Category Archives: Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!)

Fun and Easy Foam Art

I was recently in charge of crafts at our church’s summer program. It was all about fear and trusting God, so we made these Do Not Fear art projects. They’re a super-easy version of the bible verse wall art canvases that my children made and sold last year.

You begin by getting plain foam sheets (these were 5.5 x 8.5, but any size would do) and foam sticky-back letters. The chunkier the letters, the better. Now 4 simple steps:

foam art1A
1. Peel and stick the words onto the foam sheet.
2. Spray paint the whole thing black (or whatever color you’d like) and then hide those spray paint cans (or else)!
(Also I was making a bunch of them, as you can see. You probably won’t need as many).
3. Use silk flowers (we used carnations for some and bulrushes left over from a baby Moses project for others) to dab paint onto the spray painted sheet.
4. Let it dry and then get ready to peel those letters off!
foam art2

Done! See? Super easy…as long as you don’t have to add the time and effort of cleaning spray paint off of your van.

For The Bible Tells Me So

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A few weeks ago the children and I were working on their social studies course and we were talking about supply and demand and basic business ideas. They got very excited when they realized that anybody can be an entrepreneur if they have the resources necessary to create a product. For several days they contemplated ideas. Some were simply unrealistic, like selling tours to Mars or hosting a “How the Universe Works” event and charging people to come watch it on DVD at our house. (Side note: My children love documentaries and don’t understand why everyone doesn’t watch them.) Other ideas were not really money makers, like selling some of their stuffed animals. I finally nudged my way into the conversation and suggested that maybe they should create something. They remembered a craft we’d done a while back and asked if we could do it.

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 I told them I would invest $30 (and my time) in their business. We all schlepped to the store and purchased canvases and paint. They created fliers to take around and show people so that everyone could see what they were “sale-ing”. (I know I should have corrected them, but I love love love the way sale-ing sounds when they say it.) They got 3 orders up front! We created those and delivered the products and used that money to purchase more materials. They only had $3 left over from what they’d sold so far. We talked about profits and the price of materials and your own time and decided that maybe $10 wouldn’t be quite enough. They completed the ones they had promised for $10 and those are in the process of being delivered now. As we finished working on that batch, we talked about pricing (again) and they developed a new price list. The small ones (7×14) should be $15 and the larger ones (12×16) should be $18. At these prices they hope that they will make enough money to save up for a special toy for each of them and still have money left to give to Ms. Missy, a friend of a friend who is searching for funding for her mission field assignment in Uganda.

If you are interested in purchasing a bible verse art from them, please email me at {iveyleaguemama}@{gmail.com} (leave out the brackets though). We have a few of our favorite verses and we can choose for you or you can request a certain verse. There are restrictions to how many words can fit, so if it’s a long one we may have to paraphrase.

    

 

 

The Incredible Un-Edible Egg

A few weeks ago a friend of mine sent me a message about something she’d seen on Pinterest: how to make a naked egg.
I thought it would be a fun project, but I’ll admit that mostly…I just wanted to take pictures.

First we soaked the eggs in vinegar and watched the bubbles for a while.
It’s fun because the bubbles occasionally make the egg spin.

  

You’ll note that we started with three, but ended up with two.
User error.  (My bad.)

After a day or so, I rinsed them off and put them in fresh vinegar.
If she shell wipes off in your hand the first time, a second soaking may not be necessary.

  

I would go into what we talked about, but I pretty much just expounded on what he said in the video.

I will say that it’s fairly squishy and bouncy at this point, but one over-zealous bounce and you’ll have a big mess!

  

After I’d taken 7,000 pictures, we soaked one egg in corn syrup.
We only had dark syrup, so ours looks even more disgusting!
We soaked the other in a water-blue food coloring mix.

We talked a little about diffusion and osmosis.
(Don’t be impressed…I couldn’t remember too much about those, so I watched this refresher.)

The one in corn syrup shriveled up and – get this – the yolk got hard.
It was super gross.

  

The other one became swollen and very, very blue.

