Fun Ideas for Fall Crafts

October 20, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I love fall! The colors of the leaves turning shades of golden orange and brown is just gorgeous. The gorgeous fall colors can inspire some wonderful fall craft ideas for your children as well. Here are a few ways you can take advantage of all nature has to offer this fall.

1. Leaf Tracings

Start by creating a small booklet by folding 10 sheets of copy paper in half. To bind the booklet, punch two holes in the spine, thread yarn through the hole and tie the ends. Take your children to the park, give each of them a pencil or crayon and a booklet. Challenge them to see who can find and trace the most unique leaves!

2. Book of Leaves

You could also turn your booklet into a learning experience. Instead of simply tracing the leaves, have them collect the leaves and place them into the book. Then, help them research their leaves in an encyclopedia. They can jot down the name of the leaf and a few interesting facts about the leaf/tree as well.

3. Leaf Characters

Of course, fall leaves are gorgeous on there own, but why not let your children give them a life of their own. First help them draw and copy different types of leaves onto construction paper. They can then cut out the leaves and add glitter for some sparkle. Now they can create their own characters using leaves to create  a face, body and limbs. Finish off the characters by drawing faces on their characters with markers.

4. Leaf Collage

Gather as many types of leaves as you can find. Glue the leaves in any kind of arrangement onto a piece of construction paper or cardboard. Alternatively, spread white school glue across an entire sheet of paper or piece of cardboard. Crumble leaves at random over the glue. When the glue dries, you will have an awesome leaf collage.

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Almost a Scarf

October 6, 2008 By 2 Comments

I had the opportunity this weekend to spend time listening to the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. My plan was to take notes while I listened to help me pay attention. After missing the first 30 minutes because I was packing stuff up to be taken to the post office, I decided to try something else instead, and spent most of the remaining 7.5 hours working on this:

This is the scarf that I’ve mentioned before. I started it back in November 2007 when I decided to teach myself how to knit. Here we are, almost a year later, and it’s still not done. After 7 hours of knitting it is pretty close though. I guess it’s time to pull the book and Knitting Help videos back out and figure out how to cast off. Bugga was especially excited to see me working on it and kept asking me if her tail was finished yet.

Here’s what I’ve learned about knitting over the last two days:

  1. I either need lots of practice, or I need to learn a faster way of knitting. If people can finish entire projects in the amount of time it took me to get half a scarf done I must be really slow.
  2. Knitting makes your finger-tips sore, specifically the left index finger. Will I eventually build up a callus there if I knit often enough? Or am I doing something wrong?
  3. It is not very easy to put knitting down when someone knocks on the door, and you’re probably better off waiting to start until after your company arrives.

Overall, it was an inspirational and productive weekend. What did you craft this weekend?

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Look At My Space #5

September 24, 2008 By 1 Comment

I am back at my desk this week, and I feel like I should mention something real quick so as not to feel like a total liar. While my desk is pretty clean and organized in the picture below, it has not looked like this for the last two weeks since I got it clean. I am a master at leaving things to be put away later, and did a quick stash before snapping a photo for this week’s post. I will say that I have been doing better. I’m not leaving garbage and other random stuff on my desk. I do need to start putting things away as I’m finished with them though, so I don’t have a pile of stuff to be put away before I can take my pictures. Anyway, on with the show!

We have visitors in my space this week:

Aren’t they adorable! That’s Squeak in the chair, and Bugga is standing next to her holding Molly Dolly. I think they enjoy my nice clean space. Then again, maybe it’s the newest addition to the space, a Sony DPF-V900 Digital Photo Frame. That and pushing buttons on my computer.

I’ve been wanting a digital photo frame for a long time, but they were always out of reach as far as price goes. Ten days ago now I was surprised by an email from 5 Minutes For Mom. I don’t enter every contest I find, only the ones giving away something I would actually use. So, imagine my surprise when I found out that the winner of the 5 Minutes For Mom drawing for the digital photo frame had opted not to claim their prize. They redrew and my name was the one chosen. I made sure to respond immediately. Last Thursday, shortly after posting about my space, the UPS man arrived with a box and a new toy for me, and it has had its home on my desk ever since.

Why do I love having a digital photo frame on my desk? When you put it in the simplest terms, it’s all about inspiration. I uploaded several photos taken by myself, my sister-in-law, and found on the internet to the frame’s internal memory. I set it to randomly display multiple images. Then, as I watch the photos change I am inspired by the color combinations that come up as well as the images that are combined. Pictures of scenery show up alongside silly faces. Flowers appear next to zoo animals. And I see the girls together, showing so many differences and similarities all at the same time. It definitely gets me thinking about combinations of pictures to put together for their scrapbooks that I might not have considered before.

