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Mysterio's Magic Case.

I am a huge fan of Birthdays and I always go out of my way to make them as special as possible. Last year, I was posed with the challenge of coming up with a creative, fun gift to give my dear friend Danielle's son Henry for his 2nd birthday. As a child of the theatre, I am a huge fan of all things make believe, magical and imagination driven. So with that in mind, I googled the question "What do you give a 2 year old for his birthday" and started reading through forums. I found several people that said their 2 year-old LOVED to play dress up and I was like "Ah-ha!!". Growing up, I had a thing for the circus (not the animal torture part, the asthetic and oddities part) so I started thinking about how I could make it circus-y. I decided I would create an old trunk full of magic costumes. Toy boxes turned out to be too bulky and expensive and all of a sudden I had an epiphany. I had a bunch of vintage suitcases in my shed and using those as my base, I came up with... Mysterio's Magic Case; an a-sexual dress-up box for kids!

If you would like to make your own Mysterio's Magic Case, all you need is a clean, vintage suitcase, some acrylic paint, brushes, paint markers and a little imagination!

Filling the case with cheap, creative costumes like a tie or dollar-store crowns and fairy wings will help get the party started.

 (((Behold))) The original Mysterio's Magic Case!

Santa's helpers come in all shapes and sizes.

Last year, a dear friend of mine told me about "Elf on a Shelf". If you have never heard of this, it's basically an elf puppet you put on a shelf and the story you are supposed to tell your children is that the elf goes back and tells Santa whether you've been good or not. Personally, I think it's scary looking and I wanted no part of it.

Conveniently, I had been looking for a cute gift to make and give to my friends' kids so I came up with this sweet spin on the "Elf on a Shelf"...

These little toys are made from Santa's used gloves and Mrs. Claus has written a letter (see below) to the girls and boys she sends the toys to.

Here is a short tutorial on how to make the toys yourself using gloves, thread, some ribbon and stuffing.

 

*portions of this post were featured on www.sometimessweet.com Dec 2012 with my permission.

Welcome to my continually unfinished blog...

Have you ever tried to take 13 years of design experience and pour it into a blog? Well let me tell you, it aint easy. I've spent hours sifting through hard drives and long-since forgotten online photo storage sites...  It's a labor of love and I promise to keep at it but as quickly as I update, I make more things. Hence the "continually unfinished" part...

I've created links at the right of the page to assist in your organized viewing pleasure. Click through and enjoy!