Parenting Under the Stars

It’s been fun in a crazy busy sort of way having the kids around full time. We made colorful popsicle stick picture frames, rolled beeswax candles and tie dye t-shirts last week.

The tie dye t-shirts were my favorite but I think I was having more fun with it than they were. All we did was mix some water with a bit of clothing dye in squeeze bottles, tied up the t-shirt a few times and squeezed different colored dyes on the sections.

We even tie dyed a baby’s t-shirt and a pair of socks. It can be messy though so wear old clothes and gloves. I didn’t wear gloves and my hands were stained for a couple days.

The candles were super easy. You just cut the beeswax sheet diagonally and roll the wax around the wick. A medium cotton wick seems to work the best.

Luckily I have loaded up on supplies because there will be more rainy days. Even when it’s not raining you can only stay out in the heat for so long before it gets to you.

Our next project will be some pretty patio stones. I have stencils so we’ll put some cute quote on it and stick it near the garden.

The flowers I planted in the section where the hose is are gone but that shouldn’t surprise me. I have no idea what I was thinking when I planted geraniums there. Maybe we will just make a path of patio stones to the hose.

If you’re looking for ideas for crafts that your kids can make on Father’s day, check out some of these projects.

Crafts for fishermen

• Here are a few for fishing freaks. We happen to have one here and I think he would love this fish craft card. Get the pattern and full instructions on Kaboose. This project is for ages 4 and up.

Decorate a mini tackle box for dad at Makingfriends.com. You just need glue, foam letters, shapes and some tacky glue. It’s a great way of dressing up those boring little boxes.

Father’s Day Photo Frames

• How about a printable Father’s Day frame with a wale, fish, beach and sun from FamilyFun.com.

• DLTK have several printable photo frames with themes. There’s basketball, fish, golf, soccer or simply say “I love you.” That’s my favorite and I think it would make a cute card as well.

• I like this simple handpainted finger frame craft from Amazing Moms. All you need is construction paper, tempera paint and a photo.

• Don’t forget the classic popsicle stick frame from Kaboose. It’s very easy so would be fun for all ages. Multicolored popsicle sticks would be even better.

• Here’s a fun foam picture frame from Enchanted Learning. You could personalize it further by decorating with sparkles, buttons, nuts, bolts or stickers. It would also make a great magnet.

Further Father’s Day Craft Ideas

• Danielle’s Place has a large listing of Father’s Day crafts for ideas and instructions.

• Family Crafts at About.com has quite a few in their collection.

• All Free Crafts is another good resource.

• There are many other free Father’s Day crafts listed at 4CraftyKids.com. I like the decorated can found under the “tool caddy” link. My dad used to have rows and rows of those cans full of nuts and bolts in his workshop. Decorating a couple cans will be fun and we can find pictures in magazines.

Most kids love to create gifts for mom and here are a few ideas I wanted to share with you.

Family Fun’s colorful apron craft with paint-dipped hand prints would be fun or try them on towels or potholders.

If your children can write their own name with a fabric pen, get them to do that but otherwise do it for them.

Either way it makes a pretty and practical keepsake. If you have a few children participating, the apron or towel would hold more hand prints.

Personalized mugs are always a hit and I posted previously about a set I bought and had fun with our family creating Xmas gifts. We made one for my husband, my mother and I made one for myself.

Picture Frame & Holder Project Ideas

I love receiving picture frames especially when they have pictures of my kids in them.

Children can decorate frames with buttons, feathers, shells, paint, sparkles or glue fabric around a cardboard frame with a couple flowers or fake jewels for décor. I sometimes see little paper mache frames at the dollar store that would be perfect to decorate.

A unique way to display pictures is in a mouse pad. You can find them with a 4 x 6 opening and insert a favorite photo in there for your mother or grandmother.

I adore this cat picture holder made out of modeling clay I found at Top Ten Guides. Of course, it could be a dog, pig or anything else you think mom would get a kick out of. You could also use salt dough.

A simple salt dough recipe:

• 2 cups flour

• 1 cup salt

• 1 cup water

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (optional)

These kinds of things are fun projects for families to do together any time of the year so have fun creating!

We have decorated candle holders with rub on transfers and also made mosaic ones. Just make sure you glue on the jewels, rocks or tile pieces with a glue gun and then put grout around them. I didn’t the first round and a bunch fell off.

Here are my daughters getting ready for spring by sewing skirts. One isn’t really into sewing so she wasn’t that eager to be included but you can sort of see her.

We are all going to have some cheerful colorful skirts anyway although not thrilled about the brown polka dots. I do love skirts in the spring though since they’re so breezy and cool.

For some of your own skirt sewing ideas, see:

• How to sew a wrap skirt on Crafzine.com. I love these but don’t think my daughters will.

• Going Sew Crazy has a tutorial for making twirly skirts for girls.

