Spring Sale for Pumpkin+Bear

Looking through the Sold archives of my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop is one of those activities that's chock-full of nostalgia. The dinosaur stuffies and quilted blankets remind me of Will's obsession with dinosaurs. The T-shirt dresses and buntings for every occasion used to delight at tiny Syd.

There are crayon rolls from when I used to keep one in every pocket and every bag, moveable alphabets of all sizes and sorts from when I was focused on providing a language-rich hands-on environment, felt sets and bean bags and remade crayons and all kinds of things that little ones love.

We're beyond much of that now. These days my girls mostly ask me for custom clothing and novelty blankets, and many of the handmade items that they want they're fully capable of making for themselves--and they do!

I let all my listings for little ones linger in Pumpkin+Bear for years longer than I needed to, violating my original principle that I made things for sale as I made things for myself and my children, a side hustle that was more an extension of crafting for my family than a business--if I ever quit my day job, it's never to be a full-time artisan!

Anyway, my Girl Scout troop is preparing for a big garage sale fundraiser next month, which means that of course I'm on the hook to go through all my stuff and see what I can stand to get rid of. I was crouching down, digging through crafting supplies and thinking about what I needed for what, and out of the blue I thought, "Huh. I don't actually need felt play set materials or crayon roll materials or play silk materials anymore, other than for Pumpkin+Bear. And what if I didn't actually even need them for Pumpkin+Bear anymore, either?"

Well, I'd have more space, that's for sure. I might have more time to invent creations that I'm more passionate about. I might have time to make and sell some things that are better suited to the tween and teen that I've got now.

So deep breath, because I'm putting everything that I'm no longer going to make on BIG SALE--like 50% off big! When it's gone, it's gone. Here's what's going:

30"x30" Play Silks--Originally $16, Now $8

To be fair, Syd DOES still use her vast collection of play silks once in a while, and whenever we're going through our possessions and I ask her if she wants to keep them out or move them into keepsakes, she always wants to keep them out!

Still, it's been years, probably, since she's asked for a new size or different color...

Duck and Cat Wall Quilt on Recycled Denim--Originally $15, Now $7.50

You can tell the things that I've been making so long that I didn't know how to properly photograph them when I started. Also, how long has it been since I've made my children some nursery decor?!? The last thing that I made for the kids' bedroom was embellished picture frames for their Comic Con art purchases...

Fairy Tale Flannel Christmas Stocking--Originally $16.25, Now $8.12

I actually will probably continue making the odd Christmas stocking, particular as the kids' interest change, but regardless, there's no need to buy more fairy tale fabric, not with kids who are much more into Greek myths and post-apocalyptic literature and European history memes.

Star Wars Flannel Christmas Stocking--Originally $16.25, Now $8.12

Since I'm on a roll, I might as well clear out all of my Christmas stocking flannel altogether...

Felt Cake Puzzle Play Set, Originally $9.00, Now $4.50

The preschool years really are over, if the kids are no longer playing with their felt boards and asking me for new felt pieces and making and embellishing their very own felt pieces for all of their pretend play.

I love the felt play sets the most, because they're all based on something specific that a kid asked me to create for her at one time.

Felt Paper Doll Set--Originally $9.00, Now $4.50

Felt Rainbow Play Mat with Felt Rainbow Play Set--Originally $18, Now $9

Do you guys remember when Syd was OBSESSED with rainbows?

Felt Rainbow Play Set--Originally $10, Now $5

Horse Lover's Travel Felt Mat

My Little Pony American Girl Doll Skirt--Originally $11, Now $5.50

Sydney is outgrowing her American Girl dolls WAY faster than I am!

Pink Skulls American Girl Doll Skirt--Originally $11, Now $5.50

 Upholstery Fabric Crayon Rolls--Originally $8.00, Now $4.00

I should have suspected what an artist Syd was growing to be back when she was a toddler and I had to pack crayons and paper or chalk or markers or play dough every time we left the house. I still do that, or rather Syd does it for herself, but now it's generally fashion design notebooks or comic book templates and Prismacolor pencils.

Vintage Superman Colored Pencil Roll--Originally $18, Now $9

I've tentatively set my sale to run for a full month, and I'll still have most of my supplies through then, so let me know if you've got a custom request.

Right now, though, I've got to get back to sorting stuff for that Girl Scout garage sale...

Homeschool European Geography: Zooming In On Ukraine

I haven't written much about our European Geography study, but I assure you that we have been steadily working on it for several months now.

