All posts tagged pinterest

Free Play-Doh Activity Sheets

by Vanessa Brady on 2 July 2012 in Kids with 2 Comments

You know those days when it feels like you’ve exhausted every activity that usually entertains your kid and it’s not even 10 am yet? Today was one of those days so I had to call in for some reinforcements via Pinterest. Lucky for me and Jack, Planet of the Apels answered the call to duty with downloadable Play-Doh activity sheets! As she mentions on her post, this is perfect for a busy bag swap. For more swap ideas, check out the Toddler Activity Bag Swap we had in 2010.

You can print off 20 of these pages which are sure to keep your child occupied for at least a few minutes at a time on each. (This added up to about 30-40 minutes! Can I get a “halleluiah?”) Look at that concentration on Jack, any parent of a three year old knows how precious those moments are. They’re usually too busy running up the roof to focus much on anything. (As well they should! They’ve got years of schooling to focus on, we’re all about as much play as possible over here.)

Play-Doh Activity Sheets from Planet of the ApelsSome of the activities include making carrots for a rabbit to eat, adding facial features, giving a crocodile teeth and number play. I needed these pages ASAP so I obviously didn’t have time to laminate them. Luckily, I found a sheet of plastic in our laundry room that I was suppose to put away in the garage months ago. (Yay for procrastination!)

You obviously don’t have to do this activity on a light table either. I had originally planned on having Jack work with letters in colored sand on the table but had to scrap that idea when I realized I didn’t have any colored sand. (Boo for procrastination!)

This smile brought to you courtesy of Planet of the Apels! My child and my sanity thank you. :D

Saving the Bank with Homemade Playdoh

by Vanessa Brady on 23 May 2012 in Kids, Tutorial with 3 Comments

Like most three year olds, Jack is crazy about Play-Doh. He absolutely loves it and since he’s so engaged, Play-Doh gives me at least 30 minutes to either pick up the house a bit or mindlessly browse Pinterest (take a wild guess at which one of those I usually choose!)

Lately, Jack’s big thing is to make sculptures out of Play-Doh and allow them to dry so that his super proud parents can keep them forever (or accidentally leave them out so Max can chomp on them, leading to the midnight google search: “Is too much Play-Doh poisonous?”)

Play-Doh has been wonderful for Jack’s imagination…not so wonderful for our pocketbook. So in an effort to save some of our hard earned moolah, I’ve taken to making homemade Play-Doh every so often. Now, Jack gets to sculpt until his little heart’s content and I have some left over money to go a-thriftin’ with. It’s a win/win!

There are tons of tutorials out there on making your own Play-Doh, this is how I do mine:

Homemade Kool-Aid Playdoh
Adapted from Musings From a SAHM

Materials:
2 cups flour
2 cups water
4 tsp cream of tartar
2/3 cup of salt
2 tbsp oil
6 Kool-Aid packs (different colors)

1. Mix first five ingredients together and allow to thicken until the consistency of Play-Doh is met.

2. Ok, here’s where things get messy…separate the dough into the desired amount of colors and begin to kneed the colors into each segment. I used one packet per segment so that colors would be super vibrant. I also used yellow food dye since the lemonade flavor didn’t color so well. I should warn you that your hands are going to be stained for a day. I wanted to make a small amount of six different colors so that I could store them in the Gerber containers my awesome cousin sent me (Thanks, Erika!). If you’re going to make just one color or want to make larger portions of each color, you could skip out on the blue hands by just mixing the Kool-Aid in the pot you’re cooking the dough in.

3. Sprinkle in some glitter if you want it to be sparkly.

4. Each color should fit perfectly (well, almost perfectly) in those little plastic Gerber containers that you’ve been hoarding but just don’t know what to do with. :)

Happy sculpting!

EDIT:

Why didn’t I think of included the Kool-Aid dye chart I posted for my playsilks tutorial?! Just think of all the lovely colors of playdoh you could have!

Mason Jar Foam Soap Dispenser

by Vanessa Brady on 20 January 2012 in Home with 4 Comments

Yay, another completed pin! Only 2, 565 more pins to go. ;)

As far as crafts go, the Mason Jar Foaming Soap Pump Tutorial from Life With Laura was wonderfully easy. The only thing I did differently was cut the hole in the lid small enough so that the pump just barely fit through. I was then able to apply a small amount of silicon glue around the bottom of the pump (under the lid) to seal up any gaps. I also used Krylon’s Hammered Metal spray paint. Pretty happy with the finished product and most importantly, it works perfectly with my homemade foaming soap! (few squeezes of Almond Dr. Bronner’s and water)

Bit of a tangent, but did you know that you don’t need to wash your hands with water when you use foaming soap? You just lather up with the foaming soap, rub it all over just like you would do with normal soap, and then rinse with water. You could probably decrease your hand washing water usage by 50%. Nice. I seriously must be the only person on this planet who didn’t know that!

Back to the mason jar, we need another dispenser in the bathroom but I think I might use a different container. The mason jar looks cute in kitchen but the bathroom needs something a bit more streamline and clean. I’ll get back to you on that.

Don’t forget to enter the I Love You Giveaway on Facebook! Four lucky readers will win unique, hand painted prints of the “I Love Everything About You” print I posted last week. Giveaway ends January 20th.

Pinterest Finds: Child’s Apron

by Vanessa Brady on 2 November 2011 in Kids, Pinterest Finds with No comments


A list of cute aprons to make for the little cook, artist or gardener in your life. (Zoe!)

1. Child’s Apron Tutorial, Tidbits
2. Vintage Tie Apron Tutorial, Smashed Peas and Carrots
3. Child’s Apron Pattern, Sew Liberated
4. Toddler’s Laminated Project Apron, Retro Fun

Pin it! Make it! Link it!

by Vanessa Brady on 20 October 2011 in Kids with 2 Comments

I’m jumping on the link party bandwagon!

We all know and love Pinterest, right? And while we may not get around to accomplishing all our pins (1,562 pins?!), I’m sure we’ve all at least tried more than a few. So, the “Pin it! Make It! Link it!” link party will be a weekly collection of completed pins that we know and love. I’m really looking forward to seeing which pins you’ve successfully tested and which ones turned out more like that failed Cookie Monster pin!

My contribution to this week’s PML party is the Make Your Own Ranch Dip and Dressing Mix from Tara Cooks. Ab-so-lute-ly amazing! I love making my own salad dressings to cut back on preservatives and MSG and usually, it’s no problem if all we need is a simple vinaigrette but with two little ones running around my legs most of the time, I don’t have a whole lot of time to mess with measuring out the ingredients for Ranch dressing.

In comes this great mix! 1 tbsp mix, 1 cup mayo (I substitute plain greek yogurt) and 1 cup buttermilk (I use powdered buttermilk in the fridge). Mix together and you’ve got instant ranch. I also like how you can adjust the quantity of mix if you like your dressing to be more ranch-y or not. You can also mix it straight with sour cream/yogurt for a delicious veggie dip or sprinkle it over popcorn for a gourmet treat.

I highly suggest you give this pin a try, I’m crazy about it!


 
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