if it's not messy it's not fun

I mean seriously, what could be a better quote than that?? When we are kids it is expected but not so much when we are adults. That is totally not fair by any means! Nothing wrong with getting messy and having fun. I saw this amazing canvas on Pinterest and I knew that I HAD to create it for my special friend who just so happens to be an amazing kindergarten teacher. It is so her (and me when I volunteer in her room) I knew that this canvas had to be made and hung near the art table in her classroom. So off to work I went.

I started by snagging a canvas from Kira's stash since she hasn't been doing any painting since she received them. Might as well use one!! I picked up some fun stickers at Target since we ended up in the area one night. I was hoping for some plastic ones but these ones worked okay. They were fuzzy and really meant for a scrapbook or a fun sign- not to be destroyed with paint. All for a good cause!!

I laid out the message and then snapped a quick picture of the colors I was using. In theory pretend they are jade green and lapis blue. Because I did. Kira actually helped me pick the colors since she is the resident artist in the family.

 Then I started putting the paint on the canvas with my hands (safely covered with rubber gloves. I mean I like messy but still let's not ruin the manicure) I had so much fun squishing the paint all around the letters and making finger prints and a handprint and finger swirls. Loved it!

Then the total work part of the project- getting the letters off of the canvas!! I guess I secured them too well on a couple. But I did manage to get them off. I pulled them off when the paint was still wet as I didn't want to tear the paint off after it had dried.

Work in progress. You can see the painted letters to the side.

What I think is the completed project. Loved it!! 

Another overhead shot. And as I was looking at it, I decided it needed something else. I mean it is messy and all.... but it didn't look messy enough. Does that make sense??

So I waited for the paint to all dry and then used some glitter spritz in gold and silver to make some flashes of fun and then I mixed up some glue, water and glitter and applied that over most of the white space that was left. You know, kindergarten is all about the glitter!! The heart shape that is on the hand print is for the first day of school project that my teacher friend does every year for the kissing hand. It is all glitter and sparkly.

Close up of the seriously glittered corner!

It was so much fun to give it to her!! Seriously it was perfect. I think every kindergarten/ preschool teacher needs this for their room! Maybe even the art teachers!! Thank you Pinterest for helping me out with this!!

And here it is on the wall of the classroom. Hanging near the art table. You can see it from the door and all around the room. PERFECT!!

Go make a mess today!!

snowman thank you's

Playing around on Pinterest to find projects for Alex to do had me coming across some fun thumb print stamping ideas. One of which was 'stamping' a snowman. Alex then decided he didn't want to "Build a Snowman" (have you seen Disney's Frozen?? We love Olaf around here). I didn't let that stop me!! Then I was thinking I had some foam circle stamps that would probably work for snowmen and what do you know... they did!!

Here are the six guys waiting for me to finish them up. I stamped the two circles with white paint and let them dry. Used one end of my dry embossing tool to create their eyes and smiles and an eraser on a pencil for the buttons in black paint. I grabbed some scrap orange cardstock and cut the carrots. Nothing precise about them, just eyeballed them to fit on their faces.

Here are the cards completed. I should mention I created the snowmen on a smaller piece of Kraft cardstock and then attached that to the card front. Worked out much better for me since I don't like the look of ribbons and such poking on the inside of the cards I create. One of my pet peeves.

Close up/ side view. The one banner on the card in front was the first one and didn't work out exactly as I had wanted it but you can see I improved the placing of the banner on the others. I punched holes on the sides of the snowmen's neck to give me a place to string the bakers twine through for their scarves. I also added 'stick' arms by using a heavier jute I had laying around.

I used Versamark ink to stamp the snowflakes which are from Paper Smooches (thanks mom) If I make these cards again, I may do the stamping first along with some embossing. I have a lovely sparkle powder that I think would rock the front of these cards.

The banner was heat embossed and hand cut. Used a bit of foam tape to give the banner dimension and curled up the edges.

