Clay Pot Christmas Tree

A friend of mine did this craft with her children and I thought it was the cutest idea to make a Christmas tree out of small clay pots, so I headed to the craft store and made my purchases.  The best part about this is that I think the biggest pot was only $1 and they went down from there, so it was really inexpensive!  These are pictures from my trial-run with Alexandria to see how it turned out and it came out so well that I bought an extra set of materials for her and Emma to make another one while we're on holiday next week.  We gave this one as a present to the woman who watches Alexandria during the day and she loved it!

Things you'll need:
 - green and red paint (with or without glitter)
 - paint brushes
 - glue or glue gun
 - bag of various sizes of glitter pom-pom balls
 - 1 big clay pot (1st level or bottom of tree)
 - 2 medium clay pots (2nd level of tree and tree stand)
 - 1 small clay pot (3rd level of tree)
 - 1 extra small clay pot (4th level or top of tree)

First things first are the clay pots.  I was afforded this being easier for me in the store since there was an example of this craft on display right with the clay pots.  All you have to do is stack them up with the various sizes to make sure everything fits just right.  They pretty much should only sit about an inch or less of overlap when you stack them up.  The one for the red base shown above should be sized so that it hits directly on the ridge of the pot that is sitting upside-down on top of it.  It didn't matter if the pots were different colors since you're painting over them anyway.  Keep in mind that the base and the second layer of the tree are the same size pot.

I had Alexandria paint all of the clay pots while they were still separate so that she wouldn't get drips of paint stuck under the ridges that would drip down and dry that way.  We only did one layer of paint (green or red depending on what pot) on each pot and then I actually used a colored glitter paint as a second coat to add some shine.  Below you can see the pot on the left that has only a layer of green paint (I used Crayola washable paint) and then next to it is another pot that has a layer of green paint and another layer of green glitter paint.  I really liked the shine that the glitter paint gave to the pots, so I'd definitely recommend using it!  I did let the pots dry for quite awhile in between coats and before I moved on to the next part.

Next was the trickiest part; stacking the pots and figuring out a way to glue them together!  I used a glue gun for this and after a bit of trial and error, I found a way that worked.  First I'd stack two of the clay pots together and see where on the inside of the one sitting on top was rubbing the other so I knew where I had to place the glue.  Then I applied a large dot (size of a dime) of glue with the hot glue gun at 4 various points around the inside of the clay pot going on top where it was going to hit pot that it was stacking on top of.  Hold the pot so that you can see the inside while you're applying the glue and then quickly flip it over onto the other pot it's stacking on top of.  Because of the large dot of glue, it doesn't dry right away and will drip down to hold the two pots together once you stack them.  Make sure to quickly make any adjustments if it's crooked or sitting odd before the glue dries!  I tried other various ways to put the glue onto the pot and try to get them to stay together and nothing else worked.  Again, I let the tree sit for awhile to make sure that the glue dried fully before moving on to the final step.

Using the glue gun, Alexandria would point to where she wanted to place a glitter pom-pom ball on the tree, I'd put a small spot of glue on the tree and she'd stick the ball to the glue.  Obviously, be very careful with this since the glue is extremely hot; you may just want to have your child point and then apply the ball yourself.

I was stumped for what to put at the top; I considered trying to find a small ornamental start to put on top, a snowflake pin, and various other ideas.  It ended up that the first place Alexandria wanted to place a pom-pom ball was smack in the middle on top!  I thought she had a great idea, so I found the largest yellow glitter pom-pom ball and we used that as the topper; worked perfectly!

We both really enjoyed making this craft and Emma is extremely excited to be making one of her own next week.  For how inexpensive this is, it would make a great long-lasting decoration or even a good Christmas gift!

Q-tip Snowflakes!

Do you have a big box of Qtips in your house that need to be used up in places other than ears?  I ran across this craft in my Disney Family Fun magazine that I received this month and was intrigued.  In the least, it got Alexandria to use some new craft tools and items in addition to teaching me a lesson to read directions!!!

Things you'll need:
 - Q-tips
 - Glitter Glue (or regular glue and glitter separate)
 - Paper (or plastic wrap if you want to follow Disney's directions)

Using the pattern for a snowflake that you can see in the picture to the right, start in the middle by putting a big circle of glue in the middle of the paper or plastic wrap.  I chose to create my snowflake on paper because I didn't read the directions, but Disney tells you to create the snowflake on the plastic wrap.  The advantage of paper is that it's more sturdy and you can cut around the edge of the snowflakes to get rid of the extra paper around the outside; the advantage of plastic wrap is that at the end you can peel the snowflake off and easily hang/display it without any paper in between the q-tips.  To each is own...whichever you'd like to proceed with is fine.

