~diy hand stamped valentines~

i've been making my own valentines since i can remember.

as a kid i would use whatever we had available at home...

which wasn't much some years. a few years back i came

across one i'd made way way way back and

i had used pink toilet paper! 

what the?

do you remember when they used to make colored t.p.?

do they still? 

 

my mom always made ours too.

i'm sure that's where the seeds were planted for me.

i still have some of them that my mom made me.

i treasure them. 

 

some years i've gone all out and made spectacular valentines.

this year, i decided to keep it simple...at least for 

the ones i'll send my parents and siblings.

i have bigger plans for my own lil family's valentines this year.

 

i saw this idea awhile ago (i can't remember where) and 

thought the kids would have fun doing it.

i like it because it was super easy and cheap.

 

 heart shaped stamps with empty toilet paper rolls.

it looks something like this:

 

 just take the toilet paper rolls and bend them to

the shape you want, dip them in your paint and stamp away!

 

 

we did a couple different projects with this.

my kids each stamped a 12 x 12 piece of paper

and

we stamped these onto some blank pink and red greeting cards.

(i got the blank cards at target for $1/package)

 

 

 

these are the valentines we'll send out to our family.

for an art project that will appeal to kids (and adults) of every age,

try this!

we all had a blast with this!

it was cheap, easy, and believe it or not...

easy to clean up. 

i highly recommend using the washable paints for easy clean-up.

hope you all have fun getting your valentines craft on!

muah!

 

~Kids target game with swim noodles~

 I wish I had pinned the idea when I saw

it so I could give credit where it's due......

but I didn't. So-let me just get it out there

that this wasn't my idea-I saw it on Pinterest

at the beginning of the summer and made it

for my kids the following week.

Materials needed:

7 swim noodles

clear packing tape

re-bar or shepherds hooks to hold it up

water balloons or a ball

This was all done by taping the noodles 

together with clear packing tape and then

attaching them to our hooks in the grass

with tape. We used water balloons and made 

this part of an obstacle course.

The kids LOVED it!

Total cost of project:

$8

A very cheap afternoon of fun with the kids.

~personalized memory game for kids~

 Do you remember the game "Memory"?

When I was a kid it was my favorite.

I remember the year us kids got a game for 

Christmas.....I could spend hours playing that

and I did. In fact, I ended up playing it alone

many times because I couldn't get any of

my siblings to play it as often as I wanted to.

My kids love it too.

I saw this idea on someones blog awhile ago.

I wish I could remember who's blog it was so

I could give them credit but I can't find it.

I finally got around to making it for my kids

for Valentines Day this year.     

 We had a couple different Memory game sets

so I took one of them and covered them with our own

pictures. I'm telling you right here at the beginning......

this is not a quick project.

It's easy, but VERY time consuming.

I worked on it, on and off for about 3 weeks.

  First thing you need to do is pick the photos you want to

use and print them up. I printed them from my

computer onto card stock. I printed a wallet size.

You have to remember to print TWO of each.

Once you get your pictures printed, you will need

to use a card to trace around the part of the

picture you will be cutting. This is what takes so long.

Cutting them out......woof.     

     

 Once you get them cut out you'll go ahead

and mod-podge them onto your memory cards.

Once it dries, go ahead and put a layer of 

mod-podge over the top of the photos to seal them.

That's it.

Let them dry and stack em up!  

 I will say, this is one of those projects

that I knew the SECOND my kids opened it.....

that it was worth every minute of time I put into it.

They loved it!

We have so much fun remembering the moments

captured on the cards as we are playing.   

~personalized book for kids-gift idea~

 Back in September I discovered a free photo book

offer at Shutterfly again. GREAT!

Problem was, it ended that night.

I couldn't let a free photo book offer go to waste

so I decided to throw a book together that

I'd been wanting to do for awhile.

I took pictures of my son's favorite toy

"doing things" throughout the day while

he was at school and made it a story.

It was actually a lot of fun coming

up with ideas for the pages.   

Once I got the pictures, I plugged them into the 

book and the story just took off.

 Disclaimer: the pics are NOT the greatest quality.

   

 My son LOVED it! 
I gave it to him for his birthday.

The next day when I took him to school he said,

"I told MACK to do a few things while I'm at school."

Seriously? This is definitely my kid......

Total time it took to make this book,

including taking the pictures, was only 1.5 hours.

For those of you looking for a fun, personalized

gift for that kid on your Christmas list, 

this is your GOLDMINE!

Easy, affordable (even if it's not free)

and something they'll remember forever......

because COME ON-

when you were a little kid

didn't you think your toys played and did

things when you were gone?

I sure did.

