More Christmas - Dip Dyed Bags & Ornaments

Here are a couple of other projects I pulled together for our homemade Christmas gifts. Dip Dyed Bags and Christmas Ornaments. Here were my inspirations: Baskets. Ornaments.

Hot Chocolate & Peppermind Marshmallows

Another year of homemade gifts. This year's projects included an especially delicious treat. Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows and Hot Chocolate on a Stick! This year, a group of girls I had coffee with were talking about gift giving. And so we made a plan together to make food gifts together. It was a blast! We scoured the internet (thank you pinterest) and thought peppermint marshmallows and hot chocolate on a stick sounded like a fun combination. (We used recipes on the above links above, but increased the sugar in the hot chocolate, and decreased peppermint in the marshmallows.) If you plan to make these one day, let me know. It was a pretty big project, and I have some tips I could share with you!Cutting, Dipping in extra chocolate, getting ready for their packages!My list of recipients is growing - More teachers, more neighbors, more relatives, more friends! And I packaged these up several ways for a variety of recipients.

Thankfully, I found these free downloadable labels online too! Hooray!

Here are 2 other cute packaging ideas if you decide to try this on your own! Here and here.

Snowman Milk

Here's a project that I found on the internet, which claimed to be "quick" and "easy." That's partially true, if you don't exclude all the time it takes gathering all of the supplies! This took much longer than necessary. But it turned out super-cute, I think! If you decide to give this a try, here's what you'll need:
Here are the supplies (because it took me a while to get this figured out.)
-Milk Bottles (or Starbucks Frappucino bottles, with labels removed by Goo B Gone or Turpentine)
-Orange Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds (I called around, and got the last pack from my local TJ Maxx!)
-Icing to affix the "nose" to the "face"
-Chocolate Nonpariels (only works if you use a thick cakelike donut)or a Edible Pen (works for airy or cakey donut)
-Powdered Donut Holes (this was a toughie! I went to 10 locations looking for the right ones. They were either not covered with enough sugar, irregular in size, too small for the bottles, or would not work with the sprinkles) If you are in Middle TN, Fox's Donut Den makes the only ones that will fit.
-Straw & Milk
-Felt for Scarf (the craft-sized felt is too short. Must buy yardage at your local fabric/craft store)
-Buttons & Glue Dots (or with Hot Glue, or stickers, etc.)
-Egg Carton for transporting donuts

Thanksgiving Table

Some more fun projects I made, based on stuff I found on pinterest! Pilgim Boats, made from felt, craft foam & a straw!The kids table placemats. A free download from here. I had them printed at my local Kinko's, since it is larger than a 8-1/2 x 11 format.

Trick or Treat Bags

This is a late post...but I decided to make some more trick-or-treat bags for my other kids. One kid always had a cute one, while the other had a grocery sack! So I finally bought some felt to make 3 other bags. The one in the back is the original. Lance & the kids designed the faces (can you tell which is Ethan's and which is Katie Belle's?), while I made them into bags. I haven't finished the upcoming new baby's bag, but I think that at 7 months old, she's not going to be needing any candy anyway! Now they are stored away, ready for next Halloween!

Snowman Handprint Ornament

Are you on pinterest yet? It's a treasure trove of great ideas! A friend & I just completed these snowman ornaments for Katie Belle's 3 year old class Christmas party! Kristen each child's handprints this morning, and I made the snowmen! Here was the original idea on pinterest. (Details: A dozen frosted glass ornaments for $5 from Hobby Lobby!

Homemade Gifts of Past years

I'm looking forward to another year of homemade gifts! Mine have partially been made, although not completed. Of course I'll share with you in January! But here are some things I have put together in the past. Last year I made Homemade Vanilla, Blueberry Preserves and a Fabric tote. For a run-down on how-to's, click here for my post from last year.Handmade coasters, soup mix, cornbread mix & granola bars. Find even more of my past gifts, including granola, notecards and other past gifts we've received here: 2009 Gifts, 2008 Gifts, Other received gifts.

Bible Story Time

below: ritual hand washing in a big bowl, like they did in Bible days. important, because they did not use silverware!Long time, no blog! As you can imagine, things have been busy over here with 3 little ones. This summer has been full of travel & activity, plus....Where Did Everybody Go? Looks like blogger has been taken over by the reign of facebook. But I digress...This summer, a couple of other moms & I got together to have some Bible Storytime with our kids. I looked around for creative ways to teach bible stories. My kids and I like crafts & cooking, so one book I bought was Delicious Bible Stories. It's not the world's most amazing books, but it does have some ideas to get your brain going. So we spent a few weeks each taking a story, craft & meal. We haven't finished the book, but we've had a great time! The kids got to create some hands-on Bible-time food preparation (Hummus, Hearts of Palm, Fig Cakes) and learn some stories (Abraham & Sarah, Queen Esther & Abigail & David. above: the kids making hummus. below: sarah teaches about abigail's hospitality before they begin making their fig cakes. (pureed figs with honey, rolled in nuts or other toppings)Of all the thousands of crafting/kid-learning blogs, I couldn't find any that have Bible-related-crafts. Do you know of any?

