Trend: The Circus

image by My Cute Stamps

A really fun trend I’ve seen popping up in stamping and paper crafting is the Circus. Use bright primary colors for fun cards and layouts, they are perfect for children’s birthday party invites or for a card for anyone who is young at heart. Here are some fun stamping products I’ve found with a circus theme.

My Cute stamps has an adorable clear circus set:

image by My Cute Stamps

Basic Grey also has a wonderful clear stamp set called Build a Clown:

image by Basic Grey

Tim Holtz has a very fun ATC (artist trading card) sized stamp called Circus Freak:

image by Simon Says and Stampers Anonymous

and he also has an unmounted circus set:

image by Alphastamps and Tim Holtz

here’s a wonderful fun book by Lisa Kettel called Altered Art Circus:

image by Amazon and Lisa Kettel

And here’s an entire website devoted to the theme called Jim Marcus’ Circustamps:

image by Laura Jacobs and Circustamps

and lastly here’s a cute card I made using Close To My Hearts Life’s a Jungle set:

image by Heather Holbrook

-Heather

Lots of Americans seem to think that May 5 is Mexican Independence Day, but that holiday actually falls on Sept. 16.

May 5 is the celebration of the Battle of Puebla, in which the Mexicans defeated the French in 1862. Independence Day marks the beginning of their fight for independence from Spain in 1810. That was the day of what’s known as El Grito de Dolores, or the cry of Dolores, for when the Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang the church bells at his church in Dolores and declared that Mexico should be free from Spanish rule.

They would fight for their freedom until 1821 when they finally gained independence.

Fabulous Classroom has a little of the history and ideas for celebrating the holiday for all age groups. There’s also a link to a good video in that post about the real story of Mexican Independence Day.

Twinkl also has a good tops about the history and different activities, discussion ideas, crafts and foods that can be incorporated into lessons at school or used at home.

I also found a few pins that no longer link to a website but include good information on Mexican Independence Day, including some questions for students to answer based on the reading. You can find more printables and questions for kids from TX Homeschool Mama on Etsy (also available in Spanish).

You can find a lot more paid resources about Mexican Independence Day at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Mexican flag crafts are a fun option for celebrating Mexican Independence Day (though the current iteration of their flag has only been in use since 1968). Kids Activities Blog has a free Mexican flag printable and a few different ideas for decorating it including dot markers and torn tissue paper.

You can also find some great Mexican crafts at Red Ted Art. The post includes all sorts of Mexican inspired projects including Day of the Dead crafts, Frida Kahlo pinatas and upcycled musical instruments. I love the giant paper flowers they shared from Honestly WTF.

Have you read?