We saw this giant eye spy at our local kids museum. Isn't it great? What a great idea for a pre school class or playroom! This would be easy to do with a bunch of those photo laser stickers and a large thrifted tray. Spray paint the tray white, add stickers and hang. Awesome!
The girls are Merida crazy despite the fact we haven't seen Brave. We are almost to the end of the junior novelization of the story and of course you can not miss all the advertisements and product hawking that goes into any movie these days. Lu has been asking me to make her a bow and arrow set for a while so...here it is! To my surprise it actually works. This was the lazy mommies attempt at making a bow and arrow set. I am sure I will be amazed when I bother to google homemade bow and arrow sets. This took about 10 minutes from start to finish. The paper towel tube is by far her favorite part of the set. She is walking around with it on now!
Tomorrow is our last Daisy meeting of the school year. Our last activity will be autographing hats. I just finished ironing the daisies on! These should turn out cute and remind the girls of Daisies over the summer. The two baseball hats are leader hats.
Hope you had a fun and relaxing Father's Day! Mama King
The Strolling of the Heifers in Brattleboro, Vermont was everything a small town parade should be. There were a cast of characters, local clubs, homemade floats, marching bands and...cows! Approximately 100 of them. Not to mention donkeys, miniature horses and alpacas. The steady rain didn't put a damper on any ones spirits as the Fairy Cow-Mother and her Dairy Princesses started off the parade with tutus, umbrellas and rain boots. My girls were thrilled by the baby cows, stilt walkers, music and of course the treats being handed out along the parade route. Being Vermont, Dum-Dum lollipops and Tootsie Rolls were being handed out alongside packets of baby carrots and organic fruit snacks.
The parade was followed by a day of music, food and activities. If the weather had cooperated it would have been the perfect day...maybe next year!
The Strolling of the Heifers was a perfect way to start off my summer fair and festival obsession. If you live in New England and you have a fair or festival you recommend leave me a comment. We are always up for a road trip!
Recently we went to a Korean Cultural Celebration at our local college. They had several craft stations set up...calligraphy, book marks, and this, paper hat making. This was the girls favorite activity. They had the hats folded and ready for the kids to decorate with dot paints and tissue flowers.
I dissected the hat to show you how simple it is to make one. Take one large piece of paper.
Fold top edge down about an inch.
Fold paper in half.
Fold bottom edge about 1/4 - 1/2 inch.
Tape along edge.
Tape strings for ties by the corners with the wide fold. The wide fold is the front of the hat.
Let children decorate with paints, markers and tissue flowers.
We are totally felt crazy here at the 4 Crazy Kings.
We have made felted soap, ornaments, beads, art pieces, fairy crowns, flower barrettes, and change purses. Quickly running out of things to felt we heard you could wet felt a rock. A rock? You might be asking yourself why? Well, with summer almost here we have been eating outside almost every night. We found a small felted rock makes the perfect napkin weight. A larger rock makes an excellent doorstop. We even made a few "hamster" rocks for the kids friends. They have actually been a big hit. Who knows, maybe we could single handily bring back the pet rock!
They are pretty fun to make and Michael's craft store recently started selling wool roving. Although you will get a better selection of colors on line or if you are lucky enough to live near a store like New England Felting in Massachusetts. Wool and sheep shows are also a great source.
The small rocks are easy for little kids to felt. There are plenty of YouTube videos on how to wet felt. With kids I would help them layout the felt and wrap around the rock. Several layers are necessary to get good coverage. Place rock wrapped in felt into a knee high pantie hose. Tie off pantie hose and then have them start the felting process.
You can see the smaller rock needs to be felted better. Depending on the age and attention span of your child you may end up with some partially felted rocks. No worries. You can always have them go back and continue felting another time. Just add soap, warm water and continue rubbing.
Congratulations to Mb! You won the My Memories Digital Scrapbooking software. I will send you an email with the details for down loading the software. Thank you for entering.
Hello Readers! I have a great giveaway for you - Digital Scrapbooking Software from My Memories. The software is valued at $40.00. The winner will receive a code which can be used on the My Memories website upon checkout.
Now, I should begin by telling you I am not a scrapbooker. I know...it is shocking! I am probably the craftiest person you will meet, but I do not scrapbook. I have tried the traditional method. I just find it too time consuming and a bit overwhelming. I could spend all night on one layout. In the end I just have a bunch of supplies, a lot of half finished albums, and boxes of disorganized photos. I really wish I could commit to scrapbooking. I am always in awe of the beautiful albums and ideas I see on other blogs.
I didn't know anything about digital scrapbooking before I started using the My Memories digital scrapbooking software. I wasn't sure exactly how to use it, let alone install the software. I didn't have to worry at all. It was really intuitive. The download was simple and starting my first album was as simple as choosing an album design I liked.
Being the minimalist that I am, I chose a simple layout to start with. I wanted to figure out how to upload, drag and drop and size the images. For me this was the easiest way to learn. You can watch youtube videos on how to use the software (see below).
I moved on to this adorable baby layout. Awww! Look at Lu. So sweet! You see now how behind I am in organizing my photos. 6 Years!
If you are like me and are seriously behind on your family photo albums, you have to try digital scrapbooking. It is a great option. Fast, easy and fun! Plus, once you get started you will see how many ways you can customize your layouts.
