Family stick figure auto decals on a budget

I have always loved the cute little sticker "stick" people on the backs of automobiles. I have read articles like this one about the dangers of these decals and the information that they might provide to criminals about my family. But, I still wanted them.

Over the past few years, I have looked for them in stores and searched them out on websites, but they are always 5-6 dollars per figure plus shipping and I could never quite decide which ones I liked the best. At that price, it seemed like such a permanent decision.

But, I kept wanting them.

So, for my Sunday afternoon relaxing creative activity I decided to make some.

Sketches

First, I made sketches of what I wanted the people to look like.

I traced one of the magnetic sheets (2 for $2.99 at Walmart in the craft section) onto a piece of printer paper, and fit the pencil drawings inside that space.

Then, I colored in my little people. My husband the pastor, and me with my Higher Things t-shirt, and my oldest daughter with pink hair. She doesn't actually have pink hair, but it goes well with her personality, so there it is.

 I used permanent markers that we already owned, so I didn't figure these into the cost, although you would if you were planning this activity for a group or if you don't already use giant packs of multi-colored permanent markers for a million other projects. (probably less than $20 for all sorts of colors and then they would have lots of ink left in them when you finished this small project)

Next, I cut out the rectangle.

Then, I peeled the backing off of the peel and stick magnet and laid the rectangle of paper on top of the sticky side.

I cut out a piece of laminate to fit over the paper.
This is important because I plan to stick these on
the outside of the van, so just paper would get wet
and the ink would run and they would not last.

DISCLAIMER: I've never done anything like this before, so it's all guesswork. 

I'm just hoping it works. A huge roll of laminate cost us $5.78 and I used about 6 inches of it. We bought it for another project and having it here is what actually gave me the idea to do this. But, if you were planning this activity for a group, you would need to calculate this cost also.

I smoothed out the laminate and then started cutting out each person.

But, then, I decided to cut out just the rectangle around the figures. This works for me because our van is white. I may change my mind later, but I think it will look okay and the greater surface area will help them stay put.

This was so easy and so much fun. I think I am going to pick up some more of the magnet sheet and make some "paper" dolls and other objects for my 3 year old to play with on the refrigerator.

Five Steps to a Clean Bedroom

I found a short list for cleaning kids rooms that I thought was great. I tweaked it to fit our family needs and have the following 5 STEPS to a clean room posted on my daughter's bedroom wall. She uses it nearly every day to help her keep her room tidy.

It's simple, fast and even little kids can do it.

So, here it is:


Step 1. Push everything off the bed onto the floor and make the bed. 

Making the bed can be as simple as laying a blanket over the top of it and calling it good. Military corners on sheets and all that is not what we're going for here. Just presentable.

Step 2. Put laundry on bed.

This might seem counter-intuitive since you just made the bed, but it might be the only clean spot in the room and this is about sorting the clothing, towels and such from the rest of the stuff on the floor. So, just make a big pile of everything that would be considered laundry on top of the bed.

Step 3. Put toys in bins/on shelves.

If your kids don't have this, get it. Bins don't have to be fancy or labeled, just bins. We do bins on book shelves or dresser drawers for special items. Again, this isn't an organizing adventure, so put away the label maker. This is simply getting everything they care about up and off the floor and into some kind of container for storage.

Step 4. Throw away trash/Vacuum floor.

There always seems to be garbage on the floor, even if we just vacuumed yesterday. But, if you don't have that issue, then you can just throw out any trash that might have found its way into the room, and call it good. I think running the vacuum over the center gives it a more finished look.

Step 5. Sort laundry.

Remember that pile of laundry on the bed? Now is the time to tackle that. Clean stuff gets put away, dirty stuff goes in the hamper. You, parent, can decide what 'put away' means. For some, it might just be throwing it all in a laundry basket, or shoving it in a drawer - we have labeled bins on shelves for this too, so all the shirts go in one, pants in another and so on. Dirty clothes go in a hamper, and older kids can take that hamper all the way to the laundry room if you want them too.


That's it. Done. Not perfect, but tidy and presentable.

Good enough.

Following Your Kid's Lead

I'm learning to follow my kids lead. They are creative and fun and smart and they have great ideas.

The 17 year old wants to be a Broadway star! Here's her Facebook page.
As her mom, and her guidance counselor it's my job over this next year to make sure that she builds a resume that will boost her chances of getting into the college of her choice and accepted into their musical theater program.

As a small private school, it is difficult to offer some of the things that might look good on that application. Things like drama club, band & orchestra, dance, choir, etc.
So, we are trying to be creative.

The 15 year old wants to work in computers. He's not sure what, but maybe building them, repairing them, etc. Also, hard to create a technical lab on our school's itty bitty budget.

The 9 year old wants to be famous on YouTube. He's convinced he can sit around playing Minecraft, recording himself talking about it and get paid for it. I would laugh, but there are people actually doing it, so who am I to tell him he can't?
But, neither of us has any idea how to begin.

So, as the first semester of our homeschool year is nearing it's close, I'm pondering the curriculum and lesson plans for semester #2. What can we do differently to help these children work toward their goals while still meeting my idea of "schoolwork"?

I'm following their lead.

We now have a family YouTube page.
It's called 8 Kids Playing, a perfect name for our little actors and actresses, musicians and gamers.

AND, the kids are working on starting a newsletter. THE JOHNSON JOURNAL!

They are learning writing, business planning, and computer skills all at the same time. But, the part I like the best is the TEAMWORK because it was all their idea.