Finger Paint

7 Surprising Facts About Crochet You Might Not Know

Recycle your old color crayons into new one!

What You Need:

• Crayons bits
• Muffin Pan
• Foil
• Non-stick Cooking Spray

Here's How:

1. Turn oven on to 300 degrees.
2. Line muffin pan cups with foil.
3. Spray the foil very lightly with non-stick cooking spray (this is not 100% necessary, but it does make the crayons a bit easier to remove).
4. Break old crayons into tiny pieces, an inch or less long.
5. Fill the muffin pan cups with the crayon pieces. Fill each cup with like colors or experiment with mixing colors.
6. Put the muffin tin in a 300 degree oven, and leave in there until all the crayon pieces are melted.
7. Remove from oven and let cool.
8. Once cooled you can pop out your crayons and try them!

Homemade Bath Crayons

Ingredients:

• 1 bar Ivory soap
• Warm water
• Food coloring

Instructions:

1. Grate the bar of soap. You’ll need about 1 cup of soap shavings. I use Ivory because it’s very mild.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a short cut to the grating, unless you use a food processor. You can’t use detergent or powdered soap. They’re too harsh.
2. Add food coloring and warm water, a few tablespoons at a time, to the soap shavings and mix until it forms a thick dough. You can add more water or soap shavings to get the right consistency.
3. Once the dough is firm, you can shape it into crayons by hand or press it into candy molds. I made ours into little cigars so that they’d be easy for little hands to handle.
4. At this point, you can leave the crayons out to dry and harden. 

Notes:

• You probably want to test the crayons on your bathtub and other surfaces before you unleash the children with them. Make sure they rinse off.
• I found some neon food coloring at my grocery store that is splendid. I love it.
• If you want to make your crayons different colors (as opposed to all one color as in the instructions above), you can separate the soap shavings into smaller chunks, and mix each with water and food coloring to get the right consistency.
• If you’re interested, you can get real crayon-shaped molds at the craft store.

Recipe Card Holder 

What you'll need:

• Wooden clothespin
• Magnet (we used the strip variety)
• Unfinished small wooden hearts
• Paint and paint pens
• Paint brush
• Glue
• Scotch tape

How to make your Recipe Card Holder Card:

1. Paint the hearts (you need four total) and set aside to dry. *Tip: to make painting these small items easier, use scotch tape to tape the hearts down to a paper plate or piece of newspaper.
2. When the hearts dry, use the paint pen to write “#1”, “M”, “O”, and “M” on the hearts. Let dry.
3. Glue the magnet to one side of the clothespin.
4. On the other side of the clothespin, glue on the hearts. Turn the clothespin upside down so that it can stand up, then glue the hearts on in order.
5. Give to Mom so she can use on the fridge or free standing to hold recipe cards

Tutu

Here is my tutorial on how to make a tutu for your little girl.

Supplies:

1. Two rolls of 6" tulle in any color or color combination you'd like.  You could certainly use more if you'd like.  Two rolls takes care of any size up.  You could also have it cut from the bolt if you can't find the rolls....... it's cheaper.  It's slippery and a pain sometimes. Cut it in 6" widths and then in half lengthwise...... you have less options with length but still works great. 
2. Elastic........ enough to go around tummy.
3. Scissors or rotary blade/cutting mat.

• The first thing you need to do is measure your little girl.  You need to measure her tummy.  I measured Keira's tummy and then added 2" and cut my elastic to this measurement. After it it cut, you want to sew in with a zig zag stitch on your machine to make it a circle.  (It can  be done by hand too, that is what I did). 
• Next, you need to decide how long you wish your tutu to be.  Do you want it short and poofy or long and puffy.  Take your measuring tape and measure from her waist to where you want the tutu to end.  Double this measurement.  I like to lay the two rolls together and cut them at the same time.  I used my rotary cutter and mat (you can use scissors).
• Now the fun. Take one piece of the cut tulle and slip it under the elastic and fold in half and loop around the elastic. Pull it through into a knot. That's all there is to it from here on out.  Continue adding the tulle pieces on the elastic until it fills up.  

Blue Jean Purse

Happy Earth Day!!!

Here is my Earth Day project. I made a  recycled blue jean purse. I used a pair of jeans that my nephew Dawson outgrew. I used the legs to make the straps. And had ribbon and rhinestones on hand and added those to the purse. The buttons were a good way to cover the logo on the pocket. The purse is about 14 inches wide and 8 inches tall.

Face Cloth Chick

 Face Cloth Chick

Materials:
- face cloth
- narrow ribbon(s)
- 2 googly eyes
- small piece of yellow felt
- needle and thread to match the face cloth and/or hot glue gun

1) Take a face cloth and lay it out flat.