OK, so back to the big circle of glue in the middle of whatever medium you've chosen to create your snowflake on.  I trialed a few ways to place the q-tips in the glue.  One way was just by setting them in and adding more glue on top; the other was by placing the q-tip in the glue and rolling it around so that it was then covered with glue on all sides.  I ended up sticking with the rolling method and then adding glue on top as needed when there wasn't enough coverage.  Add the q-tips to the middle placed in the appropriate direction and then continue outward with your design by adding more circles of glue at the new 'joints' or 'junctures' until you finish the pattern.

If you used regular glue, then you'll need to sprinkle the glitter on the spots where there is glue; if you used glitter glue then you're done!  I'd suggest leaving the excess glitter on the paper/plastic until it is dried and then shaking it off to put away once the design is more stable.  I added an extra line of glitter glue to both sides of all of the q-tips to add some more color to the design.

After it's dried (I'd give it overnight at least), if you used paper you can either leave it as is or trim around the edge of the snowflake with your scissors to cut it out.  I considered using a exact o-blade to cut out in the middle of the designs, but I felt it would make it too flimsy.

So there you have it, a beautiful quick and cheap snowflake decoration for the winter! 

Here's a picture of the original snowflake craft from the Disney Family Fun magazine.  They used the plastic wrap as a backing and different colors of glitter & glue to hold the q-tips together.  This would be neat to hang with string from a light or the ceiling for the holidays!

Or if you have younger children who are not quite ready to follow these types of directions, you have a beautiful glitter glue, q-tip, and glitter pom-pom piece of artwork! :)

Crafting with Leaves

In an attempt to integrate the multitude of fallen leaves into our crafting, I picked up a few on my way home with the girls to use in a craft.

Things you'll need:
 - Leaves (recently fallen so they won't crumble)
 - Different paint colors
 - Paintbrush(es)
 - Paper
 - Crayons
 
The first thing we tried was your typical leaf rub by placing a leaf under a piece of paper and then rubbing the side of a crayon on the paper over top of where the leaf is under the paper.  This picks up the veins and stem of the leaf showing up darker with color.  Emma had much more success with this than Alex who quickly stopped paying attention, so we moved on!

My next idea was to use the leaves as stamps.  The girls painted one side of a leaf of their choice and then pressed the painted side down onto the paper pushing with their hands on the leaf and then picking it up by the stem.  This again was much easier for Emma and she got really creative with it and made a flower out of the leaf prints which is the first picture you see in this post and below is a picture of the work in progress.

Alexandria is much more of a 'paint my hand and stamp' kind of painter with all of the hand crafts we've done, so she proceeded to move on to that while I tried to get Emma to use the leaves as paint brushes by dipping the edges into paint and then using them as a brush on the paper (below is a picture of Emma leaf painting).  Long story short, a bunch of different ideas and the best one that came out was the stamps.  All in all it was a great time with some natural items incorporated; a great way to keep using the leaves in different ways to keep your children's interest.

 ...wonder if the tongue sticking out helps? :)

Ghost Prints

Alexandria did this craft last year around Halloween at daycare, so I thought I'd recreate it since I thought it was really cute; plus this way I could see how much her foot has grown in a year!  We invited over our neighbor's son to make some ghosts too and they both had a really fun time.  This is an incredibly simple craft that takes next to no time at all.

Things you'll need:

 - Black paper (or orange also works)

 - White paint

 - Tiny google-y eyes

 - Paintbrush

 - Feet with Piggies!

As I said, it's pretty simple.  Paint your child's foot with the white paint; I think thicker you apply the paint, the better the result for this craft.  Stamp their foot on the paper wherever you'd like.  I end up cutting out around the feet so that it's smaller to display, but you could make a row of ghosts using both feet if you want to line the paper with them.  I had Alex do about 4 foot prints so that I could cut out a few of them separately to give as little Halloween mementos.  After the paint dries, add the google-y eyes to the ghost.  You can also add a comment bubble to the craft if you'd like to have it say, "BOO!" or add a little smiley face...and that's that!

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!!!

Hand Print Bouquet

It's unfortunately been awhile since I last did a craft OR posted a not so crafty post, however with all of the holidays coming up, I've definitely been more inspired (in addition to life slowing down just a little bit to afford me the time to even think about doing a craft).  Alexandria and I decided to make some hand print flowers and I think they turned out really cute...although they're probably better suited for spring!

Things you'll need:
 - paper
 - different colored washable paints (flower colors, green for stem/leaves, brown for pot)
 - paint brushes
 - tiny hands, of course!

Pick your colors for the hand prints and decide how many flowers you'd like to do.  Three worked out well on this size piece of paper (normal 8x11), but even one would be cute!  I didn't have much of a method to my madness about which colors should go first, but after doing it, it's easier to do the lighter colors first because the darker colors will cover them eventually if they overlap.  Proceed painting a tiny hand with the first color, make the print, wash, rinse, repeat for as many flowers as you'd like to make!

Always expect some messes!  Alexandria was absolutely thrilled with herself for accidentally getting red paint all over her belly.  As you can see, we try to save the clothing (even though the paint is washable) and we've started doing our crafts on our new coffee table (::cough::cough::) I mean the girls picnic table in the middle of our living room..

After we did the hand print flowers, I free handed the pot for the flower stems to go in.  Leave the pot and hands dry so that when you do the stems, you don't drag any wet paint around the edges of them into the stem (best way to learn is by making mistakes)!  Last thing to do is to draw in the stems and even add a leaf or two if you like.

We ended up repeating this craft with my older daughter and then sending them to a close family member as a 'Get Well' card from the girls.  Much better than flowers that you will have to throw away after a week; these will look really cute forever and are a great idea if you want to give someone something they can cherish!

Butterfly Tootsies

Spur of the moment distraction idea for Alexandria was to make some butterflies in the morning before heading over to Grandma's house.  This was really quick and easy; also came out rather cute!!

Things you'll need:
 - paper
 - two or more different color paints
 - black marker
 - brush or anything to apply paint to feet!
 - tiny feet & fingerprints

First things first, grab a foot and paint the bottom.  You could get creative with this step and paint it various different colors so that the butterfly's wings are more colorful, but for today I stuck with a solid color.  Apply paint and stamp on the paper so that the footprints are on the opposite side than where they normally would be.  Wash, dry, repeat with opposite foot!  A trick I use is to always have Alexandria stand on the non-painted foot while I hold the foot with paint up in the air.  That way she has her weight on the other foot and I can more easily place the painted one onto the paper.

Final paint step (yes, I said this was easy!) is to grab a finger or two, dip them in paint and then have them create prints up the middle to make the butterfly's body.  A thumbprint works great for the head or you can just paint a larger circle with a finger like we did.

Wait for the paint to dry and then you can add the finishing touches.  Two dots for the eyes, a little smile and two antennae!  Quick, but cute butterfly memories!

You're What Ties Our Family Together

For Father's Day, I helped the girls with a craft that we could give Daddy.  I used an idea that I got from my friend Beth's son's art work from his daycare that I saw (and photographed) while I was out visiting her.

Things you'll need:
 - any color paper you choose
 - paints
 - paint brushes (or anything to apply the paint to hand)
 - scissors
 - marker to write with

First up is to sketch the outline of a tie.  I just did this by eye (imperfection is the best part of home-made memories) and used the picture I took of the craft as a guideline.  Make it as big or as small as you'd like or as you need so that you can still fit a hand print or two (or more!) on the tie.  After you have the outline, use the scissors to cut it out. 

Next up are the hand prints.  You can do these whatever way you'd like; you just have to be mindful making sure they're positioned so that you'll be able to see a lot of each hand, ensure all will fit on the tie, and of the colors so that they will overlap and not disappear.  I picked purple and blue for the girls so that they'd both show up well.

Next is to add some finishing touches.  I added a 'DAD' to the tie knot, some edging to add some color to the cut out tie, and a super cute phrase 'You're what ties our family together'.  Here's the finished product amongst our very full refrigerator door!

Ocean Full of Fishies

I ended up LOVING this piece that we just finished and had to share pretty much immediately (after Alexandria was asleep of course) with everyone.  I got the idea from a website online for the fish and then just got creative while we were doing it to add in some other ocean pieces.

Things you'll need:
 - paintbrushes
 - variety of paint colors (green for seaweed, blue for bubbles, and whatever colors you'd like for your fish)
 - large sheet of paper
 - google-y eyes
 - permanent black marker
 - tiny hands :)

First, and of course the most difficult task, was to apply a variety of colors to Alexandria's hand before she made a fist and mushed them all together (which probably would have also looked neat)!  She was amazingly patient with this and held out her hand while I did the various stripes of colors.  One thing I tried to do was to make a larger part of her palm the same color so it could act as the fish face.  I made hers a little bigger than I would have liked, but it still turned out just fine.

Make the hand print facing either side of the paper.  I had it so her thumb was at the bottom of the sheet, but I don't think it would matter much if it was at the top since the fingers are representing the flowing fins.  Repeat as many times as you like or as many times as your child will let you re-apply paint!  We did two fish with each application of color and ended up with four cute little fishies.

At this point, I was kind of bummed and thinking about what else I could add when I thought about an ocean floor and using her fingers to make seaweed.  I painted only her four fingers with green paint (excluded her thumb), moved the bottom of the paper to the edge of the table and pressed her fingers all along the bottom.  I had to re-apply paint a few times, but I kept pressing until it was all off and then would go over it as necessary with newly paint covered fingers.

Again, I thought it needed something else on the left side.  I originally was going to fill it with a Mama fishy hand-print, but I opted for the easier task of letting her keep green paint on her hand a make a larger sea plant.  I added paint to the rest of her hand for this.  She went a little crazy smearing in the middle, so I added a print to top it off and like magic, we had a sea plant!

Next, I flipped the paper upside-down so that we wouldn't get in the wet paint and used her pointer finger to make blue fingerprint bubbles coming out of all of the fishies' mouths.

After it dried, I went back and added a half oval of sorts to make a head area on the fish and a cute half smile with the permanent marker.  Last, but not least I added a small google-y eye to the face.  You can see the face better in the first photo in the post.  There you have it!  Super cute fish and an ocean scene made all from my little girls hand!

Lobster with Daddy

In an attempt to get some work done, I suggested my husband do a craft with Alexandria the other day since she really calms down while doing crafts even if they don't last that long.  I picked out a really cute lobster idea that I saw and set them on their way.

Things you'll need:
 - Red paint
 - Paintbrush
 - White paper
 - Black marker
 - Google-y eyes
 - Glue

First thing first was to do the hand prints that would act as the lobster claws.  Use the paint brush to apply paint to one hand at a time and make the print on the paper.  Alex really enjoys this part! :)

For your own sanity, be sure to wash each hand after the print has been made!  After that, apply paint to a foot (either foot will work, so whichever is easiest) and make that print so that the toes are at the bottom of the paper and the heel will act as the lobsters head.

Next step is to add the arms and legs to the lobster.  My husband just free handed these with the paintbrush.  The beauty of crafts at home is that imperfection is actually the greatest part of the craft; at least I think so!  (Not that my husband did any part not perfect :-P)  After everything is all connected, then you can glue on the google-y eyes at the top of the head (heal).  Last step is to add the antennae and smile using the black marker as the final touch!

Hop Hop

In the spirit of Easter and having some extra time this morning with Alexandria before her Easter party at daycare, I decided to make a bunny using her feet as the ears to give to her teacher (and to keep one for at the house).  My neighbor gave me the idea when she sent me a similar craft picture the night before that her son had done at school and I thought it was so cute that I had to give it a try.

Things you'll need:
 - Pink paint & a paintbrush
 - Black marker
 - White paper
 - Tiny toes

The foot prints (one of each foot) will become the ears of the bunny, so you want to have them looking and angled the same as much as you can depending on the age and squirmy-ness of your child!  I held Alex on my lap and painted one foot.  I let her stand up on her non-painted foot and then pressed her painted foot down with my hand onto the white paper held vertically.  After washing that foot off in the sink, I repeated with the other foot.

And that's almost it!  After that, I made ears around the footprints and then drew in the face of the bunny.  My neighbor's son had cut out he bunny and glued it to another colored piece of paper to give it some extra color, but we were on a time crunch, so I just left it on the white piece of paper.  Any finishing touches will do and you have a quick and easy bunny rabbit with keepsake footprints in a matter of minutes!

Hand-Painted Wall Decals

When deciding what I wanted to do with Alexandria's room before she was born, I knew I wanted to keep the blue wall color that I loved, but wanted to add some sort of 'girly' touch to the walls.  After picking out the perfect bedding, I kept trying to figure out a way to incorporate the bird/tree print onto the walls.  I actually bought curtains to match the set so that I could frame the print part of them in the corner and hang them on the walls; still a good idea that I have yet to do to date!

