Kids' Christmas Party - Painted Canvas Ornament Idea Tutorial

Our annual Kids' Christmas Craft Party included painting a mini canvas ornament!

The kids loved creating their very own masterpiece!

Mini Painted Canvas Ornament Tutorial

Supplies: 

• mini canvases 3" x 4" (I found these in packs of 10 at JoAnn's)
• 1/8" painters masking tape
• tiny eye screws / hooks
• acrylic paints in assorted colors
• paint brushes

The first step is to mask off a pattern of your choosing. Everywhere you put the tape, will end up white:

Then paint! You can paint each section a color or some random design:

Let the paint dry. 

Remove the painter's tape.

And voila!

When they are dry, screw in the eye hook so you can hang it on your tree. Add a thin satin ribbon, too, if you like. Here are some of the boys having fun working on theirs:

Both the girls and boys were excited to make a painted canvas creation! Yay! A treasured Christmas keepsake!

Christian Altered Book Art with Scripture

My daughter and I created our first altered book art projects! She wanted to enter a local contest celebrating Book Month in April.

I chose to use a Bible verse - Romans 6:23 - for my theme. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

And my daughter created a Dreamland of a jeweled flower garden around a beautiful stream.

We had a lot of fun "altering" our books and they were displayed at the library for a full month. Have any of you tried this?

Decorating with Sea Glass

We LOVE to collect sea glass! Whenever we head to the beach, we're always on the lookout.

We found this glass bottle ages ago and thought it to be perfect home for our treasures. It's topped with a leaded-glass-look cross. Since we don't live on the coast, hunting for sea glass is not a daily or weekly opportunity for us. Still, we are frequently in California, often when it's too cold to really swim, so walking and playing in the sand allows us the time to find the rocky places where sea glass likes to rest.

Not too long ago we were blessed to find ourselves on the west coast of Italy. Walking along the sea from Rapallo to Portofino past many rocky beaches, we couldn't resist to stop for sea glass. In a matter of minutes we had found more and larger pieces than in the previous five years of gathering on our west coast! [I don't know if that is the case always or it was due to heavy rains that had churned up the coast prior to our arrival.] Regardless, the kids especially were giddy with excitement at the overabundance of treasure at our fingertips! We laughed as we tossed the "tiny" specimens back – only selecting the grandest for keepsakes – but how those "tiny" pieces might have been considered precious and large back in CA.  :-)

Our original collection being enjoyed in my daughter's bedroom.

Easter Egg Stuffer Ideas for Little Ones

Ages ago when my daughter's first Easter came along she was almost one. We were excited newbie parents and wanted her to have the excitement of "hunting" for and opening Easter eggs. Of course - these things are really more about our excitement than theirs at that age, right? Well, I wasn't going to give my precious firstborn candy! Tee hee! The first thing that popped into my mind was animal crackers.

So, that is what she opened on her first Easter over 10 years ago – animal crackers and Cheerios. Just opening an egg to find a surprise inside was exciting. Well, after Easter several other mommies were surprised at my choice of stuffers – they lamented having to put candy in their children's eggs – Because that's just how it was done – and wished they had done something "healthier."

This post is JUST IN CASE, you've got little ones or toddlers and don't want to have their teeth full of sugary jelly beans either. Goldfish would be a nice treat, too, if your child doesn't eat them on an hourly basis and would consider them fun to find inside. Something not too sugary; simple and fun for a little tot. Of course, as they get older chocolate is really the best choice given its nutritional value. Wink. Wink. Or mints or money are also safe Easter egg stuffing choices. Please share your ideas in the comments!

AND please type "Easter" in the search bar on the right to see my more inspirational Christ-focused Easter celebration ideas! Happy Easter - Christ is risen!

Customized Hat Boxes for a Baby Room

Throwback Thursday! Here are some paper maché hat boxes I decorated for my daughter's baby room ages ago, and that I featured in my book Inspirational Home:

They were the round cardboard boxes found at most craft stores. I printed out uplifting Bible verses using a pink and brown color scheme. The brown box top was painted with acrylic paint, then banded across the diameter with one wide pink satin ribbon. This was trimmed and glued on the underside. Atop it, I layered papers with the verse for the centerpiece:

It's sides were decoupaged with striped tissue paper. I cut it in strips and glued down one side, across the bottom, then up the opposite side until completely covered.

The pink box has a decoupaged tissue paper cover in a coordinating pink and brown polka dot. I printed "May the Lord's face shine upon you and bless you" from Numbers 6:24-25, on pink paper and wrapped horizontally around the sides. A pink ribbon tied simply is the finishing touch!

Have a blessed day!

