The Face of Guilt

The scene: Me sitting at the kitchen table painting. The kids in their bedrooms. The living room empty…or so I thought.

A sound emanates from the living room: rattle, rattle, crunch, crunch. I look. No one there. Hmmm. I return to painting. Again, a sound: crinkle, crinkle. crunch, crunch. My eyes dart towards the living room. Nothing. Should I check? I decide to wait. Back to painting. Crunch, crunch. rattle, crinkle. I turn swiftly, hoping to catch a glimpse of the source. I walk into the living room, puzzled, as it’s empty of all of the creatures that occupy my house. Figuring the culprit ran to find shelter in another room, I call out to the subject most likely causing the all too familiar chewing noise. When I called the dog, she didn’t come running from another room. Rather, I heard a slight scratching and shifting from under the ottoman, a favorite hiding spot of one hairy mutt. I peered under the piece of furniture (and yes, the ottoman is in need of a little repair). I was met with a face that tries so hard not to make eye contact…a face that exudes guilt.

Finally, eye contact. And what had this face done? Well, this cute hairy face had found some old fashioned stick candy, and proceeded to hide under the ottoman and chew it up, getting sticky all over my rug and pieces of candy tangled in that little beard of hers. I tried to be firm in my punishment, but she apologized in her usual way:

And I forgave her like I always do. That’s the price I pay for owning such a mischievous, cute dork of a dog.

xo

Nessa Dee

Crafty Friday: Decorated Frames

Since last week’s Father’s Day frame project was cancelled thanks to a virus that affected two-thirds of our craft team, I moved the craft to this week, with a few little changes. Instead of frames specifically for the dads, we’re decorating frames just for the fun of it!

Here’s what you need:

*unfinished wood frame (found at any craft store for cheap)
*paint/paintbrushes
*decorative papers
*decoupage glue
optional-
*embellishments (buttons, washers, stickers, ribbon)

The first step in decorating a frame is to cover it with paint or some decoupage action. If you choose the painting route, and the frame has any knots in the wood, I would suggest priming it first, to cover them. Otherwise, the knots will show through the paint over time. If you want to skip having to prime the frame, you can decoupage it with decorative papers or book pages. Decoupage a fun way to embellish frames, or paintings (see my etsy shop) and it’s super easy. All you need is some handy dandy decoupage glue (Mod Podge is my weapon of choice), a paintbrush and some paper. You can cut the paper into nice shapes, or just tear it into pieces and start putting them on the frame. You do this by first adding enough glue to the back of the paper or the area you want to attach the paper.

Then, stick the paper onto the frame and paint right over it with the decoupage glue. The glue will dry clear and it will also seal the paper for extra protection. Continue this process until the entire frame is covered.

After your paint or decoupage glue is dry, you can start embellishing the frame with stuff. Your child can glue ribbon, make a button caterpillar, or decoupage fun shapes to the frame. Stickers are an easy way for the younger kids to decorate the frame. Audrie wanted to add dragonflies to her frame.

She decided to decoupage the dragonfly wings, and used buttons and washers to add an extra touch. Choosing the buttons, though, proved to be a bit involved.

Once she finally chose the right ones, she attached them with regular old glue and she was done.

Finn decided that he was too grumpy to participate in Crafty Friday, so his frame is still unfinished. Maybe next week he’ll wake up from his nap in a good humor and have some crafty fun.

Happy Crafting!

Nessa Dee

Recent Work

Just a few recent projects I’ve been working on.

xo

Nessa Dee

IF: Drifting

xo

Nessa Dee

Happy Father’s Day

To all of the Dads in my life!

xo

Nessa Dee

Craftless Friday

Well, between almost coughing up a lung and wrapping myself in every blanket we own to alleviate the chills, I didn’t find much time to craft with the kids. In fact, I am without kids at the moment (thank you mom for picking them up), so it looks like Crafty Friday won’t be happening this week, unless I can get the dog to cooperate. But Trixie plus glue would equal one hairy craft project… and she’d probably just eat the frame anyway.

