erinaquaheart- i love the flames necklace, what a great use for those shrinky dink scraps.

class/challenge-bernie bots-onion and spew
house-gryffendor
project-faux stained glass

this started out as an experiment for a vbs project, and it was fun with my own kids, but i don't think it would work with a large group. ours ended up as a decoration for vbs. please excuse the horrible picture. on the last day of vbs i forgot to put the card back in my camera, so i had to settle for a picture with the window in the background.


For the colored sections, we layed out a sheet of waxed paper and shaved old crayons onto it. i saw this on the martha stewart website on a smaller scale for creating cards.
http://www.marthastewart.com/264114/crayon-stained-glass-heart-cards

they suggested a handheld pencil sharpener, but we found the crayons to be to fat and gunked it up. i got out an old cheese grater and it worked much better but you do have to be carful not to scrape your fingers. you do want the crayon in small pieces. then we layered a second sheet of wax paper, and ironed it to melt the crayons inbetween. they melt quickly and spread out to mix colors.
i made a large frame from black posterboard  and then taped the paper behind it. you can use it as a full sheet, or cut it apart and fill in section by section. they looked realy pretty sitting in the window sills.

*COMPLETED OWL SUBMISSION*

Owl subject-care of majical creatures/spew
house-gryffendor
project-House Banners

i got the banners finished just in time for vbs this week. i really had to pack in the crafty hours. Someone else from the planning commitee built the foam arches. and no that's not me up front, i was in the crafts tower all week.... Tada!



Each night had a character to introduce the theme, so there is a large banner for each night. the characters are also used to name the kids groups, so i created a smaller set of banners that were on posts down the center aisle to mark the pew for each group.



the kids really loved them. I used gold lame fabric ironed onto an adhesive backing. i had some trouble with the lame fraying, i should have waited to cut them out until i was ready to attatch to the felt, or used a heavier adheasive.  the characters are drawn on with black sharpie markers in diffrent sizes. then these were ironed onto colored felt penants. the penants have a pocket sewn into the top for a wooden rod for hanging.

another church in our area is also doing a castle themed bible school so they are going to be reusing some of our props.

class/challenge- bertie botts beans-marmalae
house-gryffendor
project-strawberry syrup



it's strawberry season here in indiana, but my kids eat them much too quickly for me to load the canner with jars. i did find plastic lids to screw onto my glass jars for storing in the fridge. the large glass jar is sliced strawberries in sugar, after resting in the fridge a couple hours it draws out some of the juice. i also bought plastic freezer jars to tuck away a few at a time for later in the year if any make it that long.

i found a recipie online simmering strawberries in water and sugar to create a sauce for freezing. i don't like fresh strawberries, but the strained sauce is good on cake or waffles.(jar 2)  my husband will eat my share of the cooked strawberries. (jar 3)

Our church's vacation bible school theme this year is "kingdom rock". The program is from Group publications, and the castle background is inspired by their decorating video. i was on the commitee, but my contribution is the felt banners hanging in each arch.



I created a simple pattern of a gold circle and a felt penant. the penants have a pocket sewn in the top with a wooden rod for hanging. i purchased gold lame fabric and stiffened it with wonderunder before drawing on it with black sharpie pens. Then these were ironed onto the various colors of felt.







Each night has a character which is handdrawn on the banner. These are also used for the groups of kids so i made smaller banners in each shape to mark the pews.




Tonight was the first night and the kids loved the festive atmosphere. as usual it was quite chaotic. maybe tommorow i can get some in action shots!

class project-study of ancient runes/ gryfendor extra credit
house-gryffendor
project- 4th grade memories teacher gift



Our kids had their last day of school yesterday. the girls got in the car telling me they are 5th graders now, but i'm in denial about that. they are growing up too fast. it won't be too long and they will be off to hogwarts. to thank their teacher, i went through my photos of school programs and field trips from this year and put them on a cd. then i made a photo collage for the cover. she really loved it. the collage is small, but i added a clock and globe near the title as symbols of time passing and education

i so wish this was my house. Gene stratton porter was an author and naturalist from northern indiana. her house and gardens have been made into a state museum. my daughters class went there for their 4th grade field trip.

everyone is off to such a busy start!
.
i started a new owl the end of last semester. For vacation bible school this summer, we are doing"kingdom rock" it has a castle theme, and each day has a diffrent animal. so i volunteered to make banners for the diffrent days. i had a couple days to myself as the kiddos are finishing up their school year, so i've been busy busy busy. vbs starts next monday!

i'm drawing each animal on gold lamea fabric backed with an iron on adheasive, then will be attatching them to felt. the 4 larger ones that will hang in the sanctuary are done, and then there will a small one for each group for their meeting place. the fabric is tough to photograph until it's ironed on to the felt, but i'm making good progress.
lion!

technically it's a falcon, but looks like an eagle to me

sorry, no snake or badgers in the program..

horse
bull dog

the vbs leader also called to see if i could do a small mouse banner for the preschool meeting room.

one last submission.....

class: astromnomy-ursa major/gryffendor chaser
house: gryffendor
project: brave inspired knitting markers

i sent these in the package for the three tiny things swap. one of her favorite movies is brave, where merida turns her mother into a bear. and later her brothers.  i made a series of shrinky dink charms based on that movie and a couple of her other favorites. the charms were 2" circles, but somehow turned out as ovals. the crese with 3 bears in a circle is one of my favorites.

challenge-accio books
house gryffendor
project-30+ books to our local elementary (the kids helped and we lost track of count

a lot of teacher keep a classroom library so we sorted through the kid outgrown books and sorted out one that other kids in their class might like an donated them diretly to their teachers. the books that were too young went to the school library. what the librarian couldn't use went into a free pile in the teachers lounge.


off to new homes!

i just came across this craftalong. good idea. in addition to my own stash, i just bought a box at a garage sale, stuffed full and carefully organized by color. it so pretty i almost hate to use it. my daughters are just learning to stitch and my mom bought them their own stash as well. i have 10 year old triplet girls and a 8 year old son.  lately though we've been doing more freindship braclets or bookmarks.

i'm currently working on a wrapparound bracelet for myself using tread, beads and leather cord. pictures to come.

owl proposal- care of magical creature and spew
house-gryffendor
project- house banners (5 large and 5 small, plus....)
 

We had a planning meeting for vacation bible school last night. School is ending and it is barely 3 weeks away! The theme is 'kingdom rock' so the decorations have a knights and castle theme. muggle children are facinated with that stuff. if they only knew about hogwarts!

i'm going to help painting a set to look like a stone archway, but my main job is creating banners. we do 5 nights of classes and activities, and each night has an animal connected to the theme. a lion, a horse, a bulldog, a falcon, and a fox. i'm planning to make 2'x4' banners from felt with a sillouette of each animal. the animalswill either be stenciled or an applicae. these will hang inside the arches. these will be simple gold or white images on a colored background.i  think that lion really needs to be gold and red, and the falcon(maybe its really an eagle?) needs to silver on blue.......


these are from Group that created the program, but they are out of stock, so we are starting with this idea, and hopefully
 ending up with something better.

the 5 groups of kids will also be assigned an animal, so i will be making 1'x2' banners to mark their seats. if it is going well, these will also be felt, or possibly cardstock. my husband and i are teaching crafts that week, so i am also planning to make 2 of the smaller banners to hang in the windows of our classroom. if there is time i have some other fun ideas from pinterest, but this is  good place to start.