Review: Synonyms game (just in time for Christmas!)

It seems like forever ago I was sent this game to review for the blog, and I feel terrible it has taken me sooo long to finally get around to it.  It shouldn’t be that hard to sit down and play a game with your kid!!  Since I received it, it has won a whole bunch of awards, which is pretty cool (most recently the 2011 Parents Choice Award).  Anyway, if you’re looking for a fun game to get your kids, keep reading.

So what I liked about it was it’s a family game.  I always try to get all 3 of us together to do stuff.  I also like that it was created by parents!  It’s for ages 10 and up……although I’m in my 40s and I’ve gotta tell ya, I felt like a complete idiot multiple times during the playing of this game.  Yeah, that’s not in the description on the box!  However, it does say THIS on the box:  The Word Game That Gets Your Mind Racing!   (and they are not kidding…unless your mind is old like mine, in which case it might just draw a blank!)

 The board is made up of letters, and the first person to get all the letters in the word SYNONYMS wins.  When you land on a letter you can earn that letter by coming up with a certain number of synonyms  from one of the cards.  There are easy, medium, and hard cards.  Summer and I just played with the easy deck, and we were challenged!  I don’t even want to see the words in the hard pile of cards!  ha ha  

You can find out more about this game at Synonyms’ website here.  It’s being sold on Amazon.com here.  

All in all, I would recommend it.  I wouldn’t say it’s an EASY game, but that’s one of the reasons I like it, to challenge my kid’s brain! 

disclaimer:  I didn’t get paid to write a good review about this game.  They sent me the game to try it out, and this is my own opinion.

Joy Christmas card.

I had an assignment at Practical Scrappers of doing a Christmas project for last Saturday and this is what I came up with.  I went with very simple, using scraps of things I already had and trying to use up what I have too. 

That’s American Crafts Christmas paper that I used as the base, an OLD Dude Designs journaling card, then an American Crafts thicker metallic Christmas tree on top.  The JOY is a really old Deja Views rub on.

And here’s another one:

This one actually uses packaging from Imaginisce products (maybe rubons…can’t remember) .  I also used a metallic Christmas tree sticker from Imaginise (very hard to take picture of this!) and a sticker from BoBunny.

Floral hello card.

Here’s a card I made with a scrap from a sheet of Daisy D’s floral paper.  I tried to pretty it up some more by using Stickles on the big blue flower and all the leaves.  See?

I think Stickles makes everything prettier!

NOEL Christmas card.

Today Practical Scrappers is showcasing Christmas cards from us designers. Here’s the card that I made:

I used Basic Grey paper (reindeer), a Dear Lizzy poinsettia sticker, and the NOEL is actually a glittered transparency from Fancy Pants.  I used my edge distresser (Heidi  Swapp) on the reindeer paper for the first time ever successfully!  I don’t know why I had so much trouble getting the hang of this thing!

See the edges?

 For some Christmas inspiration, check out all the cards from the other designers too right here.

I’m sharing this project here:

Blue Cricket Design

 Today’s Creative Blog

Family Tree Canvas….crafting with kids!

My daughter is in the 6th grade and has already had to do so many projects since school started it’s borderline ridiculous.  One of them was doing her family tree with just immediate family members and on this one she could have help from parents, so I had fun working with her.  She drew her tree onto a canvas (16×20) in pencil and then outlined it with Sharpie paint pens.  Then I cracked open my paints and painted it all in for her. 

Here’s my favorite part:  The Heidi Swapp brown paint is so thick I was able to make it look like actual bark.  I love the texture!

Isn’t that fabulous? 

And here’s the finished project with all her leaves and photos of her family included on it.  I think it turned out great.

I’m sharing this project here:

Fall Decor – paper doily banner.

I took these paper doilies from Dollar Tree….

 and this American Crafts ribbon (from my shop)….

and made THIS fall banner for my fireplace mantel!

I simply alternated the types of leaves and fed the ribbon through the holes in them.  Easy!

What do you think?

I’m entering this into the idea linky at:

A Diamond In The Stuff

A Glimpse Inside

Paper Issues

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My Repurposed Life

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Girl Scouts yarn doll.

This is a doll my daughter made at her Girl Scouts meeting a couple of weeks ago.  They’re decorating a Christmas tree for an annual Festival of Trees coming up.  Each girl made one of these dolls and they’re going to be holding hands in a circle hanging on the tree.  I think that sounds pretty neat and can’t wait to see their tree. 

I have no idea how Summer actually made the doll’s body, but I made the outfit for her.  Can you tell it’s a Girl Scouts uniform?  And “made” the outfit is a pretty loose term.  I cut a piece of green felt to look like an apron (her idea) and used a hole punch to punch 2 holes in the apron, fed some red ribbon through it and then tied it tied in the back so it would stay on.  I also glued a half of a small paper doily just to add a little something.  I then cut a strip of the felt to be the sash.  Those tiny little round stickers are actually from K & Company’s Girl Scouts line and they’re supposed to be badges/patches.

What do you think?

Live Laugh Love.

This is the last page to the scrapbook I was hired to make of a little girl to wife.  This is her favorite photo from their engagement photo shoot, and I love it.  I used some chipboard embellishments from Echo Park (and others) and added Stickles to some of them to sparkle them up. 

(click any photos to see larger)

Oh! I forgot to show you the cover of the scrapbook.

When the customer gave it to me, it only had the flowers on it and instead of ribbon the binding was raffia that was pretty sad looking.  I changed that out to pretty pink satin ribbon, added the metal plaque and the chipboard butterflies (with straight pins for antennae)

and added Stickles just a tiny bit to the flowers for some sparkle. Yes, I like sparkle!

And that’s all she wrote!

Sweetheart.

I realized I still have 2 more pages to show you of the book I was hired to make of a little girl’s childhood to wife. 

How cute is she?

altered lamp….spooky spiders!

A few months ago I found these awesome Ikea lamps at a Goodwill store for $7.99.  There were 3 of them.  I love them so much I wish there had been more. 

I found these spider web templates last year at the Mr. Printables website and printed them out onto a transparency.  Then I just taped them to the lamp.  In the photos you can see the scotch tape, but in real life you couldn’t see it.  The only trouble I had was the template didn’t fill up my whole transparency (8.5×11), because it’s actually meant to be wrapped around a pillar candle or a glass candle holder, but I just put a pumpkin in front of the lamp and hoped nobody would notice.  ha ha!  I will have to see if I can figure out how to fix that before next year. 

Here we are:

 It would actually be pretty cool to paint a spiderweb like these directly onto the lamps, but then I’d only be able to use them at Halloween.  Will have to see if I can find more at Goodwill!