Celebrating Fall Fun

We made a list of the Fall activities we hoped to do together as a family and I made this frame to keep us on track. It is a standard 12x36 inch frame that I picked up at Target. I originally purchased it this summer to do my own version of the Summer To-Do List I saw online. I had a really hard time getting the marker off of my frame (mine has plastic, rather than glass), so I decided to do something a little different this season.

I used three sheets of 12x12 cardstock (the orange) and cuts some strips of a coordinating pattern paper to hide the seams and give a bit of color. That is inside the frame and can be reused from year to year.

I cut "leaf-ish" shapes out of yellow cardstock listed a family activity idea on each one. Then, I inked the edges and folded them in the center to give them a bit of dimension. I rolled a small piece of tape on the back of each one and placed them on the frame. As we complete the items, my kids are making a leaf pile at the bottom of the frame. We think we will probably do something similar for winter with either snowballs or snowflakes.

I hope you like the idea and create some Fall Fun of your own!

*small penguin print beside the frame is from Kal Barteski and can be purchased here

Celebrating Fall Traditions

This weekend, my husband and kids carved their pumpkins. I usually stay out of the process. My only job is roasting the seeds after they are done. It is their tradition and something that I think my husband looks forward to each year. My daughter made a cute kitten (whose stem tail you can't see in this photo) and my son displayed his sense of humor with his pumpking under attack. I did help a little with his pumpkin's "accessory" by getting him some cardboard and foil.

I love yearly traditions with the kids. I hope that they are things that they will remember and later celebrate with their own families!

Celebrating Crayon Art

The kids and I saw this project on the web and had to give it a try. We gave a canvas (purchased at 50% off at Michael's - you have got to love a good coupon!) and gave it a base coat  of acrylic paint the color of our wall. We used hot glue to attach some crayons (3 of each color minus brown from boxes of 24 crayons, purchased for $.25/box at Target during back to school sales). Then we prepped our area by placing lots of newspaper around and attacked them with a hair dryer.

I am going to be honest. There were some rough moments. We, unfortuntately, set ourselves up in the blazing sun. We quickly got hot and that amped up the frustration level when the crayons started falling off of the canvas. We later discovered that we needed to use A LOT of hot glue to keep them in place.

The tops of our crayons melted more than we would have liked. That may have been an error on our part. We also had some splashes go across the canvas, rather than down. We had to be super careful where we pointed the hair dryer.

We decided to just go with the flow (literally) and melted it in three stages, letting it dry between. We found that what worked best for us was to heat them and move onto the next color, then cycle back to get them to run down the canvas. We also found that blue and purple melted much faster and white is almost impossible to melt. No idea why.

This was our final product. We used 3M velcro to attach it since we forgot to put the picture hangers on before we started and then there was no way to do it without breaking all of the crayons. It is now hanging in our Bonus Room which is where the kids play and craft. The perfect touch for an empty spot! The kids are waiting for the day when I let them hang it upside down, which will be a totally different look indeed!

Celebrating Family Time

We worked on this new canvas as a family. It was inspired by a piece we saw when we were out shopping at World Market (I did not note the author's name and it is not on their website, my apologies!!). We put our own little spin on it and incorporated our handwriting. We each wrote two "be" statements and it is a piece I will definitely treasure. It is hanging in the kids' Bonus Room.

I am looking forward to making some other canvases, but I need to find some wall space to use to hang them! I may have to start decorating my neighbor's homes.