This is an excellent way to re-use broken crayons. And they make great gifts for children too!

Crayon Muffins

• Muffin pan
• foil muffin liners (or regular liners, stacked three deep each)
• broken crayons

First remove all of the paper from each crayon.

Heat the oven to 350*.

Put liners in pan.

Fill each cup with broken crayons (only about half way full). All different colors is fun, but I think similar colors together looks prettier for a gift (like red+pink, yellow+orange, blue + green, etc.) This would also be a fun “sorting” activity for young children.

Place pan in oven and watch carefully.

When the crayons have melted together, remove from the oven.

You can use a toothpick to make a swirl effect in the wax before it cools. Just be careful, the wax is very HOT!

Let them cool. Remove the liners and voila! Beautiful new crayons!

Check out this website for detailed instructions.

Father’s Day Card (Thanks to FamilyFun)

Craft Materials:

• Decorative Scrapbook Material
• Glue
• Scissors
• Time needed: 30 min. or less

1. To make one, first cut a 4- by 12-inch rectangle from a piece of decorative scrapbook paper and fold it in half to create a double-layer 4- by 6-inch rectangle.
2. Form the collar by cutting 2 matching 1-inch-long horizontal slits about 1 inch below the fold.

3. Fold over the 2 flaps as shown, then glue them down with a 5-inch-long tie shape cut from another piece of decorative paper glued between them. Glue a pair of small buttons to the collar.

4. Once the glue has dried, lift the bottom front of the card and write a Father’s Day greeting inside.

Printable Bumper Stickers For Daddy HERE

LOVE Doorknob or Wall Hanging Project HERE

Footprint crafts are always cute!

Here is a cute poem to go along with one:

Footprints

“Walk a little slower daddy,” said a child so small. “I’m following in your
footsteps and I don’t want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast,
Sometimes they’re hard to see;
So walk a little slower, Daddy,
For you are leading me.

Someday when I’m all grown up,
You’re what I want to be;
Then I will have a little child
Who’ll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right,
And know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Daddy,
For I must follow you.”

CD Photo Frame (thanks to Family Corner)

(My husband is a music lover, so this one’s for him!)

What You Need

Old Compact Disk
1 c flour
1/2 c salt
1/2 c water
Photo
Scissors
Double Stick Tape
Adhesive Backed Felt
Tacky Glue
Paint
Scrap of Cardboard

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt and water. Mix well, kneading with hands. if mixture is too sticky add a small amounts of flour until you have a doughy consistency. Be careful not to add too much, it can dry too quickly and crack.

Mold a base for your photo frame. Make sure that it is at least 1″ deep and 2″ around. Make it any shape you want. Use cardboard or a table knife to make a slot in your base. Go at least half way down through base and wiggle it back and forth a little to widen. Bake on a cookie sheet for 2 – 2.5 hours or air dry overnight.

Paint the base whatever color you like and let dry.

Cut photo into a 3″ circle. Attach it to CD with double face tape. Cover the back of the CD with sticky back felt. Use tacky glue to secure in into slot in base.

Father’s Day Coloring Pages HERE

Father’s Day Tracing Activity HERE

“Dad, I Love You” Letter HERE

I absolutely love decorating my home with stuff that represents my family; photos, little knick knacks (Willow Tree in particular!), and my favorites: hand print crafts that my kids have made. Here are some crafts that I’ve done as gifts to grandparents. I liked them so much that I even made a couple to keep for myself!

Framed Hand Print Flower

I just bought a cheap matted frame at Walmart for like $3, and put this cute little painting in it.

Plate With Hand Prints

You can find a plain, white plate really cheap, like at the dollar store. I got a whole set of these from a yard sale for next to nothing. You can bake these at 400* for about 10 min. to set the paint. Use acrylic paint, and seal with a Clear Gloss Acrylic Sealer. I do about 6 coats of this sealant.

“I Love Pappy” Wall Plaque

I used a pre-cut, thin wood plaque, thin metal wire, and raffia for the bow. I prefer using acrylic paint, and a Clear Gloss Acrylic Sealer. Drill small holes near the top for the wire hanger. Twist the wire around a pencil to make it curl, push it through the holes and secure.

Hope this inspires you to capture your child’s hand print in some way while it’s still small! Do you have a favorite hand print craft, or gift idea to share? I’d love to hear what others are doing!

