Too Cute......

I was walking past the local art and craft store the other day, and saw this little guy.  He was just too cute to resist, and with Mr 3 starting kindy this year, I can see the need for lots of cute little birthday cards.

These were really easy to create, just cut a piece of watercolour paper into quarters, stamped Steggy in Stazon, and got out my stamp pads and aqua painter.  I've included the colours I've used in each image underneath. I did put a Going Grey shadow underneath each image, to ground him.

Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green

Peach Parfait, Tangerine Tango

Bashful Blue, Marina Mist

Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink and Real Red, and then more Real Red.

Background words are from my stamp stash.

Happy Stamping.....Manda

School Books....

Well... it's that time of year again, and with 2 girls getting older, there is, of course, more books than last year to cover.  I decided to delve into my (gasp!) excess of retired DSP, and use it to cover their books this year. 

DD2 chose Candy Lane DSP.

DD1 chose Bella Rose DSP.

For both sets of books I used a co-ordinating colour for the spine, which covered up the gap alone the edge where the 2 matching sheets of DSP for the front and back of the book met.

The labels are from a PTI set from my stamp collection.

I then covered each book in clear Contact to protect them for the year. 

My girls go back to school this week and DS starts kindy on Friday.  I might even get into my craft room then!!

Happy Stamping......Manda

A fun kids idea.....

Why not make this fun 8 point star as a different type of birthday card for the kids? 

Put a square or circle of matching card stock onto the back, and write your message there.  Attach some ribbon to one point of the star (don't look for this in the photo - haven't done it yet...LOL!) and tie onto the gift.

This is a great way to make use of all that left over DSP - you need 8x 3 inch squares, that you fold into a kite.

Happy Folding.......Manda

Lunch time activities surprise!!

Every crafter knows this feeling.  You create something that you are really not happy with, but because of time constraints, you have to use/give it anyway.  Then when you present it to the person, they love it! LOL!!

Well this happened to me this week. 

I had grand plans for these door hangers for the children to make at lunchtime activities, and in my head they looked great.  Then I put it together and it just didn't work.  Or at least I didn't think that it worked.  I had run out of time though, so I presented it as the last activity for this term, hoping that there wouldn't be too many disappointed faces.  Low and behold, this seemed to be the project that the girls loved the most.

Here is the door hanger.

And here is a close up of the flowers.

I've brayered the hanger with Bashful Blue.  The stamp set is Petal Pizazz and the colours are Riding Hood Red, Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss and Pumpkin Pie. The gemstone is from my stash.  The vase I've used a Big Shot Vase Die that I picked up on the throw out table at my local craft shop for next to nix, and I've cut Riding Hood Red DSP to form the vase.

Happy Stamping.......Manda

Bag Tags.

This is another school activity, which the children loved.  I found these self laminating pouches at the local dollar shop and they came pre-punched with a slot in the top for the ribbon to attach to the childrens' bags. 

Stamping with 20 children in 30 minutes can be a bit challenging at times, but if you keep it simple and have a production line going, it all seems to work. 

I've used Garden Whimsy and Pocket Silhouettes stamp sets, and the colours are Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red and Regal Rose.  Card stock is Whisper White and Certainly Celery.  I've taken the opportunity to use up some of the Certainly Celery Poly Twill ribbon from the SU ribbon bundle promotion from late last year, that has been sitting in my stash. 

Bag Tags will swing on the bag, so I've stamped the back as well as the front of the tags.

Here is the back of the boys tag.

And the front of the boys tag.

The back of the girls bag tag.

And the front.

Happy Stamping..........Manda

A Friendly Birthday

I thought I'd give you a change of pace from scrap booking!  This is a card that I've designed for the children at school to make.  This term I have some boys in the group, as well as girls, and a wide age range, from 5 to 10 years.  This makes it a little difficult to come up with a single birthday card.  But I think that I've succeeded.

The card itself is quite simple.  I've used a Whisper White card base, and then had the children stamp the images from Fox and Friends on a strip of Whisper White, which they have then punched out with a 1 1/4 inch circle punch.  These are then stuck to the card base, to provide a bit of texture and then the sentiments from a Little Birthday Cheer are stamped top and bottom.   Inks used are from Earth Elements - Old Olive, Ruby Red, Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie and Not Quite Navy. 

Happy Stamping.......Manda

And here is the boys version....

