Sun Catcher

A few weeks ago I went to my daughter's classroom for an hour long crafting session.  They instituted something called Fun Fridays where parents/relatives come in to do something interesting with the kids.  They've had a beekeeper and a firefighter...that's pretty exciting stuff.   I was not going to sign up, because I couldn't think of anything to do with them.

And then I saw a tutorial for a leaf suncatcher on Pinterest.  Neat, right?  So, I signed up for the Fun Friday.  I was going to bring a small number of embroidery hoops for each kid, but then I started thinking about making one giant sun catcher for their big windows.  I think the one I bought was 17"x22", which was a really nice size.  While buying the hoop, the cashier asked what I was going to be working on.  When I told her, she suggested that I go to the dollar store three stores down and I could find the contact paper there.  She was right.  Yay!  $2.00!

I didn't take any process shots and I didn't take a finished picture, so the school was kind of enough to send me this picture.  

Two or three weeks before my scheduled appointment, I went out and collected leaves.  Z and I tried to do it, but she ended up keeping them all, so I had to make another trip out.  I even plucked some bright red leaves off a bush while I was out working.  The week before we made this, I went into the yard and grabbed as much foliage from my garden as I could.  It snowed the next day, so I was pretty lucky to have gotten anything.  I then squished everything into big books...1000 Recipes was a helpful book as was my Practical Guide to Homicide book.  Don't ask.

A group of six kids and their teacher helped make this.  It was a nice little project.  I especially liked working with the kids.  Not because they are funny and cute and whatever, because they are all those things, but because they helped put into perspective that my kid is just like them...normal. All of them, Z included, was weird and scattered and stubborn and emotional.  That's good.  For a while there I thought I had an alien child who was hell bent on destroying my sanity.  Well, she's still that, but apparently they are all aliens and they are all hell bent on destroying the sanity of their parents.