We interupt the hustle and bustle of getting a fabric debut and quilt market set ready…..(because frankly, I’m a little slap happy, and need a good play break) and bring to you….

More paper dolls! We love paper dolls at our house. And it’s about high time that there were new ones for you!  I have never made magnetic paper dolls before (I know a lot of you do!) and now I’m hooked.

I printed them out onto magnetic printer paper, and voila! I guess you can also use magnetic craft paper and glue the doll down and cut out around the edges. This brings a whole new level to paper doll playing. Seriously. This is high tech.

I have a magnetic board for the kids where we post charts, and notes. But initially, the idea came to use a cookie sheet. Too bad I have the same cookie sheets since my bridal shower, and they are rather beat up and well loved. Not much magnetic stick left!

Magnetic dolls are so great, because they make it really fun and easy to “set” up. This collection has small little cups and treats that are fun to layer up and play with from a cookie sheet, or hanging magnetic board.

And here is a little doll and outfit FREE! The gingham blanket is so fun as a magnet:)

It’s been forever since I’ve grabbed some Children at Play fabric to sew with. It was so nice to grab some of this again. Drawstring bags are a no-fuss sew, and now we can keep them off the floor:)

Have fun playing! I’m off to whirl and twirl and prep for another quilt market show! I’ll be spilling the beans soon…but you know the drill. No peeking until it’s done:)

FREE DOWNLOADABLE doll & outfit HERE

PURCHASE FULL TEA TIME PICNIC  HERE

Last night I got together with some ladies in my neighborhood to make some Easter Surprise balls! This is the kind of thing that is perfect to do in a group. The idea has come from multiple sources, namely this one.

But instead of an empty ball, my friend Stephanie decided to use these darling tie-it-on-your-bum-and-look-like-the-Easter-Bunny-cottontails as the center of the Surprise Ball.  Stephanie made these darling cotton tails, and I can’t wait to see my kids with these:)

The idea is that inside every layer of crepe paper, is a new surprise. Place a toy or prize on the ball, and wrap with one long strand of crepe paper.  Keeping the prizes small and either compact or moldable is great!

We mostly used sheets of crepe paper, and cute them in strips. They handle better, and don’t rip as easily.

Then comes the filling!

Merillee made these darling stickers, and Alison brought felt wool bunnies (who by the way have amazing–no AMAZING–blogs. Yeow!)

Oh, and I skipped the firecracker:) Could be rather fun for the older ones!

I made these little paper bunnies, with a free download here.

It would be fun to make other shapes too…like a carrot, or a bunny shape. Have fun with it!

Finish is off with a sticker, and it’s ready for the Easter Basket!

Here’s the FREE DOWNLOAD if you want to make some little cut out friends. They are really not very useful except to just play with and decorate with. Simple, Simple!

And PS:

I’ve been hinting at showing you some fabric peeks, but alas, I made a mistake in telling you too soon. I’ll need to wait till we get closer to May….but I promise it’s coming! Sorry. Please don’t hate me:(

Also, the Children at Play paper line is releasing in May as well! Meh. More waiting…sorry! But I have more fun stuff to fill in the gaps, so no worries.

Back to the art table! xoxo

Guess what I got in the mail on friday! I went to my door step to find one big box of my new fabric collection (more on that later…) and a box full of the book that I illustrated just a few months ago! Talk about good mail days lately:)

I’ve mentioned French Kids Eat Everything before, and now it’s finally time to introduce you to it. It will be your new best friend. Seriously. It’s Karen’s story of moving to her husband’s native France, in a small town, and adapting (albeit unwillingly) to the culture of food in relation to parents teaching children how to eat. It’s amazing. This is really aimed at parents and how to see family eating in an entirely new light. I got a copy of the manuscript for me to review, and I almost had to remind myself to stop reading and start drawing cause I loved it so much.

Here are some pics from the book that are my favorites.

