banner day

We had another GREAT crafting day.
I've been wanting to make something to help personalize the space around the kids' beds. We finally put them together as bunk beds and they are so excited. I was telling them that I wanted to make some banners like the previous one and Neve says," let's make them out of this". I had a pack of foamie rectangles I just bought at the buck store. Great idea!!


And just the right size for my 2x2 Quickutz dies. We had fun choosing colours, dies and ribbon. the glue stick and foam were flying. Here's Neve's. I love how she glued the extra strips onto the large triangle. I'm learning to think out of this box with this kid.


And here is Rafael's.


He did the layout and photo on the 1st one above. Little artsy one, that.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

leaf painting

We had a great crafting session today. I collected some leaves to paint.
I let the kids paint them on the "veiny" side. We then put it paint side down and used a rolling pin to flatten it out and transfer the paint. They practiced quite a bit on a large piece of paper. When i noted that they were getting consistent, I gave them a canvas board form the buck store.

Rafael quite enjoyed it and got experimental with blending/brushing more than one colour paint on the leaf. He felt the need to have permission to mix it up a little.


By the time we got to the canvas, Neve was a little done in. I just call it minimalist. L{


I had to join in on the fun. Mine is the rather full one on the bottom.


Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Ginger cookies

With a few hours to myself today, I decided to make these ginger cookies from epicurious


At the end, there were many, many cookies. Too many to be left around here to tempt me. So I made these little bags for Rafael's teacher and aid. I slipped a chai green tea bag in there too.


All stamps are from Stampin' Up!
you gotta try the cookies. They taste as good as they look. And the kids had a blast rolling them and dropping them into the bowl of sugar.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

celebration banner

I was all set to do some sort of craftiness last night, but couldn't think of what. I grabbed my book, the Creative Familyby Amanda Blake Soule for a little look.
I came across the banner.

Whenever we have a little celebration here, Rafael wants to decorate. This will kick it up a notch.


I used white on the back so I can write the title and date of each celebration. Should be a great memory keeper. And if I wanna be really good at moment keeping, I could print a pic of the occasion and put it on a fabric transfer and iron it on. That would be cool.
The other fabrics are from the big fabric craze I had for Ikea this summer. I made bags from all of these fabrics and have fond memories of them. And they all match. Can't beat that. I cut them with my rotary cutter, super fast. I left the edges raw with visions of them fraying and frizzing when I wash them.
For the size, I took an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock, measured out the middle on the 8.5 side and drew lines from the top of the page to make a triangle. yeah, that doesn't make sense to me either when I read it. Size of triangle is 8.5 x 11.


I look forward to moving this banner around my house for various celebrations and looking back on the celebrations each time we take it out.

You can check out Amanda Blake Soule's inspirational blog , soulemama, here

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Kid learning to sew

When we were in nova Scotia, I was focusing on sewing the tooth fairy bags. Rafael was quite interested and wanted to learn how to sew.


A few little tips and some guidance and he picked it up like a pro. He said,"this is so easy. it's just up down, up down." Yes, I guess it is.

He went on to sew 2 more little flannel bags, just for the fun of it. It really helped one night when he was SUPER HYPER. He went in his room and sewed and came out normal again. Good life lessons this.

And so we continued sewing, of sorts the next morning before clearing the breakfast dishes away. They cut up straws and threaded them and hearts from the Martha Stewart punch to make a necklace.


I'm sick at the moment. A wicked, stuff up, drippy nose, shriveled lips, pounding head and ears, cold extremities and warm body and burning face. Yup, I got it good.

Wanna come and play?

thanks for looking,
Amanda

library bag and some plate crafts

yeah, I gotta work on my titles.
Here is the bag for Rafael. He chose this fabric and I made it with a strap to go over the shoulder and across the body. The front fabric is from Walmart and the back is done with denim from the 50 million yards of denim my mom gave me when I visited this summer. Cool.


Today's craft time consisted of painting paper plates. One red for an apple and one green for the leaves.

I sewed up the worm finger puppets on the sewing machine with some ric rac for decoration. I turned them inside out, but it also looked nice sewn on the outside. And it would look nice hand sewn.

We were thinking of what to use for the eyes and decided on a brad. I broke up laughing when we found the sunglasses. Too funny.
And because it takes too long to set up craft time for only one thing, we painted a plate yellow for a sunflower. The idea was to glue seeds or beans in the middle and cut the plate for the stems. Well, kids have a mind of their own too, right?!

Neve got a little angry with her plate and started to beat the lentils all over the table. Maybe it was fun to watch?! And Rafael decided to decorate a little more.
After all that, we made mini banana loaves. Wanna know a trick? Put sour cream or yogurt in the batter to keep it moist. Oh, and a treat, we put mini marshmallows on top! YUMMMMM. Along with my Roibos peppermint chocolate tea. Hungry now?

thanks for looking,
Amanda

library bag

I'm a little embarassed to admit this, but just this week, I got my daughter a library card. I've had one for my son for a few years, but we never did use it. My friends would take them there, so I didn't bother.
I decided it was time. After a successful 1st trip together, I realized these little ones will have to bring their own books home.
Or at least have a little bag for their own treasured reading materials. Enter the library bag:


Little miss picked out her own fabric. I stamped the book and apple on some artist canvas and coloured with palatte inks and a blender pen.


