Category: Tutorials

Fingerprint Christmas Ornament

Published on by HollyLeave a comment

One of our family traditions is making and giving Christmas ornaments to our family.  It is such a nice way to capture the essence of the year.  My daughter loves painting the inside of the clear balls and making pretty swirls.  We have made this ornament for about 8 years now.  After realizing that our family had enough to fill a whole tree, we decided to try something new.

This year we made fingerprint Christmas ornaments.  They are so much fun and easy for children of all ages.

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What you will need:

self hardening clay- We used Crayola (takes a few days to harden at room temperature.)

straw to make hole

yarn

letter stamps

rolling pin

wax paper

cookie cutter (shape of your choice)

black crayon

glitter spray

silver sharpie

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Roll out a ball of clay with the rolling pin on wax paper.

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Using a cookie cutter press down on clay and cut excess off around the cookie cutter.  Remove cookie cutter.  Using the end of a straw make a hole for the ribbon/yarn for hanging purposes.

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Have your child press their thumbprint on the clay.

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Using a letter stamp press the initials of your child’s name on the ornament above the fingerprint.

Lay out the ornaments on wax paper to dry.  This will take between three and five days.  Once the clay hardens  you take a black crayon and lightly color over the thumbprint.  This makes it easier to see the lines in the fingerprint.  Spray the ornament with silver glitter spray.  Let topside dry; flip and spray underside with glitter spray.  Write the year with silver sharpie on backside of ornament.  Thread ribbon or yarn through hole for hanging.  And voila’!  You have yourself a timeless piece that you can hang on your tree year after year.

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Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!!!

Published on by Holly1 Comment

Well good morning ya’ll!  I have a super easy, fun, and super cute Christmas craft for ya!  These are absolutely perfect as teacher gifts.  The best part is this is a kid friendly craft…which means they can do it themselves with minimal help from mom and dad.  In my house that means less help from mom and big sister.

Waterless Snow Globes:

Materials needed:

Epsom Salt

Glitter (we used clear and silver)

Mini figures and Christmas trees (I got mine at the Dollar Tree in their seasonal merchandise)

E6000

Mason Jar

Helping hands 🙂

Steps:

1) Glue mini figure or Christmas tree on the inner part of the mason jar lid with E6000, let dry over nite.

2) Pour some Epsom salt into the mason jar and sprinkle in some glitter.

3) Seal mason jar.

4) Shake and enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

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The teachers love em and appreciate the handmade gift, over all the coffee mugs they get each year.

Here is a post of our Waterless Snow Globes we did last year: SNOW!!!

A Thanksgiving Tradition

Published on by Holly2 Comments

This year marks the 6th year for the Annual Cousin Parade.  Every year the young cousins in our family transform shoe boxes into parade floats.  The Cousins Parade is one of our Thanksgiving Family Traditions and one of my favorite activities on Thanksgiving Day.  Here is a sneak peek of the floats my kiddos made this year.

A beautiful swan

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Superhero’s

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Frosty the Snowman

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Solar System 3-D Model

Published on by HollyLeave a comment

My daughter A is studying the solar system in her science class.  Her assignment is to make a model of the planets highlighting their distance from the sun.  Here is a super easy and fun way to make a 3-D model.

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What you need:

Styrofoam balls in different sizes

Styrofoam ring

Washable paint

glitter

skewers/tooth picks

Gatorade lid

black box

adhesive

hairspray

 

What you do:

Have your child paint the Styrofoam balls.  It takes a few days as the paint needs to dry completely before you can handle.  Some planets have more then one color and you will need to let each layer dry before painting the next color.

The Sun- we mixed yellow and orange to get a bright, firey color

Mercury- gray…mix black and white to get the perfect color

Venus- light yellow…mix white and yellow

Earth- Paint blue, let dry, paint green for the land

Mars- Paint red, let dry, paint a few brown spot on it

Jupiter- Paint tan…we mixed yellow, white, and brown to get the perfect color.  Let it dry and paint dark brown vertical stripes.  Let the stripes dry and paint a red splotch on backside.

Saturn- Orange with a brown ring.

Uranus- Turquoise and grey paint mixed together

Neptune- Indigo–mix blue and purple together

Paint the bottom art of the box black.  When the paint dries sprinkle silver glitter on it and hairspray the glitter.  The hairspray will ensure the glitter stays put.  You will need to glue the Sun to the box.  Do not use adhesive directly on the Sun.  I learned the hard way.  E-6000 is great but it eats the foam.  My daughter’s sun ended up with a huge hole on the bottom. It was a drastic emergency at 11pm the night before the project was due.  I had to stick a Gatorade cap into the ball to cover the hole.  Using E-6000 glue the cap to the box.  Let adhesive  dry 24 hours and attach the planets in order to the sun using the skewers.

I couldn’t help but think something is missing…Poor Pluto!

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Boo To You! Collect your treats in style this Halloween! DIY Trick or Treat Bucket

Published on by Holly1 Comment

Here is a super cute, easy, and fun Halloween craft.  All you need is a colored pail and sharpies.  You can find your pail at The Dollar Tree in the summer/beach section or the $ Spot at Target.  We went with Orange pails (like pumpkins) and black sharpies. 

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I let the kids decorate their Halloween pails.  My son N made a pumpkin face and my daughter A drew a cute Halloween scene…

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These are super easy and fun to make!

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Back 2 School Teacher gifts

Published on by HollyLeave a comment

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Tomorrow is BACK TO SCHOOL for children in Central Florida.  Here are two super easy back to school teacher gifts that the kiddos can make. 

ABC Mason jar vase

You will  need:

Alphabet magnets in assorted colors

Mason Jar

Toilet paper tube

E6000

Flowers

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Step 1:  Glue the toilet paper tube to the inside of the mason jar.  Make sure it is centered.

Step 2;  Drop the alphabet letters inside the mason jar around the toilet paper tube. 

Step 3:  Place beautiful flowers inside the vase, place the stems inside the toilet paper tube.

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ABC Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

You will need:

Mason Jar

Alphabet letter magnets

Clear hand soap

Plastic Ball lid with drilled hole

Soap pump

Step 1:  Fill 1/4 to 1/2 of mason jar with alphabet letters.

Step 2:  Fill jar with clear hand soap.

Step 3:  put lid on jar.

Step 4:  glue pup on lid.

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Swim Teacher Appreciation Day gift idea

Published on by HollyLeave a comment

Here is a fun and easy gift idea for your favorite swim teacher!

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Supplies:
Mason Jar
Swedish Fish
Gift tag
Markers
 
Have your child fill the jar with Swedish Fish.  We used a quilted Ball mason jar.  On the card write: You are FISHtastic!  Your guppy, (write child’s name.)  Or you can also write You are oFISHially the best swim teacher!  Have fun with it!  Don’t have Swedish Fish?!  No worries just use Goldfish crackers.  😉