Floating Hearts

I love my new floating hearts above my kitchen sink. (inspiration)

Hope and I spent the morning cutting and gluing paper hearts. I even taught her to use the kid scissors. I'm thinking that may not have been the best judgement call, but I'm hoping we can keep them locked away when she's not being supervised. The hearts are strung with fishing line, which I tied to a little piece of ribbon at the top, that is thumb-tacked to the ceiling. I'm excited to show it to my girls when they get home from school.

Pumpkins

I want to stop everything and make these pumpkins right now. If only my to-do list wasn't already a mile long! Great tutorial here.

Backyard Art

The kids were acting a little squirrelly, so we asked them to go outside and find 15 pieces of nature (without picking flowers or destroying landscaping), and then to make art with their finds. I'm loving the palm tree here, made by my niece, Kylee.

This exotic gal is another fave created by Cailin. I particularly enjoy the pine cone hat with flowery plumage. I was supposed to judge the artwork and award prizes, but we haven't gotten around to that yet. I did make some magic wands made from curling ribbon and drinking straws to give out as rewards. Tomorrow is our last day here, so we'll have to do it then for sure.

May Day Baskets

Years ago when we lived in Illinois, a good friend surprised us with May Day baskets. The giving of M.D.B.'s is supposed to be a "ring and run" treat, and I know my girls would love to make some up and surprise some friends of their own, but I never seem to remember May Day until April 30th at around 10 p.m. Well, last night was no different, but I caught a crafting fever and made 3 little baskets for the girls, which we emptied their treats from in the morning, and replenished for them to give to their teachers today. I love the way the little Hershey kiss daisies turned out. I glue-dotted them onto chopsticks to stick in the basket. This is just another reason why it's imperative to always have a good supply of chocolate on hand. :) I copied the tag and cone basket idea from here.

Mini Memory Book

I thought it would be fun to have a little book in my purse with photos and thoughts about our time in Abu Dhabi, that I could whip out whenever someone asked, "So, what was it like over there?" I just wrote a sentence or two about things like the heat, the food, the traffic, the sights. It was a fun little project. I used another free photoshop template from Jessica Sprague for the journal pages. She's amazing.

Little Book for Dad

These books were so much fun to make. Here is the "dad" version I made for Jon. It was fun to use some of my punches that have been neglected - my file folder punch in particular. Madelyn made a mini book for me today that she is saving for my birthday.

LIttle Book (Don't Look Mom!)

The YW asked me to do a stamping project for an upcoming activity, so I have been browsing some ideas and found this cute little book. The pages are made from one sheet of paper, with just a few cuts and lots of accordian folds. I found the template on this site. I was up late last night happily stamping and gluing, to make my demo, which is incidentally, what I'd like to give my mom for Mother's Day - so mom, close your eyes to the pictures below, if you'd like it to be a surprise! :)

Below is the book opened, with the outer band removed.

This photo below shows the book stamped and cut before it was all folded up. I think I'm gong to make another one for Father's Day, that has more photos. I hope the YW have fun making their own!