Cool Books For Kids, Round Two

You may recall that back in November I wrote this post, reviewing books for kids. My reviews covered books (picture books, activity books, reference books, etc.) that have piqued my kids' interest in the world around them. I decided that it's now time for another round of these reviews as the books keep piling up at our house. If you missed my original book review post, check it out by clicking on the link in the first line above - that will provide some context.

Now...without further ado...

1.  Imagine That!: Activities and Adventures in Surrealism by Joyce Raimondo

This is one of five books in the Art Explorers series. We bought it three days ago and I already know we need the other four. Imagine That! focuses on surrealist art, allowing kids and parents alike to explore surrealism through the work of six different artists. The book begins with a "Note to Adults" and another "Note to Kids" providing an overview of the structure of the book and of surrealism. After that, the book delves into each of the six artists. Each artist's section begins with a brief overview of the artist's work, showcases one painting or sculpture representative of the artist's work, and includes great (and I mean great!) questions and thinking/writing prompts for kids to use to analyze the artwork. The rest of the section for each artist provides ideas for using several of the artist's techniques to create your own art, with samples made by kids to help jump-start the creative process. There are some creative writing prompts in there as well. The book ends with biographies of each of the six artists.

If this book appeals, be sure to follow my lead and check out the rest of the series as well:
What's the Big Idea?: Activities and Adventures in Abstract Art
Picture This!: Activities and Adventures in Impressionism
Express Yourself!: Activities and Adventures in Expressionism
Make It Pop!: Activities and Adventures in Pop Art

2. National Geographic Kids Almanac 2012 (multiple authors)

There is something for everyone in here. Not kidding. There's science and nature, culture, history and geography, games, adventure, etc. Your kid can't help but become a font of random (and interesting) trivia, even after just ten minutes perusing this. My best guess is that Eli picks this up two or three times a week. Every time he does he calls out, "Mom! You gotta come see this! It's so cool!"

3. Encyclopedia of Animals (multiple authors)

This is a fantastic resource for animal-crazy kids (like Sadie) or for anyone who has to do a report on animals. The encyclopedia begins with a section on "How to Use This Book," followed by a section on "Animal Life" that details information on things like movement, camouflage, habitats, etc. The majority of the encyclopedia's pages, however, are devoted to profiles of animals, arranged in alphabetical order. Sadie has spent a lot of time reading about seals, polar bears, and hedgehogs. The feature she likes best about this encyclopedia is the scale drawing provided for each animal, which compares the size of each animal to the size of humans.

4. The Middle East by Philip Steele

This book does an excellent job of providing a comprehensive overview of one of the world's most complex regions. The book begins with a section on "People and Places" that addresses the region as a whole, detailing geography, history, culture, etc.  The second section contains modern country profiles that discuss a variety of topics, including religion, economics, politics, history, culture, and geography.

5. The First Railroads by Sally Senzell Isaacs

We picked this book up last summer at the gift shop at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. This book provides a high-interest overview of railroads in the United States in the 1800s. It touches on many sub-topics, including the science of the steam engine, the role of immigrant labor in the building of the transcontinental railroad, and geographic challenges encountered as railroad workers laid tracks.

I have a couple of books sitting in an online shopping cart and have been eying some books at our (fabulous!) local independent children's bookstore, The Bookies, so I am guessing another one of these posts will be forthcoming at some point a few months from now!

Happy reading to you and your children!

Spring Craziness Has Begun

It was evident yesterday that the craziness of spring is upon us. This is what I did yesterday:

Drove to an appointment at a school 30 minutes away.
Drove from the school to Boulder (45 minute drive) for meetings there.
Drove from Boulder back to Denver (50 minutes) to pick Sadie up from school...and was five minutes late. :(
Took Sadie to her first tennis lesson of the season and worked on my laptop during her lesson.
Dashed home and changed out of work clothes.
Picked Eli up from Destination Imagination.
Fed everyone dinner and answered/returned personal emails and phone calls, largely around scheduling and menus for Passover seders this weekend.
Took Eli to Hebrew school.
Ran an errand with Sadie to get ready for her birthday party this weekend.
Came home and finished work emails for the day.
Picked Eli up from Hebrew school. 
Monitored homework completion.
Got everyone ready for bed and into bed.
Cleaned the kitchen.
Collapsed on the couch and watched "Restaurant Impossible" (any other fans out there?)
Fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow.  