Earlier (when it was still just a plain ol’ nekkid egg) I let the children do a few squeeze tests.
But once it was full of blue?  Not so much.
Since I’d forgotten to take a squishy picture though, I smooshed it a few times myself.

We wanted to prove that the colored water was actually going into the egg and not coloring the outside like at Easter.
Our hypothesis was that if it was just coloring the membrane, then the yolk would still be yellow.
BUT if the food coloring was actually going into the egg, it would make the yolk look green.
Guess what?
We were right.

 

 

 

Summer S’mores

One of the things on our Summer To Do list was make s’mores.

It is waaaaay to hot to be starting a fire and using the microwave is just so boooooring.
So we decided to try it a new way.
Cover the inside of a big bowl with tin foil.
Then put another ball of foil in the center.
Insert toothpicks into the center ball and add marshmallows.
Cover with plastic wrap and sit it out in the sun.

 

While the sun is doing it’s magic, place chocolate onto crackers and let it get good and smooooshy.

In about 15-20 minutes (depending on the heat), the marshmallows will be warm enough to squish between the crackers.

Just make sure you have lots and lots of wet wipes!

    

    

And that you are prepared for the we-don’t-have-any-more drama.

    

A Mama’s HeART

I am a crafter.  I like to doodle and draw and create.
Sometimes the crafts turn out well and other times they don’t.
But for this Mother’s Day, I found a fail-proof craft gift.
Hallmark’s Recordable Artwork.

For Mother’s Day, the children and I made a framed canvas for my mom and Marshall’s mom.
Since I didn’t want to do four paintings per grandmother, we did some fingerprint art.
I used some black contact paper I had left over from another project and cut out simple shapes.
(You most certainly don’t have to use black.  The color doesn’t matter.)
Then I covered the entire canvas with the contact paper, essentially creating a stencil.

Each child picked a paint color and dotted all over.
(For the heart, we used the provided colors.  For the birdie, we used some paint I already had.)

At the very bottom, I cut off some of the contact paper and let each child put one print at the bottom.
Later, I labelled each print so the grandmothers would know which color belonged to which child.
After we’d finished ‘polka-dotting’ (as Lydia called it), I let it dry completely.
Then I slipped it back into the frame and let them record a message.

Done!  Super easy!  And adorable!  And the sweetest sounding little voices ever.

For less than $15 you can give a really great keepsake that will bring back memories for years to come.
(There’s a lock button behind a screwed on panel so that you can’t accidentally erase the message.)

For those of you who live close to me and don’t have time to make it to the Hallmark Gold Crown store,
I did see several of these still at Walgreen’s.  🙂

Want to hear more on how it works?

 

I had the pleasure of working with Hallmark again to bring you this review.  But I know that you know that the opinions stated above are 100% Bridget.  I absolutely love the fun products that Hallmark has and hope that you do, too.  

DIY Diaper Wreath

Yesterday my mom and I hosted a diaper shower for a dear friend who is expecting her first baby girl.

I knew I wanted to have a wreath on the front door and I thought surely you can make a wreath from diapers.
Last week I posted this picture on Instagram and Greis wanted a how-to!

So to make this, I used one 12″ foam floral wreath, 21 size 2 diapers, 22 rubberbands, two 8″ boas (one pink, one black), and 3 hairbows.  (Although next time I’ll get more boas and less hairbows.)

Because I’d already assembled it when I decided to do a tutorial, I did a few pictures using the handle of a basket instead of the wreath form.

First you’ll open up a diaper and put it on the wreath form just like you would a  baby but without opening up the flaps.

Then put a rubber band around the diaper and pull it down close to the wreath form.
Squeeze the butt of the diaper so that it’s a little compressed.
That’ll make sure you have room for all of the diapers and give the wreath a little dimension.

Once all of the diapers are attached, I used the black boa and weaved it over – under – over the diapers all the way around to cover up half of the rubberbands.  Then I did the opposite with the pink boa.  I tied the loose ends together in the back.

