Saturday, November 20, 2010

Fall Bumpkins

Recently my girls and I went to a pottery painting store to make some Christmas/Birthday presents for Daddy.  While browsing the store's website to get some ideas before going (since I'm not so crafty!), I came across a plate with a pumpkin on it...a 'bum'pkin!!!  Now I thought this was beyond adorable and something I had to do (just not in public in the middle of a store)...and so it became our at home project.

Things you'll need:
- orange and green washable paint
- paint brush
- paper plate (unless your child will stay put long enough to paint their bum!)
- whatever you'd like to put the bum on - we used white construction paper
- a paint proof location and a tiny bum :)

First I poured some paint onto the paper plate and spread it around.  Unfortunately you can't tell in the picture how quickly I had to do this while Alexandria started unrolling the toilet paper!

Then I put the paper plate with paint on the floor next to 3 pieces of paper.  I'm not sure there's an 'art form' to getting this accomplished, but I sat her bum on the paper plate and smushed her down a bit.  After that I picked her up and plopped her back on the floor on top of a piece of paper.  You'll see in the pictures that the bottom of the bumpkin (near her legs) isn't quite as round it probably should have been.  My only resolution to this would be to hold your child between your arms with their legs up and get only bums to stamp on the paper.


Next we cleaned up because I'm not sure anyone wants their child running around with a wet paint orange bum while you're trying to draw on the stem!  The stem was simple; just a quick brush stroke and you're done.  BUMpkins!!!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

A few notes about me...

I'm a married, full-time working mom of two.  I have a gorgeous step-daughter Emma (born in 2004) and a beautiful little lady, Alexandria who was born on New Years Eve in 2009.  My husband circa 2008 is my rock and will even assist in my craft attempts with the girls if I ask nicely; although I try to do a lot of the crafts during my solo time with the girls.

Between keeping up with work, life, and activities - I realized that I had very little time to do crafts with the girls in addition to not ever feeling like a very 'crafty' person (thus the blog title!).  I've always loved to scrapbook, but stared in awe of the pages people put together in the magazines and wonder how in the world I could ever have that 'vision' or 'artistic look' to my pages.

At some point I realized that the outcome didn't matter; it was the experience of making a memory and storing that memory that mattered most.  Thus, the crafts that I do with my kids (and my scrapbooking pages for that matter) may not be publishable pieces of art, but they created lasting memories, fun experiences and I chose to share those moments with you in hopes that you can make some of your own.

My Family: Emma, Myself (Mama), Alexandria, and Rob (Daddy)