Jar o' Beans

When deciding what to make for the kid's Easter baskets, I wanted to use things in the house so I didn't have to buy too much stuff.  Since I have plenty of baby food jars, I decided to turn them into jelly bean and robin egg holders.

First, paint your lid:  white for the bunny, yellow for the chic.

Take some felt (or construction paper) and cut your pieces.  For the bunny:  ears and feet.  For the chic:  beak, feet, and wings.

Now glue the pieces to the jars.  For the mouth and eyes, just grab a paintbrush and paint them on.  If you don't have a small paintbrush, use a toothpick.  Toothpicks work great for painting small things like eyeballs.

Only thing left to do is seperate out your yellow and white jelly beans or robin eggs and add them to their jars.

I couldn't let Russ help me with this one since it will be in his basket Easter morning, but I'm sure the kids would love to do this project with you.

I Love Contact Paper

This past weekend my playgroup and I had a booth at a local Children's Day where we had to provide a craft for all the kids in attendance.  We needed something that was easy for all age groups, not messy, and inexpensive.  So, we decided to make stained glass windows using tissue paper and contact paper.  This project is super simple for even the youngest kids.  The children seemed to all enjoy it so I'll share it with you.

Start out by ripping a whole bunch of little pieces of tissue paper.  They can be any size or shape, doesn't matter.  You can mix up the colors however you please.  I suggest that instead of buying it, you should pull out that stash of tissue paper you've collected at birthdays and Christmas.

Now, get out your contact paper.  For those who don't know about contact paper, its great!  Basically, its clear shelving paper that is sticky on one side and can be used for crafts, laminating, or lining shelves.  There are so many projects you can do with it (don't worry, I will be posting more).  You can find it with the shelving paper at your local grocery store.   So, back to the project:  cut a square about 5x5 out of the contact paper.

Peel the paper off the contact paper, and place it on the table sticky side up.  Have your child stick the pieces of tissue paper all over the contact paper.  The can overlap, there can be spaces uncovered, the whole sheet can be covered, it doesn't matter.

When they are finished, take another piece of 5x5 contact paper and peel the paper off.  Stick it on top of the first sheet of paper so that the tissue paper part is sandwiched in the middle. 

Now, grab some scissors and cut a shape into the contact paper sandwich.  I like eggs and hearts because they are simple.  If you want to do something more difficult and can't free-hand it, you can print a template online and use it as a guide.  We decided to do an Easter bunny since Easter is this weekend and my son has Easter bunnies on the brain.  You can do different shapes for each of the holidays.

To finish it off, cut a hole in your design and put a piece of ribbon through it to hang it from the window.

As I said, this project is so easy, but the kids will love it.  My photos don't do them justice, but they really do turn out cute.

Peek-a-Boo Puppets

I need to start off by thanking my buddy Becca for hosting this puppet party for our playgroup. These peek-a-boo puppets turned out sooo cute!  They pop in and out and can dance all around.

Start off with a wooden dowel. Take a styrofoam ball and stick it on the end of the dowel to form a head (I guess it would really be the skull since it will be covered, but anyway...) Then, take a plastic cup, cut out the bottom, and slide it up onto the stick.

Next, take a sock (I used an old one because its cheaper than buying one) and slide it over the ball, down the dowel, and up over the cup.  The sock needs to be hot-glued to the cup.  Before you glue it, make sure the cup is all the way at the end of the dowel; this is so you have room to move the puppet up and down when its finished.  If the sock is longer than the cup, just cut the sock.

Now you want to take fabric, felt, or whatever and cover the cup.

Ok, so on to the fun part.  You can use felt cut-outs, wiggly eyes, pom-poms, pipe cleaners,or whatever else you want to make a face and decorate your puppet.  This is a part thats fun for the kids.  Now of coarse, they can't use the hot glue gun, but you can give them Elmer's and let them go crazy.  The Elmer's doesn't stick so well, but when they aren't looking you can use your hot glue gun and re-secure their pieces.  For mine, I made curly hair by wrapping yarn around a dowel, wetting it, and microwaving until dry.  Make sure to microwave at small increments (20 seconds or so) or you will burn the dowel and yarn.  Trust me, I know!!
 

Time to have fun with your puppets (or take a nap with them)! 

Butterflys and Blooms

This week felt like spring had finally arrived.  So to celebrate, we made some pretty pretty butterflies and flowers.  This project is literally the easiest and cheapest project possible, and it turns out soo cute.

Give your little one a coffee filter and some markers and tell them to go crazy.  It doesn't matter how much or how little they color the filter. 

