Getting my Craft On

My mother gave me a job in anticipation of the England family reunion and that was to come up with a craft. Since it was over/around Christmas, I was originally thinking of an ornament we could make together commemorating our time there. But I had been holding onto 5 of these things not knowing what to do with them but not able to throw them away because they're made of wood. 

So what they actually were are the containers the Melissa and Doug wooden magnetic dolls come in.  Zanna has gotten quite a variety of them over the years and they're all a bit different. But they come in really annoying colours like yellow, pink, purple, etc and I was using a few of them as drawer dividers. 

Out went the ornament idea and in came a new one (scary, I know). While the weather was still nice enough (otherwise known as "before the snow flies") I had my hubby spray paint them all dark brown.  Yes, I could have spray painted them myself but I had a willing and able helper and I wasn't going to say no to that. Plus he's better at it than me. Loved the look of the brown and it was starting to come together - memory collages. 
Mom and I picked out scrapbook paper, stickers and all that fun stuff when we were together in the fall and I packed it in my suitcase for the UK. 
Having one for each family, I encouraged everyone while touring around to be collecting ticket stubs, brochures, trinkets whatever to add to their collage along with pictures to be added later when developed. When the appointed craft time came, it took all of about an hour and we each had something to hang on our wall!

It was fun to see everyone's personality show through on their collage. Kind of thinking that the woman would do it while the men smoked cigars outside, I had forgotten that it's my brother who's the crafty one and Brenda (his wife) out smoking a cigar with the guys!

This was Reid and Brenda's collage in the making.

I finished up mine once I got home and got some pictures developed but I'm really happy with how it turned out and love how I have something to hang on the wall to remember our trip. And I'm thrilled I found a use for those things (I don't know what to call them). Here's the one now hanging in our home -