Holiday

Making a Crafty Mr. Potato Head for St. Patrick’s Day

February 28, 2017 by Eileen 14 Comments

My little guy loves craft time with his mama.

But, I might love it just a little more.

I love watching his creativity, his little mind at work, as he comes up with new ways of doing things.

We have a sweet little set-up in my office, where he has a craft table beside my desk. On his table, he has a bin of art supplies that he’s allowed to use whenever (crayons, markers, and paper).

He also has a drawer in my desk with supplies that he can use with permission (glue, scissors, etc).

In addition to crafts, my little guy loves putting things together – doing puzzles, making pictures with foam shapes, and most especially, accessorizing Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.

So, when my sister suggested making a real Mr. Potato Head craft as a St. Patrick’s Day activity, I knew he would love it!

Collecting Materials

This was a no cost project – other than two potatoes, which we usually have. The night before, my son and I collected things from around the craft room to use, so we would be all ready to go after breakfast the following day.

We found felt, foam, pipe cleaners, pom-poms, stickers, shamrocks, card stock, cotton balls, ribbon, and glue. However, you can really use whatever you find or have.

My son loved collecting all of things for our Mr. Potato Head craft. His special job was to put everything I handed him in the bin. He loves his special jobs 🙂

He loved putting everything together the day before because it gave him something to look forward to.

He loves getting into all of my craft supplies, so his eyes were lighting up at all of the fun things he was going to get to use.

Pictured below is the set-up. Whenever we have a messy project or a food project, I lay down a plastic table cloth, which makes for easy cleanup with a toddler.

Decorating the Mr. Potato Head Craft

Then, we just had fun and got creative. My son told us what we needed – “Mommy, first we need eyes.” And, then I asked him what he thought we should use.

We used the pipe cleaners for arms (the wire stuck right into the potato), cotton balls for the beard, pom-pom for the nose, felt for the eyes and mouth, and card stock for the shoes.

We put everything on with either Elmer’s Glue or Scotch tape. The felt on felt didn’t work too well with the glue – but everything else held up.

Making a Real Mr. Potato Head Kids Craft

For the St. Patrick’s Day hat, I simply used card stock. I cut a circle for the best, and then I rolled another piece into a cylinder. I centered the cylinder on the base and taped it on top.

We tied a ribbon around the hat – and placed an Irish sticker where the buckle would go, which made a nice touch 🙂

Then, we decided to paint the cotton orange, in an effort to make our Mr. Potato Head craft look more like a leprechaun.

It got pretty messy – and orange got all over Mr. Potato Head, but he definitely started to uphold his title as a leprechaun.

After we finished with the Mr. Potato Head craft, my little guy said, “Time for the other potato, mommy…” Just when I thought we were done 🙂

So, we made a Mrs. Potato Head. We used all of the same things, and added a felt and pom-pom bow in her hair.

Just when we were about done *again,* my son says, “Mommy, what about baby potato?”

And, I wished I had thought to get a smaller potato because that would have been cute to have a whole Mr. Potato Head family made from potatoes.

After the potatoes dried, my little guy loved playing with them.

He named Mrs. Potato Head “Nana,” which I don’t think my mom found complimentary 😉

Real Mrs. and Mr. Potato Head Craft for Kids

I did have trouble getting the potatoes to stand up straight. I had wished I cut off the bottom to make a flat surface, but I’m sure this would have shortened their shelf life.

[As a side note, I recently learned that when you leave potatoes out and exposed to light, they absorb radiation in the air (shout out to Anthony William’s amazing book “Life-Changing Foods.”) So not only will Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head be decorating our kitchen for the next 5 or so days, but they will be absorbing some of the toxins we are exposed to.]

Always a teacher, I also use our crafts as a segway to reading. During our library trip this week, we’ll be reading about St. Patrick’s Day and leprechauns, and the Mr. Potato Head craft served as pre-learning activity.

Making a Real Mr. Potato Head Craft for Kids

Overall, our Mr. Real Potato Head craft was definitely a success. My son had a ball preparing for the craft, making REAL potato heads, and playing with his new, clumsy figures.

It’s amazing to see the joy he gets from creating something he’s proud of.

Thrifty Indoor Winter Picnic Basket

February 2, 2017 by Eileen 49 Comments

When out shopping, I can’t resist a great deal. This past holiday season, I bought quite a few things that I loved but had no need for.

Yet, when the price is right, I can’t resist.

At Michaels, I picked up the below wire basket with the burlap ribbon and the two navy snowflake mugs 70% off. Yet, the holidays came and went and I hadn’t done anything with these items.

Shortly thereafter, I thought of putting together a winter picnic basket. I love giving gift boxes and baskets – they are fun to put together and unique gifts are always so appreciated.

