Mommy and Me Activity: Ballerina Tee!

I was inspired to try this by a shirt I saw in a store window last year - thank you Gap or whichever store it was.  The material they used for the ballet skirt on the shirt reminded me of some shabby rose ribbon I had.  And thus, the idea was born.
However, it is so much more cute, not to mention special, if you have your own little ballerina help design it herself.  Here's how we made ours:

Materials:


- One blank shirt (find one at craft stores for $2-$5 dollars)

- Small piece of shabby rose ribbon (also can be found at some craft stores like Hobby Lobby in their ribbon section).

- One squeeze bottle of black fabric paint

- One Mark-B-Gone Pen (the pen I used one with two ends - Disappearing Ink and Mark-B-Gone.  You will want to use the Mark-B-Gone end with ink that disappears when touched by water.  These pens can be found in the sewing section of some craft stores and in sewing stores).

- A piece of cardboard or heavy paper to provide a barrier under the shirt (not shown in the picture above).

- Fabric glue (also not shown in the picture above).

Directions:


1.  Slip the cardboard or paper in between the front and the back of the shirt to provide a barrier which keeps the ink and glue from seeping through the top of the shirt to the back of it as well.  You may also want to make sure your shirt is in a place where it will not be disturbed for a few days once you are done, or on top of something which can be moved with ease to a different location as needed because your shirt will need to dry for a few days undisturbed.

2.  Let your child used the Mark-B-Gone pen to draw her ballerina on the front of the shirt (you may want to let your child experiment with a cut piece of rose ribbon to come up with an idea of how large to draw the ballerina to fit the "tutu").  If she makes a mistake or gets frustrated, just wet it down, wait until the shirt dries blank again, and start over (you may also want to make a square or rectangle out of tape on the shirt to give your child some drawing boundaries - otherwise her design might end up all over the shirt.).  When everything is dry, you can easily remove the tape from the shirt.

3.  Once your child is done, take the fabric paint and carefully trace over your child's design.

4.  Use the pre-cut piece of shabby rose ribbon to be the tutu on the ballerina design (or you may need to cut a new one for a better fit) and glue it to the design carefully with fabric glue.

5.  Follow drying instructions for both the paint AND glue.  Chances are that this will be 48-72 hours at least.

6.  Wash the shirt, and it is ready for wearing!  :)

This idea could easily be adapted in many different ways for a child to make his/her own t-shirt design so don't limit your thinking to just ballet!  :)  Happy designing to you all!  :)

Linking up:

www.tipjunkie.com

www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com

www.gingersnapcrafts.com

www.momontimeout.com

www.bearrabbitbear.com

www.handsonaswegrow.com

www.houseofhepworths.com

www.happyhourprojects.com

www.kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com

www.joyfulstamper.blogspot.com

www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com

www.tatertotsandjello.com

Father's Day: Secret Message Gift Wrap, Homemade Bows, & Homemade Gummy Bites!

Father's Day is just around the corner so I thought I'd share a little of what we did to make it extra special for Daddy this year.  :)  To make the gift wrapping just as wonderful as the gift inside, I decided to spice up some plain white wrapping paper by having us write secret notes on it for my husband.

On one present, we used lemon juice to write messages (if you try this, just use a cotton swab or thin paintbrush and it should dry pretty clear).  When Daddy opens his present, he can hold the paper up to a strong heat source to see what we wrote!  :)

UPDATE ON THIS METHOD:  The lemon juice method did not work well on the wrapping paper we used.  The notes we wrote with the juice didn't seem to show up very well using a heat source.  It is possible that this was due to the type of wrap we used so I suggest if you try this method - you may want to make a little sample first using the type of wrap you intend to give your gift in to make sure it works well first.  Please let me know if you try this and have a successful story to share as I thought this would be a fun idea for kids.  :)

On the second gift, we used homemade finger paint to write a secret note to Daddy.  In order to read it, he will have to open his present VERY carefully so as not to mess up the paper.