Two of these sweet guys were sent out by the kiddos and four are still living here. If you want them, drop me a line!!

riddle me this: blog refresher sketch contest

And another sketch challenge at PageMaps. This one is for the Riddle Me This: Blog Refresher Sketch Contest. If you want in on the fun, you have until Sunday September 2, 2012 midnight MST to enter. Prize is Bo Bunny's new Mistletoe papers. Yummy!!

Here is my take on the sketch. I didn't have any pictures that small so I trimmed down a 4X6 on all sides a bit and went to town! Did some sewing which didn't turn out too hot. I think my machine is mad at me for some reason. The stitches kept pulling out or not even catching. I adjusted the tension and it seemed to help a bit. Maybe I'll have to drag the Singer back into the house. I stamped and embossed the circle accents. I painted a chipboard "3" and then embossed it so it matched better. I stamped the word "generations" using  some Studio G $1 stamps. I also used one of my Fiskars border punches. I think it is called apron or something like that. I really like the look of it. Papers are all DCWV. Miscellaneous ribbon that I had laying around.

I had this layout finished, photographed and the picture edited when I went to look at it this morning. I realized it was missing something so I added the title and the brads. I am much happier with it now.

Don't forget to hop over to the PageMaps blog and see what else is happening over there. And if you are looking for amazing sketches, check out PageMaps!! Thanks for stopping by!

to your art's content

We had Kira's birthday party at To Your Art's Content and it was a great time! The girls did a great job with their pieces and had fun. While I was paying, I noticed they do a six month art club for both adults and kids. Unlimited studio time, a free piece for the kids, a free mug for adults to enjoy their hot beverage in, a percentage off of their items they create and a snack for the kiddos. hmmm... sounded wonderful. Talked it over with hubby and he thought it sounded great too.

So off we went on one day. We got us all situated and off we went. The kids painted their free pieces plus a dog so it took us a couple hours to complete everything. But it was great. Very relaxed and fun. These pieces that they created will be for them. The next few... Christmas presents for friends and family. Very excited about that... as are they. We're going to work on our list of what we want to make for everyone and start checking off those presents. Woohoo!!

Here's my girl with that silly grin of hers painting her first piece. I think it will be called FireStar which is one of the cats in her Warriors book series. She did a good job and even got the star on the forehead. So talented!

Here is my serious artist. Him actually holding the piece and having paint on his fingers and hands is a HUGE step. This boy HATED having dirty hands when he was creating. So totally my kid. But he embraced the paint and knew he could wash it off... which he did. He really got into it. Love seeing him grow this way.

And here are the four completed pieces they created. Left to right... Random Brown Dog and FireStar created by Kira along with GingerSnap and Woofie created by Alex.

I cannot wait to see them all fired up and coming home. I think we are going to enjoy the next six months of creativity!

almost forgot

We have finally gotten the kids art hung! Three of Kira's pieces have been framed and waiting to be hung somewhere and we found the spot. Right near their bedrooms. I think they will be very happy to see this display.

The top two on the main wall are Kira's creations from last year's Painters Club. The bottom is Alex's from the school wide art show that was held in March. The kindergartners did pictures in the style of Georgia O'Keeffe. I think he did pretty darn good.

This is a shot of the side wall artwork.

All of these are Kira's creations from the elementary's school Painters Club. The top and bottom are from this year and the squirrel is from last year. I LOVE THAT SQUIRREL!! She did such an amazing job on it. The top picture is a dog scene she made during the Painters Club field trip. The bottom flower was the last thing they painted.

I love my creative children.

masterpieces and update

We finally were able to pick up Alex's penguin from To Your Art's Content. When we went to pick everything up from Kira's birthday party, the penguin they gave us was not Alex's. It was blue and it said Alex on the bottom, but it was not MY Alex's penguin.

Victoria at TYAC was wonderful in tracking down our missing penguin pal. Seems there was another Alex in the week before Kira's party and that Alex had also done a penguin. Kid you not. Both pieces were fired together and then packaged up. However, our penguin was sent to a different Alex while we received theirs. The mom had come in to pick up their penguin but she wasn't there when the penguin was painted (grandma had brought Alex in to paint a penguin) The mom was more than happy to pick up the correct penguin and return ours. 

We are so happy to have Pippi Confetti Polka Dot Foltz home with us. Isn't he adorable??

