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Homemade Christmas: Candy Cane Cappuccino

Dec. 13, 2008 • 3:51 PM

 Our craft project comes from a wonderful book called "Homespun Gifts from the Heart" by Ehman, Hovermale, and Smith. I really like this book!

We made Candy Cane Cappuccino. We placed enough of the mix for 10 cups into zip-lock baggies and then placed that bag into a brown lunch bag. We folded the top over and made two holes using a hole punch. We leaced in a ribbon and attacehd a 3x5 bag of marshmallows and the printed label.We tied a bow with a candy cane attached in the bow. I printed the label, which is provided in the patterns section of this book, onto candy cane vellum. It is tasty and makes a great gift!

Candy Cane Cappuccino

Homemade Christmas: Snowman Jars

Dec. 4, 2008 • 10:49 PM

 We are getting ready for a Homeachooler's Craft Show coming up this weekend! Here is a fun craft I made with my girls this week.

Snowman Jars:

They are pretty simple to make. Here are the materials needed:

Smooth worksurface, clean and dry jars, toothpicks, craft wire, pliers/wire cutters, beads, white light-weight clay (Crayola Model Magic works wonderfully), glue, white glass paint (optional)

Make three cirlces and place them together. Use a toothpcik to push an orange bead in the head for a nose. Add buttons in the middle circles for buttons. use craft wire for arms. To make then whimsical, try different posed arms and wrap around a toothpick for coils.

Allow clay to dry. Once dry, use a toothpick and black paint to add eyes and a smile. Then glue the snowmen to your assortment of jars. You can add white dots (of snow) to jars by dipping the eraser end of a pencil into white glass paint and dotting circles onto the jar around the snowmen. Allow to dry. Add candles or candy. They make great gifts and are cute Wintertime decorations!

If you want to see other participants in VintageGirl's Homemade Christmas meme, Click HERE!

Featured on The Crafty Crow!

Nov. 25, 2008 • 7:47 AM

I was on The Crafty Crow in her line-up of awesome ideas for Fall and Thanksgiving. She showed our Fall Leaf Luminaries.  

Check it out on The Crafty Crow here! This is a great site for all kinds of wonderfully creative ideas! The Crafty Crow  is one of my favorite sites! Check it out for many great projects that you can make with (or for) your loved ones!

Homemade Christmas: Bookmarks: japanese dolls

Nov. 20, 2008 • 7:21 PM

 Here is something fun we made this week. My oldest daughter especially likes making things with paper. I recently found this craft in a library book and showed her. She liked it so we decided to make some.

They were fairy easy to make. My oldest daughter, "Panda" made the dresses using origami paper. My next oldest, "Princess" made the heads and I just put on the simple faces and assembled the heads to the dresses.

We are doing a homeschoolers craft show soon and might include a basket of these unique bookmarks. i thought they'd be cute to put with a book as a gift. They would definately be great for a lapbook on Japan.

My daughter has this book. This is what started her love of paper crafts. It is a really neat book- a great Christmas gift! Everything is made with Post-it notes of different sizes. It is fun and encourages a child's creativity!

Here is a sample from inside the book with my daughter's puppy creation!

Have a great week!

If you want to see other Homemade Creations, stop by Vintage Girl's Homemade Christmas meme!

Homemade Christmas: Winter TicTacToe

Nov. 13, 2008 • 11:02 PM

Homemade Christmas: Leaf Luminaries

Nov. 6, 2008 • 8:17 PM

Stop by and enter to win it!

Homemade Christmas: Reindeer & Wreath

Oct. 30, 2008 • 5:57 PM

 This week my Homemade Christmas post is another gift we made last year. I have many new things in the works and hopefully we'll get to some of those things this week. We are doing the local Homeschool Christmas Craft show in the beginning of December again this year so we really have to get busy.

Here is a fun project to do with your children. I love hanging the towels on my stove during the holidays and they are also a special keepsake to remind me of my precious children's hands and feet (and how small they once were!) ...and also to pray for them that they may always use their hands and feet for the Lord, working and walking in His will for their lives!

We made these cute reindeer on towels by making painted footprints (using fabric paint or fabric medium added to regular paint) in dark brown, then hand-print antlers in light brown.  We then painted on eyes and sewed on a red button for the nose! Great gifts for loved ones!

We also made a few sweatshirts!

They are made with canning jar rings and scraps of homespun material. Cut (or tear) the material into rectangular pieces. Simply tie the pieces around the jar lid and continue doing so until you can no longer see the jar ring. Cut any pieces that are too long in length once tied on. Glue on a ribbon and tie a thin string for hanging. I often hang mine over the door knob of our game cabinet (as shown above). Here I used two co-ordinating green gingham homespun prints.

Visit SimplyVintageGirl's Homemade Christmas meme for more wonderfully creative ideas for homemade gifts!

Homemade Christmas: Rice Bags, Play dough

Oct. 23, 2008 • 9:54 AM

 Emily Rose of SimplyVintagegirl.com   is hosting this great Homemade Christmas meme. I hope to participate to show some of the projects we are working on for homemade gifts. I also love seeing all the other participant's great ideas!

 We are working on a lot of great projects from ideas I gathered here and there. This week though I am linking you to two things we made last year and gave as gifts.

Here are the Rice Bags with Poem for gift tag! We use rice bags in our home a lot especially for headaches. Even the kids will heat up a rice bag and go lay down if they have a headache (often that works before we even take any Tylenol.) Check them out HERE!

We also made homemade play dough, Peppermint Play dough and Gingerbread Play dough. These were great for stocking stuffers or to add to a package. I also thought they'd be cute to put along with a book of that theme, like The Story of the Candy Cane and give peppermint play dough, or The Gingerbread Man and give the gingerbread play dough with that. We actually sold out of the peppermint play dough at the craft show. It is a lot of fun to make too! This dough is softer and smoother than the store-bought kinds!

Check out this meme for more great ideas for making your own HOMEMADE CHRISTMAS gifts! Add your projects, too!

FUN Fish Craft

Sep. 19, 2008 • 10:30 AM

My Friday Show & Tell

is also a craft in my

This craft is So-o SIMPLE and fun! Children of all ages can do this and throughly enjoy being creative!

To start:

Take a paper plate (I prefer the thicker ones). Cut a triangle out of the plate. Note: If you are working with a toddler, you can ask them the shape of the plate. (Circle) Then cut the triangle and ask them the shape of that!

Then staple the cut-out triangle to the back of the plate to form the fish shape!

Then, you just let your child(ren) decorate the fish with whatever materials you have on hand! We used small squares (another shape to review) of tissue and vellum paper in assorted sizes.

Use Mod Podge (or watered-down glue) and paint the mixture onto the plate. The child can then place tissue squares.

 Then they added some small sequins I found. I painted a top layer of glue/sealant to keep the sequins in place.

Once that was dry, I let them add some paint circles with little finger dabbers I had.

Like I said, just use whatever materials you find. Punch a hole at the top with a hole punch and add a string or ribbon for hanging. Add a Large wiggly eye or a round black circle shape for a fish eye!

I made these with my older daughters when they were younger and have a photo of them with their fish. I love how they turn out each time and yet they are so simple! We are finishing our Ocean-themed lapbooks so this craft was great for our theme. We also read the book "Swimmy" by Leo Lionni.

Another wonderful pre-K fish-themed book is Dr. Suess' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!

  We had school with a school of fish!

Check out the other Show & Tells over at CanadaGirl's blog!

Craft Corner: Flapjack Facts Game

Sep. 12, 2008 • 8:06 PM

I love doing crafts and creative activities and my children seem to like things more creative too! I have saved good ideas for a long time and am starting to use them more often with my kids! I thought I'd post some of the activities and the things we make from time to time here in my own SchoolinRHome's Craft Corner!

Here is a simple file folder game that is great for practicing times tables! It is called Flapjack Facts.

Take a solid color file fodler. Open the folder and write for print out a label that says "The Griddle". Then in one corner, I made a box that looks like a pancake mix (just to spruce it up a little). That's all for the folder.

Then buy or cut our a pile of circles. I used a Sizzix machine but you can also buy packs of pre-cut circles from most craft stores. I made tan colored circles to resemble pancakes! On one side of each circle write a multiplication problem. Then on the back of that circle, write the answer. Do this until you have all the times tables covered. Then laminate the circles and cute them out.

