Kiddos | less cake {more frosting}

Bored Kids Buster: Inspiration Scrapbooks

Authored By: ellie g Author/Writer
July 28, 2011 --6:35 AM

If you haven’t noticed….I’m on a bit of a vay-cay! It’s my 12th anniversary and we’re livin’ it up. I love remembering why I got married, and how much we are still in love. (ahhhhh……..)

But just so I don’t go leaving you hanging for a WHOLE WEEK….check out this fun idea I shared last week over at Sew Dang Cute. It’s such an easy and fun way to help finish out the summer with your kids! Hope your summer is finishing off with a bang!!

Summer is coming to a close! Can you believe it? It seems like it’s gone by so fast. But one thing that plagues the last month of our summer is always “I’m so bored!” I’ve run out of the GUSTO I began the summer with. I’ve exhausted most of my grand ideas for entertainment.

And know what? I bet the kids are sick of me too! I get grumpy when I feel like an unpaid maid and referee.

So last week, I came up with an idea to get us thinking, away from the electronics, and having fun together. (and bonus: it TOTALLY uses up a bunch of old supplies. That’s my part for the environment!)

I started with some inexpensive “scrapbooks” that I bought at my local craft store. I bought one for each of us. And we’ll be able to use them several times, because it would take days to fill them all.

I told my kids to have at Mommy’s old magazines, unwanted stickers, out-of-style papers, and anything else they wanted to use. This was really fun for them because they aren’t usually allowed to use Mom’s supplies.

I told them to think about things that made them happy, things they liked, things that described them. Anything they wanted to decorate the pages. This book is about YOU!

The key is Mom made one too. I sat down and talked with them about what they were making, and why. And helped them with writing if necessary. We all needed to spend some time together to be happy again!!

The differences between the pages was so entertaining. And make sure that there’s NO right or wrong way. Whatever is inspiring to the individual is okay. (this page was about how Daddy snores really loud. My 9 year old thought it was hysterical!)

Then we all decorated our books with our names and some other fun details. (again, these are totally not full. We’ll use them again another day)

My son cut out lots of pictures he thought were funny. And put captions on them.

There was talk in both books about pets we don’t have.

My daughter wanted to use lots of stickers and pictures of make-up and fingernail polish. And at one point, she cut out a picture of a model who she thought looked like her, except “when I’m grown up.”

I did a lot of words that inspire me. And this page has words about music and art. But it’s very minimal. Which was fun. (and there’s a hidden/not so hidden Mickey on there. ‘Cause that’s one of my “things”)

And this one I did like an inspiration board. I cut out colors I love, and ideas I like. I like doodling on the pages as well. Because it preserves your handwriting. And I think that’s important.

We really had fun, working on these scrapbooks. And the kids are already asking when we can work on them some more. I had them entertained for a whole afternoon! Plus, I gotta admit….it was pretty fun for me too. We sure liked each other a lot more that day.

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Filed Under: kiddos, NOT crafts

The Circle of Lifestyle Crafts

Authored By: ellie g Author/Writer
March 17, 2011 --4:27 AM

So I wanted to check in with you and show you a really fun project that I had to throw together for our annual Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet.

Yes.
I am a Cub Scout Den Leader.

(I’ll pause while you laugh, aloud.)

Regardless, it’s my job. And I do it.
I certainly don’t claim to do it well.
Nor do I claim to do it with a lot of campfires or knots. Because I am horribly adverse to all things “boy” and outdoors.

But the boys do cut and glue things a lot. And we have had more than one meeting involving frosting.

This year, I was put in charge of decorating.

Did someone say decorating? I can probably handle that.

That is until…I went out of town right before the banquet. And of course my IMPECCABLE time management skills meant that I left it to the VERY last minute.

OH NO! I had exactly 24 hours to decorate a dinner.

Enter my Lifestyle Crafts Epic Letterpress. Remember how I got this awesome new tool? What a lifesaver it was!

I decided that I didn’t want to use the standard crepe paper draped from the ceiling. What to do to fill the space?

Have you seen it when big circles are suspended on yarn, ribbon, or fishing line? I actually used them to decorate my daughter’s birthday party last year. And I LOVED how they turned out.

What I DIDN’T love?
How long it took to make them.

And I even bought a circle punch. Which saved oodles of time over hand-cutting the circles. But they were still a lot more time consuming than I planned.

