Waldorf Inspired

Pixie is a sorter. Actually, she was born a sorter. Seems like from the minute she could collect a stash of toys around herself, she was dividing things into piles. Sometimes the categorizations were self evident, other times, we just had to assume their was method to her madness :) To this day, given a chance, she sorts. Just ask Bug. He can leave his Legos for just a bit, and when he returns, Pixie will have sorted the pieces by color! (Not always a welcomed turn of events, I might add!)

So, I have no doubt that Pixie will love her new toys. Like Little Lady, I made Pixie a rainbow drawstring bag. Inside the bag she will find:

Acorns a plenty, to be sorted, used in the kitchen, and I'm sure in various ways with her wee folks. (There are 18... 3 of each color.)

And when she is in the mood to sort her acorns, she'll have matching bowls to hold them. Although I know they will also be used to hold her doll's soup and her bear's porridge.

Then, there are 12 pots, which hold the acorns quite nicely, concealing their color. By placing 6 pairs of acorns in the pots, and mixing them up, she can play a wonderful memory matching game, by herself, or with a friend.

All of the wood was unfinished, and I sanded them, stained the acorn caps, the outside of the bowls and the pots using a non-toxic, soy based stain. I then painted the bowl interiors and the acorns using a non-toxic, soy based paint. Finally, I finished them with a beeswax finish. (BTW... all of these supplies will be available when our shop opens in 2012 :)

Then, her gift includes this lovely wooden rainbow arch with two teeny tiny gnomes. I purchased these from Armadillo Dreams on Etsy.

Finally, I bought her the lovely book, Around the Year, by Elsa Beskow. Such a sweet little book, filled with a poem for each month. Her illustrations are gentle and peaceful. A pure delight as are all of Elsa's books.

So there you have it. This year's Christmas gifts for our 4 grandbabies. What a joy to prepare gifts for children. Hopefully, these are gifts that will long be cherished :)

BTW... I WILL have the tute for the drawstring bag posted soon!

Surprise!

I'm not a great secret keeper (understatement noted), so it's been driving me crazy not to share the progress of our new web design with you guys. I must admit I had very little to do with the actual change... it was all Michelle's design and Tim's computer skills. My contribution? Michelle would hold 2 things up and say, "Do you like this or that better?" I suspect she only asked for my input on things that she could have gone either way on. Have I ever mentioned she tends to treat me like a toddler? ;)

Anyway, I suspect you are oooing and ahing along with me. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the new design. It is less fussy, more open, but at the same time maintains the warmth and spirit of Wee Folk Art. I think she nailed it spot on!

You will need to take some time to reacquaint yourself with the site. We are organized a bit different, with some things being deleted and some new info being added. Probably the greatest change for us is the addition of a "Shop"!

Although our Shop will not be open until January, we are hard at work and very excited for this next evolution at Wee Folk Art. Over the past year we have been approached by many businesses wanting to sell our finished projects or interested in buying some of our patterns. We have also been approached by several businesses to sell kits of some of our projects. We have also had truck loads of request to have our patterns available in a more printer friendly format.

Well, we agreed that this was the next logical step, but we decided instead of selling our creative efforts off to others, we would open a shop and do it ourselves, and be able to do it our way! So, what will be in our shop? We will be selling patterns that can be downloaded immediately, that are written in an easy to follow style and that are print friendly. Patterns will be sold for a modest price. In the future you can also expect to see some E-Books added to the inventory.

Most exciting... we will start carrying kits of some of our special projects. (The dolls pictured above will be one of the first kits in our shop.) When I go to do a project, I have a wealth of materials before me. Most crafters don't have the same materials in their stashes. Now, you can simply buy a kit, and when it comes in the mail, you'll be ready to start crafting. Our shop will start out small, but will grow monthly. We hope this is a service that will have meaning to you. Also, as time goes by, we will be adding more and more crafting supplies, and occasionally, items made by Michelle and myself :).

As we approach the opening to our shop, we will start giving you little peeks :) And for all of you that are now saying, "Darn it". We loved Wee Folk Art because of all the FREE patterns... not to worry. We will continue crafting right here, adding more FREE patterns and applique blocks all the time. Our Shop is not going to replace our blog, hopefully, it is going to enhance it and give our readers choices.

When you are feeling particularly alert :) please spend some time reading over our FAQs. If you've never read them before, you are in for a treat (cough cough). Quite a riveting read ;) Probably half of the emails we receive have questions that are answered in our FAQs. It is especially important to read the sections on copyrights. If you have any questions after reading our FAQs, don't hesitate to contact us at weefolkart@yahoo.com

So, there you have it... our new design, we hope you love it, and the announcement about our Shop that will be coming in January... we hope you are excited. So, run along, take a look around, and let us know what you think, and please report any wonky behaviors you stumble upon. We are sure the site will need some tweaking! Thanks :)

This giveaway is now closed. The winner will be announced shortly.

