Crafts

Throwing an Amazing Puzzle Theme Party

October 1, 2017 by Eileen 26 Comments

When deciding what kind of birthday party to have for our toddler, I was stumped. He wasn’t really into too many cartoon characters. He did enjoy tools, dinosaurs, and building – but none were a huge interest right now.

I started to think about how he spent most of his playtime and realized how often he gravitated toward puzzles. He enjoyed putting things together, he relished in accomplishment when completing a puzzle, and he loved staring at the pictures he put together.

So, a puzzle party it was! 🙂

There weren’t too many ideas on Pinterest or google for puzzle parties, which was great because I got to start with a blank canvas. Sometimes there are too many ideas out there, and it gets so overwhelming.

Now usually I’m a super crazy organizer and planner, but I have to be completely honest and say that I didn’t start planning this party months or even weeks ahead of time. I was super behind and quite a bit pregnant, so the entire party came together in just a week and a half. However, I took my own party planning advice and kept everything extremely simple.

I also created printables each step of the way, so I can easily share them with you!

Making Puzzle Decorations

My favorite part of every party is working on the decorations because you can take one little idea and run with it. To your guests, it will look like you went overboard, when really you are using the same item over and over.

Puzzle Piece Cut-Outs

Used for Goody Bags, Food Labels, Banners, and Balloons

Since the theme of the party was puzzles, I just cut a bazillion puzzle pieces out – and used them everywhere. (I have puzzle piece cut-outs in our free resource library in two different sizes, so you can efficiently use your paper).

I used large puzzle pieces for the birthday banners. Then, I cut medium-sized ones out of card stock (I love using bright color colored card stock.) With the medium sized pieces, I decorated the goody bags, labeled the food, made puzzle banners, and decorated the balloons.

I found the cute striped paper bags at Michaels and used my 40% coupon – then I simple taped a puzzle piece on. Simple and pretty, right!?

What’s inside the goody bags?

Inside the goody bags, I included blank puzzles (gotta love Amazon!) with crayons or markers, depending upon the age of the party guest. I also put in small wooden puzzles that I found at the dollar store for the younger kids. For the older kids, I included puzzle pair puzzles that I found at the dollar section of Target.

I also threw in some other things – bubbles are always a thrifty yet fun summer choice, and I found a few puzzles-in-a-bag at the craft store too.

To save money, I definitely recommend going to the dollar store, dollar section of Target, and the craft stores to find items that work. 🙂

Puzzle Piece Banners

For the puzzle banners, I simply glued a bunch of puzzle pieces to fishing line and then strung them on our shade sail outside.

I had my son work with me on counting and patterns as I put the banners together.

Balloons and More

You can use the puzzle pieces that you cut out for pretty much anything – decorating entrances to the party, taping a few to the balloons or pom-poms. Just cut out a whole bunch when you’re watching some mindless TV, and you’ll be surprised at how much you have to decorate with 🙂

If I had a little extra time, I would have done pom-poms too, but when you are short on time and super pregnant, something gets cut from the list 🙂

Download the Puzzle Party Pack

To make your puzzle party or puzzle activity planning simple, I created this party pack for you! It includes puzzle piece cut-outs in two sizes, all of the below game signs and activity descriptions, blank puzzle piece signs, and more. Simply join our mailing list 🙂

Painted Puzzle Pieces

Used for banners, party hats, and party crowns

For other decorations, I wanted to use smaller puzzle pieces, but didn’t want to spend the time cutting out such tiny pieces. So, I bought a bunch of dollar store puzzles (24 or 30 pieces seem to provide the best size pieces). I flipped them over and painted the back of the pieces. It helps if the back of the puzzle piece is white and not brown cardboard.

I then used these puzzle pieces to glue to party hats and to our little guy’s “Puzzle Prince” crown, and I even made a few fishing line strings of puzzle pieces to decorate the DIY photo booth.

This is a great pre-party activity that kids can help with too!

Making Puzzle Party Games

For the little ones, I love having party games that are more like activities or centers. Kids can freely move around and play at the stations – it’s perfect for toddlers and little kids.

Here’s a list of puzzle party games that I put together, and I have the signs and descriptions available to you in our free resource library.

Almost every game was super, super simple, but all together the array of activities was perfect.

1.) Puzzle Dig

This puzzle party game was simply a “sandbox” with puzzle pieces. I just took an under-bed storage container (with a lid) and filled it up with rice.

Then, I hid puzzle pieces from the dollar section at Target in the rice and tossed in some scoopers and sand toys from the Dollar Store.

This entertained my son for DAYS before the party, and the kids loved it!

2.) Puzzle Pitch

This party activity was simply a ball toss with a puzzle spin on it. I bought two foam boards from the dollar store and drew a huge puzzle piece on them.

Then, I did a little taping and then painted it with acrylic paints that I had laying around the house. After that, I cut a few holes for the bean bags or balls to go through. Last, I taped it to wooden dowels, so it would stand firm in the ground.

I tossed a few balls and bean bags in a bucket, and voila! The puzzle pitch was ready to go 🙂

3.) Puzzling Obstacle Course

This was another super simple party activity. I grabbed six pool noodles (another Dollar store find you can reuse) along with a few cones and threw together an obstacle course suited for little ones.

Then, I used duct tape to shape each pool noodle into a circle and then taped the circles together.

I spread the cones out to elongate the obstacle course. Also, I put out a few soccer balls, so kids could kick around the cones.

4.) Puzzle Island

This was by far the easiest of the puzzle party games. I just filled the water table up and threw in some foam puzzle pieces (yet another dollar store find!). If you are having a backyard toddler or kid party in the warm weather, a water table is the perfect thing to keep kids occupied and entertained.

Every year, I’m impressed at how much time the kids spend playing in the water table at our summer parties. It’s definitely a must-have for easiness and entertainment!

5.) Giant Jigsaws

This was by far my favorite of the games, and it made our little guy the happiest! With his love for puzzles, he couldn’t have been more excited that instead of building shelves and painting walls that Mommy and Daddy were building and painting a puzzle for him!

We shaped it into a dog and painted it with acrylic paints. We used…. but more details will be forthcoming on a future post 🙂

6.) Puzzle Palace

I also placed a Puzzle Palace sign on the little playhouse we have in the yard and tossed some more foam puzzles in the little kitchen area.

I was going to add a craft station, where kids could decorate their own puzzle crown, but I figured this age group was a little young for that.

This was the perfect example of how something so simple (hanging a sign and tossing in some puzzle pieces) makes for another cute touch at a child’s birthday party. See, you don’t need to go crazy to throw a great party. Simple ideas and activities can tie everything together nicely.

And for the grown-ups…

With Ash and my large immediate families, we always have a decent amount of adults at our little kid parties. I thought it would be fun to throw a bunch of puzzle pieces in a container and have party attendees guess how many pieces were in the container. And, of course the prize was…. a puzzle!

It was super cute, and I had my son stand on a chair and announce the winner. He was really excited – and it gave him the opportunity to give someone else a gift on his birthday. 🙂

Making a DIY Puzzle Banner

For every party or small celebration we have, my go-to banner is this simple one that I made – which is available in our free resource library. I love it because it’s easily customizable (no printing extra letters) and you can easily glue the letters to any kind of background.

For this banner, I used card stock that I cut into puzzle pieces. I simply taped the Happy Birthday letters to the puzzle pieces. Then, I used fishing line and hot glue to attach the pieces.

It was quick and worked like a charm!

Puzzle-Themed Food?

As far as food, I love a good theme party, so I can label all of the food after the theme of the party. (Check out the amazing menu from our Beatles party). However, not only did the puzzle party theme give me less to work with – but our eating has really changed the past year or so.

Our family has moved into a gluten-free, high fruit and vegetable-based diet. We love eating this way, and we want our parents and sisters to be eating well too. So chips, sugary cakes, cheesy pastas, and hot dogs won’t be found on our table. Instead, we made a really healthy spread (that went over really well!), and as far as creative food labels, we just used the puzzle pieces to label what everything was. It wasn’t as creative as our past parties, but it tied everything together well.

So, I guess you are probably wondering about the cake. We did have a cake of some sorts – it was chocolate coconut fudge that I last-minutely shaped into a puzzle piece. Perfect for a puzzle party!

There was some sugar in the chocolate chips, but overall it was a pretty healthy dessert that we were comfortable with and everyone loved!! It’s our new go-to birthday treat in our house – check out the recipe here 🙂

So, why did my super pregnant self still throw a party this year?! Because there’s nothing more special than seeing that smile on your child’s face when they see the decorations and games you made for them 🙂

And, through keeping the DIY party decorations, games, and preparation easy, it was completely manageable. If you were wondering if you can pull off a DIY party, the answer is yes!

Just keep it simple and reuse the same decorations again and again.

How to Make Easy Fall Puppets (With a Puppet Theater)

September 17, 2017 by Eileen 17 Comments

I was sitting with my toddler the day after his birthday, surrounded by all kinds of new gifts. But what was he playing with? An empty cardboard box that previously housed one of his new toys.

All these new toys, and he’s playing with the with boxes and wrapping.

Every time we have an empty box – usually a diaper box – our son climbs in and pretends he’s driving some kind of vehicle. Or he fills it with his stuffed animals and pushes it around. Or, he tries to get the dog in the box.

Just as much as our toddler loves to play with the diaper boxes, I love when I can upcycle them into something useful. We’ve made a fire truck diaper box halloween costume, storage bins (you can’t tell they are diaper boxes when you cover them with cute contact paper and add a knob), and pretend race cars.

I was looking for an easy fall craft for toddlers, and as my son was running around the house with the empty diaper box on his head, inspiration struck.

We could make simple popsicle stick puppets with a fall theme and use the diaper box for a puppet theater. I got to upcycle a cardboard box, and my son got his “toy” of choice. 🙂

Easy Fall Kids Craft

I love to keep things simple. If it’s too many steps or materials, then it’s not the craft for us.

For our popsicle stick puppets and diaper box puppet theater, all of our materials came from around the house – making the cost nothing!

It was also an easy craft to do, which gave my son enough room to be creative.

Making the Popsicle Stick Puppets

I figured the easiest way to make popsicle stick puppets for fall was by using simple shapes to do so. Since my son is still so young, I drew a few shapes – circles, squares, triangles of various sizes, ovals, and trapezoids and cut them out.

To make the fall craft even easier for you, I created a printable (scroll to end for free printable) with all of the shapes we used – that you could simply print, trace, and cut.

Materials for the Popsicle Stick Puppets

Card stock or construction paper – I prefer card stock for kids crafts because it’s thicker and easier to work with
Popsicle sticks
Markers, crayons, or chalk – for drawing faces
Embellishments – yarn, googly eyes, stickers, buttons, or anything you have around the house
Glue, Tape, and Scissors
Optional – Shapes Template (see bottom of the page)

How to Make Popsicle Stick Puppets for Fall

First, trace and cut out the shapes. Then, I placed all of the shapes in front of my little guy and helped him to create fun fall faces. For example, we matched a big triangle to a big oval to make the witch’s hat.

Then, we simply glued the hat to a circle to make the witch’s face. Next, we decorated her face with yarn hair and googly eyes. Last, we taped the face to a popsicle stick.

For embellishments on your puppets, you can use anything that you have around the house. I like to go around and collect things and put them in a bin – and then we have all of our materials in front of us. It’s fun to also include the kids in this – like a scavenger hunt.

My little guy loves running around and finding things to use for our projects. In collecting things, we found some leftover burlap from a banner and cut a piece to use for the scarecrow’s hat. I think that was our best find 🙂

So, we then continued to choose shapes and decorate, turning our shapes into fun fall figures for our puppet theater. My son, who barely sits still, looooved decorating the faces.

I was so impressed with this cute little monster he made. That’s one of things I love about doing crafts with kids – they will surprise you 🙂

Making the Cardboard Box Puppet Theater

The puppet theater was fun to make because I love upcycling things – less to recycle too 🙂 I simple grabbed a diaper box and got to work 🙂

Materials for the Puppet Theater

Cardboard box or even a piece of cardboard that you can bend into a trifold
Xacto Knife (to cut the window)
Item of your choice to cover the box with – felt, wrapping paper, construction paper, etc
Ruler
Glue (type of glue depends on the material you use to cover the box)
Optional – embellishments such as stickers, felt shapes, letters, etc

How to Make a Cardboard Box Puppet Theater

Since our diaper box was on the small side, our puppet theater was going to be a tabletop theater. You could always use a bigger box or a big trifold and make it a bigger theater. However, I like to use what we have, so a diaper box it was 🙂

First, I cut off the top flaps of the box. I also cut off one of the four sides – to turn the box into a tri-fold. I also removed one of the bottom flaps. Next, I drew a window and cut it out with an Xacto knife.

After that, I grabbed some felt and hot glued it to the box. Surprisingly, I only used three sheets of felt. I love to work with felt and had a huge stack of it, but you could also use wrapping paper or construction paper or whatever you have lying around the house.

Last, my son decorated the front of the theater with shape stickers.

Learning Extensions – Easy Fall Kids Craft

There are so many ways you can tie learning into crafts with kids. This easy fall craft for toddlers was centered upon shapes.

Not only was my little guy identifying shapes but he was working with them to create fun fall puppets – i.e. small triangles make cat ears, large triangles are perfect for hats, and heads can be circles or squares. Other skills that this easy fall craft for toddlers included was the use of fine motor skills to glue, cut out simple shapes, and draw faces.

You can also tie this activity in with a fall book, like this pumpkin shapes book. This one is a great Halloween lift-the-flap book – the drawings in this one make it easy to pick out different shapes you see. You could also take a trip to the local library for an extension too.

Last, if your kids are not toddlers, they can totally do this craft and more independently. In fact, you could simply print the shapes template, have them trace, cut, and decorate themselves. And, puppet theaters are perfect for kids of all ages.

So, if you have a box laying around the house or if it’s a rainy, cold day and you are looking for something to occupy the kids, making these easy popsicle stick puppets with a cardboard box theater is the perfect activity.

Your child will love playing with the decked out cardboard box, and you’ll have yourself a few hours of free time after an easy upcycled project. 🙂

How to Make an Amazing Robot Scarecrow

September 7, 2017 by Ash 21 Comments

With fall around the corner, there was a local scarecrow festival coming up. Eileen and I check out their scarecrows every year and always talk about making one when our son was old enough to understand and be excited about it.

Well, this was the year to actually do. Even better, they had a new “Out of this World” category which was right up my alley. I love anything outer space related. So I put my thinking cap on to come up with an idea.

Then, as my son was singing nursery rhymes one day, inspiration struck when he got around to “Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle..”

I was going to make a robot cow titled “Moo-bot Over the Moon.”

Unlike your traditional scarecrow made from straw, I planned on ditching the straw in favor of sheet metal – a more robot friendly material. I also envisioned an interactive scarecrow. In all our years of visiting this competition, I’ve never saw a scarecrow that invited you to interact with it.

So, to make my robot really stand out, I wanted a button that people could press. The button would wake up the robot and he would start telling some cow related jokes. Who doesn’t like some good cow humor?

How to Make a Robot Scarecrow

Here’s a video of Moo-bot in action. He’s an interactive cow that has blinking eyes, a moon that lights up, and plays through a reel of jokes every time the button is pressed.

Pretty cool, right? So here’s how to make a robot scarecrow. First, I started with the robot body, and then I housed the electrical components. After that I worked on the robot head and then I covered everything with sheet metal to make it weather-proof.

Next, I added some cow accessories, and then I mounted it to the post with a moon – completing the play on the nursery rhyme – “Moo-Bot Over the Moon.”

How to Make a Robot Body

To start, I needed to come up with a design. After a few pencil and paper drawings, I relied on TinkerCAD to assist with the design.

Here is what I came up with (I made the body semi-transparent so you can see what the inside looks like):I designed Moo-Bot to be easy to transport. So it separates into three parts – the body, head and post. Each attaches to one another securely with a large bolt and wingnut.

Constructing the Robot Cow’s Body

First I started working on the body. I constructed a frame using ¾” strips of wood cut from my table saw. I did use some 3.5” thick pieces for extra rigidity though. The body frame needed to be strong as it would house all the electronics. I connected all the pieces using construction adhesive and wood screws.

Here is a picture of the completed frame:

Constructing the Mount

At the bottom middle of the frame was a mount to insert the post. The post would have a hole drilled into it. Once the post was inserted into the mount, a bolt would run through both of them, making a very secure connection.

Here is a closeup of the mount before I attached it to the body:

How to House the Electrical Components

With the body done, I added in some of the internal electrical components as shown below:

The top left contained a removable board hosting some circuitry for the brains of our robot cow. The top right contains the speakers, and below are eight D sized batteries, split into two sections.

For the speakers, I MacGyvered the power adapter below:

The speakers supported four AA batteries, but I wanted to power it from eight D batteries. So I saw an area in the battery compartment to insert some wires, and secured them in place with some metal washers. I then drilled a small hole in the compartment lid for the wires to stick out.

To activate our robot cow, I added this on/off toggle switch:

Even though the switch was located inside our robot cow, it was positioned so I could access it from underneath.

Building the Robot’s Head

The next part of Moo-Bot I tackled was the head. The design was really just one rectangular frame sitting perpendicular on top another identical frame. Here’s what the finished robot’s head looks like.

Similar to the body design, I made the frames from more strips of ¾” wood. I connected the pieces together with construction adhesive and my finishing nail gun.

