A Little Bit of Christmas Wood Burning

This year for Christmas Brendon and I didn't have a whole lot of money floating around and we wanted to share something that took more time and love, and less cash! So we came up with the idea of wood burning signs for our friends and family. Brendon had wood burned a clock at one point years ago and I did some signs for my friend's wedding, so we were familiar with the process, but these signs were a much bigger project.

A big project, but a fun project too. It was neat to take one idea- and specialize it for the personality of the person receiving it! Brendon sanded down the surface of each pre cut wood plaque, and I hand  drew out all the designs, and we worked together to burn all of the signs.

This one was for my In laws and my father in law thought it was so neat he got up and hung it on the wall right then!

This one was actually the hardest because I wanted it to look as close as possible to the illustrations in the book "The Giving Tree" and so I worried the whole time about making a wrong move with the wood burner!

I couldn't help adding some color to these two- and I think it would be hard to not add color to future signs I make because, I am in love.

A Scrapbook for Sarah

 

Crafting is kind of my thing, my happy place. I know everything I do isn't perfect (don't look too close at the corners, they aren't quite square) but I love crafting. In fact, I have too many crafts. Felting, painting, sewing, embroidery, jewelry making, crocheting and so on. I spend too much time dreaming up ideas that I run out of time to follow them through! Scrapbooking often gets moved to the bottom of the "to do" list (which means that I have not finished Cordelia's baby book, but hey, I'll get there eventually right?)

 

I have found, and I am sure you have too, that when you are making something for someone else it gets moved WAY up to the top of the list- it also gets to be fancier than something you would make for yourself. I'm totally ok with this, I love giving gifts and truthfully I need the deadlines involved with gift giving to get stuff done!

 

This is a scrapbook that I made for my friend Sarah to immortalize her bridal shower. If you don't remember me sharing photos from the shower, take a look- that post is here. So this book did take about 7 months to make and really isn't that big but I was trying not to stress over this project, I wanted to keep it fun! And I added a ton of details that I would never add to anything else, ever.

 





I don't think I ever shared it- but this is the shower invitation- which I also made (with a lot of help from my sister). The tea bag pops out of the tea cup because I was all about being fancy!

 



It's a lot of fun to look back at the decorations!

 



 

Yum, and remember the yummy (and mostly Paleo) food. Sarah's friend Ada made the best little Paleo sandwiches.  

 



 

This was one of the best showers I've been to. Everyone was really comfortable talking and socializing- sometimes it's hard to put a bunch of strangers in a room and expect them to have fun, but not with this group of ladies!

 



My hubby called me out for including an extra large picture of Sarah and I- but hey, I made the book and threw the shower, AND for some reason we only have twelve photos together in our entire friendship, so I'm going to flaunt this photo all I want.

 



The yellow flap opens to show the Mad Libbed love story we wrote at the party!

  

I wanted her to be able to open all the cards and read the sweet messages whenever she wanted.

 



 

 

The end, Thanks for looking <3 p="">

Wedding Activity Books

A wedding can be a very boring affair for a kid, so after a suggestion from Sarah's soon to be sister in law (and good friend) I put together coloring books to keep the kids entertained during the less then action packed moments of the wedding. Each kid got a coloring book, an eight pack of crayons, and a card for them to color for the bride and groom.

A lot of the ideas for the book came from the one that this blogger made. She offers a free printable you can use, which really is wonderful. I recreated things (and added some new things) instead of directly using hers so I could make mine exactly the way I wanted it.  

The books had to be interesting for kids ages 2-10 which was a big challenge. In the end I decided to appeal to the older kids- figuring that Cordelia will color over anything, she doesn't care if it is a picture or a puzzle.

The cross word puzzle I made with an automated crossword maker by Discovery Education (found here). It's nice because it checks for accidental inappropriate words when it makes the puzzle.  The cartoon sketch of the bride and groom I drew myself. 

The books were a big hit so it was a  really gratifying project, and an idea I would recommend to others in the future!  

Painting With Kids

Miss C. and I love to finger paint; and on days when I'm having a hard time occupying her we always paint. Cordelia is one of those kids that if you don't give her good things to do she finds trouble to get into. Painting keeps her amused for close to an hour, and then we always have to finish up with a bath- which is another solid half an hour of entertainment. Finger painting is also a plain old great sensory play- she gets to experiment with the feeling of the paint and explore how the colors mix. Often we will bring in other objects- like pipe cleaners, pom poms, small plastic toys, and different brushes , for her to use and explore with. 

Mostly finger painting starts off looking like the above picture. We learned early on that being just in a diaper helps cut down on the mommy clean up required. Normally we put out paints in cupcake liners, or on little plastic plates. We also exclusively use Crayola washable, non toxic paint- because I like the texture and quality, and because Cordelia is pretty good at not eating the paint but you can never be too careful. It's my goal to never have to use the number on my green Mr. Yuck magnet.  

Then Miss. C will decided she needs more paint, and being a do-it-yourselfer she likes to get it herself (which is fine, I like independence, it's a good trait to have)

The cats like to keep an eye on us while we work. 

And in the end I always have to turn around to get more paper/ water/ more paint/ paper towles e.t.c and this is always what we end up with- a monkey on the table covered in paint.