Snowman Crafts--4 different ornaments

Snowman Class

Tealight ornament, Lightbulb ornament and 2 salt dough ornaments

For Day 5 & final week of our Snowman class we made 4 different ornaments.

I made 2 batches of this salt dough recipe. (This was more than enough dough to make 12 ornaments of each kind.) Rolled the dough out and used a biscuit cutter to cut circles for snowman face ornaments (also found in the link above) and full snowmen using a cookie cutter. For the noses on the circle faces, I cut triangles with a plastic knife and formed them with my hands to shape I wanted.

Baked according to directions and let dry for a little over a day.

The kids painted and used sharpies to decorate them in class!

For the tea light ornaments, I glued a small, looped piece of twine on the back prior to class so they can be hung on the tree. I also cut several hats out of foam pieces.

In class the kids decorated the hats with markers and glued them on. They drew their faces on with sharpies. We twisted a pipe cleaner around the light for a scarf.

For the light bulb ornaments, I sprayed them with glitter prior to class.  Make sure you buy white bulbs not clear ones.  The kids picked pipe cleaners for the scarf and the hanger.  We twisted the pipe cleaners in place, then the kids used sharpies to draw on the faces.  We used a small orange triangle cut from foam for the nose. We glued black sequins on for buttons.

These were all fun & easy.  Here is a picture of my 2 demo ornaments that I made. :)

This was such a fun class!!  I forgot that in week 4 I printed this poem for the kids.  There is a black & white version so I printed and they colored it in.  Find it here.

Snowman Crafts--Wooden Snowman & Bottle cap Ornament

Snowman Crafts

4x4 Snowman & Bottle cap Ornament

The 4th week, we made snowmen out of a piece of 4x4 and and ornament using bottle caps.

I bought a 10 foot long 4x4 board from Lowes and asked my brother-in-law to cut it into six 12 inch pieces and six 8 inch pieces. The younger siblings & kids made the smaller size and the older siblings/kids made the bigger size.

I painted the wooden pieces prior to class to save time.

We used adult size fuzzy gloves from the Dollar Tree for the hats.  We put a Kroger plastic bag in the glove to help puff it up a bit, then tied a piece of string around the finger holes to make it look like a hat.

I had scraps of fleece that I cut into strips for the scarves. I purchased a pack of bells at the Dollar Tree to tie on the scarves. I found a pack of wooden oval pieces at Hobby Lobby that I painted orange for the noses.

The kids picked buttons and a nose to glue on and used Sharpies to decorate the face.  Some decided their snowmen needed hair and other accessories so they went to town with the Sharpies making the Snowmen their own creations.

I found the idea of using a 4x4 from and Etsy shop and used this tutorial for the glove hat idea.

For the ornament, I had Kevin save his beer bottle lids for several weeks. I spray painted them white to cover all the labels and sprayed them with glitter spray just for fun.

I painted Popsicle sticks navy blue, sprayed them with glitter spray and glued a looped string on the back for a hanger.

The kids decorated 2 out of 3 bottle caps for their snowman ornament.  One with a face & the middle with button.  We used Sharpies to do this.

Then they glued the bottle caps onto the Popsicle sticks and the ornament was done!!

Snowman Crafts--Candy Dish & Burlap Ornament

Snowman Crafts

Snowman Candy Dish & Burlap Ornament

For the 3rd week of class, we made Candy dishes and a burlap ornament. 

There are several different pins on Pinterest for candy dishes made from small clay pots & glass bowls.  I pinned a couple and this is the best one.

Here are the ones we made.

I bought 4 inch clay pots and saucers at Lowes & Home Depot for 79 cents each.

To help class go smoothly and avoid sending home too much wet paint, I painted all the pots & saucers before class.  The pots took 3-4 coats of white spray paint. If I ever make these again, I would use a sealer on the pots first OR use a different brand of spray paint. I used the 97 cents Wal-mart stuff.

For the saucers, I painted half of them red and half black. They took 3 coats of paint. I had 3 sets of siblings in class, so I painted them different colors so the families would have slightly different ones.

I bought a bag of 12 wooden balls at Hobby Lobby for the lids. They are flat on one side and glued them on prior to class with E-6000 glue. I painted them white before gluing them on.

I cut scarves out of sheets of felt and eyes, nose, mouth and buttons out of vinyl.

The glass bowls came from the Dollar Tree.  They have 2 sizes--this was the bigger size--I think it was 4.5 inches.

Once in class, the kids put their faces & buttons on the snowmen. I helped them tie the scarf around the pot, then we glued the glass bowl on using 5-6000 glue.

We had extra time after making our ornament, so I let them paint their lids to make them their own.  They were once again very creative and most ended up not black or red at all!!

We also made a burlap ornament. I got the idea from an Etsy shop pin. I bought a half yard of burlap and had more than enough to make 15 ornaments (extras just in case).

