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Posts tagged under Craft. Show all posts.
Go to the Show
Denise and I went down to the media preview of the One of A Kind Show this morning where we were greeted with fresh coffee, fruit, muffins and all sorts of treats. But the biggest treat of all was the opportunity to walk around, view the beautiful items and meet the vendors while they were opening up their booths. Each artist we spoke to was as beautiful as the work they produce and you understood how they have poured their heart and soul into every piece of art they are selling. One such example is Christina Larson, the owner of Textile Platypus, maker of miniature felt animals. She makes the felt herself and then stitches the lovely little figures together. When we told her how much we liked her work, she replied: “Thank you, I love them very much”. You could tell she really did—and she should. The woodworker who makes the most beautiful chopping boards gave us a 20 minute lesson on how to care for wooden bowls and kitchen blocks. He insisted we wax them after each use. It was difficult to tell him that was not going to happen (when you know how much effort he put into making each piece), so we smiled and nodded but walked away promising ourselves we would care for it as best we could.
What did I buy? Nothing that sentimental, actually. I came home with a picture frame I plan to hang in the front hall with a family photo in it that says: “Remember, as far as anyone knows, we are a perfectly normal family”.
I want to tell you about all of my favourite finds but you’ll have to keep reading your SavvyMom Today newsletters to find out more. Or go to the show yourself. They have daycare and baby changing rooms. There is even a VIP section and, if you’re a SavvyMom reader, you will have access to the Club Membership Lounge next Wednesday, December 2 and also get $2 off your admission. Get your coupon here.
It’s definitely one of a kind, the One of a Kind Show.
Olympic Spirit and Souvenirs
First let me start off by saying that I am not always very creative when it comes to my kids. Luckily for me, I have a sister-in-law who is quite talented, and she is currently volunteering for two of her kids’ schools to create some 2010 Olympic Spirit crafts in their classrooms. We were together at a family gathering on Sunday and I was duly impressed with her latest creation. She has come up with a great Olympic souvenir that is sure to be a hit with both the 3 year-olds and the 7 year-olds (whose Winter Games excitement she is looking to pique). The best part is that this souvenir is also simple to make (even for moms) and cost-effective, too.
Homemade Gold Medals
What You’ll Need:
- 2 CDs
- Red ribbon (the wider the better)
- Small Olympic stickers
- Paint pen
- Weldbond white glue (non-toxic and less smelly than superglue)
- Gold spray paint (optional)
How to Make:
- Take 2 CDs and insert the red ribbon between the CDs.
- Glue the ribbon to one CD and then glue the second CD to the first one.
- Put a heavy object on top of the CDs to help with the adhesive process. It takes a couple of hours for the glue to dry.
- Once the glue is dry, spray-paint the CDs gold (for the kids in the classroom,she is leaving the shiny silver CDs as-is). If you are using spray paint, two coats are recommended.
- Add the children’s names with a paint pen and some Olympic stickers, strategically placed on both sides of the ‘new gold medal’ to create a true 2010 Winter Olympic look and feel.
I can tell you first-hand that my boys thought these were the coolest gifts they had received in a while. One of my sons did not even want to take his off to go to bed. Their cousins (ages 3, 6, 7) also wore their new medals all afternoon.
Our kids may not yet understand what it takes to win a real medal (or qualify for the Olympics for that matter), but beyond the pure fun of having an Olympic souvenir, they gain a sense of the excitement building in our city and maybe as they watch their favourite athletes earn their real medals on the podium, they will understand the pride and passion these athletes deserve to feel.
More on this topic — Parenting Solutions,
More on this Age & Stage — School Age, Preschool,
Ice Cream Cone Wreath
For an indoor wreath that looks good enough to eat, we have a simple step by step recipe to what looks like a tasty treat.
Materials
- Ice cream cones
- Mod Podge (or gold glitter Mod Podge)
- Gold glitter (The cheap stuff, or kids at the dollar store)
- Clear acrylic sealer
- Christmas balls
- Red jingle bells approx ½ inch in size
- White ribbon ¼ inch wide
- Hot glue
- White thread
Tools
- Hot glue gun
- Old paint brush
- Butter knife
- Needle
How to Make
- Seal the ice cream cone with two coats clear acrylic sealer. Paint with glitter Mod Podge (The one pictured has five coats.) Alternatively you could apply a coat of Mod Podge and cover in fine gold glitter and then seal with another coat of Mod Podge.
