Blanket Fort

Pin It

When all else fails, build a fort.  Seriously, this blanket fort took 1 minute to put together and it entertained my daughter forever.  The fort made everything special - reading books, eating a snack, singing songs even lying down on the floor.

Glue Snowmen

Pin It

Okay I saw something like this on pinterest a while back and wanted to try them out.  It seemed like a fun craft to do with my daughter and with all the snow outside, I thought it was a good time to make them.

They didn't turn out perfectly, but I did learn some things along the way that I thought I'd share :)

Materials:
Wax paper
Elmer's glue
Tape
Buttons,
Paper
Oogly Eyes
Glitter
Other decorating supplies

The first thing I learned was that your wax paper needs to be totally flat and not wrinkled at all....woops!  Because my paper wasn't totally flat, I ended up with a large "crack" in my snowman because the glue just slid off of the high point of the crease.  So make sure your wax paper is flat and to ensure it doesn't get any wrinkles, take it down to your pan or whatever surface you're using.

I set my face and other embellishments out on the paper so I could figure out how big my snowman needed to be.

 Then I drew the outline of my snowman,

Next I filled it in.

 Then I put the face and other decorations on top of the glue.  Here is another lesson I learned....honestly...felt is not so great.  It absorbes the glue and leaves very little for the actual body of the snowman so he was a bit weak around the neck area.  I'd use foam or paper instead.  

 My daughter enjoyed decorating her snowman too.

Then you just let the glue dry.  FYI this pretty much takes all day long.  Also.....if you use foam like I did for the hats, you'll want to peel the hats up a little bit after a few hours to let the air get to glue so it will draw quicker.  Once the glue is completely dry carefully feel the snowman off of the wax paper.

This is my daughters finished snowman.

 Here is mine.....notices the crack due to the crease in the paper?  Boo.  The good news is that it's an easy fix....all you have to do is glue it back together...ha!

Paper Plate Tambourine

Pin It

Let's be honest.....I loved making little musical instruments as a kid and a paper plate tambourine thingy was no exception.  My daughter loves dancing around and I thought she'd enjoy making some sound while doing so.  I was right.  The great news is that these are really super easy and quick to make.

Get two paper plates and places some dried beats in one.  

 Then tape the two plates together with the beans inside.

 Then let your child design their tambourine however they want.  Honestly, you could fill the plates up with any small hard objects that will make noise.

Quiet Time Bottle

Pin It

I am always looking for things to keep my daughter entertained at church that aren't super noisy. We made this together and brought it with us to church and it worked for a little while.  I've also heard of people making quiet bottles for when they send their child to time-out.  The good news is that they are really easy and cheap to make so if they don't work as well as you'd hoped, you aren't out a ton of money.

To make the quiet time bottle, use an empty water bottle and fill it with things like buttons, pom poms, beads, cheap ribbon, etc.  The buttons will fall while the pom poms float so it makes it more entertaining for kids to watch as they tip it back and forth.

 After you've finished filling it with your items, fill your bottle with water, or baby oil.  The baby oil will make every thing move in slowmotion which is fun.  Then put the lid on tight.  Now use hot glue to seal up the lid all around.  That way they can't open the bottle and make a big mess.  You could also use super glue on the inside of the cap.  I couldn't find my super glue at the time so I just stuck with the hot glue on the outside.

Bath Foam Faces

Pin It

My daughter LOVED this.  I used the foam sheets that can be bought at any craft store, Wal-mart or even dollar store.  Then I cut out the different shapes needed to made a face.  For the eyes I used permanent marker to draw the iris and pupil since I didn't want to have to cute out more little circles, but I would recommend just using foam.....the marker still came off a little bit.  The great thing about the foam is that you don't need magnets, velcro or anything other than water to make it stick to the bathtub wall or onto itself!

She put the boys nose on crooked so he looked a bit like Pinochio ha.

Alphabet Handprint Art

Pin It

It's the post you've all been waiting for.....the WHOLE alphabet!  Here you go!

Like I mentioned before, there are some letters that you have a ton of options, so I thought I'd list a few other options I cane up with for the letters!  I'd love to see your handprint art!

A - Apple, Acorn, Aligator, Alpaca, Angel, Antelope, Ax

B - Bird, Bat, Balloon(s), Baboon, Baseball, Basketball, Bee, Boat, Broccoli, Butterfly

C - Crab, Cat, Cabin, Car, Camel, Camera, Castle, Caterpillar, Cow

D - Dinosaur, Dog, Deer, Dandelion, Donkey, Dragon, Duck, Drum

E - Elephant, Eagle, Earth, Eggplant, Elk, Evergreen, Eye

F - Fish, Fire, Face, Fireworks, Flamingo, Ferret, Fox, Frog, Fries

G - Giraffe, Gorilla, Ghost, Goose, Guitar, Gerbil 

H - Heart, Hamburger, Hat, Hamster, Helicopter, Hippo, Horse

I - Ice cream, Igloo, Iguana, Impala

J - Jelly fish, Jack-O-Lantern, Jaguar, Jester

K - Kite, Kangaroo, Key, King

L - Lion, Ladybug, Lamp, Leaf, Leopard, Leprechaun, Lightbulb, Llama, Lizard, Lobster

M - Mouse, Monkey, Mermaid, Monster, Moose, Money

N - Nest, Nose, Newt

O - Octopus, Orangutan, Ogre, Ox, Ostrich, Owl, Ox 

P - Peacock, Painting, Panda, Palm Tree, Penguin, Pig, Pineapple, Pine tree, Pumpkin

Q - Queen, Quail

R - Rose, Raccoon, Ring, Rooster, Rino, Rocking horse, Rocket

S - Spider, Sailboat, Starfish, Seaweed, Ship, Shoe, Skirt, Skunk, Soccer ball, Strawberry

T - Tree, Teapot, Tent, Tiger, Turtle, Tongue, Turkey, Taco

U - Umbrella, Unicorn

V - Vampire, Volcano, Van, Violin, Vulture

W - Whale, Wagon, Walrus, Watermelon, Windmill, Wolf, Wolverine, Woolly mammoth 

X - Xylophone, X-ray

Y - Yak, Yacht, Yarn

Z - Zebra, Zucchini, Zoo

Columbus Day Ships

Pin It
Since today is Columbus Day, I decided to do a little ship craft/activity with my daughter.  We used a Powerade bottle lid, but you could also use any lid around that size that you have around, or a small plastic bowl.  All you need is a lid, sticky tac (or hot glue) a toothpick and paper.  So easy!

I filled a baking dish with water and put the little ship in the water.  My daughter then got to blow it around the dish.  If she blew too hard, the ship would sink, so that was a bummer, but she still liked it.  

 I then did the same thing with a little plastic bowl that we had so it wouldn't sink.

ABC Handprint Art Part 5

Pin It
This is the last of our ABC Handprint art!  Yay!  I hope you enjoyed the different ideas we did.  For some letters there are a ton of choices and then a few there's really only one thing you can do, BUT the good news is that it is possible to make something out of a handprint that represents each letter of the alphabet.  I'll be posting ALL of the letters together so you can see the whole alphabet at once.