Wooden Worry Dolls

One night when Hendrix was having bedtime woes I told him we’d have to get him a set of worry dolls, (those miniature hand assembled dolls that have a knack for vanishing worries while tucked under your pillow as you doze off to dreamland). It was the first he had ever heard of such a tale. He was beyond astonished at this fact and requested he become the owner of a pack of these dolls immediately.

Later I pulled out my own pouch of childhood worry dolls and I remembered how teeny-tiny they were, each doll no larger than a plump raisin. I became worried a certain 2 year old hand might think of his 4 year old brother's worry dolls as a snack should he receive a set. So instead we decided to fashion a non-choking hazard alternative; we made our worry dolls from wooden pegs and acrylic paint.

I purchased two sizes of pegs at the craft store to suggest age variation among the dolls. Hendrix and I each painted a family of 5 (or two adults and three kids) and little Avi (the 2 year old) painted three child-sized pegs. We drew faces on the peg people with sharpie markers.

Although Hendrix occasionally buries the dolls under his pillow at night after expressing a worry or two, both my kids especially LOVE playing with them during the day. To be honest, this neighborhood of peg people is probably their new favorite toy, at least for the time being.

Any craft that can actually provides a use when it’s completed qualifies for gold stars in my opinion. I highly recommend this project. If you paint these dolls with the intent of using them as toys I would recommend adding a coat of spray varnish after the paint dries (either glossy or matte), just to keep them in better shape. Oh and just as a P.S., I am in no way claiming these dolls all 100% choke proof. In fact, probably only the larger sized pegs would pass the choke tube test. Still, the size does very much decease the opportunity to mistake the toy for, say, a tasty looking M&M.

Silly Dogs

The ‘going bonkers’ scale was shooting through the roof today at our house. You’d think these kids were snorting sugar or something. When lunch time rolled around they were way too goofy for a standard PB&J so instead we made silly dogs!

We made this delicacy by inserting dry spaghetti noodles into cold hot dogs and then boiled them until the noodles became soft. To my surprise and delight, having them prepare their own lunch calmed them down enough to actually eat it which means we will be making this meal again. The kids claimed to love the taste too; I’ll stick with the PB&J myself, thank you!

Hello Spring: Ladybug Release and Brunch

To welcome spring, we decided to have a ladybug release party and brunch with all our friends.

The brunch was pot luck style so everyone brought something yummy to share. The ladybug portion of the celebration involved the release of 2,000 ladybugs. The second I cut open the net bag they had been stowed away in, the bugs were crawling out all over me then one by one they started flying off into the air or unto the body of one of the many preschoolers who surrounded me.

Once all the bugs had evacuated the bag, I carefully sloughed off my body, any remaining bugs and the kids went ladybug hunting, searching the grasses with magnifying glass at hand.

We also had bug rubbing plates as an additional activity or for those who didn’t appreciate the possibility of being covered with the spotted insect but most of the kids didn’t mind at least getting within an arms length of bug examination.

I think this ladybug activity is seriously one of my most favorites to date! Since the food was pot luck the event cost a mere $10 for the bag of 2,000 ladybugs which I picked up at my local garden store. Worth every penny indeed!

A word of advice: if you do this acivity at home make sure all the kids are gathered around ready with their empty baby food jars and magnifying glass at hand before cutting open the bag. Those lady bugs won’t be waiting around for an audience before flying off into the wide world…(or a couple feet away in a sunny patch of grass). Also make sure your camera is charged and strapped around the neck of an assigned photographer. That way you won’t have to send one of the parents in your home on a camera hunt while the ladybugs have their best camera face on. (Of coarse I am coming up with this scenario completely off the top of my head, I have a good imagination ;)

Most pics here were taken by a couple friends of mine, Katie Murihead and Trent Covington, who were both gracious enough to take photos of the event.

Leprechaun Sightings: Cobbler Foot Print How-To

Does everyone have their leprechaun traps set for St. Patrick’s Day? We are a little behind on trap setting this year because we have been sick, sick, sick but we know those sneaky little cobblers have been lurking about because we have seen tiny green footprints everywhere and our milk keeps going green!

If you are celebrating the green holiday with the kiddies this year and you have yet to see any evidence of leprechauns on the prowl, you could always make-believe!

To start your own leprechaun sighting game, you will need:

• a plastic or metal lid from an old bottle or jar (I used lids from a baby food jar)
• sticky back craft foam or non sticky back craft foam with glue
• scissors
• a green washable marker or ink pad

From the craft foam you will cut out tiny shoe-shaped foot prints and then attach them to the top of the lid. Need I go on?…A stamping you will go. Don’t forget to use WASHABLE ink unless you want to tattoo all your furniture and appliances with the spirit of Saint Pat.

This activity has been loads of fun for my kids. Whenever they spot these mini shoeprints they begin to search for the mischief those little sneaks have left behind. They especially like when they find a chocolate gold coin or two that the leprechauns have dropped by mistake.

(I originally posted this project here)

Sketching with Dr. Seuss : Hardback Sketchbook Tutorial

As a birthday tribute to Dr. Seuss (and because we had some Dr. Seuss book covers lying around from a different project) we decided to make some Dr. Seuss Sketch books. I have created a quick tutorial for you to make these at home.

