Spotted Canary Blog

Recently, I was asked by a couple of other PTA moms to help design and decorate a large bulletin board at my kid’s elementary school for PTA events and upcoming activities. The board changes regularly which means it will require me to remove and add signage/art on a monthly basis. Another mom who was dedicated to working with me and had done it pretty much alone last year, met with me to talk about ideas and the initial events that needed to be displayed. During our discussion, I made a list of all of the events, notes about the colors and theme, and then drew a sketch of how to lay it all out on the board. The other mom began laughing at me because of how methodical I was being about a bulletin board. It was at that specific moment that I realized how much scrapbooking influences all areas of my life!
 
Perhaps it’s my fine art background or graphic design career that has molded me into a “sketcher,” but either way, I generally do not create a scrapbook layout or card without sketching my ideas on a piece of paper first. Some people call it “sketching,” others refer to the drawings as “page maps” or “blueprints.” I keep notebooks of journaling and sketches for all of my projects. When I begin a new page in my kids scrapbooks, I collect my supplies into one space and my notebook is on the top of the stack. I may draw three or four sketches for one layout and then see how my photos and supplies work into them. Many times I end up with one final sketch that usually consists of combined elements of all of the drawings. It becomes the first and biggest challenge of a layout, and sometimes the most fun part for me.
 

 
There is a great selection of books on the market that contain sketches and sample pages made directly from them, and there are thousands of websites dedicated to this topic. Another great way to get your creative juices flowing is to flip through scrapbooking magazines. A lot of times I have found interesting ways to incorporate journaling, placement of titles, and arrangements of embellishments from the layouts that appear within the reader galleries.
 
There are tons of neat ideas in the magazines, and I see nothing wrong with being inspired by other’s work. Creating my own sketches from pieces and parts of magazine layouts to come up with something that works for my amount of photos and the theme has been a lifesaver. There are times when my creative brain has turned to mush and I need a pick-me-up or a little assistance. I know everyone has their specific way of working, but I have been amazed at how much more efficient my time is spent if I am working from a sketch. I challenge you if you have not worked from one to try it and see what you think. I’ve included a couple here if you’d like to work from them. I would love to see what you create if you would share when you’re finished. Post them in the gallery and leave me a reply at the end of this blog so I can be on the lookout for them!
 

 

 
Happy Crafting (and Sketching!!)

~ Karen (Kabby) 

It seems like just yesterday when the kids were counting down the days when school would be out and looking forward to having the whole summer ahead of them. Oh, how time passes so quickly! It’s hard to believe that for the next 185 days, the routine will switch back to packed lunches, early morning dashes to car-line, and after-school homework! It’s amazing how laid back we seem to be by the end of August and how trying the transition to the school routine can be. Here are a few “tips from Karen” on how to make the beginning of this school year a little more fun, interesting and easier for everyone.

• Keep an upbeat and positive attitude! Your kids will feed off of your optimism and hopefully take it to class with them and encourage others.
   
  
• If you pack lunches, send a note, silly saying or goofy photo of yourself in their lunch box for the first couple of weeks. It’s amazing how much kids appreciate the comfort and security of home for even a moment of their day while they are away at school.
  
  
• Send extra supplies! Teachers always need hand-sanitizer, Kleenex and disinfectant wipes, and there are always children who can’t afford to bring in pencils, notebooks and bottles of glue. Let the kids be the bearers of these extra gifts so they can feel extra special and learn the life lesson of “giving to others.”

• Let your kids make their teacher a card to take on the first day, telling the teacher how excited they are to be in the class. They can even include random information about themselves to help the teacher get to know them faster.

• Don’t hesitate to make some kind of small gift for your child’s teacher during the first few weeks of school. Something simple like a mini notebook, a Post-It note holder, or a pencil can full of pencils. It’s not done for brownie points, but as a way to let the teacher know how much you appreciate them. It serves as a little uplift after they have worked so intensely for a few weeks to get their routine established.

• Buy a sheet of “do It Yourself” magnets and let your child create their very own magnet to display their school work or artwork on your refrigerator. It gives them their own space on the fridge and encourages them to bring their paper home!

Facts are facts – some kids love school, and some kids hate school! Regardless of how your kids feel, these tips will hopefully get them (and you) off to a great start!

Happy Crafting!

