Steampunk Christmas Ornaments

I have been working on additions to the collection of steampunk Christmas ornaments that I started last year.

Since making the Halloween ornaments with Blaze, I have become a huge fan of Crayola Model Magic as a medium for ornament making. It weighs almost nothing and I can paint over it or use Rub'n Buff on it. These ornaments were all made using Model Magic. The large one was cut out with a cookie cutter. After it was dry, I rubbed it with antique gold Rub'n Buff and added a scrapbook sticker as the decoration in the middle. The two hearts were made using the silicone molds that I had made as soap molds (http://overthecrescentmoon.blogspot.com/2012/05/making-molds.html).



I have also been building little scenes in glass ornaments and bottles.

This little bottle is an ornament for the tabletop tinsel tree in my son's room.



This larger ornament will be for a real tree, which we don't have yet, in our living room.



The little tree in Blaze's room is now all decorated.



I've also been adding items to my Steampunk Christmas Pinterest Board. There is lots of steamy holiday decorating inspiration there, from all over the internet: http://pinterest.com/lisarooney/steampunk-christmas/

Celebrating 12 Years of Life

Although my son's birthday is still 16 days away, I have finished a retrospective of his life.

The Second Annual All Florida Victorian Picnic and Croquet Tournament

This year's event was held at Central Park, which is the heart of the Winter Park, FL. business district and right next to a busy railway station.



It was easy to find the group, once we saw this sculpture. Parking was not as easy to find and the only thing that saved us, was knowing someone who was leaving.



Once we got to the picnic, it was lots of fun. We met many new people, as well as getting to see people we hadn't seen in a long time.





Blaze played in the croquet match, while I walked around talking to people and admiring everyone's creativity.





I love seeing all the work and imagination that go into the costumes.











There were also some very elegant picnic spreads





and I brought enough gingerbread cookies for everyone.

The California Gold Rush

Last week, we finished reading By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleischman, a comical novel about a boy and his butler who run away to the gold fields of California in 1849.

Activities to go along with the reading of By the Great Horn Spoon!

http://www.lsusd.net/cms/lib6/CA01001390/Centricity/Domain/748/BGHS.pdf

The California gold rush is an event that we had never covered before, so we have taken some time to discuss both overland and ocean routes that people from the East took to get to California.

We read this magazine:



We have also talked about how people who made a fortune in California, often did so without doing any prospecting.

Gold Rush Prices Worksheet:

http://ports.parks.ca.gov/pages/22922/files/worksheet-goldrushprices.pdf

The project that Blaze enjoyed the most, though, was learning to pan for gold using this kit:

http://www.discoverwithdrcool.com/learn-how-to-pan-for-gold/



Inside the kit:



Practicing with a dishpan full of water:





How to pan for gold:

Ninja Birthday Candle Holders

Blaze is a huge fan of Lego Ninjago, especially Kai, the red ninja. With his birthday less than a month away, I started looking at things to do for a Ninjago birthday theme. It turns out that there are no commercially available Ninjago party supplies. There are some artists on Etsy who are filling this void, though.

http://www.etsy.com/search?q=ninjago&view_type=gallery&ship_to=US&page=1


I had some wooden peg people that I had purchased years ago (way back when I was making the "math gnomes"), which I have turned into little ninja birthday candle holders.

Drill holes in the top of each of the peg people.



Using acrylic paint, cover the entire peg person except the opening on the face where the eyes will be.



The eyes are drawn on with a thin permanent marker. Sensei Wu's hat is made of white clay and his beard is a little bit of natural colored wool.

The Revamped Christmas Village

We inherited this ceramic Christmas village when DH's mother passed away.



DH had been hoping that it was the beautifully painted set that he remembered from his childhood, but it was not. It was a somewhat sloppily painted set that he had never seen before. He hated it and talked about giving it away, but I convinced him that we should keep it, so that I could try to make it look prettier. It took me a long time to get around to this, but this past week, I finally did it.

I painted the entire set with white gloss spray paint.



The shiny white made the village look more like fine china.

I gave all the roofs an extra layer of paint and blaze sprinkled white glitter on the wet paint.





A couple inexpensive with trees from JoAnn Fabrics and some of the fake fur left over from the stole I made for my Halloween costume and the winter scene was complete.



" That is much better! I don't hate them any more," Said DH when he saw the newly painted houses.

The Hand-Turkey Tablecloth

It is time, once again, for the annual hand-turkey. Every year, since 2003, Blaze has made a new hand-turkey on this tablecloth, so that this little parade of turkeys represents him growing up.

 

Every year, he complains that the fabric paint tickles.

 This year's hand-turkey:
 

 His hand seems considerably bigger this year than last.

Autumn Colors Centerpiece

Using some tissue paper, some Mod Podge, and a cleaned out jar that had once held spaghetti sauce,  Blaze made a candle holder for our Thanksgiving table.



The Mod Podge was painted all over the glass and colored tissue paper was stuck to it. Then another layer of Mod Podge was painted over the top of the tissue paper.



After drying overnight, I added some jute twine (left over from gardening) around the top, because I like the natural/rustic way it looks. We set the jar in the middle of a wooden plate and took a walk to find autumnal looking things in nature that we could place around the jar.



A small pillar candle fit nicely into the jar.

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) part 2

We made one final addition for our Day of the Dead display, skeleton statuettes. We made these by covering pipestem cleaners with Model Magic "clay". One pipestem cleaner, bent in half is just the right size for the body and legs, while one-half of a pipestem cleaner becomes both arms.



After the "clay"has air dried over night, paint with a glossy black paint. Wait for that to dry. Then, use white paint to paint on the bones of the skeleton. Clothes can be added after the white paint is dry, but we ran out of time.




Food is an important part of the Day of the Dead, which sometimes includes taking picnics to eat at the cemetery. I created a Day of the lunch for Blaze, by using the skull molds, from the sugar skull kit, to mold sweet rice (sticky rice). By using carrots, pumpkin seeds, olives, and refried black beans in a pastry bag, I was able to make a savory version of the sugar skulls.





Our completed ofrenda: