sand art

This was such a fun activity to do with my kids. It occupied them for at least 30 minutes and they made something that they can keep on their shelf to display!

You can get colored sand and the tools & containers at any craft store for fairly inexpensive.....especially with coupons and sales! They loved creating the different layers in the fish and triceratops.

I think my neat & tidy husband has no clue about what we do during the day or he would have an anxiety attack! We had a mess EVERYWHERE. My philosophy is if it is creative art you can't worry about making a mess. It really is a good thing that I don't live by myself---I'm pretty certain there would be paint, fabric, and glitter EVERYWHERE.
So I'm go glad I have good helpers! They swept, vacuumed, and scrubbed the kitchen to perfection because they know how their Dad is too. As Zander said, "Daddy is really going to be mad when he sees this mess."

No worries though (just for you, Kara)....the table was soon shining with cleanliness.
And their projects turned out great!!

coffee crafts

These aren't out of this world crafts. Just crafts to keep your kids busy long enough to drink that precious first cup of coffee.

Zander loves to glue so I gave him a piece of foam, several pom-poms, and some magi-nuudles to make his masterpiece.
Kaya loves to make friendship bracelets with pipecleaners and beads. Or "ancient bracelets" as she says.
These simple activities kept them happy for about 10 minutes so I could drink my coffee in peace. Hope you can use this idea when you have a morning like this when they get you up way too early.

what shall we do on a rainy day?

For most of the summer we have had hardly any rain. Lately, every day is a soggy one. Lucky I have a few tricks up my sleeve here at home to keep us busy when we can't go out and burn energy!

1. Paint some shirts--

This summer our Dollar Tree sold tee-shirts. I grabbed a bunch of them and keep them in my craft closet, just in case. I give the kids fabric paint and they love to decorate their shirts. The last time I drew their names out in block letters with a fabric marker and they painted in the letters.

2. Maracas

Materials you will need: an empty jar or plastic container. Beads, uncooked pasta, beans, etc. (anything that makes a cool noise when you shake it). Let the kids fill them up and then shake around and have some fun!! I attached the lid with a glue gun so the kids wouldn't be tempted to open them up and make a enormous mess!
They also decorated their maracas with stickers. I was so proud of Zan for helping his two-year old friend with the stickers.



And this was the funniest part. The kids figured out a new way to use their instruments all on their own!

3. Little Monsters

Before we made these I read the book Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli. They designed their monsters to look like the guys in this book. I got this idea from an preschool-lesson plan book and also got the feet template from it. I think however, that you could draw your own feet to attach.

We first stuffed grocery bags into a foam bag. You could also use a paper bag to stuff or use tissue paper or newspaper to do the stuffing. I then attached the feet to the bag with my handy-dandy glue gun. I also got a ferocious blister using my glue gun so be careful if you try this at home! Then the kids decorated (well Kaya decorated hers, I helped the boys quite a bit) their monsters with googly eyes, fabrics, pipe cleaners, etc.

Hope you can use these ideas for the next rainy day you are stuck inside!

4th of july shirts

These are slightly late but maybe you can use this ideal for another holiday or for fourth of july next year. I remembered us making them as I lurked around the web tonight and found this amazing site, Dollar Store Crafts, on Make and Takes. I can't wait to make the "tie-dyed" shirts this week with my kiddos. Our Dollar Store has had lots of shirts this year and my kids love to make shirts to wear.

Here they are in their firework shorts. I had them draw their fireworks then spread the paint with a brush. I then helped them write "I (heart) fireworks" on the designs. I then added their names and the year to the sleeves.

birthday party season

We have soooo many birthday parties from June-October.  I would complain but my two kiddos fall smack dab in the middle of that party season also.  I'm convinced something is in the air here in Georgia between the months of November-January......way too many birthdays for that not to be the case!

So I was trying to think of something creative,  cute, and fun to give to all of my birthday sweeties around here.  

I came up with this idea.  Fill up large buckets with "outdoor" toys.  My kids loved picking out different things to put inside.

 You can "wrap" your buckets with a colorful beach towel.
And no need for a card.......just write the name on the shovel!
Speaking of birthdays,  we took Zander out today to pick out invitations for his party in July.  I used to meticulously cut and paste and make homemade ones for his parties.......yes,   I'm resorting to fill in the blank.....gasp!

I'm also resorting to just renting out a place for the fun (read,  no set-up,  no clean-up,  no week long preparation for the perfect party).  Not that I mind the work,  I love it.  But Zan wants it that way,  and it is his party.  He also told me he wanted to buy the cake.  That is where I draw the line.  I love my cakes!  And they are so expensive to buy.  At least I can use my creativity in one department for the birthday parties.

So we took him to pick out his theme.  I was encouraging him to pick superheroes or dinosaurs.  I could really make some spectacular cakes with those themes.  I was envisioning a tall building for the superheroes or maybe a volcano with dinosaurs around it.......how cool!

But my predictable, serious,  little guy knows what he likes.  And he likes Cars movie.  Let me rephrase that,  he LOVES Cars Movie.  That is our theme-----for the 3rd year in a row........Sigh.....

So another car cake.  Well, we are saving money.......I already have a car cake pan.  I'll try to be creative.  I'm sure it will be fantastic.  Maybe I can talk Kaya into letting her mommy have a more exciting themed cake this year.....

crafty music bag

Using my handy-dandy glue gun and felt remnants,  I made this music bag for my one, very sweet and wonderful,  piano student to hold all of her music supplies.  I just used one of my bags to create a unique one for her.

Making something out of things in my house felt good.  I hope I get to do more of it in future days...  

crafty shower

The fruit punch bowl....is it not so cute with the rubber duckies?

The food with the diaper cake.  I really wanted to take a separate picture of my diaper cake I created,but never had the time........Oh  well!
Place settings....

The hanging clothesline..............this is such a cute way to display the clothes you bought for the mom-to-be.......

A very fun game for the baby shower.........place bags for the game "Baby ?"

crafty valentine card

I once saw where you could take an old deck of playing cards to make "Queen of Hearts" valentines.  I went with that idea to make the following valentines for Matt and all of the grandparents.  I inserted the great hand of cards inside each card.  It is especially funny to us because anytime the kids want to do something they will say to us,  "That sounds like a great deal."

crafty invites

There aren't many things I love more than hosting parties.....(hmmm....could that be a future career choice) especially baby showers.

I love the planning,  the hosting, and I really enjoy making the invitations.  Here are some I made for a baby "sprinkle" brunch that I'm hosting next month.

Each invitation is different but this one is my favorite (I sent it to mommy-to-be).

happy birthday jesus

Here are the mangers we made and also their birthday party for Jesus!

christmas countdown

I had grandiouse visions in my head of two very cute fabric/felt advent calendars shaped like elves that I was going to hand-stitch for my kiddos.
My mom used to do this for us. The countdown calendar she made was cross-stitched. I loved the excitement of a small treat each day of December! I even took it to college. I remember friends coming over to my dorm room to see what I got for the day.

So I really wanted to start this tradition with my kids.

Then I saw the idea of counting down with bags from Wondertime magazine. They just put the number on the outside and hung on ribbon. I decided to go a step farther and decorate each bag with a photo from past Christmases. I then mod-podged (which I'm totally addicted to now.......I'm looking for things around the house to mod podge) the photos to the craft bags to give each sepia colored photo even more of an antique look.





The kids were so excited to open their first bags!

I attached garland to my banisters and paper-clipped the bags to it.

I love the look of the bags and how the decorate the house. I look forward to filling them up each year with treats!