Kid Friendly Archives - Page 3 of 22

5 Awesome DIY Disney MagicBand Decorating Ideas

March 21, 2018 by Danielle

For those that don’t know, our family is working extremely hard to be able to go visit Disney World later this year – that means saving money, planning ahead, skipping on some ‘extras’ to make it a reality. We’re all on board, and doing little things along the way to keep us excited and the momentum going – such as planning how we’ll customize our MagicBands! This is a great way to personalize your own band, and can be a fun Disney-themed craft project as you’re preparing for your next trip. Here’s 5 Awesome DIY Disney MagicBand Decorating Ideas to help get your creativity going!

If you saw when I shared earlier on why I think MagicBands are completely incredible and super useful on a Disney trip, you’ll know many of the ways you use it at the parks, hotels and more. Well, now you don’t only have your own handy band to help along your trip, but you can personalize it however you want to REALLY make it yours! Plus, it’ll add a little bit of ‘magic’ while you’re planning, preparing and counting down to your next visit.

Don’t forget to check Get Away Today for the best Disney Vacation deals!

The usual – purchase a design, or buy add-on accessories

You can order fully designed/printed MagicBands from Disney – everything from classic characters, to superhero or Star Wars. There’s also some fun accessories from places like the Disney Store that just pop into the holes along the band for some 3D accents.

Paint

Okay, how awesome is this Captain America themed band from Creative Green Living? Head over to see how she used paint to customize hers!

Temporary Tattoos

Check out how simple it is to use a fun tattoo for your MagicBand at Disney Insider Tips.

Or see The Delightful Life for another tutorial…

Jewels

How fantastic is this beautiful jeweled MagicBand from The Delightful Life?! I totally love it – this plus the ‘bonus’ craft at the bottom are likely what I’ll do to customize my own this year!

More fun ideas on the blog at Get Away Today!

Nail Polish & Stickers

There’s so many possibilities when you have some nail polish on-hand, so check out ScrapPop for how to use it on your band!

Bonus – GLITTER!!!

I absolutely LOVE this MagicBand creation from Creative Green Living – not just because it’s sparkly, but it’s also purple! I want to mix this tutorial with the jewel/bling one on my own band for our trip – I’ll be sure to share pics when it’s done!

How would you customize YOUR MagicBand?

Disney MagicBands: Why They’re Amazing

March 7, 2018 by Danielle

I was a bit confused the first time I went to Disney World. I’d been to Disneyland in California many times before, but there were so many differences that I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. For example, how the heck was I suppose to use these cool MagicBands that I received? Luckily I figured it out pretty quickly, and have since come to really love using them in place of tickets and such. There’s so many ways they make your trip better, and we’re sharing all our tips with you. So read on to learn all about the Disney MagicBands: Why They’re Amazing!

First of all, make sure your keep your MagicBand SAFE, because this is your ticket and key for many things! There are clasp slider things you can get, like a BitBelt, that help secure your band on just in case. This can be especially helpful for little kids who not only have tiny wrists, but also move around and mess with their bands a lot. Here’s why they’re so important, and why I absolutely love them on my Disney trip! And don’t forget to check out Get Away Today for the best prices on your magical vacation!

Magical Express Check-in

If you’re staying at a Disney-owned hotel, you can use the Magical Express shuttle from the airport to/from your hotel – for FREE! When you get to the airport, you check in at the Magical Express area (there’s plenty of signs all around the airport, don’t worry) – if you have a MagicBand, you just scan it and your reservation for the hotel pops up nice and easy. Otherwise you have to pull out your documents showing your reservation, taking more time and hassle.

Hotel Room Key

I’m a big fan of online check-in, because the lines when you arrive at your resort are typically pretty long (especially if you took the shuttle, because a LOT of people are arriving with you!). Checking in online beforehand is a great way to just skip straight to the fun – and they’ll email/text you when your room is ready, with the room number and location, so you can just go there at your convenience. What about a key? Your MagicBand is your hotel room key – yay! That means you don’t even have to go to the front desk to pick up any keys.

Purchases

Whether you’re buying that cute Stitch stuffed animal (that my hubby wants so badly), paying for your tasty meal at Tusker House, or paying for that delicious Dole Whip, you can just scan your MagicBand and it’ll charge it to the card you have on file with your band. Don’t worry, they do require a PIN for purchases, so if you do happen to lose it, it’s not the total end of the world. Still keep a good hold on it though – just in case 😉

Fast Pass+ & Reservatons

Unlike Disneyland, they do the FastPass+ system without tickets – this means it’s tied to your MagicBand! When it’s time for one of your FastPasses, you go up to that line and scan your band at the little Mickey stands. It’ll turn green if you’re good to go, and that’s it. No more keeping track of tiny paper tickets, thank goodness. And for your dining reservations, those can be pulled up by scanning your band, as well.

Park Tickets

To get in and out of the park, you can just scan your band at the Mickey stands, check your fingerprint (made the first time you go), then walk on in! It’s so nice to not have to have your tickets out and handy as you’re already trying to get through the lines, security and everything.

Check out Get Away Today for awesome prices on your Disney trip!

Ride & Photographer Photos

You know those amazing photographers all over the parks willing to take your photos? They just scan it onto your MagicBand, then the photos are loaded to your account to view and/or purchase. So convenient! Plus, during rides that have photos – they’re automatically scanned to your band, so you don’t have to rush at the end to nab your photo before it switches to the next one.

Be Our Guest Restaurant

If you do breakfast or lunch at the Be Our Guest restaurant (highly recommend it – so fun!), you seat yourself after placing your order. With your Magicband, they can find you to bring you food right to your table. Don’t worry though – if you don’t have a band they give you a special ‘rose’ so they can still locate your party.

Test Track

For this amazing ride in Epcot, you design a ‘test’ vehicle for a simulation ride while in line (or at a station after the end of the ride), then scan your design from your MagicBand right before you get into your ‘car’. This is really exciting for kids (heck, and us adults, too!) who want to see how their design does. Also, a cast member told me it stays on your MagicBand for about 30 days – so if you design the perfect one and don’t want to replace it when you return in a few days or so, just be sure to not scan a new one onto your band and your cool design will still be there.

Our friends at Michael’s VIPs can give you all sorts of fun tips with their unforgettable guide services!

Personalized Message Surprises

Since they can ping/locate your MagicBand, some ques or rides will have special messages with YOUR NAME on there! At the end of it’s a small world, it said goodbye to ‘Danielle & Vardee’ when I went with my mom a couple years ago. Last year with hubby in line for Expedition Everest, one of those screen ‘ads’ that scroll through personalized to ‘Clayton’, and we saw a few kids get excited when their name popped up in others as well.

They’re Fun & Customizable

Whether you want to add fun things to it yourself, like little button stick-ins or glitter, or want to order a printed design, you can have a lot of fun designing your own MagicBand. Since you don’t HAVE to get a new one each visit, but instead can keep your favorite band, it makes it like a special keepsake as well. If you don’t want to pay more for customizing or decorating it, no worries – if you’re staying at a Disney-owned hotel they send each person one for free and have a handful or so of colors you can choose from. And yes, you can still put your name or something on it while you’re doing the personalizing, too!

What color or design would you want your MagicBand?

Minecraft Birthday Party

February 16, 2018 by Danielle

My twins turned 5 this month. FIVE! Ya, I’m still in shock a bit. When we started talking about what type of birthday party they want, it was a definite MINECRAFT answer from both of them! No surprise there, of course. Although this was a few weeks ago, I’m finally getting around to sharing our Minecraft Birthday Party!

One thing that I was really excited about is that there’s SO MUCH you can do with a Minecraft party, from the food, to the decor, to the activities…really, it’s crazy how many possibilities you have to work with! I really like not going broke for a 5-year-old birthday party, though, so I kept it really budget friendly and as stress-free as possible.

Minecraft Invitations

I’m really a fan of making our own invitations because 1. usually I can get them cheaper and 2. they’re totally fun! I made sure to include some Creepers, Steve? and his pup, even an Enderman! There’s a spot at the top of the text area you can write who’s celebration it is, then all the spots for details!

