Day 24- Birthday medallions

Well, today ALMOST broke my resolution.  We had a minor catastrophy at our house when Coraline lost her blankie this afternoon.  I realized at 2:30, shortly before naptime, that Blankie was NOWHERE to be found.  I frantically called all the stops I made today and no one had seen it.  I laid her down for a nap without it, and she would NOT sleep!  I called Mike, in a panic, asking him "WHAT DO I DO?!?!?!" and he said "Take a deep breath, let her cry, do your craft with the kids, and if she isn't asleep by the time you're done, go look for it."  So, that reined me in enough that i was able to focus, somewhat on a craft until C finally fell into a VERY short sleep.  The good news is, I got the kids in the car, drove to McDonalds- 25 minutes from here- and found it, in the parking lot, covered in snow, run over a few times, with a hole in it.  But, I was able to repair the hole, wash the blanket and there is no sign of the near disaster.  I wish I had a camera to show how happy she was to see her blanket after 8 hours!

So, back to craft today!  I decided to make a medallion to go on the top of Iris' birthday cake with her.  I found this website http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/theme/occasions/birthdays/sweet-sixteen-birthday-crafts/?page=2 that gave me the idea, and I thought, "Wow, that is cute, fold some paper into an accordion, fold it to make a circle, and then glue stuff on top of it!  That is totally doable!!!" ummm, wow, this was SOOO much more complicated than I thought it would be!

I found a Youtube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0XCWHsGj5Q, and HOLY $#!^ what have I gotten myself into?  I quickly realized that Iris would NOT be able to do this exactly with me!

Let's do the supply list quickly:

1) paper 12x12 and accent paper
2) paper cutter
3) glue stick & liquid glue
4) Shishkabob skewer

I altered our medallions from the video because I couldn't get 1.5 inches to work!  It just didn't want to stretch that far with 1 sheet.  So, I made them 2 inches wide and glued two pieces together then followed the directions.  With 2 pieces glued together, I didn't have to glue the centers together first, it made it loose enough that it laid down on its own.... I gave iris her own 2 inch strip that i let her accordion fold on her own, and decorate as she felt fit.  She liked coloring the "squares" she made.  Then we glued hers together and stuck the square paper center on the top.  Iris' was a bit harder than my circle because her accordion didn't really fold down well, as you can see.

At this point, Coraline woke up from her nap and was TICKED.  So I loaded the kids in the car and went back tracking to look for the blanket so we didn't have time to finish Iris' medallion completely.  She had asked for the gold sparkly foam sheet on her medallion, so I cut a gold sparkly "4" and glued it to the big medallion.  Once that stuff was dried, I flipped it over, cut a skewer to size, and glued it into one of the "peaks" of the accordion.  I hope that we will remember to take that with us on Saturday to add it to her birthday cake!

The nice thing is, I was able to have Iris to put some effort into mine as much as possible, gluing what she could, etc.  I have been trying hard to keep her involved in everything.  It came be hard, but it isn't impossible.  I learned one really valuable lesson today: things aren't always as easy as they first appear!  YIKES!!!!

Oh, and in totally unrelated news, I have learned to make crocheted flowers!!! :)  I am working on finishing a scarf for Iris, I will take a picture when done.