Busy Moms Helper

Family fun, food, recipes, crafts, and free printables

Superhero Hooded Towels Tutorial

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We love hooded towels at our house. It’s just nice to literally wrap them up completely after their bath (for the boys) or for my girl to wrap herself up. They think it’s lots of fun, too! The ones we did have were from when they were smaller – animals such as a lion, shark, duck and frog, and a princess crown one for my girl. They were fine, yes, but having grown so much, it didn’t cover completely. Or really at all – like from the hood on their heads down to their little bums. Then they’d try to curl up their legs to dry off and stay warm, without much success. It was time to replace them, that’s for sure!
I wanted BIG hooded towels this time. And I mean HUGE!!! So really, you don’t need to sew two full towels together, I just chose to for this.
Supplies – per towel
Two bath towels ($3 each at Walmart)
One hand towel ($2 at Walmart)
Felt of color choice for details
 
Here are the color schemes:
Wonder Woman: Blue, Yellow & Red. She has white stars on the bottom, and a gold crown with red star.
Superman: Blue, Yellow & Red. His cape is red, along with part of his pants. Top and pants are blue. Yellow Belt.
Batman: Black & Yellow, or you could do grey as well. I added bat ears to the hood – too cute! Yellow belt.
Green Lantern: Green, White & Black
Directions
Take the two towels and sew them together, with a nice seam. Make sure the prettiest edge is on the outside. (sorry for the terrible pic – was taken in my craft room at night, since the kids couldn’t see them in the day or I’d be totally busted!) The part that’s showing here should go on the INSIDE of the towel.
I thought they looked best with this seam running vertical. Place the hand towel with one long edge along the top of your ‘bottom’ you just created. Again, make sure the prettiest seams are going to be on the outside! Like in this picture below…pretty seams on the outside!
Then take the very top of the hand towel, fold and sew together.
Use the felt to create some Logos, Crowns, Belts, Stars, Bat Ears…..give them personality, just like the kiddos! Then just sew them on – the smallest felt pieces (logos and crown) were done by hand stitch, the rest on my normal sewing machine
See the adorable little bat ears? I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!! So does my little Batman 🙂

 

 

Sorry I don’t have a pic of my Green Lantern – he was ultra grumpy this week with schedules going back to normal. I’ll try to nab a photo this weekend and include it 🙂
What hooded towel would YOU love to make, and for who?

Over 400 Stocking Stuffer Ideas

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Every year, I have no trouble making a huge (like, over the top) list of gifts I’d love to get my kids. Then I have to cut it down a LOT. The stocking stuffers, on the other hand, are such a struggle for me! My problem is, I don’t want to spend much on the stuffers, but don’t want to give them ‘junk’ stuff, either. This year, I’ve got it all taken care of – check out these lists of Over 400 Stocking Stuffer Ideas that helped me out, with TONS of ideas, for anyone on your list!
Over 400 Stocking Stuffer Ideas / Busy Mom's Helper
Here we go…..
Happy Stocking Stuffing!!!

Cocoa Gift Hats

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So I’m really good at lists – obsessed, as Hubby would say – so I do really well in the holiday season with keeping track of what we got for which kid (and who it’s from). That said, in the past I’ve often struggled remembering the smaller gifts – for neighbors, friends, co-workers, church family – until the last minute. Ya, shame on me, I know! This year, though, I’m planning ahead and have LOTS of different ideas for some fun little-gift-giving! This is just a simple Cocoa Gift Hat gift that we’re giving my daughter’s classmates. Super easy, super cute, and super cost-effective!
Cocoa Gift Hat with Free Printable Pattern / Busy Mom's Helper
One bonus about these is that you can make them really customized…make them YOURS. So even if all your kids make these for their friends, they can do something unique (a special color, different stamp, etc.) to make them stand apart from the others. Really, these Cocoa Gift Hats are just super fun, and

Supplies Needed

  • Gray-patterned (or desired) color paper – for hat
  • Red (or desired color) paper – for strap across hat
  • Stamp and ink of choice (I did ‘Merry Christmas’ in silver ink)
  • Snowflake sticker, or other cute accent
  • Clear baggie – I got mine at Walmart
  • Cocoa – loose powder or a packet
  • Mini Marshmallows
  • Peppermints, Andies Candies, etc.
  • Tape or glue

Directions

1. First, print these shapes out. Then use them as stencils to trace your hat and strap shapes.
2. Glue or tape the strap shape across the hat. Use the stamp on the left side, accent (sticker) on the right.
3. Attach the baggie behind the hat with tape or glue. Fill with cocoa (powder or packet), marshmallows and mints.
Have fun with it!!!