Our spine for European Geography is Draw Europe, supplemented with lots of fiction and non-fiction, YouTube and DVDs, hands-on activities, live radio...

...and an international snacks subscription box that I bought for Will's last birthday! I bought her a year's subscription to Universal Yums, and it has been SO FUN. Each month she gets a box from a different country, and when her box if from a European country we treat it as a bonus chance to dive deep into that country.

This month's Yum Box was from Ukraine:

Here are some of the snacks that she received:

Ukraine is VERY into potatoes.

These boxes are a LOT of fun for adventurous eaters, and they're how I know that I super love smoked plum candy. NOM!

Anyway, although we've already covered Ukraine in our study, spring is an especially good time to revisit the country, because one of the traditionally Ukrainian crafts is the making of pysanky eggs for Easter. We don't make pysanky eggs every single year, but it is a surprisingly accessible kid craft, and I do recommend it. Don't they turn out cool?

Here are some other great projects to add into your study:

• Print, color, and label a map of Ukraine. We use the free Owl and Mouse maps for all of our geography studies--I love them SO MUCH because you can print them up to several feet across. Color and label the printouts, or use them as templates to make salt dough or cookie maps. 
• Print and color Ukraine's flag. The kids really loved coloring flags when they were early elementary, but even now, we still get out the pin flags and maps sometimes. 
• Make and memorize fact flash cards. Even if you're focusing on history, politics, or culture, it is useful to have some basic facts memorized. I like the templates here because kids learn more when they have to research the facts themselves.
• Learn a little of the language. Some languages have fun flash cards that are easily found via Google search, but I didn't have a lot of luck with Ukrainian. Nevertheless, one or two lessons through Mango Languages is enough to give a kid a glimpse at what speaking Ukrainian is like--it will at least teach them how to say hello!
• Read about Chernobyl. This is a good way to get a science-focused kid interested in geography. Here, for example, is a quite readable explanation both of nuclear fission and the chain of events that led to the Chernobyl accident.
• Study Sevastopol. There were important sieges there during both the Crimean War and World War 2--which gives you opportunities to also delve into studying both of those wars, too.
• Listen to Ukrainian music. We like CDs of folk music from the library, but currently our favorite ways to experience a country's music are by streaming live, local radio stations on Radio Garden and by searching the playlists on Spotify--seriously, don't you want to listen to Ukrainian rap?

When the kids and I are searching YouTube for resources on a country, we always look for Geography Now, Eurovision, and Rick Steves videos. Geography Now and Rick Steves haven't covered Ukraine yet, alas, but Ukraine does participate in Eurovision, and they have some great performances. This one is our favorite, sort of because of the costumes and the dancing, but mostly because the lead singer has the best hair EVER, and every time we watch this video we mostly just spend the time talking about how nice her hair is and wondering how she got it so nice and shiny and tangle-free:

It's REALLY nice hair, right?

Although we didn't find many YouTube resources on Ukraine (please let me know if there's something that you love that we should know about!), we found loads and loads and LOADS of great books. I'm extra happy that Will's Yum Box led us to this review, because there are so many good books that we didn't get nearly through them the first time:



Now that we've experienced a few snacks from Ukraine, I'm longing to hit up the giant international grocery up in Indianapolis to see if they have any of our favorites, or something new to try. 

The Weirdest Puzzle

I wrote several years ago about our family Thrift Store Puzzle Philosophy, and we still hold to it. I can't tell you the number of puzzles that have come and gone over the years--certainly more than our house could hold if we'd had our hearts set on keeping them all!

This puzzle, though, is something special. First of all, it's round, which is unusual:

Primarily, though, this puzzle is just very, very strange:

Okay, yes, it's all cats. That is very, VERY weird.

But these cats? They're also all consecrated religious, and they are acting VERY irreverently:

Yeah, that's a feline nun. Dancing. With a feline monk.

DANCING.

Dancing while TOUCHING.

Very irreverent, indeed!

The entire puzzle represents male and female consecrated religious have a giant party. I can't imagine what on earth the artist was thinking. There are SO many weird things going on here.

For instance, check out this act of charity:

So those are anthropomorphized consecrated religious cats, sitting on the steps eating from a plate, and there are non-anthropomorphized cats around them begging for food.

Are the non-anthropomorphized cats meant to represent the laity? Are they begging for the fruit of salvation? Or... did the artist just think that it would be cute to have cats begging from cats?

