melty monster

I think Gideon migh be starting to teeth, he's chewing his hands a lot. 

I've been wanting to try melted crayon art with Aurora for months but haven't gotten around o it.Finally today we did.
We blocked out the shape of a monster with masking tape the picked our colors and hot glued them on the canvas

 then used the hair dryer for a while till it got really drippy

 then took off the tape and since some color had gotten under the tape we painted the monster

 she thinks he's pretty funny

making chapstick

First here is a picture of the little man

This was our take on the traditional vasaline and cool aid lip balm. A little more natural. (well as natural as kool aid can be... I think I'm going to make up another recipe of it with essential oil and a little beeswax and see how that goes.)

This is before it cooled and hardened...

It hardened just a little bit lighter pink than this.

family prints

Now that we are a family of four and our sweet boy is here, I wanted to create something with all of our hand prints on it. I love all the different sizes of our hands right now. A's hands look so big now when they seemed so small only weeks ago.

Originally I wanted a long short canvas and do all of our prints in a row, but I couldn't find one the right size at our local art store (or anywhere else that has them) So I came up with plan B which I am quite happy with actually.

So, first off, prime the canvas (the two small ones are for another project, I have quite a few on the go at the moment) and let it dry. I primed mine a couple days ago and just finished off tonight.

One blue hand print from hubby and a burgundy one from me...
Let it dry... (doesn't take too long for acrylic paint to dry)

 Paint up A's hand, remind her to hold very still and spread her fingers and not to move until I lift her hand off. Remind her again, then push down her hand. (she obeyed quite well)

Then the tricky part, getting a newborn's handprint... ya, if you've ever tried you understand. They like to clench their little fists and are surprisingly strong. I was quite successful when A was a baby and a little less so this time but oh well.

Hubby helped by holding G, we tried while he was asleep but when the cold paint touched his hand....well he obviously woke up, but still he did pretty well. Not the best hand print ever but it will do.

(sorry for the crummy pictures, it's dark out so my natural light is gone)

Camera Strap Bling

These are my two camera straps. I actually made them during the summer but still thought I would post them. 

The ruffly one is made from a tutorial found here. I only added one ruffle though. (btw thank mom for sewing it for me, i really need to figure out how to use my Pfaff) 

The denim one was my own idea, a pretty simple one really. I just upcycled an old pair of jeans and added 3 large fabric roses with pearl centers. I am a little obsessed with these roses so I really like it. :) I sewed them on and used hot glue. I found that hot glue on it's own wasn't enough especially for something I use as much as my cameras (strap) so sewing them added some strength. 

waiting waiting waiting

I've been working on the curriculum for my daughter for this year and am itching to get started. Our school year will start a little later than most (since she's only in preschool it doesn't really matter) since we are waiting for her baby brother to make his grand appearance. What a stubborn child he is!

Yesterday A discovered that buttons are very fun to use as beads. She has seen me sewing many times and is really interested and wants to learn but since I don't have any plastic needles yet (hoping to remedy that today) we have stuck to beading. Mostly beading with pony beads only pipe cleaners, but yesterday she grabbed a regular spool of thread and started beading buttons onto it, no needle or anything. (did i mention that she isn't 3 for a few months still?)
It's so fun to watch toddlers concentrate so hard on things like this. She seriously sat there for over 2 hours just working at it, she only stopped then because her daddy got home from work and she had to hide and scream excitedly (the usual after work show in our house) she then went on to work on it again later until we made her stop for supper (and that was almost world war 3)

In the evening I gave her some thin ribbon and picked out some of the buttons with bigger holes (since obviously ribbon is a lot bigger than string and would be much harder to thread through the small buttons, especially for a 2 year old who doesn't understand about folding it) and mixed them with some pony beads for her to make a necklace. Once again she spent at least an hour working on it and made herself a lovely necklace. :) (I will upload a picture of her with it soon, my camera is being held hostage right now LOL)

Today i hope to find her some new supplies so she can expand her talents.