Kids have a natural drive to explore…I’m learning this with my son. He likes to explore everything (especially things that are off limits. why is that?). Well, this past weekend I gathered a bunch of craft supplies that I’ve been hoarding and put together an "exploration board" for my son to…well…explore!

I wanted it to be full of visual and tactile stimulants for a 10 month old baby, so I included a variety of colors, textures and activities on the board. If you decide to make an exploration board, let me suggest that you supervise your child while he/she is playing with it as some of the objects do have the potential of coming off (and kid’s have been known to pull toys apart!). You may want to keep it out of reach and simply pull it out for "play" or "lesson" time with your child.

Here’s what I did (you could do this with any craft supplies, or even just things from around the house):

Gathered the Supplies

Made a header that says "Explore!" and pasted it to the board.

Powered up the glue gun and started gluing!

Finished!

Here is what’s on the board.

Tassles

Fuzzy Fabric

Velcro

Fabric Flaps covering pictures

Fuzzy Ball Ribbon

American Flags and Hinge

Ropes and Zipper

Bricks and Tractor Sticker

Marble Pictures

Alphabet and Numbers

Baby Picture from Magazine overlaid with Clear Sticky Squares

Then we put it to the test

He loved it! My husband and I had so much fun watching my son "explore" his board…and mommy had so much fun making it! Like I said, you could basically use anything from around the house to put together an exploration board! It also makes for a wonderful teaching tool!

So, here’s the question: What are we supposed to do with all of the wonderful crafts and pictures that our children so proudly make for us??

We can’t throw them away, at least not without some amount of guilt (and prayers that our child doesn’t find his masterpiece in the trash)! And if we kept every little thing that they ever made we’d soon be investing in an addition to the house dedicated to the storage of these priceless little gems.

Believe me, I cherish every little doodle, every little craft that my daughter makes for me. BUT, I am prone to quarterly de-cluttering in my home, and am not one to be a pack rat, or keep things that no longer have a practical use. We live in a small, humble home, and I don’t have room for unnecessary piles in every corner of my closet. So, I have had to come up with a solution to this problem of what to do with these precious mementos of my little one’s childhood.

Here are some solutions:

• Take a Picture of it! This way you can still keep the memory of how adorable it was, but not have to take up the space.
• Turn them into a book. Something fun to do with all of these pictures is to turn them into a keepsake photo book. You could do a book on all of the crafts, drawings and projects that your child did that year to highlight their accomplishments. I think it would be fun to chronicle the progression in my child’s artistic abilities each year; from preschool stick people to more mature, detailed portraits.
• Use them as gift wrapping and embellishments. A great thing to do with your child’s colorful scribbles, drawings and paintings is to save them to use as gift wrapping paper. Grandparents will especially love this (though they may have a hard time trying not to tear it)! And smaller crafts such as ornaments and things would be a great embellishment to add to the gift as well.
• Give them as gifts. Family members, grandparents again especially, my enjoy receiving a gift handmade by your child. And your little one will feel pride in making and giving something so special.
• Reuse them. If you have a craft that you’ve decided you are ready to toss, take a minute to see if there are still valuable parts on it. My daughter recently made an egg carton caterpillar (pictured above). Before I “give it a new home” (in the recycle bin), I’m going to take the “googly” eyes and the pipe cleaner antennae off to be used again in another project. No need to waste useful materials!
• Display It. I know, I know. We don’t really want our living room to look like a Kindergarten classroom, with paintings and crafts cluttering everything. But maybe there’s a good place to display one particularly special piece of art. Maybe on a bookshelf or a tabletop. Or hang a really colorful painting in a nice frame. Even displaying these things in your child’s own room will make them feel good about what they’ve done.
• Let them play. Let your child have fun playing with the new craft they’ve made. If it’s something you want to remember, take a picture of it first. And when it’s no longer an interest to him, take the useful parts off, and toss it. Your child may get lots of use out of it before it’s time is up!

So don’t feel badly about not keeping every single thing that they make. Do something more practical and useful with them! And if your child wonders where their project went, just tell them that you turned it into a picture to keep forever, and then show it to them. This should get a smile.

For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday ideas, go here!

Oriental Trading has their Christmas stuff clearanced, including lots of kids (12 ct.) craft kits for $.97!

*PLUS I have a FREE SHIPPING code: ASP824 (good till 5/15/08). Just type this in where it asks for the KEY CODE during checkout.

