Well, maybe not quite so creepy!  I received an awesome email from Echo Park Paper indicating cutting files from some of their fabulous kits were now available in SVG format at iDieCut.com.  Woohoo! As Nadya and I were browsing at iDieCut, she LOVED the spider web from Echo Park’s Happy Halloween line…so we decided to take advantage of this week’s 25% off coupon and spend some quality time creating while Daddy slaved away at work. With the help of my Make The Cut software we created this fun shaped card:  The web is cut from glitter DCWV cardstock and adhered to a grey shaped “shadow” layer card (love my Brother Backster for this one).  No web would be complete without a spider, so we searched through my cutting files and found “the perfect spider” (according to Nadya) i n my SVGShop folder.  I cut him out using Make The Cut as well – then added the “fuzz” – easily created with Heat N Stick Powder and black flocking. His eyes are red adhesive pearls. Nadya and I were both pleased with the results! While we’re one the subject of spiders, I’m proud to showcase one of Nadya’s creations using a Halloween Digi-Stamp from SuzyQScraps designs: Her medium of choice: Fiskars Gel Pens, so of course there is a lot more glitter, shimmer, and shine in person!

Have a wonderful Monday!

Today through Sunday, Lindsay’s store at My Grafico is 35% off – a perfect time to scoop up some new “toys” and play!  I used one of Lindsay’s newest digital stamp sets, Halloween Doodles, and The Crafter’s Café September Digi-Day Sketch Challenge sketch  to create this whimsical card:I enjoyed the time in my craft room as Nadya was creating right along with me! Designer Paper is from Debbie Mumm’s Harvest & Holiday Stack, cardstock is from my stash as are the pearls.  I cut the pumpkins using Nesties dies and embossed with CB folders in my Big Shot.  The “fence” is border punched (Martha Stewart) and then embossed – also with a CB folder.  The Scarecrow is a combination of Prismacolor pencils and Shimmer Chalks, edged with an SU marker.

Be sure to check Lindsay’s Blog for fabulous DT samples and inspiration!

We’re off to our first MOPS meeting – looking forward to friends and fun! Have a great day!

Today I had one of those extremely satisfying moments as a mom – I had a “play date” with Nadya this morning before our afternoon preschool activities began. We’re big fans of Play-Doh, so I was thrilled when SocialMoms gave me the opportunity to review the new new Play-Doh Playdates website. After just a few minutes of browsing, we opted for Play-Doh pizza from the Fresh Ideas menu and the Pizza Box from the Crafts Menu. The Fresh Ideas instructions were easy to follow, though I do wish they offered an easy to print PDF as my 4 year-old likes to “follow” the directions – and I’m not ready to incorporate Play-Doh or any other kind of dough into my computer space just yet. To “solve” this little situation, I took screen caps of the steps, added them to Word, and printed them out along with the Pizza Box. We assembled the Pizza Box first – a very cute idea, but the top of the box is larger than the bottom, so it doesn’t close properly – Nadya didn’t care, but it would have been nice if everything matched. After the box was ready, we assembled our “ingredients”:  As I said, the instructions, or recipe as Nadya called it, were simple to follow – the pictures helping to illustrate so I didn’t have to read them to her per se, more just guide her as we went along. She is NOT a fan of onions, so our white tube became Mozzarella cheese instead. She worked on the green peppers while I started on the olives. We finished Step 1 in no time! I thoroughly enjoyed watching her follow “her recipe” and pitching in when she asked me to. Definitely one of the perks of my “mom” job! We used a toy rolling pin to “flatten” the dough and sauce balls as Nadya thought that was more “proper” than using our hands.The instructions called for tearing the “cheese” and “pepper” tubes into pieces, but Nadya immediately thought of her scissors (part of one of her Play-Doh kits) and I wholeheartedly supported the fine motor skill development.  She did say that next time we make Play-Doh pizza, she’s going to use her “string” maker tool for the cheese so that it will be thinner and look more like shredded cheese.  The final step was by far the easiest – combining all of the ingredients into a finished pizza! We both enjoyed our “date” – Nadya insisted we call Daddy at work to tell him of our accomplishment.  Initially he was a bit confused when she said we had rolled meatballs and made olives!

Overall, I really like the Play-Doh Playdates site – it’s easy to use, the ideas are fun, engaging, and vary enough to be fun for a fairly broad age range/skill level, and it’s free.  The crafts and snacks sections don’t require the use of specific purchased product at all (though you’ll need access to a printer for the craft projects) and the Fresh Ideas could be done with homemade dough as well (though I personally love Play-Doh and the fact that my hands don’t feel like I’ve been soaking in a brine solution when I’m done playing). Aside from the minor inconvenience of not being able to print the Fresh Ideas instructions without additional time and software, the only drawback I found was the sizing of the pizza box – though in reality it is a bit of a non-issue as I wouldn’t be storing any finished creation in there since Play-Doh tends to dry out when exposed to air for extended periods. Nadya has already requested to build a couple of items from the Back To School Fresh Ideas and Crafts sections, so we’ll be visiting again soon!  Plus, I think the  chalk board printout would be fabulous for use in her preschool classroom art time as the kids are learning to write their letters and numbers and would enjoy forming them out of Play-Doh, clay, or similar products as well.

Have a fabulous Tuesday!

Disclosure: This post is part of a SocialMoms product evaluation, for which I’ve been selected. I’ve been compensated for my time with 8,000 My SocialMoms Rewards Points. The opinions expressed in this post are mine and don’t necessarily reflect the opinions of SocialMoms or Play-Doh.