At some point, I noticed that the print on the comforter was a perfect size to add some detail to the walls.  If only I could figure out how to easily re-create the print!  So many people have asked me how in the world I did this, so I figured it was a good craft to post about while stuck at the house in the snow for what feels like the 20th time this year.  Here's a picture of a bit of the stenciling and the comforter on the back of the crib that I used as the template.

Things you'll need: - Image of whatever you'd like to re-create at the size you would like to re-create it at.  I was lucky and the comforter's print was the exact size I wanted to use.
 - Clear plastic roll or anything that's large enough and transparent to trace your image onto (I found the roll of clear thicker plastic at ACMoore, but I can't remember the exact brand.)
 - Piece of poster board (get two in case you make a mistake!)
 - Exacto blade
 - Permanent marker
 - Pencil
 - Tape - I used painter's tape just to make sure it would come off easy
 - Paint in all of the colors you'd like to use - I bought sample sizes at the paint store to use and they were more than enough paint for what I was doing and I got the benefit of being able to pick from tons of colors to match the original print's colors.
 - A few paint brushes - I got a few from a craft store that were a bit better quality than the Crayola kids paint brushes I had around the house!  No need to spend a ton of money though.

The first thing I did was lay out the comforter (or whatever image you've chosen) onto a table and placed the plastic sheet over the image.  I used a permanent marker to trace the pattern onto the plastic sheet from the comforter.  After I was done, I cut out the image pieces so that it created a stencil I could trace onto something else.  If your image is easier to trace onto poster board, then you may be able to skip these steps and just trace directly from the image to the poster board.  After making a plastic paper stencil, I traced that onto the poster board so I had a more sturdy stencil to trace onto the walls.  Again, I cut out the images (see below) so that I could use it as my stencil.

*Note: You need to make sure that you pay attention to where you need to leave pieces of the stencil in so that they connect the patterns.  If you cut out too much, then certain parts of the pattern will fall through and you'll lose site of them.

As you can see in the picture, the next step was to position the poster board on the wall where you would like to trace the image and secure it with the painters tape.  My stencil had a lot of things going in and out, so you'll see I have tiny pieces of painters tape throughout the branches to keep them from flopping away from the wall.  At this point, I simply traced the stencil onto the wall with pencil (easy for fixing mistakes).

The next step was to start painting the base colors (if your image has multiple colors like mine).  I thought it would be easier to paint the entire flower one color and simply go back after it dried to paint the middle circle and to place the dots on the image.  You can do this however you think it's easiest.  I did 2-3 coats of each color depending on how well it was covering.  I had 4 sets of the stencils on the walls, so I rotated around the room while everything dried.

In the above picture, you can see that I've finished the base color of most of the images, left the branches and leaves for last since they're the darkest color, and started adding pencil traces of small stencils I made for the bird's wing and the flower centers.  I made those cut outs using the cello to poster board tracing technique used for the full stencil.  Next up, I filled in the flower centers and bird's wing that I had just traced on.  Again, 2-3 coats were needed to get good coverage.  Then I painted in the branches and leaves while adding in some dots to some of the flowers.

The original image had a lot more 'activity' going on with the dots and colors.  As I was progressing, I made some executive decisions about changing some colors or not adding in everything.  This is of course something that everyone will have to decide based on their own image and personal preference.  Below is a picture of the final corner with two stencils.  There's another one on each of those walls, one in the opposing corner that you could see in the first picture in the post and another coming off of the trim around her door.

It adds a really neat personal touch to the room and really incorporated some 'girly' stuff onto the blue walls that I loved.  I'm going to be very sad to leave these behind when we eventually move, but Emma has already requested an image of a beagle in her room, so I'll be using this technique again soon!

Sharing a Little Love

My neighbor sent me a picture message with a 'not so crafty mama' craft and I decided to take a stab at it for myself.  In the end, I think her version came out better, but it's still capturing the memories that is the most important part of the craft.  I asked for her copyright permissions for the craft and to post!  (Thanks Marla!!!)

