DIY Lego Play Tray

A few Easters ago, instead of giving the kids lots of candy, I decided I wanted to  make something for their Legos.
I started by looking on Pinterest to find fun ways to display and/or store Legos.

I found things like:

These were great, but not quite what I was looking for or wouldn’t work for our needs.
So, I went to the craft store for inspiration and found wooden trays-the kind that look pretty on a cart or counter displaying wine glasses and such.  So, I thought-why not make them each their own Lego play tray!
The got the last 2 trays on the shelf.  They were natural wood, so I painted them when I got home.  Blue for my son and white for my daughter.  I chose these colors because of the vinyl colors I had available to make their names on my cricut, which was my second step after painting them.

After the trays were painted and the vinyl letters applied, it was time to make the trays officially for Legos.  I had ordered 10X10 Lego pieces from amazon.com.  I measured and laid out the 10X10 Lego squares- to see how they would fit, and how I would need to cut and piece the Lego platform inside of the tray.  This worked out easier than I thought due to the dimensions of the tray itself-WIN!

One LEGO 10X10 fit perfectly!  I just needed to cut a second 10X10 to fit in the remainder of the space.

The Lego squares are thin enough that all I needed to do is cut them with my kitchen butcher scissors and super glue them to the bottom of the tray.

After that, it was done!  This had to be one of the easiest and well received DIY gifts for the kids I’ve done yet.  It’s been 2 years and the kids STILL use them.

It’s great because they can pick up the entire tray, without disrupting what they’ve built, and move it from place to place.

What are your Lego creations?

Clothesline in a Bag

One day I was on a search for things for my 3 year old to do.  I wanted little learning activities for her, so I  scoured the Internet and found a few things.
Numerous sites mentioned 'activity bags'.  Such as, Ziploc or pencil bags filled with little activities that your little one could grab out of a box to keep busy for a little bit. 
I took a couple of those ideas and ran with them.

I decided to make what I call a 'clothesline in a bag' activity bag. 

What you'll need:
felt
string
clothespins
imagination:)

I took some string that I had in my craft drawer and pinned it under the windowsill in the dining room. 
I put the clothespins in a Tupperware container.
Cut a few shapes out of felt and decorated them with stitching, buttons, etc.  They were definitely nothing fancy, but my daughter had fun.

It was interesting to see how she had to really fiddle around with the clothesline and clothespin and felt clothing to get them all lined up and secured successfully.  So, it ended up being much more than I thought and was teaching her dexterity as well as entertaining her.
Even my 5 year old son did it a few times, creating numerous 'patterns' out of the felt clothes.  So, it worked for both kids, which was a double bonus!woohoo!

Snowmen Milkjugs

So, it's wasn't even December and my kids were itching to get into the Christmas Spirit. 
I am loving this, because I am a Christmas gal...but even more, Christmas is totally my husband's holiday.  He loves decorating the second Thanksgiving is over.  For this, I AM THANKFULL.

Something I saw on Pinterest was a cute little idea for a lit up milk jug decorated like snowmen. 
I had 'pinned' this idea weeks ago so had already cleaned and dried out 2 milk jugs for my kiddos. 

I got out the glue, construction paper, and safety scissors and let them have at 'em.  My 3 year old little a little help with the cutting out of specific shapes, per her instruction:)

I put my OCD mommyness away and let my kids create their masterpieces anyway they wished.  They turned out super cute. (yes, I am biased)

Here is what you'll need:
glue
colored construction paper
one milk jug per child
one string of holiday lights per milk jug
scissors

-First get ahold of your empty milk jugs.  one per child.  clean and dry them. 
I just put a little dawn dish liquid in the empty milk jug, fill with a little hot water, put the top back on, and shake shake shake.  Then I empty the water down the drain and sit it upside down in my dish drying rack over night.  Done!

-Before starting the project, take some sharp scissors or a knife and cute a whole in the back of the milk jug big enough for the string of lights to be put through and into the jub.

-Lay out your supplies and let the kids cut and glue their shapes out of construction paper to reveal their 'faces' on the milk jugs. 

 

-Allow the glued faces to dry and then put your string of lights inside the milkjug.  Make sure to remember to leave the 'teeth' end of the plug out to be plugged in.  (you don't want to fish the string of lights into the jug and then go to plug it in and realize you put the 'teeth' end of the lights in first and now cannot plug the lights in.

 You can put these little guys anywhere you wish.  I've seen them as part of fronth porch and yard decorations for Christmas.  We decided to use then in the kid's rooms as additional festive night lights for the holidays. 

*My husband and I always unplug the lights before we go to bed in case of a fire.  The jugs do get warm but not necessarily hot.  We just unplug them as a preventative measure.

Happy Decorating!

Colored Cakes

One of the sweet pregnant gals in my Bible study small group was going to find out if she was having a boy or a girl and I thought we would celebrate the news.  So, I made a pink and blue layered cake to enjoy while mooning over her prego belly and diving into our Beth Moore books.
It's very simple to do.
I used a white cake mix so that my colors would turn out just the way I wanted them.
Make the cake batter exactly the way the box directions tell you to for two 9 inch round cake pans.  Before pouring the batter into the prepped cake pans, divide it in half.  Take some red food coloring and add just a few drops to one of the batters and mix-this will make you pink layer.  Take blue food coloring and add just a few drops to the other batter half and mix.  It's always best to add too little at first and mix and then add more coloring.

