Merry Christmas | Christmas Nativity

 Merry Christmas! It's Christmas Eve afternoon, and half of us are visiting with family. The other half are napping or preparing for tomorrow. We've been having fun playing with some new Nativities. Here are the Nativity Blocks I made for Otto and Atlas to play with. They both love them, and I love them too, since I'm not worried about them getting wrecked! We've been doing a Christmas advent calendar, with Christmas activities each day. I set these up the night before, and in the morning when I told them there were Nativity Blocks to play with, they were so excited!

I used this set

  

(if you're interested in this set for this purpose, you will need to ask for the PNG files from the company because they only provide you with a PDF file, which is locked and comes in larger sizes than you really want for this project). I shrunk all the images in photoshop and printed them out at home, then mod podged them onto the blocks.

Merry Christmas to you all

 -

I hope you have time to reflect on the Nativity in your own ways, as we have had the chance to do all this month.

In the Christmas-Making mode

It's been busy around here, getting ready for Christmas. I like to hand-make or "home-made" many of my gifts - a tradition handed down to me from my parents. And because pretty much everything I've been making these days are Christmas presents for some who may read this blog, I can't post any pictures yet!

I do miss scrapbooking, and hope to get back to it after the Christmas rush. Looking forward to a scrapbook day with my SIL. Here's a LO I did before all my Christmas preparations began, but I just haven't posted it yet!

This year has been somewhat exciting, seeing the joy on the boys' face, and being able to do more with Otto. We do an "activity advent", where we do some sort of Christmas activity each day. This morning, we baked some plastic ornaments - a project you'd think Atlas would enjoy as well, and he did... for about a minute. Then the beads were unceremoniously dumped on the tray, and the crying commenced (he woke up WAY too early this morning and is currently down for his second nap of the day!) Now, I say "somewhat" exciting, mostly because I get all excited to do a simple craft with Otto, and sometimes it works out, but most of the time, he's either entirely uninterested or he is occupied for only a short while. I need to remind myself that he is 3 and actually doing pretty good considering. We have been to the Santa Claus Parade (out in the cold!) and Story Time with Santa. Otto and I went to "Christmas at the Hive" at a local honey farm. We've made a foam gingerbread house, several ornaments, watched several new movies, and read lots of Christmas books. Christmas is still wonderful, no matter what age.

Sharing I The Christmas Story video

T'is the season to share the Christmas spirit, to think about our Savior's birth. This video has got to be the cutest version of the Christmas Story ever. Their other videos are wonderful as well. Merry Christmas!

Otto and Paisley On Bikes | Digital LO

Paper: DDE(Digital Design Essentials); Font(O, P): Sahlin Studio; Word art (loving): Paislee Press; Date stamp: Katie Pertiet

I'm on a Scrapbook/Crafting retreat this weekend and I've got lots of "business" to do (aka NOT scrapbooking), but I just HAD to do some scrapping! So here's the first page of the weekend.

Edited: This was the ONLY page I did this weekend! But I think it is my favorite Digital Scrapbook LO to date. It is so simple and minimalist. I love it. Still learning the ropes, but I feel I'm getting better all the time.

Seriously Happy|Digital LO

Template(modified slightly): Nini Goes Digi; Arrows with stiching: Pink Trike Design; Paper: Echo Park, This&That Charming; Frames, Washi Tape: Gennifer Bursett; Yellow Alpha: Design By Dani  

Journaling reads: Atlas has 2 different faces when he's playing: serious or happy. Whichever face he's making he doesn't go halfway. Serious and contemplative or happy and smiling. At the playground Sept 2, 2012.

Critical Stage of Development... Who knew?!

 The other day, a friend and I were discussing some critical stages of development in our children. He mentioned how they have discovered that their son had missed some stages of development in his young life, and they are now trying to implement learning those stages now that he is older. One of these stages is crawling. I don't even know the half of what good crawling can be for left brain right brain development and on and on. Then my friend started to talk about how some mothers would cringe to find out that throwing their children high in the air (like some Dads do) is actually a very important stage of development as well. And I thought....

 

I think we've got that one covered.

