Hi guys, please excuse the cheesy title. This was a hard one to come up with, and "family heart tree" sounds just as silly, so might as well go cheesy or go home I guess. I don't know guys, I'm kinda just winging it here.
In the spirit of trying to decorate for each holiday, even a little bit, I decided that I wanted to have a tree of sorts that expressed our family. I had a bunch of salt dough hearts leftover from the magnets that I made, and really didn't need another two dozen magnets so I thought these would work perfectly for the tree (these were the ones that I put string holes into before baking).
I choose most of the small hearts, a few medium hearts and two large hearts. Then I painted them various shades of pink and one heart I painted gold. I used plain old acrylic paint for this, but I can't tell you the colours because I mixed them all except the gold. And using my handy-dandy paint pens (if you can't tell already I love these things) I added initials and dates to some of the hearts. Once I was happy with how they looked I did a coat of Mod Podge on both sides and used fishing line to hang them up.
I used the large hearts for Luis and I's initials, the medium hearts are the kids initials and birth years. The one gold heart is the year that we got married, which was another medium heart. And the smallest hearts are the animals initials, because they are a part of our family too. There are a few hearts without anything on them too, just to balance the tree and make it not so busy.
Ideally I would have liked the branches to be a little fuller but these were off of our rose of Sharon bush in the backyard because we have no other trees with small branches around. They worked great and were the perfect size, I also used fishing line to attach these together in the vase.
Can you imagine having your kids help you paint these hearts and add things that they love to it? This is a great family craft to do together so that you can teach your kids that Valentine's Day (even though it's commercialized) is about love, not candy and valentines.
You don't even need to use salt dough for the hearts, you could use clay from a craft store or even card stock. This is as easy as you want to make it. This would also be great for a thankful tree around Thanksgiving using things that the kids are thankful for on leaves.
I can't wait to add to our tree as the kids get older and can add their own things to it, even if they are silly. Right now it just shows off special dates and initials of some very important people in this house.
That's it for today guys, come back soon and check out what else is new and what I'm actually getting accomplished. If you guys do make these I'd love to see them.
Kerby
Linking to:
Two Chicks and a Mom - Funtastic Friday #113
Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesday #286
Hello there and welcome back! It's a beautiful day and I am hoping to get tons of stuff done. Yeah, that's what I tell myself every morning, but the day usually ends with the house worse off than it was when I woke up. Slow and steady over here.
Today I wanted to share a fun, easy and great idea for your little guys and girls. It's a fun sensory bottle that will help your kids unwind and relax if they get too stimulated.
First things first, gather your supplies. You will need white rice divided into plastic bags (about 1 cup per bag), food colouring and vinegar.
Add roughly a tablespoon of vinegar to the rice bag and as much food colouring as you would like. Now shake those bags until all of the rice is nicely coloured.
Once you are happy with the colour and coverage, spread the rice onto wax paper to dry. Try to get an even layer so that the rice will dry evenly, it should only take about an hour. It may clump a little, just do your best.
Once it's dry you can use your hands to break up the clumps in the rice and get everything nice and loose. Using a funnel you can layer the rice into your container, if you do multiple colours.
I made another rice bottle earlier when I was testing the dying method on the rice, so I choose a few different colours. You can see of the left bottle how the rice will combine once the container gets shaken. So make sure you pick complimentary colours so that one colour doesn't get lost when mixed together.
Braxton absolutely loves these and carries them around when they are out, because if I don't put them away occasionally he won't play with any other toys.
We put them in his bedroom one day and he didn't fall asleep for over two hours past his normal time! So maybe don't put them in your kids bedroom if they really like them.
Have you guys tried any rice sensory bottles or activities? Or have another method to dye rice? I'd love to see.
Kerby
Hello again, surprised to see me? I know I have been all over the place with my posting over the last few weeks. Sometimes it gets so busy that I forget that I haven't done anything I can show you guys! We are still plugging away at Braxton's big boy room, I promise that some day I will have an update for you!
But back to this post, I have another quick and super cute Easter craft that will literally take you five minutes to do. I know that these are all over the internet, but they are just too cute not to share.
Hello, Hello. Hope everyone is having a great start of spring! I kid, because there is currently four inches of snow on my front lawn. I think Mother Nature is a little confused. But a confused Mother Nature doesn't stop the fact that Easter is this weekend. Like everything else this holiday creeped up on me as well.
But I was a little more prepared than usual so I have a fun and easy craft to share with you guys. As I have said before, I have never really gone all out for any holidays other than Christmas and Halloween. With Braxton though, this needs to change! I am slowly trying to build a fun supply of holiday decorations that he (and I) can enjoy thoughout the years.
Today I am sharing a $15 Easter wreath with you guys that took me about a half an hour to make.
Hi everyone, hopefully you guys aren't sick of crafts yet. I have been busy as a bee (is that even a saying?) trying to get everything ready for Braxton's birthday as well as getting ready for Christmas. Lots of crafts going on over here (and panicked cleaning and paint touch-ups).
Today I want to share another easy craft you can do in a short amount of time, that would be a great addition to any Christmas tree. It doesn't hurt either that it is fairly inexpensive if you already have a paper puncher. If you do not have a decorative puncher, you can get them with a coupon to Micheals or Hobby Lobby for roughly $15.
I made some paper ornaments:
Happy Monday to you all! I want to take a minute here for my "holy smokes my baby is almost a year old!" moment this week. Seriously, where has the last twelve months gone?
Today I want to share another fun craft that I did for Braxton's upcoming first birthday. But this could easily be a fun craft you could do for Christmas decorations or even just because it's winter. They are pretty snowballs that don't melt!
Hi everyone, can you believe that there are only 37 days until Christmas! Crazy, I can't believe how fast this year has gone by.
Today I want to share with you a quick and fun way to dress up the goodies that you give to people around the holidays. I have found that it is always nice to have recipe cards either included or ready to hand out in case people ask for them. It is also a great way for the giftee's (is that even a word?) to know what they are receiving. It doesn't hurt to be ready, and why not make them really cute and fun?
I found these recipe cards at Micheals last year in the dollar bin (I looked again this year, no luck):
Morning everyone, today I want to share another craft I have for Braxton's upcoming birthday. I found the idea on Whipperberry .
They used them on Christmas presents as part of the wrapping and decorations. But I thought they looked really cute as snowballs.
(Please ignore the baby toy in the background, I can't help it)
Hey everyone, hope you all are staying warm!
Today I want to share a fun craft that I did as a decoration for Braxton's upcoming (first) birthday. It is a great craft to do in front of the TV or with older kids. And it's also great as a winter or Christmas decoration! First you need to gather your supplies:
