Wild & Wonderful Origami Book Review

My 6-year-old son has had a mild obsession with origami since we checked some books out from the library a while back.  The library books were a huge fail as they were very confusing directions for us.  Having never attempted origami I needed some pictures that showed more step-by-step instead of just a bunch of arrows and words.  When little man saw this book in the store he begged me to buy it so we could give it another shot.  Having a 40% off coupon I gave in.

First off, this book comes with 50 pages of origami paper that is already colored and with faces, etc. for the animals to be made in this book which made this more fun for them, so I give the book an A+ on that front!

The pictures in the book are MUCH more helpful than the ones I experienced from the library books.  They have a difficulty level grade at the top of each project page, too, which helped.  We started with the lowest level possible.

Even though the instructions were much easier to follow my little man was still too overwhelmed to try them on his own, so he had me make some for him.  I think tomorrow I will have him try with me.  He was so excited about the little animals that we made today that he carried them to his grandma's to show them off.

I think this book did a lot of things right in making origami more attainable to the inexperienced, and to children.  Depending on the age of your child, though, this may not be a craft you can just sit your child down with for independent play.  It would make a good family bonding experience, though.  Little man has already made requests for what he wants us to make tomorrow.  I think we will get our money's worth out of this book.

Etched Glass Trifle

A cute couple I know is getting married on the 7th, so I had to get my gift together finally today. I have had it in my mind for weeks. The bride and groom have a thing for baseball and all their engagement pics go a little something like this...

Beautiful photography courtesy of Sutherland Farm Hills Photography 

So what else could I do but an etched glass trifle with a baseball on it???  Everyone has monogrammed houseware, but this is unique and personal, and I have been dying to try my hand at glass etching since it is an absolute favorite of mine!  This is what I ended up with.  I hope she loves it as much as I do!

And here it is filled.  I thought an ice cream scoop and dish cloths would pair nicely and the dish cloths were in such wonderfully summery colors to match the bride's bright and bubbly personality.

Now I just need to make a card!

Seascape Photo Shadowbox

Finally I have a new project to post.  This idea started brewing while we were on our Orange Beach vacation.  One thing my family loves to do is travel together and we love our annual beach trip.  We like to try out new beaches, too.  The only thing about vacations is they are NEVER long enough, so this year I wanted to bring the beach back with me.  Thus the Seascape Photo Shadowbox is born....

I did them in two varieties because I wanted to do them in a set, but not have them identical, so we have surf and sand.

What I used:

• 2 premade shadow boxes (50% off from Hobby Lobby)
• Modge Podge in matte
• 2 - 8 x 10 vacation photos
• Sand (I used the real stuff from the beach trip, but you can buy it at your local craft store, also.)
• Shells - same as above
• Acrylic craft water
• Foam brush

The first thing I did was paint my shadow boxes, because unfortunately they were out of the white, and I wanted this to feel beachy.  You can definitely skip this step if you are fortunate enough to find the color you want.  I don't particularly love painting.

Next, I took the Modge Podge or other decoupaging medium of your choice and coated down the back interior portion of the shadow box with a foam brush.

Then I layed the photos down onto the shadow box back and rubbed them down so that there were no bubbles underneath.

Once you have let the glue dry you can start coating down the front of your photos.  Don't worry it is supposed to look funny.  It will dry clear.

Do NOT touch them while they are drying!  I let mine dry over night and cure so that when I started the next step foreign objects would not stick to the surface of my pictures.  My photos were not tacky at all when I started putting the shadow box together.  For both types of shadow box you will put your back onto the shadow box and take tape, duct, packing, or whatever sticky variety you have and tape across the bottom outside portion of the back so that your sand or craft water do not leak out.  If you do not do this you will have a mess.  Since this is on the back of my shadow box and I will be hanging mine anyway I just used clear packing tape.

Then I just pulled the top portion of the backing open just a smidge so that I could pour some sand down into the shadow box.  When I got the amount I wanted into the shadow box I put in a few of the shells we collected and closed up the back securing the latches.  The sand will move around so you will want to keep it sitting upright.

For the surf variety I started the same way by taping across the bottom back portion.  I then prepared the Craft Water as directed on the packaging.  I pulled the top back open slightly I put in a small amount of sand and shells in the very bottom.  Then using oven mitts I poured in a little of the Craft Water and closed the back, securing the latches.  Be careful not to tilt your box or you will have waves and splashes in your shadow box, which can also be a neat effect if that is what you want.  Then just let it sit and cure.  Every variety of craft water is different but the one I used started to turn to gel within 15 minutes.

Now go make your own. :)

Footprint Door Mat How-To

I have been seeing all these pins on Pinterest of monogrammed door mats so I thought I would change that up a little bit.  My last name will be the same forever, but my kids are growing way too fast so why not preserve this moment.  I have always been a sucker for baby feet, so the Footprint Door Mat was born.

What I used:

• $6 Wal-Mart door mat
• Black acrylic craft pain
• Foam brushes
• Paper
• Scanner, Silhouette Cameo, and vinyl (optional)
• If you do not have a Silhouette freezer paper will work also.

First off you will need to prep and paint those precious baby tootsies.  You might want to have a bucket of water close by or do this in the bathroom because it can get messy.  We did one foot at a time.  My boys loved it!

Next, you will have them step directly down onto a piece of white paper.

You will probably have some lighter spots like in the photo above.  If you are using a Silhouette for this you will want to take your black paint and paint in those light spots so that it is a more solid color.  It makes the next step much easier.

Silhouette instructions

When you have finished painting them in, let the paint dry.  Scan them into your computer if using your Silhouette.  When you open your Silhouette software you will click the open folder and find the location you saved your footprints to.  You may have to change the file type in the drop down menu to .jpg to find it.  Then click Open.  When the footprints show up in your Silhouette Studio software you will go to the top menu and find Object.  Then go down to where it says Trace.  On the right side will pop up the trace options.  Select your trace area.  Then choose "trace outer edge."  When you have done this you can select your media if you haven't already and load it into the Silhouette.  Once you set your blade to the appropriate setting you are ready to cut!  You are going to use the negative portion for your stencil so use your Silhouette hook and peel out the inner foot print.  Then you will transfer your stencil onto the rug.  It may not stick firmly if you are using a highly textured rug like the one I used, but just hold it down as you pull off the transfer paper and it will work. :)

Once you have your stencil secured to the mat you will take your foam brushes and paint those feet!  I coated them several times to make sure to get it good and saturated and dark getting into the textured spots.  Peel it off, and Voila!

The great thing is now you have the footprints saved and scanned into your computer!  Think of all the great crafts you can do with them now!  They would make great grandparent gifts!

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