Shrink Art Charms

I'd like to take this moment to tell the entire bloggy world that I am not an energetic mother. My friend Beth can raise four children more effortlessly than me and I've come to terms with that. And... more surprisingly... she is still very much my friend even though I covet said energy. (Hi, Beth!)

That being said, I'm going to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out this Skydeck adventure we had for all its worth. Not only will we be writing our adventures in a scrapbook. We will also be making bracelet charms out of shrink art. Klutz makes an amazing Shrink Art Jewelry book. I'm all for saving some dough, but in my crafty opinion, you should totally spring for this set.

(And yes, I realize this post is a bit on the girly side. However... boys would totally enjoy shrink art, too... just without the jewelry part.)

Here's why:
It comes with LOTS of instructions, picture, graphics, templates, beads, hooks and inspiration.
And... AND... it has a charm bracelet as well as a ring sizer.
SCORE!

For those uninitiated in the art of shrink paper, here's how it works:

1. Draw on shrink paper with permanent marker or colored pencil and cut out your image.

2. Put it in the oven for a few minutes.
(Check directions for oven temperature.) The art will shrink in the oven, thicken and turn into a hard plastic substance. It's amazing.

Back to my regularly scheduled programming:
I found the Skydeck logo on their website and printed it out to the size I wanted it. I had to keep in mind that it was going to shrink to about one third or one quarter of its original size.

Here is Morgan happily coloring away:

Here is the resulting charm. By the end of the summer, she should have a wrist full of memories.

Hooray for summer fun!

Morgan and Scrapbooking

(I am about to do a series of posts on summertime sanity. Here is the first in my series.)

____________________________

Last week or so, I had my Morgan home for one day because there was no school. By 9am, I nearly went bonkers with how restless she was. Dear me, how in the world am I going to keep this child occupied this summer?

For starters, I want to combine work with fun. In order to keep her writing this summer, I thought I'd start a scrapbook.

You may be thinking, "Really?" and picturing mounds of tape and stickers and scrapping paper.

I'm going to keep it a little simpler. The idea is that whenever Morgan and I have an adventure day (i.e.- zoo or Arboretum), we'll each write a page about it. During our day out at said adventure, we'll be sure to pick up a post card or two to remember our fun time.

There are many benefits to this:
1. She and I are doing this TOGETHER.

2. She is keeping up her writing skills from kindergarten.

3. In a court of law, if she sues me for "summer boredom", I can refer to this scrapbook as "Exhibit A".

Here's our first entries:
We wrote our thoughts about being on the Skydeck in Chicago at The Willis Tower. I wrote about how scared I was at the top of the 103 floors.

I love Morgan's side.
It says:

What I liked the top becuase I got to poottoo corters into a mishine and I saw the hol toun then we when't home.

Let me translate for you:

What I liked: the top because I got to put quarters in a machine and I saw the whole town. Then we went home.