Super Cute Personalized Pencil Toppers

Often times I just wanna make something, cute, kiddy, and fun.   And that's totally the vibe that I was feeling when I made these personalized pencil toppers.  *Insert girlish squeal* Colorful perler beads?  Lovely letters?  Hearts?  Too. Much. Cuteness.  

Personalized Pencil Toppers!

So satisfy your inner elementary school girl and stop on by DIY Candy to see how I made these bad boys.

And if you feel like making more super cute and fun kids crafts, check out the links below!

5 Super Cute and Fun Kids Crafts!

• Valentine's Day Arrow Through the Head
• Marbling With Nail Polish
• Kids Glow-In-the-Dark Jellyfish costume
• Make Corn Syrup Paint
• Crazy cute Paper Plate Purses

Let's keep in Contact!

You can always find other fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!  (Or subscribe to my email mailing list by filling out the pink bar at the top of your screen.)

Happy making, friends!

Shark Valentine Card Box

Sometimes I wish I could be a kid again just to experience the magic of different holidays.  Do you ever feel that way?  As a child New Years seemed cooler, Christmas seemed more magical, and Valentine's Day was way more romantic.  Now that Chuck's getting older, I see him getting excited about holidays too.... and I LOVE it.

Here's a fun Valentine Card Box that I recently designed with Chuck in mind.  (He loooooves sharks.) Isn't it hilarious that the shark "eats" the Valentines?

Shark Valentine Card Box

You can find out how I made this Shark Valentine Card Box at MollyMooo Crafts!

And if you're looking for 3 other cute Valentines day crafts, check out the links below!

• Super adorable Valentine glasses
• "High Five" Valentines
• Kiss-tastic wrapping paper

Let's keep in Contact!

You can always find other fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!  (Or subscribe to my email mailing list by filling out the pink bar at the top of your screen.)


Happy making friends!

Straw Rockets

My preschooler still absolutely LOVES rockets and space shuttles.  Over the years, we've made a lot of  awesome transportation crafts, but I was excited to post  these straw rockets today because they were easy to make (and FREE)!

Easy Straw Rockets

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FREE Valentine Printables

Today I'm continuing the funny Valentine Day Series with these 2 free Valentine Printables!  To see the other funny Valentine's day crafts in this series, check out the links below!

• #1- You "Rock my World" Rocks
• #2 - "Set my heart aflutter" butterfly notebooks
• #3- Send "High Fives" To your Valentine!

Funny Valentine's Day activity #4:  2 FREE Valentine Printables!

Let's learn about our brain! (Preschool Science Activity)

Today's Creative Preschool Collaborators theme is body parts!  (So be sure the check the bottom of the post for 4 other ways to teach preschool kids about their bodies!)

Lately Chuck's been interested in learning about his body, so this topic was right up our alley.   Since we have out-of-town guests staying with us for a bit, I designed 5 low-prep and easy activities to help Chuck learn about the brain!

Preschool Science:  Let's Learn about our brain!  

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Kiss Wrapping Paper

Love reading with your child?  Love Valentine's day too?  Well then you're in luck!  Today is Read and Play Day!  Today, several kid bloggers and I are sharing 27 great Valentine's books and corresponding activities and crafts on our blogs! You can check out The Pleasantest Thing for the full list of all the great activities!

Here's the Valentine's Day craft that I made with Chuck-  DIY Kiss Wrapping Paper!

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Happy Handmade Ebook!

Today I'm so excited to announce the launch of Happy Handmade!  This is a brand new kids craft ebook that contains 115 pages of unique and fun crafts to make with and for your kids!

If you could see me now, you'd see that I'm grinning ear-to-ear right now because I'm so proud of how this book turned out!   

To celebrate the launch of this awesome ebook, we're offering it at a discounted price of  $9.99 for one week only!  Afterwards, the cost of the ebook will return to $12.99.  So buy it now, to get it an a discounted price!  Woo-hoo for bargains!  And, for all you international readers out there, Paypal will take care of the currency conversion for you!

What's up? Happy Handmade- A Joint Craft eBook Adventure!

