Thursday, December 16, 2010

in the shadows

A favorite Solstice tradition for our family is spending part of the long, dark night playing with shadow puppts. In years past we've purchased beautiful shadow puppets on etsy.

But inpsired by Zach's hand made monster shadow puppet last year...

I decided to try to make a set of our own this year. All it took was a little black card stock, an exacto knife, a safe surface to cut on (I used a self healing cutting mat), some tape, chopsticks or wooden skewers, and a little imagination.
We decided on winter scenes and wanted to keep it simple as the only thing more primitive than my drawing skills are my cutting skills. The snowman, the pine, and the sun tree I drew free hand, while the polar bear is from free clip art that I traced.
A little tape attached to a chopstick or skewer and voila!
Loads of unplugged, imaginative, family fun on those long winter nights.
If you want to check out some insanely gorgeous shadow puppets for sale on etsy, click on over to Isabella's Art. And enjoy the darkness :)

12 comments:

XYZZ said...

Love, love, love these! I think you've inspired me to make some for my littles - thanks!

Mama_Amethyst said...

This is a great idea!

Jaclyn said...

I was so sad when the maker of your steampunk shadow puppets decided to quit over the CPSIA issues. :( I really, really loved his designs and was going to order several.

The ones from Isabella's Art are very pretty, too, though! Maybe we can find some to suit us!! :)

Love the handmade variety even more, though...that's inspirational for this house.

Jaclyn said...

I have no idea what it says, "mmmmmmm said," but that's Jaclyn, BTW.

mb said...

that polar bear does not fit into the "primitive" category for drawing OR cutting, my dear. ;) very cool! i like this idea a lot!

Suzanne said...

Love your blog! To be fair I alternate between you and Zero to Cruising for my early morning reading. You do such neat things and show the world that kids can have a wonderful life living on a boat!

Suzanne

Anna said...

What a great idea. I bet my kids would love to do this for the solstice. Thanks for the inspiration!

kate said...

what a lovely idea cindy! These would be such a perfect addition to our nights by the fire:)

gardenmama said...

i lovelovelove the puppets that you made, your creativity is just that *Creative* what a beautiful way to spend the evening! off to look at your link xo

Missy said...

How wonderful! I love the woodland figures - the bear is wonderful!!!

Amanda said...

That is awesome!

Ella said...

A has been loving the set that you sent to us. Thank you again!

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