This post is in response to a prompt from Kelly at *Weekly Anamnesis.*  I like Kelly’s word prompts to help me think of something to write.  She is not picky about when someone uses a word.  It can be an old word; this one is.  The word I chose is “Use.”  Anyone is welcome to use her prompts.  Just go there and follow the instructions.

—————————————

This is a crayon. 

Crayons are used from childhood to color pictures.  The most common uses are coloring pictures in coloring books or drawing and coloring on blank paper.  There are other things that can be done with crayons for the more creative and artistic like melting the shavings to make psychedelic backgrounds, but for the most part, they are just used for coloring.  On paper.

A few weeks ago you may remember we had guests at our house.  The numbers varied as some came and went, but on the last night there were six.  Six meant that my two children and one other child slept on the floor, and one adult had to sleep on a futon in our loft.  This is not a major event, but it does involve moving the futon away from the wall.  Five of the guests left early in the morning, and due to our children still sleeping and the other guest not leaving, we left the futon down and away from the wall, as putting it up would have made too much noise.

Chicklet has a friend, Tyler, who lives behind us.  They are the very best of friends, only 17 days apart in age.   (Both are 4.)  They play together a lot.  Their older sisters are also best friends, so it works well.  All four kids are experts at scaling the wall between our houses and are often at one house or the other.  (This is with parental permission.  We have been through, and put a kabosh on the just-coming-and-going-as-the-children-please-without-letting-their-parents-know-so-the-parents-do-not-completely-flip-out-wondering-where-their-little-cherubs-are.  Yes, it has happened, more than once. But not more than once per child.)

Checking out a spider

Checking out a spider

Tyler came to play with Chicklet the morning after all the guests left.  The rules are usually, “Play outside or play upstairs” as this Mommy has piles of work to do and cannot do it it two little children are tearing around the room near her or asking her a thousand questions.  So when he arrived, over the wall, they raced upstairs.  When it was time for him to go home, a couple of hours later, I did a cursory check to make sure the upstairs was not carpeted with toys.  Once they had cleaned to my satisfaction, Tyler went home.  But here is what I missed (not the intended use of the crayon):

Chicklet has only written on walls once before, and that was a Chic’s prodding, and it was with much more washable markers (but do not think that brought any less consequences).  Chicklet has never really been into writing on walls.  I asked her about it, and she said Tyler did it.  I asked her if she helped, and she said she did.  She got in trouble and that was that.  Until… Tyler’s mom told me he had written all over another neighbor’s very nice, toy piano with markers.  So I told her about the wall.  Apparently this was a new trend with him (culminating with his finding a crayon in their house last Sunday and use-ing it to color the walls as he walked all the way from upstairs to downstairs.  She talked to him about crayons on our wall (he was shocked and amazed that his mom could have any idea what happened in either neighbor’s house), and this is the conversation that transpired (Chicklet confirmed its accuracy):

Tyler:  Here is a crayon, let’s use it to color on the wall.

Chicklet:  OK, you can do that.

Tyler (After coloring is mostly finished):  Do you like it?

Chicklet:  Oh yes; it’s pretty!  Why don’t you do some more?

Tyler (silly grin):  OK!

—————————————————————-

Here is an example that is a little more constructive (at least to me).   Remember that I have a business to do with rubber stampng and teaching people to stamp?  Well one of our products is “rub-ons,” which are adhesive decorations that can be “rubbed on” to all kinds of surfaces. 

images copyright Stampin' Up!

Obviously cards, which is what I do most, but they can be used on glass or wood or fabric (I love to put them on ribbons that I use to decorate cards) or metal…  just about anything.  This picture is a pendant that was made by decorating  a large washer from the hardware store with rub-ons and embellishing with some beads on the string.

But when I went to my Convention, I came up with a brilliant idea (that I am sure someone else has come up with, too, but I have not seen it, and since I get my ideas from other people a lot, I am always excited when I come up with something on my own), and that is to use them for decoration with pedicures! (Not their intended use.)  I do my own pedicures.  (I am too cheap to pay to have them done, and too ticklish to tolerate them very well.  Deirdre and I had one together in New York before we went to Bermuda, and she laughed and laughed at me because I was clutching the armrest, doing Lamaze breathing, trying to hold still while they did that rough thing on my feet.  I keep my feet in VERY good shape so I do not need to get pedicures.  I had that one done because it was at winter’s end, and I was going on a cruise. )  So I do my own pedicures, but I cannot paint cute little designs on my toes.  I have tried stamping on them, but it usually comes out sort of blurry.  Then it hit me to use rub-ons!  Lucky me that we got some with our make-and-take kits at Convention, so I tried it there.  I works BEAUTIFULLY! 

When I got home, I ordered more rub-ons to do some samples.  The light blue with brown is a Christmas bell.  The skull and crossbones was actually a surprise favorite.  I do not like black nail polish and do not like skulls and crossbones, but I thought it turned out really well.  That one is dedicated to Stacie because she loves Skulls and Crossbones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is how this works…  After your nail polish (not top coat) is dry… VERY dry… cut out a little rub-on and stick it on.  They come with a popsicle stick tool to rub them onto surfaces.  On nail polish, it sticks almost by itself, but I rubbed a little.  Apply top coat thinly and quickly.  One of mine smeared a little because I went over it too much with the top coat.  If you want more top coat, apply it after the first coat dries.  I used O.P.I topcoat, and the rub-on lasted as long as my pedicures normally last (3-4 weeks).  I do not know how long it would last without a top coat, but I believe it would start to get scratched up quickly.  As it was, it did not get scratched or marred at all.  And it came off easily (easier than the nail polish) when I removed it to do my next pedicure.

I love this!  Rub-ons come in sheets that have all kinds of different sizes of decorative images.  It is easy to use up the big ones on all kinds of projects, but the little ones sometimes just sit there.  This is the perfect way to use them!

 

by Louise Cannon