Decorative Thanksgiving Blocks (Craft With Your Kids!)

For Thanksgiving several years ago, my kids & I made these easy decorative "Give Thanks" Thanksgiving Blocks together. It was a gem of a project & I still use the blocks every year! We originally did this for a sponsored post with products we found at Michaels Arts and Crafts Stores.



It was such a fun project to do together and I wanted to share it again this year so you could give it a try if you'd like. It was from way back in 2013, so re-posting seemed in order! :)

Love One Another Wall

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I came up with a project for our family to do that would help us to focus on showing love to others. Originally published in February of 2013, this is great if you're looking for Valentine Family Home Evening Ideas.


I made a "Love One Another" wall and then introduced it to them during a Family Night. 

Easy D.I.Y. Heart Plaque Tutorial

Today I'm going to show you how to make a very simple plaque decoration that you can hang on your wall- perfect for adding to a photo collage, to mix things up! This one was very inexpensive and easy to make!

When I was planning this wall collage for the girls' bedroom makeover, I had a few items to work with (the mirror, the "Follow Your Dreams" canvas, and the K & T letters (which were white at the time). I knew that I wanted to include photos, and I needed something to fill the spaces that was a little different. I had seen a canvas with a heart on it and I really liked that idea, but I couldn't find a canvas the right size for my collage.

How To Make Your Own Disney T-Shirts!

We surprised our kids with a trip to Disney World for Christmas and I knew that I wanted to make matching T-Shirts for our family as part of the "reveal" (and for us to wear to the park).  I'm really happy with the way that they turned out, so today I'm sharing the (very simple) tutorial with you!

Here are the supplies that I used:

Chores and Rewards with The Gem System

We have tried several different charts and systems for helping the girls to keep on track with doing chores. It seems that different systems work for different periods of time and it helps to switch it up every now and then. (I'll share a few of the other things we've done at the end of this post) Recently we tried something we call

"The Gem System"

This is an idea we got from Talia's grade 2 teacher. She had a similar system in her classroom and we've adapted it to use in our home. Here's what we did:

Supplies:

- one small bucket per child (found at Target for $1 each)
- one bucket to keep gems in
- plastic jewels (found at the dollar store)
- vinyl & Cricut (optional)

Note: Of course you don't have to use buckets- any little container will do! Talia's teacher used small boxes with a hole cut in the top for each of her students, and a wide mouthed vase to store the rest of the "gems". She also used small coloured glass stones for gems (the type you can put in the bottom of a vase with fake flowers). 

The Process:

DIY Owl Party Cups

A couple of months ago we threw a baby shower for my sister in law. It was an owl theme and my (other) sister in law made these adorable owl cups. We got the idea from these moustache cups.

My mother in law has the Wild Card Circut cartridge that had the little owls on it, and we just used some vinyl that she had on hand to cut them out & stick them on the cups.

If you're interested in how to make those owl cupcakes, find out here.

Just a couple of fun ideas to share today. Hope you like them! :)

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Rainbow Polka Dot Birthday Party

For Talia's 8th birthday, we threw a rainbow polka dot party :) If you follow me on Instagram, you saw a couple of previews of this party a couple of months ago- well, I'm finally getting to blogging about it!

 Here are all the details:

We found rainbow polka dot wrapping paper at the dollar store. I made the rainbow polka dot hanging decorations by cutting circles (with my Cricut) out of coloured cardstock paper and then sewing it together. (It was pretty easy to do!) We also strung some coloured balloons up (I can't remember how we did it- you could thread them with a needle through the tied part of the balloon, or you could just tape them right onto the string... which might be the way we did it because I don't remember using a needle... actually I'm pretty sure my husband hung the balloons ;) We thought about making a pinata like we have in the past, several different times & ways, but in the end we had run out of time to make one and Talia was dying to get a rainbow 8-shaped pinata that we had seen while pricing pinatas earlier, so we just splurged and bought it!

I made an invitation from PearTreeGreetings.com and decorated with some Circle party decorations that PearTreeGreetings.com sent to us. The decorations were great because we were able to use them for Talia's baptism later as well- we used them around the food.

5 Year Old Princess Birthday Party

A couple of months ago we had a birthday party for our new 5 year old!
She wanted a princess party, so we set to work on that! :)

I LOVE a fancy party- lots of special touches and fun decorations, treats, activities, etc. However, I do not always have a ton of time to invest in preparing such a party. So, I tried to find easy ways to create a fancy party that wouldn't take a ton of time. Sometimes I have to remind myself that a 5 year old will be happy and excited by less than I sometimes want to do ;)

Tutorial: DIY 2x4 Chalkboard Christmas Countdown

I was asked to teach a craft for our "Country Christmas" activity for the ladies at church. We got together in November to make things for Christmas and here's what I came up with:

Materials you'll need to make one:

- a 2x4 cut to be 14" long
- sand paper or a sander
- vinyl
- chalkboard vinyl
- a Cricut (or something like it that will cut shapes & letters for you)
- Red or green paint for the background
- Cream paint for the edges (or you can just sand the edges)
- Foam brushes (they work best if you're going to dry brush the edges)
- Plastic plate for your paint
- Newspaper to protect your work surface



How to Make One:
1. My husband cut a whole bunch of 14" pieces of wood for me. You can have it done where you buy your wood, or do it yourself if you're savvy with power tools. He also sanded them for me (if you're just making one, it won't seem so overwhelming to sand it with sand paper instead of a sander ;)

2. Then I painted the wood red (or green). Leave one side unpainted, or it'll be sticking to your newspaper or whatever you've got your wood sitting on, to dry! The paint will be brighter when it's wet.

3. After it dries you can dry brush the edges with the cream paint (or use sand paper to rough it up). (Click her to see how to dry brush your edges).

4. Your last step is to cut out the vinyl & stick it on! (I made my letters 1.25" tall with the Cricut American Alphabet Cartridge) in Cricut's vinyl in "latte".

I used Silhouette's chalkboard vinyl and the Sophisticated Cricut cartridge to make the chalkboard shape with Cricut's "Sophisticated" cartridge- I made the chalkboard shape 2.75" tall.

I'm really happy with the way they turned out! All you need is a piece of chalk and you can update your countdown each day! :)

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If you liked this post, you'll probably like my
Christmas Tree Advent with Drawers :)


And if you're preparing for Christmas, click here to see 100 Non-Toy Gift Ideas!

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How to Make a Thanksgiving Thankful Tree!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday!
I hope all of my fellow Canadians had a lovely long weekend- there is so much to be grateful for!

I wanted to spend some time with my children, helping them to focus on what they are grateful for,
so we made a Thankful Tree!




Supplies Needed:

-Large Vase
-Branches
-Coloured Paper
-Some way to cut out leaves (scissors or Leaf Shaped paper punch or Cricut or Silhouette Machine)
-String/Yarn
-Something to fill your vase with so the branches don't move around (we used some pieces of felt we had around)
-Small Hole Punch (or regular sized if you don't have a small one)
-Craft Needle

What We Did:

After cutting the leaves out with my Cricut, I punched holes in them and threaded a needle with some string. Then I cut & tied the string so that the leaves were ready for hanging.

I gathered some branches from my in-laws' backyard (they had recently trimmed a tree) and put them in a large vase with some pieces of felt to keep them still.

All that was left to do was to hand out a few leaves to each member of the family at a couple of dinner times leading up to Thanksgiving, and before long our tree was full of Fall Leaves representing things that each of us are thankful for!



If you're looking for Thanksgiving craft ideas, you might like our Decorative "Give Thanks" Blocks.



If you're preparing for Thanksgiving baking, you'll love the pumpkin roll recipe I shared with a picture & video tutorial!



If you're looking for ways to teach your children about showing gratitude, check out this "Thank Attack" idea!



If you're looking for kids' crafts for Thanksgiving, check out these easy name cards, or this handprint turkey!

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Cricut Project (FHE Board Tags)

I made these simple tags for our FHE Board with my new Cricut!  All it took was some paper, a laminator, and a hole punch!
My Mother In Law shocked me this past Christmas by giving me a Cricut machine! I'm sure my face was a sight to be seen. ;) So, I'm going to share some of my projects with you when I actually photograph them ;)

The first project I completed was to make tags for our FHE board. FHE= Family Home Evening. (We have this family night every Monday- we stay home together, one of us teaches a little lesson, we sing a song together (someone plays the piano- including Talia who is taking lessons and Katrina who plays whatever she feels ;), and we discuss our plans for the week. It's all finished off with an activity & a treat. Start & finish with a prayer together. :)



Anyway, we've had this "FHE Board" for a while, but no tags for it! So, when I got the cricut, I set to work to make these cute little tags, and used my handy dandy laminator to help them last longer. So happy with them! :)

He Said/She Said Bridal Shower Game

I threw my sister a bridal shower last week, so I'll be sharing a few of the things we did with you. First up is the He Said/She Said bridal shower game.

I sent my sister & her fiance a list of questions to answer and then chose one of their answers. I read the questions & the answers to the guests at the shower & they had to guess whether it was Russ or Amber who gave that answer. Instead of having them write it down, I made these with my mother in law's cricut:




So, I'd read the question with an answer, and then each guest held up either the cowboy hat or the tiara (or both) and then I told them the correct answer. I wish I had a picture of the game in action, but I was busy reading questions at the time, and I'm pretty sure everyone else had 2 popsicle sticks in their hands ;)

He Said/She Said Bridal Shower Game

I got the idea here, from Linda, who did mustaches & tiaras. But for Russ, cowboy hats just seemed right ;)

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More Great Shower Games & Ideas:

School Themed Bridal Shower

Mustache Themed Baby Shower