~kids pilgrim ship art project~

I'm the room mother for my kid's classroom.

This is the project we will be doing tomorrow

after their Thanksgiving Feast.

I found it on Pinterest (here).

So simple.....a ship with their hand print.

We'll see if I'm saying "so simple" after

trying to stamp 18 different 5 year olds

hands and clean it off before they end up

with hand prints all over their clothes too. 

   

~kids halloween craft-Q-tip skeletons~

There's a blog that is solely dedicated to projects

found on Pinterest that when tried to replicate

turned into COMPLETE FAILURES!

I don't know what the site address is and I don't

have the time right now to find it to share.....

but it does exist-take my word for it.

Not only does it exist, it is HILARIOUS!

This Halloween project I did with the kids the other day

is actually one that was a complete success.

       

 You can find the pin on Pinterest by clicking here

The blog is Busy Bee Kids Crafts.

The only things we did differently was gluing 

it to foam sheets instead of construction paper.

We also used a piece of felt and googly eyes for the

head instead of painting it on.   

~our leprechaun trap~

We made our leprechaun trap.

Want to see?

We made our trap out of a 1 liter soda bottle.

My husband cut the top off and then we used

scrapbook paper and a glue gun to decorate it.

We made the little ladder out of twigs from our yard.

It's primitive I know, but hey, it's our first leprechaun trap.  

We didn't have gold to bait it with so we

left pennies instead :)

We didn't catch the little bugger but

he did leave the kids a treat.

 Chocolate coins wrapped in green foil.

This was the extent of our green breakfast. 

I told you it wasn't going to be over the top.

I taped these Styrofoam shamrocks ($$ store)

to toothpicks and stuck them in the food.

Hope you all had a Happy St. Patrick's Day. 

 

"Pinspiration-kids stuff"

From food to crafts to game ideas....

you can find so many ideas for little kids on Pinterest.

It's one of my favorite things to search.

Here's a sampling of some of the great ideas

I've recently found on Pinterest.

(Click on any of the pics to be redirected to 

their link source and learn more about them.)

 I'm seriously considering making one of these for

 my guys art supplies. He currently has a 

little desk in his room that I keep threatening to get

rid of because most of the time it's just stacked with

his crap and cannot even be used as a desk. I'm wondering

if this would solve that problem.

 What a fun game for kids.

This would be a fun game for a birthday party.

And best of all....cheap!

 I made this fort kit for my little guy's birthday.

It's a big hit and it was another easy and inexpensive project.

I'm going to be making another one soon for

a friend's son.

 This blog has a ton of ideas for kids activities.

Check it out.

 Another fun activity for kids.

Spy training game.

 I love these little snack bags. 

I'm going to do this soon :)

Although my kids would prefer them to 

be filled with chocolate.

 What a cute sandwich.

I need to try this....it's almost too cute to eat.

 A snack station for kids in the fridge.

LOVE IT!

Back before I had kids when my nieces and nephews

would come stay with me I would make them 

sacks filled with snacks to last them throughout the day.

That way they didn't have to ask me when they 

wanted something. I haven't thought to do this 

for my kids....forgot all about it....until now.

 Now this is a creative way to eat marshmallows

and apple slices.

Maybe I could get him to eat peppers if

I presented them like this.

This would also be fun for a Halloween party.

 I've made a couple quiet books and I think this

little coloring tote is a good alternative to a quiet book.

It looks easy and it's adorable. It would also be a 

good birthday gift for kids.

If you haven't seen my quiet books you should check them 

out by clicking on my label "quiet book" on the sidebar.

 This is another cute gift idea for little kids.

I don't let my kids do sleepovers but I'm going to

make them each one for when we go out of town

to see relatives. It will make my little guy feel

very grown up to have his own travel kit. 

 Soft para-troopers. My little guy was just asking

me the other day for another para-trooper toy.

This is way better than those cheap little plastic ones.

Plus-I don't have to worry about my baby getting

the plastic parachute and choking on it.

 How genius is this?

Three pillows covered in fabric for the kids

to lay on. Another project I've got to do.

This means I have to clear a spot on the floor

amidst all the toys to actually have a place

to lay these pillows. Re-thinking this :)

A good deed punch card for kids.

Once it's filled they get a reward. 

I'm going to try this.

Hopefully  it will work because my little guy

has been a turd lately.

 What a cute way to have your kids footprints forever.

 Shaving cream paint for the bathtub.

What kid wouldn't love this?

I love how innovative this idea is. 

We have a dozen stray action figures I could do this with.

I've got more but I have to stop now.

I wasn't kidding when I said I could go on and on 

about my fun Pinterest finds :)