Charm Bracelet Shrink Dinks

For Mothers Day at church Primary with about 30 kids we are making shrink dinks charm bracelets.  I purchased a kit with sheets of shrink plastic and punched 1 3/8 inch circles in the shrink wrap.  I also punched a hole in the circle to be able to attach to my charm bracelet.  I purchased chain and broke off in about 7" lengths.  I connected the chain with a jump ring.  I will also attach the shrink dinks with a jump ring after colored & shrunk per box directions.  I added a piece of 2"x4 1/4" (folded in half) piece of cardstock to each bracelet and stamped the woman silhouette on each piece of cardstock.  Each mother will get one bracelet with a charm attached

from each child.  Love how these turned out.

Tall Nutcracker

I wanted a tall nutcracker for my front porch so I made one.  I cut it out with a jigsaw and painted it white with gold accents.  I love how it turned out.  Just use a free coloring page as your template and enlarge it. 

Gingerbread/Foamcore Houses

I used gingerbread templates from bobvilla.com to create my fun houses out of foam core board. We colored them. fun project to make with the kids. We made mini ones for our ornaments on our tree. To make real gingerbread houses there is a great recipe here at Housefull of Homeade.

Here are Bob Villa's A-frame house templates.

Doll Pencil's, Pencil Box, & Paint Brush

My children and I made doll pencil's out of small dowels just thicker than a wooden skewer.  I cut the dowel in 3" lengths.  The kids ran one end of each through the pencil sharpener.  We glued a pink Perler bead on the flat sanded end of each pencil to look like an eraser.  We then cut a small rectangle piece of tin foil to wrap and glue around the seam of the bead and dowel.  My kids used markers to color their pencil's yellow and black for lead.

The doll pencil box was made from a cassette tape case.  I cut off the little plastic prongs that go through the cassette reels.  My kids added small stickers to the box.

The paint brush was made from a dowel piece just like the pencil's, about 3" long.  For the brush bristles I cut little pieces of fishing line and hot glued them to the dowel end. I then trimmed the bristles flush.  I glued a strip of tin foil over the seam of the dowel and bristles. 

The colored pencil's were made with 3" long dowel pieces.  My kids sharpened one end in a pencil sharpener and colored with markers.  Easy Peasy.

Thankfull Placemats to Color

Family Fun has these great printable placemats to color what you are thankfull for. Great for kids. More here.

DIY Dry Erase Book

For travel, church, long waits, etc. this simple dry erase book (made from sheet protectors)can be found here at Somewhat Simple. She has free printables. I've used sheet protectors with dry erase for years. It's an easy way to print your own.

DIY Paint with Water

Fun to make your own paint with water pictures. Inspired Ideas has directions here. Needed are water color paper and pencils.

Outdoor Scavenger Hunt Booklet

Print off a scavenger hunt pages for kids with directions here from Sun Scholars. My kids had fun gathering items at the zoo. Could also use in the yard, camping, hiking, etc.

I added pictures for my items for my preschooler. My 1st grader prefered to draw his own.

Feel free to copy these pages I created for your personal use.

Paper City Printable

Love this free printable from Made by Joel.

Paper City with People Paper City Vehicles Paper City Helicopter Sydney Opera House and Luna Park

Stone Dolls

Maya*Made has these beautiful stone dolls. They are beautiful. Can you imagine them made from fabric also.

Paper Toy Printables

Free Printable Toys from The Toy Maker here.

melting crayon art

This is sooo amazing from Irrestible Ideas for Play Based Learning found at Ucreatekids. I used my round hot plate on low with an old $1 store cookie sheet on top. The kids had a great time melting the crayons while coloring and there were NO burns.

Easter Eggs Ideas

These are great. Get ideas and directions here at Family Fun.

Squeeze Painting

To make easy clean painting projects for your kids add some finger paint, ketchup, mustard, or mud to a zipper sandwich bag filling it about 1/2 full. Squeeze out the air and seal the bag tightly. Can also tape the bag for extra protection. Flatten the bag on a table. Kids can push the goo around from the outside of the bag to make pictures.

Now that you have the idea come up with other creative ingredients for your squeeze painting.

Christmas Choir

Make this simple kids craft for the holidays. Family Fun had directions here.

Scratch & Sniff Watercolor

Amazing. My sister led me to this one. Get the kids painting then when dry scratch & sniff. Easy. Directions here from kinderart. 1 Tbs drink mix mixed with 1 Tbs warm water.

Car Scavenger Hunt

Make this game for car travel. Family Fun show how here.

Photo Board

Make a board for your head to stick though for fun photos. I bought foam core at the $1 store. Learn how to make a lion here at Family Fun. My kindergartner loves to draw & made these fun boards. Here is another idea but on a sheet.

Paper Sac Puppets

DLTK's paper bag puppets are fun for kids.

Crayons

Make your old crayon pieces new in fun shapes. Not so idle hands shows us how here.

To clean your molds Momma Did It has directions here.