Category: Crafting

MouseScrappers Design Challenge #33 Blog Train

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I’m sorry for the delay in getting this up today.  It’s been a whirlwind week and I’m just catching my breath.

This was this month’s inspiration pallet–we actually started this challenge in May (May the Fourth be with you).

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I’ve been wanting to try my hand at an alphabet, so I played with the Shareware font Star Jedi.  The full alphabet is for challenge participants only. The only way you can get them is to participate in the challenge.  So, check out the next Design Challenge at MouseScrapper’s and give it a try. It’s a lot of fun and you’ll get some great kits! You don’t need to be a designer to enter.

Now for my FREEBIE for you.  I made four pocket cards, two pngs, and a 12×12 background paper (I tried my hand at creating a textured background).

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I hope you enjoy!  You can download them HERE.

The rest of the blog train:

Chef Minnie Mouse: http://lisacampbelldesigns.blogspot.com/
 Pooh46: http://bookladydesigns.blogspot.com/
 Digidizscrapper: http://123-autism.com  <<<<<  YOU ARE HERE
 Romajo: http://romajoscrap.blogspot.nl/
 Roxana: http://scrapscardsandmore.blogspot.com/
 Cindyrelly: https://cindyrellyblog.wordpress.com/
 Scrappin2girls: http://babyjaydensmommy.blogspot.com/

 

Throwback Thursday–Prior Post 3/28/13–Scout Cake Auction

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Recently we had a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for our boy scout troop.  It included a cake auction and the boys were asked to donate a cake they had made.  Some of the boys made desserts, but clearly some of the parents helped out as well.

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Pretty sure this guy’s mom helped him out juuuuuust a little, the frosting job is pretty good for a 12-year-old.

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 This is a cinnamon roll cake my oldest boy made.  He found it on Pinterest.  Here is the link to the original recipe.

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I decided to help my second-oldest boy out by making a back-up batch of cupcakes to donate.  My friend who was in charge told me themed items seemed to raise the most money last year, so I decided to try a variation on a fun idea I’d seen on YouTube.  I found red and white polka-dot cupcake liners, and baked dark chocolate cupcakes in them.

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While they cooled, I covered a cut and taped cereal box in aluminum foil.  (Don’t you love my beat-up table?  Someday I’m going to refinish it.)

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Next, I used double-sided tape to wrap a red polka-dot grosgrain  ribbon around the box

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Then I used my Mickey Mouse punch to punch Mickey heads out of black card stock.  I affixed those to the box using the double-sided tape.  (You can really see the glory of the table in this shot.)

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I frosted the cupcakes with a dark chocolate and pushed mini-Oreos in for the ears.  I used plenty of frosting, so I didn’t need any toothpicks.  I left some of them like that, but I also sprinkled crushed Oreos on top as well.

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The finished product. I’m pleased to say they raised $50 for the troop.  We had just enough left over for each family member to get one and they were a hit!

Digital Scrapbooking-Project Life Page

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I’m late in posting this, but let’s pretend it actually came out on Saturday…

One of my favorite crafting endeavors is to digitally scrapbook.  I have been scrapbooking in some form for a long time.  I started way back when we had to go to specialty stores to get acid free paper.  Mrs. Grossman’s stickers were the only acid-free stickers you could use.  Then we got diecuts and wavy rulers.  These were followed by specialty edge scissors and punches.  Creative Memories, stamping titles and images were things I tried.  The styles have changed back and forth between simple photo-based scrapbooks, to elaborate creations.  I know now I prefer simple scrapbooks where my photos and journaling tell the main story, and any embellishments enhance the message–not take away from it.

I enjoyed working with my hands.  I enjoyed the camaraderie with fellow scrapers when I went to a crop.  I was always hopelessly behind though, and I’d get discouraged because it took so long to set up my supplies, find what I wanted and finish a page.  With little kids I had very little time, and I couldn’t afford to leave things out in a partial state.  I’d either forget what I was working on, or my children decided to add their contributions.  (I tried to set them up at their own station with their own supplies and photos, but it never really clicked with them.  Whatever I was doing was always more interesting.)

About 9 years ago I discovered digital scrapbooking.  I love it!  I can get so many more books into the same space my physical albums used to take up.  I can reprint them for each of my children (instead of trying to create multiple copies of the same spread).  And bonus!  I don’t have a mess to sort through and clean up each time I want to scrap.

My scrapbooking has really taken off with the advent of the Project Life App and others like Over, Touch-Retouch, Adobe Photoshop Mix, Moldiv, etc.  I still like to keep my layouts simple and focused on the story, and all of these tools help me do it so quickly and easily.  It also helps my scrapbooking ADD.  I can pick and choose many different events to work on based upon the available photos on my phone.  I can also scrap anywhere as long as I’ve got power.  I’ve scrapped on plane rides, in doctors offices, waiting for lessons to finish, at the dentist, and in the car (passenger seat only).  From time to time I’ll be sharing these layouts.