 Create your own summer escape from the hot temperatures with some festive décor and some simple tips. You will create an environment to welcome your guests to a summer retreat. It is funny how a few changes here and there can welcome each season. Summer is more of a challenging season to decorate for. It is easy to find winter snowmen, or spring flowers and bunnies, or fall leaves, but summer can stump a few decorators. Because of this challenge, I had to hand-make my summer décor.

I bought six colorful bandanas and stitched them together to create my own tablecloth. It works well for a kitchen table, a picnic table, or by stitching only 3 together you can create a table runner as an accent to any room.

 Make sure to shop around for your bandanas.

• I found some that were inexpensive and nice shades of color.
• I made one table runner from the dollar bin at a discount store.
• I even found some for half price at a craft store (49 cents).
• I bought five more bandanas and created a garland by simply folding the bandanas in half so they looked like a triangle and tied the triangles together in a long line to create a garland.
• You may also want to use white napkins or white hand towels and tie a rolled up bandana around the center of the napkin. It makes such a pretty table setting.

Bandanas are bold and bright. They bring whimsy and fun into summer décor.

I had saved a Styrofoam circle that came in a package to protect a jar from being shattered. I saved it because it reminded me of a wreath base. I had more than a half box of party drink umbrellas left over, and I started playing with the umbrellas and the wreath base. It was a perfect summer combination. The colors matched the bandanas I had chosen.

1. I opened each of the umbrellas half way, and used the little rubber band on the umbrella sticks to keep them opened.
2. I broke off the umbrella sticks part way, so they wouldn’t go all the way through the back of the wreath and be all pokey.
3. I followed the wreath’s natural shape as I put the umbrellas on.
4.  I filled the wreath in with some umbrellas that weren’t opened quite as far as other ones.

After looking at the umbrella wreath, I changed my mind and instead of hanging it on my door, I put it on the center of our table and used it as a candle ring. It was a fun accent piece that welcomed all summer guests to my kitchen.

• These party drink umbrellas can be used for decorating Styrofoam balls and hanging them above a celebration table.
• They can be used on summer party invitations or even threaded onto a place card holder.
• Tie a few with a ribbon wrapped around hand towels in your bathroom to spread the summer festivities.

Enjoy summer and the easy, breezy decorating style that you can create on your own. Home-made means it comes from your heart!

~Kara (Studio Pink)

It’s hard to believe summer is winding down and within weeks our daily schedule will be changing drastically to include packed lunches, backpacks, and evening homework sessions at the kitchen table. Looking back over the past 2 months, it’s amazing to me how much has taken place in our lives. Here are the highlights of my summer, and some of the ways I’ve been able incorporate my love of crafts into everyday, common activities!

To start off, I decided to plant a vegetable garden this year for the first time in my life – hard to believe since I am married to a farmer! Wow, have I ever learned a lot! More of what not to do in future years that what I did right! I found that it doesn’t take 20 pumpkin seeds to guarantee a pumpkin or two, and that Pole Beans are definitely different than Bush Beans when selecting seeds for growing green beans! I also learned that cucumbers should be caged and that more space between rows is better than not enough! Now that I have shared my personal gardening tips, let me just say I am completely hooked. It has been so fulfilling from preparing the soil and planting to picking the first cucumber off of the vine. To put the icing on the cake, I also was introduced to canning. My mother brought all of her canning supplies to my house and she taught me step by step how to can green and yellow beans. Whether you grow vegetables to make delicious salsa, or stick to the daily staples, canning can be a wonderful way to share with family, friends and neighbors. I have created fun jar tops with fabric and ribbon and have given them away to special people in our lives. The extra touch of the crafted lids have made them so much more fun to give, and much more appreciated.

In late June, my brother and his family visited from Georgia. They have three children roughly the same age as my kids, and I am always in charge of the annual kids’ birthday bash. This year the theme was “On Safari,” and each of the kids crafted a foam hat of the animal of their choice to wear during the party. I created an awesome scavenger hunt that kept them busy for an hour, and we finished off our time together with a trip to the new safari park at our city zoo. The kids had a blast!

During the largest festival of the summer in our town, my daughter and I participated in the Chalk Walk for the first time. It is an event sponsored by our local art museum, and for two days, we spent hours on our knees in the blocked-off downtown streets, creating our masterpiece with pastel chalks. The assigned space of 4’ x 4’ was ours to draw anything we wanted, so we chose to support our Minor League Baseball team in their inaugural year by using their logo in an Andy Warhol style. Walking the streets and admiring the other artists’ work was almost as fun as creating our own. There were some truly amazing and remarkable works of art! I have shared several of the photos I took of the event with you here! It was absolutely mind-boggling to think it was all done with chalk on the asphalt street, and after the first good rain, it would be gone forever! We were so lucky to be involved and are already planning our designs for next year.

