How to Make 5 Minute Play Dough

I've been having a lot of fun this summer doing "Mommy School" with the kids.  My kids are getting a little older and it's really fun to sit down together each day and work on different fun schooly things together.  I used to be an elementary teacher, so these kind of things appeal to me.

I only have school for about two hours a day. I like to have the kids practice writing, doing some math, then we work on some fun project together, they have "recess" aka play outside, then we have lunch together. And that's it.  Fun right?

Well yesterday our "fun project" was making play dough together.

As a kid we used to make play dough all the time and I just loved it.  So it's always fun to do it with my kids as well.

Here's the recipe we followed:

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 c. salt

1 c. flour

2 tbs. cream of tartar

1 Tbs. oil

1 c. water

food coloring

DIRECTIONS:

Mix the salt, flour, cream of tartar, and oil in a pan.  Mix in water and stir well with wire whisk.  Place pan on stove and cook 2 - 3 minutes on medium heat.  Stir constantly.  When the mixture becomes thick and no longer mixes with wire whisk, remove from heat.  Knead the dough.  

When desired texture is achieved, divide dough up and add food coloring.  Mix well with hands.  Enjoy!  

Then I just let the kids play!

They had lots of fun.

And no, nobody ate any-- just pretending here.

I sat down and played with the kids, too.

Once you're done, wrap these up in baggies and stored in the fridge for another day of fun.

Also, I will note I usually always make my kids do play dough on top of cookie sheets, so there's a lot less clean up after-- but apparently I lost my mind and forgot to make them this time.  I remembered once I started cleaning up-- why I always make them play on cookie sheets.

The Family Travels map

About a month or two before my husband and my's wedding anniversary I came across this post from Cut, Craft, Create where she shared her Personalized Photo Map. 

I thought it was such a good idea and couldn't wait to put my own spin on it.  My family loves to travel.  I often put our trips into little printed books and we always get magnets from where we've been.  My husband loves to look back at all the places we've been and discuss it. I knew this gift would be right up his alley.

So here's what hubby got from me this year to celebrate 9 years of bliss!

 

Want to make your own?

Here's how:

STEP ONE:  Gather up these supplies.

I got my map from Amazon here. 

I picked up a simple 24 x 36 frame from Michaels.

I printed out all 4 x 6 photos from Sams club.

STEP TWO:  Lightly trace each state out on your tracing paper.  

STEP THREE: Roughly cut each traced state out.  Place each traced state onto your photo and cut out together.  

For the larger states, I just used multiple pictures until that state was covered.  Another idea would be to print out the larger sizes for your photos to cover an entire state.  Texas would take an 8 x 10.

STEP FOUR:  After your state is cut out, place as many pieces of foam tapes as you need to hold your picture in place.  Place your photo in place.  

Repeat with all other states.

All done!

This made a really fun gift!  

My husband really loved it and all the kids love to look at it and talk about where we've been and more importantly, where we need to go next!

I had a friend ask me if when I went to Hawaii, if I was going to cut out little pictures of each of the kid's heads for the different islands-- sounds like a plan to me, ha, ha.

How to make YW Luminaries

 Remember how I'm in charge of the crafts this year for Girl's Camp?  

Well, after making those cute No-Sew headbands, the girls are also going to make their own YW Luminaries to bring to the testimony meeting at the end of the week.

 

There's a few idea for how to make these on the web but many are lacking in details for exactly what to do or buy.  

Plus I don't have a cricut or silhouette machine at my disposal...so I had to think a bit outside the box. 

Here's a list of the Materials We Used:

1.      Pint sized mason jar (donated from the stake)

2.      Clear contact paper (purchased)

3.      Krylon frosted glass finish (I bought 8 cans from Amazon here)

4.      LED tea light (100 pack from Amazon here)

5.      Printed off silhouette paper (I printed off 5 sheets total).

6.      30” of wire (for each girl, I bought two pack of this wire.  This wire is really thick-- thicker than I meant to buy, but it turned out great, as long as you can muscle it around.)

7.      Newspaper

For the silhouette paper I made a simple sheet which you can use located HERE. 
We have a few girls that are coming that are not LDS, so I wanted them to have options for their luminaries. 

For the FULL Tutorials go HERE.  

This explains each step.  

I printed off three copies of the tutorial and put each page in a sleeve protectors and tied them together with baker's twine. 

I'll only be there on the first day, so the girls need to know how to do each step without me.

I can't wait to see how their luminaries turn out!

4 No-Sew Headband Printable Tutorials

I have been asked to be in charge of the coming up Girl's Camp Craft activities.

They asked that I prepare 2 - 3 different crafts.

I tried to think of crafts that weren't sewing.  I tried.  Well, I think you can still count it, since there are no needles involved in this first craft.

 

Well, I took away the needles and replaced them with hot glue guns.  And since I'm only going to be up there one of the days I decided I better make some clear tutorials for the girls to follow. 

So I had fun last week capturing each step so the girls would know what to do when I wasn't there. 

They only get a half an hour to make their crafts so for the headbands I wanted them to have options. 

 I put them in order from easiest to a little tricker.

The Easiest: The Twisted Headband

This headband idea comes from this tutorial from Sugar Bee Crafts.

Easy: The Big Bow

I made this one up.

Not Too Hard: The Knotted Headband

This headband idea come from this tutorial.