Hi everyone!  I don't usually post on Saturday but I'm posting today because I'm feeling super excited and super nervous about next week.  (Isn't it funny how those two feelings often seem to go together?)  

Around this time last year, I shared my now-not-so-secret dream of being a professional crafter.  Re-reading that post, I wish I could go back in time to hug my old-self, and tell her that I'm proud of her for taking a step in a new direction.

Throughout 2014, I took several steps towards making that dream a reality.  I pushed my super shy self to join a couple of really supportive kid blogger groups (like Kid Blogger Network, Rockin Art Moms , and the Creative Preschool Collaborators.) I dipped my toes into the super scary (and still, completely confusing) world of blog advertising and sponsorship.  And, I also got the opportunity to do some freelance craft work for wonderful sites like Handmade Charlotte, MollyMoo Crafts, and DIY Candy.

You're probably wondering now- Leslie, was it worth it?  Are you raking in the big bucks?  Well, yes.  I'm glad that I took those initial steps.  And no, I'm definitely not making big bucks.  But, I do make some grocery money and I really appreciate the opportunities that come my way.

And that's what I wanted to share with you today- one of these opportunities.  (Sorry for the rambly intro, but I felt so nostalgic after re-reading my posts from 2014 that I had to say something first...)

I recently had the opportunity to join with 17 other kid-craft-loving moms to put together Happy Handmade- a beautiful, unique and fun ebook showcasing 115 pages of crafts to make with and for kids!  

   

I'll be sharing more about the ebook and how you can purchase it on the blog this Tuesday, January 20th.  But I just wanted to just write something about it today because there are just so many lovely and unique ideas inside.  And my heart feels like it's bursting open because I'm so proud of all the work that went into it.    


Ok.  That's all friends.  Thank you for stopping by and thank you for all of your support.

And before you go, here's a sneak peak at some of the crafts inside...

*Insert happy sigh here*

  Hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend, friends!
   

Send High Fives to your Valentine!

Are you looking for a unique and simple idea for a Valentine's day card?  Or, are you looking for a quick way to send someone some encouragement?  How about sending them some high fives?

Funny Valentine's Day Craft 3:  Send someone high fives!

This is the 3rd installment in my funny Valentine's Day craft series.  (To see the other ideas, check out my "Valentine, you rock!" Rocks and "You set my heart aflutter" Butterfly Notebooks.)

Lately Chuck hasn't really wanted to do any crafting.  But I loooove making things, so I've been trying hard to figure out other ways we can craft together.  I've noticed that while he may not like painting or drawing, he does seem to like using technology.  Light bulb moment!  So instead of usign paint or plaster of paris to make traditional hand print crafts, we used technology!

Simple Heart Decal Wall

Last weekend I kinda went bonkers and made myself a heart accent wall.  

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DIY Toy Launcher!

With the nights still being quite long, we often find ourselves stuck inside twiddling our thumbs... and going kinda bonkers.  :)  So one day we took matters into our own hands, and our family worked together to tinker and turn a long, narrow box into a DIY Toy Launcher!

DIY Cardboard Toy Launcher

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It's really amazing how many moving types of toys you can make from with rubber bands!  The stretchiness of the rubber bands provides ample opportunities for fun STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities and crafts.  (For example, we've made this DIY Rocket Launcher, this DIY Paper Slingshot, and this Cardboard car... that uses potential and kinetic energy to MOVE using rubber bands!)  

The Snowy Day Shadow box

Howdy, friends!  Today the Creative Preschool Collaborators and I are sharing 5 fun Winter-themed preschool activities and crafts!  So be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the post for other great ideas!

The Snowy Day Shadow Box  

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Ezra Jack Keats' book, The Snowy Day, has always been a favorite of mine.   His illustrations are simple, charming, colorful, and graphic.  He really captures the magic of a winter snowfall.  Plus, I love that he supports multiculturalism and made his main character a young black boy.  So when I found out that this week's theme was Winter, I was excited to read this book with Chuck and combine it with a craft.  

