Hours of kid fun!

I cannot take credit for this project. Nor can I say, "Hey, I found this on Pinterest." No, no. This was 100% my children. They thought it, they made it, they asked permission to use the materials, and they play with it. I repeat ALL CREDIT GOES TO MY KIDS.

What is this fantastically free, easy to do project that has given my children 2 days (so far) of entertainment? Cardboard laptops. Yup. That's it. Cut out a rectangle, fold it, and hand over the permanent markers!

Do yourself a favor and try to see what my darling kiddos have written as their favorite laptops (Juliana wrote Vaughn's). They even made mouses for their computers!

 They informed me that the ones on the left are games (Cats and dogs, "cer bers"- Care Bears, "Hary Potr"- Harry Potter) Then there are the four sizes of dogs to choose from during the one game. 

The middle section is Netflix. cats and dogs, scooby doo, super heros (Sopr Hyro), Spidr Man, bath man, cars and cities, my little pony, dog and popy (?), Spas bogs (Space dogs).

The section on the right is the Toy Shop. I can't tell if that is a section to shop in or games. Who knows. 

This one is Juliana's. She's the one who came up with the idea AND made hers and Vaughn's. I am SO impressed with her creativity!! Far right, top, is a bank account. According to Bean, if you click on the numbers it gives you MORE money. I think the top middle is supposed to be facebook. She also said something about clicking on stuff to make more stuff pop up. You can't see it, but she also drew a camera on the back. :D

This is Xander's. His makes me laugh. He included Pinterest and Pottermore. Fish Games is supposed to be Big Fish Games. He liked the idea of Angry Birds, but thought it would be clever to have Angry Pigs instead. He also has a place to buy movie tickets, Netflix, AND another place for movies. He has included Facebook and Twitter (How does he know about Twitter?). 

I love these kids and their smartypants-ness!!!!!

File Folder Books

- These are fun little books that are SO super easy to make that it's not even funny! You can make them as plain or as fancy as you want.

What you'll need:
Cardstock (Appx. 4x6)
1/2 of a piece of 8 1/2x11 printer paper
Stapler (with staples)
THIS PATTERN from Mirkwood Designs

First, cut out the pattern and trace onto cardstock. Cut out.

Next, take your half sheet of paper. 1. Cut IT in half so that it's a fat rectangle, not a long one.
2. Take those two halves and cut THEM in half. 3.Take all four of those pieces, put them together and FOLD them (not cut them) in half. Place into file folder and staple. Ta-da!!!

Then it's time to decorate the books. The first time we did them, we used Crafty Pod's idea and made ABC books by cutting out pictures from magazines- we esp love Oriental Trading catalogs. You can order one HERE.

Today we used them to make Thumbrint pictures, a la Ed Emberly.

Genius Cards

Ok, so here is my super genius idea that I'm so cranking out for my kids' friends Christmas gifts.

Memory games using the Cricut machine. No, I don't have one, and no, it's not 100% necessary, but that's a lot of cutting w/ out. Or you could use the big punches. Or die cut machines. Just to show you what i'm thinking, I'm making a non-cricut tut.

You'll need:

Punch of your choice

Various patterned paper

Solid Cardstock

Glue

Step 1:

Decide how many matches you want. This will depend on the age of the reciever. Let's, for sake of tutorial, say you want 3 matches. Punch out 6 pieces from the cardstock.

 

Step 2: Pick out three different patterned paper. Punch two shapes from each of the patterned papers. Note: if the punch, die cut, or whatever shape you're using isn't symmetrical, you need to make sure the cardstock is the same color on both sides or punch the patterned paper upside down.

 

Step 3: Glue the patterned paper to the cardstock

 

Now you have a set of memory cards! Cute, eh?!

Variations:

Use stickers instead of patterned paper (you can get a book of stickers that repeat themselves from the $ store)

Make marble magnets, but on the bottom of the magnets, place matching stickers. Now it's a memory game to go. Or to play on the fridge.

A

My son started preschool today. I had a meltdown on the phone w/ my mom while we were getting ready. I didn't like the fact that he wouldn't need me for an entire 2 1/2 hours. Anyway. I ended up doing just fine.

 He had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back on Thursday. Today they talked about the letter A, the number 1, squares, and cows. So he couldn't WAIT to start his homework today. Since he was so into it, I found a few activities to add to it. AND, I made him this:

it's actually one thing, just double sided.