EDIT: Daria is from Israel. She will ship anywhere. All are welcome to enter :)

Several months ago I introduced you to Daria, from Art of Felting, when we commissioned her to needle felt a tapestry to commemorate my marriage to Tim.  
A few weeks ago we received an email from Daria. She was wondering if we would be interested in partnering for another give-away, in time for the holidays. It took us all of, hmmm, 2 seconds to say, "You betcha!"
 
After some discussion, we decided to offer 1 lucky winner a choice between her Waldorf King Winter

Beautiful, aren't they? So, do you think it would be ethical for Michelle and I the enter, hehe? Anyway, both offerings are lovely, and should you be lucky enough to win, you can choose which you'd like. Tough call, isn't it? To enter, simply visit Daria's Etsy shop, The Art of Felting, browse her store looking for holiday gift giving ideas, and tell us what you like best. Yep, I know it's hard to decide, but humor us, and pick :) Then, let us know, if you should win, whether you would like the Waldorf King Winter or the Nativity.
 
The contest will run from today, Wednesday, October 12, through Sunday, October 16, at 9:00 pm, EST. Then, a winner will be drawn at random. The winner will have 1 week to contact us with their snail mail address or a new winner will be selected.
 
First off... a HUGE thank-you to Daria for her talents and generosity, then, good luck to one and all. Daria's work is beautiful. We are so delighted to be able to offer our readers a chance to win one of her delightful pieces.
 

It's summer... time for camping under the moon and stars. Whether you throw a sleeping bag on the grass in the backyard or trek into the wilderness, there is nothing like lying on your back, on a clear night, and looking up at the wondrous night sky.

Naturally, our gnomes also enjoy star gazing. Here are our latest gnomes and there sleeping bag, perfect for a night under a blanket of stars and the moon!

To complete this project, you are going to need to do a little scavenger hunt through our site. You will need:

The Waldorf Inspired Gnomes found HERE.

The basic Sleeping Bag Directions found HERE.

The directions for how to make the woven stars found HERE.

And the actual pattern for THIS sleeping bag found HERE.

And, in the event you want to set up your own campfire scene you will need:

The campfire found HERE.

The felt trees found HERE.

And the mushrooms found HERE.

Okay... I think that is everything :)  To embellish your gnomes, simply add some woven stars on their hats and capes before you sew them together. And for all of you that accuse me of flawless crafting... just know I make mistakes ALL the time. I'm just a master of covering them up. For example, when appliqueing the moon and stars on the blanket of the sleeping bag, I appliqued them on sideways by mistake. So, when you look at the pattern, it will look wrong. I meant to do it like the pattern, but after spending the time, I was not going to go back and redo the silly thing. So, I left it. And, if anyone in the future questions the look of the moon, I'll just tell them I was striving to create a lunar eclipse!

NOTE: On the pattern you will also find an applique to make a sunny sky sleeping bag. I was going to make both and ran out of time. If you would like to make one, and the design on your pattern is too light, I simply took our Sunburst Applique Block and reduced it to 40%.

On a completely different topic... you guys will be on your own for the next 10 days as Michelle's family and mine are vacationing. Although we will have access to computers, we will only be using them to check-up on things from time to time. If you need to talk with us, best way to contact us is through email at weefolkart@yahoo.com. We will be checking emails daily. So, have a wonderful week, and if you are really missing us, great time to thumb through past posts and projects. BTW... if you ever find a mistake, i.e., a broken link or an incorrect photo, please email us with the link and problem. We would really appreciate it. We will see everyone back here on Monday, July 18. We well :)

Wander back a few days and read the first couple of paragraphs of the post I had on reusing craft designs. Here, is yet another way to use our little gnome. Follow the basic directions there except use the pattern found HERE.

The biggest difference, is you will be placing the pattern on a fold. When you fold the watercolor paper, use a ruler to help make the crease sharp.

Place the pattern on the fold, trace the pattern and cut out, cutting through the front and back together.



Follow the directions for the bookmark to transfer markings, outlining and coloring with watercolor pencils. Then paint with water.

Come up with a cute little note on the inside, then, wah lah, a card any child... nah... any person, would love to get :)

Wouldn't these make lovely holiday cards? I can see it now... "Oh there's no place like Gnome for the holidays!"

Can you think of any other "gnomey" type messages that would be great in these cards?

EDIT: I wanted to include this comment by one of our readers. I thought it was brilliant and wanted to make sure no one missed it!

Love these! My little girl and I made the bookmarks the other day:). Thank u so much! I think these little cards would make great "page huggers" bookmarks. Just put two magnets on the inside and they "hug" the page u need to mark. Thank u so much for sharing! We will be making these cards for a birthday party we r going to tomorrow:)
Carmen