Colored Salt Fun! (A Review of 150+ Screen-Free Activities Book!)

Looking for a different way to make art and have fun with the kids?  How about making your own colored salt?

Fun with Colored Salt!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support.

Kids Science: Toilet Paper Comparisons!

We go through TONS of toilet paper around here.  (Ehh- TMI?  Probably.)  But I don't mind because that means we have a constant stash for our toilet paper roll crafts.  Recently, hubby received a couple free rolls of Charmin toilet paper to try out.  The packaging claimed that it was "ultra strong."  But... was it really?  I wondered how it would compare against other brands. And of course, we had to find out.  So we did this toilet paper science activity together as a family.

(Hmm... how does that saying go... the family that plays with toilet paper together... stays together?  Hee hee hee )

Toilet Paper Roll Science Activity

(Let's compare rolls.  Which one is the best?)

Make Mini Christmas Trees (For free!)

Here's a super easy way to decorate your home for the holidays! 

Make a bunch of mini Christmas trees!

(Bonus- All the materials are free!)

5 Fun Fall and Thanksgiving Preschool Activties

Are you looking for some super easy and fun Fall and Thanksgiving activities to do with your preschoolers?  Then look no further friends!  The Creative Preschoolers team and I have a bunch of awesome fall and Thanksgiving Preschool Activities for you!

Fun and Easy Fall and Thanksgiving Preschool Activities! 

DIY Colorful Shoelaces!

Lately I've been thinking about super simple Christmas gifts that kids could make for their friends.  Last year Chuck used Sharpies to make his own Sharpie Tie-Dye Shirt.  This time I thought I'd have a turn using Sharpies to turn plain white shoelaces into cute and colorful shoelaces!

DIY Colorful Shoe laces

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

This was a super fun project with colorful and unique results!

Let's get started!

Easy Christmas Tree Advent Calendar

Christmas crafts? Christmas crafts?  Ok, I haven't completely gone bonkers... it's just that the stores have started putting out their Christmas things... so I wanted to join in on the fun.  Last year I had a lot of fun Christmas crafting (remember the village made from Plaster of Paris?)  This year I fell in love with all of the beautiful colors of paint swatches from Home Depot... so I took a bunch home (shhhh, don't tell anyone) and made a bunch of cute paper Christmas trees with Chuck.

Then I wasn't sure what to do with our little army of trees.  At first I was going to turn them into a garland of some sort, but then realized that they would make for a really simple and modern take on a DIY Christmas Advent Calendar!

Easy Christmas Tree Advent Calendar!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

Kid Science: Let's Study Seeds

Are you looking for ways to incorporate science into your child's daily life?   Lately Chuck's been really enjoying the television show Sid the Science Kid.  I typically work beside him while he watches tv, but dang it, that show hooks me in EVERY TIME.  They make science so accessible for little kids (and adults too, apparently.)  Plus, I love how they encourage children to be curious, observe, and explore their world. Thanks to Sid, I'm now trying to do some really easy science activities at home with Chuck too.  In fact, here's one fun activity that we recently did together- we studied seeds!

Kid STEM Activity:  Seed Study!

Maple Syrup Candy + Craft Fail book review!

Now that the weather is a bit chillier, I thought it would be fun to do more fall and winter crafts and activities.  I loved reading the Little House on the Prairie series as a child and always wanted to try doing the things Laura did.  Last year, we made homemade butter from heavy cream.  This year, we tried our hand at making homemade maple syrup candy!

Let's Make Homemade Maple Syrup Candy!

(using snow-- ooh la la)

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support.

2-Ingredient Puffy Paint Fall Leaves

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remind myself that it's fall.  (I'm just not used to warm temperatures at this time of year.)  Chuck and I enjoyed doing fall crafts back in Jersey, so I thought we should try doing some fall crafts here too... even though it doesn't quite feel fall yet...

During a nature walk, we counted quite a few red trees outside.  Boy, was I surprised!  So we drew inspiration from them and made these two-ingredient Homemade Puffy Paint Fall Leaves!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support.

Awhile back we had some success making gluten free homemade puffy paint.  But I was feeling kind of lazy and didn't have all the right materials on hand.  Luckily, we found a super easy recipe for puffy paint on several blogs, and tried it out.

I'll bet you could easily make this puffy paint today.  You probably have all the ingredients already at home.

Moveable Cardboard Snake Craft

Let the snake crafts continue!  Yesterday I shared this easy twisty snake sculpture.  Today I wanted to show how we made this cardboard toilet roll snake... that actually moves!

Moveable Toilet Roll Snake!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support.

(By the way, according to Chuck this snake is very poisonous.  I can vouch for that.  It's bitten me and I've "died" quite a few times!)

Twisty Snake Sculpture! (Template Included)

Do snakes and reptiles set your heart aflutter?  A couple of months ago we found a small garden snake sunning in our backyard.  Chuck and I watched it slithering away, mesmerized by how it moved.  In honor of our reptilian visitor,  I'll be sharing 2 easy and fun snake crafts today and tomorrow on the blog.  

Twisty Snake Sculpture!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thanks for your support!

Rainy Day Process Art

We got rain!  We got rain!  Whoopie!  This was a pretty big deal here in SoCal because we've been in the middle of a drought for a looooong time. Since I love trying easy art projects with Chuck, we took advantage of the rain and collaborated with Mother Nature to create some beautiful rainy day process art.

Let's Make Rainy Day Process Art!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

This was a really fun and easy art project.  I really enjoyed it because we didn't concern ourselves so much with the final product.  Instead, we just really enjoyed making art together and then watching Mother Nature add her bit too.

Here's how we made our rainy day process art!

DIY Recycled Terrarium

Do you craft with cork?  While I love making cardboard crafts, lately I've been trying to push myself a bit and try out new materials.  Last weekend I picked up these funny shaped cork plugs at our local Art Scrap store because they reminded me of mushrooms.  So I painted them, gave a couple to Chuck to play with, and placed one inside a lovely DIY Terrarium made from recycled materials.  

Make a Terrarium from Recycled Materials!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

I love the idea of creating small, beautiful, magical worlds.  This would certainly be a wonderful fall craft for kids.  Oooh, wouldn't they look lovely as kid-made Thanksgiving centerpieces too?  

Ok!  Let's put on our fairy wings and let's get making!

Ice-Skating Popsicle Stick Dolls

I LOVE popsicle sticks.  Today I'm over at MollyMoo sharing these easy-to-make and adorable ice-skating popsicle stick dolls!

 So be sure to pop on over there and check the tutorial out.  Weeeeeeeee!  (I'm pretending to ice-skate away.)

Let's keep in Contact!

Like this idea?  You can always find other fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!  Or, sign up for the weekly newsletter in the pink bar at the top of the site. 

Keep creating, friends!

Star Finding Game

Recently Chuck started getting the concept of hide-and-seek.  I'm so stoked about that and love playing it with him at the park.  But we've had to cut our park time down with the days getting shorter.  Boo!  To help pass the time at home, we've tried doing activities that embrace the dark.  So far we've made our bike wheels glow in the dark and even given ourselves glowing temporary tattoos.  Here's another way that we've entertained ourselves- we've played some Star Hide-And-Seek.

Star Hide-and-Seek Game

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

2 DIY Duct Tape Bug Costumes

Looking for some last minute ideas for DIY Halloween Costumes?  I've recently been embracing duct tape as a crafting material.  So I tried using it to make 2 really easy eleventh hour Halloween Costumes for Chuck.

2 Easy Bug Duct Tape Costumes

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

Why use duct tape instead of paint?

Before I got on this duct tape streak, I would have probably just painted these costumes.  You can get some really neat and clean designs painted using freezer paper stencils. But, I really like the idea of using duct tape because you don't have to wait for paint to dry, AND, you can use the shirts over again for something else (which is a big plus in my book!)

Ok.  Let's get making!

Button Rings

Do you have some buttons lying around?  Does your child love dressing up and playing pretend?  Then today's super easy kids jewelry craft is right up your alley! We recently visited a really cool store called Art From Scrap and had a blast rummaging through bins of random odds and ends.  A couple of particularly lovely buttons caught my eye, and I knew that I had to take them home to make these cute button rings.   

Easy Button Rings!

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

This would a super fun craft to make for, or with young children.  Chuck helped me to string on the buttons and cut the pipe cleaners.  At the end his favorite ring was the red one.  Why?  It's the fire fighting one.  Apparently it squirts water at fires.  Who knew?

Ooh.  I just realized something else. This would also be a great craft for kids who love the Fancy Nancy Series too. 

Ok.  Let's get making!

