SnowMan art work for you tree!

Here is a fun little craft that you can do with your kiddos!

Fun and EASY!

Make a snowman village!

I got the idea here: eighteen25

I got a small canvas at Hobby Lobby for $2.99. A little pricey, but I was short on time and could not check elsewhere. (I guess I am cheap!)

Step 1: give your canvas a couple of coats of acrylic paint and let it dry.

Step 2: give your kiddo's hand a nice even coat of white paint.

Step 3: gently set the fingers on the canvas and press those fingers to make a nice hand print.

Fill in the bottom to make a nice hill for your snow people.

Step 4: give them some fun colors of paint and let them paint the art with a toothpick! Genius!

I put mine on foil so that it can be disposed of easily.

They can add hats, buttons, eyes, carrots and snow to their little artwork!

Hmmm...what can I say about this one. I guess that there was a"black out" in this village! It takes everything in me to let it be! This is how she wanted it, so I guess that is what we are going with.

I forgot to get a pic of this on the tree, but I added some ribbon around the canvas and on the back to hang it up on the tree. Don't forget to add the date!

Here are some more examples from another blog

(see above link)

Super cute and fun! These would be great gifts for the grandparents too!

Rice Dream...a little on the messy side!

I have no idea why I am doing this project this time of year, but I thought that it would give the kids somethings to do while I am in the kitchen. Mostly I guess to keep them from driving each other..or me, nuts. It turned out to be a little bit messy, but it was so fun! I think that I had more fun doing it!

So here is where I got the idea from:

pinkandgreenmama

She has great crafts to do with kids!

It's so easy and hardly cost anything!

Here are the supplies that you need:

~Large bag of white rice

~Rubbing alcohol

~Food coloring

I put about 2 cups of rice in each zip-lock. Add a couple drops of food coloring and about 1 teaspoon of the rubbing alcohol. Zip it tight with all of your might. You don't want this stuff to get out...yet!

Next, get mixing. At first I was not sure. I just rolled the bag back and fourth, and before you know it I had orange rice.

Here is what all of the bags looked like. It's so pretty!

So then I laid it all together in nice little rows. I put mine in a rubber maid.

I called the kids over and the mixing began!

Time to move it to the floor.

The next night when she played with it, I put down some paper. What can I say? She is a messy girl!

~If I were to do this again, I think that I might try to give the rice a rinse, so sift it. There was a lot of rice "dust" and that it was made it messy.

Let me know what you think and if you try it with you kids! They had a great time and this is a fun thing to do inside, or it might be great for the backyard.

It's that time of year!

I know that a lot of you have already gotten your Christmas cards out, but I am still working on mine! The thing that I love best if doing them on-line! Can it get any easier? I love all of the options out there to make it personal. When the kids have gone to bed and I can have a cup of tea, I love to read all the cards and letters! It's so amazing to see how far things have come with Christmas cards! But they still mean the same, just like when I was a kid. My kids now get to see how exciting it is to get the mail every day and see what cards are in the mail!
Have you ever noticed that the cards that you enjoy the most are the ones with pictures? We just love to see how our friends and families kids are growing up so fast! It means so much, and it makes it seem more personal to get a card with a picture!

I just took some pictures over the weekend with the kids. Sure, I would have loved to have a professional photographer take them, but these days with digital cameras, it's so EASY to take pictures and upload them!

I really have love using Shutter Fly for my pictures, cards, and other gifts that I have ordered!
Here are some ideas that I am thinking about for Christmas!
Photo Cards Here
I like this
Square Cards

This would be great with my two kids. I don't a family picture, so I like this option!

Another fun option is the calendars! I LOVE these for the Grandparents! That way they can look at pictures of them all year long!

Calendars

I think that doing this poster size is different and really fun! What a great gift! This might work for the hubby's office!
Poster Calendars
There are some more beautiful ideas here:
SQUARE it here!

Find out how you can get 50 FREE cards HERE

Hair Bow Storage

There are lot's of different ideas out there in the blog
world for hair bow storage.

I just made this up...and mostly because it's free,
is why I love it!

I had a memo broad that I had made when my baby was a baby, but now she is 4 and has a pretty serious collection of hair bows. Most of them I have made...I just love to make them, what can I say?!

Anyways. I wanted to make something that would go on the back of her bedroom door. I don't have a lot of extra wall space, so I have to use what I got!

So, go to your local Home Depot and head over to the paint department. I was going to buy a yard stick or two. The guy asked what I was doing and I told him. He said "why don't you use these...and they are free!"

Free is good! The yard sticks were only .60 so I bought one because I felt guilty. I am glad that I did because it came in handy for measuring this bad boy!

