Q-Tip ABC Painting

In our house "school work" is a usually a struggle! My little ones are pre-school age and I'm attempting to get them ready for school myself.. I know I'm nuts!!! My little girl likes learning and asks to do it, my son on the other hand begs to be done, there in lies the struggle! I have to scour the internet and pintrest for new ideas to keep things fun and more like games to keep his interest or it quickly turns into a fight!!!  And no one leaves the lesson happy ;)

So I tried something I saw on pinterest, it was just a picture and no link so I'm not sure where it came from, but the idea is great.  You use a piece of construction paper to write out the ABC's, you could also do the kids names or whatever you want to work on, then I let the kids pick their color of paint from my stash, gave them a q-tip and a wet wipe in case they smeared any paint and let them go!

They loved it! They were quiet.. which never happens!!! 

The were so focused, and very proud to show off their work when they finished.

They had a blast, and were learning a little something too!

If you are looking for a rainy day activity, we have a lot of those, or just another new thing to pull out of your mommy bag of tricks!  This is definitely a keeper!

Enjoy,

DIY Play Tea Set

Even since I made some little felt no sew play tea bags for a little friends birthday, (tutorial here) I have been wanting to do a full tea set for my little girl.  I looked all over for cute sets, but they were either cheesy plastic or miniature in size.  So I decide to give up on the toy sets and just go with the real thing and she loves it!  The best part is the whole things cost only a few dollars!!!

To start, I got these little wood blocks from the craft store, sprayed them with white spray paint, white primer would also work great too because the wood really soaked up the paint.  You just spray, let it set a few minutes roll them over and spray some more until all sides are covered. Once the paint was dry I used white spray glitter, found right near the spray paint and repeated the process.

The end result, adorable little sparkly "cubes".  I put them in a cute short little mason jar, to keep the lid in the ring I used a little glue to help little hands take it on and off without separating.  After all the spray paint they did smell a little strong, so I let them air out a day or two before closing them up in the jar and it worked great!

To keep the tea bags contained I found these little wood boxes at the dollar store and gave them a coat of turquoise paint.

I went a little crazy with my fabric scraps and made tons of tea bags so I painted two.

For the no sew tea bags I used the same method as my previous post (found here), but this time I did half in fabric, half in felt.

The tea pot, came from a thrift store for $2, I just used the same 50 cent bottle of turquoise craft paint to paint the wood handle and knob on the lid to tie it all together.

The cups were .29 cents from the same thrift store.  They are heavy and ever when dropped haven't chipped or broken yet, and even if they do for .29 cents I figure I will just go buy a few more.  The flowers are just dollar store fake flowers, in an old mason jar and the cloth napkins were her great grandmothers, I didn't have any use for them but it makes me smile that she is having so much fun with something of hers.

The wood tray came with another toy, I think it was instruments last Christmas, it also got a coat of paint.

And ta-dah!!! An adorable, unique tea set ready for hours of fun!

And it looks really cute on her little table in her room!  We have "tea" daily, even daddy has become quite the "tea" drinker :) It was so fun to make and cost just a few bucks! Way more fun than a $30 plastic set if you ask me!!!

Hope you love it as much as we do!!!

Enjoy,

No Sew No Tie Tennis Shoe Tutorial

I LOVE all of the cute little kids tennis shoes, especially the cute slip on converse, but I refuse to pay more for kids shoes than my own!!! Mine are twice as big... how can theirs cost so much? Sorry for the rant, it just bothers me because they grow out of them so fast, so I made my own with hand me down shoes, left over tutu elastic and some hot glue... total cost FREE in my book!

These are two pair of generic converse like canvas shoes my little boy wore once or twice before out growing so they were basically new.  I found them in the bottom of a kids clothes bin in the garage and was pretty proud of my hoarding ways, for once it paid off!

Because they were cheap to begin with and they had already served one kid I figured I had nothing to lose so I totally winged it and just started cutting.  I removed the laces and pulled the tongue forward, then used an exacto knife to make four small slits toward the other edge of the tongue where it would be hidden by the side of the shoe, just big enough for my elastic to slide thru.

The canvas is thick enough that I didn't have to worry about the holes ripping.  I just trimmed the elastic so that it reached the inside toward the sole on each side, put some hot glue on the top all four ends, pressed tight to the inside of the canvas until it cooled and sealed and that's it!

So cute, huh??  

From little boy to cute little girl in a couple minutes!  But these would work for a little boy too!

She's pretty proud of her new kicks!

She says they make her go super fast! I'm proud that they didn't cost me anything to make :)  So does that mean I get an extra pair for me?  I did technically "get" her a new pair ;)  In my mind craftiness should always be rewarded!!! ALWAYS!

Then again this face is a pretty great reward!

Stay tuned... I used the black pair for her DIY Clown Costume, I know I'm super behind on posting that one, but it is SO worth the wait!

Grab some old tennis shoes and give this a try, I'm going to try some in my size next.  Hey, a girl can never have to many shoes!

Enjoy,