Easter Egg Garland

If you want simple Easter decor, try making an Easter egg garland!

Most plastic eggs come with holes in the top and bottoms. All you have to do is thread some yarn through the holes, tie the ends and hang up your garland. Voila!

Thank you Kelly Elko for the inspiration. HAPPY EASTER!

Happy President's Day!

The presidents of the United States are not always perfect, but we are blessed to live in a country where the people have a say in how we are governed. I am so grateful that I get to raise my children here where they can go to school, worship how they choose and have so many opportunities available to them.

My son drew this last year in school and I think he depicted President Lincoln pretty well!

Happy President's Day!

Happy April Fools!

Last year, my then-6-year-old came home from school jumping with excitement. He told me he had brought me a special treat….a brownie! At the time, I was pregnant, craving chocolate, and just a little excited that my little boy had saved his special treat from school just for me. I closed my eyes and held out my hands as instructed and found this:

I’d been had! By my own son! Who was only 6 years old! True to his word, he brought me a BROWN E from school.

Happy April Fools!

Handprint Monsters

Last year for Halloween my 6 year old made these adorable handprint monsters at school…

They are so simple to make and turn out super cute! Just paint your child’s hand except for a few fingers and have them make handprints on paper. Add googly eyes and draw on some feet.

Have fun with your own little monsters! :)

Stained Glass Deviled Eggs

If you’re hosting Easter dinner this weekend, or taking deviled eggs to dinner at someone else’s house, liven them up a bit with a beautiful stained glass effect…
To learn how to make your own stained glass deviled eggs, visit my tutorial.
I’m linking up to Someday Crafts, Making it with Allie, Get Your Brag On, Get Your Craft On, Crafty Soiree, Thrilling Thursday, and Show off Your Stuff. 

Handy Valentines

Last year, my 5 year old helped make this Valentine’s Card for my husband…

You just trace your child’s hand and cut out two handprints. On one of them, write (or have your child write) “I love you…”

Then you take a long strip of paper and fold it accordion style; one section for each letter and one space of the words “this much” and have your child write the letters. Then when the recipient of this cute card opens it, it’s like having the child spread their arms out wide to express how much they love you.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Thanks Happy Clippings for the cute idea! I'm linking up to We Made That.

How to Make Gift Bows from Magazines

Last year I saw several blogs post about making their own gift bows, but I procrastinated too long, so the idea has been simmering in my mind ever since! Thanks to eHow, I can now share with you how you can make your own gift bows :).

All you need is a magazine, scissors, some paper board (like a cereal box), and glue.

Bottle Cap Reindeer Ornaments

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m on a bit of a bottle cap rampage right now and am loving all the different ways you can reuse little metal bottle caps…just more proof to me that just about everything can be recycled! Anyhow…

All you need to make these darling ornament is some brown paint, white and black paint (or googly eyes), and a little red for the nose. Hot glue small twigs on for the antlers and hot glue a ribbon on the back to hang up your darling ornaments and you are done!

I’ll be linking up to Christmas Crafts Link Up, Make it 4 Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Market Yourself Monday, Mad Skills LInk Party, Homemaker Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, Monday Blog Hop and Mommy Monday.

Pinecone Turkeys

I love crafts that you can make with things either already in your home or found in nature…pinecone turkeys are one such craft. For the past few weeks my boys and I have been collecting pinecones, leaves and acorns on our walks and we finally had what we needed to assemble a couple of turkeys!

This works best if you have smaller pinecones that have one side that is a little flatter so they can sit. Use hot glue to glue the acorn onto the front and dried, pressed leaves in between some of the pinecone sections, and draw some eyes on the acorns. Now you have some super cute little turkeys…perfect for decorating your Thanksgiving table!

I’m linking up to 3 Boys and a Dog, Thanksgiving Ideas Link Party, Holiday Link Up, Sunday Link Love, Fun Stuff Fridays, Thanksgiving Traditions,

Trick-or-Treat Bag

The Halloween festivities are in full swing and if you’re like me, you may be tired of just giving your kids a plastic shopping bag to take trick-or-treating. All you need to make your own adorable trick-or-treating bags is some felt and a sewing machine…
I cut some black felt double the size I wanted for the bag, and cut some strips of black felt for the handles (double the width desired). The ghost and pumpkin were free-handed, though you could easily search for templates online, and machine stitched on.
Put right sides of the bag together and sew along the sides and bottom of the bag. Take your strips and fold in half lengthwise. Sew along the edge of your handles.
Fold the top edge of the bag inside the bag and pin in place. Pin the handles to the inside of the bag and sew around the entire top of the bag.
Now your kids can trick-or-treat in style and they have a unique bag that won’t be mistaken for the bunches of other plastic bags at Halloween functions!

Tradition!

If you’re carving pumpkins this year, a fun tradition to start or to continue is to take a family picture with your Jack-O-Lanterns! I’m sure many families already do this, but we started this 3 years ago, and those are some of my favorite pictures…it’s such a fun, simple way to capture and remember my kids at that stage in life.

Then, over the years you can print out past pictures and they make just about the cutest Halloween decorations ever!

I’m linking up to Family Time Tuesday and Works for Me Wednesday.

Handprint Spiders

There’s a soft spot in my heart for any crafts that involve my children’s hand and foot prints…such a simple way to preserve my boys at least a little bit :). Which is why I couldn’t resist making these handprint spiders to send as cards to relatives!

Just paint all of your child’s hand except the thumb and press it down. Then flip the paper over and repeat giving your spider 8 legs. Happy Halloween!

Footprint Ghost

I honestly cannot figure out where I first saw this adorable idea, but loved it so much, I think we have a new Halloween tradition…footprint ghosts! What a fun way to record your child’s foot size each year, or make super cute cards to mail to grandparents.
Just cover your child’s foot in white paint and press it down on black construction paper. My boys loved this and kept begging me to paint their feet more :).
After the paint is dry, use black paint or a marker to draw eyes and a mouth. You can hang this up or cut it out to make a card. Like I said, adorable, right?!
I’ll be linking up to Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays, Anything Related, Works For Me Wednesday, Penny Pinching Party, Hoo’s Got Talent, Kids Get Crafty, What Are Little Boys Made Of? ,and Preschool Corner Friday.

Halloween Luminaries

After I posted about my Jack-O-Lanterns from a Jar last year, Debbie left a comment explaining how she used to make Luminaries for Halloween and of course I had to try it!

The process is fairly simple...you empty and clean how ever many cans you want. Draw a Jack-O-Lantern face on them and use a nail and hammer to punch holes along your lines. When you light a tea candle inside, you get something like this:

Bottle Cap Spiders

I still have a large collection of bottle caps and am always in search of a fun way to use them…well, my boys approved and loved playing with these spiders until I hung them up on our wall for Halloween décor :).

These are so simple to make that kids can help and it can be a family activity…just take your bottle caps and paint them black-if a little color shows through on your kids’ spiders it just adds character, right?! Use a dab of white paint and more black for the eyes, then hot glue pipe cleaners on for the legs. They look perfect on spider webs your kiddos can make!

I’m linking up at the DIY Project Parade, Market Yourself Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, 3 Boys and a Dog, Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays, Tip Me Tuesday, Ladybug Blessings, Re-Create Party, and Works For Me Wednesday.

American Flag Sugar Cookies

It’s been a while since we’ve made sugar cookies and yesterday I couldn’t resist any longer…I started wondering how on earth I could make American flag sugar cookies and this is what we ended up with:

The process seems long and complicated, but these turned out so cute and I can’t wait to take them to my husband’s work party! If it’s confusing, please leave a comment or e-mail me and I will explain it better.

Kids Patriotic Wreath

I’ve been searching and searching for patriotic crafts I can do with my boys that don’t require buying more craft supplies and when Gluesticks posted her Patriotic Wreath, I knew it was something I could make kid friendly!

Rice Bunnies

I figured my boys could use some more friends for Bunny & Clyde this year and after seeing Dana’s Peeps Bunting, and pondering on it for a while, this is what came to mind:
Rice bunnies! You know the rice bags that you heat up for a sore tummy…or bean bags for throwing around?

Spell It Out

If you are looking for a fun way to wish someone a happy birthday or happy mother’s/father’s day this year, try spelling it out…using your children :). This could make a fun postcard, or put it on the front of a card. I’ll bet you’ll never guess who this was for!

I’m linking up to Show and Tell @ Be Different, Act Normal, Market Yourself Monday @ Sumos Sweet Stuff, Anything Related @ All Thingz Related, Amaze Me August @ Bella Before & After, and Tot Tuesdays @ Delicious Ambiguity.

Leprechaun Cookies

You are getting sleepy…very sleepy…

This year, we are totally ready in our home to hypnotize any Leprechauns we catch and trick them into telling us where the gold is stashed! How? With these: