scrapbook pages.....

My neighbor kid, who isn't really a kid anymore, has been over a few times to work on his DC scrapbook. 7th and 8th graders go there for a week long field trip. He went a couple years ago. We are having fun using ALL his pictures.
Blurry ones have become background for the graves at Gettysburg, or tags were cut out and decorated. A friend had given him all their left over stickers and he wants to use them up too. His goal is to have this done by Thankgiving, his older sister will be here for a visit.
I am pretty sure he will get it done by then.

mini scrap book......

One day during recess, I took a picture of each child in preschool. It was near the end of the year and I wanted to make a small book for the teacher.

Every once in a while, the kids had given me what ever they had drawn/painted/colored....

"this is for you!"

Thank You!

Sometimes there are things with no name and everyone said,

"it's not mine"

I took those things home with me too.

I cut a bunch of cereal boxes, then painted them with a sponge. I cut up "artwork" from the kids and glued them in the book with mod podge.

To keep it simple, I didn't embellish with anything else.

In the book, one side is decorated, the other side is a picture.

I need to get this in the mail. On the last day I told the teacher to watch her mail. She would be getting something. I didn't think it would take until July to start working on it. It was simple enough, but other projects kept getting in the way.

I want to make myself one....but it is further down on the list of things to do.

graduation display boards...

It was the last graduation EVER at our high school. I really didn't want to go, I thought it might be too sad. But Karen wanted to go, so I went with her. It was all very nice and there were no tear jerking moments.

Crispy and some of his friends were ushers. Next year his class will be split up. Some will go to Forest City, Crispy will be going to Algona. No more Tigers. They will be Bulldogs now.

This is Crispy ignoring me....at least his friends were smiling for me.

My display boards.....

I agreed to make boards for "the triplets" and of course they needed to be done for their party last night.

I work with their mom. When it was in the talking stages of planning, we thought 4 of them.

But when push came to shove, 3 was a better number.

their little sister called them "the guys"

4 years times 3 dresses for prom....that's 12!

I wasn't the only one helping out. It takes a lot of friends. Ann of roadtriptreasures was also busy making artsy fartsy decorations for the party. They were so cute. Lots of different things. Lots of good ideas if you need some. She also has a good picture of the girls!!! (click on roadtriptreasures to get to her blog)

Is it common every where to have these big big parties at graduation??

A person doesn't even need to cook at home....you can just go from party to party and eat!

crayons in preschool....

For Christmas I bought the classroom a Crayola Crayon Maker.  Every chance we get, we have been making crayons with all the broken ones. We peel off the paper and I break them some more. The kids pick out 4 or 5 pieces to put in each tray. A light bulb in there melts them......

It is a big deal on who's turn it is to do the dumping. 

We have two hands turning the knob here, they decided they would share the job.

Next week, when school is almost done, we will sort them out. Every one will get about a dozen of these colorful crayons to bring home with them.

I brought home a couple of the smaller ones. There was some scrap paper on the kitchen table. I started writing the alphabet. I love the multiple colors that happen when drawing/coloring with these. 

I did the alphabet a few times and then I thought....

Hey, I can cut these apart and use the letters to make the names of the students for scrapbooking!

I'll have to make more letters when I get around to scrapbooking.

Who knows when that will be.

One more thing, a couple of the boys made pillows.....

I brought in some fabric for them to color on with crayons. Then I took them home to heat set them, and sew them into pillows. The boys stuffed them when I brought them back in.  They were so excited with the results. We could have made more, but these were the only two that showed interest.

Right now a big chunk of my spare time is been used making memory board type things. A gal I work with has triplets, & they are graduating next week. So, I am helping her get photos ready for display at the party.    

Eventually, I want to sew again too.

happy halloween.....

We had trick-or-treating last night. Living on the edge of town we generally don't get many...average is 2, maybe.  But on my way to the store I ran into a large group and told them to come on over....that group was a new record. We had 11 trick-or-treaters yesterday.

The ghost feet were made by the preschoolers last week.

Then I found this free online course.

I had nothing to lose by giving it a try.

Here is the link to my art teacher, tam!

You will have to scroll down to find the link to the class, it is under Art, Heart and Healing

or maybe here would be better 

I don't know how I found it myself, but I did start......

Week one was a front-facing.... face. I don't have all the same supplies needed. 

I don't have the water crayons....but I do have pencils.

I don't have a journal......but I do have some paper.

I have not done something like before, this is my first attempt.....

Well, my first attempt didn't quite look right so I painted over it with the white acrylic and started over....

this would be my second attempt

over the first attempt

 on the same paper....

Week two was altering a board book. I used an old book instead. I didn't have the supplies for photo transferring, so I skipped on ahead to part 2  (I'll do part 1 later)

We were supposed to think of a childhood trauma and Tam showed us how to draw "whimsies"

She said she was bullied as a child, so she drew the opposite...herself with a lot of friends.

