Hand Made Clay Necklaces - Cool Gift Idea!

I saw this idea in the current issue of Family Fun Magazine.  I love to have the kids make something for the grandparents for Christmas instead of buying something.  I think it means more to my parents and in-laws to have something handmade, and I like that my kids put some serious focus and energy into a project that they are making to give to someone else.  Like a lot of kids, mine want to keep everything for themselves, from pine cones they find at the park to that really cute teeny tiny blueberry.  Ok, maybe my kids are a bit weird.

But anyway, these necklaces are a super easy and cute craft and gift!  You can help younger kids by making the clay shape for them, and older kids can do their own or use a cookie cutter shape (we used play dough shapes).  The kids both had a great time sticking the beads into the clay.

I also like this craft because you need to buy glass beads - plastic ones would melt when you bake the clay (might be kind of cool too!), and this week at Michael's all beads are half price!  Perfect time to shop.  You can also get a large block of oven bake clay for about $8-$9, and if you kept a flyer from the weekend paper you can use a 50% off coupon.  So not a bad outcome for a pretty special creation!

Laura Moss

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Beaded Clay Necklaces

Surprise someone with a boho-inspired mosaic necklace your child can proudly say she made herself. Working on foil (so that the piece can be transferred to the oven), roll or press oven-bake polymer clay into a sheet about 1/4 inch thick. Use a dull knife to cut out a shape. Create a hole or two for the cord with a toothpick, wiggling it to widen. Press small glass beads firmly into the clay. Once the design is done, check the holes and reopen any, if needed. Bake the clay as directed. Coat the cooled piece with clear nail polish and add a cord.

Originally published in the December/January 2013 issue of FamilyFun magazine

Halloween crafts and food ideas from Pinterest

These are the Halloween crafts on my radar for this weekend:














I didn't credit each picture but they all came from pinterest:)

Do you know pumpkins float?

Most grown ups know that even a big heavy old pumpkin will float, but it comes as a surprise to a lot of kids.  It is true that a heavy pumpkin seems like it should sink, but in fact they are filled with air, so they don't!  My son and I had a great time experimenting with different size and shape pumpkins (I bought a bunch of the little $1 pumpkins at the patch instead of the big $20 variety!!), and then we tried other objects around the house to see if we could find some common reasons that some things float and some things don't.  We kept a list of things that float and things that didn't float to help us look for similarities.  This is a fun little science experiment, and gets the kids excited and involved.  And, it is Halloween themed, so even better:)

Creative Pumpkin Decorating Crafts

I am really liking this new trend of decorating pumpkins instead of carving them.  I know it's not traditional, but it is so much less messy!!

Here is an article with ideas and pictures.  I have already done baby pumpkins with Halloween stickers, and they look really cute!



Creative Pumpkin Decorating Crafts:

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Spooky Ghost Houses

I recently turned wooden bird houses into "fairy houses" for my daughter's Tinkerbell party. With a few left over we made ghost houses! We used black paint and cool Halloween stickers.  So easy!  With small kids you could paint it ahead and just have them do stickers.

Cookie Cutter Sandwiches

Looking for an easy way to spruce up your kid's lunchbox?  Look to see if you have any large cookie cutters in the baking cupboard!  They make a really fun variation on a regular old sandwich!  Metal cutters work best.  I sent my son in with little star sandwiches, and they were a great topic of conversation around the lunch table:)

Party Fun #2 - Oreo Cookie Pop Wands

These are the party favors I made for the Tinkerbell party.  They turned out really cute, and super tasty. These work great as a party favor, and I love that the options are really endless for ways to decorate these!  I can see Halloween colors, Valentines Day, Christmas, 4th of July, pretty much anything.
Here are the instructions.  I did this over 2 nights, and the timing worked out well.
What you need:

Double Stuff Oreo Cookies
Colored chocolate for melting
Oil
Sprinkles
Sticks (these are sold mainly for making chocolate lollipops with molds)

The first step is to melt the chocolate.  Add a little oil to the bowl (about a tablespoon per bag of discs) so that the chocolate is runnier.  Microwave it at half power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until it is smooth and melted.

Take a stick and dip one end in a bit of chocolate, then push it into the Oreo filling.  I put the cookies into the freezer for a few minutes to let the stick get really set.

Next, cover the oreo part in chocolate and shake off the excess.  This is why you want to freeze them for a few minutes, so you can really shake and not loose your cookie!  I then put the cookie on a cookie sheet lined with parchment.  I let the chocolate set for about a minute before adding the sprinkles, so that they didn't sink too far into the chocolate.

Put the finished cookies into the freezer overnight to let them set.

The next day I took the cookies out to get to room temperature before wrapping them.  I bought these little candy bags at JoAnns (I had no idea they existed, but they were perfect!).  I used recycled gift ribbon to tie the bottoms.  I found that the curled gift ribbon you sometime get on top of a present was perfect - just the right length, and already curled!!

