April 2018 General Conference Cards

Someone just reminded me that I hadn't shared my General Conference Cards that I made after April 2018 conference!

I made these for my Primary kids so they aren't "professional" but then, by popular demand, I scanned them and made a digital PDF that you can buy off Etsy here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/iliketocreatestuff

The cards come in four colors, one for each of the main four General Conference sessions.

Sorry for the late notice. I didn't make these to sell so it's pretty much been every time someone asks me about them that I think, "oh ya, link ..."

My new children's book, "My Nativity ABCs" was featured in the Deseret Book Christmas catalog as well as Utah Valley Magazine. While this is a totally awesome thing, it might have also contributed to the reason why my book is sold out in most of the the Utah local stores (Deseret Book, Seagull Book, and Costco) on Black Friday weekend!!!

The good news: My publisher ordered a second print run and it arrived in my publisher's warehouse on November 22. I'm guessing this means a holiday delay in getting the books from the warehouse to local stores but in the meantime, you can find me online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-million, Target, Wal-mart, and more.

Goodreads giveaway - enter to win "My Nativity ABCs"

My publisher, Cedar Fort, is giving away ten free copies of my new children's Christmas nativity book through Goodreads. Enter to win!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

My Nativity ABCs

by Esther Yu Sumner

Giveaway ends October 10, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Visit "My Nativity ABCs" on Goodreads to enter now!

And, if you're in Salt Lake City this weekend, you can visit the artist for this book, Alex Worthen, at his booth in Artist Alley!

My new children's book!

I have a new children's book coming out on October 10, 2017, through Cedar Fort Publishing. My Nativity ABCs is available for pre-order on Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Wal-mart.

General Conference Cards

This is a project that I've been working on for the children in my church group. Every six months, leader from our church meet together from around the world and give talks at a meeting called General Conference. The talks are broadcast around the world. Each one of these cards represents one of the talks.

Me: My autobiographical doodles

Sometimes my doodles turn into indignant monsters and stubborn birds. Sometimes I just draw about stuff I like to do.

And sometimes I have a really bad day and the only thing good that came of it is that apparently, I'm one of those angsty artists that creates more when I'm upset. Who knew.  The source of my trouble that day was wearing a striped shirt. You can tell by the pressure of the pen strokes that I was not happy ... (and to clarify, this was not my amazing, supportive husband. He is my rock.)!

I started a new Instagram account this week. Follow me @ iliketocreatestuff 

:) :) :)

This is how I take notes during General Conference

I have been happily surprised by the interest in my notes from General Conference. I have been taking notes this way for years. You are welcome to download as a jpg to print. 

Button Globe

Just one of my perpetual projects.

I fill in an empty spot whenever I run into the right button.

I could use a few more small and flat buttons in blue or white ...

Shoe too big? No problem.

I bought some gorgeous Anthropologie shoes that should have been $200 for about $30. They were a a store return, brand new, but they were also two sizes too big. No problem!

Since this shoe was angled and had buckles, all I had to do was use a leather belt punch and add another hole.

Leather strap that's just a tad too big to hold my heel where it belongs:

Leather strap with one new, extra hole so that I can cinch the shoe up nice and tight:

My indoor garden

I like having a little indoor garden, especially during the winter.

The plants on each end are about 14 years old now. The orchids are about a year old, but have actually bloomed three times – more than typical, at least in my experience.

Unfortunately, the orange flowers did not survive so I will give them another try this year.

These plants are all fairly low maintenance but really brighten up the room.

Paper Bag Puppets – Free DIY Templates

Simplifying my blogs! Here's an old post I'm moving over from an old blog.

I needed to make simple attention-getting figures for an activity with a bunch of children so I hit on the idea of puppets. The puppets at retail stores cost more than I wanted to spend on a 20-minute activity, so I started looking at cheaper options. I decided on paper bag puppets, but then I couldn’t find any free templates of a grandfather, grandmother, dad, mom, boy, and girl … so I made my own!

You can download the template for free here:

The Family Paper Bag Puppets

– Es

P.S. Please comment if you would like for me to draw body parts to glue to the main part of the paper bag … I kept it simple and just drew the faces and the mouth part that glues underneath the bag flap.

Felt flowers for hair and wrists

I'm simplifying!

I am moving my blog content over from another site:

June 14, 2014 by esumnertime@gmail.com

I made felt flowers for my nieces last year. They loved them, especially the three-year-old. Her mom told me she would find her headband and put it on while she was playing.

I made various sizes and sewed them to thin strips of elastic so that the girls (who are young) could slip the headbands onto their hair or wear them around their wrists. I also slid some of them onto alligator clips so I could clip them straight into hair.


Someone gave me a present from Anthropologie one year that had little green, round, felt circles attached to a ribbon on the outside of the box  I saved those felt circles, and used them as part of these felt flowers.

These felt flowers are all based on a design by Kelly Crawford from www.sewinginnomansland.com so it’s not my pattern to share.

However, you can find some of her felt flower tutorials here and here.

However, the design is fairly intuitive, and I have seen a lot of other versions at the craft store since I first found Kelly's designs. You can fold them in third and make a more tulip-style flower, for instance.

