So the girl and I were wanting to make a new batch and we were playing around with some scrapbook paper that I scored on sale with free shipping, yay! Btw, if you use scrapbook paper then watch Joann.com closely. Sometimes they have crazy 40% off sales with free shipping. I have no scrapbooking talents, but I do like to use the paper for many things. My daughter had the brilliant idea of making wands out of scrapbook paper. Yay, for crafty kids!
Picking out our favorite sheets and rolling them into wand shapes. Even the ever cool little brother got into the fun and chose the most rockstar looking paper for his new wand.
The future's so bright... Don't you just want to smoosh those little rebel cheeks?
Just a pretty pile of wands ready for the sparkly bits. The best part I think, even if it does involve the hot glue gun and the inevitable burn gel. The kids are involved in the choosing of gems and stones, but I do tend to monopolize the glueing on these.
Why do we make so many wands? Well, my girl's birthday is coming up and we like to hand out little party favors to all the young and young at heart. The kids also play with them as toys so we'll restock their diminishing supply. Since they are made of paper they only last a couple years of regular kid play. Our last batch was made at the end of 2008, so it was quite time for another round.
Eeek and Owww! That is all I have to say about this part.
The obligatory messy workspace shot, because you can't have a major craft project without a major mess. Well, at least we can't seem to. But to be honest. I LOVE craft messes. Other kinds of messes, not so much. Craft messes I can roll around in the muck of them for days drinking in my fill of the colors and textures. Yes, I married a patient man.
A detail picture that shows the stones on the ends of the wands. The small ends also sport either small stones or gems. These pictures were taken before we painted the hot glue accents, a process we will be finishing up over the next few days.
Magic wands drying out, standing in a canister of colored marbles, beach glass and stones. The wand in front is actually a scrap piece of paper that we used to try out watercolor paints on. We had saved it because we liked the colors and thought we'd see how it looked as a wand. If you click the picture it will show it larger. We like it so much we might make the next round of wands all watercolor. We'll just have to make a point to save the spill catcher and trial sheets we use throughout the year.
Painting the details on the hot glue. Tedious due to not wanting to mess up the pretty scrapbook paper but fun work, as it really takes the wands from pretty to Wow! Best done in good company with good music. Maybe some of this, oh - or this one is awesome too. Good magic wand making tunes. We were lucky enough to take the kids to a showing of this last spring. It was amazing!
We plan on finishing the wands with some yarn or ribbons and maybe little trinkets like bells and handmade ornaments hanging from them, stars like these perhaps - only smaller. Or diy shrinky-dinks ornaments? Oh, that could be fun. And more sparkles like sequins and beads I think. Fun stuff. Hard to stop when we get started on something like this.
And a final picture I captured tonight while my kids were howling at the rising full moon. Hi neighbors! Just us again! Talk about magical. Gorgeous! Something so amazing about a giant full moon commanding the sky, isn't there?
A magical Monday evening to all! :0)