Here’s a picture showing the individual frames:

Here are the frames assembled to form the iconic robot cow’s head:

Wrapping the Robot’s Head with Sheet Metal

Next up was the sheet metal wrapping.

I first did the sides of the head, as those were the easiest. Using some metal shears, I cut pieces out to match the outline of the side of the head. Then I clamped the pieces down and attached to the wooden frame with some screws.

Here is the first cut piece of sheet metal:

I had to be careful with the sharp edges and corners. Most of the time I wore thick gloves to protect my hands while cutting.

Flattening the Metal

Occasionally, I would get slightly warped cut corners due to the shears pinching the metal. These warps and bumps needed to be flattened for a proper finish.

I found that my Kreg face clamp did an amazing job flattening uneven pieces of sheet metal, as seen below:

Making the Robot Weather-Proof

For the next pieces, I had to think carefully about which ones needed to be bent and overlap other pieces. This was a critical step in making a rainproof head.

All pieces of sheet metal cuts that left a crevice or opening for rain to run inside the head needed an overlapping sheet to divert the water. I was essentially wrapping the head in flashing.

The next cut of sheet metal was the face piece where the eyes were. This part needed some bending at the bottom to divert any rain water, as well as an eyehole cut.

To bend the sheet metal, I used this nifty metal bending tool.

Here’s a picture showing the bent robot face piece:

After cutting the face piece, I worked on the eye holes. I etched an outline with my utility knife and cut a hole with my jigsaw (using metal cutting blades).

Unfortunately, I didn’t do such a great job cutting and the hole was a bit jagged. So I masked my mistakes by wrapping the cut edges with some black weatherproofing tape. It actually turned out to be a really nice visual touch.

Here’s a picture of the finished face piece:

It sort of looks like a welding masking. It was perfect for a robot.

Adding Accessories and a Mount to the Robot

The next step of the process was adding accessories to our robot cow.

Finishing the Robot’s Eyes

For the eyes, I first attached a piece of plexiglass inside the head. This would keep rain out.

Next, I came up with this clever design for positioning the LED screens for the two eyes:

Here is a picture of the partially completed head, sitting next to the body:

Moo-Bot is really starting to take shape at this point.

Mounting the Robot Head

Here is a picture of the mounting mechanism I used to secure the head to the body (you can also see my fancy ears made from springs and pipe straps):

Next, I attached the mouthpiece containing the interaction button.

Creative Robot Nostrils

Also, I wanted to add some sort of decoration representing nostrils.

I dug around the garage looking for inspiration when I came across some rubber washers. I think they were meant to be used in a hose. Regardless, they would be perfect for nostrils.

I stacked four of them together, and attached to the mousepiece with a regular metal washer for a cool robotic nostril effect.

Here’s the completed head capped off at the top:

Giving the Robot Head a Plug and Play Design

Since I wanted the head to be easily detachable, I needed a quick way to disconnect/reconnect the wiring.

I really didn’t want to have to plug back in all the wires from the body to the head when I disconnected the head. So I came up with a clever custom made adapter, as seen below:

These adapters are actually for a computer power supply, but I repurposed them into cow robot adapters.

Here is a different view of the adapters:

The wires on the right plug straight into the body and the head. The cable on the left connects these two adapters. This setup allowed me to literally plug/unplug the head without the hassle of managing different wires and risk mangling my setup.

Fabricating a Sheet Metal Enclosure for the Robot Cow

Next came the fun task of building the sheet metal enclosure for the body. The enclosure was essentially two boxes, joined at a slight 15 degree angle. Each box was made from a long strip of sheet metal, bent twice to form a U shape.

So first I had to cut the sheet metal to size. I didn’t want to use my metal shears because it would take too long, and I probably would not get too accurate of a cut.

So I used some scrap wood and clamped the sheet down to a table, and made the cut quickly with my jigsaw (using a metal blade).

Here is a picture showing my cutting station:

After the cuts were made, I re-used my cutting station to also perform the folds:

Here are the completed boxes:

Here I am assembling the boxes at the 15 degree angle:

Bending the Robot Body

I could have just left the robot cow with a straight body without the slight bend (and a lot easier to build too), but aesthetically it would have looked boring. Also, I wanted an intentional bend in the body to highlight the fact that Moo-Bot was jumping over the moon.

I connected the overlapping boxes with small nuts and bolts, as seen below:

When the two body segments were joined, I needed to do something about the ridge they created at the top.

If left this way, our DIY robot would be very vulnerable to rain seeping in. So I made a simple ridge cap and attached it, as seen at the top of the picture below:

I also reinforced the ridge with some weatherproofing tape underneath, just in case rain still managed to find its way in:

Cutting Out an Access Panel

It was finally time to join the enclosure to the body frame. However, I had one remaining task to cut out a large hole in the back of the enclosure to serve as an access panel.

The hole would normally be covered by a rectangular cut piece of sheet metal, attached to the body frame with several screws. Then to gain access to Moo-Bot’s insides, it would just be a matter of removing those screws to take off the access panel covering.

Below is the access panel hole cut for the robot cow:

Here’s a picture showing the access panel covered (you’ll also notice that I added some wooden legs to help support our robot cow):

Adding in Robot Details

Here are some little feet I made for our robot cow scarecrow (springs would be inserted into the holes and attached to the wooden legs above):

Here’s a close-up of them dangling off the cow:

Making the Cow Spots

Eileen made some laminated decals for Moo-Bot’s cow spots. She drew them, printed them on our printer, and ran them through a laminator. The results were awesome, and would last in any weather.

Here is the laminator at work:

Cutting and Reinforcing the Scarecrow Post

Finally, it was time to work on the final piece – the scarecrow post. Per the competition’s instructions, the post had to be a 1 ½” square post. It also had to allow for about 18” of clearance at the bottom to be inserted into a metal stake secured into the ground.

So, I cut the post from a 2×4 piece of wood using my table saw. Next, I reinforced the scarecrow post with some metal bars.

The cow robot scarecrow was not that heavy, but I was worried that strong gusts of wind could snap the post. So metal reinforcement was essential, as seen below:

Constructing a Wooden Moon

To make the moon, I needed an 18” diameter wooden circle to attach to the post. I had a lot of plywood lying around, but I knew that the plywood edges would not fare well in the rain. So I needed to use solid boards.

Since boards didn’t come that large, I started with two 9”x18” boards as shown below:

Next, I joined them together with some pocket hole screws (using my Kreg pocket hole jig), forming a single 18”x18” square wood.

To form the circle, I simply used a 9” piece of wire, a pencil and a screw, as shown in the picture below:

I tied one end of the wire to the pencil and the other end to the screw.

Then while holding the screw down in the middle of the board, I ran the pencil around the board (with full extension of the wire), drawing a nearly perfect circle. Pretty nifty, right?

Next, I used my jigsaw to cut around the perimeter of the circle:

Once the complete circle for the moon prop was cut out, I placed the piece in a large clamp to sand down the edges really smooth:

After I sanded, I dusted it off and spray painted it outside with an exterior off-white paint.

When the paint was dry the next day, I got some help attaching it to the post:

Finally, I wrapped some LED lights around the moon, and quickly fabricated an adapter to plug into the body.

This is similar to the adapters used for plugging in the head.

As a side note, the LED lights I used for the moon were self-powered with their own batteries. The Arduino simply turns them off and on.

So, I didn’t have to worry about these lights competing with Moo-Bot’s batteries.

Wiring Up the Inside of the Robot Cow

The goal was to make the robot cow interactive. My thought was for Moo-Bot to play a friendly greeting when you pressed the button. After that, I compiled a series of cow-related jokes, such as the classic interrupting cow joke.

How did I get the robot to talk?

So, I had to include speakers for the sound and I decided to include two LED displays for the eyes. I got a little fancy and had the the moon light up too.

Since there would be no electrical outlet to plug into at the competition, our robot cow would also need to be battery powered and be capable of at least 2 months of continuous operation.

In order to do this, I made Moo-Bot’s brain a programmable Arduino microprocessor. This is just a simple device that made it easy for me to sync electronics up to a script.

An Arduino would be perfect because it was really easy to use, very cheap to buy, and extremely conservative on power consumption.

Here’s a picture of the Arduino:

How to Use the Ardunio Processor

Using the Arduino is simple. You plug it into your computer with a USB cable.

Then, use the free Arduino IDE software to write a program and upload the code to the device. The Arduino has a number of ports you can plug things into. Some carry power to accessories, while others receive and transmit information.

For example, when someone presses the interaction button on our robot cow’s face, that button sends a signal to one of the Arduino’s receive ports. My code detects that signal and sends a message (through a transmit port) to a mini MP3 player, telling it to play some pre-recorded audio.

I also programmed the Arduino to go to sleep every 60 seconds of idleness. This was to conserve on battery power. The robot cow only wakes up when the interaction button is pressed, then goes to sleep if no one presses the button again within one minute.

