When I started thinking about this month's theme, I knew I wanted to create a special little project for my 2-yr-old son, Dean. But let's face it, he doesn't really have much appreciation (right now anyway) for my "Encouraging Words"!! LOL. So in keeping with the whole "Encouragement" theme, I decided to make this fun little game for him, to ENCOURAGE his current love of numbers and math. He seems to have this weird natural affinity for numbers. The little smarty is 2 and can count to 100 and already seems to grasp the basic concept of addition (believe me, he does NOT get this love of numbers from his mother!!). However, as someone who has never loved numbers and found math to always be my weakest link, I want to encourage him in this early fascination.First, the card. I used this week's MoJo Monday sketch to make a quick little card for him
that was all matchy-match with his new game. I used printed digi papers from the Imagi-nation kit by Dani Mogstad (Sweet Shoppe) for the entire project, with a little Kraft cardstock thrown in as well. For the card, I combined a few sentiments from the new Starstruck set and added the star image from the You Rock set.Now, for the fun game. I used white acrylic paint to cover some wooden blocks, then designed and printed out some numbered fronts for each side of the blocks to create "dice". I then stamped 12 stars from the You Rock set, 6 on red and 6 on yellow digi paper. I cut them out and mounted them on chipboard stars. Now Dean has a simple math game - he can roll the dice and "add" the 2 numbers by counting out the number of red stars from one die and the number of yellow stars from the other die and then adding the two together. Clear as mud? He seems to get it and LOVES it!! Here's another look at the completed project so you can see the group of stars a little better:
So there you have it - my ENCOURAGING little creation for the Project Parade. So yeah, I took some creative liberties with the theme, but I think it works!!
So what do you think? I know you have enjoyed the fabulous work that the other Divas have been sharing during our Project Parade, but now it's your turn! Create a card/project that is focused on encouraging words, and link up your creation to the Mr. Linky widget on the DAY 1 POST before midnight MST on Sunday, October 18. As with all of our project parades, we've got prizes! One lucky project parade participant will win a $35 gift certificate to the Verve Store. Be sure to show some love for the Divas each day (Oct.5-17) for another chance to win, because ONE lucky commenter will also win their choice of any Verve set. We can't wait to see your creations...Happy Stamping!