Oh, and one other VERY random thing. We have yet another "pet." We've got a preying mantis living here. It stays by our door, on the door jam, the porch light, by the doorbell, on the mailbox. It has been here for at least a week. We're in the process of naming her. We'll probably name her Natalie French- after a Buffy episode about a substitute teacher who is like, part preying mantis. Roger's pretty sure she's a girl. I'll have to take a pic soon.

Gilmore Girls = Gitmore Done

i'm watching Gilmore Girls for the 1st t ime. My friend has the whole series. I watched the first DVD doing laundry the other day, then put the second on last night. I got FIVE painted letters done!

Hey, has anybody ever made a truffle cake? I think I want to make one. However, they call for springfoam pans (which Alton Brown thinks shouldn't even exist). I'll use whatever he suggests, I'll have to dig out my book......

I finished it!!

I finally finished the blanket for Vaughn. I'm very proud of it and can't WAIT to post pics (I'm at my parents right now, so I can't). After finishing the blanket, my hands needed SOMEthing to do. I can NOT sit w/ nothing to do. So today I started on the kids' car folders. I bought a folder for each of them the other day (intending to cover it in fabric for a game, but nixed that when I found a Superman folder and my son fell in love with it). Today i spent time printing, copying, transferring, and drawing activities to use in the folder. I found some great worksheets online (for preschoolers, google free printable preschool worksheets and you'll get a ton). I also copied some things out of coloring books. I really like those little activity books because they are half size and so you can fit 2 papers onto a cardstock. I then laminated the cardstock filled papers. Now I need to buy dry erase markers, somehow get elastic onto the folder pocket to hold the dry erase markers, trim the activities, and find some kind of clip or magnet strip to use. This probably does not make any sense at all without pictures. Here's a sketch:



Anyway, I'm trying to decide when to give my kids the folders. We take a lot of 45 min drives and it would be nice to have them now, but on the other hand, I would kind of like to get them each one of these trays. That wouldn't happen till Christmas, so do I give them the folders now, the trays and refills for the folders at Christmas, or hang onto ALL of them till Christmas?

Portable Art Center

Ok, so technically I don't need it till Christmas (though if I find a good one and make it before then it'll probably used as soon as it's done). So I need ideas and pictures, possibly tuts if you've got  them. So far, the best I've got is from one of the super awesome mods at Mormonchic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12703778@N02/1336300154/

A Photo Update

Ok, so I don't update much since I work on the same things for a few days at a time now (or, in the afghan's case, a few weeks). I thought I'd let y'all see how it's coming and see if it inspires anyone.

First, here is the afghan I'm working on for Baby Vaughn

Next, here's what the Eye Spy pics look in an album. I'm working on getting all the pics ready so you can just download all of them, print 'em, and use 'em. I would, however, like you to ask permission if you're going to use them to sell at all.

And now, for something a little more random that has nothing to do with crafting..... I've been couponing again. I took about a year sebattical from it because I couldn't even afford to do it that way. Man, did it feel good to get back into it!! Here are my two most recent receipts:

You'll have to look at it up close, but we bought 2 razors at almost $10 each, then got blade refills for $12, but w/ my coupons, my total was less than $10!!!

This was from yesterday at Albertson's. I got 34 items, totalling WELL over $100. But between the sale and coupons I spent..... $34. I saved over $90!!!!!!

This is from that sale- this is JUST the things I didn't have room for in my cupboards and such. Crazy, huh?!

Barbie Clothes

Ok, eventually I might post a couple patterns on here. Crazy, I know! I got a bag of 13 barbies from freecycle this week, plus a bag of clothes. Most of the clothes were ok, but there were a couple handmade pieces from the 70's that all I can say is, THOSE ROCK!!! So I'm taking some of the torn ones and deconstructing them, plus trying to guess my way around a few. Here's hoping for some uber-cute clothes coming up.

This is what I've made so far:

Tutorial Friday: Felt Decoratable Cake

Ok, so I got this idea from Twinkle Cakes, which look WAY more professional, but unfortunately are too expensive for me. It would be SO nice not to have to do any of the work and to feel that soft wool felt vs. my cheap acrylic felt. But then again, if I had one of those, I might not let my kids play with it, which is what I want them for. My kids are constantly smushing all their playdough together to "make a cake," so I thought, why the heck not make them a cake?

First I started with three Styrofoam circles, at varying sizes. When I went to buy mine, I went to Michael's first. The smallest one was  $2.49 I about died! Then I went to Walmart and got the same size (i think) for $.97. So I recommend going to WalMart or the dollar store first!