A Little Tricky: The Knitted Headband

This is a really cool tutorial from V and Co for a bracelet. 

 I thought it makes a really fun headband + it's fun to make, too.

Click HERE for the 4 No-Sew Headband Printable Tutorials.

See our other girl's camp craft HERE. 

How to Add Cap Sleeves to a Spaghetti Strap Dress

I'm taking a little break from talking about The Sweet Simple Dress-- to talk about this quick tutorial.

A couple weeks ago I was approached on a Sunday and asked by a sweet 16 year old if I would add sleeves to her Prom Dress and have it done before that coming up Saturday.

Helping her in her desire to be modest-- How could I refuse?

I started with a quick google search on adding sleeves to a spaghetti strap dress and came up with nothing useful.  So I started from scratch. 

 I spent a couple days mulling over a couple different ideas before just diving in.

Luckily her dress came with this matching jacket, which I could cut up and use for fabric.  If you don't have matching fabric, I would recommend just hitting up your local fabric store and looking for the closest thing you can find. 

First I cut up the jacket and used these basic dimensions.  You want the part in the front of the dress to be less wide than the back.

As usual, I was totally winging it since I couldn't try it on her-- but it ended up being a perfect fit.

Fold in both sides of the straps 1/4" and 1/4" again towards the wrong side of the fabric.  Iron down then sew with a simple straight stitch.

Then use a gathering stitch and gather in both ends of the strap.  

Finish the edges using your preferred method, either a serger or a zig zag stitch.

Cut off the Spaghetti strap.  But use it as a guide of where to place your new straps.  I placed the strap a 1/2" to the right of where the original strap was, with the rest of the materials going past it to the left.

Right side of the strap should be facing wrong side of the dress, then hand stitch the straps in place. 

 I hand stitched it so you couldn't see my stitches from the front of the dress.

After I was done stitching all four parts of the straps onto the dress, I noticed that I hadn't sewn the stitches close enough to the front.  So I sewed them up a second time, this time keeping real close to the edge.

Below you can see the left, where I didn't stitch close enough, and the right, after I stitched it a second time.

VIOLA!

This was a really quick project and I was so happy she asked me for help.

Doesn't she look darling?

The Silhouette Portrait Present

 

This year for Mother's day my siblings and I worked together to make a group project.  We started several weeks ago and bounced around a few ideas of getting our pictures put in a frame for my Mother. 

 Then one day I was snopping around Pinterest when I saw THIS card from Mr. Boddington's Studio.  I loved it and it inspired our next project.

I checked with all the siblings and they all agreed this would make an excellent gift for my mother.

Here's how we did it:

1st everyone sent their photo (taken against a white wall) to my sister who's a Pro at using Photoshop.  She took all our photos and made them into darling silhouettes-- and even added lovely falsy lashes (bless her).

If you don't have photoshop (or don't know how to use it, like me) you can visit this Blog.  She explains how to make silhouettes using the free program ipiccy.  I made this quick silhouette using ipiccy just to see if I could do it, using a picture of my cute son.

Once my sister had turned all our photos into silhouettes she sent them to me.  I put them all together and added the words, "You are well loved".

After I made the file, I uploaded it online sent it 5 states away to be printed right next to my Sister's house using FedEx.  She picked it up and found this cute frame.  Then she put everything together and some of my siblings got together and gave it to my mother for Mother's Day.

This project turned out so cute and it was so fun working all together, though some of us live far away from each other.

And my mother LOVED it.  

She loves bright colors and she was so surprised to have this sweet, colorful gift from all her children.

How to make the Easiest Hairbow Holder

My 2 1/2 year old daughter is finally getting some hair on top of her cute head and after all this time I'm having so much fun doing her hair each day and putting cute little bows on her.  However my former place for all her bows was jumbled up inside an empty Tupperware container.  This wasn't working.

I know there are tons of ideas for cute hair bow holders (I've seen everything from picture frames, to chicken wire, to lamps, and ballerina skirts), but I wanted to devote five minutes to this activity, spend no money, while still making it still cute and functional.

Mission Accomplished.

So, last Saturday while I had time set aside for cleaning the toilets...I quickly distracted myself with this fun, quick solution to my hair bow problems.

MATERIALS:

1. Hanger

2. Ribbon or Bling on a Roll

3. Hot Glue

4. Bows

STEP ONE: Grab a hanger with a straight bottom part.  

This was a hanger I got when my daughter was first born.  It held a cute snugly blankey on it and I'd been using it for dresses, it awkwardly did the job.

STEP TWO: About a month ago I was given lots of Bling on a Roll, which works perfect for this project because it's sturdy, cute, and shiny  But a sturdy ribbon would work, too.  Cut your ribbon to desired length. Cut three or four strips as needed.

See my other Bling on a Roll project Here.

STEP THREE:  Heat up hot glue gun and prepare your work space.  Place ribbon under the hanger.

I choose to work in the bathroom because I was trying to be speedy.  I placed a paper towel under everything.

STEP FOUR:   Place hot glue on underside of ribbon.

STEP FIVE:  Quickly press the top of ribbon down and allow to cool.  Repeat for other ribbons.

Done.  Start to finish 2 minutes flat (even less time than I had set aside).

Last thing you need to do is add your bows and elastics.

Ahhh, now I know just what bow to grab so I can color coordinate. 

 Simple, functional things make me happy.