Crayon Heart "Muffins" for Valentine's Day

My girls and I found an activity that we love to do on a yearly basis, and because you bake them, my youngest has named them "crayon muffins."  They're so easy!  Here's how we make them.

Using separate silicone molds work better than a single muffin mold.  These are from Wilton.  Some folks like mixing up the crayon colors, but I prefer a more monotone approach.  I also think Crayola crayons work best.  I didn't realize how picky I've become!  To recap:

• Single silicone muffin cups are easiest to work with
• Monotone colors look prettier
• Crayola works best

Directions
Soak all of your crayons in water for a couple of hours, until the paper starts to peel easily from them.  You will have a few that won't budge, just toss those.

1. Allow them to dry thoroughly.
2. Sort crayons into groups of four--I like monotone & complementary colors but do what you like.
3. Preheat the oven to 250.
4. Break the crayons into your muffin cups, like below.
5. Bake them for 12-15 minutes, until nice and melted.  Carefully remove them from the oven.
6. Allow to dry for a couple of hours, and they will pop out easily.  Adorable, and SO fun!

 



Ready to be packaged to give to friends!  These can be made year-round, for all occasions. 


 

A Sweet and Fun Spin on Halloween

We're not into terrifying children on Halloween, so for the Halloween party, I decided to keep it sweet, simple, and fun.   If you saw my previous post, you already have the tools you need to throw a fun get-together on a budget, and now it's time to party!

I asked the kids to come in their favorite costumes or seasonal clothing and had some very easy activities planned.  First, they made their own Creepy Mini Pizzas and each one was customized!  I made the crusts in advance, and set up a pizza station so each child could decorate his or her pizza to look as creepy or funny as they wanted.  Notice the caramel corn treat bag goodies in the back--they ended up being super-creative and used some of those ingredients also.

After baking the pizzas, here's how they looked--didn't they do a fa-BOO-lous job?  I'm the queen of bad puns......

Since I also served Mini Crescent Mummy Dogs , I kept the pizza toppings meat-free to try and get some veggies in the kids.  They chose from sliced tomatoes, multicolored sweet pepper strips, black olives, and parsley.  Of course, some opted to use pretzels and peanuts, but how cute are they?  The best thing about these is that they ate every last bite.

They also got to create their own take home treat boxes using with the Caramel Corn I made for the party.  They added pretzels, salted peanuts, dried cranberries, and a little candy.  This stuff is so good, and I was glad they were helping it to leave the house or else I would've eaten my weight in it!

After, we decorated mini pumpkins with Sharpies.  I know what you're thinking, but they turned out better than paint.  Even my 3 year old was able to decorate hers and there were no stained hands or clothing.

 

Their finished products.  The kids ranged in age from 3 to 12, and you can guess which jack-o-lantern belongs to which age.  I love kids' art!

Next, this is the one thing that grossed them out a bit.  You've probably heard about Halloween pranks involving peeled grape eyeballs, fake blood, and frozen hands in the punch, but I stumbled upon some squid ink fettucini and knew it would be perfect for.............the BRAIN!

Cook the pasta as you normally would, toss in a small drizzle of olive oil to give it a brainy sheen, refrigerate it in a small bowl for a few hours to help it hold its shape.  If you've ever had leftover spaghetti, you know what happens to it in the fridge.  Perfect brain consistency!
I hope I haven't turned you off of your leftover spaghetti.

Without telling them what it was, we took the kids one by one into the hall and had them close their eyes to touch the "brain."  A friend of mine posted an article on Halloween tricks involving food items and this next trick caught my attention.  Take a sliced pickle, and rub it on the kids' arm while blindfolded or their eyes are closed and tell them they are being licked by a werewolf.  This caused the most squealing and they all wanted to know what it was that licked them.  Then they complained about smelling like pickle juice--silly kids!