Next I cut and measured the felt so that I had one for the top and bottom of each circle and one to go around the sides

I then pinned the felt in place

That's when the sewing started. It's all by hand, but I pretty much made a slipcover for each of the circles. I think I used a whip-stitch.

Once all three were covered, I hot glued them together

Last step: I cut out a bunch of felt circles to use as decor. If I could've found bigger styrofoam, I'd have made a bigger cake and had way more fun w/ my designs, but this cake is really small. I tried using Sizzix to cut a few shapes and it worked, but you have to go over it SO many extra times that it's not fun.
ANyway, then I let my kids test it.

Can't wait to see yours!

Disney Post

Ok, you have no idea how excited I am. I know on my schedule that I had a felt mail set on there. Well, sometimes I just don't want to work with felt. Well, I saw this set on Write, Mama

I thought, you know, I really, REALLY like the velcro idea. Our problem? We didn't have any postcards lyin around, I'm not so cute w/ just prints, they turn out sloppy. SO, I just started looking for random clipart to inspire me. I stumbled across DisneyClips. That changed EVERYTHING. Not only did they have free Disney clipart, they've got a sister site, Disney's World of Wonders which gave me some amazing ideas: headstarted my stamps and the idea of note cards. See, on Write, mama's how she has the words on the card? I decided to have interchangable words, inspired by WoW's lunch notes. I just got really excited. I still haven't bought the mailbox (or mailboxes, depending if I decide my kids should share or not). I have a friend who has some small UPS boxes that will go great with the set. I also have a brother who works for USPS and has some old shirts that I'm going to turn into either shirts, aprons, or something for the kids, so they can be mailpeople! I'm even STORING the stuff in get this, a Priority Box!

So, without further ado, I present to you, the DISNEY (this goes for my challenge too) MAIL SET

Let's break it down for you

these are the note cards (the ones w/ pink borders came straight from WoW's)

These are the stamps. The "princess" ones were originally stickers at WoW's, but I resized them on PSE, then added the stamp border.

Anyway, I'm So super duper excited about this, I hope my kids have as much fun using it as I did making it. It'll be torture putting it away till Christmas!!

knock it off

Why won't my brain just STOP thinking of ideas. I have too many of them I am working on or planning on already. Why oh why does the list get longer and longer as time before baby gets shorter and shorter?

I started making aprons for my kids for Easter, but haven't finished them. Then yesterday after having to scout down our "funny hands" aka oven mits for the third time, I thought, duh, why don't I make their own? Now I couldn't just leave it at Aprons and Funny Hands, could I? No, no. So I thought the perfect "first" crochet project when I learn will be mini washcloths for them and their kitchens. Oy!

Inspired by Kristin

Ok, so you all know I talk about Reclaiming the Home all the time, but Kristin has really inspired me. Not just by sending me TWO boxes of delicious goodies, but in more ways than I can describe. So tonight's post is dedicated to the inspiration of Kristin. I hope you're having fun at RENT!!!


Ok, first up, If you look at Kristin's blog, you'll see this incredible card she made w/ an owl on it. She sent me that card, yeah, LUCKY me, it should be framed and the book she used to make it so that I could experiment w/ book paper. Here is my first product.























Next, these two chalkboards are inspired by the one Kristin did for her girls' room. I have almost a dozen of these little chalkboards, so it was nice to know what I can do with them. I hope you love it, Jeanette




























And one more thing. Just one more. Kristin and I were talking about Kielbasa and Italian Sausage. I hadn't ever paid attention to packaging. Anyway, just to clarify WHY I was confused, when I saw this at Wal-Mart I had to take a pic. Maybe I won't seem such the idiot anymore and instead just seem pregnant. :D

File Folder Games Part II

I made some more today. This time I got creative and just googled images. Now, with that being said, these (and the ones I made yesterday) are for PERSONAL USE ONLY. Please! :D


The nice thing is how many images you have at your fingertips. ripped books? coloring books? Use 'em. Scan 'em, cut them, whatever you like!!


So w/out further ado, here is a preview of the 3 games, then the downloads.





