Halloween

The kids are really excited. Kaylee has been counting down the days. Lexi will be spending the weekend with a friend and I'm pretty sure they will go trick or treating. Mikey has asked to go with a friend and his family. I really didn't want to let him but since the boys mom is going I said ok. So I will have 3 trick or treaters. Kaylee is going as Elsa from frozen, Ella is going as Ana from frozen and Harley will be going as Sulley from Monsters Inc.

For the girls I bought their costumes. I didn't buy Harley one because my sister brought me the Sulley costume and a Spiderman costume. We tried both on the other day and the spiderman is too small. The Sulley is perfect. I really wanted him to go as Kristoff from Frozen but we couldn't find the costume and I had no desire to create it.

In the end they are going to have fun, get lots of candy and wear themselves out with alot of walking.

Photo transfer

I have been wanting to try photo transfers for so long. I bought my mod podge photo medium transfer about 2 months ago. It's just been sitting here waiting for me to do something with it. You have to print your pictures on a copier, a laser. Don't do inkjet, that's typically your printer you use at home. Go to office depot, office max or staples to have your pictures printed. And just print on regular 20# paper. Oh and the bottle mentions that you cannot use original photos. This is printed photos from a photo lab. Also if you are printing words you have to invert your photo so when you transfer it will be read the right way. I inverted all my photos just because I knew I would know they were backwards if I didn't.  That might be an ocd thing.

So I printed my photos on a laser printer and then trimmed them out. I found my wood pieces at michaels. They were really cheap and already sanded and stained on the sides.

Take your picture and apply an even coat on the front side of the photo. I used a good medium thick coat and then placed the photo on the wood piece. My picture I left slightly bigger than the wood so I got full coverage on the wood piece. Then I used an extra piece of wood and made sure the photo was evenly and all air bubbles were pressed out. You can also use a brayer if you have one. I have one and was just too lazy to go pull it out.

Let them fully dry. It has to be completely dry before you can do the next step. I let mine dry overnight. I did check on them about 8 hours in and they seem completely dry but decided to wait until 24 hours.

So this morning I started with a wet rag on my transfers, let me add it was damp. You want all the paper wet so it will start to loosen.  Rub the paper off with the rag. I was real easy with the first transfer piece and then I found my groove. You will notice that one layer comes off and your left with a thin layer of white paper. I was doing 7 pieces so I moved on to the next and let that one dry. When I went back to the first one I rubbed little fuzzies off. I was still left with minimal fuzzies.

When I was done with all they still looked covered with paper, I noticed on one that it was starting to take the photo color off so I decided I was done with removing the paper.
I took sand paper and sanded the edges slightly. Sanding removed the overhang of paper and the photo transfer solution that dried. When dried it was like a spongy piece of latex.  After sanding I used an inkpad to grundge the edges.

My next step was I let them all fully dry and it didn't take long at all. Then I put mod podge gloss on as a top coat. I was really worried that would still see the minimal fuzzies. When the mod podge dried they were perfect. I do despise mod podge though because it always seems tacky feeling and its difficult to get all the brush stoke lines out. I plan to invest in some krylon clear coat for my next project.

I love them and really cant believe how they turned out.

Altered

I recently bought a box made for my cricut carts. I was going to toss all the empty cricut boxes but decided to keep and alter them. I figure they will be great for markers and pens that I use for scrapping. And some pens and markers are better if you store them upside down so using these boxes will be perfect.

Plans

I had all this stuff I wanted to accomplish while on vacation and really none of it is getting done. Maybe today I will get something done. I have some pictures I want to do transfers of and I plan on getting that done today. I found a cute project I want to try and I guess I could go ahead and get the computer part done so I can have it printed.

This week has been relaxing though. I haven't had to worry about work. And even though I didn't have a car I have kept myself busy with the twins and it's been a pretty good week.

Tomorrow is Halloween and kaylee is very excited. I'm excited to see them all in their costumes. Now the frustration of figuring out what were going to do. We want tongo to the rec center but I also want to go to my mom's.  I am sure whatever we decide the kids will be happy and enjoy.

School has been going good for the kids. I don't believe Mikey will play anymore ball this season. He is really struggling to get his grades up. I honestly don't think he's trying. Kaylee is really excelling in school and I couldn't be more proud. Her reading has improved so much. And she's not telling me that she's not smart. Though yesterday she did tell me her brain doesn't work. And I told her that wasn't true. She really has started to click with everything. I remember when mikey finally clicked and life was so much better when it came to homework.

A month almost gone

It's been almost a month since I last blogged. I've been busy and too caught up in life to get on here.

Things have been going well. I am actually on vacation right now, not that I am vacationing. I get to do all the normal stuff. But at least I don't have to work!

We experienced a stomach bug. I say we but it was only Ella and Harley. We ended up having to take Ella to the E.R. , she just kept continuing to vomit and wouldn't stop. They were able to give her a pill to help her stop vomiting and it worked. Ella got sick first and then a week later it was Harley. I am really glad nobody else got sick.

Work has been stressful.  I really hope we get more help soon. I actually might cut my hours down alot with Mike switching jobs. Still waiting on word to find out when he will be switching.  Might be the end of November or December.

The kids have been doing ok in school. Kaylee has raised her grades. Mikey is struggling with 2 classes. He has actually been held out of football games because of it. :(  He might get to play next Monday's game but we will see. Lexi is doing pretty well. Her grades are good.

Ella and Harley have been well too. Learning more and more. Growing and changing. It's amazing how they change month to month.