Thanksgiving Keep Calm and Carry On

I just love these...and look now a Thanksgiving one! Jessica at Craftily Ever After has set this up as a *FREE* printable. How sweet is she!?!

Thankful Garland

Oh my goodness! I fell in love with this thankful garland that Jen made over at Tatertots & Jello. I've gathered most of my supplies and I'm so excited to make this! I can't wait to have one on my mantel! Thanks Jen for the fabulous craft!
*I'll post mine once it's done!

Five Little Ghosts

I am a big fan of all the 5 Little ________ finger plays and poems that are out there. I always do the 5 Little Pumpkins for Halloween. The kids can do the motions with the story and it's so cute! But something new came into my world today....Ash brought the 5 Little Ghosts home today and I loved how his preschool teacher did it so every kiddo had an actual ghost. (Although they just have one so that doesn't really work for 5 hmmmm.....maybe I'll work on this idea more for next year....but it's cute for this year and he's happy. See what happens when you are a crazy person and get wrapped up with these things!?!)

Here's the poem:

Five little ghosts flying through the door,

One flew away and then there were four.

Four little ghosts spooky as can be,
One flew away and then there were three.

Three little ghosts drinking Halloween brew,
One flew away and then there were two.

Two little ghosts having lots of fun,
One went home and then there was one.

One little ghost is a real superhero,
Went to help a friend and then there was zero!

The ghosts were made with 2 paper towels. One is balled up and the other is wrapped around it and tied with a piece of yarn that is taped the the poem. The faces were drawn with sharpies.

*I forced my poor husband to hold the ghost. Ash is already in bed and I couldn't really justify getting him up just because the pictures I took of him earlier this evening didn't turn out. These pictures aren't really great either, but I won't press my luck any further.

Halloween Pencil Toppers

We were feeling crafty after making our pom-poms spiders so Gray and I decided to make some Halloween pencil toppers.

We had some left over foam Halloween shaped bead thingies from a Halloween garland kit that the boys did; some orange pipe cleaners, and again my fav. a hot glue gun.

First we wrapped the pipe cleaner around the pencil.

Then we put a dab of hot glue on the back of the foam shape and pressed the pipe cleaner into the glue.

Then Gray thought they needed a little pirate. So we glued some pirate jewels on each topper.

The really cool thing was how both boys played with them for the longest time! They were like little pencil puppets. Who would have thought something so simple would be so fun!?!

Pom-pom Spiders

I have have been given two of these from students in my class and I thought they were so cool and knew that my boys would LOVE to make their own.

So I rummaged through our craft supplies and found:

big pom-poms, black pipe cleaners (mine were already cut in 1/2 from another project), sticker wiggle eyes, pony beads, and my glue gun.

 First the boys stuck their wiggle eyes onto their pom-poms.

Then I glued their legs on. (It's hot glue and burns are no fun!)

Then the legs were bent into their desired position.

Then I realized that I needed to hot glue the eyes on after all. Oops!

To add a little something to them the boys strung pony beads (orange, green, and purple) onto the legs. I was so impressed with Ash he did his all by himself! Nice fine motor skills, Ash!

Halloween Trick-or-Treat Bags

Oh my goodness! The Idea Room has some really cute trick-or-treat bags you can make for your little goblins! I think I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Witch Wreath

This is the cutest witch wreath ever! Ride your broom on over to Lemon Tree Creations to get the details on how to make your own.

Robots

It all started with one funny evening when my boys were cracking me up with their robot impressions, "I am a robot. Beep boop boop." This was all they would say along with jerky body movements that were supposed to be very robotic. This got my wheels spinning and now I want to do robots and lots of them! Here is what I've found so far....

Cute boys' room from Land of Nod. This is my inspiration for the sleep room I'm going to create for my boys. They really want to share a room.

Cutest robot stuffies, Kauzbots, and they help important kauzes. Ash would love this one (Karissa) and I think Gray would like Kale.

Robot Print by Strongedesigns

 

Robot Illustrations from John W Golden

 

Super cool robot art courtesy of Esty.

Robot Love T-Shirt by happyfamily

I want this t-shirt for myself. Although, my boys would look so cool wearing it, too.

Neat kid dishes by French Bull. They also make cups and bowls, too. Oooh! What fun the boys would have eating from these!!!

Personalized Lunch Box

Recently a girlfriend asked if I would help her put her daughter's name on her lunch box. She wanted something polk-a-dotty or flowery. I of course jumped at the chance to do something girly. So here is the before picture....

Simple black w/ bright apple green detailing.

Supplies I used: cookie cutters, fabric paint, bamboo skewers, blue painters tape, pack of notecards for firm painting surface, two faux small pink flowers with their stems and middles removed, Gorilla glue, and a little bling. Her lunch box needed her name on it so I knew I needed to figure out a cute way to add her name. I wanted to use things I already had on this project so I was on the hunt for some letters. I found these cookie cutters and fabric paint.

First I used some blue painters tape to help me make a nice straight line. (I don't do straight very well.) and put a pack of notecards in the pocket to give me a firm surface to press on.

Then I painted the cookie cutters with the lime green paint to outline the letters of her name.

I then make polk-a-dots with blue, punchy red, and yellow using the end of the bamboo skewer. I thought it looked cute and I got the polk-a-dot request in now I needed to add a flower and a little bling for me.

I took the tops off of some faux little pink flowers I had Gorilla glued them to the lunch bag and then added a little bling in the middle. Girly cute!

Factory Cart Coffee Table

I have been secretly stocking (or not...okay so I've been leaving my laptop open to this picture almost everyday for my husband to fall in love with this piece and insist that he build it for our living room.) this piece for quite a while. While the beautiful and tiny Ana at Knock Off Wood creates simple plans and builds things herself, I have yet to take on the challenge and am hoping that Micah will just do it for me. While I love Home Depot, it scares me to go to buy lumber on my own. Maybe someday soon I will become a big girl and make my coffee table myself.

How to Draw a Spiderweb

Gray asked me how I would draw a cool spiderweb. He had been testing different ways and hadn't come up with "the one". So I sat down and gave it a few tries...finally I got the cool stamp from Gray here is how I did it.

How do you draw your cool spiderwebs?

Halloween Crazy Crayons

I am obsessed with making these! I just love that you can make those inevitable broken crayons into something so cool even my oldest wants to use them! For my special Halloween blend I didn't restrict to just black & orange but instead added grey, white, yellow, peach, yellow orange, and orangey red.

I first placed my crayons in hot water and let me soak off their wrappers. I love how easy this makes getting the wrappers off! Seriously, they come right off.

After I dry them off, I pop them into a plastic bag.

Then I take them out to the garage and let my boys pound away. Breaking the crayons into smaller pieces. I like to keep them a little chunky because I think the crayons come out with a cooler marble look.

Then I pour the pieces into this silicone cookie mold. I don't use this guy for anything but crayons because there is a weird waxy residue that I have no desire to ingest. I put my oven on 325, pop them in the oven, and wait for them to melt.

Once they are melted and look marble-ish I take them out and let them cool.

Once they are cool I just pop them out of the mold. Sometimes I lack patience and try to pop them out too soon. The crayons crack, I mentally scold myself for being so impatient, and pop them back in the oven to get melty again. Seeing the error of my ways I wait patiently for them to be cool and they turn out just fine. *More importantly no one knows that I messed them up the first time!

Now my kiddos can enjoy their cool festive Halloween Crazy Crayons!