 

In fact, I believe the boys are pretty darn brilliant in this area.

  

No worries here.

{excuse the messy bedroom. can you tell these pictures weren't planned?!}

Loving these two together. And wishing often that P's family lived closer so we could DO this more often! Otto and his cousin are only two months apart in age, and they have such fun when they get together. We miss you!

Weekend in Waterton I Photos

Cousins + Hike + Waterfall + Rock throwing + Ice cream = Perfect day.

Cousins, Monkeying Around

I issued a challenge to my SIL Karley to do a LO using pictures of our kids at the playground. For me, it's easy to fall into the habit of always organizing my scrapbook supplies (traditional or digital), because most of the time, I need to start a LO with a clean slate, meaning that my scrapbook area has to be free from clutter, and everything in its place. On the computer, it means that all my files need to be tagged and organized before I feel that I can scrapbook. The beauty of doing digital scrapbooking, though, is that my "desk" is virtually clean. All the time. So, all I have to do is stop organizing the files and get right to it! So I challenged Karley and myself to do just that. And here is my LO of the cousins. All said, it took me about an hour to complete. Love that. And when you use one kit to get the job done, it's a breeze! (kit: Just Jaimee, Spring Freebie Collection. You can grab your own on her site here. She has some really cute designs. Shadows from here: Gennifer Bursett, Toolbox Shadows V.1 found here.)

My Dino Box {or Dinos in a Tin!}

When we visited the Royal Tyrell Museum this spring, we picked up these tiny adorable pocket dinosaurs. They were perfect in the quiet bag for church and of course, Otto was over the moon for them, he thought they were so cool. I've had an idea in my head to create a landscape for them. Originally I thought I'd make it out of fabric and felt and have it fold in on itself, but then I found this tin and it was perfect! It would hold a tiny landscape and the dinos themselves, and would be sturdy enough to withstand two little boys playing with it. Perfect. I used scrapbook paper, some stickers, letter stamps, and felt inside for the sun, lake, and volcano. I mod podged the outside of the tin where I stuck paper. 

I love having boys. Sometimes this means that I don't have to frill things up - I can just leave them plain and simple and know it will be well loved.

Paint in a Bag

We made paint in a bag last week and it was super fun. I got two recipes for making your own paints from Family Fun crafts here and a different recipe to try another time here These recipes would also be great to try as finger paints. I loved this recipe because the colors aren't so transparent, and you can make it yourself without having to buy expensive paints from the store. We mixed up some primary colors and Otto smooshed them with his tummy and hands to see what colors they would "turn into". This was really fun, and the bags are still here and paint is still soft, almost a week later. The only thing I'd do differently is put the paints in bigger ziploc bags or put less paints in the smaller bags. Because if I'd have done that, we could use these not only to squish the paint, but to continue to do mess-free paintings like here. I think I'll transfer some paint over so some bigger bags this week to do some paint writing like that.

Pom Pom War

A little while ago I let the boys have at 'er with all the mini pom poms I've been hoarding saving. If I remember correctly, I just wanted them to be doing something so that I could be doing my something. Totally worked.  At first, they had fun filling and dumping and refilling the five or six empty containers I had given them (ideally for sorting, but I'm a Mama to two very active boys. Who am I kidding?!) Then it became all-out pom pom war, then rolling in the pom poms, filling dump trucks, and so forth. Our family room looked like a pom pom bomb had exploded! Then the boys very diligently helped me pick up every.single.mini. pom pom. 

I'm still finding random pom poms to this day.

My Brother My Friend Subway Art

Last week I was in some kind of funk and just couldn't motivate myself to do much of anything. But I was feeling bad for my boys. We just weren't doing all the usual stuff. I decided that we needed to do something creative. I've been seeing some cool subway art around the internet lately and thought maybe we could make our own. I got so excited that I skipped a step I should have done, then payed for it later on.  I will tell you how I made this and include the step I should have done!

1. I used a plain old 16x20 stretched canvas from Michaels. This had been sitting in my basement forever, with grand plans in my head of what I might do with it. But, plans are better carried out and I decided that my brain was taking too long for those other plans!

