Monkey Bread

So this technically isn't a "craft," but the kids do LOVE making it, so I thought I'd share! It's called Monkey Bread, because the little monkey's help to make it. It's very tasty and a great FHE treat!

The recipe calls for 3 cans of the ballard biscuits. Open 1 1/2 cans and cut them into quarters.

Have the little monkeys roll the quarters in a mixture of:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

In a greased bunt pan, place the first 1 1/2 cans of rolled and coated biscuits in the bottom of the pan.

Shred one apple and place on top of the 1 1/2 cans. You can add nuts or raisins too if you like (but we don't like!)

Then cut, roll, coat, and place the remaining biscuits on top of the apples.

Melt 3/4 cup of butter (very healthy!!!) into the remaining sugars & cinnamon mixture. Pour over the top of it all, and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Let cool 10-15 minutes, then invert on a plate. We like to eat it with toothpicks. Enjoy!

Valentines for kids

So I have been having withdrawls from my lack of doing anything crafty lately. Between the packing, moving, unpacking, working, kids, house stuff, and being 7 months pregnant life is alittle nuts. So this week I told the boxes that I was taking a break, and needed a "Crafty Afternoon." So after Trestin layed down for a nap, we worked on the kids' Valentines. Garrick had gotten his class list for his V-day party on the 13th, so we got a head start. And of course Aleksia wants to send some too, so here is what we came up with;

Garrick wrote on his foam tags, taped a candy to it, and then punched hole in it and attached a pencil. Here is two of them for his "best friends," Meghan and Sam!

Aleksia making her's for Grandmas & Grandpas, friends, and a couple cousins. She can write "ALE" then we have to finish the "ksia."

Here is another idea (from Family Fun Magazine, so I can't take credit for it) that we made. I finally found a heart mold, so I was able to make these this year. We are going to make them as one of our Valentine Crafts for my "Activity Day Girls" activity next week (I'm in charge of bi-monthly activity for the 8-11 year old girls at church). Here is what we did;

After removing the wrapper, the kids broke each crayon into four pieces, the had fun "mixing them up" after each crayon they put in.


I was finally able to find a mold, at Michael's. The kids put about six crayon pieces in each heart. These I did to kinda coordinate colors. The kids' where all sorts of colors, and turned out cute too.

The "recipe" said to bake them at 250 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Well I bought the cheep crayons, and they took a lot longer. So I ended up having to bake ours at 350 degrees for 15 minutes (basically cook it till they melt). When I took them out, it looked black. But after they cooled, the back still looked like a brownish/black, but the fronts looked cute! Then we glued them to a circle we cut out using a cup as a template, and wrote on the front "You color my World" and on the back "To & From." then taped the heart on. Then the crayon can be removed easily and used. Enjoy!

Some paper crafts.

OK so I thought I'd finally post the pictures I took a while ago to put up here!! Here are some paper crafts I made some from a class, some from ideas I took from someone else. Hope these help the creativity flow this season or if you can't find the time maybe after the new year!! This is the front with flap open.

Here is a paper bag book (but no like one I'd ever seen before, I love the handles). This is the front.

First page opened.

2nd opened.

3rd open.

4th.

and the back.

This is the front of a paper bag book. It's hard to read in this picture but it says Beach Fun! and the little tag says splish splash.

2nd and 3rd page opened with the side pocket page pulled out.

4th and 5th page opened.

6th and 7th, with side pocket page pulled out.

Side pocket not pulled out.

The back.

OK this is the front of an altered CD case!!

Here is the back.

Opened up.

Closer look at the left side.

Closer look at the right.

This is that folded thing open.




Hope I didn't overwhelm anyone with all the pictures! I promise next time there won't be as many!

Baby Shower Invite

I am throwing my little sis a baby shower and I just have to say I was so excited when I finished the invitations. The photo doesn't give it credit. I guess it is a craft because I designed it. Right?!



The white blobs are words spray painted over so personal info wasn't out there.

I got the photo from Kayden's collection from his blessing photos. I have a lot of baby clothes and stuff for her so I went with a theme (time of day). Instead of just saying the theme I came up with silly little rhymes.

