DVD Coloring Travel Case

This is one of the COOLEST ideas I've seen in a LONG time, and I decided I've GOT to try it! This activity is perfect for long car trips or in times of eating out where you need a distraction for the kiddos. I found my inspiration from http://stacyvaughnblog.blogspot.com This girl came up with this cool idea and here is my take on it!

 

What you'll need:

• Old DVD case (The one pictured is a standard movie case, but I ended up using one that was a little bit deeper and it worked out better for me, but either will work)
• Fabric (I used two different colors, one for the pocket, and one for the backing)
• Thin piece of cardboard
• Spray Adhesive (I think hot glue will also work very well, next time I'll use that instead)
• Colorful Craft paper (For decorating the outside)
• Utility Knife

 

 

First, you'll want to cut out the part that holds the DVD in the case. This is the most difficult part of this entire activity because it is a pain. Use your utility knife and cut around that part so you'll have a flat part to put your crayons, markers, pencils etc in. Make sure you don't cut through the plastic cover, you'll need that to decorate the outside later. I used a cutting mat in between the case and the plastic cover to prevent me from cutting though it.

 

 

Once you cut that part out, Cut a relatively thin piece of cardboard to fit the space to cover the cut out. Then cut a piece of fabric to cover the cardboard. I found pieces of fabric at my local Wal-Mart really cheap!! 97 cents to be exact. You can't beat that for small pieces of fabric, and they had A LOT of cute styles to choose from. Glue the fabric to the cardboard. You can use a spray or hot glue the edges.

 

 

Cut another piece of fabric for the pocket. I cut mine so the pocket would be half as tall as the case. Once you measure, double the height so when you fold the fabric in half it will be the right size. Iron so you have a crisp fold. Glue that down, but make sure you leave enough room for your crayons, markers, pencils etc to have enough room to slide in and out easily.

Once that's glued down, glue the entire thing to the inside of the case to cover the hole you cut.

 

 

Then you can decorate the outside anyway you want...I just used a piece of scrapbook paper and glued some of my fabric turtles to it. This is where you can be as creative as you want and let the littles color and draw all they want.

 

 Here's our result!

I ADORE it, and I think my little loves it too!! This will be great to take on car trips and it will keep him busy!

I used some of the fabric and colored paper for the outside decoration.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Crafting



Email me anytime with comments or questions! I love hearing from you!

 

littleartsylittlecraftsy@hotmail.com

Q Tip Skeleton

Since Halloween is right around the corner, I thought that today me and my little would do a little Halloween craft to hang on the frig. Any time we can do a craft to hang up, I'm all over it.

 

This is incredibly easy which as you know is my "thing".

 

What you'll need:

• Q Tips
• Glue (I used hot glue and regular Elmer's Glue)
• Black Construction paper
• Skull (I just cut mine out of white construction paper)

 

Basically all you need to do is cut your Q Tips to the size you want. This is where your creativity comes into play! Any way you want to position your skeleton is totally up to you!

 

Here's our version. We laid it out on the table first to get a general idea of how it was going to look glued on the paper.

 

 

 

Then just glue it on the paper however you want!

Waalaaa :) I just drew on the face with a sharpie.

 

 

Admiring our hard work!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Crafting



Coffee Filter Cut Outs

Since Fall is my FAVORITE season, I always get in the swing of it a bit early! The smells, the colors, wearing jeans and hoodies are a few of my favorite things about this wonderful time of year.

Since it was cool and rainy today we decided to tackle something fall related. My first thought was LEAVES! Who doesn't love jumping in a huge pile!?! Well, we aren't jumping in any today, but I thought we could make some!

 

What you'll need:

•  Coffee Filters
• Markers
• Spray bottle (of water)
• Parchment paper or cookie sheets

 

 

Lay out your coffee filter flat, and get to coloring. Just bits of color everywhere. You can't color too much, so go to town!!

 

 

 

Once you have them colored the way you like (this is where the cookie sheet comes in handy) put them on a surface you're not worried about getting wet with the water and markers. Spray a few sprays of the water. The more water you spray the lighter the colors will be. So use your own preference. We did a few in other colors because my little got carried away and didn't want to stop coloring :)

 

 

 

It's ok if the colors aren't all together, once the water gets on there, the colors will all blend together!

 

 

Our result!

 

 

I crinkled up the fall color ones so we can cut out leaf shapes. We found a few leaves to trace and hung them on the front door and the frig. The other color ones I cut out a heart, fish, and other shapes. This is where your creative mind comes in, do whatever you'd like!

