Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!

In honor of the birthday of Dr. Suess I created a little hat clip for my daughter to wear to school for their Dr Suess party.

I didn't take pictures of the entire process, but it is pretty simple. 

Materials:

Hair clip

Ribbon

Large white button

Smaller red and white buttons

Hot glue

Glue the buttons together. Glue now to the clip and adhear the button hat on top. 

Clip in!

Dr Suess was an amazing man who contributed to the world of children literature but in doing so made contributions to the world as a whole. 

His wisdom spoke well beyond the pages of his books.

Dr. Suess has found a place of inspiration in many of our hearts.

So pick up a Dr. Suess book today and read with your child. Pass on the special messages in so many of his books to the next generation!

Valentine's Day Garland

I can't find the "be my valentine" banner I made last year 😞and I decided we needed a little more pink 💗 and red ❤️ around the house since Valentine's Day is quickly approaching. 

I ran out to the local craft store and for under $5 picked up some twine and a package of glittered diecut hearts. 

It's just a simple matter of stringing them on in whenever pattern you desire.

Pretty soon you've got a georgous little garland to hang up and add some festive color. 

Do you have any Valentine's Day decorations that you made this season or in the past? Would love to see them. Post some pictures here!

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!

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!

Bugs and Kisses

Yes it is after Halloween but I have to share these cute giftbags we handed out for my daughter's school halloween party. 

I printed out this graphic from online and cut them to a 2 inch by 3 inch size and then mounted them on some cute patterned paper. 

Next I folded them in half and stapled them to snack size baggies with a few Hershey kisses and a plastic bug in each. 

Now we have bugs and kisses for all her classmates.

Create Sign

I had a spare piece of plywood in the garage and an urge to create, so I did just that. I started with an overall gray base coat.

First I layed out painters tape in a chevron pattern, using a ruler to make sure the spacing was exact.

Next I painted dark blue stripes and removed the painters tape. I wiped on a dark stain then immediately wipes it off just to give it an aged look. 

I used sharpie to add the word 'create'. (I had originally attempted to paint the word but I learned my painting skills are lacking.) The colored sharpie actually worked great on this surface. 

Now all I need is to add a picture mount on the back and hang it above my crafting station!

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.

Dried Apple Bird Feeder (Pinterest fail)

I saw the cutest little pin the other day. It just screamed fall craft and right now I am slightly obsessed with fall. 

I just HAD to make it!

Here is what I did:

I sliced apples with my mandolin and dehydrated them.

Next I had my daughter help to string them on wire.

We added some cute ribbon.

Finally I hung it outside. 

Looks super cute outside, however two days later we had a huge rain storm.... All the apples rehydrated and turned to mush. ☔️😕 after that it attracted bees so I had to toss it out. 

I think if I was to redo this I would wait until winter and stick on a little birdseed with some peanut butter to give the birds more to eat. Also, I won't have to worry about rain or bees!