whatever

kind of a big deal.

last saturday scott had basketball games all day. 
but like all of those tournaments, the games are hours apart.
inbetween the games we ended up at the craft house to relax.
i was working on my pillow front....

 
which was just me layering things on this piece of quilt and sewing it down.
the girls thought it was so fun and i said "you can make one"
apparently i say no too often because they both GASPED and shouted "WE CAN??!!"

(parent fail)

i said "yes... you can.  and i will show you how to sew it all together"

"REALLY?!!! You will teach us how to SEW!??  TODAY?!!" 

(hanging my head)

"Yes. I will teach you today."

i gave them each a piece of fabric as their base and told them to use the scraps and layer on anything they wanted to and it will be fun and pretty and you will love it.
and they did.
Sean was not interested and that is no surprise.
he did sit in the room with us and drew pictures of dead cartoon characters... maybe feeling a little out numbered by the women around him so he was making up for it by overcompensating in the boy department?
ha. 

annie chose to make a pillow like we made at the first craft weekend.  (i miss you first CW girls!!)

talby came up with her own pattern of stripes. 

and suddenly.... they were sewing.

it was pretty amazing.

i don't think i was scared to teach them before... just didn't know if i had the patience.
but after a year of craft weekends and seeing that i can help women take away that fear of the machine,
teaching my girls was practically easy.
the craft weekend women are always awesome so there was no reason to feel anxious about my own girls.

that is her face of concentration.  :)

beautiful pillows to be proud of for sure!!
they chose the fabrics from scraps and did all the sewing.
i helped annie cut circles. she cut the first 8 & then was the fabric chooser while i became the fabric cutter

i was so proud of my crafty girls.

---------------------------------------

 

by the way...

i use two of each these machines for craft weekend and what i use myself for all my sewing.

 

                 SINGER Heavy Duty Model 4411                                        SINGER Heavy Duty Model 4423 

i just ordered them straight from Amazon and it's free shipping!
as far as i can tell after having used them for two years now, the only difference is the Model 4423 has an automatic threader and the Model 4411 does not.

i am not working for Singer.
i just like their machines. 
:)

they are very basic, non-threatening, easy to use machines.

maybe you should ask for one for mother's day???

go big or go home baby. 

glitter and glue.

this is the last craft we did over the school christmas break.
it's kind of christmassy but can just be fun for winter too. 

for supplies:
we used photographs, school glue, paint brushes, martha stewart fine glitter, mini pom poms and pre cut wood snowflakes from hobby lobby...they were like $1.50? or something like that.




they came already painted white.


take a photo you like and draw a circle over it with whatever circle shape that fits your sowflake...we used a drinking glass from our kitchen.




cut out your picture.
then cover your entire snowflake (only one side) in glue.
we poured glue into a small bowl and painted it on the snowflake.



after the picture is on you cover everything with glitter.
(the fun part. :)


you wouldn't have to use the martha stewart glitter but it IS amazing.
everything looks so good with it.
it's pricey and regular glitter would still work....but the MS stuff is my FAVE.


when the glitter & glue was dry we hot glued the mini pom poms around the photo.


they were very fun to make.  
glitter is messy i know but all you need is a hose attachment to your vaccum to clean it up.
and honestly...i like having glitter fall off me everywhere i go around my house.  :)


we made some for our friends...




annie made this one for talby.

i think you could just hang these up around your house all winter...it is not strictly christmas that gets the glitter.

creating with glitter makes me happy.

the end.

happy friday to you.

 

 

throw back craft

i call this a throw back craft because it was based from something my great aunt Liza hung on her wall at christmas time... i don't know where that ended up.
i forgot about it until christmas.
hers was velvet and was covered in pearls and rhinestones sewn to it...in an antique frame.
she hung it above her fireplace.

we created a modern version of liza's tree...using craft supplies she gave to me.
she always sent me home with a box of supplies that she wasn't going to need any more.
she loved to hand sew, preferably with felt, seqins and beads.
i have thousands.

first we painted a canvas all one color. (this is a 16x20 canvas..we used acrylic craft paint)

she had bags of scraps of this puffy bright colored yarn.
so now i have bags of scraps of puffy yarn.
:)
i traced a tree shape (cut from paper) on our painted canvas when it dried
and we hot glued the puffy yarn in the shape.



this big bowl of sequins and beads is a teeny fraction of the stash i have from her. 

then we poured glue into the tree shape.
like.... we used almost the entire bottle of tacky glue.

i poured it out and spread it with a paint brush.

then we dumped the sequins and beads on the glue until every single bit of glue was covered.




the girls were LOVING it!!




it was messy.

but what fun is making art if you can't get messy?!


it's like a game of I Spy.



the gold star sequins were in their own glass pill bottle.
it was the perfect finishing touch.

i hope that we will hang this up every year too...for a long time....and that my girls will remember making it.

it is pretty awesome.

different from liza's but perfect for us.

