Tag: kidscrafts

Simple Felt Gingerbread Man Kit

I went on another trip to a Dollar Tree store to check out what might be new for some Christmas/Winter fun. I found this felt gingerbread man kit that I thought was cute and is simple enough for even the little kids to do with a little help with gluing.

I know you can’t tell from the picture, but this guy is big! He measures about 15″ tall by about 11″ wide. 🙂 Since I bought him at a Dollar Tree store, he only cost $1.25 plus tax. Pretty cheap fun, right? All you need besides the kit is some glue. Be sure to save the small picture of the finished gingerbread man to use as your guide in putting him together.

One tip before you get started…you might like to make a pattern for each felt piece before you glue them together and then you can make as many gingerbread men as you would like to make. 😉

Here’s what is inside: felt shapes for the gingerbread man, eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, snowflakes and rickrack.

The eyes and mouth punch out from the black piece of felt.

And the light green piece of felt punches out into 4 pieces of rickrack.

Please note that there is a wrong and a right side to the gingerbread man. One side has printing on it so that will, of course, be the back side.

Grab your glue and let’s put this guy together! 🙂 I started by gluing on his eyes, nose and mouth.

Add his cheeks and snowflake buttons down the front.

Glue the 4 pieces of rickrack on his arms and legs and your gingerbread man is finished! 🙂 Note: the rickrack pieces didn’t quite reach from side to side on his arms and legs but it looks cute anyway.

You can add a magnet or a piece of string to the back of your gingerbread man if you would like to be able to hang him up. Check your nearest Dollar Tree store for this simple and cute gingerbread man felt kit! Have fun! 🙂

Fun With Kenetic Sand

Have you ever checked out Kinetic Sand? I tried it for the first time the other day and it’s great fun! You can buy small containers fairly cheaply and the fun lasts for hours!

The one I picked up had 4 different colors inside. Pretty cool, right?

I taped a piece of parchment paper to our table before I started. I was able to separate the colors for the most part with a little bit of the colors mixing together.

This sand feels pretty cool and “smooshie”. It holds together much better than regular sand and it doesn’t stick to your hands. You can flatten it.

You can use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes.

You can roll it into little balls…

Or roll it into larger balls.

You can make snakes…

I used a toothpick to give the snakes eyes.

You can make flowers.

Or pretend to make peanut butter cookies by rolling little balls…

Using a fork to press a mark into the top…

And then crisscross a mark in the other direction.

If you want to hold the sand in your hand, it will crumble up nicely like regular sand does.

You can pack the kinetic sand into a cookie cutter…

And gently push it out of the cookie cutter and you’ll have a 3-D shape.

I’m guessing there are a lot of other things you can think of to do with kinetic sand so be sure you give it a try! 😃

We’re Busy Having Fun!

You might not see many posts from me this week because we are busy having fun!! 😃 Some of our grandkids are staying with us this week so we are seeing what we can get up to together! We built a dinosaur…

Played Play-doh…

We’re watching some water beads grow.

There was a lot of laughing going on while playing some games on the Switch.

Played with some dominoes…

A late leprechaun left some gold pieces hidden around the house for the kids to find.

Some of us (ok, all of us!) were tired after staying up late last night. Lol

This fella put together a mini blocks set. Boy, the pieces are tiny!! 😳

It looks pretty cool now!

And that was all just today! 😃😂 Hope you are having a great week too!

Another Pipe Cleaner Flower

How about an easy, super quick pipe cleaner flower to cheer us up on this gloomy day? This little project takes 2 pipe cleaners the color you would like your flower to be and half of a green pipe cleaner for the flower stem. I chose pink for my flower.

Cross the 2 pink pipe cleaners in an “X” and use one end of the green pipe cleaner to wrap tightly around the spot where the 2 pink pipe cleaners meet.

Starting at the end of one of the pink pieces, roll up the pipe cleaner to the center where they all meet. It kind of reminds me of the way a snail’s body might look.

Do the same rolling with the second pink piece…

And then again with the 3rd and 4th pink pieces.

Finally you can bend each flower “petal” that you just rolled up to make it look more like a 3 dimensional flower.

You can make several flowers like this and have a bouquet of flowers or you can wrap the stem part around your wrist for a fun flower bracelet. I used one to hold the 2 handles of a bag together.