 

 

 

Happy Crafting

 



Homemade Playdough

So, here is one of my FAVORITE crafts that I've done with my little. It does require the stove to make, so it was kinda hard to keep him involved, but with a little help from daddy it worked out quite nicely. I don't recommend having your little help unless you have an extra set of hands & eyes.

 

This activity is fast, easy, and tons of fun which is the prerequisites for pretty much any activity I end up doing with my little! And the mess is pretty minimal too which is just an added bonus. (its ok you can thank me later)

 

What you'll need:

• 1c Flour
• 1 c Water
• 2 t Cream of Tartar (teaspoons)
• 1/3 c salt
• 1 T oil (tablespoon...and you can use whatever old you have on hand, vegetable, canola. I used canola)
• Food Coloring

Now, this recipe makes quite a bit, but if you separate it into 2 separate batches you can get 2 maybe even 3 (depending on how much you want of each color) different colors out of this one batch. Now you may think this sounds like a lot of work, but hey, isn't your little worth it?!? It ends up going pretty quickly, so completely worth it!

 

 

Since I did two separate batches with this one amount, I just halved all the ingredients and mixed them together in two different pans. Start with adding all the dry ingredients, then add the liquids to it.

 

 

Turn your burner on to a little below medium and stir! It will probably be lumpy to start with, but that's ok, it will smooth out once it heats up. Once you see the start of it getting harder, add your food coloring. I used the Wilton gel colors because the colors are A LOT more vibrant, but you can use the liquid dropper type and get a nice color as well.

 

 

Keep stirring. You will notice it getting hard quickly, so don't take your eyes off of it! This entire process only takes a couple minutes so it goes really fast!

 

 

Once it gathers in a ball to the spoon, you'll know it's done. Take it off the heat and ball it up (careful it's very hot) and lay it on the table to cool. Once it's cooled let the little ones play till their hearts content! This is easy, quick, and most of all FUN!

 

 

For storage I just bought some dollar store small Tupperware and keep the lid sealed when my little isn't playing with it. It seems to last longer than the store bought stuff.

 

 

 

Happy Crafting

 

Baked Bead Sun Catchers

This project absolutely AWESOME!!! It was once again easy, fun, and quick!!! It turned out 10000 times better than I could have expected, so I know these will make it into our regular rotation of rainy day activities.

This was my trial run, so I only made two, but I'm DEFINITELY making more really soon!!!

 

What you'll need:

• Beads
• Non Stick cookware (I used spring form pans and a glass dish because that was the only thing I had that was the size I wanted)

Based on the "what you'll need" list, this is UBER easy!! Basically I can break this down in a couple steps and you'll be on your way!

 

Pour some beads in a single/flat layer in the bottom of your cookware. In this step you can use whatever color your little heart desires...I found a large bag of multi colored beads at Michael's for like 6 bucks, then I sorted them out by color to just get the individual colors I wanted.

 

 

Once you get them the way you want, bake in a 400 degree oven for 20ish minutes. This may take a little longer, based on how hot your oven cooks. I just kept checking them often to make sure they were melting. I got a bit of smoke when I checked which is normal so don't freak out!

 

Our Result!! :)

 

 

Now after you get them out of the oven they will be hot, so let them sit for about 10/20 minutes to cool, as this will let them pop right out of your pan. (make sure its NON STICK or use spray if you're using a glass dish)

After cooling, I used a little ribbon and hung them in our kitchen window to catch all the beautiful sun beaming through! (you can just leave an open hole before baking to create an opening for ribbon/wire/string for hanging) You could also hang it on the porch as an outdoor sun catcher too!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Crafting 

Baked Cotton Balls

I found a cool little activity to do today that I thought was going to turn out to be some totally AMAZING outcome, but the final outcome wasn't quite as exciting as I hoped. It was still fun and my little seemed to love the whole process.

 

What you'll need:

• 1 Cup Flour
• 1 Cup Water
• Cotton Balls
• Food Color
• Baking Sheet

This has to be one of the easiest activities we've done in a while, and if you know me at all, fast, easy, and fun is what I'm all about. This pretty much covers all my bases!

 

I broke my recipe up into 4ths so I would have four different colors, but you can easily just do all one color in one bowl. I used four because we LOVE color in this house. I also used the Wilton Food Color in the tubs rather than the liquid dropper ones. The color is WAY more vibrant if you use the gel coloring rather than the liquid.  





 

Mix your flour and water in a bowl or as I did in four bowls.(or however many colors you want)

 

Add you color and mix it up!