You can click on the Chalk Walk Link above to see additional images.

Hopefully the time will present itself for a quiet moment to reflect on the fun, creative activities that filled your summer!

Happy Creating!!
~ Karen (Kabby) 
 

Summer is family, barbecues, and picnics. It is the time of year when we get together and enjoy the lazy days of summer.

This summer is no different -- a large family reunion is coming up. I wanted an activity that we could do together and give our grandparents to display at the beloved lake house. I also wanted a project that young and old would have fun doing together.

My craft guidelines were:

• it had to be inexpensive because there’s a lot of us
• it had to be a project that could be left out and we could work on at different times during the day
• it had to be a project with individual pieces to reflect each one of our personalities.

 Here is what I came up with … wind chimes.

I found a tree branch and spray painted it red. Then I tied a rope to it for hanging. My husband helped me prepare spoons to hang on the branch. He hit each one with a nail and hammer to make a place for the drill bit to sit, and he then drilled holes in all the spoon handles.

I tried choosing spoons that had thin handles to make it easier to drill through. The spoons were found at a thrift store for five spoons for $1.00, or 24 cents each. If your family has many members, have them each bring a quarter and set up a jar to help with the cost. Choose spoons of different styles and sizes. They will make interesting sounds when they clang together.

Every member of a family is different, so each of your spoons should also be different.

I purchased paint pens that would work on metal for my project. I felt the pens would be easier than paint brushes for all sizes and ages of family members. The paint pens were my most expensive purchase. I was able to get a pack of colors for $7.00. Families know all about sharing, so don’t worry if you don’t have enough markers for each person.

Oh, we had fun personalizing the spoons. Some family members made them into people. Others used their name and favorite colors or team logos. We even had a spoon to represent the family pet! The children picked the biggest spoons, which left the adults with the tea size spoons. When all the spoons were dry, we used rope to tie them to the branch. What lovely music they made! Every year we go to the lake and admire our project.

It is music to our ears.

**This project would work well not only for family get-togethers but also scouting events. It is a nice project for Boy Scouts to create and give for a nursing home garden or Girl Scouts to make as a service project for a hospital garden. It may even be a fun project for a preschool teacher or classroom teacher gift.

Make some music this month with Spoons and don’t worry about breaking the budget! 
 
~ Kara (Studio Pink)
 

On the way home from my kids’ baseball game the other day, my 8-year old son recited a conversation to me that he had with another boy on his team while they were in the outfield. They were discussing the cloud formations in the sky and were trying to figure out the names of the different kinds of clouds. My son asked me, “Mom, what are those one clouds called – Cumulonimbulous?” Trying not to laugh out loud, we casually chatted about the real names of the clouds.

Another occurrence was when my 2-year old daughter became over-joyed one Saturday morning. She is terrified of thunder, so we always tell her that thunder happens when Jesus is bowling in heaven. My husband announced that he was taking them bowling, and she immediately screamed, “I gonna see Jesus, Daddy! I give him a big hug!”

When my oldest daughter was 3 1/2, my husband and I would always ask her what our son, who was 2 at the time, was saying when he was beginning to talk and would start babbling. One day we asked her what he said as we were riding in the car, and she immediately responded, “He said he is planning to go to college when he gets older!”

       
 

My children make me laugh everyday with their innocent thoughts and how they manage to organize them into their own words! Knowing I will never be able to remember all of their adorable sayings, I created a “Kooky Kids Quotes” book. Each one of my three kids have their own divided section in a decorated mini binder, and whenever they blurt out one of their priceless phrases, I quickly turn to their spot in the book and write it down. Because it is a binder, it is easy to add pages to as time passes if more are needed.

Another way to use sayings from the innocent “mouth’s of babes” is to include the phrases in your projects. Inkadinkadoo has a whole line of Kid’s Quote stamps that I have thoroughly enjoyed using. Making cards with them is one of my favorite things to do when I am feeling crafty but am in between projects. I send them to my girlfriends just as a “thinking of you” note or a fun way to say Hello! They all love getting the cards in the mail and always call me after receiving one to laugh with me about the quote.

I’m sure any mother can relate completely to what I have shared, and I encourage all moms to take the time to record these priceless memories. If anything else, they will give you hours of laughter when rereading them as the years go by!

Happy Creating!!
~ Karen (Kabby)