Summer Boredom is slowly setting in around our house. The girls have been out of school for a little over a month (hard to believe really). Living in Arizona it seems school lets out earlier for Summer (at least as I remember from my childhood).
Yes. Our girls are busy with vacations, friends and Summer programs but they also have ALOT of free time. Let's just say the Summer here can be "scorching HOT" so trying to figure out some "inside" activities falls on my short list of things to do.
One of the other challenges I have are the ages of my girls. Shelby being 13 and Ellie is 6. The funny thing is I can routinely find Ellie in my studio scrapbooking away. With the activites I had planned I was curious to see not only how much fun they would have but which of the activites would hold their attention longest.
So, I cleared off the table an prepared for the "creating chaos" I was sure would happen.
On the agenda were three different kits. Two of the three Ellie could do and the third was just for Shelby.
Then inviting friends over to join in the fun.
I had the kits on the table and the girls got started Friday morning.
The first kit was The Adhesive Rub On Kit by We R Memory Keepers.
The kit includes adhesive words, phrases, flowers, swirls etc. in the following categories: Family, Swirls and Flourishes, Love, Thank you and Alphabet.
It also includes various colors of glitter, foil and flocking sheets.
At first this kit looked kind of complicated but it turned out to be quite fabulous!
AND Mess Free! I did not have to worry about glitter and flock getting everywhere. Also, it was easy enough for Ellie to play with. (My kind of kit!)
I pulled out "naked" things they could embellish.
Notebooks, Flower Shapes, Cards and Tote Bags.
I read the instructions to the girls and the secret to this kit (at least for them) was letting them know that once they choose an adhesive image they love, they need to cut the image out of the sheet. Take the plastic backing off and place it on thier project. Then just rub it on.
After the explanation Shelby and Katie put together a plan of action: they put the glitter, foil and flock sheets into color categories.
I helped Ellie do the same thing with hers.
The girls started with the notebooks and then moved onto the flowers.
They worked ALL day Friday and when late afternoon rolled around they could not believe how quickly the time had gone by.
(It was hard for ME to believe that Ellie had sat in the same spot most of the day and did not want to stop for the night.)
The girls loved this kit SO much that Shelby's friend, Katie ended up staying the night at our house so they could get up and keep going with their creations in the morning.
When morning came they were working on the last of the flowers when Jon joined in the fun. Now, Jon is a manly man. Motorcycle riding, tool wheeling man. When I saw him sit down with the girls it put a BIG smile on my face. He was having the best time and working with flock none the less. Once the flowers were complete the girls were excited to start embellishing their totes. The totes were canvas and I wasn't sure the adhesive and/or the glitter, flocking or foil would work.
The flock did OK but the glitter turned out awesome!
As the girls were organizing their adhesive, glitter, flock and foil sheet leftovers, they informed me they would be keeping every scrap they did not use.
Right before school starts back up they want to decorate their school binders with the rest of this kit. So, more Summer boredom will be busted! LOL!!
The next kit was the Martha Stewart Farm Animal Kit.
This kit also kept them busy. I had purchased two of them, one for Ellie and another one for the big girls.
Ellie really wanted her Daddy to help. Jon pulled up a chair next to her and got started. Ellie got the background all set up and the pipe cleaners arranged. Jon was the one to actually do the deed of putting them together.
Ellie thought they could also be used as a mustache! LOL!
The great thing about Martha Stewart is there are no extra tools needed.
The pipe cleaners are pre-cut and each animal has its own bag of parts.
Jon did manage to loose an eyeball for one of the animals. It was later recovered and attached. (In his defense, those black eyeballs are very tiny and easy to loose!)
Ellie is still carrying all of the animals everywhere around the house.
Shelby was having fun with this as well but after Ellie hounded her for half an hour about wanting more animals made the appeal kinda wore off. LOL!!!!
Shelby did finish all the animals after lunch.
I purchased the next kit just for Shelby. The Bo Bunny Press Livin' is Easy 9x9 Album Class kit.
I have been thinking a lot lately about perspective. When I scrapbook our stories it is how I feel or how I see the different things in our lives. So, I wanted to see things from Shelby's point of view.
I did not tell her about my alterior motives but instead just let her create a minibook about her Summer this year. She has done three pages and left room in the rest of the book so she can add more stories and photos that are yet to happen.
The kit comes with step by step instructions. Now, if you have a teenager like mine (a creative mind all her own) then you will probably find that they will start off using the instructions and then decide to "tweak" it to match their own style.
As Shelby got further into the project she started making changes to fit what she had in mind. She did use just the product in the kit (with the exception of the blue flower on the cover) to complete the album.
Shelby informed me that she now wants to do one of these albums every Summer.
We'll see how far that goes. LOL!
Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs!
Dedra
