. Finally, I glued the star at the top.  Here's the finished artwork:

 

I love how it turned out.  Trevor hadn't wanted to make one... until he saw mine.  We've got a bunch of other projects scheduled (including a lot of handmade gifts), so I don't know if he'll end up making one or not.  If not, there's always next year.  

By the way, if you don't own a warming tray (not exactly a standard crafting item), this project would work just as well using paint on white paper.  Of course, you could also simply use colored construction paper, though I think part of the beauty of this project is the variegated color.

Our Paper Advent Wreath

Advent is a big deal in our house.  On the first day of Advent, which was this past Sunday, we make a paper chain (alternating red and green, with Sundays in yellow).  Trevor removes one link each day until Christmas arrives.  He also starts his Advent calendar (Lego Star Wars this year).  Advent is when our Christmas preparations truly begin.

Making his 2013 Advent chain.

Trevor LOVES his Advent chain and Advent calendar, but even more than that he loves the Advent wreath at church.  Each year since he was four, he's been selected to light the candle(s) on the Advent wreath on one of the four Sundays.  His turn is next Sunday, the second Sunday of Advent. He is so excited he can hardly stand it.  

I asked him if he'd like to make a paper Advent wreath for his bedroom.  Each Sunday, he could "light" another candle by adding a paper flame.  He thought this was an excellent idea, so we gathered up some paper scraps and got to work.   

First, we cut a brown piece to look like the wooden base that holds the wreath.  In the center, we added a large white rectangle to represent the Christmas candle.  We added three blue candles (the liturgical color for Advent) and one pink (representing the 3rd Sunday of Advent). We staggered the candles to give the appearance that they are arranged in a circle around the white candle.

We filled in the gaps with holly leaves and berries cut from green and red cardstock.

Trevor hung the wreath in his bedroom (above the poster where he records his lost teeth).  He added a yellow flame to represent the first Sunday of Advent.  

Here's how it looks with one candle "lit."  We'll add a flame each Sunday until Christmas, when we'll "light" the white candle.  

 Happy Advent!

November Project 41

It's hard to believe it is December already!  Having a blog break last week meant that I didn't share November's Project 41 during November, so here it is.

This time, my Baskin-Robbins flavor-of-the-month companion was my friend Natalie.  I first met Natalie when Trevor was an infant.  Natalie was pregnant with her only child when she joined our MOMS Club.  Her daughter is exactly 13 months younger than Trevor.  We saw each other often when the kids were young, but when we got together for ice cream in November, it was the first time Natalie and I had seen each other in well over a year.  

November's Flavor-of-the-Month was Gingerbread Junction.  According to the description, "gingerbread and vanilla ice creams intersect with a cinnamon caramel ribbon to create the taste of a just-baked gingerbread cookie dunked in a cool glass of milk."  I like gingerbread and vanilla and cinnamon and caramel and cookies and milk, so it sounded promising.

 

Here's how it looked.  

 

As it turned out, I did not like Gingerbread Junction.  The cinnamon was really weird and the whole thing tasted off to me.  Of the 9 flavors I've had so far, this was by far the worst.  It was much worse than my previous least-favorite, Blueberry Shortbread.  While I probably wouldn't pay to have Blueberry Shortbread again, I wouldn't eat Gingerbread Junction again even if it were free. Yuck.

Fortunately, the time with Natalie more than made up for the lousy ice cream flavor.  It was wonderful to catch up.

 

Three more months of Project 41 ahead!