18 Transportation Crafts that "Go!"

Do you have a plane, train, helicopter, truck, boat, car, or spaceship loving kid?  While looking through the archives, I realized that we've done quite a few transportation-related crafts here.  18 to be specific!  (Whoa.  Kinda cray-cray and kinda cool...)  So I thought it would be fun to take a walk down memory lane and share this compilation of all 18 crafts that "go" here!

18 Awesome Transportation Related Crafts!

Ok.  I gotta admit something to you.  I was originally going to call this post, "Crafts for Boys" (that's why it's in the permalink) but then totally decided against that name.  Girls can like cars, trains, planes, boats, trucks, and bikes too! Right?  Right.  Ack!  Sometimes it's so easy to fall into gender stereotyping.  (Do you ever feel the same way?)   So anyway, that's why I changed the name to Transportation crafts.

Valentine, you set my heart aflutter

Last week I shared about our new fascination with butterflies.  (You can read about it and see our fluttering butterfly kid craft here.)  My mind was still on butterflies when I came up with this idea for a DIY butterfly notebook.  

You can easily make this butterfly notebook from items lying around your home.  Plus, it would be a nice handmade gift to give someone for Valentine's Day too.  (It even fits into our 10 funny pun-y Valentine's Day craft series!)

Funny Pun-y Valentine's Day Craft 2:  "You set my Heart aflutter" Butterfly Notebooks!

You can see my first funny, pun-y craft here (Craft 1: "You Rock My World" Rocks).

 

Rubber Glove Finger Puppets

Ever find yourself wanting to do a quick craft with the kids that's different, easy to set up, and encourages creativity?

I think about that question all the time when I think up ideas for kids' crafts.  I know that parents and teachers want to keep their kids entertained, but they also want them to use their minds too.   And that's why I love these rubber glove finger puppets.  You just need 3 materials and bam!  Now you have instant mini canvases for creativity and endless opportunities for storytelling and fun.

Rubber Glove Finger Puppets

To make these gloves, check out my tutorial for rubber glove fingers today on MollyMoo!

Happy making friends!

Let's keep in Contact!

Like this idea?  You can always find other fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!  (Or subscribe to my email mailing list by filling out the pink bar at the top of your screen.)

  

Valentine, You ROCK MY WORLD!

Even though our Christmas tree is still up (I know, I know, I haven't the heart to take it down), my mind is currently on Valentine's Day and all the lovely crafts that go along with that.  Last year we made adorable heart shaped glasses and DIY Coffee and Candy Gifts.  This year I'm challenging myself to think of 10 easy funny, pun-y crafts that say Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's my 1st attempt!

Funny Pun-y Valentine's Day 1:  

"Valentine, You Rock My World" Rocks 

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New Year's Party Horn Photo Props!

Oof.  I just realized that I never put up a happy New Year post on the blog!  Thank you, dear reader, for stopping by this year.  I hope you always leave entertained, smiling, and itching to  make something with the kids!

Here's a craft that I made to ring in 2015- Party Horn Photo Props! 

New Year's Party Horn Photo Props

Loud noises?  Funny faces?  These are seriously hilarious and would be super fun to make with the young'uns (and the young at heart!)  

Come on.  Tell me that isn't funny?

You can get the full tutorial on DIY Candy!

Happy making, friends!

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 newsletter in the pink bar at the top of the site. 

Fluttering Butterfly Craft!

Hello friends!  Today I wanted to share this really neat fluttering butterfly craft that I recently did with Chuck.  We cut out, painted, and folded butterflies that flutter when you move them!  (We also made some lovely butterfly notebooks too!)  The whole process entertained Chuck for quite awhile, so I thought other kids might like it too!

                                             Fluttering Butterfly Craft

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I know it's winter, and most people are doing winter crafts with their kids, but honestly, I just haven't had the heart to do so.  Our weather is right now in the 60s which is totally bizarre to me.  I'm used to cold, wet, or snowy winters.... not cool, sunny ones.  It's very weird ... but I'm thankful for the sun and warmth!

