Crafting

This is my daughter Ellie’s first year in school, so our very first Valentine’s Day exchange is coming up. I wanted to attempt something special, and then take Ellie to the store to pick out Valentine’s as a back up. My attitude towards Pinterest projects is I love them if I can confidently complete them.

So, I got to Pinning. There were a lot of great ideas, but sometimes I get frustrated with Pinterest because a Pin takes you to the wrong link, only a photo, or a post with no tutorial!!

I decided to do the photo card where you pose the child to look like they are holding a lollipop, so when you add the REAL lolipop to the card, it looks like they are presenting their friend with a GIANT lollipop!

I found a lot of adorable DIY photo Valentine’s, but only one with a tutorial and it required an application (Google Photo) that I don’t have. A little searching on Google, and I found I could do everything I needed with the Apple application, “Preview.”

DIY Personalized Photo Valentine:

Step 1: Take your photos

We tried a few different poses so I could pick a favorite. I ended up liking 4 of them, and used them all so there would be a variety of cards to give her classmates.

Step 2: Add text

On an Apple computer, open the application, “Preview.” I recommend duplicating the photo before editing so you have an original copy of the photo and a second to edit. Once the photo is open in Preview, click the icon that looks like a brief case to show “markup toolbar.” Click the “T” to add a text box. Write your text. Change the font, size, and color to your liking and move around on …

Looking for a last-minute easy gift or just a fun craft to do with your kids? This easy homemade ornament craft was super fun and quick to make.

I was able to purchase all the supplies, make, and deliver all in the same day. I realized last minute (typical me) that we hadn’t made Christmas gifts for our Daisy troop. I make a quick stop at JoAnn’s (with lots and lots of coupons in hand) and found all the supplies I needed.

Supplies:

Clear Glass Ornaments

Pom Poms

Sharpie Paint Pens

I wasn’t able to find cute Christmas pom poms, so the girls helped me sort the variety bag. We made piles of all the red, green, and white pom poms then divided them evenly among the 6 ornaments. The girls really enjoyed putting the poms in the ornaments. It was a fun motor skill/math activity.

The next step was writing on the ornaments. I prepped the pens according to the directions on the pen, then looked on Pinterest for a really easy font to copy. Handwriting is not one of my skills, but I’m pretty good a copying, so having a visual helped!

I let one side of the ornament dry before I worked on the other side. I kept it simple and wrote the girl’s name on one side and our troop name on the other side.

And easy peasy, DONE!

Let us know if you try this craft! If you post on social media tag us @growingweisser!

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Here is a great art project for a hot summer day when you want to have fun indoors or outside in the shade.

My daughter, Ellie, found the idea in her Highlights magazine. I bought sponges at the store and used other craft supplies from the house.

Supplies

Sponges

Craft Glue or hot glue gun

pom poms

googly eyes

foam shapes

confettie

Instructions

Heat the hot glue. If you are using hot glue have the kids plan out their puppet by drawing a picture or placing the craft pieces on their sponge. Then allow the adult to hot glue the items on. Let dry for at least 1 minute. That’s it. Now you have a fun character for puppet shows or to display in your house!

This was a really great activity to practice patience as the girls waited their turn for the hot glue gun. We practiced body parts like eyes, hair, mouth, nose, cheeks, and more. We also talked about shapes when choosing how to decorate our puppet. If you try out this sponge puppet craft be sure to tag us on social media!

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