By the way, if you try any of these methods, make sure you measure and cut your paper to size for your gift FIRST so you don't end up having to cut off part of your message after the paint has dried.

Don't you LOVE the bows we used?  They are homemade as well!  I will be posting a tutorial on how we made these (with pics) tomorrow so make sure you check back!!!

P.S.  A follower recently let me know about an article which might be of interest to other readers concerning ways to wrap a gift.  Here is the link:  http://www.aupairjobs.com/articles/10-ways-to-wrap-a-gift/   Thanks for the tip, Jacqui!  :)

Last year, we made Daddy some homemade chipotle gummy bears which he loved!  SOOO this year, in addition to some items that my husband wanted, we decided to make him another batch of chipotle peach gummy goodness!  AND I decided to try a new flavor combination which I am happy to report, was also quite tasty:  mango lime gummy bites!

For the recipe and post from last year, just click here (to make the mango lime flavor, I used lime jello with a tiny bit of lime zest mixed in and tiny pieces of mangos sprinkled on top before the mixture could cool and firm up).

These are AWESOME because they are so unique (how often do you see mango lime or chipotle peach gummy candy in a store?), AND because your kids can help make them for Dad!  You could even let them come up with their own flavor combination for him - if you dare!  ;)

Linking up to:
www.momontimeout.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.atthepicketfence.com
www.cookienut.blogspot.com
www.happyhourprojects.com
www.joyfulstamper.blogspot.com
www.sunscholars.blogspot.com
www.homeschoolcreations.com
www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com
www.whipperberry.com
www.kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com
www.tatertotsandjello.com
www.diyhshp.blogspot.com/
www.makingtheworldcuter.com

Mommy and Me Activity - Fairy Shoes!

The beginning of spring heralds the arrival of things amazing, things wonderful!  Raindrops of color, fresh breezes whispering of new life, puddles begging for a good splash, and of course the mystery of little leprechauns and fairies caught in the middle!

As I was wandering through the incredible world of Pinterest searching for some spring inspiration, I came across some shoes that reminded me of what a fairy might wear.  They appeared to be made of flowers and earthy things - I imagine they were only beautiful for a very short amount of time if they were indeed real.  But of course my mind began to spin, and I thought of a pair of Miss A's shoes I was about to put away because they were more of the kind one would wear in the winter.

Why not give them a new life as well?  After all, it is spring and we did just spend a week on leprechauns (shoemakers for the fairies).  So I pulled them out...

Yes, definitely in need of a spring touch!  So, I snipped a bit here and a bit there...

I presented these to my daughter and we set to work.  Paint and glitter quickly lent a magical hand to turn these into something a fairy might consider stepping into.  But we weren't done...

Leaves and small flowers from the dollar store as well as a few paper flower accents we had left over from another project quickly took center stage as we worked together to bring about a very pretty transformation.  (BTW - I manned the hot glue gun while she pointed out where she wanted flowers, and I offered suggestions, etc.).

A few finishing touches - more glitter (think fairy dust) and we had a pair of slippers even Tinkerbell would be proud to wear!

NOTE:  I had to specify that these were special outdoor shoes (because of the glitter) and to keep away from any water which might mess up the paint.  Other than that - the only real limit was how far her little imagination could carry her...

Now the only question that remains is:  what potential fairy shoes do you have hidden away in your closet?  ;)

Linking up to:
www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com
www.sunscholars.blogspot.com
www.kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com
www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com
www.toysinthedryer.com
www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com
www.tatertotsandjello.com
www.diyhshp.blogspot.com
www.delicateconstruction.blogspot.com
www.ourdelightfulhome.blogspot.ca
www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.bearrabbitbear.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.momontimeout.com
www.handsonaswegrow.com
www.enchantedhomeschoolingmom.blogspot.com

Travel Toys!

This is another one of those posts that I never actually got around to posting last month...  

