Bath Finger Puppets

As it is the summer school holidays here in England I have been doing loads to try and keep the kids busy and to keep myself sane. This last week we made bath finger puppets. They were fun and easy to make and the kids spent an hour in the bath tub afterwards which means another hour of no fighting and happiness, which makes one mommy very happy.

All you will need is a rubber glove for each child and some permanent markers.

Let the children draw people or faces on each finger. When they have finished cut the fingers off the glove.

Thats it. Five cute bath finger puppets.

PomPom Shamrock

Im not sure about you but when I was growing up we would wake up St. Patricks Day morning and think "oh man I need something green". We then rummaged through our wardrobe, which for me consist of not only my closet but my three sisters closets too, only to find nothing green. Lets face it how many green things do many teenage girls have? In our house not many. My mom would always show up just about the time we were accepting the fact it was going to be a day full or pinches with a green clover she had cut out of construction paper and a safety pin. Phew. Thanks to mom we were saved.

Well times have changed and though it is still necisarry to wear green on St Patricks Day. No longer do we have to wear construction paper cut out shamrocks. (I say wear but lets face it we all hid them somewhere on ourselves and only flashed them when someone was about to strike :) ) This year I have made a couple Shamrocks out of PomPoms so that come the morning of the 17th I am ready to protect my children from the pinches of all those enthusiastic pinching fingers. Here is what I have done:

What you will need:

• 3 - 3/4 inch green pom poms
• piece of green craft foam
• piece of gold ribbon
• craft glue
• pin back
• scissors
• pen or pencil

Instructions:

1. Glue all three pom-poms together to form a shamrock.
2. Draw and cut out a the shamrock shape from a piece of green craft foam.
3. Glue the Green craft foam to the back of the shamrock.
4. Tie a piece of gold ribbon into a bow, trim ends, and glue to the front of your shamrock.
5. Glue a pin back to the back of the shamrock.

Heres to not getting pinched this St Patricks Day!

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Yesterday after school the kids were begging me to do two things. First make Tom and Jerry cupcakes and second to do some kind of craft. So we made the cakes and while they were cooking we did a Thanksgiving Craft. I seriously dont have any Thanksgiving decorations so I was excited to get some more stuff done. Here is what we made:



I had some squares cut from 2x4's for a craft I never got around to so we cut a turkey body and feathers out of Foam and just glued it all together.

Here are the supplies we used:



I think they turned out pretty cute. I have lots more ideas lets see if I can get around to making them in time for Thanksgiving :)

Painting Aprons

A few years ago I was babysitting a friend of mines little boy around Mothers Day and decided I wanted to do something really nice for her and fun for her little boy and my little girl. I bought some plain white Aprons and had the children, using felt paints, paint their handprints on the Apron it was lovely. I still have mine and love using it.

I think these make fantastic Mothers Day gifts for any fathers out there reading our blog!!

NEW WAY to tie a fleece blanket

i was shown by a volunteer last week at the project linus blanket night how to tie a fleece blanket that's MUCH easier than the original tied way. so here we go...

start with your fleece. i bought 1 1/2 yds for the top with a coordinating 1 1/2 yds for the backing.

square up your corners and cut a 4x4 inch square.
to make your ties, cut 4 inch strips, 1 inch wide.

fold both layers of the tie up and cut a slit around 1/4-1/2 inch long.

lay your tie back out flat.

pull both layers of fleece up and through the slit

this is what it should look like...

continue that all the way around the 4 sides and you're all done!

Valentines Swag

In an attempt to decorate my house for all the holidays this year I have had to make another Valentines Day craft. This time I did a Valentines Day Swag to hang on my mantle.

This was so simple!! All I did was get some scrapboking paper and cute it into hearts. I glued them into a design that I liked and then I laminated them so that I can use them again next year. Next I got some cute pink and red ribbon and tied each of the hearts together and then hung it from the mantle. I think it turned out really cute.

Now I just need to think of something to do on top of my mantle so that it is more Valentines like. My living room is done in black and duck egg blue so the blue candles on top of my mantle dont go at all and they are so coming down today and going to be replaced with red ones!!

I hope you like this idea. If you have any Valentines Day ideas please share them with us all!!

Candy Cane Reindeer

Every Christmas since my 6 year old has been in school she has wanted to make and take a gift for every child in her school class. So each year we make these bad boys and she gives them out to her friends at school. They are really cute and fun for her to make. She gives them out with her Christmas Cards.

I know that you probably all know how to make them but for those of you who dont here is how I do them:

What you'll need:

Low temp hot glue gun

Ribbons or yarn for hanging

1 wrapped candy cane (this has to be wrapped around the candy, not a 'bagged' candy cane)

1 tiny pom-pom for the nose

2 little wiggle eyes (or paper eyes drawn and cut out)

Brown pipe cleaners for the antlers

How to make it:

Look at the picture above - make antlers out of pipe cleaners, wrap them around the candy cane on the curve and glue them.

Add two wiggle eyes and a pom-pom nose.

You're done!

These can be added to packages or cards or used as table center pieces.

