In a sudden burst of energy the night before we left for Yellowstone I decided to make my little monkey boys colored pencil/crayon rolls and mini
adventure logs for our trip. I'm so glad I did because they both LOVE them!
Monkey One's is made from a placemat (I got the idea from one
Amy made for my sister). I had all the supplies on hand, as I'd been planning on making one for awhile. So it wasn't hard to just grab my stuff and whip it together. Monkey One's favorite color is green, so I gave him the most colored pencils in that color. It's amazing what new life a pencil sharpener and some organization in a nifty carrier will do for old colored pencils! And what a fun journal will do for a family vacation.
I love this Amy Butler scrapbook paper. Again, lots of green. This book is about 6 inches tall and 5 1/2 inches wide. I just took six or seven pieces of plain paper, trimmed them down to about six inches, and stitched them together down the middle with the scrapbook paper on the bottom, then folded them in half to form the book. After that I colored the title and sewed it onto the front. Remember, this was all on a whim very late at night when I was on some sort of creative high. Maybe I should stay up later more often?
Here's a sample page of the finished product. There are a few pages of simple animal silhouettes printed from the Internet for him to circle as he spotted them at Yellowstone. When we got home we printed photos of our trip and glued them in the empty spots (but there weren't many!).
Monkey Two's crayon roll is made from robin's egg colored wool felt (also on hand). The book is about 3 inches square. I knew I had to make a crayon roll for Monkey Two to accompany his brother's colored pencil roll when I recently read
Amanda Blake Soule's wonderful book
The Creative Family. Anyway, I realized I forgot to take a picture of the crayon roll when it still looked bright and new, filled with a rainbow of newish crayons. Now the crayons are--who knows where?--probably all stuffed down the vents.
Here's a sample page from Monkey Two's adventure log. In the photo we are watching some elk in a field. Both monkeys have their coloring rolls out. They love them! And it made the trip extra special.
For a more exhaustive extensive look at what went inside the adventure logs, take a look at my personal family blog.
I love this David Walker Oh Boy! fabric I bought it at Material Girls. So cute, huh? Wouldn't the vehicle silhouettes make a cute car seat cover? That's not what I'm using it for, but I'm considering it for a near-in-the-future project. The animal silhouettes I actually bought in red/orange (darker than the orange/yellow), but I may have bought the green if they carried had it.
Another project? Yes. Let's just say it involves tan and brown vinyl, brown leather, some heavy thread and needles, a little elastic, a hint of this banana fabric, and a lot of readjusting and making over. Yes, I usually overcomplicate things. You'll see. Soon.
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