This is a travel toy inspired by this post. It is SOOOO easy to make with lots of possibility.  If you are a crafter or a sewer, then you probably have tons of scrap fabric lying around.  To make this toy, you simply tie or sew long pieces of fabric together end to end and stuff them in a container or bag with a small opening just large enough to pull the length of attached fabrics out slowly.   

I used lots of bright colored fabric and textures (felt, satin, netting, etc.) to make this toy more fascinating and fun!  I love how it turned out!  :)

To make my travel toy, I sewed the ends of my fabric together really quickly and then also folded a piece of felt over and sewed along the edges to create a bag.  I left one small opening along one edge for the fabric to come out.  I also sewed the end of the long string of fabrics into the green felt bag so that when my child finished pulling the entire length out, it did not separate from the bag and would be easy to stuff back inside.

Important:  Do NOT leave your child alone with a toy like this as it could pose a strangulation hazard.

Would you like to know what other things we took on our trip to keep the kids occupied and happy?

Well, this for one....  See how to make these here.

Some other things we also took:

** our trusty travel DVD player with an ample supply of dvds

**aqua doodle pen and pad (see the link below if you are not sure what this is)

**play magnetic boards and pieces (make sure the pieces are large enough that your child won't swallow them)

**WASHABLE markers and drawing pad or coloring book

**Little toys (miniature dolls, animals, etc.) that are trip-only-toys so they don't just get to play with them every day like their other toys (makes the toys more attractive when they are new or rarely played with until the occasion of a family trip)

**small books with flaps to open

**snack trap (see below) - these are AWESOME for helping to contain the mess of snacks!

**thermos stainless steel sip containers

Linking up to:
www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.momontimeout.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/
www.whipperberry.com
www.toysinthedryer.com

Travel Toy: Velcro Story Blocks

We won't be starting up our homeschooling again for a few more days as we are still in the process of moving and settling into a temporary spot until we are able to find a new home to purchase.  In the meantime, this is something I wanted to post weeks ago for people who might be traveling over the holidays - but, due to illnesses in the family and Christmas craziness, it just didn't happen.  

SOOOO, for those planning a family trip soon (with toddlers in tow), here is something I came up with for one of our own car trips:  Velcro Story Blocks!  The idea for these came after seeing some velcro blocks.  I liked the concept but thought they would be much cuter if they were colored.  Then I thought they might be even more fun if some of the sides had pictures so they could be used to make up stories as well.  We had an empty laptop box that looked like the perfect fit for said blocks, and I decided to jazz it up with some color and a little scene of its own to enhance the story making capabilities of the blocks!  :)  

Voila!   A new car toy!  :)  And the beauty of it is that the velcro helps to keep the pieces together instead of having them all over the car, so your little construction worker can build towers IN THE CAR without them toppling at every little bump.

BTW: I am participating in a blog contest for the top 25 creative mom blogs and would LOVE it if you would cast a vote for me!  :)  The button is on the sidebar and you don't have to be a member or sign up or anything to vote - just click the button which takes you to the site and cast your vote.  You can vote once a day so if you feel extra generous and want to cast a vote on another day - I would LOOOOVVVVEEEE it if you would!  Thanks so much!

If you would like to make your own, these are pretty easy to make.  

IMPORTANT:  Examine your blocks each time to make sure the velcro is not detaching from frequent use.  Do not give these to your children if you suspect they will try to put them in their mouths or try to eat the velcro.

Materials:  Velcro (I used colored as well as black), large wood blocks, paint (non-toxic), glue (super glue or hot glue).

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BLOCKS:

1.  Paint your blocks (solid or with pictures on two sides).  Allow blocks to dry.

2.  Measure the amount of velcro you will need to wrap around each block once.  Cut two pieces of velcro (you will want one with hooks and one without so that the velcro sides of each will be able to stick to all the other blocks.  If you only used one side of the velcro such as the hooks side, it could only attach to a block with the other side of velcro such as the loop side.  However, by using one strip of each per block, they can all stick together).

