I was going to do one of those catch up posts, but am still too busy! I think it’ll be easier to tackle little projects I’ve been working. Basically Tuesday was sick, then the in-laws were here, and Thanksgiving and shopping, and trying to finish an advent, and well now all the sudden it’s almost December! So here is a project I just worked on. I talked a dear friend of mine into letting me host a baby shower for her. She didn’t think it was important as it was her third baby, but since her second “baby” is eight she does need cute baby things so eventually I talked her into it 🙂 Sarah came over to help me put these together and I just love how they turned out.
They were inspired by Susan’s card from the Studio Calico kit this month.
I found the wording for the back here and then just printed it two up on an 8.5×11 sheet, cut it and rounded the corners. Glued down it covered all the stitching from the front.
I wanted to show you how I cut out the hearts. I’m not sure where I got the original heart image, it just happened to be the shape I liked best. If you have shapes you repeatedly use (hearts, stars, circles, etc.), I wanted to share this tip. I have a couple of set sizes of hearts that I like, this is the one I use most commonly (1 3/8″ wide x 1 1/8″ tall). I have taken to saving just about every layout before/after I cut so that if something mis-fires or I want to use it again I have it. So I made up a file with just hearts (here I fit 72 on a 8.5 x 12 piece of paper). When ever I have extra space on a piece of paper I’m cutting I usually fill it with hearts or stars (I have boxes for these cut outs in my scrap area). When I pull a heart from this saved file (or a row, or how ever many I have room for) I know they will all be the same size. It’s great for repetition. I hope that was pretty clear. Basically I use this file as a set size, like I would a paper punch.
Since I do have so many hearts cut out I made the guest of honor matching thank you notes. My aunt did this for my cousin’s baby shower and I thought it was so sweet. Then I got to thinking…
Holiday thank you notes!
Thank you notes on kraft cards! The only thing really stopping me from breaking out stars, snowflakes and circles, along with other sentiments right now are these darn advent projects! Yikes! And for the strings on the thank you notes I’ll probably just leave them. I do have one pretty picky relative whose card I’ll probably tie in the back, but I think most people won’t mind. So get out your punch or die cutting machine and go nuts with Susan’s great idea. I just love it!
And if anyone has any great ideas on how to make the “big” sister (age eight) feel super special at the shower, let me know. Or fun games that could involve her, etc.
Celebrating crafts, kids and the everyday through photographs.
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I touched on our schedule here, and part of that includes a “school time”. I named it this mostly for Tuesday, as we are an always learning kind of family (I like to think). We have been starting with a story, sitting on pillows, and then really she can do what ever activities she likes. I have set out many Montessori type activities (I’m not trained or anything, I just like a lot of those activities). I also have projects we can work on if she chooses. I like the idea that for this set amount of time (about an hour and a half three mornings a week) I am totally focused on Tuesday, so often I’m trying to “get stuff done”. One activity I came up with a while ago and had already all planned out was a face activity. Tuesday loves for us to draw circles so she can fill in the faces so that’s where my jumping off point was.
Of course it’s always special when you get to use mama’s pens (my zigs whose smaller end has run out of juice get put in her supply cupboard). Tuesday always draws 2 eyes, a nose, a mouth, and a forehead (of course).
I had a couple of bodies drawn for her to decorate.
Then I gave her a bunch of circles that I had precut out of scraps (with this). I gave her a mini Boden catalog and showed her that she could replace the faces in it with her own. She did a few, but then was more excited about using the glue stick so I just went with it. A pretty good project, she seemed to have fun with it, and it lasted about 25 minutes. Now to show you it’s not all roses…
The activity was to scoop with a ladle into the jar, which she did and then went crazy feeling and experiencing the foam ball things (found in the floral section of an arts and crafts store). I’m totally down with her doing what ever she wants (as long as it’s not dangerous), but we do have to rule to put something away before you do the next thing. The next thing after this was lunch. Let’s just say we ate pretty late. And there were tears.
Tuesday is 34 months. -
Tuesday and I have been having fun collecting for the nature exchange we are participating in.
This little bundle of wonderful nature bits is going to Russia. I printed out a picture like this and labeled where we found everything (again with in two block of our house). I figured it would be nice to compare to when it arrives and is dried out a little. From top left: pine cone from a couple blocks away, holly berries and leaf, moss, bits that fall from trees whenever it’s windy, maple leaf, little thing that drops from our neighbors tree, more moss (it’s wet here!), rosemary (from our herb garden), lavender (from our front yard), little flowers I managed to still find blooming in the yard, leaves, leaves from a blueberry bush and rocks from the Oregon coast, random berries and leaves.
Like I said we’re sending our package to Russia. I have an atlas that I found at an estate sale that is in Russian (I hope!). So I wrapped it up like this:
That is Russian right? I love these mail exchanges and hopefully I can find some more for Tuesday in the future, I’m very excited for her to get our egg carton. Did anyone else participate?
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