Weird Crafts that Inspire

All of my girls like to make crafts, but 7-year-old Gwen is the craftiest. She once cut a piece out of the blanket on our bed because she needed a piece of fabric to glue on a picture.

I find crafting evidence nearly every day when I come home. Today It was this.

I normally "file away" things that look similar to this Styrofoam plate project. (Shhhh! I file them in the garbage!) But today I took time to figure out what this was supposed to be. I struggled.

A Sophisticated British Easter Hat?

An Intimidating Super Hero Mask?

A Weird Lion's Mane?

There was only one person who could tell me what It was supposed to be. Gwen. She told me it's an M. As in M, the 14th letter of the alphabet. M because it's the first letter of Mom. :) See?

The rest of the stuff on there is just to help it stand up. "What is it for," I asked. "It's a sculpture," she explained. Huh. That there M sculpture is a craft that could only come from the mind of a child!

And then Gwen showed me the other craft she made today. She confiscated a magnet that came in the mail, soaked it in water, scratched off the ad and wrote a new message. She read it, pronouncing every punctuation mark. Mom is cool!!!!!!? Then she burst into an evil laugh when she got to the question mark.

Mom is cool!!!!!?

That Gwen makes me smile! AND she inspired me to reinvent magnets that come in the mail. I used scratch paper and markers to make designs that go with my kitchen's colors. Then I cut them out so they were slightly bigger than the magnets.

I attached the designs to the magnets with spray adhesive, and trimmed off the extra paper.

Ok, I know it looks like an elementary student did these, but I was going for a crafty look. That's kind of a lie. I was going for fast.

I should seal them with a little spray poly or Modge Podge. I might get around to that one of these days, but most likely I won't. Keeping it real.You could also use photos, scrapbook paper, a design printed from the computer, patterned duct tape, or anything else that suits your style. Try it!

PS. For those of you who normally buy us Christmas presents, we could use a new Queen size blanket.