Playing with Paper

Today my daughter is about halfway through her 3-week stay at camp. THREE WEEKS! She's never been gone more than a week before! And those previous trips were to stay with family. I miss her - but I know she's having a great time. I knew she would love it the second we set foot on the grounds - and every one of her letters confirms what a terrific time she's having. Her last letter began with "I am so homesick" and then went on to detail everything she loves about camp. She loves the food - especially the bread (there's fresh-baked bread every day). She quoted songs she's learning. She's gone swimming almost every day. She loves skits. Her tent mate loves the book of scary stories she brought with her and could I please send the other one in the series?

I don't think she's actually homesick. I think she's trying on the idea of homesickness. And that's ok. I want her to be happy to be there - and then happy to come home when that time is over.

The letters have, of course, been going both ways. We came home the other night to TWO bats in the house, so that gave me lots of exciting news to tell her.

I've been using some of her favorite patterns to make the cards I send to her - and I thought I'd share those with you today. The one at the top of this post is made from the Sly Cat embroidery pattern - shrunk down a bit to fit on a card.

This one is made from the Anywhere Bear applique pattern. This one too I had to shrink down a bit to fit on a card - but that's easy to do with a copy machine or computer.

This one I had to enlarge just a bit to be a good card size. It's one of the girls from the Rainbow Girls embroidery pattern.

I love making collage pictures like this. I have an enormous collection of paper that I've painted with various textures and it's really easy to use the embroidery or applique patterns as a guide. I tape the pattern up in a window, then hold my painted paper over it and trace the shape I want to cut out. Cut it out with a pair of scissors or an exacto knife and glue it down with a glue stick. Easy peasy. I draw the faces (or other tine lines) with a fine-point Sharpie.

If any of you have experimented with other ways to use the embroidery or applique patterns, I'd love to see them!

Hope you all are having a great week!

Best,
Wendi