Stand them in a foam block (also JoAnn's), and they are ready to go!

The dipping and sprinkles step would be really fun to with your kids, especially if you are making them to give to classmates.

Party Fun #1 - Grape Caterpillars

I made these super cute grape caterpillars for my daughters birthday party.  They were so easy and they just make me laugh every time I look at them!
We had her 2nd birthday this weekend, and I tried out some new stuff to help keep costs down.  I still spent too much, but I did learn some new tricks!
To make these little guys I used plain white frosting as my "glue".  I just put some in a ziploc bag and clipped one corner to squeeze out a little at a time and keep it neat.  The biggest tip is to make sure the grapes are dry.  Then just pop two mini chocolate chips on for the eyeballs and stick them in the fridge to set.  So fun!

Make Your Own Play Oven Part 2

Here are the final stages of our play oven creation!  We first painted the whole thing grey (the people that we bought the house from left a big variety of paint in the garage, so that was helpful.  More helpful than some of the other things they left, but that is a story for another time!!).

So we let that dry, and then used bright blue and white (yes, my son chose the colors) to add accents.  It was so fun!  And now we can cook all that play food after we buy it at the "store".  Good thing my daughter loves to play the cashier:)

Ow

Make Your Own Play Oven

Here is the first stage of our "make your own oven" project. It was super easy to make!  I added a panel from another box inside to support the top, folded a top panel over to make the area for the knobs, and cut a door. I also added a handle. My son made his own oven, which was super fun too.

Next step is to paint the whole thing (baby blue!) and add the burners, knobs etc.

There are a lot of things you can build instead of buying - your kids might even like the homemade versions better:)

Stay tuned to see the finished product!

Primary Color Mixing Project

Ever wonder what we couponers do with all this free and cheap stuff from the drugstores? This morning we used foam shave cream and food coloring to experiment with mixing colors to make new colors. Shave foam is a great conduit because the color stays really vibrant, and it is easier to clean up than paint. Just watch that your work space is well protected because food color is not super washable!!

Tiny Chocolate Teddy Bear Cars

These are the cutest thing, and they were so delicious too!  A guest at my sister in law's baby shower made them.  They are so Pinterest, which I usually find means too much work, but what I liked is they are also cheap to make and kids can totally help with assembly!  So they are both a super cool party food idea and a fun (and tasty) project to do with your kids.

If you are a couponer you can buy your bars and M&M's with store rewards, or wait until the Halloween (or after Halloween) sales start up.  There are always lots of great promotions in October.

I looked them up so I could paste the assembly instructions below.  Most people seem to use melted chocolate to glue the wheels and steering wheel, and cut a slit to push the teddy bear in as the driver.  I also pasted a recipe for a "glue" using cocoa and icing sugar.  Have fun with these!  I might try to design trains for my daughter's birthday, which is a train theme.  Just need to figure out what to use for a funnel!!

Ingredients:	1 packet of mini Mars Bars or Milky Way chocolate bars 1 family packet of m & ms 1 box of Tiny Teddy cookies
Directions:	1 quantity of icing sugar icing paste for glue ( mix half cup of icing sugar and a teaspoon of cocoa powder with a few drops of hot water) Glue each of the 4 wheels (smarties) on to the sides of the milky way bars. Press into each center a tiny teddy cookie. Glue on an m & m steering wheel for each one.

Get Ready for Halloween with Spooky Milk Jug Ghosts!

Start saving your milk jugs for a ready cool Halloween craft.  It is really cute.  They look great lined up along a pathway, by your door or hanging in a line.  I saw these last year when we were trick or treating and made a mental note to start saving jugs this year!  I'll post again a bit closer to the event, but start collecting soon to make sure you have enough!!

Paint with Potatoes for National Potato Day!

Did you know today was National Potato Day?  There really is a day for everything:)

Celebrate all of the wonderful things you love about potatoes with a quick and easy project - potato paintings!  You don't paint the potatoes, you use them to paint a masterpiece.  You can just cut them in half, or if you feel really creative you can carve out shapes and use them like stamps.  Go crazy!  Love the potato!