It’s such a charming and witty story Karen has: adapting and learning how to change her parenting based on all the good she sees in children there, and the way they think about food.

Things like no snacking (it spoils your appetite for the main meal!)  No upsetting pressures to “eat all your food” at the dinner table. No bribing with food, and how to really enjoy a family meal…most nights of the week.

We’ve implemented most of the rules now for a while. The children are so much more aware of what they eat, how they eat and are so much more respectful of what they eat.

When the design team decided to put this inside illustration onto the back cover, I kinda freaked out. Only because this is exactly how I write things at home…my own list making handwriting. So it was a bit shocking to see my own “undesigned” handwriting on the back cover of a book. I don’t know…kinda like seeing yourself on TV or something….it just feels weird

I hope you enjoy reading it. I’d love to know your thoughts! Karen has a blog, and is very passionate about giving information to parents on how to make changes in the American culture that we live in.

And did I mention that there are recipes in the back?

Um. Yes. There are recipes. Simple, flavorful, perfect for kids, meant to be savored recipes.

(But I have to insert an EDIT HERE: The book very strongly encourages healthy, whole food eating for families. And while this recipe is a dessert, most of the recipes and information in the book suggest that the French eat a wide variety of foods and focus on quality ingredients. This recipe has 3 ingredients: Fresh eggs, semi-sweet chocolate pieces and orange zest. While it’s a treat, it’s served in very small quantities and is meant to represent the idea that even deserts use whole food ingredients, rather than processed and overly sweet. I must add this disclaimer, as I’m not going to review the entire book for you, and don’t want you to think that this is some kind of “eat what you want” book. Rather it’s meant to encourage real cooking and whole, unprocessed foods in schools and at home.)

The book is full of experiences and information about feeding your children “real” ingredients, real food, and how children learn to appreciate food and ingredients. And I have a certain new favorite recipe now.

Kenneth is always coming up with amazing food around here, and I’m rather spoiled. Like, as I’m writing this, he just came down to the studio with a slice of a new bread he tried out: his own variation of the Amish Friendship bread. But honestly…sorry Ken.  The Mousse au Chocolate recipe in the book that is honestly my favorite dessert now. Hands down.

The kids agree.

It takes maybe 10 minutes to make, so simple and outright sinful.

Anyways…I was so lucky to illustrate a book that I was completely in support of. I’d be writing about it even if I wasn’t ask to illustrate it…just not this early…cause it comes out next week.

(And I need to say too, that I don’t get a cent more if you buy it. I am just really happy to have come across this book!)

I’m just so grateful to have been part of this experience. I’m not always proud of things I do…I’m really critical of my work, and I take great thought into what I choose to spend my time on. So opening that box of printed pages on friday was a real treat. I really hope that this helps parents find new ways to have genuinely happy eating as a family.

Bon Appetite and Enjoy!!

I think a lot of how children play. I marvel at it. I wonder at it. Getting inside their minds and seeing all the amazing worlds they are creating.  I guess it’s a good thing I do what I do: raise children, make things and draw for them. I seriously consider myself lucky every single day. It’s seriously the most beautiful thing to observe a child at play.

Here’s our photo journal of play this past month.

Here’s my ode to childhood imagination, as promised with a sketch for each post.

There is so much going on in those minds. Amazing what goes on in their world.

PS: Shop update coming very soon:) Stay tuned!

Ok. So there are 11 days until Valentines Day. I’m lucky if I have presents for Christmas 11 days before. Valentines day always sneaks up on me, and I’m never prepared. I’m always stuck getting something left over in the grocery store isle, and so this year, I’ve decided to beat the battle.

Printables! I can’t even tell you how much fun I had making these.

So this whole package includes 8 pages of printed goodness: 2 styles of printable envelopes, tags (2×3 inches), and cards (size 4×4 inches) and 2 sheets of printable paper (hearts and gingham) that you can use for extra card making, wrapping, cut outs, etc.