Glow in the Dark Moon Shirt

My son loves pointing out the moon at night.  Today I'm over at DIY Candy sharing how I made him this adorable glow in the dark moon shirt.

DIY Glow in the Dark Moon Shirt

(By the way, did you see the solar eclipse yesterday?  We totally missed it. Ack!)

And if you really like glow in the dark crafts, here are some more from the archives!

Other glow in the dark crafts:

• Glow in the Dark Jellyfish Costumes
• How to draw glowing designs on your skin!
• Easy Glow in the Dark Bicycle Wheels

Have a great weekend, friends!

(Remember, you can always find other fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!)

Halloween Art: No Carve Colorful Pumpkins

Looking for an easy way to colorfully decorate your Halloween pumpkins this year?  Then this no-carve method is right up your alley!  Here's one great way to make some fabulous, colorful Halloween art with the kids!

Halloween Art:  No Carve Colorful Pumpkins!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

Attention Pink Stripey Socks Email Subscribers!!!

Change is a-coming, friends!  In an effort to improve my site, I'm trying something new.  Starting Friday I'm shutting down my previous email feed.  So if you are receiving daily emails from Pink Stripey Socks, that will stop this Friday.  But don't worry!  See the lovely pink bar at the top of the site?  I'm using a new email distribution program.  So just sign up above to keep getting fun kids crafts delivered each week straight to your inbox.

Ok.  That's it!  Swing on by later today for another glow in the dark craft!  

Make your wheels glow in the dark! (And create some lovely modern art too!)

Do you like playing with glow sticks?  I love fall, but gosh, it gets dark outside so quickly!  I hate being cooped up inside.  What's a mom to do at night?  Well, we've tried embracing the dark by making a DIY Glowing Jellyfish Costume and drawing glowing designs on our skin.  Recently we also brought out our glow sticks and wove them into the wheels of Chuck's bike.  (I was inspired by Meri Cherry's awesome glow in the dark Dancing Ballerina Tutus!)

The activity was a hit!

Make Glow in the Dark Wheels!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

Yup.  This was a super easy activity that didn't cost very much to do and required very little set up  Plus, it got us outside and we made some beautiful glowing art.

Yup, you could say that the activity gets "glowing reviews" from our whole family?  Get it? Hee hee hee.

Ok.  Here's what we did!

Toilet Roll Biplane Airplanes Craft

Although Chuck isn't always so keen to craft with me (sad, I know,) he fortunately loves making cardboard toys with me.  (Yay!)  Currently he loves planes.  But since we've already crafted toilet roll planes, toilet roll helicopters, and cardboard roll space shuttles... I was at a loss as to what we could make together next.  One day he suggested that we make a biplane together.  So we went with his suggestion and did this toilet roll biplane craft!

Toilet Roll Biplane Craft

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you so much for your support!

I think he looks a little like Leadbottom from the movie Planes, don't you?

Check out how we made this simple plane from recycled materials below!

Preschool Science: Let's Make Charts!

While I enjoy making things with Chuck, I'm also always looking for easy ways to incorporate mathematics and science into our daily activities too.   I loved math and science as a child, so I'd love it if he appreciated those subjects too.  Since he's only 3, our activities have to very pretty hands-on and relevant to his interests (like our shape dice,  cardboard bridges, and shape touch and find activities.)  We love taking walks outside.  So I incorporated science and math into our walk and created this chart to help us count the number of different things in our neighborhood. 

STEM ACTIVITY:  Make Charts With Preschoolers!

This was a super easy STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activity to do with my preschooler.  It required very little prep and we practiced our observation, counting, and data analysis skills in the process!

Here's how we did the activity!

Rabbit Pop-up Puppet

Today I'm living out my secret (or now, not so secret) fantasies to be a magician with this fun pop-up rabbit puppet.  Simply push the stick and a rabbit pops out of a magician's hat!

To see how I made this handmade toy, visit Handmade Charlotte.

Happy Wednesday!

Toilet Roll Pumpkins and Skulls

It's no secret that I LOVE toilet paper roll crafts.  I think I probably have about a dozen toilet roll crafts on the blog.  Yurp.  One of my friends recently commented, "Wow. You go through a lot of toilet paper."  Double yup.  We do.  We do.  (TMI?)  So anyway... eh hem... the toilet roll craft list is about to going to grow again!  Tada!  Here are my Halloween inspired toilet roll crafts!  

