Easy DIY Streamers

Here are some streamers I made using party ribbon and straws. I just taped them together and BOOM, a fun, active toy that kids love! Keep in mind, they don't last long as the materials are not that sturdy, but they are cheap and easy to make. Also, you could use popsicle sticks for the handles.

 

 

The kids really had a good time with these and loved waving them around as they ran around inside on a rainy day.

Upcycled Wooden Heart Wall Decoration

I made this project for a Christmas project. I got the original heart shape from the thrift store for $1.99.

Next, I sanded it down.

Then, I painted it red.

Using some scrap cardboard and some scrapbook paper, I cut out the same heart shape and glued them together with a glue stick. (Using liquid glue can make the paper wrinkle up when it dries).

 I attached it to the back of the wooden heart.

 Here is the final product.

 It can just be a decoration for the wall or you can also use it for wine cork storage.

Tutorial Tuesday

Well, I have no guest bloggers scheduled for today, so I thought I would share a couple of tutorials I have posted in the past.

DIY Feltboard

Texture Sequencing Sticks

Fuzzy Caterpillar

Enjoy and have fun creating!

Tutorial Tuesday: Tissue Paper Containers

I have a bunch of these little baby food jars covered in tissue paper around the house that the big kids have made over the years at school. They usually come home with a little tea light candle in them and they usually get made around Christmas time and Mother's Day.

I thought Sammie would enjoy making some of these type of jars, but I don't have any baby food jars here anymore. I'm not sure why I didn't save them from when Austin ate baby food. So we went through our recycling bin and box of recycling items that I have saved to look for suitable containers. We found an empty mayo container and an  icing container and decided to use those We got out the tissue paper squares that we have left over from our tissue paper and glue pictures and our stained glass Canadian flags. Maddie put some white glue in a couple of little dishes and watered it down with a little water. The glue was just watered down enough that it could be painted with.  And since the weather was so beautiful, we took our supplies and did our craft outside :)

I showed Sammie how to paint some glue onto her container and then stick the tissue paper squares to the glue.

She covered her container with the tissue paper and then painted another layer of glue over top of the tissue paper to make sure the tissue paper was completely wet with glue.

Once they were all covered, we set them upside down to dry.

While their first containers were drying, they decided to do a couple more containers. This time they choose some of craft supply containers to decorate. Maddie even covered the lid of her container, making an almost sun shaped design.

All four of their containers. :) The big ones will be used as they originally were, to hold craft supplies, and the little ones will probably be used for pencil holders or maybe flower vases. :)

The girls had fun decorating their containers, although Sammie was getting a little frustrated that she kept getting glue on her fingers. I think I will have to see if I can find either some baby food jars or some other glass jars to make the candle holders like they do at school. They look so prety with the candle lighting them up from the inside :)

DIY Feltboard

Here is a felt board I made for the classroom awhile back and now use it with my son. It is just a piece of cardboard with black felt glued on and then a cardboard border with colored masking tape to decorate it. Very simple. I also made another one which I can't find now, but it was thicker. I used 2 empty fabric bolts from the store and taped them together. It takes a lot of tape, but was quite sturdy actually.

 Remember, you don't have to use felt to make pieces for your felt board. Laminated pictures with velcro on the back works as well. I made 4 sets of some different things that L is familiar with. The first is food as shown above.

Farm Animals

 Vehicles

Toys

To make these, I photocopied the images from a book I got at the library, colored them with crayons and then laminated and added the velcro.
I think this way is easier than cutting out felt, although I have made some of those as well. I like the idea I saw at library storytime for making felt pieces, using fabric paint for the details.

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Easy Banana Popsicles with No Added Sugar!

Here is a little Summer concoction I came up with upon discovering that my son is BANANA CRAZY! It's very simple. All you need is:

1 1/2-2 Bananas

1/2 cup of orange juice

Blend together (with blender or food processor), pour into these handy dandy popsicle molds, and freeze.

They are really very yummy! You can of course use any type of popsicle mold, just vary the amount of the ingredients you need to use. I actually only used 1 banana and it wasn't enough to fill this whole container. 

You can also add other fruits to make various flavors. I would recommend strawberry, pineapple, or mango.

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Feet Painting for Father's Day/Birthday Card

Hello! Father's Day is just over a week away and I wanted to show you the card I had L make for daddy. I just had him step in green paint (daddy's favorite color) and walk all over the card. Of course, it is VERY slippery, so I had to hold him the whole time. Hence the reason there are no pics of us actually doing this activity! 

In case you can't read what I wrote, it says:

Daddy, I love you from my head to the tips of my toes! 

(which I used to make you this picture)

We are, however, giving this to daddy tomorrow as it is his birthday, but I thought it would be great as a father's day card as well.

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Thinky Linky Thursday

<a href="http://preschoolteacher81.blogspot.com/search/label/thinky%20linky%20thursday"><img alt="Preschool Teacher" src="http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r103/loriajones/ThinkyLinkyThursButton.jpg"/></a>

Here are the featured links from last week:

Homemade Glow in the Dark Paint 

from Train Up a Child

Practical Life Projects for Upper Elementary

from Mama of Many Blessings

Bugs and Butterflies Unit

from Sunflower and Sprout

Congrats and I am pretty sure all the winners already have my "featured" button, so good luck this week to everyone else. We need some more competition!

'Fleur De Lis' Birthday Card using Cricut

Here is a card I made with the Cricut for a friend's birthday. I used burgundy colored cardstock for the card itself.

I used metallic gold sticker paper to cut out the fleur de lis. I placed it on a thin textured paper diamond cutout over a strip of black paper along the bottom. Then, I tied a metallic gold string around the top with a few beads.

For the inside, I raised the background paper using a piece of foam, held down by gold brads. Then, I cut the words out using the Cricut on tan cardstock.

Here you can kind of see that the words are raised a little.

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Hot Cocoa Craft and Cheeseball Recipe

Here is a craft I made for the neighbors and as a grandparents gift from the baby. I got this idea from here, but I did mine a little differently. I didn't use pieces of fabric. I just printed out lables with the instructions and glued it on and I used mini candy canes as well. Also, instead of buying the hot cocoa mix and marshmallows separately, I just bought the kind that already has marshmallows in it. I think they turned out ok, except I didn't actually measure the hot cocoa, so I hope it's not too much.

Here are the labels I made and printed out:

I thought I would also include a ham cheeseball recipe that my family makes every year at Christmas. Usually with leftover ham, but I had some already, so I decided to go ahead and make it early.

1 pkg (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup Mayonnaise

2 cups ground cooked ham

2 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tsp minced onion

1/4 tsp dry mustard

1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Beat cream cheese and mayonnaise until smooth. Stir in next 5 ingredients. Cover; chill several hours. Form into ball; roll in nuts to coat. Serve with crackers. 

I like mine better without the nuts, but it's up to you. Plus, I don't always make mine into a ball. This time, I just put it into my Christmas frog dish and used it like a spread. Hope you enjoy!

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