For the butterfly:  Gather the filter up in the middle so that there are two equal sides to the coffee filter and wrap a pipe cleaner around it to form the wings (you actually only need about 1/4 of the pipe cleaner).  Bend the ends of the pipe cleaner to resemble antennea.

For the flower:  I actually used two coffee filters, placing one on top of the other.  On the backside of the filters, gather up the entire middle section.  Wrap a pipe cleaner around it. 

Now for both the butterfly and the flower, you take a spray bottle of water and lightly spray the coffee filters.  The water will cause the colors to make a really cool tie dye type design.  Each project will be soo different and super cute.

My Baby turned 3

So, I didn't get to post last week because I was working on stuff for my son's birthday party.  My baby boy turned 3 this weekend.  He's not a baby anymore.... and he reminds me every day. 

I didn't want to have his party at our house since our family is huge and my house isn't.  I wanted to try something different this year, something that would be super fun for Russ and all his little friends.  So, I picked up the phone and started calling all the fire departments in the area, and I found one that you could rent for parties.  The party was actually in the bay with the fire trucks.  There was plenty of room to set up tables and chairs, let the kids play with their toy trucks in the floor, and still have all the fire trucks in there with them.  The fire fighters were awesome!  They gave the kids a tour and told them all about the different parts of the truck.  Then, they pulled a truck outside, hooked it up to a hydrant, and shot water across the sky.  I think this was the highlight of the day. 


Instead of gift bags, we got plastic fireman hats, and I assembled foam fireman badges and wrote each kids name on one.

We kept decorations to a minimum (one of the advantages of a fire department party).  My friend and I did make a super-cute banner out of scrapbooking paper and simple shapes. 

As far as "entertainment", besides the fire engines, we filled the floor with toy trucks, had fire engine tattoos, and made a coloring sheet with a fire truck with the birthday boy's name on it.

If you have a little boy, I highly recommend a fire department party.

I have a surrogate....

for my chicken eggs!  My good friend Mamma Tortilla is currently incubating 8 of my chicken's eggs as a fun project for her little ones.  She is going to keep me, and everyone in the blog world, posted on their progress, so be sure to click on her name to pop over to her blog and check it out.  I'm hoping she can get some good candling pics along the way.  The chicks will stay with her for the beginning of their lives, and then they will come back to us. 

Meet the Daddy

Here is Kevin.  He is the daddy of all the eggs.

And here are the potential Mommies

Froee, Al, Kiki, and Lizzy

 

So, be sure to check back in about 20 days to see pics of our little chicks!!  It will be exciting to see what the babies look like. 

A Hair-Raising Project

I think this project turned out just hilarious!  We made our own Chia-Pets using old pantyhouse and grass seed. 

Basically, you take a pair of your old, ripped pantyhose and form a little pocket.  Put a little grass seed in the bottom, then some dirt, some more grass seed, then fill with dirt.  Tie the end to form a head and cut it from the rest of the pantyhose. 

On one of the heads, we added googly eyes, a felt mouth, and twisted a section of dirt into a nose.  For the other, we used parts from our Mr. Potato Head.  My husband and son made the one with the Mr. Potato Head parts, and if you know my husband, you'll notice it looks a lot like him!!  I cut a hole in the bottom of a styrofoam cup and placed the head on the cup, with the knot in hole.

Finally, we took the heads and put them in the kitchen window.  The heads have to be watered every day.  I think ours are watered about two or three times a day because Russ dumps water in them every time he washes his hands.
This project was definately one of our family favorites.  I gave mine a haircut last night.  I tried to talk my husband into trimming his, but he refuses :)

Here they are enjoying some of the warm weather on the back porch!!

UPDATE!!!!

The one on the right as had a few haircuts.  The other, not so much.

Fun with "Recycled" Bottles

Yay for National Craft Month!!  Russ and I decided that for our first National Craft Month project we were going to have fun with old plastic bottles.  This is mostly because we didn't have the supplies for the other ideas I had, so I went digging thru the recycling bin.

So, with the round shampoo bottle I found, we decided to make a piggy bank for Russ' farm themed room.  I took the lid off and painted it into the nose.  For the tail, I took a pipe cleaner, painted it pink, cut a hole, and glued it in.  I used heavy paper painted pink for the ears.  The feet are caps from soda bottles painted pink and glued on.  The eyes were painted on.  And last, but not least, a hole was cut in top for the money to go in.  As soon as we were finished, Russ had to run in his room and put money in it.  He was so impressed with his little piggy!