2 Fold the face cloth in half diagonally.

3) Tightly roll the face cloth triangle into a tube, starting with the upper right-hand corner so that you end up with the long fold at the end of the roll.

4) Stitch or glue the long folded edge of the face cloth down to the roll so that it will stay roll-shaped even when you're not holding it.

5) Fold the tube in half.

6) Fold each of the halves in half again so that your face cloth tube kind of looks like the letter "M".

7) Tie a ribbon (or ribbons) tightly around the face cloth about 2/3 of the way up, away from the "donut hole" and close to the top of the "M".

8) Tightly stitch/glue together the creases that the folds have created on the front, back, and top of the "M". At this point, you should be able to see the basic shape of the chick.

9) Tie the ribbon(s) into a bow; secure the bow with a couple of stitches or a bead of glue.

10) Cut a small diamond shape out of felt, fold it in half and stitch/glue it onto the same side as the bow to create a beak. Stitch/glue on a pair of googly eyes.

11) Cut out a jagged "M" shape of felt to serve as the chick's feet.

12) Sew/glue the feet to the bottom of the chick. They should provide enough of a base that the chick will stay standing up if you set it that way.

You're done!

Boo Boo Bunny

                                                                    Boo Boo Bunny

Materials:
- face cloth
- narrow ribbon(s)
- 2 googly eyes
- 2 pompoms (one large for the tail, one smaller for the nose)
- needle and thread to match the face cloth and/or hot glue gun

1) Take a face cloth and lay it out flat.

2) Fold the face cloth in half diagonally.

3) Tightly roll the face cloth triangle into a tube, starting with the upper right-hand corner so that you end up with the long fold at the end of the roll.

4) Still holding the tube tightly, fold the tube in half.

5) Fold the tube in half again, this time so that the two ends (what will become the "ears") end up over the previously-folded side (what will become the "donut hole" area).

6) Tie a ribbon (or ribbons) tightly around the face cloth about 2/3 of the way down, away from the "donut hole."

7) At this point, if you angle the two ends upward, you can see the basic bunny shape.

8) Turn the bunny so that the ears are facing away from you. Using a thread colour that matches your face cloth, make small stitches where there is any loose fabric. There will almost always be loose fabric near the folds.

If you're not into sewing, you can tack the loose fabric down with hot glue. If you use hot glue you won't be able to take the bunny apart and use the face cloth later, though!

9) Turn the bunny so that the "face" is pointed towards you, and stitch/glue the seam down the middle closed.

10) Tie the ribbon(s) into a bow; secure the bow with a couple of stitches or a bead of glue. On the bunny's face, sew/glue on googly eyes and a small pompom for a nose.

11) Sew/glue on a larger puffy pompom for the tail. You're all done!

If you choose to be creative you can add flowers, mini plastic Easter eggs, or felt cut-outs to your bunny as decoration. But you can also keep the bunny simple.

Boo Boo Bunny Poem

Place this poem and some candy inside a plastic egg and put it in the back of the bunny where the ice will go. It makes a cute addition to any Easter basket!
Boo Boo Bunny goes hippity-hoppity
Boo Boo's ears are flippitty-floppity.
His egg holds a special sweet treat,
He's bringing just for you to eat.
Save the egg, don't throw it away,
You may need it another day.
When you get hurt and have a boo-boo,
And you feel sad and go "boo-hoo",
Open the egg and put in some ice,
Boo-Boo's cold egg will help it feel nice.

Juice Pouch Purses

I had lots of Capri juice pouches around and thought that I wanted to make something with them. After looking around I found the purse idea. I thought of giving them to my daughter and her cousins for Easter originally, but started think of birthday party ideas and that's when I thought these would make perfect party favor bags. They look nice without the boa, but I thought it was the perfect finishing touch. I am very pleased on how they turned out. I did have to pull out my old sewing machine and Keira had to drink a lot of juice pouches (she didn't seem to mind). I originally hot glued the trim on the bags, but  they come off to easily and then I had to tack them down as well. They were a big hit. I already had a request to make more for a little girls birthday gift. They are really durable and fold away easily.

Jean Skirt Purses

Welcome,
I made these purses for my daughter and her cousins. I used the Next Style fashion decorator to attach with rhinestones and studs. I like the fact that you can create any design that you would like or the designs they provide. I plan on dressing up some of my daughters jeans and shirts. It was very easy to use. Deciding what design to put on the purses took the longest. This would be great a project for a little girl slumber party or Girl Scouts. Coming soon I plan on showing you some recycled blue jean purses and totes.