Make a stained glass house using cellophane

A while ago, a cousin sent me a beautiful faux stained glass panel that her friend made using colored cellophane and a picture frame.  I've since lost the photo, but every so often I keep thinking back to that image and wanting to make my own faux stained glass using cellophane.

Here's a fun kids' craft that I came up with:  a 3D stained glass house constructed out of cellophane and plastic containers:

Materials:
- paper
- pencil
- scissors
- clean and dry plastic lids (sturdier plastic works better than flimsier plastic)
- Mod Podge
- foam brush
- different colored cellophane (you could probably substitute colored tissue paper too)
- clear tape

Directions:
1.  Cut out your six house pieces. (I cut them out of paper first to make sure everything fit and then traced my paper shapes onto plastic lids.)  You'll need two same-sized "house" shaped pieces for the front and back, two rectangles for the roof,  and two rectangles for the side of your house.  (I ended up making the two side and two roof pieces four identical squares so that I wouldn't have to worry too much about measuring.)

2.  Cut out random small pieces of cellophane.  I chose to cut out hearts and rectangles.

3.  Cover your work area.  Use your foam brush and Mod Podge the cellophane onto your house pieces.  Don't worry if the cellophane dangles off the edges.

 4. After the Mod Podge dries, trim any excess hanging cellophane pieces.  Your cellophane will dry crinkled, but that's ok.

 5.  Tape your pieces together to create a house.  (I first taped the pieces into the flat arrangement below.  Then, I bent and taped the pieces into their final 3D house shape.  I also made sure that the Mod Podged cellophane pieces were facing inside my stained glass house.  I figured this way the cellophane wouldn't rub off as easily.)

 Voila!  Done.  I think this would be a really fun craft to do with kids.  It's a different take on the traditional stained glass or sun catcher craft.    Let me know if you try it out!

Two days in New York

This past week I got a chance to tour Manhattan for two whole days.  (!!!!)  Hubby took me around town to celebrate my birthday (yay!) and then I showed our aunt around town another day.  It was such a nice treat to wear my "nice" clothes (aka non-mommy-stained-t-shirts) and see the city I love.

Here are some photos from my New York adventures:

Delicious breakfast at Cafe Lalo (famous from the movie "You've got mail.")

Sneakily taking a photo during a wedding photo shoot at Central Park's Bethesda Terrace

One of my travel companions

Fresh flowers at Union Square Farmers Market

Ethiopian food served at Massawa Ethiopian Restaurant

No idea where I shot these flowers, but I love them because they remind me of an old painting

Best. Popsicle. Ever.  (People's Pops on the High Line)  I left feeling inspired to re-try popsicle-making this summer

Beautiful mural seen on the High Line

Three Pie Face meat pies. Yurrrmmy.

Tiny New York City from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.

Homemade watercolor paints

Yesterday it rained a whooole lot.

Luckily, my homemade watercolor paints finally set (after two days of waiting), so Chuck and I spent the morning painting.

Overall, the directions I used were pretty good, but I made two changes:
1.  I only used half of the materials recommended... and I still had plenty of water color paints.
2.  I added drops of food coloring to each of the ice cube trays.  (Looking back, maybe I should have compensated for the extra liquid by adding a bit more cornstarch to shorten my drying time.)





As you can see, Chuck enjoyed painting.  He also enjoyed repeatedly dipping the Q-tips into the water... and sneakily trying to drink the dirty water.  (Ick.)  I probably had more fun painting than he did because I was so delighted that the paints actually worked.

Here are our two joint paintings:

The paints weren't chalky when they dried.  We'll probably cut up the cards to make a birthday card for a niece.  Right now the leftover paints are sitting in the fridge.  We'll keep using them throughout the week because I'm curious how long they'll last.    

UPDATE:  5/24- I pulled the paints out of the fridge yesterday and they were rock hard.  I was worried, but after I didn't need to be.  After adding a couple drops of water into each well, they became paints again.  The colors didn't seem as vibrant as before, so Chuck and I ditched the q-tips and just used our fingers to paint. We got some lovely results.  Now they're back in the fridge again, and I'll pull them out in another couple of weeks to see if they last.

Have you ever tried to make homemade watercolors before?