You will need:
An old hardback book (check out your local thrift store)
Paper
3 hole punch or hand held punch
utility knife and ruler or scissors
Paper cutter (or one of the cutting tools above)
Drill and a 7/32 bit
Scrap block of wood or thick stack of scrap paper
Yarn/twine or metal book rings (they come in various sizes)
Large eyed needle (optional)

STEP 1: First you will need to remove the pages from the hardback book you have selected and cut out the spine. If the original pages are sewn into the book you can snip the twine found at the center page using a sharp pair of scissors or your utility blade and remove all the pages at once. If the pages are glued into the spine, you can cut them out right along with the spine of the book using your ruler and utility knife. Set book pages aside for another project.

STEP 2: Gather the paper you have chosen for the guts of the book and cut down to about 1/4 inch shorter, (vertically and horizontally) than the book over itself. This will give you a nice border when your stack of paper is centered on the inside of the covers. (Our book covers were about 6 ½” x 9 ¼” so we cut our paper to 6 ¼” x 9”). Next you will want to punch holes in the long edge using a 3 hole paper puncher or a hand held punch.

STEP 3: Line up and center one of the papers you just punched near the edge of the book cover. With a pen mark where the book shows though the holes this will be your drill markings. Place the cover on top of a piece of scrap wood and drill through the marking you just made. Repeat this step for all holes and the back cover. If you don’t want to bother with a drill or if you want to get really fancy, you could take the covers to a copy center like Fed Ex Office and they can drill these for you. If you choose this alternative, have them drill your pre-cut paper while you’re at it.

STEP 4: Now for binding. The easy way of doing this is to use metal book rings which come in many sizes. They pull open and squeeze close which makes it easy to remove and add pages to your sketch book. (The image above is sketchbook a friend of mine made for me and it depicts this method).

If you don’t want to have to buy these rings you can always use twine or yarn to tie your book together which is what we did for ours. We did this by inserted the yarn through both ends of facing holes. Then we crossed our yarn strands and stuck it through the hole opposite of the hole it was coming through (one end at a time). We stuck the yarn back through its original hole, double knotted it and snipped off the excess. If you choose to go this route when binding your own books, just make sure the book is able to lay flat with the spine lightly touching when you are knotting the thread, otherwise you could bind too tightly causing the paper to get stuck or tear as you turn the pages.

STEP 5: Get sketching!

I hope you have fun trying this simple project at home. Also, if the original paper you have removed from your book is still in good shape you may want to frame some of your favorite illustrations for instant home decor. Otherwise you could use the scraps to make envelopes, gift tags, postcards…the list goes on and on. What ideas are you brewing up?

Very Literal Love Notes

We pulled out the origami paper, alphabet stamper and ink to create some very literal love notes for Valentine’s Day.

This was the easiest valentine project ever since Hendrix (age 4) was able to create these notes all by himself by stamping the simple message, “love” on some pretty paper.

In each envelope he also added two heart shaped crayons which we made from old broken crayons, a silicone heart mold and oven.

(For our size of mold it took about 35 minutes for the crayons to melt down entirely with the oven set at 250 degrees).

Although valentines is over the message and crayons live on. Send your sweetie a love note today!

Sweet Talk: DIY Conversation Hearts

After purchasing our customary bag of conversations hearts for this month of love, I began to wonder how much research it would take to come up with a homemade version of these little candy treasures.

I decided to ask internet to help me investigate the possibilities of this task. As usual, Internet came throughand provided me with the perfect recipe and photo tutorial for making these famous treats from scratch.

I helped Hendrix and a little girlfriend of his make these over the Valentines weekend but I think it would make a fun anytime kitchen activity.

To MAKE THESE at HOME you will:

Mix ½ cup of water and 2 tsp of light corn syrup to one packet or 2 tsp of unflavored gelatin until the gelatin is well-distributed. Microwave the mix for 30 seconds to dissolve the gelatin, stir well.

Add gelatin mixture to a mixing bowl along with 1 cup of powdered sugar. Mix ingredients using the paddle attachment (you can also use a handheld mixer). When the sugar is well blended you will add another cup of powdered sugar and mix until well-blended again. Continue this process until you have added 2 lb of powdered sugar. The dough should be stiff at this point.

Next you will knead the sticky dough on a generously-dusted powdered sugar surface. Roll the dough over itself adding powdered sugar as needed to decrease the stickiness.

When the dough is the right consistency, you can add color and flavoring. We separated our dough into 5 balls for 5 different colors and flavors. We added the color first (lightest color first) and then we added the flavoring extracts using what we had on hand; vanilla, coconut, bubblegum, banana, and cinnamon. The flavoring possibilities are endless.

Finally you will roll your dough and cut using small heat shaped cutters. You can make as thick as you like but you may want to roll out a thinner version of the store bought candy if your cutters are large.

You can place cut out candies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Leave treats uncovered on cookie sheet overnight to dry—NO baking necessary!

Once dried you can add you own special message to each heart using food writing makers which you can find in the baking aisle at most craft stores.
If you didn't notice, the ingredients and supply list for this project are the items are in color above. For further details see recipie HERE.

There you have it, your very own conversation hearts!

(top image credit: Brittany...my sister!)