I included this layout to show you how simple the software is to use. Areas are designated for journaling. Everything is pretty self explanitory. You can move the frames around and adjust the sizes on the premade templates, or you can build your own pages from scratch. There really are so many cool features to this software. Next up I am going to try out the feature that allows you to create a photo dvd with music.
Are you interested in winning a copy of the My Memories Digital Software for yourself?
To enter: Please leave me a comment with your name and an email address by March 7th. I recommend using the following format:
emailname(at)carrier(dot)com
You have two more opportunities for additional entries:
Additional entry #1: Goto the My Memories website and come back and tell me which album layout you like best.
Additional entry #2: Follow my blog and let me know in a seperate comment.
If you can't wait and want to purchase a copy of the software make sure you use coupon code, STMMMS6975. By using this code at MyMemories.com, you can get $10 off My Memories Suite (you get it for $29.95 instead of $39.95) AND you also get a $10 gift certificate to use in their online store!
Sorry, it is a bit late to be posting a Lunar New Year Craft.
Fortunately, dragon crafts are fun year round.
I volunteered in Em's class this week. I read a book and provided this craft.
I started with 4 packages of bulletin board border paper in red, silver and gold. 2 packs were wide and 2 were thin. I was able to make 23 crowns with lots of paper left over.
Fold the thin border paper in half. Cut. This will be your dragon's body.
The top of the paper is already wavy. Mimic the wave on the body along the bottom. Notice the tail narrows. It was very quick to do. Don't worry about making them identical or perfect.
I stapled the body onto the premeasured (hold up to your child's head and wrap around their head allowing for overlap to accommodate kids with larger heads) wide border paper. Line up the end of the tail to the end of the wide paper and staple.
I used white coffee filters to give the dragon some flair. You can cut them to make them fancier or just fold them in half and glue them on. The head is made from the wider border paper scraps. Fold in half the long way. Cut out 8 shaped head adding as much or as little detail as you want. I glued all the heads onto the crowns since Em's preschool class was going to be making them. Older kids could do this step.
I also added curling ribbon for the whiskers.
Cut out and accordion fold strips for legs. Make sure you cut out extras. Several kids in Em's class glued on 8-10 legs on their dragons.
Make sure you have lots of gems, google eyes, pom poms, feathers, stickers, sequins and paper scraps for the kids to glue on.
We get very excited anytime a giant cardboard box comes our way! We've made houses and puppet theaters in the past. This time we needed (mom needed) to make something that gave the girls their (much needed) space. The two window cafe solution worked beautifully. They ended up playing harmoniously for hours. Got to love that!!
I am still trying to figure it all out. I am behind the times and technically thick. My nearest and dearest are honestly amazed I even figured out how to create a blog. (There is a reason my blog layout is so simple!)
I am trying to decide if I need to go back and place pin it buttons on old posts? If you use Pinterest can you please leave a comment and let me know if you prefer the pin it button on each post? Any advice is welcome. Thanks so much, Mama King
This Christmas, Lulu's Grandma bought her an American Girl Doll. Needless to say, she has been obsessed with her doll Kanani. Just when life couldn't get any better for this 6 year old her Auntie in Hawaii sends her a "real Hawaiian" outfit. Those are her words. The icing on the cake...the outfit came with a doll hanger. This prompted the question, "Where am I going to hang her new dress?!" Followed by, "I need an American Girl Doll Closet."
After I finished laughing in my head knowing there was no chance we would be buying a $$ AGD closet. I told her we could make one. So...I had to think quick. This is what I came up with on the fly. I used an old box but am thinking that we would eventually upgrade to a nice new white box and a dowel.
I used the inside heavy craft paper found at the end of some wrapping paper rolls. Trim the paper roll. Make sure the rod is longer than the width of the box. Wind the paper roll tightly to make it smaller in diameter and stronger.Tape in place (use packing tape) to make sure it doesn't unroll.
Next measure and cut openings on the sides of your box for the rod. I just made an * (like an X shape but with a few more cuts) with a kitchen knife and bent the tabs in. Thread your rod through the openings. Use rubber bands on either side to secure into place. Lu likes to use these side bits to hang her doll's beach bag and bathing suit from.
Here is the outfit that started the whole thing. Adorable! By the way, Lu is a stickler for rules and once she found out that Friday is Aloha Friday in Hawaii...well, Kuhnani is dressed every Friday in her Aloha wear.
The top is the hanger that came with the dress. Below is one that I fashioned from a metal hanger. You just need a heavy duty set of pliers and a metal snipper thing (can you tell I know my way around a tool box!)
My American Girl loves her new closet and even spent a good part of an afternoon decorating it with stickers and gluing pictures of animals and flowers on the outside.
Of course you can decoupage or paint your box. So many possibilities!
All and all, another crafting emergency averted! Have fun crafting with your kids, Mama King
For Lulu's Girl Scout Daisy Investiture Ceremony I made a flower box with the GS Promise on the side. Each girl decorated a craft foam flower to "plant" in our troop garden. They "planted" the flower before they recieved their vests.
The stems were made from a bamboo skewer wrapped with green pipe cleaners. I added a foam leafe by unching the leaf onto the skewer then wrapping securely in place with the pipe cleaner.
The flowers were precut flower shapes bought from Michael's. I sandwiched the two together on the end of the skewer using hot glue to secure them in place.
We took photos of the girls with their vests on. I will add their pictures to the other side of the flowers using my circle punch.
This would be a fun activity for a classroom garden theme as well.
