Bookmarks

Harmony and I were hand making her "Fancy Nancy" birthday invitations (post coming soon!).. and I was inspired to make some bookmarks for both of my grandmother's and for my aunt.  I "try" to be crafty and I am so often inspired.  What might seem totally awesome to me might cause you guys to snicker at the additions and alterations that can be made..but bare with my utter excitement when I say that I love these bookmarks!!  They came out so stinking adorable that I think I might just make some more...

Tools:

Tacky Glue (My fav!)

Ribbon

Scrapbook Paper

Scrapbook Stickers

Ruler

Scissors

Total time was approximately 15-30 minutes.  We were crafting our hearts out so we lost track of time!  These bookmarks were super easy.  They would make great gifts for teachers, book lovers, and friends!  I hope that you like them, too.

Enjoy!

Candice S.

Bird and Sun Art (Inspired by Eric Carle's "The Tiny Seed")

 Thee last month we have been working on learning about flowers so we have read so many brilliantly and beautifully written books that have inspired our preschool lessons and our craft time. 

We have re-read The Tiny Seed (World of Eric Carle) several times.  I adore the beautiful illustrations.  

I sat down this evening after putting the kids together and wanted to put some of my idea's to work.  The sun piece is actually very similar to what I saw Vanessa from Silly Eagle Book's put together.  I am still aw-struck by her stunning piece and her ability to portray images so uniquely as she selects them from her books. 

So, I decided it was time to get creative.  I took two mirrors that were purchased at a garage sale a couple years ago and cut scrap book paper to fit.  The bright pieces that I used in the sun image are from a magazine.  I also used scrapbook images to decorate the frames along with tempura paint.  My original idea was to spray paint the frame's red, but then decided it would be too much contrast.

So, what do you think?  :)  I'm pretty happy with the way they came out and I cannot wait to show Harmony in the AM!  I'm pretty sure she'll tell me that she is "impressed" .. Happy Friday!

Candice S.

I'm linking my bird art to...

The Perfect Playdough Recipe

I found this playdough recipe a few months ago and have been dying to try it!

Ingredients are as follows:

1 tbsp cream of tartar
1 cup of flour
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of salt
1 tbsp cooking oil  (I used olive oil)

Here's what you need to do..

You mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and add the water. 

Cook the mix in a pot on low to medium until mixture starts pulling from the sides of the pot and forms into a ball.

Knead the mixture and add your food coloring and scents after the playdough cools.

Waaaaa laaaaaa!!  After you've add your color, you have beautifully formed playdough!!  Prep and cooking time was about 30 minutes to an hour- kneaded the color in is the most time consuming part but well worth the efforts.  The colors we used were green and red- to make brown, pink, and green food color to go along with our flower thematic unit this month.

Enjoy!

Candice S.

Elegant Tissue Paper Bouquet

I came across a brilliant post from Ms. Vanessa over at Silly Eagle Books, of a beautiful arrangement of tulips.  Vanessa portrays the amazing world of books, beautifully, and creates such unique crafts that allows a parent and child to portray the story in such a brilliant way.  Silly Eagle Books is inspiring, informative for new ideas for children/infant books, and beyond elogantly innovative.  You must check out her work! 

These are just a few pictures of our bouquet that was inspired by Vanessa's work.  I wanted to take a minute and share our's with you. 

 Harmony wanted to see "bugs" in her bouquet so we created a catepillar with dowels, pom pom's, googly eyes, and a pipe cleaner.

These make a perfect addition to our table.  The bouquet would also be a wonderful Mother's Day present!

Enjoy!

Candice

Cherry Blossom Hand Prints

Harmony added more blooms!  :)

I am in love with these beautiful cherry blossom hand prints- I have my daughter's pretty little hands to thank for this tree's very special shape structure.  This is the greatest Mother's Day Gift in the world! 

Mother's Love
~Author Unknown

"Her love is like
an island in life's ocean,
vast and wide

A peaceful, quiet shelter
From the wind, the rain, the tide.
'Tis bound on the north by Hope,
By Patience on the West,
By tender Counsel on the South
And on the East by Rest.

Above it like a beacon light
Shine Faith, and Truth, and Prayer;
And thro' the changing scenes of life
I find a haven there."

Have a joyous and relaxing, Mother's Day!!

Candice S

Simple & Elegant Picture Puzzle

Love my puzzle, cause I do!  :)

Supplies needed:

Left over gift boxes from Christmas

Some Mod Podge and a itsy bitsy brush

Scissors

Apply a thin layer to your gift box and set a family picture or whatever type of picture your heart desires onto your gift box.  This will allow the puzzle to become sturdier, somewhat like card stock.

I applied a layer of mod podge to "seal" the photo from moisture and oils that are on our fingers.  It can actually ruin the photo.  After that, WAAA LAAAA!  Trace your puzzle shapes onto the back of the picture and cutout with X-acto Knife or scissors.

That's all you need to create this beautiful puzzle.  I was so impressed with how it came out.  Harmony's loves putting it together.

I am going to be posting a recyling series on multiple outlets that you can use to recycle a lot of household goods and use them for school activities, craft activites, and even decor!  There are so many idea's floating around out there that I can't wait to share with you.

Have a great Tuesday!

Candice S.

Ballerina Wand

 Harmony begged Santa to bring her a ballerina wand like Angelina Ballerina's.. but Santa couldn't find one.  :(  ... What to do, what to do..  Mommy to the rescue!  

I took a dowel and covered it with a mixture of silver glitter and Mod Podge.  I have done this so many times before and it comes out so pretty when you mix the Mod Podge with glitter!  

Then I took some red ribbon from our Christmas box and started wrapping the end of the dowel until I had a decent length for my "Angelina" to twirl around with.  