Then I used the remaining rubber band to attach the hairbows.  I wrapped around and tied it in the back and then was able to attach the hairbows to the part in the front.  BUT if I make another one, I’ll probably just get more feather boas and make a bow with them.

This really is easy and it looks adorable!

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Linked up to Tip Junkie’s Tip Me Tuesday.

Tip Junkie handmade projects

12 Crafts of Christmas {DIY Photo Display Blocks}

Several months ago, our friends were adding on to their house.  There was a big pile of scrap wood and I asked if I could have it.  I had no idea what I was going to do with it and I’m fairly certain that Marshall wanted to throw one of those wood blocks at my head when he saw how many I’d stuffed in the garage.

But I was thinking about inexpensive but still lovely ways to display all these pictures that  take.  I am terrible, horrible about printing out images but I want to do better.  My biggest wish was to be able to easily change the picture displayed.   I’m probably going to do another wall gallery similar to the one in Carter and Lydia’s room, but I’m not quite ready to commit to a big project right now.  I do, however, have a few more Christmas gifts to finish up!  Including drying time, these took me less than an hour to make!  And aren’t the cute, cute, cute?

This is what it looks like “nekkid”.  It’d also make a lovely note pad holder, eh?

You’ll need:  a piece of wood (the ones you see here are 4x4ish and 5x6ish), some paint (I used spray paint), some scrapbook paper, Mod Podge, foam brush, a piece of sandpaper and these little round top magnetic clips*

First you’ll want to sand down your wood piece and make sure it is dust free.
Mine is scrap wood, so it’s not a straight cut.  I could have straightened it, but I kinda liked it.

Then you’ll want to lay down the front of your wood block onto the back of your scrapbook paper and trace the edges.

Spray paint your wood block and let it dry.

Spread a layer of Mod Podge on your wood block and put your paper on top.
Smooth it out and then spread on a layer of Mod Podge on top of the scrapbook paper.
Make sure you get out any air bubbles now.
Let it dry for 15ish minutes and repeat.

Once it is completely dry, take the clip and hot glue it onto the top (or side) of the block.
That’s it!

           

For the “K” one, I used my SilhouetteHD to cut out the K and then put the clip on the side instead of center.


For the black one, I used my SilhouetteHD to cut out the pattern from black paper and then finished as shown above.

 

Whew!  I finished all 12 Crafts of Christmas.

I’ll start looking for new crafts for 2012 on January 1!
Let me know if you think of something fabulous!

Merry Christmas, y’all!

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12 Crafts of Christmas 2011
1. Personalized Necklaces
2. Button and Lego Wall Art
3. Personalized ClipBoards
4. Fabric Covered Wire(Wall Art) 
5. Stationary
6. You & Me Books
7. Personalized Welcome Mat
8. Personalized Dessert Carrier
9. Kid’s Artwork Cup
10. Ornaments
11. Sewing Tutorials

12. Photo Display Block

*Yep, that’s an affiliate link.  If you click it and buy them, I’ll make one one-hundredth of a penny.

12 Crafts of Christmas {Sewing Tutorials Roundup}

I’ve been kick-my-butt-and-knock-me-down sick today and this weekend was insanely busy, so I didn’t make anything.
I’d wanted to try these all out before posting, but here are links to several tutorials that I either have used or plan on using.
The first 2 things are ones that I’ll be making before the week’s end.  (I hope.)
The last one is one that I made this summer.

Ruffle Scarf from Vermillion Rules

 

Super Cool Wallet from CraftBits
(Lydia has – just today – added this to her Christmas wish list, so I’ll try to get it made in time!)

 

 

 

 

Fancy Tee (Garnet Hill Knock Off) from Blue Cricket Design
The one on the left is from the tutorial linked above.
The shirt on the right is one that I made using this tutorial.
(For people with large chests it seemed to work better focusing on the neckline.)

