Category: Kid Activities

 

Today as a beautiful day and we went outside for a couple of experiments. The first one was bouncing balls. I found this recipe for them the other day on the internet.

These do not make the typical store bought balls that you get out of the little vending machines at the grocery store, but it was fun to make them ourselves. The balls will dry out in a couple of days, so this is a project that if fun to do again and again.

What you will need:

2 Tablespoons warm water

1/2 teaspoon Borax (I found it in the laundry aisle at the store)

1 Tablespoon school glue (the recipe says that using white glue will give you an opaque ball and using clear glue will give you a translucent ball. That’s not accurate. We made them both ways and they were all opaque. Once you add cornstarch, it’s opaque so I’m not sure where they got their info)

Food coloring (optional)

2 paper cups

1 craft stick for stirring

 

 

Directions for making the ball:

Place 1/2 teaspoon of Borax and 2 Tablespoons of water into one of the paper cups. Stir to dissolve the Borax. Set aside.

Place 1 Tablespoon of glue into the second cup. Add a few drops of food coloring and stir.

Place 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch into the cup with the glue and food coloring.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of the Borax solution to the cup of glue and cornstarch. Wait 15 seconds before stirring so the ingredients have time to interact.

Stir until the mixture begins to stick together. Once the mixture is a globby mess, but stays in one piece, remove it from the cup and put it in your hands.

Start rolling and kneading the mixture. It will be quite sticky at first, but after you keep rolling it and kneading it, it will start to smooth out and become less sticky.

After a couple of minutes of rolling, it will form a smooth ball.

The ball is then ready to bounce. We found it bounces a bit higher on carpet than a hard surface.

Store the ball in a Ziploc bag to help prevent it from drying out too quickly. I’m not sure how long they will last, but they were fun for the afternoon.

 

Since we already had out cornstarch, water and food coloring, we used equal parts of cornstarch and water to make sidewalk paint. After adding a couple drops of food coloring and giving it a stir, it was ready to go. The mixture goes on wet and dries looking like chalk. After a bit, our sidewalk looked like some pop art.

 

I found this fun idea to make water balls for our many trips to the pool. Head over to Make and Takes to find out how to make these cute balls!

We took the girls to Disney World and Seaworld earlier this month and it was their first trip to each. We had a blast!

I always have a fear of getting separated from one of the kids when we are in big crowds. Our kids know our home phone number. That wouldn’t work so well for them if we were away from home. They may also have difficulty trying to come up with our cell phone numbers if they are scared.

So I needed a way to attach our cell phone numbers  to them. I’ve seen things like wrist bands, temporary tattoos, etc to put on your kids so they always have your phone number. Those sound nice, but they can be costly and that also requires prior planning, which for people like me who wait until the last minute, that doesn’t always work.

The night before we left, I decided to drag out my Shrinky Dinks and make them an ID tag. I cut a circular tag shape, wrote our numbers on them and punched a hole. After shrinking the plastic, I strung each one on a ribbon to tie around for a necklace.

They worked perfectly. They also made it through water rides and didn’t fade, smear or smudge. We can also use them for the next time we go out in a large crowd. I love reusable!

The girls also loved having them. You can see the tags on the girls in most of the pictures  of the girls from the trip.

They were easy to tuck into their clothes.

I did find one downside to the ID tag. By the end of the trip, the girls were very disappointed that they never needed their necklace.

Teacher gifts for this year were fun and easy. The girls made ribbon bookmarks and we also gave their teachers gift cards to the bookstore. So the teachers are ready for summer reading.

We used ribbon clamps and the girls made charms out of Shrinky Dinks for the ends of the bookmarks. I made myself one out of a fabric scrap and a bikini charm.

They were a hit!

To make them, cut a piece of ribbon about 10 inches long. Get some ribbon clamps (found at craft stores in the jewelry making section) and use a pair of pliers to clamp them to the ends of ribbon. Adding a charm to the end finishes off the bookmark.

The camps come in several sizes, but I used the same size with several different ribbons. I used a lighter to melt the ends of the ribbon just a bit so they wouldn’t fray if they extended past the clamp.

If you missed the first part of the picnic blanket tutorial, click here to head that way first.

Time to make the picnic blanket fun! I decided to add a checkers game, Bingo cards and tic tac toe grids to the top, but if you have other games your family loves, you can add them instead.

To make the checker board, you need 2 fabric colors. Using the lighter color, cut a square that measures 16 x 16 inches. Iron a piece of Heat’n Bond Lite to the wrong side of the fabric.

Out of the darker fabric, cut a rectangle measuring 16 x 8 inches. Apply Heat’n Bond Lite to the wrong side of the fabric.

Cut 32 squares measuring 2 x 2 inches out of the darker fabric.

Remove the paper from the squares and place them on the large square in a checkerboard pattern. Iron the squares in place.

Remove the Heat’n Bond Lite paper from the back of the checkerboard. Place the checkerboard on the center of the picnic blanket. Turn the board so the sides of the board align with the corners of the blanket. This gives you more space to sit when playing the games. See photo below for placement of the checkerboard.