 

 

Coat the cotton balls in the flour mixture

 

 

Once they're coated, put them on a non stick baking sheet. I lined mine with aluminum foil, but after it was done, I realized that it wasn't really necessary since it cooked up and got hard so it wouldn't stick to a non stick pan. Bake them in the oven on 300 degrees for about 45 minutes.

 

 

Our result was this hard rock like "thing" :)

 

 

After they cooled for a few minutes, I let him have at them with his toy hammer.

 

 

All in all this activity got my little in the kitchen and using his brain which is my main goal anyway. It wasn't the most amazing thing in the world, but he had fun and LOVED busting them up with the hammer! :)

 

 

 

Happy Crafting

 

 

 

 

Halloween Wall/Door Hanger

Since Halloween is quickly upon us, I decided that now was the perfect time to think about doing some cool easy decor things around the house. I ran across this idea, and made it my own. The idea came from a post on Obsessivelycrafting.com and boy is it a CUTE idea.

This was fairly easy and didn't take a whole lot of time, which is MY kind of craft. I'm all about quick, easy, and CUTE! This craft can be altered to any character you'd like to use. I chose a ghost, vampire, Frankenstein, and a mummy.

What you'll need:

• Foam Sheets  You could use pretty much anything that is sturdy in place of the foam sheets, this is just what I had on hand, and it worked nicely since it was fairly sturdy and lightweight.
• Construction Paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Glue Gun
• Ribbon
• Mod Podge (Optional)

 

Now typically this kind of craft I'd do with my little, but today he just wasn't feeling it, so I did it alone. That was actually fine with me because I ended up getting it done A LOT sooner than I expected.

 

So, first things first, the foam sheets I had were odd shaped but ended up working pretty well. Just cut your foam sheets or whatever backing you choose to use to the size you want. I did a 4X4 size because that's what fit in between the window panels on my front door. Then cut your paper to fit the backing.

 

This is my foam backing

 

Foam backing with the construction paper

 

Ok, with me? Now that you have your paper cut to size, glue it to the backing. I used a stick glue, but it didn't stick that great. I'd probably recommend Eileens tacky glue. (gold bottle, white writing, pretty cheap, most craft stores)

 

Now this step is pretty much up to you. You can design which ever character to look how you'd like it. Cut out eyes, mouth, eye brows, teeth, whatever you like. Here's my take. :)

 

Frank is coming along

 

And waaalaaa

 

Here's the final four!

 

After you are done with your designing, you'll need to cut some ribbon to length. Then line up your faces, and hot glue the ribbon to the back for hanging. I centered them the best I could and it ended up being just a touch off, so be careful in this step to get it how you want before your finalize with the glue. 

 

 

After that this is the step where you can Mod Podge if this will be hanging on the outside of your front door or somewhere that will be exposed to the outdoors.

 

 

 

 

Now you can sit back and bask in the glory of all your hard work! This is really easy, and getting the kids involved would be awesome. Let them design their own characters and display them in the house for the holiday!

 

 

 

Happy Crafting



Glitter Bottle

This fun activity can be multi purpose! I use this for more of a sensory toy, but I've seen people talk about using it as a timeout occupier...My little isn't quite old enough to understand the concept of timeout but that doesn't mean I don't put him in his room for 5 or 10 minutes when he's being a little pain in the you know what. This activity is super easy, and your little can help every step of the way!

What you'll need:

• Water bottle (I used a Smart Water water bottle because the shape and size was about perfect  for little hands)
• Glitter Glue (There's a ton of different options at Michael's, WalMart etc. I used Elmer's)
• Glitter (Once again tons of options, next time I'll try fine glitter rather than the larger flakes)
• Food Color (optional)

 

Now that you have the stuff, fill your water bottle 3/4 of the way with hot water. I heated my water in the microwave for a couple minutes, but your tap water will probably get hot enough. You want the water hot so it will make the glue melt into it better. After you add the water, pour in the whole bottle of glue. It will look clumpy at first, but it will eventually mix in. After the glue pour in your glitter of choice.





 

I added one drop of food color to make the color a little more blue. Then shake shake shake....shake shake shake...shake your boo....oops sorry got a little distracted there...just shake it up. At this point I super glued the cap on because my little would probably take the cap off and either drink this amazing looking "soda" or glue himself to the carpet! Didn't want to take the chance of making a call to poison control because of glue ingestion.

 

There you have it! Glitter bottle. You can feel free to make this whatever you want. Add little toys, balls, whatever you want to make it more appealing to your little. I've made several different types of this and it keeps my little occupied and surprisingly entertained.

 

Hours of endless play and that means more time for mommy to relax!

 

 



 

 

 

Happy Crafting