Stash Buster Valentine's Cards

This Valentine's Day the daughter and I decided to use some of our existing craft stash to make her school Valentine party cards, instead of buying the typical cards that kids just toss in the trash. We found some spare pieces of cardstock, loose pom poms and various google eyes. So, we made "love bugs". She wanted them to be removable so the kids could play with them.



We wrote up the poem in the car on our way home one day. And, with a little help from Adobe Illustrator's stock brush borders and a nice font called "Algerian", we designed a simple card the night before her party.



After printing the cards she colored and cut them out herself. Instead of trying to cut the circle for the bugs to fit in with scissors, I showed her how to punch out most of the circle with a regular hole punch. It took us three well aimed punches to remove enough of the circle. She signed the backs to pass them out. I put another small circle at the center top of the heart to be hole punched for a possible ribbon to be strung through. But we didn't end up using it.



Feel free to use this card for your own personal St. Valentine's Day cards perhaps for next year. A pdf of a 9 card 8.5x11" layout is available here.

YAY!! Craftster Best of 2010!!!

I'm a Craftster Best of 2010 Winner!

My witch boots were not only featured awhile back, but they've been chosen in the "Craftster Best of 2010" Holiday Category!! What awesome birthday news! Thanks to everyone who liked my post enough to "rock it"!!

House Plants for the new house

This past weekend our family got together to play with some Crayola "Model Magic" clay my daughter received from Santa on Christmas. We tried to make some plants and furniture for the cardboard house that daddy made.



It was the strangest clay to work with. It's kinda spongy. Dried really fast, which made it wrinkle and crack. I don't recommend it for any serious sculpting. You had to know what you wanted to make before opening the package. And, worst of all, it doesn't save. We did find that coloring it with marker was cool. Not only could you change the color easily, but it made the clay softer and last a little longer.



I attempted the three on the left (a bromeliad, cactus and some sorta fantasy succulents) and the middle front one (an aloe). Daddy made the large paddle cactus in the middle back that he didn't color. And daughter made the two on the right. I think her cactus is adorable. Grandma also attempted some, but smashed them before we could get them away from her. It really was frustrating clay to work with.

After the others got overly frustrated and gave up, I continued to make a hermit crab with log and decoration out of the scraps.



And, lastly, before the clay was too unbearable to work with, a top hat that looks like it's seen better days:



We may use what she has left to make some cushions and pillows for future furniture. Other than that, we won't be buying any more of this stuff. :)