wishing you the very best

Thank you for hanging around all year! May your 2010 be the most crafty ever. See you soon!

Holiday Countdown: Yarn Ornaments

The process of this activity is super quick, it's the waiting to dry part that might drive yer kidlets nutty. Make them when you have some free time and the kidlets are doing the boredom dance. Stash them somewhere high on a sheet of wax paper to dry and when you check on them the next day they will be ready to hang on your tree or your gifts!

You will need:
*yarn
*glue that dries clear
*scissors
*wax paper
*mess friendly zone
*cookie sheet or sturdy cardboard
*paper bowls, plates or plastic lids
*glitter
*paperclips, ornament hooks or string
scrumdilly-do it!

This can get sticky so make sure yer tots are in non-fancy togs, okee doke? Squeeze a large amount of glue into your bowl, cup or lid. Place the cookie sheet or cardboard in front of your wee one and place a sheet of wax paper on top. Grab yer ball of yarn and have your wee ones cut varying lengths, set aside.When yer ready, roll up your kidlets sleeves and get ready for the sticky fun! Toss one noodle of yarn into the glue and get it all goopified. Have your wee one run their fingers along the length of their "noodle" to squeeze out excess glue and then shape it onto the wax paper however they like.Add a dash pf sparkle and glitter and move on to the next ornament. Keep going until you run out of room. Place your sheet of ornaments somewhere safe to dry. They will need to dry for at least twelve hours.Once dry, gently peel away from the wax paper. Trim off excess dried glue with scissors, add a hook or paperclip or a loop of string and have fun hanging them everywhichway! Happy Holidays!

wee bean bag for wee ones by a wee one herself!

Skate on over to The Little Red Hen for P's cuter than cute kitty bean bag tutorial!

and zee winners are....

#1 bethany actually
#4 Ninočka
#8 Elizabeth
#10 jjnhubbs
#14 Lenetta @ Nettacow
#17 Donette
#22 Lisa
#27 LJ
#32 NicNacManiac
#33 Mrs. Bambrook

congratulations folks! Keep an eye out in your email (if i have yer email) for a PDF from Kids Craft Weekly & scrumdily-do! Please email me if you have not received yer PDF prize! I only had contact info from half of you!

A Wee Bit of Eye Candy, a Shout Out to Kids Craft Weekly and a Giveaway!

Thank you for playing along! The Winners have been announced!

Are you a Kids Craft Weekly Subscriber? If you haven't heard of Kids Craft Weekly then you must hop on over right now to check it out. It's free, it's weekly and it's chock full of fun projects for you and your tots! You can subscribe here. Seriously, Amber rocks the kids craft and her weekly crafty newsletter is always an inspiration. What's even cooler is that she has compiled some of the most fun projects into a nifty lil book that you can hold in your hot little hands. It's in color even! I totally recommend it.

Right now, for the holidays you can pick up a copy of Christmas Crafts and/or Christmas Cards in PDF form. Both are full, full, full of colorful crafty projects for Christmas and at $10 US for both you can't lose!

But wait, check this out, leave a comment here and I'll pop your name into a magic box and pull TEN winners to each receive a Holiday Pack (with Amber's permission of course, she's cool that way). So what are ya waiting for? Leave a comment and get ready to craft! Comments close Sunday 5pm PST. I'll announce the winners on Monday and make sure you leave me a way to contact you! Happy Crafting!

wreath party

i entered my wreaths in a contest at Dollar Store Crafts. Will you vote for me! I'm numbers 19 & 20...but vote for your favorites, okay?

Holiday Countdown: Make, Play, Share, Eat...

Here is a dilly of a round up of holiday friendly projects for you and your tots. All you need to do is switch up the colors to make 'em your kind of festive. Enjoy!Make scented dough to play with and to share.Bake up some pie crust cookies with jam!Make cards and ornaments with Tin Foil Festive!Make sock creatures and snow people!Snack on sandwich bread tunrovers.Get ooey with marshmallow puffs a la dilly-do!...and for those of you in warmer climates, wip up some faux snow to play with!

Holiday Countdown: Sweet Potato Latkes a la dilly-do!

I grew up on my mom's potato pancakes. We never ever ate them at the table as they never made it that far. From frying pan to the plate on the burner they would be snatched up and devoured all while they were too properly hot to eat. The kids in the neighborhood would smell them and come knocking on our door to see if I or my brother was home. They would lift their faces and sniff the air and ask if they smelled potato pancakes as they slowly eased themselves over the threshold and into the kitchen where yet another quick hand stole a pancake.

I would make these with my mom when I was still in grade school and while they are far from traditional they are ridiculously tasty. Your kidlets can do a fair amount of the work here. Just make sure they are not to use those sharp knives! Here's my grown-up spin to them.

