Recently Pinned

I pinned a few thing recently that I wanted to share here!

This oragami heart page holder might be fun to make for the class or teachers! from How About Orange

And these printable Valentine Tic Tac Toe would be fun for class Valentines but also for printing out and keeping in the car for longer than usual car rides! from Sally J Shim

And these Lil Love Monsters from eighteen25 are too cute not to share! Maybe to go with your Love Bug?

and I love these shoe boxes houses for cute storage and/or play from The Gold Jellybean

Climbing Love Bug

The one thing I look for in a craft with my boys is interaction. If the craft is fairly mellow to put together (usually means no mess or loud noises) and just hangs on the wall they probably aren't too interested. However if they can play with it afterwards that increases the interest a bit. Today we're sharing a Climbing Love Bug - (a spider in this case) that can climb up it's string. Note: I am using the word "bug" here loosely I realize that spiders are arachnids not insects which most people refer to as bugs. Just wanted to get that out of the way. ;)

You'll need construction paper, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, a straw, string, scissors, and tape.

Our friends at CraftProjectIdeas were so awesome to send us some craft supplies in case we wanted to use them on a project in the future so we had the pipe cleaners and googly eye on hand from them but you can find the same ones at Walmart (they have a huge selection)

Cut out two circles for the body (or one or 5 - the fun part is making this your own)

Tape or glue the pieces together. I'm using washi tape so that you can see how we put it together but scotch tape will hold better for you.

Next you'll form some legs from the pipe cleaners

Turn him over and admire your work

Give him some eyes - I tried to give him more but my boy was having none of that.

Next we gave our spider a heart

You could add some antenna or decorate him/her however you like but at this point your bug is finished - now to make him mobile.

Cut 2 - 1" pieces of straw and place them about 1" apart on the back of your bug. If you have younger ones playing with this you may want to make sure these are on well so you don't have to keep fixing them while they are playing - a couple extra pieces of tape or hot glue maybe?

String a piece of string through the top of each straw so there is a loop at the top of your spider.

Tie off your string or add a button, paperclip etc to the bottom so they don't pull through the straw. I happened to have some wood veneer hearts on hand to use.

Hang the top of the string on a doornob or other secure spot

Have your child gently pull the strings apart and watch your bug/spider climb up the string!

Have fun!

Thanks to CraftProjectIdeas for sending us some supplies! We were not required to use them for anything in particular but we very much appreciate them for inspiring us to create!

DIY toys

We all loved the paperclip toy idea

well here's another great way to recyle objects you might already have laying around for a fun new (cheap) playset for the kids from Pi'ikea St.! I love seeing creative and inventive ways to play with everyday items.

Check out Pi'ikea St for the full directions to this fun playset and learn how to create your own. Then use yours (or your kids') imagination to create your spin on the project!

Round Plane

I posted this picture on our Instagram account the other day

It's airplane season over here again. My boys wanted to share this fun round plane they learned from a family friend!

You'll need a regular 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper (school work works great!)

Pull one corner down towards the opposite diagonal corner making two mountain tops like this

Now fold down the top about 1/4" or so - we've been playing with how thick we fold down the top so you may want to experiment as well

Do this 3 or 4 more times until you have good points/pockets on the ends - you'll see what I mean in a minute

Now you can round out your plane by rubbing against the side of the table but he likes to do it by hand. Form a circle where your two pocket ends meet

You're going to stick one side into the other

You can secure with a small bit of tape if you think it might pop out at all

Make sure it's nice and round by smoothing out the paper

And that's it! Now you can throw it two ways - like a regular plane - just hold the points towards the back

Or you can hold it with one finger on top/two on the bottom and sort of flick it (this takes a bit of practice but helps it get more air I think)

Airplanes from Leftovers

Piikea street make airplanes from Take-out containers. You know those styrofoam ones?

It's pretty easy and can be made in many different shapes!

Go visit Piikea Street for the complete instructions. Have fun flying!

New Year's Eve!

Instead of a "best of" post I thought a few New Year's Eve ideas for kids would be fun. We've always spend New Year's with our kids and I love some of these ideas I've seen.

I love the idea of countdown bags. First seen on Hoosier Handmade - Organize and Decorate Everything shared some of the things she put in her bags!

Tatertos and Jello has some fun game night ideas!

If you haven't already started might be hard to make this big of a spread but I love the inspiration from this party at Tabletops for Tots

I think I'll surprise my Disney fans with this quick and easy Mickey New Year's ball from Spoonful

Actually Spoonful has TONS of New Year's inspiration I love the idea of a wish jar for kids. No more puppies in this house though! lol!

A fun balloon pop every hour from Real Life, Real Estate, Real Dana

 I REALLY love these New Years Resolutions kit just available from Run Lucas Run

Visit Run Lucas Run to download your own!

How will you ring in the new year?! 

Things that fly

Our most popular post by far is the instructions for making a Strawplane this is such a fun and different type of paper airplane that my boys love! It flies great too!

We've also made a paper football

Today I'm showing you how to make a paper helicopter since I never showed you here!

Cut your paper to a 7″ x 1″ strip (or 14″ x 2″ which we also did here)

Measure a 2" mark about half way into the strip, you'll make 1 on either side of the strip on opposite ends, so you have a mark on one side on the top and another side on the bottom

Cut your marks halfway into the strip

Now you'll slide the cuts you just made into each other to fit together

You're ready to launch! You can throw the helicopter into the air, drop it from a high place (the stairs are perfect) and try moving the "propeller" around a bit to see what happens.

The helicopter will spin as it falls!

We found a larger piece of paper so made one 2x as big (14" x 2") and found that it fell slower than the smaller one did but the boys liked how they could watch it fall a little longer!

Let me know how your kids like it!

Updates

I hope you all are more ready for the holidays/end of the year than I am! I just wanted to take a second to update you on my plans for the remainder of the year.

I will be "taking off" the next week to spend with my family and am preparing all my blog posts this week. Next week I'll be sharing some of our favorite past projects as well as some from around the web I've found. If you'd like to share a project you think our community would like just send me a photo/link I'd love to share it!

We'll still have Fort Friday and I'm preparing a New Years Eve activity post as well! I am trying to work out a fun local snowflake making party so if you're local (Phoenix area) keep an eye out for updates from me!

I know a lot of you are expecting some snow today/this weeked - how about some fun INDOOR snow activities? I love these because those of us here in the desert can participate in these too!

Head on over to Delia Creates for 5 Snowy Fun Kid Activities! 

 Don't forget to make your snowflakes for Sandy Hook! I'd love to see photos of your snowflakes and/or of you making them - we can set up a whole gallery of photos!