Print off the invitation HERE, cut it out and tape/glue the blank sides together. Then just fold on the designated lines, fill in your details, and pass them out. Now get ready to Par-Tay!

Minecraft Decorations

We had a ton of fun creating the setting for our party! Our awesome backdrop was a huge hit with the kiddos, and was really simple to put up! All you do is get some square plates in 2-3 shades of green and some black. Lay them out on a table or the floor, creating your Creeper pattern.

Turn them over, being careful to keep them in the patter you’re wanting, and tape all along the plate backs. Across, down, and diagonal.

See how easy it picks up? Then just use little nails or something at the top corners and one in the middle to hold it onto your wall. Easy and fabulous!

On our tablescape we used these fun Minecraft paper/box sets to really make the place look like the game. They come in sheet patterns that you just pop out and fold together. Great activity idea! I also nabbed this Grass tablecloth, which worked perfect!

I hung balloons and put Creeper faces or Enderman faces on them in our kitchen area and at the front door. For the favor bags I just got simple green baggies and taped black construction paper Creeper faces on the front!

I found these awesome swords and pick-axe and the kids LOVED them! Perfect for the decor, then you can use them for a game of ‘fight the Creeper’, then the birthday kid can keep them afterwards. We HAD to get a diamond sword version along with the iron, since my family is kind of obsessed with this game and it just ‘topped it off’.

There’s also PLENTY of Minecraft items HERE you can check out, from glowing wall torches, to pins, to spinning Wither and more!

Like the fabulous torches? Get the Tutorial HERE

Minecraft Food

Seriously, you could go even more crazy here, too! Here’s some of the delicious snacks and drinks we served up…

Creeper Juice & Creeper cups (green cups with marker faces)
Gold Brick boxes (also good for favors) with Coal (chocolate)
Sticks (pretzels)

Water (blue jello)
Lava (red jello)
TNT (licorice bits)
Dirt & Grass (pudding with green frosting)

Bread (biscuits with pizza toppings)
Redstone (rice krispies with black/grey food coloring and red candy chunks)
Diamonds (rice krispies with black/grey food coloring an blue candy chunks)
Creeper Cake (with green/white/black fondant squares to make a face)

I got the fun Free printable food name place cards from Catch My Party.

Minecraft Games & Activities

Like I said, you could play ‘fight the Creeper’ with the foam swords, or go ‘digging’ through some boxes with the pick-axes. You could also create your own sword with this fun Free Printable Sword Stencil HERE.

There’s also a Creeper Pinata – Get the Tutorial HERE

My boys seriously LOVED their party, and everyone had a wonderful time. We were also able to keep most of the decor for the kids to enjoy for a long while yet!

Don’t miss out on more Minecraft Fun…

Bug Valentine Craft with Free Printables

February 10, 2018 by Danielle

Even though many of us are barely recovering from Christmas, Valentine’s Day is quickly creeping up on us – crazy, right? With 4 kids in school this year, we’ve got plenty of kids’ Valentines for school to deal with. Luckily, these Bug Valentine pencils are a super easy craft, turn out adorable, and we even included the free printables for you!

You all know I love joining in Craft Lightning every month – and we’ve done some awesome crafts for every theme! Remember the snowman fingerprint activity last month? For those that don’t know – with this party we only share 15-minute (or less) crafts. I was able to do at least a dozen in that time, so within an hour I had plenty for my kids’ friends. Here’s for not waiting until the last minute – Woot woot!

Supplies

These Printable Bug Valentines – Download the 8.5×11 sheet here
Pom-poms
Pipe Cleaners
Hot glue/gun
Scissors
Googly eyes
Pencils
Hole-punch

Directions

Glue a pom-pom onto each pipe cleaner at the top. Glue 2 googly eyes onto the front. Cut the pipe cleaner to your desired length (or leave it longer, up to you) and wrap around the pencil.
Cut out the bug valentine cards. Hole punch at the top and bottom, then slide your pencil through.

That’s it – see, I told you it was a super easy Valentine idea! The kids are really excited to give these out – and were glad we did such a variety of colors for their friends to choose from.

