Mardi Gras Fun Box

We gave the girls a box full of fun Mardi Gras stuff...masks, beads, fancy glasses, coins, etc...on Fat Tuesday (all from the Dollar Tree).  Fun times!

Have You Seen My Sister? (handmade book)

O(5) and I started making this book for E's 1st birthday.  She's almost 2 and a half, and we just finished it about a month ago!  I'm not really sure how that happened, but I'm glad to have it finished and E(2) loves it!

To make the book, we started with a blank book from barebooks.com.  Then we just decided what we wanted to say and printed the words on photo paper and glued them into the book.  We used pics from a calendar for the animal pics.

DIY Rainbow Solar Night Lights

If you've looked at Pinterest in the last few months, then you've probably seen the solar night light jars made out of outdoor solar lights.  When I saw the lights a few months ago, I decided to make a few for my girls and my niece for Christmas.  However, I wanted to put a different spin on it...I wanted it to be a rainbow light that continually changed colors.

This was our last handmade gift to make, and we didn't finish the lights until after 1am on Christmas morning.  I didn't type the "pet light" story for the girls until Christmas afternoon about 3 minutes before we gave the lights to them. The story told the girls that they must take care of the lights and put them in the sun each day since the sun provides them with energy to glow all night long.  The girls named their lights "Zoey" and "Bella," and these are the coolest night lights I've EVER seen (and, of course, I'm not biased at all)!

Here's what we did...I bought 3 jars (from Hobby Lobby for about 4 dollars each).  I spray painted the inside of the jars with  about 4 coats of frost spray paint (about 8 dollars a can from Hobby Lobby).  I left the top clear so that the solar panel would receive enough sunlight.  Elliott dismantled the rainbow solar lights (these are impossible to find, but luckily my sister had a set of 3 in her closet).  The dismantling was more difficult than we anticipated since the wires were threaded through a metal tube that was about a foot long.  He had to remove the wires, cut, and splice them together again.  Then he glued the light on top of the solar panel.  He put the whole thing in the bottom of the jar, but we decided not to glue it down so that we could get to the on/off switch if we needed to.

Here are more pics Bella and Zoey.

















Here's a video so you can see how the colors change.

Matching Textures While Blindfolded

I recently brought out the tiny pillow matching activity that I made for O(5) a couple of years ago out for E(2).

E quickly matched the pillows, but wasn't interested in covering her eyes to do the activity.




However, O(5) was really excited to see this activity back on the shelf!  She immediately wrapped the playsilk around her head and matched the pillows.  It was too easy for her, but she still enjoyed it.



Her favorite thing was hiding the pillows when I had my eyes covered and was trying to match them!  Silly girl!

Gel Drawing Board

I made this gel drawing board for E(2) before our last vacation.  I thought it would be the perfect activity for our plane trip.  Luckily, I realized before we left on our trip that this was a terrible idea since our plane was small and unpressurized, and therefore the gel bag would explode!  Phew....glad we didn't have to learn that the hard way :)

Anyway, the gel drawing board is lots of fun and super simple to make.  It's actually the only thing that I've ever made that Elliott has really, really liked!  His brother also had fun drawing with it.  The girls like it, too, but not nearly as much as the adults in our family!

To make the gel drawing board, I filled a gallon sized ziploc bag with hair gel, food coloring, and glitter.  I cut a foam core board the same size as the ziploc bag.  I taped the bag to the foam core board using zebra print duct tape.





I put a piece of clear contact on the back, so that it would work as a dry erase board.





This is a great activity for the car, and I'm planning to make some smaller ones in different colors for the girls to use in the car.  Fun stuff!

Fabric Scrap Paper Doll Kit

I was pretty excited to find  this Fabric Scrap Paper Doll Kit  (I added another link for the printable dolls at the bottom of this post) idea via Pinterest a couple of months before Christmas.  I put together a set for my girls and my niece.  The girls and I have had lots of fun with it so far.

I put the kit in these Christmas suitcases that I bought at Hobby Lobby after Christmas last year.  As soon as I can find a replacement suitcase, I'll switch the kit out, so that I can use this suitcase for something Christmasy next year.





Within the suitcase are several bags of scraps...fabric scraps, ribbon scraps, and yarn scraps.





 I printed the dolls on cardstock and cut them to fit in the suitcase.  I also included 2 pairs of scissors, 4 glue sticks, and a bag of buttons (for my button loving girls!).





This morning E(2) asked for "the suitcase work," and she got right to work after we opened the suitcase and bags.  She loves to cut the fabric, yarn, and paper.  She likes to place the fabric on the dolls and occasionally glues it down.  Usually, she just rearranges over and over and over again and never actually finishes a doll :)













This is the perfect kit to take when you have time to kill and space to spread out and make an easy to clean-up mess.  The girls and I had to go with Elliott to work on Saturday, so I grabbed this kit on the way out the door.   Thank goodness I did!  We were at his office for 2 and a half hours, and we worked on our dolls almost the entire time...perfectly content in our creativity!





I have to admit that I've enjoyed this kit as much as the girls have.  It's so much fun to play and create with my girls.






Evidently, she needs lips!  O(5) added thick pink yarn for her lips :)






Here is my finished doll.






E just couldn't decide what she wanted her boy to wear.






This is one of the easiest "handmade" gifts that I've ever put together!  And it's fun for all ages!  Here's another link to more printable dolls...click here.