Project: Artwork - When two is better.

I am lucky enough to have two best friends, (besides my mother)

 and better yet, two best friends who not only LIKE each other, but are truly soul mates. If you ask them they will tell you that is a true statement. This is great for me because whatever I do for one as a gift I can usually do for the other, and both of them 9 times out of 10 love it. There is probably that one rare occasion where I totally screw it up, I'm human, it happens, but I try not to have that happen. Granted, usually the gifts aren't IDENTICAL, but they are pretty darn close. They both have their own sense of style, but for all intents and purposes this project totally works for both of them. 

I'm an admitted art supply hoarder. I totally need a "She Shed" or a "Crafting Cave" in order to be away from my family, get in my zone, and get my creative streak on. Men have Man Caves; so I feel that one day I'd love to have a space of my own too. Someday I hope to have a quiet little place to drum up awesome creative ideas, but until then our kitchen table doubles as a play area for kids and grown up's a like. 

Today's Project I kind of stumbled across picking up odds and ends over God knows how long…remember Me <---- The HOARDER! At least in my defense, my mother (GOD LOVE HER) just recently helped me organize the fiasco that is my working space downstairs. So now I know where everything is.  So lets gets started.

What you'll need:

(2) 16X20'' Canvas 

Acrylic Paint

Sponge Brush

1 Pack of Mambi Sheets (71/4'' X 8'' or 18cm X 20cm)

Ruler

Pencil

Chip Decor Words

Xyron Adhesive Runner/Glue

Mod Podge (Optional)

So I was at Tuesday Morning's yesterday, and they had a wicked great sale on Mambi Sheets. Before yesterday I had NO idea what Mambi Sheets were. (Yes, I'm slow to the party, forgive me) But I'm all for the DIY stuff so I picked up two packages of these originally $6.00 pennant packs, and I picked them up for $1.49. Seriously, why wouldn't you pick that up? ANNNNNNND this is why I'm now out of the closet as a art supply hoarder. So I picked up two, but in doing this project you only need 2/3 of one pack to make this project. I also had a pack of canvases downstairs already, so there ya go! 

So these Mambi Sheets are strange colors. They are a grey, beige, yellow, and white. I'm all for being a paint mixologist, but it's freaking hard to get some of these hues exactly. SO, when in doubt, go for the basics, or something as close to it as you can. I went with a warm light yellow and a grey. Jen loves warmer tones like yellows, oranges, and reds and Mander loves purple and grey. 

I can make this work! Light yellow and grey it is!

So these Mambi sheets don't tear off as easily as one would hope, be careful when you go to tear these puppies apart, they are a wicked pain. Plus there is a hole that you will have to get rid of too.

You'll need to measure down just past the hole. Remove that part.

Went to my favorite happy place - Hobby Lobby! 

Originally these chip board pieces were $4 a piece, but today they were 50% off! Seriously, who doesn't just love a sale!? So now that we've got our canvases painted, our sheets torn out, cut, and all laid out on how we envision this whole thing looking…it's time to get assembling.

NOT the final layout I went with, but you've got
to mess with it until it's just right…you get the point.

So my awesome Mother-in-Law picked me up some of these Xyron Adhesive Runners. They are incredible! HOLY SMOKES! Again, I must be new to this whole paper thing, I'm a glue girl from way back, old school style crafting. If you haven't had the pleasure of using this stuff, you must get some! I give it two thumbs up! Seriously in love with it!

I did go a little old school and use glue too.

See the sheen on the picture below. This stuff sticks like a CHAMP! I did run out at one point, and had to revert to using my old standby…glue. Either works, both have their good points, and their not so good points. The Xyron, once you put it down you have a hard time moving it again, that kind of sucked since I was trying to get the placing just right, but the glue was perfect for moving it around, but it took forever to dry. It also kept popping up in places. So either work, but if I'd have to do it all over again I'd use the Xyron.

Such good stuff!

Okay, so it took some time to get the paper placed in the right spots, but I think it really turned out nicely. I tried to get the spacing as evenly as possible too. Just don't look TOO closely, just stand back, and look at the project overall. I even put a couple of coats of Mod Podge on top. That part is totally optional, I'm quite sure it would be fine without it. I used the Red Gloss Luste' Mod Podge, if you are so inclined.

Before the Mod Podge, it looked fine.

Mod Podge will make the colors pop more.

After, the MP still wasn't completely dry, so
the paper was still a bit buckled. 

With Mod Podge, every time I use it, I'll be honest it freaks me out. It buckles the paper every.single.time. It makes me crazy! What I need to remember is that it doesn't stay like that forever, and with a little patience, a little TLC, and some manipulation, the paper turns out just fine.

Believe Amanda!

 So after everything was said and done, this is how it all ended up today. Manda's, on the left was still a little wet still from the MP, but Jen's was completely dry and popped back into shape. Hopefully both of these will look great in both of their houses!