Today’s layouts:


Perhaps I’ve given you some food for thought today.  In the future, I’ll be posting some great digital resources.  Until then, happy crafting!

Cub Scout Crafting

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I spent the last week volunteering at Cub Scout Day Camp.  Acroboy is in his last year of Cub Scouts as a Webelo.

The crafts weren’t too hard for the most part, but when you are trying to teach several groups of boys of varying abilities and ages, it can become tricky.  The first craft we made were covered wagons from kits.  The wagon tongues were particularly tricky to attach.  We learned through trial and error to attach the wagon tongue to the axles before we added the wheels. A little wood glue to reinforce the bond is best too.

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The intent was to have the boys race them when all was said and done.

We also made ice candles.  We had the boys layer ice around a wick in a Styrofoam cup and then we poured hot wax over them.

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Those were the instructions I was given and I followed.  I have never really made candles before, so I didn’t know any better.

When we got home I peeled away the sides of the cup to reveal the candle.  I pulled it out and got this.

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In retrospect, we should have poured some wax around the wicks, let them harden, and then added ice over the wax base.  Live and learn I guess.

This one would have to qualify as a crafting fail.

I wish you better luck in your craft endeavors.

Throwback Thursday–Disney Shirts 2/20/13

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Today’s Throwback Thursday is a craft from 2011 and updated in 2013.  I made matching shirts for our family.  Originally I did it because I had seen the idea on social media and thought it would be really fun for us.  Since then I have learned that dressing identically helps a lot in crowded locations.  It makes it so much easier to spot each other.  It also makes it easy when and if, despite my best efforts and constant head counting, one of my children wanders off or accidentally gets left behind by the group of cousins she is hanging out with.  I can let personnel know my child is wearing the exact same shirt as I am and they can describe it on the radios immediately.  It makes finding them fast.

Oh, and I’m better at Photoshop manipulation these days, but these photos make me laugh, so I’m keeping them this way.

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Ready for it?  I’m going to post pictures of our Disney shirts. To protect the identity of my kids, I had a little fun in Photoshop…

 

So how did we do them?  Easy peasy.

1) I downloaded a template of Mickey Mouse ears.

2) Next I traced that template on our shirts in pencil.

3) I sewed around the Mouse ears with dental floss.  I’ve read you should use waxed.  I used the teflon slippery kind.

4)  I pulled the dental floss tight to make a puckered “balloon”.

Now this is where I diverged on the two techniques.  By the way, I skipped the soda ash step some tutorials recommend.

Orange and black Halloween Mickey shirts. (concentric circle idea)

1) I put rubber bands around the puckered balloon to keep it separate.  I did mine right on the line of the floss–I’ve since read you should make sure it is below it to keep it pretty separate.

Continue reading “Throwback Thursday–Disney Shirts 2/20/13” →

Throwback Thursday–Prior Post 5/1/17–Mousescrappers Design Challenge #32 BlogTrain

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Today I’m doing a more recent crafting “Throwback Thursday” because I plan to participate in Mousescrappers Design Challenge #33 as well.

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Mousescrappers Design Challenge #32 BlogTrain–05/01/17

I participated in my first ever Design Challenge at MouseScrappers.com.

This is what I made!

The designs are NOT sold in the store.  The only way you can get them is to participate in the challenge.  I made a layout, two page elements and a few papers for my portion of the challenge.  I had so much fun, I’m definitely doing it again.  So, check out the next Design Challenge at MouseScrapper’s and give it a try. It’s a lot of fun and you’ll get some great kits! You don’t need to be a designer to enter. For this challenge, we had this color palette to work with.

My freebie for YOU is the three cards I designed below.

Click HERE to grab them.

Since this is all new to me, please contact me with any quality issues or feedback.  If you make anything with my freebies, please share them with me.

Finally, I’m taking part of my first blog hop.  Here is the lineup!

Shahar29: http://mom2aprincess.wordpress.com/

Cindyrelly: https://cindyrellyblog.wordpress.com/

Romajo: http://romajoscrap.blogspot.nl/

Murmer: http://murmerscraps.blogspot.com

Chef Minnie Mouse: http://lisacampbelldesigns.blogspot.com/

Bringing It All Into One Place

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In the past, I’ve run as many as five blogs, and it’s been a bit exhausting separating different parts of myself.   On this blog I’ll be bringing in pieces from my blogs into one place.  My main autism blog was MomtoMyGroupofMunchkins.blogspot.com.

I’ll be chronicling our Autism journey, and our ways of coping, organizing and making our way through life.  This means I’ll have an assortment of posts and interests here.  I’ve tried to categorize posts that are either Autism or Crafting, and you should be able to search for those through the menu option.  Sometimes posts will cross lines and those will be filed under both categories.  This way you, my reader, will be able to pick your preference, but I’ll be simplifying my life.  If I have enough organization posts, I’ll create another sub-menu.

I’m excited to be simplifying my life in many ways.  Things have been getting busier at my house as the school year draws to a close.  Thank you for stopping by today.  Have a fantastic day and enjoy!