Do you have anything in your craft space that inspires you? If you don’t, go find something that inspires you and bring it in.

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Crafting in the Kitchen

September 19, 2008 By 2 Comments

I’ve talked before about wanting to teach my daughters some useful crafts in addition to the arts and crafts stuff we do most of the time. One of those useful crafts is cooking and baking, and here is one of the first things I am going to teach them to make:

Don’t they look delicious! And, I have to add, that panckaes made from scratch taste better than anything I have ever got from a mix or at any pancake house. My girls love them, I love them, and even my husband who doesn’t normally like pancakes will eat several.

The recipe I use was passed down from my Grandma. Shortly after getting married, my dad requested pancakes for breakfast, and my mom pulled out the pancake mix. He commented on liking his mom’s pancakes so much better, so my mom called her up and got the recipe. They turned out awful! She called back and asked what went wrong and found out that when my grandma says “2 cups of flour” she actually means “2 heaping-as-tall-as-you-can-get-it-without-making-a-mess cups of flour.” So, my mom watched her cook them, wrote down what she did, and then made adjustments to come up with this recipe:

  • 4 cups of flour
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 1 large spoon of baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 cup of oil
  • 4 cups of milk
  • vanilla
  1. Mix all the dry ingredients together. (My mom never did figure out an exact measurement for the baking powder. She just uses a large tablespoon, the kind my dad uses to eat soup. I usually use a heaping tablespoon. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s somewhere between 1 1/2 and 2 tablespoons.)
  2. Make a crater in the dry ingredients.
  3. Crack eggs into the crater.
  4. Add oil (I use corn oil, canola oil and vegetable oil work too) into the crater and lightly beat the eggs and oil together. (If you really want extra dishes to wash, you can beat your eggs in something else first.)
  5. Add the milk and vanilla and mix everything together. (Again, there was never an exact measurement on the vanilla. I just got used to how much was enough by watching my mom put it in. If I had to guess, it’s probably just a teaspoon or two.)
  6. Warm up your griddle or pan. (In my electric skillet, 350 degrees was about perfect. Since that is gone I use a pan on my stove-top set to medium heat.)
  7. Pour batter onto the pan. (I figured out 1/3 cup of batter makes pancakes pretty close to the size I want, so I use a measuring cup instead of a spoon or ladel.)
  8. The pancakes will start to bubble and as the bubbles pop they refill with batter. When you start to see a bubble or two that doesn’t refill then it’s time to flip them. The second side doesn’t take as long to cook, and I usually take them off as soon as I stop hearing the sizzle.

We’ve made some changes to this recipe over the years, but they still turn out amazing.

  • When we didn’t have milk my mom would mix powdered milk in with the dry ingredients and use water instead. When she was out of powdered milk, she just used plain water and they still turned out just fine. I prefer milk, it seems to make the batter a little thicker and easier to handle, but have been known to mix half milk and half water, or use just water.
  • My mom has started making these with powdered milk, powdered eggs, and powdered shortening. She now uses the recipe to make her own pancake mix so she can mix up as many or as few as she wants without having to worry about adding anything but water. I haven’t tried them that way yet, but she says they taste just the same.
  • I also prefer pancakes made with whole wheat flour, especially when mom would grind the wheat herself right before making the pancakes. The ones I made today are white flour because I grabbed the wrong bag in my hurry through the grocery store this last time.
  • Because this is such a basic recipe it is really easy to mix in fruit or anything else you want to get just the kind of pancakes you like. Our favorites are chunks of banana or dried blueberries. I’ve also been wanting to try some with nuts or dried apples and cinnamon.
  • This recipe also makes really good waffles.

So, exactly how many pancakes does this recipe make? That’s a good question. Growing up, our family of 6 kids could eat them almost as fast as my mom could cook them. A single batch would usually feed our family with a few leftover for snacks later or to give as treats to the dog. When we had friends sleep over or other company she would make a 1 1/2 batch or double batch to make sure there was plenty. For my family now, usually just me and the girls, I make a 1/2 batch and we have leftovers that are snacked on throughout the day and gone by the time my husband comes home from work. Occasionally I will make a full batch and just put leftover batter in the fridge so I don’t have to mix it up again the next morning. It will seperate in the refrigerator, but give it a good stir and you’re good to go. My sister also reminded me that you need to add just a little bit of baking powder too if you want them to be nice and fluffy the second day.

Topping the pancakes can be almost as much fun as making them. My favorite is butter and a little bit of powdered sugar. My husband likes butter and syrup. My 6 year old likes peanut butter and syrup (I think my husband gave her that idea). My almost 3 year old just wants whatever she sees anyone else putting on their pancakes. Jam is always really good, and if we’re feeling a little spoiled we throw in some whipped cream or chocolate syrup. No matter what you top them with, this is what you’ll end up with:

(Courtesy of my almost 3 year old, after 4 pancakes.)

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Look At My Space #4

September 18, 2008 By 1 Comment

The bad news is I’m a day late posting.

The good news is my Swiffer got a really good workout.

So, this is what the end of my bedroom that I use for craft storage looked like when I started:

If you look close, you can see that the end-tables I got made it back there, unfortunately, so did a bunch of other stuff too.

I am still far from being done, but I got a lot done while my girls slept in this morning. As of right now, my space in my bedroom looks like this:

Yes, I am missing a drawer for one of my rubber-maid containers. I think I know which box it is in, but haven’t made it that far yet. The pile on top of the drawers next to the end tables is all stuff that needs to be mended. I’m going to work on that over the next day or two and hopefully clear that pile out so I can continue organizing.

What’s going on in your space this week? What projects are you making progress on?

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Look At My Space #3

September 10, 2008 By 4 Comments

As a reminder, this is what my space looked like 2 weeks ago:

And this is what my space looks like as of right now:

Look at all that space I have to work in! Yippee!

Parts of my organizing project that are already done:

  • Table cleared off
  • End tables cleaned out
  • Space in my room cleared for end tables
  • End tables moved into bedroom

What’s left to do:

  • Go through boxes of stuff from desk
  • Go through boxes of craft stuff
  • Decide what to get rid of and what to keep
  • Donate, trash, or otherwise get rid of things I don’t want
  • Make sure the stuff I’m keeping is organized
  • Find a place to put everything

What kind of work are you doing in your space? Do you have any reorganizing or decorating projects going on? Be sure to share by leaving a link to your space in the comments.

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Look At My Space #2

September 3, 2008 By 1 Comment

Welcome to the second installment of Look At My Space. I appreciate you stopping by. Last week I showed you my own disorganized space. Knowing that I would have to check in this week made me want to work. Unfortunately, it was a holiday weekend, so actually getting anything done was nearly impossible.

My week went something like this:

Wednesday: I snagged a plastic bin from my girls’ room and used it to start sorting the stuff on my desk. Bills, pens and pencils, and other household related stuff I want to keep handy.

Thursday: I needed to find an account number first thing in the morning, so I went through the piles and started pulling out all the mail and got rid of some of the garbage.

Friday: I didn’t get as much time as I wanted, so just a few things off the top of the pile were tossed.

Saturday-Monday: My husband was home, the car wasn’t working, and I stayed distracted with other things pretty much all weekend.

Tuesday: I played catch-up around the house and didn’t take any time for my space at all.

As of right now, my desk looks like this:

I suppose it is slightly better than it looked last week, but still needs a lot of work.

I also never got around to any work on the piles of boxes in my bedroom. That’s where I plan on starting today. Over the weekend, we were given two of these:

I figured they would be perfect for storing my supplies in and on. Right now they are sitting in my dining room. If I don’t get my bedroom space cleared out and make room for them soon, my husband will claim them for his “man cave” instead, and I will be out the storage space. Talk about motivation for getting to work.

What does your space look like this week? Leave a comment with a link so we can check it out.

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Paper Beads

August 29, 2008 By 1 Comment

Earlier this week, when I posted pictures of my messy crafting space, you may have seen this little beauty on the floor next to my table.

This particular blue box was just delivered earlier this week and was given a spot next to my front door. Junk mail is tossed in right as it comes into the house, newspapers are added after they have been looked through, and we are working on building the habit of making sure all of our paper garbage ends up in this box as well. Having that box there makes us feel good because it means we are sending less garbage to the landfills, and we’re helping the school across the street, where we drop the paper off so they can trade it in for cash.

In addition to the benefits to the environment and the school of recycling paper, I also have the added benefit of a readily available stash of craft materials. Newspapers are good for covering tables and floors when you’re doing messy crafts, and they’re regularly listed as one of the supplies needed when following paper mache instructions. All different kinds and colors of paper can be used for making handmade paper projects. And, one of my favorites for magazine pages and other ads are paper beads.

To make paper beads, you will need:

  • Paper – junk mail, wrapping paper, or other lightweight papers work best
  • Glue – the plain white kind
  • Sticks – toothpicks, match sticks, skewers, straws, pencils, or something else like that
  • Scissors – regular straight edge scissors or decorative edge for variety

Then, you follow these simple steps:

Pick out your paper. You can try solid colors or patterned paper for various effects. We used a page from an old video game magazine.

Cut the paper into triangles approximately 1 inch wide and 2 inches long.

