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Blessings to you!
Kristen helped her 5 year-old daughter make an adorable tooth fairy envelope since she is looking forward to the "big" day when her tooth falls out! Aubry and I will be making one of these since her two front teeth are wiggling enough to make it impossible for her to eat an apple.
Kristen even wrote up a simple tutorial here. Check it out!
My kids love to play with dough of any kind. Play dough, pie dough and now salt dough are favorites. All you need are some cookie cutters, a rolling pin and some miscellaneous kitchen utensils and your kids will have tons of fun!
***You can find a simple salt-dough recipe here.
My kids always act like they are working out when they use the rolling pin. Muscles flexed, face serious and a bit strained:
I lucked out and found a set of ABC cookie cutters for $1.00 at the thrift store:
Everyone in the family now has their name forever in salt dough:
Happy creating!
We recently read the biblical account of Mary breaking her alabaster jar of perfume over Jesus' feet and wiping them with her hair. We made our own Mary Jars with these small glass vases. We used puffy paint on some, and colored permanent marker on others. They made great gifts. They'd be even better with a ribbon and tag with the Scripture reference on them.
***Deb is mom to four children, two of them crafty girls. When she's not crafting or schooling the children, she can be found working on her latest Sonflower Sisters curriculum or posting on their new blog: www.AsWeWalk.com.
My girls love anything and everything princess...lots of dresses, shoes, lip gloss, dancing, magic wands, purses, glittery gloves, hair pretties.....but, we were lacking one important thing! Princess streamers! A princess must have her very own flowing streamer to dance around with, you know. Emma's dance class this year had something similar, and when I saw these cute heart shaped bangle bracelets, I knew exactly what to do with them. Here's how we did it....
You'll need one bangle bracelet per child and a variety of ribbons to tie onto the bangle. After I purchased these fairly inexpensive ribbons, I thought about regular gift wrapping ribbon....it would probably be a cheaper alternative and you could curl the ends a little. But, any ribbon should do just fine.
Just select which ribbon to start with and cut it to your preferred length...enough so that it streams easily, but not so long as to trip your little ones. Tie them onto the bangle and then once more to ensure that it is in a knot and will stay put.
Continue cutting varying lengths of ribbon and tying them in place....this is so easy for even the smallest kids to do themselves.
Once you have your desired amount of ribbon tied onto the bangle, you're all done! How easy is that?! And, how fun and easy this craft would be for a princess party, tea party, sleepovers, or just a lazy summer afternoon with nothing better to do than pretend to be a princess.
We know you'll have so much fun with these!
ENJOY, Friends!!
***Hi, I'm Sandra! I have been married to my wonderful husband for 12 years and I am a homeschooling mom to four blessings. You can learn more about me here. I would love for you to stop by and visit with me at my blog, My Inspired Heart, and see what creative adventures my family and I are up to!
Use a glue that dries clear!
Let dry before you glue the magnets on the back.
Once it's all dry you can decorate the front of the frame any way you like. You can paint it, glue beads on it or colour it with Gel Pens. Once you are done you can either glue a picture onto the back, or you can leave it empty and place it over a picture on your fridge.
Erin lives on the West Coast of Canada and has been happily married for 13 years. She is the proud mama of two great kids, Danielle 9 and Brayden 7. Feel free to pop by her blog for a visit at Dani Be Good. Brayden loves to do science experiments. Building, mixing, creating. It's what makes him the happiest. Well the other day Brayden was home sick but by the afternoon he was feeling well enough to be bored. So out came our science books and this is what he wanted to try out!
He had to improvise as we didn't have the required materials. He used an egg carton, 2 knitting needles, 4 sewing bobbins, 2 straws, silly putty, construction paper and lots of tape (we keep the tape companies in business at our house) .
He put silly putty on the end of the knitting needles to keep the bobbins from falling off. Worked like a charm!
Voila, Brayden's masterpiece. He wasn't well enough to go outside and try out his wind powered sail boat so we used our fan instead. That thing cruised. Can't wait to try it out on a windy day outside!
***Erin and Brayden can be found at Erin's blog, Dani Be Good!
This project is wonderful for children of all ages, and can be easily done with things you already have around your home! And it's quick, so you don't have to sit for hours.
Gather together:
coffee filters
watercolor paints or markers
paintbrush
clothespins
black construction paper
white glue
You could choose to do this outside at the picnic table on a nice day, or cover your work surface with newspaper.