Another bonus? It’s a non-candy Valentine idea, meaning less sweets to deal with! I like this partially because my kids don’t need even more candy, as I’m sure their friends don’t either – but while doing the craft I’d probably eat well more than I should if it was candy! I’m much safer with pencils and pom-poms 🙂

Now head over to see the other amazing Valentine’s Day crafts for this month’s Craft Lightning!

If you missed our other Craft Lightning crafts….

12 Winter Hat Kid Crafts

February 6, 2018 by Danielle

With all of these snow storms & freezing weather, kids aren’t getting as much outside time. If yoy’re looking for a fun winter-themed craft to give them a little extra fun this winter, you’ll love these winter 12 Winter Hat Kid Crafts! They’re an excellent craft to make during the winter, and your kids will love them!

Paper Plate Snow Hat Craft

Winter Hats Craft

Dressed for Winter Hat Activity

Cozy Winter Hat Project

Santa Hat Christmas Ornament

Paper Plate Winter Hat

Santa Hat Cup Craft

Yarn Wrapped Winter Hats

Reindeer Hat

Winter Hat Tree Ornament

Winter Hat Craft

DIY Valentine Frame from Craft Sticks

January 30, 2018 by Danielle

Let this sink in for a moment – it’s less than a month until Valentine’s Day. Please tell me I’m not the only one in shock – I mean, didn’t it just turn 2018, and already we’re looking to February?! Well, whether we’re ready or not, the holiday is coming – so to TRY and get myself in the festive pink-and-red-everything mood, I wanted to share this fun DIY Valentine Frame from Craft Sticks that I put together.

It’s surprisingly easy, aside from getting the glitter off your hands afterwards (really, I need to find a reliable trick that will help me get rid of the random glitter that sticks around for days after a project because DANG it’s everywhere). You don’t even need a ton of stuff, and you can even let the kids make their own sweet valentine frame for a neat holiday craft.

I love that it’s 3-D looking due to the layer and stacking of the sticks, and that you can customize it to fit your own preferences. Hate pink? Don’t use it. Want larger sparkles instead of tiny glitter? Do it. This is YOUR Valentine frame, so make it your own!

Supplies

12 full craft sticks
6 full craft sticks cut in half (so 12 halves) – be sure to cut off the sharp edges
Hot glue/gun
Glue Stick
Glitter, sparkles, accents, ribbon, etc. as you see fit
Photo

Directions

If you haven’t already, cut the 6 craft sticks into halves (does NOT have to be perfect, just ‘ish’). Then, pour your glitter/sparkles of choice into a large plate or tray. I mixed a few colors to get a variety mix (silver, white, pink and purple). Rub one side of each stick (including the halves) with your glue stick – one stick at a time – then rub in the glitter mixture to coat that side. Set aside to dry as you continue with all the sticks.
Follow the following diagram below to arrange and hot glue your sticks together. 1: put 2 sticks on the left and 2 sticks on the right, connecting at the bottom point of the ‘heart’ (don’t glue in this step). 2: glue a stick on top & between the two sticks on each side (shown in photo 2 and 3 below). 3: glue 2 halves on the top right and 2 halves on the top left to angle in towards the top of the ‘heart’. 4: Turn over and glue 2 halves under the left and 2 halves under the right to do the final point down and in to finish the ‘heart’ shape. 5: Turn it back over and glue 1 half on the left and 1 half on the right to make the top center part more sturdy. 6: Glue 1 half to the left and 1 half to the right for the top ‘corner edge’ parts of the heart – again, to make it sturdy.
To finish it up, glue a ‘handle’ to the back & bottom of your heart shape with the last full craft stick piece!
Then all you have left is to carefully trace & cut out your photo so it fits on the back of your frame, then carefully glue along the edges so it stays in place.

That’s it! I know that may seem like a lot of steps, but it’s truly simple and takes hardly any time at all. In fact, doing the glitter on the sticks is what took me the longest of everything! Just be sure to follow that diagram photo so you have a visual to help keep it as easy as possible.

