GrandParents Day

I have 'graduated' !  I now work with 2 year olds. And the best part is that most of the kids are the ones I had in the baby room last year. I love my babies! :)

Grandparents Day was last Sunday. So this past Tuesday, our school had a reception for the Grands and kids. We love having the grandparents visit. They are such a vital part of our kids' lives.

Below is a picture of the craft we made with the kids as a gift. We think it turned out quite cute!

Mother's Day crafts

I work with babies-2 year olds at KidFirst. I absolutely love those babies and the ladies I work with.    On Tuesday, we will be celebrating Moms, and we have been working on a gift for them.

When it comes to Mother's Day gifts, I really think it needs to be made by the kids, not me....But since we are working with little ones, we are kinda limited to 'handprints' crafts. Now, some of our kids HATE to get stuff on their hands, so it'snot really easy to get their handprints done.

We can, however, hold their hands in place to get a trace of them. So I decided on a handprint craft where the kids can still have an active part in making it for their mom. :)

I got some canvas, contact paper, and paint. We traced their hands on the contact paper, attached the handprint to the canvas, then let the kids finger paint the canvas. Again, some of the kids were not thrilled to get their hands messy, but we survived through it!  lol

Once they covered the whole canvas with paint,

 I took off the contact paper and we are left with a white handprint. 

As you can see, we have a lot of babies! hehe 

Once the paint dried, I went back and used a silver Sharpie and traced out the hands,

 wrote the kids' names and 2013. 

One of my kids' paint slipped under the contact paper and the handprint was a bit smeared. 

So I decided to fill the hand with the silver sharpie. It looks ok.

We have a couple of really little ones, so we made their footprint on tile.

 I have always wanted to do that! :)

Once they were all dried, I sprayed Shelac to seal the canvas and tile. 

I really liked how they turned out, so I decided to do that same thing with my 3 yr olds Sunday School class.

But since I waited till last minute with that decision, Walmart ran out of the 8x10 canvas, 

so I had to get 11x14 size. AND since it was bigger, I felt their little hands would get lost in the canvas. 

SO I decided to do BOTH hands and add a heart. 

I also had a couple of the kids in class who had siblings, so I thought, why not! 

I added them to the canvas as well.

This is a 3 yr old and his 6 yr old sister. 

This is my favorite little 3 yr old and his 4 yr old sister and his 7 yr old brother! 

All in all, I think they turned out really cute and I think the moms are going to like them. 

Easter Wreath

Again, I have been wanting to make an Easter wreath since last year... I bought a bunch of plastic eggs, thinking about changing them, either by paint or fabric, so they don't "look" plastic.

But then I changed my mind. :) 

I like the flowers and the little duck. 

You can't read it, but the little sign under the duck says "welcome spring"

This one is very simple. And after next week, I am going to take off the egg and pink flowers and add some pretty sunflowers I got at Hobby Lobby. 

This wreath should last until I change it to the red,white,blue one I want to hang in May. 

Of course, need to make that one... hehehe

Jewelry organizer

This is another attempt at a Pinterest craft. It took me forever to get it done. Mainly, I kept putting it off because I was intimidated....

I got the bulletin board and 5X7 frame at a local thrift store. I had the green tule that I bought a long time ago only because I liked the color. (hehe) And I used some screen material we had left over from fixing our window screens. I have seen it with chicken wire, and I would have preferred that. But I didn't have any of it.

I don't have a lot of jewelry, but where I had it stored, it was a mess and I would rather go without wearing any than to tackle the mess. So I thought maybe this way, I would be more inclined to use the stuff! lol

It's cutesy, nothing fancy, but I am happy with how I came up with ideas to fix issues with it in the process. 

American Flag from Fence Boards

I have a TON of things from Pinterest that I would love to make. But I admit I haven't made most of them.
Early last year, we replaced our fence and had a bunch of old boards. I went and looked up any and all crafts I could make with them. One of them was a very cool American flag. I totally intended to make it for last year's 4th of July, but alas, I didn't....
About 4 months ago, I had Fred cut the boards I needed to size. But, I still didn't make it.
Well, I finally did! :)

I think it came out so cool! Since I was going for a 'rustic look', I didn't have the stress of making it 'perfect'. I wish I was artistic. I think that would be such a great 'de-stresser'. Oh well, painting fence boards was pretty therapeutic, it made me happy!
I didn't make a 'tutorial' for it, as I was lucky to just get it done. (hehe)  But if I was to make another one, say if someone wanted me to make them one (wink), I would make step by step instructions. Not that it was all that hard, really.
Now, I have to decide where I want to hang it. I want it to be visible to the street, but not sure how I can attach it to the brick wall of the house. Fred will help me figure it out!

Now I just have to finish up another project I worked on while waiting for the flag to dry. I guess I will have to post about that too! LOL