This indoor winter picnic basket is perfect for so many occasions – a special gift for your husband or wife, a Valentines picnic basket for couples or families, or a holiday gift for someone who has everything.

It’s even something you could save for a snowy day spent fireside.

My favorite part of this gift is the soft, fluffy blanket that I used to line the basket.

The blanket is perfect for an indoor picnic – and who couldn’t use another cozy throw?! Indoor Winter Picnic Basket - Perfect Gift Idea

I just love this wire basket – it’s rustic yet modern looking.

It came with the burlap ribbon wrapped around it, which meant no additional fussing or ribbon was needed later on 🙂

Gathering Winter Picnic Basket Items

I picked up the red snowflake plates and napkins to go with the mugs (Dollar Tree finds).

Navy and red are one of my favorite color combinations.

I put together some snacks to go in the basket. We love Mary Gone Crackers (vegan and gluten free!) as well as Lara Bars. The chocolate coconut ones taste like brownies 🙂

When picking snacks, don’t forget to think about refrigeration. If you are giving it as a gift, you probably want to stay away from things needing to be refrigerated – like cheese.

You could also include a thermos that could be used for hot chocolate or soups.

Assembling the Winter Basket

To assemble, I simply laid the blanket at the bottom of the basket, wrapping the extra around the back, and arranged the items.

The blanket worked great for the lining because it made propping up the items easy – and it served as cushion for the fragile mugs.

I had a little “help” with the arranging… our buddy Zeus. He actually wanted the crackers in the basket and was begging 🙂 He looks huge next to the basket.

As a side note, in this picture, I was attempting to use tissue paper at the bottom of the basket, but the drab tissue took the elegant basket down a few notches. That’s when I decided to make the blanket work.

The basket took minutes to put together, and the total cost was around $30. The basket, mugs, plates, and napkins were $8 – you can’t beat that!

The snacks and blanket brought it up to $30, but the blanket was on sale too 🙂

The winter picnic basket is not only a unique, creative gift but it’s something friends and family will find so thoughtful. You can put a romantic spin on it for husbands, wives, boyfriends, or girlfriends, too 🙂 Especially with Valentine’s Day coming up 🙂

And, I have to say buying things you love at the right price definitely results in some creative, cute gift ideas 🙂

Fun Valentine’s Day Scavenger Hunt

January 20, 2017 by Eileen 73 Comments

Last Valentine’s Day I threw together a little scavenger hunt for Ash. Every now and then I try to do something sweet 😉

Although too young to actively participate, our son was the star – as all of the clues were written in his point of view and revolved around him too.

One example was “This is where I like to sit and read…” and the clue was hidden under his Mickey Mouse couch in the playroom where he would pretend read.

Another clue was “I haven’t learned to walk yet, but I love to run” and the clue was in his exersaucer – the little thing where toddlers “run” in circles. 🙂

It turned out super cute, and I had a good laugh watching Ash run around the house looking for the clues. And, getting stumped a few more times than I would have thought.

A New Valentine’s Tradition

A few weeks ago, I was thinking about Valentines crafts and activities and making the scavenger hunt.

So, I dug out the clues and LOVED reading through them – it’s crazy how much kids change so much in one year!

I mean last year our toddler had about a five-word vocabulary and was relying mainly on sign language to tell us “more,” “hungry,” or “sleepy.”

This year, he is speaking in mostly run-on sentences: “No, mommy I don’t like carrots, actually, I would like more rice for lunch for me, please mommy, I really want rice.” :):)

Reading through all of the clues definitely took Ash and I back. So much – that I decided a Valentine’s Scavenger Hunt would be a recurring thing in this household.

There is so much stress and planning and travel involved with Thanksgiving and Christmas that it will be fun to have a special Valentine’s tradition in our family 🙂

This year, our toddler can help make it – or help Ash find all the clues. Or both 🙂

Materials for the Making a Scavenger Hunt

Card stock or construction paper
Sharpie
Scissors – love squiggly scissors
Prize to go with the last clue

Making a Scavenger Hunt

First, I typed up the clues on the computer, using a cute font with hearts. You can also hand write them – or have your kids write them.

Then, I printed them out and cut them up using squiggly scissors. I love these scissors because they disguise my lack of being able to cut in straight lines. Next, I glued them to card stock.

Here was the tricky part – labeling the clues so that they are put in the right places. So if the first clue is “This is where I sit and read” and the answer is the couch. This clue is not the one that gets hidden on the couch. The following card will be hidden on the couch.

So, I labeled the back of each card with the place where that card was hidden – NOT with the answer to that question. This made the clues easy to hide.

And, the answers were still labeled (for later re-reading), they were just on the back of the next card.

