Klutz Mini Erasers

Check out this awesome parrot I made!

Trevor made one too. 

These parrots are actually erasers, and they're just some of the projects we made with the Klutz Mini Erasers kit (affiliate link). The kit comes with a book that includes dozens of project ideas, seven colors of eraser clay (enough to make 25 erasers), punch-out accessories to use the erasers in imaginative play, a pencil, and a clay tool. 

The 48-page book is packed with ideas. At the top of each page, there are circles showing exactly how much clay you need to make that particular item. It was really handy to measure our clay directly on the book and know that we were using the correct amount for that project. 

Here's my second creation. Can you tell what it's going to be?

The correct answer is "itty-bitty cheeseburger."

While Trevor stuck with the instructions, I went my own direction. (No surprise there.) I made bunch of things, but my favorites are this wee croissant... 

... and this teeny-tiny ice cream sandwich.

I only have one negative comment about the Klutz Mini Erasers kit. The directions for how to bake the sculpted clay to transform it into an eraser were clear, but annoyingly imprecise. It said to preheat the oven to no more than 250°F, then bake the erasers for between 5-30 minutes. I get that the amount of time depends on the exact temperature of the oven and the size of the eraser, but that's a really wide range. After baking them, you have to let them cool for 1 hour before touching them. At that point, if you didn't bake them enough, you can try again. Annoying, but again, I get it. I used the toaster oven and baked a sample piece first. Then I baked the rest of our items for about 15 minutes and they came out well.

And yes, in case you're wondering, the erasers really do work!

Trevor and I highly recommend the Klutz Mini Erasers kit for boys and girls age 8 and up. It's an affordable choice for a birthday party, a holiday gift exchange, or a reward to a craft-loving child for a job well done.

Exploring Vermont Through Little Passports

Time to take a virtual trip to Vermont, the Green Mountain State, through Little Passports! Trevor started by building a model of one of the 100+ covered bridges in Vermont. We learned that they are usually painted red because that was the least expensive paint color in the 1800's. Fascinating!

As you may know, 'Les monts verts' is French for the Green Mountains. Is there another state whose nickname is a translation of the state name? I can't think of any. One more thing to add to our list of fascinating facts about Vermont! Trevor solved a maze to learn that the Green Mountains are home to the Long Trail, one of the oldest long-distance hiking trails in the US. It's more than 270 miles long.

We did a hidden picture activity about the popularity of skiing in Vermont and learned a fun fact: Vermont-born Billy Kidd was the first American to win an Olympic medal in downhill skiing. Have you ever heard of snow golf? Apparently it's a thing in Vermont. You wear snowshoes and use red golf balls and cups. The game is believed to have been invented by British author Rudyard Kipling who married an American woman and moved to Vermont. 

Trevor and I read about maple syrup, snowflakes, and sea monsters. Wait, what? Apparently there are two sea monsters in Vermont, named Champ (in Lake Champlain) and Memphre (in Lake Memphremagog). Locals keep the legends alive and have erected statues of the two serpents. Trevor and I each made our own version of Champ and Memphre. 

Here's mine: 

I started by drawing a sea monster on white paper, coloring it, and cutting it out. I tore two strips off the bottom of a piece of blue construction paper. Then I glued down the sea monster and overlapped the strips to make waves.

Trevor used a completely different technique.

He started with green cardstock and cut out his sea serpent. He sliced off the head, then used a scrap to make a small circle. 

He tore strips off the blue construction paper background like I did, but he layered his with a blue strip first, then the sea monster, and then the second blue strip. He added googly eyes to the head and then popped it up by gluing it to the circle he'd made. 

I admit it - I like his a lot more than I like mine!

There was a second art activity in the Vermont State Journal. This time, we followed the instructions to draw the northern leopard frog, one of 11 species of frogs in Vermont, and the official state amphibian. Mine is the green frog. Trevor made his blue. I'm not sure why. Artistic license, I guess.

We read about famous events in Vermont history. I like a state that lists two food-related items on their timeline. In 1966, St. Albans hosted the first Vermont Maple Syrup Festival. And in 1978, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened their first ice cream shop in a renovated gas station in Burlington, VT. That is a must-visit when we make it to Vermont!

The recipe was for Fried Dough with Maple Syrup. We were all on-board with that. Really, how could you go wrong with fried bread and maple syrup? You can't.

This treat reminded us of the delicious BeaverTails that we discovered in Halifax during our Canadian adventure in 2014. Yum!

Trevor and I had a fantastic time during our virtual trip to Vermont. We can't wait to visit in person! After our upcoming midwest trip, we're hoping that our next adventure will take us to the last four New England states we haven't visited (go here and scroll down to see the map). We're ready for Vermont! We already have quite a few must-sees on the list. Thanks to Little Passports for another fun adventure.

Ellia at 9

It's Year 9 making birthday layouts for the younger of my two goddaughters, Ellia. I chose to go really colorful to match her colorful personality. It was a lot of fun to dig through cardstock scraps to find colors to match the polka dot background paper. It's always so satisfying to discover scraps that are exactly what you need. It justifies the huge amount of scraps that I save!

Ellia at 9 (affiliate link)

You can see the layouts from Ellia's previous birthdays here. She's grown and changed so much in 9 years, but she still has the same spunky personality!

Kylinn at 12

For 12 years, I've been making framed birthday layouts for my goddaughter, Kylinn. This might be my very favorite so far. I was struck by how grown-up she looked in her picture, so I chose papers and an embellishment to reflect that. Twelve. How can it be?! 

Kylinn at 12 (affiliate link)

You can see all of the previous layouts I've made for Kylinn's birthdays here. I love looking back at them!

Pennsylvania 2017

Mission accomplished! I finished the last page from our 4-state adventure last October before our upcoming 6-state trip.

Pennsylvania 2017 (affiliate link)

I'd debated splitting this into separate pages for the different parts of Pennsylvania we visited, but ultimately chose to show the diversity of the activities we did in the state in this 2-page spread. I loved looking back at all these photos. We had a fantastic time in Pennsylvania!