- Take your butter knife and scrape inside the rim of the cone. This lets the Christmas ball sit pretty much flush with the cone.
- Paint the rim with Mod Podge.
- Dip in glitter.
- Cut a length of ¼ inch ribbon to 20 inches in length. Sew a very loose running stitch down the length of it.
- Pull it taught so that it gathers like pictured above.
- Tie ends o thread together so that gathers form a neat circle.
- Glue jingle bell to ribbon to form cherry. Good to Know: Notice the loop at the top of the bell? If you are making an ornament, make sure this is facing up. (Also, your bell will not be very jingly.) If you are making the cones for a wreath, glue with the loop facing down and you will have jingly bells.
- Liberally apply hot glue to inside of cone.
- Place Christmas ball in cone (hole facing down).
- Let cool/dry.
- Add some hot glue and your ribbon and bell.
- If you are going to hanging your ice cream cone, this is where you would add a wire hanger.
- Glue the ice cream cones to the wreath. Gluing them by the ball is best.
- Hang it in your house and admire.
Happy Christmas crafting!
I am totally addicted to Pinterest. If you have never checked out their site, you really should. If you have too much time on your hands, like I know all working moms do (NOT), than that site is for you. You’ll find so much super cool stuff on that site. Funny stuff, motivational quotes, lots of DIY, recipes, style, cool places to visit, just about everything is on that site. So much FUN! So this is where this project idea was found. My 11 year old daughter did this whole project just by looking at a picture. Its a bit messy so be sure to have the area covered with newspaper.
- Choose lots of almost full or new crayons. We have so many crayons in this house, I was thrilled I could get rid of some. Line them up on a canvas board. I bought mine from the dollar store for $1.25. Line them anyway you would like. I tried to guide Lauren to do it in colour order but she had her own idea. Than you glue them on with a hot glue gun.
- Get a blow dryer and use the hottest setting until the crayons start to melt, which only takes a few minutes.
- Add some flowers to the top of your stems and presto, DIY project is done!
Doesn’t that look good? A super easy, fun project that would make a great gift for Grandma! The crayons are a bit crooked for an authentic look, right Lauren? Happy crayon melting!
The ladies (Sian, Melanie and Susan) at Strong Mommy are a bunch of women who love fun, adventure and hope to get fit as a result. They run, do yoga, Pilates, go to the gym, hike, bike, swim…well, you get the idea.
In celebration of spring and new beginnings, I’m turning a proverbial new leaf this week. I am actually going to write my blog again. Regularly.
I’ll be writing weekly about what caught my attention—whether it’s interesting new products, intriguing new business ideas or even the zaniness of celebrity moms. And I’ll try to keep it to five per post.
Here’s what I like this week:
- The new Well.ca virtual store app. I was invited for a sneak peak last week to meet with Ali Asaria and his team at Well.ca to learn about the launch of this amazing new App and virtual store that opened on Monday. This article in The Globe and Mail explains it well, referring to it as the ‘store of the future’. It‘s definitely a disruption in the digital retail environment and a really smart way to buy and order those large boxes of diapers and other drugstore items that are a pain to carry home.
- Easter crafts. I’m not that crafty but I do like finding things to do over the four day weekend with the kids. These ideas (submitted by our very Savvy Storytellers) are so good, I might need to break out of the chocolate mold and buy some glue this year. Or maybe both.
- Alicia Silverstone and her child feeding practices. I’m obsessed with this story about Alicia Silverstone chewing her food and allowing her son to eat right out of her mouth. The child is over a year old so he has teeth and can chew his own food. Early signs of helicopter parenting or a celebrity looking for attention? If it’s the latter, allow me to enable her. What’s even more fascinating is what she is eating (and sharing) with her son: ‘a delicious breakfast of miso soup, collards and radishes, steamed and drizzled with flax oil, cast iron mochi with nori wrapped outside, and some grated daikon’. There is so much more to say but I just can’t give this more air time.
- This awesome birthday cake below that our sales coordinator made for her husband who is (clearly) a U2 fan. Everyone at the office wants to be more like Leslie—and this picture kind of explains why.
- This very groovy tea travel mug. Our new intern Sarah showed up on her first day at the office with this mug and it was an instant hit (she was too—with her immediate enthusiasm for tackling our backlog of broken links). Find the mug at David’s Tea or order it online.
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And that’s what caught my attention this week. How about you?
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