Classic Cars and Crafty projects........

A common interest of all the guys in our family is cars! I like cars, too, and so Jacob and I went to downtown Henderson last Tuesday night to see the classic cars that were parked along Main Street. It's a little something that the Hog Wild Eatery "cooked up" and it was fun. There was music from the 50's and 60's playing over the loudspeaker and lots of folks walking along looking at the cars. Here are just a few..........

Jacob's favorite was the one above which was parked on one side of the street and then..........

a near twin was parked on the other side of the street! We ate at the Hog Wild and there was so much food, we took home a box filled with enough for lunch the next day!

Now to the crafting............... I have a large plastic tote that is filled with stuff that Jacob can use for whatever projects he wants. There was a bag full of these foam pieces. Jacob asked for paper, so I gave him a couple of large squares of scrapbook paper. It took him two nights but this is what he ended up with. I think this could be a quilt design!

You can read all about our fabric painting HERE but I thought I would share a photo of each of the cotton pieces that Jacob painted.

In this middle photo, you can just barely see the shape of the butterfly.

These will all be turned into a framed art project or a pillow.




Since the butterfly didn't really show up, I gave Jacob my Micron finepoint pens and he drew around the shape and colored it.

Pretty cute, huh? This is a great project for kids (eight and older) and there is no end to what you can create!

There was one more project that we worked on together.............and it all started with a Spam can! LOL! We used felt to cover the can and then Jacob found a Pokemon logo to follow so that we could decorate the can. When it was all done, he had a place to put his Pokemon cards. I think I will decorate one of these and put scrap paper in it because I am always in need of a place to write a note! There'll be more on some can projects later on but that's all for now.

Have a fun day.........

Grandma Skeeter

The Panther Pillow

My grandson, Jacob, is here for a few days. We had fun yesterday making this pillow for Jacob as his favorite football team is the Carolina Panthers.

We used white fleece for the pillow body and woolfelt and the new Xotic bamboo felt to make the letters and the panther. This was Jacob's idea so he was the design engineer and I was the "worker bee". :-)

Please note.....we made this pillow for Jacob, not for sale and no pattern to share. We went to the Carolina Panthers website to get the inspiration for the design which is the copyrighted symbol for the Panthers. So, I explained to Jacob that while we could make a pillow for him, one can't make things to sell that use a national team's logo. I've read my copyright info and don't think we have a problem here. Jacob is happy to be a fan of the Carolina Panthers and hopes they wouldn't be angry because we used their logo to make him a pillow. I'm thinking the Carolina Panthers would be happy to have a fan in Minnesota, Land of the Vikings. :-)

Singing Stars!

I just had to post this photo of my grandson, Jacob. He's picking tunes and Collette (his mom) is singing along to kid's songs on the Karaoke machine I got after Christmas. They were having great fun and it reminded me of when Collette and Devlin were little and they would take the old tape recorder and make silly sounds and then play them back and laugh and laugh!!

The keyboard was my Christmas gift a couple of years ago and Jacob enjoys it as much as I do. The karaoke machine is sort of a Christmas present, too, as my mom gave me $50 at Christmas and I found this one on sale at Best Buy for $49.99. I plan to use it at quilt and women's group programs but also knew it would be a hit with Jacob. Who knows, he could be the next Singing Star!!!

The Cat's Meow!!

I had to share these photos!!! When I took Jacob home last Sunday, he got out the Puppet Theater to show to his mom and dad. He set it on the floor and right away his cats took an interest in it. He has two cats named Marty and Emmet (think "Back to the Future") and I am not sure which one this is but he crawled right in...............

and then laid right down!!! Looks like a good place for a nap, I guess!!! The fun ended when he started to chew on it.

The Chipmunk Theater

Hello! My grandson, Jacob, is here visiting and we enjoyed doing a craft project today. We're going to show you pictures and show you that you can have fun, too! First, we want you to see what Jacob made last spring when we were crafting............

...........lots of fun finger puppets!!!! Jacob would draw the designs and cut most of the shapes. I helped with some shapes that were small but he did most of the work. Aren't they neat?!! When we finished making them, we thought how fun it would be to have a puppet theater but we ran out of time. Then the next time he visited, the weather was nicer and we weren't doing as many crafts. But it's winter again and so.............

..........we took one large pizza box...........

then between the two of us we took some embossed felt scraps and glued them over the front of the pizza box (double click on the picture and you can see that we had to piece the fabric). To make the theater stand up "easel style", I cut and glued a felt strip from the lid to the bottom of the box. I did it before I hung the curtains but it would be better to do this step last!!!

Next Jacob chose blue for the curtains and because I've been doing so much crazy quilting, I had just the fabric for theater curtains. I cut two rectangles and folded over the edge of each side and machine stitched the edges. I did long running stitches at the top and gathered the pieces for curtains. I didn't bother to hem them as I knew it wouldn't show. While I glued the curtains to the inside of the box lid, Jacob was cutting out letters that he wants to use at the top of the Puppet Theater.

Here is cutting out an "E" from lady bug felt because his mom loves ladybugs. His first letter choice, though, is a "W" for Webkinz and there was a "W" already cut in the felt scraps I gave him to use. :-) And so................



............ here is the completed "Chipmunk Theater", complete with a new finger puppet that Jacob made .......... and it's a Chipmunk!! That's He designed the little guy and cut and glued him. My part was to sew the two pieces together. We work well as a team. :-)

Here is the back of the chipmunk as he peeks into the theater.....................





And here he is getting ready to run!!!

As you can see, we had a lot of fun making "The Chipmunk Theater". You can make one, too. Just get a pizza box (or any other box), felt and fabric scraps, glue, and scissors. And if you are making finger puppets, don't forget the wiggle eyes!!

We also had a good time last night when we went out to eat. I gave Jacob a choice of going to the grocery store for TV dinners or going to the Hogwild Eatery on Mainstreet. He thought about it and then chose the restaurant. When we got there, he chose a booth first and then decided we should take the window table which was nice because we could watch the traffic and other guests coming into the Hogwild. Then he ordered up the grilled cheese from the "Piglet" (kids) menu and I ordered the "All you can eat fish special". When the waitress brought our food, we couldn't believe how much there was on our plates. And so I took a picture..................

Of course, we had to get a box to take home left-overs which we ate a lunch. Then we made a quick stop at the library for books and videos. Watched a movie and then got out a puzzle and did that. We started another puzzle tonight but it may not get done before I have to take him home tomorrow. So, that's what we've up to. Time now to get some sleep.

Jacob and Grandma Skeeter