You can add accent pieces – like a little ‘jewel’ – or a ribbon, as you see fit. Like I said – make it YOURS! Or customize to the person you’re giving it to 🙂

I had to add the photo hubby and I had taken during family pictures last month because I absolutely LOVE it! Often us moms forget to get photos of us with our kids, and sometimes even less do we get photos with our honey. That’s something I’m trying to work on this year – more photos WITH those I love, not just of them!

One last tip – if you don’t want the ‘craft stick’ tan color showing through, you can use markers or paint before hand to color it, or just be sure to layer up the glitter a lot for full coverage. I kind of like the randomness and dimension to it, but that’s just my personal preference.

What photo would YOU put in this fun DIY Valentine frame?

More Valentine’s Day Crafts

21 Alien & Monster Crafts for Kids

January 15, 2018 by Danielle

Whether you’re doing a themed project at preschool, need to give the kids an activity while you tackle laundry, or just want to sit down together and create, here’s a fun list of 21 Alien and Monster Crafts for Kids to help you out.

Painting and paper folding, silly faces and crazy decorations, there’s a little bit of something for everyone in this great list of crafts for kids – and adults, too, because you don’t have to be a kid to enjoy some good ol’ alien or monster fun 🙂

1. Paper Plate Flying Saucer Craft

2. Aliens Love Underpants Story Spoon Craft

3. DIY Monster Bookmarks

4. Feed The Alphabet Monster

5. Tie Dye Coffee Filter Monster

6. Mix and Match Monsters

7. Aliens Craft Learning Activity

8. Monster Mayhem Craft

9. Monster Finger Puppets

10. Junk Model Aliens

11. Easy Monster Wreath

12. Monster Rock Stones

13. UFO Lamp Craft

14. Cute Monster Bookmark

15. Aliens Love Panta Claus Play Dough

16. Pipe Cleaner Finger Puppet Monsters

17. Toilet Paper Roll Alien

18. Fathers Day Alien Card

19. Monster Play Dough

20. Yarn Monsters

21. Alien Paper Plate Craft

Which of these alien and monster crafts for kids would YOUR kid like to do first?

Teacher Gift Idea: Survival Kit

December 20, 2017 by Danielle

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #StockedWithLove #CollectiveBias

Why oh why do I let Christmas sneak up on me every single year? I thought I was *super* on the ball this year, having all the kids’ gifts done and wrapped shortly after Thanksgiving – but I completely forgot all their teachers! Between my five kiddos, we have 8 main school teachers (some switch half-day, so have two main teachers), plus several assistants, six dance instructors and four karate professors. Instead of blasting holiday music and curling up with some hot chocolate trying to ignore the fact I hadn’t gotten them gifts, I got creative. It’s super easy to customize cheap, plain stockings to make the perfect Teacher Gift Idea – a Survival Kit to help get them through the rest of the year!

Hover on the image below for some super easy shopping for the fun BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages holiday collection online!

Since I was extremely scrunched on time, and determined to tackle this last ‘big’ task I had before really relaxing for the holiday, I swung by Target to get everything I needed to create these fun teacher stocking gifts. While you should definitely get some fun items to stick in their stocking – like a gift card, cute mug, fun note pad or candies – be sure to stock up on stuff that are much-needed in classrooms. There’s several things that work for ANY type of teacher – be it school, dance, karate or whatever – such as packs of BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages. And guess what? Their festive BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages holiday collection is on sale in the ads during the week of 12/17! You can nab 2 for just $5, making them a very useful (aka necessary) classroom item for a great price.

Since kids have a tendency to get hurt even in the strangest of ways, any parent, teacher or instructor is smart to have BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages on-hand because they heal hurts faster and are the #1 doctor recommended brand. Target also has Paw Patrol and Star Wars BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages, which make for great stocking stuffers for the kids, so why not grab a few of those while you’re there?

Here’s some more survival kit ideas you can include:

Hand Sanitizer
Glue Sticks
Crayons, Markers, Pencils, Pens, etc.
Tissues
Room Scent Spray
Lint roller
Target gift card – to buy whatever else they may be needing!

Don’t forget the stuff that’s just for fun, as well!

