rock stories

I was inspired by this driftwood art.  It was so fun and colorful.  But since I don't have any driftwood around I decided to make my art on rocks for my kids to play with in their sand box.  We made a few different "stories" that we are going to paint with our cousins at a little family get together that is coming up.
Here's our fairy tale rocks.  I used my inspiration from the driftwood art.

Here's the story of the three little pigs.  I loved this art work I saw here.

 And my kids wanted a pet shop, so here it is.

I think they are so cute and can't wait until the kids paint them up.  They are going to be so cute.

quiet books. do i dare?!

Something I have always wanted to do is make my kids Quite Books.  It has always seemed so overwhelming and time consuming to me that I just kept pushing the thought to the back of my mind.

Well, no more!  I am going to do it. 

Thanks to my pal Pintrest I have been doing a lot of research and idea gathering.  I've found some great stuff that I want to use and I've found a lot of inspiration that has sparked my noggin and got the wheels turning to allow the ideas to be unique and personal to my kids and their likes, skills, and personalities.

Wish me luck as I start.  I am just in the sketching stage and will soon be gathering materials.  I am by no means trying to get this done fast.  I think these would make great Christmas presents! :)

 Sam's Quiet Book Ideas:

 James' Quiet Book Ideas:

 Chloe's Quiet Book Ideas:

 A few of the larger sketches for Chloe's book.  They are very rough, but they make sense to me (and that's all that matters!) :)

angry birds [life sized]

So with the new phones came the world of Angry Birds. My kids and husband love it, so we decided to have some fun and make our own game.
I saw something around that inspired the fun. Check them out here and here.
I started by spray painting some vegetable cans and a #10 can green. I then used a picture to help me see how to draw the pigs faces. I used a marker to draw them out, then craft paints to paint over them for the faces.


I got some of those great, cheap balls at WalMart for our birds. They were $1.50 each. I again used pictures to draw faces on and then painted over them. I painted all the colors I was using first and allowed them to dry, then did all the black painting and outlining at the end.


(Placing the balls in bowls is a great way to prop them up and keep them from rolling around.)


You'll see that I used A LOT of paint. There needs to be a thick layer on the balls or they will crackle with all the bouncing they do. Mine have been played with HEAVILY and I have had no problems with the paint due to how thick it is.



Here is a shot of all the paint I used. I used what I had on hand. You could use similar colors if you have them.

I got the TNT signs off one of those blogs up above. I loved the touch they added to our boxes.

Now just stack up different towers and go for it. We played for hours. It was so fun. We even lost one of my small pigs we were going so crazy. Let's just say there is $1 reward at my sister's house for who ever finds him! :)

the cube

I made this for my BIL for Christmas. I thought it would be fun to have in his waiting room.


It was fun and easy to make. I think I'll make one for ourselves as well. I am a sucker for puzzles.