Kids Christmas Tree Party Treat Tutorial

At our annual Kids' Christmas Party each of the kids made their own melted chocolate Christmas tree:

A friend helped me by keeping lots of color melts ready for all the eager kiddos:

We loaded assorted color melts into plastic bags so kids could easily squeeze out a Christmas tree pattern over three pretzels positioned on wax paper:

And then they loaded them up with their choice of sprinkles! Voila!

Letter Nail Head Art Project

A little afternoon project – easy contemporary letter crafts:

I have many wood panels laying around, so first we painted two of them. My kids both chose blue.

They chose a font letter style and we printed it out to scale. Positioning it on the wood panel, we pounded small nails right through the paper on the letter's border, an inch or 2 apart.

We tore off the paper and the kids began entwining their string of choice:

They just twisted it around this way and that as they saw fit:

And they can now enjoy their new art craft in their bedrooms. (I think they did a super job!)

Kids' Photo Ornament Keepsake Craft Tutorial

Our 5th Annual Kids' Christmas Craft Party is this week! It's one of the highlights of our month. This year we'll be doing another photo ornament keepsake. Capturing our kids' faces at these precious young ages creates a sweet memento.

We'll be using little birch disks I found at Michael's, so the supply list is short:

• round wood disks

• eye hooks

• decoupage glue

• small brush

• small portrait photo

• Sharpie marking pens (assorted colors)

• glitter glue pens (assorted colors)

• thin hanging ribbon

Step 1: screw in one eye hook to the rim/side of each wood disk. 

Step 2: ask each child to draw a picture, create a design or write something on one side of the disk with the Sharpie pens. There!–You're capturing their artwork, too!

Step 3: cut the child's photo in a circle just a touch smaller than the wood disk. (The disks I bought at Michael's were assorted sizes.)

Step 4: brush decoupage glue onto the reverse side of the disk and adhere the photo.

Step 5: let dry for a couple minutes.

Step 6: decorate and hide the photo edge with glitter glue.

Step 7: string ribbon for hanging

There you go – a cute keepsake ornament for 2014 with your child's face and art!

Kids' Christmas Craft Party 2013

We are so excited for our party today!!

My kids' annual Kids' Christmas Craft Party is this afternoon! We have 20 some kids coming,

three craft stations, including this one for these yarn stars:

 and a treat station which includes making edible marshmallow snowmen on a stick! :-)
 Plus, games, prizes and a white elephant exchange - WooHoo! Let's party!

Fill a Shoebox for Operation Christmas Child

It's that time of year!

I know there are so many wonderful charities and organizations doing great work out there. Just wanted to mention one in particular that helps my kids as we set a tone of sharing for the Thanksgiving & Christmas season. They really get into packing a shoebox for a child of their age as a Christmas gift.

Operation Christmas Child sends millions of shoeboxes, filled with toys, school supplies and toiletry items to needy kids around the world. Collection week begins today. If you'd like more information, please visit Samaritan's Purse.

Thanksgiving Paper Craft - Indian Corn for Fall

In a festive fall mood the other day, the kids and I did some paper crafting:

 Indian corn! We used orange, brown and burgundy heavy tissue papers:

The kids glued the "corn kernel" papers onto brown cardboard using pencil ends, topped each with shredded and wrinkled tassels and completed the project with a ribbon bow.

Rubik's Cube Birthday Party - Part 2

If one of your kids or family members are in a Rubik's Cube phase, here are some more ideas from my son's recent birthday party. (for the cake and other party ideas see my first party post here.)

 The centerpiece of the fiesta was this homemade pinata I made.

Assorted Rubik's Cube puzzles decorated the lunch table:

Paper cubes that coordinated with the invites hung from the lights:

 The first activity after my son's kids arrived was a contest to melt a frozen popsicle the fastest. Here's a group of them holding theirs against the hot patio:

 And first place goes to:

Next we formed two teams and did a relay of filling a bucket using a sponge and water:

Then we were ready to jump in the pool for more racing games:

WooHoo!  Thanks for stopping by!!

Rubik's Cube Boy Birthday Party!

We recently celebrated my son's 7th birthday with a colorful Rubik's Cube themed kid party.

He LOVED his cube cake! It was really easy to make, but all the kids were "wow'd" by it! Stack four square strawberry and cherry cake layers to create the cube shape. (I didn't even bother to level it into a "perfect" cube.) Frost with chocolate and spray black.

Then simply sort out M&M's by color and set into your pattern of choice. Here's a photo of the cake table. The Rubik's Cube birthday cake is surrounded by the kids' favors.

The 2x2 Rubik's Cube thank you gifts for the boys:

 Personalized drinks for the kids:

 More birthday party fun next time!