It’s a quick, easy, fun and looks great when you are done project! 🙂 Have fun making flowers!

Make a Halloween Spider!

Are you looking for something fun to help decorate your house for Halloween? You might enjoy making some Halloween pom pom spiders with your kids. They are more cute than scary, but they could be scary in the right situation. 😉

Here’s what you’ll need for this project: a black pom pom (I used a 2 inch size), 2 black pipe cleaners or chenille stems, some glue and 2 wiggly eyes. You will need to cut the pipe cleaners so a pair of wire cutters or a sturdy pair of scissors is helpful.

Begin by bending 1 pipe cleaner in half.

Then cut it on the crease so you have 2 halves.

Fold each of those pieces in half again and cut them on the crease also.

Do the same with the second pipe cleaner so you have 8 pieces.

Bend each of these pieces into a letter V shape. These will be the spider’s legs. I know that spiders actually have 8 legs, but that is a lot of legs to glue onto 1 pom pom so you may want to do like I did and let your spider have just 6 legs. 😉

Now switch to working on the pom pom and glue the 2 wiggly eyes onto it.

Make sure the eyes will stay in place before moving to the next step. Apply glue all around one end of a “leg”.

Stick the leg into the side of the pom pom, leaving space for the other 2 or 3 legs to be added to that side.

I found it helpful to sit the spider’s body (the pom pom) on an upside down Dixie cup.

Hold each leg in place for a little bit so the leg doesn’t just fall back off. After putting 3 or 4 legs on one side, turn the spider so you can add the 3 or 4 legs to the opposite side.

You might want to let your spider sit and dry for a little bit before you move him around much. Once he is dry enough, that’s when the fun begins! 🙂

Where can you put your spider to make people laugh or even to give them a little Halloween scare? If you are careful and move the legs gently, you can reposition the spider’s legs to make him sit in different locations.

Want to give Mom a surprise? Hide him somewhere in the kitchen. 😉

Or maybe in the bathroom so Dad finds him?

On someone’s computer keyboard? (Yes, it’s rather dusty, isn’t it? But since the owner is sick right now, we won’t mention it.) 😉

On a lamp in the living room?

In the refrigerator??!

Or maybe you should just keep him in with the Fall decorations. 😉 Wherever you put him, just be sure the person who will find him has a good sense of humor and they won’t mind!

I hope making this little Halloween spider will help bring some Halloween fun to your house! 🙂

More Fun Finds at Dollar Tree

I made a stop at our local Dollar Tree store and, of course, I had to check out the kids items. 😉 That’s what grandmas do, right? I want to share 3 fun things with you that I saw.

#1.) Dominoes. Double Six dominoes, 28 pieces.

These will be great for helping kids learn to match numbers and colors or just for playing the game of Dominoes.

And yes, they will stand up so you can build lines that will fall down with a push on a single domino. 🙂

#2.). Sparkle by Number Unicorn Kits

You just peel and stick on little “gems” to make the picture sparkle!

I know a little girl or two that would think this is fun to do and so pretty! (And maybe some BIG girls too!) 😉

There were 2 different unicorn pictures at our local Dollar Tree store.

#3.). Barbie pets. They had a kitten and a bunny that would be fun to add to a Barbie doll play set.

I always have fun when I wander the aisles of our local Dollar Tree store! I hope you can find some fun goodies for yourself and for your favorite kids! 🥰

Anti-Stress Lavender Play Dough

We hear a lot these days about stress and how much it negatively affects us. Even kids are dealing with stress. I came across a recipe I had stashed in a drawer for Anti-Stress Lavender putty. (Sorry but it doesn’t say who posted the recipe and I don’t remember where I got it.) Kids love play dough and the lavender essential oil used in this recipe is good to use for calming little people. (And big people!)

So here is my version that I made today. You’ll need 1/2 Cup of flour, 1/4 Cup salt, 4 1/2 teaspoons of cream of tartar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of oil (almond, canola or coconut), 1/4 Cup boiling water and lavender essential oil.

In a medium size bowl, put the flour…

Salt…

Cream of Tartar…

And oil, then start mixing.

Add in about 5 drops of the lavender essential oil, then mix a little more. If you want a stronger scent, add a few more drops.

