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Hand and Footprint Reindeer Craft for Kids

December 18, 2012 By Brandy 1 Comment

This darling little footprint reindeer craft is such a fun way to document those little hands and feet! The perfect preschool craft for kids!

Kaylee is here today to share her hand/footprint reindeer craft that she made all by herself 🙂 I love when I have an idea and see in my mind how it will turn out, and then one of my kids takes it in a completely different direction. This goofy little reindeer happened that way, and he makes me laugh every time I see him. He is just perfect! If you like this little handprint craft be sure to check out our thumbprint reindeer ornaments!

Hand and Footprint Reindeer Craft for Kids

This darling little reindeer is such a fun way to document those little hands and feet! The perfect preschool reindeer craft for kids!

Supplies

Kids craft paint
Sponge brushes
Permanent Market
Cardstock paper

Kaylee loves having her hands painted. When she was 2, I'd sit at the table and paint her hands in different colors and she'd stamp them against a piece of paper over and over and over...she said it tickled.

We simply painted her hand with kids craft paint and pressed it against the paper to create an antler. Then we did it with her other hand!

We love washable kids craft paint (you can get big bottles at Joann's or Hobby Lobby for about $2/bottle). I love this stuff. We used her foot for the reindeer face and her hands for the antlers.

Then it was time to pull out the sponge brushes!

I figured we could stamp the nose towards the bottom of the footprint to make the whole thing a reindeer head/face, but this is where the plan changed.

She had different ideas and automatically put it in the center of the page.

We added the final details with a permanent marker.

Then she asked for a Sharpie pen so that she could add some feet and hands. Haha, of course. Knock yourself out.

I love how it turned out. It is an abstract little reindeer. Her abstract little reindeer and she couldn't wait to tell daddy all about it.

If you liked this reindeer craft you might also be interested in these!

Reindeer Snack Cups These Rudolph snack cups come together easily with our printable template! Make a small herd of these this holiday season!

Reindeer Gift Ornaments These DIY Rudolph ornament gifts are the perfect holiday party favor! Fill them with darling finger puppets, shredded paper, and seasonal candy and hang them on the tree. A great kids craft to make at school Christmas parties!

Reindeer Candy Tins Darling reindeer candy tins that come together quickly for the perfect holiday party favors! You can also add numbers and use as a fun advent activity!

Reindeer Rootbeer Gift Idea: Looking for a cute Christmas gift idea for Dad? How about a pack of his favorite sodas—reindeer themed! These reindeer root beer bottles come together in a matter of minutes and are sure to be a hit this year!

And be sure to check out this fun collection of Christmas crafts from Happiness is Homemade!

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Snowflakes

December 13, 2012 By Brandy 3 Comments

Are you ready for an incredible addicting treat? Like...you go for 2 of them and end up eating 6? Yeah, they are that good! And SO easy to make.

Make a Ritz sandwich (I used their holiday snowflake ones this time) with peanut butter. Dip in white melting chocolate (I like the melting chocolate bars from Ghirardelli that you can buy at Sam's), place on wax paper and add sprinkles. Let sit until chocolate has hardened.

ritz crackers with peanut butter dipped in white chocolate

Make them with colored chocolates, milk chocolate, chocolate drizzled with white chocolate....the list goes on. They are the perfect mix of sweet & salty!

Homemade Nativity Scenes for Children

December 6, 2012 By Brandy 2 Comments

construction paper nativity scene cutouts

Some friends and I do a preschool co-op together. I teach twice a week every 4 weeks. The kids love the social interaction and it is so fun to plan activities for them! I recently did a "Nativity" theme. The highlight for the kids seemed to be playing with all of the different nativity sets that we have. And we have a lot of them! Some homemade, some not.

We even made a little Nativity for them to each bring home. It was so easy to do! If you have a cricut, just cut everything out from the Paperdoll cartridge. If you don't have a cricut, you can buy nativity stickers from Oriental trading (by the dozen) or the craft store and have the children arrange them on a piece of brown cardstock that has been cut into a stable type shape.

child gluing nativity scene characters onto manger with glue stick

back of manger glued to block as a stand

For stability and to allow it to stand, I hot glued each nativity to a wooden block that was leftover from a previous craft project.

They loved them and their moms did too. It was a fun little activity.

My ALL TIME FAVORITE nativity scene of ours is this little ceramic one that the kids made 2 years ago. It just makes me smile. I purchased the set from Oriental Trading several years ago.

ceramic nativity scene for kids to paint

Another favorite nativity set that we have was a gift from my Mom. She made it by painting wooden blocks, adhering nativity stickers to each block and then varnishing them. The kids love stacking them up and there is no porno izle fear of breaking it!

Date Night Kit, Spy Kit and Memory Stars {Homemade Gift Ideas}

December 3, 2012 By Brandy 3 Comments

I feel as though I need to give a bit of an intro to our guest blogger this week! Stacy is the most creative person that I know. If you don't follow her blog yet, you should. She doesn't disappoint with her creative gift ideas and kids crafts. We both have 4 kids and almost identical tastes and interests. It is almost as though we were cut from the same mold...oh wait, we were! So without further adieu...

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Hi! My name is Stacy and I am author of the blog: Piles of Projects. I am so excited to be featured on Gluesticks! It just happens to be my amazing sister's blog.

My goal is to create fun, but relatively inexpensive crafts, and Christmas is the perfect excuse to come up with fun, new ideas.

Today I am going to be sharing three of my favorite homemade Christmas gifts: Date Night Kits, Spy Kits, and Memory Stars.

1. Date Night Kits

red bucket with popcorn red vines and chocolate inside

I love this ideas because it is cheap, easy, and useful. It's the perfect gift for a couple. The date night kit is filled with popcorn, treats, and redbox codes. Perfect for a cozy movie date night at home. To see a more details, go here.

red vines popcorn chocolate bar and Reeses cups on table

2. The Spy Kit

kids spy gear with white draw string bag

The Spy Kit is another inexpensive but fun gift. It encourages imagination and creativity. My kids love anything spy-related thanks to Inspector Gadget and Spy Kids. So, I put together this spy kit complete with magnifying glasses, new identities, and disguises. For more info and links to templates, go here.

child holding up pretend mustache photo prop

3. Memory Stars

wooden star ornament painted yellow with date

These Memory Stars are ornaments that represent each year of our marriage. I give my husband each Christmas as a way of remembering all the special things that have happened over the year. Our kids love to look at them and see which one represents their birth or other fun milestones. For more info, go here.

Thanks again for the opportunity to guest blog, Brandy. I hope these ideas give some inspiration for this upcoming holiday season!

Duck Tape® Bunting

November 29, 2012 By Brandy 6 Comments

These Christmas rolls of DuckÂ® BrandÂ duct tape are so much fun!Â They come in so many styles and for a few bucks a roll you can grab a couple of rolls and get started crafting. Whether it is cutting thin stripsÂ to add to greeting cards, packaging up presents, or making holiday decor, the possibilities are endless!

I decided to make THE EASIEST bunting EVER with Holiday Duck TapeÂ®. No sewing, no gluing. Just tape and cut. Grab you favorite colors and a few supplies, sit yourself down in front of a good movie and in no time you'll have some festive strands of bunting to add to presents, frames, doorways, your Christmas tree and anything else you can think of! How fun would this be for a birthday party!

Since Duck TapeÂ® is only a few inches wide, your bunting will be small. I made mine even smaller because I wanted to use it on Ruby's Christmas littleÂ tree. We helped her decorate this to keep her from playing with the big tree. She loves it, but is still tempted by the other tree on occasion.

mini Christmas tree with duct tape bunting wrapped around

Here is how to make your own Duck TapeÂ® bunting!

Supplies:

Duck TapeÂ® in your favorite colors

String, twine or yarn

Scissors

small triangles of tape wrapped around baker's twine

For a mini bunting (about 1.5" wide) cut your Duck TapeÂ® in half. For a regular bunting (3") leave as is. Place your Duck Tape Â® on your work surface (sticky side up)Â and lay your string across the center. Fold in half. You can leave it in a rectangle, cut a v up the center, or cut angles up the side to create a triangle like I did here.

Continue until your bunting is as long as you need and THAT IS IT!

This was such a fun project! I added some in my kitchen as well as Ruby's tree and just love how it turned out!

duct tape bunting draped on kitchen wall

For more fun ideas be sure to follow DuckÂ® BrandÂ on Facebook!

Happy Holidays!

This post brought to you by Duck BrandÂ®. All opinions are 100% mine.

Our New Office & Craft Room

November 26, 2012 By Brandy 18 Comments

craft room with chair and large wooden craft storage hutch and sewing machine table

I am just thrilled to be able to show you my home office/craft room/guest room. Yep, it has a lot of functions. Originally this room was going to be our guest room. Complete with a full size bed and everything my grandmother would need when she came to stay with us on occasion. That was one of the things we looked forward to when we found out we'd be moving back to California. She passed away just a couple of months after we moved here and it was heart breaking to think that we wouldn't have weekend visits from her.We don't have family come see us often, so I decided to not buy a bed, but create a space with room for a queen size air mattress when needed. I placed the furniture against the walls and will pull out the ottoman box under the window when we use the Aerobed air mattress. There is plenty of clearance in front and space in front of the closet and walking space around the sides. It isn't a very roomy guest room, but we had to maximize the functions and prioritize in this small space.

window ottoman with window treatment in home office

My husband was out of town for a few weeks for work and this project kept me busy in the evenings. It was a lot of fun! I have a few follow up posts on projects that you will see today so check back to see how I created this fun new space. One that is something I've wanted for quite some time, but never made a priority. What is different this time? I think the fact that the home office is on the first floor made me want to make it a space that is functional with a "finished" look. Our home office space in our previous homes usually had boxes stacked...that hadn't been unpacked from the previous move along with storage totes, etc. I knew where everything was, but I never left the door open!

turquoise painted printer table in office

There is a mixture of old and new. Purchased and re-purposed. Let me show you how I did it!

The crowning jewel for my new space is my Craft Box from The Scrap Box. It has solved so many organizational issues for me! A place for everything and everything in it's place. Literally. Not only is it a beautiful piece of furniture, it transforms into a home office/craft space with just a few clicks.

craft hutch doors open to reveal contents inside

I can store all of my sewing notions and supplies as well as my craft necessities. Look, it even has a spot for my cricut.

craft hutch open with velcro attached clear pouches with craft supplies

When I am not crafting or sewing, I can use my table for my home office. When I'm done, I close it all off and it looks like a beautiful armoire. Stay tuned for more details on my Craft Box and a it's functionality. It is simply extraordinary.

Finding accessories for my new space was fun. I love Pick Your Plum and snagged these photo holders as well as the wire baskets below from one of their daily deals.

This storage cube came from IKEA, along with the boxes. These are great because they are inexpensive (2 for $10), large, and hold my fabric! The wire baskets hold my sewing patterns. The plants (including the ones on the wall) are also from IKEA.

cork board covered in fabric with art work pinned

My message/art board was created using cork tiles. You can get them in a pack of 4 at Target. I covered some with fabric and mounted them all on a piece of foam board and hung it on the wall. You can also apply them directly to the wall with the double sided mounting strips that are included in the package. There are so many fun things you could do with these cork tiles!

white frame with keep calm printable inside

A simple print that I found online. This was seriously made with me in mind. Seriously.

window valance above window with black rod

And a simple valance rounds out this space and brings all of the colors together! I found this fabric from Tonic and knew it would be perfect for the space. Now we just need to order blinds and it will be complete!

Thank you for looking! And please stop by for more details on how I created some of the pieces in my new space!

This post has been sponsored by the Original Scrap Box. All views are my own.

Serving Others With Mr. Grinch

November 20, 2012 By Brandy 1 Comment

children coloring large poster of the grinch

With the Holiday Season upon us, our thoughts are easily turned towards serving others. I thought it would be fun to create a Family Home Evening lesson on it.

We watched a couple of short video clips on serving others. One video especially touched me and the kids really enjoyed it too. It is called "The Coat".

Apparently we aren't the only ones it touched. A group of young girls saw it and decided to take that spirit of giving from the movie and start a coat drive for the needy. They went door to door in their area, in the snow and rain, collecting coats.

After we watched the videos we talked about serving others and the scripture found in Mosiah 2:17. I saw a Dr. Seuss birthday party idea on Pinterest with a "Pin the Heart on the Grinch" game. Someone even suggested you could use it for a good deeds chart for Christmas. I thought the kids would love that!

So earlier in the day I drew a picture of the Grinch on a piece of poster board, and added a scripture (Mosiah 2:17) on serving our fellow men. We talked about who our fellow men are. Our friends, our family, even strangers.

children sitting at table coloring grinch poster

I cut out a bunch of hearts and told the kids that every time they did something nice to serve one of their "fellow men" that they could put a heart on the Grinch. It would be our family challenge to see how many hearts we could put on him by the end of the year.

By the end of Family Home Evening the spirit of service was already buzzing inside our home. I was washing the table off and noticed Kaylee running over with a wet wipe to help me. Soon Aaron came and we were all three washing the table. Kaylee also rounded up some dirty diapers that hadn't been brought down from upstairs and threw them away. Aaron put toothpaste on Kaylee's tooth brush and turned the water on for her. Dallin started a load of laundry and helped straighten up the house. All without being asked. And that was the catch. I told them that SERVICE is doing something for someone else without being paid or asked to do it. You do it because you love them.

Mr. Grinch is looking better already, don't you think?

Cupboard Door Turned Art Desk

November 11, 2012 By Brandy 1 Comment

I am so excited for our next guest on Gluesticks! I am absolutely in love with this Cupboard Door Turned Art Desk and was thrilled when the girls from iCandy handmade agreed to share it with you today!

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Jen and I were thrilled to be asked to participate in Brandy's series on Creating a Homemade Holiday.

Thanks so much for having us!

We run a little sewing and craft blog called iCandy handmade where we share tutorials and inspiration for our readers. We'd love it if you stopped by our neck of the blog-o-sphere and take a look around! As Jen and I are both of a creative mind, we love to make things for our kids, and our loved ones. Creating things for our families and homes is what makes us tick. So, naturally, giving homemade gifts tops it all!

I love to watch the look on my friends and families faces when they open up something that was made specifically for them. It's magical!

A while ago, I concocted a little art desk for 2 of my kids that I made from the most random thing:

a sample cupboard door. {random}

My kids loved them then, and they still love them now! They do puzzles on top of them, they store their art work in the little alcove, and, as it's been a year and a half since I made them, I'm so pleased that they still love them as much as they did when I first gave them to them!

I hope you can use this little tutorial to spark some creativity and play in your little ones this season!

turquoise art desk made out cupboard door

My Father in Law owns a restoration company in Phoenix and often times has cupboard door styles or carpet squares that have been discontinued, and he no longer uses. My original plans for these sort of vanished, but since I had them in my garage, I was determined to find something unique to do with them.

The drawer does not open, but the cupboard door does...and it leaves about an inch of space to keep something in it...like art masterpieces or a few sheets of homework paper...hmmmm

I bounced some ideas off of Jen, and this is what I came up with...I give you the

Cupboard Door-Gone-Art Desk

I made one for each of my littles, and so far, they're totally diggin' it!

two art desks painted turquoise and green

If you want to know what I did, here's a quick run-down on what I did:

First things first, I had to sand the suckers down to give the paint something to stick to.

I wanted to use the drawer as a supply holder. I bounced back and forth between routing out a groove in it to hold several pencils, or drilling a few large holes to hold cups of different supplies like crayons and markers. The fact that I don't have a router was the only reason I was leaning in the other direction, but the promise of homemade donuts convinced my neighbor to help me with this part.

We used a plain router to dig out the middle and then an edger to work on the sides.

My neighbor is awesome!

Next I spray-painted each piece...

{I used Rustoleum's 2x Spray paint, Aqua in Satin for the turquoise one, and Eden in Satin for the green one.}

...including the legs which I got at Home Depot for a little less than $3 each

they came with a little screw in the end, which I thought was perfect...as I'd just drill a little hole in each corner, and glue them in with liquid nails.

So, I used a ⅜" drill bit and drilled a hole 1 ½ inches in from each side about the depth of the screw (umm...is that a bolt, sorry for my lack of tool knowledge! screw it is!)

I filled up the hole with liquid nails plus a little dairy queen dollop on top, stuck the screw in the hole and twisted it all the way down to the liquid nails squeezed out the side. I just smoothed out the excess glue with my finger and turned it upside down with a weight on top to let it set over-night. The Liquid Nails is completely paintable, so after it set, I re-sprayed the cupboard and the legs, and then covered it with a couple layers of clear top-coat.

I screwed the cupboard door back into place after the glue had completely set:

Here we are so far:

sponge brush painting mod podge onto desk front

I cut a piece of scrapbook paper to fit the inner panel of the door and mod-podged it in place.

scrap book paper mod podged to front of desk

While that was drying, I used my Gypsy and Cricut to cut some black vinyl to spell out the word (imagine)

I used 'doodletype' font...which seems to be my fav lately.

After applying the vinyl, I re-coated just the top of the cupboard door with a light layer of top coat to protect the vinyl and the paper from little picky fingers.

...and this is what we've got:

vinyl letters spelling out the word IMAGINE on front of desk

My kids have been begging to use their 'desks' through the whole process, and I think it'll be so fun to have a little art center for them to use with our little projects. I can just imagine my little girl feeling so grown-up at her own little desk! I love that the cupboard door can close and hold about an inch-worth of stuff...extra papers, or old projects or papers. Or a place to store homework until it's done. I might still attach a little clip on the inside top of the cupboard door to stick a finished project for it to dry, or whatever, but we'll see.

I hope this little project has inspired you to something similar! Whether you have cupboard door and drawer face like I did or not, you could use any old sheet of wood and put those little legs on for super cheap to make it your own.

Impromptu Tea Party & Mini Doughnuts

July 11, 2012 By Brandy 8 Comments

plates of mini donuts and plastic tea pot

Kaylee has really been into baking lately. She loves helping me in the kitchen. We've used the easy bake oven a few times, but honestly, I HATE using that thing! It always sounds like a great idea, but the food has a weird texture and takes forever to bake. I decided to come up with some little baking ideas that she can REALLY help with.

First up....mini doughnuts!

I found this mini doughnut pan at Hobby Lobby for $9.99, but I had a coupon so I got it for $5.99! I thought that was a great price. Each pan makes 12 mini doughnuts. We used the recipe on the back of the pan and were very happy with the results.

While the doughnuts baked, I suggested to Kaylee that a tea party would be fun. She bolted down to the basement toy room to get her things and set the table all by herself.

When the doughnuts were cool, we dipped them in glaze (just warm up store bought frosting in the microwave 10 seconds at a time until soupy and dip doughnuts in glaze. Let set up on a cooling rack), and she added sprinkles.

We made a batch of pink lemonade and were all set.

There was a tantrum or two since her brothers weren't quite catching the vision of her little feminine tea party and just wanted to scarf doughnuts.

But for the most part, it was fun! And she did such a great job putting it all together!

Mini Doughnuts

You could easily bake these in a mini muffin pan and dip the muffins in glaze. Yummy!

1 ¼ c. cake flour, sifted

½ c. sugar

1 ¼ tsp. baking powder

⅛ tsp. nutmeg

¾ tsp. salt

½ c. buttermilk

1 egg

1 ½ T melted butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray pan with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Add buttermilk, egg, and butter and stir until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approximately ½ full.

Bake 4-6 minutes or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched. Let cool in pan 5 minutes before removing. Finish the doughnuts with glaze or sprinkles.

Makes 24 (ours made 36 donuts....weird)

Lemon Doughnuts

Omit nutmeg. Add ½ tsp. grated lemon zest. Mix and bake as instructed above.

Vanilla Glaze

1 c. powdered sugar

1 T. milk

½ tsp. vanilla extract (clear is best)

In small bowl, stir together sugar, milk and vanilla extract until sugar is completely dissolved. Use immediately to glaze doughnuts.