The last clue can be hidden with a prize. Our last clue led Ash to the mini fridge in his office (my old dorm room fridge is still humming!), where there was a sweet treat for him 🙂

Binding the Scavenger Hunt Clues

After Ash collected all the clues, I bound them all together using a hole punch in the top left corner of each card, and then a loose leaf binder ring to keep them together.

This was so much easier and more organized than a rubber band or paper clip because you can flip right through them.

I also use these binder rings to bind together the Christmas cards we received each year 🙂 Love them!

I’m looking forward to see this year’s hunt. Our little guy might give Ash a run for his money 🙂

And, I’m sure next year I’ll flipping through this year’s clues saying I can’t believe how much our little guy has grown… again 🙂

How to Easily Make Valentines Finger Puppets

January 15, 2017 by Eileen 99 Comments

I cannot believe it’s already halfway through January. This past holiday season flew. Thanksgiving sprang up on me, and then Christmas – I was still running around buying gifts a few days prior, which is really unlike me.

Now that it’s a new year, I’m getting back to my old ways and getting myself organized ahead of time. There’s so just so much unnecessary stress when you are running behind.

That being said, I’ve already been working on this year’s Valentine’s Day crafts! Wahoo!

And, this is a good one – Valentines felt finger puppets!

They are so simple and so cute – it’s the perfect Valentine’s activity for kids. Not to mention, I made them from scrap materials.

My son is a little obsessed with nursery rhymes – Wheels on the Bus, Hot Cross Buns, and most recently a song called “The Finger Family,” which essentially uses finger puppets for family members. He sings it probably about 50 times a day.

The other day he took off all the marker caps and placed them on his fingers and started singing “Mommy Finger, Mommy Finger, Where are you?”Before I chimed in with, “Here I am, Here I am, How do you do? (I’m not helping the obsession), I realized he needed some real finger puppets.

I thought about using photos and using our family – or just drawing some pictures with him – but then I thought I could tie it into a fun Valentine’s Day activity.

Making Felt Finger Puppets

It would have been super simple to use the fingers on a pair of gloves – but gloves are way too precious around here.

So, I used my go-to material – felt.

I was determined to use all scraps for this project – and I successfully did so. I didn’t spend a penny.

Felt Finger Puppet Materials:

One sheet of felt
Card stock/construction paper
Sharpie/markers
Hot glue gun
Scissors
Regular glue

Steps for Making Felt Finger Puppets

I used just one sheet of felt for all ten fingers. Then, I liberally traced my pointer finger eight times and my thumb twice.

After, I cut slits in between each of the traced fingers, so I could quickly fold them up (to be double sided) after I hot glued them. This worked like a charm.

Here’s a picture I quickly snapped of going over the outline with hot glue – and then folding it up.

Next, I cut off the excess felt. This took a little patience, since the glue/outline was inside. I roughly cut them and then ended up putting my pinky finger in each puppet and then carefully cutting off any additional excess.

I now had one hand ready to go 🙂

At this point, my son was begging to play with them. He was so excited about the finger puppets that I didn’t have the heart to say no.

So, I gave him these five and decided to make a second hand.

After both hands were done, it was time to get creative with heart-shaped animals.

I used a small cookie cutter to get the shape of the heart perfect and consistent for all of the fingers. It worked out really well 🙂

Before I knew it, I had a frog, chicken, penguin, panda, fox, lady bug, fish, fox, bunny, and a dog/mouse that was originally a bear.

You can see in the top of the picture (below) that I used garage sale stickers to put some quick faces on the puppets while my son waited for the animals.

Decorating the Felt Finger Puppets

You can be as creative as you like making the felt finger puppets. Aside from the cookie cutter, I cut the rest of the hearts freehand.

One of those heart paper punches would have been perfect for this – but I was determined to make this a no-cost project 🙂

I also had some heart stickers lying around, but I liked using the card stock colors and patterns. I put some googly eyes on the lady bug – they were a little big – but it shows how you can incorporate some other crafty materials, too.

After the animals were done, I hot glued each to a finger puppet – and voila! We had an Animal Finger Family.

My favorite is the chicken. It turned out so cute 🙂

Here are a few more close-ups:For longevity, you could laminate the animals (before the googly eyes and before gluing to the finger puppet), making the felt finger puppets more durable. You could do this either with a home laminator or using packaging tape.

I’ve used both, and each works well 🙂

And my son, well he LOVED these puppets. Needless to say, all we’ve been hearing is “Froggie finger, Froggie finger, where are you?”

And of course, we keep the song going 🙂

Simple Cookie Decorating Gift for the Holidays

December 14, 2016 by Eileen 72 Comments

With the Christmas season upon us and holiday traditions in full swing, making and decorating cookies definitely holds a special spot in my heart.

This year rather than just exchanging cookies, think about putting together a holiday cookie decorating box for kids and their families to enjoy. This gift provides a festive activity that kids will long remember.