But my new Lifestyle Crafts Epic tool cut them out in no time flat. Particularly because the paper I was using was really thin and I could cut 2 pieces at a time.

I also decided to use 4 different sizes of circles, so I could cut several out at the same time.

I also used some letter die-cuts to cut out the initials of the Boy Scouts.

Look how cute those great big circles are!

Granted, it’s a blue and gold dinner. So there’s a really nasty brick wall in the background. And I had a total of $30 to decorate and buy tablecloths. Whoa! Big spender.

Oh, and PS….if you run out of rubber cement and think “I’ll just use regular white glue this time.”

Don’t.

Wrinkles will ensue, and you will be sad.

Good thing 8 year olds could care less!!

I was SOOO grateful to be able to cut out over 50 circles in just a few short minutes. And I was able to scoot over to the dinner and decorate. No one knew I hadn’t been cutting for weeks in advance. SHHHHH!!! I’m TOTALLY a plan ahead type girl.

(and also…..know what’s blue and gold? M&M’s! Score!)

Do you wanna be able to save your event at the last second?????

Don’t forget:Lifestyle Crafts is offering Less Cake {more frosting} readers

a 20% discount on any purchases made with the code:

BLOGLESSCAKE

That’s ANYTHING in the store. You can get 20% off the cutting dies and letterpress, and ink and even an Epic machine of your very own! Just make sure to put that code in at check out!

(good only until the end of March 2011!)

*Lifestyle Crafts supplied me with an Epic Letterpress machine and some product to try. All the opinions expressed are completely my own. *

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Filed Under: kiddos, NOT crafts, Party Pooper

Hide-N-Seek

Authored By: ellie g Author/Writer
September 1, 2010 --2:25 AM

I have ONE more big event that I need to plan for this weekend. Unfortunately, I doubt it’s going to be “blog worthy” in terms of decor. But it’s still sucking up my time this week. (mostly preparing the house for guests and trying to get a luncheon planned) So today, I just want to share a quick idea.

This idea takes next to NO time…..and very little money….if any at all.

But not every fun idea has to take 20 hours of preparation and work. (at least that’s what my husband is trying to get me to believe!!)

Here’s the idea:

When we re-did my son’s room…we knew he’d long for some of the old things…and we knew he’d use that feeling to claim that he was scared, or lonely, or whatever, to get to come and sleep in our room. Kids are just BORN sneeky like that! (I still totally love him though)

The second part of this idea starts like:

I adore Mickey Mouse.

It’s true. I love him. I love Disney. I am not a freak about it…per se…but I love it. (and force feed it to my family) I particularly love the understated look of just the 3 Mickey circles. Just the silhouette. And at Disneyland, they have them everywhere. They call it “Hidden Mickey’s”. It’s kind of a passtime to find them hidden in rides, stores, and on the buildings.

So, in order to remind my son that I love him….and to play a little “hidden Mickey”, we left some in his brand new bedroom.

6 to be exact. I just took a Mickey punch that I bought…and punched out little heads out of my left over vinyl. Then rubbed them on some hidden places. Like the seat of his chair. Or the inside of a drawer.

This one is under a shelf that he looks up to when he’s sleeping. I told him to look there anytime he needs to feel that Mommy’s there.

The vinyl is great because I can move it. And since it’s not sticky…it doesn’t ruin anything.

Not that you want to do “hidden Mickey’s” at your house. (But you might….’cause they’re awesome!!!) But you might want to put little reminders out for your kids.

A game. And a love note. He’s found 5 out of 6. That sixth one is hidden HARD! He loves to look for it though.

And on a totally different subject……
I know where you need to be ALL of September…..

Eighteen25 is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE blogs! I adore everything they do. (I mean, seriously, look at that logo for heaven’s sake! It’s impeccable!)

They are hosting a “Spooktacular September” event all month long, starting tomorrow. And I’m not kidding…you should see the line-up. It is an All-Star Studded event!

I am so excited to see what some of my VERY FAVORITE bloggers have to show us for Halloween inspiration! (and I mean VERY FAVORITE….DID I MENTION I LOVE THESE CONTRIBUTORS?)

Jen from Tatertots & Jello starts it off tomorrow. And that should tell you what kind of people they have….

I am BEYOND honored (and WAAAAYYYY out of my league) to be included on September 28th. I’ve got my project planned and ready to start. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Put it in your reader, Gals! You won’t want to miss one single entry…..

eighteen25 Spooktacular September