Hi, guys! Happy Saturday! I think I told you I'd pick a contest winner today... Right? :)
So actually, last night at about midnight, I went back to all the comments and made a list of the participants... Here:
(That's my work calendar and work notebook... This is totally 7 inches from my semi-permanent position at the computer each night... haha! )
After creating the list and numbering it, I went to random.org to get a random number for the winner... At 12:25am, I got our winner:
Did you go back up to that semi-blurry list to see if it was you? 'Cause Amelia, it is totally YOU! Wahoo!!! Trader Joe's Pumpkin Butter, $10 to Starbucks, Pumpkin Spice Hershey's Kisses, Caramel Apple Pancake Mix, and Pumpkin dish towel... all for you you you! Wa-hoo!!!
As for the rest of you, if you couldn't tell from my comments, I utterly LOVED your entries. LOVED the way you all think and the things you value. LOVED seeing some incredible photography, and loved seeing little pieces of each of your worlds. I loved it so much that I think I'm a-gonna do another photo scavenger hunt really soon. Just to break up the soon-to-be winter blahs that always set in. so keep an eye out!
But... It isn't winter yet. It is my FAVORITE season of the year, and we are knee-deep in it. Leaves are actually turning colors, jackets are actually being required.... It is REALLY Fall! And in honor of my Fall-y contest, I wanted to give you mamas of young kiddos out there a simple craft idea for you guys to do to get some pumpkin decor going up.
My friend Stef subscribed me to Family Fun magazine, which I LOVE, and they had a big article about decorating with PUMPKINS PUMPKINS pumpkins [always think of Abby on Sesame Street when I say that! anyone with me?]... And I LOVED the idea of really going pumpkin crazy this year... So among other things, this little "Morning Art" crafty has been a successful decor-creating project for Noah and I.
And it is WAY easy. And pretty easy to let yourself throw away at the end of the season.:
* TORN PAPER PUMPKINS *
1. Start with orange and green paper-- solid construction paper, cardstock, or, as seen here, old scrapbooking paper. With your kiddo, tear lots of medium-sized pieces. There is no way to do this wrong, so let 'em at it!
(See how proud Noah is of our handiwork so far? haha!)
2. Grab some packing tape. I have TONS of this around the house because I package prints and stuff all the time... Take a strip about 5-8 inches long and turn it sticky-side-up. Begin placing pieces of orange paper on the sticky tape in the general shape of the pumpkin. Little hands can help here with very little fuss. Add more tape as needed. Add a green stem.
3. When you get done, you should have a pumpkin-ish thing. I ended up using about three strips of tape side by side to get this pumpkin.
4. Next, you have two options. For our first pumpkin, we modge-podged the top to seal those loose papers. This worked OKAY.... But it was a bit messy. If you really want to keep it simple, do what we did with subsequent pumpkins-- Tape the top of it, too. Basically "laminate" the whole thing with packing tape. No mess.
5. If the raggedy, non-rounded edges bug ya, (and if you have taped the top instead of glued it) take your scissors (probably best if YOU do this part, and not your little one, unless they are 4 or older)... And trim it a bit. I tried to keep some of the rough, torn look, but I trimmed until it looked "finished".
And ta-da! Shown here with our Owl Googly Eye Morning Art and, you got it, a PUMPKIN. (Noah LOVES the real thing. He tries to lug it all over the house, and I fully expect to be cleaning up accidental pumpkin guts before the fall is through!)
We have our paper pumpkins in our windowsill, but they can go anywhere--- tape 'em to the door in a cluster as a welcome, stick them on your fridge, make a garland of them (ooh, that's a cute idea!). Make Jack-O-Lanterns as you get closer to Halloween... The possibilities are endless.
So actually, last night at about midnight, I went back to all the comments and made a list of the participants... Here:
(That's my work calendar and work notebook... This is totally 7 inches from my semi-permanent position at the computer each night... haha! )After creating the list and numbering it, I went to random.org to get a random number for the winner... At 12:25am, I got our winner:
Did you go back up to that semi-blurry list to see if it was you? 'Cause Amelia, it is totally YOU! Wahoo!!! Trader Joe's Pumpkin Butter, $10 to Starbucks, Pumpkin Spice Hershey's Kisses, Caramel Apple Pancake Mix, and Pumpkin dish towel... all for you you you! Wa-hoo!!!As for the rest of you, if you couldn't tell from my comments, I utterly LOVED your entries. LOVED the way you all think and the things you value. LOVED seeing some incredible photography, and loved seeing little pieces of each of your worlds. I loved it so much that I think I'm a-gonna do another photo scavenger hunt really soon. Just to break up the soon-to-be winter blahs that always set in. so keep an eye out!
But... It isn't winter yet. It is my FAVORITE season of the year, and we are knee-deep in it. Leaves are actually turning colors, jackets are actually being required.... It is REALLY Fall! And in honor of my Fall-y contest, I wanted to give you mamas of young kiddos out there a simple craft idea for you guys to do to get some pumpkin decor going up.