Starting with the largest side, roll a triangle onto your stick.

When you get near the end put a dot of glue near the tip and continue rolling. Some glue will squish out the sides, just use your finger to smear it around to make sure the bead stays together. We also discovered that it was easier to see what we were doing if we painted the glue on instead of trying to use the bottle.

Slide the bead off the stick and move onto the next triangle. So you finish with a pile of beads like this.

Of course, if you have a 3 year old your beads might end up looking a little bit more like this.

And your 6 year old might end up using the triangles to make rockets instead of beads.

For some variety you can try some of the following:

  • Change the shape of the paper slightly. Longer triangles make thicker beads, wider triangles make longer beads.
  • If you want your beads to last a little bit longer, try Mod Podge instead of glue for holding your beads together.
  • Add glitter or coloring to your glue for interesting effects.
  • After you’re all done, string the beads together for necklaces and bracelets.

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Look At My Space

August 27, 2008 By 1 Comment

My husband and I were talking the other night and he brought up a really good point. I have boxes and boxes of scrapbook stuff, and I do nothing with it. Scrapbooks and passing on stories used to be my passion. Now I mostly talk about the importance of scrapbooks, but I do nothing about it.

I’m sure I could come up with plenty of excuses for not scrapbooking. One of the main excuses is the fact that I don’t have the space to scrap. Of course, the reason I don’t have the space to scrap is because I am totally unorganized and have a really bad habit of letting things pile up instead of putting them away when I am done with them. It’s a habit I have committed myself to breaking.

So, in an effort to get myself more organized, and I can’t believe I am about to do this, I am going to show you what my desk/craft table looks like right now.

And here is the table next to my desk.

The worst part of it all is that none of that junk is scrapbook or other craft stuff, with the exception of the Fairy Things to Make and Do Kid Kit that never got put away last week. Most of it is bills and junk mail, but there’s plenty of other randomness like take-out menus, books, the remote control for the protable DVD player, and yes, that is a roll of toilet paper you see near the left end of my table. The mess makes a very unattractive addition to my entryway/dining room.

In addition to the mess on the table, I also have these two piles of boxes in the corner of my bedroom.

That’s where all of my scrapbook and craft supplies are stored. There isn’t really any method to the madness, just a bunch of stuff thrown into whatever box it fit into at the moment. Needless to say, it is not functional.

So, in an effort to get committed to organizing and then scrapbooking, I am officially declaring Wednesday to be “Look At My Space” day. Each week I will post an update of what my spaces look like. Throughout the week I will spend a minimum of 10 minutes per day specifically cleaning and dejunking in one of the two areas. If you need to clean up your space, feel free to play along and leave me a comment about what you are doing with your craft space. If you have pictures of your space, post them on your blog and leave a link so everyone can come and get some inspiration.

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Fairy Things to Make and Do

August 22, 2008 By 3 Comments

We try to do an art project with our girls at least once a week. When I told the girls it was time for our project this week, Bugga immediately went running for my bedroom, shouting that she was going to get her art supplies. Squeak followed. Wanting to make sure that they didn’t get into anything that is not theirs, I went too, and was surprised when Bugga went straight to her Fairy Things to Make and Do Kid Kit. This was another birthday gift for Bugga, and even though I forgot it was back there, she apparently didn’t.

Usborne Kid Kits are amazing things. Each one comes with an Usborne book and all the supplies you need for a project or two to go with the book. Our Fairy Things to Make and Do Kid Kit came with the Fairy Things to Make and Do book (also sold seperately), paints, paint brush, scissors, glue stick, cardstock, a glitter glue pen, tulle, ribbon, pony beads, flex straws, and a wooden dowel. Lots of fun stuff for any little girl to play with.

After flipping through the book, we chose to make fairy puppets. Because neither of my girls have very good control of scissors yet, I did the cutting, but they both glued the pieces together with only a little bit of help, and then decorated the fairies by themselves.

Because the kit comes with all the supplies we needed it really simplified the process for me. Normally we’re going through every color of paper I have to find just the right one. With paper in the kit I just had them choose from what was there. I’m not a fan of glue sticks, so we used some liquid glue instead. When it came time to make the faces I grabbed a scrap of skin-tone paper from my stash, and cut circles. I think if we did this again I would use a large circle punch instead.

Since the kit came with paint, of course the girls just had to use it. What would an art project be without some way to make a huge mess? I don’t know exactly what kind of paint it is, but it washed off of hands really easy and the one spot that ended up on a dress came almost all the way out with a wash rag and some cold water.

Over-all, I highly recommend all of the Usborne Kid Kits, but if you have little girls who enjoy art projects, the Fairy Things to Make and Do kit should be at the top of your wishlist.

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