This butterfly craft was inspired by our local butterfly grove.  Nearby our home is a plot of land where monarch butterflies migrate to during the winter.   How neat is that?  Last week we hiked up to the butterfly grove and saw thousands of butterflies, clumped together in tree branches.  It was a pretty amazing sight.  (And I WISH I could have taken photos of them, but they were just too high up to get a decent shot.)  One of the other children at the park found a dead butterfly on the ground and showed everyone.  Chuck really wanted to find one of his own, but we never did.  So I came up with this craft so that he could have his very own fluttering butterfly.

Looking for kids' butterfly books?

This would definitely be a great craft to go along with any of these great butterfly books!

• Hungry Catterpillar
• My Oh My- A butterfly
• Butterfly and Moth 
• Gideon's Dream 
• From Caterpillar to Butterfly  

Snake puppets!

Looking for a fun snake craft?   Yup.  Chuck still digs snakes.  Now, we've made our fair share of snake crafts around here...  (Check out our twisty snake sculpture, moveable cardboard snake, and bubble snakes!)  But today I thought I'd just share a really easy snake puppet that I recently made for him!

Snake Puppets! 

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Make a set of Shark Teeth!

Lately Chuck's wanted to make cardboard toys that move and do things!  That's fine with me, because I really enjoyed making moveable snakes, rocket launchers, paper slingshots, and climbing cardboard circus men with him.  Currently he's OBSESSED with sharks.  So I came up with this quick and easy egg carton shark craft.

  Make a set of Sharp Shark* Teeth!

(*or alligator... or crocodile... or dinosaur... etc.. etc..)

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Lego Snowflakes

Do you enjoy cutting snowflakes from paper?  Do you like Lego?   Then I've got a treat for you! Combining both, I recently figured out how to cut out Lego snowflakes!

DIY Lego Snowflakes!

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Hubby and I both grew up loving Lego toys. Chuck loves his cars and train Duplo sets.  And every year I find myself cutting all sorts of paper snowflakes to decorate our windows.  So this year, I was inspired by this neat Batman snowflake design to create two cute and easy-to- cut Lego Snowflakes.  

DIY Star Washer Ornaments

Enjoy making things?  Looking for a fun gift to give a DIY-loving friend?  

How about these Star Washer Ornaments!

These lovely hardware ornaments are super easy to make and will look great on the Christmas tree too!  You can check out my full tutorial on DIY Candy today!

And here are 3 other easy DIY Ornaments!

• Felt and Milk Jug Ornaments
• Hand and Feet Salt Dough Ornaments
• Perler Bead Snowflake Ornaments

Let's keep in Contact!

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

Happy making, friends!

Paper Plate Haircuts (Scissor Practice with Kids!)

Does your child have a fascination with scissors?  If left alone, Chuck would probably take a pair of scissors to everything.   Clothes, hair, yarn, paper, wood.... the Christmas tree.  (I've caught him on multiple occasions trying to cut our table.  Eeek! )

Today I've teamed up with the Creative Preschooler Team to share 5 fun ways to sharpen your preschoolers' scissor skills!  (Hee, hee.  Did you get it? Sharpen?  Wah wah wah.)

Scissor Practice:  Paper Plate Haircuts 

DIY Toy Car Ornaments

We have a TON of toy cars, trains, and trucks over here.  (Chuck's kinda got a thing for transportation toys.)  And lots of them have open windows.  I was staring at them the other day and realized... wouldn't they make fun (and cheap) ornaments?

DIY Car Ornaments

Paper Christmas Trees (template included)

Ok.  I know, I know.  I have a small obsession with mini Christmas trees.  I've made Christmas tree advent calendars, trees from pipe cleaners and cardboard, and mini paint chip Christmas trees.  So today's post probably won't come as a surprise to you.  But I just had to share these trees because they're so cute!  And...there's a twist!

We'll be staying in Cali for Christmas this year, so we won't see our family and friends on the East coast.  I wanted to share some Christmas cheer with them, so I made a bunch of Paper Christmas Tree Packs to go into their Christmas cards!   Each pack contains all the materials needed to make a lovely paper Christmas tree!

Paper Christmas Tree Packs

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Why... hello there!

Hi everyone!  Long time, no post!