It's all so deeply suspect, yet presented so lightheartedly, that I can't figure it out. It's as if Martin Luther, instead of writing his 95 Theses, decided to draw an adorable cartoon and never tell anyone whether or not he was being ironic.

Because OMG look at this!!!

Was the artist trying to make a statement about sexual impropriety between nuns and monks, or is it just supposed to be cute? Is that non-anthropomorphized black cat next to the cat nun meant to symbolize witchcraft, or is it just... there?

Because the implications make a VERY troubling set of statements, but the whole thing is so cute! Does anyone really make a set of statements this troubling by means of a cartoon this cute? I mean, normally when you want to draw worldly sin, you channel your inner Hieronymus Bosch, you know? Not your inner Charles Shulz.

Here are another couple of weird excerpts. We've got a feline Mary and Jesus (but an avian dove)--

--and a domestic cat Adam but a lion God, but domestic cat angels, and there are more non-anthropomorphized cats:

So in this reality, God did not make his creatures in his image, or is the artist making a broader statement about species identification and implying that we should respect monkeys and apes as also containing the divine spark?

If I was still an academic, I would write SO MANY PAPERS about this puzzle.

I'm not, though, so when we were done, I flipped it over and painted a new puzzle for the kids on the back. That was only because there were a few pieces, though--if this puzzle had been intact, I would be hoarding it as-is forever, probably painted with one of those Puzzle Saver solutions and hung on my study wall with all my other weird things.

How to Make Fraction Multiplication Model Sun Catchers

I had intended this math enrichment activity for both girls, but to target primarily Syd, who is reviewing multiplying and dividing fractions in her math curriculum and is having trouble keeping the algorithms straight.

Unfortunately, you'll see only Will in this tutorial, as Miss Syd is having a chronic case of the tweens, and school is such a great outlet for a power struggle when one is feeling tween-ish. I'm declining to participate in this battle, because tweens generally come back around--I mean, look at Will! I wasn't sure we'd both survive her middle school years, and now she's a very dedicated student--so instead of two kids completing a craft project that is math review for one kid and math enrichment for another, we have one kid sulking somewhere else and one kid being crafty.

Eh, Will always needs more fine motor skills practice, anyway.

To make these fraction multiplication model sun catchers, you need the following:

• clear acrylic or cellophane sheets
• cellophane in primary colors
• black Sharpie
• hundred square or ten square template, pie circle template
• scissors
• glue stick

1. Make the templates. The most accurate fraction multiplication model is the ten square or hundred square. We did do a couple of fraction circles, too, but I told Will that we had to know the product we wanted and then construct the model to fit it when we worked with the circles. 

When you work with the squares, the models construct themselves in a really cool way.

Trace several ten or hundred squares or pie circles onto a piece of clear acrylic using black Sharpie. They can be any size you choose.

2. Trace and cut out the fraction models. To make a fraction multiplication model, you need to cut out two fraction representations, one each in a different primary color.

Each fraction representation should be in tenths.

So, for instance, Will cut out one fraction in red--

--and another in blue:

3. Glue the fraction representations to the clear acrylic template. Place them perpendicular, with one edge of each representation lined up on the adjacent side to the other. This way, they will naturally overlap--

--and the area of their intersection is the product.

I like this model because it shows a different way of problem solving than my go-to explanation. Here, the x stands for "of" and the expression 1/2 x 1/2 can be translated as 1/2 OF 1/2. The visual is also a terrific memory aid, as it's colorful and striking and fun:

I haven't figured out a way to make the pie circle model come together as naturally as the square model does; there's no simple construction method that I can pick out that makes the product neatly assemble itself the way it does with the square model.

It can, however, be done--you just have to know what product you're looking for and then assemble the fractions so that the intersection represents that product:

Even though Syd refused to participate in the creation of the fraction multiplication model sun catchers, she can't help but see them on the window every time she's in the family room, mwa-ha-ha:

They look especially lovely when the setting sun shines through them, and I think they're a nice example of how naturally beautiful mathematical representation can be.

P.S. The next time Syd is amenable (perhaps when she's fourteen?), here is how to model fraction division in a way that makes it actually make sense.

P.P.S. Curious about all the other awesome stuff we get up to whenever a kid's not grumping out? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page for more WIP pics and resources.

My New French-Language Children's Book Haul

I've mentioned this before, but one of the challenges of having the children learn a second language is creating a language-rich environment for them to learn in.

