My little artist.

Ethan loves to do crafts and colour. He's been pretty good with his crayons since we gave them to him at 18 months of age, respecting that crayons stay at the table when you want to get up and roam around. Maybe it's because Parker is a second child, and doesn't have my undivided attention, but he is a completely different beast when it comes to art supplies.

It seems Playdoh, and crayons are a 5th food group  for my toddler. I tried giving him pencil crayons, but he'd chew on the tips. I tried markers, only to discover that a red Crayola felt tip, one chewed, horrifically resembles blood when oozing from the mouth of a child. He's got a thing for seed beads too; after dumping a tube of them all over my craftroom floor, he started chomping on them. As I scrambled to get them contained and cleaned up, he was climbing over me like a madman trying to get more to shove in his mouth. Needless to say diaper changes were interesting in the days following.


Next came the experimentation with drawing on things other than paper. His hands, face, beloved stuffed lamb Gordon, wall, toy shelves, kiddie table and chairs have all served as canvases at some point or another. Then came the couch- our BRAND NEW, dark grey plush corduroy sectional.

I saw him with the yellow finger paint.
I removed it from him.
I placed it back on the table in the craftroom then closed and locked the door.
How the following events occured I have no clue!

I told both boys  to play for a minute while I ran upstairs to get their things together so we could go meet friends for lunch. I returned not 3 minutes later to find Parker with yellow paint on his shirt and jeans. Thinking it had occured earlier,  I started to take measures to get him changed- then I noticed paint on the floor. Panic started to set in as I scanned the room for the paint jar. All I could see from where I was standing was the back of the couch dividing the playroom. I took slow deliberate steps towards it and then got to the other side petrified at what I might find... Yellow hand prints and blobs of finger paint were splattered over the ENTIRE seating area. Yellow hand prints on the seat of the lazyboy chair, (and days later I discovered) yellow paint all over the canister of my vacuum cleaner.

I'm really glad the damage to everything was minimal ( because I caught him quickly), and cleaned up relatively easily ( did I mention we were still waiting for the stain treatment for the couch?) I am thankful that I've invested in non-toxic, washable, kid friendly crafting products, and even secretly hopeful that this behavior might indicate a bit of creative genius or something.

With that being said, here's this week's layout for Practical Scrappers showcasing another creative endeavor by Parker.

The challenge this week was embossing. I let Parker have my Versamark pen, and the background sheet of Basic Grey paper. once he had scribbled his thing, I quickly dusted it with American Crafts embossing powder in Denim, and heat set.  I journalled in sections with a Zig embossing pen, and embossed it with a detail black powder by Stampendous. I added a  little spritz of Glimmer Mist, clear dew drops and pebbles, then the AC Thickers for my title.

I plan to take some direction from my 21 month old and experiment a little bit more with my supplies; hopefully the outcome will be just as spontaneous but more controlled.

Happy Crafting!
Erin

Halfway There!

No photos today I'm afraid. just wanted to share that today marks week 20 of this pregnancy, and that I'm so grateful to be at this point. I'm happy to feel the baby moving, to see my belly growing, and yes even to watch my belly button deform and "pop" ( it's halfway there too). If you really want to see a photo, you could always stalk my friend Claude's 365 photo blog. I think yesterday, this bulging belly of mine may have made photo of the day, but she hasn't posted it yet. Just 11 days until the next doctor's appointment, and hopefully a definitive  answer to the pink/blue question. Can you tell I'm just itching to buy baby clothes?

Summer fun

Trying to keep both kids contained in our yard is not an easy task. Because we live on a corner lot, and have a sunken stone patio in the backyard,  the most kid friendly space we have is the big expanse of grass and driveway in the front and side of our house. Kids being kids, they usually end up going in two different directions, and get too close to the road for my liking. Thank goodness for sidewalk chalk!

Even though Parker is still just making lines and scribbles, and Ethan is only starting to make circles, and adding some details like eyes and smiles, they have a blast with the chalk. Mama and Daddy get lots of requests for various animals, flowers and such, then the boys "colour" them in.

Due to my recent computer crash ( which I may start referring to as the Great Crash of 2010) I find myself with a huge lack of pictures to scrap, and more incentive to make sure I take the camera along with me. I'm getting photos of things I don't think I would normally have taken. trips to the park, pool, and everyday play at our house.

This is the layout I did for this week's challenge at Practical Scrappers. The challenge is to use any type of cartoon/animation on a page or card. Anyone who knows me, knows that this is not a huge challenge - I love cute characters! I dug through my stuff intent on showing some love to some much neglected items. It makes me happy to use old stuff collecting dust, and to use new stuff right away. This layout is a mix of both.

I used some Colorbox inks ( chalk and pigment) to stamp all the little Imaginisce animals on the black cardstock. I took a cloth and buffed them a bit before they dried completely just to add to the chalkboard effect.  There are red crabs in there too, but they don't show as well in the photo. I also added a few spritzes of the new chalk Glimmer mist before adding the Fancy Pants sun, Basic Grey letters ( I love these!!) , Bella blvd journaling spot, Making Memories flower, and MME die cut lizard.

On the edge

Border punches and deco scissors oh my!
Yep, you guessed right, that's this week's challenge over at Practical Scrappers. I have about 40 pairs of deco scissors (I refuse to do an exact count in case I have more than that), and very very rarely use them anymore. Why then do you ask did I go out and purchase border punch after border punch? ( no I won't even take a guess at a number here!)
I think both should have take a place ( ok maybe a smaller one) in every scrapbooker's arsenal.
Deco scissors can go where border punches can't ie. rounded shapes. each pair comes with two decorative options- don't believe me? Just flip your scissors over!
Anyone who's ever tried to cut a straight line with a pair will also see the value in a border punch.
The new designs for border punches are also often irresistible; from the simplest scallop, to stars, cupcakes, bunnies, flowers, lace- you name it!

So I've dusted all mine off, and come up with a page that's far from my usual boyish comfort zone.
I might just find a use for all those frilly edges after all!

Happy Canada Day! I hope to come back today or tomorrow with some pictures from the day.

Erin