I used a scrapbooking program and printed it on matte photo paper. It was fast, easy and a lot of fun.

I did just finish a fun magnet board. That is for sure a craft. I can't wait to post it.

TuTu for my LuLu

Well this isn't MY idea - in fact I just found it blog surfing. I'm good at copying other peoples good ideas...and Lucy LOVES this! She wore it from morning to night on Conference Sunday. I had to hide it so it wouldn't get too trashed before Halloween. You can find the step-by-step here...but it is really easy! I bought my tulle at Joannes because honestly I'm a novice and don't always think...Walmart is 1/2 the price and has way more colors. I'll remember that for the next time that I make one. Oh, also for the elastic hair band make sure it doesn't have the grippy no-slip stuff on it! That made a lot harder.

The girl that I copied it from mentioned maybe doing it in yellow and black for a cute, fancy bumble bee, wouldn't that be too cute!!!

Here is the finished look on Lucy

School Days book

So with Garrick starting school I wanted a way to document things along the way, to see how he changes through the years. I had seen something like this, tweeked it to make it a "Danielle Version," so here is the result. I made one for a couple of Garrick's friends that are also starting kindergarten, but a simpler version, without the paper. Although the paper was easy to add, it was time consuming. And since that is something I don't have much of, they can be creative on their own if they wish. I have it all saved on my computer, so anyone that's interested, let me know, and I could print you off a copy and send to you snail mail. Here goes;

Front cover

Finish of the 20__ with the year they are in that grade, so Garrick's will be 2008.

All these pages are the same for each grade. So it will be fun to see how it changes from year to year. Especially his signature!

Here are a few of the other grades, but the book includes K-12.

I have some corner punches that I bought from Michael's on sale with a coupon that I used. The printed paper I just cut enough off the edges (about 1/4" on each side I think) so that it would fit. Or you could still trim the printed paper, and glue it to the decorative paper. Then I put it in page protectors. For those couple that I did for friends, you could just cut off the edge where I hole punched it, and still be able to put it on decorative paper later if you want. Let your imagination run wild! Have fun! Now, I'm going to go try to not get emotional as I am about to send Garrick off to school this week. Wish me luck!

I love Plaster of Paris

I love making things with plaster of paris. You can buy it at Michael's (and maybe Walmart too). I use candy molds to create many different shapes (candy mold too at Michael's mainly, but some at JoAnn's and Walmart too). I've done them just plain and you can glue a magnet on the back, or twisted some wire (again at one of the above stores) and made it so that you can put it on a necklace for the kids to then add beads to, or I've painted it and tied it onto the ribbon of a gift. The kids LOVE painting them, even if I just end up throwing the out afterwards (they don't know, and don't remember). But it was a CHEAP form of entertainment for them. The paints are just the cheap ($.43 ish at Walmart) paints in the painting section. To prevent the kids from painting all over their clothes, I bought cheap adult shirts at Goodwill and they wear it backwards. Very useful for Aleksia!!! To mix it, add enough water to the flour looking mix until it's alittle runnier then yogurt. Pour into molds, tap on the counter/table/etc to get the air bubbles out. Usually sets up in about 30 minutes depending on how runny the mixture was. Pop out and let set to finish drying (12-24 hours). I usually put them on a cooling rack so the back drys too. Then paint!

Aleksia painting her Winnie the Pooh shapes

Concentrating very hard!

Some Winnie the Pooh shapes with a bib from some baby ones (very cute on baby gifts!)

Sorry it's blurry, but the back of the gifts showing the wire. They take about 30 minutes to set up, so about 10 minutes into it I then put the wires in place. It needs to be setting up a little to keep the wire in place. If it's not set up at all it will just fall the the bottom.

The front of the gifts. I then spray it with a finishing coat spray (Michaels or Wally World, again) and then spray it with some sparkles (in a can like the spray at the above stores M or W).

Not shown, but I have some Christmas looking molds (obviously sold only seasonally) that I've put on christmas gifts or glued a pin to the back and then you can wear them. A cute gift for the kids to paint then give away at christmas, or to add to a gift from them!

Hopefully that made sense, if not, let me know!

~Danielle~