Good thing I had written and scheduled today's blog post for October Afternoon on Tuesday night! Here's the layout I did for it:

Be sure to check out the link above to the October Afternoon blog for the sketch and for the fabulous card Danni created using the sketch.

The Spring Break That Wasn't

As you read this, the kids and I are back from spring break - me at work and them at school. While we had lovely weather all week (summer weather, actually), much of the week was very challenging. If you read my last post here you know that Eli and Sadie came down with a really bad virus on the first day of the break. They proceeded to pass it on to Seth, who was, unfortunately, not on spring break. I spent from Friday-Monday taking care of everyone; three and a half days filled with taking temperatures, going to urgent care, keeping track of medicines and making sure everyone took them on time, cooking, cleaning, laundry, laundry, laundry, etc., etc., etc.

On Tuesday, the fog lifted and I took each of the still-sniffly but fever-free kids out for a special date, recorded for posterity on this layout, which can be seen as part of the April "Feeling Thankful" gallery at Write.Click.Scrapbook.:

Patterned Paper (Studio Calico) + Stickers (American Crafts Dear Lizzy, October Afternoon, Studio Calico) + Stamp (American Crafts Dear Lizzy) + Ink (Tsukineko, Stampin' Up) + Fonts (Pacifico, Typenoksidi)

By Wednesday, Seth had hit the sniffles-only stage and was back at work. On Thursday, we celebrated Sadie's 7th birthday. Love my sweet and goofy girl:

We had a special breakfast at home, went to the zoo, and then had a fancy dinner out. 

Seth got sick again over the weekend so our spring break didn't really have much "break" to it save for Tuesday and Thursday. That's better than nothing, though, so I'll take it! 

I did manage to squeeze in some time to create this card for this week's Mother's Day Week over at Write.Click.Scrapbook.:

Cardstock (Bazzill Basics) + Patterned Paper (Bella Blvd) + Chipboard (Bella Blvd) + Sticker (Bella Blvd) + Washi Tape (Bella Blvd)

Be sure to check back in at Write.Click.Scrapbook. every day this week - there's a whole week of Mother's Day inspiration a month ahead of time so there's plenty of time to gather ideas and create!

So...I am now looking forward to the next vacation...whenever that is...and hoping that it can actually be a vacation!  

Quarantine

As in we should be under quarantine here at the Masket household. Welcome to spring break! Sigh...On Thursday I was proudly boasting that we had escaped the various plagues circulating at my kids' school. I should have known better. On Friday, Eli came home from school with pink cheeks, watery eyes, and a fever of 102.5. At bedtime, Sadie said she was really cold (mind you, it hit 80 degrees here yesterday). Lo and behold: 101.5. We will not discuss the epic tantrum that ensued when she figured out that 101.5 last night = no skiing today.

So, with various kids' movies playing in the background, intermittently interrupted by the sounds of nose-blowing, what's a girl to do? Blog.

Here are some things I've done since I last posted (most recent to least recent):

1. Participated in today's round of Saturday Sketches on the Bella Blvd blog:

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics + Patterned Paper: Bella Blvd + Stickers: Bella Blvd + Die Cuts: Silhouette (snowflakes, title) + Fonts: Typenoksidi (journaling) + Pacifico (title)

2. Had a card (full disclosure: this card has been posted on my blog before) featured on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog yesterday (while you are at it, check out their new spring issue, available online here: Scrapbook & Cards Today Spring 2012 issue):

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics + Patterned Paper: Bella Blvd + Stickers: Bella Blvd + Buttons: October Afternoon + Brads: American Crafts + Stick Pin: Maya Road + Twine: Divine Twine + Die Cuts: Silhouette (ladybug, flowers)

