Summer time things to do with the girls

We are in a year round school 

 our calendar is weird

We are in 9 weeks (called track/ed in), 

off 3 weeks (called track/ed out)

We love it

Most people who have never lived the year round calendar

cringe when we say we are in school year round

But really, it is AWESOME

I love track out time

except

sometimes I panic.....

like today

today is the last day of school

I am in panic mode....

did I say that already?

I feel like I am Julie the cruise director

....without a clipboard

OK, so we only have a week off between grades-

aka-summer vacay

weird... 

I know

we track in on July 9th

(first day of school)

...weird

We track out July 27

for 3 weeks

...weird

then we track back in

August 20th 

...weird

SO rather than popping Xanax like its candy I turned to my trusty old Pinterest to get me through trying moments Track out

Here are 10 Pinterest inspired Summer Ideas 

I am going to do with the girls during our 1 week "summer vacay" & our 3 week track out in August

Animal Drawing

My girls are not the most artistic but every once in a while they will find a picture & try to copy it, they will love this site!!!

Glass Pebble Bracelets

I am pretty sure you can use the glass pebbles for this, 

with my Michael's coupon loaded on my iPhone

after we have gathered a few supplies 

we are ready to rock these out in no time!!!

Hopscotch, Tiddlywinks & 4 Square! Game on!!!

Identity Grids

I personally L-O-V-E these!

I am going to make one!!!

In the sprinkler, this could count as a bath right??

For little ones its Tattle Monstesrs.....for 'tweens we can make it Mean Word Monsters

DIY tee-pee-tent

OK, a little more adventurous 

but would be a fun activity for dad to help us with, 

right, dad?!?!

Dad??

Yoo Hoo...

Dad???

Miss Mary Mack, anyone???

Button Hair Ties

Pretty!

Flower Pretzels

There isn't a link for these 

but it is just stick pretzels, hershey white chocolate kisses (Hugs) & M&Ms

Bookmarks

The link to these was no longer available 

but these are sooooo cute!

OK so I said 10, which turned into 11

if i don't stop now, 

I will be sitting here 

DREAMING 

up amazing things to do with my  kids 

rather than 

DOING 

amazing things with my kids

So I am stepping away from the computer

and Pinterest for now

Leave a comment if you have found any other fun things to do with your kids this summer!!!!

Canvas Art with Pencil Transfer Techinique & Winnie the Pooh Quote

So for a while now my Bestie has been asking me 

to make a plaque of some kind 

for her daughter's HS graduation with the adorable quote:

“If ever there is tomorrow, when we’re not

together, there is something you must always

remember. You are braver than you believe,

 stronger than you seem, and smarter than you

think, but the most important thing is, even

if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you”.

-Winnie the Pooh 

Typical procrastinator/ADD/perfectionist/staller 

that I am it took me a while 

to figure out the perfect way to do this.....

Being left to my own creative devises 

I had a color scheme, the quote 

& a pic of the dorm room comforter 

Like with any task in my life now, I started scouring through Pinterest to find inspiration

I used a pencil transfer technique 

that was so frikkin easy 

I just have to reshare and show you what i came up with

I tried a few transfer techniques out there

-wax paper;  mod podge 

But I just couldn't get it right

Then I found the newspaper transfer idea

 I changed it up a little to make my own, 

and it worked!!!!

I think I learned this somewhere along the way in 

an art class or in a scrapbooking class!  

It is not an original idea.

OK 

so, back to the project

PENCIL TRANSFER TECHNIQUE

So here is a pic of the comforter set 

Loved the vines design so we went with that

(her set is fushia/black, doesn't look it here)

First step I "colored" on the back of the pic

 with a pencil

it's tricky, tricky, tricky

(90's hip hop song reference, sorry)

Next I flipped the paper over and placed it on the canvas where i wanted the design to show up

Then using a ball point pen, pressing firmly 

to make sure the transfer of the pencil marks showed up,

 I traced the outline of the vines

see, you can see them

really difficult technique here, ha!

Then I went back with my old scrapbooking markers

(Marvy-Artist)

and colored in the vines

TA-DA!!!

Glittered Unicorns & rainbows sprouted in my craftroom!

you could easily use a sharpie

I had one on standby if Marvy didn't work!

And this is what it looked like when I was finished with it!

I think I just heard angels sing

I love it

I think it came out so cute & it was really fun to make!

Supplies:

 canvas  

acrylic paints

ribbons

ink

card stock 

pencil  

marvy pen

WOOOO HOOOOO!

Here is me & Bestie with the graduate on her special day!

Congrats, B!!!