SIP and PAINT

Our Family Sip 'n Paint Party was originally planned as an afternoon activity near poolside this summer, but it seemed that either schedules or weather were at odds all season.  But we didn't give up and on a beautiful October day, our event took shape and was an overwhelming success.  Here are a few photos that were taken during the event (hosted by my sister-in-law) and I hope they inspire you to host a similar event with your family members and friends!  After all... the Family who plays together and paints together stays together!

We used 16"x20" canvas panels, acrylic craft paints along with a variety of brushes and sponges to create textured backgrounds.  Starting with designs created for my "Moods" clip art collection, family members chose which ground they wanted to paint.  If they wanted to use their own personal affirmation text, I created word art patterns for them in advance.  The most popular design choice was the autumn color theme.  The winter palette was chosen by a few participants and a family tree scene was chosen by one family member.

As you can see, family members of all ages were included in the activity and participation was voluntary.  Most surprising were the teen boys who simply amazed us with their artistic abilities and eagerness to embrace creative expression.  Texture ground techniques are a perfect choice for a mixed crowd as it's almost impossible to make mistakes and provides endless creative color possibilities.

It was as much fun watching the artistic interactions as it was in the actual painting process!  My nephew and his future bride lovingly worked on their winter scene together, little ones were welcome to watch or paint and one member worked diligently on a family tree gift.  It was truly a joy to watch the creativity flow.  However, the one thing that made participants most anxious was the final lettering step (it's always been a challenge for me as well!)  Text transferring onto the canvas proved to be a bit more difficult for some due to the fact I didn't have any white transfer paper for them to use on the dark autumn backgrounds.  Instead, we had to use layout templates for placement and then traced outlines with pencil directly onto the canvas.  When planning the next event project, we'll make sure to make this step a bit easier... you live and learn!

Get Your Ginger On

It's that time of year again so get ready to get your Gingers On!  If you love Gingerbread as much as I do, you'll just LOVE these fun prints and whimsical clipart images you can use for any number of creative adventures.  You can mix and match Annie's Gingerbread Character and Gingerbread Cottages clipart collections  for ornaments, wearables, gift tags, baked goods packaging, cards, giftables, papercrafting and more.  You'll also find beautifully coordinated Gingerbread Prints for creating scrapbook pages, gift wrap, cardmaking and tag backgrounds, photo frames, candy wrappers, box liners, headers and anything else you can come up with!  Check them out now and Get Your Annie Lang Gingers on!

2017 HOLIDAY CARDS

New Holiday Greeting cards have just been made available in Annie Lang's Card Shop!  All cards are vividly printed by Greeting Card Universe on quality stock and amazingly true to the original artwork designs.  Best of all, many can be personalized on the front and all can be personalized with your own text inside if you choose.  Each card in the store is suitable for framing so you can use them for your holiday decorating, creating crafted keepsakes, used for clever papercrafting projects, turned into magnets and more.  There are special deals going on daily (I just ordered my own for $1.89 each with free shipping using their coupon code!) so check out all my new cards and more at Annie Lang's Card Shop!  

What else can you make with Greeting cards?  Check out my Pinterest Page for project ideas!

PUMPKIN POCKET

October has arrived at Annie Things Possible so why not put a Pumpkin in your Pocket for FREE this month!  Get the details on Annie's News Page

PEBBLES AND GLUE

A trip to Grandma's house always includes at least one fun learning activity and here's a simple project anyone can do together with preschool age kids.  All you need is a handful of pebbles, a bottle of Tacky Glue and a surface like wood or paper mache.  I just happened upon this rustic handmade birdhouse feeder while visiting a local cider mill and it turned out to be the perfect surface for our activity of the day.

I began by first applying a coat of Thompson's Clear Wood Sealer to the entire surface and allowing it to dry overnight.  The next day, a pile of pebbles was placed onto our work surface where my granddaughter could select which ones she wanted to use on the birdhouse feeder. A plastic knife was the perfect tool for spreading a thick coat of Tacky Glue onto the wood area to be embellished. Pebbles were placed one by one onto the glue and gently pressed down into place.  Not only were her little fingers kept busy for an hour, but she was more than able to stay focused on her task while we chatted about how the feeder would be used. The glue needs to dry for at least 24 hours to insure the pebbles stay firmly in place.  That's it!

As the Holidays grow near, we'll finish this off with a bright red bow and a bag of birdseed to make a perfect gift for her to give her "Auntie" on Christmas!

ABC's in a SNAP

Chances are most preschoolers already know the "ABC" song. But when it comes to identifying individual letters out of sequence, they may experience a little difficulty associating the correct letter with a "sound alike" word. While my preschooler granddaughter was visiting, we came up with a fun activity which involved both of us taking snapshots with our digital cameras.  I had her find "alphabet treasures" that we could take photos of as we walked around the house and yard and we snapped away!   In about an hour, we had all the photos we needed so we sat at the computer together and unloaded the digital file that we would save.  I let her be the decision maker as to which ones we wanted to use for her book.  Thus ended the first phase of our project and we then moved on to making lunch!

When she returned a few days later, Maryann found that each photo had been placed on a digital document (most likely by the digital fairy!) which featured each letter, her chosen photo, and the word representing the object.  As we printed out each page, she retrieved the printout as it emerged from the printer, selected which color cardstock to mount it on, inserted it into a clear page protector and then added it her binder book. When her dad came to pick her up that evening, she couldn't wait to show him each and every page of her Alphabet Book before they headed home.  This was definitely time well spent together and the only cost incurred was printer ink, page protectors and a binder which I already had on hand.  Life is good when you're learning and sharing the alphabet together!

NOTE:  I bought her a digital camera last Christmas and it's proven to be extremely "kid user friendly" and durable.  It's the V-Tech Kidizoom Camera Pix and I'd definitely recommend it for kids 3 years old and up.