Toilet Roll Halloween Crafts

So we have some toilet roll pumpkins.....

and ...

Black Cat Duck Tape Containers

Last Friday we hosted a grill out for some of hubby's work colleagues.  To make our place a bit more Halloween-y I turned some old cans into these cute black cat containers using duct tape!

Black Cat Duck Tape Containers

Aren't they cute?  If you want to decorate containers of your own, head on over to DIY Candy for the full tutorial!

Here are some other fun Halloween Crafts!

• DIY No Sew Lightening McQueen Costume
• DIY Fake Sleeve Tattoo
• DIY Tulle Halloween Mask

Let's Keep in Contact!

Like this idea?  You can always find other fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!


Have a wonderful weekend!

How did I make my skin glow?

Looking for an easy way to entertain the kids this weekend?  

How about making their skin glow? 

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

Yurp.  It's 1:30 AM here and I should be sleeping.   But I'm not.  Why?  Well, I couldn't because all my craft juices were flowing after seeing this tutorial.

Did you know that you can make your skin glow... with only 2 materials?  I had to try it out for myself.  So I took a highlighter and black light and then got working.  And guess what?  It worked!  The highlighter glows under black light!

Can you guess what Chuck and I will be doing this weekend?

Hope you have a great weekend!

Glow in the dark Kids Jellyfish Costume

Recently I received several containers of Tulip Glow Paint to try out.  As you know, I LOVE making costumes for Chuck. (Remember the spider costume, Lightening McQueen Costume, and Mr. Potato head costume?  Yup.  Good times.)  So I was excited to somehow incorporate the glow in the dark paint into a costume idea.  Chuck really loves sea creatures right now, so I made him this easy, NO SEW jellyfish costume.

Oh yeah.  And it glows!

DIY Kids Jellyfish Costume (that glows!)

Adorable right? Just wait till you see it glowing.  It really looks like a jellyfish is sitting on top of his head!

Here's how I made it!

Easy Origami Vampire Lips!

The quest for cute Halloween themed origami continues!  First we folded ourselves an origami cat.  Then we folded these three origami jack-o-lantern pumpkins.  Today, I'm continuing the trend and showing you how I folded up these Origami vampire lips!

 Origami Vampire Lips

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

Now full disclosure here-  I'm NOT an origami expert. I'm a complete novice.  I first saw a tutorial for cute vampire lips from this fun Halloween origami book.  However, hubby and I tried and tried... but we just couldn't figure out how to fold the darn thing!  So I looked online and saw a bunch of other really hard directions.  

Since I really liked the way the vampire lips looked, I ended up making up my own way of folding them.  So I guess the post should really be titled "Faux-gami."

If you want to try this faux-gami tutorial, check out the directions below!  I promise you, it's super easy and the results are really cute.

Let's get faux-lding!

Halloween Sensory Activity- Let's Dig out Bones!

I'm a crafter by nature.  I like painting, gluing, and drawing.  Messy sensory activities just don't come naturally for me.  But since Halloween celebrates slimy, icky, things.... I figured we should do a sensory activity.   So tada!  Today's blog post is all about this Halloween Bone Dig Sensory Activity!

Halloween Bone Dig Sensory Activity

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

I watch the tv show Bones, so I definitely channeled Dr. Brennon and her squints while setting up the activity.  Usually Chuck doesn't like getting his hands dirty, but for some reason he LOVED digging out the "bones" and squishing the "blood" around.

Ok!  Let's get started!

Halloween Ghost Splat Painting

I'm always looking for new and fun ways to paint with Chuck.  Thus far, we've painted with flowers, painted with cars, made homemade body paint, made tortilla art, scrape painted, and even made corn syrup paint.   So I was excited when a kids' art teacher recently introduced us to splat painting!  It was such a fun activity that Chuck and I tried a Halloween version at home.

Halloween Ghost Splat Painting!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

This week's Creative Preschool theme is Halloween.  So we splat painted these ghosts!  Keep reading to see how we painted the ghosts AND check out the bottom of the post to see 4 other really fun Halloween activities!

DIY Hedgehog Ring Toss

Do you love hedgehogs?   I do!  They're such adorable animals.  So I'm super excited that my first contribution for MollyMoo will be this super cute DIY Hedgehog Ring Toss Game!  

It's made from an old moving box and didn't take very long to make at all.  (My kind of craft!)  So if you want to make one, I'm sharing directions over here!