Godmother's Day presents complete! SURPRISE!
These colors are more true to the real thing.

So all in all, if you liked this idea, you could technically use paper that you have around your house, cut it to size to fit whatever size canvases you have sitting around the house, duplicate this post in any color, with any kind of paper; plus if you are fresh out of chip board words, and you are feeling frisky, you could always paint the words on the paper. The sky is the limit crafting friends!

Go, Create, and Be Merry!

Charity: Violence Prevention Center in Belleville

Every six to eight months I like to go through my closets and get rid of the clothes I am not currently wearing. If I ask my children to get rid of their belongings, and clothes to donate, why should I be any different? Since I've lost my job I've taken this time at  home to spring clean a lot of the space that we currently are not using, probably won't use often in the future, and just doing an overall sweep of the house to declutter everything. I didn't ever notice how seriously cluttered our house was until I had to live in it 24/7! Our house is never "dirty" just cluttered like crazy!

So for the past couple of years I've donated to the Violence Prevention Center in Belleville AKA The Battered Woman's Shelter. It really is a great charity to support if you have the time to drive to Belleville to drop off donations. The sign outback says they take donations Tuesday-Saturday, but I drove the 40 minutes there this last Monday, and they were kind enough to let me donate a ton of clothes! Please visit their link below.

www.vpcswi.org

So this space lives in our laundry room, and seriously it's not been this empty since we put up the shelving unit you see here almost eight years ago. Our house is far from being totally clutter free, but sometimes you have to take the first step in your journey to get to where you eventually want to be!

It's getting there…slowly.

There's a huge box underneath all of these!

The staff that volunteers there really are amazing. They are sweet and accommodating even when I didn't know the drop off days and times. Also they have a Shelter Shop where you can purchase merchandise to also help them raise money to raise awareness. Please, if you have the time, and have anything to donate to them, feel free to help this cause! It truly is a great one! 

Charity: St. Louis Crisis Nursery

I had first heard about the Crisis Nursery from my best friend Jen. She really is quite an amazing person, and she shared with me that she tries to volunteer there when she can find the extra time between a full time job, part-time school, and full time life. The stories that she has shared with me nearly broke my heart. 

crisisnurserykids 

The Saint Louis Crisis Nursery is committed to the prevention of child abuse and neglect and provides emergency intervention, respite care and support to families in crisis through:

• Short-term care for young children in a safe and nurturing environment
• Helping families resolve crisis
• Offering resources for empowerment, ongoing support and parent education.
• Community outreach and awareness
• Advocacy for children and families.

Since you all know by now that I have three very spirited, and precocious daughters you all know what kind of toys we must have at our house on any given day. In this age of gluttony and overwhelming need for toys by children, and the need to give presents by various family members and friends, you can only imagine what our very small, but quaint house must look like. You've seen the posts from months past, you know we've got "stuff," and it's coming out of our ears! 

I've always wanted to set a good example for our daughters, an example that will resinate through the rest of their lives. I want to teach them that there will always be people with less, and that giving is the best way to show gratitude and appreciation for the life we have. We have enough, God do we have enough, plus I wanted to teach my daughters that to give to someone less fortunate is truly a blessing for the giver. Nothing makes you feel better about yourself then giving to another human being; whether that giving is your time, your energy, a gift, or giving a donation to your favorite cause. We could one day end up on the receiving end of charity, because like my mother has always told me, "When you wake up in the morning, you have no idea where you are going to lay your head at night." Be grateful, be humble, be compassionate, and be kinder than you feel.

Every three to four months at our house I do make it a habit to make the girls go thru their toys and put aside all the toys that they have not played with in over a month. That's the rule; newer toys can stay, but if they haven't played with it in a month, there's probably a very slim chance that they will play with that toy ever again. So we've been doing this for a while. This morning it took a little over an hour to sort thru and narrow down the stash of toys that we had accumulated over Christmas and various other toys that have fallen by the way side. We had three boxes and two bags full of donations to give.

Boxes and Bags full of previously loved goodies!

If you are interested in donating here is a wish list for the Crisis Nursery:

art paint play dough, especially the multicultural dough model magic craft kits, model kits for older boys multicultural shades of construction paper size 4, 5, 6 diapers and pull-ups Wipes High Efficiency laundry detergent dish soap size AA, AAA, C, D and 9V batteries lotion bubble bath Disney or other Children’s DVDs rated G or PG clothing in sizes 3T-16/18 new underwear and socks kitchen trash bags Dress up clothes for boys and girls Plastic spoons and forks Paper plates Sippy cups Paper towels Lysol Wipes Swiffer cleaning pads and cleaner Culturally Diverse Barbie and Ken dolls, Dolls (boys and girls) Doll Clothing Baby Wash Mega Blocks or Legos Matchbox Cars & Trucks Musical & Light-up Toys Coats and shoes for school aged children Gloves Toys (especially for children ages 8-12) Hair products for African American children Nintendo DS system Laminate Floor Cleaner Cereal & Snacks Enfamil with Lipil (or store brand milk based) Fruit juice Canned Fruit & Vegetables Canned Pasta (ravioli, spaghetti & meatballs) Peanut Butter, Jelly, Macaroni & Cheese Gift Certificates to Shop N Save, Save-A-Lot, Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart Quik Trip Gas Cards. Bus Tickets (Available for purchase from Schnuck’sCustomer Service) are always very much appreciated.  Please remember that these are just suggestions. We do ask however, that you not donate any violent or war-related items Your monetary donation to the Crisis Nursery is tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. We greatly appreciate any dollar amount.

A once loved stuffed dinosaur gets a second chance to be loved at the Crisis Nursery.

They always say that a picture is worth a thousand words.  This was after we had cleaned up, and we were ready to leave. Now let me take a minute to explain this picture, and let me tell you how this morning went. Roo was good with all the toys that we donated, (we even had a celebratory dance party to commemorate the end of the sorting) until Mitch asked her about one toy in particular, and then the waterworks started! Roo loves to give, and someday would love to start her own charity, but she's also not yet seven, and some days is conflicted with her "need" for toys, and her "want" to give. This morning a particular stuffed dinosaur (featured above), which hadn't been touched in months, and was shoved in the space between her wall and her bed made it's way into the bag for donation. Remember the rule, you don't play with it in months it goes. Well, this opened a very big wound for her, given the fact that she'd had that dinosaur for at least three years. This became a serious area of contention between her and I. This is where the giving process can become a tough lesson to learn. Mitch is better with her than I am, he's a teacher, and knows how to deal with difficult behavior more than myself. She and I are both the oldest children, and we are so alike somedays its scary! He has a way of explaining things to her, and helps her understand that her actions today will help her be a better giver in the future. It's still a hard concept for her, but she's working on it.

She'll get there, even if there were tears today.

Soph on the other hand, gives away almost everything she has to anyone. She's an awesome sharer, and an awesome giver. I try not to compare our children to one another, but Soph has a very giving heart. She'd give you her last dime if she knew you needed it more than she did. She's that kind of kid. This behavior may change the older that she gets, it is possible, but for right now she's a good example for Roo. Maybe working together someday they can build their own charity! How seriously awesome would that be?!?!?!?

The Crisis Nursery is off of Gravois Road in St. Louis.

So this is where the teachable moments for me really hits home.  Roo was super ticked at me, and was blatantly honest when we had this conversation:

Roo: Mom, I'm mad at you!

Me: You are huh? Well Sug, that's okay for you to be mad at me. Be mad. I'm okay with that.

Roo: *sulking*

Me: You are going to help me take this stuff into the nursery. I want you to see

where it is going, and who this is going to help, do you understand?

Roo: *tears in her eyes shakes her head yes*

Me: Good, that's settled. You'll see Roo…I promise.

So we arrive, and I opened up the back of the Pilot, and I handed Roo and Sophie each one bag each of the stuffed animals, I took two of the three boxes, and Mitch stayed in the car with Claira. We rang the doorbell, and waited to be let in. As we waited I looked at Roo, and told her to wait and see what was inside. As we walked into the room, which is like a big open studio space, she got to see for the first time all the children that were there. The children that all of her toys were going to bring smiles to their faces. I left her and Soph in the building while I ran outside to grab the last box. When I went back inside the sweet lady who greeted us was telling the girls all about the children who stay at the Crisis Nursery. Roo's eyes were lit up like Christmas morning; in her mind she was like Santa Claus for all of those children who had less than she did. Soph, she just stood there and smiled from ear to ear! 

I had told Roo before, that when a child leaves to go home they get to take one toy home with them, and sometimes that's the only toy that that child has. I told Roo that her beloved stuffed dinosaur was now going to be one of the toys lucky enough to go home with one of those children. How awesome was that to be able to give that child such a gift? So this story too has a happy ending. After we made it back out to the car, and got in, I turned to Roo and asked her if we were now on better terms? She smiled and told me that we were. 

It's hard being a parent, and trying to instill charity and goodness into your children. Someday I hope she looks back on today, and remembers that her small contribution to the Crisis Nursery made another child's life just a little bit better. She might have not liked me for a couple of hours, but I'm here to be her parent not her friend, to grab ahold of these teaching moments, and let them change her attitude about giving back for the better.

The two imps in front of the Crisis Nursery

 Life is about all the little moments that we get to share with others. 

Giving is such a wonderful gift that we give to ourselves, and to others.

I hope you get a chance to give to someone, for any reason you can think of, in the near future.