To Customize Your Teacher Stocking

Supplies:

Generic Stocking in size of choice
Ribbon, Beads, etc.
Accent Decor (felt or thin wood shapes, sparkles, glitter, etc.)
Hot Glue/Gun

Directions

Use hot glue to attach a ribbon or strand of beads to create a line accent, – this can work at the top, around the bottom of the ‘cuff’ of the stocking, or even all around the edges of the stocking part. I did two as a strip at the top, then cut some bead strands to ‘dangle’.
Before glueing, decide on a pattern/style you want for the stocking by laying out your accent pieces/decor. Once you’ve found the spots/pattern you want, carefully hot glue them in place. Once dry, rub a little where there’s excess hot glue sticking out to help remove those loose ‘glue strings’ that sometimes occur.
Fill with teacher gift items- the fun AND the useful – and BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages.

See, it’s really easy to turn a simple, plain stocking into a personalized and fun gift packaging! You can even have your kids help pick out the decorations and design the gift, making it extra special. Just be sure to watch them with the hot glue, please!

If you have room in the stocking, you can even have your child write a few thoughtful notes or memories to stick in there as a special surprise that is sure to mean a lot to their teacher. I even put in a few from me, since I’m sure they don’t hear gratitude from the parents often enough.

Now that I’ve got gifts done for the MANY teachers in our lives, I think I’ll take this same idea and make miniature ones for people who very rarely get recognition – like the mailman or people that work the garbage trucks! It’s amazing how many people there are that have an impact on our lives – even if it’s ‘just’ delivering mail or removing our trash from the curb. I’m trying to show a little more gratitude this year, and love that I can easily do that in a fun way without taking up much of my little time. After all, the kids are out of school early Wednesday then it’s going to be a rare moment I’ll have much time at all until they go back in January – but I’m really looking forward to all the family time! 🙂

What other teacher survival kit items would YOU include?

10 Pokemon Crafts: You’ll Want to Try Them All!

December 19, 2017 by Danielle

How long do your kids get out of school for the holiday break this year? Mine have half-day Wednesday, then don’t go back until January 9th – almost THREE WEEKS! Needless to say, we’ll be doing quite a few fun activities and projects while they’re home, both for quality time together AND to keep them from driving me bonkers 🙂 Since my boys are really big into Pokemon, I thought it’d be fun to share these 10 Pokemon Crafts: You’ll Want to Try Them All!

I never did get into the whole Pokemon craze – not even Pokemon Go (gasp!), but that hasn’t stopped my boys from loving the it! This list has a bit of everything, from perler bead projects to clothing and mugs – even some keychains and bookmarks! I know my Iron Man will certainly be making a few of those bookmarks to stick in the novels he keeps flying through – so glad!

Perler Bead Pokemon by Sugar Bee Crafts
DIY Pikachu Shirt by The Scrap Shoppe
Pokeball Heart Ornament by Eclectic Mom Sense
Pikachu Mugs by Crafts ala Mode
Pokeball Bath Bombs by Mad in Crafts
Pokemon Painted Pumpkins by Happiness is Homemade
Pokeball Bookmarks by Kids Activities Blog
Pokemon Keychains by Mad in Crafts
Pokemon Paper Lantern by All For the Boys
Pokeball Tin by 30 Minute Crafts

Hopefully there’s enough fun here to get them going on some fun things for the holiday break, or even a Pokemon party if you’ve got a celebration! Whatever the reason, hope you enjoy – and maybe even make YOURSELF a little Pokemon craft 😉

What’s YOUR kids favorite Pokemon?

DIY Thanksgiving Place Settings

November 6, 2017 by Danielle

Do you go all out for Thanksgiving when you host? I sure would love to – an elegant spread, name cards and centerpieces and the whole lot. The reality is that I simply can’t – between time, money and the 5 kids ‘helping’ with setting everything up, we’ve got to keep it simple. One idea is to get them involved and just have fun with it – like making these DIY Thanksgiving Place Settings! They’re super simple and quick, and even though they aren’t the ‘fanciest’, they’re still plenty colorful and entertaining for any holiday table.

