Crafty B

Valentine’s Day – Woven Heart Craft

Kelly Cheatle — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:58:05 +0000

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner- and these simple woven paper hearts are a great snowy weekend project!

Change up the number of tabs cut into the template to increase the number of woven squares.

The paper can be a little tricky for little hands to get the hang of- so I’d suggest starting with just two tabs in contrasting colors. You can download a traceable template here. I’d suggest printing it on card stock for durability.

Take it a step further:

Recycle pages from old books- bonus points for love poems :).
Use non-woven fabric (felt/polar fleece) and ribbon to make a fun purse.
String several into a pennant.
The three-tab heart creates the perfect tic-tac-toe board! Create the ultimate Valentine’s game board, and slip some x’s and o’s inside the pouch.
If you’re really up for the challenge- an over-sized 8-tab heart would create a checkerboard.

This is my first illustrated-craft post, let me know how you did in the comments below. I’d love to see photos of your finished pieces!

Mitten Tamer!

Kelly Cheatle — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:54:42 +0000

When 7:30am rolls around I’m really only semi-conscious. While I need to make sure all four kids get their breakfast, medicine, coats, mittens, hats, homework, lunch, and backpacks before the bus comes at 8:08, I still find myself hitting that snooze button, repeatedly. So I am perpetually trying to get the house organized ahead of time…

I would have loved some built in cubbies in the entry-hall, but space by the door is scarce. Instead I mounted hooks in a piece of square trim and anchored it to the wall. It’s great because I can easily walk by and SEE which kid hasn’t put their stuff away- you know, if I haven’t already tripped over it.

While that handled the backpacks & coats, it still left hats & mittens to deal with. The hallway is too narrow for a shelf, and besides- shelves just tend to collect more stuff than needed. I had tried using an attractive little basket, but hats & mittens would get all jumbled. I’ve lost several nice pairs of gloves after handing them off in the mad rush because we were missing one half of a pair.

Tame the hat & mitten pile in less than 2 minutes!

And then today, I had an epiphany: warm and fuzzy hats & mittens + adhesive velcro = no more mitten pile of doom!!

Admittedly it took a little longer than two minutes, because I had to run to the fabric store. But once I got home- I just had to trim it to the length of the board and press it on. POOF! Hats & mittens are now right where they’ve left them- and you can barely see the velcro when there’s nothing attached- so it keeps the hallway looking neat & tidy.

If any of the polar fleece/nylon gloves don’t want to stick well, I’ll just sew a little inconspicuous circle of fuzzy velcro on them.

Let me know if you try it out! Can you improve on it?

The never ending school supply hunting & gathering fiasco

Kelly Cheatle — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 02:51:49 +0000

Most wonderful time of the year my...

I know I’m not alone. I don’t know when it started, but man- 25 years ago getting together back to school supplies was never this ridiculous. We have 4 kids- I get that the insanity is often magnified due to the sheer number of monkeys that must be managed, but the logic of sending 24+ parents on individual supply missions is an exercise in excess & waste.

The pitfalls of individual purchasing:

Purchasing items individually means a TON more packaging is tossed in a landfill.
Unlike my child’s school, I am not tax exempt.
Getting “the best deal” on items requires preternatural flier hunting/coupon cutting.
Imagine the gas that is being wasted when 20+ parents go shopping at multiple locations.
OH MY GOODNESS THE TIME I HAVE SPENT SOOOOORRRTING and gathering… (x20)
Further support of big box stores to get “the best deal” little guys just don’t typically have that purchase power.

Benefits:

Bobby gets to pick out a fancy folder (?)
Coupon gods & goddesses can find their supplies for pennies
Local businesses can profit from purchases (if you have one nearby)
Doesn’t come out of classroom budget

The packaging thing really got to me today. We try to recycle/reuse what we can from the year before- but consumables like glue sticks get perpetually eaten up and need to be replaced. One of my daughters needed 3. These are just a typical example of how this product is packaged/non-sale price.

Ok so lets just say, for giggles, that all 20 parents in her classroom purchased the above package.

$40 for 60 glue sticks works out to be 67c/gluestick.
20 individual car trips to various stores (assuming at least 1 school supply trip)
20 plastic “blister” shells and 20 full color printed cardboard sheets tossed/recycled (hopefully- but still lots of energy in creation/recycling)

Replace this instead with the purchase of two 30 packs:

$18 for 60 glue sticks (now down to 30c/gluestick)
1 car trip by ONE dedicated shopper or single delivery by PO/UPS
2 thin cardboard packages (in this case, again full color printing) easily recyclable.

And this is just the glue sticks!! WTH people?! WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?! I get that it’s not covered in our local school budget IMOHO it should- BUT does anyone have a good example of a PTA or a parent/group run org setting up a fundraiser by selling a “pack” to incoming students? I’m thinking a checklist that can be filled in at the end of the spring of the previous year for items that can’t be re-used? (and then a few parent volunteers to help sort them into classroom boxes) Any other ideas? Ok, back to packing this shtuff up, I’ve got to get some sleep Larry & I are building a back to school balloon scene for a local elementary (in a district that DOESN’T send parents out for supplies… le sigh)

Microcrochet on display at the Strong Museum of Play (hooray!)

