{Tutorial} Woven Paper Star Tree Topper

Hi everyone! I'm over at Two Girls Being Crafty today as part of their 12 Days of Christmas celebration, and I'm sharing a tutorial on how to create your own woven paper star tree topper (which also make some awesome snowflakes when you use white paper!). Come by and check it out!

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Advent Activities

I can't believe it's already Christmas time! Time seems to be flying by these days, so I wanted to make sure that my family is able to relax and enjoy the little things that make the holiday season so special.

Over the weekend we went and picked out our perfect tree. We ditched our fake tree this year and decided to see if Mitch and Sutton's allergies will be able to handle a real tree again. So far, so good! We spent most of the weekend taking our time and enjoying the slow pace of putting up all the ornaments and decorations.

I wrapped all of our holiday books into 24 packages, and we will let the boys take turns choosing and opening a package each night before bedtime. I've been collecting holiday books since Sawyer was a baby, and usually I introduce a new book each day, but this is the first year I've actually wrapped them - the boys are SO excited to open them already! 

It didn't occur to me to take any pictures of the process until I was wrapping the very last book, which just happens to be my favorite! A vintage T'was the Night Before Christmas circa 1965. I just adore these classic illustrations - I definitely have a weakness for vintage children's books!

I haven't finished assembling our advent calendar yet, but I thought I'd post the list of activities in case anyone was looking for some inspiration. There are more than 24 activities, but some can be combined (popping popcorn and staying up late, for example). Also, we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah in our home, so you'll see some activities for both holidays. Likewise, I tend to keep our activities less religious and more family-oriented to promote sharing, good will and togetherness :)

• Bake a cookie cake (for Daddy's birthday)
• Write letters to Santa
• Porcelain dough ornaments
• Have a hot chocolate party
• Choose toys to donate
• Watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Tissue paper wreaths
• Eat dinner by candlelight
• Stay up an hour late
• Wrap presents
• Bake cookies for friends and neighbors
• Decorate gingerbread houses (cheat with graham crackers!)
• Play holiday Yahtzee
• Make pinecone birdfeeders
• Do something nice for someone
• Play Go Fish
• Make solstice lanterns
• Go on a holiday light drive
• Christmas tree pizza for dinner
• Play the dreidel game
• Family movie night
• Homemade games night
• Bake treats for Santa
• Family art: fingerprint drawings
• Decorate paper gingerbread men
• Cut paper snowflakes
• Have a popcorn party
• Make holiday colored window stars
• Sing Christmas carols
• Play with Insta-Snow
• Make coffee filter flowers & deliver them to a nursing home
• Make s'mores
• Go ice skating
• Turn on holiday music and have a dance-off

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Nativity Blocks

Now that my boys are old enough to better understand the origin of Christmas, I figured it was time to introduce them to a nativity set that they could play with this holiday season. I made this one with some scrap wood and the Nativity Clipart set from Print Candee. Stop by the Print Candee blog for more photos and instructions to create your own!

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Pumpkin Pie Playdough

Nothing says Thanksgiving like pumpkin pie, so in honor of the holiday break the boys and I decided to whip up some pumpkin pie scented playdough. It smells amazing! Seriously, you're going to have to stop yourself from wanting to give it a little taste test, but trust my 4-year-old, it tastes terrible!

Recipe:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
2 tbsp. oil
2 tbsp. cream of tartar
2 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
red & yellow food coloring

Mix together the flour, salt, cream of tartar and pumpkin pie spice in a saucepan. Slowly stir in the oil, water and vanilla extract. Add a few drops of food coloring to make the mixture orange. Heat on the stovetop over medium heat, stirring constantly, until dough becomes a stiff playdough consistency. Allow 15-20 minutes to cool before playing as the dough will be very hot!

 

Don't say I didn't warn you though...they may spend all their time smelling it instead of playing with it LOL! :)

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Preserving Fall Leaves

Yesterday the boys and I collected a bunch of pretty leaves from the neighborhood, and then came home and preserved them so we could enjoy their gorgeous fall colors for a little longer.

Years ago my sister bought me a Revlon Paraffin Bath for my birthday, and though I totally love how soft it made my hands feel, I've never been a fan of the "spa scented" paraffin wax it came with. Since the thing came with 4 pounds of wax, let's just say that over the years I've barely made a dent in the amount of wax that currently resides inside the unused paraffin bath.

