One of Our Favorite Things: Painter's Tape

LP & I just returned from a wonderful trip hanging out with family on the East Coast.

And in addition to all the good visiting and food and experiences, my love of blue painter's tape was rekindled.

It is probably my favorite parenting item...good for everything from emergency diaper repair and babyproofing to crafting to creating a much needed spoon for applesauce on the plane. I use it to help keep paper still for art projects and hang things on the wall and as bandaids for all LP's lovies.

Despite having the world's most densely packed backpack of books and toys and snacks for our journey home, what was the biggest hit with LP? The painter's tape. Good old, familiar, multipurpose painter's tape.

She played with the tape people (pictured above) for longer than any other toy and used strips of tape to create a Wild Thing costume for her small doll (wish I had a picture of it because it looked more like a shaggy ball of tape than a doll). As a bonus, she could stick in all over herself and the seat and the window and it peels off quickly and easily. We also made a few bracelets and a necklace.

Painter's tape...truly, I don't leave home without it!

I linked this post to se7en's Fabulous Friday Fun...go on over and check it out!

Another Improv Craft Friday

LP's 3rd birthday was yesterday, so the end of our week last week was all about preparing to celebrate.


The main craft activity was making party favors. A few weeks ago, LP and I had hunted through Goodwill for a wool sweater to felt (my first try). So I had the shrunken, felted sweater which I cut and sewed into mini-bags. (These two a few takes to get them the right size to hold the favors and have decent proportions for being held by small hands.) Then I made a version of Rainbow Mama's little people. I've made a few different iterations of these as gifts...I thought making mini-ones was going to go faster but actually small ones took longer. (So glad I was only making 6!)

Then I added dinosaurs because LP loves those dinosaurs.

LP enjoyed playing with scraps, requesting that I cut her some "pie" or "cherries" or "noodles" and had her usual good time with thread.

She also spent an incredibly long time sorting out branches from a bush that she collected.


It was fascinating to me to listen to her talk as she played and I sewed...sometimes she gave each branch a name, sometimes she gave each one (what sounded like) a title of a book and sometimes she used made-up words. As always I am learning that I never know what will spark her imagination and it was fortunate for me that we each ended up able to work on our "projects" side by side.

I linked this post to se7en's Fabulous Friday Fun!

A Tree "Grows" in LP's Room

This was really my improv craft project (i.e. just leaping in without much of a plan and figuring it out along the way) but LP was along for the multi-day ride of making it happen.

I've wanted to add texture and color to LP's room for quite awhile. Since we rent, there are some limitations to what I can do to the walls, etc. After much contemplation, I finally felt inspired to make a felt tree to cover up the closet door. I bought some brown and green felt, pulled out the sewing box and went to it.

While I worked on this (over 5 days), LP supervised, played with the fabric scraps quite a bit, arranged pins in the pin cushion and (my favorite) made "costumes" by wrapping herself in thread. Yellow thread was her duck costume, green thread was her frog costume and red thread was her London bus costume. It brought back many sweet memories of playing with my mom's sewing box (which is mine now) when I was a kiddo.

Here's the closet before crafting:




And here's the progression of a the tree "growing"...I measured the height of the closet and cut the trunk shape freehand and taped it with my trusty painters tape.


Once it was up, I cut down the center (because the closet folds out) and started sewing it through the slats. This took a loooooooonnnnnnnng time. Cool unforseen effect is that the thread loops make the felt look more like bark.


Next up, I cut leaves out of the green felt using my pinking shears and arranged them on the tree branches. These leaves also were sewed on through the slats of the door.


Lastly, I used leaves to make the rest of the crown of the tree on the door frame. These leaves are hot glued together in bunches and then tacked up with green tacks.


I hope LP enjoys it...I had a good time making it!


AND this post is linked up to Se7en's Fabulous Friday Fun

Improv Crafting

Improv is a state of mind...it is a way of thinking about and experiencing the world.

The core principles as I've learned them (say yes and yes AND, make your partner look good, trigger your partner's imagination and celebrate failure) are truly and deeply a part of my life. I use these principles to reflect on my relationships and interactions and I get a burst of glee when I find a new place in my life that has room for improv.

I like to make stuff. I don't enjoy following directions and I am totally challenged on the spacial front...learning to craft like an improvisor has been a relief! It is a mini-journey rocketing forward now that LP is full-on into the arts & crafts experience.

I do often looked for reference points and help on complicated projects (or ones that I had a need to "get right" like the quilt I made for LP before she was born with mega-help from friends). AND I'm finding myself more and more willing to jump in and figure out what will work using the inspiration of the moment and the materials at hand.

LP is starting to have an interest in kitchen play, so I dug up some felt and set out to make a mess of cherry tomatoes. They are a little odd and lumpy but totally easy and satisfying to make and even more satisfying to watch her play with them.

As I made them, when thoughts about making the "perfect" cherry tomato would arise, I could let it go -- realizing that LP loves to turn books into puddles, a cooking spray can into her friend the rapping frog and flowers into ice cream. She doesn't need perfect (in fact, even these might be more representational than she likes)...and I was happy to discover to see that I don't either. Yes!