In my last post, I showed you the girls version of the magnet that I had the children at school make.  This term, I have 3 boys in year 1 who have also signed up for stamping (this is offered to years 1-4).  So I have had to come up with a boys version of the 4 activities. 

So without further ado, here is the boys version of the magnet.

I have used the alligator from Wild About You stamp set, the card stock colours are Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue and Whisper White.  Punches are fantastic with kids, and this magnet uses Curly Label, 1 1/4" circle, 1" circle, large oval punch. 

Happy Stamping.......Manda

More Kids Ideas

I thought I'd share with you another idea that I have had the kids at school make.  This is a butterfly magnet. 

Here is the angled view, so that you can see the acetate wings. This is meant to look like the butterfly is flying.

I've used Real Red and Pretty in Pink card stock and ink, and Flight of the Butterfly stamp set.  I've also used the scallop circle, 1 3/8, 1 1/4, and butterfly punches.  I've used the 2 way glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds to put the sparkle on the wings.  I used a tiny bit of Sticky Strip to attach the acetate to the card stock for the wings. 

The magnets I found at my local dollar shop.  (8 for $2.00 - bargain).

Happy Stamping......Manda

Kids Ideas.....

As some of you know, I volunteer at the children's school, where I run a Lunchtime Activities program doing stamping with the kids. I do have some very special helpers (waving at you Cassie, Michelle and Jo!) Each week the children create a card or project which hopefully they like, which has a purpose, and which can be achieved inside a 30 minute time frame. Sometimes, this is a bit of a challenge, especially with the Year 1's. LOL.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a project that the kids made on Friday. It's a bookmark, which is something that they can use, and to a certain extent personalise. Not that you can tell from this photo (sorry that Brisbane blue sky is hiding today, hence the lovely photo of my kitchen bench top), but the bookmark is actually Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White and Basic Black. The stamp set is called A Beautiful Thing.

The children chose stamps from a variety that I had available, and they had an assortment of colours. The one in the photo was my sample for them to copy from.

Happy Stamping......Manda

Schoolbooks......

Now that the dust has settled and we are into week 3, I felt that I could make you all think about back to school again.

DD1 had some books to be covered for school, and as I have decorated her books for her for the past 4 years, I thought that I had better do something again this year. To add to the challenge, they all had to be done in one night and returned the next day!

DD1's instructions before going to bed were - "I want something tomboy girly and you can use purple, black, green, yellow and little bit of pink".

Well, after checking out my wrapping paper supply, I decided that purple was the feature and I worked from there.

I love Seeing Spots, it is such a versatile stamp set. Colours used are Lavender Lace, Certainly Celery and So Saffron. I have also used the journalling stamp from Enjoy Every Moment as the central feature, which I filled in with DD1's name, class and subject - please note - in black (I had to sneak it in there somewhere!)

And here are the finished items, after contact! (sorry about the glare).

Happy Stamping.........Manda

Build a Bear.....

I have a friend who is equally addicted to Stampin' Up! as I am....(waving at you Anna!). We spend one day a week stamping, while our little boys spend the day playing - or at least that is what they are meant to be doing.

A little while ago, Anna ordered the Build A Bear Workshop stamp set from SU! in the US. So I have finally had a turn at watercolouring these cuties.

Here is the Build a Bear Boy - I have watercoloured him with the aquapainter and the Stampin Write markers. I have used Bordering Blue and Brocade Blue to try and get a denim look.

And here is the girl........this time I have used Certainly Celery and Old Olive for her dress.....Both bears are a combination of Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip.

Hope you like them........Manda

Some Christmas Ideas

I know that Christmas is over well and truly, but I thought I would share with you some of the gifts that I made for DD1, DD2 and DS to give to their school and playgroup friends.

I thought it would be nice for their friends to have a present that lasted a little bit longer than a Christmas Candy Cane! I found some fridge magnets that had really trite sayings on them, but they were very reasonably priced. I removed the dodgy covers, which left a clean silver magnet and adapted them to what I needed.

The first two photos show DD1's magnets, girls and boys. They are all 8-9 years old, so I wanted something a little bit grown up.

The 3rd and 4th photos show DD2's gifts, to 5-6 year olds,

and the last one is DS's 2 year old playmates. The girls were very eager to help create their friends gifts, so please excuse the odd little mistake in alignment!

All supplies (except the magnet bases) are from Stampin' Up!, and are a variety of current and retired stock.

Happy Stamping.........Manda