decoupage a valentine post box

Above is a traditional, Valentine mailbox made
from a shoebox. (Note. The heavenly, halo effect around the
Valentine mailbox is necessary for proper interpretation.)

Brief Description: During my own childhood, Valentine's Day was celebrated in school with ambitious dedication. Every child took great care to design a shoe box that would reflect one's superior crafting skill and every teacher would complain about the wasted time given them during school. Annually homeroom teachers would beg the art teacher or parents to take over the craft, but to no avail. Kiddom would not allow the Valentine custom to die out; the making of the mail boxes was almost equal to the "sanctity" of Santa Claus, but not quite.

Supply List:

•  one shoe box
•  white butcher paper
•  scissors
•  white glue
•  Mod Podge
•  ribbon and rick rack to trim
•  Victorian scraps
•  paper clay molded angels, hearts, etc...
•  scotch tape
•  one pack of white paper clay, I prefer Model Magic for small children
•  candy mold tray, one with a Valentine theme, these may be purchased from a craft, hobby or cake decorating store.
•  tacky glue
•  soft camel-hair brush

Directions:

1.  Follow the simple directions on the Model Magic label.
2.  Mold as many little candy decorations with the paper clay as you wish. Let these dry for an hour after removing them from the candy mold.
3.  Cut a generous slot into the shoe box lid, this is where the letters are pushed into the Valentine mailbox.
4.  Wrap the shoebox in white butcher paper. Wrap the lid and the bottom half of the box separately. Tape down the edges of the paper with scotch tape on the interior of the box so that the wrapping will appear seamless.
5.  Now cut out your Valentine scraps. These may be downloaded and printed from a great variety of resources from across the web or purchased.
6.  Paste the pictures down to cover the surface of the shoe box.
7.  Paste the molded, Valentine motifs randomly onto the surface of the decorated box.
8.  Glue the trim around the bottom edge of the shoe box lid with tacky glue.
9.  Cover the entire outside surface of the decorated shoe box with Mod Podge using a soft, camel hair brush. Let the Valentine mailbox dry over night.

Overlap slightly the Valentine scraps and white, paper clay pieces.

The SITS Girls show how to make 

a Valentine Letter Mailbox.

Craft More Valentine Mailboxes:

• Valentine mailbox competition at doll school
• "Sweet Notes" from laura vegas 
• Mailbox Valentine Countdown
• Dog Themed Mailbox - Welsh Corgi

Asian-American link resource for art education

Asian-American Collections from Museums:

• Angel Island: The Immigration Station Barracks Museum
• The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
• Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles
• The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens
• The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco
• The Chinese Historical Society of America
• The Bishop Museum
• Chinese American Museum of Chicago
• Hakone Gardens
• Japanese American Cultural and Community Center
• Peabody Essex Museum
• Japanese American National Museum
• Museum of Chinese in the Americas
• Kam Wah Chung and Co. Museum
• Hawaii's Plantation Village
• Pacific Asia Museum
• National Museum of Asian Art
• Lyman Museum and Mission Home
• The Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art
• The Wing Luke Asian Museum
• Korean American Museum

More Web Sites:

• Asian-Nation
• "Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California 1899-1965" 
• The Chinese Historical and Cultural Project
• The "Asian Pacific American Heritage Month"
• The Asian Society
• Enchanted Learning
• "The Chinese in California, 1850-1825" from American Memory 
• Japan Guide
• Camp Harmony Exhibit
• Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
• Kaboose
• Lao Family Community of Minnesota
• "Virtual Japanese Culture," Kids Web Japan
• Timeline of Chinese Dynasties for Art Education

Articles Listed by The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco:

