St. Patrick's Day Cards

Take a moment and celebrate the day of green. And Irish-ness. Send some fun four leaf clover cards to friends and family.
I wanted to find something that my five year-old and two year-old could do together. First we took some green construction paper and had a blast ripping it up into little pieces. It took a little bit for the kids to get used to ripping the paper but once they did we quickly had a pile of green paper. My daughter (2 year old) really liked being able to help with the project.

I found a four leaf clover outline in clip art and sized it so that each one would fit on a blank card (I got four up on a page).

It was my son's job to glue the green paper down. Tip: Turn the paper over so that the clover outlines are on the bottom - that way when you are ready to cut out the clover you can see the outline on the opposite side. Cover the area with glue and then add the paper on top. Part of the fun was overlapping and being messy with where each piece went.

Once the glue had dried I cut out each clover and then we glued it on top of the card.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Made by Kids: Valentine's Day Decorations

What better way to celebrate the day of love than with your child's hand prints on a heart? I needed some new Valentine's Day decorations for my fireplace so my kids and I whipped up this easy and cute heart banner.


Here is a way to make this banner for your house:

1) Cut out the hearts ahead of time. I decided to have my kids each do two hearts.

2) I choose red and pink paint for the hand prints. I put the paint on paper plates to make it easy for clean-up.

Tip: Instead of having kids put their hand into the paint, use a sponge and blot the paint onto their hands. This reduces the amount of paint on their hands and limits the mess.

Tip: If you have little ones that tend to close their hand into a fist, gently rub the sponge across their palm. This will get them to open their hand so you can put the paint on.

3) Press your child's hand onto the paper. For my littlest one I did one hand on each heart, cleaned her hand and then repeated on the other side. For my son who is five, I did his first hand on both hearts and then had him rest that hand on the newspaper so that he didn't make a mess.
4) Glue the hearts to some red or decorative paper

5) Punch holes in the side, tie some ribbon, hang it up and enjoy looking at your little loves hand prints

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Paper Snowflakes

Inspired by the snowflakes we saw here, my son and I decided to make some snowflake decorations for the front hallway.

Please note: My apologies for the sideways picture - my computer was acting up and wouldn't let me flip it.

This turned out to be a great project for him to do. I think I'm going to try and get him to make more to put on top of packages as a little extra gift wrap magic. We decided to add some white glitter to the snowflakes too.

Tip: My son is still working on his scissor skills so I drew the lines for him to cut first and then he was able to easily cut each shape without cutting in to far.

December fun: Giving the gift of time

The holiday season provides some great prompts for spending time with your kids. There are a ton of crafts, baking, or activities that you can easily do with your little (or big) ones this year. I will try to feature one or two activities a day that you can do with your family. And the best part? Not only are you spending some quality time with your kids but you can easily turn these crafts into gifts for family and friends. Who doesn't love a win-win?

Today's craft is Snowman Holiday Cards.


My son loves to make cards for people so yesterday we made some very cute and very easy snowman cards. Instructions are included below the picture.

I used some blank white cards as the base so I cut out some light blue paper to put the snowman on. Next I cut a kitchen sponge (the kind without the green scrubby side) in the shape of a snowman. I put white paint on a paper plate and then let my son put the sponge in the paint and then stamp it on the paper. We used a set of foam stickers to decorate the snowman. My son is five so I decided that would be a faster and easier way to go. If your kids are older than they could paint a hat, scarf and buttons on the snowman. For the face we used a black sharpie for the eyes and mouth. We did the nose with an orange crayon but a marker would have worked much better (we couldn't find ours so the crayon was our best option). When you are done, glue the paper to the card, write something nice on the inside and then voila' - you are done!

We did 10 cards yesterday and that was definitely my son's limit based on his interest.

Crayon Roll

I'm making some gifts for younger kids including my son so I decided to do some crayon holder rolls. I really liked the idea of a portable crayon holder. I carry crayons with me all the time and invariably they end up broken or scattered throughout my purse or a diaper bag. This cute crayon holder is good for kids (and their mommies too!).




Here is the tutorial that I used: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/

I'll add some picture of my crayon rolls tomorrow.

Inspired By: December Daily Album

I'm always inspired by the projects that Ali Edwards comes up with but her December Daily Album 2008 is truly an amazing idea. What a fantastic way to capture all of the special memories that happen during the holiday season.

Beyond the idea of documenting a part of each day in December (or just the days leading up to Christmas) is the fact that you make the album BEFORE December starts. That way all you have to worry about is taking pictures, printing them and adding them to the album. You can also add other tidbits from the season to the album. Ali has included detailed instructions, pictures and supplies to her blog so I highly recommend you check it out.

This would make an amazing gift for yourself or someone special. What a lovely gift to give to a relative who doesn't live close by and can't be there for those everyday moments.

I'm hoping to have time next week to put together my own album. I'll try to post it on here if I do. I encourage you to do the same!!

Do you have any ways that you document or celebrate the holiday season?

Mini Album Ornament

I love having (and making) ornaments with pictures of family members during the holidays. It's so fun to go through the old ornaments each other and marvel about how much people have grown or changed. I was inspired to make this little mini-album ornament after finding some great mini chipboard coasters at Michaels. They were in the $1 section (4 coasters in each set). How could I resist? The rest of the items were from my stash of scrapbooking supplies. I punched a hole into each coaster and then put the green brad through the holes to keep it together. You could also put ribbon through the hole to hold it all together.

My parents have three grandkids so I glued a picture on each coaster (one coaster for each grandkid) and then added an extra one on the back so you can see the design.

A simple, fun and lovely project that would make a great Christmas gift.

Happy crafing!

Front of ornament




















Inside of ornament















Back of ornament