 

SNOW! and crafts.

 

************************************************

finally.
we haven't had snow for way too long.
even if it knocked out my plans AGAIN today...i am still so happy to have snow.


talby was sick yesterday all day.
so sick.
poor baby...waffle tried his best to keep her happy.  :)

she felt well enough in the afternoon to work on a project with me.
she was so bored all day. 

step one for our ripped paper tree is to paint a background paper.
we taped annie's down because with only one arm the paper moves around a lot.

also i painted paper the night before for them to make sure it was dry enough to work on it all at once.

i used acrylic craft paint (you know...the .97 little bottles in all crafts stores)
for all of the painted paper and annie's background sheet too.



just green paint painted over the whole thing.

when your green paper is completely dry...then you rip your sheet into strips about 1-2 inches wide.



when your background sheet is dry you begin shaping your tree.
we forgot to make a snowy ground.... but it still worked out fine.
rip the strips into the right size to form a tree shape.
we used ten strips total.

it's FUN to rip the paper into the shapes you want!
i love how the ripped edge shows, the white on some sides and how all the strips are uneven.



we also painted paper with different colors to  use for the star, the presents and the ornaments.
we made patterns in the paint by using the pointed end of a paintbrush
and making dots with a pencil eraser dipped in paint.


macaroni and cheese break!


you could use a glue stick but i think school glue would hold better in the long run...the painted paper gets heavy.


add some "snow" with a q-tip or splatter it on.
and some yarn bows on the gifts.
and you have an Eric Carle inspired christmas tree work of art!





talby chose a night scene and used water color for her background.












SO much FUN!!!

i found this idea on Artsonia.

 

************************************************

How about ONE MORE IDEA FOR A GIFT???

for just $20 you can purchase a stove for a family in Haiti and give the gift of coal efficiency!

you can buy a stove "gift card" to give to someone on your gift list!

how much better is that than another tie?

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY 

TO GET A 

STOVE CARD

mailed in time for christmas!!

you can give it to your dad.
you can give it to your husband.
you can say "it's a gift to me!"  and purchase a gift card.

or two or three or ten.

GO TO The Adventure Project TODAY for information.

 

 

snowflakes

 

***********************************************

this first holiday craft was super duper easy but looks really cool.
we made 3D snowflakes!

you will need only pipe cleaners and beads.
we choose silver pipe cleaners and clear beads.
(but you could do white pipe cleaners with rainbow colored beads and it would be adorable!)


clear beads from the plastic crafty bead section at the craft store.
they are like $1.99 a bag or so.


take 10 pipe cleaners and lay one the opposite direction of the other 9.


wrap the 9 together tightly a few times with the one pipe cleaner...twisting to make it stay.


then fan out the pipe cleaners as evenly as you can in all directions.


then we snipped off a few inches from all the sides EXCEPT ONE.


on the ONE tall pipe cleaner...place one bead and the wrap the end into a loop.


next place one bead or more on every pipe cleaner.
they stay on whereever you place them...they don't slide around.
i like that.


we took some of the small pieces that we snipped off and wrapped them 
around the ends of a few of the points...to give it that "snowflake" look.

and that's it!



my kids each made several.
and argued over whose was the best.
of course.

happy crafting!

 (idea for this craft was found here)

 

we heart ART.

we have a new favorite....kiwi crate.
have you heard of it?

it's a box of craft projects that comes in the mail once a month....it's awesome!

i surprised my girls with it and they were crazy thrilled.




the boxes have everything...a paint brush...a pencil...small scissors!! 
they are full service. 

(mcdonalds not included...ha ha ha)

all the instructions are easy to read...kid friendly with pictures.
on this day i was busy with craft weekend projects so i was able to let them go crazy with the box and not need me to walk them through every step.
that was cool!
i love to do crafts with them too but sometimes independence is good too. 

and these are Cuuuuute crafts!








seriously adorable right??  a firefly that hangs from the ceiling with a glowstick inside it!

so much fun.

the other project in this box was using stamps to make a bug painting.
it was messy but super fun.











we have had several boxes from kiwi crate now and i LOVE them.
it won't replace our regular everyday art but it's a fun extra!
and they seem to always arrive on the perfect day when we need something to do.

what a great gift it would make!
if someone had sent this to my kids i would have hugged them forever.

they have a referal program too.
so if you decide to sign up YOU GET $10 off and i get $10 OFF.
:)

i like that.

so....click HERE if you want some KIWI CRATE for yourself!

your kids will LOVE it.

 

(not a paid advertisement..i just really love it)