Thankful Thursday - plus pic of silhouette cameo created art by kids

Being positive and grateful is a good mental exercise and I'm feeling sluggish in that department. So since today is the 26th and I missed a week or two, I'm doing makeup exercises today.

Things I am thankful for:

 #1 I'm thankful for my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ.
 #2 I'm thankful for my husband. (I helped the kids make the artwork below for Father's Day.)

Kid Created Art (with help of the silhouette cameo)

#3 I'm thankful for playgroup which gives me two hours of me time a week.
#4 I'm thankful for friends, even if they do move away.
#5 I'm thankful for music.
#6 I'm thankful that my kids are learning to play instruments.
#7 I'm thankful my parents insisted that I learn an instrument (flute).
#8 I'm thankful for blogging. It's a great creative outlet and I love seeing other people's creations too.
#9 I'm thankful for rain (we finally had some last week).
#10 I'm thankful for my bike and bike trailer. This morning another Mom and I went biking with our kid trailers in tow. We were passed by a group of "pro" bikers. I'm sure we made them smile - us and our mountain bikes and our kids!

Time's up (this was a timed exercise simply because I need to go pick up a kiddo from playgroup now).
Use your mental muscles and see how many things you can be thankful for in 5 minutes!

Sewing Lesson Fun

Monsters with teeth and pocket mouths!

First time sewing! Notice the "stool" so he can reach the pedal.

Vinyl lettering on the penants - it's not cheating - it's SMART crafting!

Apparently even kindergarten students can sew on buttons.

Southpaw Crafts is offering sewing lessons for ages 7 and up starting in October (contact me if you live in San Antonio and are interested). As I've prepared the curriculum my own children have been my pattern/project testers. I've been very pleasantly surprised at how well they do. Once I told the boys they could use the sewing machine (with close supervision of course) they were super excited to make monsters and penant banners to personalize their room. (They have bunk beds so yes that is my ceiling you see in the picture. Don't look too close because cutting in paint lines isn't my area of expertise.)

Fall Ombre Sign Craft

My friend Maria and I hosted a craft day this week and we made the beautiful Fall sign pictured. If you are local (San Antonio) and would like to join us contact me at southpawcrafts (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll let you know when our next craft day is.

Mailing Packages is Fun to Do

Here's a little pic of what I've been doing lately. I love my customers and fellow music lovers!

Cutting Poly Satin with Silhouette Cameo - Paying it Forward

It's Thankful Thursday. As I have started an online craft business I have gleaned helpful information from many people. Some I knew before starting my business. Others I "met" through online interactions with their businesses. Almost without exception everyone has been very kind in sharing their expertise. And I am thankful for their help.

So when a friend posted on FB that she was considering a cricut or a silhouette cameo and wanted to know if the cameo could cut poly satin material that she uses in creating super hero capes, I was happy to try it out for her before she decides what to buy. (And I love experimenting with new techniques and materials.)

A picture is worth a thousand words so I'll let the pictures do most of the explaining.

Cutting circles without interfacing - the fabric moves too much even with a sticky mat.

Cutting fish with wonder under interfacing with paper backing stuck to mat. Much better. This fish is approx. 4"x2.5".

Small fish was 2.5"x2". Better results with larger images to cut. Most of this fraying would be covered by topstitching your applique. The larger fish didn't fray much at all.

Cameo screen shot. Settings: speed-2, thickness-33(maxed), blade-10(maxed). Double cut.

It works!

Suggestions for perfecting the cut: fresh blade, better application of wonder under (only my second time using wonder under so I may not have done the best job of ironing it on), cut larger designs. You could also try starching the fabric to make it stiffer.

In the pictures you can see that I used a cricut mat in my silhouette cameo. Works great. Costs less!

Happy cutting!

Cheap Family Fun - marshmallow wars!

This week I changed the song "it's a marshmallow world in the winter..." to "it's a marshmallow war in the kitchen." For some reason b-o-r-e-d spells f-i-g-h-t for some of my children. To disrupt this cycle I needed something creative and constructive for them to do. I'm not sure that marshmallow wars are constructive, but they met the creativity requirement and the supplies were already on hand. So the battle commenced.

Battle Equipment Needed

• balloons (we used 9" round balloons from the dollar store)
• cups (we used old sippy cups that were about to be retired and an ancient plastic cup - I found that my disposable plastic cups were too flimsy for the job)
• ammo - marshmallows (pom poms would work too - if it's edible the ammo is more likely to be retrieved and not scatters throughout your house for weeks on end)

Tactical Planning

• I found that a box cutter was the best weapon for cutting the cups. (Of course the children should be granted amnesty from this task. And your weapon of cup destruction should be heavily guarded to prevent friendly fire injuries.)
• Cut the tip off of your balloon before putting a knot in the end of it. (That way it's easier to make a straight line with your almost-never-used-for-quilting rotary cutting equipment - scissors work fine too)
• Don't cut too much off of your balloon. It needs to still have some curve to the help the balloon stay on the cup.
• Ammo works best when placed in the "belly button" of the weapon and shot in an arched fashion. It may fall out if you try to shoot straight or down.
• Beware - you are now a target! 
• Feed the children before war so they get some nutrition in for the day! (The 2 year old probably ate way too many marshmallows, but was thrilled to be the ammo retriever and deactivator.)
• Informal testing concludes that marshmallows are relatively painless. 

Ammo works best when placed in "belly button" of shooter.

not so LEGAL TEAM fine print: Play at your own risk. Marshmallow shooters are weapons of mass hilariousness and should be treated as such. Extended play includes risk of stomachache.

Creativity in Kids

A friend introduced me to TED Talks and the first one I listened to (and I've only listened to 3 more since) was a talk given by Ken Robinson titled "How Schools Kill Creativity".  My take away quote was this: "If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never do come up with anything original."

This summer we have been cultivating creativity at our house. Most of the time this is fabulous and wonderful, but I have to admit not being too excited about my children learning how to climb door frames.

I am thankful for creativity and that my children can harness their imaginations to entertain themselves and their siblings.