 Here is the gradual coloring to make pastel pink

After you have your desired color of batter (I wanted pastels so it didn't take much) pour the batter into the prepared cake pans and bake according to box directions. 

When they are fully baked and cooled, put the layered cake together like any other.  I used white icing. 

Here is what it looked like after the reveal.

For my son's 4th birthday he asked for rainbow cupcakes.  I did not take pictures of the process but here is what it turned out looking like.

We all loved them and they were so yummy.  My son definitely enjoyed them. 
To make these lovely rainbow cupcakes all you have to do is prepare the cupcake batter per the box directions.  Then decide what colors you want to use for your 'rainbow'.  Divide the batter equally into bowls that coordinate per color.  For example:  if you want 5 colors in your 'rainbow' cupcakes then you will need 5 bowls, each filled with the same amount of cupcake batter.  Use food coloring to make your desired colors.  Just put a few drops of the preferred color into each bowl of batter and mix.  Once you have your batter prepared to the color that you desire, just fill the cupcake tins.  It works best to use measuring spoons or 1/4 C measuring cup to make sure the colors are around the same amount per cupcake.  Simply layer the different colors in the cupcake tins and bake according to the package. 
Don't worry about colors running and not turning out well.  You can almost not mess this up.  It also helps if after you fill all the tins with the first color of batter, to tap your tins to get the batter to settle evenly.  Do this between each color that you add to the cupcake tins.  I used white icing to top off my son's birthday cupcakes and they looked great!

Household Containers for Art Supplies

Don't throw out those egg cartons!  I've got a couple of household containers I love to reuse.  It's handy, cheap, 'green', and I've almost always got them in the house.

EGG CARTONS

These are THE BEST paint pallets for kids. I just cut the cardboard egg cartons into thirds, distribute the paint, and the kids go at it.  Love this!  I used to save the plastic icing containers that came with the Grands Cinnamon Buns but those just get tossed around everywhere in my craft bins, so I like these more.  Plus, when the kids are done, I just toss them in the trash.  How's that for easy clean up?

    

SWIFFER REFILL CONTAINERS

I also use the Swiffer alot and the containers that hold the wet swiffer refills are awesome for storage.  I rinse and dry them out and then store art supplies, first aid items for the car, Christmas ornaments in the extra large wet swiffer refill containers, etc.  The possibilities are endless!

Kids Artwork Note Cards

What's a  mom to do with all of her kids artwork that piles up on the refrigerator, keepsake drawer, crafts table, etc?

Turn them into note cards!

I used the kids watercolors the kids did during this activity.

I took white cardstock and cut it to fit into a standard mailing envelope.  (I seem to always run out of cute sized envelopes and then have these great cards but only standard sized enveloped that they don't fit into.  So, I thought I would save myself some trouble and make the homemade cards to fit the standard envelopes).  I also took my decorative edge scrapbooking scissors and cut the kids art to fit the cardstock.

I used my Cricut, I got for Christmas, and cut out some sayings to place on top of the kids art.

                             
With scrapbooking glue, I glued the cut out art onto the cardstock and then placed the Cricut sayings onto the art.

Viola!  Note cards any Grandparent or friend would love to receive...And, it all was created with things I already had around this house.  Love that!

Painting with Ice Cubes

I totally stole this idea from my high school friend that has her own blog that's magnificent.  I love this idea because we do art projects and painting constantly.  This makes things a little different which in turn makes it more fun for the kiddos.  This is the first time Lilly has gotten to paint with ice cubes and both my munchkins loved it. 
I put a piece of paper on a paper towel to absorb extra moisture from the melting ice cube and put the paper towel and paper in a pan to keep everything contained.  We use washable paint so the cleanup on the pans is super easy. 

Put a few drops of paint on the paper, place an ice cube on the paper and let the kids smear the colors all around.  I gave my kids a plastic fork to help move the ice around but they liked using their own hands to move the ice cube around.  This was a little more messy, but not bad.

Loved how they turned out!

Swirl and Spin Art for Kids

The kids were super sick over the holidays so we didn't have much energy.  We did, however, have enough pep in our step to try out the new art projects I bought for the kids for Christmas.
Note to new moms:  ALWAYS buy the same toy for each child to prevent melt downs.  :)
I got these Swirl and Spins from Melissa and Doug during a great black Friday sale. 
                      

I've seen some of these that require batteries, but the ones I purchased were hand cranked.  Which, even my 2 year old was able to do successfully due to the wonderful suction cups on the bottom of the device that kept it secured to the table. 

                               

Even though we were all 'under the weather' it was a fun and easy project.  We did a ton and I'm saving some of them to turn into notes to send out to the family. 

It looks messy, but really the paint stays completely contained in its red holder.  Here is what it looked like when we were all done and took out the paper.

I thought this would be a huge mess to try to get all the built up paint out of the sides but all it took was spraying them with warm water from the sink and using a paper towel to wipe them down.  EASY!

All clean! 

I would recommend this project to anyone.  (I was not paid to endorse this product.  I just like to share great finds with friends).