While I was doing the cutting and gluing (the parts that Russ couldn't help with), I gave him another shampoo bottle and he painted it.  His abstract paint job didn't much resemble an animal, so we decided to make it into a maraca.  I filled it with rice and glued the lid on.  Then, I found a dowel that fit down the hole in the lid (and ripped the cover off).  I glued the dowel into place.  It was a simple project, but you should see the look on Russ' face when he is playing with the things he makes himself.

Cute Little Hairbow Holder

After making all the hairbows for my daughter during the blizzard, I decided I better find somewhere to keep them.  I wanted to keep them so that I could easily tell what bows she had,  but I also wanted it to be cute.  I decided to make this cute little face; its just like one I had as a kid.

So, I took a piece of cardboard, traced a bowl to make a circle, and cut it out.  I covered the circle with stuffing (because I was out of batting).  I then took an old pillowcase and covered the circle, flipped it over, and hot-glued it to the cardboard.  I glued a piece of ribbon on the back to hang it from.

To make the hair, I took yarn and made 3 sections with 10 pieces each.  I tied them at the end and then braided them together (to keep it tight, I actually tied it to the cabinet while braiding).  I then glued the braid around the face and added some bangs.

To make the face, I cut eyes and a mouth out of felt and glued them on. 

 
There ya have it, a cute little face with cute little braids to hang all your hairbows on!

From the Mouth of Russ...

I just wanted to share a few Russ-isms.  He always keeps us laughing!!

Me:  "Don't put that up your nose?"  Russ:  "Ok, I'll put it up your nose".

Grandpa Jim:  "How are your chickens?"  Russ:  "Dead, they froze". (They didn't freeze, they were fine).

Me:  "What do you want for breakfast"?     Russ:  "Lobster and waffles".

Russ (from the bathroom):  "Hey momma, my poop really stinks".

Daddy:  "I drilled a tiny hole in the bottom of the angel so you can put it on top the tree".  Russ:  "Yea Mommy, its a heiny hole".

Russ (from the bathroom):  "Hey momma, my poop is blue and theres two of them".

Russ at 4:30am:  "I've never seen these cartoons before".  Me:  "Thats because you are never up this early". 
Russ: "Oh, well, I'm going to start getting up early so I can watch them".  Me:  "I don't hardly think soon".

After Russ ran and jumped head first over his Grandmother, landed on his head, and did a flip, I asked him:  "What was that"?  Russ replied, "Touchdown".

I dropped something and said, "Oh my".  Russ: "No Mommy, say D*mn it".

After throwing up, Russ wiped his mouth and said, "Tasty".

Tie Dying for Two Year Olds

I don't know about you, but I LOVE to tie dye.  And because I love it, well, I figured my son would, too.  The problem was how do you give a two year old bottles of permanent dye and let him go crazy in the house??  So, I had to get a little creative (and cross my fingers hoping it would work the way I wanted).  I have painted on paper this way, but never tried this on clothing.  Well, it worked and so now I'm going to share it with you!!

*Mix up your dye using the instructions provided with the package.  When the dye is mixed and ready to go, put the colors in an ice cube tray.  Obviously, you will use a different ice cube hole for each color.  Be sure to not overfill so the colors do not mix. 
*Put the tray in the freezer.  Wait a few minutes and check the cubes.  When they start to get a little bit of freezing on the top, stick toothpicks in each color.  If you add the toothpicks before the cubes start to freeze, they will not stand up straight (and if you do it too late you can't get them in).  After the toothpicks are added, carefully put the tray back in the freezer until the cubes are frozen solid.
*Prepare your area.  I just put a trashbag on the table and put the shirt on top of it. 
*When the cubes are frozen solid, remove them from the tray.  I arranged them on a plate and put them on the trashbag next to the shirt.   

Now your little one can use the cubes (holding them by the toothpicks) to paint the shirt.  Russ had his own little method that he came up with.  He would take each cube and place them on the shirt one by one.  Then, he would take them all off one by one.  He did this multiple times.  The longer the cubes were on the shirt, the more they melted leaving more color. 

We flipped the shirt and he did the other side.  When he had had enough, I had him place what was left of the cubes on the shirt, and I just folded it up inside the trashbag and let it set until the cubes were melted.  About 30 minutes later, we opened the shirt and IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! 

Be sure to check the instructions that came with the dye to see how to rinse and wash the shirt.

Hairbows for my Hairless Child

 My friends and I visit a discount ribbon outlet occasionally, and because prices are soooo cheap, we buy far to much ribbon.  Since we've been stuck in the house for what seems like forever because of this blizzard, I pulled out my ribbon stash.  See, Russ likes to take my ribbon and toss it around and has it all tied up in a knotty mess.  So, my original goal was to sort it all out and roll it all so that its nice and pretty and organized, but that seemed a little boring.  So, instead I started making hair bows. 