3.  Glue both pieces of velcro around each block.  

4.  Find a container in which to store your blocks, then PLAY!!!!!  :)

Linking up to:

www.houseofhepworths.com

www.momontimeout.com

www.handsonaswegrow.com

www.bearrabbitbear.com

www.tatertotsandjello.com

www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com

www.whipperberry.com

http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com

www.makingtheworldcuter.com

www.delicateconstruction.blogspot.com

www.diyhshp.blogspot.com

www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com

www.polkadotsonparade.blogspot.com

www.gingersnapcrafts.com

www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com

More Christmas....

It has been CRAZY around here!  Not only is Christmas only a few days away, we are in the process of moving AND have kids sick, sick, sick including one with an allergic reaction to the antibiotic he was on.  SOOO, needless to say, blogging has not been a top priority for me the past couple of weeks.  However, the kids are now asleep for a few minutes, so I thought I would hop on and post some things we had done before a bunch of the chaos descended once more.  :)  Enjoy!

A fun and festive snack for the holidays!  :)

Snack Details:

Christmas tree:  slices of green pepper and pear with a pretzel trunk and a cheese star.

Muffin cups #1 and #3 (sides of tree):  apple and pear circle ornaments for the Christmas tree and green/red M&M's to be used for ornaments as well.

Muffin cups #2 and #4 (top and bottom):  mini marshmallows and string cheese circles for snow under the tree (or more ornaments for the tree).

Garnishes:  gingerbread men marshmallows and winter edible confetti.

Originally I had intended to post this fun little book as a freebie on my Teacher Pay Teacher site, but unfortunately I made it on a program that apparently does not change over well to the format supported by Teacher Pay Teacher.  I would have spent more time trying to figure out an alternate method to post it or remake this in pdf but alas, the craziness and sickness in our house has not allowed me much time for that sort of thing so perhaps it will be available in time for the holidays next year.  

I love this picture of how my daughter helped the elves find the missing presents - that is her finger pointing to them off to the side (barely visible).  Ah, if only the elves had thought to look by the Christmas tree...

This was what my daughter drew under the gift flap on the last page of the book - notice there was not sufficient room for the head of the mermaid doll at the top so she improvised.

We call this "Sweet Spelling" - I gave my daughter a jar full of different types of festive candy or sweets and allowed her to use them to form her spelling words.  If she did it correctly, she would get to pick one of the pieces from the word to eat.  I must say, it was not hard to get her to practice her spelling when this jar was part of the process!  :)

I'd love to post more, but I must be off to work on some more moving stuff before the kids are up and about.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!  :)

Linking to:

www.momontimeout.com

Thanksgiving FUN!

This week was a particularly light week in terms of schoolwork as our family was preparing for a vacation, and I was recovering from eye infections. However, we did manage to squeeze in a few fun activities....

My daughter enjoyed fingerpainting....with pumpkin pudding!!! Yep, if you have never tried it, you should. It is fun AND delicious! Although ours was a seasonal flavor, any variety will do! :)

I saw this idea on Pinterest or on a blog somewhere a while back and decided to try it. First we collected some colorful fall leaves. Then we glued and stapled them to a sentence strip creating our very own fall harvest crown!

This is our handsome little turkey! His tail feathers are made up of different things I had in my cupboard: flax seeds, lentils, etc. We then added his body on top and some fun accordian fold legs. Dashing, isn't he? ;)

And here is our melted crayon turkey!   I printed a coloring page from the internet, peeled the paper back from some old crayons, lit a small tea light and showed my daughter how to carefully melt the crayon and then color with it before it hardened up again (which seemed to be rather quickly). Once she got the hang of it, I think she enjoyed the experience. Please note that this is a CLOSE supervision activity if you are doing it with small children!!

And last, but not least, FEATHER PAINTING!  Yes, it is just what its name implies - you paint with a feather, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went!  Hey, we did a lot of turkey stuff so I figured this might be fun to try, and I love the colorful result.  :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!  :)

Linking to:
www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com
www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com
http://diyhshp.blogspot.com
www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com
www.makingtheworldcuter.com
http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2011/11/introducing-fun-stuff-fridays.html
http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Scarecrows!

