Unscripted Sketches: Happy Birthday card

Here is my card from yesterday. I used this week's Unscripted Sketch. I really enjoy working with these sketches, they really help me use up my scraps! The patterned paper is Bo Bunny Flower Child. I decided the background needed some pattern too, but I didn't want it to go all the way to the edge so I used masking tape around the edges and then stamped the flowers. The die cut flower is from the "Walk in My Garden" Cricut cartridge.

Thanks for stopping by!

Unscripted Sketches and StuckOnUSketches

For today's card I used this week's Unscripted Sketch and the current die cut challenge at StuckOnUSketches. This week at Unscripted Sketches they are also having a "piggyback challenge", which means in addition to the sketch, you must do stitching. I used some embroidery floss to stitch around my scalloped heart.

The die cut challenge at StuckOnUSketches is Love. I used my Cricut and "Sentimentals" cartridge to cut out the word "love" for this card. The heart was also cut using the Cricut and the "Doodlecharms" cartridge.

Mojo Monday- Love

Here is my card for today. I used the sketch from Mojo Monday for this card. I was digging through my random die cuts looking for something that would work with this sketch. I found these pieces from a sheet of K and Company paper. Because of the size of the pieces, I had to make a larger card (this card is 8 1/2 x 5 1/2). It was fun to play with the larger canvas! Here are the sketch and the card:

Cooking with Cricut Birthday Challenge

This week's challenge at Cooking with Cricut is to use a cake, cupcake or balloon cut on a project. I made this birthday card with some scraps I had laying on my desk from a previous project. I used the birthday cake from "Stretch Your Imagination."

This card also marks the start of my annual Lenten project. The past four years I have made a card each day for Operation Write Home. This organization collects cards and then ships them to soldiers overseas so the soldiers have handmade cards to send to their family members back home. This year, I am doing something a little different. I have decided to take a class at Big Picture Classes called Scrapbooking Your Faith, which starts March 1st and runs 4 weeks. I plan to devote a large amount of time to the class, so I won't be able to make a card every day. For the days of Lent before and after the class, I will make a card per day. For the duration of the class, I have set the goal of 4 cards per week. I will be sharing my cards and projects from the class right here!

30 Days of Hands on Play Challenge: 29 and 30

We did our last activity yesterday: sticky art! For this activity, I used clear contact paper and cut two pieces the same size for each child. I pulled the liner off of one of the pieces and laid it sticky side up in front of them. I supplied them with tissue paper and patterned paper scraps. They pressed the paper onto the clear contact paper. Once they had covered a majority of the sticky side, they chose a color of glitter and we sprinkled that in the gaps. Then I placed the other piece of contact paper on top.

A few tips:
-If you don't like glitter, skip that step. I don't mind glitter, but that step got really messy!

- Leave a border around the edge with nothing on the contact paper, that way it will seal everything in.

-If you forget to leave a border (as we did) you can seal the piece by using clear tap around the edge.

The kids really had fun with this and even Will stuck with it long enough to cover his piece!

Once they were all finished, I hung them in the kids' bedroom windows.

My task for day 30 was to think about what I learned.

Ellie really enjoyed having this time with me. She was always quick to tell me to join in the fun. She really liked knowing at the beginning of the day what was coming. She's a planner. She most enjoyed the craft projects, which really didn't surprise me.

Addy really enjoyed the sensory activities. I've always known she is a child who enjoys touching stuff and getting her hands dirty, and this project confirmed that. She can spend an hour plus playing in water, or making paint prints. She also encouraged me to sit down and play along with them.

I was surprised to find out how much Will could actually do. He participated in almost every activity and stuck with it. He LOVED helping with cooking, which I initially didn't think he was ready for. I have been making an effort to include him when we do baking and cooking together. I was also surprised by how much he enjoyed the craft projects. He really stuck with them and did a great job for a 1 1/2 year old. I think part of that is he likes to be a part of whatever is going on and so he really enjoyed this time where we all played together.

I was reminded how much fun it is to just play. I think I had forgotten it the busyness of taking care of the kids and the house and just doing my own thing. I have been trying to spend more of my days focused on playing with the kids and less on what I want to do. I think we are all happier for it!

Now all that is left is for us to continue playing together. I think our project tomorrow will be to make a jar to put slips of paper with the activities into. We will be using the activities from this challenge and I will add other activities I come across. Thank you for joining me on this journey and I hope I have inspired some of you to try something new with your kids.

Practical Scrapers: Border Punches

This coming week's Challenge Me Tuesday feature at Practical Scrappers is border punches. The challenge was to use 2 or more border punches on a layout. I have a handful of border punches that I love to use on my pages. I feel they add so much interest to the edge of paper. I used two punches for the patterned paper strips across the center of my layout. I have two other places on my layout that have shaped borders as well: the side of my journaling block and the felt piece under my title. While I didn't use a punch for either of these, you could easily do so.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif I used K and Company Berry Sweet paper. I really like this line, the colors and patterns are so fun. Those cute little sock monkeys are cut from one of the sheets! I really had fun making this page and it is one of my current favorites!

30 Days of Hands on Play Challenge: 26-28... I think

I meant for us to complete our activities this week, but alas, it hasn't happened. We did 3 days worth of planned activities and one day of impromptu activity.

Monday our activity was: make prints with household objects. We went around and gathered several toys and kitchen utensils and brought them to the table. It was then that I realized we had no tempera paint in the house... I grabbed a few bottles of acrylic paint and just decided to deal with the messy clean up. Will got to paint in just a diaper because I wasn't willing to deal with THAT much mess. :)



The kids had a blast dipping the toys in the paint and then making prints on their paper. They each covered several sheets of paper with paint and only stopped because I made them so we could eat dinner. Clean up was a pain, but I remembered to buy tempera paint when we were at Michael's on Wednesday!

Tuesday was our impromptu day. The girls were busy coloring in coloring books and I was about the join them when Will woke up from his nap. We decided to just color that day instead of doing the planned activity.

Wednesday we role played. We pulled out the kitchen toys and cash register and did some shopping and cooking. The kids had fun dressing up in their aprons and pretending to make food. Addy made a tomato and chocolate soup for me and Ellie made vanilla pudding.



Yesterday's activity was to play with a box. There is an activity in a Sesame Street craft book Ellie has to make animal (or monster) feet out of Kleenex boxes. We had finally saved 4 boxes so we decided it was time to make the feet. I pulled out our new paint (which turned out to be finger paint so it wasn't as opaque as I had hoped, but worked anyway) and we went to work painting Elmo and Grover feet. Will painted the box a little, but Ellie ended up finishing it while Will occupied himself with painting the table cloth (why didn't I use the table cloth on Monday with the acrylic paint?? I don't know...).




We let the boxes dry and today the kids had fun walking around in them. Oh and Will eventually did get around to playing with a box...

Ok, next week we WILL finish this!