Halloween Foaming Soap

I am always looking for new ideas to get my 5 year old to wash her hands.  We already use foaming soap, which gets quite expensive, so I poked around online and learned that you can make your own!  I have been doing this for about a year now, but still have to fight with my daughter to wash her hands.  I was walking by the bathroom the other day, when it hit me...why not make the soap fun colors?  With Halloween coming up, I thought orange would be a great color to start with.  This was made with 5 drops of yellow and 1 drop of red food coloring.  My daughter noticed it right away and this week she has been using the soap without my prompting her!  I may try scenting it next

What do you think?  What fun colors would you use?

Recycled Homework Supply Caddy

My 11 month old adores these cereal puffs, we go through at least one or two containers each week.  They are made of a nice, heavy plastic and are just begging to be made into something else.  They are such a nice plastic, I can't bear to toss them in the recycling bin.  I have been collecting them in my craft room as I search my brain for ideas.  My 5 year old just started kindergarten, and what would be better to celebrate a new school year than a special place to store homework supplies?

After a tearful goodbye (tearful for Mommy at least, my daughter raced into the classroom  and never looked back) I went home and broke out my crafting supplies.  Between drying time and caring for the baby, it took me almost a week to finish putting it all together.  As this was going to be a surprise to celebrate getting through the first week, I could only work while my daughter was in school and the baby was sleeping.  When she got home last week on Friday, this was waiting for her on the table.

 Here is a view from the top.  Right now, we only have enough supplied to fill 4 of the containers, but I know this will quickly change as we get further into the year.

My daughter squealed in delight seeing all the shiny new supplies.  I explained to her that these were her homework supplies and we would keep them in a special place in my craft room.  She couldn't wait to pick out the perfect spot.  She was so exited to use her homework supplies that her homework (yes, she already had homework in the 2nd week of school!!!) was quickly done as soon as she came home from school all week.  I am going to savor this excitement while it lasts!

This was a great project because it cost me less than $5, I got to play with Mod Podge (one of my favorite things)  AND I was able to recycle something that most people would just toss.  I love it!!!

This post has been entered in the CSI Challenge:  Back to School Challenge

Play Dough

When I was a child, my mom always made our play dough.  We very rarely had the store bought stuff.  I thought it was the best to be able to play with the warm dough, and when we had mashed all the colors together, or it dried out, Mom would make fresh dough.  Now that I have my own kids, I love making play dough.  I also love that I know exactly what goes into it and don't have worry when it goes into my daughter's mouth because everything is completely edible!  There are countless ways to make play dough, but this is how we always made it:

 Ingredients

2 cups flour

1/2 cup salt

3 tbsp Cream of Tartar

2 tbsp Cooking Oil

2 cups Water

Food Coloring as desired

Instructions

Combine all ingredients (except food coloring) in a medium saucepan. 

Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the consistency of mashed potatoes (see photo below)

Move dough to a floured surface (I put it directly on my counter) and cool slightly

Knead until smooth and elastic.

Add food coloring as desired.  If you are only doing one color,  you can add it before kneading.  Note:  It will take a lot of food coloring if you want a dark color.  The dough we made this week was at least 30 drops of blue and about 6 drops of green. 

Store in Ziploc bags after completely cool. (Don't put it away until completely cool, or you risk the condensation making your dough too wet, and it will get moldy!)

This is always a hit with the kids and it lasts a long time as long as you are sure to put it back in the Ziploc bag when you are done playing. 

My 5 year old was nice enough to stop playing for a second so I could snap this picture :)

Vinyl Wall Art

I know I have been MIA for the last few weeks.  My computer crashed and I haven't been able to access any of my pictures or anything else for that matter.  I won't be able to show you many of my latest projects because all the before pictures are on the computer that crashed.  We are still trying to decide what to do about the computer.

In the meantime, here is a little something I created for my son's room.  His walls are a yummy sky blue to match the blue parts of his Winnie the Pooh bedding set.  The problem is that the only things hanging on the wall are the comforter, which I added ribbon to so it hangs on the wall (I have never used the comforter with my baby!)  The other thing is a super cute Winnie the Pooh sign my mom made when the baby was born.  I adore the book "Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney.  In fact, it may be my favorite children's book.  My favorite part is the last line, "I love you to the moon and back."  Thus, my inspiration for wall art was born.  Yes, I have seen these kinds of signs all over the place, but I didn't want to just buy something else that would only be used for a little while.  I broke out the Cricut and cut the letters using the Keystone cartridge.  The moon and stars are made using George.  I used vinyl and stuck it directly to the wall.  I love the way it turned out.  What do you think?

I learned several things about making vinyl wall art while doing this project:.
1.  It helps to do a test run with inexpensive printer paper before committing to the more expensive vinyl.
2.  When using transfer paper, the top is VERY sticky, EVERYTHING (especially animal hair) sticks to it, so be very careful where you place it while you are working!
3.  My transfer paper had guidelines on the back of the working surface.  Not very helpful if you can't see them!  I put sheets of white paper underneath my project, then I could see the grid perfectly
4.  The letters do not like to stay put when you are trying to put the sticky side over them, I used very small pieces of masking tape to temporarily tape them to the backing so they would not move while I adhered the transfer tape.
5.  A level is very helpful when determining the position on the wall (laser levels are even better!).