Here is what the paint stick looks like. Now this is for the 5 gallon buckets, this is not the small stick. Plus it's a little bit thicker.

Get out the handy-dandy miter box. If you don't have one, just use a saw a measure where you need to trim it. I cut off the handle end of both sticks. I needed two, and Home Depot was more than willing to give them to me!

Sand off the ruff edge if it needs it and give it a couple of coats of paint to match the room. I painted the side that did not have the Home Depot lettering on it, sorry Home Depot. Let it dry...

Here is where the yard stick came in handy. I laid out both sticks to the distance that I needed. The yard stick helped with the over-all measurement. Get some ribbon to match. I always seem to have that stuff around! Now I got different widths to hold different kinds of bows.

I opened up a stapler and got to work. Pull it tight to the bottom piece to match your measurements.

I happened to have these thumb tacks that matched. I knew that I would use these someday! I got these at Hobby Lobby. Anyway, this helped to hold the ribbon tight.

OK, plan B. I got out my mat and blue tape. I needed to secure this thing so that I could get the ribbon tight.

Once I got everything secure, get out the command tape or the 3M tape. This is the best stuff ever! It does not leave a mark and when you are done you just peal it off. There was no way that I wanted to nail this into the door, so this worked great! I even used a coupon when I got it!

Secure it to the door with a gentle push and enjoy!

Now, the fun part of putting up all the hair bows! I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out! What do you think?

Gotta love this! Pumpkin Latte!

I got this from a blog that I love:

http://www.vintagedutchgirl.blogspot.com/

Scroll down till you find this! It's free! Hello!

This it what mine looks like. I got the frame at Target for $6 and used my own printer to print it out. I added a little bit of copper paint where the white edges where showing.

I just love this!

I think that I may keep this out for Christmas too, not just Thanksgiving!

Burlap to Fab for Thanksgiving!

Need a quick fix for a centerpiece for your table? Or this really can work any time of year!

Check out the table cover! So fun and you can personalize it any way you want!

Get a couple of yards of burlap. Add a quick whip-stitch around the square. This was done with brown yarn.

On the corners, gather some silk fall leaves and glue them in a bundle and safety pin them to to corners. This was done so that you can change it out for different seasons!



Here is how I did the lettering:

I have a set of stencils that are

from Michael's...use your coupons!

I got some brown craft paint and went all around the edges spelling out different things that I am thankful for.

 If you don't have a stencil, just free hand it! Or you can get some fabric makers and write things out.

Here is what it looks like done! Pretty fun!

This is what it looks like with the fall leaves.

Here it is on the center of the table. So fun! And you can make it all things that you are thankful for too!

This was a table that was done for our MOPS group. Lots' of different ideas on this table, but I really wanted to show you how to do the burl pap. LOVE it!

Thanksgiving Table for your kids

Did you ever get stuck at the kids table when you were growing up? I sure did! Now it's time to make it fun for your kids! Even if they are toddlers, this is a great way to teach them about the first Thanksgiving!
I made this table scape for our MOPS group at church. The best part is that most of it's stuff from the Dollar Store and they are things that you can make yourself!

This table was set using a card table. Now I wanted to show using plastic and paper napkins. I know that it does not look as nice, but it's easier for clean-up!

One thing that I mentioned to the Moms was that you could go out and get some mix matched china from a thrift store and have the kids use that. Then they could take it home for a gift! You don't have to worry about them breaking your nice place settings and they feel extra special

with fancy plates to keep!

We used a round linen for the blue. They work great for a card table. You can also use a plastic party table cloth here too. I used some brown butcher paper to cover it and fringed the edges with some scissors.

The pots with the flowers is just a little something for the kids. I got those at the Dollar store and used some chalkboard paint on them. I wrote out each child's name in chalk for a place setting. It just adds a little color to the table!

I got the map at the dollar store to use as my centerpiece. The boat was purchased from Ross, but if you got to http://www.marthastewart.com/ she has free templates that you can print out.

Here is how to "age" the map:

Get a world map from your local dollar store and smashed it into a ball.

Flatten it our and distress it with some ink. Just rub the pad over the high points on the map.

Then I took the map outside and took a fire starter to the edges to age it even more.

Now place it on your table and the kids can imagine that it's an old map from 1620!

~I took at mason jar and tied it off with some cute ribbon and a lemon leaf. This would be great to add some apple cider or apple juice.

More ideas:

The napkin ring is a black piece of elastic with a feather that I just hot glued to it. I found that WalMart had the best prices on feathers. Who knew?

Have your kids wear these on their heads. I used my son's head as a guide to measure them. Would that not make such a cute picture with all of them at the table with these feathers?

The box is another map that I aged and wrapped with a label for each child? What's in the box? Crayons to color on the butcher paper with! Fun!

