Handprint Ghost Craft!!!

We did this craft just before Mickey's party and in the excitement, I never got around to sharing it! So, here it is, just in case you have a bit of down time tomorrow, a hand print ghost craft. (With alterations by Mickey!)

First up, gather your supplies. Black paper, white paint, a paint brush of sorts, googly eyes, glue and a black marker.

For our first hand print, I first squirted paint on the brush and then applied it to the kiddos hand but the second time around, I wised up and just squirted it directly on their hands. You could pour it onto a paper plate or sheet of wax paper and then apply to their hands but I was trying to keep clean up time a little shorter.

Smear the paint around so you get a nice thick coverage. This is Mickey's hand after the first attempt and we had to add more.

Then, center their hand on the paper and press firmly. Make sure you get all their little fingers on there. (We redid Aud's thumb on this one!)

When you lift up their sweet, chubby little hands you'll have a pretty good hand print on your paper. Not terribly ghost like, is it?

Now spin your paper around and, after the paint dries, glue on some googly eyes. (A little more ghostly now!)

Then, hand your kids a black marker and have them draw a ghostly (or smiley) mouth.

After that, watch them get all crazy with the googly eyes and create monster ghosts!!! (Mickey's idea!)

Hang them up on your wall and enjoy!

I'll probably date and label these when I take them down. We were a little pressed for time originally otherwise I would have remembered that step originally! LOL!

My New Favorite Photo

Sigh, love it! :)

Mickey's Birthday Party

Mickey's 5th birthday was a pretty exciting event around here! I had a lot of fun making his Cars themed party as special as I could without sending myself over the edge! ;) I combined his first school friend party with his normal family party because...well...two parties is too much for me to deal with!

I made his invites using Photoshop and some clip art. I found Lightening McQueen on the Cars website, it's actually a computer desktop wallpaper that I cropped and then cloned out some excess stuff. I made the front and back as two separate 4x6 photos and then just adhered them back to back. It works really well and is fairly inexpensive too. With the help of Google I found a font similar to the official Cars font and chromed it up with Photoshop.

I also made personalized Pit Passes for the boys and Audrey and guest ones for anyone else who wanted to wear them. Surprisingly, quite a few adults did! I created the bar code with another font I found online and used the day of the party as the number. I made these 2x6 so I could get two on a 4x6 photo and just cut them apart. Worked like a charm and Mickey loved them!

In order to maintain my sanity, I did store bought cupcakes and cake this year. I figured as long as it's chocolate and Cars, Mickey won't care. No one else did, either. I'm not exactly an amazing baker so I'm pretty sure my box mix cupcakes were not missed at all. Heh!

I bought a few yards of the checked fabric (hemmed by Mom!) at JoAnn's, some cones at Fred Meyer (the kids are now using them to play soccer outside) and then set up Cars themed snacks in red and black plastic dishes I found on clearance at Target. We had stacks of tires (mini chocolate covered donuts), white wall tires (Oreos) and traffic cones (Nacho Cheese flavored Bugles). Oh, and Pirate's Booty. No Cars theme there, I just love the stuff! ;)

I used the leftover fabric to decorate the buffet along with as many pics of Mickey as I could get on there. Most of them got covered up fairly quickly. Little Man got quite the haul!

I originally was going to do some Cars games but, in the name of sanity (again!) I opted just to kick them outside with our new dog and the croquet set. They didn't care at all and loved playing with Lilly!

I bribed them with opening presents to get them back in the house. The kids swarmed Mickey with each new present he opened and I finally suggested that each kid get a turn "helping" Mickey open one present. That calmed things down fairly quickly.

His crown is the one he was given at preschool on his actual birthday and he thought it would be a good idea to wear it to his party.

After presents it was time for food!
Mickey blew out the candles on his cake pretty much the second his dad lit them. We explained that he needed to wait for us to sing and then make a wish and then blow out the candles. So, we relit, sang and then he blew out his candles. :)

It was a great little party. Mickey got to play with some of his preschool friends and see a bunch of family. He loved all his presents and was pretty good about sharing them with Audrey right away. We love our little guy and I'm so glad he loved his party, too. He's so worth every late night!

Oh, I almost forgot! The shirt he's wearing is a Cars one I found at Kmart for super cheap and snagged a few days before his birthday. I hung on his door knob the night before his birthday and he got to wear it to preschool that day and then again to his party. He thought that was pretty darn cool. :)

One more thing....here's a sneak at his Halloween costume in progress!

He's Five!!!!

He is five and we are so grateful!

Grateful for his smile. Grateful for his desire to learn.

Grateful for his sweet, loving nature.

Grateful for his amazing ability to make friends so easily.

Grateful for his willingness to help out.

Grateful for his sense of humor.

But mostly, we are just so very grateful to have him here with us.

We love you so very much, Mitchell Jack Hettwer.

We are grateful for you!