Burnishing to the wall

6.  Burnish, burnish, burnish....then burnish some more.  To the transfer tape, then to the wall.  When you think you have burnished enough, do it some more,  it will make your project go much more smoothly.  The vinyl will not stretch if everything is burnished correctly.

Recycled Fish

I just love projects that allow me to use items I already have in my stash, as well as recycle things that would likely be thrown in the trash.  This cute kids craft from Family Fun utilizes both of these elements.  It was also great fun making with my 5 year old daughter. 

To make these projects you will need everything pictured below.  The small water bottle is optional (we did not use them in our fish)

To get started, you will need to cut the bottom of the soda bottle off.  I drew on the bottle first with a permanent marker before attacking with my scissors.  Once the bottom is cut off, use the masking tape to close the opening.  If you want top or side fins, cut your water bottle and secure the pieces with masking tape.  Tape a length of fishing line to your bottle (you can also use string or whatever you have on hand).  Make sure you tape it well, I didn't and then had to retape during the paper mache process. Now it's time to get messy.  You can use Mod Podge, but thinned cheap white glue works just as well.  It took 2 layers to completely cover the fish.

After your paper mache is completely dry (we let ours dry over night) you can start painting.  We used a milk jug lid cut in half for behind the eye and a silver twist tie for the mouth.

Here are our new pets in all their glory.  Mine is one looking left and my DD's fish is the one looking to the right.  They are a great addition to our playroom.

Teacher Thank You Gift

My oldest daughter graduated from preschool this year.  I wanted to do something different for her teacher because everyone always does the same things, and really, how many "teacher" things can one person have?  Needless to say, I was excited to see this Chalkboard Planter over on The Crafters Filebox.  I thought it was the cutest idea, and with a few changes, we came up with the planter above.  It was easy-peasy, completely done with spray paint! 

After the pot was dry, I took my daughter to the local home improvement store to pick out the plant (that is why it looks a bit sad...she always picks the sad flowers, I think she feels sorry for them).  Then we traced her hand on cardstock and glued 2 pieces together to make the pick.  I wrote a message on the front, and she colored a picture for her teacher on the back.  We gave it to her teacher on the last day of school, and she loved it!

These are so versatile.  Because the pot is sealed before you start the project, they should last, and would be great for growing herbs or other small plants.  The chalkboard paint makes it easy to label, and to change the labels when you change the plants.

Stained Glass with Gelatin

Yes that is right, I said stained glass with GELATIN!  I saw these super easy and fun stained glass shapes in the April issue of Family Fun.  They could not have been any easier to make, and they were great fun with my 5 year old daughter.  The (simplified) instructions from Family Fun were as follows:

1.  Boil 3 tablespoons water.
2.  Add 1 envelope unflavored gelatin and a few drops of food coloring

3.  Stir slowly until combined (if you stir too fast, you will get air bubbles)

4.  Pour mixture onto a 9-inch plastic plate (we used a paper plate covered with plastic wrap, it created some wrinkles, but they added interest)

5.  Sprinkle with glitter, if desired

6.  Set aside until completely dry

7.  Once dry, cut into desired shapes (we only got 1 shape per plate, because the edges were pretty thin)

8.  Poke a hole at the top and hang in a window with fishing wire (or ribbon ,or string, or whatever you have around the house)

9.  Step back and enjoy your handiwork :)

Some other notes: 

*  Make sure you do not remove your stained glass from the plate until it is completely dry.  If you remove it too soon, it will stick to EVERYTHING and will not be easy to cut.  You will know it is done when it is like hard plastic.  It took a couple of days for ours to completely harden.

*  If you find that your stained glass curls, put it between 2 pieces of parchment paper and put it under something heavy (we used a case of paper, nothing else seemed to work for us)

Here is what they looked like close up:

Grass-a-pillars

A few weeks before Easter, we made Grassapillars. I got the idea from Family Fun magazine, and added my own touches. They were super easy and lots of fun to make.

 

Here is my version of the instructions:

1.  Cut an egg carton into quarters (3 sections each), and trim the edges so they all appear even.

2.  Draw smiley faces and eyes on each carton quarter.

3.  Mix 1 cup - 1 1/2 cups potting soil with 4 tablespoons winter wheat berries. (You can also use grass seed, but it only comes in HUGE bags, and we only needed a little bit, so I bought winter wheat berries from the bulk foods area in my local grocery store.)

4.  Moisten the mix and scoop into the egg carton sections.

5.  Pat down the soil mixture firmly into each cup.

6.  Add pipe cleaners for the antennae.

7.  Set in a sunny window. The grass will begin to sprout in about a week.

8.  Don't forget to water your new friends.

Here is the picture of the family of grassapillars we created. It was great fun watching them grow, and a great lesson in growing things for my little one :)