These are hilarious, and amazing.

Check out a preview of the new book called Artist Eyes, by Larry Moss and Kelly Cheatle.  It’s pretty unbelievable.

Kitsch Krafts

We awoke to quiet serenity after the first snow fall for the season here in Richmond.  Lucky for us, and a lot of other people, it is a holiday and no one really had to be any where at any certain time, which is something I find to either make or break a good snow day.  Since it was the first time for our Little Guy to get out and actually enjoy the fluffy stuff we decided to make the most of it before the sun took it all away.

First, I tried making snowballs for him to throw.  All he did was knock them to the ground and stomp on them.  okay…

Then we tried to get him to do his best “Baby Gap”, but…

..he couldn’t keep the poker face.

So we made an impromptu sled and I gave him a pull around the yard.

One set of freezing fingers and…

…three pairs of freezing feet!

Hope you are enjoying a day off and a winter wonderland of your own!

Kitsch Krafts

We have managed through another week and a half of head colds all around and today I was able to pull myself away from my own nap time to post about our card making day.  Last week I wrote about how we planned to make the wild animal cards featured in FamilyFun.com magazine and online.  It ended up being a lot of fun and I was surprised at how much of the process my almost 2.5 year old could handle.

Recently we moved one of the twin beds out of the spare room and into the play/media/exercise room – this was The Mister’s attempt at satisfying my strong urge to chuck the crummy futon and buy a small sectional sofa.  So far I like the extra seating, but my sofa longing has not ceased.  Anyway, that left me with one twin bed (we had them pushed together into a king) and a large open floor area in the middle of my craft space.  I have been loving the openness, but will admit I almost immediately filled it up with sewing projects, scattering piles of fabric from one side of the room to another.  I admit it, I’m a totally messy crafter.  So, I went in and made a space among the piles, patterns, ironing board and fusible webbing for our Valentine’s Day Card Extravaganza!  WOOT!

I found that one of my under bed storage boxes was the perfect height for me and the Little Guy to finish the assembly of his classmate cards. 

While he slept I sliced the cardstock and animal print scrapbook paper to the size indicated in the magazine.  To make it easy (at least for me) I printed two sheets of word balloons, like you see in the comics, from Microsoft Word.  They are under Insert, Shapes, in case you are wondering what the heck I am talking about.  They made for a quick write up as we came up with the greetings for each animal.  I used the ones offered up in the magazine, along with a few extras for animals they did not feature.

My biggest surprise about all of this was how well he did in putting the cards together.  I figured the most I would get out of him was some sloppy glue stick action, but he was an old pro! 

Not only did he spread on just the right amount, but at one point when I wasn’t paying close attention he stacked the pieces and moved on to the next one.  Of course, I had to straighten it out a bit, but it shocked me at how quickly he picked up the process and kept it going.  He also glued and placed most of the word balloons, but about half way through that part he grew tired of smearing and said, “Mama Do”.  So, I did.

He loved picking out which animal went with each card, but I think his favorite part was gathering them up the next day, and putting them in a little heart bag I found in my gift wrapping stash. 

He thought he was a regular old cupid!

I hope all your Valentine’s Day crafts were made and filled with, LOVE!  Now excuse me while I go eat my 4th iced heart cut-out sugar cookie of the day.  I mean, they aren’t going to gobble themselves up are they?

Kitsch Krafts

Don’t laugh too hard.  I am still working on this project.  Really, I am!  It’s all just in stages.  Yep, that’s the story I’m going with.

(from Milly Bee)

(Heart Shaped Photo Collage, I believe from the blog, Click It Up a Notch.)

I finally pulled together enough frames to get the size and basic shape I was looking for.  Since I did not go with all the same sized frames, as in the inspiration photo, this presented a whole new challenge I had not even considered.  Big DUH, over here.

And then I changed it all…

…several times.

I’m still not settled on the middle frame, but the size of this one seems about right.  What I am not settled on is whether I will go through the pain of painting this one or just shell out the cash for a new frame.  I will definitely need to purchase a custom mat for the handprint picture, so I am leaning toward being cheap and just painting what I have.  The time needed to paint everything for this project is what really slowed me down with this whole challenge.  I started this project just as the weather began to get cold, so I felt I did not have a choice in painting by hand versus spray painting (I have to do all spray painting outside in the elements).  If I had known then how many warmer days we would still have left in the year, I never would have pulled the can and brushes out in the first place.  Lesson learned.  Now back to whether I can stomach painting that middle frame, or just throwing in the towel to buy a new one???  I’m thinkin’, I’m thinkin’.

In the end I nixed the idea of all black and white shots and here is why.  First, there are a LOT of frames to fill here!  Second, I have a ton of cute shots and artwork to put some where!  Since this arrangement is going in our master bedroom, and is all about family, I figured it’s the best place for all those sentimental things.