My trauma isn't so awful....but I am sure several of you can identify with it......

There were 6 of us girls.....I only put the first three in my project.

When I was talking to my Mom she asked, "what have you been doing?"

I told her about little whimsies and that I needed a childhood trauma...and I thought of one.

"oh no, am I involved in this trauma of yours?" she asked.

I started laughing

Why yes you are! I explained what it was and she starting laughing.

The last picture is Crispy's self portrait from last year. As long as we have art things here, I thought I would throw this one in too.

lunch bag book....

I like looking at this blog,  thatartistwoman.blogspot.com  and on Friday when I looked..... I adored the little book she had. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I tried very hard not to think about it on Saturday.
I even took a nap.  But....sigh....I woke up thinking about it.  What else could I do but get out the supplies and start putting it together. 
I used things that I had on hand.....paint, old stickers, fabric, scrap paper, stamps and lots of glue.  The witch came from here...vintageholidaycrafts .....my printer is low on ink, so it didn't print out that nice.  I used colored pencils to make it look a little better.
My kids are too big for such things, there are no grandchildren....but there are preschoolers that might have fun with my homemade interactive book.

scrapbook weekend....

My mom, sister and niece came down last weekend. There was one major goal....
scrapbook Katy's trip
to Germany.
It was her German class in high school that went on this little field trip. Her Mom wanted to help and I like doing scrap booking so all three of us got busy on Saturday.
First Katy went through the pictures to group them up for pages and mark where they were taken.
She was looking up all kinds of things to get the right spelling.







Then the embossing things came out and we started stamping and embossing things on paper until we were tired of that and the pile seemed high enough.

Then the paint came out. Katy told us what her favorite colors were, but both her mother and I tried to sneak in different colors too. We had no real plan.

At last, the pages were laid out and Katy started picking a page for each group of pictures. By Saturday night all the pictures were stuck to a page. She was even able to get the titles and some journaling done.

She needs two more pages to fill the album and her Mom was full of ideas to embellish them some more when they got home. It was very successful. We did 18 pages all together.

I hope she loves it. It was so much fun doing it with her.

need to go shopping.....

I ran out of thread while quilting this.
This project is on hold for now,
along with the fish quilt.
That's 2 items I need...thread and that heat and bond stuff.

My tractor book is getting closer to being declared done.....

Going through an old book, I look for sentences that would work,

cut them out and glue them in.....

It's kinda fun.

Tractor joe says to me "I never said that!"

I know, but it works in the book.

This is a good time to start clearing out the living room. We want to clean

the carpet with a rug doctor machine before the new furniture arrives.

today's enemy: glare.....

Oh look over there, under the tree....
a finished and ready to hang "canyon de chelly" picture.....
The frame is old barn wood from a building here on the yard. It was put together by tractor joe's DAD....I LOVED the way it turned out. It is perfectly primitive.
I want a closer picture.
But it is hard to avoid glare.....
I just snapped a picture of me and the glare in all it's glory.


Different angles help capture pieces of it.
The "Happiness is a journey" was applied yesterday.

It was my Aunt's birthday yesterday....

so my mom and my sister Jane met me in New Richland at the Care Center where Betty lives.

Jane put on the words and we made everyone "ahhh and oohhhh" as they walked by.

( we worked in the dining area)


Back to the photo session....

under the tree wasn't going to work.

Maybe up on the back porch??

I picked it up and set it on the table.

hmmmmm....this might work.

Well that's as good as it gets!

It was like doing a giant scrapbook page.

But wait!

What are those cute little things down near the bottom of the picture?

We need a closer look.

Aren't they sweet??

Jane was at a garden center and they were having a sale....and she bought me a few things!

... She is like the queen of garden art. She says they will be fine tucked into some of my flowers.

But they are so little.

We will spray them with something-something ( she is always using big words) and they will be fine...I do it all the time.

okay....but,

for now I am leaving them on the table. They make me smile every time I look at them.

things I worked on this past week.....

The poster sized Canyon De Chelly picture is getting closer to being finished. The frame is done....the border around the picture is done....
I ripped pictures from one of those free tourist magazines and a road map. Every thing was glued down randomly, then I smeared gesso all over it and wiped it back off some. It has a lighter look. It all sorta blends together.
Just need my sister to apply the words:
Happiness is a journey and it will be done!



I have one baby quilt done, except for the binding isn't on yet. The quilting took me forEVER.
It hard to see, but the lines go up and down too. I can't wait to wash it and really get it
all crinkly.

The sweet corn....the real deal from tractor joe's cousin.

I froze this stuff using my "super bad for you, but oh so good" recipe....

It will get used this winter when I make scalloped corn....

it is so good, I can't wait!!

I painted more papers. Lots more paper. Then I stamped and embossed things on them.

No real rhyme or reason, just did it. My tractor ride book is coming along....

I am hoping to get "finished" pictures this week of things.
I mowed TWICE last week too....lots of rain make lots of grass.
sigh...