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my etsy gift shop, with lots of goodies for new babies and mommas

Friday, June 29, 2012

Take That, Pinterest!

I've finished some Pinterest-inspired projects lately.  Which is a good thing.  My projects-pinned to projects-actually-attempted ratio is not good.

I've been meaning to make a summery wreath for a while now - what was on the front door had pine cones and berries on it - not the best look when it's 107 degrees outside.  So I finally got around to doing a new one.

Those kids will not let me take a picture without them!  They're like moths on a flame when a camera comes out.


My original idea when I saw these blue flowers was to do a red-white-and-blue wreath.  Then I got home from Hobby Lobby with all my supplies and realized that all the flowers in our front yard are pink - I just couldn't do red next to that.  New plan:  blue flowers, white trim that I bought years ago for a sweater that I've given up on embellishing, raffia, and little cream flowers that I made out of felt.


 To make the flowers, all you do is cut the felt in curlicue circles, then cut a scallop all along the outside edge.  Starting with the outside, roll the felt up and hot glue the base. 


 
Here's the inspiration wreath that I found on Pinterest:
http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2012/03/spring-wreath.html

One project down!  On to the next one. . . 

Here's a post about a catch-all file box on the kitchen counter to manage all the paper clutter that ends up there:
http://lovelycraftyhome.com/2011/01/19/new-year-new-organization/

And here's what I came up with:
 I chopped the end off a sturdy box, hot glued on home dec fabric, and parked it in the kitchen.
 It's the perfect size for our family calendar, plus my MOPS notebook, our Bible study book (we're doing Panorama - if you're in NWA, check it out!  It's amazing!), and my pad of lists, without which I would be lost.  Seriously, I would wander around the house and have no idea where I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to be doing. 
Pinterest project number two, checked off the list!

Here's a kid craft from last week that was a big hit:
It's Pinterest-inspired in that you can't throw a rock on Pinterest without hitting a banner of some kind.  Though I wouldn't recommend throwing rocks on Pinterest.  Lots of breakables there.  So Penny and I cut out three navy cardstock triangles and six white triangles.  She used my star punch to do the white stars, and she also cut out strips of red, which we glued on and trimmed the excess off the edges.  I attached them with kite string through grommets at the top edges - I wanted it to be more sturdy than the last pennant we made, where we just taped the string to the back of the triangles.  That one kind of fell apart.
Looks very festive on the pergola in the backyard, right?

Alright, Pinterest, that's 21 pins down, 1070 to go. . . 



Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Fingerprint Trees and Watercolor Wednesday

Here are a couple of projects from Summer Vacation this week!

For the fingerprint trees, I chopped cardstock into squares an stamped tree trunks - then passed out my stamp pads to the kids to get creative in using their fingers to make leaves. 

I used a stamp from Oriental Trading Company (LOVE their clear stamps!), but it would be pretty easy to just draw a tree trunk and limbs with a marker.  Another cute fingerprint project I've seen recently is birds on a wire - from Mrs. Weber's Art Class.


Today was Watercolor Wednesday!  (That's not really a thing.  It was just a happy, alliterative accident.)  The project today was to pick out a picture from a book - Penny chose to do The Man With the Yellow Hat from a Curious George book - I did a Sneech.  Then lightly sketch the character in pencil and trace over it in Sharpie, and erase the pencil marks, then add watercolor.  I'm trying to teach her about drafting and editing.  And I have no idea what I'm doing.  But this was fun!  She really liked it.  (Camden didn't participate in this one.  He took an early nap; it was kind of nice to have a longer, quiet, girls-only art time.)

Here are the resulting masterpieces:
And, here are a couple of my precious kiddos. 


If you have children, this article will encourage you:
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/motherhood-is-a-calling-and-where-your-children-rank
It was just the friendly reminder I needed today.

Happy Summer Vacation!