Our First Giveaway!!!

Congratulations to Amy Epley, who won the drawing for "Jesus Loves the Little Children!" Keep tuning in for more giveaways.

So I made this felt...what would you call it?...creation :) It's on a 6" wooden embroidery hoop. I called it "Jesus Loves the Little Children."

CCC MOPS, you can win it by posting a comment below by 11 pm on Wednesday Sept 30. I will announce the winner at MOPS on Thursday. If you are not there, I'll still get it to you.

Journaling

I started my first diary when I was 12, at the suggestion of someone at church. We were moving to France, I was about to be a teenager--what better time to start recording my life? I would have loved to show you my beat up diary with a teddy bear on the cover, but it is in a bin with a good chunk of my other journals, buried under a stack of other (heavy) boxes. About half of my entries ran something like this: "We had potato soup and cheese for supper. It was good." The other half were about a boy who liked me and the silly, mushy letters he kept sending me. As a matter of fact, maybe I should dig it out just to read some of those letters again! :) Then, over the years, I filled several volumes with more boy entries, none of whom wrote me mushy letters. Isn't that the way it goes? But the entries I really cherish are the ones I started after I met God at the age of 16. I kept track of what God was saying to me, through the Bible, through others, through my experiences. Those are the REAL journals, the ones where I recorded what was important. I have kept the habit of recording what's important to me, maybe not as regularly as some do, but I figure an irregular record is still better then nothing.  You can see by the picture above that I like all different types of  journals.

 And below are some photos of my most recent journal, which is mostly about being a mommy. I record things the kids do or say that I want to remember, but I also write about my life so that Lily (or Ian) can read it later and know that I struggled with the same things they do. Maybe they'll cut me some slack for the ways I mess up, too. :)

Anyway, I say all that to introduce our craft this month. We'll be making journals from cool paper, and I'll tell you more about that at our next meeting. But I wanted you to already be thinking about what you will do with that pretty journal. As you may have already noticed, I have links to some journaling prompts over to the left. You might look through those to get some ideas.

So whether you want to use your journal for just jotting things down, for recording your prayers, for keeping track of your kids' cute sayings or for something else entirely, it's yours, and it's there to be used. Don't let the pretty paper intimidate you into letting sit in a drawer unused.

Felt!

So I bought some little felt craft sheets at Walmart the other day, because I am always seeing felt crafts online. I don't know if they are nice enough for these projects, but I might try one of them anyway and see how it turns out. If you try one of them, let me know! I'd love to see what you come up with.

Where to get Shrinky Dinks

In case you would like to do your very own Shrinky Dinks projects, you can find them at Hobby Lobby, AC Moore, Target, I think, and at the Shrinky Dinks website: shrinkydinks.com. There are kits and different types and colors of paper.

Here are some project ideas I found online. Have fun!

Lots of ideas from all over the web.

Some Shrinky Dinks jewelry ideas.

Some Father's Day ideas you could use for other things, too.

Our First Meeting of 09-10

Welcome to MOPS! Or welcome back. We're so glad you're here this year. We have some fun stuff planned, and have actually already done some fun stuff for our first meeting. We made our "nametags," which are really the coffee cups we'll use for the rest of the year. We also made diaper bag tags from Shrinky Dinks (how retro and fun was that?!). So I'll post the tutorials for those who missed it and also for cooking your Shrinky Dinks.

First, the mugs. Easy peasy: just use permanent paint like the DecoColor paint pens we have and decorate your white IKEA cup. Please be sure to put your name, your kids' names and your last name on the cup somewhere. We'll have all the materials available for the first few meetings. 

NOTE: We will leave the cups at the Foundation between meetings, which means your table will need to rotate the job of washing and storing them every meeting. While you are washing the cup, why not pray for the mom?

OK, now for the Shrinky Dinks. Here is a link to a detailed tutorial. Keep in mind she is doing bottle tags, so you don't have to use the same dimensions. My tags started out as 5.5" x 8.5" and 4.5" x 8.5. The sheets are 8.5" x 10".

Some tips: Don't use dry erase markers like she suggests. It doesn't come off very easily and now I have a big blob of it on the front of mine. If you want the shiny side to be the front, either pick a design that is easy to draw backwards (like block letters) or write your child's name in dark marker on a piece of paper and turn the paper over and draw it backwards on the back of the paper. 

Keep your edges curvy and soft. Anything pointy will just get pointier and harder when you cook it.

For Cooking your Shrinky Dinks: Preheat your toaster oven (preferred) or conventional oven to 325. Place the Shrinky Dinks colored side up, at least an inch apart, on foil or a paper bag or parchment paper. Place on a cookie sheet and put in the oven. Watch your Shrinky Dinks for 1-3 minutes.  (If your oven, like mine, doesn't have a window, keep the oven closed but check on the tags every few seconds.  If you leave the door open, it will be too cool and they will not finish.) DO NOT FREAK OUT when they curl and shrivel and look generally messed up. They will do that until they flatten out. If one of your pieces sticks to itself, gently pull it apart. (Yes, put your hand in the oven!) Once they flatten out, let them finish up for about 30 more seconds. Pull them out of the oven, slide the sheet off the cookie sheet and place a cereal box or other paper on top to keep them from curling. Now you have your very own Shrinky Dinks masterpiece!

Our No TV Day, part 2

Well, the Fish game went so well that when Lily came to me with her broken "instament" from church (from which she had long ago spilled the beans) and said "Fix it, please," I was inspired. We went into the kitchen and I turned into crafty Mommy (No TV is apparently good for me, too!) and pulled things together, and next thing you know, we had colorful maracas!

You need:

2 clear plastic cups

scissors

colorful beads

colorful tape (duct tape and clear tape work the best)

Step One: Pick your beads! This was by far the most fun--and messiest!--part of the project.

Step Two: Cut the cups. This is a job for Mommy! One cup should be taller than the other so they can fit together.

Step Three: Tape it together. This can be a bit tricky, since the cups are       angled. Don't expect perfection or beauty--these are disposable cups, people!

Step Four: Enjoy the noise! (I don't recommend this activity if you have a  headache.)