Sunday, February 14, 2010

SURPRISE!!! I"M STILL HERE!!!!


It has been a month since I posted anything! YIKES! Where did the time go? I have been creating but just didn't get around to posting anything or doing any challenges, etc. I am often playing with the grand daughters. They will be 5 and 4 next month and they are so much fun. We "create" together some days and they are learning to use pop dots and adhesives and paintbrush markers with age appropriate skill of staying in the lines (for now).

We spent the better part of the two weeks prior to their Valentines party on Feb 12th making a Valentine bookmark for each child (42 in all) and 7 Valentine cards for the teachers. The oldest is in a Pre K class. Two teachers come over from the school district and teach the morning with them, then they have regular day care in the afternoon. Emma knows the shape of all her letters, writes them all, and can sound out simple words. She will be ready for the all day kindergarten next fall, although she still likes her naps. Matti has the same two teachers all day but one had a baby mid term, so there is a substitute and that makes three.

For their book marks, I cut generic CS into 5 1/2"x2" strips, used the corner rounder on all the corners, punched a 1/4" hole at one end and stamped a rectangle "Happy Valentines Day"that has a dotted border around it and I centered it. This sentiment is only 1/2" wide and about 2" long...one of those dollar finds from somewhere. I collected a variety of small heart stamps and Emma and Matti stamped their favorites around the outer border in pink and red. This was Phase 1 of the project and they took a couple of hours to do this part. (You can see a picture of one of them in another post in this grouping.)

Two of the stamps looked quilted and so they took some of my older brush markers and colored to their hearts content on each one. This also took a couple of hours on another day. This was Phase 2. No Matti, these are not smelly markers!

Phase 3 consisted of working on the 7 cards for the teachers. I did the cutting of CS and punching and used two types of heart paper and put just a simple scallop on one edge and the strips that were left (about 1/8th-1/4" wide) I put above for some added interest. They helped run the dotted adhesive to stick them on with a little help.

Another day for Phase 4, we stamped and colored a little country girl Stampin Up image (1996 I think but I don't know what set.) holding a heart and above her it says "From The Heart". I colored a sample and then let them have at it and do whatever their creative heart told them to do. I cut a pink mat and let them punch the corners of the image and the mat with the corner rounder for all 7 cards.

Still another day for Phase 5 they took a small "From" stamp and stamped on the back of the book marks. Then we took a clear alphabet set and they stamped their names on each one. I think they had the most fun with this one as they could see the stamp on the CS and watch the transfer of ink to the CS and they acted like it was magic. Maybe for all of us stampers, it IS a little bit of magic to our creative souls. : ) They had to take turns and so I had them stamp Happy Valentines on the inside of the teachers cards and sign with the clear name stamp they used on the bookmark. WHEW! A big job accomplished and I still had to attach the ribbons to the book marks. I bought small clear cellophane treat bags and their parents filled them with candy and tied on the book mark and each child got one at the party.

While this SEEMS to be a huge undertaking with young children, when you break it up into smaller projects or phases and don't over load them too much at any one sitting, they can accomplish wonderful things, even at young ages. I want to leave them with a legacy of knowing their grandma and having fun times creating and encouraging the creator inside them. I have said this before that I believe God made each of us in HIS image and part of that is HIS creativeness. HE made everything and we belong to HIM and learning about HIS creation and HIS creative side, is what we spend most of our lives doing. I want to encourage their creative side and their knowledge of HIM in the process and I pray they will come to know HIM as their Lord and Savior.

So that is part of my month's activities. Thanks for stopping by to visit with me.

No comments: