Happy Sunday

A Mother's Prayer

This is my prayer as a mother...
I want to have a thankful heart for this blessing of motherhood.  I want my children to know how much I love them.  I want to help mold my children into the beautiful individuals that God intends for them to be.  I want to help them find their gifts.  I am not a perfect mother, by any means, but with God's grace I can exercise patience and wisdom through both the beautiful and trying times that come with being a mama.  I want to delight in the simple pleasures.  I want to savor every moment.
Happy mommy moments!

Happy Sunday

Pirate and Princess Day at the Zoo

Happy tales!

Animal Clip Art

If you haven't visited PicMonkey, you're in for a treat!  It is a user-friendly and fun photo editing site!  I love it so much that I used it to create the new design for the blog--even the background.

Lydia Grace saw my little bird and asked, "What else can you make, mommy?"  Eli quietly questioned, "Turtle?"  And so a little game began of them asking for an animal and me using PicMonkey to "draw" it.  Here are some of the animals we made...

Bird

1. Start with a empty background by choosing any photo to edit and dragging an overlay across it.  I turned my overlay white.  You'll find all of the overlays under the left sidebar button that has the three shapes on it.

2. The body of the bird was made from a teardrop overlay found under the Symbols tab.

3. A second teardrop was used for the wing.  I made the wing darker by clicking on the desired color in the editing box that appears when you click on the overlay.  When you select an overlay by clicking on it, you can also resize or rotate it as needed.  Add a circle for the eye and a triangle for the beak.

4. The legs were made by adding a text box and typing two lowercase l's with a few spaces between them.  Simply click on the text box to move it where you need it.

Lion

1. Start with your blank background again.  Add a flower and cover the stem with an overlay that is the same color as the background.  I found this flower under Overlays and Graphic Blooms.

2. Three circles (1 large circle and 2 small circles) all colored the same were used for the face.  (Think of Mickey Mouse.  Oh...there's another clip art idea that you could create.)

3. To finish off the ears, I added two small circles that were the same color as the mane and covered up half of each circle with square overlays that were the same color as the face.  Tip: As you are layering the different pieces, sometimes you may need other options like "Bring to Front"   which can be found by right clicking on the overlay.

4. To make the mouth of the lion, I added a text box, typed an uppercase B, turned the letter sideways, and covered up the straight part of the B with an small square overlay that I color matched with the face.  The eyes and nose were made with circles and a triangle.  Add some fun text and you're done!

And here is Eli's

Turtle

1. Start with a blank background again.  Add a green circle overlay.

2. The bottom half of the circle was covered up with a rectangular overlay the same color as the background.  I added lighter green pentagons to give the shell some added detail.  A tear drop was used for the head.  The legs were made from the rounded rectangular overlays available on PicMonkey.  Two circles and a sideways C became the eyes and mouth.  Add your text and you are done!

There are so many things you could do with these clip art animals...

Cute cards

Graphics for your blog

Wall art for a child's room

The sky's the limit!
Happy clipping and creating!

Happy Sunday

Sandcastles and Smiles...Motes and Memories

Oh, to be back at the beach doing this...

Or to be experiencing any of this...

We (my mom, sister, brother-in-law, Tim, the kids, and I) had a wonderful time on our vacation to Isle of Palms near Charleston, South Carolina.

Despite all the fun, I have to admit that there were also some bittersweet moments.  My family has vacationed there many times through the years, and my dad's absence from this trip certainly left a void.

Someone had to...so I stepped in and made sure that the kids still learned how to make Papa's goop sand castles.  

Use the really wet sand...

Drip it from your hands like this to form the towers...

How I miss him!  Thanks to Uncle Carl, our goop castle also had a mote.

Daddy was never far from my thoughts...but then he never is.  I'll always have my memories of sand creations, walks on the beach, ocean swims, and lighthouse climbs with my dad. And now it's my turn to build those memories with my own children.

Happy memories!

Naptime Bundle

You may remember the baby bundle that I made and posted awhile back.  It quickly became one of my most popular posts, so I started thinking...

My dad use to say, "Uh oh.  Why do you want to go doing something like that?" whenever I'd start brainstorming...as if it was going to mean trouble.

No trouble or danger with this brainstorm though!  Unless you count the countless times I poked myself with a needle or the thread cut I got--just like a paper cut except from thread.  Don't ask.  Anyway, I started thinking about other bundles that I could make with the flannel sets that I love so much from Diana's shop, and I came up with this...

It's a pillow, blanket, and stuffed animal all made from only two yards of soft flannel.  I haven't decided if this one is going to be for Eli or Caleb, but I have additional fabric and plans to make another set as I continue to redo the boys' room.  Do you want to know how to make your own Naptime Bundle?

Click here for the full tutorial.

Happy sewing!

Seed Packet Greeting Cards

If you stopped by yesterday, you probably read about the craft challenge that my sister and I decided to do with the centennial craft kit that Tombow graciously sent me for taking part in their "100 Days of Tombow" Celebration.

The Challenge

Our challenge was simple...

Use the Tombow supplies along with any other craft supplies to complete a craft.  You can read all of the details from yesterday's post by clicking here.

My Craft

Today, as promised, we are revealing the crafts we made. Here is the what I made... 

 Supplies:

• Tombow's Stamp Runner Dot Pattern Adhesive
• Tombow's Dual Brush Pen Set
• Tombow's New Irojiten Color Dictionary Pencils
• stamps (flowers and letters)
• cardstock
• envelope
• paper scraps (I used a brown paper gift bag with vintage ads printed on it and some decorative floral paper.)

Process:

1. Gather your supplies.

2. Color a floral stamp with the brush side of one of Tombow's Dual Brush Pens.

3. Stamp the floral image onto cardstock.

4. Use the letter stamps and pen to also stamp a message around the flower.

5. With Tombow's Color Dictionary Pencils, fill in the stamped image with color.  Mat this piece of cardstock onto other layers of cardstock to create your card.

6. Tear open all of the folds of an envelope and use it as a pattern, by laying it on a scrap piece of paper and tracing around it. I traced my envelope onto the brown paper gift bag.

7. Fold the flaps of the envelope over and use Tombow's stamp runner adhesive to put it together.  

8. Use decorative paper and stamps to embellish the top flap of the envelope and adhere the stamped and matted card portion to the front of the envelope.  Fill the envelope with flower seeds and close it up.  Give it as a gift to wish someone a happy day.  Since I used a sunflower stamp for my card, I filled the envelope with sunflower seeds which are the perfect flowers for summer.

My Sister's Craft

And now for the craft, my sister made... 

Aren't her postcards great?! Which is your favorite craft? To view the full postcard tutorial, be sure to visit Allison's blog!

Happy crafting!

Tombow Time: Supplies and a Craft Challenge

Tombow recently contacted me to participate in their "100 Days of Tombow" program.  For a century, this company has supplied innovative office, art, and craft supplies to the market.  During their centennial celebration, they are committing to provide up to $10,000 of Tombow products to the Council for Arts Education.  With "the arts" disappearing from schools across the nation, this is such a worthwhile cause!  One hundred bloggers from across the country have been chosen the participate in the celebration--each receiving a craft supply kit to try out and share about with their readers.  My sister who blogs at Allison's Skinny Jeans and I paired up to turn Tombow Time into a little craft challenge.

The supplies in the centennial craft kit:
Tombow's Stamp Runner Dot Pattern Adhesive
Tombow's Dual Brush Pen Set
&
Tombow's New Irojiten Color Dictionary Pencils

The challenge:
Use all three supplies along with any other desired supplies to each create something--anything!

The results:
Well, you'll just have to check back tomorrow to see what we each created.
As much as I hate to admit it, I think she may have won this challenge.  Long live sibling rivalry!

Happy Tombow Time!

Happy Sunday