Go HERE while there is still a lot to choose from!

I ordered several of these. I love having my 4 yr. old daughter make something for her loved ones at Christmas time to give as gifts. It makes her feel good, and proud that she was able to give. And with these kits, she can give 12 gifts for under $1! That’s an awesome deal!

I love celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with my kids!! Before I had my own babies, I’d have the coolest party with my preschool class to celebrate the holiday. My favorite thing to do is put small, green cut out paper footprints “walking” all over the wall, across the ceiling, and down another wall, leaving a path of little prints. First I point out a little scroll, rolled up and tied with a ribbon. When the children excitedly open the mysterious message, I read the poem inside from the leprechaun, about how he came and hid his gold for them to find. Then the children follow the footprints and find the “pot o’ gold”, actually a bag of those gold foil chocolate coins with a black paper pot attached to it. My daughter especially is absolutely thrilled with this surprise! She looks forward to this occasion all year! After the hunt, we have a fun filled day full of activities, crafts, and “green” food to celebrate. I can’t wait to do it again this year! Well, here are some great links I found to help you in your festivities. It should be everything you need!!

Here are some cool online Leprechaun Hidden Pictures for kids. And here is a printable one.

The Legend Of The Leprechaun printable.

Here is another lesson activity for your child, and a short history of St. Patrick’s Day to read.

This is a cute shamrock snack idea.

Here is a fun game to play.

Here’s a cute craft idea.

Make a shamrock pin for the kids to wear.

Here are some printable St. Patrick’s Day coloring pages.

Here are some St. Patty’s day poems for your kids to enjoy.

Here is a cute snack container to make for decoration.

Rainbow mobiles are fun for the kids to make, and a great way to decorate the house.

Here’s a cute Shamrock necklace craft. And other crafts too!

This is a cute little present to make. I’m gonna use stickers around the jar instead of paint. Also a great way to use those baby food jars you hate to just throw away!

Here are some Rainbow themed Lesson Plan handwriting worksheets. And here are some more leprechaun themed preschool lesson time activities to print.

Here is a shamrock dot-to-dot in lowercase letters A-Z.

Here are some recipes and more fun activities to check out!

Need a couple more cute recipes to feed your little leprechaun?

Irish Mint Floats

Drop two scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream into a glass mug. Pour milk over the top add a drop or two of green food coloring.
Top with whipped cream and green sugar sprinkles.

Shamrock Cupcakes

So easy to decorate, even your littlest leprechaun can help!

You’ll Need:
white cake mix or a cake from scratch
white frosting
green gum drops (the “Dots” candy type work best)
scissors

Make and frost the cupcakes according to the instructions.
Use clean scissors to cut the gum drops horizontally,
into three circles. Then cut the stems from another gum drop.
Top the cupcakes with the three circles and stem to make your
Shamrock — it’s that easy!

Rainbow Sticks

Make these up with different colored fruits and veggies. It would be fun to make one of each, and add dipping sauce!

Red – watermelon balls, strawberries, apples or cherries; OR, cherry tomatoes (halved)
Orange – orange pieces, cantaloupe balls, mango, papaya, chunks of cheese; carrots
Yellow – pineapple cubes or banana slices; squash, pepper
Green – grapes, honeydew balls, or kiwi slices; broccoli, cucumber, green olives, avocado
Blue – blueberries;
Purple – purple grapes or cubed plums (with skin)

Skewers

Clean and cut fruit and place in separate bowls if you want the kids to make their own. Place fruit on skewers in order listed to make a rainbow.

How do you celebrate March 17th??

Handprint Treasure

What you need:
Red construction paper
Pink construction paper
White paper doily
Red paint
Scissors
Paper plate
Markers

What to do:
Glue the doily to a piece of red construction paper. Next, cut out a heart slightly smaller than the red doily using the pink construction paper. (See tip below.)

Now, help your child press his hand into the red paint and make a handprint onto the pink heart. If you do not want to use paint you can trace your child’s hand with a marker and let them color it in. Glue the finished heart onto the white doily, then help your child write a message on the paper.

Tip: Fold your paper in half and cut out half of the heart on the fold. If you do this, your heart will be a perfect shape.