We seem to have jammed the machine so will have to show the finished product another day. We used an “easy” pattern that you can do in an hour. Yeah, right. I tore the house apart looking for pliers since I couldn’t get the needle out otherwise. Now that it’s out, they’re all in bed.

Boxers for Boys

The boys can get some breezy boxers or shorts. That will be fun shopping for fabric for those. It’s the small things in life. Stitches and Seams has a tutorial on boxers and Thread Banger shows us how to make boxers from pillow cases.

Beginner Sewing Projects

Do you want some ideas on sewing with your kids or are you just starting out yourself? Debbie Colgrove on Sewing at About.com has gathered a collection of projects geared for beginners requiring basic straight stitching.

I don’t know what it is about spring but it seems to get my crafty creative juices flowing. I also finally cleared out the entranceway, put up a new mirror and am feeling the urge to paint. Happy spring.

This is a decoupage egg I made by simply mixing half white glue and water, soaking the pic for a couple minutes and gluing it onto the egg.

It would be easier to use a smaller circular picture so you wouldn’t have those little bungles but I still think it’s cute. I got the idea from Family Fun’s Arts and Crafts page.

Dye eggs naturally

There are many things you can use to dye eggs naturally. Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Beets for pink

• Coffee for brown

• Paprika for orange

• Raspberries for red

• Turmeric or mustard for yellow

• Blueberries for blue

• Grape Juice or wine for purple

Want some more ideas? See Erinn’s Green Easter post on Parenting Children.

Easter Egg Shell Project Idea

What to do with the eggs later? Sherri from Family Crafts explains how to make an Egg Shell Mosaic on poster board. It sounds fun and it’s a wonderful way to recycle all those dyed eggs into another work of art.

Kaboose is one of my favorite children’s sites and they have some wonderful Chinese New Year craft projects. The clay pot rat is simple and cute with a body made out of a clay pot and glued on googley eyes. Since this is the year of the rat it’s the perfect project to celebrate with.

We made some fun noise makers with a couple paper plates glued together, a few beans inside and streamers glued in between.

• At FamilyCrafts.about.com they have simple project instructions on how to make a fancy paper lantern. I have always loved making these and several made of different colors will brighten up our home.

You can find a lot more Chinese New Year crafts at Activity Village. There’s lots to keep us busy which is a good thing since it’s a 15 day celebration.

I am not feeling deprived or anything but I was just trying to remember the last time I actually went out for New Years. I think it has been a few years. It is not so easy to obtain a sitter for a bunch of kids. Now that they are older maybe we’ll attend something as a family. I believe they have a free skate on and there will be festivities at City Hall.

When I just had one child, I would go over to Mom and Dads and party with them. It was actually a lot of fun. We usually rented some movies, played games and enjoyed each other’s company and of course some good food. My husband and I usually do that and sometimes we watch the count down on television. I have some pictures of my kids wearing party hats, blowing horns, and looking happy.

At FamilyFun.com, they have a New Year’s Fun Guide and include all kinds of crafts, recipes, and activities. One of my favorites was this idea for personalized place mats. They decorated a large piece of construction paper with handprints, pics and memorabilia and laminated it to have as a keepsake for that year.

What do you do for New Years as a family? Do you have any fun new ideas?

• At Mom is Teaching Summer has some New Years Resolutions for Homeschooling but most of them could apply to any family. I like her ideas such as creating more arts and crafts, going for more walks, going to bed earlier and living more green.

We burnt a lot of calories off hiking today, which is a good thing because more food and festivities are coming up. I took off around noon but back tracked to pick the kids up and left again. They saved a bit of money and bought a few little gifts at the dollar store for everyone.

One of the most fun activities of the day were these personalized mug creations. I get excited over these little things but think my mother and husband will love the mugs as well. The kit came with four mugs and four permanent markers and it’s called “Precious Mugs”. You wouldn’t have to buy the kit to do these but since I purchased them half price (four for $10); I figure I got a deal. Some cups cost that much for one.

The memories themselves and the fun making them however are priceless. Show here is one for Grandma, and one for Dad.

Earlier on in my travels I was hunting for a simple manicure bowl. This is all my poor mother wanted and do you think I could find one? People were looking at me like I had three eyes when I inquired about one. Finally at the drug store a lovely young lady in the cosmetics section graciously acknowledged such a thing existed. She told me about how great they were and how she took a manicure course and they just happened to have one left! Phew.

Mom also wanted some emergency candles. That sounds sort of boring so to spruce them up I stuffed them into a festive looking bucket I found at the dollar store.

I kept one mug for myself. I have decided to do a psychedelic scene with flowers, peace signs and perhaps a sun shining.

• If you’re looking for more fun festive craft ideas, check out Creative Mom’s red felt stocking tree ornaments.