So, just as an FYI….these two friends were the inspiration for me when I started my ETSY shop! Remember this precious image, and this one? Well, I kinda have been busy illustrating other stuff, and they have been bugging me BIG TIME to get out more. So, I hope you enjoy Wellesley & Winslow for your Valentines Festivities!

So, these are PDF printables, and because of the file size, they are ONLY available on the website, not the ETSY shop. On the website, you will get an AUTOMATIC email notice with the download instructions once you purchase.

And….I’m only going to be offering this through Valentines Day!! 11 days only!!

So, hurry and get them now. I’m not sure that I’ll be putting these back up.

So cute! Even my 6 year old boy got excited about these. No joke. This might just inspire me to have a little Valentine Tea Party this year. Ooooh! I can’t wait:)

CLICK HERE for the printables.

Have fun!!

Making paper puppets is a wee bit too much fun. Maybe it’s because it’s when I really get to see my art come alive with my kids! That’s also probably why I love illustrating books and fabric so much, because I get to see children handling and playing with the art.

For A Christmas Goodnight, I’ve made some fun coloring pages and paper puppets to go with the story. I think you’ll have fun making up all sorts of uses for these!

A Christmas Goodnight tells the simple story of a little boy saying “Goodnight” to all the characters in the Nativity…

Goodnight to the Baby in the hay

Goodnight to the doves, coo-coo

Goodnight to the sleepy Mother

Goodnight to Joseph too

But you don’t realize it’s the little boy saying goodnight until the very end, and it’s just a charming read.

COLORING PAGES

Download here.

So, what I did, was create 2 pages of characters and objects from the book, so you can create your own interactions and say “goodnight” as well! Some ideas for you:

1) Color in each character as you read the story

2) Make your own ornaments, and hang on the tree as you read the story to your children

2) Back with felt and make a felt board scene.

3) Make your own Christmas Goodnight scene and glue the pictures to the “Starry Night” backdrop I made for the puppet theater.

4) Play a “Find and Seek” game and while you read, have your child go seek the cut out character from around the room, to place on the tree, or in a scene.

DOWNLOAD THE COLORING PAGES HERE

Nativity Puppet Theater

Download here.

The Puppet Theater is simple, but really fun to set up!

In the book, I designed a very starry sky for that magical Christmas night.  We usually imagine that night with the ONE new star  in the sky. But while that star is the brightest, I imagined that if I were a star, I’d want to shine the brightest for Baby Jesus too! So, it’s a starry night…full of stars that all want to shine their best!

This little scene is perfect for acting out and can even be added too with the coloring page characters, if you want to add more!

DOWNLOAD THE PUPPET THEATER HERE.

But right now…I really just want to say thank you!!

Thank you for all your sweet email, comments, notes and support. I’ve loved hearing how you have wrapped this up under the tree….or that you’ve already read it to your little children. Creating my very first book around the best story ever told, was such a wonderful challenge! Wonderful because best story ever told, but challenging because it also the most TOLD story ever told. How do you illustrate a story that EVERYONE knows, and loves? It was very daunting and very intimidating for much of the process. But in the end, I just feel honored to have illustrated this story! It’s simple and unassuming…yet warm and magical. All how that night must have been.

And to say Thank You,

I thought we could have a little GIVEAWAY!!

All you need to do, is leave a comment below, and I’ll choose THREE winners to get  a signed copy of the book, as well as  the “For Unto You” print, unframed. Or, any print of your choice. But I thought these would go well together!

TO ENTER:

1) Leave one comment below (making sure to leave your email in the comment form)

2) Like this giveaway on Facebook here.

3) Tweet about the giveaway or book using #christmasgoodnight  My twitter is here.

4) Comments will be closed Monday night at midnight (EST)

5) USA and International welcome!

6) I’ll total up the number of tweets, comments and facebook likes to randomly select the winner.

7) But in the mean time…print off these coloring pages and have some fun this weekend!

Enjoy!

