Kid's Tree Craft

Last month I was asked to do a craft for the kids at my church. We were telling the story of Zacchaeus (the little man that climbed the tree, remember?) and I decided to do a cute tree craft!

 This is a simple project that could easily be a "thankful tree" for fall, too! You will need: scissors, scrapbook paper, white cardstock, brown construction paper, and a glue stick.

Start by preparing all the supplies. Print out this file onto your white cardstock (optional). Cut out a leaf shape to use as a stencil and trace it onto the back of the scrapbook paper until you have traced as many as possible. Cut the leaves out. (I used almost 20 leaves for my sample to show the kids, but most of them used only 5-10. You will probably only need one sheet per kid) Then, cut a trunk shape out of brown construction paper. I just drew this simple shape:

Pull out your glue sticks and let the kids get to work! 

Art Museum

 This weekend I went to the Phoenix Art Museum downtown with my family. We walked around for a few hours then left to get some lunch at The Habit (a cool burger place we tried for the first time). We had a really nice time! They had their "Art of Video Games" room up this month, so we spent a lot of time there. ;) I rocked at Pacman!

I saw a Monet and my dad saw a Picasso! They even had the painting of George Washington that the dollar bill was made after. In one of the photos below, you'll see part of one of Mrs. James Ward Thorne's miniature houses.

Make a Stamp from an Eraser

I love stamps. I love using them on packages for customers and friends! But they always seem to be expensive (no one wants to pay $7!). I saw this idea on Pinterest, and thought I'd share my tips and how-to with you!

 You'll need an X-acto knife, a rubber eraser, and a pencil. That's it! I got a two pack of erasers at Target for 52 cents. You also want to do this on a safe surface, like a cutting mat, so you don't accidentally scratch any surfaces.

 First cut off the ends, where the eraser is slanted.

Draw out your design. I decided to turn this into two smaller stamps. Remember that whatever you do will be backwards when stamped on, so take this into consideration when carving words.

 First cut out your shape by tracing it with your blade. Then slice through the outer edges and work your way inwards until you can pull off a chunk. Continue until your whole shape is cut out!

 Smooth out the edges of your shape and shave the base down. I usually make sure to shave it down a little less than a 1/2 cm.

 Test your stamp and smooth out any rough edges.

 

All done! If you want to add detailing like some of the stamps above, you can cut super tiny slices with your X-acto knife, or buy some real stamp carving tools.

I'm addicted to this now! It's so cheap and only takes about 10 minutes for a simple design, like a heart.

Happy carving!

Shutterbug

Today I got a new camera! I'm really excited about it and all the wonderful capabilities it has. I don't have a memory card for it yet (oops) but I had a little space left on my old card so I went outside to test it!

There are plenty of hummingbirds in our yard and they are so difficult to shoot (with a camera of course ;)). But I was able to get some good pictures of them this time.
I can't wait to play with it some more. You'll be seeing a lot more photos around here!