Get a couple inexpensive spatulas and a pile of small paper plates and you are simply and inexpensive ready for your kids to start having fun while learning their times tables!

To play:

Open the file folder and lay out panckaes with the problem sides up. Fill the griddle and place the extras in a pile nearby. Each player gets a paper plate and a spatula (Spatulas could be shared!) Each child takes a turn by choosing a pancake from the griddle and answering it outloud. Then they can flip it over with the spatula.

 If it is correct, they get to put it on their plate, if wrong it goes back on the bottom of the extra (batter) pile. A new pancake gets placed in the spot on the griddle. The next player goes. Once all the pancakes are on plates, the game is over. The players count how many pancakes they have and the player with the most wins!

The kids enjoy practicing their multiplication facts this way!

If you want to see some of the other homemade, educational file folder games we made, check out these. Here is a Money (addition) game and a States game! Also, here is a fun spelling game!

A gift in a jar: Sketchbook prompts

Aug. 15, 2008 • 8:55 PM

Sketchbook prompts- a gift in a jar!

I recently saw this neat idea for a journal jar and hope to make some. I can prepare it in one sitting and then not worry later on when I need more prompts, etc. It will be ready to go when my children are ready. Plus it can be a self-led activity.

I think it would be a great gift as well. I thought it would be even neater and more "my thing" if I changed it a bit and made it a Sketchbook jar. The prompts would be ideas of what to draw in a sketchbook. Once the jars are made up I can put a small/medium sized sketchbook with it for a unique homemade gift!

 I made the prompts into labels to place inside the jar! The artist can just pull out a piece of paper, glue it on the page and start to draw. The label could be placed on the actual drawing page (in a corner) or placed on the back of the page. I hope to include a space for them to add the date as well. The prompts could even be printed out on sticker paper so they can just simpy be stuck onto the sketchbook page!

Here is my list of sketchbook ideas:

Draw a picture of an opened umbrella, make the print or design on the umbrella anything you'd like. (if possible, get an umbrella and place open in front of you!)

If there would be life on another planet... draw a city on that planet

Draw a scene of something you can remember from your earlier childhood.

Draw a scene from an airplane window.

Draw a sandcastle.

Draw a view of something placed under a magnifying glass.

Design a piece of furniture that is made using only circles

Draw a vessel that you could travel in to go around the world.

Draw a piece of sculpture to be placed in a beautiful garden. (Once happy with your sculpture, maybe find some clay and try to sculpt it.)

Pretend you are an architect and just got a job to design a dog house for the King or president's pet pup.

Make a design using only words on your page.

Look closely at a leaf and draw it.

Start by writing a large number in the center of your page. Now, make it into a drawing of anything you wish

You started a new business as a child entrepreneur, draw your company's logo.

Think of something that bothers you that you wish you could improve within our world. Make a poster to get others to agree and help you change this problem.

Play your favorite music. Draw a picture that expresses how this music makes you feel as you listen.

Draw a small section of your room. (Once done possibly hang this picture right at the section of your room!)

Draw something floating in water.

Find a quote, verse or famous saying you like. Write it on your paper and then draw around the quote expressing the mood you feel from this saying.

Draw what you think your home might look like in the future if you could design it just how you would like.

Draw a new method of transportation.

Draw an open egg and something coming out of the egg (for extra fun, you could even glue cleaned egg shell pieces to your drawing)

Think of an interesting movie you'd like to see. Now, draw a costume that you might see someone wearing in this movie.

Draw a road to an imaginary land.

Lie down on your floor and draw something you see from that perspective.

Draw the clouds.

Draw yourself as a robot.

Draw your favorite tree in your yard.

Draw what it might look like inside a tornado.

Draw a dream you have for the future.

Draw yourself on your wedding day.

Draw something you miss about being younger.

Draw something within your favorite hobby.

Draw a place that is special to you.

Find a cupboard in your home, open the door and draw what you find inside. (Look for an interesting arrangement).

Draw a close-up of a doorknob or a key.

Draw an animal sleeping.

Design a new postage stamp.

Think of your page as a piece of stationery or a greeting card, draw the design for it.

Draw a family heirloom.

Draw your reflection from a mirror but do so with an expression on your face.

Draw a circus scene.