Things you'll need:
- Red paint & paintbrush
 - Pink paper (you'll need red paper and glue if you'd like to do layered hearts)
 - Pen
 - Tiny hands

The first thing you do is make a heart.  You can do this the traditional way by folding a piece of paper in half so that both sides are even, by tracing something that it heart shaped (possibly printing out a big heart on your computer to trace), or taking the really easy way out (as long as you have a Cricut) and just popping in a cartridge and having it cut out a perfect heart for your with a few button touches!  Regardless, as long as you have a heart, then you're good for this step.

I didn't take the time to create an 'inner' heart to give extra color or depth, but my neighbor did and I think her's looks sharper than how ours turned out.  After you glue the layers together (if you have them), you're ready for the hand prints.  I prefer to use the paintbrush to apply the paint to Alex's hands.  She's becoming much more interested in this process and spent a lot of the time playing with the bristles on the brush while I was covering her in red paint; very cute!

Right hand on the right, left on the left and you've completed your hand prints.  I had Alexandria do hers one on each side; Marla's however looks neat with the thumbs overlapping...to each is own!  Add a little personal message as a touch and your quick & simple valentines are done!  Alexandria left one of these on her changing table to surprised Daddy with in the morning and then gave one to her teacher at daycare.

One Year Paw Prints

Alexandria thoughtfully (with some extra thought by Mama) got both my husband and I the same frame/kit for Christmas that we could use to make a keepsake for her first birthday.  She bought the BabyPrints - Photo and Baby Footprint Desktop Frame at Babysakes.com.  They have various versions of the same idea, but we thought it would be nice to have a picture with the print.  The frames come in all different sizes, colors and layouts so you can pick whichever you like the most.  We also chose to have my husband's be a footprint and mine be a hand print so we had one of each as a keepsake.

Things you'll need:
 - BabyPrints kit (or substitute using the suggestion in the note at the bottom of the post)
 - Baby for hands & feet
 - Aluminum foil
 - Hardcover book about 8 inches square (I used one of Alex's many board books)

The instructions were pretty good that came with the kit.  You cover a book with the aluminum foil so you have a non-sticky surface to roll the 'printing clay' on.  You knead the printing clay for a few minutes (make sure your hands are clean as any spec of dust/dirt shows on the white clay) and then roll it out on the board.  You might want to keep in mind while rolling what type of shape you'd like the print to end up on.  My rolling came out in circles / ovals, so I just rounded them up a bit after we did the print to make them more uniform.  You could also roll it so that it's more of a rectangle / square shape so you can make even edge trims after you do the print.  Whichever you choose, I would say I rolled it until it was about a 1/4 inch thick or maybe a little more.  There's really no science or trick to getting a level surface, but now that I think about it, I may have been able to press a book on top of it to level it off and make it even; might be worth a try!

As with others, my husband's help was needed for the foot print to hold Alex up over the print.  We did let her put a decent amount of weight on her foot once it was placed on the clay.  With the hand, I sat her on my lap and put her palm down on the clay first while I spread out her fingers and then smushed her hand into the clay. 

You then let the prints sit for a few hours and then flip them over based on the instructions so that the backs could dry.  Personally, I let them sit just the way they were for a day because when I tried to flip it over, some of the clay was sticking to the foil and I didn't want to ruin it.  I think we let them sit for about 4 days and I flipped them back so that the print was facing out after a day of the back facing out.  After it's dry, you assemble them in the frames and are done!  Now they provide double sided sticky tape for this which does NOT work, so I'd try to use something more permanent to stick the print to the matte they provide so that it stays on better.  Here's the final product!

Because the hand print was larger than would fit in the white matte frames they provided, you can see the brown piece in the print side of the frame that separates the glass from the print.  The white mattes they included in the kit covered some of the hand print edges, so I just didn't put them in.  I'm considering painting the brown piece white so that it contrasts better with the other side and doesn't look dingy!  After that, all I have to do is find an empty wall or table top on which to display them!

**NOTE: If you'd like to do this without buying a kit, I suggest using Crayola Model Magic as it is the same consistency and has the same drying effects as the 'printing clay' that came with the kit.  You'd just have to find a frame that you could use that had some depth on one side so that the hand/foot print would have room to fit behind the glass.

Ladybug Rocks

With a ladybug extravaganza for Alexandria's 1st Birthday celebration to plan, I was trying to come up with a cute centerpiece that was easy, not expensive and one that I could get Emma involved in.  I remembered the cute little ladybug rock that Emma made me for this past Mother's Day and decided to make a bunch of them for the centers of each table.

