March, month of magic

March 24 is Harry Houdini's birthday... and it is Phinehas' Birthday too... hmmm...



Our sister swap theme this month is peace/spring. I am going for the extra points for including an element of Houdini in my craftiness for the sisters... However my first attempt has broken and now I am at deadline and have nothing to show for my efforts.
I will share my initial idea and you (my dear and understanding and forgiving sisters) will be sent something completely different, my defeated crafty catch-up...late.

Houdini, besides being the master of escape, (Tiffany points out 'chains' does not mesh with the peace theme whatsoever) also was known for blowing the cover of supposedly gifted mediums by exposing their fraud publicly. One of the things he exposed was the use of finger prints to "prove a deceased person was present" in a seance, Houdini showed how a mold could be made of a dead persons hand and the fingerprint then transfered fraudulently to scam people out of inheritance and stuff...
they called them spirit hands.
My idea was to make a "spirit hand" of my children to send for our swap.

What is Springy/Peace about that?

Well, we are also learning baby ASL with Phin, all the boys are picking up some simple phrases to ask for water, more, bath, bedtime, mom, dad... those kind of easy use everyday signs. We learned the signs for peace, spring, grow... and tried to use those symbols in our spirit hands...

Here is Ephraim's lazy peace out ...


And here are the rest of the failed spring spirit hands!



And so you see, my expensive little craft was a lesson in disappointment and now I am back to the drawing board. I will post my new idea once they have made it to the sisters. I blew the surprise by posting a "spoiler" on my flickr last month and will not again!

Having a desire to continue our little Houdini history lessons...
I want this book Harry Houdini for kids to supplement our magic of March and help lead up to our April Fools traditions.

Ahh... but the budget has been blown!