Making mosaic stepping stones for the garden with kids

My grand plan is to make an entire pathway on the side of our house to meander through a yet to be created flower garden on the side of our house.  I will post before and progress pictures soon.
I love this Flip flop shaped stepping stone kit.  I just ordered one of these for my 6 year old, T.J. and myself to use as soon as we have created our square ones (previous post).  We opened out first kit tonight to get ready for casting tomorrow. You will need a small bucket or large plastic bowl from the dollar store to mix the cement in.
While you are at the dollar store, pick up some extra glass gems for making more stones with the re-usable mold in the kit.  When you have used the cement that comes in the kit, you can purchase a bag of regular old cement (not concrete) to use the mold again and again.
When I taught fourth grade, I made stepping stones with my entire class using donated un-used pizza boxes lined with clear Contact paper.
We used it sticky side up, placing our decorations on the Contact paper and then pouring the cement it over the glass gems.  The kit has you decorate the top of the stepping stone.  I think this will work better than pouring the cement over the top; the cement ended up oozing around the gems and covering them up a little.
Check back tomorrow for pictures of our stepping stone project.

Keeping the kids busy with fun crafts

As a certified art teacher, I love to keep my 6 year old busy with arts and crafts.
 My son loves this Alex Paper Plate Bug Kit. Regularly 15.00 on sale for 10.04 You never know when an Amazon price will change.

 As a mom, I love it because the bugs are adorable and easy to assemble.  Some of the embellishments are actually stickers, making assembly very low on frustration for the kiddos.  As an art teacher, I love that the pieces in the kits allow for lots of creativity.  These are not just color and assemble kits.  So far we have made three of these.  I'll post pictures of our creations soon.

We also love this My first Sticky Mosaics Vehicles kit  available on Amazon for only 9.99!  

To do list

I have a running list floating in my head of projects I would like to pursue. I have the ideas, inspiration, and many of the materials, but lack the time to actually follow through. It seems that even when I do have a block of time to pursue one of my new project ideas I don't. I think it is somehow safer to stick to the charm bracelet work I am most known for and that I know will sell. I have recently moved a little further outside of my comfort zone and done more stringing projects, earrings, and even some kilt pins.
I decided today that maybe I will be more apt to get out of my comfort zone if I post my intended "to do" list here.
Here it is:
stained glass sandwich pendants (Nautical Charts, Antique Photos)
Scrabble tile pendants
tumble antique blue and green glass in my rock tumbler (experiment)
get back into tile and found object mosaic furniture
paint antique chairs in funky colors for my new dining room
create a found object collage/mosaic for my bulletin board frame
pewter frame altered art pendants with printed clip art (Frida Kahlo)
finish Fimo skull beads I started 2 years ago
get back into wire wrapping with copper wire
create more chunky necklaces with vintage Lucite or turquoise
create more floating necklaces
create more memory wire bracelets and necklaces
work with antiqued brass chain and findings

Wow, I guess the list isn't quite as long as I thought it would be. I will be reporting back here as I make progress. I must remind myself that we will be moving, if all goes well, in a few months. Maybe organizing my new studio will inspire me to add to the list.

If you haven't checked out etsy yet you must! Here are a few of my favorite items: