The ugly, old litter box.

As I decorate my basement for my new craft room, everything looks colorful and pretty, except for the cat litter box. I thought about buying a new one, but if my whole purpose in life is reuse, recycle and save money... why not try to blend it into the rest of the room? So with enamel spray, I covered old paint, paper and drops of wall paint covering that old top. After dry, I used whatever paint I had in my bag, some acrylic paint, some fabric paint and craft paint. Once I chose the theme, more according to the colors I had available, I researched some images on the Internet. And I am no painter, don't know how to maneuver the paintbrush correctly, but did the best I could, mixing color and trying to paint those fishies. They do not look like any of the original pictures, but at least made that litter box a tiny more attractive, at least for me. Can't tell you about my cat.

New Baby!!! (Don't worry, not mine)

My sister-in-law will have a baby and it is a girl!! So happy for her, after years trying, she is finally pregnant! So sad I won't be around, because they live in Brazil, but we are all excited. She planned her baby shower (you do your own baby shower there), and she was looking at different thank you gifts. So me and my husband decided to give her a hand. I drew in paper different babies, then after she chose one, I scanned and colored in Illustrator. Then my husband found this company that sells lip balms for advertisement, wedding favors or anything you want to print. Then we sent the image and they printed in the plastic cover.

Since in Brazil, when you have a baby, every single person you know will visit the baby, we ordered 200 lip balms. And she liked the image so much, that it was used for the baby shower invitations, and also printed them to wrap chocolate, as a baby shower favor. And finally they found a bakery the printed the baby for her, and placed in the cake. A new baby makes everyone happy.

Board Game Recycling Style

I needed to send a board game to school, but we don't own any. Since I am too lazy and cheap to go to Target and buy one, I decided to make it, using what I had at home. The first thing was choosing the theme, and I remembered those penguins I made for the boys birthday party.They would serve well as pieces to move on the game. The board needed to be a big piece and easy to carry. So what I did was use a big old birthday bag, cut the sides to open it flat to make the board, and still had handles to carry. So I painted the background, which would be water and ice for the penguins, using whatever paint I had in my supplies. Then I cut squares using different colors of construction paper to make a path. Then I started adding items to make it fun, cutting a shark with paper, a whale, a hot air balloon and an angry bird. To make it more tri dimensional, I put a couple of origami boats, creatures called puffles made before too, with a flag in the middle (those I glued on the bottom of the bag, so it is more secure to transport), and a bridge with popsicle sticks. The dices were prizes they got from a carnival, and to make it more visually appealing, I painted more things related to the theme. The kids were very excited to play. One more mission accomplished.

End of the year in June

I still get surprised by school calendar and never get prepared ahead. See, in my mind, June is close to winter, school ends in December, and then you have 3 months of Summer vacation. Since my choice was to live in a different country, I had to accept loosing control sometimes, or a lot. So when I saw a note from yesterday, that tomorrow will be last day of school for Anderson, I forced my mind to come up with a plan for gifts for the teacher, assistant teacher, school administrator, and school staff. Thinking that it is a lot of people, eating goods seemed to be the best choice. Having about 10 hours free, I really wouldn't have time to make cupcakes or cookies, so I thought there were nothing shameful by buying those items. But to make it a tiny more special, with a hint of homemade, I wrapped a box with pretty paper and made cards drawing with crayons. And a nice bright ribbon made it even better. Adding everyone's favorite junk foods: chips, chocolate, donuts, and pop corn. Does not sound very healthy, but one way or the other, it is always good to say thank you to people that you appreciate. In my case, the staff at Carrousel take care of my kids very well, and that is a peace of mind for me and my husband. But the next surprise I had was a note from the teacher,and the kids would have a silly party the next day. I took off to Michaels and wondered around the aisles looking for some ideas. Home with a couple of supplies, I got busy. I used a cool spray paint and sprayed Anderson's old t-shirt (it dries faster than tie- dye or brush paint), and glued appliques with silly faces. Then I saw some supplies that gave me some ideas to send his little friends a little gift. So with big pompoms, I tied elastic band around to make a bracelet, used a glue gun to stick big googly eyes. And last I tied one little jingle bell to the bracelets. I think the kids will have fun. Wish I could be there.

Birthday Party

Preparing myself for tomorrow's encounter with 27 kids (not included my own) for a 90 minute bounce, slide, pizza and cake birthday party. They come with a parent at a precise time (6PM tomorrow) to this area full of bouncers and slides, jump and run for 60 minutes. Then the staff directs everyone to a room, have pizza and juice for 15 minutes, then cake and sing happy birthday for the rest 15 minutes left. When the 90 minutes is over, they redirect everyone to the exit door because the next party already started. It is quick and (kind of) painless (for me) way for the kids to have fun and for us to see them with their friends. So to continue my computer slash illustration training, I made the thank you cards. First I had to draw in paper, then scanned the image. Using the Illustrator Program, I colored the image, then printed in photo paper. Simple and fun, and different. Hope everyone enjoys the party. I am having the chills now...

Slow Production.

My extra time is getting shorter, so all I could make was two more penguins, an igloo, and paper decoration that I haven't decided what to do with it. Between kids playdates, doctors appoitments, buy groceries, make lunchbags, and work, my favorite hobby got bumped to the side. Well, one thing I did for myself: got enrolled for Zumba classes for the Summer. Anyway, the igloo shape came from a small kitchen bowl. I just used the clay around to make the igloo. Then one of the penguins was sitting, holding a fishing pole made of piper cleaner from the craft store, with a goldfish cracker hanging on a thread. The paper decorations were made with my big paper punches, one shaped like a flower and a smaller one in a circle shape. The cute penguins are inexpensive buttons from Michaels, glued with hot glue gun. I think they look really nice. Hopefully I will be able to organize a birthday party for my boys.

Organizing paper 3D style.

Practicing using the computer for animations gave me an idea to minimize the paper clutter in my house, and saving my favorite drawings from my kids. After I collected different images from different papers, here is the result of my hard work (I gotta say I'm getting better).