Peachy Tuesday's Workspace

Artisans often post their very aesthetically pleasing, personalized, organized, well lit studio spaces on their blogs,
(the one in the previous link is like, my dream studio, the color, the set up...it would be perfect for moi;)

I adore looking at these spaces. I love looking at any room all nice, organized, pretty and

i n s p i r i n g

I will have a studio one day, when our girls have completely outgrown their attic playroom.
I know, I know they NEVER play way up in their adorably decorated attic playroom. Truth be told, they have too many flippin' toys (all grandparents' fault) so, lots of the overflow are stored in the attic, shall we say "play" room. I would just not have enough room up there, nor would I enjoy or feel inspired with an overfilled stuffed animal net hanging above my head.


And... well, I like being near my family members when I work, I mean it certainly is a bonus of working at home. I love working alone as well, with music, late at night while Keith is busy being geeky with his PC gaming addiction. But I cannot accomplish and produce what I need to only working on it at night.

...so...for now... maybe find a little bit of comedy watching this short video on a day I am in creating mode...with my makeshift studio space...
I basically just keep everything put away, in my cabinet most of the time and drag it all back out

The Ease of a Cupcake Topper

Here's the thing, people always say I am creative, yadda yadda. Reality is I just rip off my sister, at least in this case. Last year for my niece Charlotte's Birthday (Charlie and Lola Theme) I made the cupcakes. My sister assembled cute cupcake toppers with scrapbooking paper, a gluegun & toothpicks.

This year the Birthday party theme is Monsters. I volunteered to make cupcakes again. At the time I volunteered I had an image of adorable frosting covered monster head cupcakes . Today I reminded myself that I am NO cake decorator. Nor do I wish I was. It stresses me out completely. I still really wanted to make the cupcakes, I love to bake. I love to make them look cute as well. I just know my limits, as any smart Mom should.

I decided a cupcake topper would be best. It would look adorable. The monster would match the party theme because my husband drew it for Charlotte's Birthday invitation.

Perfect.

These 40 little toppers took me less than an hour to construct. Of course the Huz took a few minutes to layout and print the monsters. But listen, basically, parents, (Aunts) this is WAY easier than making a monster head from a cupcake and is equally as cool/cute/neato.

You can use stickers on card stock, print out graphic of your choice on cardstock, have your kids draw stuff on it and cut that out in to the shape you want. The possibilities are endless.

Or if you have an awesome graphic designer as a Husband http://mrblackjaw.blogspot.com/ just have him draw you something up.

Here are the quick and easy instructions:

1.
cut apart your card stock with graphic of choice. We printed it with the image upside down and right side up so it could be folded, creating a two sided topper.



2.
Fold cut image in half.


3. Put a drop of glue at bottom middle of folded card stock.


4. Place a toothpick (I used flat wooden) in the center of glue quickly before it dries.


5. fold card stock over and press in the glue spot so it adheres.



6. They dry super fast using the glue gun. voila! adorable, affordable, stress free cupcake decoration.

Easy craft with the kiddos that lasts and lasts (in our house)

My girls love crafting. A trip to the craft store with either of them is not unlike a trip to a toy store. They want it all.

Many crafts that kids can do easily without tears, and parental irritation at ages 5 & 6 are, how do I put this politely... well junky. Foamy magnets, frames “ornaments”. Beaded necklaces that, sure they are cute, but unless you truly dominate the fun and crush all creativity of this craft they aren't going to be giving these jewelry creations away as gifts to anyone but, say, Grandma.

I hate dominating the fun, the creative part of it. You know, like in school when the preschool teacher tells them use your RED crayon to color the apples, the GREEN for the leaves and BROWN for the tree trunk. Eh, that makes me wrinkle my nose. I understand in school it has to be that way, at least in the school I can afford to send my kids to, but at home, I try and let them loose in the creativity department.

Here is an easy, cheap and pretty stress free craft to do with your kiddos. And the craft constructed lasts a time, at least in our house they do. You may not want to give them away as gifts. We did make 'signature' puff ball creatures and placed them in Ruby's Birthday party treat bags one time, but for the most part this is just a craft that has a bit more use than most easy crafts in our house.

Puff ball animals

Ruby and Ava have bins full of them and play with them frequently. They “design” the animals from various sizes and colors of puff balls purchased at the craft store, googly eyes, also from any craft store. I glue gun them together. They dry super fast and voila. A toy. A craft. A bin full of fuzzy colorful creatures to love.