Kelly Cheatle — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:22:52 +0000

Come on, if you had the chance to rhyme that many words in a row, you know you’d do it too ;-).

Here’s a sneak peek of a few of the pieces that will be on display, sorry I don’t have any of the finished “larger scenes” you’ll just have to stop by in person! I’ll be there on August 20th between 1 and 4 doing demonstrations (though I need to figure out how I’m going to have lots of people see something that’s @ 1/2 inch tall being constructed… Should I do macro-crochet so they can see? Or does that defeat the purpose?! If you’ve got any suggestions that I can put together before Sat, let me know in the comments below-

UPDATE: Super-crazy excited to say these little guys were featured on the CRAFT blog! :-) But I just realized that I didn’t mention the Whimsical Art exhibit will be on display August 20-November 20th 2011, so you’ve got a few months to get a chance to see my work as well as artwork by my partner Larry Moss, and good friend Rob Rogalski. Let me know what you think of the show!

Hooray! Pancakes for Everyone!!!

Kelly Cheatle — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 17:10:11 +0000

We’re all so happy for family & friends who’ll be able to tie the knot in our home state of NY- we just had to celebrate WITH PANCAKES!!

Hot off the presses! New Book: “Artist Eyes”

Kelly Cheatle — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:04:46 +0000

Super duper excited, the boxes just arrived from the press, and they look fantastic! Grab a copy either directly from Airigami, or through Amazon.

A light-hearted gallery tour by Larry Moss and Kelly Cheatle

It’s never too early to teach art appreciation. This light and airy view of art is an ideal way to introduce kids to the works of the great masters. Eight famous paintings, re-imagined by Larry Moss, are presented in these pages, paired with rhymes containing a hint of art history.

This is Airigami’s first illustrated children’s book. The pages contain the images from Larry’s Masterworks series. This is a fun and affordable way to acquire a complete collection of artwork.

My site is ugly. For the moment…

Kelly Cheatle — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 04:09:04 +0000

My site was hacked by some indiscriminate Ahmdosa hacker. He can suffer a thousand papercuts as far as I’m concerned. Thankfully the damage was minimal, but there’s going to be a ton of work for me that I really didn’t need … Continue reading →

Day 3 of 30: Happy Birthday Hope Lodge!

Kelly Cheatle — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 04:09:28 +0000

Today was First Friday, the monthly gallery hop here in Rochester, NY. We had our studio open to the public while we built a balloon birthday cake for the local Hope Lodge that’s celebrating their first anniversary tomorrow. I love getting to deliver giant cakes ;-)!

Make a wish!

If you want to see more of our inflated art, visit Airigami.com

Day 2 of 30: My daughter is amazing.

Kelly Cheatle — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 03:29:59 +0000

If you follow me on any of the various social tools I frequent (twitter, instagram etc) you’ll know that I’m constantly singing the praises of my children. Yes. I know everyone’s kids are the best in the world- but man oh man, Chloe’s earned that badge tonight. I am completely SMITTEN over a present that she made for my dear friend Heather (aka @drfeather) who is expecting, so with Heather’s permission- I’m sharing it here.

: Your Baby Book (the baby is saying mama)

: Early labor? Oh wait- I can see the head!

: She’s here! (someone might want to catch that…)

: Aww Momma… I love the way her eyes changed to have a look of contentment on them.

: And now she’s breastfeeding! Look at how she’s drawn her cradling her baby!

Ok, maybe it’s me- but she drew this all on her own accord. I love the details, I love the expression she’s captured on their faces. Did I mention she’s 6 years old? She is already learning how to convey emotion and feeling and depth in her drawings. When she’s absorbed in her work everything else seems to just move more slowly around her. She’s in her own world, in the zone- the place where everything flows… I consider myself so incredibly lucky to get to watch her grow as an artist.

(hey flower if you get to read this some day, YOU ARE AWESOME!)

30 Days…

Kelly Cheatle — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 02:56:57 +0000

SO I keep complaining that I just want to make stuff and now I have the perfect opportunity with 30 DAYS OF CREATIVITY, which is “a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days in June.”

ANYTHING. duh. While I don’t always have time to make the masterpieces I’d like, but I can (and typically do) make something. So now it just gives me an excuse to share it on my blog, and also on my new favorite source of inspiration: pinterest.com. #ZOMG if you haven’t tried it yet and have any sort of interest in crafty things or home dec or fashion or design- it is like a squirrel for someone with ADD. Without further ado…

Day 1.

I let the girls strip down the azalea bushes out front and we strung the flowers together to make flower leis. It was a refreshing change from the regular hustle and bustle of after school time, and reminded me that there IS time to make stuff.

Flower Lei

Flower making a flower lei ;-)