Loving The Dragon

For Chinese New Year, the boys made these paper dragons a printable I got from this great kids crafts site. Miles absolutely loved his and took it to preschool for share day. Fun to see the kids enjoy creative projects.

Dear Blog...let's catch up

Dear blog, it's been nearly a month since I've visited and posted about the going ons here in martian land and I've missed you. So, I thought now would be a good time to update you on all that's happened, it's been a busy time, mostly fun. So I thought I would give you a quick cliff note version with lots of photos to catch up:

Mid September, we went to Miranda and Elizabeth's fun birthday party.



For this party I made these cupcake shaped gift tags



When we returned from the birthday party, that evening we had a be-lated birthday celebration with grandma. Grandma stayed with us for a bit in Sept while grandpa was out of town. The boys really enjoyed having Grandma over.



We instituted a new reward system in the house in order to curb some not so fun behavior. I think it actually might be working. The kids are working hard to earn their prize, each wants a pillow pet. (yeah don't ask.)




We survived a heat wave with the help of many Popsicles.




We had friends over for dinner and I made my first attempt this Fall at some candy apples. They weren't the prettiest, but they sure were yummy.



We've made lots of Halloween crafts, including these fun bats.








We watched the Blue Angles perform while fishing and crabbing with friends on the pier.







We enjoyed a fun pumpkin patch picnic with friends that included pony rides, panning for gems and a train ride.





And we continue to enjoy Lego time as much as possible.

So, dear blog, your up to speed now on the most news worthy going ons here. I'll do my best to keep you posted. xoxo.

Artful Thursday - A Big Mouthed Thank You

Fun times are spending some creative time with your 6 yr old....Aidan and I had a little creative time after school this Artful Thursday. We finally got around to making Thank you cards for all those who celebrated his birthday with him. I picked up this fun big-mouthed stamp. I thought this character could be shouting out anything including "Thank You!". So I gathered up some cardstock, ink, paste and a pen, then let Aidan lead the way on this project.



He decided that I should stamp and tear cardstock, and he would cut and paste. This is what we came up with.



Fun little cards to thank all his friends and family for all the love they sent his way on his special day.

Meet The Monsters

Meet the "Dark Blue Grrrster", "Milesbot 3000", and Z'Sun'z. These monsters enjoyed themselves searching for moon rocks, flying spaceships and just having silly fun.

I'd forgotten about this Hallmark Make-A-Mask kit that included sticker activity. I found this unopened kit at a thrift store quite some time ago for .30 cents. I came across it again today while digging around in my craft stash for some fun for the kids. This was lots of creative fun making the masks as well as, making up silly monster, robot, alien stories. Masks are fun and easy to make even without a kit and sure makes for good make believe play. As for this kit, it sure was .30 cents well spent.

Artful Thursday: Dinner Time Survival Guide

It's the "Dinner Time Survival Guide" once again. I've made these before for my mom's group and now I've made one for a girlfriend I share recipes with often.


This is a simple altered composition book that's embellished with scrapbook paper, stickers and stamps.



Inside I just used double tape to adhere a little message and one of my favorite go to recipes. All pretty simple but you could make this as elaborate as you want. Really you could make it what ever you want, summer camp survival guide, workout survival guide etc...whatever kind of journal you want would be perfect. It being summer time with all those back to school sales starting, what's best about this project is that the composition books are on sale at Target, right now for .25 cents. Yes! that's right, I said .25 cents. Pretty unbelievable since there's not much else you can buy for a quarter right now.

Rules of the Wrap

I know I've said it many times but I really enjoy wrapping presents...there's just so many possibilities that makes it so much fun. But there's a few rules I like to follow when I wrap a kids gift. Especially, when you're wrapping a toddlers to let's say 4 yrs old, young kids just love bright colors. So, I try to wrap with fun brightly colored patterns and if there's more than one item I wrap them separately in coordinating wrap. Why wrap it all up in one box when visually you can make it feel so much more grand for them. If you're thinking for green reasons, there's so many possibilities that are still earth friendly. Repurposed papers such as Sunday comics, old maps and children's art work, gift wrap made from recycled paper or even fabrics that can be reused/repurposed. Be creative, if their birthday is in the summer you could use a bright colored beach towel...you get the idea. Same goes for the ribbon. Some of my favorites are raffia (comes in so many colors), grosgrain and satin ribbon that can always be reused for something else. I try to stay away form the plastics, curling ribbons and bows that end up in our land fills and harming birds. Why just slap a bow on it when you can embellish it with so many other fun items whether it's pretty ribbon, or another fun little toy.



This age is also around the time when kids start to recognize their name in print and get so excited when they see it. For this reason, I love to make sure I tag the gift with their name in large print. What's more exciting for a little kid than receiving a fun colored package that has there name on it? Well I guess maybe opening it! Yippee! I usually just use a shipping tag that I embellish with stickers, stamps, or markers. When you make your own tags, it's so much more personal, made for that specific individual, you can't get more personal than that.


So those are just a few of the things I keep in mind when wrapping a gift. Most importantly, have fun with it, you can't wrong when it's your own creation.

Artful Thursday: With Gratitude

It's with gratitude that I made thank you cards today. I had several dear friends give me birthday gifts. Inturn, I wanted to let them know how much I appreciate them. So, this Artful Thursday was all about saying "thank you".



I gathered my supplies which included, a vintage world atlas, blank ivory cards, patterned paper, rubber stamps, pearl embellishments, a 2" scalloped circle punch , wool twine and my favorite item of the bunch, these sweet mini doilies by Martha Stewart.


With a little tearing, inking, stamping, gluing I managed to finish my cards. This calls for a trip to the post office tomorrow.

Artful Thursday: Cake Time

One of Aidan's classmates is celebrating her birthday tomorrow. We (Aidan and I) decided to give her a small gift in recognition of her special day. When it came time to wrap this gift, I realized I had robots, trucks, sports and a masculine plaid paper, but nothing for a girly girl. I guess that's what happens when you have 3 boys. So I decided I would make her gift wrapping and..... what perfect timing with Artful Thursday.




Using supplies on hand, this is what I was able to come up with. I had a kraft paper bag, scrapbook paper, glitter left over from valentine's day, PITT art markers, rhinestone and tag embellishments. It all came together to make a whimsical birthday cake.

Artful Thursday: Some Earth Day Goodness

A little earth day fun today for Artful Thursday. With Mother's day around the corner, I made a small gift using recycled/ repurposed goods. This set of note cards came together with just a few things I dug up out of my stash. I must add, it feels good to use some of those things I've been hoarding hanging on to. This is what I started with, some small scraps of vintage fabrics that I'd been treasuring (I love old fabric) but unsure what I was going to do with. Some of these pieces were from old flour sack and a few pieces selvaged from old aprons. I also had a few stray vintage buttons, some vintage organza ribbon, cardstock and some white blank cards and envelopes.








With some pinking shears and spray adhesive, I cut squares of fabrics, matted them with a coordinating cardstock, then attached them to a blank note card. I attached a vintage button laced with organza ribbon using a glue dot and there you have it a set of 4 little note cards, perfect for a thank you, a thinking of you, or just a little hello.

Some other things I did today to honor earth day, I cleaned out our medicine cabinet and took the old medications to a medication disposal site. I found one at Pharmaca (BTW love this pharmacy). Doing my part in keeping our meds out of our groundwater, streams etc. Here's a place where you can read about proper med disposal.
The other thing I did today was purchase a reusable water bottle. I had returned my old water bottle (SIGG) when I found out it was lined with BPA and had not replaced it yet. Just a few small steps to living green.