Gorgeous Garland Coloring Book and Gel Pen Giveaway!

Hi everybody!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I am celebrating by giving away my Gorgeous Garland Coloring book. It has 56 pages to color (14 image with three copies each), enough garland for a six foot Christmas tree.

Just color, cut, and create your own garland.

Watch the video and sign up below! Follow guidelines to qualify.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good luck!

CRAFT for KIDS ~ Make a CUTE HALLOWEEN GHOST!!

Ooooo!! It's almost October, that spooky time of year. Trick or treating and Jack o'lanterns abound.

Kids love this chilling time of year so every weekend of October we will post a creepy craft for kids.

This weeks craft is Adorable Apparitions. What you will need for this cute craft is:

Mod Podge fabric stiffener (Buy here)

Cheese cloth

A bowl

Balloons

Wine glasses or other cups or containers to hold the balloons

Scissors

 A small amount of black felt or a black marker or Sharpie

First blow up as many balloons as you will make into ghosts

Insert them into the glasses so they are about halfway in, and popping out of the top. You will be resting the damp cheese cloth on these balloons so make sure they are blown up enough that they will not sink into the glasses. Tuck the knot into the side so you don't get a bulgy ghost.

Cut the cheese cloth into thick strips, about 3 or 4 inches wide. Make the bottoms of the strips uneven. This makes for a spookier ghost. If you are going for cuter use more of a square shape rounded off at the bottom.

Pour some Mod Podge fabric stiffener into a small bowl, and dilute a bit with water. Now dip the strips of cheese cloth into the Modge Podge, and wring until slightly damp.

Place one strip over the top of a balloon with the ends hanging spookily down, then place another strip criss-cross over the top, the ends hanging down also. Set aside to dry.

Repeat on the other balloons.

When they are dry to the touch, you can glue some little black pieces of felt for eyes, or use black markers or googly eyes from the craft store.

Now take a pin and pop the balloons, and remove them carefully from the bottom. Thread a bit of fishing wire or floss through the tops of their heads and Voila! You have a happy little family of spooky ghosts.

You can hang them anywhere, but I will be painting a branch black and adding them as the season goes on to make a Haunted Halloween tree. (I'll show you next weekend.)

Show me your ghosts! I'd love to post them.

Happy Haunting!

The craft next Friday will be Pet Ghosts--see you then for more spooky fun.

xo

Make a Picture Like Eric Carle ~ Kids Can Create a Picture Collage

The illustrations in The Very Hungry Caterpillar seem to capture the attention of almost every young child.

Simple yet complex, they are colorful and eye-catching.

Recreating the look is fun and easy for any child who is old enough to use a pair of scissors.

What you'll need:

Several sheets of white paper

One sheet of thicker white paper or board

Watercolor paints or markers

Paint brushes

White glue

Scissors

First, decide what you are going to draw. Feel free to copy my bears, but if you want to draw mice, or bugs, or your family you can.

Then paint several colors of watercolor on the regular paper. The colors can overlap, they can be in patterns, white areas are fine...basically you can't make a mistake. 

To give the colors even more texture, after the first layer dries choose a different color and make lines or dots. Crinkling up another small sheet of paper or paper towel and dipping it in the paint will create nice textures when softly touched on top of another color.

Using your paintbrush for texture is fun too. When the paint is almost used up on the brush it feels a bit dry and breaks up into sections. Without wetting the brush, dip it into a color and lightly go over another color on the page for a cool lined effect.

I did one page of my first layer of paint in browns and blacks because I wanted to make some trees. To get the spots, dip the brush in black paint, then brush your finger so the paint is kind of flicked off onto the paper. If your brush is too soft, hold the brush over the paper and lightly tap the finger of your other hand so little speckles drop off onto your page. (This method can be a bit messier.)

After your pages have dried, begin cutting shapes.

For my picture, I needed three ovals, three circles, for the bears heads and bodies, three very long rectangles for tree trunks in brown, several shorty skinny rectangles for tree branches, and many leaves cut out from all the different colors I painted. I also made six little arms, six little legs, and six little ears, and one big oval in green that will be a patch of grass. I also cut out a butterfly from some of the scraps and some very long curved triangles for grass. (The butterfly is made from two B shapes.)

Please feel free to make your trees, leaves and bears ANY color you like. Don't feel limited to the edges of the paper--go out of the lines!

Now start to glue the pieces you cut any way you like. You can see within the cut out pieces how the white spaces, speckles, squiggles, and paint splashes all add to the texture and charm of the picture. You can copy mine or create your own. I hope I see some mice, cats, dogs, wolves, monkeys, or anything else you can think of.

Send me any of your completed work--I'd love to show it off here!

Have fun!!

xo

Fun Easter Book and a Page to Color

Spring is in the air, and Easter is right around the corner. Time to wonder, is the Easter bunny a robot? 

You can color your way to the truth and find out in the book Francine and the Super Spy Bunny.

CLICK HERE to BUY

 You will find many surprises in the book, including a six foot tall chocolate bunny!

 

Kindle version on Amazon available for $.99, but order the coloring book if you if you have crayons and are ready to use them.

When you (or your kids ;) )have a beautiful picture colored, send it to me! I will post it on the Amazon page along with some previous pix from last year.

Have fun--and watch out for bunnies with glowing red eyes.