I think they're ready to trick-or-treat!  If they show up at your house, don't lick them with a pickle ; )

The Big Box Theory

Harper's empty box (I think Daddy dressed her that day)

If you have ever given a kid a box, you've probably been amazed at how long they will play with it.  It doesn't matter what was IN the box, they seem to prefer it to the actual toy.  Boxes can become many things when a child uses his or her imagination--cars, boats, shoes, tiny dioramas, doll beds, the list goes on.  With a little creativity and things you have around the house, they can also become your child's playhouse. 
You can go to any grocery or home store and ask for a box, and as long as they haven't already thrown them away, most will give you one big enough for this project.  Harper happens to love puppies, so her playhouse reflects that.
From top to bottom, you'll see paw wrapping paper (the roof & ceiling pattern), dog cards for artwork, and garden scenery clipped from magazines.  The "windows" are made of black duct tape, and the curtains are leftover fabric--hot glued over the windows.  Her dog friends were clipped from magazines.  The drawing on the side wall is Harper's portrait drawn by her big sister and the flag bunting was made from scrapbook paper and simply sewn together.

The finished product

Most of the decorations are glued or hot-glued on, so it really is easy.  I found that you can be as elaborate or as simple as you'd like.  Harper was thrilled to have a big box, as you can see in the first photo, and I think she would have been just as happy to have the features drawn on.
I know we won't keep it forever, but for now we jokingly refer to the playhouse as "Harper's apartment" since she likes to go there to read, play with her stuffed animals, and she even rearranges furniture in it (which consists of dragging her Dora chair in and out along with the rug).  This project would be so much fun on a rainy day, and if the kids are old enough to be involved, this will give them something to remember.  Best of all--it costs next to nothing!

Harper in her "apartment"

Baby Dress Pillow

When you have daughters, you have a lot of clothes.  I plan on saving a few items for my girls as keepsakes, but I can't save all of their baby clothes due to space and hoarding just doesn't appeal to me.  I did want to create something to remember just how small my toddler used to be for her "big girl" bedroom.  I thought for a few minutes, then wondered if I could turn it into a throw pillow for her bed.  We just moved her from her crib, I'll post about that at a later time.
I sorted through her old dresses, got teary-eyed because of how quickly the time has passed, and managed to choose a sweet ribbon dress in a size 6-12 months to start this project.  It was Harper's first little Easter dress (sniff, sniff!). 

Harper's first Easter

The best thing about this dress is that it zipped up the back, which meant less sewing for me.
I won't pretend to be an expert seamstress, but I do know my way around a machine, thanks to books and a lot of practice. This is a good introductory project if you aren't confident about sewing.

Instructions:

First, turn the dress inside out.  You will then pin the neckline and armhole (is that a technical term?) fabric together, making sure it lines up cleanly like in the photo.  If your dress has a zipper, do not pin the top of the zipper closed, as pictured.  It helps to have the zipper unzipped, which I learned the hard way AFTER sewing my dress together the first time.  You just can't unzip a closed zipper from the wrong side--trust me--you don't want to do that to yourself.  Thank goodness for seam rippers!

Pin on both sides of the (unzipped) zipper

Close to the edge

Next, sew it together, making your seam close to the edge. This will help the dress hold its shape when it becomes a pillow. Be sure to sew on either side of the zipper, not through it so it still functions.

This is how you want your outer seam to look

Now it's time to work on the hemline. The dress I used was lined, which meant the hem was longer than the lining when it was turned inside out.  To avoid the lining bunching inside of the pillow, it would have to be sewn around the lining, and not at the bottom of the hemline.  When you pin it together, concentrate on where the bottom of the lining is because this is where you will sew your outer seam.

Pin together, concentrating on where the lining ends.

After you have successfully sewn the dress together, turn it out through the zipper opening.  Manipulate the fabric until the dress shape is where you want it to be, especially around the edges.  Now it's time to stuff your pillow.  I like Cluster Stuff because it creates a very soft and squishy pillow.  Another plus is that it's washable, which is perfect for this project because the dress is too.  If your little one has a tendency to touch everything with sticky hands, it's okay this time because you'll be able to toss this pillow into the washing machine.

Place as much fiberfill as you'd like into your new pillow form until it feels good and you like the way it looks.  Zip it up the back, and voila!  You have a precious reminder from your daughter's baby days.  Just try not to hug it and cry when you see it in her room (I KNOW I'm not the only one who would do something like that!).

Zip the back

Your daughter now has a keepsake pillow, and you have a sweet reminder of how tiny your girl once was. 

*If you have sons, you could do this with outgrown short-sleeved shirts--how cute would several plaid button up throw pillows be?