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Paws to Read

10 Jul

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We have a wonderful library program here in Cook and the theme this year is “Paws to Read.”

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I have volunteered to be the project/craft lady.  Go me =)

As slightly overwhelming as this is, I am also excited about making some pretty neato things.  My main goal is to make things that will not immediately go into the trash can.  Things that the kids are excited to make and things that the adults will be glad their kids made.  We will be making useful and awesome stuff this summer!

The first week we made bags for the kids to carry their library books in.  I looked on amazon.com for some bags that we could use that were also fairly priced.  No such product existed since the ones that were about a dollar each had terrible reviews, I guess you get what you pay for.

Sooooooo, I went to our local thrift store and they kindly donated a bag of t-shirts.

I then sewed the bottoms of the bags shut and cut off the arms and neck of the shirt.  Then the kids got to stamp on the shirt and perhaps their library books will get back to the library since the kids are so so so excited to be able to use their new book bag.  That is the hope at least =)

The next week we made a dog toy out of t-shirts:

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Then we stamped on dog tags:

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Last week we painted rocks:

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This morning we made a mad lib timeline!  It was very fun and the kids maybe even learned about adverbs and adjectives.  Their craft is now hanging in the library, to show off their beautiful work hopefully get more kids excited reading.

So if you are local, come on over the Library at 10:30 and lets get crafty!  Next week the awesome and funny DNR guy is coming to teach us about the kind of prints that animals make.

We even get to climb trees!

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Here Fishy Fishy

15 Jun

Now what to do with all those tasty sunnies and crappies?

After you have played with the fish in the live well (for a few hours) you have to line ’em up and count your bounty.

After you have your firstborn organize and count them numerous times; you let the cat check them out.

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Jared came into the backyard where the kids, fish and I were- only to find us smearing paint all over the fish and plopping them down on some paper.  He was a bit surprised but then when he saw the finished product he was alright with my idea =)

Here are some of the prints we made:

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THEN, you can eat them!

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Celery Printing

29 May

Who knew kids could love celery so much?

For some cool reason if you cut the bottom off celery it looks like a beautiful flower.

We dipped the celery in paint and stamped out the design on some paper.

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I love how creative the kids got with the design.  They even used the top of the celery stalk to make different designs.

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Summer is the season where we paint a lot, since it is easy clean up.

 

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I Spy Book

6 Apr

Aleah and Sophi love “find it” or “I Spy” books.  These are really good books for them to look at while they are waiting to fall asleep since reading is not required.

I thought it would be fun if we made our own finding book with our own toys.  It was a success and the girls loved sorting through their toys to find the different colors for each page.

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Yeah so I haven’t exactly made the books yet, but yeah- I will get around to it some day =)  maybe when shutterfly or one of those other books have a nice sale- I am open to coupon updates =)

 

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Kitchen Stencil (cooler than it sounds)

20 Feb

Every winter we end up doing a few home makeover projects since we have to look at the inside of our house so often.  We have recently tackled our dining room with painting a wall, painting a table top and just recently I painted this above the patio doors:Image

I think it ties the room together and I love that this is the first thing people will read when they walk into our house.

Here is how it’s done:

First print off the quote in whatever fancy font you prefer, then rub the back with a pencil:

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Sucker your mom into taping the words to your wall and then trace each letter:

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Magically, when you pull off the paper, the letters will be outlined

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Grab your headlamp- you know it’s a good crafty project if you are forced to wear your headlamp.

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Very seriously stare at your letters until they are complete.  And have tons of fun!

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All in all this project took one or two hours for three nights- so 4 hours total.  It was fairly easy but took some patience and a steady hand to paint in the letters.

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Adventures with Wild Kratts

20 Jan

If you have little kids you have probably heard of the PBS show, Wild Kratts.  It is a pretty darn cool program and we all learn tons of stuff from this incredible show.

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Since it is the dead of winter and going outside doesn’t always work, (it is -40 below or Hudson is napping) I decided to spark a little fun and imagination for inside.

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I made them Creature Power Suits and Creature Power Discs.  In the show, if the Kratt brothers have the special suit on and then put in a specific disc- they will change into whatever creature they are following or trying to learn about.  In past episodes they have transformed into giraffes, fishes, moose, kangaroos, koalas, birds and even snakes.  It is a great show to get kids excited about nature and creatures.