3. Posted a tutorial on the October Afternoon blog on Tuesday (layouts below, please see October Afternoon blog for tutorial):

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics + Spray Ink: October Afternoon + Stickers: October Afternoon (cloud, label) + Die Cuts: October Afternoon (heart, star, bee), Silhouette (title) + Pen: Sakura + Fonts: Pacifico (first), Dock 11 (Daffodil)

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics + Patterned Paper: October Afternoon + Journaling Card: October Afternoon + Stickers: October Afternoon + Tin Pin: October Afternoon + Die Cuts: October Afternoon (word strip), Silhouette (title) + Pen: Sakura + Font: Pacifico

4. Created a layout for a Wednesday layout feature on the Bella Blvd blog:

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics + Patterned Paper: Bella Blvd + Stickers: Bella Blvd + Chipboard: Bella Blvd + Twine: Divine Twine + Punches: Fiskars (stars) + Die Cuts: Silhouette (letters) + Fonts: Typenoksidi (journaling, printed title words), TW Cen MT Condensed Extra Bold (right)

I plan to do a lot of scrapbooking and cardmaking over spring break, especially during these next couple of days when I anticipate being stuck at home with sick kiddos. I am excited to start digging into my brand-new Bella Blvd and have a few other new-ish goodies awaiting me as well.

Back in Time

I have a layout up on the October Afternoon blog today for Jill Sprott's "Clustered Patterned Bits" challenge:

I'm going to give you a peek into my layout creation process here, which took some unusual twists and turns. Here's my step-by-step process:

1. After Jill emailed me the challenge idea, I decided it would be quick and easy to cut shapes with my Cameo so I searched for "shapes" in the Silhouette store. I quickly scanned through what appeared and immediately fell in love with the aptly named "retro shapes." 
2. From there, I decided I wanted to create a layout about "Mad Men." I remembered someone having linked me to the "Mad Men Yourself" feature on the AMC website, so I went there and spent far too long playing with the image options (I tried on several different dresses, accessories, and noses :)). I ultimately decided on the combination seen in the layout above, saved it, and printed it, placing it roughly where I wanted it on my backgound kraft cardstock. 
3. I sized the retro shapes so that four shapes would fit in a 2" square and cut a bunch of shapes out of the Boardroom (woodgrain) paper from October Afternoon's new 9 to 5 collection. 
4. I began arranging the shapes above and below the image until I had them where I wanted them. I glued the shapes down, substituting a 9 to 5 tin pin for one of the circles where the pattern would have overlapped the image.
5. Next, I tucked bits and pieces from the 9 to 5 Miscellany and patterned papers under the top right corner of the image.
6. I added a title created with letter stickers from October Afternoon's Boarding Pass collection (red letters) and letters cut from cardstock with my Cameo (white letters).
7. I printed my journaling out on white cardstock, cut it into strips, and glued them down.

As always, I never know why I'm putting things where they are, I just know when they work. Having finished the layout, however, I can step back and see that I used the woodgrain shapes to lead the viewer's eyes into the image; created Z flow with pattern (woodgrain shapes), color (red embellishment and red title letters), and my journaling strips; and grounded my image with the tin pin and the journaling strips.

So...who else is looking forward to the fifth season of "Mad Men" starting in just three weeks?

 

Tone-on-Tone Raised Embellishments

One way to add subtle detail to a layout is to add tone-on-tone raised embellishments. I added tone-on-tone raised embellishments on this layout in three places, punching or hand-cutting shapes from the same patterned papers used for the blocks on the layout and layering each (with pop dots) on top of the matching patterned paper block. I extended each shape beyond the edge of the block to make the shape pop more clearly.

Here's a closer look at the red star:

I created this layout as part of this week's challenge week on the Bella Blvd blog. Today's challenge was to create a project using patterned paper from four or more different collections. Be sure to check out the challenges at Bella Blvd this week and participate for a chance to win!

 

A Couple of Cards

I created a couple of cards for today's theme/un-theme challenge at October Afternoon:

 

  Check out the challenge on the October Afternoon blog!