Kids love to decorate Gingerbread house, but this mom does NOT love to bake gingerbread. (I have a feeling I’m not the only one??) Instead a few years ago Bettijo and I raided our recycle bins and turned old cereal boxes into a fun Christmas village.
crafts
Easy Fingerprint Holly Cards
I was just telling Aimée that there is no possible way it could already be Thanksgiving. So although it’s pretty mind blowing that it’s really time for the holidays, we have a fun idea for a craft project you can do with your kids this weekend.
We shared these Holly Wreath cards over at I Heart Naptime. They feature your kiddo’s adorable little fingerprints and are so easy to mass produce using our free printables.
Craft Room Command Center with Tulip
We were asked to test out the new Tulip For Your Home collection, and we decided to use the new stencils and paint to create a Craft Room Command Center.
We were particularly excited to try the Tulip Stencil Spray Adhesive. You spray it on the back of the stencils to help seal out paint drips. The new Tulip Soft Paints are specifically designed for fabric, but we decided to test them out on a variety of surfaces.
Ideas to Dress Up Your Bulletin Board
We’ve been working on a fun Craft Room Command Center for a parternship with Tulip Paint, but we couldn’t help sharing a little sneak peek. Be sure to stay tuned for all the details and the big reveal.
Today we’re sharing a little tutorial for these adorable Yarn-Covered Push Pins. This project is one of those that we stumbled into by accident. As we were gathering things to display on our bulletin board (which I’m sure will very quickly become cluttered with various project inspiration), we were trying to stick with items that were coral, black and white. We couldn’t find push pins in that perfect coral color, but we did have yarn.
Autumn Market: Free Printables
We created a pack of free printables that coordinate with this Autumn Market party hop, including 11×17 signs that say “Welcome” and “This Way.” We also designed green checked Foldover Tags that could serve many purposes such as food labels, placecards or tags for a party favor.
Autumn Market: Party Games & Decor
Today we’re back at the Autumn Market to share some easy decor projects and a cute party game idea.
Make Your Own Shoe Decals
We had so much fun using our Cricut Explore to create the iron-on decals for our girl’s leggings project that we couldn’t resist whipping up something for the boys too. These text decals are a subtle but totally rad way to dress up a pair of canvas shoes.
You could write your child’s name, or any favorite quote or phrase. Inspired by our slightly rambunctious boys, whom we’re always chasing after, we made “Catch Me If You Can” decals.
We couldn’t decide whether we liked better the regular wording or the leftover strip peeled off from around the words — so we used both! We’re very curious which way you prefer, so please leave a comment below and let us know.
Books Alive: Edgar Gets Ready for Bed
Our fun visitor today is Megan of Persimmon Floral, here with a craft project we know your kids are going to adore.
Hello! I am so excited to be a part of this fun series. I just had (well, I guess a year ago) my first baby boy, so I’m excited to be joining the ranks of supermomdom! And along with that, slowly gaining a really fun book collection. Some of my favorites so far come from Jennifer Adams, author of the adorable BabyLit series. Seriously, have you seen these? Jennifer takes well-loved classics (like Sense and Sensibility, Moby Dick, Jungle Book, and Alice and Wonderland) and creates primers to introduce your child to the world of literature. The artwork by Alison Oliver is amazing too. I can’t get enough of them so when I picked a book for this post, I had to use one from the BabyLit series. And since I’m a new mom, all things sleep and bedtime are high on my list of thoughts so Edgar Gets Ready for Bed was an obvious choice.
In this book (inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven), Edgar is a mischievous raven who answers all his mother’s requests to get ready for bed with a defiant NEVERMORE! The mother ultimately understands how to make bedtime happen however and the story ends with some snuggling and story time for Edgar. The artwork by Ron Stucki is incredible and the inspiration for this craft. Edgar is a black raven, but if you look closely he’s got a lot of fun color going on.
Edgar’s look reminded me of a fun elementary art project from back in the day. It’s scratch art using crayons, paint and toothpicks. Using this technique you can make a personalized bedtime routine book for your little one (with their help of course!). Let’s get started!
Books Alive – Julius, Baby of the World
Today we have the talented Melissa from the Polka Dot Chair visiting with a little basic sewing tutorial for her Books Alive project.
Hello! I’ve had so much fun following along with the Books Alive series here at Paging Supermom this summer. Even though my kids are older now, I still love a good children’s book. When my kids were little we tried to read to them as much as possible. Some nights it went well, other nights not so much.
After we had our first daughter, we struggled with fertility problems for a few years. My oldest daughter was almost six when her twin siblings were born and was quite used to being the only kid around for a while. Overall she had a great transition to sibling”hood” but there were a few bumps along the way.
Which brings us to one of my absolute favorite books, Julius, the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes. Lilly (of Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, another AWESOME book) has a baby brother and does not adjust well to his presence. She says mean words to him while he’s sleeping and warns pregnant mothers that they will regret their baby bumps. She also spends more time than usual in her “uncooperative” chair. In the end she comes around to the idea of a baby brother, but the way that she deals with him early in the book is absolutely hilarious!
Reading this book again reminded me how it can be sometimes hard for older siblings when new babies come home. There is so much love and attention focused on the baby, and I can see why they sometimes feel left out.
I always love giving handmade baby gifts, so I thought that maybe it would be fun to give a handmade gift to a sibling instead. So, for my Books Alive project, today I’m sharing with you how to make this very simple self binding receiving blanket that’s the perfect size for a baby doll! This is a VERY simple sewing project, so simple in fact that older kids could sew one themselves with just a little bit of help.
Easy Star Ruler Wreath
We are all sad that summer is over already. I have been trying to cheer things up with a bunch of fun back to school prep. We’ve decorated our mantle (using this and this), we have been clothes shopping, and of course stocking up on school supplies. I think I’ve mentioned before that buying school supplies is my favorite parts of back to school season. In fact, I have been known to buy a bucket-full of paper, pencils, crayons, rulers, glue and more and keep them in a cheerful bucket on my kitchen counter. I swear it cheers me up as much as a floral arrangement, but I know I’m kind of weird.
I love the project we created for this month’s issue of Raising Arizona Kids magazine. It is a super-easy ruler star, and it would look so fabulous on our mantle. I can’t find then one we made for this photoshoot so I’m off to the store today to buy more rulers so I can make one with the kiddos this afternoon — because you know I’m happy for any excuse to buy more school supplies!