2. PREP YOUR CANVAS. Okay, so I didn't do this and had to go back later to touch up the letters because the paint bled under the vinyl letters! So. Very important to prep - use white paint, gesso, whatever. Just don't skip this step!

3. Cut vinyl letters (or get them cut). The bold letters I printed off my computer, then cut them into the vinyl with an exacto, the fun font I cut with my cricut. Stick the letters on your canvas how you want them. Make sure they are well sealed.

4. This is the fun part. Let your kids have free reign with paint, brushes, fingers, and hands! If they are littles like mine are, point out all the "white parts" to cover.

 This is what it looked like when the boys were finished.

 Atlas: "My work here is done."

5. Allow to dry. When paint is dry, you can spray the whole thing with a lacquer spray for more of a sheen. I used acrylic paint, and I thought it ended up looking a little dull, but the lacquer gives it just enough of a shine. 

6. Carefully peel off your vinyl letters. You can do this before step 5 if you want to spray everything, letters and all.

 As you can see here, there was a bit of bleeding. I ended up touching up the bold letters, but not the names. The letters would have been much crisper had I only been a little more patient and did #2!

So there you go. Totally easy, Totally do-able, Totally Cool art for your home.

Zoo Fun

I took a template challenge from Sahlin Studio and came up with this. I love how digital can be so fast in completing and then sharing. And I didn't have to wait for weeks to get all my crap together to order (and pick up!) photos from Costco or Walmart. I actually did a traditional LO on the weekend, but I probably won't ever get around to taking a photo of it... because I'm lazy like that. So I'll share this one with you instead.

If you are into digital scrapbooking, go check out Sahlin Studio, where I got the template, papers, and most of the elements I used here in her new freebie, Fleetwood. Thank you Sahlin Studio! You can find her August monthly template challenge, with free template here. And while you're there, check her archives for past template challenges.

Thanks for stopping by!

This is an exciting time for Calgary - to have a temple of our own. Make a date to view the open house with your family, you won't be disappointed!

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Digital LO #7

I'm getting there, and this digital is getting more fun as I go along. I recently bought a new program, ACDSee, and took the ACDSee Organization Class(for Mac, but they also have for Windows) at Jessica Sprague and have found the whole digital process going faster and easier! Yay for technology!

Monday, Monday

 We flew a kite tonight. The wind was perfect and the boys were mesmerized.

This morning, the ground was too wet for my outdoor fitness class, so I pushed up my sleeves and got some housework done. After Atlas woke up from his nap, we had a late lunch of smoothies, which are a hit around here, that's for sure!

Atlas is upset that I won't let him play with his straw, getting smoothie all over my nice clean floor. I'm a mean Mama that way, I guess.

New LO and Easy Scrap Craft for the boy

I finally made a new LO! I had made a deal with myself: As soon as I cleared the crap off both my craft desks, I could actually craft again! Most of the things on my desks just needed to find places, be organized, etc. I got to it and reaped the rewards when all was completed! I even got to indulge in a bit of Forsythe Saga with Netflix! 

Manilla tags have been popping up everywhere in scrapbooking, and since I've sat on my boxes of tags for quite awhile, I thought I should put them to creative use! I used them here in my LO,

and here, in a very easy craft Otto and I did together. I LOVE washi tapes! I purchased some from Freckled Fawn and was so pleased with their service and shipping prices!!! You don't find good shipping prices often! And the tapes are adorable! I sat down with Otto, while he did his own tag and I did one for Atlas. So easy. I just ripped some of each tape and set it on the side of the desk and he decided where it went, we punched their names with my DYMO, printed off some recent pictures on plain 80lb white paper {because I seem to be behind, yet again, on getting recent pictures developed!}, and he chose the type/color string for the pull. He was so pleased with himself, and what a cute result, no?

My baby turned 1 today! The time has flown and he has been a wonderful boy. He's been taking steps lately, but today he took several steps on his own initiative, without any help. Way to go, birthday boy! We sure love you!

Fun in a Box

Another digital scrapbook layout. I'm getting better at this.. I think! I'm really enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. Now to convince Andy that I need a laptop. A Macbook. Sounds like a hard sell because it is.