Better front shot. Daddy helped with the eyebrows since Alex insisted he have eyebrows and the polka dots since the paint bottles were a little hard to squeeze. But Alex picked out all the colors for the polka dots. I think he did amazingly well. Love the green feet!!

And here is Kira's creation. Such a lovely tabby. Or is that a striped tiger? I'll have to ask.

Once the kiddos get back home, I am going to take them to TYAC and get them signed up for their Picasso club. They get six months of unlimited studio time, discount off of what they want to paint and a free snack every time they visit. I'm going to sign myself up as well for the adult painting club. I think it will be fun and I do believe we shall be making some Christmas gifts!!

A quick picture of the kitchen. Yes there is less stuff hanging around in there. Hoping to make it much less tomorrow. I see a stop to Goodwill in my future to donate a bunch of stuff.

We did manage to finish painting the hallway and the attic door. Looks a thousand times better! We'll hang up the pictures on Friday to give the walls a good chance to dry. I hate pulling the paint off when I remove a picture frame.

syracuse birthday party

Just a couple of quick pictures from Kira's birthday celebration in Syracuse. After much deliberation, Kira and nana decided on a dog cake. Kira added 11 plastic dogs to the top to complete the look. Very cute and delicious!

My family before the party. Love them to pieces.

The playroom is coming along. Hoping to do some painting tomorrow so the hallway will finally be completed. Then off to tackle the kids rooms. I pulled a bunch of stuff to put into the playroom. Most of the toys that were in there, the kids had outgrown so they shall be donated off.

redoing the playroom 2012

While the kids are hanging with Nana and Papa for a little bit of time, the hubby and I have been enjoying our time together as well as tackling some projects around the house. It's our tradition. Every year we do some house project while the kiddos are away. Keeps them on their toes! 

This year is no different. I am trying hard to declutter my house and life. It has to make things easier with less stuff, right?? That's my hope anyways. The first room that needed major change is the kids playroom. It technically is hubby's home office as well as a playroom but the only part that would make it a playroom would be the toys that were littered all around and the television. Pretty sad playroom. Time to fix that and get organized and downsized. I'm so excited just telling you all about it.

We went to IKEA to purchase some new furniture pieces and have now decided we will be buying everything for our house from there in the future. OMG!! Like seriously LOVE that store. But I digress... we got some new pieces that you will have to wait to see but I am sharing a few behind the scenes before the big reveal in a few days.

This is our hallway wall heading to the kids rooms and the bathroom. We finally got around to painting it to match the staircase that we painted either last year or the previous year. I can't remember. I still have a bit more painting to do down by the kids rooms but it's looking 100% better! The color is Peanut Butter by Behr from Home Depot. We picked it up July 2010. Nothing slow about us.

Here are the boxes from two of the new furniture pieces we put together today. Not as much cardboard as I thought we would have. They were all well packed with no space wasted and very little styrofoam inserts.

And where is all the stuff that we had to take out of the playroom while we were working on fixing it up?? Why it headed off to the kitchen table! Yes there is a table under all that stuff. And we can still get to the microwave! We are now eating downstairs in the family room for the time being.

That's all you get for now. I want to do a big reveal as the difference is so amazing and we haven't finished putting everything back yet!!

scout is at it again!

Seriously loving having Scout in the house this year. He is having a great time and so are the kiddos. On this morning he was hanging out in the stocking on Kira's door. Looks quite cozy to me.

On this day, he was rather hard to find. Alex didn't find him until after school he was hiding so well. He's the little blob towards the 5 o' clock position on the wreath. Yes I love my Mickey wreath that I made. I picked up those ornaments years ago at Lake Buena Vista and they did spend some time on the tree but over the years, I didn't want them getting scratched or lost so they ended up on this wreath. Love it!!

On this day he used dry erase markers to draw on the kids school pictures! So stinking funny. Alex was not amused on this day and erased it after daddy saw it.

Today's 'prank' has been my favorite so far this holiday season. This is what Kira saw when she awoke this morning. Her Build a Bear Rudolph with a note telling her to look in the mirror. hmmm... wonder what that could mean?