Thanks again! I hope you are all getting into the Christmas Spirit! Love to you all!!

xo

sarah

 COMMENTS CLOSED!

Ok. I am officially giddy over this post.

We’ve been up to a little something here in the studio…me and the elves  kids have been feverishly creating a little Nutcracker world, and we’re all a bunch of giddy little sugar plums over it.

I’ve been wanting to make these for a while, and I just couldn’t wait any longer. This weekend we were decorating gingerbread houses and watching the Maurice Sendak version of the Nutcracker with the Pacific Northwest Ballet. And the kids were glued. We’ve been acting it out ever since!

So we made this Puppet Theater set. I say “we” because it was really a joint effort. The kids would play, and I’d draw it out, and we’d imagine together what all the characters looked like.

Here’s a little video of us putting these together. It’s taken with my iphone (note to self…always hold the phone horizontal, not vertical when making movies!)

I’m getting a little obsessed with imovie. I used it for the first time last night making this…and um….I can see a lot more of these in my future. So super easy and fun!

So. This is what we’ve done. we’ve made the these PDF downloads (like the Peter and the Wolf Puppet Theater kit that has been so, so popular) and I’m including the story and music clips below so that you can act out the story right here! There are 13 characters…enough for literally hours of play.

*Disclaimers:

1) Not all characters were created. I had to stop somewhere!

2) These should be cut out by an adult. They do have tiny parts, and so give yourself some time to carefully cut

3) This is a DOWNLOAD only. Instructions are included in the download for printing, brads, etc.

You can purchase the PDF download here.

So…are you ready? Get out your dolls….and play along!

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

THE NUTCRACKER SUITE

ACT I 

PARTY SCENE

The Overture

Clara’s family is having a Christmas party.  She and her little brother Fritz dance and decorate the tree.  Soon Clara’s mysterious Uncle Drosselmeyer arrives and gives her a special toy nutcracker.  Fritz pretending to be a soldier, breaks the Nutcrackers jaw and the doll is broken.  As Clara cries, kind Drosselmeyer ties his scarf around the Nutcracker and fixes him.

CLARA DANCES WITH HER NUTCRACKER

Clara and the Nutcracker

Clara Dances with her Nutcracker.  Relieved her new toy is fixed, Clara dances with the Nutcracker and pretends he is really a hansom prince.

THE MOUSE KING AND NUTCRACKER FIGHT

The Battle

Clara falls asleep and shrinks to the size of the toys.  The Mouse King appears and the Nutcracker comes alive to defend Clara.  The Nutcracker fights bravely, but after a long battle the Mouse King knocks the Nutcracker to the ground.  Clara throws her shoe at the Mouse King and distracts him long enough for the Nutcracker to kill him.          

CLARA AND THE PRINCE DANCE

Pas de Deux

The Nutcracker becomes a hansom prince and dances with Clara.

TRAVEL THROUGH THE SNOWY WOOD

Waltz of the Snowflakes

The Nutcracker Prince and Clara travel through a snowy forest on the way to his Kingdom.  Snow fairies and the Snow Queen dance all around them.

ACT II: LAND OF THE SWEETS

Clara and the Nutcracker Prince arrive in the Land of Sweets.  Sweets from around the world come to dance in turn for Clara, and thank her for defeating the Mouse King.

ARABIAN DANCE

Arabian Dance

CHINESE DANCE

Chinese Dance

 RUSSIAN DANCE

Russian Dance

WALTZ OF THE FLOWERS

Waltz of the Flowers

SUGAR PLUM FAIRY

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

FINAL WALTZ

Drosselmeyer joins Clara and the Prince as everyone dances together.  Clara and the Prince are crowned rulers of the Land of Sweets.  (In some early versions Clara stays in the Land of Sweets and the ballet ends.  In others the prince takes her home, or she wakes up in bed with the doll in her arms realizing it was all a dream.  Pick the ending you like best.  I’ve never seen two identical productions. )

THE END

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

Wasn’t that fun? I am feeling like I’m 7 again…all tingly and magical. Gosh, I love this music!