I made a snowman shape with my Silhouette machine and cut white card stock to glue to the burlap. I felt like it needed a backing since the kids would be gluing things on the burlap.

I used spray adhesive to glue the burlap & card stock together, then trimmed the burlap around the shape.

The kids painted faces, glued on buttons, tied a string round the neck for a scarf.  We taped small twigs on the back for arms.

Needless to say, both projects turned out Super Cute!!

Snowman Crafts--Ornaments & Q-tips paintings

Snowman Class

Q-tip Paintings, Clear-filled ornament & Thumbprint Ornament

For our 2nd class, we made 2 ornaments and a painting.

We started by finishing the Thumbprint ornaments. The first week, I painted each child's thumb & pressed it 3 times on a plain, blue ornament to make a snowman. Since we finished them week 2, they were obviously completely dry by then :).

I had a bunch of sharpies, laid them all out for the kids and let them decorate their snowmen.

Once again, they were all very creative!!  Some went wild, like Landon--who put 4 arms on one of his-- and other were sweet and made cute snowmen. 

You can't go wrong with art and it was fun to see them be creative and make it their own.

Next, we filled a clear ornament with small, white  Styrofoam balls.  I pre-filled plastic cups with the right amount of styrofoam and made small funnels out of paper for each child.

Styrofoam is static-y and goes everywhere!! If I had it to do over, I might use the packaged, shredded white paper stuff, but the ornaments turned out so cute with the foam balls, if you can stand the mess use them!!

I have a Silhouette cutter machine, so I cut eyes and mouth circles out of black vinyl and triangle noses out of orange vinyl.  This worked out great & was easy!! If you can't do vinyl or some kind of stickers, you could paint the face on the ornament.

We used pipe cleaners & pompoms as a earmuffs for the top. I pre-glued the pompoms to the pipe cleaners to save time.

The worst part was the kids having to hold the earmuffs on while the glue dried.  It just took sooooooooooo long...at least according to kids :).  We did figure out that if you wedged them into the plastic cups just right, the cup would hold it all together while the glue dried.

Last, we made Q-tip Snowmen paintings. (Once again, the kids made a demo at home to see how it went.)

Close-up of Landon's class painting.  The cutest thing was, that the youngest girl in class loved Landon's demo painting so much she wanted to do one just like it! (The small, squatty man above, left)

This one is mine--it was so fun to make!

Apparently, Savannah didn't want pictures taken of her projects or I just didn't take any...who knows.

These are so simple! I bought a pack of card stock at Michael's with several shades of blue, a pack of Q-tips and used acrylic paint I had on hand.

It really is fun to watch kids create & just see what comes out of their minds and onto paper.

All these were really easy projects.  Cost just depends on what you already have on hand to use.  You can buy pompoms and pipe cleaners at the Dollar Tree, so you can get supplies inexpensively!

(The pins I pinned for these ideas ended up being just pictures with no blogs or tutorials, or went to blogs, but I couldn't find an actual post about the picture. So can't give credit to anyone.)

Snowman Crafts--Sock Snowman

Snowman Crafts

Sock Snowman

Our school offers After School Enrichment classes for students. I decided, since I work there now, that I would teach a snowman craft class for 5 weeks.

While I thought I would write a post each week about what we made, it turns out I was too busy with 3rd grade homework to make that happen. Plus we were so busy in class, I didn't take pictures of anything!!
Only took pictures of my kids & their stuff once we got home.

Now that class is over, I will share what we made--we had so much fun!!

I had 11 students total, ranging in age from 5-12. They all did a great job and we made many projects!

To get ready for the class, I started a Snowman Class board on Pinterest (of course).

The first class we made Sock Snowmen. 

My kids each made a demo at home so we would see how it worked so they ended up with two.

I pinned several sock snowmen on Pinterest and used ideas from all of them to make ours.  The best tutorial came from this one.  Except for the hat, I took the idea of just rolling down the top of the sock from this tutorial (which is also a good tutorial).

I have a craft room and have accumulated a lot of supplies.  I pulled out my buttons, ribbon, pompoms, glue, batting & puffy paint. 

I bought 3-packs of white, men's socks from the Dollar Tree and rice from the grocery store.

Each child got a sock and I filled the bottom of the sock with about a 1/3 bag of the rice. I would say 3/4-1 cup of rice. Then the kids filled up the rest of the sock with batting.  Fill it up to the bottom of the ribbed top part of the sock (or less if you want it shorter) and rubber band the sock closed. (NOTE: in one of our demos, we used popcorn instead of rice, but you could see it through the sock. So I would definitely use white rice, not popcorn.)

Fold the top of the sock over onto the top part of the batting filled part.  This makes your hat--tack it down with a little glue.