Y’all know I’m a big fan of crafts that can be done using scraps, right? Well all this takes is scraps of straws, Popsicle sticks, paper and hot glue – easy-peasy! It’s even better if you have a variety of Thanksgiving colors, like reds, yellows, oranges, browns and golds. Just think of all those pretty fall shades!

You can totally customize these to be whatever size or shape you’d like, and get as creative with the letter (or full name, if you feel ambitious) as you’d like. I considered sparkles, but then realized we’d all end up with sparkles in our food so dismissed that pretty quickly. Add a cute, colored feather in the top corner, or a mini turkey sticker. Have fun with it, especially if your kids are helping you put them together (and be careful with that hot glue!).

Supplies

Straws
Paper
Popsicle Sticks
Hot Glue/Gun
Scissors

Directions

Cut the straws to the size you’d like. We just did them in half. Cut the popsicle sticks so they fit behind your final shape, holding it together but not sticking out the sides.
When you have the straws laid out however you’d like (I tried to line up the stripes so it looked like a continuous, multi-colored pattern), add some hot glue on the back and carefully place your popsicle stick on it. Try to make it go all the way across the straws, so it’ll hold them all together. Cross them, or just line them up next to each other – the main point is that they are there to secure all the straws in place.
Cut out (or use stickers) for the letters or names to go on each of the place settings – glue or stick them on.

That’s it – super simple, and you can get as creative as you’d like! Just place on your each plate/napkin for some colorful Thanksgiving place settings for everyone to enjoy.

What’s YOUR favorite Thanksgiving color? Mine’s probably the reds 🙂

Halloween Ghost Treat Huggers

October 14, 2017 by Danielle

Kids love Halloween because they get to dress up and get LOTS of candy. But what kind of makes it ‘eh’ for me is that it’s often the same candy, and nobody remembers where they got what. I want to stand out! This year I’ll be making these fun Halloween Ghost Treat Huggers to give our candies a little extra ‘spook’. Okay, they may still not remember they got these at MY house, but at least it’s cute and gives me a neat new craft to do for a bit 🙂

Aren’t they cute? Plus you can nab the printable for FREE, so it’s not a huge project of tracing or anything.

To make your Ghost Treat Huggers:

Download & print the document HERE – it fits on an 8.5×11 sheet (recommend cardstock)
Cut out the ghost treat huggers – you can hole punch or cut their eyes/mouth, if desired
Add a treat over their belly, then tape their arms over it so the ghost is ‘holding’ it
Gift away!

See, told you it was super easy. They come 4 to a page so they’re the perfect size for many of the popular Halloween candies.

You could also cut out colored paper and tape the back of the ghost on it for more of a ‘3D card’ type look, but I liked the simplicity and size of just the ghosts for my own.

I’m really excited to share this treat huggers with all the trick-or-treaters this Halloween, and know my kids will want to enjoy some themselves – of course!

What’s YOUR favorite treat or toy to give on Halloween?

20 DIY Galaxy Projects

October 9, 2017 by Danielle

I’ve seen a lot of things lately that are galaxy themed. Parties, decorations, and everything. I agree it’s a fun trend & I like the look of it! If you or your kiddos are fans as well, you’re going to love this list of 20 DIY Galaxy Projects! Personally, I really want to try those awesome-looking fingernails.

Oooh, don’t those diy galaxy bath bombs look cool, too? There’s just so many fun galaxy projects to try, I need like a whole day devoted to trying all of these fun things!

Lemon Lime Adventures – Galaxy Bath Bombs

Me Sew Crazy – Galaxy Moon Phases Wall Hanging

Doodle Craft Blog – Galaxy Pendants

Gloriously Chic – DIY Galaxy Shoes

Pink Stripey Socks – Painted Galaxy Umbrella

Some of This and That – Galaxy Ice Cream

A Subtle Revelry – Galaxy Balloons

A Beautiful Mess – Easy Galaxy Nails

Damask Love – DIY Galaxy Painted Notebook

Dream a Little Bigger – Galaxy Cross Stitch Cuff

A Kailo Chic Life – Galaxy Color Blocked Marble Coasters

Deco Art – Galaxy Ornament