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The girls ran around this morning deciding what creature to transform into and calling one another on their special wrist communicators (also with walkie talkies).

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This was very easy to throw together for the kids and will produce tons of good imaginative play in the little ladies!  I used felt for the suit and the discs and cut out different animals from random fabric I had in my wonderful stash.  Since felt sticks to felt, they can easily change what animal they want to be throughout their playtime.

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Deer Head

13 Sep

My sister has skills.  I am talking out of this world, holy crap, mad skills.

She came up to meet Hudson a while ago and while she was here I put her to work because she can make things I couldn’t even dream of making.  And she will do it in a few hours without breaking a sweat or thinking twice about it.

I wanted Hudson’s room to be boyish but not in the sense of sports or just dark blue and random.  I saw a few pictures on pinterest and showed Caroline what I was thinking.  She got right to work after giving Hudson some smooches to him chubby cheeks.

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She used a huge picture that we bought in Ely for $5 at the Goodwill.  It had some super lame landscape scene on it.  (wish I had gotten a picture of it but trust me- it was lame).

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She painted strips over the landscape scene and when that dried she drew the outline of a deer head with chalk.  She used chalk so if she needed to move the line a little this way or that it was easy to fix instead of redoing the entire picture.

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She even made the frame match the colors of his room and look very worn and vintage.  (I didn’t even know you could do that!)

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I will show you Hudson’s finished room in a few days, until then- this is the focal point of the room and I couldn’t be more happy with how it turned out.  Thanks Aunt Lina!

ps if you need some Wedding, Birthday, Anniversary etc cakes done or pictures painted for you head over here.  She’s got skills and she knows how to use them =)

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Book Giveaway

9 Sep

We have a book giveaway for y’all.

Here is the book you can win-

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We all have times where we have a couple hours to kill with our kids before lunch, nap time, dinner, sporting event or whatever.  This book would be a wonderful resource for those in between times since they are relatively easy and very kid friendly projects.

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Take paint and water it down a bit, put a blob on your paper and then blow through a straw to splatter the paint into weird shapes.

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We added google eyes and then added wings and smiles and feet using markers.

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I know Aleah and Sophi loved making these monsters.  And I was just glad we could do this outside =)

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They are now all over our kitchen protecting our food and cups and plates.  The kids think it is pretty hilarious and love saying, “Look out behind you!  There is a big monster!!!”

This book giveaway is brought to you by Emily who has a blog over here and is also a Usborne Book consultant.  Comment away for your chance to win.  I will let you know who the winner is on Thursday and the comments will count until then.  Good luck!

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Sewing School 2

11 Jul

One of the best part about having this blog is the stream of free books that people send me.  It’s like getting paid in cool sewing/kids books.  How awesome is that?  I bet YOU wish you could get paid in books, am I right =)?

Here is one of the most recent books I have been sent- It is called Sewing School 2 and it teaches kids about using the sewing machine.  In the book are patterns and helpful tips so kids can be successful while making cute projects.

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For many days this month different blogs are featuring different projects.  You will get to see the sewing craft Aleah made on July 16th- be very excited- cause she sure was!

Here is the list of the other blogs that are a part of reviewing this book:

July 7 – Our Busy Homeschool

July 8 – scrumdilly-do!

July 9 – Crafty Moms Share

July 10 – Jane of All Trades

July 11 – Windy Lou

July 12 – Adventures of a DIY Mom

July 13 – Improv Diary

July 16 – He Sewed She Sewed

July 17 – Teach Beside Me

July 18 – All Things with Purpose

July 19 – The Crafty Crow

July 20 – Family Style School

July 21 – Such Designs

July 22 – Red Bird Crafts

July 23 – The Long Thread

July 25 – mayamade

Check them all out because they are pretty cool blogs and I will also have a giveaway of this book on July 16, so comment away!

Shower Gift

22 May

I was invited to a baby shower a few weeks before little Hudson was born.  Since I had to idea what to make I ran to pinterest and saw this adorable idea.

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Luckily it didn’t take that long to make since I started working on it the day before the shower.  I used my sewing machine to sew the bunting fabric together and then hand-stitched her name and the date she was born.

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