Building Block Candle Holders

I've been brainstorming new crafts to add to my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop, and now I'm experimenting with candle holders!

To begin, I've got these candle holders made from vintage building blocks:

You can probably tell that I used our own candle holders, with our own monograms, as the examples in the photo, but the rest are to be drilled to order in either birthday candle, Waldorf ring candle, or taper candle sizes:

I like the look of the vintage blocks, and as candles come and go, they develop lovely layers of dripped wax to show evidence of their use:

If these work out, I've got more ideas for more types of candle holders--Waldorf rings, tree branch holders, pallet wood holders, and so on.

Now I just need to figure out candle holders that are either dinosaur- or chicken-shaped, and I'll be all set!

Comic Book Pinbacks for Pumpkin+Bear Etsy

Back when I did craft fairs, I looooooved making pinbacks from comic books. The superheroes and the sound effects all made good buttons, but my favorite task was to find interesting bits of dialogue to punch out, especially if they said something completely different when taken out of context.

It takes a lot of work to photograph and write an etsy listing, so I've balked at listing these comic book pinbacks individually in my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop... until now. For a little while, at least. Call it an experiment. Or call it a discovery of tons of comic book pinbacks as I was packing, and a realization that I probably should neither completely blanket my backpack in them nor give them away as Christmas presents for the next five years.

Or call it procrastination, because unpacking SUCKS!

Here's my first listing, Proceed with Caution:

I'll be adding more comic book pinbacks over the next few days, and every time you see a new one appear in my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop, you'll know that there's some crucial house chore that I REALLY should be doing instead.

Teeny-Tiny Dictionary Page Envelopes

I make these dictionary page mini envelopes all the time, for my own stuff and to package pinback buttons from my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop, so I finally decided to list them!

I've made these out of comic book pages before, and scrapbook paper, and even plain notebook paper, but I always come back to the dictionary pages. You've got to love an envelope that increases your vocabulary!

My Latest over at Crafting a Green World: Business Cards and LEGOs

a round-up of surprisingly sustainable LEGO crafts

and a tutorial for stash-busting embellished business cards

I'm pretty excited about this method of de-stashing some of my random little craft supplies, so if you order something from my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop, you can probably expect to receive a bonus treat!

Pink Play Silk

It took me too long to succumb to this one, but finally my girls have a Momma-dyed pink play silk (and a few more pink play silks up in my pumpkin+bear etsy shop, of course):

I am pretty sure that my kiddos would be perfectly happy with a toy collection that consisted solely of play silks and tiny plastic animals.

Just One Candle

The schedule in the past couple of weeks has become that end-of-the-school-year-hectic thing that I always forget it does, what with ballet recital rehearsal twice a week (have I mentioned yet that the pre-college program is doing a kiddie version of Swan Lake for their recital? It's either brilliant or mad), and fashion show rehearsal three times a week (The Trashion/Refashion Show is TOMORROW!!!), so although it's been weeks since I snapped the photos, only this morning did I finally manage to get the long-promised One Rolled Beeswax Birthday Candle listing up on my pumpkinbear etsy shop:

I'd planned to publish the One Rolled Beeswax Waldorf Candle listing, too, but I discovered that when I did the photo shoot of COURSE I forgot to snap pictures of the single Waldorf candle, especially since I had a million Waldorf candles out for the shoot and DID manage to get photos of the single birthday candle...

Sigh.

Red and Green Play Silks for Christmas

Personally, I'm feeling more like autumnal colors still, browns and oranges and burgundy, but Christmas IS a'coming, and soon enough this red and green 30"x30" play silk will be the pinnacle of festivity:

 

 

 

It's still pretty mild here--I wonder how many other outdoor photo shoots I can sneak in before it starts snowing?

Pinback Prints on Pumpkin+Bear

I spent SIX HOURS thrifting today (more on that later), but look what else I did!

Clowns are Freakin' Scary

It's Okay to Destroy Stuff

Feedback is Welcome

Save the Planet

The photos are all 4"x6", which is perfect for greeting cards, postcards, wall frames, etc., and they're available in tiff, if you know what you're doing, or jpeg or pdf if you don't.

I spent WAAAAAY too long scanning pinbacks and making prints this week, so there are def more photos to come.

Branded

It was a day busy with Pumpkinbear branding, but I did get most of it done--along with a little laundry, a little Numb3rs Season 2 DVD set (my newest obsession from the public library, now that I'm apparently stalled in the hold line for Season 2 of The O.C.), several hands of dinosaur flash cards with Willow, who can now pick out the ending "saurus" AND tell you that it's Greek for lizard (happy homeschooling moment!), and a trip to Sam's for that freakin' EZ-Up and some frozen foods that Matt can feed the girls while I'm teaching in the evenings (neither of us are geniuses in the kitchen, it turns out).

The idea is that our whole family will wear Pumpkinbear shirts all weekend, although since I only made one shirt for each person and the craft fair is two days long...well, one can hope, right? Mine isn't quite finished: The logo is freezer paper stencilled on a green raglan tee, originally from the Gap, but new to me when I bought it at Goodwill some time ago. All the fabric paint on all the T-shirts will need to be heat-set with the iron tomorrow night or, since I teach, Tuesday morning. After that, I can iron some tear-away stabilizer to the back of the shirt and sew on the pumpkinbear applique--I freehand stitched it on my sewing machine with green thread on black flannel, and I am quite proud of how it turned out. I've never tried freehand stitching words before, but now I'm going to do it every day pretty much.

Matt's shirt is totally the awesomest, though. I didn't feel like cutting out two insanely complicated Pumpkinbear stencils, so I decided to reverse-stencil his shirt: It looks really cool and butch and I can't wait for him to try it on.

Then the girls came upstairs from where they'd been "helping" Daddy in the basement, and I had to set up some fabric painting for them. I had them painting onto black flannel because I thought I might then be able to do something with it for Halloween decorations, but now I don't know--nothing jumps out at me. I was able to hover a little less this time over my expensive fabric paints by allowing each girl to choose a color, which I then poured a little of into an individual cup. Halfway through, they switched colors, and then when they got bored I used up the rest of the paint in their cup by painting some simple little designs that I can later cut out and applique as patches onto their clothes or to cover stains: I'm not as totally in love with the girls' shirts as I am with mine and Matt's, but since they'll probably get them filthy and ruined a few minutes after they put them on, anyway, that's probably for the best.

I freehand stitched with orange thread another "pumpkinbear" onto a piece of white linen from a pillowcase dress I was making today, and I'm going to applique that over the Old Navy branding on the back of Willow's orange shirt, and Sydney's shirt will have a "pumpkinbear" applique in white thread on grey flannel below her stencil to cover a couple of stains.

I still need to make either a bunting or a banner and to finish up my second table cover, but I'm so sick right now of my own brand name that I'm instead going to sew up a half-dozen or so pillowcase dresses as a little treat--I had planned to be all cool and relaxed this week, but instead I think I'm probably going to push myself frantically to make a bunch more stuff because I so desperately want to earn enough money for that new serger that I want so badly I can taste it.

Mmmmm, serging.