Then decorate how you choose!!  We used Tacky Glue to glue all the parts on. The kids were all so creative and really made them their own creations.  As you can see from Landon's picture above, he made his with batting hair.

This was my first class and over all it went well!  The only thing I would change is using black puffy paint.  It got a little out of control.  My oldest student decided to polka-dot her top pompom--an idea that several others decided to do too!!

Pretty soon we had puffy paint everywhere.

Also, the ribbon scarves got into some of the puffy painted mouths and ended up everywhere.

We quickly had to remake one girls' snowman before we left.

I suppose if you were making at home where the paint could just dry and did not have to be transported, it would be ok to use.

My goal was to also make a thumbprint snowman ornament.  We got the thumbprints done, but didn't complete the ornaments.

So we finished those the next week...will tell you about those in the next post!!

Overall, an easy, cheap and fun project!!

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls

Yesterday I made cinnamon rolls to take to work today. 

The real homemade kind...not Pillsbury canned ones.

Many people asked for the recipe so I thought I would share it here since I took it from a couple of different Pinterest recipes.

Growing up, we made homemade cinnamon rolls and they were so yummy.  Now, my mom's recipe is missing and no one seems to know where it might have gone. So I had to resort to Pinterest to find a good one.

I wasn't planning on writing a blog post on this, so I didn't take a picture of the 2 pans of rolls.  So I took a picture of what I brought back home.

That is only 5 out of two pans...I think they liked them! :)

Dough:

½ cup very warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 packet of yeast
½ cup melted butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
½ cup sugar
1½ cups warm milk
5½ cups flour (I use 2 cups wheat flour & the rest white)

Filling:About 1/2 stick softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 Tbs. cinnamon

Combine sugars & cinnamon

(These are approximate, just depends on how much filling you want)

Icing:

For icing, melt butter (about 2 tablespoons).  Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and 2 tablespoons milk.  Sift powdered sugar into mixture and stir well.  Amount of powdered sugar depends on how thick you want your icing.

• Combine water, 1 tablespoon sugar and yeast.  Set aside for 5 minutes to activate.
• Mix ½ cup sugar, melted butter, eggs, and salt.  Add yeast mixture.
• Stir in warm milk. (I heat in microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring in between, for about 1 1/2 minutes total.
• Add 5 cups flour, 1-2 cups at a time.
• Knead dough on a well-floured surface, adding flour as necessary, until dough isn’t sticky.
• Let rise until double in a clean, oiled bowl. (I heat my oven and turn it off, place the bowl in the oven so it has a warm place to rise OR leave the oven on & place the bowl on top. The heat from the oven will help it rise.)
• Punch down risen dough.  Separate into two pieces.
• Roll out dough in a large rectangle.  Spread with softened butter.  Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon mixture.
• Roll dough until about 1/4 inch thick. 
• Use floss to cut into 1 inch rolls. I place rolls on a cutting board to rise until double in size. 
• Bake at 350° for 20-22 minutes.  Spread icing while hot.

I pinned this recipe from here. I've also used this recipe link for icing. Just depends on if you want a cream cheese icing or not. Both are yummy!

Cream Cheese Icing:

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

Making cinnamon rolls is easy and so worth it! Just be sure to allow time for the dough to rise.

Make some & enjoy!!

New Entry...Organized!!

Getting Organized & Pretty!

I'm a pretty organized person. I can usually find things when I'm looking for them. I like labels, but I don't own a label maker...yet. 

That being said, I should admit that despite being organized, we do have plenty of clutter. My purse & keys end up on the kitchen counter (along with lots of other stuff). Kevin has lots of hats, that really needed more space to hang on.

We had this mirror hanging on the wall in the entry from the garage. (Sorry forgot to take a before picture of it actually on the wall.)

It was not strong enough to hold my purse. It was really just another cluttered type area with hats & stuff.

There are plenty of ideas on Pinterest for entries, like this one found here.

This was an easy project even for non-handy people like us!

Here is what we did. First, I measured the wall to see how long our boards needed to be.

 (Always smart to measure first!)

Next, a trip to Lowes. We bought 2--8 foot boards that are really used for trim. A little decorative, but flat enough in spots so we could put hooks on it.  We also bought 10 robe hooks. There are lots of types of hooks. These were the least expensive at just under $1.50 each.

I measured again, marked the boards & cut the ends off with my jigsaw (yes, MY jigsaw).  Sanded it smooth with MY sander too :).

The stud finders we have don't really work. So to find the studs we tapped on the walls and nailed nails in the wall to find them. (Like I said we aren't handy...)  It really worked well, we just hammered where we knew the board would cover all our holes.

We used long sheet rock screws to screw through the boards into the studs.  Make sure you screw into the studs to really anchor the boards.  You want to be able to hang stuff on the hooks & not have everything fall!