Summer Crafting Update

Where has the summer gone!?!? Wow....a few months ago, I declared that this was going to be our Summer-Of-Fun. In doing so, I researched tons of crafts (See all 4 parts here.) Plus, I scheduled lots of other stuff & we had several weeks of travel (to the beach! to the mountains!). As a result, the summer has just whizzed by with hardly any time for crafting! We have done a few of the projects, though. Have you? We did other projects as well, but here are some of our fun times...Above: Cicada Sun Prints. We forever can remember these pesky little creatures that invaded our yard!
Above: Preparing to make our own crayons out of broken crayons. This was a really fun one!
Above: Finger Bag Paints. I had high hopes. This was not very much fun. (In other words, 15 minutes of prep resulted in 2 minutes of play.)

How to Build a Teepee

When we arrived in Estes Park, Becca & Tommy had lots of fun ideas for things the kids could do. The cabin where we stayed was right next to theirs (Did I mention that the Rocky Mountain National Park is in their backyard? Literally!) We had a wonderful view of Longs Peak, and you just walk out the door and into the trails of the park! So anyway, Becca had the idea of building a teepee on the patio for the kids to play in all week. They have been having a great time playing in it. And we all had fun creating it too!Do you want to build a teepee too? Here's how.

Summer Crafttime, Part 4

And here's Part 4 of my Summer Crafting plans! (Here are part 1, part 2 & part 3.) There are about 40 projects, so that's around 3 crafts a week! I'll be scouting for more projects soon, but for now I'm taking a break. Whew! Here's what else we'll be doing...Toy Boats - Supplies Needed: It's different depending on the project.
Peanut Butter Bird Feeder - Supplies Needed: Pine Cone, Peanut Butter, Seeds, String
Art Dice (although my kids might be a big young for this one.) - Supplies Needed: Square Blocks, Pen....Plus whatever supplies you come up withFingerprint Sunflower - Supplies Needed: Yellow construction paper, paintCD Case Painting - Supplies Needed: Old CD cases headed for the trash, paint (she uses BioColor paint) Coffee Filter Flowers - Supplies Needed: Watercolors, Flat-bottom coffee filters, Droppers, Tray to catch spills, Covered table, Bowl of Sequins (not necessary, but N insisted on this…you’ll soon see why), Green Pipe Cleaners
Make Butter - Supplies Needed: Heavy Whipping Cream, a Jar with a Tight Fitting LidScary Spaghetti - Supplies Needed: Hot Dogs, Spaghetti
Toddler Sewing (or this one with a shelf liner)
Supplies Needed: Cardboard Box (recycled from a package), Mesh from a bag of sweet potatoes, Stapler, Scissors, Exacto knife, Embroidery Needle, Embroidery ThreadSweet Potato Stamps - Supplies Needed: Potato Stamp/s, Tempera Paint (or Acrylic), Brayer (or paint roller), Smooth, flat surface to squeeze the paint on, Paper for printing
Goopy Cornstarch - Supplies Needed: Big tub for mixing, Cornstarch, Water, Spoons, little bowls, toys for playing, scooping, and fillingThis I'm Bored Jar or this one. Or here are some more to throw in a jar. (maybe a bit too old for my kids). Supplies
Alphabet Cards for the kids

And last of all, we're making & Reading "Stone Soup"!! - Recipe Here.

Summer Crafttime, Part 3

Ever had one of those days? Today was one of those. But it reminded me why I wanted to make lots of preparations for the summer. When the kids and I don't leave the house all day, we all go a little BONKERS. So here is Part 3 (parts 1 & parts 2 here). Even more to come!!
Cardboard Tube Crafts - Supplies Needed (for kazoo, you will need a short cardboard tube, paint or paper, glue (if you’re decorating with paper), scissors, ruler, waxed paper, rubber band, pencil
Kaleidoscope - Supplies Needed: paper, card, crayons, glue stick, model glue, tinfoil, plastic bags, glitter and sequins, tapePinwheels - Supplies Needed: Paper, Wax crayons, Watercolor paints, Lick and stick paper, A wooden Skewer, A thumbtackRed White & Blue Necklace - Supplies Needed: Paper Towel Roll, Paint, StringSunprints - Supplies Needed: Sun Art Paper
Mod Podge Hand Trees - Supplies Needed: Canvas, Wood Picture Boards (or Cardboard if you aren't trying to make a keepsake), Burlap, Scrap Paper, Scissors, Mod PodgeScavenger Hunt - Supplies Needed: Free Downloadable Nature Hunt Sheet, Laminator (optional), StickersAre the dandelions still around? Here are lots of cute dandelion projects. We might make some dandelion tea! Supplies Needed: 2 Quarts of Dandelions, Juice of 4 lemons, honey, water. Rumor has it that dandelion blossoms steeped as tea can help relieve headaches, menstrual cramps, backaches, stomach aches and even depression. We'll see how that goes.Handprint Butterflies - Supplies Needed: Construction paper (yellow and black), paint, brush, glue, scissors, a chenille stem and wiggly eyes.