I mean, when you want your kids to learn English, you speak in English to them, play music in English, watch TV in English, point out all the English signage, read lots and lots and lots of books in English, give them lots of toys with English words and letters.

Now imagine trying to help them learn French while you live in the middle of Indiana and don't, yourself, know French.

I'll tell you more some other time about the ways I'm slowly figuring out to enrich the children's environment with French-language music and TV and signage and toys, but for now, let's talk French-language children's books.

I started our French-language children's book collection last summer, when we visited a French-language bookstore in Quebec City. It was a little more challenging than I'd thought it would be, because I didn't realize until I got there that a lot is actually published in Quebecoise, but I figured it out.

But the REAL goal would be to get into a French-language bookstore IN France, you know?

One morning, my awesomest friend texted me that she was, right that second, at 7:00 am Eastern time, standing, in fact, in a French-language bookstore in Paris. She'd just purchased a new suitcase, was heading back to the states the next day, and was happy, she informed me, to walk around this bookstore, describing everything to me and texting me pics, while I filled her suitcase with French-language books.

That's a true friend, right? I mean, would YOU be willing to haul a suitcase full of someone else's books on a trans-Atlantic flight?

She also brought back a bunch of maps and French-language tourist brochures and magazines and stuff, because ephemera is very important to a language-rich environment.

Check out my haul!

A couple of these books are aspirational, simply because I can't imagine having a good French-language children's book collection without them even if the children can't read them yet:



The rest, however, are picture books or early reader books that I think the kids have a shot at understanding. Here are some:



My friend even brought me a couple of magazines!

• Science et Vie Junior
• Spirou

The kids can't read any of them fluently yet, but, as with any young English-learner, they enjoy looking through them, absorbing the illustrations, picking out words, imagining the story based on prior knowledge and the information in front of them.

That's a crucial part of the literacy process, all that work that you do with language before you can read it. The first time the kids experienced it, I was so busy with parenting that I forgot to savor it, but this time, every time I catch Syd in bed with our big French-language Garfield collection, or she shows me a text that she sent in French to a friend to tease her (French composition! Unprompted!), or I see Will sitting on the couch deep into one of those little histories, picking up who knows how much because she certainly unlocked written English without my help?

This time I savor it.

Following the Garfield Trail

I guess this post just happens to be a Throwback Thursday, because it turns out that with all the travel and fun that we had last summer, I never got around to telling you about the day trip that we took up north to follow the Garfield Trail!

Jim Davis grew up a few hours north of us, in Marion, Indiana, and the county where he grew up now sports a bunch of giant, adorable, themed Garfield statues that are meant to show off their various tourist hot spots and civic structures. The kids have looooooved Garfield forever, so the Garfield Trail has always been on my radar, but last year they started offering a Girl Scout fun patch for Girl Scouts who hit the trail.

Y'all know how I feel about fun patches.

So late last summer we finagled a time when we didn't have anything pressing on our agenda, when at least one car was more-or-less functioning, when my partner consented to come with us, and we hit the Garfield Trail!

This one is James Dean-themed, because he was ALSO born in Marion, Indiana, and is outside the Fairmount Historical Museum:

We didn't actually go into any of these places, likely defeating the entire purpose of installing the statues, because we brought Luna, who loved every second of the driving and getting into and out of the car and running around and posing for photos.

We also did some geocaching, and the older kid, who is the best ever at finding kindness rocks, FOUND YET ANOTHER KINDNESS ROCK!

We make plenty of our own kindness rocks to hide, so when we find one that we love, we happily keep it. 

Here's a little more James Dean for you:

THIS is the best reason to go on any random day trip--do you know how long it's been since we've seen a genuine playground merry-go-round?!?

 And a legitimately METAL outdoor slide, the exact same kind that my partner and I both burned our thighs on as kids a country apart?

Another worthwhile experience to hand down to the next generation:

Firefighter Garfield lives outside the Jonesboro City Hall:

Speedking Garfield is outside of Swayzee Elementary School:

We were apparently NOT supposed to climb up and pose with him--oops!

But to be fair, the warning sign isn't terribly visible if you come at the statue from the other direction:

My favorite things on this trail turned out not to be the actual Garfield statues, but the Garfield theming that abounded in these places, unrelated to the official Garfield Trail:

Here's College Bound Garfield, at the Sweetser Switch Trail and Depot:

This is Duffer Garfield, at the Arbor Trace Golf Club. It's the only one that Luna couldn't visit--humph!