I think I may make the handles longer. now that I look at it, if she was to hold it in her hands, it would probably drag on the ground. She is like myself, like to wear the bags on her shoulder.


I'll probably show you another version with fabric my son pics out. Not much variety in what I'm doing these days, just a different fabric, colour, size, etc.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

seasonal tree

I saw this shower curtain in a window the other day and went inside to check it out. The kids thought it was great, so I bought it. I love it.


Once I hung it, we were talking about how we can make it different for each season. So this will become our ever-changing tree. Going to start with some leaves on the ground for fall. Neve wants a purple leaf and flowers. The flowers will wait for spring blossom. The purple leaf, she can have now. Thinking of attaching some velcro to change the display. Will be fun to add animals and snowflakes, etc.

Stay tuned.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

birthday balloons and someone else's giveaway!

A quick card for a man who's not into sailing, golfing or sock monkeys. lol What do you do for a man who isn't into sailing, golf or sock monkeys? Balloons, Everyone could use a balloon or 2 on their birthday!


The white squares with the stars I picked up last summer in Laval. Wish sentiment is from Papertrey Ink- Text Boxed and the balloons are from PTI- Everyday balloon bits. inside, I used the sentiment from the same set and A wooden "fence post" from Michael's.



Take a look at this
www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/
It's a new program where the kids can design their own stuffed animal on screen and it comes to life in the printer. Special fabric and tear away paper and a bit of stuffing makes this an easy personalized project. My kids would go nuts for this! She's giving 2 prizes away. Quick, go see...... and look around the rest of the blog. great ideas and projects.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

been busy

Sorry I've been absent all week.. here's why:



EDITED: the tree is from IKEA. I bought a black one on sale ages ago and thought they were discontinued, but found this green and other colours a few months ago. So they may still carry them.

I'm doing a yard sale, festival tomorrow in Cabbage town. My friend's mother in law lives there, so we're setting up shop on the front lawn.
Some girlie flowers

These tooth fairy bags are from http://www.purlbee.com


I used my own tooth from a wooden tooth fairy box I have. I also used it in the past for my other tooth fairy kits on the shrink art. The paper tooth is from Quickutz.
here
And more take out hot beverage sleeves. Here is the boy line. Was so excited about some of the prints I got in Dartmouth, NS at Atlantic Fabric. Awesome fabrics. Click image for a larger view.

I think this one is my favorite


So wish me well. Singing for a wedding in the morning, then off to stand and chat. And hopefully sell.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

cheery time

shhhhh.... I'm home alone. on a Sunday , after church. eating a bacon and egg sandwich with 5 year old Canadian white cheddar. Listening to Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe. Perfection. Shhhhh. I don't know when everyone is coming back. But I hope it's not a for a while! lol

Last night, we went to a family meal to celebrate a dear Tia's bday last month. I made this card using Papertrey Ink's Everyday Button Bits. used the Polka Dot basics 2 on the side of the card and some Bella dots on the bottom. Pleased that the retired SU purely pomegranate matched the current cherry paper.


Almost finished my sandwich. Now must go to my room and sew, sew sew. Little girl headbands are on the menu today.

thanks for looking,
AManda

beach bums

Hello,
we're still here, chasing summer. It's not over yet. And it won't be when school routines come into play. No, not yet, not yet, not yet. We joined some friends yesterday on the beach again. 1st time to this one and it's only 15 minutes from my house! We are going to visit again before the leaves change colours.
o
Have some projects to do this weekend. finish the tooth fairy bags (still have to show you them, I keep giving them away before I can get a picture) headbands and cup sleeves. And I soooo want to play with my new Papertrey Ink stamps. I wanna make a card!

Thanks for looking,
have a great long weekend.
Amanda

denim skirt bag

My sister always teases that her daughter should have been born to me, as she is a crafty girl herself. This past trip (we're back now) to visit my family afforded me some one on one time with her. I taught her to crochet and she made a little bag. Meant to teach her how to do the flower, but time ran out. I'll direct her to the youtube site I learned on.

She also has an interest in sewing and wanted to make this skirt into a bag. Great ideas she had and we worked together on making it happen.


She has plans to paint some gold pears on the skirt, so I made this little embellishment to put on the front. It isn't sewn on the bag at present, as we didn't think of it until we were done and everyone was waiting for us to finish so they could go home. lol


I put some snaps under the belt and used the button holer for the front flap. Easy peasy. Love the serger. Must put it on my save up for it list.


And here are a few kiddie photos for the family to see of them at Eastern Passage, NS. there is a little fishermen village where there are little shops. I found the Newfie one there!!! That's 2 Newfie stores in the last month I've just stumbled upon. Loves me lime pop and roast chicken chips maid.


After those huge frozen treats, we took a little walk around the protected beach area. Ah, the smell of the salt water and all that stinkin' seaweed!


'Twas lovely to visit my family, and 'tis nice to be home.

thanks for looking,
Amanda