Kiddos Post

Oldest E and Middle E started working on their christmas cards!  They wanted to use Sunny Christmas Marci from La-La Land Stamps.  In the process, we came across La-La Land Crafts For Kids blog and they wanted to play along while they worked on their cards.  They LOVED coloring the images!  I gave them a pile of backgrounds (mostly scrap pieces from last Christmas), a bunch of bases, a few sentiment stamps (from My Craft Spot) and let them have their picks of ribbon.  They really went to town on their cards!  I'm not going to post all they made because I want them to be a surprise for the recipients but they sure had a blast making them!  Here are a few pics!

Oldest E's colorings of Sunny Christmas Marci.

Oldest E's card for the La-La Land Crafts For Kids Green and Brown contest #7.

Middle E's colorings of Sunny Christmas Marci.

Middle E's card for the La-La Land Crafts For Kids Green and Brown contest #7. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Back to School Blog Hop

Hello Everyone and welcome to the Back to School Blog Hop Hosted by the talented Jovan at Cards by Jovan!  If you arrived here from Girlia's blog then you are heading in the right direction.  She is so creative, isn't she?  If you just stopped by to see me today (thanks) then you'll want to go back to Jovan's blog to start at the begining, you won't want to miss a stop!  There are so many talented blogs in this hop, blog candy to be won and there's also a fun challenge at the end too!  I hope you'll join us!
 I am so excited for Back to School time!  As much as I love the fun summer brings, I also love the structured schedule of the school year (yes, it is part of my OCD, I need my schedules) and I LOVE fall!  This year is very special because my Oldest E is heading to Kindergarten.  As much as I'll miss her, I know she is going to LOVE Kindergarten and I know she'll thrive there!   I am also a preschool teacher, so I can't wait to meet the new students and to see the kiddos who are returning!  Such an exciting time and who doesn't love NEW SCHOOL SUPPLIES!  There is nothing like fresh crayons and un-sharpened pencils....hmmmm!!! 


For my Back to School Project, I decided to make a gift for my girls to give to their Auntie K for her classroom (she is not really their aunt but that is what they call her). 

I had seen these at a local craft show a few years ago and thought they were soooo cute!  I made a few of them last year for Christmas gifts and they were all well received!    They are such a cute addition to any classroom and very easy/inexpensive to make! 

I've seen the crayon wreaths in many sizes and colors but here is how I made mine.  I started out with a 6" and 8" hoop.  I've made them bigger before but I like this size the best!  You get two wreaths out of these hoops! 

I used two boxes of 24ct crayons on this size wreath (minus the neutral colors).  I started out by lying the crayons in a pattern where I wanted them.  Then I hot glued them to the hoops.

After adhering all the crayons, I tied ribbon around to hide the hoops.  At Christmas time I think I used red ribbon.  I really like the green better, but then green is my favorite color too!   

Once the wreath is wrapped I added a hanger ribbon, a large bow and some fun decorations!

I cut a chalkboard, personalized it, added a little bookworm with a Peachy face (I'm sorry, I know I use this little worm way too much, but I can't help it...he's too cute) and a rolled piece of white for the chalk.

A little school bus from Doodlecharms with a "hello" stamp from My Craft Spot.

The glue is from Simply Charmed and the scissors are from Locker Talk.  I hope you like my crayon wreath!  They are very easy to make and can be decorated to fit anyones classroom style!  You could always make it with pencils to be more fitting for a Middle/High School Teacher too!

So, who wants some blog candy?  I have an assortment pack of 8.5 x 11" Stampin' Up! cardstock that I think includes the colors Marina Mist, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Early Expresso, and Daffadil Delight.  I was going to include the bottle of Stickles too, but my little darlings got a hold of it today (that was a fun mess, sorry for the teaser picture).  I'm sure I'll find something else to throw in there by time I pull a winner!

BLOG CANDY RULES

1. You must leave a comment telling me what Back to School means to you.

2. You do not need to be a follower, but I would love if you were!

3. Because I love my friends (aka followers), followers may have an extra entry by adding a second comment letting me know that you are a follower (old and new)!

