A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

With all the outdoor play in the summer, settling down to some serious kids crafting time is not something that usually takes place, sure we paint in the garden and chalk up a storm on the patio, but to sit around the kitchen table and to spend time drawing, painting, cutting, sticking and generally making a mess, well this is for the dark evenings and rainy weekend afternoons...So its just not something we have done together for a while.  Along with play dates and after school activities for the first time ever I am having to plan in this time rather than it happen most nights as it did before the time when school seemed to take over our lives.  Pre-children I paper crafted and made cards, I also sold them enough to make a steady 'side' income.  I lost my groove a bit when the card invasion took place in the UK and suddenly it was more about the stuff you bought rather than the art.  Do not get me wrong, I think it opened the door to a lot of people who wanted to do arty things but felt unable to and this can only be a good thing, right?  
Never the less I lost my groove, suddenly instead of glitter, ink and pretty rainbow coloured paper surrounding me I found myself fully submerged in baby delights...cloth nappies, beautifully illustrated hard board books, pretty gingham bedding and the softest velvety cuddlies.  I remained in contact with some rather amazing designers and I swapped a few ATCs (I  have a fine collection which outshines my children's Pokemon ones) I made a couple of altered books and even dipped my toes into the scrapbooking phenomenon. 
Tinkering is more of the word to describe my paper crafting life now... sewing and knitting has now taken over and instead of shelves full of beautiful wooden stamps and multi-coloured pots of embossing powder, its now piles of lush fabric and tactile baskets of yarn...
So when the craft table does get going in full flow I love it and I slip back into the comfortable mediums of colour.  Last night after the school run, we pulled on our aprons and just went for it... we printed,painted, glued and glittered up in a frenzy of crafting....
Instead of the usual chatter there was silence as we each contemplated and then put into practice our ideas.  Potato's and apples became our printing tools and as for the wee babe, well of course he painted his hands (all the way to his shoulders!) to make prints, what I did notice was the change in my little ones work.  I remember at the beginning of the year when suddenly arms and legs appeared in his usual squiggles across the page and then features, enough to know he was drawing his Brother, or his Mommy and best off all himself with huge curly hair. Now we are getting so much more detail and even trying to write words to describe his pictures.  As for Big Brother...he enjoyed the printing, but as usual his favourite is cartooning...with speech bubbles a plenty...
Not that we needed a reason to spend the time at the craft table together, there was however an intention and I am pleased to say a good outcome.   I was inspired by the Living magazine and all things 'pumpkin'.  As we do not really go in for Halloween I went with the Harvest theme for this time of year...
and if I may say so myself...we got some good results, we made our Harvest greeting cards...then again when your having this much fun...who cares?

Have a great weekend and if you are looking for a craft to do with children check out the Flappy Happies over here...Domesticali

PS The new Autumnal Header picture is actually the photography of my eldest child, I love the effect he has captured almost lensbaby like.  Not bad for a little one aged eight!  Yes I am one proud Mommy!