Hello! How have you been enjoying the end of winter? We are getting closer to Spring and the weather in the Midwest has been warmer this week, which has been WONDERFUL! It may not stick, but I’ll enjoy it while it’s here. Now onward to our next crafting adventure! Gold coin garlands woo hoo!

Here’s what you will need:

Paper punch or scissors
Gold, glitter or yellow paper
String
Paperclips or a heavy book
Glue- We used Mod Podge and Elmers

We began by punching out circles with our 1.5 inch punch. We used a sheet of gold glitter scrapbooking paper. You can stack yellow construction paper and cut out a circle. Or glue gold glitter onto white cardstock etc. I am a big believer of “use what you have”.

Then proceed by grabbing your gold coins by the handfuls with your kiddos and throwing them into the air while exclaiming “we’re rich!” Laughs and giggles are very important here! Especially because now it has to all be picked up to continue lol. Wasn’t that fun?
So this part is a take it or leave it part. I did not want to punch holes into my coins nor did I want to sew them together because I did not want to see a seam in my shiny gold beauty so I pulled out some crochet thread, lined up my coins with about 3 inches in between each one and glued 2 coins together onto the thread. To prevent curling I grabbed paperclips to help keep them together. My daughter ran around the house waving them around this way and they held well! You can also lay a heavy book on them until they dry.

Remove paperclips. We let ours dry overnight as we made these before dinner.

Hang and enjoy! They compliment our shamrock garlands nicely don’t you think?

Hello there world! How sad it is to take down Valentine’s Day crafts. Hearts are just so inspirational and lovely to see around the house. I LOVE our cereal box sun catchers so much that we will be doing a similar project for every holiday to come! For now, I will start with some easy peasy garlands to get things started. Garlands transform a room they are simple and give you a little pip of color and cheer. Just like our Valentine’s day instructions in the Valentine post but more green lol!.

1. Foam or paper punched shamrocks or cut out your own- We did both, I bought a pack and also traced and cut some shamrocks out of scrapbooking paper using a shamrock cookie cutter as my stencil.

2. Pencil for marking holes. My 6 year old likes punching the holes out for stringing so I mark the holes it helps her know where to place the hole punch.

3. Hole punch

4. Twine or any stringing thread you prefer.

Line them up on a table in the order you prefer, we used different shades of color and my daughter made a pattern (woo hoo math skills!), once the holes are all punched you are ready to thread!

We had punched out gold coins for another craft using a 1.5 inch punch However, my daughter wanted to glue a gold coin to every other shamrock, so we did and it looked great!

I recommend putting a heavy book over the gold coin glued on to shamrock pieces if you decide to do the same, as our coins began to curl up immediately after applying glue to them.

Once the glued on coins were flattened and dry she threaded the shamrocks with twine using a plastic yarn needle. You can tape the end of your twine to prevent fraying and frustration when little ones are doing the work.

Hang them up and enjoy!

When you suffer from a life changing physical event such as I have, it is important to have what I call “post its for life” little reminders of motivation to help you stay focused on the positive things in your life. This small dish, was a reminder to myself that despite my physical limitations, I can still create. I received it over the summer for my birthday, my daughter took it over as her own and the other day I saw it and thought “my how lovely this dish is, especially with all of her little treasures organized just so!” It was so inspiring.

I have been disabled for 3 years now and have improved a bit this past year which brought on hope for the future. I remembered a lovely art school and applied for a scholarship to take a class there last year and I GOT IT! The class was unfortunately cancelled twice due to low enrollment which was quite discouraging. I applied again for this term and today was my first day of class! I will be creating for 5 weeks in a medium that I am not at all familiar with and I am so looking forward to it! Where will this road take me? I do not have an answer, but I took that first step and remained hopeful even with the bumps in the road.

“Do more of what makes you happy” what wonderful words to live by.

I had completely forgotten that the long weekend meant that my daughter’s  card exchange would be on Thursday! Wednesday morning  I was a bit panicked, rounded up some supplies and put them out on the coffee table. My daughter came home from school and put 15 wonderful cards together. The lovely, most moving part of it all, was how she carefully thought about who each card was going to while she was making them and made each card to capture the personality of it’s recipient. I would have made the same card 15 times, so once again I learned from my child to slow down and really think about my work. Every card made was truly a personal piece of thoughtfulness.

I was so proud of her hard work!

La la la la la la la. Ah Frozen. We had the most spectacular snowfall here in the Midwest, followed by some moisture, which makes the perfect combination of weather for snowman building. The moisture makes the snow pack nicely. Because everything was buried,

it was a challenge to find sticks and rocks so we used some rocks from our terrarium making for the eyes and a few sticks were found for twig hair and arms. We had a neglected carrot in the refrigerator for the nose. But what about the mouth? Mom to the rescue! I wrapped some wire with colorful yarn. Bent the ends so they could be placed right into the snowman’s face and voila! It was the perfect smile!

Happy winter! Hope you enjoyed our cheerful, colorful smile.

This is a wonderful crafting gift my 6 year old enjoyed. She was so engaged in the project and completed the whole image in one sitting. It isn’t something I would normally gravitate to design wise, so I am happy she received it as a gift.

