Rest in the warmth (cardboard art)

This is the latest piece of cardbard art I have been working on...

Capturing the process

Picking and adding warm colors.

     This is what I have so far...

REST IN THE WARMTH ~cardboard art

 I am not ready to call it finished...something is missing. I put it away though because, well I needed to clean up my dining room table for guests and I am hoping that time away from it will bring fresh ideas when I see it again. Thanks for sharing in this process with me.   

 Be patient in the storm as you rest in the warmth...

In my west corner. 

becky

"put off" or "put on" - what to wear?

My quick little piece of quiet time art for today. :) 

My choice for today.... :)

In my little west corner...choosing gratitude. 

~Becky

Stamp painting with pipe-cleaners- summer fun

I saw this fun idea Painting fireworks with pipe-cleaners on Pinterest a bit ago and today we put the idea to paper. 

Stamp Painting with Pipe-cleaners

You will need:

Pipe-cleners

paint

paper

An extra thing I did was put some extra pipe cleaners to let the kids

 make a few of their own pipe-cleaners stamps. This idea lasted my kids about 20 minutes. 

We have started something new at our house since school got out. 

We call our new idea Rotation Stations... this pipe-cleaner idea was at our craft station. 

I will share with you our Rotation Station idea with you soon...it has really been a help to me and the kids. More on that next time. 

Here is the original post I saw that inspired us. :) 

Source: Juggling with kids

Using what we have to create some summer fun- today it was Pinterest and pipe-cleaners. :)

In our west corner,

Becky and kiddos

A rock family for our balcony garden

Don't they look so cute sitt'in up there as snug as a rock in a sock. 

Seriously poetry is like a major gift of mine. 

We found a small farm just outside of town so we bought some seedlings:

cucumbers, strawberry plants, lettuce and cherry tomato plants. 

We planted our own seeds of  basil, lettuce, morning glories and cilantro.

We LOVE our balcony herb gardens we have done in the past.
Here and here

This year it will be fun to see what else we can grow on our balcony in pots and plastic containers. :)

The kids are especially excited about the strawberries. 

Of course a rock family for our balcony garden was an obvious next step, right?

Not sure how it happened but it was fun and those painted rocks sure are happy. 

They need a few little ones, don't ya think. ;) 

Our garden planting ~ rock painting day. 

Using the things we have like rocks and plastic containers to create lasting memories and splashes of colour to our days.

In my west corner,
Being me and doing what I do.
Becky

linking up to these parties. 

Sneak peak into my girls room

Stencilled cork board for bunk bed. 

Vintage dishtowels sewn together make a great curtain on the bottom bunk. 

Bought those dish towels in the states this year for $2.00 because I liked them so much, now I get to see them often. 

The cork board and the curtains make it cozy and keep things hidden in times of need. ;)

The Philippines 4:8 free printable is found HERE.

(Scroll to the bottom of her post to find the printable.) 

I made cute little button thumbtacks for the cork board. 

All you need is a glue gun, thumbtacks, buttons and 5 minutes. 

A small flower mural and a printable.

Printable found HERE.

I have always called Lydia my sunshine girl so this is very fitting for her top bunk. 

Little by little as I have had time and ingenuity with my ideas the girls room is coming together. I have tried very hard to just "use what I have" here in my home. Like the cork board for the bunkbed I have had for awhile and was determined to find a use for it. I love that I discovered the TP stencil idea which is FREE and fun. (idea found here)

Lets make something really clear (that is fun to say for some reason)... before anyone gets their hopes up, this will not be a perfect pinterest room, nope :) because that is just not me (perfect) nor is it my budget. :) (and I am happy about that really) However this room will be custom fit for my girls and for what we value in our home. 

I hope you enjoy and find some little inspiration and can enjoy the simplicity with me. 

Here is my pinterest link to my Girls room ideas! 

In my west corner being grateful for all that I have. 

Stay content my friends... 

Becky

Will be linking up here

and Skip to my lou,Round to it,Keeping it simple

Glittery Puffy Paint

We are so very out of paint and have been for some time. Oh we have a tad bit of this and that but not the quality or quantity that we used to have. Truth is we have lots of orange and blue and some black and little bits of this and that. :) I have found some kids acrylic paint here in Turkey but it is spendy,especially because of all the variety of colors I want, and well I figure we can wait till we get back to the States and load up on lots and lots of colors for less.

Meanwhile I have so had an itch for my kids to paint other than with water colors. So I finally tried diy puffy paint. 
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 to 3/4 water
food coloring or a squirt of acrylic paint
and GLITTER!!