I decided to simplify so I'm moving my blog content to this site:

The reason for the season – Wooden and Watercolor Nativity

November 28, 2014

I love Nativities. I have quite a collection of them. In addition to ones made by other artisans, I love to make my own Nativity every year.  I try to use a different medium every time. Last year, I used a wood-burning tool on pre-cute wooden doll shapes. This method was quite tedious because I had to move the tool along the wood quite slowly for the hot metal to leave behind the burn imprints. It was also quite unforgiving because you can’t undo or “paint over” a bad burn mark. Also, of course, I was worried about burning my fingers, as I just held each wooden figure in one hand while I burned out the designs with the other hand.  However, I had a lot of fun experimenting with a new medium, and overall, was pleased with the results. I made a quick manger out of popsicle sticks. I hope to replace it with something better in the future but it is fitting, given the story of Christ’s birth.

Wood Nativity 2013

The year before, I made a quick sketch, then used watercolor, to paint a nativity that I then cut out and laminated so that they were a set that children could play with without damaging.

Nativity 2012

Nativity 2012

This year, I’m helping plan a craft activity for the neighborhood children, that I wanted to center around the Nativity if possible. I think I know what we’re going to do but while I was at the craft store browsing around, I found some cute pieces that just shouted “Nativity” at me – can’t wait to construct this year’s Nativity. I’m thinking … miniature wooden flower pots and wine corks …

I decided to simplify my blogs so I'm moving all my posts to this one.

Fun with Kids – Paper Doll Chain

June 21, 2014

I am planning out a fun activity with children and made some paper dolls in preparation. I know several cute children that are fascinated with cutting things – it would be fun to pre-fold the paper, draw an outline, and then let the child cut and decorate the doll. Of course, with children and scissors, you need to supervise them closely, both for their safety, and so that they don’t accidentally cut through the arms that are holding the doll together!

How to Make a Paper Doll

1. Take a sheet of paper, and fold it back and forth, accordion-style, making about four or five folds in the paper.

2. Once your paper is folded, draw your “doll” on it, making sure the arms go to the ends of its fold.

3. Cut your doll out, making sure to cut the arms out to the edge of the paper. That’s it! You’re done. Unfold to see your results.

My new blog is up!

UPDATE: I realized I'd rather make stuff than post about it so I took down a site that was costing me money. So ... back to this free blog!

________________


My new blog is up! I have loved blogger.com and will continue to use their tools for my other blogs. I am ready to expand to something a little more versatile though, and am thus moving this blog to a hosted site where I can have a little more control.

My new blog, is called "I Love to Create Stuff."

The post below is found here.

I'll be moving all of my previous posts over but there will be new posts, too ...

Please excuse the dust ...

I am thrilled by how many visitors have stopped by my blog in the short time since I started it in December. I am going to move this blog to another location soon and am working on it ...

DIY Wire Ring and Other Wire Jewelry

Remember when button rings were making the rounds about seven years ago? Well, I made a bunch of them, and that got me into making wire jewelry in general. You can pick up the wire in craft stores, or most stores that have a craft section. I used  needle-nose pliers to make this adjustable wire ring earlier this fall. I think the design speaks for itself - just keep twisting that wire until you run out of wire. I probably started with 1.5 feet of wire ...

Here's the wire ring displayed next to a button ring I made a while ago for context: (thanks to my friend R.P. .. actually the first name is a nickname so K.P. ... for letting me borrow her lovely hand - mine look like they were attacked by tiny Piranhas thanks to this winter weather and my apparent inability to use hand lotion).

My inspiration for the ring was the trend I have seen on Pinterest (when I was looking for ideas for Girl's Camp craft activities) to make words with wire. I made the word "Happy" below. Someone gave me the star but I love that as well!

Lastly, here's a charm I created at my sister's request. She had seen something similar, wanted one, and mentioned to her friend that her sister (me) made stuff like this ... so her friend told me about it just in time for my sister's birthday. The pearls are real of course - no skimping on the treasured eggs! 

Globe Tree

I couldn't quite get myself to put ALL of Christmas away ...

Sweet Spotted Green Shake - Recipe

When it comes to the food pyramid, fruit is my Kryptonite. So, after a couple of weeks of eating holiday sweets, meats, bread, and gourmet cheese, I had to remind my body what it feels like to eat fruit.

I threw together a what's-in-the-kitchen shake, and it was so delicious that I wanted to share the recipe. This is a mildly sweet shake. The flecks of purple from the plums' skin gives this green shake its spots.

I didn't actually measure anything so these are approximate amounts:

Ingredients:
2 fresh or frozen plums with skins
1 frozen green banana
1/2 cup frozen spinach
1 fresh or frozen peach without skin

1/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup milk (or another 1/4 cup almond milk)
1/4 cup orange juice

Directions:
Throw the fruits and veggies into the blender, then incrementally begin adding the liquids until combined but still thick.

The frozen fruit gives the shake the thick texture without having to add "junk" like ice cream. I sometimes add honey or agave to my shakes but I loved the mild, sweet flavor of this shake without any added sweeteners.

Tip:
All of my fruit is either picked or purchased fresh, but then I make sure it is ready to go into a shake (peeled, pitted, etc.) before freezing some of it for future shakes. At least some of it needs to be frozen though, for the shake to have that lovely, thick texture without actually adding ice cream.

Also, I used to avoid all shakes with even a hint of bananas in them because they overpowered the shakes for me. I really can't stand the taste of bananas in a shake. However, I discovered that if I freeze a banana that is solid green, the banana taste does not overpower the shake. The frozen bananas are awesome for adding a lot of thickness to the shake, as well as nutrition.

Indulging with Berries

This is what I do when I have berries on hand ... and time ... (rare combination, right?) ...