This would work well for a little bit older kids. Turkey Trivia!

Cut out the body and use some fun paper for the feathers. Then attach with a brad and you can write some history about the first Thanksgiving! The kids can play this game while they are waiting for dinner!

I hope that this can give you some ideas for your kids table this year! There are so many ways you can make this years dinner one to remember for you kids! Making memories!

Another Dollar Store Transformation!

Holy buckets! It's been a long time since I did a post! Mostly it's because I had been working on a presentation that I did at my MOPS group...Mother's of Preschoolers in case you did not know what that was! So many of the crafts that I have been doing lately, have been for this. There are a lot fun things that I want to show you, but I will start with this one for tonight!
We must have talked about these Dollar Tree vases about 100 times. There are so many things that you can do with this. You can't even buy vases wholesale for this price! Of course, you can do this with any vase that you have sitting in that little cupboard above your 'fridge that never gets used. I'm all about up-cycle!

These are all over the blog world, but here is a different way to fill them up.

Now don't these look great? They would be perfect for your dinning room table or an entry table!

Grab the Dollar Tree candle stick too! So you see here I have the vase and the candle stick as two pieces. You can give the top of the candle stick a bead of hot glue and set that vase on top of it right in the center of the vase. That way, when you are done with this, and you think it's something that you want to change out, just pop it off and peal off the hot glue.

To fill these:

I used a couple of paper towel rolls here. There is a lot of wasted space in the middle that you would never see, so that is a perfect use of a left-over roll! Never get rid of those babies! So many uses for them!

Anyway, I just layered some gerber daisy's all around them.

This was my look for October. For November, I am using fall leaves from the Dollar Tree. They are like silk organza!

So pretty!

Hey sis! Want to send me a box of real leaves from New Hampshire? :~)

Here is what they looked like set up in my kitchen...

Now I'm changing everything out for Thanksgiving!

The worst part...It's still 93 degrees here! Come on! I still have to use my air conditioning on the afternoon!

*When I get some pics of how we used these on our table scapes, I will post those!

Things I am working on...

I have so many wonderful things that I am working on would love to share, but it's a surprise!
My dear sweet friend and I are doing a presentation next week on all things Holidays and how to get your tables ready. We have piles of ideas...we could talk to these ladies for hour till their eyes glazed over with everything that we want to share. So we are going to work on "Break It Down"...do you know the song? Put your hands in the air like your really don't care...So you can see where this is going!
So I may post a few random things this week, but I am saving all things fab till next week! We are going to know your socks off! And we are talking about doing this on a
real budget here people!

Random thing #1

OK, I made these a while ago and they were a big hit! Even with the kiddos!

I am a big fan of chicken tenders. Why, you say? They are all ready cut up for you into these nice little strips and you can get them for really cheap sometimes.

So I cut mine up into nice little pieces and marinated then in Lite Cesar Dressing.

Skewered them and brushed on a bit more dressing. Pop them onto the grill until done. Bring them inside and add them to a plate of letus (I used spinach) sprinkled with fresh Parmesan. After your put the kabobs on there, drizzle with a bit more dressing and cheese. Can you say yummo?!

Each person gets a kabob with a bit of greens and you are good to go!

Scarey Soap!

Here is a fun little quick gift that I made for the neighbors today. I saw the idea on another post...can't remember which one! But mine is a little different!

So you start with some soap making cubes. You can get them at any craft store. Mine are a milky color, but on the other blog they were a clear color. In some ways it's fun to have them this color. It hides the surprise!

Do you have these silicone plastic muffin pans? Well, now they have another use!

Cut the cubes and place 2-3 per mold.

Microwave this for about 25 seconds and check to make sure that it is melted. If it's bubbling, than let it cool for a bit before the next step. You may need a bit more time depending on your microwave.

I went to the Dollar Store today and got a bad of different plastic bugs. Place the bug upside down in the mold. I used a spoon and then a toothpick to hold the little bugger in there. It wants to float to the top of the mold, so you need to hold it there for a bit till the soap cools.

After it's cooled...about 1/2 hour or so, you have a soap with a surprise in it! There are just a million things that you can do with this idea! Don't forget to use a coupon for the soap cubes if you don't have any!

A cello bag would have been the best way to wrap these, but I was short of those. So I started with the cupcake holder. Why not? I added a tag that said "Scary Soap". My neighbor loves bugs! So I know that he is going to love the giant spider in here! And it's a great way to encourage your kids to really wash there hands!

Then I remember that I had these bags for icing! Score! That will do the trick!

I added a little ring and some ribbon. My son was off to deliver them to all the neighbor boys! I hope they like them! They were a treat to make! Ha Ha!