Crumple up one piece of newspaper, then open once again. Lay it on a table then draw it.

Draw a still-life of popped popcorn.

Draw a pair of shoes.

Start a puzzle. Stop working on the puzzle with pieces laying around it. Draw this scene.

Draw a window and the scene outside of it.

Draw how you think you will look when you grow up.

Draw something that makes you laugh.

Draw the world's most awesome playground.

Draw four different things that have are the shape of a triangle.

Draw what you might see inside a cave.

Draw a scene of what it might be like if you could sit on a cloud.

Sit on the floor draw something you see when you look up.

Draw a shelf like you'd see in a toy store.

Draw a picture of your favorite book.

Draw a still-life of fruit. (add colors but not the actual colors of the fruit in real life).

Find something you can make an impression/rubbing of. Place the item under your paper and rub a pencil or crayon over top the paper until the rubbing is made. Draw a picture around this rubbing using it as part of your drawing.

Draw a pile of something, like a pile of toys, a pile of buttons, etc.

I just wanted to keep my list here and add to it as I think of things.. I thought maybe others might like this idea especially if you are looking for things to make as gifts for birthdays or holidays coming up!  I know I have a long list of gifts I'd love to make for others and will soon start to work on them with my children.

Happy homeschooling!

Centerpiece: Classy & Glassy

Jul. 11, 2008 • 1:12 AM

I recently made this centerpiece.

The flower arrangement in the back was store bought!

I saw the idea in the magazine Everyday with Rachael Ray. I changed it a bit by collecting an assortment of glasses, different sizes and shapes and arranged them together. (The original idea was just one glass). Single ones may be nice spaced out around the table but I like the arragement for the center. I hope to do this at an upcoming tea party (garden theme) I plan to have for our sewing teacher.

It is so simple and easy yet looks so nice. Just collect some glasses and small serving cups. Cut fresh flowers from your garden that you feel would fit in the glass well. Turn the glass up-side-down on top of the flower. Place a candle on the top.

Here are the flowers/glasses I used:

...then just light the candles!

The arrangement actually lasted about two days with the flowers inside the glasses!

Want a simple yet elegant centerpiece? Give this a try!

Tell me what you think?

Here is another neat floral arrangement idea!

Here is a great dessert I hope to make for our garden themed tea party! These individual flower pot desserts are so cute and clever!

Show & Tell: Collage Journal Covers!

May. 30, 2008 • 9:51 AM

Show & Tell Friday with Canadagirl!

For today's show and tell I am going to show my older girls sewing journals.

They have sewing lessons with a sweet older sister in Christ (from our church). They sew together and read a story over homemade cookies. The girls also keep a journal book where they just put the date and what project they are working on. They also usually glue a fabric swatch on the page. Then take a photo of their finished creation and glue that in as well!

We decided to make them a little cuter and collage pictures onto the front. We also added some fun sewing pictures or stickers throught! It made the journals prettier and even nicer to look through!

Before:

After:

We plan to make covers like these on other plain journal books and use them as daily journals! Even my son wants to do a boyish one and write something little each day!!

My Noteworthy Nostalgia: My first tag album!

May. 16, 2008 • 7:43 PM

I am getting to this late but I wanted to do a show and tell this week!  I see show and tells on my friends' blogs and enjoy them.

I never was certain what to show (and tell) so I just haven't yet but now... I wanted to show what I made and gave my mom for Mother's Day!

I have wanted to do a tag album for awhile. I want to make journals like this and do a shabby chic cover on them. Everything fell into place for me to make my first photo tag album so I decided I'd try it for my Mom's mother's day gift. I told my hubby that I loved it so much that it was going to be hard to give up. He told me to make one for myself so I did (with a different cover, of course. My cover says "Family"). The hardest thing is just printing out all the photos off my computer and cutting them out otherwise it wouldn't take too long. Of course it is dear to my heart because I so love the people in the pictures.

These are the inside pages:

The last page had a little booklet at the bottom that each child had a page to write a note and/ make a picture for thier grandma!

And here are the tags!

What do you think? I'd like to make more and give them as gifts so I'd appreciate your input!

If you would like to see more Show and tell click on the Show & Tell Graphic at the top!