I made one of these boxes for my niece years ago. Each Christmas, we would always bake and decorate cookies together – it was our special thing.

However, one Christmas I had just had my son, so I made my niece this little box, so she would still be able to decorate Christmas cookies that year.

In addition to putting together a holiday cookie decorating box for others, you could also make one for your family.

Save it until Christmas Eve, when you can then decorate cookies to leave for Santa:)

Not only is this box super easy to make, but it doesn’t involve screen time nor is it another toy.

And, if you are even a little bit of a baker or crafter, you probably already have a lot of the materials.

Cookie Decorating Gift Box Materials

About a dozen roll-out cookies – Baking the cookies ahead of time cuts out on the mess, and let the kids go straight to the fun part – the decorating.
Candy Melts – I used chocolate and red
Decorating Materials – sprinkles, candies, etc
Small containers for the sprinkles/candies – You can use condiment containers, small tupperware, or you could buy the the sprinkles/candies in small containers
Decorative Box – Michaels always has great ones
Ziplocs – to put the cookies and candy melts in
Ribbon – to spruce up the ziplocs

Holiday Cookie Decorating Box Instructions

First, you’ll want to bake your cookies and let them cool.

My family eats pretty healthy these days (one day I’ll share that story). So, I always make things as healthy as possible.

Additionally, I made these cookies without dairy, egg, or gluten. I’ve gone through quite my share of recipes, as well as trying to use substitutes on my own recipes.

Hands down, the best one is from The Unconventional Baker. She also shares recipes for chocolate roll-out and vanilla roll-out cookies. Her instructions were great. And, the cookies rolled out very well! Also, they don’t use cane sugar, and they taste just as a roll out cookie should.

After they cooled, I placed about eight of each type of cookie in a stack and put them into a ziploc bag. I folded the bag, so you wouldn’t see the zipper part when placed in the box.

Then, I adorned the top gingerbread man from each pile with a little bow:)

Next, I took the candy melts and poured them into ziploc bags.

Afterward, I also tied ribbon around these to make them look more festive.

Additionally, I found these cute little containers at Dollar Tree (10 for $1) and filled them with sprinkles and candies for decorating.

I also had all of these items in my pantry – so no additional cost for decorating materials 🙂

Next, I arranged everything into this Michael’s box. They have the cutest boxes for all holidays and seasons – and I always seem to shop when they are 70% off, which made this box $3!

The last thing I did was add a few candy canes because they make everything look so festive.

If I had a little more room in the holiday cookie decorating box, I would have added hot cocoa, paper cups, and cute straws, which would have made for a nice touch.

I spent only around $7 on this holiday cookie decorating box, as I already had everything but the box and candy melts.

Spending only $7 on a gift is quite amazing, right?

This year, as you get caught in the whirlwind of the holiday season, remember that decorating cookies is something simple, thrifty, and delicious to give!

And, I’m sure if you start this Christmas Eve tradition of decorating cookies for Santa, your kids will remember and blissfully look forward to it each year.

How to Make a Spectacular DIY Advent Calendar

December 7, 2016 by Eileen 83 Comments

With the holiday season quickly approaching and my toddler reaching an age where he can learn from and enjoy holiday learning activities, I set out to find an Advent calendar that our family would enjoy.

However, I couldn’t find one that was suitable. Some were filled with chocolates (which negates our healthy lifestyle), some where filled with gifts (I don’t want him to get caught up in the gift aspect of the holiday), and some had numbers that were too small or simply didn’t stand out enough for a toddler to easily recognize.

So I did what I do best – I created my own.

And I’m sure you can easily guess that I made the homemade Advent calendar out of felt. This year has definitely been the year of felt for me 🙂

I’m going to cut right to the chase since we are already a few days into December! It was a little time-consuming, but I love the way it turned out. It provides quite a few learning opportunities, and we can use it year after year.

Homemade Advent Calendar Materials

Green Felt – for the tree and bottom layer
White Felt – or other background color
Felt Pieces in various colors – (I bought a new package for more colors but ended up using scraps I already had)
Free Printable for the Tree Outline (keep scrolling for printable and instructions)
Hot Glue Gun – for attaching the felt
Numbers – Make sure you have enough for numbers 1-25.
Ribbon – for attaching the ornaments to the tree
Buttons – to hang the ornaments on
Basic sewing materials – thread, needle, scissors – for attaching the buttons to the felt but you could skip this and use hot glue
Wooden dowel – for hanging
Decorative ribbon, if desired

How to Make the an Advent Calendar out of Felt

I was excited to get work on the homemade Advent calendar. I started with the background and large pieces and worked my way down to the ornaments.

Making the Background and Tree

First, I cut the large felt pieces, and I must say, this was the hardest part. I simply am terrible at cutting in a straight line. Why don’t squiggly scissors worked on felt?!