4. You must stop back on Monday Aug 15 to see if you won!

I have taken enough of your time today.  Thank you Jovan for hosting this fun hop today!  There are so many more wonderful Back to School projects to see, so have fun and thanks for hopping by today!  Your next stop is my talented friend

Jayne at JayneDesigns!

Here is the entire line up in case you get lost along the way!

Jovan  

Cindy   

Amy  

Girlia   

Amber   You are here

Jayne   NEXT STOP

Adrain   

Sherrie K   

Amanda   

Melissa  

Theresa   

Amber  

Carri  

Jovan   to participate in the Back to School challenge!!

Products Used:

• 2 pks of Crayola Crayons 24ct box
• 6" cross stitch hoop
• 8" cross stitch hoop
• Ribbon from Michael's
• Stampin' Up! Cardstock
• Create A Critter Cricut Cartridge
• Doodlecharms Cricut Cartridge
• Locker Talk Cricut Cartridge
• Simply Charmed Cricut Cartridge
• My Craft Spot Sweet Sentiments Set #1
• Peachy Keen Critter Faces
• Crystal Effects
• Stampin' Write Markers

Challenges:

Celebrate the Occasion Challenge #25 Back to School

FCCB Challenge Me Monday #72 Let's Get Buggy

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great weekend!

Thankful Thursday Summer Reading

Click HERE for the Birthday Sundaes Cakes & Cupcakes Blog Hop

Happy Thursday to everyone!  Today is a very special day!  It is my Middle E's 4th Birthday!  We have a fun filled day planned and I'm sure she is going to have a blast!  Today is also a new Thankful Thursday Challenge at Crazy About Cricut!  This week's theme is Summer Reading and the challenge is to make bookmarks to save your place in those special family story books or if your kids are grown, to save the spot in your summer reading books!  I know someday, I'll have time to read again...hehe...though, I don't want them to grow up too fast!  Here is the bookmark Oldest E made for our challenge!

She really wanted to use this panel from Bo Bunny and despite already having plans for it, I let her use it!  It really was perfect for her project.

She wanted to sew it just like Mommy does so we got out the sewing machine and went to town.  She tried doing a few different fancy stitches and had so much fun with it.

Unfortunately, my sewing machine gave her the same problems it gives me.  I have been having a terrible problem with it birdnesting.  I've cleaned it really good, fiddled with the settings and had my friend look at it, but she agrees it needs to go to the sewing shop to be repaired (insert sad face here).  Oh well, Oldest E doesn't seem to mind the little mess on the back of her bookmark.

Here she is personalizing her bookmark.  She learned what an apostrophe was today so our craft time ended up being a good spelling lesson too!

Here is her finished bookmark.  She LOVES it and immediately stuck it in her favorite book!

Afterwards, she decided she want to practice her sewing more, so she pulled out her sewing machine and went to work.

She even showed Baby E how to use it! 

We always have so much fun with our Thankful Thursday projects!  I hope you'll join us for our Summer Reading Bookmark Challenge this week!  You have two weeks to complete your project and link it up at Crazy About Cricut!  Make sure you stop by and see the rest of the Design Team projects and to check out the fun prize for this month!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Kid's Leaf Art

Quick post today!  It's thursday, so I thought I would share another My 3 E kid project today.  Earlier this week the girls made leaf art.  They collected different leaves and flowers from the yard and then we talked about what each one was.  Then they had fun gluing them onto their art projects.  Here are their favorites.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Thankful Thursday Summer Movie Theme

Hello Everyone!  Today is my kids favorite post day of the week!  It's Thankful Thursday today and the Design Team at Crazy About Cricut has created some amazing and fun projects to celebrate Family Movie Night!  Our challenge this week is Summer Movie!  So what is your families favorite movie!  Our all-time favorite movie in our house is the Wizard of Oz!  My longtime followers know that Oldest E had a Wizard of Oz Dress-up Birthday Party this year!  Even the adults got in on the fun!  So for our project this week, my girls wanted to make a tunnel card just like they had seen Dr. Sonia and her little assistant make at Cards, Crafts and Kids Projects!  Here is what our Wizard of Oz tunnel card looks like!