This example is fro firstpalette.com

Materials Potatoes Knife Chopping board Paint Shallow plates Sketch paper or fabric

Steps

	1.	Clean the potatoes first. Wash and towel dry.
	2.	Cut the potato into desired shape. a.) One method is to cut the potato in half and carve out the shape at the bottom. You can even make a handle by carving out the top of the potato stamp (refer to bottom photo).
		b.) Another method is to cut the potato into 1-inch thick cross sections then carve the entire cross section into the desired shape. Carve out some facial features or other details if you like. Make wedges or even keep the trimmings for stamping smaller shapes and details.
	3.	Once you have made enough potato stamps, prepare different colors of paint on shallow containers. If you plan to stamp on fabric, use fabric paint, otherwise you can use regular poster paint or acrylic paint.
	4.	Dip a potato stamp in paint, making sure that the bottom is evenly-coated with paint.
	5.	Press the stamp firmly onto the paper or fabric.
	6.	Enjoy stamping using different colors of paint. Here are some fun and creative ideas that you can do: a.) Make fun random shapes This can be a simple yet fun activity for toddlers Make a potato-stamped shirt or apron
		b.) Stamp shapes to form a picture. Use potato wedges and trimmings to make smaller shapes and details.
		c.) For oodles of fun, finger paint the details on your picture. The water bubbles, fish eyes and fins in this underwater picture were all done by finger painting.

Sun shadow art project

We just moved, so I have been trying to think of crafts that don't require a lot of materials or clean up time. This project I discovered by accident one day, and was reminded of when my son did it as a project at school.

Construction paper fades very quickly in direct sun, so if you have ever left it out you have probably seen this in action. All you need to do is choose a dark or bright color piece of construction paper, and choose things that will create interesting shapes to lay on top. Leave the paper with the objects in the sun for a half hour or longer and the objects will leave a shadow as the paper fades around them. I used a lot of foam stickers but didn't stick them on the paper. They were flat and handy, so they made the cut:)

DIY Paper Popsicle Memory Game from Eat Drink Chic

I think this is the cutest craft I have seen all summer!  I was looking for a way to use Popsicle sticks, because I go through tons in my house.  If you use the link below you can download and print the Popsicle designs. You can use thick paper if your printer will take it, or just print on regular paper and mount it on something thicker. Then just add the designs onto your popsicle stick with a plain backing, and you have a DIY memory game with a twist!  The kids are sure to love this one:)

Link below to get the download.  Thanks to Amy at eatdrinkchic.com.  Great idea!

DIY Paper Popsicle Memory Game » Eat Drink Chic:

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National Geographic Little Kids One Year Subscription, Just $12 | Plum District Deals

And one more Plum deal I just have to share!  I love this magazine for my 4 year old, and my almost 2 year old loves the pictures too!  It is small, and has lots of fun matching, spelling, look and find type games.  It is kind of old school and refreshing in the digital age!  $1 per issue?  Yeah, it's worth it!

I sometimes add these to the DIY workbook too.  I added one the other day that had pictures with the name of the item below, and you had to fill in the first letter.  Perfect workbook addition!!

National Geographic Little Kids One Year Subscription, Just $12 | Plum District Deals:

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50 Free Prints In-Store at Target!

If you have some pictures on a memory card that you keep meaning to get printed, print this coupon and head to Target!  The coupon is for $5 off 50 prints, and the in store price is $.10 per print, making all 50 free!  The comments on this deal indicate that the price of $.10 is only valid at locations with a photo lab (as opposed to a kiosk), so make sure you find out if your store has one first!  You can also order the prints online and pick them up in store.

Even if you don't have prints you need to get for your albums, get a bunch ordered that you can use for crafts!  Kids love pictures of themselves and people they know, and there are so many fun things you can do with the photos.  Even just a simple collage can turn into something really special when you use pictures of your own family:)

Here is the link to the KCL post, and to the direct coupon link on the Target web site:

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/2013/07/15/50-free-photo-prints-at-target-2/

A new life for old crayons:)

I have about 5 pounds of crayons in my house, and for whatever reason no one wants to use them!  So I need a project to recycle all of these old bits into something my kids actually want to use.

I saw a lot of posts about melting down crayon bits in muffin tins to make round crayons, but I like this post that shows the same process but using a star shaped tin.  The colors can be combined in any way, and you can make any shape you have a mold for.  I have a feeling these little star crayons will be much more appealing, and the process of breaking them up and peeling off the paper before they are melted should be pretty fun too!!

recycled crayons & reader guest posts | Little Birdie Secrets:

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DIY Workbook - Letter Art Pages

I have been a little slow on the DIY Workbook ideas lately, but I saw this idea on the KCL website and thought it was very creative!  I love projects that incorporate learning through play.  Perfect!

5. Letter Collage

We love making letter collages. To do this, I just write an upper and lower-case letter on a sheet of paper. We talk about the sound the letter makes, and then I let my little guy decorate the paper with things that begin with the letter. For the letter “G” we did green glitter and for the letter “Y” we did yarn. Quick, easy and fun!

I am excited to try and think of things to do for every letter.  Buttons, zebra stripes, pipe cleaners, leaves...this is going to be fun:)

This time of year you can get some great deals on school supplies, so make sure to pick up some $.25 glue and crayons this week at staples, and maybe a binder to keep all of these beautiful creations!