I cut a piece of white background to be 18 inches by 22 inches. My reason for this was that I already had an interactive alphabet of this size hanging from a wooden dowel. I figured I could borrow the dowel; although I ended up finding another one in the garage.

After that, I drew a Christmas tree onto green felt using a sharpie. It took me a few tries to get all of the branches right and to maximize my use of felt. I really marked up the back of it.

To save you the same work, I am sharing the outline that I drew. It’s on two sheets of paper, and I want to note that the bottom of the Christmas tree was a little too big for standard paper.

Therefore, the second page looks like it cuts off. However, it’s not a mistake – the tree was just a too wide. So I let it run off the edges, figuring it would be easy for you to just connect these few lines – easier than drawing your own tree, at least 🙂

Click here for the tree template.

Next, I cut a little brown rectangle out of my felt scraps for the tree stump.

Then I hot glued the tree and the stump to the the white background.

Attaching Buttons to the Advent Calendar

Even though felt sticks to felt, I wanted to use buttons and ribbon for this Advent calendar to provide another learning opportunity to my son – using buttons.

I found 25 buttons from a collection that I had. I love these buttons – especially their varying hues and textures all although within the same color family.

First, I spaced the buttons out, and then I sewed them on. Also, I put four buttons under the tree for the presents I was going to make.

You also could hot glue the buttons; however, I wanted the sewed look 🙂

Making Ornaments for the Advent Calendar

Now came for the daunting part – 25 shapes to make! Yet, an idea dawned on me… cookie cutters! I used my Christmas cookie cutters to trace a bunch of the shapes – the gingerbread man, snowman, and candy cane, to name a few.

If you are trying to cut down on the work, you could use just a few shapes and repeat them.

The rest of the shapes I outlined or I just cut. If I’m not sure how to draw something or I want a shape simplified, I google an outline of it.

Looking at just the outline makes it easy to emulate. I did that with the angel, and she turned out great!

Adding Decorative Ribbon

My shapes were looking a little boring, so I used holiday ribbon to spruce them up. Just a line of ribbon here and there, actually, went a long way in turning my boring felt shapes into cute pieces.

For example, on the snowman (pictured above), I used a line of ribbon instead of buttons.

The line of ribbon on the train spruced up its plainness. And, even the faceless gingerbread man look pretty spiffy. I didn’t want to fill them up too much though because I still had the Advent numbers to add.

Adding Ribbon Hooks

Next, I needed to attach ribbon to the felt, so the ornaments could hang from the buttons on the Christmas tree. I used this green ribbon (from our wedding programs!), and simply looped one end around the other.

To keep the loop, I put a bead of hot glue to hold the overlapping ribbon pieces (right above where my finger is).

Once glued, I added another bead of hot glue to the criss-cross and attached it to the back of the ornament.

Attaching the Calendar Dates

Next, I needed to add the dates. I went to Michael’s specially to pick these up – got caught up in all the sales, and completely forgot about it.

Not wanting to waste another trip out to a craft store (and not wanting to wait for Amazon prime delivery – two day seemed like too much!), I started to cut out my own numbers out of felt using a template. They looked horrible! It was just too many imperfect twos!

The next day, I picked the below numbers up at Michaels.

They are simply adhesive cardboard numbers, so they didn’t stick that well. I had to use hot glue to give them a good stick – and that was a lot of gluing plus a burnt pinky.

In hindsight, I should have gotten felt ones from Amazon. They have a bunch of felt numbers. When you do purchase your numbers, make sure you have enough 1s and 2s.

With these adhesives, at first I wasn’t crazy about the sharp contrast that the glitterly black created, but it’s grown on me.

And, they are very easy to read, which makes them perfect for my toddler.

When you are sticking on the numbers, make sure to lay them out ahead of time. Put the single digit numbers on the smaller ornaments – to make sure that every number has a good shape to fit on.

I barely was able to squeeze the 25 onto the star, since the star is the last thing that goes on the tree 🙂

The ornaments look so cute – and I think it was that ribbon 🙂 Faceless gingerbread man is definitely my favorite, yet, Frosty is a close second.

Finishing Touches

After the ornaments for the homemade Advent calendar were done, I went back to the tree. It looked a little drab with the white background, so I cut yet another piece of green felt and hot glued it behind the white. It provided a border, a little depth, and hid my sewing.

The tree still looked like it needed a little sprucing up (haha get it?!), so I ran a line of ribbon across the bottom.

I also used this same ribbon to create tabs to run the wooden dowel through. I was planning to use felt for this, but the ribbon was perfect – and tied it all together.

Here’s a close up of a the completed DIY Advent calendar.

I love how the homemade Advent calendar turned out, and my son is learning a ton!