My dear friend Sonia has a wonderful tutorial on how to make this creation HERE!   Her and her little assistant's card is much more detailed!  You must check it out!  Let me show you our fun in making this!

We started with these frames.  I used my Gypsy to cut rectangles with frames from Once Upon a Princess.  The little Wizard of Oz die-cuts are from my LSS and are made by Paper House Productions.

Here is Oldest E working on coloring her frames...

....and Middle E working on hers!

Outer frame - Oldest E used the Wizard of Oz Die Cuts and some Wizard of Oz Chipboard stickers to create her scene then faux stitched her border....

Next frame she gave the Scarecrow a cornfield to stand in....

Next, Oldest E gave the Tin Man some apple trees....

and the Cowardly Lion got a forest (she wanted to do lions, and tigers and bears but couldn't fit them on the frame)....

Middle E did the Wicked Witch and her flying Monkey!  She is obsessed with the witch!  

After all the frames were done, we stacked them on top of each other and Oldest E added a few more of the chipboard stickers that went with the characters.  When they went for their naps, I followed Dr. Sonia's tutorial (See HERE - thank you Sonia) to build the tunnel card!  Below is the finished card at different angles! 

Here are the girls after their nap.  The were admiring their work and absolutely thrilled with how it turned out!

I hope you'll join us at Crazy About Cricut for our Thankful Thursday this week!  I can't wait to see the Summer Family Movie projects you create with your kids or loved ones!  If you are not familar with our challenge and the rules, please check it out at Crazy About Cricut!  Below is the wonderful prize pack sponsored by our friends at Post-It that you could win for crafting with your family this month!  There is also a chance to win a $10 Gift Certificate for Pink By Design but you must stop by to see how you can win!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Homemade Playdough

It's Thursday!  As promised, I have a special kids craft to share with you again today.  This week we made homemade playdough!  It was a huge hit!  We used a salt recipe that I tore out of a magazine years ago.
It's 1 cup of salt, 1 cup of water, 2 cups of flour, 1 tbsp of cooking oil and a few drops of food coloring mixed together.  Super easy but let me warn you that it it can be messy.  I ended up telling them it was outside playdough and made them take it outside because of the mess!  Our favorite playdough to make is pumpkin pie playdough but it was too hot to turn on the stove for that one.  There are a ton of play dough recipes online!  Check them out for a great afternoon craft that will keep them busy for hours!

While we were working on playdough, the Baby Monster attacked my craft space.  She found the girls bag of scraps and dumped them on the hallway floor.  Isn't it a beautiful mess!  The girls took this as an invitation to make a few quick cards!

Here are a few cards they came up with!  Don't you love the bunnies?

Thanks for stopping by today and have fun crafting with your kids!!

Thankful Thursday

Well, it is looking like we are having blogger issues today, so our scheduled Crazy About Cricut Thankful Thursday All-American Blog Hop may be postponed for the time being.

I've decided since my family and some friends enjoy coming here on Thursday to see what my girlies have been working on (and since Oldest E loves seeing her creations on the computer), that I am going to start posting our family projects every Thursday throughout the summer, regardless if it is Thankful Thursday or not.  It will also be a good incentive for my Oldest E to brush her hair since people all over the world can see her messy mop!  She is in the phase where she is refusing to let me brush it and/or pull it up!  It drives me crazy to see it in her face, but I know this phase, like many others, will pass (hopefully soon)!

This week, we had fun with a classic summer activity, ROCK PAINTING!!!

It is an inexpensive activity and what kiddo doesn't love to paint!  Your garden or planters will look so much more colorful with these little masterpieces and since we used fingerpaints, a quick swipe with the hose cleaned the whole mess up!!

Hopefully we'll be able to get the Hop rolling today, but if not, we'll have it for you soon! 

Thanks for stopping by today!