I couldn’t get online until now and have to get up early in the morning but I wanted to share this cute Christmas craft project simply made from popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners. It would be an easy one for younger children to do. Find more projects at www.ActivityVillage.co.uk

We made Christmas salt dough ornaments a few years ago and they were addicting. I ended up buying new cookie cutters just so I would have some new shapes. I’m including a video with the recipe for salt dough. Don’t forget to put a hole in them before baking.

We did Sesame Street characters, gingerbread men and women, flowers, hearts and the Simpsons characters. The gingerbread men and women were the most fun to paint and it was interesting to see what sort of outfit a family member would come up with.

We used water based paint and sprayed shellac on them after to make sure they were sealed. Try to make sure they’re the same thickness because I found some that had soft spots because the thinner parts cooked first. It’s an activity the whole family can enjoy though and it doesn’t have to be perfect, so have fun!

I was up very late last night making candles for a wedding shower so dozed off today during the time I would normally be cooking.

I made some lovely scented candles and decorated some glass holders. I just used some rub on silver heart transfers I found at the craft store and was quite pleased with the results.

It was great fun but took longer than I thought it would. The wedding shower was fun and I was surprised to see so many people because there was a lot of snow out there. Cars were swerving all over the place so was grateful to make it home intact.

My eldest daughter is 19 but she’s not into cooking. The twins asked her what she was making and she told them to nuke Jamaican patties. They weren’t too impressed but ate nonetheless. One said, “You could have at least made a burger.”

I think now that I have my second wind I will cook a late simple supper for the kids. Simple because there is a huge mess that still needs tidied and no fun creating more mess on top of another mess.

My simple meal creation that they always go crazy over is macaroni and cheese with tuna and peas. I like it with lots of pepper but just dose my own later.

The recipe:

• Two boxes of prepared Kraft dinner
• One can of tuna
• Half a can of peas

After that, I shall bask in the glow of my lovely candles because of course I kept some for myself.

• If you’re interested in learning how to spend less on groceries, check out Frugal Mania’s “How to spend less on groceries” post.

Our Christmas tree topper is lame and I’m sick of it so am on a mission seeking alternative solutions. I would prefer to make one and also have fun doing it with the children so here are some holiday tree topper crafts to consider. I’ll narrow them down here after our family votes on them.

Here’s one of the easiest ornaments called “beaded star tree trim” by Jane Lake at All Free Crafts. All you need is beads and chenille stems that we call pipe cleaners.

For a traditional angel, here’s a cute paper cone angel craft courtesy of DLTK. You could personalize it with markers, beads, ribbon or lace but it’s basically made from paper and a doily.

I don’t think we would use this one as a topper but it’s so cute I had to include it. It’s an adorable toilet paper tube angel. This is also from DLTK’s Crafts for kids.

At Casa Mexicana I found these paper mache angels. I think they’re my favorite but since they’re selling them there are no instructions included. They sell mermaid angels, women and men angels, chubby ones and standing ones. Shown here are the standing angels.

At Enchanted Learning I found this awesome Japanese Kokeshi Doll made out of a ping pong ball and a plastic bottle. What a great way to recycle and decorate at the same time! You can personalize it however you like. I think I might decide to make more than one of these toppers. They look so fun and I could use one as a table centerpiece.

• For some fun stocking stuffer ideas, see Creative Mom Cafe’s post on Stocking Stuffers.

Lonnie and Jacqueline show us how to make pulp to create new paper by recycling the old. Any craft that you can get your hands dirty seems to be a hit here anyway.

Even if you do not celebrate this holiday, many of these craft projects would be fun any time of year.

Cookie Cutter Candles

This is a fun project from Howtomakecandles.info that in this example uses star shapes, but the possibilities are endless. You could also use beeswax. They’re advised as being more for décor but if you must burn them put them in heat resistant container.

Birdhouse:

I found this recycled birdhouse craft thanks to Michelle at Creative Mom Café. What a great way to recycle those milk cartons and a very cool gift idea. The kids would love wandering around collecting sticks too. My kids do that even when there’s no purpose for it.

Family Photo Book

This project uses some colorful paper, ribbon and of course favorite family photos. I know I would treasure any gift that included family photos especially one that a child helped make. See more on this family photo book project at Getting Crafty.

Alter a Paint Can

At All Paper Crafts you can check out Lori’s altered paint can. She used some pretty paisley paper and some ribbons but you could decoupage magazine pics onto a paint can, paint it, add sparkles and more.

Decoupage Collage:

Here’s an example of how to use up those old magazines. At Paper Crafts Kari shares how she dressed up a bottle in this “altered art” project.

Pine Cone Christmas Tree:

This is so pretty! You’ll need:

• a large pine cone
• Glitter
• A few cotton balls
• White glue
• Dental floss and a needle
• Small beads
• A small bow or star to top off your little tree

To see the completed project picture and instructions go to Enchanted Learning Pine Cone Christmas Tree Project page.

We’ll continue sharing holiday family projects as Xmas gets closer. Have any craft ideas for kids? Feel free to share them!