He is learning to follow a number sequence, identify holiday shapes, create connections between the items on this tree and the items on our real trees, apply his fine motor skills on the use buttons, and practice responsibility, as it is his job everyday to find and hang up the next number.

He also loves that he has own tree and ornaments and that he doesn’t have to ask mommy in advance if he can touch them 🙂

Here is the entire tree, with some of the ornaments hanging. In the second picture, you can see how the tree is hanging.

The calendar is going to be a little crowded when all of the numbers are on – but they all do fit, and the homemade Advent calendar is the perfect size for small spaces and doors.

Not only do I love a great learning activity, but I love holiday traditions. This homemade Advent calendar will now be one in our home 🙂

Easy DIY Gingerbread Decorating Gift Basket

December 5, 2016 by Eileen 60 Comments

I love buying fun boxes, and I especially can’t resist when they are a good price. I usually buy them on sale and then I figure out what to do with them later. That’s how my ice cream sundae gift box came to be:)

Michaels Crafts always has beautiful gift boxes.

They run a lot of 70% off sales, especially at the end of seasons, making them only a few dollars. I wasn’t planning on making any Christmas gift boxes this year. However, they ran their 70% off sale last weekend, so I picked up quite a few boxes and baskets.

I picked up a gingerbread house decorating kit too – also on sale. My niece and nephew love to do these, but we usually don’t have enough candy to decorate the house with – so we end up buying more to supplement.

Thinking of this sparked an idea…

Making a Gingerbread House Gift

I was thinking I could unpackage the pre-made gingerbread kit, compile more decorating items, and arrange everything into a pretty gift box. I also added hot cocoa items.

Now what store-bought gingerbread decorating kit also has hot cocoa?! :)The best part is that I only spent $18 on this gift box! So many times gift boxes are filled with things that really add up. This one is cheap and the items were easy to throw together.

Materials for Making a Gingerbread House Gift

As far as materials, you can really use anything you like – you could even use graham crackers, a container of frosting, and decorating icing, rather than buying a pre-packaged kit.

However, I thought $6.99 (plus my 25% off coupon) that I spent on the gingerbread house was worth it for all of the materials it provided

So, here are the materials that I used:

Gingerbread House Kit – Craft stores have the best prices on these (the one I used is pictured below and was pre-made!)
Additional Decorating Materials – Candy and sprinkles
Containers for Candy – I used a combination of cute little tupperwares I found at the Dollar Store (10 per pack!) and condiment containers that I bought a while back and keep using for various projects 🙂
Holiday Cups and Napkins – Dollar stores are great for this
Hot Cocoa – I used two individual packs
Tissue Paper – to line box or basket
Gift Box or Basket
Icing Spatula – I found a holiday-themed one at Michaels
Ribbon – to add a little flair

Instructions for Making a Gingerbread House Gift

First, I unpackaged everything in the gingerbread kit to see what I had to work with.

Then, I added in more candy that would be fun for decorating – twizzlers, smarties, peppermints, gum balls, starbursts, skittles, and tootsie rolls. I probably bought too much candy, but variety makes for fun decorating.

I also grabbed a few kinds of sprinkles that I already had, and then I simply filled the containers with all of the sweets.

Speaking of sweet, my little toddler helped me, and of course, everything is a lesson with me – so we counted, sequenced, and sorted the candy. 🙂

Then, I put together the non-food items – cups, cocoa, straws, the spatula, and napkins.

I tied a few of the things together with some holiday ribbon, as pictured below.

Next, I put together the icing. The kit came with three icing packets along with disposable icing bags and plastic tops.

All of them were in boring packaging, so I spruced them up using these little holiday cookie bags that I have had for years! It definitely made a difference 🙂

Then, I started arranging everything. I love arranging things, whether it be cookie trays, home decor, or gift boxes. It’s always my favorite part of projects. It takes me forever, but I love the results 🙂

The gingerbread house looked a little plain so I adorned it with ribbon (another 70% off Michaels find). If anyone has an easy bow-tying trick, let me know because I am the worst at it!

Also, I found a cute Merry Christmas tag (from a Dollar Store photo prop kit!! Check out our DIY photo booth post).

The tag was simply the perfect touch 🙂

And, last but not least, my plan was to glue a picture from the original box, along with the instructions (for the icing) to some scrapbook paper, so my recipients had this information. It’s always nice to look at an already-made gingerbread house for inspiration.

I love that this gift cost under $20. The kids will have to much fun making a gingerbread house. It turned out so cute, and I love that I used so many items I already had 🙂

That’s the great part about doing crafts – your craft bank grows and grows, and then you have so much to work with.

Adorable Thanksgiving Place Cards Kids Can Make

November 11, 2016 by Eileen 82 Comments

Looking for a Thanksgiving craft to do with your kids this week? Whether or not you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner, making place cards for the holiday meal is a great activity for kids of all ages.

