Arts, Crafts, and dancing

Little J's craft project for today: monster paintings. Little G's projects: crayon scribbles and playdough balls. Mine? This!

Remember I mentioned that I had a whole heck of a lot of cardboard up in my craft room? I finally found a good use for it. Today, I cut it up, and made an easel for Jaiden. it was pretty easy. I used a rotary cutter(they work great on cardboard on top of carpet) to cut out two pieces of cardboard approximately 2 foot wide by 3 foot tall, with a 2 inch section creased in at both the top and bottom. The folds at the top were duct-taped together to the inside, and then I stood the pieces up in a triangle, and added a layer of duct tape across the top, too. I also constructed a box to hold paints, water and paintbrushs, and a ledge to stand paper on. He had a great time, and insisted on painting some more when Little Sister finally came home after school.


Oh, and Little J's wearing one of his daddy's old shirts as a painting smock. Isn't he cute?

In practice, I was using duct tape (again! Duct tape fixes everything!) to hold Little J's paper on to the board. I'm thinking I might need large alligator clips, or something that Little J can use. To keep the easel from spreading apart, the back edge was against the wall, and I had a couple pieces of 2x4 in front of the easel. This I'm fixing tomorrow, by tying cords between the front and back pieces of the easel. And, my big 'duh' moment, was when I realized that cardboard really isn't waterproof. So, tomorrow, I'm covering the inside of the paint box with layers of duct-tape. I think ducttape is water-proof...

Tonight I dropped Little Sister off at school for the 8th grade dance. There were a lot more girls than boys standing outside (the kids had to buy tickets for the dance, and since a dance is really more appealing to girls...), and while the guys were in pretty relaxed clothes, the girls were in prom dresses. Yes, prom dresses. These aren't highschool, these are middle school kids, even if they are just graduating from 8th grade...I hope Little Sister has a good time. I did her hair for her in a reverse french braid, and she looked very cute. I pick her up at 10. That is past the little one's bedtime, so I may be carrying sleeping babies out to the car and sticking them in their carseats to go to the school.