mama and me crafting.

Did you see that Mama Elephant has a new monthly challenge blog?  I was checking it out the other morning when my 9 year old daughter, Sofia, popped up behind my left shoulder and said:

hey! a contest? can i enter?

I set her up with all of my Mama Elephant stamps (wow, you have a lot of them, mom!) and let her choose what she thought would work with the inspiration photo.

She settled on Tree Friends, because she thought the fringed top on the inspiration favors looked tree-like, and I showed her how to stamp her elements onto scrap paper until she was happy with the placement.  She asked my advice a few times (do you like the sentiment here or here?) and then off she went, stamping and coloring. She was concentrating so hard she never noticed that I snapped a quick picture:

The finished card is amazing. I think it shows so much growth, that she held back from adding more and more onto the card (I'm trying to think what you would do, mama!) and even kept her cool to figure out how to hide a stamping boo-boo.

She tested copic colors to match the inspiration photo (although she wasn't happy with the lack of a lime green color for the leaves) and purposefully leave some of the elements on the tree white.



Her hand shook when she stamped the falling flower, but I challenged her not to scrap the entire project right away. I can just pop another flower on top, can't I? She's so smart. You'd never have seen the mistake if I didn't take a photo from this angle.

She brought in some blue with the patterned paper background, and gold with the washi strip at the bottom.

If you are as impressed with what she's created as I am, leave Sofia some love! I know she'll be thrilled to read your comments.

♥.

handprint decorations: crafting with the littles.

Hi there -

This is my 200th post!  I can't believe that I am slowly nearing a year of blogging - it has been an amazing ride so far, and definitely a sanity-keeper for me.  All of your sweet comments put a smile on my face, and sometimes, a much-needed smile on a particularly gloomy day :)  I promise a little giveaway on my 1 year blogging-birthday - less than 2 months away!

What better way to celebrate going forwards with my little blog, than to take a tiny look back... Last year, the kids and I (and even the hubs) did a little Christmas craft together that you might enjoy taking on in your own home.  When I pulled it out last week, it was really special for the kids to put their hands back on their canvases and see how they've grown...

I pre-painted the thin canvases (we got them at our local dollar-store, 3 for a dollar, and they measure about 4x4inches), and then the real fun began.  I had Thomas model the steps for you - and what a happy model he was, probably because I was encouraging a mess for the first time in a long time!  We smeared white craft paint on his fingers and a bit of his palm, and then let him press it down on the blue-painted-canvas.  Instant snowmen and snowdrift!

Then, with toothpicks and different colors of craft paint, he was able to create top-hats and scarves for his little men...

I love this picture - my boys took the crafting very seriously... ha ha.  (and oh!  my old laptop... I loved you 'til I spilled coffee all over your keyboard... I really didn't mean to kill you like that...)

A whole family of handprints!  From left to right - Sofia's, Maia's (she was only about 8 months old - look at the tiny fingers!), Amar's, mine, and Thomas'.

Hope you enjoyed my look back!  If you happen to make some finger-print art with your family for the holidays, I'd love to see it!  Link it up in my comments section.

card camp, from miss 6.

I think this is the first time I've ever posted twice in the same day.  That's cuz my little Sofia, in all her 6 year old sweetness, wanted to get her craft on... I may have mentioned that the online card class now had a special gallery set aside for just the kids... and might have shown her the prizes... ha ha.

She had a few ideas before we started: glitter & butterflies.  And, according to the colors of the week, yellow, orange and red ones. How would you like to add the green in, Sofia?  "oh, like how you do it sometimes, with some grass at the bottom."  The cuteness is always on overload when we craft together.

Not bad, huh?  I'm super proud of her!  She fringed her own grass, punched her own butterflies, stamped her own butterfly bodies, 2-way glued her glitter onto the butterflies and helped me die-cut the smaller ones.  I actually think her layout is pretty cute, too.  She glued it all down herself... And did you notice the butterfly layering?  This kid is on her way.  

So, about the greeting.  I asked if she'd like to stamp some words on the front, like "happy birthday" or "thanks" or "you make me smile".  

Her response:  "do you have something that says I love you, because I'm keeping this card for myself."  HA!  Self-love is not a problem with this one, evidently... 

I looked through my stash and gave her a few more choices.  She ended up picking "sweet" from PTI's friendship jar set.  She inked it up in memento black ink and, right before stamping, exclaimed:  "oh, I really like this one - I can see what I'm doing!"  hahaha!  I think it was the first time she used my clear stamps.  Up until now, she's been sticking to her box of Michael's stuff - all red rubber.  I hope this doesn't mean she'll want to upgrade regularly...

Thanks for looking - if you have any sweet comments for my baby girl, I'll be sure to pass them along...