• The Gold Rush and Anti-Chinese Race Hatred – 1849
• Photograph: “Chinese Girl with Bound Feet”
• Chinese Miners in the Gold Fields – 1860
• Chinatown Gambling and Vice – 1871
• View Inside a Chinese Opium Den
• Anti-Chinese Sentiments in San Francisco – 1874
• Kearneyism in California, by Viscount James Bryce – 1877
• Kearneyism, The Chinese, and Labor Unrest – 1877
• “You Sabe Him? Kealney Must Go!” – 1877
• “The Sand Lot and Kearneyism,” by Jerome A. Hart – 1877
• Remarks by Denis Kearney on Kearneyism in California
• “The Kearney-Kalloch Epoch,” by Jerome A. Hart – 1879
• The New California Constitution – 1879
• “Chinatown Declared a Nuisance!” – 1880
• Scene in a Chinese Opium Palace – 1880
• Chan Pak Kwai – 1881
• “China’s Menace to the World,” By Thomas Magee – 1890
• Arrest in Chinatown – 1897
• Arnold Genthe Photograph of Chinatown – 1898
• Tour of Chinatown – 1900
• Chinese Telephone Company – 1901
• Why Chinatown has Remained Where it is – 1902
• Funeral of Tom Kim Yung – 1903
• Chinese Orphans Escape the Great Fire – 1906
• “Asiatic Coolie Invasion” – 1906
• Mayor Schmitz Bars Coolie Labor from Earthquake Reconstruction – 1906
• Treatment of Chinese Refugees Following the 1906 Earthquake
• Plans to Relocate Chinatown – 1906
• China’s Empress-Dowager Contributes to Chinese Relief – 1906
• National Guard Members Loot Chinatown – 1906
• Relief for the Chinese – 1906
• Smuggling of Chinese Slave Girls Thwarted – 1912
• In Chinatown (Chinese Women Vote) – 1912
• Chinatown Tong Wars of the 1920s
• Chinese Wedding Mid Scenes of Splendor - 1924
• Brief History of Chinatown, by Jesse B. Cook – 1931
• English-Language Newspaper for Chinatown – 1940
• Ronald Reagan at Charlie Low's Forbidden City – 1942
• Paper Sons – 1969
• “Celebrating Chinese New Year,” by Audrey Wong – 1995

make a miniature decoupage bottle

Mona Lisa smiles on this miniature
decoupaged bottle.

Brief Description: Turn miniature bottles into keepsakes.

Supply List:

• miniature bottle
• tiny metal star
• decorative string
• Mona Lisa graphic
• blue butterfly wings (below)
• Mod Podge
• soft brush
• scissors
• glitter
• white glue

Directions:

1. Thoroughly clean and dry the bottle you intend to work with.
2. Cut out the pictures that you wish to include in the project. I've included a set of blue butterfly wings for you to download below.
3. Glue the pictures and glitter in place with ordinary white glue.
4. Now layer the Mod Podge on top of your work with a soft brush and let this dry. 
5. String the star onto a twine and wrap this firmly around the bottles neck and knot. 

Additional Suggestions: These little hand-crafted vases are perfect for miniature collections.

Blue butterfly wings.
This template may be downloaded and sized in a
word document. Read the Terms of Use before
using it folks.

All instructions, template and photographs copyrighted by Grimm 2017

Watch Aggie Craft paint and decoupage a bottle.

craft a walnut strawberry

This walnut strawberry will hang on somebody's
Christmas tree this year.

Brief Description: The first time I ever saw these walnut strawberries was in a magazine article about Victorian Christmas ornaments. Then, years later I found them again in a craft book about Mexican ornament making. So, I have no idea who thought of them first.

Supply List:

• cleaned walnuts (preferably from the store)
• red acrylic or red poster paint
•  two colors of green scrap felt for the leafs
• green string to match the felt
• a black permanent ink, felt tip pen
• a soft camel hair paint brush
• a shallow dish of water or a clean jar of water for cleaning the brush
• tacky white glue 
• scissors
• a large embroidery needle

Directions:

1. Paint the entire surface of the walnut a pleasing red and set the nut aside to dry.
2. After the walnut is completely dry, draw dots or short slashes with the permanent ink marker to mimic strawberry seeds.
3. Download and print out our template for strawberry leaves. Size these in a Word document before printing.
4. Place the pattern on top of the darker green felt scrap and cut out the bottom leaf, following the black outlined pattern.
5. Place the pattern again on top of the lighter green felt scarp and cut out the top leaf, following the white outlined pattern.
6. String both felt leaves together and tie also a large hoop for hanging. 
7. Now glue the entire felt top to the top of the walnut using a tacky white glue.
8. Apply a little pressure to the top while the glue is drying.

Additional Suggestions: The walnut "strawberry" may be painted a bit more elaborately by mixing a bit of white or orange to the the red paint as you apply it towards the top of the nut.

A strawberry leaf template.
This template may be downloaded and sized in a
word document. Read the Terms of Use before
using it folks.

