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?

Home Made Ball Pit

(please disregard my son's wounded forehead.  He fell off off his scooter the day before)

Since the weather has been beautiful lately, we've been practically living outside.  So, on this one day that it rained, it seemed like my kiddos had cabin fever worse than ever. 
I decided to pull out an oldy, but goodie that my ingenious husband thought of years ago. 
I took our old small baby pool that we bought from the dollar general store and blew it up.  We have about 4 bags of ball pit balls so I emptied a couple of bags into the pool and made our own ball pit.

Super easy and for some reason the fun lasted all day.  It worked out great and made my day lots more manageable.  (I only had to keep the puppy away from trying to chew holes in it:).

Homemade Dill Dip

If you have kids you probably have noticed that they love to dip foods.  Even if it is a food that they particularly do not like...throw in some ranch or ketchup to dip it in and the plate is cleaned. 
My kids love dill dip.  In fact the entire family does.  We use it for dipping pretzels, carrots, cucumbers, raw broccoli...if it's dill dipable, we dip it.

DIY Waterproof Sandbox Cover

I previously posted how we use a plastic kiddie swimming pool for our sandbox.  But, it had no cover...so, I made one.  A waterproof one. 
It's super cheap, and super easy, and works perfectly.  Here are the steps:
You'll need:
A vinyl table cloth (size to fit-a 70 inch round works perfect for our sandbox).  This one was $3.99 at the local Walmart)
Straight pins
a sewing machine
Wide elastic
One safety pin

Take your vinyl tablecloth out of the package and lay it out on a flat surface.  Fold about one inch of the outer edge in, towards the underside, and secure it with straight pins.  Do this all the way around.

Set up your sewing machine, and sew a simple stitch all the way around the entire outer edge.  The only thing to remember is to only sew the edge of the folded tablecloth because you need to leave a hollow space along the perimeter large enough to string your wide elastic through. (this will all be clearer the more we go through the instructions-it really is EASY).

After you have sewn the entire perimeter of the tablecloth, remove all the straight pins.  Cut one small vertical slit anywhere you choose along this perimeter.  This is a very small slit just big enough to get your elastic into to string it all the way through. 
Take your large elastic and put a jumbo safety pin in one end of the elastic.  This will help you string the elastic through the entire edge of the tablecloth.  It will also help you find the end of the elastic if you ever loose it in the process inside the tablecloth edge.  I also had to buy a few packs of the wide elastic and sew 2 of them together to be long enough.  Not a big deal.

This is the slit that you should have cut into the outer edge of the tablecloth.  This slit will be the opening where you insert the wide elastic.  I always attach a gumbo safety pin to one end of the elastic.  This helps me to feel and lead the elastic through the entire edge of the tablecloth and also helps me find it if I lose my place.  You'll be doing this 'blind' since you cannot see the elastic and safety pin while feeding it through the edge of the tablecloth.  When you have fed the elastic all the way around the perimeter of the tablecloth and have come full circle to the slit that you cut; simply pull the 2 ends of the elastic and tie a knot to secure all your work.

When you are done you'll have what looks like a giant shower cap:)

Here is the top view.

 Here is the underside of the sandbox cover



Viola!  That's it.  Super easy, simple, cheap, and it takes about 30 minutes to do from start to finish.

Here is our sandbox



And...tada!  Here it is with the waterproof sandbox cover on it.

Here is the evidence that it is waterproof.  (Last year I made the same thing but in a different pattern and it held up to feet of snow piled on it and never let one drop of moisture into the sandbox.  I just like to change things up and make a new one every summer with a different print on it).

The Best Kind of Sandbox

Spring is just around the corner and I thought I would share with you what has been the best kind of sandbox for my kiddos AND did not cost alot of money. 
We baught a plastic kiddie pool for about $8 at Walmart, 3 years ago for our kids, and turned it into a sandbox.  We still use it and it has held up well to all kinds of weather. 
We filled it with about 4 bags of sand that were pretty cheap from Lowes.  It has been so much fun for my kids and we even use it in the winter on the days that it is not so cold outside. 

Turning a kiddie pool into a sandbox was cheaper than buying one of those green turtle sandboxes in the toy departent.  It was worked out perfectly and we love it. 

*On a side note it is easy to clean.  We went on vacation a couple of years ago and forgot to put the cover on it.  (tutorial on making the waterproof cover to come)  The neighborhood cats had a blast with it as a litter box.  It was super easy for my husband to dump the sand and for me to clean and disinfect it with soap and bleach.  (and yes, we put brand new sand in it:)

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!

Baby Jesus Ornament

This month I'm blessed with doing the Christmas crafts for the kids in Sunday school at church.  Christmas Crafts-YES!!!
This past week we made super simple baby Jesus tree ornaments. 
Here's what you'll need to make one:
A small paper plate
Stapler
Simple drawing of a face (resembling a baby as much as you can artistically accomplish)
Christmas Bible verse sticker, or you can write the verse on the front or back of the ornament (We used Isaiah 9:6)
Hole puncher
String/yarn

Directions:
~Punch a hole in the top of the plate with your hole puncher.
~Fold the bottom of the paper plate about 1/3 of the way up. 
~Fold both sides in and staple the folded sides down.
~Glue the baby Jesus' face near the top of the plate so that Jesus looks tucked in swaddled clothes.
~Pull your yarn/string through the hole punched into the top of the plate and tie at the top.
~Place your Bible verse sticker on the ornament or write the Bible verse on the back of the ornament

I got to make this ornament with my son and had a blast with him and all the other children.  I was delighted when my daughter also got to make one in her class during Sunday school.  My heart melted when she came running out of the class carrying her ornament saying "Wook, Baby Jesus!"