Fit for Life Garfield in Matter Park was by far our favorite--

--because Matter Park is AMAZING! It's a HUGE park, especially for the area, with playgrounds and gardens and this enchanting children's garden that both kids fell in love with:

The children's garden contained actual edibles, with an invitation to pick something if it was ripe and you wanted to eat it. What an awesome concept for a public park!

Dr. Garfield lives outside the Marion General Hospital:

A couple of the statues were off-exhibit or inaccessible. We tried, anyway!

Okay, this might actually be my favorite: British Soldier Garfield, outside Payne's Restaurant:

I don't really understand why there is a restaurant serving authentic British cuisine out in the middle of the farmland, but I SUPER want to go eat there... you know, sometime when I don't have a doggy along as a dining partner.

Instead, we ate something more dog-friendly:

Ice cream!

Scream for Ice Cream Garfield, outside of Ivanhoe's Restaurant, was our final stop on purpose, so that we could order a bunch of milkshakes to go and then eat them as we started driving home.

The day on the trail wasn't completely what I'd expected--other than the Garfields outside of restaurants, there wasn't really any tourist infrastructure surrounding the statues, and most of the places where we went, other than those two restaurants and the park, were VERY sleepy little spots. We spent a lot of time driving down endless country roads with endless farms on either side; it was good for the kids to see both examples of the typical Indiana environment, since our town is the most un-Indiana place actually IN Indiana, and examples of the environment that Jim Davis grew up in, that color his comics. Whenever Jon talks about his childhood back home on the farmJon talks about his childhood back home on the farm, he's speaking about HERE, right here where we were driving, with the basketball hoops on the barn doors and the chickens and the rusted tractors and the acres of crops with nothing else to see to the horizon.

So even though it wasn't what I'd expected, it was very worth it to see. You don't have to always write what you know, of course, but it's useful to see, even for children, that your background colors what you become, and seeing the background of a comic creator, even just in the background of what we're intended to be seeing, is a valuable and accessible experience for a kid.

Especially when there's ice cream at the end!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Earning the Girl Scout Senior Customer Loyalty Badge... While Selling 1,000 Boxes of Girl Scout Cookies!

It took me YEARS longer than it should have to realize that "Oh, the Girl Scout cookie business badges--you're supposed to have the girls earn them DURING COOKIE SEASON!"

D'oh!

That's why there are the same number of cookie business badges at each level as there are years in that level; girls can earn one badge a year during cookie season, and then earn the financial literacy badges in the off-season.

I caught onto this literally last year (sigh...), so this is the first year that we're doing it properly. During cookie season this year, Syd earned the Cadette Marketing badge (more on that later), and Will earned the Senior Customer Loyalty badge.

And here's how she did it!

Step 1: Show how cookie money helps girls. 

Technically, I think I could have counted this as already completed, since Will helped run the goal setting station at our service unit's cookie rally this year, but she also counted the hours that she worked there for her Service to Girl Scouting bar, and we don't double-dip. 

Instead, Will came up with an even better idea!

Matt helped Will make brochures about her Silver Award to display at cookie booths and to hand out to interested customers. Since she already had the essays that she wrote for her Silver Award application, and the photos that we took of her project, Will just needed to add some text specifically about how she used cookie profits as her funding source.

I really liked this particular activity for a lot of reasons: 1) It's not the same old poster, which teenagers have made a billion of by this age. 2) Because it's not the same old poster, it's a new challenge. I am a MAJOR proponent of practicing all kinds of writing, and writing a brochure is a legitimately useful skill to have. 3) Brochures don't take up a ton of space on our already-crowded cookie booth table, but they're still visible and accessible. And 4) they're a conversation starter for Will when she has an interested potential customer. It's a ready prop and something for her to talk about.

And speaking of conversation starters...

Step #2: Connect with former cookie sellers.

The activity that Will chose for this step is such a clever one: she was to make a list of things that potential customers tend to say (and by the time a girl is a Senior, she likely has a loooong list of these), and then brainstorm replies that are respectful, interested, and engage the potential customer.

Because, as I tell the girls all the time at cookie booths, for a lot of customers the chance to talk to real, live Girl Scouts is half the fun of buying Girl Scout cookies. Sometimes it's old folks who don't get opportunities to interact with kids. Sometimes it's little kids who don't get opportunities to interact with big kids. Sometimes it's lonely folks who don't get opportunities to interact with anyone. And sometimes it's former Girl Scouts who are feeling nostalgic and supportive. So part of the job of selling Girl Scout cookies is representing Girl Scouts in a cheerful, polite, respectful manner.

