Save those Christmas Cards

And recycle them into a Christmas ABC book!

When we were expecting our first daughter, my husband's mom gave us an ABC book that she made out of Christmas cards. She had made one for each of her children when they were young and was passing down my husband's to us. I decided then I wanted to make one for my nephew. I started collecting our Christmas cards. And my parents'. And my husband's parents'.

Five years later, I had enough cards.  I'm telling you...it took forever because so many people send out family picture cards or Christmas emails.  So now it is no longer just my nephew in that family, but 2 nephews and a brand new niece.  I do have some left over cards, but you need a ton to be able to choose for each letter and then the number.

My husband's mom made hers in 1" binders with page protectors and red and green paper.  I made mine in an 8x8 scrapbook with page protectors (had to buy 2 refill packs to add to it) and Christmas scrapbook paper.  Both are super easy.  Hers has more room on a page and is cheaper by far.

The one I made for my nephews and niece

The one made for my husband

Here are some hints I used/realized:

• Group similar cards (i.e. angels, snowmen, etc.)
• Leave letters that have multiple words (S is for Shepards, Star, Snowman, Snow, Snowflake, etc) for last
• Use a business card template for the wording, I only had to cut a few smaller
• Wish I would have used less patterned paper for the backgrounds, some are too busy to read
• Let glue dry for a at least 45 minutes to ensure it doesn't make the page protectors go wavy.  (You can see it in mine on pages "X" & "Y")
• I had to go to the dollar store and pick up a few cards for letters I didn't have, like "Y" (yule log).

The kids loved these books and gazing at each picture.  It does take some effort in collecting and sorting out each letter, but it is pretty simple after that, just cutting and gluing.

Here is the Christmas ABC document I created to help me sort out cards.  It is just what I gathered from here and there so it is rough.  There are repeats, some very closely worded, and some without rhymes.  You can really do whatever you can come up with.  The ones in bold are the ones I ended up using with the cards I had.

Start collecting those Christmas cards now (ask family and neighbors for the fronts of theirs too), or your kids might be graduating from high school by the time you get enough.

Heads up: Also you may be able to score cheap some cards the day after Christmas at the store.  And  I saw a Christmas card at Wal-mart that had children holding hands around a world - perfect for letter "U".  Don't know how much it was though.  Some cards are way too expensive.

Boredom Buster

***Be sure to check out Keri's Guest Post at Darling Doodles***

It has been really cold at our house, which means that our 2 (very active!) boys have been stuck inside and we are all driving each other a little crazy. This is actually something that my grandma would let us do when we went to her house and we always loved it. 

All you need is a rimmed baking sheet, pint mason jar, a straw, dish soap and water. 

Fill the mason jar about half way with water (I used warm water because it is softened and makes TONS of bubbles) then add a generous amount of liquid dish soap. Place the mason jar in the middle of the rimmed baking sheet and start blowing with the straw. Make sure and remind them to BLOW not suck. My 2 year old did a great job and I think he only tasted bubbles once before he realized that it was for play not eating.

 The bubbles will spill over the side and they can see how tall they can get them to be or who can make the biggest bubbles. The bubbles on the baking sheet will eventually pop and then you can carefully dump the soapy water back into the jar and do it again.

Organizing Our Home: The Reward/Chore Board

Our children are still fairly small, but I think that it is never too early to start parenting and teaching. Recently, we have been dealing with frustrating power struggles and out of control tantrums and some just plain bad behavior. My husband and I came up with this system and it really has helped.

Each of our sons has a small lined notepad with their name at the top and when they obey, help, or do something that is good and we want repeated they get to put a star on their notepad and then I write what they did next to it. Likewise, they can also get frowny faces for doing things that deserve a frowny face. (We had a family meeting and the boys helped make family rules-so they know).

I think this is the real key to the system: Before bed each night, we sit down as a family and DADDY reads each boy's list and then we talk about it. We minus the frowns from the Stars and the boys get rewarded a penny for each. (5 stars-3 frowns= 2 pennies). The boys "sign" their name at the bottom of the day to say that they got their pennies and we start brand new and fresh in the morning.

This has worked really REALLY well with our boys, they love to use their "pennies" to buy a special treat or books at the D.I. and having to make an accounting with their Dad each night has made a HUGE difference.

To make the cute board in the hallway I:
           1. Sanded and Primed an old window
           2. Painted
           3. Distressed the edges
           4. This window already had funky nails and hardware on it, so I left it and that is what I hand their notepads from.
           5. Added the vinyl..... This phrase comes from a children's song that we sing when we are helping do our chores.... and they always get stars when helping do chores.
           6. Attached heavy duty hangers to the back of the window.
           7. Measured, installed wall anchors, and hung it up.

What works for rewards/consequences at your house?

Games with the kids

I do wish I had a more sophisticated project to present today but for now this will have to do until I can get to the antique store for something more fascinating!

