This post brought to you courtesy of the creativity of the ever-crafty Lulu.
Last Friday I spent the morning descending into the internet hell of IP addresses that would not work, computer settings improperly changed, baffling terms like DNS and PPPoe and DHCP, and several futile phone calls to a so-called service provider who would not help me unless I paid $99 for some service.
I asked Lulu if she would please do something with Mr. T so he would not be totally ignored as I descended further and further into the depths.
Look at what she came up with.
That’s a Christmas ornament for one of Mr. T’s friends. Made with Pokemon cards.
Lulu came up with the project herself. She’d seen something similar, done with photos, in the fabulously fun book I’d bought for her, Photojojo: Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas. Somehow she decided that the same idea would work for her brother’s beloved Pokemon cards.
Martha Stewart, I know she’s only 14 and all, but you really oughta hire this girl.
She showed me how she did it, and a few days later (and a few minor yet essential computer settings discovered and changed), I helped Mr. T make a few more. We adapted the basic Photojojo instructions, as per Lulu’s advice. I drew four lines, each half an inch apart on the cards. Mr. T cut along the lines, and I punched the holes. (That part is tough for little hands.)
Mr. T lined up the card strips (a fun little puzzle) and inserted the brads. Two cards made each ornament. According to T, both cards should be of the same color, and the yarn tie must match. Must match.
Oops, he’s got the brads in backwards there. We also had to fold the brad tips in half after bending them, as they were rather long.
Voila!
As I helped Mr. T spread Charizard Christmas cheer, Lulu was up to something new.
She’s stitching up a voodoo doll. Of the actor Robert Pattinson from the Twilight films. Lulu and her friends are Twilight-crazed, but apparently not crazy for Pattinson.
Lulu also found this project in her Photojojo book. I wished I’d gotten better photos of the dolls, with the pins and all, but Lulu snatched them away and wrapped them up before I ever got a chance.
I think the gifts were a hit. All I know is that yesterday at the park, when she passed out three of these dolls to her friends, I heard the most ear-ravaging set of teenage girls’ screams.
Leave me a comment, Martha, and I’ll pass along her number.
The ornament has pride of place. Intensely crafty, is Miss L. What’s she going to do without all this free time in a year?
Don’t remind me that she won’t have time for Pokemon ornaments or voodoo dolls next year. Then again, crafty people know how to get crafty about finding craft time.
WONDERFUL! She is so talented. (BTW, Miss Rh and I went to the Nutcracker at the Julia Morgan Theater and she asked if L would be dancing. She remembered the stage!)
This is the first time in five years that L isn’t in that Nutcracker. She and I went to see it last week, and it kinda killed me not to see her up there. Her friends are dancing the solo roles this year. But she wanted to move on from ballet…
I’ll bet Julia Morgan would be proud that Rh remembered her stage.
L is so clever and she looks like an art student heading to Paris in her black outfit.
And she can go to Paris, if she takes her mother.
Brilliant! I may try something like that with old photos, which I’m guessing was the original idea?
Love the voodoo dolls, too. And they make me especially happy, again, that we seem to have missed the Twilight craze by virtue of appropriate child gender/age spacing. 🙂
Have a wonderful holiday.
Well, hi Susan! So nice to hear from you!
Yes, the original idea was for photo ornaments. Follow the photojojo link in my post and it will show you how to do it.
You missed the Twilight phase? You lucky duck. L and her friends talk about it so much that they make the other AOHL teens crazy. In fact one of those boys–15-year-old whose name starts with an A–is writing a story for our writing workshop. It’s “a parody of Twilight by someone who has never read the book”. It’s solely based on what he’s heard from a gaggle of gabbing girls. Funny, funny stuff.
love it all! aidan is currently going through all his pokemon cards. i don’t think they’ve seen the light of day for over a year! i told him about the ornaments, but he’s going to try and sell them. such an entrepreneur! love those edward dolls 🙂
What? He’d rather sell than craft? Doesn’t he take after his mama?
Hope you had a lovely Christmas, friend.
Fantastic projects! I’m so glad I got to see what she was working on now that I’m coming up for air. Wish I’d known about your internet woes–I probably could’ve helped out.
Barrie, I’m sure it didn’t seem like it to you, but to me it just seemed like you were gone so suddenly! I’m so sorry to see you and your kids go. L is sorry too.
Best of luck in your new home town! Hope to keep in touch, virtually.
I just love how your kids take pop culture and do something original with it. The voodoo dolls crack me up. I wonder if Robert Pattinson will find your blog and object to the voodoo dolls. The ornaments look great. The layout of the cards give them a pleasing pattern.
If Robert Pattinson shows up, I’ll just poke his doll with a pin to get rid of him.
Oh no, I can’t! Lulu gave them all away!