Talk about simple. The kids went to town on our balcony the other day (Spring has hit our west corner with some fever) and were out there for hours. Painting and then having a paint show, in which I attended and clapped for the budding artists.

Adding glitter to puffy paint is a GREAT place to use glitter!!!!!
We just poured it in whatever color we wanted and stirred.
We bought large sheets of drawing paper for 25 kurus a piece and  cut and taped the paper to cardboard pieces in different sizes.
The cardboard pieces idea being used as a canvas of sort I found here. (this is one of my all time fav blogs btw)

using what we have to paint.... and enjoying the beginning of Spring.

In our little west corner,

Becky

Ps. have you noticed my new tab in pages "crafts kids can do" 

It is the beginning of a gallery of pictures of all the crafts we have done here in 'our little west corner". Feel free to click and see all our kids craft projects in one place. ~ I am excited about it all! A cup a tea to me.

Painting with marbles

This past week we have had some really fun creative moments at our house. One of those moments was creating marble art. I love it when I can find things that all three of my kids like to do. Sometimes their age differnce pose differnt preferneces and skill levels etc. so painting with marbles was a hit for all three. I did this with girls a few years ago and it was a hit then too. I think Isaac liked it the most this time around. It is super fun for his age, I think. :)

What you will need:

paper

some type of pan

plastic/paper cups

marbles 

paint

tape

easy clean up, takes about 20 minutes for craft

Good night from my corner of Turkey ~
I wish I had 2 more hours to add to my evening but alas sleep is calling to me.
~Becky

A button flower and two stems made out of foam...

Here are the sweet Thank You cards the girls made a few days ago. 

I have been wanting to have the girls make some thank you cards for some thoughtful friends. I saw a delightful blog post the other day of a finger print flower and so I tweaked the idea a bit and we came up with this. (my girls love buttons xo;))

I forgot how fun fingerprint art can be.  My girls came up with a few cute creatures from their own hands. 

Enjoy the finger painting fun.

So simple so sweet.

The girls wrote their own note of thanks inside and hopefully it will be in the mail tomorrow. ;)

These could aslo be a great homemade Mothers Day Cards too.

~becky

Easter addition of the 'Welcome Rock'

Spring is here and Easter is just around the corner so our 'welcome rock' has come to my mind. Then the other day my son says "big big rock I paint, please?" :) So yestrday we went to work. :)

For the full story on our 'Welcome rock' click here. :)

Here is our updated piece of art that sits outside our door.

For the grandparents and family..:) here are the artist of the Easter addition 'Welcome Rock'.

Enjoy your weekend and paint a rock. :)

~becky

Thanks for all of your comments and stopping by my blog.

 It makes me really smile when you all leave a comment, you know like the Cheshire cat.

Yep that is so me when you all leave a comment. :)

I love having you and your are always welcome!

Paper Marbaling with shaving cream!!



As I wrote about in my last post we were able to experience EBRU or paper Marbaling first hand last weekend at a Health Muesum in our city. It wa so very fun for all of us.




REACH lil ones REACH. :)
(This is a foutain that was put in the center of this Hospital
 because they believed the hearing of water
 helped to calm and relax the sick.)

 


Well when we got home I kept thinking about how to have the girls give this form of art a try. So many of us are visual or kinistatic learners so I wanted to help the concept stick and good ole shaving cream seemed to be what we needed for that to happen. 

Here is what we came up with. Enjoy and give it a try. YOu might want to make sure that Dad has had his recent shave however! ;). I got the idea of shaving cream from here.

Enjoy the pics..

 

What we used:
Pans, shaving cream, paint, and something to swirl the paint and paper
Oh yeah and a wet towel to clean up the mess! (it is a mild mess however) ;)



Making the design and adding colors.

We placed the paper carefully on the top of the shaving cream..

and then when we took the paper off the top of the shaving cream
 and scraped off the excess and...

tada our own Paper marbaling.

This whole project took only about 30 minutes and 5 pieces of art were designed.

These are the top 3. :)

  

A beautiful piece of art! 
(Oh what to do with all my kiddos beautiful pieces of art. ;),
 and mind you it is beautiufl and so it must be displayed somewhere and everywhere! :))



I recently found out that they have paper marabling classes you can take here in my city and I thought that would be an amazing thing to try.  It would be even cooler if you oldest and I could do it together?  Wouldn't that be super.

Enjoy and off I go to bed. Oh how I love crawling into bed when I am so very tired and tonight is one of those nights that I am oh so very tired. Good night from the 'Far west corner' of Turkey.
                                                                                                                            ~becky
     

I linked this craft project over at:
Mommas kinda crafty 
Jump on over and check out other fun ideas. :)