I hot glued some gems onto the ribbon but we've been slowly removing them.  They provide a little sting when you're twirling spastically and get hit with one.  So beware of its beauty and the possibility that may want to decorate the dowel with jewels and not the ribbon itself. 

 This is just another of the many lessons in the life of crafting that I have learned.

Then you can.. "Get down, get down, get down!"  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Candice S.

Holiday Traditions, Gifts, and Family Fun.

I love Christmas.

I love the season, the cold, family, eating, and fun festive activities that we all love to do with our family.  I'm going to miss it, dearly.   So, to keep the Spirit of Christmas alive I want to share some of Rattles and Redheads, and your's truly, family traditions that are old and the fresh new one's that were welcomed into our family this holiday season.  Some of them I posted about, other's I didn't get a chance so it'll be your first time seeing them!  :o)

• Having Pinkie Pie watch over us during the month of December until he/she flies back to the North Pole to report on our behavior.

• Opening PJ's on Christmas Eve and other presents with our extended family member's.

• Setting out Reindeer Food (made of oat's and glitter) and Homemade Cookies for Santa.

• Our Christmas Activity Box is so fun that I might make one themed for each month!

• Buying Christmas Santa Claus Storybook

• Watching a Christmas Movie

• Receiving Santa's Bell (Polar Express Idea)  We bought the bell from The Dollar Tree and put a pretty ribbon on it.. Only those who believe can hear it.  :)  What fun!  

• Homemade Ornaments and Gifts

• Family Handprint Christmas Tree.  This is my all time favorite present that we could have made this year!  I love, love, love it!

Merry Belated Christmas and to a Happy, Happy New Year!  I hope that your holiday was as special as our's!

Candice S.

Santa Claus Countdown Chain

What better and easier to use then this fun Santa Claus Countdown Chain for Christmas. Harmony loved making this and it was beyond easy! I put the chain's together while she decorated Santa, and then put the date and countdown on each one.  She cannot wait to check on her Elf, Pinkie Pie, and then to go and rip off one of our chain's on the Santa Claus Countdown Chain!

Merry Christmas!

Candice S.

Christmas Advent Jar

How cute did this come out?  I was quite impressed, myself.  HEHE.  I love it and I love what it contains.  I recycled a jar and cut some wrapping paper into square's to make this advent jar.  

For each paper that you pull out, thirteen square's exactly, you will read the following information.. :)

Make Christmas Present

Read a christmas book

Make a tent in the living room and have dinner in it

Make a reindeer Christmas Ornament

Bake Christmas Cookies

Watch Christmas Movie

Hot Chocolate Night

Learn a new Christmas Carol

Discuss the meaning of Christmas

Drive around neighborhood and look at Christmas Lights

Create Family Handprint Tree

Make baby food jar snow globe

Make Christmas Ornament

I added one extra- just in case we wanted to do an additional Christmas Activity!  :) 

Merry Christmas!

Candice S.

Martha's AMAZING Newspaper Tree's!!!

Is this not the neatest idea, EVER?  Thank you, Martha Stewart for sharing this wonderful creation with us!   

How beautiful and unique.. and out of newspaper and glue!  The possibilities for the creation of this unique tree is endless.  You can use other tree materials, such as felt or foil, if you don't want to recycle that old newspaper! 

For more information on how to make this Christmas Craft click here.

Merry Christmas!!!

Candice S.

Christmas Sensory Box

We always have fun coming up with new idea's for a sensory table, and/or, box. Harmony adores her small toys and I love her using them so they don't end up in the vacuum or trash.

This Christmas Sensory Box helped us use our growing (way beyond expanding) box of lids and caps so we were super excited about that!!!  We made the Christmas shapes using cookie cutters, we decorated them with glitter, and then glued them onto the lids.  Harmony can use them for her Christmas "scene" and can actually pick them up and grasp them.  Nice, right?

I'll be posting a tutorial on how to make the snowflakes very soon.  :)  Have a great day and ..

Merry Christmas!

Candice S.

Glistening Pinecone Ornaments

We were using these pinecone's as fall decorations for our table centerpiece.  I was so excited when we hit December, as I planned on using these for our homemade ornaments.   

We used Mod Podge and silver glitter for a section of the pinecone to give it that snowy affect.  Harmony put on the Mod Podge and started sprinkling away!  After we finished up with the glitter and allowed the sparkly pinecones to dry, I hot glued on the ribbon ($1.00 at Walmart!).  

There is a total of six beautiful, glistening pinecone ornaments..they came out perfectly! I have another fun idea that I can't wait to try from Ms. Martha herself!  ;)  ..You'll just have to wait and see what it is. 

Happy Holiday's!!

Candice S.

Check out Rattles and Redhead's holiday section:

I've linked this project to:

Cinnamon Ornaments

I have seen wonderful recipes for making cinnamon ornaments that use applesauce, glue, and a boat load of cinnamon!  ...Lets just say.. after about 4 hours of kneading my heart out, I dumped the sticky gunk in the trash and called it a day.  

..Because I had a very eager and wanting little girl who needed to make ornaments for our tree, I decided the next best thing would be to make our salt dough recipe that we used for our fall leaves.  I added two extra ingredients to the mix: 2-4 tablespoons to applesauce and a ton of cinnamon.

Baby Brother doing his part, having fun with the plastic cookie cutters.

I added red food coloring to a portion of the dough that I sectioned off.  You flatten the dough, add a few drops of food coloring, and then quickly start folding in the dough.  Keep folding in the dough and kneading the dough until you see even color.  Add more color for more bold colored dough.

Place in oven at 150 and bake for about an hour or until desired dryness is reached.  Whalllaaaaa!  :)

Happy Holiday's!

Candice S.

Check out Rattles and Redhead's holiday section:

I've linked this project to: