It is totally that time of year. BLAHHH. Everything is gray, food tastes bland, the sun hasn’t been out for months weeks. Well, to get your mind off the winter BLAHHHH’S here are some fun craft ideas to try.

Bright, fun snow cone snow from Color Me Katie (first seen at The Crafty Crow). This will brighten up even dreariest winter day.

Little Paint chip books from Crow Rooster Crow. I always wondered what to do with all of those swatches (I currently have about a million sitting on my dresser from our recent painting explosion). This will make a great, purse-sized doodle pad for the kiddo.

This clock made from junk mail from Curbly.com is super cute. I’m thinking of putting one together for our newly painted bathroom. It would make a great accent piece.

This post is proudly linked up to Mondays: Mouthwatering Mondays, Made By You Monday, Mingle Monday, The Girl Creative Tuesdays: Tuesdays and the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, It's a Blog Party, Tip Junkie, Get Your Craft On Wednesdays: Show and Tell, Works for Me Wednesday, This Chick Cooks Thursdays: It's a Keeper Thursdays, Strut Your Stuff, Full Plate Thursdays, Chic & Crafty Party, Transformation Thursday Fridays: I'm Loving It, Foodie Friday, Simply Designing, Show and Tell Friday Saturdays: Sweets for a Saturday, Positively Splendid, Saturday Nite Special Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Sundae Scoop Party

Winter BLAHH Craft Ideas is a post from: Alli 'n Son

Do you have piles of crafts, taking over your dinning room table? Or perhaps they have a special place, you know, on the fridge, and they all fall down every time someone walks down? Avalanche!!!!! Well, I do. And the kiddo hasn’t even reached two years old yet. We do a LOT of crafts around here.

So, what do you do with all of these beautiful little creations? Here are some of my favorite ways to capture them for a lifetime.

Formia Design (Mia Van Beek) takes your child’s original artwork and turns it into jewelry (thanks to  Little. Lovely. for introducing me to this). I want this for Mother’s Day. Or Easter. Or Saturday. Saturday is a holiday isn’t it?

Have an empty wall or two? Hang it up! Make and Takes has some creative ways of displaying your kiddo’s artwork. My personal fave, the magnetic wall. This is a must do for my house.

Create a beautiful wall collage using frames of all shapes and sizes. 2modern design talk takes you through the step-by-step process for creating a successful collage.

What if the unthinkable happens? That precious art work is all over your walls. Wonder Time has a great suggestion, just tape off the wall and use it as art work. You can use something like the Do-Frame, or just paint on a frame. And, take a deep breath. It’s only the wall after all. It can be repainted if necessary.

How do you display your kids (or grandkids) artwork? Is it gathering dust on a shelf, taking over the fridge or has it found a new home in the (gasp!) garbage? Which idea would you use in your home?

This post is proudly linked up to Mondays: Mouthwatering Mondays, Made By You Monday, Mingle Monday, The Girl Creative Tuesdays: Tuesdays and the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, It's a Blog Party, Tip Junkie, Get Your Craft On Wednesdays: Show and Tell, Works for Me Wednesday, This Chick Cooks Thursdays: It's a Keeper Thursdays, Strut Your Stuff, Full Plate Thursdays, Chic & Crafty Party, Transformation Thursday Fridays: I'm Loving It, Foodie Friday, Simply Designing, Show and Tell Friday Saturdays: Sweets for a Saturday, Positively Splendid, Saturday Nite Special Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Sundae Scoop Party

Too Many Crafts is a post from: Alli 'n Son

With just a few days to go, I figured I should probably get started on my Valentine’s Day cards. Better late than never, right? Thankfully, we don’t have to hand one out to everyone in school, or work for that matter. Our list is short, but oh so important: Dad-oo and the Grandparents.

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Heart hand stamps by Kahli from Little. Lovely.

I was inspired by this adorable project on BloesemKids (originally posted by Khali at Little. Lovely.) and I thought to myself, self what a great idea for a Valentine’s Day card. The kiddo can help create them, and they make a beautiful keepsake for the important people in our lives. In fact, I think that we may just do this every year (or as long as the kiddo will put up with it), to record how the little man grows from year to year.

My Version

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Now I’m thinking that I need to get more embellishments for these cards. I surprised myself and really enjoyed making the cards by hand, with the little bit of fun paper I had in the house. Does anyone know where I can order some fun scrapbooking supplies, for cheap?

More Valentine’s Day Crafts

Check out some of my favorite craft sites. I only wish that I had enough time to create all of these little gems before the big day arrives.

Fortune Cookie Valentine from Kerry at kidgiddy

Valentine Pendants, by One Golden Apple, a great idea to turn your kiddo’s artwork into jewelry.

These heart-shaped glasses by Mom Tried It would be great for kids of all ages (especially the dad-aged kids)

I love these elegant yet fun 3-D hearts by The Mother Huddle

And of course The Crafty Crow for their endless supply of ideas.

This post is proudly linked up to Mondays: Mouthwatering Mondays, Made By You Monday, Mingle Monday, The Girl Creative Tuesdays: Tuesdays and the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, It's a Blog Party, Tip Junkie, Get Your Craft On Wednesdays: Show and Tell, Works for Me Wednesday, This Chick Cooks Thursdays: It's a Keeper Thursdays, Strut Your Stuff, Full Plate Thursdays, Chic & Crafty Party, Transformation Thursday Fridays: I'm Loving It, Foodie Friday, Simply Designing, Show and Tell Friday Saturdays: Sweets for a Saturday, Positively Splendid, Saturday Nite Special Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Sundae Scoop Party

Valentine's Day Cards is a post from: Alli 'n Son

I have to admit, I had no ideas for this week’s craft. None. I was so worried about it that I fell asleep on Tuesday night thinking about it, and even dreamed about it. I know, that’s kind of sad.

So, what do I do when I have zero ideas for a fun Valentine’s Day craft? I turn to my other passion, baking. I needed an excuse to make some cookies anyway. The last time I made any cookies was, let’s see, before Christmas. When the cookie binge of 2009 happened. Now I remember what I gave up sweets for 30 days.

I decided that cut out cookies would be our craft for this week. But not just your normal heart-shaped cookies. That is way too boring for me. I decided to mix it up a little and created some fun, arty, abstract Valentine’s Day cookies.

For this craft you can make it as easy or as difficult as you want. Me, I of course made it difficult. I made everything from scratch, including the frosting. I even cut each individual heart out of the dough with a knife. Yes, I’m just a tad bit crazy. As if you didn’t already know that. You could by all means use store bought sugar cookie dough and frosting. You might however have to make the egg-wash at home, but considering that it’s only 2 ingredients, I think that just about anyone can handle it. Or go ahead and use your favorite sugar cookie recipe. Or use mine (at the end of the post).

Abstract Valentine’s Day Cookies

1. Divide the dough in half. Half will be for the base of the cookies, the other half will be for the hearts.
2. Roll out the first half of the dough on a well floured surface until 1/4″ thick. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut out various sized squares and rectangles. These should not be perfect, their beauty is in their uneven, odd shapes and sizes. These are supposed to be abstract after all. Let the kids get a little crazy, who says the shapes even need to have 4 sides?
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3. Using the egg-wash (see below) and a pastry brush, splatter each square and rectangle. This is a really fun part for kids. They can make a mess and not get in trouble. Use 2 or three different colors, pinks, reds and purples work best for Valentine’s Day.
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4. Next, with the second half of the dough rolled out, using a knife cut out hearts. Big ones, small ones, lop-sided ones. You get the picture. I suppose that you could also use a cookie cutter, but where’s the fun in that? (Ignore the coloring in the photo, I accidentally photographed an extra heart that I had egg-washed)
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5. Now, bake all of those funny shapes and lop-sided hearts according to the package/recipe’s direction. For me that was 8 minutes at 350º.
6. Once those cookies have baked and cooled, frost the hearts and let them dry. I used a very simple powdered sugar/milk glaze. I just dipped the cookies in and let them dry. Really easy.
7. With the left over frosting/glaze, put a small dot on the back of each heart and place it on top of the egg-wash splattered base. It doesn’t have to be perfectly centered. In fact, I think the cookies have a lot more character when they are a little off balance.
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That’s it. You are now the proud owner of some sassy looking, oh so delicious Valentine’s Day cookies. Share them or gobble them all up yourself. I won’t tell. I swear.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla (or any other flavor)

Cream together the sugars and butter. Add egg and mix. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4″ thick. Cut out in desired shapes. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350º, or until the edges are a light golden brown.

Egg-Wash

1 egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon water

Mix the egg yolk and water together. Separate into 2-3 small dishes and color with food coloring. If the wash starts to thicken, add just a little water to thin it out.

Frosting/Glaze

Powdered Sugar
Milk
Vanilla or Almond

There really are exact measurements for this. You just make as much as you need. But it’s best to start out with a lot of sugar and a little milk. Add milk slowly until you reach the desired thickness.

This post is proudly linked up to Mondays: Mouthwatering Mondays, Made By You Monday, Mingle Monday, The Girl Creative Tuesdays: Tuesdays and the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, It's a Blog Party, Tip Junkie, Get Your Craft On Wednesdays: Show and Tell, Works for Me Wednesday, This Chick Cooks Thursdays: It's a Keeper Thursdays, Strut Your Stuff, Full Plate Thursdays, Chic & Crafty Party, Transformation Thursday Fridays: I'm Loving It, Foodie Friday, Simply Designing, Show and Tell Friday Saturdays: Sweets for a Saturday, Positively Splendid, Saturday Nite Special Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Sundae Scoop Party

Abstract Valentine's Day Cookies is a post from: Alli 'n Son

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Last week the kiddo, a few friends, and I went on an art adventure. The local art museum hosts a monthly art extravaganza for toddlers. It’s basically a free-for-all. Kids running, arts stations set up, volunteers doing their best not to burst into tears (there are a LOT of kids). But the kids have a blast, it’s something to do on a dreary winter morning. And, actually, I kind of had fun to.

Today’s Valentine’s Day craft, a water-color butterfly, was inspired by a craft we did at the art extravaganza. It’s simple enough that younger kiddos can do, yet fun enough for the older ones too. This little craft is great because, there is little clean up. The brush is an ice cube! An added bonus, you can do with this things that you already have lying around the house.

Supplies

• Powder Paint, Kool Aid Powder (unsweetened or sugar-free), or Jell-O Powder (unsweetened or sugar-free)
• Ice Cubes
• Popsicle Sticks (optional, if you want to add a “handle” to the ice cubes)
• Construction Paper
• Q-tips (optional, for the antenna, 2 for each butterfly)
• Glue Stic
• Scissors
• Scotch® Magic Tape

On each piece of paper, sprinkle one colors of paint/kool-aid/hello. We used kool-aid and had great results. Plus everything smelled fruity while we were working. Using the ice cube, that has been sitting at room temperature for 5 minutes, smear around the paint powder. As the ice cube melts, the powder turns into paint and makes a cool pattern on the paper.

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And of course, you can always get as creative as you want. Add some glitter, stickers, candy hearts (if you don’t eat them all, that is).

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Once the paper has dried, cut it in half, then cut each half into heart “wings”.  Next, create a body for the butterfly out of construction paper. It can be all one color, three different colored circles, or whatever else you come up with. Come on, I know you are creative! The assemble by glue-sticking the wings to the body, add antenna if you want (I dipped the ends of ours in some left over kool-aid mixed with a little water). Viola! You’re done. Cute little Valentine’s Day Butterflies to decorate your fridge with.

I’d to hear how this craft turned out at your house, even if it ended up being a disaster! Sometimes those make for the best stories.

Don’t forget to enter my latest giveaways. LoveHandles by FusionBrands ends 2/5.

This post is proudly linked up to Mondays: Mouthwatering Mondays, Made By You Monday, Mingle Monday, The Girl Creative Tuesdays: Tuesdays and the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, It's a Blog Party, Tip Junkie, Get Your Craft On Wednesdays: Show and Tell, Works for Me Wednesday, This Chick Cooks Thursdays: It's a Keeper Thursdays, Strut Your Stuff, Full Plate Thursdays, Chic & Crafty Party, Transformation Thursday Fridays: I'm Loving It, Foodie Friday, Simply Designing, Show and Tell Friday Saturdays: Sweets for a Saturday, Positively Splendid, Saturday Nite Special Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Sundae Scoop Party

Valentie's Day Butterfly is a post from: Alli 'n Son

I just can’t help it, I love crafts. I didn’t always, but since the kiddo is starting to get into it, I’ve discovered that I love to color. I guess it’s the artist in me sneaking it’s way out. It had to happen sometime.

I just can’t get enough of Valentines Day this year. I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m really excited for it. Maybe because the 30 Day No Sweets Challenge will be over, so I can enjoy some good old chocolate. Or maybe I secretly have a thing for little babies with bows and arrows. Who knows.

This week the kiddo and I worked on decorating the house with hearts. Not just boring old hearts cut out of paper, mind you. Oh no, these babies have personality, flair and a little bit of pizazz. There may have been a belly laugh or two while making them. At least that’s the rumor.

So, how do you make these fabulous paint-splattered hearts, without spraying paint all over the living room, couch, rug and the pugs? Let me tell you.

Supplies

Hearts cut out of paper, as many or as few as you want, as large or as small as you want
2 Golf balls
A box with shallow sides (baking sheet with sides, a brownie pan, a cardboard box, etc.)
Paint
Glitter (optional)

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Place the hearts in the bottom of the baking sheet, pan or box and drop some paint on each one. You can use one color, or if you want to get really creative, multiple colors. Put the golf balls in the sheet, pan or box, and roll them around. As the balls roll across the paper, they create a unique design on the heart. If you want, sprinkle some glitter on before the paint drys for an extra sparkly heart.

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Once your masterpieces have dried, hang them up for a lovely reminder about, well, love. You could even make a special one with a note on the back for the Dad-oo in your life. It could be a note about how much you love him (who doesn’t like to hear that), a special “coupon”, or even a “free-day” to himself. Make it fun, make it a way to connect, or make it a way to get him out of your hair for a few hours.

This post is proudly linked up to Mondays: Mouthwatering Mondays, Made By You Monday, Mingle Monday, The Girl Creative Tuesdays: Tuesdays and the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, It's a Blog Party, Tip Junkie, Get Your Craft On Wednesdays: Show and Tell, Works for Me Wednesday, This Chick Cooks Thursdays: It's a Keeper Thursdays, Strut Your Stuff, Full Plate Thursdays, Chic & Crafty Party, Transformation Thursday Fridays: I'm Loving It, Foodie Friday, Simply Designing, Show and Tell Friday Saturdays: Sweets for a Saturday, Positively Splendid, Saturday Nite Special Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Sundae Scoop Party

Valentine's Day Heart Painting (Thursday Crafts) is a post from: Alli 'n Son

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I’m in the mood for love. Or at least love-themed crafts.

I’ve been racking my brain, trying to come up with the perfect Valentine’s Day craft. “Help!” I pleaded with Dad-oo. “I’m not crafty” I declared. He looked at me and said, “Ummm, yes you are.” That’s all the encouragement I needed. In an instant I had created the Valentine’s Day Lion.

This little fellow will steal your heart, yet he’s kind and thoughtful. He’s a lover, not a fighter (I know, I know, that’s so cheesy). Best of all, he can be as simple or as complicated as you and your kiddos want him to be. He’s great for younger kiddos (Eli had a blast coloring the mane) and older kiddos can take pride in creating all of the elements for the final masterpiece (the kiddos at my job went wild over it).

Have fun with it!

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Supplies

Lion Pattern (download it here)
Construction Paper
Markers, Crayons or Paints
Pipe Cleaners
Glue Stick
Scissors
~ Optional ~ scrap tissue paper, feathers, glitter, cotton balls, fabric pieces

Lion Face
Trace and cut out the various parts of the face on different colors of construction paper. For example, the nose could be read, the face bright yellow, the mouth pale yellow, the eyes white, orange and black. Use your imagination! What colors would you be, if you were a lion? Or if you prefer (as I did) color in the different parts and cut them out. Next, glue together the three pieces of the eyes. Then glue the eyes and mouth to the lions face. Add the heart-shaped nose on top and a few pipe cleaner whiskers. Tada! Instant lion face.

Lion Mane
Starting with a white sheet of paper, decorate the lions main to your heart’s content.Now it’s time to get creative. You can simply color it in with as many colors as you like (stick with reds, purples and pinks for the Valentine’s theme). Or maybe add some glitter to really make the mane shine. Fill in the mane with different colored tissue paper, overlapping the colors to give it a cool fuzzy look. Add some feathers, cotton balls or pieces of fabric to give the lion a soft mane.

Glue the lion’s face to his main, and you have one adorable, cute, lovable Valentine’s Day Lion.

Valentine's Day Lion (Thursday Crafts) is a post from: Alli 'n Son

This year, the kiddo spent New Years Eve with Grams and Grandpa Larry, while Dad-oo and I partied it up. Well, OK, that’s not true, but we did get to hang out with some friends and have a night and most of the next day to ourselves. To us, that’s a party.

The kiddo on the other hand had a blast playing soccer ball (you must say soccer ball, not just soccer), blowing on noise horns and making his very own pizza with Grandpa Larry. Grams on the other hand, was teaching him to throw his toys in the air (thanks Grams) and put together this fun craft, a confetti placemat. Well, it would have been, but Grams was missing the second sheet of contact paper, so it ended up being a nice piece of fridge artwork instead of a placemat.

Supplies

2 sheets of contact paper
Shredded paper in multiple colors
A few paper shapes cut-out

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Place of sheet of contact paper on a table or other flat surface. Let the kiddos go crazy sticking pieces of shredded paper and cut-out shapes on it. Get a little creative, you could also add glitter (if you want to clean it up after!), stickers, tissue paper, or any other flat object you have lying around the house. Once your kiddo has decorated to his hearts content, put the second piece of contact paper on top and trim the edges. Tada! Your kiddos personal, homemade placemat. I bet they will be as proud of it as you are.

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Confetti Project – Thursday Crafts is a post from: Alli 'n Son

I recently found a wonderful group of moms who get together once a week to chat, bond and let their kiddos run off some excess energy. I was lucky enough to meet one of these moms at swim lessons and was invited to join them. I of course, jumped at the chance. As luck would have it, a fun holiday craft was planned for that day. Kudos to the mom who planned it, she was 9 months pregnant with two little girls in tow! I was so impressed with how much effort she put toward planning. I would have been sitting on the couch, tired, crabby and fat if I was 9 months pregnant. Oh wait, that was me, almost 2 years ago.

We had so much fun, and we’ll be going back whenever we can. That, unfortunately might be a challenge with my new job. Hopefully it won’t interfere too much, since I was looking forward to some serious mom/pregnant/no-holds-bared bonding.

Now for the real reason for this post, the candy train craft! And by candy train, I do mean candy. Three whole candy bars, gummy bears, M&Ms, peanut butter cups, red hots, frosting, and more. Much more. It was a sugar explosion. It was a ton of fun and something that the kiddo could help with and feel proud about. Days after the train was gone (yes, we ate the entire thing in 2.5 days, no judging!) he was still asking about it or proudly declaring that he had “fun candy train!”. If you are feeling up to the sugar meltdown, or just need an excuse to buy some candy, here are step-by-step instructions.

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Holiday Candy Train

Parts Per Train
3 Full candy bars – milky way, 3 musketeer and snickers work well
2 Gum drops
1 Candy orange slice
1 Hersey kiss
18 Red hots glued to 18 peppermint candies
1 Resse’s mini peanut butter cup
3-5 Pieces of black licorice
8-10 Gummy bears
3-5 Starbursts
A handful of M&M’s
1 Lifesave
1 Red hot
2 Pieces of rope licorice
White frosting (from a can or homemade) in a Ziploc bag with a tiny corner of one end snipped off

Simply assemble the train according to the diagram below (click to enlarge), using the frosting as the “glue” to hold everything together.

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Hint 1: Glue down the train track first, then assemble the train cars on top.

Hint 2: To create the wheels, glue the 18 red hots to the center of the 18 peppermeint wheels and let them dry while you put the rest of the train together.

Hint 3: Have a younger kiddo help “glue” everything together. They can hold the bag and squeeze while you aim.

Feel free to take more candy than is outlined above, you just might find yourself getting hungry as you work.

Candy Train – Thursday Crafts is a post from: Alli 'n Son

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As the kiddo gets older and older (but I stay the same age, strange how that happens) it’s fun to watch him develop his own likes and dislikes. It’s also pretty cool to see him drawn to the same things that Dad-oo or I were drawn to as kids. Like his fascination with guitars, which obviously comes from Dad-oo, since it makes terrible sounds when I try to play.

One of the things that I loved as a kid was puzzles. Every style, every subject, it didn’t matter as long as it was a puzzle. I loved making something out of nothing. I think it might just be tied in to my creative side. You can imagine how thrilled I am that the kiddo is taking after me in this love. The sassyness that he also gets from me, I’m not that thrilled about.

To keep things interesting for him, and to keep our budget happy, this week we created our own puzzles. The fantastic about this is you can make them as easy or as complicated as you want. And the kiddo was able to pick out the photos himself.

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Materials

Photos from a Magazine
Cardboard or Heavy Paper (cardstock)
Spray Glue
Scissors

Step one, let your kiddo pick out photos from magazines that he likes. Step two, glue the pages to the cardboard or heavy paper. Step three, cut the pages onto various shapes as simple or as complicated as your kiddo wants. That’s it, you’re all done! As you kiddo gets older you can easily and quickly make new puzzles to match their skill level. And this is perfect for families with kids of different ages, since you can easily customize the difficulty of the puzzle.

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Eli had a blast with this, although he preferred to scatter the pieces around at first. But after we worked at it for a while, he started to get the hang of it. If his yelling out “puzzles” is any indication, I think we’ll be getting a lot of use out of these.

Homemade Puzzles – Thursday Crafts is a post from: Alli 'n Son