Sweet Valentine Treats

"Gourmet Mom on the Go" has some very fun ideas for valentine treats.

Click here for her tutorial on how to make these heart shaped cinnamon rolls. Yum!

Click here for her tutorial on how to make these fun edible crayons. Wouldn't these make a great valentine for kids to give to their friends? So cute!

Valentine Watercolor Project

What a cute art project for Valentines Day, using nothing but paper, crayons, watercolor paint, and rubber cement. I love this blog. She has so many good ideas. My husband uses them often for art in his fourth grade class. So make sure you check out the rest of her blog too. Click here to go to Art Projects for Kids and be inspired.

Forgiveness

Today, I decided to let bygones be bygones. My boys have been begging me to play with play dough for weeks now. Today, I decided to allow it. One problem - I had thrown all the commercial Play-Doh out months ago, due to an incident where I found hot pink Play-Doh smeared all over my new carpet. After lots of time, work, and elbow grease, my husband I and were able to get it out of the carpet (It does not come easily). Play-Doh was then outlawed in this house.

Since I decided to give my children another chance today, and I did not want to run to the store for Play-Doh, I dug up an old recipe that my 4-H leader had given me years ago for Cooked Play Dough. It has a nice texture and stays good for weeks, if stored properly. You can probably find this recipe all over the internet, but I decided to share my particular variation. I highly recommend it.

Cooked Play Dough

1 Cup all-purpose flour

1 Cup water

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1/4 cup salt

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

Food coloring

In a medium sized saucepan, mix all the ingredients. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. The dough will begin to look very lumpy and then it will come together into somewhat of a ball. Remove from heat and dump onto waxed paper or a plate. Cool until it is easy to handle and knead for several minutes until smooth. Give it to the kids and let them have fun - with strict instructions to keep it off the carpet!!! Store in a sealed container.

Baby Food Jar Pumpkin

I have been collecting baby food jars at my house over the last few months, in hopes of coming up with some brilliant idea to use them. I finally decided to come up with a Halloween art project for my husband's 4th grade class. My boys and I made this little pumpkin by doing the following:

1. Brush the entire outside of the jar with mod podge - avoiding the screw-top portion.


2. Cover the mod-podged portion of the jar with a layer of orange tissue paper that has been cut into approximately 1"x 1" squares.


3. Brush another layer of mod podge over the tissue paper and add another layer of tissue paper in the same fashion.


4. Brush a final layer of mod-podge over the tissue and allow to dry.


5. When dry, draw a jack-o-lantern face on the jar (hopefully you are better at this than I am).


6. Add rafia and put on the lid (that has been spray painted green).

These, of course, could be filled with candy, or some other Halloween surprise.

My husbands class will be doing these next week. Wish him luck :)

Apple Stamps

My boys and I did some apple stamping the other day. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we received a big box of apples from a neighbor. So, we decided to use a couple to stamp some gift bags. It was really easy and the boys loved it. This is what we did:

1. Cut the apples in half.


2. Dry the cut side on a paper towel.


3. Press the cut side on an ink pad. (We used red and green.)


4. Press firmly on your desired surface. (We used inexpensive white lunch bags.)


5. Draw in the seeds, stems, and leaves.

Easy Bookmark

I made this easy bookmark in about 10 minutes yesterday. I just found some cute clipart and printed off two of the same image on cardstock. Then I glued them back to back on the top of a jumbo paperclip and tied a ribbon onto the clip. I think this could be even cuter with stamps, embellishments and better ribbon - but I was in hurry, so I used what I had.

Paper Dolls

Do you know a little girl who is a fan of the Berenstain Bears? If so, she might enjoy these cute (and free) paper dolls I found. I am thinking of printing these up and making a set for my niece. Click here to check out the family of paper dolls and all their outfits.

Crayon Jars

My husband and I have been working in his classroom, getting ready for the school year. He has buckets and buckets of old crayons, and he was getting ready to toss them. I told him to wait, and I would look for some kids craft projects using old crayons. I found this one using old crayons and a jar. Since I was just giving it a try, I only used two colors, so my jar isn't as vibrant as it could be.

The project was pretty easy and fun. Click here for instructions on how to make one of these jars with your kids.

Peanut Butter Clay

I got this recipe for Peanut Butter Clay from my aunt when I was a little girl. I made it with my boys for the first time this morning. They played with it for a long time and had a ball.

Here is the recipe:
2 C. Peanut Butter
2 C. Powdered Milk
1 C. Honey
Mix all ingredients together, adding more powdered milk, if necessary, to get desired consistency. Make things and then eat 'em up!

Since this recipe has peanut butter and honey, I definitely would not make it for anyone under one year, and I would be careful when using it with toddlers.

Shrinky Dink Keychains

I made some of these fun shrinky dink keychains with my kids and one of their friends today. I drew the outlines onto the shrinky dink plastic (that I picked up from a craft store), and punched a hole in the top. Then the kids colored them in and we baked them as directed on the package. They loved watching them shrink up in the oven. After they were cool, I added the keychain hardware. It was really easy and the kids loved it. Our friend didn't want to leave when her dad came to get her. She was hoping to make another one.

Leaf Tracings

My boys and I made these leaf tracings today. It took up some good time and they loved it! This is what we did.

1. We went into the back yard and picked leaves off of some of our plants. As you can imagine - I supervised this pretty closely.


2. We brought the leaves inside and laid them flat under pieces of scrap paper.


3. We unpeeled a few crayons and then rubbed the side of the crayon over the paper on top of the leaves.


4. The images of the leaves - and all their cool details appear before your eyes.

My two year old needed a lot of help with this one, but after I helped my 4 year old with one, he was able to do them by himself. They thought it was just like magic. We all had a great time with this.

4th of July T-shirts

Creative Chicks at Play have done it again! Click here for their simple and fun tutorial on how to make these cute t-shirts for the 4th.

Homemade Snowglobes

My boys and I made these homemade snowglobes today. It was a super easy kids craft. We just used equal parts water and corn syrup and then added some glitter snow and beads. (The corn syrup helps the glitter and beads stay suspended in the water) We added the water, corn syrup, and glitter using funnels and then the boys dropped the beads in by hand. They had a great time making them and they think they are pretty cool. I have to admit I like them too. I would recommend that an adult apply super glue or caulking to the lids before screwing them back on, just to be sure they are securely attached. Lots of fun!

Sponge Balls

Betz White has a great tutorial on how to make these fun sponge balls. Click here to check it out.