But until then-this is a project I came up with my oldest daughter to help entertain us one afternoon. We received something in the mail in this narrow long box which is perfect to use for this project. A wider box would also work though.

Then we cut different shaped holes in the box.

And now we can throw little bean bags in it for a bean bag toss. Surprisingly this game was pretty fun for the kids and the box can certainly be dressed up and painted. The kids love painting so if they can participate it is more fun.

With the excess we built these little cardboard books and the kids loved these as well. They made their own stories in them.

Again, apologies for the lack of sophistication but if you ever find yourself bored at home with the kids and need a fun craft with the kids this worked wonders for us!

the creative family....

"Ever child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."

-Pablo Picasso

Last week I got to spend some time with my little sister and we both LOVE books, so when we heard that the Borders in Logan was going out of business (sad, I used to spend a lot of time there when we lived in Logan) we made the trip to see what we could find.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend a lot of time browsing or anything because we had my two boys with us and lets face it, anyone with children knows how shopping can be without a cart and with two tired children can be. Anyways, I was trying to look at some books and so I told my 3 year old to see if he could find a book that might be good. I was just hoping to distract him for a second, but he grabbed this book (The Creative Family: how to encourage imagination and nurture family connections) off the shelf and began flipping through the pages. But he fell in love and would not put it back. I tried everything to get him to put it back and he wouldn't, he "needed it". I quickly glanced at it and decided why not.... (my 1 1/2 year old was in my other arm throwing a world class fit because I wouldn't let him run to the back of the store to play in the drinking fountain) let's just get out of here.

I ended up buying it and I have already read it and am reading it again. I LOVE this book. I have gotten so many ideas for our family. She has projects, ideas, and encouragement about how to allow your whole family to express themselves creatively. I really am in love with it. I checked out her website today and I found out she has written another book: Handmade Home. I think I will have to get too.

Somethings that I have picked up from this book:

1. Everyone is an artist (even me)

2. I should use my imagination more and encourage my children to use their imagination

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

-Albert Einstein

3. I should not be afraid of experimenting or letting my children experiment with creativity

Wooden Doll Cradle

My husband made this beautiful doll cradle for our daughter for Christmas. I found the idea for it at Makebabystuff.com. I LOVE that little website. It has tons of ideas for homemade toys and other baby items. To find the instructions for this doll cradle, go HERE.

We didn't want brackets showing on the crib that we made, so Ben used a nail gun to put the pieces together. This proved to be a challenge because the wood was so soft and it cracked on us so use caution with the nail gun. We used a little wood glue to fix that and it still looks better without the metal brackets I think. We also adjusted our boards to be 16 inches instead of 18.

DIY Play Kitchen

I am sooo excited about this post I can hardly contain myself! While browsing through some crafty blogs a few months ago, I ran across this idea. Most of my inspiration for the project came from THIS one and THIS one, but there are plenty of examples if you do a google search. You turn this simple two drawer nightstand...


Into THIS! A totally awesome play kitchen! Are you amazed?! :) Keep reading...

Here are some of the supplies you will need to complete this project. And the prices are listed next to it.

A two-drawer nightstand... we bought it at DI for 15$.
An old faucet... bought on ksl.com classifieds for 10$ (Search under the word "faucet")
A funky bowl... or you could use a square cake pan. 2$ at DI
Wooden coasters for the burners, painted black. 10$ at Bed, Bath, and Beyond
Handle, hinges, chain... 10$ total at Home Depot or any hardware store
Thick wooden dowel for hanging the curtain... FREE, my grandpa had one lying around.
Curtain material... too cheap to figure in. :)
Paint... 15$ at Home Depot
Extra piece of wood for backsplash... FREE, my uncle had wood lying around.
Knobs to go into backsplash (not shown)... 5$
Velcro to secure oven door... 1$

Total Cost: about 70$, a steal in my opinion, but you could make it even cheaper if you had an eye for good deals. You could paint burners on, use an upside down wooden letter J for the faucet (as seen in other tutorials), or go cheaper on the paint and hardware. I personally love the real faucet and burners though. Okay now for some pictures along the way. These instructions won't be incredibly detailed but it's easy enough to figure out I think. If you have questions, let me know.

Start by knocking the sides off the drawer you plan on using for the oven.

Draw a circle to fit your bowl. I recommend getting a bowl with a pretty good size lip on it so you have some wiggle room.


From here, there was A LOT of sanding. Fortunately it didn't take near as long with four people helping and plenty of sanding tools. Much thanks to my gracious uncle and cousin who were so happy to help us!

It looked like this after all that sanding.

Now for my big contribution! Painting!


Cutting the wood piece for the back splash. After this, we nailed it to the back, let the paint dry overnight, and added all the hardware: hinges, handles, faucet, bowl, burners, etc. We used silicone caulk to secure the bowl and a nail gun to keep the burners in place.


To hang the curtain, we drilled a hole through one side of the nightstand and slid it in. We then drilled a small hole on the other side to secure it. Slide your curtain on and then put wood filler in the small hole on the side. Re-touch the paint.

That's it! We plan on adding knobs to the backsplash and some velcro in the oven to keep it shut tight. I admit the project was quite a bit more work than say... going out and buying a play kitchen... but I am so happy with the end project and hopefully my kids can pass it down to their kids!

If any of you readers decide to make one, please send me pictures! I would love to see what you came up with.

Kid's Apron

This year for Christmas, I decided to make all my gifts. I am not quite sure what I was smoking when that thought came into my head. :) But I went and bought all the material and supplies right after that moment of craziness and so I was kind of stuck with my idea.

One of the biggest projects Ben and I took on was a play kitchen for our kids... post forthcoming! To go with that gift, I made these easy and adorable reversible aprons. Don't you just love that fabric too?! It came from JoAnn Fabrics.


I was going to post directions and more pictures but my photographer, ie husband, was too busy studying for finals. So... you will just have to use the tutorial that I found. It was a great set of directions though and I probably would have just confused everyone.

The tutorial is by Joanna Armour at Stardust Shoes. Go HERE for the instructions. She also has a super cute tutorial for a chef's hat. Go HERE for that. I may just have to try that one out too.

Paper Bag Turkey Tutorial

Last week for our Young Womens at our church we were making centerpieces for a Thanksgiving Dinner we do every year for some of the people in our ward. One of the ladies I serve with came up with this idea and it was so fun and EASY!

These Turkeys turned out so cute, this is definitely something you can make with the whole family.

What you need:

paper bags

scissors

rubber band

candy corn (I found mine on a SUPER discount at the grocery store)

pipe cleaners

google eyes

crayons (or paint if you are brave)

hot glue gun

1. Cut the bottom out of your bag.

Now you have a paper tube.

2. Then cut your bag down the side.

3. With your bag opened up flat, you can now decorate your turkey. We used crayons (he probably would have been more excited if I had gotten out the paints, but I wasn't brave enough this day).

4. Now crumple it up, smash it, open it up and do it again. This helps your bag have more texture and easier to work with without ripping your bag.

5. Take a scoop, about 1/3 cup of candy corn and put on your bag. (I also used dry black beans for this part, this is the "guts" of your turkey, my boys really liked playing with the turkey guts such boys)

6. Gather your bag up around your guts and secure with the rubber band.

7. Now straighten out your turkey tail and figure out which way your turkey stands best.

8. Take your pipe cleaner and fold in half, then take the top, twist together and then roll it to make a turkey head. Twist the bottom/neck part together too.

9. Hot glue your neck & head on. Then add your google eyes and I cut the tip off a candy corn to make the beak.

10. You are done, find a place to line up your flock of turkeys. We made quite a few and took them to Grandparents.

I hope your family has as much fun as we have with these turkeys!

Kid Crafty

I have been bugging my daughter (I think this is what term she would use because she seems annoyed that I keep asking) what she wants to be for Halloween. I told her no on the pirate because that was what she was last year so we have settled on princess. While we were browsing hobby lobby yesterday we saw these little masks and feathers and I thought it would be cute to make a pink mask to go with her princess dress! I think I like how it turned out and it was very simple to make. We smothered it with elmers glue, sprinkled glitter over it and then glued feathers on. This is a fun project that can get pretty creative with all t

he decorative feathers out there. I can't wait to make my mask!

Just a side note...they do have children's masks that will fit their faces better than this adult size mask! (And only 2.00$ at hobby lobby)

Easy Job Chart

I really try to keep our home a happy and orderly place…some days are better than others… I really want to teach my boys good habits and how to be responsible for their own things and not expect me to clean up after them.

So to help my 2 year old start learning all of thee above, I put together this Job Chart.

What you need:

One Muffin Tin (I used a cheap kind & a regular size, you could use the mini ones too if you have older kids or want to put more than one kid’s jobs on the same tin)

Chipboard (or an old cereal box)

ModPodge & Brush

Scrapbook Paper

Pictures or Words of the Jobs

Stapler & Staples

Magnets



1. Measure how big your squares need to be… I actually just took a piece of scrap paper and made a template of how big I wanted them, then cute 12 squares out of your scrapbook paper.

2. Cut matching squares out of the chipboard

3. Adhere your words or pictures for you jobs with ModPodge (you could just use glue, I knew this chart would have to take a bit of abuse so I thought ModPodge would be best)

4. I used those free magnets you get from businesses for the back… I put the magnet on the back but on the bottom of the square, this helps to hold the prize in the cup when it is hung up… To hook them all together I used a simple stapler. It was fast, easy and boy-ish.

5. Put your squares over the cups, add a ribbon through the hole to hang and you are done.



My 2 year old has really gotten excited about this chart…why? Because I put his ‘pennies’ ( he will do anything for pennies right now-he loves to buy books from the DI with his own $$) right in the cup under the job. When he completes the task he gets to get out the penny and put it in his money jar. I have also been using single stickers, smarties etc.