My Crafty Life

Great Fall Printables (Fabulous Find Friday)

admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 22:37:12 +0000

Belated Fabulous Find Friday….

Cute Fall Counting Pages

I found a site that has great fall printables for kids among other things. I’m going to print some out for my 3 year old. Enjoy!

Fall Worksheets for Kids

Back to School Organizational Craft Tips via@ImperfectWomen

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:10:15 +0000

Don’t forget to check out my Back to School Post on Imperfect Women:

Hobby Lobby

The kids are heading back to school. Craftymomof3 helps us get organized and have fun too!

Read the full story…

More to come……

Foam Pencil Topper Craft. So cute (via Caboose.com)

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:12:11 +0000

I found this craft on caboose.com and my daughter thought it was really cute so I thought I would share!

Foam Pencil Toppers

By: Amanda Formaro

Difficulty: Very Easy

Age: 6 and up

Click to view larger

With this project, the only limit is a kid’s imagination. Whatever creature, shape, or theme s/he can think of could be living on top of his/her pencil!

Be sure to visit all of our back-to-school ideas including back-to-school crafts, school lunch recipes and great printable activities.

What you’ll need:

Craft foam sheets or shapes
White craft glue
Scissors
Wiggle eyes
Pom-poms
Pencils

How to make it:

Start with two identical sized shapes, such as a circle or heart. Put glue around the border of one of the shapes, leaving about ¾” where you will insert the pencil. (See photo.)
Press the second shape onto the first, sandwiching them together. The glue will need to dry for several hours, preferably overnight, but you can decorate the outside now.
Decorate the outside of the craft foam shape using pom-poms, wiggle eyes, other foam shapes, glitter glue, sequins, whatever you like. We made a black bear using pom-poms for ears and a nose and a couple of wiggle eyes. (See photo.) We also made a flower using several pom-poms and a bird using wiggle eyes and other craft foam shapes. (See photo.)
Once the toppers have dried completely, insert the eraser end of a pencil carefully into the opening.

Tips:

Drying time is important for this project. If you try to insert the pencil too soon, the glue may still be tacky and could pull away from the foam causing your topper to split open.
You can use white craft glue as we did, or you can purchase special glue made just for craft foam at a craft supply store.
Craft foam comes in convenient value packs in various shapes, sizes, and colors.

FYI If you posted a real comment lately it may have got dumped with the spam.

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:05:28 +0000

I opened my blog today and the spam was so full I couldn’t possibly read them all and I dumped them so if you left me a real comment and you don’t see it please repost it or send me an email through my contact me form.

I apologize and thanks for understanding.

Guest Post: Are Photo books Stealing the Last Scrapbookers?

debbie — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:18:17 +0000

Are photobooks stealing the last scrapbookers???

Are photobooks meaningful? Or are they just another digital shortcut? Debbie gives us the low down on photobooks vs. scrapbooks. Is the thought really there??

~ After the stress of being back home with a new baby, I started really enjoying getting back to scrap booking. It had been years since I spent hundreds of dollars on stickers & books, cutters & blades. What made it so fun again was getting together with my cousin & my friends every other week at each others houses. We kind of “forced” ourselves to sit down and create mini masterpieces where one spread took 4 hours. But at least having each other made the creative juices flow and I got my scrap booking “mojo” back. I loved the feeling of seeing the beautiful page I created slide into my book for my kids to enjoy. And of course having one more “memory” in the can so to speak. Those that love the peaceful feeling Scrap booking does for you will understand this. ~

~ So imagine my surprise and disappointment when my cousin to tell me she wasn’t scrap booking anymore! She was explaining that she also wasn’t coming with me for our bi-weekly unnecessary trip to Michael’s for more stickers & paper either. “I sent away for a photo book” she told me. “I really loved how it came out and I barely did a thing. It was also cheaper!” I was devastated. How could she possibly use the ol “scrapbook cop-out” and not want to create a 4 month heavy masterpiece with about $200 worth of stickers in it that weighs about 10 pounds? Don’t get me wrong, I understand that with most people now using digital cameras, Kodak needed to find a new way to make money. And these photo books ARE easy to create, light in weight, and much cheaper that what it costs to create just one scrapbook. But where is the creativity? Where are the hours you spend on placing the photos and using the blades to create the borders? And what do you do with the 50 or so Jolee stickers that you paid $4.99 each for? Worst off, she had just bought a Cricut Expressions package after a late night QVC tirade for something like $300. So needless to say I re-questioned my love and loyalty to my still un-finished 5th album and thought about giving into the cop-out called the photo book. ~

A scrapbook is full of creativity, thought and care that you just can't reproduce in a photobook.

~ As the weeks went on, I lost my tight knit circle of friends to the almighty photo books. They just didn’t have the time, or the patience to give our little group the chance to fully get its creative mojo back. As hard as it was not having that boost of having my friends over to force me to sit down at night and actually scrapbook, I decided that the beautiful brick of a book was still for me. Photo books are an ideal way for those that are too busy to create a quick, cheap way to preserve their memories. But at that point,stick them in a box like everyone else does and be over with it. I still love going to my craft store and picking out what pieces of paper I want to go with each set of stickers. What borders I want to create for each of my photos, and what story I want to tell. I gets me excited to put the kids to bed and spread out all my goodies I got for each of my photo “stories”. Try your hardest, like I have, to force yourself to sit down alone one night and just DO IT. You may be surprised at the beautiful page you create and the joy it will bring you that no photo book ever will! ~

xoxox Debbie