Sleep mode cuts off power to the speakers and lights, and turns off a majority of processing on the Arduino. While in sleep mode, only minimal battery power is used to check when the interaction button is pressed.

Moo-Bot’s Script

Here’s the exact script that Moo-Bot follows when woken up by the interaction button:

Plays “whirring” startup MP3 and the eyes open
Plays “introduction” MP3
Waits for button to be pressed again
On every button press, cycles through a number of pre-recorded MP3s telling cow jokes
30 seconds after no button press, plays, “Did you forget about me?” MP3
20 more seconds of no button press, plays “I am getting sleepy” MP3 and the eyes close
10 more seconds of still no button press, plays “goodbye” MP3 and Arduino goes to sleep

With the sleep logic in place, and powered by eight D sized batteries, I estimated our robot cow capable of lasting 3-6 months on battery, which was more than enough for the scarecrow competition.

The Robot’s Circuitry

Here is a barebones prototype of our robot cow’s circuitry and code in action:

The Arduino is on the far right. On the left is a circuit breadboard, where I have a number of accessories plugged in. The breadboard allows you to quickly connect electrical components without the need for soldering. The Arduino also has a limited number of ports physically available, so I use the breadboard to expand those ports.

I plugged into the breadboard above is a mini MP3 player (with an external speaker plugged in), and I used two LED displays for the eyes.

My favorite part of Moo-Bot are the eyes. The eyes are animated, randomly blink, and open really wide when you press the interaction button. They added a nice touch of character to our robot cow.

Here is a schematic of the complete circuit, if you are interested:

Finally, here is the electronic parts list if you are trying to make something similar yourself:

Entering the Robot Cow in the Competition

The day finally came when Moo-Bot had to say goodbye to my garage and join the rest of the scarecrows at the competition. We drove out there anxious to see our designated spot and to set up our robot cow.

I quickly got our robot cow setup (thanks to my modular plug and play design) and had him entertaining the crowd.

The robot cow scarecrow is all decked out in decals and fancy foot wear (below):

Moo-Bot was a sure blast to work on and everyone misses him here at home. We plan on visiting him regularly to make sure he is still fully operational, and wish him the best of luck in his competition.

Good luck Moo-Bot!

How to Make an Amazing Box Kite from Scratch

August 20, 2017 by Ash 24 Comments

There are few things more thrilling on a windy day than flying a nice kite that you built yourself. But, I’m not talking about ready to go kits that you snap together in 10 minutes. I’m referring to designing and building it yourself from scratch.

There’s so much satisfaction from watching your homemade handiwork take flight in the skies. I remember growing up making kites from just fishing line, sticks on the ground and plastic bags.

I wanted to relive those days, and build a kite for my son – so that’s exactly what I did 🙂 Here’s how to make a box kite from scratch.

Planning the Kite Design

This time around, I wanted to go beyond the standard diamond shaped kites that I used to make as a kid. My craftsmanship has significantly improved since I was 10 years old, and I wanted to construct something that was up to my present standards.

After some kite design research, I settled upon the box kite. If you are wondering how to make a box kite, it’s an easy project to work on.

It’s an elongated box frame with fabric wrapped on two ends, leaving the middle exposed. It also has two attached strings (with specific offsets to give the kite a better aerodynamic tilt during flight) which converge to a single string to control.

How to Make a Box Kite

Here is a TinkerCad sketch I made of my proposed design of how to make a box kite. I love using TinkerCad because it gives great 3D visuals of my DIY projects.

It just so happens that a few days before my birthday, Eileen was on the phone with one of her sisters and mentioned that we were planning to make a kite.

Her sister stealthily went on Amazon and ordered a few kite-making materials as a birthday present for me. So we lucked out with some nice wooden dowels, table cloths, and an awesome spool of string for the box kite. 🙂

Materials for the Box Kite

Here’s the list of materials we used. A few were sent via Amazon but most are easily found around the house.

⅜” 4 ft wooden dowels (5 of them)
Brightly colored lightweight plastic table covers
Fishing line
Stiff thin wires
Electrical tape
Shipping tape
Spool of string

Step 1 – Preparing the Wooden Dowels

Here’s a picture of the wooden dowels. Little do they know about their high flying adventures to come 😉

I only used four of the dowels. The extra one you can use to keep pets away from chewing your sticks while working on your kite 🙂

My kite is made of 4 long 36” dowels, and 4 short 12” dowels. That means I can just take my 48” dowels and cut them at the 12” mark, and I’m set.

Here is one of the dowels marked at 12” and clamped into my handy workbench vice, ready to be cut with the hacksaw:

Several cuts later, here is the end result:

Add some string to that and I could sell it as a kit online!

Step 2 – Constructing the Crosses

To make the crosses, I first marked the center points of each 12” dowel. Then I notched out partial holes using my Dremel. If you don’t have a Dremel, you can use a hack saw.

The notches allowed two intersecting dowels to form a lap joint for a rigid connection.

Here’s a picture showing the notches I made with the Dremel (and a high-speed cutting bit):

Here are the dowels intersecting via the notches:

The ends of these crosses were going to be in contact with the long 36” dowels. To make for a better fit, I opted to carve the ends of the crosses slightly with a concave cut. This would allow the crosses to rest nicely against the long dowels.

Once again, I used the Dremel to make the cut below (boy was the Dremel helpful in this project):

To make a strong connection between the crosses and the long dowels, I used wire that I inserted into small holes drilled into the dowels.

The wire would be twist tied and strongly pull the dowels together. So holes were drilled into each 36” dowel (where the crosses were going to be in contact. Likewise, matching holes were drilled into the crosses (to line up with the holes on the long dowels)

Here’s a picture showing one of the holes I made in a cross:

Step 3 – My Strengthening Process

The lap joints I made for the crosses were just the beginning of the strengthening process I used for maximum durability.

First, I put a dab of construction adhesive in each joint. Wood glue was another option, but in my experience, wood glue tends to be a lot more runnier. Construction adhesive is thicker and starts to give some tackiness almost immediately.

Then, I assembled the crosses with the glue in place, and started reinforcing the intersection by repeatedly wrapping it with some fishing line:

Finally, I used strips of strong repair tape to repeatedly wrap the intersections:

Here is one of the finished structural crosses (it’s very sturdy at this point):

Step 4 – Assembling the Kite Frame

Now it was time to start connecting the crosses to the long wooden dowels using wire and the holes I drilled earlier.

Here’s a close-up showing how the connections were made:

The wire ran through a hole in the cross, and a hole in the 36” dowel. Then it was twist-tied.

Here is the kite structure nearly completed with the crosses attached via wire:

The wires made for a very strong connection between the dowels. However, the structure was still a little wobbly. To remedy that, I wrapped all the wire joints with electrical tape:

The kite structure was now complete and very rigid. It should have no problems standing up to strong wind forces (and inevitable crashes).

Step 5 – Wrapping the Fabric

Next up was wrapping the ends with fabric. You can be very liberal with what type of fabric you use. Some people use garbage bags. Others use construction paper. I used plastic tablecloths that my sister-in-law sent for our kite-making. You can pick these tablecloths up at the dollar store too.

Here’s a picture showing one side of the kite wrapped:

I also made sure the fabric was wrapped nice and tight around the structure. Then, I used a lot of shipping tape to help secure and reinforce the fabric.

I applied tape inside to help keep the fabric attached to the dowels. I also used tape where the fabric overlapped itself and on all the exposed edges of the fabric.

Here’s a close-up showing how the edges of the fabric were reinforced with tape:

This last step with taping the edges was especially important to prevent the fabric from ripping as wind gushed through the structure. It would also help during landings to prevent tearing.

Here is the kite with fabric applied to both sides:

Step 6 – Stringing the Kite

Now to make the string connections. String attaches to the top of the kite, and then again about ¾ down the kite. Then a final string connects to this one, and will be used to control the kite from the ground.

To attach string securely to the kite, I once again drilled some small holes and used more wire. The wires made a hook for the string to tie onto and not slide around.

Here’s a close-up of one of the wire hooks:

Here’s a picture showing how I attached the second string to the one above:

My Fancy Birthday Spool

That fancy metal clip connects to a string wrapped around a spool. The spool will be held by the kite flyer and reeled in and out as extra length is needed.

This nice kite flying spool came with a cool lightweight clip to quickly attach/detach to kites. If you aren’t so lucky, you can just wrap a long string around a stick and use that instead.

Here is the completed kite with spool of string:

Ready for Take-Off

The kite was now complete! We went to the park for a nice open area and really lucked out with a windy day!

Zeus had been wondering what we were working on and was overjoyed for his trip to the park. He got to run along with the box kite and enjoy a windy evening outside.

The homemade box kite was a really fun project to work on. It only took a few hours, and didn’t cost much to make. I can’t wait until my son’s old enough to create his own designs with me. His interest is already peaked – we are definitely a family of engineers.

Now when we have windy days this summer and fall, we have our hand-constructed box kite ready to go 🙂

If you have been wondering how to make a box kite, these six easy steps will have your kite ready in no time. All you’ll need then is a windy day.

It’s a great family project, kids activity, or couples activity – and who doesn’t love a great DIY project?!

How to Make an Amazing DIY Lamp from Anything

July 23, 2017 by Eileen 51 Comments

I love when inspiration strikes – especially when it makes for an awesome DIY project.

When we put my grandma’s house on the market, we did a ton of cleaning, emptying, selling, and donating.

One of the last things left was a homemade fishing lamp that was set aside for my uncle who enjoyed fishing. He wasn’t interested in the lamp, so on closing day, my dad grabbed the lamp on his way out of the door. It was the very last item left.

That’s when the inspiration came.

My dad does not fish – however, he is a model train collector, and he noticed that the base of the lamp would perfectly fit one of his trains.

So, he repurposed the old fisherman’s lamp into a train lamp, rewiring it with a three-way light switch that toggles the main lamp light as well as a train cabin light.

How cool is that?!

My dad’s friends loved his repurposed lamp so much that my dad decided to make one from scratch for his friend’s birthday.

How to Make a Lamp

Today, we are sharing how to make this amazing DIY lamp. Ash made the base, and my dad did the rest. For clarity, we’ll state all the directions in first person point of view. Without further ado, here are all of the details on how you can make a DIY lamp too.

You can use any item or model that you’d like 🙂

DIY Lamp Materials

Model for lamp
Piece of 2 x 10 for base
2 x 1 ¼ wood for lamp pole
Electrical lamp components (3 way 2-circuit socket switch and threaded lamp pipe)
Lamp wiring, shade and bulbs

How to Make the Base of the DIY Lamp

First I started with the base of this DIY lamp. It is 15 ½” by 9.” Depending upon what model that you are putting on the lamp, it can be larger or smaller. I used a train that was nearly 12″ long so these measurements worked out perfectly.

To make the base, I started with a rectangular block of scrap wood (cut from a 2×10 board). My plan was to shape it into an oval, route a groove around the top perimeter and sand it smooth.

To get a perfect oval, I used the computer. I created an oval in software, printed it and laid the cutout on the scrap wood. I then outlined the cutout with a pencil.

With a perfect oval outline on the wood, I made a rough cut with the jigsaw. Then, I used an orbital sander to smooth the edges.

When I was happy with the result, I used my plunge router with a quarter round bit and cut a groove around the edge to give the oval a professional touch.

To finish the base, I used the orbital sander once again to smooth the flat surfaces.

Here is the completed base:

How to Make the Lamp Pole

Next was the lamp pole. The pole was 2 1/2″ by 1 1/2″ by 8 1/4″ high upright. So, 2″ by 1 ¼ ” wood could be used. When choosing your model to go on the base, keep in mind the height of the pole, as it might need to be greater to allow room above the model and below the shade in order to reach lamp switch.

First, mark the center of each end of the upright wood pole. Then carefully drill from both ends. Use a level, so that holes drilled closely align in the middle.

A small round file is helpful if the holes do not align.

I used 3/8″ drill, as it perfectly allowed for a standard threaded lamp pipe to fit snugly in the hole.

Here’s the threaded lamp pipe inserted into the pole.

Applying Finish

After that, stain and then polyurethane both pieces of wood. I did two coats of stain on the base and it was perfect.

I let the stain, and then polyurethane each dry overnight.

Additional Lamp Pole Work

Returning to the lamp pole, on the side that is to be the back of the lamp, I drilled a 5/16 hole. This hole was made at a 45 degree angle about 1” from the bottom. I drilled until it connected with the existing ⅜ hole.

Then, on the front side of the pole, drill a very similar hole, about 2″ from the bottom.

Here’s one of the 45 degree holes I made:

Assembling the Electrical Parts

Next, I threaded the electrical lamp cord (stranded) into both holes until there are a few inches of each above the top end of the wood.

Next, I aligned the electrical lamp components.

Note that the socket has to be the type with a three-way switch. This way it will work both it’s own socket and a remote one sequentially.

The spacer and the socket bottom will thread into the threaded lamp piece that will be inserted into the wood.

Attaching the Lamp Pole

Once that is done, I centered the upright wooden lamp pole at the rear of the base.

Then, trace the outline with a pencil. Divide that shape in two, and locate the center of each of the two halves.

Afterward, drill pilot holes through the base at those spots.

Next, turn the base over, and enlarge the holes. However, they should be a diameter less than that of the screws to be used. So, use a countersink drill bit so that the wood screw heads will be recessed.

Then, insert the screws until they protrude slightly from the top side.

Afterward, set the post in position so that the screw tips mark the underside of the post where the screws will enter the bottom of that post.

Next, drill screw holes in bottom of the post where marked, and hold the two pieces of wood together tightly while screws are tightened.

I used 2 1/2″ wood screws due to thickness of the base. If post is not level due to any warp in the base, insert a shim under the post or remove post and trim its bottom surface.

Assembling the Lamp Parts

Next, you want to very carefully read the instructions that came with the socket.

With both wires extended through the threaded lamp pipe and the socket base, push the pipe down into the wood base. If it doesn’t fit tightly, put some wood glue on the threads first.

Next, very neatly wire the socket exactly as the instructions state, noting which wire will go to the wall outlet and which to the model.

After, put the metal cover on the socket, and slowly pull the excess wires at both small holes at the base of the posts.

Then, I snapped the socket cover into its base. Make sure that the lamp switch is to the right side.

Customizing the Model

Next, I disassembled the model I was building into the lamp. I used the mounting holes in the small socket as a template for drilling holes in the floor of the model for screws to attach the socket.

Also, I drilled a hole for the electrical wire to enter the model.

With the small socket attached to the model with screws, washers, and nuts, use a pair of 5″ or longer twist ties to securely fasten the model’s axles to the rear rail of the track.

Next, I installed the small frosted light bulb into model’s socket. You could also consider taping thin yellow plastic sheet pieces over the insides of the model’s windows to dim glare.

Finishing the Lamp

After, install the lamp cord plug for wall outlet, allowing about 6′ of cord.

Then, reassemble the model, adding the lamp shade and a standard light bulb.

Here is the finished DIY lamp, featuring a model train.

Here is the finished DIY lamp along with the repurposed lamp that was previously a fishing lamp. Not bad, right?! The best part is that now that you know how to make a DIY lamp – you can make one with any kind of model. The sky’s the limit!

10 Ways to Save on Amazon Prime Day

July 10, 2017 by Eileen 16 Comments

Over here, we a little Amazon-Prime-obsessed.

Our mudroom always has Amazon boxes in it, waiting to emptied or waiting to be recycled.

I mean, when you have two little kids in diapers with nap times that span the whole day, there’s no easier way to shop for what you need.

Not only that, we’ve gotten some pretty cool tools and DIY-related things on Amazon.

So, Prime Day is like our birthday.

And what better way to celebrate than to share with you 10 ways to save on Amazon Prime Day.

Be Prepared

Amazon Prime Day starts on July 16th at 3pm. Mark your calendar!

Think About How You Can Save

Think about things you need to buy now or in the future, so you can get the most out of the discounts. Is there a tool you’ve had your eye on? Are their Christmas present ideas that could help you with early shopping? Think about how you can best benefit from the deals.

Become a Prime Member

If you aren’t a Prime Member, you can sign up for a 30 day FREE trial. You can’t beat that!

Download the Amazon App for Automatic Discount

If you’ve never downloaded the Amazon app before (and you are a prime member), you’ll get a one-time $10 discount off your purchase.

Use the Amazon App to Unlock Discounts

If you’ve already downloaded the Amazon app, you won’t qualify for the above discount. However, there are more ways to save. For example, if you use the Camera Search within the app, you’ll get a $5 discount.

Take Advantage of Sneak Peeks

If you download the Amazon app, you can get sneak peeks on the deals and set up alerts ahead of time.

Install Amazon Assistant

If you’re a Prime member and you install Amazon Assistant (to get desktop notifications on deals), you’ll get $5 off your purchase of $25.

“Watch” the Deals

Once Prime Day starts, you’ll see tons of deals – some will be advertised before they start. You can click “watch” and then you’ll get notified right before the deal goes live.

Don’t Forget About Whole Foods

Not only will Whole Foods be offering some exclusive deals, but Prime members are getting 10% off their entire purchase at Whole Foods on Amazon Prime Day. Whoa!

Check Other Stores

Other big stores like Home Depot or Lowes tend to also run sales on Prime Day, so don’t forget to check out what they have to offer too, especially if you’re looking for a particular item.