This kit came with 4 boards that look like this:

Each square has a number printed on it. The numbers have corresponding colors that must be identified and then placed. They are foam stickers and look like this:

There is so much learning happening in this craft! Fine motor skills, number identification, color identification, patience. I absolutely love it.

Here is my daughter’s finished piece:

Also included in the box were ways to display the finished mosaic which is so mindful of the company. There is a stand or of you prefer a plastic stick-on eyelet for hanging:

The fact that she really loved it makes it worth getting again AND purchasing as a gift for others. I hope you enjoyed the review!

I found these lovely Thank You cards at Target. Aren’t they adorable? Normally we would craft our own, but we had a large number of guests at our birthday party so I went ahead and bought them.

We put a few stickers in each envelope and sent them on their way.

I love being able to show others gratitude with my child. It felt good to watch my daughter thoughtfully pick stickers for each guest, being mindful of favorite colors and the likes of each individual. It was fun to put these together with her.

One morning I was inspired while going through my “do not throw out” recycling bag of stuff. I had multiple cereal boxes and this little idea popped into my head. They turned out beautifully and I am so happy to share the step by step with you today!

Supply List

1.Cereal boxes, cracker boxes, any lightweight bendable cardboard- We specifically used cereal boxes.

2. Scissors

3. Glue- We used Mod Podge.

4. Paint- We used kids washable tempera paint.

5. Hole punch, awl, anything that can poke a hole through the cardboard for hanging- We used an awl.

6. Tissue paper. I hoard these after gift opening lol.

7. Ribbon, string, or yarn for hanging- We used both ribbon and yarn.

Here we go! Weeee!

1. I began by opening up the cereal box so that it is flat and then cut the box to the size that I wanted.

I took a marker to draw a heart onto the box and poked my scissors through the middle to cut it out. I was out of xacto blades so you can use an xacto as well.

Do this with a second box for the back. Facing the printed sides together, trace the heart you just cut out onto the second box so that they line up, cut that baby out as well!

2. Begin painting the cardboard sides of the cereal boxes. We did 2 coats of kids washable tempera paint. Here is my little painter at work.

3. This is what it looks like all painted and dry. It looks so pretty as is! But wait…there’s more!

4. Don’t forget about the twin for the back! While one was drying, we painted the other.

5. Mod Podge those honeys! To prevent fading from the sun we gave the painted card board a few layers 2-3.

6. Pick out some tissue paper and cut to size. Can you see where this is going now?!

7. Glue the tissue paper to one heart and slather on more glue to the heart twin. Sandwich together and lay under a heavy book to prevent curling.

8. Yarn and ribbon for these cuties!

9. Poke some holes for hanging.

Voila! All done. Mother daughter crafting from our home to yours!

We were at Michaels the other day and my daughter spotted a small set of Valentine’s Day color and shrink sheets. Now when I was a girl I always wanted Shrinky Dinks. Oh how I remember those Saturday morning commercials calling my name! So, when my daughter asked if we could buy them, I joyfully and over excitedly said ABSOLUTELY! The 7 year old in me was over the moon. I may or may not have been jumping up and down as I answered. Here is our step by step with pics!

Here is the little kit from Michaels! *The ball chain it came with is not included in the photo.

Ready with my tools!….After you color the image you have to cut it out and punch a hole in it for stringing.

Isn’t it so wonderfully magical to put these in the oven and watch them transform? It was so fun staring through the oven window with my daughter.

The kit came with some ball chains.  Instead, I got some lovely bamboo chord and beeswax to run it through to make a lovely necklace.

Voila! Isn’t it lovely?

Hello! What a wonderful day to create!

In my very first blog post I talked about having the kids make mini fairy garden terrariums as a craft for my daughter’s 6th birthday party. Photos of 2 of those beauties are there. It is surprisingly easy and the children had so much fun.

We made two yesterday as gifts for my daughters teachers. Here is a step-by- step for you to make your own magical goodness!

Supply List:

1. Glass container of your choice. We used mini candle holders. I found Libby glass at Dollar Tree for $1 and Anchor Hocking for 99 cents at Michaels. Both made in the USA, Hooray!

2. Activated charcoal. You can get this at your local pet supply store in the aquarium section. We got ours at PetCo. The charcoal will keep the air in your terrarium clean and prevent microorganisms from growing.

3. River rocks, gardening decor rocks. You can find these in 5lb. bags at Home Depot or Lowes for around $5. I got one there and some smaller bags at Dollar Tree for $1

4. Plants of choice. We used live moss. I purchased ours from Jayson home and garden in Chicago.

5. Magical stones and trinkets for decor.

Let’s begin!

1. Wash your glass container with hot soapy water and dry.

2. Scoop activated charcoal into your bowl.

3. Add a layer of rocks to ensure proper drainage and help hold water.

4. Place your plant on top of rocks. As we are using moss we do not need a layer of soil.

5. Add your magical items and voila! All done!

I hope you enjoyed this little how to. I certainly enjoyed sharing it with you!