Love forest-themed crafts?

Then you might also like these...

• Super Easy Toilet Roll Flowers
• Bunny bean bag toss game 
• Toadstool Stools (a cute Ikea hack)
• Build a bird's nest with kids
• Egg Carton Bugs
• DIY Flower Crown

Let's keep in Contact!

Like this idea?  You can always find other fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!


Happy Thursday!

Easy DIY Kids Spider Costume

We really love reading and it's always fun to create crafts and activities to go along with our favorite books.  Today I'm joining forces with other kid bloggers to present a Halloween Read and Play Blog hop!    This means that today, over 25 kid bloggers are posting great activities and crafts to go along with Halloween themed books.  (You can see links to all the great ideas at the bottom of the post!)  We made a DIY spider costume for our post.  It was inspired by a beloved book character, Splat the Cat!

Easy DIY Spider Costume

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support.

Have you heard of the Splat the Cat Series?  We love these books. For Halloween, we read Scaredy-Cat, Splat!

I don't want to ruin the story for you, so here's just a snippet to explain today's craft.  Splat the Cat's initial costume gets ruined and his mom has to quickly whip up a homemade spider costume from socks and string.

I love the idea of making something from nothing, so we tried our hand at quickly whipping up a spider costume just like Splat the Cat's mom!

Let's get making!   

DIY Pizza Gift Box

Ha ha!  I bet you saw the words pizza and gift box and thought... what is Leslie up to this time?  Is she wrapping things in used pizza boxes?  Eeeeh no.  (Although, I would probably wrap things in new boxes.... ooh, good idea... wait.. focus, focus!)  Here's what today's post is going to be about:

DIY Pizza Gift Box

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support.

Isn't it cute?  Chuck took an extra long nap this weekend so I had time to try out a cool craft inspired by one found in this book.  It's a small gift box that looks like a pizza!  Now you can make your very own unique packaging to match your cool gift.  And bonus- it's made from a used envelope. Yessirree my crafty friend,  this craft has it all. It's cute and good for the environment too.

Let's get started!

Origami Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin

Can you tell that I'm really digging Halloween origami?  Last week I shared how to fold a cute origami black cat.  Today I'm continuing the theme and sharing how to fold an origami Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin!  

Origami Pumpkin

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

I'm still an origami novice and I found these pumpkins to be much easier to fold than the black cat.  I just followed the original tutorial here.  It was shown with very few words and lots of arrows.  So I took photos of my process in hopes that these photos and descriptions will make things clearer.  (Although if you run into trouble, definitely check the original source!)

Let's get folding!

Make and Play with Shape Dice!

Are you looking for some fun and educational activities to do with your preschooler?  Right now Chuck's home with me and we try to squeeze in at least one educational activity in each day. So far we've tested out cardboard rigidity by building bridges, explored art materials like scientists, and learned about shapes with a shape touch and feel game.  

While I enjoy thinking up new activities to do with Chuck, sometimes I do get burned out.  It's hard finding new activities everyday day!  So that's why I'm excited to announce a new collaboration that I'm doing with 4 other fabulous bloggers.  Twice a month we will be presenting 5 different takes on preschool learning themes.  Yup.  Isn't that neat?  I'm super stoked.  So in addition to seeing one great idea here, you'll also see links to 4 other really creative and fun preschool learning activities.

Our first collaborative preschool theme is Shapes and here's my activity!  (Definitely check out the 4 other ideas at the end of the post!)

DIY Shape Dice

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

Cool right?  Instead of using a normal dice to play board games, here's a fun twist.  Switch out the numbers and use shapes instead!  Now your child can learn counting and shapes at the same time.

So let's make a dice and see how we can play with it!

Recycled Pumpkin Sun Catcher Craft

Tis the season for Halloween crafting, fa-la-la-... Oh wait.  Wrong song.  Well, you get the point. The season for Halloween crafting has begun!  Last year we made of ton of Halloween crafts (see bottom of post for links).  This year we've folded an origami black cat and made a cardboard pumpkin with a changeable face.   Today we're going to make another recycled Halloween craft.  This time we made these milk jug pumpkin sun catchers!

DIY Milk Jug Pumpkin Sun Catchers

(This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!)

I really liked this craft because the pumpkins were SO easy to make with my 3 year old.  And we didn't have to spend a ton of time on prep or a ton of money for materials.  (That's a definite win win in my book.)  Ok!  Let's get making!