Witch Broom Party Gifts

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Okay, I have to admit that I haven’t fully come to terms with the fact that Halloween is this week. I mean, SERIOUSLY! Where the heck did October go?!?! It seems like every year, once October hits time just FLIES until January. Agh!!! Anywho – here’s a fun, simple little Halloween craft that’s great for party favors, neighbor gifts, or even for trick-or-treaters (if you spend more time than I do – I just go straight from the bag, not even putting treats in the bowl). You’ll love this darling Witch Brooms, plus a treat is never bad, right?

Witch Broom Party Gifts / Busy Mom's Helper

Supplies
Suckers
Tissue Paper
Black stamp pad, or marker (or Brown, up to you)
Ribbon or thread
Embellishments, tag, etc. to decorate

Directions
Use the black stamp pad or marker to color the sucker sticks black. Or brown, if you so desire.

Take about 4-6 square pieces of tissue paper, fanning them out, then poke the sucker stick through the middle. Fold the tissue paper down and around the sucker part, to be the broom piece.

Use ribbon to tie the base of the stick, above the tissue paper, and along the bottom of the sucker. This really helps hold it in place, and give it the ‘broom’ look.

Then just primp it up with a cute card, tag, or embellishments like witch shoes or maybe a black cat. Use a fun saying like ‘We ‘Witch’ You a Happy Halloween’ or ‘Have a Be-Witching good Halloween’. Have fun with it!

Tasty Spider Gift

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These are an oldie-but-a-goodie. My kids actually made them at my mom’s house last Halloween-time, and I snapped a photo of those ones so I could try to do them again. Behold, Tasty Spider Gift second edition! These fun little gifts are so simple, cost-friendly (Booyah!) and cute that kids AND adults alike will love them!

Tasty Spider Gift / Busy Mom's Helper

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Supplies
Tape or Hot Glue
Black Pipe Cleaners (or colorful, your choice)
Jewel, pom-pom – something for a nose
Candies to hide inside!
Directions
 
I got my little canisters at a Family Dollar, and they were only about 50 Cents a piece. So….take your little canisters……
….and glue four pipe cleaners per side (spiders have eight legs, remember?) to the bottom of the canisters. I used black because that’s what I had on-hand, but making fun colorful spider legs would be awesome!
Tasty Spider Gift
Next, glue on the Googly Eyes and Nose to the lid.
Tasty Spider Gift
Fill with candy, replace the lid and VIOLA!!! A really easy, inexpensive little treat craft for the kids (adult-kids also included)!
Tasty Spider Gift
Did you see my other fun Halloween Craft this week?

Superhero Soda Gift

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Have you noticed yet that my family’s a bunch of comic nerds? Or would it be geeks? Either way – that’s what we are, big time! My 6-year-old knows the difference between Justice League and Avengers. My boys will yell at you if you call the wrong hero the wrong name. It’s awesome! So, for Father’s Day, we wanted to do something ultra-nerdy and fun and decided to give Flash a gift that was simple, tasty, and reflected our family. Thus – our Superhero Soda Gift! Since there are 6 bottles in the set, each bottle represented a family member – perfect!
Superhero Soda Gift with Free Printables / Busy Mom's Helper
Being our nerdy selves, each of us has a Superhero name. My daughter is Wonder Woman, twins are Superman and Batman, and the youngest is Green Lantern. Hubby is Flash, and I’m Hawk Girl (when the kids say this, it sounds like ‘Hot Girl’ – not going to complain about that!).
Here’s the full Superhero Soda Gift set, in all it’s nerdy-glory!

Supplies

  • 6-pack of IBC cream soda (or orange – just so long as the bottles are clear)
  • Printables, found below
  • Tape or Mod Podge
  • M&Ms, Skittles or other candies the correct color (small enough to fit into the bottle)

Directions

Print and cut out the printable pages found below. Use tape or Mod Podge to attach them to the box, trimming any excess. Attach the labels to the top of the bottle caps, and tape the bottle wraps around each bottle.
Fill each bottle with the appropriate color of treats. Here’s the colors we did:
  • Flash: Red and yellow
  • Hawk Girl: Red and yellow (could also use black – but I didn’t know what candy to do for that)
  • Wonder Woman: Red, yellow and blue
  • Batman: Yellow (could also use black/grey – again, no idea what candy)
  • Superman: Red, yellow and blue
  • Green Lantern: Green (again, black could be used)
Replace the caps, and you’re good to go!
Notes: If using M&Ms, I found that in the 3 huge bags we had to use, there were more blues than any other color, except maybe brown. In all of those 3 bags – so that may just be the normal! Other thoughts for candies: Lemon Heads, small Swedish Fish, Skittles, Nerds, etc.
Printable Pages

Back of Box, Back of Handle, 4 Bottle Toppers

Superman & Wonder Woman Bottle Labels