Not only do children love painting and decorating, but they get to design a special setting for the special people in their lives. It’s a great way for kids to participate in the holiday preparation.

The best thing about the template is that it’s completely customizable.

Using this free printable, you can have your toddler making fingerprint turkeys or your older children painting more elaborate turkeys.

Thanksgiving Place Cards that Kids Can Make

With this thanksgiving place card template, you can be as creative as you like: you could have your kids use finger prints for the turkey feathers or they could glue on skittles or feathers in the shape of a turkey. You could even skip the turkey design altogether and have your child practice writing their letters.

The possibilities are truly endless, as the place card template has lots of open space for creativity.

There are even dotted lines for you or your child to cut out the place settings 🙂

Thanksgiving Place Cards Materials

Free Thanksgiving place card printable – see above
Card stock
Kids paints
Scissors
Sharpie
Any other decorating materials (stickers, crayons, markers for decorating the back or inside)

Instructions for Thanksgiving Place Cards

First, I printed the template on card stock. There are four per page, and remember that it’s always good to have a few extra. My toddler smeared paint across quite a few of them before we even started 🙂

Next, I had my toddler paint the turkeys on. You can have your child make finger prints or use q-tips. I love using q-tips (rather than paintbrushes) for toddler painting. It’s more controlled, easy for kids to use, and quick to clean up!

After they dried, I drew on the eyes, beak, and feet with a sharpie. Then you (or your child) can cut them out. The dotted lines make it easy 🙂

After folding, the thanksgiving place cards that the kids made are ready!

If you have a little one and are doing fingerprints rather than painting or q-tips, your place cards might look more like this (see picture below)… a little sloppier but still adorable 🙂

For extension ideas, you can also have your child decorate the inside or back of the place card – through coloring, through choosing stickers for each person, or through writing a note.

Pumpkin Carving with Cookie Cutters & Drills

November 3, 2016 by Eileen 25 Comments

Ash and I decided to be a little more creative with our pumpkin carving this year. We brought a few new accessories to the carving table: his drill AND my cookie cutters. Pumpkin carving with cookie cutters and power tools certainly made for some cute pumpkins. 🙂

Our son loves playing with my cookie cutters – digging through the boxes, guessing the shapes, imagining his own shapes, and stealing a few for use in his play-doh. He has difficulties with eating, so I’m always looking for new distractions to get us through each meal. And, my never-ending cookie cutter collection has been working like a charm lately.

All of this time spent digging through cookie cutters sparked an idea. We could probably use cookie cutters to punch out shapes in our pumpkins. I googled it – and realized it was a thing. So, we picked out a few cookie cutters to get us started.

As for the drill, Ash is rarely apart from his tools, and he figured that drilling holes into the pumpkins would be fun to make some cool designs.

Preparing for Pumpkin Carving

The first thing I did was cover our table with a plastic, disposable tablecloth. I usually pick these up at the dollar store – this one happened to be Easter themed:)

We probably should have worked outside, but it was much easier to push my son’s high chair up to the table inside.

Here were our materials, plus the drill (not pictured below). We also found that a mallet worked better than a hammer, so we swapped that out after doing the first pumpkin.

After cutting open the top and scooping all the goop out, we were ready to start the fun part – hammering in the cookie cutters.

Using Cookie Cutters for Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving with cookie cutters was really fun, and we made lots of cool shapes.

We took the mallet and tapped the cookie cutter into the pumpkin until it made a clean break.

The larger the cookie cutter (like the ghost pictured above) the harder it was. This was because the cookie cutter didn’t lay flat on the pumpkin.

The heart worked perfectly. It was a good size, easy to tap in, and made a perfect heart on the pumpkin.

Using the Drill for Pumpkin Carving

After we used cookie cutters for pumpkin carving, we used the drill to make some designs too.

We did a bunch of circles in the shape of a flower, spelled out the word Boo, and just drilled a bunch of evenly spaced circles.

I had a blast drilling through the pumpkin. After cutting off the pumpkin tops and scooping out all that seedy goop, running a drill was undoubtedly the fun part.

Now, it did make a huge mess, so you might want to drill outside. Yet, I just used the drill on a lower speed, and the flying pumpkin goop was minimal.

Here are a few shots of the pumpkins sitting out on our front bench.

And, here they are all lit up 🙂

They turned out pretty nice 🙂

Overall, the pumpkin carving with cookie cutters and power tools were a fun combination to work with. If you are looking to mix up your pumpkin carving, definitely give it a try 🙂

Making a Firetruck Costume from a Diaper Box

October 31, 2016 by Eileen 28 Comments

What do you get when you have a crafty mama and handy, tech-crazed daddy? A decked out diaper box that makes all your friends jealous.

Our sweet little guy rocked an awesome costume this evening – a firetruck made from a diaper box complete with blinking lights and sound effects.

The poor thing was a monkey more than once (hey, when the costume fits…), so this year we owed him.

Now that he’s carrying on conversations, I had been asking him for weeks what he wanted to be for Halloween, and 80% of the time he said a firetruck.

I tried to clarify, “You mean a fireman?”

I got a very definitive response, “No, mommy. A fire truck.”

Thank goodness for Google images – there were lots of great pictures of kids dressed in firetruck costumes, and it seemed it could be easily made from a box.

I always save diaper boxes (I usually make storage boxes from them), so I had a ton on hand. I grabbed one and got started on the fire engine costume. How hard could making a DIY fire truck Halloween costume be?

How to Make a Fire Engine Costume from Cardboard

In making my toddler a DIY fire truck costume, the first thing I did was cut off all of the flaps – but in hindsight, I should have left just one short flap attached, for the front of the truck costume (I added this back with tape later).

Next, in making the fire truck Halloween costume, I covered the whole box with red construction paper.

I meant to run to Dollar Tree beforehand for red wrapping paper – that would have been a lot easier than using sheets and sheets of red construction paper; however, I was set on making the costume that day and didn’t want to lose time running out.

So, I used what I had and hot glued red construction paper to the entire box for the DIY fire truck costume.

Next, I hot glued on white construction paper to the front and sides (as seen below) and the top too (the part with the flap).

I then added black windows, and a little design made from shapes and stripes on the front. It was shaping up to be a pretty cool fire truck costume.

After the front was completed, I worked on the sides of the costume. I made similar designs on both sides – so I cut out two of everything. I also added wheels to the cardboard costume.

Just when I thought I was done with this part of the costume, I realized I had forgotten about the back, so I did a quick little design there too (see pics further down).

Below is the cardboard box fire truck costume, made using just construction paper and glue 🙂

How to Attach the DIY Fire Truck Costume

At this point, my little guy was running around the house holding the firetruck diaper box costume up with his hands, so I knew I needed to attach something so he could wear it hands-free.

I found some black ribbon and cut two long pieces.

I then hole punched a hole in the front of the box and back, pushing the ribbon through the holes and tying it.

It worked just like suspenders, holding up a pair of loose pants.

How to Add Lights to the Fire Truck Costume

Just when I thought it was done again, Ash said that it wouldn’t be a firetruck without lights and sound. So, there he went altering the fire truck costume.

To make fire truck lights, he grabbed a couple of clip-on lights that he goes running with at night. The lights clip onto your clothes and have a bunch of different settings, including a slow blink which would be perfect lights for a diaper box firetruck costume.

Ash stuck them onto the fire engine costume with plastic cups, cutting out a little piece of the bottom of the cup (which became the top of the light), to clip them on.

How to Add Sound Effects to the Fire Truck

The sound effects were the most impressive part of making a fire truck Halloween costume.

Ash actually attached his iPhone to the back of the diaper box fire engine. Then he used my phone as a remote, playing fire engine sounds on demand using some custom software he took a few minutes to write.

To securely attach the phone to the fire engine costume, he used a small box we had lying around. So impressive, right?! I have to admit the lights and sound effects of the fire engine were my favorite part 🙂

How to Make a Fireman’s Coat for a Halloween Costume

The last part of making a fire engine Halloween costume was figuring out the fireman’s hat and coat. Thinking ahead, I picked up a plastic fire hat from a giveaway table at a community event not too long ago.

As for the fireman’s coat, I had been procrastinating.

I was thinking about getting yellow tape to run across one of his coats or shirts, but I hadn’t made it to a craft store or Home Depot or any store other than the grocery store.

Then, I remembered my love of felt and found a couple of sheets that I cut up into strips.

I duct taped them on, and ran another half width piece of duct tape in the middle of the yellow strip.

The coat I used was a $2 red raincoat that I found at a thrift store months ago – what a unknowingly, perfect find for the fire truck costume.

The coat was the perfect touch to a cute fire truck costume. In pictures, the fireman’s coat totally looks store-bought. I love when my DIYs look like a store purchase 🙂

Time & Cost of Making a Fire Engine Costume

The total cost of making a fire truck Halloween costume was nothing! We made it all from things around our house. I love a project with a free cost! It took a couple of hours to put together.

More importantly, our little sweetheart had a wonderful Halloween, in the fire engine costume he specifically requested.

We were a little afraid that he wouldn’t wear the diaper box for too long. Yet, he got right into the Halloween spirit when he saw the smiles and sweets he was receiving.

Next year, it’s going to be hard to top this year’s diaper box fire engine costume. What are your most creative Halloween costumes? I’m going to need some ideas :))