Bats and pumpkins and mess – oh my!

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Family, Kid's Crafts, This & That

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On Monday we made our last Halloween decorations – we are now officially walking into and through creepy crawlies as we go through the house!

The first was pretty straightforward – pumpkins!

They were easy and pretty much mess-free. I simply painted glue onto a paper plate, cut orange tissue into squares and told them to cover all the white. I then gave them three triangles, a mouth, and a green stem and they glued them on. That’s it!

The next craft was a little messier – we painted. My biggest tip when painting is this: go naked.

Now, to be honest, the kiddies weren’t exactly naked, they just took their shirts off to keep them reasonably clean. I have a very cute painting picture but I’ll save that for the parents only!

I told them we were going to paint bats (I already had eyes, fangs, and wings cut out of black paper) and they immediately piped up with the colours they wanted to use – no black mentioned! So we ended up with red, green, and blue:

Cute, hey? After they painted and glued on eyes, I drew a mouth and they glued on fangs and added some bling to the eyes. Then they helped me staple on the wings.

My house (and I hope all of their houses) looks very festive now but I do have one problem – they’re already asking about Christmas!

Something new and exciting!

24 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Scrapbook Steals, This & That

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Design Team, Scrapbook Steals

I’ve been busting with this news and today I can finally let you all know – I’m on the Scrapbook Steals Fall/Winter Design Team!

Go check out the official post here and take a look at the awesome girls who I get to work with – I can’t wait to get started!

Gratitude Album | Sneak Peeks!

23 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mini Album

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Class, Mini Album, The Paperie

Tonight I’m teaching an amazing and fun mini album class at The Paperie which I’m super excited about!

For sneak peeks of the album we’ll be working on, check this out!

For these things… (sarathings.com)
Gratitude Album: Sneaky Peeks! (thepaperie.wordpress.com)

Such cute feet…

22 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Family, Kid's Crafts, This & That

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Crafts, footprint ghosts, memento luxe ink

… shouldn’t be scary!

Yesterday was another art day here and it seems Halloween has its claws in me. We did stamped feet – one of the kiddies faves – and turned them into ghosts!

footprint ghosts

I used Memento Luxe ink in Wedding Dress and it stamped perfectly plus wiped off skin like a dream; a quick swipe with a baby wipe and the mess was gone. Genius!

Each child picked their own set of letter stickers and stuck on the eyes, mouth, and “boo!” alphas. I added the “halloween” once everything else was done.

To make this a keepsake, we framed them so they could take them home and keep them for next year (“That’s really, really far away!”) <— hahaha!

footprint ghosts - gabe

Aren’t they cute? Super easy, simpler than the ghosts from last week even, and an awesome tradition for each year. It’s an easy and devastating way to see how much they’ve grown! 🙂

Creative Leftover Halloween Candy Recipes (wholesalecostumeclub.com)
Spooky-Cute Ghost Boxes (funbunfitness.com)

Boo!

18 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Family, Kid's Crafts, This & That, Tutorials

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ghost craft, Halloween

We had a bit of Halloween fun around here yesterday. Molly was home from school because of a PD Day for the teachers and I needed something fun and easy to do that would satisfy the age range I have around here during the day.

I went with ghosts.

Super simple and I had all the stuff on hand, or rather, I made it up based on what I had on hand!

Styrofoam cups, black permanent marker, string, white tissue paper, glue stick, and a wooden skewer to poke holes.

First, we drew faces:

Then I poked a hole in the top of each cup:

I tied a knot in the string and poked it through the hole from the inside out (with some “help”):

Glue stick around the inside edge:

And the kiddies stuck on the strips of tissue:

Aren’t they fun?

The kiddies had a blast making them:

Next up…. pumpkins? Or footprint ghosts? Any suggestions?

12 on Twelve | October 2013

16 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in 12 on Twelve, This & That

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12 on Twelve

I’m a little bit late this month – I actually did 12 on Sixteen, oops! We were away for the long Thanksgiving weekend and I forgot all about what day it was! C’est la vie, I have them now!

1. Standard selfie

2. A wet dreary day calls for Halloween decorations in the porch…

3 …and the living room

4. my boy being foolish

5. licking out the chocolate bowl

6. printing freebies from Cathy Zielske’s newsletter – love it!

7. pulling pics for the November Paperie Card Kit

8. blogging my new Perfect Pearls class

9. helping Molly put things in her Journal Bric-a-Brac for school (she added all her new projects from the September Crafty Kids kit)

10. Miss H. is 4!

11. doing vocabulaire with Daddy

12. Christmas Shoebox Card Class at the Paperie

Playtime!

