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Tag Archive for painting

Crafting Time at Camp Grandma’s

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Renee Spindle

It’s Summertime here at Camp Grandma and we’ve had a few crafty adventures over the past few weeks I thought I would share today. We’ve been painting, coloring, blowing up lots of balloons, squeezing in some swimming, and eating lots of popsicles and snow cones. It’s been hot and humid here recently, and we all know how popsicles can cool the soul!

The first thing I did to make Camp Grandma a little special this year was I made a box, and each week when the Grand-kiddies come over (they are with me on Thursday’s and Friday’s) there’s some sort of crafty surprise or something fun to-do in that box. This has been a fun way to start the day, as the kids look forward to finding out what’s in their special box.

The first week the box contained paper plates, balloons, big crafting sticks, and some duct tape. We used the contents that week to make and play Balloon Pong – which I had read about at Grandma’s Briefs. I will admit that the grand-kiddies had fun blowing up all the balloons, but they had even more fun ping-ponging the balloons around. They didn’t have a lot of success hitting the balloons to one another, so Evan made a contest of seeing how many times he could “pong” the balloon before it hit the ground.

The next week at Camp I had put balloons, colored paper, scissors, tape, and the pattern to make balloon feet. We were making balloon people. They were so cute. Madison really enjoyed telling me what she wanted me to draw on her balloon. Evan made his into a group of the Avengers, which I did not get a picture of. Boo on Grandma. This crafty project was discovered by yours truly at Grandma’s Ideas. The balloon crafts have been really fun, and just plain blowing up the balloons and using them like volleyballs around the house was a great activity too.

For two of our weeks together we have done some painting. We used tempera paints, sponges brushes, sponges, and I splurged on some thick watercolor paper for my little artists. This is really the first time I’ve had a chance to paint with Madison. She loved putting the colors on paper and painting with everyone’s favorite colors. Madison’s favorite color is pink, and she know mine is purple. She’s always telling anyone who will listen that her Grandma’s favorite color is purple. Evan had fun being a mixologist, and discovering what colors he needed to mix to make other colors. He had a lot of fun being the paint scientist.

I am blessed to be able to have some special time with my grand-kids each week right now. This time together creates memories that will last for a long, long time. As they start to get a little older and as they move on to do their own independent activities, it will be good to know that we’ve had this time with each other.

Have you spent time with your grand-kiddies recently? Did you get in any crafting time with them? I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to this summer.

3 comments Posted in Crafts

Camp Grandma – Week Two

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Week two of Camp Grandma encompassed a very busy Thursday. We had lots and lot of fun painting, using tempura paints. I have a roll of art paper that we use for this type of painting. It comes in so handy for painting or coloring. We had paint brushes, a small painting roller, and some cut up sponges to paint with. Evan learned how to mix primary colors, and what colors they made.

Here’s Evan in action painting a blue elephant. It was fun to watch him keep adding things to the painting; birds, clouds, trees. He had a lot of fun making a mess outside.

These are the pictures Evan wanted you all to see of how messy his hands got with this project. He kept going over to the hose to spray them off!

Here is the collection of the finished paintings. He was a very busy camper on this day.

These are the pictures of the circles Evan made from mixing the primary colors. He got very excited when he mixed blue and red because this made my favorite color-purple of course.

Mixing the primary colors.

On Friday of our second week, we had a special guest for the day, Uncle Bryan. Uncle Bryan took Evan to see Madagascar 3, and then we had a great swim after Evan got back. We also went for a Golden Spoon, frozen yogurt. Yum, Yum.

Camp Grandma is keeping me busy on the days Evan is here with me. He will keep on going like a little Energizer bunny, as long as I have plenty of activities for him to get involved in. This week we’ll be trying some tie-dyeing, and hopefully some cookie baking. I think Evan wants to go to the beach. We’ll keep you all posted on our activities later this week. Remember Wednesday is officially the first day of summer!

What’s your favorite summertime activity?

6 comments Posted in Around the House, Crafts, Family

DIY Entryway Project – Finito!

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Happy Thursday everyone. Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful week. My sister and her husband are here visiting from Montana, but I wanted to take a few minutes to blog about our finished project. This posting is coming to you in between snacking, and chatting. We finally have our entryway project completed, and wanted to share some pictures with all of you.

