Pumpkin Pie Playdough

I so wish that I would have thought of the idea for this pumpkin playdough in enough time to share it with you guys before Halloween...but maybe you all can use the idea next year!? 

.....Any who I wanted to make an easy and somewhat quick little gift to put in a toddler Halloween gift bag. So I came up with the idea to make playdough jack-o-lantern's of sorts. I simply created a huge batch of basic playdough and dyed it orange and added pumpkin pie spices. I then rolled it into balls, placed it in little plastic snack bags and drew an easy jack-o-lantern face. Easy right!?:)

Kids Craft: Nature Filled Sun Catcher

I got the inspiration for this easy project a while back via link on Pinterest. As a little side note if you have not visited Pinterest you totally need to check it out, I'm a self confessed pinterest addict:) Here's a link to my account if you want to check out my pins:)

Any who I love little projects like these because for the most part little girl could do it by herself. As well as the fact that it took longer than 5 minuets to complete, pretty much held her attention for most of the project, and it has very little set up time (which is usually where you loose their attention).

Supply List:
Clear contact paper
A plate or something round to trace
Nature items from your yard, most anything works but just be careful the items aren't to heavy.
Yarn or string of somesort

Steps:
1.Trace your plates or other circular item on the back of your contact paper, cut out circles and set aside.

2. Grab your little one and set out on your nature collecting adventure! You may need a bag to hold all your goodies!

3. Once you've collected all your items peel the backing off of one of your contact paper circles. Have your little one stick their collected nature items onto the circle.

4. Peel the backing off your other circle and carefully line up and stick the 2 together. They don't have to be to perfect as you can trim them if needed.

5. Cut small hole in top and attach string. Hang and enjoy!

All done!!

Patchwork Lion

We had yet another day of being stuck in the house, only this time it was because of my car and not the snow! So me and little girl have been trying to make the best of it by filling our day full of pretty arts and crafts. She has been totally in love with lions, tigers, and well anything that roars lately! So I thought it would be fun to make a little lion of sorts. I googled "childrens lion coloring page," and found a lovely little lion that I then printed out onto construction paper. I cut up little pieces of a vintage floral pillowcase for the body and little pieces of yarn for the mane. Little girls was very interested at first but then she began to become more interested in the glue and keeping her fingers clean, which is usually how it goes:) So I let her place more glue as I placed the fabric and yarn.

What kinds of activities/ arts and crafts do you plan for little one's on these long winter days? I would love to hear them!! Any suggestions for good indoor activities that use up lots of energy would be greatly appreciated:)

Future Crafter

During the Holidays me and little girl spent a lot of time crafting!! Here's a couple of necklaces she created with some of my vintage plastic beads. I let her pick out the beads and the order she wanted them in and I strung them for her. I think we have must have a future DIY craft star on our hands:)

Wood Toy Patterns

I've been in a wood toy sort of mood this Holiday season!! So I thought I'd share some of the free wood toy patterns/tutorials that I've found. Seriously if there was enough time I would make everything, and I think I need a scroll saw!! Hint..Hint..Christmas gift:)

 Elsie Marley

Wood Little People from Shannon Makes Stuff

Stamped Memory Tiles

 

Link

Wood Bead Chicks

 

 Link

Link

Link

 Link

Memory Tiles

 Link

Made by Joel

Link

Link

Wood tree Pattern from 54 stitches.

Giant Reclaimed Wooden Blocks from Filth Wizardry

Drift Wood City from Alisa Burke

Building blocks from Wee Folk Art (check out this site for tons of wood toy ideas and tutorials)

Tutorial/Kids Craft Idea- Paint with Water

 Now I know what your thinking after reading the title to this post, "what, that doesn't sound like much fun," but seriously it is the easiest, mess free kids craft ever!! And.....the kids love it! They can paint and paint and paint and never run out of supplies! Plus I guess it's kind of like a science lesson as well since you are explaining how the water is evaporating and their picture will soon be invisible! When I taught preschool this was always a big hit with the kids, plus it's defiantly something new so they are completely fascinated by it.

Supplies:
Bucket of Water, various paint brushes, and that's it!
note: this really works best on concrete but it could work on a lighter shade of pavement.

You can also paint your pacifier....

...and the dog:)

Have fun!!

