Just Add Stickers

  I was having some fun making decorations for New Year's Eve. I love  decorating and even though it's just out little family tonight I enjoyed making new decorations for the occasion. This time I drew on the hands of the clock to read midnight but other years I have made a clock with movable hands to countdown the hours to midnight (or they can countdown to bedtime!) To make the clock I used simple white paper, it would be nice with construction paper or card stock. I used stamps but stickers would work well or writing the numbers if you have a steady hand. To make the clock fold the paper lightly in 4 to find the center of the circle and to line up the numbers evenly.  Once your clock is finished you can draw with hands pointing at midnight or cut out two straps of construction paper one long and one short and attach them in the middle of the clock using a paper fastener.    Happy crafting and Happy New Year!

Easy DIY Christmas Gnomes These cute little guys are fun and easy for little crafters and make a cute addition to any Christmas decor.  What you need: (per gnome) Peice of felt Square cotton makeup remover Egg carton (one compartment cut from the egg carton) 1 bead for his nose and other beads for decorating his hat Hot glue What to do: For the hat: Cut a strip of felt, fold both ends toward each other to make a cone shape, in the size that you want (it should be big enough to cover the top portion of the egg carton.) The bottom will be uneven, cut the uneven peices to make a curve.  Put hot glue on one end if the felt, fold the other side over and press together. Cut the cotton square to fit onto the egg carton, hot glue it in place. Hot glue the hat in place, making sure to tip it back slightly.  Hot glue a bead tucked just under the hat as a little nose.  Decorate the hat with beads, glitter or paint pens (little crafters can do this step before glueing the hat to...

Family Advent Calendar This is a fun family sized advent calendar. Most years I make our advent calendar, in the past I have used a cardboard box separated into compartments, plastic trading card sleeves and my favorite, the 24 count mini muffin tin . For our family advent calendar this year used my muffin tin and went with different flavors of Hershey's Kisses since they have lots of kinds available for Christmas including sugar cookie!  Since the kids are getting a bit older I've added a level of difficulty this year by adding a search and find o find the door of the day. On a peice of wrapping paper I stuck the same set of stickers but with numbers on the picture. They have to find the number and the picture on the paper and then find the same picture on the advent calendar. What you need: 24 count mini muffin tin  24 round gift tags Christmas stickers (2 identical sheets of 24 stickers) Hershey's Kisses (I chose4 different kinds to change it up from day to day) 1 large ...

Haunted Houses What you need: Popsicle sticks Paint Waterproof all surface top coat Glue gun What you do: Decide how big you want to make your haunted house, you can cut the popsicle sticks or, I prefer to break them so that you have a jagged edge which adds to the dilapidatedness of the haunted house.       2.Once you have figured out what your house will look like, you can paint it. It is easier to paint the           popsicle sticks before you glue them together.      3. glue the popsicle sticks together. Add the details to our house, windows etc.      4. Once the paint and glue have dried paint the whole house with a waterproof top coat.      5.Once the top coat is dry you can place them in your haunted fairy garden.  

Twinsies! Little miss likes to match with her dolls. When I was going through her clothes I found a pair of leggings that were too short. They were a nice pattern and still had lots of wear left in them.  I decided to cut the leggings to make bike shorts. Usually, once Little Miss has outgrown her leggings the knees are worn and have holes. Since this pair was still in good shape I decided to make a matching outfit for her doll with the rest of the material. Using the material from the leggings I had enough material to make a doll dress, doll headband and hair bow for little Miss. What you need: •An old pair of leggings •Decorative buttons •Hair elastics •Needle and thread What to do: 1. Measure the leggings against a pair of shorts that are the length that you want. Measure and cut the leggings. Depending on the material you might need to hem the shorts so they don't fray.  2. Use one of the cut off legs to make the doll dress. Lay the material flat, in the center of the mate...

With the start of school comes the start of new routines and the new items on the back to school list. This year little man needs to have a container to store his mask in when he's not wearing it. I found these snack containers two for one at the dollar store. I hadn't planned on decorating the containers, other than labeling them but they looked like they needed eyes! What you need: Reusable plastic containers (the type that opens half-way for snacks) Monster eyes stickers Black permanent marker Make your hungry mask monster faces, don't forget the teeth! Happy crafting!

This summer we have been doing lots of crafts and activities outside. This painting activity was similar to another painting activity we did a little while ago.  We went for our morning walk and gathered leaves, branches and flowers that had interesting texture. Back at home we made our own paint brushes by attaching the leaves to branches with small elastics. What you need: Paint White paper Painter's tape  Pie plates Small elastics  Set up: Tape the paper to the table or placemat, leaving an even border around the paper Pour the paint in the pie plates Now your ready to try out your new paintbrushes. Inspired by our homemade brushes, we painted some nature scenes.  Happy painting!  

It's been a hot week, so we're staying inside and playing with ice. This week's theme was experiments with ice.  Our experiments: Homemade ice cream What makes ice melt the fastest Pick up ice cube without touching it We started off our theme day with a snack, homemade ice cream and blueberries. To make homemade ice cream in a bag you need: 1 cup half and half cream 1 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 3 cups ice 1/3 cup sea salt  1 large ziplock bag 1 sandwich size ziplock bag 3 cups ice cubes Directions: Place half and half, vanilla and sugar in the small ziplock bag and close the bag  Fill the large ziplock bag with the ice cubes Place the smaller bag inside the bigger one. Close the bag tightly and shake for 8 minutes. Our perfect ice cream shaking soundtrack was "ice ice baby" by Vanilla Ice and "shake it off" by Taylor Swift When the cream is frozen scoop into bowls and top with blueberries. What makes Ice Melt Fastest? What you need:   A large ice...

We have been having fun with nerf guns in the backyard this summer. To change it up  from Nerf Gun battles we decided to make some targets to practice on. Materials: Cardboard box Paint pens  Duct tape  Measure the targets, one big circle in the middle, four smaller circles around the middle target. Cut out the circles, measure about a 1/2" from the edge and cut the contour of the small circles. Measure 1" on the center circle and cut the contour. Draw a character on each target. We chose a creeper for the middle target and pigs for the smaller targets. Place the target in their perspective circles, measure twine to hang each target in place. Duct tape the twine to the target and the targets to the support. Tape all the shapes to their respective openings. Add point value for each shape.  It's  time for target practice! Happy crafting!

 Here is a little activity we did for Canada Day. I like scavenger hunts , they add a little excitement to everyday walks. Since there aren't any activities going on today, we have to make our own! We headed out on our walk around the neighborhood to check items off our list We picked up some leaves and rocks on the way because what's the fun of a scavenger hunt without bringing home some rocks! Happy Canada Day!

It's Dino Dig Day!  I got the idea on my first dollar store trip in 3 months! I had a double sided list and my cart was full but my one impulse buy (that wasn't chocolate) was a dinosaur bone sand toy set. On Fridays I like to do a theme of some sort to make things interesting and I was inspired by that dinosaur sand toy set.  This was my set up for our Dino Dig: some plastic dinosaurs, plastic shovels and rakes and a big book of dinosaurs. Our theme day had two activities, a dino dig and making fossils. Later in the day we painted the fossils and had another dino dig outside. Dino fossils Salt dough: 2 cups flour 1 cup salt 1 cup water Mix the flour and salt Slowly add the water, 2 tbsp at a time Kneed the dough, set aside until needed Line 2 baking sheets with parchment as paper Separate the dough equally amongst the kids. Roll small portions of the dough into balls. Use the plastic dinosaurs figurines to make impressions of the di...