There are definitely some awesome ways to save this year, so definitely try and take advantage of them. I know that we will be! And, come back to our blog on Amazon Prime Day because we will be sharing the best DIY deals with you!

Click here for even more Prime Day shopping tips.

Easy DIY Wall Art for Kids Rooms

June 10, 2017 by Eileen 120 Comments

This post is sponsored by My Wonderful Walls. All opinions are entirely my own.

Recently, Ash and I have been getting a toddler room ready for our sweet little son, which means new furniture, new color schemes, and of course, new wall decorations. His nursery decorations were random things that I put together before he was born. So it was time to decorate with something he really enjoys. With all of the adorable (and expensive!) artwork out there for kids’ rooms, I decided to venture out and make my own.

My goal was to create something special to hang on his walls that he would treasure – and that I wouldn’t grow tired of later. So, with just a few key materials, I was able to create these adorable DIY canvas wraps. They are so simple to make! .

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We love My Wonderful Walls products so much that we also have a 15% off coupon code for everyone. Just visit My Wonderful Walls and use JUNE15 at checkout (expiration June 30, 2017).

If you are the lucky winner of the giveaway, you can use the coupon code too. They have some awesome stickers, decals, and stencils 🙂

How to Make DIY Wall Art for Kids Rooms

I had this vision to create something with little effort that would also save others time and money on room decorations.

This vision included using gallery wraps or wrapped canvases. I wanted to avoid the hassle of frames – it’s a lot of work to pick out frames, mats, and work out sizing. As an added bonus, wrapped canvases are super easy to find at craft stores, usually are on sale, and definitely save money- as frames and mats are much more expensive. Plus, I was happy to avoid having a bunch of glass frames hanging in my son’s room.

Next, I searched high and low looking for wall stickers or wall decals that I liked. Yet, rather than stick these directly to the walls to create a mural-like piece, my thinking was that I could easily stick these wall decals to the canvases. It would certainly make for a really simple but elegant project.

The problem? A lot of wall decals for kids look really cartoony. I wanted to find something that looked more authentic and artistic.

Then, I stumbled across My Wonderful Walls and LOVED the vehicle stickers they had. Their vehicle stickers have so many colors and details – they look almost textured. I fell in love with this rusty truck (pictured below). Isn’t it adorable?!

Also, their wall stickers were a really nice size and would definitely fill 9×12 and 8×10 canvases.

Materials for DIY Wall Art

Canvas Wraps – easily found at craft stores
Acrylic Paint – found at craft stores
Painter’s tape – only if painting stripes or chevron designs
Washi tape, if desired
Alphabet stickers, if desired – easy to find at craft stores
Vehicle Wall Stickers – from My Wonderful Walls (15% off using JUNE15 – exp. June 30, 2017)

Budget-Friendly Tip – When buying the canvases, paint, and other materials from the craft stores, check for sales and coupons before going. A lot of times the craft stores run 40%-60% off canvases. You could also use a coupon and buy a pack in bulk. Some craft stores even have surveys you can fill out that gives you a discount off of your next purchase.

In order to get the sizes right on the canvases, I waited to purchase the canvases until I received the stickers. Then, I took the vehicle decals to the craft store with me, so that I would get the canvas sizes right. The wall decals came in one long roll, so it was easy to bring to the store with me.

Because the vehicle stickers from My Wonderful Walls were a really nice size (and this was their mini kit), most of the canvases I bought were 9×12, 8×10, and a few 8x8s.

I also picked up a few little 4×6 canvases for the road signs. With all of the stickers and canvases, I definitely had enough to decorate a large room.

Making the Wall Decorations

After I had my materials together, I first cut out each wall sticker and placed it on the canvas that it would go on. I also arranged groups of canvases together to visualize how they would look on the wall.

Painting the Canvases

Time to paint! You could do this in a few different ways – you could just paint a solid background or you could create a design with painters tape – like stripes or chevron. You could even do polka dots, if you have adhesive circles! It’s up to you how creative you’d like to be.

I decided to opt for mostly solid backgrounds with a few striped canvases too. The solid background was easy to do. It took me two coats of acrylic paint. Be sure to paint the sides too – to give it the gallery wrap look.

Making the Perfect Stripes

Painting the stripes was a little more difficult, but I eventually got a perfect technique down. I would highly recommend using painter’s tape and nothing else, as you will get the strongest stick.

On my first attempt, I used painter’s tape and then painted the blue stripes – and I got a very imperfect line. After a bunch of experimenting (even tried gesso – which made no impact), this is how I got perfect stripes.

Place your painter’s tape on the canvas.
Next, use white acyrlic paint to seal the edges of the painters tape to the canvas. You are essentially creating a seal, so the intended color (blue in my case) doesn’t leak under the tape.
Wait a minute or two – but don’t let the white dry completely, and paint the stripe your intended color. Do a even stroke, going only one direction, so that your intended color doesn’t get underneath the tape.
Peel the tape off right away (after you are done with the top and bottom line). Once acrylic paint dries, it’s very plastery, so you want to remove the tape before the paint dries.

In the below picture, you can see the first stripe painted, with a perfectly straight line. Above that, you can see the white sealed edges along the green painter’s tape.

Now, some of my blue stripes were streaked with white from the seal I painted, but I much preferred going over the stripe again rather than having a jagged edge.

I also recommend having a practice canvas and painting short stripes, before attempting a good canvas. Once I had the routine down, each of my canvases came out perfect.

Decorating the Canvases

Now for the fun part! It was time to stick the vehicle wall decals to the canvases. The wall stickers were such great quality and so easy to work with. The stick was perfect – and they were easy to move when I changed my mind on placement.

Adding a Few Extras

One of the things I definitely wanted on the canvases was the name of the vehicle. My son is very visual and has taught himself lower case letters just from observation, so I figured if I passively have the names of the vehicles on the canvases, he will learn to spell.

So, I labeled as many vehicles as I could with the alphabet stickers I had. (This involved getting a little creative and “making” some letters).

Last, I felt that some of the canvases needed a little extra touch. I saw some cool washi tape at the craft store and added it to the canvases.

I’ve never used washi tape before, but I’ve seen so many cute creations with it that I thought I could use the washi tape to give the look of roads, construction signs, and railroads. It was the perfect touch!

Time & Cost

After collecting the materials, the DIY wall canvases took about one to two days to make, including dry time for the coats of paint. It was a super quick project.

The cost really depends on how many of the materials you need to purchase. If you have paint and alphabet stickers, then you’ll just need the canvases and stickers.

And, if you are interested in FREE wall decals, enter our giveaway – and you’ll be well on your way to making these adorable room decorations. Free wall decals plus the coupon code (JUNE15) will definitely save you money on the project 🙂

If you are looking for a simple tutorial to make DIY wall art for kids rooms, definitely consider this one. The materials were easy, the canvases were simple to put together, and they turned out great. You’ll definitely save money while creating something your children will adore.

Awesome Ideas for Making DIY Photo Books

May 18, 2017 by Eileen 32 Comments

I absolutely adore photographs. My walls are covered with galleries of pictures – whether they date back to when my parents and grandparents were young or when my siblings and I were growing up.

Not to mention, Ash’s childhood pictures which are just amazing.

And, I simply adore looking back at pictures of our sweet son. It’s funny how quickly kids change.

Whether it’s a look back on one’s life in pictures or a little memory book of a fun day trip, DIY photo books are simply the sweetest gifts.

They spread love and laughter, bringing back all those happy memories that are forgotten in the day-to-day.

My sisters share my love for photos, and we love making picture albums with all kinds of DIY photo book ideas.

We love to choose some kind of theme with funny, silly, or relevant sayings that accompany the pictures. These photobooks are so unique and such a hit, as they turn out amazing!

Keep reading for all of our DIY photo book ideas!

Check out our four favorites – a photobook of commonly-used sayings, quotations from various countries of travel, a Seinfeld-themed book, and special occasion photobooks. Then, see how you can easily make a DIY photo book for the ones you love.

60 Photos, 60 Catchphrases

The first photo book my sisters and I made was a scrapbook style album for our mom’s 60th birthday. Over the years, our mom has coined so many cliches and phrases, so we used these sayings in the DIY photo book gift. 🙂

She always says “I’ll let you get going” but keeps talking. When passing a hay truck, she always asks if we made a wish. When seeing something that reminds her of her parents – our nanny and poppy who have passed- she always says, “You know who would have loved this…” 🙂

And growing up, there was the saying I used to dread. At the end of the weekend or a vacation from school, she would always say in a bummed out tone, “Back to reality.” Boy did that snap us right back…

So, my sisters and I brainstormed all of the the phrases we could (this involved a few phone calls and visits to mom to jog our memories) and picked our favorite 60 phrases.

Then, we went through all of the photos – past and present – and matched the phrases with relevant pictures. This was especially entertaining. Looking through piles and albums of old photos was a blast – and we were cracking up matching photos with mom’s sayings.