Vintage Kid's Craft Book

I found this cute little kids craft book while thrifting last week-end. I thought I'd share some of the  cute illustrations with you guys as well some of the super easy craft ideas! Although, I think I might skip using tacks for the eyes on the butterfly, I'm just saying.......LOL:)

P.S. I will admit this is the first time I've heard of a Flibber?

Coming up next week:

A new inspiration tray full of lovely's

Fabulous find of the week: another super cute vintage shop for the kiddo's

Some great Modern/Vintage crochet inspiration

Fun and super EASY! tutorial

And...this has seriously been the best yard selling week ever, I feel like I say this every week but seriously it was great! I brought home garbage bags, yes I said garbage bags, full of vintage clothes and toys!!!  So I'll definitely be sharing some pics of my great vintage finds!

Dad's Day Tutorial!! Easy Play-Doh Hand Prints

This is a SUPER easy project for when you want to make a keepsake hand print and your little one just won't sit still:) Last year I attempted one of the store bought hand print kit's, you know the kind where your child is supposed to sit still for a few minutes in order for the mold to set up! Yeah right! as you can guess a baby does not sit still that long! even when using their foot instead! So I thought play-doh would be perfect! It's definitely non toxic and you don't have to wait for any mold to set, and! you can always redo it if you mess up:)

There really aren't any steps to list out, all you really need to do is create a pretty smooth circle out of play-doh, make sure it's big enough to fit your child's hand, and smoosh your child's hand down into the play-doh. Ta-da!! your all finished with your father's day gift! Sit it somewhere safe and let it dry overnight.

Okay, so letting it dry overnight was taking a little to long for me, I woke up the next morning and the play-doh was still to soft, so I decided to bake it! I preheated the oven to 200 degrees and baked mine for about five minutes. Once you have baked yours for five minutes or so check it  and if it's still a little soft continue baking in small incriments. Don't burn your father day gift!!!:)

Vintage Cowboy Folder Labels

Whew..it's been along time since my last post..I've been stuck over in photo shop land for the past week working on a photo that is seriously driving me insane! It's a wonderful picture of my daughter that unfortunately has a light background but an extremely dark foreground, especially around her face; the face can be fixed but I lose the background......argh. I think I'm going to have to throw in the towel on this one.

Anyhow, after the request of one of my friend little boys I have put together a folder label that he say's he would enjoy more than the lollipop labels. In his words he said "I do love suckers..ummm...but do I have to put it on my folder,"...LOL:) I have also decided to create a printable in black and white in honor of my broken color printer. However, in the midst of no longer having a color printer I was able to find a local print shop that offers 15 cent color copies no matter how many pieces you print! So maybe I'll stick with that for now, professional printers always do so much better work!

Download Here

Matching Lollipop Book Labels

As requested here is a set of matching Lollipop book labels to go along with my previous set of lollipop folder labels. I had went back and forth several times on this design as I wanted the book labels to be slightly different than the folder labels however in the end I decided that the good ol' saying "don't mess with a good thing," was true for this project. I just kept coming back to the original layout..hope you enjoy!

Download Here

Click here to download matching folder labels

Lollipop Folder Labels

I love, love, love schools supplies, I find myself scanning the school supplies section at Target aimlessly hunting for things that I do not need. However I just can't turn down a super cute pencil pouch, or a 10 pack of notebooks for only $1.00! Here is just a little something to make going back to to school fun! Maybe I'll keep to creating fun school supplies this year and stay away from those pack of markers for only .75 cents. These can be printed onto labels, sticker paper, or just plain old paper. Please be kind and remember that these are for personal use only, thanks!

Download Here

Vintage Mccalls Make-it Book

Fresh from the mailbox is this wonderful vintage children's craft book, it's copy right 1953 and is in wonderful shape, I'm so excited!! I love when the mail comes!! The crafts inside are so fun and unique, how fun are the zoo animals made from towels. I was also very amused with the fact that one of crafts showed a small child using a vise saw to create blocks.

Vintage Jello Molds

How fun are these!! I just purchased a large amount, 68 to be exact, of vintage jello molds the other day on ebay. I was thinking how fun it will be when little girl gets older to bring fun little jello molds in for her parties instead of your typical cupcakes.

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Recycled Flowers

This project is a little late for earth day, but then again it's very important to remember the earth everyday right!