In case you were wondering, nope.  I didn't fall off the planet.   We've just been crazy busy.  Our Australian family came to visit for 3 weeks and I was also a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding.  So that means that instead of crafting, I had adventures with our favorite nephew...

Hung out with some really great gals...

 

wore a pretty dress...

and celebrated this gal's wedding.

I hope to be back in the swing of things in the next couple of weeks.  Until then, how are you?  I hope that you are enjoying this holiday season, friends!

Pin the Nose on Rudolph Game

Are you looking for a simple way to entertain the kids during the holidays?  Well, today our Creative preschool group has 5 great Christmas activities to do with the kids!

Recently I shared the story of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with Chuck.  He seemed to like Rudolph a lot, so I whipped up this super easy Pin the Nose on Rudolph game from us to try out.

Let's Pin on Rudolph's Nose!

Free Christmas Coloring Sheets

I've been seeing lots of  beautiful Christmas coloring sheets online lately.  I love doodling and wanted to make one for the blog....but things got pretty busy during the holidays.  (Our Aussie family is visiting us AND I'm making paper Moravian stars for a friend's wedding!)  So I didn't have a chance to doodle some coloring sheets till now.

Free Christmas Coloring Sheets

These 2 coloring sheets contain ornaments (or gift labels)  that the kids can color and then hang onto the tree.  

Perler Bead Garland

The Perler Bead holiday crafting continues!  A couple of days ago I shared how to make these super easy Perler Bead Snowflake ornaments.  Today I'm over at DIYCandy sharing this quirky and unique Perler Bead Holiday Garland!

Perler Bead Holiday Garland

You just need 2 materials:  Perler Beads and Zip ties!

(And if you like the adorable Christmas trees in the photo, you can find the tutorial for mini Christmas trees here.)

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, friends!  We're going black Friday shopping today with family!  Wish us luck!

Let's keep in Contact!

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

Happy making, friends!

DIY Perler Bead Snowflake Ornaments

Every year I try to make a couple new Christmas ornaments for the tree.   So far I've made hand and feet salt dough ornaments and  felt and milk jug ornaments.  This year I used Perler Beads and pipe cleaners to create easy snowflake ornaments!

Perler Bead and Snowflake Ornaments

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These were so incredibly easy to make and the colors make me happy.  Keep reading to see how you can make some of your own!

Angel Craft- Paper Cup Angel Luminaries

Ah, paper cups.  They're such a great crafting material because they're versatile and cheap.  We've used them to make DIY Animal Nose Paper Cups and popsicle stick ice-skating dolls.   Today I'm over at MollyMoo sharing how I turned a couple of plain old clear plastic cups into cozy, glowing  Paper Cup Angel Luminaries!

Wouldn't these be such a magical craft to make with the kids?

Let's keep in Contact!

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

Happy making, friends!

Poppable Wrapping Paper (DIY Gift Wrapping Rockin' Art Mom Style!)

Are you looking for creative ways to wrap your holiday gifts?  Well, today I've joined forces with fellow Rockin' Art Moms to share several imaginative and unique ways to wrap your holiday gifts!  (So be sure to check out all the rockin' holiday ideas below!)

Because we always seem to have an abundance of bubble wrap lying around, I put our excess to good use and made this modern, poppable holiday wrapping paper! 

Popping Holiday Wrapping Paper!

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I'm all about easy holiday crafts- like these paint chip Christmas Trees,  easy DIY Reindeer Headbands, and mini pipe cleaner and cardboard Christmas trees.  Today's wrapping paper idea is  super simple, colorful, and fun!   The recipient of your gift will get a kick out of popping the bubbles!

Candy Mosaic Art with Kids

Do you still have leftover Halloween candy?  Eeek. We do.  This week's Creative Preschooler theme is food!  With Chuck's current aversion to painting, I thought it would be fun to use our excess candy and make art with it!  So we made ourselves some lovely, colorful candy mosaic art!

Make Candy Mosaic Art with Kids!

It's always special to make art with non-traditional materials.  Some of my favorite food-art projects include our colored salt art, tortilla art,  gumdrop flowers, cornstarch sidewalk paint, and homemade watercolor paints!