Oh Canada! T-Shirts!

This blog post has been waiting to be written since July 1st! We are so busy here...going here and there and just catching up around the house and with a few projects...don't worry you will get to see them soon enough!

So, the other day I showed you our Canada Day t-shirts. Now I'd like to share with you how we made them. We used potatoes and cookie cutters to make the stamps...see I pressed the cookie cutter into the potato and then cut around the outside of the potato to remove the excess. This made it super easy to create the mold. I got the idea on Skip to my Lou (honestly, I could live at that woman's house!) We also tried the yo-yo balloons the other day...if nothing else it filled a little time and the kids had fun with them.
So there is one stamp. I made 4 so that we could use a few different colours.

Sarah insisted that her shirt had to match her pink skirt so we found a suitable pink to go along (I know, not super Canadian but she is a girly-girl what can I say?) The tutorial said to use fabric paint but since I don't have any, I used my regular paint (the kind you use on wood). I have tonnes of that! We used the same paint for our St. Patrick's Day t-shirts and they are holding up great!
So, apply paint to your stamps (we used a brush to try and get it on evenly and avoid globbing).
Plan your design and stamp away!
When we were done we then used the Freezer Paper Stencil method to put 'Canada' across the t-shirts. I got the idea from Skip to My Lou...but all you do is cut out the image or letters you want (I used my Cricut die-cutting machine), and iron the shiny side onto the t-shirt. Then paint away! We had to be careful doing the letters because they were small and in some cases delicate but they turned out great!
Peel off your freezer paper...
And voila! Oops! Look a little further down and you will see the girly-girl shirt!
Aren't they sweet? I mean the shirts, but the kids are too!
Now, that's how you celebrate in style! The kids LOVED making these! We will definitely revisit the potato print technique this summer!

Enjoy!

Heather

Happy Canada Day!

It seems to have become a tradition that we enjoy pancakes on Canada Day...I mean...we are known for Maple Syrup, right?And then I have these fabulous pancake forms from Williams-Sonoma (there is also a Canadian site but you can't shop on-line there)...you can see what they currently have available here. On a side note I totally should not have gone there...I mean seriously...Star Wars Pancake Molds??? A popsicle maker and a popsicle cookbook??? Oh sorry...I got a little distracted...sadly they don't ship to Canada!!! The nearest Williams-Sonoma is a bit of a stretch and that's likely for the best I think!
Back to my Maple Leaf pancakes...I also put Maple Leaf Quins in them...thank you Bulk Barn!

Off to our annual celebrations...Simon had a Canadian Flag painted on his face...isn't he the coolest? ;)
Here is sweet Sarah with her butterfly balloon and butterfly on her cheek...
And lastly Sean showing off on the new playground...he is a lion...didn't they do a great job?
The kids had a great day...Mad Science, Bouncers, Balloons and a BBQ all finished off with a playground and a roll down a hill!

Happy Canada Day! Happy Independence Day to our American Friends!

Enjoy!

Heather

How to fill a summer's day...

Yesterday was the first day, THE 1st DAY of Summer Vacation! Hooray! No more lunches to pack (except picnic lunches), no more early wake-ups (unless we are going somewhere we want to go), no more crazy mornings (well, maybe crazy doesn't ever really stop around here...who knows!)

So, on the first day I adopted 2 of my favourite kids for the day...but they are among my kiddies favs too so that means...crazy! Once we finally got everyone up and dressed we headed to the park...then home for a quick snack and play break...then when things started to look a little out of hand we headed into town for a distraction.

First we stopped at Missions for Bibles and everyone chose a necktie, then we went to Home Hardware and bought some rope and then we headed home...ahhh...now to eat! Wow! The morning was over and I had SO many things planned still!

So, we put Simon down for his nap and got to work...
we stuffed our ties with cotton batting (or fibre fill, whatever I had on hand)...and then we stuffed some more! I sewed up bits where the ties split because they were inexpensive and didn't hold up to all the stuffing that well...this took about an hour for the 8 year-olds, the 7 year-old quit and we cut off about 5" of her tie and I did most of the work for my 6 year-old.
Then there was the fun! Eyes, tongues and tails! The kids absolutely LOVE them! Thank you to Skip to My Lou for the awesome tutorial! You will be seeing more links to this site in the coming days as she just finished a 30 Day Craft Camp! Hello! Can you say awesome???
These little friends require minimal sewing...we used buttons so we sewed them (and totally LOVE the effect) but you can glue googlies and do most of the adult labour with a glue gun.
And to ensure that we finished off on the right note...we all had popsicles before my friends went home!
What a fun day we had! And no, I don't run a daycare so don't try sending your kiddies here! It won't work! Not everyday is that exciting...I swear! ;)

Enjoy!

Heather