Papercut and embroidery fun

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon Amy Karol's (of Angry Chicken fame) eMailorder sets, and was completely smitten by the papercut designs in eMailorder #10.  I decided that I simply had to have some of that charming, folksy cute on my wall.  Two evenings later...

 

LOVE.

 

LOVE IT.

The children call the clothes line "Poppy and Nana's backyard" because they have a line between two trees that looks very similar.  Thusly, the little cabin has been dubbed "Poppy and Nana's house".  They do have a wood burning stove smoking away in the winter, so I suppose it's fairly accurate.  :)

Oh my gosh, and now I've just discovered that in Amy Karol's eMailorder #8, she has a papercut pattern for a bunny on a swing.  A BUNNY ON A SWING!  (...getting out my tiny swivel knife and some more black paper...)

I finished up the Man Hill embroidery (design by Aimee Ray of little dear Etsy shop and Doodle Stitching book):

 

I need to stitch both Thinking and Happy Garden to complete the set that is going to hang in the playroom (framed or stretched on canvas), but in the meantime, I've got it up on my inspiration line in my studio (along with Bird Hill on the other end).

 

It's a happy thing to look up at now and again while I'm working on other things.

Next in my Q-snap-frame is an embroidery design transfered from one of Sparky's drawings:

 
(Billy helped me, of course.)

This will eventually be the front of an eco tote -- his idea -- for when he goes shopping.  That's my boy!  :)  Embroidering a child's drawing is the ultimate in doodle stitching!  Creative freedom at it's best.

Thanks to all of the sewing going on around here lately, my children have all taken on an interest in stitching things themselves.  As much as they love to "help" me by pushing the presser foot on my machine ("agghh!! not so fast!!  wait--wait--wait!!!"), I've decided to start giving Sparky and Max Sewing Lessons so that they can start to handsew things themselves.  I love how empowering it is to put skills like this in the care of little hands.

We got out our sewing cards yesterday afternoon (while the younger two were napping) along with our new favorite children's crafting book/summer fun guide Homemade Fun (by Rae Grant of the always inspiring My Little Hen), and got to stitching.

 

 

They had already learned the running stitch a while back, so I decided they were ready to take on the blanket stitch, and within minutes, Sparky (6 years old) was doing nearly perfect stitches all on his own.

 

Max (5) had a little bit of a harder time because of the shape of the tree he was working on, but he managed to get the hang of it as well, and they were so proud of their finished pieces.

 

I cannot even tell you how much use we've gotten out of these cards.  They lace an re-lace them while they sit with me in my studio from time to time and feel like they're involved in what I'm doing.  So sweet!

Afterwords the boys took it upon themselves to make some of their own sewing cards, and had a good solid hour of quiet, focused crative play.  I love it when that happens!

Come back tomorrow for another simple Homemade Fun project!