My friend Stef subscribed me to Family Fun magazine, which I LOVE, and they had a big article about decorating with PUMPKINS PUMPKINS pumpkins [always think of Abby on Sesame Street when I say that! anyone with me?]... And I LOVED the idea of really going pumpkin crazy this year... So among other things, this little "Morning Art" crafty has been a successful decor-creating project for Noah and I.
And it is WAY easy. And pretty easy to let yourself throw away at the end of the season.:
* TORN PAPER PUMPKINS *
1. Start with orange and green paper-- solid construction paper, cardstock, or, as seen here, old scrapbooking paper. With your kiddo, tear lots of medium-sized pieces. There is no way to do this wrong, so let 'em at it!(See how proud Noah is of our handiwork so far? haha!)2. Grab some packing tape. I have TONS of this around the house because I package prints and stuff all the time... Take a strip about 5-8 inches long and turn it sticky-side-up. Begin placing pieces of orange paper on the sticky tape in the general shape of the pumpkin. Little hands can help here with very little fuss. Add more tape as needed. Add a green stem.3. When you get done, you should have a pumpkin-ish thing. I ended up using about three strips of tape side by side to get this pumpkin.4. Next, you have two options. For our first pumpkin, we modge-podged the top to seal those loose papers. This worked OKAY.... But it was a bit messy. If you really want to keep it simple, do what we did with subsequent pumpkins-- Tape the top of it, too. Basically "laminate" the whole thing with packing tape. No mess.5. If the raggedy, non-rounded edges bug ya, (and if you have taped the top instead of glued it) take your scissors (probably best if YOU do this part, and not your little one, unless they are 4 or older)... And trim it a bit. I tried to keep some of the rough, torn look, but I trimmed until it looked "finished".And ta-da! Shown here with our Owl Googly Eye Morning Art and, you got it, a PUMPKIN. (Noah LOVES the real thing. He tries to lug it all over the house, and I fully expect to be cleaning up accidental pumpkin guts before the fall is through!)We have our paper pumpkins in our windowsill, but they can go anywhere--- tape 'em to the door in a cluster as a welcome, stick them on your fridge, make a garland of them (ooh, that's a cute idea!). Make Jack-O-Lanterns as you get closer to Halloween... The possibilities are endless.Mostly, just enjoy having some quick, pretty painless art time with your kiddo as you celebrate fall.... the best season of the year!Off I go now--- been blogging WAY too long this morning because of a slow internet. Time to unplug and be with my kiddo and get some stuff done.
happy weekend, all! (Amelia, your prize will be wending its way on Monday or so!)
Congratulations, Amelia (you lucky dog!)!
ReplyDelete- Judie
Love, love the little pumpkin idea. I am always looking for fun stuff to do with Emma. Can't wait to come back from vacay and attempt them.
ReplyDeleteAdore the pumpkin suggestion! Paeton is getting frustrated because she can't quite master scissors like her older sister, but she could totally do this!
ReplyDeletelove the paper pumpkins -- perfect for little fingers that naturally want to rip paper!
ReplyDeleteNoah looks like he needs Woody from Toy Story in that pic! Right out of a Disney flick! He's adorable.
ReplyDeleteI think you should definitely do them more often! Even if you dont make prizes and such, it was fun for me to do! :)
ReplyDeleteI love the paper pumpkin ideas! I love that Noah loves pumpkins! I love that it's finally fall (officially)! I love this post! I'm just bummed that I missed out on the contest because my computer was down during that time so I didn't have easy access to the internet. So I will defs be looking forward to the next one (especially if you promise I will be the winner! ;)
ReplyDeleteJust f.y.i.- your copyright notice makes it impossible (as far as I can tell) to bookmark your blog for easier access... is there a way around this? (if not, it's not a huge deal- I can obviously work my way around it). And, while I'm thinking about it, since your copyright notice mentions needing written consent from you to use/copy the photos, what do I need to do if I want to same some of the darling Noah photos to my computer? (You don't have to post the answer here- just let me know sometime...)
Love you!
Happy Fall! :)
What adorable pumpkins and owls - it makes be over-the-moon happy to see you spending time with Noah like this. Ge is such a lucky kiddo. And wahoo for Amelia!!
ReplyDeleteyay for amelia winning! and YAy for that awesome morning art! noah is one lucky kiddo. :)
ReplyDeleteOMG! I just assumed I hadn't won, I never win! WOWWOOW! I'm way too excited, Emily photos selected AND an Emily gift package on it's way. Hmmm, this turned out to be a good day after all :)
ReplyDeleteGosh, I was so excited I forgot to say how cute the pumpkins are! I'm going to try that with Ellie for sure, although I doubt she'll be as in to it as Noah seems to be. Ceeeeute that kid is. And he really looks like a kid in that photo, no more baby :(
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I've mentioned before how much I love your morning art with Noah, but it's even better when you share great ideas like these. If I was still working in schools, we would totally be doing this project with some of the kids. I wonder if I could get any of my old people to get into it...
ReplyDeleteSee you soon.
Love you