All instructions, template and photographs copyrighted by Grimm 2011

craft project: mosaic bird house

I purchased this prefabricated, wooden 

birdhouse from a craft store called 

Michael's. It is an actual birdhouse that

may be used outdoors.

Brief Description: This mosaic birdhouse can be hung outside if you would prefer. My mother keeps it inside in her sunroom.

Supply List:

   1. Selection of mosaic tiles, glass marbles, tiny mirrors, seashells

   2. Cement grout

   3. Elmer’s wood glue

   4. Plastic-like gloves

   5. Old damp rags or paper towels

   6. Prefabricated wooden bird house

   7. white acrylic paint

   8. burnt umber acrylic paint  

   9. bucket of clean water

Directions:
 * Glue the tiles directly to the surface of the prefabricated wooden bird house.
 * Let the applied tiles dry over night to ensure that the glue has hardened. Do not check to see if the glued tiles have stuck to the surface permanently. Some of them will, some of them may only seem temporarily attached. The application of this step is necessary to help the tiles to stay in place before grouting them only.

* Mix the grout solution according to the directions on the label.

* Wear gloves if the label says that it is necessary.

* Gingerly apply the grout directly onto the surface of the tile work. Make sure that the grout does get pushed into as many of the cracks as possible. This is a bit messy.

* Wash your gloves thoroughly and you may put them back on or choose to remove them all together at this point. Be cautious about this removal however, some people do have mild skin allergies to grout and will develop a rash when coming in direct contact with it when its wet.

* Now your going to delicately wipe down the surface of your tiles with a damp rag or paper towel. You will be throwing these towels away. If you wish to rinse and squeeze out a sponge or towels as you work, keep an old bucket full of water for this procedure. Do not wash this contaminated water down a sink! Grout will collect in pipes and harden. You will need to pour this old water down a sewer pipe outside or simply find an area of your yard where you may dispose of it. Grout won't hurt an old leaf pile or the ground where plants are not growing.

* You want your project to look clean on the surface of the tiles when you are finished. The cracks between the tiles should also be completely filled with grout.

* Leave your mosaic project out over night to harden properly.

* If you see remaining grout on the surface of your tiles after it has hardened, you may go over the surface of these tiles with a light weight sand paper and damp sponge again.

Additional Suggestions: You may wish to seal the exposed wooden areas with a tough varnish if you choose to hang your bird house outdoors.

All instructions and photographs, templates are copyrighted by Grimm 2011

craft a vintage envelope tag book

A student's sample of a vintage envelope tag book.

Brief Description: My daughter decoupaged this little envelope tag book several years ago. There are also letters tucked inside of each page as well.

Supply List:

• You may either purchase envelopes or make your own. I've included a template below.
• scraps from newspapers, magazines
• Stamps and inks
• small additional charms, tokens etc...
• yarn
• scissors
• white glue

Directions:

1. As with most collage craft projects, the object of this process is to basically cut and paste. One needs very few directions when this is the case.
2. As for the template, down the image below, drag it into a Word document and size it according to the size you would like for a envelope tag book. 
3. You will need some kind of paper, preferably not too light weight.
4. Use glue sparingly as you go into order to keep the envelopes in shape.
5. Tie the pages together with an interesting bow or yarn.

All instructions and photographs, templates are copyrighted by Grimm 2017

The envelope tag book template.
This template may be downloaded and sized in a
word document. Read the Terms of Use before
using it folks.

More Tag Book Crafts:

• A lovely circus tag book!
• Going Dylusional
• Mini Steampunk Book
• Mini Circular Tag Book

sew a ethnic inspired wool pillow

Pillows made from woolen mats are easy
and quick crafts that just about anybody
can produce.

Brief Description: A woven mat, from south of the boarder, sewn into a pillow, adds plenty of character to my old mission furniture.

Supply List:

• one woven mat
• embroidery floss
• cotton stuffing
• a woolen piece of fabric for the backing of the pillow
• scissors

Directions:

1. Cut the woolen fabric to the exact same size of the woven mat.
2. Pin the two fabric pieces together.
3. Blanket stitch around three sides.
4. Stuff the pillow with cotton filler.
5. Sew the remaining side shut with the same blanket stitch.

All instructions and photographs copyrighted by Grimm 2011