This was on her desk blotter. Again... the plot thickens as to what Scout has been up to.

This was also on her desk. Quite messy whatever it is that he did.

Look at my very happy Rudolph!! bwahahahaha... I am loving it beyond words.

This is Alex's Build a Bear Rudolph on his chair with the same note as Kira. And a couple of incriminating cotton balls.

And another very happy Rudolph this morning. bwahahahahaha again I say. I love the looks on their faces. Priceless holiday memories right here!

Here is the little stinker at the very top of Kira's book shelf out of everyone's reach. I do believe both of the kids would have loved to have touched him today and taken away his magic. They were not impressed with his painting job. I was. ;)

And he left a bit of a mess in the family room getting the notes written and the cotton balls together.

Who knows what other trouble Scout will find himself in for the upcoming week??!! I'm sure it will be good.

the fun continues!!

Our little buddy Scout seems to be making himself right back to home this season. The kids did a scavenger hunt for him using four mini Hershey chocolate bars and some M&M's. He had to find all the chocolates and let them know which was his favorite. He decided all of them were pretty darn good. Then he found himself a nice comfy spot to relax his tummy from his chocolate fest.

Close up of his face with the evidence of a great night of chocolate!! The kids LOVED it!

Kira suggested to him during the day yesterday that he needed a bath to get rid of the chocolate. So this is where he ended up this morning!! Up by the light hanging on the baby powder. Along with a dry towel (gold color) and the wash cloth on the bottom shelf. He also left them a note thanking them for the bath on the small mirror. He also moved the bath soap to the sink for his bath. I'm glad he is cleaned up, but does he have to make such a mess??

 This is my project at the moment. I am painting a boatload of popsicle sticks for this project. Hoping I can wrap it up next week. We'll have to see. It depends on how much time I will get for painting. And if I can get my white paint to play nice. It is a bit thick. I added some water earlier so hoping it will work better after I finish posting this.

I will say I have my Christmas music playing. Love this station. They run Christmas music online all the time. Off to do some painting.

project life 2011- weeks 20-23

Trying not to make the blog posts super photo heavy so instead I'll post three posts today!! That should catch me up with things. LOL

Week 20- Alex is once again wearing mis matched socks on purpose!! So cute. Saturday was a day of shopping ALONE for me. Got through 3 stores without one single complaint!!

Week 21- So much to do and no time to do it!! We have bought our paint to do the garage and the house. Hope it's enough. And yes we know they sell the paint in the 15 gallon tubs but the Home Depot we went to, was out of the proper tint we needed so they sold us 15 gallon cans instead. Turns out it was much easier to use these than worry about lifting a 15 gallon tub up a ladder!!

Week 22- Working on the house time. Must be spring finally!!

Week 23- Kira's birthday this week. Daddy got a new car and Alex graduated from preschool. Good week for the Foltz Family!!

last week's project

Let me tell you how happy I am that hubby is back to work and I can relax a bit this week. Especially with the heat and humidity that has found it's way to our door. Is the garage finished? Nope but for the time being it is much better than it was.

Here it is with the one side that faces the house completely painted and about half of the front painted. We also removed the trim around the garage doors as it was rotten and looked HORRIBLE!

Here we are as the after shot!! There is some touch up painting that has to be done around all the doors as we had to caulk everything back up. New basketball hoop for the kids. Somehow we lost the net so we'll be having to pick up another one. We replaced the side entry door. It used to have a nine pane window in it and was also rotting out at the bottom. New steel door with a dead bolt!!

The garage doors will have to be painted as they look horrible now with all the new paint. I'll work on that once I can get back out there. Painting in the humidity is not high on my list of fun activities!

I have to paint the trim around 2 windows and finish up the side next to the deck. But I am so happy with how this is coming out. We now look like we care about our house. Just wait until we paint the house!! The neighbors will faint.

Off to pick up Kira. And I have to make some mini cupcakes for her birthday celebration in class tomorrow. Really don't feel like being in the kitchen with the oven going but it has to be done. I promised.

I cannot believe she will be ten tomorrow! oh my word... where has that time gone??? My baby. sigh.