Sunday Craft Extravaganza

 A few weeks ago we were in a grocery store and there was a magazine focusing on Halloween and Christmas crafts. Either I'm getting old, or the magazine industry is getting hipper, but I really liked all the crafts. After I bought it, Henry loved looking at all the things we could do and has kept bugging me that we need to do a craft. Well, it was finally time.

Frances stayed at home with Aaron while Hanky and I made the big trek to JoAnn. Let me tell you, we bought a lot of stuff.

The first thing we bought was a laminator. Henry will be having a Super Mario Brothers themed birthday party and for the last few weeks he has gone crazy with drawing Mario "items" and enemies. They are really good and I thought it would be nice to incorporate them into the party. Since our party is outdoor, I had the great idea of laminating his pictures and then stringing them up for decoration.  I think this will be great. As soon as we got home from JoAnn we turned the laminator on and laminated at least 50 drawings of Henry's.  They look so perfect and I can't wait to see them all strung up. Sorry, no pictures yet. Now that I have a laminator, I'm also excited to see what else I can make (like place mats, book marks, dry erase boards, etc).

Since we are having a Mario themed birthday, you could guess that we will be Mario characters for Halloween. I get the role of Princess Peach.  I was excited for the task. Last week Frances and I went to a thrift store and found this GEM.

I know, pretty amazing.

I have no idea why anyone would give this away, still it's mine now. The first thing I did was remove the shoulder pads and the waist band/flower thing. I needed to make it more princessy, so I started with the bustle. I have never made one before, but I had an image in my head how it should work, so I just did it.  I was so happy that everything worked out perfectly.

So cool you don't even need a dress to wear it with..

After I finished the bustle, it was time for some felt crafting. This time the whole family got into it (well, not Frances). I bought a lot of different felt and paints (including glow in the dark). Everyone seemed very inspired.

Aaron making an October 31st banner

This is Henry drawing a number 10. He also added a bomb and a spider to it.
 

This is me on Frances duty

In the morning we had a bunch of decorations. Apparently Henry thought the decorations Aaron and I made needed our signature so he added "Mom" and "Dad" to them.

Here is my pumpkin. The eyes and the teeth are glow in the dark. Now, it looks like leaves on the top, but it is just MOM upside down.

It was a great Sunday spending time with my favorite people, doing my favorite things.