Homemade Gift for Daddy

Nothing is more wonderful than a gift made by your family, and most especially kids! 

The big problem, for me anyway, is storage of these projects and pictures. You can hang some and place a few on the shelf but soon you need to store them or **cough** throw them out. 

This year for daddy's birthday I saw this picture pillow. 

I used fabric markers and a couple plan pillows...viola! Art to rest your head on! 

Adventures in Upcycling: Coloring Glass Jars

I have been saving up all manner of jars with the idea of using them as a center piece for our dining table. I had no real idea what it would be but I knew jars would be involved. I saved Starbucks frapacinno jars, spaghetti jars, small Canada Dry bottles, and pickle jars. 

Once I had a good number I searched around to find the best and easiest ways to color them. These two points converged in a modpodge and food coloring craft. 

I will lay it out for you!!

Add enough modpodge to the jar to be able to cover the interior of the jar.  Mix food coloring in the modpodge and rotate the jar until the whole inside is covered.

On a counter lay out some newspaper or napkins and let the jars dry upside down for about an hour. 

Then set them right side up in a baking sheet and bake for an additional hour in a warm oven, 250-300, until the are nice and clear with no streaks. 

What really made the project sing was the rope. I wrapped the rope and secured it with hot glued three bottles at a time together. It will make it much easier to move them off the table when I need more room. 

Hot glue, the handy crafter's secret weapon!!

Adventures in Upcycling : Can planters

Fun garden DIY to start off the week!

I absolutely love this low cost way to jazz up a boring old fence. 

 

We use a lot of the jumbo sized tomato sauce and green beans cans, so it was not too much trouble to wash them out and save them up. It took a few weeks of yelling "Stop! don't pitch that can!" and only a few dives into the kitchen trash can to get enough for the fence.

 

Once you have amassed enough cans simply add a little spray paint and screw them randomly onto the fence and pick out some flowers. I chose a variety of annual flowers and a couple annual vines to add more depth once they get growing.

 

A Low cost and low effort DIY with a big payoff. 

 

Bonus: 

Froggy in the milk flowers! 

I know, I know! Really over done and soooo last year, but I love it all the same. 

School Work Roundup

Sight Words Activities

We are working hard on our three "R"s, reading, writing, and arithmetic! 

I am on the hunt for fun ways to teach the reading part. 

Boys are notorious for being less than enthusiastic about learning to read, and I don't want to poison the well with well intentioned nagging. 

So, I am doing my best to make it fun and pressure free, but we still have to get it done! We are all readers and I can't wait to share that love with each of my kids. 

Here are a couple fun activities I have mined out of a google search and created for us in little to no time! 

The first is an egg flipping game. You flip the egg with a spatula once you have read to word. 

I used clip art and self sealing laminate sheets to quickly create a super fun sight word game. 

You can write in the back with a magic marker and then erase it when you want to change words by stibbleing over it with an erasable marker. 

I am also planning letter pancakes for Lillybug's preschool work. 

The other activity, sand words, is pretty straight forward. 

It will be wonderful for sight word reinforcement in a very tactile way. I like to try and create activities that stimulate all the ways of learning; visual, auditory and kinesthetic. 

Trash to Treasure

Lillian is into jewelry lately and is making all kinds of necklaces. So, during school work time today I got a excellent brainwave to make a necklace out of a TP roll and yarn!

 

I cut each roll into four pieces and let her watercolor paint and draw on them with markers. You could also add stickers and glitter.

 

Then once she had made her "beads" she strung them on the yarn.

 

Super easy, fun and a great way to entertain her during our lesson time.

 

Yippy for toilet paper rolls, they never let me down!

 

EXTERMINATE!! Dalek Bag

New at the My Crafty Momma Etsy store, Dalek extermination canvas bag!
Love, love, love this bag!

See this and more at My Crafty Momma

First Building Project

My dad is a handy handy handy man and I like to build things here and there, so I am glad to get James into making things too!
I got this little building kit at Lowes and it is super cute and fun. He needed a little help getting the nails started but other than that he did it on his own.
Once he had it built he painted it and put the stickers on.
The best part (for me at least) was the fun track they drew!

Spring Wreaths

My parents just moved closer to us *insert happy dance* and I wanted to get my mom something fun for a house warming gift. After much consideration I landed on a fun spring wreath with navy blue, that is her favorite color.
After a search on old faithful Pinterest and a trip to The Mother Ship (hobby lobby), I came up with two wreaths for her to pick from.
What do you think? She chose the navy striped one and the other fab wreath is up in the etsy store!

Painting a dresser

I received a dresser from my in-laws after the passing of their great aunt. It is a beautiful piece, but is a little damaged from storage. I am working on giving it a new life, while honoring the old. I am an antique geek!!
Phase one: painting the top with a striped pattern to give it a fresh look and to hide some damage.
Phase two: some snappy new knobs! (thoughts??)

Salty Art

Needed:
Glue, dark paper, paintbrushes, salt and water colors or food coloring.

Use your liquid glue to create a picture then sprinkle it with salt. Let it dry then create some salty art!

We started out using watercolors and that worked fine, but it had to be super wet in order to work correctly and that was proving difficult for my little dude. I switched to water and food coloring and that worked great!

Dry and ready to go!

Voila! Masterpieces!

It's Grim Coffee and Tea over at Etsy

I am really enjoying making these Harry Potter coffee cups and the reception has been really great! I am also planning some Zombie coffee cups, so be looking out for those. I think that my Etsy store is going to be taking on a distinctly Geeky flavor, and I love it!

 



Check these out and more, at My Crafty Momma

Magnetic Paper Dolls

I have a great project for a rainy day. You and your little girl can have a blast making and playing with these magnetic paper dolls!

Supply list:
Betsy McCall Paper Dolls
Sticky backed magnetic sheet (any craft store)
Scissors
Printer
Paper (thick paper is best)

With the above Betsy McCall link you can download as many paper dolls and from whatever era of fashion you want! It is super fun to look at all of the funky paper dolls from the 50s and 60s.
I put mine into paint and cut and pasted them closer together and then printed the off on cardstock paper.
Once you have them printed off cut them out with a nice thick white boarder and stick them to your magnetic sheet.

Then, cut them out creating a thinner white boarder. It is alot easier to cut if you cut on both paper and magnetic sheet, and I think having a white boarder on the finished look looks the best.

You can use them on the fridge, an old mint canister or get creative on a thin sheet of metel. I am planning some kind of framed metal sheet so I can incorperate a bed and other household items.

 

 

Letter Eggs

Easter themed learning activity!
James is doing really well with the sounds of the letters but is still having trouble recognizing the uppers and lowers as the same letter.
This activity is great for learning which letters go together, patience, and a dash of color matching! 

Lillian has a better idea as to how to play this game!