Dinosaur Footprints

On a cool weather afternoon, I decided to try a new craft with Dylan that I found online - dinosaur fossils by Our Crafts ~N~ Things. We had fun using his dinosaur toys to make "fossils" of their footprints in clay. Supplies: Simply Tiffany Studios 52 Thursday Templates Template No 28; Jen Martakis's Roar kit; Another Typewriter fo...

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Wordless Wednesday: Pumpkin Decorating

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Salt Art

I found the idea for Salt Art in a similarly named post at Smilemonsters blog. It looked like a fun thing for Dylan & me to try. I prepped the salt a few days in advance, placing 1/2 cup of salt in each of three bags. I added 6 drops of food coloring to the bags and then shook & squeezed until all the salt was colored. Since using salt as an art medium would clearly get messy with a 2 year old, we headed outside to the picnic table to create. Supplies:...

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cheese!

Dylan loves getting his hands on my cameras. The DSLR, of course, is off limits. But I will let him play with my iPhone camera and our point & shoot. I actually had advice from one photographer to skip all kids digital cameras and give a child your older camera to play with instead. The quality of the kids cameras being not very good. That said, I don't have an older camera to give to Dylan (our last point & shoot died) so when I found a...

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Aquarium

Visiting the aquarium during our trip to the coast a few weeks ago ... I had a hard time choosing photos so I made a 2 page layout and kept it very simple & clean lined. Supplies: 2paws Designs Aquarium template; Katie Pertiet's Curled Photo Frame; Just the Way You Are fo...

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Recollect kit

Recollect is the newest kit by Sara Schmutz and available at Design House Digital. The kit contains 32 papers, 31 tag elements, 4 ticket elements, 2 monogram alphabets. I had fun playing with it earlier this week and went in two completely different directions: Dylan & friends at our weekly summer music class... Supplies - Music: Sara Schmutz's Recollect & Nursery Rhymes (staple) kits; Gennifer Bursett's Blueprint #10 template; Script...

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Shirt & Tie Bibs

I mentioned in yesterday's post that the only girl in our playgroup celebrated her 2nd birthday over the weekend. When I stumbled across the idea of Shirt & Tie Bibs by Modest Maven on Pinterest, I instantly thought of our playgroup and how cute the 2 year old boys would look wearing them at her party. I used newspaper, a black Sharpie & one of Dylan's bibs to create the basic bib pattern. The tie & collar pieces I sketched freehand....

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Toddler Apron

Continuing with my theme this year of homemade gifts for all of Dylan's playgroup buddies, I made this adorable little apron for our one and only girl in the group so far. (As of Feb 2012, we will have 9 boys & 1 girl - doesn't even seem statistically possible!) Since 'C' enjoys helping her mom in the kitchen, I thought something pretty that would help keep her clothes clean would be a good fit. Supplies: Montessori Child's Apron Pattern...

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Handprint Crab

When packing for our beach trip, I made sure to toss in a few crafty supplies. One of my plans was to help Dylan create a handprint crab as a souvenir. It turned out to be a great family activity one afternoon when he was wearing down from the sun & water. Trent, Dylan & I returned to the house ahead of the others to make the crab: Afterwards, we handed him a fresh sheet of paper, the brush and a small plate with additional paints on...

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Sun Bleached Puzzle

During naptime yesterday, I laid a piece of black construction paper and several letter & number magnets in the sun. The idea came from this post at Quirky Momma to create a puzzle by allowing the sun to bleach the uncovered area of the paper. I thought it might be a fun way to work with Dylan on letters & numbers as well as eye/hand coordination. I spelled out his name and then placed numbers 1-5. We've been practicing counting our fingers...

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Beach Memories

We were blessed last week to be able to enjoy a beach vacation with friends. Altogether we had 3 families consisting of 6 adults, 3 two year olds and 2 infants in 1 house. It was wonderful and I hope there will be similar future adventures! A small glimpse at our week ... Our family. Sunrises (Dylan decided to shift schedules on vacation so we saw a LOT of these!) Dive show at the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. Playing mini golf. Swimming. Walks...

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Bubble Painting

A glimpse of the bubble painting fun our playgroup had in early August: Supplies: Miss Mint's Pinwheel Bubbles kit; Gennifer Bursett's Toolbox Mists Vol 1; Myriad Pro fo...

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Cars Car Caddy

Making Dylan a car caddy has been on my to-do list for a while. I finally completed it and he's loving it. I used a mix of fabrics from my stash (the black & white checkered came from his birthday party bean bags!) and ordered one fun new fabric - the Cars road map print. The latter was the perfect addition. Besides his love of Cars, the road map design also provides a second driving "surface" for him to play on. Folded up and ready to go! The...

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Canvas Quote Art

I had a canvas stored in Dylan's closet that I bought several years ago. I had big plans that never materialized until a few weeks ago when a new idea came to mind and I created this for his room using a quote from Dr. Seuss: It was so simple to do. Here's how to create your own ... Canvas Assorted letter stickers - mine were by American Crafts & Making Memories Paints - white for letters and spray paint for main color Useful tools - pencil,...

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Friday Freebie: Under the Sea

Two years ago I created a traditional scrapbook page with photos of Dylan playing in his ocean themed kick & crawl gym. I called it Under the Sea. It had a fun design with the page split by a 'wave.' I recreated the design in Photoshop to scrap photos of four of Dylan's friends at the beach last September. Aren't they cute? Supplies: 2paws Designs Under the Sea template; Miss Mint's Kindergarten Crafts kit; Scrap Originals Ocean Breeze kit;...

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Mirror Revamp

My Mom has been searching for a mirror for her dining room for a while now. She found one possibility at an antiques shop, but with the price tag of $400 was a bit steep. During a recent visit, she & I went shopping with the mirror on our list of things to look for. We stumbled across one in HomeGoods for $30! The shape was different but the frame detailing was similar to the pricey antique one. The only problem - the white distressed color...

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