Monday, Catch-up day!

It seemed like a very long week last week with 3 classes to get ready for and teach.  Glad this week will be a little less stressful, but hoping the blizzard predicted later on Thursday  goes north or south or AWAY!     Had 2 cricut expression 2 classes on Saturday.  Must say that the quality control on these machines is less than desirable.  I have never had any trouble with mine, but in every class, we spend more time troubleshooting problems on the students machines than we do using them and learning on them.  Saturday, we had one machine that we could never get to boot up and run and one , that when we started cutting with it  went nuts on us and cut everywhere.  Never figure that one out either.  There were tons of "glitches" along the way that also took time out of the classroom teaching time!  Frustrating for all of us!

Sunday I was lucky enough to get to watch my two little Grandsons--Nicholas and Aiden --for a few hours.   What a couple of cards--with or without a sugar high they are more than a bundle of energy!

Lots of time was spent eating snacks and just talking and acting silly.  These are pics of Aiden.

and Aiden with his bag of collected "rocks"!

and Nicholas--well on his way to a sugar "high"--think this was his second bowl of peppermint flavored marshmellows-------that followed the gummy fruit snacks---and was before the fresh baked cookies, a piece of ham, a bowl of chips--well you get the idea --oh, and a small cup of Grandpa's Pepsi!   No wonder, shortly after, the wild child came out in both of them and Ella (the lab), took her que and decided she had a very captive audience to throw her balls and chase her up and down the halls and and around and around the house!    Crazy, wild, loud couple of hours for sure.

So I survived  Last week and decided to have a lazy sort of "do what I want to" day!   Here's a bit of my project today--can you guess what it is?????? 

Well above, left is some wooden dowels I painted blue!  They will be cut into 3rds or 4ths and used on the project below right!

This is the "top" of my project with all it's prettiness and bling.   Hint:  It's a mother's day gift for my kids to make in my April Kids Class.      Want to see more?  

Since birdhouses are so popular this year--and my friend Maggie had made several of these little gems----aaaannnnnd I was having problems thinking of a cool craft idea for a Mother's day gift------I decided to "steal" (Thanks, Maggie) the birdhouse idea.  I was sure I could  develop a way to make them that was kid friendly for the most part and  I think I have it mostly figured out.

and what Mom wouldn't want a cheery little yellow Birdhouse to sit or hang in her home.  (Oh, it could be given to a Grandma, too)

I made 2, each a little different.  The fronts are made using the Tim Holtz  Artful Dwellings Die (Sizzix)  Those painted dowels---their the perches!  and the top has a row of bling along the roof line and a hanging ring with lots of pretty ribbons and netting  on it .

and of course, every present needs a special little bag  to give it in.  I will make each of my kids this special little tag, with a Taylored Expression "birdhouse" stamp, colored with copics.  I spent this afternoon stamping, embossing, coloring and cutting them out on my sizzix.  A little white bag and a piece of yellow netting tied through a couple of holes along the bags top and the present is complete!

  Sounds like I could have a few more home-bound crafting days this week (weather forced).  Hmmmm, wonder what my next project should be?    I have a few new pictures--so I may actually scrapbook some pages--or make more cards for the ARL--since I just got some more new animal stamps.

Hope you all have a crafty week, especially if you are weather forced home bound!