Spread a coffee filter out, and let your assistant(s) paint them however they choose. If you use marker, they can color small sections, and then go over it with a wet paintbrush. This makes the colors bleed, giving the same effects as the paint.
Let the coffee filters dry.
Scrunch the middle of the filter,
and place it inside a clothespin.
Glue two small strips of black construction paper onto the clothespin for antennae. These can be hung on walls or windows with FunTack. You could also attach a magnetic strip to the back so that they can be hung on the refrigerator.
This activity makes a perfect little craft for a birthday party, leaving you with a cute favor for the guests to take home!
Unless the LORD...
***Today's guest blogger is Stacy from With Great Joy. Thanks, Stacy!
Recently I decided to try my hand at embroidery. I had some hoops that I’d found at a thrift store, so I just needed some fabric and embroidery thread to get started. As I stood in the fabric store, selecting those things, it dawned on me that there was no way I could get away with learning this new skill without my six-year old daughter, Ella wanting to learn right along with me. [How handy it was, then, that I’d picked up two hoops at the thrift store!] I chose thread colors that I thought she’d like (so pinks and purples, then), and picked up the rest of the supplies.
That evening, I curled up on the couch with my hoop and needle, and right away Ella expressed interest in what I was doing. I showed her, and then asked her if she wanted to do it, too. As I suspected, she most certainly did! Her face lit up when I pulled out a hoop just like my own and handed it to her.
I gave her a pencil and told her she could draw a picture onto the fabric and then stitch over top of it. She was excited about that, and clarified, “Any picture I want?” I said “Yes” and watched to see what she’d draw. She drew a little house and happily stitched beside me. Ella loved the whole process.
She could draw her own picture, choose her own colors, go at her own pace, and stitch by her own “rules”. She did a beautiful job, and spent more than an hour working on it. I had to help her thread the needle and tie off the thread when she came to the end of a color, but other than that, she was able to do it all by herself. If you’d like to do something similar with your little girl, it is easy to get started, and an inexpensive craft to do, too.
Here’s a list of supplies you’ll need:
-hoop
-embroidery floss
-needle
-fabric with a looser weave (linen, flour sacks, muslin)
-scissors
-pencil or water-soluble/vanishing ink pen (found with the quilting notions in your fabric store)
Enjoy!
I have made these pillowcases on several occasions before. My kids always love being able to decorate these in their own personal way to match their room or whatever holds their fascination at the time. Here are the things you need to make your own:
First, iron your pillowcases to make them easier to work with. Next decide where you want the name and how you want the design.
You can now begin stamping and/or painting. I normally let them brush the paint onto these foam stamps to control how thick the fabric paint is. Start at the top of the pillowcase and work your way down.
Press the stamp straight down and be sure to pick it straight up or it will smudge.
With smaller kids, things are not going to be perfect and there will most likely be drips and smudges, but they will enjoy the process so much because they did it all by themselves!
Sometimes, I just let them freehand whatever they choose onto the pillowcase. The older kids do well with freehanding and mostly prefer it to the stamped patterns.
I usually stencil the name on the end of the pillowcase after they have painted and stamped their designs. We let them dry for 24 hours before use and then put them on their beds. They wash like a dream and are very easy to take care of.
Here they are...all finished! We hope you give this easy little project a try!
***Hi, I'm Sandra! I have been married to my wonderful husband for 12 years and I am a homeschooling mom to four blessings. You can learn more about me here. I would love for you to stop by and visit with me at my blog, My Inspired Heart, and see what creative adventures my family and I are up to!
Aubry loves to cut and paste. She also loves fabric and dolls. Making paper-doll chains together seemed the perfect thing to do.
Doing this craft with Aubry opened my eyes to what a perfectionist my girl is (I wonder where she gets it from!!!). The paper dolls with the shirts and skirts are all painstakingly made by her. She spent a lot of time tracing and cutting, but I am glad to say that she didn't get frustrated in her pursuit of the perfect garment for her paper-doll, something that I can't always say for myself.
***Templates can be found here.
Aubry's favorite is this little gingerbread man. He is quite a lucky guy to be surrounded by so many well-dressed and lovely ladies, don't you think?
***Thanks to Heather for this idea!
***Randi is a wife to one and a mother to five. You can read more about her adventures on her blog, I have to say.
