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I did do another little crafty thing. It's simple really, but it makes me smile and feel just a little clever.
Some background: This summer I've been helping out a friend by watching her daughter most Thursdays while mom works. It's been fun for me (a mom of three grown sons) to spend a little time most weeks with a girl-child.
We've done a variety of things, but most Thursdays I've tried to get in a little crafting or some "handy" project. We've tried doodling, painting with watercolor pencils and water brushes, crochet, cooking and baking...
For this past week's project we got a little messy.
Using cardboard heart-shaped boxes (that were miniature chocolate candy gift boxes), we painted them with some white chalk paint...
then decoupaged them with napkins:
Simple, I know. If we'd had more time I'd loved to have layered more on these. And those more experienced with decoupage would have some suggestions for making these fancier.
But for a quickie little craft, I'm actually kind of impressed that we pulled this off with few hitches -- other than spilling half the bottle of decoupage medium 😣, tossing a loaded paint brush when a rogue wasp startled my young charge 😲, and lastly... having my cell phone turned off (accidentally) so her mother couldn't reach me for a half hour when she got off work. 😟 I promise... it was an accident! She assured me she wasn't worried. She just texted me and told me to bring her daughter home when I was ready to. 👍
About 30 minutes after I thought she would have called, I checked my cell phone - and yep. There was the message (along with the record of calls she tried to make). And the volume on my phone was turned off. Checking it later, I saw it was in "airplane" mode. I have no idea how I had done that!
I was embarrassed that this happened on my watch, but it was nice to have the extra time to finish our little projects. 😏
School starts next week, so this was our last time together for the summer. It was fun while it lasted!
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Somewhere over there! 👉
What a sweet time you had this summer with the young lady. She will have some great memories of fun time with you. As for the cross stitch. Now it looks like a big tree stump among flowers. Hmmmmm, this is interesting seeing the main feature is done in a dark color and yet there is some light coloring in the background.
ReplyDeleteIt does look like a tree stump, doesn't it? You're getting warmer. There are definitely flowers there. ;^)
DeleteThose boxes are so fantastic. Hmmm...my guess -A garden wishing well surrounded by flowers and grasses?
ReplyDeleteNice story about 'accidently' turning off the phone. lol. God knew you wanted just a bit more time with the girl child!
That's a clever guess. And now that you made it, I can kind of see that, too. But nope! :) Flowers - yes. Wishing well - nope.
DeleteOh what a lovely craft! I think it was perfect, no need for it to be more complicated! Very lovely! The cross-stitch looks like little flowers and something big in the middle. Looking forward to seeing what it will become!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Elizabeth. I think you're right. Doing this with a child (when she had never done any decoupage) it was probably just perfect. And end results were really cute.
DeleteWhat an awesome babysitter you are!
ReplyDeleteAwww... It was all fun for me. She was a very easy-going child to provide care for.
DeleteSuper cute little boxes. I bet your charge didn't mind the extra time with you at all! And I'm guessing a garden for the mystery cross stitch.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Maria. A garden (of some sort) is definitely part of the picture.
DeleteWhat a great fun thing to do with a young charge - I think any amount of crafts done with a young person is time well spent. I was going to suggest zentangling would be fun for her, but I see your time is over for the summer. Too bad! As for another guess - a moon behind a silhouette of something, but no clue what.
ReplyDeleteZentangle - that's what we did that I called doodling. We drew our hands, cut them out, glued them onto another colored piece of paper, then drew lines over the whole thing and zentangled! Or doodled. ;^) No moon will appear in the picture, but this IS a silhouette of something.
DeleteHmm...it looks like a tree but not sure there's enough room left for one? A mystery cross stitch? I'll have to go back and visit the past YOP posts. What fun you must have had watching your friends daughter! The boxes turned out lovely...great little gift idea too...I need to remember that. I want to co me over and craft with you!
ReplyDeleteIt does look like a tree. And you're right... it doesn't look like there enough room for a whole tree. ;^) I'd love to have you close enough to pop over for a craft day, Sam. (sigh)
DeleteThe boxes are gorgeous. And as for the cross stitch, I'm now guessing at an animal of sorts - a cat maybe?
ReplyDeleteNo, but that's an interesting guess! :)
DeleteI think the cross stitch is going to be a bunny or a hare. It’s exciting waiting to see what it becomes. I love your little boxes, that’s the sort of thing I liked to do with my mum when I was young.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting guess! But no. ;^) I think it might take another week or two before it starts coming a little clearer. Meanwhile, I'm having fun reading all the guesses.
DeleteThe little boxes look so great!!! Great job on those! Hmmm...I'm thinking a Halloween theme for the mystery guess...a haunted house of sorts...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rain. Nothing haunted in my cross stitch project, but good guess!
DeleteWhat fun for her and you! I am sure you made her summer a little brighter. I think our cross-stitch is a fall piece with a squirrel and some falling leaves. I had a chuckle over the phone being turned off--because recently my husband had been complaining and complaining that I wasn't answering his calls--and when I finally quit blaming his phone for the issue and checked mine, it turned out that somehow I had actually blocked him!! :)
ReplyDeletexoxo
Uh Oh! We've had that scenario play out many times. We each get to take turns on who's got their sound turned down, or accidentally put it in the airplane mode, or any number of other dumb things. So glad to have the modern technology of cell phones, but we just can't seem to keep up with them.
DeleteI've always wanted to try that napkin decoupage technique! There are so many gorgeous napkins available on Etsy!
ReplyDeleteI found some great napkins for this purpose at Tuesday Morning. And pretty inexpensive, too.
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