Thankfully, though, with the help of some antibiotics, I should be back to the normal schedule next week. Until then, though, I think I’ll speed up my recovery with the help of a superb natural home remedy I found at the grocery store:

xo

Nessa Dee

IF: Unfold

This little boy has no idea what kind of adventure will unfold as the day progresses.

This is an older painting, a quick study of a picture from a magazine. I had every intention of creating a new illustration for this week’s topic, but I had no idea what would ‘unfold’ through the course of this week. The sudden onset of a cold and fever has rendered me useless the last couple of days. I’m hoping I can knock this cold out by tomorrow, but that’s what I said yesterday.

If you are joining us for Crafty Friday, please note that I might have to change the name to Crafty Saturday this week. :)

Alright, I’m going to go back to bed now.

xo

Nessa Dee

Fab Finds

For Dad:

What better way to tell Dad he’s awesome than with and awesome t-shirt! Find it here along with a bunch of other great buys from Paired Hearts.

For baby:

Elsa the elephant will bring a smile to any baby’s face. You can find Elsa and her friends at the Snuggle Herd shop.

For Fido:

Your pet will be the envy of the pack with this leash from Love your Mutt.

For Me, I mean Mom:

This necklace from Under the Sun Art…

and this dress from Parsimony…

and these earrings from Polished Two…

and this tote from Sweet Potato Island.

Ok, I need to stop shopping. All of these fabulous finds were made by members of Etsy Austin. You can find these and other members’ creations by searching ‘teametsyaustin’ on the Etsy site. And if you’re in the Austin area this summer, come out and see some of the Etsy Austin team at Blues on the Green. You can shop while listening to live music! I’ll be out there, too selling my art on July 29th.

xo

Nessa Dee

To: Daddy

Ness, Audrie, Finn, & Trixie

Crafty Friday: Pop-up Cards

I have a confession to make. I’m using this Crafty Friday to mark a couple of things off my list.

Get a birthday card for Jonathan

Get a Father’s Day card for Jonathan

With these two events happening around the same time, I thought we could use this opportunity to make pop-up cards. Audrie loves experimenting with the logistics of pop-ups. From simple accordion fold pop-ups, to more elaborate ones involving Santa’s reindeer “flying” out of the card as it’s opened, she’s enjoyed making these for quite some time. Today we will be creating simple accordion fold pop-ups. I planned on having the kids try something the likes of Robert Sabuda’s version of The Wizard of Oz, but patience was running thin on all fronts, so we kept things simple to preserve our sanity.

Here's what you need:

*construction paper, scrapbook paper, or cardstock

*glue

* marker or crayons

*scissors

- optional items

*glitter

*stickers

*buttons, thread

We started with the Father’s Day card and determined the color and size of the card. We decided that the traditional Father’s Day tie should make up the card’s interior, so Audrie came up with the idea for the pattern and we drew up a template.

The solid lines are cut lines, while the dotted lines are fold lines. We traced the template onto the decorative paper and cut it out.

In the meantime, Finn found other uses for scissors.

Next, we folded the tabs in an accordion fold style, and glued the ends of the tabs to the inside of our card. (We also added a little bit of tape for extra support.

The final steps included decorating the front of the card, writing a message, and adding a signature.

A few other ideas for Father's Day cards :

-For the golfer, a golf club hitting a ball off the page. The ball would be the pop-up element.

-For the computer nerd, a laptop where the top actually opens to reveal a Father's Day message.

-For the handyman, a toolbox shaped card where, when opened reveals the pop- up tools.

************************************************************************************************************************

The birthday card started with a simple cupcake. A half circle (cut out with decorative scissors) and a square were attached with tape. Then, with a little glue, we added glitter to the cupcake top to make the icing sparkle.

Next, we cut out a candle and attached it to the top. I let Finn decorate the front of the card before we attached the cupcake to the inside of the card. He wanted to sew a piece of paper he cut out to the front of the card. He also chose to add a few buttons. Then, cut two strips of cardstock the same length, folded them ala accordion style, and attached them to the back of the cupcake and inside of the card, like so:

Finally, I helped Finn write the birthday message, and he signed the inside of the card, and wrote an “A” because he can.

Happy Crafting!

Nessa Dee