Iron the board down to help it stay in place when you stitch. Use a zigzag stitch to sew the squares together and secure them to the top of the picnic blanket.

Time for the Bingo cards. Using a piece of fabric measuring 16 x 40, iron Heat’n Bond Lite to the wrong side of the fabric. Cut 4 rectangles measuring 2 x 10 inches. Remove the paper backing and iron the rectangle to the picnic blanket along the sides of the checkerboard. Refer to the picture above for placement.

Using a fabric marker, write BINGO on the fabric. Space the letters evenly.

To complete the Bingo cards, use the fabric marker to write the numbers under the letters. You can randomly select numbers for each section following the rules below:

Column B contains numbers 1 – 15

Column I contains numbers 16 – 30

Column N contains numbers 31 – 45

Column G contains numbers 46 – 60

Column O contains numbers 61 – 75

You can also use an online Bingo card generator and just copy the supplied cards.

Draw the tic tac toe games between the Bingo cards.

Time to make the game pieces. I used unfinished wood pieces from Michael’s. I used round discs for the checkers, Bingo markers and tic tac toe pieces. They were the 1.5 inch size. Katelyn painted them for me.

I used small heart shaped wooden pieces to make the calling pieces for the Bingo game.

The games are complete. Now it’s time to attach the top and the bottom of the blanket.

Take the top of the blanket and the vinyl tablecloth and place the wrong sides together. Now it’s almost ready! Round the corners slightly to help soften the edges and make it easy to sew the binding.

You can either make bias tape or use store bought tape. Place the bias tape around the perimeter of the blanket and stitch the edge of the blanket all the way around. Stitch carefully to be sure you catch everything as you go. If your stitching is off around the corners, your game pieces can slip through the spaces. If that happens, just restitch the area you missed.

Place your game pieces and other small games (like cards) into the corner pockets.

Roll up or fold the picnic blanket and you’re ready to head out for a bit of fresh air and entertainment.

If you have any questions or something doesn’t make sense, please let me know!

Things You Need:

1 vinyl tablecloth 60″ x 60″

1 piece of fabric 60″ x 60″

1 1/2 yards of coordinating fabric

Coordinating scrap fabric (to make checkers board)

34″ sew on Velcro cut into 4 equal lengths of 8.5 inches

34″ ric-rac cut into 4 strips 8.5 inches long

7 yards double fold bias tape

Heat’n Bond Lite

Fabric marker

game pieces: 24 pieces of wood 1.5″ diameter and 75 small pieces for Bingo calling numbers (I used small wooden hearts)

Let’s get started making the blanket.

I found a 60×120 tablecloth and cut it in half for this project. Now I can make a second blanket one day. I used a bottom weight khaki fabric for the top side of the blanket, also cut 60×60. So that’s where I started.

Next, cut the pieces of fabric you need to begin making the pockets and borders.

Cut 4 strips of fabric (out of your coordinating fabric) that measure 37 x 6.5 inches.

Cut the corner pieces that will form the pockets. Follow the measurements on the diagram below and cut 4 pieces total.

Stitch each strip of ric-rac to the top piece of your Velcro. Be sure to stitch it to the backside of the strip so it’s not between the layers of Velcro later.

On the side of the corner piece that measures 8.5 inches, turn under 1/2 inch and iron. Stitch the top piece of Velcro (with the added ric-rac) to the folded edge of the corner piece. Allow the edge of the ric-rac to extend beyond the edge of the corner. Fold back and sew the Velcro to the remaining corner pieces.

Place each corner piece onto the top portion of your blanket with the corners aligned. Mark the position for the bottom Velcro piece. I use a disappearing ink pen, but you can pin it to secure it. Doesn’t matter how you mark it, just be sure you have it aligned properly. Stitch lower Velcro onto the 60×60 inch piece of fabric for each corner.

Moving on to your 37 inch strips now. Fold one long edge of your strips under 1/2 inch and iron flat. Place the strips between the corner pieces with the folded side towards the middle of the blanket and align the outside edges of all the pieces. Using a 1/2 inch seam allowance, stitch the pieces together as shown below.

Place the border/corner pieces on the blanket top and stitch. I stitched each side of the seam between the border strips and the corner pocket pieces.

Part 2 of the tutorial will show you how to add the games to the top of the blanket!

Click here to head over to the second part.

So today I planned to make some new belts for the girls. I opened my sewing cabinet and had to be careful that nothing fell out on me. Katelyn was standing next to me and you know your stuff is a mess when your 7 year old looks at you and says, “Mom, do you want me to help you organize this?”

Instead of making cute belts, I started to organize. I have a bad habit of tearing pages out of magazines. I save recipes I may try. I save ideas of crafts or decorating. Stuff like that. Then I pass my magazines off to my sister. Sorry, Melissa! I’m not sure she’s ever gotten a magazine from me with all the pages intact.

I decided to go through this stack of magazine pages and put them in my magazine page binder or throw them away, whichever was best for each page. On one page, I found a new website just in time for Christmas. I’m surprised that I found it today and not sometime in January, since that’s usually how stuff works out for me.

In a magazine…Parents…from last December, I found this website listed. We never looked at this site last year. That probably because I read the magazine about May or so, I’m sure. Anyway, northpole.com is a cute little site with all kinds of fun stuff for kids.

You click on the different areas and can hear stories, print coloring pages, write a letter to Santa and even practice math problems.

I guess I better get back to my organization. So far, it’s just a bigger mess since it’s now all out of the cabinet and all over the floor. My husband just passed by and announced that I needed a craft room and not a craft cabinet. I like the way that man thinks.

Too bad Santa won’t have one of those in his sack for me!

I had a craving for peanut butter cookies. I had one of those package mixes and was going to whip them up really quick before the girls got home from school. I realized that I had some leftover chocolate chips and thought it would be fun to add to some of the cookies. Who doesn’t like chocolate and peanut butter together? Then all of a sudden I came up with the idea to make the cookies look like pumpkins and add some chocolate chips to create a jack o’ lantern look to some.

These were really easy to make and turned out cute. The girls thought they were fun to eat.

To make them, I mixed up the batter and took just a bit out and dyed it green. I did use a bit of orange coloring in the dough for the pumpkin part, but then decided it really didn’t need any and I didn’t mix it through all the way, so that’s why the pumpkins look a bit colored. I liked the way it turned out anyway.

Then I made balls out of the dough. Instead of pressing them two directions with a fork, I just pressed the fork one direction, all the way across the cookie. Then I took my finger and thumb and smooshed the top and bottom together just a bit so the cookie wasn’t so rounded looking. I added the green stem dough to the top. For a few, I used the chocolate chips to make a face. Then I baked them according to the directions.

Here are the cookies ready to go into the oven.

These would be fun for a fall or Halloween party, as long as none of the guests are allergic to peanuts.

My sister asked me to help her make a template to carve my niece a Curious George pumpkin for Halloween. Here’s what I came up with for her. I can’t wait to see the finished product. Next I’m going to work on a Snoopy one for Madison and I’ll add it when I’m finished. I need to see what my other two want for their pumpkins this year.

I use a pumpkin carving kit sold at pretty much any store this time of the year. Use the hole punching tool from the kit along the outlines of the George template. Cut the template out using the small pumpkin saw and remove the slices of pumpkin to reveal George’s face. Here are some instructions on using pumpkin carving templates and stencils.

It’s easiest to cut out the small pieces before moving onto the larger areas.

Click the link below to open a pdf and print the template.

Curious George Pumpkin Template

Tuesday was Katelyn’s birthday. I still can’t believe my little girl is already 7 years old. I need to get the pictures of her birthday ready to share. She got her first American Girl doll and lots of fun stuff to go with her. I also made her a new dress to wear to school. I usually let the girls wear a pin to school that says “Birthday Girl” on it. After spending hours making a dress, the last thing I wanted to do with it was to put holes in it for the pin. So I decided to make her a necklace instead.
I found a Shrinky Dinks kit at Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts. It was just what I needed. It came with sheets of shrinky dink paper stuff, a hole punch, jump rings, a chain and some colored pencils. That was great so I didn’t have to dig out my jump rings or my hole punch!

I made the birthday pendant and I ran a ribbon through it for her to wear.

This started more ideas in my head so this morning, I played around with them some more.

I have this cute dog fabric sitting in my stash waiting for me to make Madison a new dress. I decided to use it to make a necklace for her. Maybe it will inspire me to get more sewing projects finished.

This is a great way to coordinate jewelry and other accessories with clothing. Just trace the pattern or object. You can string the object on a pendant or leave off the hole and glue it on something, like a hair bow. These would be a cute way to make personalized wine charms. Then I thought buttons would be fun to make too!

So I’m going a bit nutty with this Shrinky Dink stuff. Here’s the process I used to make the dog.

I placed the Shrinky Dink paper over the dog I wanted to trace and colored it with colored pencils. The Shrinky Dink papers have a smooth side and a rough side. You have to be sure to color on the rough side.

Then I cut around the dog shape, leaving a small area at the top for punching the hole.

Next, it is ready for baking. I use the toaster oven because it’s easy to heat and keep a good eye on it while it’s baking. It only takes a few minutes.

I line the toaster oven tray with foil and then sprinkle it with cornstarch so the plastic does not stick. Almost immediately, the Shrinky Dinks start to curl up in the heat. Then they spread out flat again. Once they are flat, they are ready to come out. Don’t walk away from the toaster because it’s a fast process and it’s fun to watch.

I took pictures in the toaster, they aren’t the best, but you get the idea.

After it comes out of the toaster, I just rinse it off and add the jump ring and it’s ready to go. Here you can see the comparison of how much it shrinks since it was the same size as the dog in the fabric before I baked it.

After the dog, I made these two.

First, I made three pendants with the name of each of my daughters then I tried out a monogram.

Katelyn requested a mermaid and Emily is still thinking about what she wants. I am also going to make holiday ones for them.