Boba Fett T-Shirt for Daddy

I'm really excited to share this t-shirt that Huck and I made for Steve. I asked Huck to draw a big picture of Boba Fett (a bounty hunter from Star Wars, for those of you who don't have Star Wars obsessed persons living in your household). Huck made a line drawing, and I used the freezer paper printing technique to put down the colors. Then I used my handy dandy fabric markers and a light box to translate his drawing over the freezer print and we ended up with this spectacular t-shirt!
Steve loves it, and it comes on the heels of a botched Boba Fett t-shirt that I tried to make for him last year that he hated ("hate" is a strong word he says, but he never wears it) to replace a very old t-shirt that he screenprinted in high school of Boba Fett that is falling apart but he has a deep sentimental attachment to. This shirt, I think, is far more stylin' that both of the previous Boba Fett t-shirts. Huck, however, thinks his lines are too wobbly. Artists!

Christmas Countdown & A Gift for Huck's Piano Teacher

Hi everyone! I have been busy, busy, busy finishing up last minutes gifts and doing all the stuff that needs to get done before Christmas. The boys are so excited about it this year, which is getting ing me really excited, too. Last year Milo spent Christmas day pretty much eating wrapping paper, but this year he is giddy with anticipation. Since the boys were asking me EVERY day if today was Christmas, I had them make a Christmas countdown calendar.

Huck wrote the numbers, and I let both of them glue and glitter and draw on each number card. Then we strung up a piece of red yarn and paperclipped the cards to the yarn. Every morning at breakfast we take one down. I also ended up stringing up another piece of yarn above this and paperclipped the cards and postcards we have received to that string. When we ran out of room on the top string, I started clipping the cards to this string, too, to replace our missing numbers. It has been fun to watch the numbers shrink and the pictures of our family and friends grow.

We also made this tote bag for Huck's piano teacher, Miss Amy. I had Huck draw a picture of her and write her name, and I also asked him to draw some notes (he loves drawing notes). I stitched the music lines onto the fabric in black thread, and then used a lightbox to trace his drawings onto the bag using fabric marker. I love the way it came out! I'm so excited about all of the drawings Huck has been doing lately and can't wait to see how Milo's style develops.
This will probably be my last post before Christmas. I have more to share, but they are gifts and I don't want to ruin any surprises :)

Happy Jolly Merry Ho Ho Ho!

A Big Winner and Gifts for My Impossible Father

And the winner of the SeamsMod Diaper Clutch Giveaway is:
very married!
Congrats, very married! I will be contacting you soon!

Remember that SeamsMod is generously offering a special deal to Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! readers. You can get 15% off your entire purchase (shipping not included) until December 17, 2010. Enter the promo code HIDEOUS when you check out! Bonus: she has free shipping until December 20th. Check out SeamsMod on Etsy and support handmade this Christmas!

Speaking of that, how are you guys doing on Christmas? I think I'm doing alright. I've managed to go mostly handmade this year-if not by be, then by buying from Etsy vendors. My dad (like everybody's dad) is impossible to shop for. To make things even harder, he remarried after Mom died, and then moved to South Korea as a civilian contractor for the military, so I never really had a chance to get to know his wife or her tastes and interests. It makes any gift-giving occasion kind of a pain.
So this year, after several hours scouring Amazon and Etsy, I finally came up with this idea:

A table runner featuring the boys' hand prints as reindeer. I used gold thread to embroider the trees and silver thread for the ground. The birds are ironed-on appliques made with fabric backed with Lite Steam-a-Seam 2.

 

The reindeers themselves have french knot eyes (I added one strand of white to the black embroidery thread to give a little "glint" to the eyes),and embroidered the antlers in golden brown. I also used a black fabric marker to add little noses and hooves. Finally, I brushed on some silvery white fabric paint "snow" on the ground.

I also picked up this biscuit jar from Marshall's and had Steve write "Leeches" on it for Dad's office to put on is desk and freak out his patients (he is a Physician's Assistant). I also picked up some little fat pieces of black licorice to stuff inside of it: