Summer of Color - Week 5 - Candy Apple Red and Yellow

For the fifth week of Summer of Color, the color inspiration was Candy Apple Red and Yellow. I am happy with this color combination since I have translucent kite paper in both colors.

Last week, the color combination was gray and pink. Looking at the supplies I had on hand, I couldn't come up with anything that I wanted to create. The translucent kite paper comes in pink, but not gray. I had gray wool felt, but not pink.

So, rather than create something I didn't need or want, I waited until this week to participate again, and was so happy to see these bright colors as the chosen color combination!

I made three window stars this week. One combines both colors and is a pattern that I used before. It is about 9 inches wide and has 19 folds per point. With 8 points, that's 152 folds to make the star.

The other two window stars are patterns I have not made before. The little yellow one is about 4.5 inches wide. For each point, there are 17 folds. With 8 points, that's 136 folds to create the star.

The red one is 6 3/4 inches wide. Each point requires 15 folds. So, with 8 points that's 120 folds to create the star.

I like the stars within a star look of both of them; and am happy I tried two new patterns this week.

Summer of Color - Week 2 - Orange & Hot Pink

For the second week in the Summer of Color, the color combination that was chosen by participants was orange and hot pink.

Both of these colors are ones that I have in the translucent kite paper that I use for making window stars, so I thought I'd make three different stars using this week's color combination.

The trio of origami window stars 

in orange and hot pink.

There's a rabbit hopping in the driveway

towards the woods. 

Its little white tail always catches my attention.

The first star I made has two different layers - the pink five-point star is created first and then the orange points are laid on top of the pink star to create the window star.

This star is folded 80 times to create the pattern.

The next star is an easy one. There are eight points and each point is folded 18 times, for a total of 144 folds.

Although there are more folds per point than the previous star, the paper size is larger (3 inches x 5 inches versus 2 1/2 inches square for the orange points in the first star and 2 1/2 inch pink squares cut on the diagonal to make tiny triangles).

I think the center of this one seems 

to have a floral look to it.

Wonder if I'm the only one who sees it...

or if there is another image people see.

The last window star I made has six points. It is folded 15 times per point...or 90 times total to create the star.

This star, with six points, 

took 90 folds to create the pattern.

I'm looking forward to seeing next week's color combination as well as what others have created with these colors. The creativity of the participants always inspires me!

Felt Bird with Free Pattern Link + Summer of Color: Week 1

My daughters and I have been busy crafting for the local farmers market which features food, crafts, and art. It's been quite labor-intensive, yet we've enjoyed making a variety of items from the patterns and tutorials for products that I found online.

One of the free patterns I found was for embroidered birds on Do Small Things with Love. Originally, I came across it on Pinterest and pinned it.   

I went through the wool felt that I had on hand, and came up with bright colors that I felt looked good together: lime/citron green, turquoise, lemon yellow, magenta, and orange. 

 I cut the pieces for the birds from the wool felt and stitched them together using cotton embroidery floss.

The birds are lightly stuffed with wool from sheep that I raised many years ago. I'm surprised that I still am using the wool...but cleaning and processing the wool each year resulted in many bags of it in various forms (e.g., cleaned, carded, roving, batting).

Coincidentally, when I was looking at the birds this morning I realized that they also were in the colors of the first week of the Summer of Color challenge: citron green and turquoise. 

I had hoped to do window stars for the six-week challenge, but didn't have kite paper in those colors. So,  I'm thinking that crafting with wool felt and/or crafting a variety of items from what I have on hand may be the route to go. 

At any rate, the little wool felt birds were easy and fun to make.

Watermelon Ice Window Stars - Summer of Color - Week 6

For the sixth week of Summer of Color, the color inspiration was Watermelon Ice. First I used the Chip It! program by Sherwin Williams to create a palette of colors to work with based on the picture of the sherbet.

To make the window stars, I'm limited with the colors available in the type of paper I use. So, the colors I chose to work with this week were: red, orange (which the Gladiola color above looks like to me), brown (the closest color in between the black and Bookwood Red above), and pink.

This week, the last week of the Summer of Color, I made four stars instead of three so I could use each of the colors.

The brown star seemed kind of out of place in the left photo,

so I took another one with just the red, orange, and pink.

The former is more true to Watermelon Ice 

(the brown representing the seeds),

but I like the brighter colors by themselves.

   

I also did not combine the colors this week, like I have for the previous five weeks. Rather, I did one color for each star. The pink one, by far, was the easiest with only 11 folds per point (or 55 folds total).

The red star is in the middle with 13 folds per point...or 65 folds total.

The brown star has 10 folds per point. With 8 points, that's 80 folds to make the pattern.

The orange star is a pattern I've never made before. It's slightly more complex than the other stars with 16 folds per point...or 80 folds total. I like this pattern, and am curious to see what it looks like in other colors besides orange. 

As a side note, the early evening a hummingbird came to visit the window stars. Whenever I do the pink-red-orange combination, the hummingbirds always seem to visit the stars. Perhaps I need to hang a hummingbird feeder near the feeder to enjoy these birds for longer periods of time while they eat.


Do you have a favorite color and/or pattern out of this grouping of window stars?

10 Favorite Websites and Blogs

These are some of my favorite websites and blogs:

Dollar Stretcher - When this website began in 1996, I visited it regularly. It had a lot of helpful advice for stretching one's budget. There are archives of articles written about a multitude of topics; and a weekly newsletter that is delivered via email. I still visit this site periodically if I'm looking for frugal ideas.

Flickr - I upload photographs here. It's been a great way for me to quickly access pictures that I want to refer to, remember, or use on my blog. Flickr also is a wonderful place to be inspired - from photography as an art in itself to the creative projects that are photographed.

The most-viewed image on my Flickr site

with over 25,000 views. 

It's a set of needle-felted alphabet cards 

(made from hand-dyed sheep wool)

that I made for my daughters when they were learning

the alphabet. Each one is 2 1/2" x 3 1/2".

Handbook of Nature Study - Barb has created an incredible resource for homeschoolers who enjoy nature. Her ideas for nature walks, appreciation, and art are woven together beautifully on this site. The site uses the book with the same title Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock as its framework. The book - combined with the outdoor challenges that Barb presents - makes nature study memorable, fun, and educational.

iHomeschool Network - Each week, this site hosts the Homeschool Mother's Journal. I am trying to participate in the HMJ at least once a month. It's a nice way for me to reflect on what we've done with homeschooling and what's happening in my life. Reading about and learning from other mothers who homeschool is always helpful.

Kent Weakley - Kent hosts the weekly P52 Photo Challenge. Each week there is a different theme, and participants upload a photograph featuring the theme. I've enjoyed seeing how people interpret the theme, and have been inspired by the photographs I've seen throughout the first half of the year.

Locks of Love - this is a non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially-disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. They meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics.

Most of the children helped by Locks of Love have lost their hair due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, which has no known cause or cure. The prostheses we provide help to restore their self-esteem and their confidence, enabling them to face the world and their peers.

I have donated three ponytails since 2002, and am working on growing my hair out for a fourth ponytail. Both Sophia and Olivia also have long hair, and plan on donating some of their hair as well to Locks of Love.

My last ponytail before it was cut.

My hair is now over 22" long, 

so it is almost ready to be cut again.

Minnesota State Parks - This website has become a great tool this summer as I've used its calendar of activities and reservation forms for a couple camping trips Sophia, Olivia, and I are taking. There are so many wonderful - and free - naturalist-led programs that are available. It's such a valuable resource and one that enhances our science curriculum.

Olivia and Sophia rock climbing.

This is one of many free programs offered through the

Minnesota State Park system.

Pintangle - This year I am doing a weekly challenge called Take a Stitch Tuesday. Each week, Sharon (who does TAST) posts an embroidery stitch to learn. Participants have a week to learn and post what they did. I do 1-2 little samplers a week since I'm learning the stitches. My samplers are incorporated into a journal that includes a reflection about what I did, a gratitude list, and images of things that remind me of what happened during the week.

Sonlight - This is the literature-based curriculum that I've been using for homeschooling for a few years now. The books that are used for the geography/history, read aloud literature, and science components are all excellent. There are many hands-on science experiments which the girls enjoy.

Twinkle Twinkle Like a Star - Kristen has hosted a Summer of Color challenge last year and this year. Last year's focus was on six colors. This year, the inspiration is flavors of ice cream - one flavor each week for six weeks. Participants create a variety of projects using the colors of the ice cream to guide them. It's interesting to see how the colors are used and interpreted by different people. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Summer of Color - Week 4

For the third week of Summer of Color, I made a trio of window stars as I've been doing for each of the weeks of the challenge.

The color inspiration this week was Strawberry Lemonade Punch. Before creating the stars, I did the Chip It! program through Sherwin Williams to come up up with the colors of the featured ice cream.

Then, based on the paint chips shown above, I chose the closest colors of paper I use for the window stars. I picked gold, yellow, lime green, and pink paper. 

The first star I made is a ten-pointed one that features gold and yellow paper:

Then I made an eight-pointed window star that included all four colors:

I also did a star with six points and three of the colors (yellow, lime green, and pink):

In terms of complexity, these were all very easy stars to make. The first star had only 8 folds per point (80 folds total). The second star had 6 folds per point (48 folds). The last star had 12 folds per point (36 folds).

So now I have 12 stars that I've made for the Summer of Color - each with different color combinations and patterns. Since there's only a couple of weeks left, I'll continue making stars. It's challenging me to create some new variations of stars in colors I normally wouldn't combine.

Last year, I felt like I did a wider variety of projects beyond window stars - including quilting, sewing, and embroidery. Although I'd like to do different projects, I think limiting myself on one thing is helping me to stay focused and have a theme with this year's Summer of Color.

Do you have a favorite pattern or color combination this week?

Summer of Color - Week 3

For the third week of Summer of Color, the color inspiration was Baseball Nut ice cream. I wasn't quite sure what color options that the ice cream had, so I used Sherwin Williams new program called Chip It.

After quickly dragging the tool to my favorites bar, I went to the image on Twinkle Twinkle Like a Star (which is hosting the Summer of Color challenge), and rolled the Chip It tool over the picture of the ice cream.

Within seconds, the ice cream photograph along with five paint chip images came up on my screen.

Color chips from Sherwin Williams Chip It! program.

With the paint chip colors in mind, I picked the closest ones that I had for window star paper: purple, red, and white. (The window star paper doesn't come in a wide selection of papers which is unfortunate. I would enjoy seeing what a window star in lilac, rookwood red, and ruby would look like.)

Here are the window stars I made this week:

This one has only two colors and seems a bit more bold than the other two stars:

This one has 16 points and is folded 8 times per point. That's 128 folds to create the pattern:

This one also is a 16-point star, but the points are folded differently than the one above. It has 10 folds per point...so 160 folds to create the pattern:

Do you have a favorite star out the three?

Mint Chocolate Chip Window Stars - Summer of Color -

For the second week in the Summer of Color, the inspiration was mint chocolate chip ice cream. The two colors that participants could use this week were green and black/dark brown.

After using such vivid colors last week (pink, orange, yellow, and white), the green and black/dark brown seemed to be such a contrast...at least in terms of creating window stars.

Nonetheless, I tried a trio of patterns to see what these colors looked like together.

I had two shades of green paper with which to work. The ten-pointed window star below is done in dark green and brown. Initially, I thought it was a rather dark star. Yet, as I look at the three stars I created this week, I think this one is the most balanced, and has a more confident or strong look to it.



The next star I made looks kind of pale and sickly...doesn't it? Kind of just fades into the background.



Then I wanted a star that tied all the colors together. Came up with a nine-point star:



I'm not too crazy about that one either.

So, this is what the trio of stars looks like together this week:



Between last week and this week of the Summer of Color, I definitely like the first week much better. The "rainbow sherbet" stars are much more vibrant than the "mint chocolate chip" stars.



Out of the ones created so far, do you have a color preference (rainbow sherbet or mint chocolate chip)?

What about a favorite pattern? (My favorite pattern out of the six window stars I've done so far as part of Summer of Color is the biggest rainbow sherbet star.)

Window Stars in Sherbet Colors - Summer of Color

Last summer, I participated in the Summer of Color and had a fun time creating a variety of items during the six-week challenge - from window stars to fabric tags to buntings to a quilt. This summer, Kristin is doing  Summer of Color 2 - Ice Cream Inspirations.

For the first week, the challenge was to use the colors of rainbow sherbet - orange, pink, yellow, and white. I thought these would look like pretty colors for a window star, so I did three different patterns.

This one is my favorite one:

Although each of the stars uses the same colors of paper, the points for each one are folded differently.  Also, the arrangement of the colored points is different. I was curious to see how it would affect the outcome of the stars.

The star above has a pink-orange-yellow-white pattern while the star below has a pink-white-yellow-orange pattern.

And this one is pink-orange-white-yellow. I think the color placement does affect the way the stars look (in addition to the way they are folded).

What do you think? Do you have a favorite star or color order?