{i really wanted to get you folks some pictures but we've got such grey skies, nothing is coming out...drats!)

What you need:
*1 sweet potato
*2 smallish taters or one large Russet
*1 onion
*1 egg
*2 Tablespoons of flour
*salt & pepper to taste
*skillet
*butter
*spatula
*1/4 cup measure
*blender
*knife
*peeler

Wash and clean your taters before peeling the skins off of them. Your child may do the peeling if they already know how. they can definitely clean the taters, just pop them into a bowl of sudsy water and give your kidlet a brush or sponge to clean them with. Rinse thoroughly and then peel.

Once peeled you will need to cut them into smallish chunks about the size of a quarter. Your child may be able to cut the Russet with a plastic or child friendly knife. The sweet potatoes are a bit more difficult to cut. I would recommend you do it.

Toss a handful or two of the pieces into the blender, yes, the blender! My mom gave up on grating them when I was a wee one. I suppose you could use a food processor for this as well but I have never done it that way. Adventure!

Chop up your onion as well. I would cut it into eights. Add half the onion to the blender along with the taters.

Add the egg, cap it off and blend a little. Keep adding onion and taters until you have a goopy mess. Pulse in your flour as well. If the goop is too sticky, at a little olive oil to the mix.

Melt your butter (or drizzle some olive oil) onto your skillet and get it hot. Transfer your batter to a bowl and allow your child to use the measuring cup to pour the cakes. This goes without saying but if yer tot is too small to be near the hot stove, give them some paper and art supplies and let them create while you cook. (Perhaps they can make potato stamped gift wrap?)

Cook your latkes until golden and crispy. Serve them up with your favorite side. Enjoy!

Holiday Countdown: Felty Button Tree

This is a perfect project to get your wee one started on stitching. Buttons and beads are really easy to stitch on and when you make this happy hoop tree, you give your kidlet a chance to decorate yet another tree!

You will need:
*large embroidery hoop
*fat quarter of a happy print
*felted sweater
*small piece of felt
*needle & thread
*sewing machine
*scissors
*buttons and/or beads
*large paper plate (optional)

scrumdilly-do it!

You will be doing a large part of the prep here. Your kidlet can help you choose the colors for the project, draw the tree, cut a little and then stitch.The first thing you will need to do for prep (other than gathering all your supplies) is iron your fat quarter of fabric. Once that is done you are ready to go.

Place hoop over your fabric so that you can eyeball the size of felted sweater you need. Cut a rectangle out of your sweater that will fit into the hoop without filling it. This is going to be your tree.To make your tree, fold rectangle in half and draw half of a tree outward from the fold OR ask your kidlet to draw a tree onto a paper plate and cut out for a pattern.Place hoop back over fabric and center your tree. Pin into place and stitch using your machine.Center your tree/fabric combo onto the under ring of the hoop and place the outer ring on top. Tighten and pull fabric taught. Have your kidlet spend some time playing around with the buttons and beads until they are ready to stitch. If you like, you can add a ring of glue to the outer side of the inner hoop before placing fabric over it. This will anchor it all into place. Let it dry before adding the "ornaments". Trim excess fabric with scissors.Have your kidlet stitch on the buttons and/or beads with a shortish length of doubled up thread. A twelve inch tail is good. Do not worry about sharp needles and all that. Poking happens. My mother taught me cross stitch at 6 and I would go through phases where I was soooo eager to stitch and a lot of poking happened. It still does. You will need to keep an eye out for when to tie the thread and add a new one. Your kidlet can stitch many buttons on with one length. All she or he needs to do is to zig zag from the back.Beads may be easier than buttons as they only have one hole to go through. If you double up the thread you are good. Teach your child to go up from the bottom, thread through the hole of the bead and then go down from the top. They can do it, they really can! If yer not gung-ho about the stitching, get a bottle of tacky glue and have your wee one glue their "ornaments" on. Tacky or Fabric glue is key. White glue won't stick to the felt very well.

Once done with the decorating part of the tree, cut out a small rectangle of felt and add your trunk with a few long stitches. Hang and admire!

A big hoop makes for a bigger tree. Don't go too small. Kids may have little hands but their fine motor skills are still in dress rehearsal. For an added step, have your kidlet paint the hoop before beginning. You can also do a snowman with a button face or a felty wreath with beaded baubels. Happy Holidays!

Holiday Countdown: loverly wrapped bottles

I know it has been done before but look how cool a small grouping of similarly colored yarn bottles look. The best part, is that they are super duper easy to make and adaptable to any holiday gathering. They make a great gift for family as well! Centerpiece anyone?

