The kids have gone to town with these. They love tracing them, cutting the paper out, and writing something on them. This one is my favorite:

That says: “BIL LNUT.” Okay, they are still working on penmanship but it just cracks me up. About two years ago, G took B&B to a high school fair where kids could take pony rides. Bean’s pony was named Goldie and Buddy’s pony was named Belmont. But he couldn’t say Belmont; he called it Belnut. Shortly after that, I got them two stuffed animals: a yellow chick for Bean, and a brown dog for Buddy. We named them Goldie and Belnut. This would be Belnut’s Valentine.

Here is some of Bean’s handiwork:

She is mastering those scissors. Lately, for some reason, she has been writing her letters and words backwards (not here). As in, you have to look in the mirror to read it. What is that? She thinks it’s funny. It takes some talent (in my opinion), but it kind of freaks me out, especially when she laughs about it. Like she’s Dr. Evil concocting some weird alphabet that only she can read.

For Valentine’s Day, I found a Hello Kitty shirt for Bean at Target. It’s sort of ‘Hello Kitty Hooker’ — she has all this *bling* wrapped around her head and neck, but… whatevs. I knew the Bean would love it. I couldn’t find a Superman shirt for Buddy so I bought a plain navy shirt and made a Superman logo with a C instead of an S (using Adobe Illustrator) and ironed it onto the shirt. Now you know that his real name starts with a C. Our cover is blown.

He said he liked it… but that he liked S better. Grrr… Of course, being spiteful like I am, I make him wear it anyway. But c’mon, doesn’t he look pretty happy to you?

This was my first attempt: Bean’s sneakers. I wanted to see if I could make it look like a painting instead of digital art. Eh. Not so much. It still looks like digital art. Maybe if I keep practicing… then again, maybe tablets are just not meant to do that anyway.

Eh. It’s not great or anything, but I like, at least, preserving Bean’s sneaks like this. We were never the shoe-bronzing kind of parents anyway (i.e. we could never get our shit together enough to have it done).

Before

After

The Photoshop laundry list: extend the background on top, clean up the lights, remove the props holding up the tree and the menorah, mess with the colors, and take Buddy’s face and cape from another photo. Also, angle his hands so his candle is touching the star. Oh and touch up both of their feet so his don’t look like his legs are resting on the ground as much and so Bean doesn’t look like she has the feet of a Hobbit.

Here are a couple of outtakes (we took close to 300 photos — thank God for digital cameras):

Waiting patiently for us to set up the shot

They wanted to try some on their scooters too

The only things I bought were some navy blue felt and a menorah. C’est tout!

The type/fonts are carried over from past holiday cards. Here is our 2004 (and first) card. Bean and Buddy are about five months old here:

Bean had a habit of sticking her tongue out so using this shot was a no-brainer. The snowflake and the message (No two snowflakes are ever identical) were G’s idea and I loved it. And Buddy’s face just cracks me up here. That kid was one giggly baby.

We skipped 2005 because we couldn’t get our shit together. So onto our 2006 card:

This was after a year (or two? Maybe that’s why we couldn’t get our shit together the previous year) of listening to these two fight over EVERY. SINGLE. THING. Around this age was when I frequently told them to, “Work it out,” because I had no more energy to referee. I would hear one of them in the next room counting to ten, waiting for the other one to drop the toy they wanted. Remarkably, that worked… For a little while at least. G came up with this message too (World peace can’t be too far behind), and it was so à propos. Good, isn’t he?

Blah blah blah… is this interesting to anyone? I feel like I’m boasting or providing info that people could care less about. Well, I like to get ideas from others so maybe it’ll spark some creative juices in someone out there. I really wouldn’t be able to do this without Photoshop though, so Adobe, I thank you.

Next up: bragging about the very cool and crafty gifts my cool and crafty SIL makes for her nieces and nephews.

To be honest, it was a bit of a pain in the ass, but that was partly because I had never used Sculptamold before (I was looking for some papier mâché type of material, but JoAnn’s didn’t have it), and partly because I could only find a couple of other people online who had used it to make a mask. I guess most people use it to build scenery for model train sets.

Benefits of Sculptamold:
* easy to sculpt/mold
* lightweight
* dries quickly

Cons of Sculptamold:
* need to sand A LOT for a smooth surface
* dries quickly

Materials used:
- Sculptamold Modeling Compound (from JoAnn Fabrics)
- Salad plate (~size of Bean’s face) or similar type of bowl
- Newspaper to spread on table
- Aluminum foil
- Saran Wrap
- Tape
- Paper bowls or old plastic bowl
- Paper cups
- Toothpicks
- Box cutter
- Sanding blocks
- Pink felt fabric
- String
- Nail
- FIMO clay
- Paint (white, black, yellow for nose if needed)/paintbrush
- Gesso
- Optional: rubber gloves (I got a box from Costco)

1. Shape two crescent moons from aluminum foil and tape these down on opposite sides of the plate. (This is to make Hello Kitty’s face more elliptical than round.)