First of all a little history on why this project is such a milestone for Travel Man and myself. We will be celebrating our 10th anniversary this year and we have this little list of projects around the house to get done this year. You know the projects I’m talking about the one’s that you have left until you can get “around to it”. Well we’re working on our “around to it” list, and this is one of the projects to get completed. We are ecstatic that this one is coming off of the list. And the reward of the results when this one got done have just been great. It’s like a weight lifted off of your shoulders, because you’ve been wanting to get it done for such a long time.

The before pictures – tile removal, and pre-painting.

Mid Process- Painting Done & flooring in the Works.

Grandma’s Assistant Flooring Complete

The Finish Trim Work

The Finished Product. All done.

The painting technique that I did on the walls was a two-step process. First I rolled on some texture paint, sort of thick, and then got the swirls in the paint with a big 4″ brush. Once that dried for 24 hours I painted over the texturing with a semi-gloss paint. The color is a sea salt blue, and the sheen changes during the day with the light coming into the house. It was a fun process figuring out how I wanted to do the texturing, and I am pleased with how it turned out.

As I told you earlier it’s great to have this project off of our list. Next job we’re tackling is landscaping our front yard. Hopefully we can get this one done before the heat of summer arrives. Happy DIYing to all. What’s the next project on your “around to it” list?

No comments Posted in Around the House, DIY Projects, Family

11 Things I was Reminded of During our Home Improvement Week

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Renee Spindle

If you are a follower of my stories you know that Travel Man and are near the end of a project remodeling the entryway of our home. After a few marathon work sessions last week it reminded me that we almost always have a great time together with our projects, and here’s a few reasons why we do:

1. Projects with my Travel Man are fun.

2. We work well together.

3. It is important that I pay attention and know when to leave Travel Man alone to let him think and work. It can be all fun and laughter.

4. Working a project and meeting our deadline is like a well orchestrated dance.

5. I’m a great “sous” carpenter- clean up is my specialty.

6. Planning is everything.

7. Changing the plan when you are actually in the middle of the project can be important. Be flexible.

8. It’s ok with me if Travel Man doesn’t like to paint, because I love to paint!

9. Finishing all of the detail work gives you the greatest sense of accomplishment.

10. The detail work is what makes your project spectacular. This one is still in the works as I am typing this post.

11. I need more exercise, I am seriously out of shape.

As our entryway project comes to a successful close I have to give a big shout out to my wonderful husband. He worked by hard to get a lot of work done in a short period of time. And of course, this week he is back on the road. That’s our life, planning and executing, and trying to get things done on short notice. I will have pictures a little later this week, remember patience is a virtue my friends.

No comments Posted in Around the House, DIY Projects, Family, Travel Man

Home Improvement Projects

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Renee Spindle

My wonderful Travel Man has had a few days at home in a row which has been a rarity since the beginning of the year. We decided to take advantage of this week, with him at home to get some home improvement projects rolling along.

For most of this week we have been texturing and painting the walls in our entryway, installing new flooring, and getting all of the trim work completed. We are down to the wire and will be finishing up tomorrow morning. Travel man is off to Canada on Sunday. This project has been a long time coming, and it is just delightful to see it all coming together. I will post a slide show of pictures once we are completely done.

We have also been putting together a plan to landscape our front yard. Our house sits on a corner lot, the first house on the south side of our street. So we have a lot of front yard going on. We had the front yard graded probably two years ago now, and have just been keeping the dirt free of weeds and in check since then. Putting a plan together with a blank slate is somewhat of a daunting task. You want the grass and plants to look nice, and you don’t want to make a mistake with your plan. This is why we have waited to spend any money on our front yard. We had to have the time to get a vision, agree on that vision, and put a plan in place to execute. That sounds so “Corporate world” doesn’t it?

Anyway, we have been doing so much planning for the front yard, and supply purchasing for the entryway I told my husband one morning this week that I had a dream we were planting in our entryway!! My thoughts were a little mixed up don’t you think? All of this planning an executing has been making my head spin.

The entryway project is coming along so beautifully it is already creating “the domino effect”. You know what I’m talking about. You make an improvement in one area of your home, and it pushes the domino into the next room that needs to be painted or remodeled, which in our case is our living room. And we all know the “domino effect” creates a never-ending “to-do” list. But I love lists so that’s ok.

Watch for my entryway pictures in the next few days. I’m excited to get this project off of the “to-do” list and work on the front yard before it starts to get too hot. Happy home improvement weekend everyone. How’s your “to-do” list going?