Add the boiling water and stir. To finish mixing it all together, I dumped it out on the counter top on a piece of wax paper and kind of kneaded it.

You can add a little more water or flour as needed to get the consistency you want. I needed a little more water. You can also add in glitter but that was more mess than I wanted! LOL It makes a nice soft and easy to shape fragrant playdough.

It’s ready for little people hands and playing! 😉 The idea is that the lavender will help to give the kids a calm feeling while they play. The play dough can be stored in a ziploc bag and should keep for a few months. This is my first batch so I can’t really say how long it will last.

I hope you’ll give this idea a try and that you’ll have great results with it! Think relaxing thoughts as you breathe in the lavender! 🙂

Dream Boards For Kids

This blog post might have a little different twist on what a Dream Board for Kids is. Depending on the child’s age, you can do this activity in different ways to match the child’s ability. All you need is a piece of paper or poster board, some used magazines (that are ok to cut pictures out of), scissors and glue.

The idea is to pick a theme for the child’s board. For example, it might be a board about animals they would like to own some day or animals that they like. Let your child look through a magazine for pictures that fit the theme. Cut them out (good practice for using those fine motor skills!) and arrange them on the piece of paper. When they are in just the right places, glue them down.

A title could be added to each board or left off…whichever way the child likes it. Depending on what type of magazine you are using, what type of pictures will be readily available. For instance, a cooking magazine will have lots of pictures of food. A board with all types of food they would like to eat is a good theme too.

You can leave space between the pictures or let them overlap. Here’s a Dream Board of fun activities they might like to try someday.

Making a Dream Board gives you the opportunity to ask questions about what your child likes about a particular picture. If they chose a picture of people using paddle boards, you can ask why they like that idea or what do they think would make that a fun activity. You can gain insight into what your child thinks is fun and even find some activities that you might like to try to do together.

Maybe a Dream Board could be about a picture they found of a house they like. They could add pictures of furniture or what a kitchen might look like, etc. If you have a gardening magazine, your child could cut out pictures of plants and flowers they like and then arrange them in the shape of a garden. How about pictures of birds? How many different birds can you find? The ideas are endless! If you start looking through your old magazines and see what type of pictures are there, the ideas will come to you. And Dream Boards are great for sharing with others too, like grandparents. 😉 Your child will be proud to share what he/she made and to tell all about why they used each picture.

This is a fun, simple and inexpensive activity to try! I hope you’ll enjoy doing it with your favorite kids! 🙂

Makit & Bakit Kit for Making a Suncatcher

The other day I mentioned we would be making a suncatcher with a Makit & Bakit kit that I bought at a Joann Fabrics store. Today’s the day! I have seen this type of kit before but I had never done one. So time to teach an old dog a new trick! 😉 Here’s how they are done:

This is what was included in the kit. The instructions were printed on the back of the cardboard.

The idea of making them is simple. First line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.

Place the frame, flat side down, onto the foil lined cookie sheet.

Start with one color and fill an area of the frame with that color of the little plastic pieces. First I did orange.

Then the yellow…

Next came green…

And finally the blue.

The trick is getting and keeping the colors in the places you want them. It’s good to have a toothpick and a pair of tweezers handy for moving the little pieces around. And tweezers are nice for filling in the little spaces. Here’s a closer view so you can see what they look like when they are ready for the oven.

Now you preheat the oven according to the package directions. Do NOT use a microwave!! Place the cookie sheet with your suncatcher in the heated oven and follow the package directions for how long to let it bake. Mine took about 15 minutes. A word of caution: Open your windows while your suncatcher is in the oven. It will give off a plastic smell. The package says it is not harmful, but if you are sensitive to odors, you might not like this part of the process. After the plastic pieces have melted, remove the cookie sheet and let the suncatcher cool before handling. Then it should peel off the foil easily. Because of the odor, I sat my cookie sheet outside to cool and that helped a lot to dispel the odor.

And there is your suncatcher! Add a bit of string if you like to hang it up. It was a fun project but a little tedious getting the little pieces in just the right place, so this might be good for kids that are a bit older. (I accidentally dropped my tweezers on my suncatcher which made the tiny pieces go flying all over…and then I had to clean them up!) And of course, adult supervision is needed when using the oven. Let me know if you give this a try! 🙂