2. Place Saran Wrap on salad plate and tape underneath. (Ignore the fact that you don’t see the crescent-shaped aluminum foil in this photo. You are benefiting from my mistakes.)

3. Mix two parts Sculptamold to one part water in bowl (I had a plastic bowl lying around, but I would use paper bowls next time for reason listed in step 5). Also, rubber gloves make cleanup easier.

Note: The Sculptamold is really lumpy. Mix well so water seeps into compound or else you’ll end up with air pockets, but don’t expect the lumps to go away completely.

4. Add layer of compound on top of Saran Wrap. After about 10 minutes, you will notice it forming. It won’t be hard, but it won’t be goopy anymore. (This was about when I lifted the Saran Wrap to tape down the crescent foils underneath the mask that I had forgotten before.)

5. Wait several hours to dry almost completely. In the meantime, if you are using a plastic bowl to mix the compound, clean and remove as much residue from the mixing bowl as you can.

Note: If your mixing bowl has any dried compound when you mix your next batch, the drying time is much faster, which is the reason I would use paper bowls next time.

6. Once its mostly dry, remove from plate and turn over. Using aluminum foil, sculpt Hello Kitty’s ears (make them slightly smaller so you can build the compound onto it). Stick one side of a toothpick into each ear and stick other sides into the mostly-dry mask.

Note: Stick gently. This is about where the chin cracked, and I had to mix more compound to mend it up.

Here is part of the mess I made.

7. Repeat mixing process, and add compound to ears. Let dry and repeat as many times as necessary. (Since I am impatient, I added two very heavy layers, and stuck it in the oven to cure at the recommended temperature.)

Note: Take note of what you are using to build your mask if you are going to stick it in the oven. Don’t cover Mr. Potato Head’s plastic nose with Sculptamold and then stick that in your oven.

After taking a break for a week or so and making sure the mask was completely set, this is what I had:

8. Use box cutter to nip/tuck HK’s face. (The lumps and the shape were driving me crazy, so I shaved and shaved until I made sure she was more horizontal than round and she looked like she had just had no less than ten face peels.)

9. Make HK paper mask — same size as your Sculptamold mask (I found image online and enlarged until it was the same size, then printed out). Measure space between mask-wearer’s eyes and make sure eyeholes are spaced correctly. Trace holes through paper mask onto Sculptamold mask and use box cutter to carefully cut out.

10. Sand, sand, sand. (I sanded until G looked at me like I had lost my mind and he told me the mask was smoother than Bean’s real face, and then I sanded more. And more after that.)

11. Sew a bow with pink felt, and thread thick string through it.

12. Use nail to make two holes under the ear to hold bow (I couldn’t figure out how else to attach it).

13. Use nail to make holes on each side of the mask, underneath the ears, to hold elastic.

14. Paint mask white. (Seems stupid, but there were all kinds of markings from the sanding and everything.) Let dry.

15. Make nose out of FIMO clay, oven dry, paint if necessary, and super glue it to mask.

16. Draw whiskers on mask lightly with pencil. Mask off with painter’s tape, and paint black. Remove tape. Let dry.

17. Use gesso to coat entire mask. (This gave it that very shiny coating, hardened it and made it much more durable.) Let dry.

18. Tie elastic through side holes. Measure head of mask-wearer to get correct size. (I used two thin ones because the store didn’t have thick elastic left.)

19. When I tried the mask on myself, it was hella uncomfortable. So I found some muslin and made padding to make it more comfortable for Bean. I super glued these on. In the end, she only wore it for half an hour, max. But she did end up wearing it on her forehead/top of her head, and I think the padding helped there at least.

And here she is… Miss Hello Kitty:

I also sewed a dress for Bean out of the pink felt with some pink heart buttons. It only took me an hour and a half to make, and I’m a horrible sewer so truly, anyone can do this.

Also, before I committed to sewing the bow, I took Bean to JoAnn’s and she picked out a flower. I tied string to it so now she has two options: Regular HK or Aloha HK.

…Holy shit, am I done? Did anyone get to the end of this? If you do make your own mask, please share pictures and any of your own tips. And if you do proceed with your own mask — Hello Kitty or otherwise — I hope this helped a little and didn’t scare you off completely.

Good luck!

P.S. In case you’re wondering, I’m having Hello Kitty’s head stuffed and put on a plaque to hang on Bean’s wall.

I like to make things, I like to be creative, and I can be halfass too. Sometimes this manifests itself in incomplete projects; sometimes it manifests itself in cut corners in order to complete a project. I also have grandiose ideas, e.g. reupholstering random pieces of furniture in our apartment. Whether that idea ever becomes reality is a question. Whether this studio section becomes defunct in six months due to lack of activity is a question too. Half. Ass.

Thanks for visiting! Stay tuned for some projects. I hope.