Posted on Wednesday, October 29, 2014

DIY Painted Pumpkins, Kids Can Do It!

A couple of weeks ago, we took the girls to a pumpkin patch where they picked their own sizes of pumpkins. It was an interesting thing to do as family for sure, especially now the little girl is walking and pretty much wanna do what her big sister does. We also thought that it would be fun for them to decorate it by themselves.

I asked the big girl how she wanted to decorate hers by giving her some clues like with stickers, or glitter, or gems, or markers, or paint. And she decided to paint her pumpkin. And I thought… That will be a messy one!

And of course the little girl also wants to do the same thing like her big sister. So we went with Painted pumpkins.

The big girl wanted a black car on her pumpkin. I thought would be easier for her to paint using stencil. So I got a cat shape at Silhouette Online Store for only $0.75 because Silhouette has 25% deal for all Halloween shapes until October 31. Scored!

I opened the shape on Silhouette Studio Designer Edition Software, resized it to about 4 inch tall and sent to cut the piece of cardstock.

Cat Silhouette (Sarah Hurley)

After that I used pushpins to hold the cat cutout on the pumpkin and traced it using a pencil.

Then she started to paint the cat using kids acrylic paint we had at home. You can use any kind of acrylic paint as long as it is safe for kids. Sometimes the fume from the paint is too strong for kids.

MAKE SURE you have enough scrap paper or old newspaper covering your table before you let the kids star painting.

The big girl took her pumpkin to her school Annual Fall Festival & Pumpkin show on Oct 18th, 2014.

And for the little girl, she used Crayola Finger Paint for kids (this a no mess paint, washable and in tubes). I put red, blue, green and yellow on a paper plate. Then I gave her a brush but she asked for two because her big sister had more than one. Once she had a brush on each hand, she just went ahead express her creativity on her pumpkin.

And she loves her arty pumpkin!

I was so afraid it could get super messy, but turned out both of them were so good with paints! And old newspaper surely helped to prevent the messiness 🙂

What did you do to decorate your pumpkin this year? Did you do it as a family?

===========================================================

Link Up at:

Inspire Me Monday Week #147

Creative Spark Link Party #26

#SoMe2 Week #57

Posted on Monday, October 13, 2014

DIY Fall Leave Paper Wreath

Fall! Fall finally arrived in our area. The colors of leaves decorate every hill and valley, the cooler and the freshness of the air is just perfect 🙂

I went looking for Fall/Autumn theme decorations from our storage and I realized that we do need more decorations in our house and my craft room, too 🙂 So here’s one of the the decorations I made:

Have I told you that I LOVE MY SILHOUETTE CAMEO A LOT? 😀 This handy dandy die cut machine is amazing craft buddy ever! I started with searching for Fall/Autumn Theme cutting file from Silhouette Online Store and found a bunch of them with pretty good deal because I subscribe to their monthly subscription.

I found this pretty Fall Wreath. Open the file on Silhouette Studio Designer Edition. Resize it to the size you like. I did mine to 11″ x 11″. Because I used 10.5″ circle cake base cardboard as the wreath base. After I resized it, ungroup the shapes to cut with different colors.

Once the shape is ready, send them to cut one by one to Silhouette machine. I used Red, Orange and Dark green cardstocks for the leaves and dark brown for the pine cones.

I want the pine cones look more sparkly, so I added some glitter glue all over them and set them aside to dry while I was working on the leaves.

I added the vine for the leaves using my embossing tool and foam pad.

Oh look! They are prettier now 🙂

When I arranged them on the circle cardboard, the center need something. I decided to have a thanksgiving quote for the middle. I found the give thanks phrase in my library from Kolette Hall Studio. I resized it first to fit in the middle of the wreath and the cut it using Black cardstock.

I added some Chocolate Distressing Ink on the leaves with dauber sponge to give some rusty and fall-ish looking 🙂

When everything is ready, I put them together using Liquid Glass glue from Close To My Heart. The pine cones I added them the last with 3D foam tape.

And it has its spot in my craft room 🙂

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects related to this theme of FALL/AUTUMN on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

1. Create & Babble // 2. Lil Mrs. Tori // 3. unOriginal Mom // 4. Zanaree // 5. The Kim Six Fix // 6. One Dog Woof // 7. Cupcakes & Crowbars // 8. Living My Given Life // 9. Architecture of a Mom // 10. Put A Bird On It // 11. Just Add Paper // 12. Weekend Craft // 13. Silhouette School // 14. Minted Strawberry // 15. My Paper Craze // 16. McCall Manor // 17. Chicken Scratch NY // 18. Mama Sonshine // 19. Creative Ramblings // 20. From Wine to Whine // 21. Please Excuse My Craftermath… // 22. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 23. The Thinking Closet // 24. Simply Kelly Designs // 25. Sandpaper & Glue //

Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2014

Happy Fall Y’all

I miss my big girl crafting with me. Since she starts Kindergarten, we have less time together. After school usually her time to play with her little sister, do homework, dinner time, bath time, family reading book time and bed time already.