What you will need for this project:
*Plastic Water Bottle, you could use a 2-liter bottle if you want to make larger flowers
*Paint-tempera,acrylic, whatever......
*Paper-anytype...recycled...paperbags...even fabric if you would like but remember to use fabric paint.

Okay..now that you've got your supplies your ready to create recycled flowers. Simply dip the bottom of your bottle in paint and stamp it onto your paper or fabric of choice, and that's it! Now you can paint stems or whatever else!

TIP: Check out the bottom of your bottle before stamping, different bottles make different types of flowers, it could be fun to mix them! Also note that not all bottles make good flowers:( They need to have some flatness to them, so test them out first before using them on your project!

Quick and Easy Gift for the Kids to Make

Here is a quick and inexpensive gift for a grandparent or an aunt and uncle that you and the kids can make.

Ceramic tile plaque, coaster(s), spoon rest.

What you will need:
-Ceramic Tile(s) ( any size or color will work however basic white is cheap and easy to work with, you can find them at Lowe's or a similar store for 10-20 cents each!)
-Ceramic paint ( the kind that you bake, you can find this at most places that have craft paint)
-Glass Sealer ( this is optional, you can apply this to the tile when you are finished just follow the directions)

These are the only supplies you will need! Now your ready to get started. First figure out what you will make, usually I just make a simple coaster (spoon rest) or plaque with the kids hand print on it. So for this all you will need to do is paint your child's hand and carefully place their hand onto the tile. Then all you have to do is wait for the paint to dry and follow the baking instructions on the paint bottle. You can also have your child paint pictures, or make thumb prints on top of stems to look like flowers. The possibilities are endless so have fun, make a bunch and you'll have a set of coasters.

How to Make Ice Cream Puffy Paint

Here is a quick and fun recipe to make puffy paint that looks like ice cream. You will need tempera paint color of your choice ( I like to use light brown, pink, and light yellow so it looks like chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla ice cream). The other two ingredients you will need are white craft glue (just the cheap stuff) and shaving cream. Pour the paint into a bowl, squirt on the shaving cream, and then drizzle the top with white glue and mix. There are no real measurements for each ingredient so just use your judgement, if you want if real puffy add more shaving cream and do the opposite if you want it less puffy. Once you have it all mixed up grab a piece of paper and let the kids go to it, if you want they or you can draw a ice cream cone or bowl on the paper first.
This paint can be used to resemble more then just ice cream so use your imagination, if you make white puffy paint if will look like snow. Have Fun!!!

Wonderful Craft Item for the Kids

Here are a couple of crayola items that I just LOVE, they are so much fun!

Crayola window markers: They are so wonderful, kids are able to safely write on almost any glass surface and they are very easy to wipe clean. They are also great to use on car trips, the kids can use the car windows just like dry erase boards! You can find these markers at any craft store or even at a place like Walmart and they are very inexpensive!

Fabric Crayons: These are so great, they allow kids to wear and display there own art work! They are a great way to recycle those stained white t-shirts that you can't think of anything else to do with, you can have the kids just color right over those juice stains. These are also very inexpensive and can be easily found!

Colorful Ice Cubes for the Kids

Here is a recipe that is very very easy and the kids LOVE it!!!

Get an ice cube tray and fill it with sprite. Then have your kids pick a colored jelly bean or skittle of choice and drop one into each hole in the tray and stick it in the freezer. In no time you will have fun fruity flavored colorful ice cubes. The ice cubes will also turn any drink you drop them into a different color.

Fun fine motor skills activity

The use of a water dropper is a very good way for the kids to develop some really good fine motor skills. The concept of squeezing the dropper to release the air then placing it in water and releasing to suck up water is a concept that will fascinate the kids. NOTE: make sure you have your patience ready because this a concept that might take a bit for the kids to figure out. :)


Project for the dropper:
Color coffee filters with markers then have the kids squeeze water out of the dropper onto the coffee filter. The colors will run and blend together. After it is dry you can bunch it up in the center and use a cloths pin to hold it together and it will become a beautiful butterfly.

Markers running low?

If you have some of those washable markers that are running low, don't throw them away! Instead have the kids use the markers like watercolors. If you take a dried out marker and dip it into water it will bring the marker back to life, and you'll have a cool new way for the kids to color!