High hopes for Spring! Crafts & activities

Mar. 19, 2008 • 5:55 PM

We are ready for Spring here. How about you? I think with Easter so early this year, it is making us even more anxious. It amazes me that every store we looked at for Easter dresses for the girls had mostly sleeveless choices. You think they would realize this when planing their clothing lines/garments to sell. I guess they figure this way we all have to buy sweaters as well.

We did a few projects in anticipation of Spring's arrival. First we planted some seeds. This was fun for all the kids even though the youngest two had no idea what we were doing.We now have the starts of lettuce but still no spinach, carrots or sunflower starts. I hope to get more seeds growing soon!

Then the youngest three made these cute Spring caterpillar puppet cups (with the help from the oldest two and mommy). They were fun and are still being enjoyed!

First you get a paper cup (plastic cups would work as well). Also needed: a straw, a brown pipe cleaner, glue, scissors, foam flowers (or flower stickers), buttons, green foam (or green paper).

We used foam because it makes the craft last longer. You could also make these using paper and then add the flowers with floral stickers!

Trace the child's hand about 4 times on green foam (or paper). Felt could work as well! Cut out and glue around the sides of the cup. Clothespins are helpful to hold in place until glue dries! Poke hole in bottom of cup with a pen- large enough for straw to fit snuggly through. Wrap the pipe cleaner around the end of the straw, starting at the flexible joint. Add a touch of glue here and there to hold pipe cleaner. Wrap tightly. Stick very end of pipe cleaner into the hole of the straw. (You may also add tiny wiggle eyes to the top for caterpillar eyes.) 

Once the glue grass (hands) have dried, glue on the foam flowers and button centers.  Play peek a boo with the caterpillar peeking up and down by moving the straw.

While we waited for the glue to dry on our above craft , we listened to these books on tape! These are both cute Spring stories. Buzz Bumble to the Rescue and Charlie the Caterpillar.. We got these through Scholastic Book Clubs! It is just more FUN to listen to a story sometimes on tape or CD because of all the background noises and music.

Here is a link to another CUTE Springtime craft! I call them Carrot Sticks!  We didn't make these yet but hope to soon. We plan to use them as Carrot bookmarks (additions to cousins' Easter gifts) and also as a garden marker for our carrots! Check it out- it is very simple- a little orange paint, tongue depressors, wiggly eyes and some green felt! Too cute!

We hope Spring is in the AIR soon!

HAPPY SPRING!

Snowman Craft!

Jan. 19, 2008 • 9:46 AM

Here is a simple craft that just needs printed out! Let your child color and cut it out, then assemble with string or pipe cleaner! So-o cute!

My son, Pilgrim is left handed. He is above the grade for all his academics but he does not cut well (with scissors.) We made this Wintertime craft to help him with his cutting. I think it is so cute and it hangs at my kitchen window now (with the snowscape behind it).

You can make your own Snowman mobile, too! Print out the pattern Here!

Cute Christmas Craft: Reindeer / Moose Prints

Dec. 19, 2007 • 5:14 PM

This is a really cute and easy craft! I love it because it marks this time in my little ones lives. I will always have their foot and handprints from this stage in life.

The hardest thing about this craft was getting it done without them wiggling too much because I was tickling their toes and hands with the paintbrush!

First paint the bottom of a foot with brown fabric paint. Apply foot to the material (kitchen towel, sweatshirt, etc.)

Then add tan or light brown fabric paint to child's hands (do one at a time) and place at the top of the toes to make deer or moose antlers.

Allow to dry and iron the backside of the material to "set" the paint and make it more permanent!

Then sew a red button at the bottom for a nose and add black with white dots for eyes (using fabric paint) then you are finished. Just wrap up and give as a gift with a tag saying Homemade by:______ with love. (put the childs' ages).

I will enjoy mine hanging in the kitchen all season long (and years to come too!) We are giving some to grandparents and Sunday School teachers (that teach my little ones).

On the kitchen towels, the foot print was from "Peanut" . The hands are of "Precious".

We also did a sweatshirt with "Pilgrim"s prints. He plans to wear it on Christmas day. (We got the sweatshirt at the $1 Tree Store! What a deal!)

Hope you like this Christmas craft! They are quick to make if you still need a special gift to give! I think they are really "deer"!