Unless it's the other two kinds of people who want to talk to real, live Girl Scouts. Because sometimes it's someone with a conspiracy theory in their head who wants to rant at children about Planned Parenthood or "America's Obesity Epidemic," and sometimes it's someone who shouldn't be around children, so it's good that we're all at least standing by the check-out lines in public and with at least two adults right there watching everything. For the former folks, I've told the kids to just look at them and smile and let them rant, because you don't have to say a word if someone's not even asking you a question, and for the latter folks, I told them that if one more person tries to pat them on the head or the shoulder, that they should jerk back and scream like they'd been scalded. 

Seriously, don't touch the Girl Scouts. High fives and fist bumps are acceptable, although frankly, after all the lectures that I've also given the children about how dirty your hands and money are, they'd really rather you didn't touch them at all.

ANYWAY, let's get back to the nice people who just want to buy some cookies while getting to talk to a real, live Girl Scout, mkay? For this activity, Will thought up things that potential customers tend to say to her, particularly things that particularly flummox her as to a reply.

Things like: I used to be a Girl Scout when I was your age!

Or: My sister was a Girl Scout.

Or: Wow, cookies sure were a lot cheaper 20 years ago.

Or: It's too bad you don't have blah-blah-blah cookie anymore.

When people say things that aren't directly related to the transaction, that's them trying to open a conversation, and the way to respond politely (as well as to inspire customer loyalty!), is to continue the conversation by asking an interested, relevant question. But that can be so hard in the moment, so Will thought up several ways to respond to each of her common customer prompts. She realized that she could ask people who used to be Girl Scouts what their uniforms looked like, or how many cookies they sold each year, or what their favorite badge was. When people comment about the cookies themselves, whether they're complaining that they cost more these days or that they don't have the best flavor anymore, she could ask them how much cookies used to cost, or what their favorite type of cookie used to be, or if they prefer fruit flavors over chocolate, or... anything, really. Just something that sounds interested and is relevant. That's the lesson.

3. Build your customer list.

So here's where the badge went off the rails a bit. The badge book wants girls to collect email addresses, so that in Step 5, you can start a year-round newsletter. 

I mean, really?

Consumer privacy is important. I don't let my girls give out their names and email addresses to businesses, and I sure don't want them collecting other people's names and email addresses, either. I really didn't have any ideas for how to help Will attain this step, so I threw it at her and she decided to do the activity suggested on her Digital Cookie site, which was to gain five new customer emails and send them a Digital Cookie link. She asked her grandmother, who came through with the names, and that was that done. I guess the lesson turned out to be networking, because she'd never thought to ask her grandmother for potential customer contacts before, and a couple of those contacts DID end up buying cookies, so there you go.

Just... no email list of strangers, though. Yikes.

4. Create a customer appreciation program.

This step was dead easy, because I always have the girls write thank-you notes to their Digital Cookie customers and any other customers that they know personally. It's a nice chance to remind the girls that many people who buy Girl Scout cookies do so not for the cookies, but for the girls, and it's nice business writing practice. 

5. Keep your customer connection going all year long.

Since I've already established that I was not going to permit my child to make a year-round customer newsletter, she needed another activity that would remind her customers about Girl Scout cookies--and the good feelings that they get from cookies!--outside of cookie season.

Will settled on the idea of sending a Girl Scout cookie-themed Christmas card, again to the customers whom she knows personally and to her Digital Cookie customers. She mapped out a couple of ideas by hand, and then Matt helped her make the final project.

Did you know that the best way to get a good image of a Samoa is just to photograph it yourself?

We haven't had these Christmas cards printed yet, but here's the finished design on my computer:

Aren't they super cute? Will decided on postcards because they're cheaper, so the back side of each card will just have a brief handwritten note and a reminder to save the date for cookie season.

I think the timing will work well for these cards, since our Girl Scout cookie season does come just a couple of weeks after Christmas. There were also a lot of interesting design challenges that Will had to figure out in the making of these cards, and since Matt helped her, she learned a lot about the graphic design and production process.

I had a lot of doubts about parts of this badge, and not a lot of great ideas about how to work around the parts that I didn't like, so I'm thrilled at how well everything actually worked out. Will faced some appropriate challenges and learned new skills, practiced writing to different audiences, developed her social awareness, and grew as a businesswoman. 

And she got our Christmas cards all figured out for us for this year, so that's a bonus.