Personalized Gifts Kids Can Make

Need a personalized, meaningful gift for that special someone on your holiday list? Here are some fun ideas for gifts the kiddos can make! These whimsical photo tea tags feature fun photos of the kids, and serve as a great reminder to “hang in there”. They make great gifts for any tea lover! (Mmmmm… tea!) […]

No Mess Candy Cane Ornaments

When Emily came home from school this afternoon, she asked if we could make some ornaments for the tree, and she didn’t have to twist my arm. These candy cane ornaments are so easy and so much fun to make! Added bonus — hardly any post-crafting clean up! Yay for no-mess crafts! We happened to […]

Candy Cane Painting

What’s even more fun than painting?? Painting in your pajamas!!! This candy cane painting is quite toddler friendly, and the kiddos get great results! I outlined a candy cane shape with a Sharpie on some thick card stock paper, and added some masking tape stripes. Once I invited Clara over to paint, the smiles were […]

Rainbow Sprinkles from Highlights High Five

This little gem of a handmade gift idea comes from Highlights High Five magazine — rainbow sprinkles to use as a fun topping for yogurt or ice cream! As soon as Emily saw this craft featured in the December issue, she begged to make it! If you don’t already subscribe to Highlights High Five, I […]

Giveaway — Stonyfield Prize Pack

WE BAKED!! (…sort of.) Baking is not my thing. At all. Sewing? Yes. Cooking? You bet! Basket-weaving? Why not?? But baking?? That’s where I draw the line. Whenever I bake anything, it’s more of a threat than a blessing. Just ask Mark about Pumpkin Pie Failure 2004. It. Was. Awful. When Stonyfield asked me to […]

No Mess Christmas Tree Craft for Tots

Clara and I made a fun Christmas tree using a few office supplies, and the best part..?  No clean up! (Yay for no-mess crafts!) They are quick and easy to make too! I cut two identical pine tree shapes out of colored card stock (I recycled a torn file folder), then invited Clara over to […]

Pine Forest Playscape

Clara and I made a fun pine forest playscape using coffee filters, and it’s been a big hit for imaginative play over here! We painted a bunch of coffee filters in hues of yellow and green. I love how happy Clara gets when she realizes that we will be painting — what fun!! She painted […]

Crafts to Cure Cabin Fever

This morning I visited NBC’s studios in Philadelphia for a quick demo of some FUN Winter crafts using items most households already have on-hand — the perfect cure for cabin fever! Dawn and I had so much fun on The 10! Show, and we featured crafts for kids of all ages!! In case you missed […]

Dove Garland

Emily and I made a pretty dove garland, and it was made using our new favorite art supply — coffee filters! These were so much fun to make!! If you have some coffee filters on hand, you can download our template, and print it out on card stock, to make a dove garland of your own! […]

Winter Window Display

Are you busy decorating the house for the holidays?? We sure are!! The girls helped me decorate the front door for Winter over the weekend. It was a real group effort! Since painting inexpensive coffee filters is such a popular activity in this household, we decided to use that approach. Again. Speaking of coffee filters, over […]

Kids Waiting for the Turkey? Do Some Crafts!

Have a few brown paper bags on hand? Are you looking for ways to keep the kiddos entertained while waiting for that delicious turkey?? Here are some fun crafts from around the web to help pass the time! I love this paper bag turkey from One Charming Party (found via The Crafty Crow)! Note: Instead of […]

Turkey Place Cards

Around this time of year, Emily and I like to work on Thanksgiving place cards for our festive table. These turkeys are super-cute and easy to make! We started by cutting up some flower-shaped sticky notes in half to form the tail feathers of the turkey. We added a half-circle cut from a paper bag […]

Spontaneous Montessori

While I was doing some work in the sewing room, Clara started playing with a pile of buttons. I added two empty yogurt containers and a pair of tweezers, and she had some impromptu Montessori-inspired fun!! This was a super-simple activity of just transferring the buttons one at a time, from one container to the […]

Easy Leaf Wreath

Clara thought this colorful leaf wreath was so much fun to make! We used some of the tissue paper leaves from this post to make it. I cut a large circle from a brown paper bag (using a plate as a pattern), and invited Clara over to glue the leaves on top! She was really […]

Time-Saving Tip for Cleaning

Do you hate a messy sink full of dirty dishes? Of course. We all do! Ever wish you had an extra helping hand (or two)? Are you sick and tired of spending all your time doing housework?? Don’t despair, you’ll save lots of time with this simple and easy tip for cleaning! (Before) Just call […]

Super-Easy Corn Craft

Clara and I did a bit of crafting this morning to make this corn arrangement, which is now hanging on the back of our front door! They are super-easy and lots of fun to make! To make your own, you will need yellow tissue paper, a brown grocery bag, and some plastic netting that comes […]

Weekend Rewind — Gratitude Activity Jar

This was one of my all-time favorite posts — a fun ACTIVE way in introduce kids to the concept of gratitude. It’s perfect for this time of year, and we enjoyed this activity so much last year that we are doing it again this year. Enjoy!! Around Thanksgiving we try to do crafts and activities […]

Pumpkin Gift Bags

Clara and I had a lot of fun with this little (frugal) project — we made up some gift bags to give to friends who come over for play dates! I think they would also be very nice to wrap hostess gifts for any sort of gathering this time of year. She was having a […]