Yes, you could easily buy ONE, but ..

• 
  
  WHAT would happen to the pack of leftover boxes from the post office taking away space in the garage? Recycling!
• 
  
  The EXCITEMENT of the kids because we are cutting up boxes!
• 
  
  The SILLYNESS of Soren because he brings his TOY SAW for cutting the cardboard boxes.
• 
  
  Seeing their FASCINATION how to create something new and already all ideas - and we can do this and that.

The girls went to bed but the tod kept helping and and working on his project  and choosing papers for the big one so we ended up with all the doggie and kitty and star ones here. And finished with some more glue and tape our paper  and cororin book holder to get some organizing in here. Leland rather would have bought one, but  we denied.

                      

All we needed

• 3 Priority Mail Boxes about 11 x 13 x 2 3/8 (even used ones are still perfectly good for that project because you cut one side off anyway to make them fitting to your size of your paper, but flat is easier cutting)
• Tape
• Glue
• 4 Pages of Scrapbooking Paper for example

Just as a tip if you ever make one, measure before, our fourth layer was just perfect, just 1/4 inch too high in the shelf, so it got chopped off again.

Me and Scrap-b-o-o-k-i-n-g ....

... that truly happens really just every two years at the most. And there must be some motivation or a lack of sewing motivation. I have plenty of ideas for sewing and plenty of projects that need to be done and work and cleaning and organizing ... enough to do without anything creative ...

did I mentioning that we are buying a house correct me this house right now. just to mention it.

but i cleaned the table off in the garage and Danyelle got me to dig out all the scrapbooking materials that collected in between my stacks of fabric and crafting supplies. I have plenty of pictures on the computers.

AND I have THREE kids who love SCISSORS, PAPER, STAPLES and TAPE.

Sounds like have a theme for one of our game/movie nights if we don't do games or movie or LEGOS which we still have planned do on our weekly Friday night. This Friday we have the house inspector in the house for a couple hours, we will see if I am still in the mood for anything crafty after getting his inspection sheet or rather would love to hand it to Soren that he can shred it to pieces within moments with his little yellow pair of scissors.

These few pages I made as said two years ago right after our Soren was born with pictures from that time. Time passes so fast.

Let's see if there will be some more pages done in the year 2010 and then 2012 and in the year 2014, .....

A TINY little New Year's Gift

The girls have Sunday school on Wednesday night. Yes, we still call it Sunday school, because I just can't remember the other name for it. They want to bring a New Year's gift for their teachers. I have to admit we didn't manage the xmas presents for them, because I thought there was another class left. So we switched to HAPPY NEW YEAR's Gifts. It's always nice to get a little something. I have two girls in two classes, but there are five teachers and teacher's helpers for a maximum of 12 kids. The should seriously keep that ratio up in school.

We made TIN CAN presents. BIG ones, small ones and tiny ones. It depended on the size of tin cans I stacked up in my pantry. Even I had this idea for longer in mind I usually didn't get the ones with the snap lids one. They are more pricey - usually. I also invested in a safety can opener which we truly love by now, it just doesn't cut the top of the lid, but also keeps Soren's hands safe from being cut because he has his hands everywhere especially where they are not supposed to be.

When I used snap lid cans for cooking I opened them with the safety can opener from the bottom, so the top would stay intact. Washed them out well and just stored them.

Bella picked her "New Year's" scrap paper with fireworks on and some flowery one and we cut a strip wide enough to fit from the top to the bottom off the can and long enough to wrap around. I glued one side of the paper on the the can, wrapped it around, let it overlap a little and glued it down.

With the left over paper we cut out circles to fit on the lid (right now the bottom of the open can) to cover up the prints or just for decorations. We only left a little opening to be able to slide it in under the snap and glued it down.

Then came the sweet part. We filled it up with candy. This time, because I might use it for wrapping up other things, too, with enough tissue paper to keep them safe inside.

I added glue on the edge of the cut off lid, trying to make sure none was sticking on the bottom and pressed it back on the can. Turned it upside down and added a regular can, filled, heavy, on top to keep some weight on it while it was drying.

From the last scraps of paper we cut out labels and attached them with some ribbon.

I am no scrapbook person, I try ones a while, but I am sure you can come up with more ideas for decorations. This was Bella's and my first try, now we need to collect cans again.

                                                                                             

Fingerprints Designed Photo Wrapping

Sometime ago I needed empty cd cases fo my photo cds to hand give out from a photo session and I ran out of them. We used to have a huge box full Leland bought a long time ago, but now hardly use them, but the last onces are used up, so I was looking for some new once, but wanted some out of cardboard or paper if possible. I didn't really find what I was looking for. So first I just used a bigger envelope.
Then I also need to mail off pictures and started buying envelopes, but that is getting prices and just for giving pictures out I didn't really like it neither. So I had to come up with an idea.

After searching for a good photo lab for printing I saw that they were also offering "Boutique Packaging" which looked nice, but was pricey. Also it was not 100% my style for right now, but it gave me an idea.

The pictures I take are usually outdoors and all natural, so I wanted a natural touched wrapping for my pictures and came up with THIS.



I sew simple envelopes out of brown packaging paper with red thread and zig zag stitch fitting to the size of the pictures or the CD. For this special set of envelopes I added one of our MADE buttons on the top flap and wrap a ribbon around as closure.


The front is still blank but offers the chance to attach a label or write the name on, I just did not make up my mind yet how I want to do that.

This was the first time I actually use one of our MADE buttons and they survived it. I admit it was hard to use them and not just to keep them in the jar to look at. LOL.

Spring is coming - Paper Flower - Kids Craft

There are a few single flowers already growing out in the yard, but more were made last night inside just with scissors, construction paper and pipe cleaners.

The girls really just needed to see a flower made and came up with all kids of neat ideas.

We simply started cutting out three different sized circles out of three different colored construction paper (the circles were not even round to make it more artsy - lol).

Bend each circle gentle in half just to be able to snip a tiny hole/slit in the middle.

And then push the pipe cleaner through the holes starting with the biggest, medium to the smallest circle.

Bend the top of the pipe cleaner over in a small loop.

We twistes the pipe cleaner underneath the bottom circle to give the flower head a little bit more hold.

Here are a few more creations from the beginning, now we even flower looking like daisies and violets and so many more blooming all over the house. You never know where you are going to find one.

More Magnets & Clips - Waescheklammermagnete

Can you believe it, we actually went shopping for craft supplies by feet & stroller. No car required!

There was a yardsale further down the road and after our lunch plans got destroy (thanks a lot) and Soren and me were already dressed and ready to go, so we walked down the road to a yardsale.
Usually I am looking for kids' stuff there, but not one item. No toys, no books, no kids clothes, ....
but old suitcases, metal stands, some craft supplies and clothes hangers. Lots of clothes hangers.

And I couldn't resist an old old tool box which I plan on cleaning up and using for some craft supplies and also some wooden discs for more magnets, exactly the ones I wanted to get at the Hobbylobby whenever I get the chance to get into the next town sometime.

Soren was so fascinated by all those clotheshangers that he could not separated from them and took one in each hand home all excited. Crazy kid!

But last night I started some different magnet clips. Just buy using simple wooden clothespins.



I decorated one side with different paper, sealed it and added a magnet on the back side. Now I can use them to post all the notes on the refrigerator the girl are bringing home from school or keep some as small xmas gifts with a note attached.

Of course as soon as the girls see something new it is like always "Can I have it?"

Chiara was all happy with one and started decorating the second side. LOL. And gave me an idea. You might get to see it soon.