The snowman's done! He will go out in the mail Monday to my friend Mimi who is collecting handmade, unbreakable ornaments to adorn the 200 trees her group is sending overseas to decorate mess halls of our troops during the holiday season. I hope he brings a bit of home to folks who are in harm's way for our country's sake. Here's the back side. You can see better here that the Fantasticfoam gives the ornament a padded pillow look. It's quite light-weight, too, which is a good thing for ornaments that have to be sent quite a distance.
What did I learn from this design? Despite the ease of drawing a snowman, I'm no artist. His face near the scarf needs rounding out and the scarf blows the wrong way. I knew that when I drew it but I was working in a small space since I grabbed a scrap through my stock of them and there wasn't room to put the scarf the way it should go. However, it turned out ok.
I also learned that to have a really plush turkeywork-style beard you need at least 10 empty rows. I only had three rows at the edge of the stocking cap which is rather skimpy. It looks fine--our snowman is going to be in a hot climate probably, after all--but I'll remember the need for elbow room to give this stitch space to look its best the next time I want to use it. And if I don't have that room, I'll use another thread or technique to get a fur effect.
Here are the other ornaments heading out with the snowman, courtesy of a wonderful lady who rummaged around her stock of ornaments and found these to donate. They are mostly beaded perforated paper and they are lovely--nothing is too good for our troops!
My husband's Christmases in the military were just another day, with not even a hot meal. I'm doing my best to keep that from happening to this generation of military men and women.
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
4 comments:
Hi Jane,
Where did you find the Fantasticfoam? did you find it easier to use than other products?
Denise
Denise, I bought sheets of the Fantasticfoam at my local crafts emporium, Ben Franklin's. It was in a section of its own because this stuff (it comes in 8 1/2 x 11 sheets in a variety of colors and is acid free) is cut into shapes and layered into signs, letters, etc. I normally pad my ornaments with a bit of quilt batting and this is definitely easier to use. Just cut it with scissors to the shape you want. It seems to be called craft foam. Here are sheets, pre-cut shapes, etc. Try to get the acid free type if possible. I think it comes in various thicknesses but my local crafts place only had one thickness available.
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat3156
He is so cute! Nice job! I get the Craft Foam at Michael's.Tons of colors!
I got mine at Ben Franklin's. Fantasticfoam is acid-free but I bet many of the other brands are also.
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