Cardboard "Bead" Necklaces

I recently saw this fabulous post on painted bead necklaces by fellow Rockin' Art Mom ArtBar Blog.  Her students painted such beautiful wooden bead and cardboard necklaces.  I was really intrigued by the idea of using corrugated cardboard to make "beads," so I thought I'd give it a try myself.  Last weekend our town held its annual Lemon Festival, so I painted myself a lemon necklace to wear there.  And since Halloween is always on my mind, I painted myself a skull and bones necklace too.  Here are the results!

Let's Make Some Cardboard Beaded Necklaces!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

Aren't they cute?   Let's get making!

Faith, Generosity, and a Cardboard Pumpkin Face

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

You're probably confused by the title... and I apologize.  Today's post is quite special to me and I just wanted to make sure everything important was included.

Now if you've peeked over at my About Me page, you'll see that my Christian faith means quite a bit to me.  It shapes how I view the world, pulled me out of a tough spot when I quit my PhD program, and even influences how I view creativity and crafting.


My friend Amy Sullivan (who you might remember was the mastermind behind the #riskrejection challenge that encouraged me to publicly "come out my crafting closet")  recently wrote a book When More is Not Enough - How to Stop Giving Your Kids What They Want and Give Them What They Need.

I received a copy of this book to review... and I was pretty nervous.  A whole book focused on being generous and serving others like Jesus? Ehhh...  I worried that I'd finish the book feeling super guilty because my family and I weren't doing enough.

After reading the very first page, I saw how wrong my fears were.

Amy is honest, funny, and humble.  She shares her own family's struggles with generosity, and how God slowly changed their views of service.  She also offers some really great ways the whole family (including the kids!) can serve and love their communities and the world.


You can check out this video book blurb below for more details:




(Psst- Did you catch how she's donating 100% of the proceeds of the book to Transformation Village ?  Wow.)

After reading her book I felt really encouraged to rethink my views on service and generosity too.  I didn't need to be a missionary or the president of a non-profit to make an impact and help out my community.  I could do small things with love.


And now here's where the pumpkin face comes in.  I initially made Chuck this changeable cardboard pumpkin face (inspired by Halloween and this face from Mr. Printables) as a way to help him learn about his emotions.

See how the facial features change?  As we played with the toy, Chuck began relating to the pumpkin as his friend.  It kind of took on a life of its own.  We talked about how Mr. Pumpkin looked sad, happy, surprised, or scared.  We then also starting having conversations about how we could help friends that might be scared or upset.

And that's when a light bulb went on in my head.  These small, everyday conversations were also equipping Chuck to have compassion for others... and do small things with love.  Chuck's only 3, but he too can have compassion and serve others too.

Whoa.  That was definitely a "wow" moment for me.

So if you have a chance, I definitely recommend you reading Amy's book When More is Not Enough.   You can read her thoughts on writing a book, or find her on her blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.  

(And in case you want to make your own changeable pumpkin face, simply cut out the facial features and pumpkin from corrugated cardboard.  Then, paint them.  Then, drill holes through the pieces and use fasteners to attach everything together.)

Happy Monday friends!

3D Paper Plate Lion Mask

One of the coolest things about having a 3 year old is that we've fully entered the wonderful world of imaginative play.  I love watching Chuck enact scenes with his toys or pretend to be something else.  So far we've made a couple of toys to help encourage his imaginary play like this toilet roll airplane, no sew super hero cape, or cardboard cash register.   Lately he's been really enjoying learning about animals, so I made him this lion mask!

3D Paper Plate Lion Mask

This mask was really easy to make AND it's 3D.  See how the whiskers, ears, and nose all stand up?  Cool, right?  If you'd like to see how I made this mask check out my tutorial on Handmade Charlotte over here!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Origami Black Cat

Halloween is coming! Halloween is coming!  My favorite holiday is coming!  I love the candy!  I love the costumes!  I love carving pumpkins!  And I especially love the Halloween crafts!  So I'm starting off this year's Halloween crafts with this really cute origami Halloween black cat.

Origami Halloween Black Cat

This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

The directions for this cat came from the book Horrorgami.  I'm definitely an origami newbie, so I wasn't able to do as many of the crafts as I would have liked.  But if you love folding paper, this book has a ton of great Halloween-inspired origami.

Ok.  Onto the cat craft!