Wooden Baby Block Picture Ornament

i don't remember where i saw this idea, so i can't link to it. but if anyone knows, please share so i can give credit where credits due! this idea is great, easy, fast and inexpensive. you probably have the supplies sitting around your house right now! i did, and i probably have enough to make HUNDREDS of these! they're wooden baby block picture ornaments.

supplies:

mod podge

scrapbook paper

wooden baby block (i got the whole alphabet in 1 box at the dollar tree)

hammer and nail (optional, depends if you have muscles)

screw eyes (CHEAP)

wallet size picture of your baby :)

sandpaper and ribbon (not included in picture, sorry)

step 1: depending on how many sides you want to cover, you need to cut that many pieces of scrapbook paper. so trace your block onto the paper, and cut it out. also cut your childs picture to the size you want it.

like so...

step 2: using the mod podge, apply a thin layer to whatever sides you're cover and place your scrapbook paper on it. it doesn't matter if your measurements aren't exact. you'll be getting rid of the excess during the next step.

mod podge your picture on too

step 3: using sandpaper, gently sand all the corners. this will even up any larger squares of scrapbook paper

step 4: apply another layer of modge podge to all sides of the block to seal everything on

step 5: once modge podge has dried (few minutes), use a nail to make the hole where you want to put your screw eye.

step 6: pull out the nail and replace with the screw eye

step 7: string ribbon through the eye and tada... you're all done! ready to adorn the tree!

*OPTIONAL* i believe the blog i saw this on also used diamond glaze on the side of the block with the picture. it gave that side of the block a clear glass type finish. i have NEVER found diamond glaze at any craft store! they advertise the product on there websites, but everytime i go to purchase it, its never there! and i check EVERYTIME i go. but anyways, that's an option.

Thanksgiving Wreath

So I have been looking for cute Thanksgiving Decorations to make for the house. Living in the UK you cant find anything so everything that I have has to be made. I thought this was adorable and so simple to make. This craft is so easy to make that a child could make it and it looks really cute too.

All you need is:

• Wooden Craft Ring


• Pumpkin and Leaf Foam cut outs. You can either do them yourself or a lot of craft stores will sell them already cut out.


• Glue Gun and Glue sticks

The instructions couldnt be more simple:

Glue the leaves and pumpkins to the Wooden Craft ring in any desired fashion. Thats it... Finished! So simple! This could easily be made in time to hang on the door for Thanksgiving

Paper Pumpkin Lantern

I found this idea on Nuture Mama, and thought it would be a great craft to do with the kids during half term this week! It's really easy, and really effective, so heres how....

1. I used orange construction paper and then used a paper cutter to make a pile of orange strips that were 1" wide by 12" tall. I then took 10 strips of paper, a push pin and two paper fasteners. I then stacked the strips and used the push pin to help make a hole in each end through all the layers.2. The pin is removed and replaced by the paper fastener. It's best to push it through just a couple of layers at a time.3. The paper fastener legs are opened and the strips are adjusted around each pin until they are equally spaced apart and a globe shape takes place.4. Black eyes and mouth are cut out and glued on with a glue stick. A string of yarn may be tied to one end.

Free Fun for Kids

My friend told me about this site. At Lowes on Saturdays they have clinics where kids can come and build things *for free* and take home with you. It seems to be nationwide. It looks like Septembers items are a drum or a fire truck. It only takes an hour, but looks fun, especially if you want your husband to take them somewhere for an hour or so so you can breathe, and maybe take a shower! Check it out:

https://www.lowesbuildandgrow.com/default.asp

Jelly Bean Bracelets

The other day we had a bunch of my friends and their children over and we made Jelly Bean Bracelets. They are fun and easy to do. All we did was get some elastic and a large eye sewing needle and just literally sewed the jelly beans together. Tied the ends and that was it. All done. Here is a picture of the little wrists with their cute bracelets. It is a good way to get children excited about sewing too! Good Luck making your own.

Painted Sneakers and Pretty Flip Flops

School breaks up here tomorrow. I have been looking for fun activities for my daughter to do while she is out of school. I need to buy her some new summer shoes and I was just looking at Martha Stewart (yep I'm a Martha Junkie!!) And look what I found:

My daughter is going to LOVE painting her own summer shoes!! It is going to be such a fun project. I will also make her some shoelaces out of ribbon to match whatever design she paints.



There are also these amazing How easy is it to just Hot Glue flowers onto some flip flops. I am going to make some homemade Fabric Flowers which are found in this post. That way I can put on my own flowers which will match the flip flops better. Once I am done with my daughters flip flops I will post them on here.

I cant wait until Monday to get going on this!!

Tutu

My sister posted on here how to make a tutu the other day and so I thought I would give it a go. How totally easy is it?!?!?! I will give step by step instructions for anyone who would like them.

Items needed:

5yds of Tulle

2 Ft Elastic

Anything you want to decorate

First off I have found that if you use two solid colors of Tulle and alternate them it looks much better than using a multi color Tulle. It is so much more effective. 

• Cut the elastic to the desired size. Remember it will stretch. 
  
• Sew the two sides of elastic together making a circle
  
• Cut the Tulle into approx 4" strips. Use the whole length of the Tulle dont cut it in half where the fold is when you buy it. The strips need to be very long!
  
• Keeping the Tulle folded in half Length wise tie it onto the elastic with a loop knot. Pulling the knot very tight and each piece of Tulle close together.

For the decoration on mine I bought 4 yds of really pretty and simple white ribbon. I then tied the ribbon on in four areas with loop knots as well. I did think just as an accent. I hope the picture shows exactly what I mean.   

These are so simple to make that next time I will have my daughter help me. I thought for my first time until I know exactly what I was doing I would do it without her. Next time though she will definitely do it with me or even on her own and she is only 5.

My daughter loves hers. She came down stairs this morning with it on. These are so simple and really really cute too! If anyone else has a go at making them we would love to post your pictures. You can email them to me at amwhitfield.blogspot.com 

TUTUS

Well I have never attemped to make tutus before but after going to the womens conference a few weeks ago they did a service project making tutu and my friend and I thought it cant be that hard to make and we were right. 5 yards of tulle 2 feet of 1" elastic and 45 minutes later I had one really happy daughter!!