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Saturday, June 18, 2011

My dad is my hero

Hey friends, hope you're doing great. I'm sorry that I've been absent for the last two weekends. Last weekend took us to St. Louis to celebrate the 90th birthday of my husbands grandmother. We had a GREAT time and enjoyed the free zoo and of course Ted Drewe's!!! We also had an incredible time catching up with all the family and we're excited that we now only live 4 hours from family rather than 12!

This week my niece has been here with us and helping me tremendously with the kids. She's been great and played countless games, colored TONS of pictures, read lots of books and beat me at Monopoly Deal more times than I can count. She's been getting me in the crafty mode too, since she loves to craft and it helps to have someone to bounce ideas off of (my husband always says "don't ask me, you're the creative one").

I got the shirts done for the kids to wear tomorrow for Father's Day. I'm so happy with how they turned out and can't wait for him to see them at church in the morning! I also have printed out this Super Dad banner and plan on hanging it up for him to see after church. I'll share photos of the kids in their shirts next week. But there they are!! What do you think?








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Friday, June 17, 2011

Memory Tree

We made another gift for DADDY today! Although this can be made anytime of year. I will proudly display this in our home for many years after Daddy opens it! ;-)
This is a quick project that you can do in minimal time. So perfect for last minute gifts. And you will most likely have the supplies if you are a crafty person like myself. LOL

Here is what you will need...

Hard Board (size of your choice, ours is 16x20)
Newspaper (torn in small to medium pieces)
Matte Medium
Gesso
Paints (different greens for each child's hand and grass, blue for the sky and brown for the trunk)
Sponges and paintbrushes
Paper Plate for paints
Spray craft varnish
First start with your Matte Medium and Newspaper pieces. Paint a little Matte medium on the hardboard. add the newspaper and paint more matte medium on top. Do this on the whole board. This gives your board some texture and dimension. Set aside to dry.
Once everything is dry, grab the gesso and paint over the paper. You will have to do a minimum of two coats to cover the paper. If you are wanting to leave it a white background, you will need more white coats. We wanted to paint ours different colors, so we didn't worry about covering everything. Again, set aside to dry.
TIP...in between coats, wrap your paintbrush in foil and stick in the fridge. This will keep is moist between coats. You won't have to worry about constantly rinsing out your brushes.
Now that you have your textured board ready to go, you can now sponge on your sky blue and grass green. I just used a kitchen sponge and cut it up into squares. It covers fast and gives it a nice effect. Make sure you paint your green down low. You want a nice tall tree to put those hands on.
Here comes the fun parts. It's beginning to look like something fun! Get out your brown paint. Use a brush to outline your tree. Give it some branches, then fill in the trunk with a sponge.
The really, really fun part is adding the kids hands. Each of my kids had their own color for their handprint, giving the tree cool look. I like it too because it makes each of their handprints stand out. We also filled in areas with finger prints of each color. It made it look like little leaves.
And you're done! A perfect gift for any occasion. And with Father's day this weekend, it's perfect! ;-)
Another look at our tree!
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Thursday, June 16, 2011

Father's Day Freezer Paper Shirts

Today we are working on Father's Day shirts! A little behind, I know! Eeeek! I just designed these this morning. Daddy is working out in the shop on some customer cabinets, so he has been home a lot. I keep telling him, warn us when your coming in so we can hide your presents. LOL This is why we are a little behind on gifts this year. And I can't have the kids make their Papa's gifts in front on him either, because they are similar.

Here is what we are making.... SHIRTS!
Below are the images I made for the shirts. Please use them if you like!! And if you do, I'd love to see the happy Daddy and kiddos wearing them. 

For Daddy (and/or mommy too)
For the Kiddos
 

Just use the FREEZER PAPER method to make your shirts.

I bought a shirt for daddy and shirts for all the kids. Our plan is to have daddy open up all the shirts as one gift. Then when we take daddy to lunch, they will all wear them. I can't wait to take pics of them all wearing them.
We are finished! Here are our shirts! What do you think? We love them!
We had a little bleeding of paint. One, we used a little too much paint. (kids were generous, lol) and the girls shirts were ribbed, so that was a little tricky. But you can read them, and the kids made them for daddy, so I'd say they are perfect! ;-)
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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Create and Share | Features too!

New Name...but same great party!!!

Don't forget to grab one of our {BUTTONS} 

I always look forward to this day of the week. It's fun to go through all the fabulous link ups.

So if you see that you have been featured, go by and grab a "Featured Button"

{Here are a few of my favorites that linked up last week}
Click on photos below to read more!
    
    

Don't forget to share the button and Like your favorite links below!
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Shutter Love Tuesdays | Wind

We have been loving hosting {Shutter} Love every week and wanted to thank you all for participating each week. You have all made it so fun. We enjoy looking at each of your photos every week.


This weeks theme is | WIND |

To see all the rules for this fun party, please go HERE.

Want to see all the PAST Shutter Love Winners? 
Check out our Shutter Love Winners | Directory in the Pages above. 
Don't forget to check out future Shutter Love Themes too!

AND COMMENT BELOW as much as you like.
Go HERE to grab one of our Buttons-We have NEW BUTTONS!

Tara's | Wind | Photo
I LOVE this photo. Took it on a trip to Arizona. You may have seen another photo I shared of my son, similar to this one.  There is definitely WIND in this photo. LOL We went to Arizona to deliver material to a customer of ours. He invited us to visit his indoor skydiving facility. We were so excited. This is one of the many shots I took that day. Even got the whole time on video. It was so amazing. Just look at the JOY in her face. Priceless. I knew I had to share one of these pics in todays Shutter Love Party. And I love the quote by Ashley Smith. A perfect fit to this photo!

Jamie's | Wind | Photo
Coming Soon!
Link up your photo entries below. Don't forget to click on the LIKE button if you LOVE an entry. 
And please don't forget to comment when you visit a photo too! Everyone loved feedback!
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Monday, June 13, 2011

Father's Day Puzzles

I was browsing around at some of my favorite blogs when I came across a great Father's Day Gift idea. It was a tutorial by Lil Blue Boo. If you haven't been to her site, you need to. I love everything she shares. So go by and let her know I sent you.
Here is my take on this Father's Day Gift....the kids loved helping make these.
What you will need...
Golden's Soft Gel Medium
Jumbo Popsicle Sticks
Paint Brushes (fingers)
Fine Sand Paper
Brayer
Double Sided Tape
Plain Piece of Paper
Photo printed with laser printer
(not pictured)
Wax Paper
Spray Varnish
Start by placing double stick tape on a plain piece of paper. Add the popsicle sticks. The tape will hold the sticks in place while you work.
Have your image cut to size and set aside ready to lay on the sticks. But first take your Gel Medium and add them to the top of the popsicle sticks. You want to add enough (not too much, not to little) to the sticks.  Apply with a brush or your fingers. I gave each of my kids a brush and they all helped.
Once you have generously covered the popsicle sticks, place your photo face down on top of the gel and sticks. Cover with wax paper.  Grab your brayer tool and smooth out the paper completely. I used the wax paper so I wouldn't get the gel on it while smoothing it out. 
Set aside and let the gel dry completely. It takes up to 20-30 minutes for the whole thing to completely dry. Your paper will curl up, that's normal. Don't worry.
After completely dry, add water and gently remove the paper. To make things easier, I ended up using a razor blade to cut each stick apart, then submersed each stick under water to peel off the paper. This helped keep the ink on the stick, rather than scratching off the image. This will make the sticks warp (curl) a bit, but as they dry they straightened out. You can also place something heavy on top to keep it from curling if you are worried about that. By doing it this way, I was able to save the whole image with very minimal scratches.

Once all the sticks are cleaned and completely dry, you will see a little dry looking residue.  Take the Spray Varnish and spray (outside, it's bad stinky) both the front and back of the popsicle sticks. You now have a nice finish and protection for your photo. Get some twine and make a tag. Finish by tying around your puzzle. You're ready to give it to the daddy, papa, uncle in your life.
You can also drill holes in one of the ends, like Lil Blue Boo did. But I didn't have access to the drill at the time, so I improvised. ;-)
Here's a pic of the kids while they worked on these. We ended up making 9 puzzles. Some for daddy (I made him one too), some for Papa and some for their uncle.
Here is another finished look at one of the puzzles we made. I have always loved this photo of my kids. It was taken a while back, but I just love it and wanted to use it for the puzzles gifts.
I am hoping to post our other gift ideas this week too for Father's Day, so keep an eye out. Have a great week everyone!
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Sunday, June 12, 2011

Shutter Love Winners | Summer Fun

First I wanted to let you all know that my buttons are no longer available. Someone else was hosting them and they closed their account. So I lost them. BOO! I loved my flash buttons. So we have to go back to the old until I get some new designs. 
Hoping to have new Buttons up this week!
You can grab this old button below for now. Visit HERE to grab it!
ShutterLoveTuesdays
Now on to the winners....

Shutter Love Photo Winners | TREES |

Our Top 10 Photo Winners Are...

#1 goes to | Cap Creations
 Who doesn't love a good water balloon fight?!? LOL Love this shot!
#2 | Minivan Diaries
#3 | Ginger
#4 | Summer Fun
#5 | Hot Coffee Mama
#6 | 4 Lettre Words
#7 | Keri Tex
#8 | Live Every Moment
#9 | Miggyhood
#10 | Happy Jax
More Favorites | In No Particular Order
Thank you to everyone who entered last weeks theme | SUMMER IS HERE |
If you see your photo above, please visit our BUTTONS page to grab one.

Get your photos ready for this weeks theme | WIND | and remember to share so others can join in with their photos.
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