AWDML October Featured Manufacturer

Hey guys! I wanted to share the goodies I made with the second Featured Manufacturer over at A Walk Down Memory Lane! It's a pretty cool FM this time, not a stamp company but Ranger! Inks and paints and Tim Holtz, oh my! :)

First up, I made this layout about my niece, Claire. The kids adore her (as do I) and we are so happy when she comes over. I created the flowers with a transparency and alcohol inks and the butterflies with die cut cardstock and alcohol inks.
Next, I made this fun Halloween themed card. I gotta say, those alcohol inks are so fun to play with!
Finally, I busted out the paints to create this colorful card.

It just makes me happy. :)

And, it's in ROY G BIV order, too! Hee!

If you need some Ranger goodies, now's the time to get them at AWDML, they're 25% off all month! (Jillibean is, too!)

Splendidly Authentique!

I decided to take part in Authentique's October sketch challenge. I printed out the sketch, grabbed my Authentique paper and took it with me to Kah-Nee-Tah this last weekend.

I got it mostly completed there, along with another layout and two cards. I just had to write the journaling and add the date once I got home.

I used papers and die cuts and stickers from the Splendid line and stickers from the Uncommon line. I just love how well the colors in Splendid go with the pictures of Audrey riding her John Deere trike and wearing her Barbie helmet. :)

October!!!

It's October! My favorite month! In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness, I've changed my blog to pink and updated my header so if you're reading me on Reader, pop on over and tell me what you think!

It's a busy month around these parts, here's a quick run down of important dates!

2nd-My brother-in-law's birthday

5th-My birthday! (Hello 35!)

15th-Dad's birthday

19th-Step-Dad's birthday

21st-Mickey's birthday

31st-Halloween!!!

So, that means I've got lots of cards to make, a family party and a kid party to plan for Mickey (his first kid party!!!), and some costumes to make! Mickey's going to be Lightening McQueen and have a Cars themed birthday. I like to coordinate his party and his costume because it just makes life a whole lot easier for me! Aud's going to be a flower. Although if you ask her now, she wants to be Spiderman! Sorry Miss Thing, you can be Spiderman next year, this year I've already got some of the stuff to make your flower costume. LOL!

How's your October shaping up? Super busy like mine or pretty laid back?

Oh, and here's a card I made for AWDML using some of Echo Park's new Halloween line, Apothecary Emporium.

Sigh, I love October! :)

Preschool Pumpkin Patch Trip

A quick recap of our day at the pumpkin patch!

We went to the same place as last year. The only difference was...
My mom came with so I got this picture of the three of us!

And then I took this one of the four of us! Hee! My boots are the hounds tooth ones. It mortifies my husband when I wear them in public!

Mickey took this picture of his preschool teacher with my camera. I think it's his first pic on this camera!

Aud got in on the action and took this shot of my mom! Hi, Bah-Bon!

Aud thought the baby pigs were pretty cute...and so did I!

One of the new attractions was this nut room! The kids went wild about it and the consensus amongst the mom's was that we had our own nut rooms at home!

Aud loved it too! (I got a few other good pics in here but they have other kid's faces in them.)

Someone got a little tired while checking out the bunnies. :)

Mickey and his buddies checking out the corn maze from the tractor ride. They loved the maze and Jaden and Mickey wound up running through it, which meant I did too. I got whacked on the head about a half a dozen times by the random sunflowers that were in there!

This was the first of three or four pumpkins that Aud picked out. Mom tried to have her put her pumpkin in the bag right away but I remembered her pumpkin greed from last year and advised waiting until it was time to leave to finalize her pumpkin choice. (She picked a dirty one, of course!)

Mickey's friend Jaden picked a large pumpkin so Mickey had to have a huge one too! Then, he couldn't carry it! So, I carried his enormous one and he carried my cute little one. :)

It was a great trip. I just love taking the kids to the pumpkin patch and we'll probably go to another one a little later in the month. :)

Have you hit the pumpkin patches yet?

Quick Card!

Just poppin' in with a quick (and I mean quick!) card.

If you'd like to see the step-by-step for making this card, be sure to sign up for the A Walk Down Memory Lane newsletters. They come out every Friday and have fun little how-tos, sketches and sometimes even coupon codes!

AWDML October Featured Manufacturer-Jillibean Soup!!!

Yay!!! I love Jillibean Soup! <3 I got a bunch of goodies from the Homemade 6 Bean Soup line.

This layout uses only the stickers and die cuts from the line, no patterned paper at all!

I love the background paper on this layout, it's a cutting mat!!! My mom's a quilter and my grandmother used to quilt too so the sewing theme in this line just makes me happy. This layout is about the fabric paper dolls that my mom made Aud for her 2nd birthday. They were (and still are) quite the hit!

I made these next two cards for my mom.

Now, they aren't for me to give to her, I made them for her to give to two of her quilting buddies. I hope they'll like them!

Remember, you can get this line and every other Jillibean Soup goodie for 25% off at AWDML for the entire month of October! Happy shopping! :)