So, as I was looking for a large basin to melt some beeswax it occurred to me that I should whip out the old paraffin bath and use up some of the fragranced wax for this project. I'm sure my sister will be thrilled that I've been dipping leaves in my hand spa ;) 

All we did was dip the leaves twice in the wax to give it a nice shiny coat. It was super quick and easy, but of course, use caution when working with children and melted wax. This is the first time we've ever tried to preserve leaves with wax, but according to Martha Stewart the leaves will last indefinitely (though I've also read that the colors will fade after awhile).

They're so pretty! Sutton says that they look and feel like fake leaves, but "the realest fake leaves ever." Today the boys are going to string them on to some embroidery thread to create a garland to hang above the nature table. I'm glad we had a chance to do something new and fun for fall since we'll be breaking out the winter holiday decorations next week!  

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Meet the Hide-and-Seek Ninja

My boys LOVE to play hide-and-go-seek, but they've pretty much exhausted all of the kid-sized hiding places inside our home. There's only so many times you can find your brother hiding in the dining room curtains, you know? They had been playing hide-the-stuffed-animal at my mom's house, so I decided to take it a step further and create something fun and small that could be easily hidden over and over again for them to seek out. Enter Ninjy, the hide-and-seek ninja. He's the perfect solution to our lack of hiding places; in fact, some of the hardest places to spot him have been in plain sight!

Hiding out among the pumpkins

Visiting his cousin, the fall gnome on the nature table.

Lurking behind the lotus flower.

Naturally, his stealthy ninja skills allow him to remain hidden in many dark and shadowy corners. Blending in seems to be his most masterful skill! We have spent lots of time looking for him when he was hiding right next to another black object!

He even stops by to hang out with Batman on occasion. They're old pals from college ;)

Ninjy is quite the academic student as well. He wanted to learn more about our cultural exchange pals in France and the UK (we also have pals in Nigeria, Australia and the US East coast), so he hopped on the globe to have a closer look.

He's even been known to moonlight as an ambulance driver when they're short staffed.

I honestly had no idea how many hours of entertainment we were going to get from a cheap pack of unfinished wood peg people! Sawyer is now asking for an entire set of rainbow ninjas, perfect for hiding in, around, under and on all sorts of multicolored hiding places. Sounds like a fantastic hand made holiday gift if you ask me! :)

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Favorite Arts & Craft Supplies for Kids

Source

I've gotten a few emails lately asking for recommendations for arts and craft supplies for children - the holidays are coming up after all, and kids love to receive the gift of creativity! I thought I'd share a few of the items that we use all the time:

• My boys have always prefered colored pencils over crayons, and Prismacolor Colored Pencilsare the best, producing smooth even colors in a wide variety of shades. The Prismacolor scholar line can frequently be picked up for around $10 and they work very well for children.
• For nature journaling we like to use Academie Wirebound Sketch Diary with SpiralGuard, but any wire bound notebook that lays flat when open will work. The 6"x9" size is perfect for little hands!
• We always have a bin full of collage materials available at all times (and it gets used a lot!). Ours is filled with kids scissors, Elmer's Extra Strength glue sticks (and regular Elmer's school glue too), pom poms, feathers, beads, googly eyes, sequins, rhinestones, bits of leftover colored paper and yarn. I store all of it in a clear storage tub with the different items organized into ziploc bags...hardly a day goes by where we aren't experimenting with all the things we can create from this bin full of fun!
• Recycling materials are awesome! Dedicate a small bin or container for recycled household items that the kids might like to use in crafting. We save tp/paper towel rolls, plastic containers and lids, frozen juice lids, glass jars, #6 plastic takeout containers (for shrinky dinks) and anything that is a fun or unique shape. You  might be surprised at how long you can keep the kiddos occupied with creating robots and superheroes from the recycling bin!
• Paint is the #1 art supply that we use, and Crayola Artista Washable Tempera Paints are our favorite. The colors are smooth and saturated, and they don't dry out too quickly while the kids are working on their masterpieces. We also love Colorations Liquid Watercolor Paints and the  Make it Glitter and Make it Shimmer additions (we haven't tried the Make it Puffy yet, but that looks like fun too!). The cost may seem a little steep for either set of paints, but trust me...they last a long time, even with frequent use!
• For younger kids, you can't go wrong with the classic Crayola Washable Markers. If your kids are older and you are less worried about the product's washability, we love BIC Mark-It Color Collection Permanent Markers and Mr. Sketch Scented Markers (we have the fine and broad tipped sets of each). Some day when my boys are much older I might have to share my set of Prismacolor Double Ended Art Markers that I have stashed away, left over from my design school days!