Things you'll need:
 - Round rocks - any size will work, just a lot more effort the larger the rock
 - Red and Black paint
 - Paint Brush
 - Plastic Google-y Eyes
 - Clear glue

First you paint the rock red which is pretty simple.  You may need to do a few coats to get full coverage and you'll need to plan for the rock to dry before you flip it over to paint the bottom.  After the red is done, you paint a circle of black at one end of the rock.  I'd love to tell you there's a science to it, but there isn't.  You be the judge as to how big or little you'd like the head to be.  Next you add black dots to the back with the paint brush (I used a smaller brush); again, no rhyme or reason to them.  Final touches are to add some google-y eyes to the head using clear glue.  I got a bag of ~300 eyes for about $5 at Walmart that has all different sizes in it, so I just used whatever size I thought worked best depending on how big the rock was.  Here's the final product; pretty easy and definitely something you can get your kids involved in.

Photo only looks amazing because it was taken by my friend and photographer, Steph aka. S.M.I.T.T.E.N. Photography.  The leaf was one I made really quickly with my Cricut to throw underneath the ladybugs on each table.  They also doubled as a weight to hold down the balloons!

Child Designed Bookmarks

Being an avid reader (well...more so when I wasn't chasing after a 1-year old) and having multiple book lovers in the family, we really try to instill a love for reading in our children.  Emma loves to read and does amazingly well in reading at school.  Alexandria already opens her books and babbles as she turns the pages.

Because of this, I thought it would be neat to make bookmarks for everyone in the family that likes to read while occupying Emma during an uneventful day.  We had done this in the past, so I definitely have some lessons learned, but wanted to make some more for the holidays (and because Uncle Jason directly requested a new bookmark).

Things you'll need:
 - Paper - I use the white scrapbooking sheets that come pre-filled in the clear pages since I have a bunch of that extra, but you can use any kind of paper/color you like.  I'd recommend something thicker than printer paper in case you use markers so it doesn't bleed through to the other side.
 - Scissors
 - A few sheets of laminate (more on this later)
 - Pencil, pens, markers, crayons - whatever they want to draw with
 - Ruler or straight edge of some sort

First things first is to decide how big you'd like them to be.  The first time, we made them about 6 inches by 2 inches (worked well cutting the 12x12 scrapbooking paper into equal pieces).  I liked this size much better than when we made them this time about 6x3 inches.  You'll see why later when we laminate them.

One trick that we learned after the first time was to write the name of whoever the bookmark was for on the back before drawing a picture on the other side.  When mass-producing bookmarks, it definitely makes life easier to remember who's was who's when you're staring at 8+ bookmarks with similar designs!

After all of the pictures have been drawn, it's time to laminate them.  I purchased sheets of laminate in 8.5x11 inches sizes that had a hard clear front and then a less sturdy (sticky) clear back.  This way it gives the bookmarks some support so they don't bend and is easier to laminate than if you had two flimsy sides.  I will say that they were more expensive than I originally assumed, so you can decide for yourself.  Line up the bookmarks on the non-sticky piece of laminate so that they're about 3/4's of an inch apart.  You'll need the extra in between for the edges of the bookmark so that they don't come undone.

I also try to use the nice edges at the end to line them up against so that some sides of the bookmark won't have a 'hand-cut' edge to them.  Now here's the tricky part, you have to peel the paper off of the sticky side while at the same time using the ruler as a guide to press the sticky side to the non-sticky side.  Slow and steady wins the race with this one!  This is why it's also good to position the bookmarks towards the edge so that you can start sticking the two sides together before you get to the bookmarks.

You want to keep sliding the ruler along the page so that it presses the two sheets together.  Absolutely pause and re-align the bookmark edges when you get close to starting to laminate over them so that they don't shift.  After you're at the end, take the ruler and rub all over the laminate to make sure it's together and that all air bubbles are out.  I also make sure to go around the edges of the bookmark a few times to ensure that there's a good seal.

Once they're fully together, you can cut them apart and leave however much you'd like of the clear laminate as a border.  I'd recommend to not cut too close to the actual bookmark so that the two sides of laminate don't separate with wear.  I'd also suggest from experience to round the corners; our first set were like daggers on the corners!

The finished product!  Emma's this Christmas were a penguin sliding theme with her newly learned dialogue bubbles! :)  They make cute personal gifts from the kids that every book-lover can enjoy.  We use them all of the time at our house and could probably use a few more!  Happy reading!