Dude! - The Studio

Happy Sunday! There's a new challenge up at The Studio today. It's our monthly sketch challenge, and I'm honored to have had a layout from August be the inspiration for the sketch :). Here's my take:

And here's the sketch alongside the original layout:

I usually have a hard time scraplifting myself, so I went with a photo of my son and a masculine theme so that  it felt "new". I'm pretty happy with the result!

I used a lot of Crate Paper, a little Basic Grey, Pinkfresh Studio, and Studio Calico stars (clear and wood veneer).

If I don't use flowers, stars are my next favorite :). I thought the mix tapes were a great trade-off for the flowers in the original layout, too.

If you'd like to play along, you can find the challenge post at The Studio here. Be sure to check out the design team's layouts, too. It's really fun to see all the different takes on my design ;).

Attitude of Gratitude....

I have a bit of catch-up to do! Let me explain.... Have you ever lost something, or it broke, and you didn't realize how much you depended on that thing until it was gone? Yeah, that was me this past week with my iPhone, which won't be fixed until Monday night. I was tracking all of my Attitude of Gratitude photos and thoughts on my phone, so until I can properly retrieve them and post them, I'm just going to move on.

Attitude of Gratitude Day 8: I am grateful for the service men and women who have proudly and honorably served in the military to secure and protect my freedoms. I am grateful for their families. I am grateful for their sacrifices.

For the past four years we've held a "Veterans Appreciation Night" for Cub Scouts. We invite the veterans from church, our families and our community. We prepare a program for them that includes patriotic songs, skits, and projects the boys have been working on about citizenship. The veterans share stories about their service. We present the veterans with a token of our appreciation. It's a really meaningful and fun pack meeting.

Last night, our gathering activity was "bootcamp" - an obstacle course with jumping jacks, army crawling and target practice. The Webelos incorporated Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance into our flag ceremony. The wolves sang a song and we all sang the Star Spangled Banner together. The bears shared posters about what makes America special and how to be a good citizen. We heard amazing stories about Christmas Eve in a foxhole and being chased by submarines while crossing the Equator. But my favorite moment of the night was when one veteran shared about the cost of service. He wanted the boys to understand that they could help veterans who had returned from war disabled. He talked about physical scars, but more importantly, he talked about mental scars. A lot of adults are squeamish about talking to young people about mental health, but I think, done in an age-appropriate way like this veteran did, it promotes understanding and compassion. He listed different organizations and encouraged the boys to find ways to serve these veterans. I am grateful for his perspective and that he shared those thoughts with the boys.

One of my goals for Attitude of Gratitude this year is to act on my gratitude more frequently. I'm taking that goal to den meeting this week. We will be writing thank you notes to the veterans who attended our pack meeting. We will also be putting together a care box for a young man from church who is currently serving in the Army. I hope the boys make the gratitude-service connection. They're great kids ;).

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up with Attitude of Gratitude on the next couple of days :). Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Pinewood Derby

Hello! I have been so busy creating this week that I haven't done any blogging! Between the shop, magazine submissions and gifts for teachers and moms, I just haven't had the time to sit down and write a post. However, I just had to share my crafty contribution to our Pinewood Derby that took place last night.

I am one of the wolf den leaders, my husband is the assistant cub master, Colten is a bear and Carson is a wolf.   It's truly a family affair :). This was both of the boys' first derby and they had so much fun putting together their cars with Dad. In fact, they had so much fun that I was feeling a little left out. Until they needed to do make racing stripes on their cars, that is. Mom to the rescue with none other than washi tape! Ha! See, my washi tape collection comes in handy all the time :).

I volunteered to make the awards and knew that I would be putting my SRM Stickers stash to good use:

For overall 1st, 2nd and 3rd, I made trophy tubes. Filled with stoplight-colored candies, I simply added a prize ribbon to the top. To make the ribbons, I layered cardstock circles and added an extra-large SRM number sticker. The embellishment flags were easy to make, too. I cut a two inch length of ribbon and hot glued it to a lollipop stick.

For the fastest boys in each of their dens, I made ribbons with star accents. I used SRM numbers here, too, just the smaller ones.

Using a whole bunch of different congratulations-themed stickers, I also made "participation" ribbons. I left just enough space for each boy's name to be filled in.

Carson ended up winning 3rd place in his den and Colten got 2nd place in his den. They didn't place overall, but they've already analyzed what went wrong and have started designing next year's cars :).

I'll be back tomorrow with another SRM Stickers project! Have a great day! Tessa