I know this is a little early since my daughter is only 6 months old and doesn't really have hair yet, but I couldn't help myself.

And this is my favorite of them all.  When we finally get to take her to Disney World for her first time, she will be ready!!

I'm not posting instructions for these bows because I really don't feel like typing them all out (I know, I'm being lazy).  But, if you want to know how to make any of them, just leave me a comment and I will email you instructions!!

No Cream Like Snow Cream

With over two feet of snow on the ground and more pouring from the sky, how can you not want to make snow ice cream??  We made some tonight and oh my, it was soo good.  Even my skeptical husband loved it (and had to go back for seconds... and thirds).

So, here is our recipe:  Mix 1 can sweetened condensed milk with about 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Gather a big bowl full of nice fresh snow (about a gallon or so).  Pour the milk mixture into the snow and mix well.  To make the best snow cream ever, you have to mix with a big icicle! 

When its mixed to your desired consistency, scoop, add chocolate syrup if you want, and eat!!

There is no better way to enjoy all this snow!!

And so you know, you can't freeze the ice cream in the bowl.  It just doesn't work very well.  But, you can take it and put it into icecube trays and stick toothpicks in them.  They make great popsicles.

Fun with Crayons

Now that Lexi is crawling I've had to spend hours picking up all the little things that Russ leaves on the floor.  I never realized how many broken crayons we have floating around here.  I couldn't stand the thought of throwing them away but didn't want to keep picking them up.  So, I decided to do a few projects with them that I used to do as a kid.

We started by sharpening the crayons down to piles of shavings, seperated by color.  Russ loved this part.  For some reason sharpening crayons is fun. 

Once we had the shavings, he arranged them on a sheet of wax paper that was on an ironing board.  After they were in place, we put another piece of wax paper on top.  Then, we placed a piece of foil on top of everything.

Take an iron and put it on low, and place it on top of the stack.  Do not slide the iron around!  Pick it up and move it from place to place, leaving it in each spot for a few seconds.  You can keep checking the crayons to see when they are the way you like.

Once finished, remove the aluminum foil and its sooo pretty!!  If you want, you can remove the top piece of wax paper, but remember that removing it will make the piece more fragile. 

We used the melted crayon art to make stained glass hearts.  We took colored paper and cut out hearts, then glued the heart on top of the artwork, attached a ribbon, and hung it from the window.  You can also fold paper into a card, cut a heart out of the front of the card, and glue the crayon art inside of the card so that it appears in the heart cut-out.  If doing the card, do not remove the top sheet of wax paper as it will break.

Our second crayon project was made using the tiny pieces of crayons that were too short to sharpen any further.  We just piled them into a muffin pan (ours was shaped like a butterfly, but any shape will work).  We put the left-over shavings in, too.  I then placed the pan in the oven at about 200 and watched for the crayons to melt, then removed it.  To get the piece out of the pan, just put the pan in the freezer for 5 minutes and it will pop out.  You can use the piece as artwork or as a new multi-colored crayon.

Oldie but a Goodie

I was sitting on the couch yesterday watching the 36 inches of snow fall from the sky, and a little birdie came and landed on my bird feeder on the porch to get a snack.  I felt  bad for the poor little thing;  with all the snow, who knows how long until it will be able to find food on the ground.  So, I decided that it was time to teach Russ how to make a pine cone bird feeder.  Luckily, we had gathered pine cones every chance we got through out the fall.  I know everyone has made these before, but I wanted to post it anyway to remind you all that we need to take care of the birds (and squirrels) in all this bad weather.

Russ loved this project.  Partly because he gets to feed the birds and partly because it got a little messy.  We had peanut butter everywhere, but oh well.  He had so much fun, that he wanted to make two pine cone feeders for the neighbors across the street. 

We made one for the chickens, too.  They really liked it!!

Its been awhile!!

I know its been awhile since I posted.  January was a rough month for us:  I had strep, Lexi was teething, trying to work in some exercise and lose some weight, Russ was being Russ :)  It felt like there was something always going on that kept me from getting stuff done.  When Russ was teething, I never knew it until the teeth broke through.  Lexi on the other hand hasn't slept since mid-December!  It has been rough.  My craftyest time of day has always been the time between kids going to bed and me going to bed, so when she isn't sleeping, well, I have no me time.

But, things are back to normal sleep wise, finally!  So, I plan on getting back into the swing of things very soon!!!