There is one in our house who says that July 4th is really the end of summer, and that opinion may be supported by those back-to-school ads already. But for me, it feels like summer has just begun.
For one thing, we have started our summer kid-care routine — two full days a week. We pack a lot into those days: creating Fred’s Cafe (complete with custom logo, main and dessert menus, name badges for the staff, and pass cards to access the kitchen); swimming (including the just-for-pretend-I’m-the-lifeguard-and-you’re-in-trouble-Grandma game); yard work (light on the “work”); Toy Story 4 (yes, I teared up at the end); making personal pizzas for lunch; a little grocery shopping; and creating things in the studio.
And that was just two days so far.
Sometimes the boy wants to stamp, other times not so much. But when he saw the new Dino Days set, out for camp prep, he was excited. We worked together for hours. Here’s one result:
He chose the colors, stamped the images, cleaned the stamps per my instructions, die cut the pieces, and laminated the assembled pieces. I trimmed the lamination and affixed the magnets, but most of this was the work of an eight-year-old boy.
I want to point out that there is shading built in to these photopolymer stamps. An ink pad that is too juicy will not give you the results you want. It seemed like every pad I opened was too wet, and I started to wonder if it had something to do with the extreme humidity — but I’ve never had that problem before.
Find yourself a kid and have some fun with this!