We found one of mom cleaning the dishes for “The kitchen is closed,” a picture with all of us standing with our coats on for “I’ll let you get going,” an old first day of school picture for “Back to reality,” a picture of us playing in the hay for “Did you make a wish,” and many more.

Then, we put the pictures in chronological order, so it was like a real photo album, telling the story of the past 60 years in the DIY photo book.

As far as the design for the DIY photo book, we made this book like a scrapbook, printing the pictures and gluing them down.

We even printed each saying in a unique font. For example, the school pictures had a font made of pencils and the “Ok ty <3” text message was written in a typewritten font. I love how much character that fonts add, so this definitely made for a nice touch.

The DIY photo book turned out amazing. Not only does my mom treasure it, but the photo book always gives us a good laugh too. It’s such a fun way to put together a collection of photos from the past.

4 Countries, 40 Years of Marriage

With my in-law’s 40th anniversary coming up, my sister-in-law and I decided to make mom and dad a photo book too. Ash and his family have had the unique experience of living in four countries. Each of these places had their own sayings, dialects, and cliches.

Ash, my sister-in-law, and I picked out sayings that were common to those countries. Then, we paired them with pictures of his family at that time. I absolutely love the way this DIY photo book turned out!

The sayings were so funny to hear. I mean Ash talking in a Jamaican accent alone was cracking me up.

The DIY photo book started in Guyana, referring to spicy curry and roti.

Here are a few from Jamaica – Ash loves the picture on the right of the photo book. He’s climbing a fallen tree after a huge hurricane hit.

The DIY photo book went all the way to present day in New York. I just adore the wedding picture of my sister-in-law and father-in-law with the phrase, “Anything can happen in a New York minute.” So beautiful and true 🙂

We included photos with all the grandchildren and phrases like “hold your horses” and “pretty darn quick” that are unique to the United States.

The DIY photo book turned out so cute – and was such a beautiful montage of all the experiences and memories of the past 40 years in four countries.

Seinfeld Quotes Paired with Pictures

With my sister turning 30, we planned a surprise party that was Seinfeld-themed. When discussing how to make it special, my mom said, “Why not make her one of those nice photobooks?”

So, we did exactly that.

We ran with the Seinfeld theme, using dozens of hilarious quotes from the television show and pairing them with pictures of Bridget over the years. The DIY picture book turned out awesome.

We started the photos chronologically, beginning with a baby picture of her and our Nanny, quoting the Seinfeld episode from The Hamptons.

The photo below is one of my favorites. We were at a family get together and someone took this candid shot of us. I mean, look at each of those faces! After all these years, we finally found the perfect Seinfeld quote to go with it.

And, of course, we had to include “close-talker” in the DIY photo book.

We tried to limit the quotes and photos in the picture book to 30 in honor of 30 years. Yet, with all of the funny Seinfeld quotes and pictures we had collected, 30 was a drop in the bucket. The Seinfeld DIY photo book ended up being much longer (and hilarious).

Special Occasion Books

As a thank you to grandparents or friends going on a day trip or vacation, I love making a cute book of the pictures we took.

We recently went on a trip to a train museum and petting zoo, and it was a really perfect day. To thank my parents, we made them a little memory photobook with our favorite pictures from the day. They LOVED it.

There weren’t any fancy quotes in this one – just some cute designs and fun pictures.

How to Make a DIY Photo Book

You have so many options when creating your DIY photo books. We have made so many of these, so we have plenty of tips to share!

Digital Photo Books or Scrapbook Photo Books

You can make your DIY books either digitally or scrap book style.

I find digitally to be a little faster. It takes a little bit of time to arrange layouts, but it’s fun to pick layouts and embellishments. And, my time is much better spent creating something cool rather than on my newsfeed 🙂

I like using Walgreens for photobooks. You can use same-day pickup on some items (check which items for your local store before starting your book). The hardcover photobooks tend to be better quality when you have them sent to your home instead of same-day. Yet, if you are running short on time, same-day pick up is a great option for your DIY photobooks.

If you are working on the project with someone else, like a sister or friend who doesn’t live close, you can both log in to work on the photo book before printing.

Also, definitely search google for a Walgreen’s coupon code. They always run deals, so you will do well with the price of photo books.

You can also make the book scrapbook style. Albums can be ordered on Amazon or picked up at a craft store with a coupon. We made my mom’s DIY photo book this way, and it was nice because each of my three sisters and me had a role.

One of my sisters printed the photos with her 4×6 photo printers. (It’s awesome!! We always have her printing pictures for us 🙂 One of us bought the stickers, album, and embellishments, one of us printed all the quotes in cool fonts, and another sister put everything together.

To keep everything organized in the DIY photo books, as far as quotes and pictures, we used Google docs. You can easily share this with others. So, we made a simple spreadsheet of quotes and then wrote a description of picture we planned to use. This kept everything organized and sequenced properly.

DIY Photo Album Ideas

As far as themes for the sayings or quotations for your photobooks, you can be as creative as you want. Think about your recipient’s life and interests, and I’m sure something great will come to mind.

DIY photo books also make a great gift for father’s day and mother’s day. You could pair photos of your kids with funny things they say (I should make this for Ash!). It doesn’t have to be a grandiose book – a collection of 10-20 photographs in the picture album will turn out wonderfully.

Why You Should Make Photo Books

With today’s technology and everything being digital, it’s hard to find time to organize and print photo albums. Dropboxes and clouds (wherever they are) are filled with hundreds of pictures that aren’t looked at often.

This is exactly why I love making photo albums for others as gifts. And, exactly why these picture gifts are adored so much.

DIY photo book gifts are simply awesome presents to give. Not only will your recipients love the collection of pictures, but they’ll just adore the cute or funny sayings you included too. My mom, sister, and in-laws absolutely LOVED the photo books.

So much, that my sister is already asking for an addendum with more Seinfeld quotes and pictures 🙂

I can’t tell you how many laughs the Seinfeld book got – or how much my mom chuckles looking back at her photos and her sayings.

And who couldn’t use more laughter and love in their life?

For other gift ideas, check out our ice cream sundae gift basket and our Valentine’s Day Scavenger Hunt.

How to Make Tissue Paper Suncatchers

April 27, 2017 by Eileen 28 Comments

Do you ever try to do a craft with your kids and it ends up a complete fail? Either it doesn’t turn out anything like you pictured, or it was too complicated for your kids, or it was more work than it was worth?

Boy, have I been there. Having been an inner city teacher and now a mom of an active toddler, I have quickly learned to keep activities simple.

Today I’m sharing how to make tissue paper suncatchers with your kids. It’s an easy craft that turns out really cute! And, you can use cookie cutters – another favorite among kids.

I love having my son make things for others. Even more, I love having him create something with a specific person in mind – say Nana – he’ll pick out all of the colors Nana likes, the stickers she likes, and create something special with her in mind. I think it teaches such an important lesson.

And the suncatcher activity was so great because he got to pick out a special shape for everyone – Nana got a cowgirl boot 🙂

As an added bonus, the tissue paper suncatchers are a cute little gift – not that I don’t love his usual scribbles on paper – I really, really do. I just don’t think others appreciate them like I do 😉

How to Make Tissue Paper Suncatchers

My quick cheat for this kids craft was using cookie cutters for the shapes. This saved a ton of time, which would have otherwise been spent drawing lopsided stars, and it added another element of fun to the project. It makes for an organized workspace.

Materials for Tissue Paper Suncatchers

Tissue Paper – I went to Dollar Tree – one of my favorite stores for crafts, holidays, and other $1 treasures and stocked up on some cool tissue paper. I got some basic colors as well as a few patterns and speckled ones.
Clear Contact Paper – You can probably get this a few dollars cheaper at the craft store with a coupon, but in a pinch, Amazon is amazing.
Cookie Cutters – optional – but they certainly made the project simple. Plus, you can use them for lots of other crafty projects. I got these cookie cutters as a Christmas gift from Ash when we were first dating, and I use them ALL the time for my crafts. There are so many shapes and choices, including holiday and every day items.
Scissors
Pen

I usually keep a stack of small dollar store bins or buckets in my office/craft room. I use these to organize our kids crafts as they are happening. For example, I’ll have scissors/pens in one bin, tissue paper in another bin, etc.

Instructions for Tissue Paper Suncatchers

The tissue paper suncatcher kids craft was very simple. Depending upon the age of your kids, you may be more of less involved. A toddler would need an adult to be hands on, whereas a grade schooler could work mainly independently.

Preparation

First, I cut tissue paper into strips. You don’t have to cut too much. I did one or two strips of each color. To include my toddler, I gave him his scissors and some strips of tissue paper.

I love these scissors because they have a little lever, which makes it easier for him to open and close the scissors. I cut his tissue strips extra narrow, so he could practice cutting.