I had so much fun making this….I might even add more characters next year, but this, I think, is plenty! And look! They even can double as Christmas Ornaments when you are done. Or for practicing your ballet positions in your spare time!

YOU CAN PURCHASE THE PDF DOWNLOAD HERE.

Really. Paper Toys are so under rated. These kept my 5 year old boy busy all weekend. Gotta love paper dolls.

Merry Christmas!

xo

sarah jane

The past few Halloweens, we’ve started some fun making traditions. Remember these and these?

Well, we’ve also made these haunted houses, and I figured I should document it and let you in on some fun too!

So far this month, we’ve made about a dozen of these…so  many that they have even stapled them together and turned them into “Haunted House Book” collection. Each page sports a new variety of spooky things in the window. This is hours of entertainment for sure!

You can download the PDF download that I made here, and follow the instructions. But just to prove that it’s simple and easy, here are some picture ‘how-to’s’

Cut out the template and trace onto black paper

Cut out the black paper (with yellow underneath to make a really cool candle it window effect!) We’ve traditionally just mounted these on white paper…so either way works!

Remove the yellow paper, and cut out the windows with an exacto knife

Glue

…and then draw spooky window creatures!

There are really endless options with this template, so have fun!

And here is Ian saying “ONE picture mom. Just one!” What? I like to take a lot of pictures? No.

Have so much fun!

Here’s the download for ya:

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE

DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS

Happy Halloween!

Bonjour mes amis!

All things French have been on my mind lately.

I’m typing this blog post while my husband is grading papers, and we are both listening to Julia Child’s TV re-runs (Jacque & Julia to be exact) of how to make Vichyssoise from Potato Leek Soup. (Oh! How I love that woman. I could listen to her voice all day.)

I’ve been a lover of the French language and the cultures of all French speaking countries since I can remember. As I child, I loved hearing my dad speak the language to me, or to others he met who could actually speak back to him! I started taking French lessons at school in 5th grade, and now that my daughter is in a French Immersion Elementary school, I’m starting to resurface my love of all things French!

And then just last week, I finished illustrating a book (Harper Collins, April 2012) on a Canadian family’s move to France and the lessons they learned while adopting the French culture of food and eating. More on that later…but I’ve been absorbing myself in French food, French books, French music…

And since our pocket books and life with little ones prevents any sort of travel these days, absorbing myself in the culture has been my travel bug medicine. At least for now!

When I started making paper dolls, it was a huge hit. But I kinda fell off the bandwagon (easy to do!) but these are seriously so fun and such a great play time activity, and I am reintroducing paper toys again. With the holidays brewing, I hope to have more!

But these are making me happy. Since I have resigned fashion design to a hobby in my next life (that and like a whole strew of other things I want to get my hands in), designing paper clothes will just have to do. It’s really so much fun!

This collections is called “My First Trip to Paris.” Addie asks about going to Paris or Switzerland someday, and while I know it won’t be any time soon, I do dream of big hair bows and blue and white stripes. These children are picking up food and flowers from the market, playing with the street monkey and his accordion and getting read for their first painting class.

Each clothing collection now comes with a set of dolls, boy and girl…or you can just get the whole set of dolls and clothes I’ve made over the years.

Enjoy! Allons-y!

**These paper dolls are PDF downloads only, so no shipping, just print them out on your own and voila! In the shop here. **

This week on Project Run and Play, the theme is BOYS!!! And you can go and vote for your favorite BOY outfits. I am a little biases, and I’m voting for these Children at Play patterns. Talk about amazing! Those flannel PJ’s I am SURE are going to be just as cute on my husband…I mean really? I want some too!

So go and vote soon! Loving it all you guys…I am getting inspired to make more fabric by just watching what you all make every day. Love you all!

xo

sarah