Flowery Sentiments

What you need:
	Materials for 1 2 round paper doilies or 2 heart-shaped doilies (we used 6-inch doilies, available at craft and party stores and www.orientaltrading.com) Pencil 12-inch green pipe cleaner Tacky glue (optional) Scissors Green card stock Hole punch Pen Paper clip
Materials: doilies
Instructions:
1.	Lay a doily flat on the palm of your hand. Press the eraser end of a pencil into its center and gather up the doily into a ruffle. Repeat with the second doily.
2.	Place 1 ruffled doily on top of (but not inside of) the other to form the flower and wrap the doilies tightly with one end of the pipe cleaner as shown. If you want a stronger bond, wrap tightly 1 or 2 times, then add glue to the doilies and continue to wrap over the glue. Allow the glue to dry.
3.	Cut a heart-shaped leaf from green card stock. Use a hole punch to make a hole near the bottom. Write your message on the leaf. Slide the pipe cleaner stem through the hole and add a dot of glue where the leaf rests against the stem. Use a paper clip to hold the leaf in place until the glue dries.

Jell-O Hearts

What you need:
Instant Jell-O (red in color)
Cool Whip
Heart-shaped cookie cutters

What to do:
Prepare the Jell-O according to package directions. Pour the Jell-O into a shallow baking pan and allow to cool at least two hours. When cool, dip the cookie cutter into the hot water and cut out various heart shapes. Place them on a plate and serve with Cool Whip.

Paper Flower

You will need: Paper (I prefer construction paper as it’s a bit sturdier) Scissors OPTIONAL : Crayons (or paint, markers, etc) Ribbon.

Instructions: Bring the paper first (may require adult assistance and can be done before hand.) Cut out the four large hearts pieces. . And then Cut out the rectangular stem and two smaller hearts pieces. . Glue together the four large hearts to form a flower (the points should all face towards the middle of the flower). Glue the flower to the top of the rectangular stem and the smaller hearts to the bottom of the stem as leaves.

Alternative Decorating Ideas: Use sparkles, sparkle glue, or felt to decorate the “flower”. Use a pipecleaner or popsicle stick instead of the printed rectangle template piece for a sturdier stem. This craft has nice big pieces, so try using paint rather than crayons to colour in the template. Print a Valentine’s message onto a circle of white or yellow construction paper and paste it to the center of the flower. Give the flower to someone special instead of a Valentine’s Card (Grandma’s love to get crafts!) grated chalk (take a piece of sidewalk or chalkboard chalk and rub it with course sandpaper to get chalk dust. Pour the dust over glue covered paper. Pink chalk would be nice.

Your beautiful Flower is ready for a proud display.

These are just a few, for more great craft ideas and Valentine’s Day recipes go here, and here. I know there are a lot of links to look at, but there are some really cute ideas to check out! Hope it inspires!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here is a fun and affordable toy that you can either make with or for your kids. I’m currently working on a different cloth toy and quilt for my son (actually they are both on hold because my sewing machine is broken!), but when those are finished, this may be my next project! There’s nothing like a handmade toy from mother . Your kids will cherish them forever (if they last that long! ). I found this plan here. Enjoy!

MATERIALS:

1. One pair of Rockford Red Heel Socks (see bottom of page)
2. Stuffing – cut up old nylon stockings, cotton batting, kapok, shredded foam rubber or polyester fiber.
3. Red knitting yarn.

INSTRUCTIONS:
TURN THE SOCKS INSIDE OUT
Sew a seam (A) 1/2 inch on both sides of the center of sock starting three inches from the white heel and across the end of the top. Cut the sock between the seams and to within 1-1/2 inches of white heel. This leaves an opening in the crotch.

Then turn the sock so the seams are on the inside and use the crotch opening to stuff the head, body and legs.

ARMS:
Cut the upper part of the sock into two pieces. Seam, rounding the ends and stuff the arms.

MOUTH:
Cut the heel from the sock, leaving a brown edge around the white. Fasten on lower part of the face, whip-stitching around the bottom; stuff and finish sewing around the top. The mouth can be improved by a running stitch of either black or white across the middle of the lips.

TAIL:
Cut a one inch strip, taper to end of cuff on length of front of sock. Seam and stuff.

EARS:
Cut the ears from the remaining brown part of the sole of the sock.

EYES:
Sew on moving eyes, buttons, felt, or embroider with black thread. (For very small children embroider the eyes.)

CAP: (Optional)
Cut off toe of another sock, leaving 1/2 inch of brown to roll for a brim. Sometimes a fez is used for a cap.