Blue with bugaboo,mini, mr. & me

To say I love Delia’s blog would be an understatement.  To say I am honored and thrilled to be here, would also be an understatement.  But I am!  I’m the “me” from bugaboo, mini, mr & me.  I love to create: be crafting, sewing, baking or photography, and I love to blog about it – along with the craziness of life!  I also do a lot of kid’s crafts, with my two kiddos, bug and mini.  And that’s what I’d like to share with you today – a kid’s craft along with an activity!  A twofer!

Summer is all about time with family, right?  Kids are home from school, the sun stays up well into the evening, it’s warm and bright… it’s the perfect atmosphere for fun with kids!  So let me give you just one more summer boredom buster.

We’ll begin with our craft.  Let’s shnazzy up a little notebook, shall we?

You can buy these cutey patootie tiny memo books at Walmart for around 30 cents.  Can’t go wrong there.  But they’re a little bland.  All you need to dress them up is:

Now, let me preface this by saying that you can, obviously, just put the washi tape on the notebook and – Ta-da! – you’re done!  BUT, if you’re like me and know that boring black notebook showing through the tape will bother you TO NO END, then here’s an easy solution.

1. Place two pieces of plain white paper under your mini notebook.  Cut across so that the paper is the same height as the notebook.
2. Fold the two pieces around the notebook, so the ends are tucked inside the front and back covers.
3. Make sure you don’t fold the paper around the notebook with the notebook OPEN, like this.  If you do, the notebook won’t shut.
4. Slip the notebook out of the paper.  It will look like this.

5.  Take your washi tape and measure it out to the length of the SPINE FOLD to the EDGE of the paper.  Cut the piece this long and lay it out on a notebook cover (or other surface it will easily pull away from).
6. Now, measure out 6 more pieces of washi tape to the same length.
7. Place the first piece at the top of the paper, from spine out to the edge.
8. Be sure the tape overlaps the top of the paper.  Fold this down over the back of the paper and smooth out the tape on the front.
9. Do this with the rest of your tape pieces, making sure to line up the stripes so they look like one continuous stripe down the cover.
Note: Do this on both sides of the spine and leave the spine tape free.  It’s easier to work with shorter pieces of tape.

10. When you’re finished with the “covers”, place two pieces of tape that are just longer than the height of the notebook down the spine.  Overlap them and tuck the ends to the back of the paper.

11.  Lay your paper face down.
12. Spray the entire back with spray adhesive.
13.  Line up the spine on your notebook with the spine in the paper.
14.  Lay the back cover down, fold the flap over and press down firmly.  Do the same with the front.

Voila!  Your very own handy dandy notebook.  At least that’s what my son calls it.

So, what are we going to do with our handy dandy notebook?  Well, we’re going to have a handy dandy scavenger hunt, of course!

The theme?  “Getting the Blues”.

1. First, think of a bunch of blue things.  Be creative!  Find pictures on the internet and print them out on plain paper.
2. Help your child cut out the pictures and
3. tape them into their notebooks!

Then you can write what each item is underneath the picture.  We had 5 general categories of items:

Patterns
Shapes
“Wearable’s”
Everyday Things

Opposites
AND
I also threw in a few “abstract” ideas:

The pictures are taped into the notebook with washi tape.  There is one blank page after each picture page to use later.
Now you just need to go on your “Getting the Blues” hunt!  Take a walk.  Bring your notebook to the store or library.  Take some time.  Remember, everything you find has to be blue!
When you find something blue, just check it off with your marker!

And then, take a picture.  Later on, you can print your pictures out and tape them onto the blank page after the corresponding item.

There are so many things I loved about this activity.  Of course, your kids will be learning on a very basic level… what is blue – in all of its shades and hues?

What is a rectangle?  A circle?  Spots?  Plaid?

It also teaches less concrete but still important concepts.
How to look at things in different ways and think outside the box:

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