Free Printable Chore Chart! Also earning Girl Scout Daisy Petal Sunny & Mari

 

  Our daisy troop will be taking a tour of our local animal shelter. They will be earning their Sunny Petal "Friendly & Helpful" and the Mari Petal "Responsible for what I say and do" I asked all the parent's to come up with a list of chores together for their child. The goal is to have them be friendly and helpful around the home as well as to earn money to buy a toy for one of the animals at the shelter. This way they know that they are responsible for what they say and do. So I sat down with my daughter to create a chore chart for her and decided to make a blank one that I can share on here as a FREE printable. I created a BOY & GIRL version.    Click on the links below to download the files.     GIRL CHART  https://www.dropbox.com/s/5vvptdbgz7jgp2m/GIRLChoreChart.pdf   BOY CHART  https://www.dropbox.com/s/ygcu4c7v2jc1yg4/BOYChoreChart.pdf  

If you want a more custom chart. Send me a message on Etsy. $10.00 for custom design.
My shop is: Lil Bean Sprout --------------------->
 

ENJOY!

 

Get creative: How to Abstract Florals

    ABSTRACT FLORALS What a great way to get creative without having to be perfect. You don't need any artistic background to make these. They are fun and free paintings. It is a great introduction to collage as well.

 

What you need:  *Canvas any size. We were working on 12x12 Gallery Wrapped Canvas'

                             *Acrylic Paints.  White and any main color(s) and a optional dark brown or black

                             *Mod Podge (matte or glossy)

                             *Paint brush or foam brush and small decorative Brush

                             * Black sharpie

                             *Decorative handmade papers. You can find these at a local art store or online 

                            (I buy mine from Dick Blick here is a link to papers  http://www.dickblick.com/categories/decorativepapers/#assortmentsandcollections) -You want to buy large enough papers that will be as large as your biggest flower. So don't buy the small scraps, and if you are doing a large canvas get the big sheets.) You can also throw in some gift wrapping tissue paper, however they tend to be harder to work with and not as vibrant. 

 

How to Create:  

              

First Step: Paint your canvas with a solid color or you can throw in a spot of other colors here and there. Be creative just not too busy this will be your base. You can then bring in a darker black or brown to darken your edges.

Let that dry or use a blow dryer to dry your canvas faster. 

Second Step: Pick out your papers. i like to pick only 3 to 4 colors.  

Now start tearing your paper. You are going to make three to four layers of very loose very not so perfect circles. They will be placed on top of eachother as a Bottom, middle(s) and top. So make various sizes and colors that will stand out. I also make my flowers different color patterns. Start placing them on your canvas to find the best composition. There is no right or wrong way to do this.

Third Step: Make sure your brush is clean. Pick up one of your flower sets (all layers) and paint a thin layer of mod podge on the canvas behind where it was. Then place the bottom layer down and add more mod podge working from the center of your flower and painting out. It's ok if the little fibers from the paper start fraying out. I think it makes it look kinda cool. Then continue like that with all your layers till you have one flower set painting on. Then work your way around the canvas with all the other flower sets, being painted down with mod podge. Then once they are all painting down go over the whole canvas with a layer of mod podge. Even the sides. Let that dry or use a blow dryer to dry it faster.

Fourth Step: Pull out your white paint and paint a circle in the center of your flowers. You can also add some text or words if you want to at this time. Then let Dry. At the very end come in with the black sharpie or black paint and a thin brush and loosely out line each layer of the flowers. Don't forget to sign your artwork! and your done. 

Here is a photo collage of my Abstract Floral class. I love that they all turned uniquely differnt and so beautiful! 

 (Photo above.... Decorative hand made papers, paints and my canvas. Solid paint and then bring in a darker paint (in my case black) and darken edges.)

 

Here is Lucy as you can see she added a splash of lime green to her background. It turner out super neat!

 

Even my nice created one. 

 Here is another one that turned out super nice! You can create them in all different sizes and hang them together on a wall or  you can even use them as a border and put a photo right in the center.   Like I did in this one.

 

Have Fun and...

 

   

Linked in on:

Girl Scout Cookie Valentines

 

 

 Give Thanks-a-lot's to someone you love

We made these for my kid's teachers and coaches. 

I found the cute poem on http://greeneacreshobbyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/02/girl-scout-cookie-valentine.html but she used "Shout outs" for her cookies. 

Here is a free printable of the hearts with the poem.

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/50czu16tw9zwl14/valentinetechers.pdf

  HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Chalk Valentines ... no candy option.

 

 Front and Back View

This year for class Valentines we decided to hand out Side Walk Chalk. I purchased these at Party City. It came with 18 Boxes. We created a chalk backdrop and took pictures. I then created the rest in photoshop.

 On the side

 Whole Box Wrap

Click the link below for a free Printable of the wrap. You just need to add your own photo. If you don't have photoshop. Just print your photo out and glue on top. The size of the photo is 3 3/4"x 3"
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1cfufbcuj8x2xsp/VALENTINES2013printable.pdf

 

My new Grey Living room

 

 I have had the same living room for quite some time so I thought it was time for some change. But it had to be on a budget so I started planning. 

