Feel the Love!

I put a favorite quote on a canvas today. You will have to take my word for it on this one, but it really is cute. Just not photogenic!! 

I painted a large canvas black ( therein lies the photo op issues) and grabbed my Cricut, some cute scrapbook paper and Mod Podge. All stuff I had hanging around.

I just "Mod Podged" the letters down. 

The letter size gets progressively larger as they go down the canvas. 

I used scrapbook paper with little hearts on it since the quote is about LOVE.

I'm going to try and get a better picture because I love this quote from Mother Teresa and my photos just aren't doing this thing justice.

A Little Baby Shower Love!

We hosted a little Baby Shower here on Friday night and it was fun to go all pink and frilly. In addition to practical gifts like diapers ( Wow!! It's been a long time since I bought diaper$$$$$)

I made a few little goodies. This baby is number 3 so I wanted a little something for the big sister and big brother. I used three 8 x 8 canvases.

 

Added a few dots, a smile and a few other details for some little portraits.

Here they are before I added their names.

And because I am loving painting on burlap, I made a Baby Girl Burlap door hanger to announce the new arrival. It doubled as part of our decorations at the shower, too!

 

Love Me Some Ice Cream...

Google GmailYahoo MailHotmailAOL MailAny email    

Who doesn't love ice cream?? My family loves to eat it. I like art projects about ice cream. Less calories and still fun!
Afternoon Art Camp this week was all about Valentine hearts and ice cream!

Didn't they turn out super cute?

We started with a board that was 1 x 4 and about 2 feet long. I base coated them blue to save time and have them ready to go. I got the boards at Home Depot and had them cut. If you have to buy the boards they cost about $1.00 each. Very reasonable.

I cut heart shapes from scrapbook paper. I had a lot of it on hand. I bought a few sheets to add some variety. I pre-cut the ice cream cone shape as well. Our time is limited after school but if you have time then children could cut their own shapes and get some scissor practice in. I cut some tiny hearts from red glitter paper - the cherry on top!

Then we just started gluing our ice cream cones and hearts onto our boards with ModPodge.
It was easy and they did a great job. I warned them that they would get their fingers glue-y and sticky.

Each one was different and really cute. It's a fun "heart themed" project but not just for Valentine's Day decoration. Several moms said they were going to hang them in the kitchen when they got home - fun!

You scream. I scream. Go get some ice cream!
Even in Winter. My family will eat it year round. We have a cool ice cream shop in our area named Brusters. It doesn't have inside seating so they give you your second scoop free if it's raining or snowing. College girl and her dad used to dash over there in  snow flurry (rare thing here anyway) and get ice cream. One time we went by there to get ice cream on a freeeeeeezing day with flurries and the lady said we were the only customers so far that day. I'm telling you, they will eat ice cream no matter what!!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

Just look what my Wednesday Night Kids did at church this week!!!
Isn't it awesome?? We had so much fun.

Just so you know... that board is 3 feet by 4 feet. That's a big rainbow project!! I have shown you my giant tubs full of bottle caps and plastic lids before. Well, we put them to good use. We spread out on the floor and worked together to create this amazing rainbow. I had the scrap of panelling but you can buy a piece this size at Home Depot for about $5.00. The bottle caps were free ( I have all our church members save bottle caps and bring them to my office. I use them for everything! The children love going through the tubs looking for colors or sorting them. They are a free manipualtive!) and we glued them to the board with Tacky Glue.
That's it. I can't wait to hang it up outside my office door. Everyone came by to see it today and now the kids who weren't there last night want us to do it again next week :)

*This project works for St. Patricks Day, Noah, Spring, Roy G Biv and colors of the spectrum, recycling, Earth Day- you name it. However you want to tie it in is fine. Just do it because it was the most fun we've had in a long time. And for free. Our lesson was actually on RESPECT and we worked together on this while being respectful of everyone else on the team. It was so engaging and fun that we worked for an hour and there wasn't one unkind peep or bossy words out of anyone!!
 It's a miracle project !!

Linking Up:

Poof! You're an Owl!

 I am working on a pink, woodland themed baby shower for a friend. I saw these "bath poufs" at the Dollar Tree and thought that they could be turned into some kind of cute baby shower decoration. They were pink and a dollar - that was inspiration enough.

 I used my circle punches to punch a variety of pink paper circles in a variety of sizes. I just used a dab of hot glue to put them together and we have cute pink owls to decorate with!

Very cute. Obviously, they wouldn't work in the shower since they are paper.
 But these poufs come in lots of colors. The blue ones would make good Thing 1 andThing 2's for a Seuss party or for a classroom activity. You could make green frogs, white ones for snowmen, crazy monsters for " Where the Wild Things Are." You could glue them to paint sticks and turn your creations into puppets. Lots of possibilities for a dollar.

 

( Not a great picture - sorry. )

Here they are ready to party!! I hung them from the ceiling fan over the table where we will eat. I added paper lantern owls ( remember those from a previous post?), ribbon streamers and little paper acorns. The acorns say " Mighty Oakes from little acorns grow." - Old English Proverb. The mom's last name is Oakes so that explains the woodland theme! There are pink acorns everywhere because it's a baby girl!!

Linking Up:

It All Started at Wal Mart...

I found  adorable heart shaped paper plates at Wal Mart. In a package of 6 for 97 cents.
 Irresistible!!
Then, at Hobby Lobby I found a bottle of glitter named Bubble Gum. It was pink and crystal mixed together. No passing that up. It was $1.47. ( You could use what you have on hand and I'm actually going to do some with red glitter dots on the red. Just as cute!) I used a Spouncer ( remember those from a previous post??) dipped in Mod Podge to make my glittery polka dots.

 I painted the back of the plate red to make it look a little nicer.

Then I spray painted a General Foods International Coffee can with black chalkboard paint. I did give it a light coat of Kilz primer first because it was sitting on the table where I was painting. I don't think it's a necessity if you don't have any primer. This is one of the older metal cans. You could use a clay pot, a paper cup, a little bucket from Target's Dollar Spot,etc. Whatever you have.

Next I painted some paintsticks green.

 

Can't leave them plain- so stripes and dots are next. Just  get creative.

Then I used a little Plaster of Paris to "plant" my paintstick in the coffee can. I added some Easter grass to cover the P of P and tied on a scrap of polka dotted green ribbon. You could add leaves with fun foam or small wooden hearts painted green would be cute.

You can write a message or the name of the person who is going to receive this on the chalkboard painted can. I added some Hershey Kisses on top of the Easter grass.
 What's a Valentine with out chocolate??

And then, because we all know that once I get a theme I can't get stopped (remember Candy Corn and Candy Canes and then the Snowman overload???) I made a small version. I still have some of those little galvanized buckets left so I used that, a green jumbo craft stick, two of those ice cream spoon shaped wooden pieces and a red glitter fun foam heart cut out. I stuck some air dry clay in the bucket to hold it all together and added some Easter grass. So cute and it's just big enough to hold about 3 Hershey kisses. A cute little Valentine for someone or a great "place card" at a Valentine's meal.

A fun little valentine's day project for all ages. You don't even have to cut out a heart shape!! Start with the plates and a little Tacky Glue will hold it all together!