DIY Wheat Grass

I just cleaned out my mud room last week and do you know what I had in there?  Empty soup cans, empty milk cartons, empty boxes.  Empty everything.  I realized I have a problem in saving empty food packaging.  But they sure come in handy when I want to do something fun and cheap with the boys.  I forced myself to throw everything away.  Except for these soup cans because I had plans for them.  The boys helped me plant a little wheat grass and a week later, they looked like this.  They are so simple, yet they brighten my day.

If you're looking to plant your own wheat grass, this is what we did:

SUPPLIES:

• Wheat grass (we purchased hard red winter wheat from the bulk bins at an all natural food store)


• Potting soil


• Container

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Fill your container 3/4 of the way with potting soil.


2. Generously sprinkle the wheat grass seed over the soil (you could barely see any soil by the time we were done).


3. Add more soil so you have about an 1/2 inch left on top of the container.


4. Water generously and place in a sunny spot.


5. Water generously for the first two days.  Then water a little bit each day.  You will see sprouting in just a couple days.

If you're looking to brighten someone else's day, these are perfect.  Just tie a little ribbon around the soup can and you're good to go!

DIY Fabric Rosettes

I'm at the point in my pregnancy where I tend to wear the same few shirts over and over (and over).  It's not very exciting so I do my best to spice things up.  I've been obsessed with making fabric rosettes lately.  It requires limited supplies and little time - which is just my style right now.

SUPPLIES:

• Fabric (lightweight fabric works best)


• Fabric Glue (I used Aleene's No-Sew Fabric Glue)


• Scissors

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut the fabric 1" wide and atleast 24" long.  The longer the fabric, the bigger the rosette.


2. Tie a knot at one end.


3. Apply a little fabric glue and start twisting and gluing.


4. Apply glue every 1/2 turn or so.


5. When you get to the end and have about an inch or two of fabric left, apply some glue on the back side of the rosette and adhere the leftover fabric to it.


6. Add a pin, clip, or velcro to the back so you can easily transfer it from belt to headbands, bracelets, etc.

This has been a great way to use fabric scraps laying around my house and also has me thinking of cute headbands for the little girl headed our way.

Shaving Cream Eggs

I love coloring Easter eggs and I also love finding new and inventive ways of playing around with textures so I enjoyed this activity just as much as my children.  I think Caden (4 yo) loved getting messy and playing around with colors.  Porter (18 mo) played around with his shaving cream a little, but mostly enjoyed watching us.

SUPPLIES:

• Vinegar


• Food Coloring


• Shaving Cream


• Hard Boiled Eggs

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Dip the eggs in vinegar to help the colors stick and brighten.


2. Put a little (or a lot) of shaving cream on a plate and add various dots of food coloring around the shaving cream.


3. Mix the colors as little as much as you like (we used a craft stick to mix it).


4. Roll your egg around in the color and set aside.


5. Let sit in the refrigerator overnight and rinse with water in the morning.  Voila!

Caden's shaving cream turned into almost a solid color and I worried it would make the eggs looks gross, but I was wrong.  His eggs are by far my favorite.  I was way too careful choosing my colors.



After we were all done with the eggs, Caden had a lot of fun playing around with the shaving cream.  Porter was a little unsure of it after I told him we couldn't eat it, so then he rubbed a little on his tummy.  The food coloring slightly stained their hands, but it was gone after bath time.

Note: I'm not sure these are okay to eat, but they sure are pretty.  We used expired eggs so I don't feel too bad about not eating them.

Bath Paint

My kids loved this activity.  Painting in the tub is wonderful!  They would have stayed in the bath all night had I let them.  Bath paint is really easy to make and clean up, too.  So I'm logging this one for one of those days when we're all going stir crazy in the house and don't want to leave.  It doesn't have to be night time to take a bath.

SUPPLIES:

• Soap (I used baby soap-pictured above)


• Cornstarch


• Food coloring


• Ice cube tray (or something similar to mix the different colors)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Mix equal parts of soap and cornstarch with a spoon.  (I mixed 1/4 cup soap, 1/4 cup cornstarch and it seemed like the perfect amount)


2. Place a little bit of mixture in each compartment of the ice cube tray.


3. Add 1-3 drops of food coloring per compartment depending on how vibrant you want the color.

In the bath, the children can use paint brushes, foam brushes, sponges or their fingers.  It was super easy to clean up, but be careful.  Since there is so much soap in this mixture, it makes the bath really soap and slippery.

In case you're wondering, food coloring did not stain my bathtub.

