A is for apple

Goodness. That title is going to put that Barenaked Ladies song in my head. Not that that's a bad thing. I once considered moving to Toronto so I could live closer to them. I can't imagine the kind of free time I used to have (you know, before having kids) that made it possible for me to follow a band. Not literally follow them, but know their names and their favorite colors. That sort of thing.

Anyhow, "A" is for Arthur, he's a lovable drunk. "A" is what Fonzie said 'cause he was very cool.

And "A" is for back-to-school apple prints!

The girls and I did the ol' slice-an-apple-in-half-and-dip-it-in-paint trick last night.

Remember how I said the other day that there are times when a craft project scores big points with these kids and times when it flops? Yeah, well, Bo totally hated this one. She gave it a good 30 seconds and then moved on to painting snakes and suns:

Magpie and I had fun, though. I turned some of the prints into cupcake toppers this morning. We'll be delivering these treats to cousins tonight as a Happy Back-to-School Week surprise.

Here are the basic instructions for apple prints:

1. Cut an apple in half. Do your best to create flat surfaces.

2. I remember always having a hard time holding the roly-poly half apple as a stamp when I was a kid, so I cut a couple of grooves in ours last night to create handles.

See? Much better.

3. Place a paper towel on a plate. Squeeze paint onto the paper towel, using a fairly small amount. You're trying to create more of an ink pad effect than a puddle of paint.

4. Then just start dipping the apple into the paint and pressing it on paper (or on fabric, depending on the type of paint you're using and what your goals are in life).

Just in case you like the whole apple print idea but want to skip the mess (or the pouty 5 year old who "just wants to paint snakes!!"), I printed six red apples and six green apples on two separate pieces of paper and scanned them for your back-to-school pleasure.

Download Green apple PDF

Download Red apple PDF

This is what they'll look like (but don't click this image and print--use the PDF links):

You can use those PDFs to make cupcake toppers like I did--just cut around the apple shape and tape the back of them to long toothpicks or popsicle sticks:

Or use the apples as notecards for teachers or for love notes placed in your kid's lunchbox.

As always, my tutorials and PDFs are for personal use only. Please don't use this PDF for commercial purposes. Thanks.

On a separate note, do you see my two new advertisers up there on the right? First, please give a warm welcome to The Top Stitch, which is a modern, funky fabric shop here in Spokane that also sells its fabrics, books, patterns and more online.

I remember the first time I walked into The Top Stitch. My heart pounded out of my chest because I'd never seen Amy Butler fabrics in person before. And that was when The Top Stitch was located in a tiny little space off the beaten path.

Owner Carrie Jarvis relocated to a bright, sunny, bigger spot in Spokane's Garland District and now offers an array of classes and, of course, fabrics, oh so many gorgeous fabrics. It's the kind of shop that makes you never want to move away from Spokane (but if you did, you could just buy from her online).

Yum!

Also advertising is Twirling Betty, a mom/former lawyer who lives in Melbourne, Australia, writes a wicked-funny blog and sells the most adorable creations in her Etsy shop.

Among her offerings:

Floral hair clips ...

Charming visors ...

And those one-of-a-kind headbands you can see in her ad above.

Thank you, thank you.

Comments

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Well, I'm TOTALLY delighted to be on your sidebar. And thanks for your lovely words about my blog and accessories. You're a goodie gumdrop, you are.
LOVE the apples. I am obssessed with apples in general and these are just gorgeous. Thanks for sharing the printables too.
And I can't leave you without telling you one of my oldest friends went to school with the Bare Naked Ladies (in TO) and even played sax (or somesuch wind instrument) in one of their pre-BNL bands. He never shuts up about it. But then neither would I.

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Posted by: Creative Recreation | August 30, 2010 at 08:30 PM