Of course, there are many more products that we love to use, but these are the ones that get used most frequently! Hopefully that helped to answer some of your questions and get you prepped for holiday gift giving! :)

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{Print Candee} Thankful Tree

Stop by the Print Candee blog today to check out this year's version of our Thankful Tree! I absolutely {love} the way it came out!

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Thanksgiving Napkin Rings

I'm so excited! My Thanksgiving kids craft article came out in the new Sacramento Parent Magazine November issue yesterday (though the store near me still didn't have them on the newsstand when I checked yesterday, but it should be there today!). It's so fun to be able to say that I've officially been published! It was such a great experience working with them, and I really hope that I'll have the opportunity to do some more writing for them in the future. Stop by the Sacramento Parent website to check out the full article or pick up your copy of the magazine today!  

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Puppies vs. Babies!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Puppies vs. Babies. All opinions are 100% mine.

 

Have you seen this yet? My boys are obsessed with Animal Planet's Puppies vs. Babies - in fact, after we watched two episodes on television yesterday, they spent another half an hour online re-watching the clips and voting for their favorites in the Puppies vs. Babies online contest. Trust me, when Mom is stuck on the couch with the flu, you'll be begging for some wholesome entertainment to keep the kiddos occupied, and Puppies vs. Babies totally delivers the goods! We're hooked!

So, what's our answer to the burning question of Puppies vs. Babies? Don't get me wrong, we love puppies around here, but since we happen to have a baby in the house my boys are ALL about the babies! There is one particular video of a baby who can't stop hysterically laughing every time his dad rips paper in front of him, and I think we have watched it at least fifty times now. Puppies are cute and all, but nothing beats those uncontrollable baby giggles!

I can't think of a better showdown than two of the world's cutest and most adorable beings, and Puppies vs. Babies is a family-friendly competition sure to be a huge hit with kids of all ages. Head on over to Animal Planet and place your vote in the the Puppies vs. Babies online contest today! Leave me a comment and let me know which one you're voting for - puppies or babies! :)

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First Sewing Projects: Felt Gnomes

Sutton and I were browsing some of our favorite blogs this morning, and we ran across a post over at Paint Cut Paste that showed off a fun first sewing project - Waldorf style felt gnomes. He immediately wanted to start sewing, so we took advantage of the fact that Simon was still sleeping at 8:00 AM (all that Halloween fun totally wore him out!) to have our first hand sewing lesson.

I cut a very teeny bit of the tip off of an embroidery needle so that it wouldn't be so pokey, cut the pattern from Sutton's requested colors of felt and helped him thread his needle. He picked up on the sewing technique pretty quickly, and he sewed the entire hat and body with minimal assistance. Yay!

After the body was sewn, Sutton stuffed his gnome with wool roving
(the head is a knot tied in the wool), and I sewed the bottom on for him since his "hands [were] tired from all that sewing and stuffing." We put the finished gnome on the nature table next to a needle felted apple that I made awhile ago.

Sawyer came home from school and wanted to make a gnome of his own (naturally!). He was really meticulous and focused, and I was totally impressed at his concentration and patience. Aside from my help with threading the needle and tying the knots he sewed every stich all by himself!

I helped with the bottom again since Sawyer liked the look of the blanket stitch that I had used on Sutton's gnome. I really love the color choices he made on this one (the bottom is purple even though you can't see it!).

Two sweet little gnomes hanging out on the nature table with other felt goodies, pumpkins and a basket full of indian corn, feathers and acorns.

Our fall nature table also shows off my Microcrafted
card, our fall leaf lantern, and some fun leaf shaped glittery candles that the kids love.

Everything fragile or choking-hazard-ish is pushed way back and out of Simon's reach since he's teething again and loves to chew on everything right now (not to mention what would happen if I tried to put a table runner or playsilk landscape underneath everything!). I love that the older boys are able to play with everything on the table though, and they spend a lot of time arranging and rearranging everything. Last but not least, I really love how everything is topped of by a colorful felt leaf garland that was sent to us by the lovely Nikki at WhiMSy Love (thanks, Nikki! ♥).

Halloween might be over, but since the weather is just finally starting to cool down here it's really starting to feel like fall...and so far it has been worth the wait! I foresee lots more chilly morning cups of tea
and crockpot cooking in the near future!

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