Shopping!

I spent the day at IKEA in Sac. yesterday with a great shopping buddy and my trusty daughter side kick and came back with lots of inspiration and supplies for camps!  Now to clean my studio to put away all these supplies and get crackin' on models!
Happy Halloween!

Halloween Pretzels!

This is a really fun and easy craft to do with kids!  My 1st/2nd graders made these tins today and the pretzels too.

In true Open Structure style, I put the "big ones" to work helping the "little ones" today.

Christmas Camps in the works!

ahhhhh.  I have the whole morning off to work on crafts for Christmas Camps.  I will be posting the dates soon....please email me if you are interested in sending your kiddo over for an afternoon of Christmas fun!

Boys' Camp

Today I had my very first camp for Boys!  Finally!  I have had several mothers requesting it.  They were such a complete joy to work with.  Several sewed for the first time, which is always such an honor to be a part of.  We made pillowcases, "lanterns" and spider handprints.  And since this was a Holiday Camp, party bags were in order!

Easy Pumpkin Lollipops

These little pumpkin lollipops are as easy as they look.  Small orange tissue paper square (use pinking shears if you can), lollipops and green pipcleaners.  A black pen finishes the face.  Wrap the pipe cleaner around the base of the lollipop so that one end is much longer than the other, then curl the long end around a pencil to produce a "viney" look.
We are making them this week at the Kindergarten/1st Grade Halloween Party this week.

Felting!

Today my Kindergarten Girls learned to needle punch felt.  The added orange and green wool to their brown purses I made them and formed pumpkins.  Then we went on a scavenger hunt and found fun things to add to their purses, tissue, smarties, a comb.....and of course a "Creations License" instead of a Driver's License.

Spiders!

We made tissue spiders today.  Creepy!

Halloween is ALMOST HERE~

Halloween Camp for Girls!

Today I had 8 new students at a special One Day Halloween Camp!  The girls were so well behaved and I think had such a great time. We made spider handprints and mummy lanterns.  When I asked one of them their favorite part, she said "All of it!"  Most girls thought sewing their new pillowcases was the best part. 

They are so excited to sleep on their pillowcases TONIGHT.  Several girls sewed for the first time and it is so cool to see their pride when they look at the result.  What an honor for me.
We did some fun singing games with the time we had left over after crafting.  It was so fun to see them come out of their shells a bit and make new friends.

Thanks to the parents, several of whom I didn't know too well, who entrust me with their lovely daughters for the afternoon.  They made my day.

What happened in Camp this week?

My older girls made OWL COOKIES!

And they finished their "Stain Glass" spooky Halloween decorations:

My Kindergarteners made Spider Handprint Mini-quilts and enjoyed a Halloween party complete with a 20 minute Max and Ruby video as a special treat!  These girls are my snugglers:  They go to my cupboard of quilts and pick out one to cuddle under every week.  I adore them.

Recipe testing!

Check out the owl sugar cookies I made today!  I learned, don't try to cook a candy corn for the beak...it will melt (I had my suspicions).  So stick them in after or use a cashew like I did. 

Halloween Pillowcases at Camp my Birthday week!

Check out the cute pillowcases we made at Kindergarten Camp! What a sweet group of girls.

This is my birthday week too, so with my older kids, whose camp fell ON my birthday, we had a birthday party for me, complete with cake and "party bags"  (Note: kids are so happy with a few take-apart erasers). Here are the kids and I happy to have made a pillowcase and have eatten cake! :)

No camp would possibly be complete if each girl didn't get a quick turn on the swing out front.

Mom's Quilt Camp!

Tonight was the last installment of "Quilt Camp for Moms" where students made Churn Dash Quilts, set on point.  We had SUCH fun, sewing, eating, drinking, chatting, and laughing.  Check out some of the quilts!