   

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12 Crafts of Christmas 2011
1. Personalized Necklaces
2. Button and Lego Wall Art
3. Personalized ClipBoards
4. Fabric Covered Wire(Wall Art) 
5. Stationary
6. You & Me Books
7. Personalized Welcome Mat
8. Personalized Dessert Carrier
9. Kid’s Artwork Cup
10. Ornaments
11. Sewing Tutorials
12. Photo Display Block

12 Crafts of Christmas {DIY Ornaments}

Remember those old handprint ornaments that you could make with Plaster of Paris?
I love those, but they’re so heavy that they make the tree branch bend down low.
And you can make salt-dough ornaments, which aren’t quite as heavy, but I’ve never liked the texture of them.
But I found Sculpey Oven-Bake Clay which is super pliable until you bake it.
And?  Best part (when you have little kids in the house) … it’s not very breakable!

So I rolled up a ball of Sculpey and rolled it out flat with a rolling pin.
(I have a ‘junk pan’ – aka an old cookie sheet that’s seen better days – that I use to bake my craft stuff on.
I rolled it out on there so I wouldn’t have to transfer it from one surface to another before it was heat set.)

I squished Anna Alden’s hand into it and the little stinker reeeeeally dug her fingers in.
So I rolled it back up and tried again.
Success!

I used a drinking straw to make a hole in the top.

And while I was making that, I decided to try using stamps.
(I also tried writing with a toothpick.  It’s possible, but not easy.)

When you bake them, they stay the same color.
But I wanted some sparkle.
(Really…who doesn’t?)
So I grabbed some Metallic Krylon Spray paint, painted the back, let it dry, turn it over, paint front, dry.
Finito!

Another super cute idea?  Polaroid Ornaments!

For only $5, you can get enough materials to make 2.
For $10, you can get a kit to make 5.

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12 Crafts of Christmas 2011
1. Personalized Necklaces
2. Button and Lego Wall Art
3. Personalized ClipBoards
4. Fabric Covered Wire(Wall Art) 
5. Stationary
6. You & Me Books
7. Personalized Welcome Mat
8. Personalized Dessert Carrier
9. Kid’s Artwork Cup
10. Ornaments
11. Sewing Tutorials
12. Photo Display Block

12 Crafts of Christmas {DIY Kid’s Artwork Cups}

Ok, so this post is for people who have a Silhouette machine. (Or for people who know someone with a Silhouette machine*.) (Or for someone who has time to hand cut it like I did last year.) But it is fab.u.lous.

Have your child draw a simple line artpicture. Take a picture of that picture and upload it into your Silhouette software’s library.

Once you have the image opened up in Silhouette Studio, you’ll want to go into Trace and “Select Trace Area” and put a box around the part you want to use.  I didn’t want my thumb to show, so I was careful to not include it in the square area. (Click on image to enlarge.)

Once you have your ‘trace’ area selected, you’ll want to click on High Pass Filter and pull it up as high as it will go to make the lines as completely yellow as possible.

Next you will choose “Trace” as your trace method. Then click on the original background image you imported and pull it out of the way. (I usually just delete it, but I left it here so that you can see it.)

Now there are a couple of extraneous little dots that I don’t want in my picture, so I zoom in, click on them and delete them. To do that, you’ll need to click on a point (which will get you into Point Editing) and then use the Delete Point option until all that you want to remove is gone.  (Do not use the delete button on your keyboard.  That won’t work!)

Now you’ll want to resize your image to fit the side of your cup, send it through the Silhouette as a vinyl cut and apply as normal.

Aaaaaand you’re done!

This is one that I made for me!  (Drawing and writing by Lydia!)

*Don’t have a Silhouette machine, but still want a decal of your child’s artwork? I can make you one for only $15! Email me at IveyLeagueMama(at)gmail(dot)com for details.

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12 Crafts of Christmas 2011
1. Personalized Necklaces
2. Button and Lego Wall Art
3. Personalized ClipBoards
4. Fabric Covered Wire(Wall Art) 
5. Stationary
6. You & Me Books
7. Personalized Welcome Mat
8. Personalized Dessert Carrier
9. Kid’s Artwork Cup
10. Ornaments
11. Sewing Tutorials
12. Photo Display Block