Sandpaper Art

We tried something fun around here yesterday.  Sandpaper Art. My kids really love coloring and I thought it would put a fun spin on their artwork. It was a great opportunity to talk about textures and things that are hot since this craft uses an iron to transfer the image over to the blank piece of paper.

SUPPLIES:

• Sandpaper


• Crayons


• Iron


• Paper (or a shirt would be fun too!)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Color the entire piece of sandpaper.  Make sure to press hard.  The more coverage, the better.


2. When complete, place your artwork face-up and the blank piece of paper on top.


3. Iron for a couple minutes and Voila!

The texture of the end result was a lot of fun.  It also made the sandpaper piece a little different too.  It was a fun experiment and one I'm sure we'll try again!

P.S.  Yes, I have pregnancy brain, but I still know Caden's name.... he's wearing a name tag because they had a substitute in preschool yesterday. :)

DIY Party Blower Valentines

I have one more Valentine DIY to share with you today.  I'm a big fan of making everything a party so why not include party blowers in your Valentines?  I created a little DIY if you're feeling crafty and want to make your own party blowers.  If not, no biggie, you can buy them at the store.  Head on over to Design Mom for the full DIY and printable.

If you're still on the hunt for that perfect Valentine, here are a few I've seen around the web that I like.

• Love Bug Valentine - perfect for boys!


• DIY Temporary Tattoos - who doesn't love skunks and owls?


• Super Lollies - super cute and easy.


• Bubble Valentine - cute and candy-free.


• DIY Valentine Arrows - perfect for the one you love.


• Printable Treat Bags - teachers would love these with their favorite treat.

I hope you all have a great weekend!  See you on Monday!  xo

Slinky Valentines with Printable

Here are some fun, easy and candy-free DIY Valentines for your kiddos to pass out at school.  I found these slinkys at Target (sold in the seasonal area with 12 per bag).

My good friend and talented illustrator/designer, Anthony Pafford designed the You Make Me Hoppy downloadable pdf for all of you to use.  All you have to do is trim it to 5"x4" and fold it in half.  Then staple it on top of a 5"x6" cello bag.

To download the You Make Me Hoppy pdf, click below.

Handprint Valentines

Kids hands grow so fast so when I saw these handprint valentines, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to document my kids little hands. We used a little finger paint and had a lot of fun making these.



Porter was a little more difficult in getting his hand prints.  He didn't want to sit still for too long.



After we were done getting their handprints, I let them have at it with the fingerpaint.  It was a great way to teach what happens when colors are mixed.  Caden definitely knows that blue and red makes purple now.  This is what both boys looks like before getting in the bath.



In case you can't tell, Caden was busy trying to morph himself into a superhero.  I think Porter followed his lead with the body paint idea.  Needless to say, the bath was purple.  It was a blast and Caden keeps asking when we're going to do it again.

M&M Wreath

This morning, I printed of this free printable over at Toddler Approved, got out the M&M's and let Caden go to town.



Yes, we did this in the morning and yes, he still has his PJ's on.  In my defense, it's pajama day at preschool so we're all good.



You let your kid eat chocolate at 9:30 in the morning?  Right?!

DIY Ice Skates

Caden has been begging me to take him ice skating.  I have no idea where he got this idea, but it got me thinking.  We can bring the ice skating inside!My friend, Laura used to let her kids skate on commercial grade carpet (the flat, no pad kind) with wax paper taped to their shoes.  We don't exactly have commercial grade carpet in our home, but we do have wood floors!

I didn't have any wax paper on hand so I used freezer paper.  Freezer paper has a glossy side and a matte side.  The matte side works the best on wood floors.  I put together some make-shift ice skates by punching a hole on top of the skates and stringing a little ribbon through.  (My son didn't like the tape because the skates kept falling off.  Making "ice skates" eliminated all frustrations).





My son absolutely loved skating on the wood floors and this will be a definite favorite on those days it's too cold to go outside.

Simple Play: DIY Magnet Jar

We had a couple pipe cleaner scraps left over from our DIY snowflake activity so I decided to make a quick magnet jar.

SUPPLIES:

• Glass jar (this is a recycled Ragu jar)


• Strong magnet


• magnetic items (we used pipe cleaners)


• non-magnetic item (we used colored rice)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place everything in the jar except for the magnet.


2. Shake it up.


3. Slide the magnet on the outside of the jar to see if you can get anything to move.  If not, put the magnet inside the jar to see what you can fetch!

"Look, mom!  A spider!"

Caden loved this so much and it was so, so simple.  I love it when we can find fun and creative things to play with around the house.