Happy Halloween

Well, it did this last night....

You can blame it on her:

The Snow Queen has struck.  So if you see her being escorted by Commander Rex and they demand candy....well, I would suggest that you comply unless you want a particularly snowy winter this year.

Have a Happy Halloween!

A finished diorama....

Well Rascal managed to get his diorama finished.  Yay!!  He still has to finish up writing up the research neatly but that is just the fluff.

The subject of the diorama was any animal of his choice.  He chose une carcajou or wolverine.  Surprising, there is not much known about wolverines.  They are pretty solitary animals who can range up to 1000 sq. kms so they are a bit hard to study.  Helping him find the research was the hardest part.  We made a number of trips to the library, the Museum of Nature and the bookstore.   We read lots and lots of websites.  Eventually, he was able to come up with what he wanted to show.

As for making the actual diorama, the only thing he knew for sure was that he wanted to make the wolverine out of pipe cleaners.   I, being the A type personality that I am, had to learn to keep my ideas to myself and just help him figure out how to realize what he wanted.  Believe it or not, the only help that he needed from me was a drive to the Dollar store (a bit of cash) and lots of time to holding on to things while the glue dried.

I am pretty impressed at how well it turned out and hopefully his teacher will like it too.

As for my own crafting, I completed this layout over a week ago but I have been sitting on it.  It was for a challenge for LCOM's Amazing Scrap Race.  I was waiting for the reveal over at the site before I posted it.  The challenge was a fairly simple one.  Use a photography that was in black & white and over 10 years old.  The subject of the layout had to be something that you were thankful for.  That was it.  Everything else was at our discretion.

Materials used:  Pink Paislee House of Three pattern paper, Bazzill cardstock, Everlasting Keepsakes Framedangoes, Tattered Angels glimmer mist and glitter glaze, KaiserCraft bling, Basic Grey rubon, Prima flowers and packaging, American Crafts thickers and unknown ribbon.

All the little flowers were made using the Martha Stewart hydrangea punches.  Each flower was dry embossed to give it dimension.

I am actually working on a challenge for the Scrap Race tonight.  I have Challenge #2 completed but I need to finish the "special assignment".  I am just waiting for the kiddos to head to bed...or at least upstairs so I can take over the dining room table.  Hopefully mojo will stick around for a bit.

Ugh...Yet another Monday....

I really, really hate Mondays.  It is not that I hate going to work.  I like my job for the most part.  Of course, there are things about it that I don't like but there are things about it that I love so it is not the reason that I hate Mondays.  It is also not the fact that Mondays are the start of the week nor is it the fact that it marks the end of my freedom from responsibility. 

Nope...the reason that I hate Monday's is the fact that nothing ever seems to go right.  It is the day the Murphy plays havoc with me.  What can go wrong will....Mondays are the curse of lost keys, lost badges, missing lunches, forgotten agendas, crazy traffic, idiot drivers, car gas tanks suddenly on empty, and many other tiny annoyances.  Mondays are the day that I wish I could just hide under the covers and ignore the world.  But alas, that is not to be the case.

The one nice thing about Monday is looking back at what was accomplished over the weekend.  Most of this weekend was spent helping my son stay focused while he worked on his diorama and keeping my mouth shut.  I wanted to give him direction and help but I had to remember that this is his project and how he wanted to make it was totally up to him.  I must say that he is doing a great job.  It is almost finished and it looks like he is going to have it done well before for his deadline of Friday.

While I was biting my tongue, I worked on two projects of my own for the LCOM on-line crop.  One was a layout and the other was a Halloween decoration for the house.  When I was picking up the supplies for my son's diorama, I found a couple of bags of feathers -- really cool feathers.  I had an "Aha" moment.  I could see this layout in my head:

Materials used: Bazzill cardstock, BoBunny patterned paper, dictionary paper, tulle, feathers, ScrapFX chipboard, Perfect Pearls, Distress Ink, Archival ink, Berol Prismcolour pencil crayons, Prima centers, Stickles, Tim Holtz grungeboard, Ranger Paint dauber, iRock bling, miscellaneous feathers & flower stiles.

I made the tulle flower.  I have been seeing this style of flower popping up in embellishment packs recently.  Since I had quite a bit of tulle left over from my daughter's fairy princess tea party, I thought I would give it a whirl.  They are extremely easy and quick to make.

The other project was a pumpkin decoration for Halloween.

Material used: Dollerama wood pumpkin shape, Pink Paislee pattern paper, Basic Grey pattern paper, Bazzill cardstock, Distress ink, miscellaneous ribbon & feathers.

Those feathers made another appearance.  I am not sure where he is going to hang in the house yet but I think he turned out quite well.

Here is hoping that the rest of this Monday passes quickly and fairly quietly.  I think I am going to hide at my desk and keep my head down.  Hopefully, Murphy will choose to ignore me for the rest of the day.  I plan on doing more tongue biting tonight while my son puts the finishing touches on his diorama and hopefully I can work on a project or two myself.