15 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mini Album, Techniques

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Classes, Perfect Pearls

I have a brand new class debuting this weekend at The Paperie – Perfect Pearls Playtime!

I’ve had lots of people ask me what else they could do with Perfect Pearls so I designed a tag mini album with space left for pictures or technique practice.

We’ll be working on black and manila Ranger tags and using the holiday release of powders from Ranger – Celebration. Plus, everyone gets a Celebration kit to take home with them, as well as full instructions for each of the seven (yes, 7!) techniques we’ll be doing.

To make the day even better, the Paperie is following up the class with a crop night. So you can take the class and then stay and play some more until midnight! And since class doesn’t start until 2, you have the morning to do all those other weekend things that need doing.

Can’t make it to class? We can get you a kit and you can still go to the crop night anyway!

This album is specifically designed for people who own a bunch of powders and also for those who don’t even know what they are so don’t feel intimidated – come play with us!

Hope to see you Saturday!

For these things…

08 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mini Album

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Class, Gratitude, Mini Album

…I am grateful.

I have a new class coming up at The Paperie on October 23 – a gratitude mini album. This is going to be one jammed packed class with work, fun products, and stuff to learn!

The album itself is based on a mini I did of our beach vacation this summer. I did it on the road with minimal supplies and actually had it finished the day after we got home. Anyone who knows me realizes what a huge deal that is! So friends, if I can do it, you can definitely do it too!

In class I’ll show you how to put the mini together, using an awesome 6×6 Basic Grey paper pad, fun Doodlebug enamel dots, great washi tape, and some exclusive digital die cuts that Mary Ann and I are designing just for this album. I’ll run through how to switch it up and do it “on the go” if you want to make a travel album in the future, as well as how to resize photos, add text, and get them on your pages in a fun and interactive way.

As if that wasn’t enough, I’m going to give you some photos prompts now, so if you’ve signed up or are thinking about it, you can start your picture taking now! Also, if you wish you could come but the time isn’t right, or you live out of town, give The Paperie a call – they can always put a kit together for you, with full instructions!

Since it’s Thanksgiving in Canada this coming weekend, it’s a good time to get some photos for a Gratitude Album. Here are some ideas for you to run with:

1. a family photo

2. turkey dinner

3. a glass of wine (that may be just me, but I do appreciate a good cold glass of Pinot!)

4. leaves on the ground

5. a beautiful sunset – we get amazing ones here this time of year

6. kiddies playing

7. your current book

8. raindrops on the trees

9. sunshine (crossing my fingers here!)

10. your dog or cat sleeping in their favourite spot

I’m really looking forward to this album and am super excited to see all the things that people are thankful for. With all that gratitude in one room, we’re bound to have an amazing time!

YLA2013 | August

07 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

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Mixed Media Layout, YLA2013

I taught another session of the Year Long Album a week or so ago and we made our August LO’s. These might be among my favourites ever!

We broke out the Twinkling H2O’s, everyone got new stencils and some fun wood veneer, and we played with crayons – it was a good day!

The first LO used a gel medium resist under the photo:

After spraying our confetti with a bunch of mist colours, we added those for a little extra dimension:

A few flicks of contrasting Twinks and the base was done:

The second one used crayons for a more subtle (or more vibrant, depending on the brand of crayon used) resist:

The crayon I used above gave more of a colour difference while the one I demoed in class was a true resist:

Again, we misted and added confetti, this time in a less random pattern:

And, with the extra flicks of Twinks, it was finished:

They’re pretty simple but the techniques can be used for super cool backgrounds and the shimmer of the Twinks just adds to the awesomeness – have I mentioned my love for Twinks? 😉

It’s already October which means I’m thinking about next year’s class and sign ups will be coming sooner than later. We always have the best bunch of people, a ton of fun, and great products so if you’re interested in knowing more or signing up, call the Paperie and get put on the list!

Happily Puzzled…

03 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media

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Puzzle, Sunshine Foundation

A couple of weekends ago I attended a day long crop that was a fund-raiser for the Sunshine Foundation. It was loads of fun, we had great food, and there was an awesome silent auction.

Tanya

A day or two before I went, my friend Karen blogged about how she was doing a puzzle swap. I thought it was the funnest idea ever so I promptly ran out and bought a puzzle.

Kelly

At the crop, I distributed the pieces with one rule – have them back to me by the end of the day. Not thinking about it, I never specified up or down or sideways so the pieces all came back every which way! Luckily, I like that randomness so it worked out ok.