He loves to use scissors because he doesn’t get to use them all the time. So, cutting just a few pieces made him super excited. 🙂

Next, you will need two pieces of contact paper of roughly the same size for each suncatcher. You can prepare these ahead of time or cut as you go.

Making the Suncatchers

I peeled the back off of just one sheet of contact paper, and taped all four sides down to the table. The reason I did this was because my son is young, and I didn’t want the contact paper constantly sticking to him and moving. I try to keep our crafts fun and frustration-free, so it was easier to tape it down.

After, we picked our shape. Using cookie cutters made this step so simple and fun 🙂 My son loved picking a special shape for each suncatcher. In addition to the cowgirl for Nana, he picked a butterfly for his Aunty, a heart for Grandma, and a doggie for Zeus our pup.

Then, it was time to apply the tissue paper.

You can turn this into a fun sorting activity – and have your child sort the colors into piles.

For kids a little older, you can work on patterns, lining up a pattern, asking what comes next, and then sticking them on.

My son and I picked a few colors to use on each suncatcher. For the car, we used two shades of blue. For the heart, we picked three colors. And, for quite a few of the shapes, we used all of the colors.

Oddly enough, my son’s favorite colors are brown and black. Every time he goes to make a card for someone, he colors in brown or black marker. His Easter cards featured a cute pastel bunny with black and brown scribbles across it. 😉

Lucky for him, I had one sheet of black tissue paper. So we mixed white in and made a black and white star. Of course, it was his favorite.

After we covered enough of the surface of the contact paper with tissue, it was time to put the second sheet of contact paper down.

I recommend the grown-up doing this part. Contact paper can be tricky to work with and if it ends up all blotchy, it doesn’t look nice. I made a bubbly blotchy one myself, tried to fix it, and ended up ripping the tissue paper.

So rather than cause frustration for the kids, I would just do this myself. Lay one side down first and then keep pressing until you get to the other side. So I had my son watch me lay it down and then help me pat it.

After you’ve covered it with contact paper, take the intended cookie cutter and trace it onto the contact paper.

I used a regular pen and drew lightly, in case any lines were still there after I cut.

As an alternative to this, you can draw your shape or picture right onto the contact paper. I freehanded a train for his train-loving Pop.

And, it just happened to be Ash’s birthday – so I also freehanded a hammer for him.

Once we were finished drawing the shape, I cut it out. While I cut, my son picked the next cookie cutter shape. Then, we taped each one to the window.

He had a great time taping them to the window, adding each one as we finished it, and then admiring our work. When we were all done, he loved going outside and seeing the suncatchers we had made.

Even though I did a bunch of the cutting and drawing, my son couldn’t be prouder of the tissue paper suncatchers. He had so much involvement in the project and loved all of his important jobs.

Depending upon how old your children are, they might be able to do most of this themselves, and you can just supervise. My son is still little, but I very much made him a part of every step.

You can also make these as a holiday activity, using Christmas or Halloween shapes. The tissue paper suncatchers can be Valentine gifts from kids or St. Patrick’s Day decorations.

They really do look pretty, and they make for a nice gift for kids to make and give.

We are giving them to family members to go with the thank you notes for my son’s Easter goodies; yet, the tissue paper suncatchers would also serve as a perfect mother’s day gift for mom or grandma or a father’s day gift, too.

If you are looking to keep a craft simple, follow these steps on how to make tissue paper suncatchers. Your kids will love making such an easy yet awesome creation, and you’ll be frustration-free 🙂

How to Throw a DIY Party (Without Going Crazy)

April 10, 2017 by Eileen 42 Comments

Washing the dishes at the end of a long day, you think about how you can barely keep up with the day-to-day routine.

There are crumbs all over the floor you just cleaned. You didn’t get to the overflowing laundry pile today. Lunches to pack, homework to check, kids to get to bed.

It’s endless.

On top of that, your child’s birthday is coming up, and you really want to throw a nice party.

But how can you handle party prep in addition to all the draining housework and all of the other things going on?

With these tips and tricks, you will be able to throw an awesome DIY party without going crazy.

1. Choose 3-5 DIY party ideas and that’s it.

With Pinterest being an easily accessible party-planning archive, it’s typical to feel overwhelmed with all of the ideas out there.

Instead of trying to do everything, which can end in half-hearted efforts or stress overload, just pick a few manageable party DIYs.

This will put a creative spin on the party, without all the pressure.

For my friend’s son’s truck party, we chose 3 party DIYs – a cardboard truck photo booth cut-out, truck goody bags, and a pin the wheel on the truck game.

It was a manageable amount of work, and it creatively tied in the theme of the DIY truck party.

Definitely browse Pinterest or Google images to see what’s been done before. This will help you to brainstorm or even emulate ideas.

And, there are lots of easy DIY party ideas out there.

2. Cut corners with your time, where you can.

Designing, ordering, stamping, and mailing an invitation too much? Save yourself time with an Evite.

Cooking not your forte? Do a few crockpot dishes or order a few dishes from a local restaurant. Baking a cake too time-consuming for you? Order it from the bakery.

Spend your time where YOU feel it is most valuable.

Remember, you can delegate tasks out to reliable family or friends.

For every family party, my sister’s job is to work with the photos – whether making a photobook, collage, or slideshow. She never lets us down, and it’s a task I don’t have to worry about.

Also, prioritize your list, so that if you don’t get to everything, you aren’t disappointed.

For my son’s Sesame party, we barely got to set up the last game “Grover’s Obstacle Course.” We literally threw some pool noodles on the ground along with some balls.

Of course, the toddlers didn’t mind, and I didn’t either because this was low on the priority list.

3. Keep entertainment simple but creative.

Whether it’s music that goes with the party’s theme or party games for kids, entertainment can bring a lot to a party.

Since it can be overwhelming to know where to start, look for what’s already been done. Lots of websites have free templates and printables that can make your planning a piece of cake.

For baby or bridal showers, pick a game or two where most of the work has already been done for you, a game with easy prep or free templates.

We played such a fun game at my friend Meg’s shower – Mustaches and Tiaras, where all of the prep work was done.

For kids’ DIY parties, think easy. Kids love coloring or craft stations, playing with trucks in the sand, or having an egg race.

These activities can easily be adjusted to go with the party’s theme. For example, if having a vehicle party, instead of an egg on a spoon, use a race car on a spoon.

Station games are also great – and they can be made from foam boards from the dollar store.

You can literally make a Pin the “Blank” on anything – characters, animals, trucks, etc. I personally love using felt for these – since felt sticks to felt.

If planning a DIY anniversary party, put together a soundtrack with popular songs from the year the couple married.

Entertainment doesn’t need to be elaborate, or even time-consuming. Think easy – and don’t forget you can also delegate.

4. Do as much as you can early.

Creating, making, and shopping without of stress of a deadline is much more fun.

So, choose a few things that you easily get done ahead of time – like shopping for decorations or working on some DIY party projects. Then, get these done as early as you can.

This will free up your time closer to the party for things like cooking, food shopping, and cleaning.

For my dad’s Beatles party, I started working on the decorations a month or two ahead of time. I would cut letters for banners while I was watching television or had a few minutes of downtime here and there.

I had all of the decorations and games finished early, so the week of the party, I could focus on cooking and cleaning.

Planning and creating are so much more fun when you aren’t working against the clock.

5. Shop smart.

Prior to the DIY party, as you are doing your regular shopping at the grocery stores or craft stores, keep your eyes peeled for party things you can stock up on.

For example, take advantage of sales on paper products – plates, plastic wear, napkins, etc – or even decorations. I bought an abundant supply of ribbon at Michaels at 70% off before the winter holidays.

Months later, I used the ribbon to make banners – and was so happy I didn’t have to make a special trip out to the store.

For kids’ goody bags, it might be smart to steer away from food with all of the allergies out there.

If you are wondering what to give, the Dollar Tree and A.C.Moore have great deals for just $1. You can find cute kids books, stickers, coloring books, and learning games.

Choose a few that go with the theme of your DIY party, and you’re all set.

Speaking of the Dollar Tree, it wouldn’t be a section on shopping smart without mentioning that this chain has the best selection of all the dollar stores. Dollar Tree has all kinds of books and games. Their party section doesn’t disappoint: table cloths, paper products in various colors, pom-poms, and all kinds of other party goodies.

A few trips to Dollar Tree will definitely shorten your to do list – and not be a big hit to your wallet.

Remember, shopping early helps too. When shopping without the stress of a deadline, you tend to easily find the things you are looking for.

And the Housework…

Birthday parties are days that your child anxiously awaits. Even though a DIY party will make your to do list a little longer, following these 5 simple tricks will make the party planning more than manageable.

And, about the housework, no one will notice how clean the kitchen is or see the overflowing laundry baskets hidden away.

Of course, the floors will be dirty again in five minutes, whether or not you had guests over.