Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you've had enough Turkey! I had 2 lots and looking forward to my hot turkey sandwich with gravy and fries tonight!


Gobble, gobble,
Amanda

lego pouch

Happy Saturday! I just spent the morning, cleaning my kitchen/living room after hosting 4 extra sailors for the past week! let me say, it feels good to have a moment to do such.
Anyhow,
here's a quick pouch for a bday present. The kids like to take their lego mini figurines around with them. this way, they can hook it to their pants and off they go....

And in other good news....
I won the monthly blog giveaway at Soft Earth Art last month.

What a treasure to own something that was created lovingly by Marie. All of her work exudes magic.

And I just LOVE the acorns. Our acorns don't look like this.

That brings me to an idea or wish I've had for sometime now.... An acorn trade. Wouldn't it be cool to have some acorn tops from a different tree than grows in your neighbourhood? I've only found the one kind around here.
Anyhow, This wreath hangs inside where I can see it everyday. it makes me smile and warms my heart to think of it being created all the way from the other side of the world and traveling here.


Thanks Marie!

Amanda

the Maple Leaf forever!

Did that bring a song to your ear? Alexander Muir wrote the unofficial national anthem"Maple Leaf Forever" back in the day, before "O Canada" became the official national anthem. Cool thing about it, he wrote it while living? visiting? staying? in a little house a few minutes from here. He was inspired by the maple tree in the yard. A few years ago, the city fixed up the house, called it Maple cottage and it is now used for local events and city run programs. I was invited to sing in a quartet at the opening ceremonies. Was a neat event and nice enough memory to tell you about it!

So..... anyway.....,,

we've been playing with the new Quickutz maple leaf die. They requested card making for craft session today. I love when that happens. All gathered around the cuttlebug on the floor with bits of paper and smiles all around as they glue, glue, glue.
Man, am I a little talkative tonight or wha? enough of that.

here is a card:


And another

It was very hard NOT to add anything else to this card.

And here is a card where I added TOO much. I loved the natural paper, then went a little crazy on the pearls. Oh well.


I cut out more in felt, music sheets and print. Oh yes, and some cork. I'm off to play.

Thanks for looking and Happy Gobble Gobble weekend to you.
Amanda

autumn tree tutorial

Yesterday, we were going to go leaf hunting to do some autumn crafts. By the time we finished looking for a few things at the store, we got rained out on the way to the park. Plan B.
I've been wanting to do a mac tac leaf craft for some time and kept changing my mind on what to do.
Yesterday, this is what came out. Here is a little tutorial.

I cut out the tree from the paper on the back of the mac tac, not through the plastic.


The kids used some gold sand I bought at a yard sale this summer to cover the tree trunk. ( I have no idea what this stuff is, it is very gold. Maybe some stuff we shouldn't breathe in there??!!)

I then cut off another layer of paper for the torn tissue paper and one for the feathers.


then I tore off the rest of the paper and let them put leaves on there. These came from Walmart and have glitter on them. I was hoping to use real leaves, but these are fine.


After they were done, i measured another piece of mac tac that was bigger so I could wrap it around the picture and fold it under to ensure it all sticks together. When the picture is so full, the top and bottom pieces don't stick together so well, so the overlapping helps this problem. I used a brayer to roll it together.


there it is... I plan on hanging them in the window after i get the eyelets, cropadile, ribbon and picture all in the same room at the same time.

Try one yourself. Neve also did one, but abandoned it at various stages. I would finish a stage and she would come to do the beginning of the next one. She was cranky from a cold. yeah me. All that to be said that it is a good craft for varying ages and stages.

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