Valentine's Day Heart Magnets

I teach art at my youngest son's school, so thought it might be kinda cool to make something sort of crafty for them this Valentine's Day. Inspired by Red Bird Crafts, I made these magnets. When finished, I sealed them with a clear sealant. Easy to make. I free-handed the heart designs on each disc, but you could also just use a rubber stamp.

Craft Project: Coasters

Supplies:
Plain Tiles
Stencil Paste
Stencil of Choice
Acrylic Paint of Choice
Plastic Spoon/Knife
Plate to mix on
Clear Polyurethane

Directions: Place stencil on tile. If it doesn't have a sticky film on it already, then spray with repositionable spray adhesive. Scoop amount a small amount of stencil paste and place it on your mixing plate. Next, squirt a small amount of acrylic paint onto the paste and mix together. If you prefer to have a white design, you can skip this step. Now you're ready to begin applying the image to the tile. Slather on a glop of the mixture onto the tile and work it onto the entire stencil. Once the entire stencil is covered, you can begin scraping some of it off so that there is a layer just thick enough to not see the tile through the paint. Carefully lift the stencil up. If there are spots that need to be touched up (paint went under the stencil?), just gently wipe it away with your finger or a baby wipe. If you decide you don't like how the design turned out, no problem! You can wipe the tile clean with some soap and warm water and start again. Once you are happy with your tile, set it aside to cure overnight. Seal with a clear polyurethane and you're done!

Halloween Class Bags

Just a quick post with a picture or two of the Halloween 2007 class bags Little D took to school this year. They each had a pumpkin fan, a GITD skeleton keychain and a tombstone eraser. Sorry for the bad pictures!

Mr. Goodbar Tree

Today's project - a Mr. Goodbar Tree. 30 minutes and three bags of Mr. Goodbars later, this is what we have.

Frozen Worms

Inspired by the Martha Stewart site, we made some frozen worms. Using an ice cube tray, place a gummy worm or two in each cube compartment. Add some water and freeze. It's a fun, kid friendly activity. For a cool effect, leave bits of the worm hanging out so when the water freezes, the worm will still be visible.

Bat Craft Projects

- Batworld.org is offering up a cute cut and color little brown bat.
- The Manchester CT Elementary School offers up a bat origami project.
- Bat Conservation International offers up actual bat house plans. Build your very own!
- The Halloween Alliance has a simple hand print bat craft project.
- Craftbits has an easy kids bat napkin ring.
- About.com has another easy kid craft; a bat finger puppet.
- LifeTips lists instructions to make a black garbage bag bat.
- Howstuffworks.com shows how to make bat bracelets.
- Craftelf.com has a simple bat magnet and bat clip.

Carol Duvall Show

HGTV has brought The Carol Duvall Show back to the network! It's repeats of the older episodes, but still. Old CDS is better than no CDS.

A new Martha Show?

I just heard that DIY Network is planning on launching a new Martha Stewart Show this Thanksgiving called Martha Stewart Crafts, a 30 minute how-to series featuring various crafts from Martha over the past several years. The segments will actually be from older Martha Stewart Living episodes, but feature just craft projects.

Halloween Crafts from Martha

Martha Stewart Crafts has just released their Halloween collection of spooky craft kits and goodies. So many possibilities!

Birthday Classroom Favors

Tomorrow, little D turns 6, so to celebrate, he asked if he could take in party favors for his class. Here is what I came up with. Since tomorrow is also Flag Day, we added a miniature American flag to each bag. The stickers on the front are word bubbles that I wrote each child's name in. The poem I wrote reads:

Magic Birthday Rock

It's Dylan's birthday
So what does that mean?
Everyone gets a special magic rock
That's shiny and green!

In the summer month's ahead
When finding new things to do is a chore
Rub it for creativity
And let your imagination soar!

Each contains a 'shiny green rock' I picked up at the craft store in addition to the flag and a few small pieces of candy.

Fun Paper Goods!

I am seriously drooling over a new (to me) line of paper goodies called Memory Boutique! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, drool worthy designs - tags made on chipboard, inspiring papers, fun rub-ons... the list goes on and on!

Invitations

I'm the chairperson for the PTA's art program at my kids' school again this year and in preparation for the upcoming awards ceremony, I put together the invitations. Since the event is a little over a week away, I affixed large, business card sized magnet strips to the back of each card so that the parents can place them on the fridge as a reminder. I had intended on doing some rubber stamping and adding some adhesive backed rhinestones to them as well, but time was not on my side and I needed to get them done and delivered by today.

Valentine's Day Goodies

For both kids this year, we made Valentine Envelopes that were bursting at the seems with goodies. Using wax envelopes, each were filled with red, pink and white candies and small trinkets. Then, we attached handmade cards rubber stamped and then added a puffy conversation heart sticker to each. They were a huge hit with both classes and a nice change of pace from the ho-hum store bought variety too!

"New" Vintage Labels

Via HP, Retro Citrus Labels you can customize!

Snowflake soaps

Via Sunset, adorable snowflake soaps. Ahhh, why didn't I see this before Christmas?!?! What a neat idea! I think it would also be cool to add a small amount of ultra-fine glitter to the soap to give the pieces some shimmer. I suppose I will give these a whirl next Christmas.

Ooh, FREE downloads!

Via The Felt Mouse, how could I NOT already know about this amazing website? It's Mathew Mead Productions, Inc. Run, don't walk to this site! It's absolutely stunning!

Peanut Shells Have Eyeballs!

Peanut shells with eyeballs I just got the new Amy Sedaris book called I Like You. Oh my! The pictures... the text... the layout... it's hard for me to choose what I like best! So many fun ideas are presented in this book!

A new craft mag!

Yesterday, I received a new craft magazine in the mail called Adorn. It's quite cute with many simple, easy to do projects in it. I look forward to reading future issues!

Art in 60 seconds for $1!?!?!?!!?

I recently stumbled upon this really cool business venture of a blog called Sketch-It. It's compromised of a handful of artists, all with unique styles. Send them a photo or an idea, they say, and they'll sketch it in 60 seconds for $1. Curiousity got the best of me and so I decided to submit a photo I had taken of my two boys. I zapped them a dollar via PayPal and uploaded my photo for them to use as a reference for the drawing. A few hours later I checked back on the site and there it was - a sketch of my two boys! Here is a photo of the original and the final sketch. Try it out! You never know which artist will tackle your submission, so that's half the excitement!

Cupcake Liner Flowers

The newest issue of Better Homes and Gardensmagazine has some simple paper flowers made out of cupcake liners. (Page 87)