With an impending visit from the grandparents this coming weekend I had to make a decision on the layout which was on the guest room floor.  Or, risk another several weeks of frames stacked in the closet.  I think I am good with this and there is still a little space for adding smaller frames to round out the heart shape even more.  Although, I do kind of like that it’s not going to be a perfect heart.  So, they got post-its with numbers to aid in getting them back into this arrangement and I will pray I can get them on the wall in a somewhat smooth process.

Now, I will spend another whole bunch of time hemming and hawing over what to put where, just as I did about which frame looks best in which spot?  Once more of those decisions are made I will bore you guys with one final post so you can ooh and aaahhh!

Oye, remind me to pick a much easier challenge next time, okay?

Kitsch Krafts

It finally happened. I put the “thank you” notes in the mail this week. Pretty pathetic second week of the new year event for a woman who buys her thank you cards at the end of the previous Christmas season, or at least before Thanksgiving, wouldn’t you say? Typically the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve is spent cleaning up the Christmas decorations, because we are a family that believes in bad luck for the new year if they are still up after the first, and writing thank you notes. This year was no exception. Decorations were down well before heralding the new year. We even had these neat cards made through the preschool fundraiser, featuring my son’s artwork and they arrived the second week of November (if I remember correctly).

See!

Cute, right?

So, what was my problem this year? I’m not really sure. Sometimes I think that the over planning or trying to get ahead of the game just kills the fun of the pannicky feeling you get with a ticking deadline.

For those of you out there that gave us something lovely, you done good, you done good! There were no rejects of any kind this time around. ;o) No matching sweaters, while perfectly nice, eliciting a snicker at the idea of wearing them together. Better yet, the plans for the Sear’s Portrait Studio appointment flashing in my mind and bringing a huge grin to my face. No, jumpers to put on my kid for a picture only and then to be hidden away in the back of the closet until he can no longer wear that size. (oh, I have never done that, have I?) And, we avoided gift cards to places we never shop- yeah! All in all it was a wonderful gifty time of year and we are grateful for all the generosity that was bestowed upon us.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Kitsch Krafts

Yep, didn’t know it was even possible.

When you are done laughing let me know.

Like most Americans I have added “get in shape” to my list of resolutions.  But there is nothing like cracking a toilet seat under your fanny to really put the WHA-POW!! into that one for ya!

Have a great weekend and eat something sweet and really bad for me.  Please!

Kitsch Krafts

This year our decorations were pretty minimal.  Tree, check!  Wreath on door, check!  Vintage tinsel tree up and decorated, check!  Nativity in place, check!  Aside from a couple of other items that we set out to enjoy, we did little more to transform our home.  I think that having two sickies in the house at the beginning of the month just sort of did me in.  While I continued to keep the household afloat, I decided that any additional pressure on myself to have some over-the-top holiday home would surely result in my succumbing to the worst of it.  So, I did the bare minimum and enjoyed the rest of the month, semi-illness free.  We did attempt luminaries along the street as part of our neighborhood tradition for the first time this year.  I say “attempt” because we lit them, went to a friend’s house for Christmas Eve dinner and returned two hours later to find them burned out.  I had no idea that the tea lights I bought were so crummy.  Oh well, maybe we will get it right next year.  The only new additions to our holiday home were the tiny train themed tree for my tiny man and this:

On the weekend after Thanksgiving I found this 20 foot strand of lighted garland, originally from Target for $19.99, at Goodwill for only $8.99.  Over the last two years our little card stand has become overrun with Christmas greetings (aren’t we popular!?!) and ended up looking really messy.  So, this year I hung the garland in the foyer around the opening to the formal living room.  As the cards came in we used clothespins to clip them in place.  The Little Guy loved having a say in where each one was placed.  Although, if it weren’t for a little coaching nearly every card would have been hung in the same spot roughly 2 feet from the floor.  This ended up being a favorite for all of us and I think we will continue this tradition going forward.

On Christmas morning my mom and her boyfriend surprised us with a fun and funky slab cutting board.

They had an artist friend of theirs carve it, complete with a heart in the eye and…

…the cutest curlie-q tail!

One of my most favorite gifts I have ever received arrived just before the big day and was created from one of my very crafty friends.

I mean really, Jennifer!  Could this be any cooler?

She used a neat old book with cool bike graphics to create a hiding spot for a pen and pad.

As you can see this girl that lives-and-dies-by-the-list has already put it to good use.  I have even used the old library card holder to stash other notes and…well, other lists!  Yes, it’s a sickness.

Hope you all had a great time and got everything on your list!

Kitsch Krafts