Little Love Bug For Your Valentine

I found the cutest little free printable and the perfect stickers for my daughter to make Valentines this year!

This website has a free printable with a little mason jar and the words "heres a little love bug"

We found these stickers for just 97 Cents.

Print, stick, mount on some red paper for added color. Done!  

Schools Closed! Snow Day Activities for Kids and Moms.

Schools closed in many of the midwest schools today due to the extreme cold.

Many working moms were scrambling last night to make day care plans for the day, I am very fortunate that I am home today. However, now the question is what do I do? We have plenty of Christmas toys but we might need to break up the day with a new activity or two.

With the weather so unpredictable here are a few ideas to keep in your arsenal for upcoming school closure days due to snow or cold.  I have tried to select easy things that won't require a trip to the store and that use everyday objects that you should have on hand.

Snow Day Activities for Kids (and Moms).

1. Indoor snowball toss game. Only requires cups, cotton balls, and a marker.

2. Snowman name Art Project. On a cold day an indoor snowman sounds much better than an outdoor snowman. This gives the added benefit of letter/writing practice for little ones as well.

3. If your child has several friends who live in the neighborhood from school who are also home (or if you hare that awesome mom helping out others by watching a few kids that day). Have some friends over and have a make your own hot coco party.

4. With a little shaving cream, glitter, and some glue you can make sparkly snow paint and paint your own snowman!

5. Want to stay away from the snow themed activities? How about a COLOR HUNT. Starting in the the living room and time your child (amount of time can vary depending on age and your child's skill level.) Give your child 5 minutes to find as many Red things as they can. Next start the timer again and do Orange. Repeat with Yellow, Green Blue, and Purple. Then at the end count up the number of things in each category. If you have multiple kids assign a different color to each child.

6. If you want to have some fun with food you can always create some snowman pancakes or snowman donuts for breakfast, you can get really creative and make a snowman pizza for lunch! Yum Yum!

Whatever you end up doing just have fun with your kiddos. Enjoy the day. They grow up fast and you'll look back and smile at the fun things you did on days like this.

Thumbprint Christmas Tree Free Download

I was inspired yet again by another cute Pin but couldn't find the things I needed to make it. Although I am all about supporting independent crafters and I do love buying from Etsy, there was not enough time to order this print so I made my own version of a Thumbprint Christmas Tree. It was a simple process in Microsoft Word and I even added a few extras of my own.

I thought having the grandkids use their fingerprints to create the tree, thumbprints to create the ornaments, and then each sign their name in a gift box under the tree.

I have posted a copy of the file as a jpg image below. You can just click on the image and save it to your computer. If you would like, I can email you the original word document then you can personalize it with your family name or change the number of boxes under the tree. Just email me at mommyandmore@gmail.com, leave a comment below, or leave a note on my Facebook page.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Napkin Holders

Every year my daughter and I make something special for each place setting at Thanksgiving dinner. 

Last year we made turkey napkin rings and they were a hit. I decided to stick with the napkin rings there year but use this adorable tag printout I found on Pinterest. 

Supplies:

Various colors of fall/leaf colored cardstock

Paper towel tube cut into 1 inch rings

Thankful tag printouts

Glue

Ribbon (for optional decoration)

 

 Cut out some leaves from the card stock. I made a simple shape and 

made them about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide. 

 

Print out the tags from this link  THANKFUL TAGS. 

Cut and trim tags. Punch a hole if you want to use ribbon.

Glue leaves onto each ring and the glue to tag on top.

Now you are all set to put the napkins in and place them on each plate
for Thanksgiving dinner!

Splatter Art

 Splatter art is a blast. 

 

 Start with some sturdy card stock and draw a face in the center. 

I happen to have a hubby who is great at cartoon faces so he

drew a few different versions for us.

Then take some washable paint and water it down a bit.

Enough to be able to dip a straw in and pick up a few drops 

at a time.

Dab a few drops around the 'head' of your character....

Then blow in the other end of the straw to make the paint
splatter around.

We were amused for at least a half an hour making all sorts of 

crazy hair and other designs on our creatures.

My daughter loved her dragon with green breath!

Even my husband created some art!

Happy painting. Have fun!

Front Door Eyeballs

Need to spice up the door before trick or treaters come by?

Add a set of eyeballs!

 

Simply take two paper plates and draw the iris (black circle) on it. 

You can get creative and make cat eyes, big eyes, little eyes, or anything else you can imagine!

Then simply adhear them to your door and you're ready for trick or treaters!

Paper Plate Ghosts

A last minute crafts for your little goblins to make. 

Supplies:

Paper plates

Printer paper 

Blacks marker scissors 

Tape

While the kiddos start drawing ghostly faces on the plates:

Fold the printer paper into a fan and cut into 1/2 inch strips.

(You can also cut a curved pattern or just leave them straight.)

Once the faces are done tape 6 to 8 stands on paper onto each ghost. 

Easy, fun, and very little clean up!

Friendship Bracelet Headphone Wrap

Remember those friendship bracelets we used to make back in the day? Well you can use the same technique to cover "well used" headphones. 

My headphones were no longer a nice white color thanks to daily use and rubbing against the makeup on my face. 

I did the standard thing I do when looking for a creative solution. I went to Pinterest. ...

and the wrap idea came into being.

 

It only took two bunches of embroidery floss and a few hours of twisting and knotting. Now I have a "new" set of headphones in my almaters colors!

Puffy Cupcake Craft

Puffy cupcakes. How much fun are these!?!?!  

Supplies: 

Glue

Shaving cream

Food coloring 

Plastic sandwich bag

Thick card stock

Cotton balls

Cupcake liner

Cut the cupcake liners in half and slightly bend the edges to create a surface to glue down.

Glue cupcake let halves on lower 1/2 of paper. Stuff with cotton balls to give support. Make sure to create a mound on top too. (See picture below.)

Next comes the fun and messy part! Dump a 50/50 mixture of shaving cream to glue into the plastic bag and add food coloring if you'd like to make a specific color. 

 (Rather than give a specific measurement this ratio gives you the flexibility to make a batch in whatever size you want or making multiple smaller matches.)

Now zip the bag *tightly* and let your little one squish and mix!

Carefully snip a corner off the bag and let you little one "frost" the cupcakes. Make sure you cover the cotton balls.

Add sprinkles or decorations if you'd like. 

Set of on a flat surface to dry. They will need at least 24 hours (or more) depending on how thick it is.

Going Batty!

I love Halloween and the myriad of cute craft options for kids this time of year is great!!!

Here are some quick and easy Halloween crafts that I have made (or am planning to make) with my kiddo:

We always save toilet paper tubes. My daughter doesn't throw out anything that could potentailly be used for a craft!  This cute little craft is the most adorable bat I've ever seen.
http://mollymoocrafts.com/toilet-roll-bat-craft/

Love this door full of bats. Click here for more door decorating ideas. So easy to make with some black card stock! If you are not good at freehand cutting look below at the link for the bat templates.


Finally, how finis this bat headband! Wonder what my daughter would think if I wore this while taking her trick or treating? Click here to go to the Martha Stewart website.



Happy crafting. (Take some pictures of the bat crafts you make and share them in the tidbit's facebook page!)