For those who have been wondering if I will be posting Thanksgiving activities anytime soon, the answer is - YES!  I had not planned to post those until next week but will try to speed up the process so I can post something earlier for those of you interested in ideas for your own class or homeschool.  Until then, please enjoy our humble scarecrow theme and activities...  :)

We made these guys to go along with our wooden spoon scarecrow activity (see pics below).

Cute, are they not?  And easy to make - just paint some clothespins black, add black feathers, wiggly eyes, and a paper beak.  Yes, I know crows don't have orange beaks.  However, my daughter pointed out that if we made the beaks black, they would be hard to distinguish from the rest of the crow body.  So, orange the beaks remain.  :)

Here is our very own small scarecrow we made from a wooden spoon and one of my daughter's doll dresses.   I attached a craft stick (popsicle stick) to the wooden spoon to make the arms, and we dressed her and stuffed her.  :)

Isn't she lovely and friendly looking!  Even the crows seem to enjoy her amicable presence!  :)

This was our "crow" (as in "exult") can.  We wrote down all sorts of things my daughter is able to do and at least a couple of skills that she has not quite yet achieved.  The ones she has already accomplished, we glued to the can.  The skills which we are still working on are being held onto by the crows until she proves she has mastered them at which time we can add them to our "crow" can and rejoice together!  :) 

This type of thing might be a good activity and eye-opener for a parent and a child (especially for one who is struggling) of how accomplished the child really is.  Sometimes we forget how far our children have come and how much they have learned - it is good to be reminded (for both parent and child).  :)  By the way, not all of what we wrote on the can is academic (I can play nicely, I can do my chores, etc.).

My daughter is not often called upon to write her last name, so this is an area I know needs a tad bit more practice.  Thus, the crow is hanging onto it for us until we can happily add it to the other mastered skills on the "crow"can.

This was a fun accordian style book  made from paper bags and snippets of items (I was inspired in part by this gorgeous blog:  www.katherinemariephotography.com).  Each page contains a descriptive sentence stating what the reader sees.  The final page - the surprise - is that all of these items have come together to make a scarecrow (BTW - I believe all those black squiggly lines are crows flying away).

Scarecrow Pete is a really cute story we read about the friendship between a boy and a scarecrow.  The scarecrow helps to instill in the boy a passion for reading as the two embark on imaginary adventures with the help of many wonderful books!

This activity became an extension of that tale.  I call it "scarecrow painting" because the point of it is to wrap up a bunch of straw, raffia, etc. and use it to paint with (pretending you are a scarecrow painting with your arm - your arm is the brush).

In this case, we talked about where Scarecrow Pete might like to go if he could get down off of his pole.  My daughter thought the beach would be a good destination for him, so we pretended she was the scarecrow painting a picture of where he would like to travel.

This was a watercolor painting my daughter made.  We then did some texture rubbings of things and used the rubbings to cut out a small scarecrow, gluing him to her picture.

This is a picture of one of the stories we read and also of our fun little pointer for the week!  Basically it is a small autumn pick and we just use it for a calendar pointer (or anything else which might need to be pointed out).  

We have several different "pointers" which range from decorative picks to fun eraser toppers on pencils.  I try to keep them somewhat seasonal, and it just seems to add to the excitement of a new theme when I pull out a new pointer.  (Picks are great because if you get them for sale at your local hobby store, they are SOOO inexpensive.  I think this little scarecrow only cost $.50 to $.60!!!)

Linking up:
www.runwithglitter.blogspot.com
http://www.delicateconstruction.blogspot.com/
http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/
http://www.singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com/
www.makingtheworldcuter.com
www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com
http://www.abcand123learning.com/
www.momontimeout.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
http://www.amommysadventures.com/
www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com
www.whipperberry.com
www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com
http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/
http://www.sunscholars.blogspot.com/
www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com
http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com