One more easy craft is making wreaths from canning jar lids and fabric scraps. You can use "theme" fabrics alternated with Christmas colors, etc for music teacher (music note fabric), etc.

Here is what we made:

Easy Wreath Craft: Items needed:Metal Canning Jar ring, Fabric Scraps

Cut scraps into about 3x1 inch strips. Tie scraps onto ring, placing the knot in the center of fabric. (So the two sides are even after tied.) If using two different prints/styles of fabric, alternate the two patterns as you put them onto the ring. Do this until the ring is covered and a wreath has formed! Make a bow and glue it onto the wreath. These are also nice hanging over doorknobs.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Our Craft Bazaar

Dec. 10, 2007 • 5:02 PM

Saturday's Homeschool Children's Craft Bazaar was a lot of fun! We sold a good bit. The kids enjoyed setting it up and running the stand. It was nice to talk with the other moms too and shop!

Our most popular item was our homemade playdough. We totally sold out of the Gingerbread Playdough. The lady who bought the last of it said she would have bought a lot more if we had it because she was doing a gingerbread class and thought the kids could also have this play dough then. We sold most of our candy cane play dough too.

 We will have to make some more this week as my kids really want some to play with and it is easy and fun to make! I got the recipes from another blogger at Our Journey Westward. I modified them slightly. Scroll down if you want my recipes!

Here is Precious and Panda helping me "knead" the play dough!

Homemade Scented Play Dough: Seasonal

Gingerbread Playdough

5 1/2 c flour

2 c salt

8 tsp cream of tartar

3/4 c oil

4 c water

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp allspice

Mix ingredients together.  Cook over medium-low heat and stir until lumps disappear.  Knead dough on floured surface until nice consistency.  Add some green and red food coloring to get more of a brown color. (I also added some extra spices for more fragrance!)

Store in airtight container.

Peppermint Playdough

2 c water

2 c flour

1 c salt

4 tsp cream of tartar

4 Tbsp oil

4 Tbsp peppermint extract

red food coloring

glitter

 Mix ingredients together.  Cook over medium-low heat and stir until lumps disappear.  Knead dough on floured surface until nice consistency.  Add the glitter while kneading! Store in air tight container!

Easy Beaded Christmas Ornaments

Dec. 5, 2007 • 7:24 AM

Easy Beaded Christmas Ornaments!

The Children's Homeschool Christmas Bazaar is this coming Saturday! We finished our ornaments but still have much to do! Here are the ornaments. They are easy to make is you want to try them! You just need pipe cleaners and the beads (maybe a little ribbon or cloth for bows, too!)

The first ornament is a candy cane! Cut a red pipe cleaner to the size you wish. Simply push the beads on in the right order. Twist the pipe cleaner around each ending bead! Add a cute bow and a hanger at the end!

We attached each ornament to a tag that has this poem:

Christmas IDEA: BEARY cute!

Dec. 4, 2007 • 9:15 AM

Melissa over at Lilliput Station is hosting her first online Christmas party! She is offering some great prizes and a chance for others to share their Christmas ideas! I thought I would join in on the fun.

My blog has others ideas I hope you might like to try too so scroll down and stay for awhile! Leave a comment and I'll try to return the visit!

Here is an idea I thought is FUN for the Little ONE!

Our kids HELP us decorate our homes and make CRAFTS with us but this one is meant JUST for THEM! I think it is a BEARY cute Christmas Decoration!  Plus moms, (or dads) once you have the few simple materials needed it literally only takes a minute. (It might take a little longer for a younger child but they would just need your assistance!)

Have your child get their favorite stiffed animal(s) and or doll while you collect:

2 brown pipe cleaners, a pair of scissors, some ribbon, a red pompom (tape or a pop-dot sticker)

Cut the pipe cleaners in half. Twist one pipe cleaner 3/4 the way up another pipe cleaner and twist-trim and bend as necessary for antlers. Make the second antler. Twist the bottom of the antlers onto a thick rubber band. Add rubber band around bear/dolls head (ears). Add a tape dot or pop-dot sticker to red pompom to add to the nose! Tie ribbon as scarf around neck. It is simple and so cute!

Let your child place their festive critter where they wish!

Merry Christmas, One and all!