NOTE: we did not countersink our screws. If I were to do this again, I would countersink.  We were able to get most of the screws far enough in to putty over & cover, but not all of them.  You can only tell if you look really close.

You can see in the picture above how I puttied over the screws to get a smooth surface to paint.  Putty, let dry, then sand smooth.

I bought this paint at Walmart for about $8. It stinks, so if you use enamel paint, make sure you ventilate your area well. I think I was a little high after the first coat...

It took 3 coats to cover the boards.

We put 5 hooks on each board. We started in the middle (it covered one of the screws we used to hang the boards too) then measured out evenly in both directions to add 2 hooks on each side of the middle one.

Doesn't it look great? If I do say so myself!  I did a pretty good job taping before painting, so there is very little touch up I need to do on the walls, thank goodness.

Here is the finished project!

Eventually, I may add some pictures or a vinyl saying on the wall above the top row of hooks.  But for now I'm happy with how great it looks and how useful it is!

Total project cost was about $40 with boards, hooks & paint.

Super easy!! 

Summer Fun Crafts

Summer is coming to an end. I have mixed feelings about this...I enjoy being able to be at home with my kids. BUT their squabbling wears me out!! During those times, I'm so ready for school to start!

Seems the only time they aren't trying to hurt each other is when they are creating crafts or making play-doh creations (which is what they are doing as I type).

Today is my last full day home with them this summer. I've gone back to work and my in-service schedule starts tomorrow.

Thought I would try to catch up on some of the crafty things we did this summer.  Some will have their own posts. Some, like this one, will have several projects included in one post.

Fireworks!

For 4th of July we painted Fireworks using pipe cleaners. Found the idea here.

Fun, easy & glittery!

Googly Eyed Monsters

Glue googly eyes on a piece of paper and let the kids draw around it to create their own monsters. Find idea here. It was fun to see them be creative. Landon made monsters in the dark...basically his whole page was black :).

Foil People

Cheap foil from the dollar tree was easily transformed into foil people & creations. Found idea here. No real instructions but it's not rocket science, just get a big piece of foil & shape it into a person. :)

Recommend all of these fun & easy ideas. :)

Fun with Pool Noodles

Summer Fun with Pool Noodles

This is a fun idea I pinned using pool noodles and golf tees.

I cut 2 noodles into different sizes using a serrated knife.

(I only cut half of each noodle, we wanted 2 colors.)

Before we got started on the project, we took some silly pictures. :)

Fortunately, Kevin is a golfer so we had a jar full of golf tees.

Instead of sharing colors, they each chose 1 noodle color to make their creations.

Super easy & fun. You can put it together, take it apart and make all sorts of things. 

Landon made a monkey and a caterpillar.

Savannah made a robot and a dog.

Cheap, easy, and fun!!

(It's been awhile since we did this. They've taken apart & put back together several times to make new/fun things!)

Fuzzy Sock Puppets

Summer Fun-Fuzzy Sock Puppets

This was a fun one. I already had fuzzy socks & lots of fun things to add to them to make fun puppets.

The idea came from this post. She has great, easy to follow instructions. So I will just post pictures of our puppets.

Landon's

Savannah's

My only recommendation would be to use a different type of glue than hot glue.  We've had several pieces fall off and we used hot glue.  Using a different type will mean you can't play with them as fast and have to wait for glue to dry, but the puppets should stay together longer. I would recommend Tacky Craft Glue.

Easy & fun!!

Crayon Hot Rocks

Months ago, I started a Pinterest board titled "Summer Fun". I had big plans to do fun activities to keep the kids busy and blog about it.  It's July 11th...we've done some activities but I haven't blogged about it like I meant to.

School will start in a month. I start back to work next week. Suddenly, summer is coming to a quick end.

So here is the first post of some of the fun activities we have tried.  Some were good, some have failed.

Crayon Hot Rocks

On our Spring Break trip to MO we brought back a bucket of rocks from the lake with his project in mind.

(At least it was in my mind, my kids just like to collect rocks...)

I pinned the idea from this post. It's super easy. The worst part was peeling the wrappers off the crayons. To make peeling easier, cut a slit down the crayon with scissors & it should peel off easier. 

Place on a foil lined cookie sheet. The blog post says to heat at 350 for 15 minutes. The notes on the Pinterest post says 220 for 10 minutes.

I think I did the 220 for 10 minutes. They were plenty hot!

The rocks are hot!  I gave the kids a wooden skewer to help hold the rocks still while they colored them.

This was a fun project! The crayons just melted right on the rocks!  Except for the sandstone rock we had brought home. So don't use sandstone :)

They weren't overly creative with the rocks like I hoped they would be. But the rocks still turned out pretty cool with the melted crayon colors on them.

The one in the back, he colored silver...not a big change in color, but you can tell up close that it's colored.

Fun and easy activity...we recommend it!!

(PS--don't judge my cookie sheet...)