I took this photo at night so the grey looks different

Here is my before photo

Things that I did to update our living room:

WALLS: Sherwin Williams - Dove Tail Gray 

Wall Pattern, Just like Emily from Jones Design Company I fell in love with Ballard Designs moroccan trellis curtains, but they were too costly for me so I thought I would paint the design on my main entrance wall.  I made my own template with a cereal box. I found the tutorial here: http://jonesdesigncompany.com/decorate/painted-wallpaper-a-tutorial/

NEW LIGHTING: The Chandelier came from lowes it is the Style Selections 3-Light Antique Bronze Crystal Chandelier http://www.lowes.com/pd_401897-2121-2836-CH-3_4294687726__
The Blue Globe Lamps came from Home Goods. 

TURTLE PETS:  My husband built the two story tortoise table under the front window. Using two old Grape Crates. Then for the water turtle we cut down the legs of our soffa back table and placed the tank on top to fit it nicely under the stairs

WINDOW TREATMENTS: I purchased the White sheer panels from IKEA and then I made the burlap drapes for about $45.00. I measured and cut then used fusion tape to make my top pocket and also to finish the bottom of the drapes. 

ARTWORK: I painted the awake my soul painting for my husband. It is a field in Georgia where he is from. Some of the other artwork is mostly mine or provided by my talented kids. My wall of memory Plaques are made by a Artist named Sid Dickens. I have been collecting his plaques for several years.

RUG: This was a Christmas present from my parents. I love anything chevron. It came from OverStock.com 

FURNITURE: My Blue cabinet used to be black. I spray painted it a beautiful Teal Blue sanded it a bit to distress it and rubbed the edges with a bit of brown.

 

FLOORING: We have had this flooring for a few years now and I ABSOLUTLLY love it!!
It is Ceramic tile made to look like wood flooring. They come in planks just like wood. But without the worry like you do with wood or pergo flooring. You don't have to worry about dogs or kids scratching it or even water damage. We previously had pergo and had lots of issues with water damage. Then one day the toilet in our downstairs bathroom split in half and water went everywhere. It ruined our pergo flooring. One of our neighbors had it and I fell in love. Alot of people who come over don't realize it is tile and are surprised when I tell them. I even had my housekeeper fooled. :) 
Now it isn't warm or soft like wood flooring is, but I would take a cold floor than a ruined floor any day.  

 

   

  

Owl Valentine Mail Box

   

       We started out by making a regular mailbox and ended with an owl. Whoooo would have known. :)

I wasn't planning on doing a tutorial on this, because I kind of made this without really knowing what to do. But Basically I used 2 cereal boxes and duct tape.I just started folding one cereal box to create the shape of a mailbox and used the duct tape to re-enforce the shape. Then used another box for the ends. I taped one shut and left the top un-sealed so you can open and close it. The bow up top is for you pull the top open, for friends to put Valentines inside. Then we decorated. We used one sheet of 12x12 scrapbook paper for the body. I think it turned out really cute. Emelia had tons of fun making those hearts now that she learned how to.

Happy Valentines Day!

 This is what it looked like before we decorated it with paper.

 That is one happy Valentine!

Valentines LOVE Bug Craft.

   

   

With Valentines Day around the corner I thought we would make a cute Valentines craft. Sure you can make a ton of these and pass out as Valentines, but you would have to eat a whole lot of fruit cups to get the bodies. So we opted to just make a few for Emelia's really close Friends. My kids really love the mandarin oranges that come in those fruit cups, so I started saving them. I few years ago we made turtle noise makers out of them here is the link: http://creativelyquirkyathome.blogspot.com/2011/03/turtle-shakers.html

The other day I envisioned them as Lady bugs. So here we are.

What you need: (to make one)

1 ea   Fruit Cup (washed and dried)

1 ea   1 1/2" Black Pom Pom

1 ea   Black Pipe Cleaners

1 set  Googly Eyes

1 bg  Candy (we choose to do Hershey Kisses)

1 ea   Red, white and black construction paper. 

         Pink wiltons gel food coloring

         Black marker

         Glue Gun

How to make it:

Step One: Take your fruit cup and trace a circle on the white paper., cut small hearts out of the Black paper, and cut a medium size heart out of the red paper. Make sure it fits on the white circle. Glue it on top and write your message.

Step Two: Put a little bit of food coloring onto a paper towel and wipe the inside of your fruit cup, so it stains the inside. Let it dry. Next Fill it up with your candy, and then put hot glue along the edges of the top of the fruit cup and glue your white circle onto it. 

Step Three: Flip it over and put your black pom pom on for the head, curl your antenna and glue them right behind the head add your eyes and black heart spots and your Done!

We made a few of these. We had originally placed the lady bug on a green leaf and wrote our message there and then tried one without the leaf. My daughter liked it without the leaf so we went in that direction. Here is a photo of the one on a leaf. 

Happy Valentines Everyone.

Look later this week I will be adding our Valentine gift/card for my daughters class party!

Visit Skip to my Lou for some more great Valentines Projects!
 Click on the photo below. Once you are on the site, click on Made by You Monday's.