Congratulations Cory and Pierre!

Cory and Pierre-Paul were married on December 29th, and we are proud to say that we helped with some of the wedding decorations, earlier in the month.
Out of natural materials such as dried leaves (ginko and oak), birch bark, grasses and feathers, Cory had us make very beautiful and unique decorations:

Farewell to Jess [sigh...]

Best of luck to Jess and Daniel, who left us to move to greener pastures in Guelph, Ontario.

We celebrated Jess's parting from us with lots of silly hugs, on December 15th, our last craft gathering of 2010!

We'll miss you, Jess!!

Rainbow Cake for Kaitlin's Birthday

On December 8th, Kaitlin celebrated her birthday, and we surprised her by making her (and fellow December birthday buddy, Sheeva), birthday rainbow cake and cupcakes.

We followed the recipe found by Jess online at the following link:

http://omnomicon.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-make-rainbow-cake.html

Welcome to Canada, Mirna!

Our previously-Spanish Mirna became a Canadian citizen this summer, and in late November we finally had a (surprise!) celebration for her. We all wore red for the occasion (well, some of us may have been more orange than red...), and presented Mirna with a book we put together, a guide on how to be a Canadian.


We red (ooops, I mean "read") Canadian anecdotes by the Canadian writers Will Ferguson and Ian Ferguson ("How to be a Canadian"), and we ate poutine, and pancakes with maple syrup, to initiate Mirna into the native cuisine!

Pretty paper Photo quilts

We did our first field trip together as a craft group back in October, and we went to Ann Arbor (Michigan) to visit the awesome paper craft supply store Hollanders (check out www.hollanders.com). We each came away with lots of gorgeous papers, and about a month later, five of us had created photo quilts (a technique used by Michelle in her art quilts) using some these papers.

Cory used a photo from Peru or Costa Rica (which, Cory?), of lush tropical vegetation, and below is her finished piece. Look at all that textured green-ness at the bottom! There are bits of crafty lichen in there too, among other fibers.



Ellen downloaded a photo of the Portuguese coastline (the Azores), and used the back of one of her pretty papers for a great sunset-in-the-daytime-sky look:



Jess used one of her own photos of Machu Picchu, and brought out the stone walls in the photo to great effect.



Kara made this piece for her grandfather, using one of her own photos. The off-setting of the photo looks great in this piece!



And Mirna downloaded a photo of poppies in the sunset, for a splash of red colour. The black tissue paper with the gold thread she used for her background sets off the reds in the center very nicely!

Jaxon's Halloween Costume: a Ford Flex!

For Halloween this year, Michelle's 3-year old nephew Jaxon asked to be a Ford Flex! So his dad, Jeff, with a little help from Michelle, built him one!

The car started with a skeleton of cardboard, held in place by masking tape. Papier machier was applied to surface to smooth it out, and then the whole thing was spray-painted.


Check out the 3-D tires, and the details on the front and back! The headlights are actual lights taped in through the back (lights that could actually be turned on!). The Ford logo and the licence plate were printed on glossy paper and glued on, and there are bits of yellow reflective tape on both the headlights and tail lights.