Seagull

     Today just feels like a good day for a picture of a seagull. You never know where you are going to see one.

Shadow Puppets

For Christmas this year I have made my niece Mallory a puppet theatre to go along with the sock puppets that I made her last year. I made the theatre in a way that she could also use it for shadow puppets. Mallory doesn't have any shadow puppets as far as I know , so of course, I had to make some. Here are some puppets for the story of the Three Little Pigs. I also made the pigs' houses. My three kids did a test run of the theatre and the puppets last night. They laughed and giggled as they performed their own versions of the story. I will take that as a high recommendation for this as a gift.

Big Christmas Papercut

     I made this as a table centerpiece out of poster board. It is just over 1 foot high and 1 1/2 feet wide. I added flaps on the back so that it is self standing. I wanted to show Joseph helping to hold the Christ child. I think  too many nativities show Joseph as being an aloof observer of this miracle. How could he have not been profoundly moved?

DECEMBER ATCs

I made two different groups of ATCs this month. The first was a series of paper ornaments. The above is a picture of one of them. I was thinking of those wonderful glass ornaments that they made 50 or 60 years ago that were round but indented on one side. I have always liked those ornaments. The inside color was made by melting crayon shavings between two pieces of waxed paper. This gives it the look of stained glass.
The other ATCs took me a little longer to make. We had to make Christmas books with papercuts. I decided to use the first verse of the carol Good King Wenceslas. The book needed more than just the cut to make it work, so I added watercolor to it. The following are all the pages in the book.



I liked the way it turned out, but I think I could spend some time on my handwriting.