Download PrincessMatchColor.pdf
Download PrincessMatch2.pdf


Download PrincessMatch3.pdf


Download PrincessMatch4.pdf











Use the same princesses on the Princess match game


Download PrincessFriend1.pdf


Download PrincessFriend2.pdf










Download DisneyDaddy1.pdf


Download DisneyDaddy2.pdf


Download DisneyDaddy3.pdf


Download DisneyDaddy4.pdf

Free File Folder Games

So I got bored today (I'm staying at my mom's for the night) and decided to MAKE some file folder games. Not search them out on the internet and print them, but open photoshop elements and MAKE them. So I thought I'd share!!! I'm just posting the pictures of one page each. If it downloads/prints by clicking on them, great. If not, I'll link you to the actual download spot.
Download EggCountInstructions.pdf


Download EggCount1.pdf

Download EggCount1color.pdf


Download EggCount2.pdf   Download EggCount2color.pdf


Download EggCount3.pdf

Download EggCount3color.pdf




























Download FruitVeg1.pdf

Download FruitVeg1color.pdf


Download FruitVeg2.pdf

Download FruitVeg2color.pdf


Download FruitVeg3.pdf


Download FruitVeg4.pdf

































Download HalfPage1.pdf

Download HalfPage1color.pdf


Download HalfPage2.pdf

Download HalfPage2color.pdf




Sorry, no pic for that one. You just match the halves


Download Healthy1.pdf


Download Healthy2.pdf


Download Healthy3.pdf

Download Healthy3color.pdf


Download Healthy4.pdf

Download Healthy4color.pdf




























Download SizeAnswerBox1.pdf


Download SizeAnswerBox2.pdf


Download SizePage1.pdf

Download SizePage1color.pdf


Download SizePage2.pdf

Download SizePage2color.pdf

































I hope you enjoy (on the instructions pages, just click the picture then right click to save as once it's big). And to give credit where credit is due: Graphics are from www.mormonshare.com, photoshop elements, and a couple by me.

PICTURES

Ok, can I tell you HOW happy I am to have my camera right now? WHEW!
So First up: Here are some cans I recovered (peach cans, to be exacts) w/ some fabric, ribbon, and  trim. Cute, eh?












Next: My big project yesterday and the day before: FILE FOLDER GAMES. I found a free website called www.preschoolprintables.com and they have a ton of free printable folder games. I just wish I had called my sister RIGHT when I found them instead of coloring 20 shamrocks, 20 butterflies, 20 pirate ships, 20 scarecrows and more, cutting them all out and laminating half of them BEFORE she suggested laminating them w/ the magnets INSIDE. The ones after that worked great. The ones before that... I can't get the magnets to stay on the laminate. I feel like i wasted so much work! I tried the fact that the magnets are

sticky- no go. I tried rubber cement- no go. I tried hot glue- absolute no go. Yeah, so I just don't even know what to do.











Next picture is of some clothespin dolls that my 10 yr old niece made. She saw mine and got really excited, so she made some today













This last picture is what happens when one WANTS to put a shelf up (and has started on it) but can do nothing else until her hubby gets home. Hehehehehe

Tea Set

Ok, so I was asked to make a tea set for a VERY sweet friend of mine and I finally finished it today, JUST in time to use it in a photo shoot. Of course, then I delivered it and didn't ever really take pictures JUST of the tea set. So here are a couple of cute pics of Kylie using it





































I can't take credit for coming up w/ the design, heaven's no! It is from a book. Toys to Sew by Claire Garland. It's a beautiful book and I LOVE it and eventually want to try most of the projects in it. Here's a sneak peak:



















So that's what I've been crafting!!! Your turn!

First photo shoot

in a while anyway. Here are my favorites!!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/13116478@N02/sets/72157603918867961/


 I think I fixed the link, thanks Jeanette for the heads up!


Also, I made some clothespin dolls for St. Patty's. It's the set of 4 for $5. They are hand painted with LOTS of detail!!















I also started practicing some Marble Magnets. I need to get some marbles that are more clear and the magnets themselves, and then I'll make more to sell.

Have a cupcakey day!!

Last night, I made some finger puppets for Xander to take to church today. Simple, yet cute. I got the ideas from Flickr, of course.











Today, we decided to do as much w/out the TV as possible. We decided since it's Sunday, we should do our best to keep the Sabbath holy and to spend family time together. Roger had the idea of decorating cupcakes. We had SO much fun. Keep in mind a few things:
1. My kids are 2 and 3
2. We kept the icing runnier than normal for easy use
3. We didn't use any decorating bags or anything like that. Just our hands and some flat knives.
Here are our creations!!
























Anyway, we had a lot of fun! I expect cupcake pics to be popping up on Flickr! LOL. No pressure. :D

Less than an hour

I made this robot for my son for Valentine's Day. I needed a project to fill the time. I'm still fairly new at this, so he's not the cutest robot ever, but I like 'im!


It took me about 45 min to do this. If you have posts of robots, felt things, or valentine's you made for your kids, i wanna see 'em on Flickr!!! And you can link to them on comments if you'd like!