kira and mommy bonding time- wreck this journal

Kira and Alex each received a Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith for Christmas. Alex has already done a few pages as he thought it was a really cool thing to be able to write, draw, and cut a book without being scolded. Totally up a young man's alley! 

Kira on the other hand had let hers sit and collect dust. I found a few YouTube videos and Instagram feeds on how others are wrecking their journals and thought how much fun is that? I wanted to do it. Knowing Kira would not let me play with her journal, I picked one up at Barnes and Noble and then hatched my master plan. (insert evil mommy laugh)

We could have some serious quality mom and daughter time while destroying a book!! We could go anywhere they have a table we can use. If there is food and drink, that makes it a much better choice. I put together a little destroying kit with my Thirty-One bag. It includes stickers, markers, colored pencils, regular pencils, erasers, water color paints, highlighters, colored pens, Sharpies, scissors, pencil sharpener, glue, and washi tape.

Monday March 24, 2014 we headed to Crackskull's and found a spot at the counter where we could play.

We 'may' have indulged in some hot chocolate and baked goodies. But I am not telling. Kira looked through her entire book reading all the different ways to wreck, decorate, destroy, and play. I started by numbering my pages as I like order. However, you will not be able to find the page you are looking for very easily. I started numbering my pages at page number 524 and went to 602. Then I did pages 1- 30. Then I 'numbered' the pages using the alphabet, then the months of the year. I ended up starting at page 100 and going to page 13 before I ran out of pages!! Totally random and so not like me. 

She makes some of the silliest faces!

On this page she had to draw with the marker, pencil, pen in your mouth. Pretty funny. The best part of this book. You can go back in and add to pages if you want or leave them sparse. You can create a kind of art journal with this or get rid of any stress. It is also an amazing way to have chats with your tween without having the deep eye contact that lets them open up. We had fun!!

Here is her decorated cover. I will try to get a better picture on our next adventure. She was giggling at this moment.

Here is her inside cover. The markers that we have all have different types of tips (Crayola Pip Squeaks) so they mark different ways. We had fun playing with those.

Here is the cover of my journal now that I have personalized it. We discovered we need more fun and unusual stickers to add onto our pages. As well as some office supplies. I have a small stapler I am going to add to our kit as well as some paper clips.

 

And here is my inside page. I am thinking I need to add something to the inside cover. I shall have to work on that on our next journal wrecking date. It was one of the best hour and a half I had this week.

More fun to come!!

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!!

valentine's day goodies

This year I have been working in Alex's classroom of amazing first graders and in one of the kindergarten classrooms for both the AM and PM classes (not to mention getting to hang in the art room once a week) and decided that I wanted to give Valentine's to all those kiddos. 

First came the decision as what to get them all. Since there is always a big demand for pencils in the first grade room, I went forth and found some cute ones at Target in their holiday area. Then somehow counted wrong and ended up with more boy pencils than girl pencils which did not work in a female dominated room. I then hit the dollar store and they saved the day for the girls!!

For the kindergartners, I decided on some fun colored super balls along with some foamie heart stickers. Thankfully I counted correctly when buying the super balls at Target (again in their holiday section) and managed to have a 'few' left over for my kiddos to have (or save them for next year!!)

Then came the decision of how to give these goodies to the kiddos. I decided on a pencil holder type card for the first graders. Below shows the inside of the card that I stamped. I also signed it for each of them.

I also stamped the front of the cards and added their names. I closed the card with some heart stickers I picked up at Michaels since I didn't like how they looked open. Yes I sharpened all the pencils since the students are not allowed to use the electric pencil sharpener in the classroom (sharpen pencils too much, push too hard etc etc) and that would not be fair to the teacher to have to sharpen all those pencils before the kids can use them.

This is a side view of one of the treats. I was pretty proud of myself!!

For the kindergartners, I decided to put their goodies into snack baggies and then add a tag. As I was surfing Pinterest (cuz everyone does) I found these so adorable tags. They seemed pretty easy so off I went. Below are all my love bugs set to be made into tags.

Here is the completed project! I stamped the sentiment onto the red paper and then attached them together with some floss I have. I added who it was to on top of the love bug. Perfect!!

And since I cannot forget the teachers... I made each of them a little bag to hold some Lindt goodness.

Hope your Love Day was a wonderful one!! xx