These smiley sandwich picks are a great way to add some FUN to plain ol’ PB&J sandwiches! They are so super-easy to make, that I’m almost ashamed to post about it. Gather some color coding labels, and draw SILLY faces on them! Sandwich a toothpick between two of the labels, and insert into your favorite […]
Quick Craft — Leaf Necklace
August 30, 2010 by
We spent a good deal of time outside this afternoon, and a small pocket of that time was spent making these super-quick leaf necklaces! To make your own, you will need a small cutting board, clear contact paper, a hole punch, string/yarn, and some metal cookie cutters. Gather up some leaves! Emily thought these small […]
Outdoor Streamers
August 20, 2010 by
These colorful streamers are so much fun to make, and are a great way to brighten up any outdoor space — they are completely waterproof! The girls had a blast, and we were left with very little clean up afterwards! To make your own, lay down strips of inexpensive packaging tape with the sticky side […]
Stunning “Glass” Sculpture
August 12, 2010 by
The neat thing about this beautiful “glass” sculpture is that it is flexible and can be re-shaped again and again! Emily was so proud of her sculpture, and they are simple and frugal to make using materials you probably already have on-hand. I used wired cutters to cut a long piece of thin gauge wire, […]
Rainbow Village Printable
August 9, 2010 by
As soon as I finished designing one of these adorable paper cottages, the girls went off to play with it while I made a bunch more! We had lots of fun playing with these, and then took them apart and stored them flat in a file folder for future play times. They are very frugal […]
No Mess Marbled Painting
August 5, 2010 by
This no-mess version of marbled painting was quick, easy, and inexpensive to make! Plus, it kept the girls occupied all morning while we experimented with different paint color combinations! Both of the girls loved the way they could move the paint and swirl the colors all around without getting their hands dirty! To make your […]
Modern Wall Art
August 4, 2010 by
This modern wall art project was lots of fun — and very frugal to make! Added bonus — no mess! Start with a few colored masking tape…. …and invite your child to stick pieces of masking tape on brightly colored paper. For Clara, this was a fun way to work on identifying colors! Emily loves […]
Quilted Color Match Game for Tots
August 2, 2010 by
I sewed up this little color match game for Clara to practice identifying her colors. It ended up being a great quiet game for keeping both of the girls occupied while I was in the kitchen making dinner. It is so colorful! I sewed the color mat using pieces from fat quarters (very inexpensive), and […]
Easy Fishing Game
July 30, 2010 by
We went fishing in our foyer this afternoon — it was so much fun! I made up some fish out of pipe cleaners, attached a magnet to the end of the string on the fishing pole (a stick from our backyard), and we had an instant fishing game! Merlin wanted to play too! For the […]
Fairy Cafe
July 29, 2010 by
During Clara’s afternoon nap, Emily helped me declutter the sewing room. I was re-organizing a drawer with thread, when I looked over and saw she had fashioned a table from some empty thread spools. We got a teensy bit side-tracked …….. I found some toothpicks with umbrellas in the kitchen and added them to the […]
Elevator Fun
July 27, 2010 by
We did a bit of tidying up that involved several trips up and down the stairs. So we installed an elevator in our foyer! Problem solved! Added bonus — the buttons on the inside of the elevator helped with Clara’s number recognition. Suddenly, I had no shortage of helpers to make the trips up and […]
Jumping Bean Races
July 23, 2010 by
The girls and I made Jumping Beans this afternoon, and then had lots of fun racing them! They loved it!! Print out the template onto heavy cardstock paper. We used the print-out template found at Having Fun at Home, and it worked beautifully! The girls enjoyed decorating their jumping beans…. They used lots of color! I […]
Painting…. with Ice Cubes!
June 23, 2010 by
Today was a real scorcher, but the girls still wanted some outside play time (and of course some sort of art is aways a necessary part of our day). I had some very inexpensive “paint with water” books, but we thought it would be more fun to paint with ice cubes instead!! If you’re afraid […]
Ladybug Cuteness
May 12, 2010 by
This fun ladybug picture was inspired by a recent ladybug sighting at the playground a few days ago. In our household, we are all about celebrating the little things in life! The best part — this project is very low cost!! Did you know that Home Depot has paint chips in the shape of leaves? […]
Easy Spring Mural
March 29, 2010 by
A few days ago, I bought a package of flower-shaped Post-Its. We couldn’t resist making an inexpensive no-mess Spring mural with them! While Clara was napping this afternoon, Emily helped me take down the four leaf clovers in the sewing room and replace them with colorful flowers! One pack of Post-Its comes with three different […]
Easy Reverse Resist Paintings
January 28, 2010 by
If your kids love to paint, but you would rather not deal with the mess, bleeding art tissue paper is for you. It’s very inexpensive and can be found at any art supply store — plus, a little bit goes a long way! We are never afraid to get messy with art, but at times […]
Handmade Holidays — Easy No-Mess Snowflake Ornaments
December 9, 2009 by
These beautiful snowflake ornaments (shown above) couldn’t have been easier to make! I love that the process was mess-free, very easy, and frugal. Plus, we have more ornaments to add to our tree that are not fragile!! To make your own snowflake ornaments, you will need: white model magic, snowflake cookie cutters, a rolling pin, […]
Beautiful Autumn Leaf Garland
October 26, 2009 by
We thought the dining room (aka sewing studio) could use some decorating this season, so Emily gathered up some leaves earlier in the day and we got to work on this beautiful garland for some late night crafting. Emily had been begging me to do the waxed paper leaf collage for a long time, but […]