You will need:
*assortment of glass bottles or jars (cans will work as well)
*glue that dries clear
*yarn

scrumdilly-do it!

Wash and dry your bottles and/or cans and gather up yer supplies.Squeeze a liberal amount of glue all over the bottom portion of your bottle. Use your finger to coat.Beginning with the bottom of your vessel, start wrapping your yarn around and around pulling a tad tightly as you wrap (I held the jar upside down while wrapping). The yarn can overlap previous wrappings but won't stick unless there is a lot of glue. Because we are using one color, the wrapping can be as neat or as wonky as you want. It all looks pretty festive. You can work with shorter lengths of yarn or from the ball. If you need more yarn, cut another length and add a dollop of glue to the end, press down next to where the previous strand ended and begin wrapping again.The more uniform in shape the bottle or can is, the easier it will be to wrap. You may want to work with cans if your kidlets are under age 8 or perfectionists. If your jar slopes inward at the bottom, begin your glue and wrapping a little higher, otherwise the yarn will slip under and there will be a lot of frustration (not like I'm speaking from experience or anything, ahem.)Super fat yarn would work very well for your younger tots. You can add button, sequins or pom-pom decorations when your jars are dry if you like. Plastic bottles may not hold your glue as well as the glass. Use eight smaller jars and you can turn this into a Menorah!

If your kidlet is having trouble holding the bottle and wrapping. Plop it over the handle of a wooden spoon and plop that into a wad of play clay, or can anchored with wads of paper inside to prevent slipping.

Kristin Andreassen - Crayola Doesn't Make A Color For Your Eyes

this illustrates my childhood love of crayons...oh those awesome names and this video makes me smile like a fool. enjoy!

Christmas Countdown: Make Mini Wreath Ornaments, Tags & Decorations

Do you remember the phonebook wreath from last year? We're gonna shrink it up a bit and make them itty bitty. These are not just for Christmas, you can make these for any occasion. Who says a wreath has to be for Christmas? We're making ours out of an old phonebook so already, we've broken a few rules so go for it! Hanukkah wreath? Sure! Kwanzaa wreath? Why not? Boxing Day wreath? Bring it on! New Years Wreath? Of course! You choose the colors and the celebration. Have fun!

You will need:
*cardboard (a cereal box will work)
*old phonebook
*glue
*paint (you can use whichever kind you have on hand)
*sponges or brushes or hands if you're brave
*scissors
*pipecleaner, soda tab, paperclip or wire to hang
*cylindrical objects you can trace for a template
*hole punch
*waxed string, floss, dental floss or yarn
*wax paper (to place underneath all that gluey goodness)

Okay, so we're gonna go small with this so send your wee one off on a circle hunt. Explain how you are going to be making mini wreaths and ask your wee ones what shape they see when they look at a wreath. Next ask what they think would work as a pattern to use for their own wreaths. You can totally turn this into an exercise on shapes and patterns. If you do not have the time or your tot won't be too enthused, get a couple of cups from the cupboard and get ready to start. You will want two sizes. One for the full size of the wreath, and a smaller one for the center that you will be cutting out. I used a small glass and a bottle cap.Set up your work space with a splat mat or large sheet of wax paper under it all. Kids & glue equal fun messiness so be prepared! Flatten out the cardboard you will be using and get ready to grab some pencils and trace. Have your kidlet trace around the outer edge of the cup or bowl you are using for your template. Have them center the smaller one inside the larger circle and trace that as well. Repeat as often as you like. You will hopefully want to make more than one.Use the scissors to cut out the larger circles. You child can do this part if they wish. You will need to cute the center circle out as it may require an exacto to extract. The circles do not have to be perfect. The crumpled paper will flesh them out.Once all your wreath shapes are cut, get to painting them the colors of your choice. Set aside to dry.Have you child cover a couple of phonebook pages with paint. They can use as many colors as they like. If the pages get too saturated with paint they will rip, just so ya know, okay? Set aside to dry.Once dry, cut the pages into small squares about the size of a postage stamp. Or, 1" by 1".Cover your wreath shapes in glue and crumple up each little square and pop it onto the gluey goodness. Repeat until the wreath is as full as your child wants. Do you remember the tissue squares and pencil trick from kindergarten? You can do that as well.Once they are all dry, decorate your wreaths with sequins, ribbon, glitter or more paint. Set aside to dry if they need it.Punch a hole in the "top" of each wreath and thread with a length of string. Now you can connect wreaths to make a garland, top of your presents with them or hang them onto your tree. If you want to turn them into tags, cover the back with glue stick and affix a circle of paper onto the back. Write your To: & From: and you are done!Happy wreath making! If you want to stray from using phonebook pages and paint, cut your squares from tissue paper, you will want a "soft" paper for this project.