It just seems time is shorter…

But this afternoon, when the baby sister was taking a nap, we had some time together to do this fun Fall/Thanksgiving theme craft. I found this turkey kit at Hobby Lobby for 40% OFF! Scored!

It is easy to do and she loves that she can read every step… So much fun crafting with my big girl!

And… one thing shocked me that… she can say, “Happy Fall Y’all” without me teaching her to say it! LOL! Watch the video to see how she says it 😀

Posted on Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Get Crafty In Between…

Almost a month ago we went to a new member training to serve with Wycliffe Associates at their headquarter office in Orlando, FL.

They had 3 full day training for us plus orientation about the organization. We got to meet the President, Vice President, Program Director, HR staff, Training Department staff and many other volunteers who came to the office while we were there.

We were sent home with a lot of information and excitement to start the ministry with them from home.

I have been working from home with the people in SEA* and also translating some training materials from English into the national language.

Super excited but also it is a big challenge for me to manage my time as a wife and a mom who has a daughter going to Kindergarten and a toddler girl stays home with me.

For that, my time to craft is got shorten. I don’t mind since Family and Ministry are priority. Crafting, making card and scrapbooking are hobbies I enjoy doing in between, when I can.

My husband had a request, he asked if I could make him a phone sleeve out of felt for his new iPhone 6 just like his old iPhone 5 felt sleeve. He showed me the old case and I thought I could probably could do it. So, last night I had a chance to sit to finish it and did couple phone sleeves for me and my hubby.

These are finished ones after many trials and errors I did in the last couple days. Fortunately, I have TONS of felt in stash, so no worries 🙂

What you need to make this sleeve are:
– Felt
– needle and thread (sewing machine, optional)
– Ruler
– Rotary cutter
– Thin Double-sided quilting adhesive tape (if you want to double the felt like I did)
– Pinking shears

First, cut the felt in 11.5″ x 3.25″ using rotary cutter. I found cutting felt and fabric with rotary cutter is so much easier than using scissors. But always remember to have pad underneath.

I double-layered the felts for sturdiness. So, stack together both felts using the quilt thin double-sided adhesive tape. But if you have thicker felt, then you don’t have to.

After they are secured with the tape, fold it into half to make the sleeve. And start backhand-stitch them or you can use your sewing machine.

Feel free to add any embellishment on the front of the sleeve if you want to.

All done. And they are pretty good just for handmade 🙂

Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Tuesday Thought: Our Care For Overseas Missionaries

Living overseas has special mark in my life. My life is changed. My perspective is changed.

This is not what I had in my mind when I was at school. My plan was to study hard, earned my bachelor and then went to overseas, well at least Singapore, to get better job. But then when I went back to finish my bachelor degree in 2004, God led me to different path. God changed my motivation. God changed my perspective of the idea of living overseas or cross-culturally.

We moved to Ohio since 2008 after we got married. For me, I am away from my home country, my parents and close families. But for my husband and daughters, here is their home country. For all of us, no matter where we will be living, wherever God will send us to go, we will make it home and serve Him as family.

Thinking of being away from home country, my thought goes to all missionaries who serve the Lord overseas. Those who live away from their home countries, away from their families. But they are there because of their obedience to the Lord’s calling. They are there because the people need to hear the Good News.

Our church, Grace Baptist Church Minford – Ohio, has a group of ladies who always get together every month to pray for the missionaries whom our church partner with. I am so thankful to this group of ladies! Knowing that they are thinking and praying for us and the missionaries is very encouraging.

They are not only getting together to pray, but in their act of love is real.

On last Friday, some of us get together to make Christmas cards for our missionaries. We would love to send them a note on Christmas day, sharing our hearts with them on the field. Especially for those who are away from their families on this special holiday.

That night, we made 17 Christmas cards! These ladies are amazing! We learned together to stamp and putting cards together. Most of all, we fellowshipped, shared stories, and had fun time 🙂

My oldest daughter came back from Great-grandma’s house, she joined us a little but before bed time. My friend helped her making this card. She is a blessing!

This is one of little thing we can do to show care with missionaries who serve overseas. If your church partner with missionaries overseas, you can try to do something special for them to show your care and love 🙂

Here are some cards we made that I would like to share with you today:

THANK YOU for your partnership with missionaries all over the world. THANK YOU for your love for the people who need to hear the love of God and His Good News. THANK YOU!