The Crafty Chest

Every now and then, my daughters and I like to do projects and get crafty. I have so many craft supplies randomly throughout my house that I find myself running from one end of the house to another collecting supplies for one project. So I came up with the ides for the Crafty Chest. Kind of like a Treasure Chest, minus the treasure and add some craft supplies. The type of supplies depends on what kind of projects you and your kids like to do, along with the age of your kids. In our Crafty Chest we added: 

• Construction Paper

• Toilet Paper Rolls

• Crayons/Markers

• Glue

• Scissors

• Scrap Fabric

• Googly Eyes

• Pipe Cleaners

• Beads

• Baby Food Jars

• Paint

• Cereal/Cracker boxes

• Foam Shapes

• Stickers

• Buttons

Your chest may look a lot like ours or it can be completely different. It all depends on you and your children. For example- If you have a pre-teen, your chest may include small blocks of scrap wood, nails, a small hammer some paint etc. (Things for a bird-house, maybe)
The chest its self needs to be a decent size box so it can hold all of the supplies. As long as it has a lid, any box will work. We used a large shoe box from my fiance's work shoes, a wooden box would work as-well. You can decorate your Crafty Chest of you would like, we haven't decorated ours yet but I'm sure my girls will get on that task soon.
The Crafty Chest is great for a rainy day or even a Birthday Party activity! Plan a craft for the party, fill the chest with enough supplies for each child to make the project, sit the chest in the middle of a table and let the kids go! Your kids will LOVE collecting stuff to add to their chest. Your kids will may start adding new supplies every day. your trash can won't fill up as quick with all the boxes and bottles that end up in the Crafty Chest. All your normal trash will turn into beautiful art-work right before your eyes.

What kind if supplies are going in your Crafty Chest that are unique to your family?

Have Yourself a Homemade Halloween!

Pumpkins are already starting to pop up in grocery stores and creepy Halloween skulls are right around the corner! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays but having a party for the kids can get so pricy! So this year I have decided to have a Homemade Halloween! It's a somewhat new challenge for me. I normally always make atleast one thing for Halloween but this year I'm planning on making almost EVERYTHING! Food, decorations, Games, etc!

While searching online for DIY Halloween ideas, I found this wonderful blog post called 10 Cheap DIY Halloween Decorating Ideas, it has some really cool ideas from indoor and outdoor Halloween stuff! My favorite idea from that post is the Backyard Grave yard! It's very simple and creepy!! :0)

Just get some big pieces of cardboard (or for a waterproof version you can use scrap wood for instead of Cardboard)

Cut in the shape of tombstones

Paint to look like aged concrete

Place in your yard with pumpkins, skulls, hay and whatever you would like to make your graveyard spooky!

I found 2 different sites with Specimen Jars and they are pretty much the same thing but a tab different. Find small plastic/rubber bugs, rats, doll heads etc. and place in a cleaned mason jar (You can also use old sauce jars or even baby-food jars)

Add water and a few drops of food coloring to make it look like lap specimens.

These little jars just might make it to my party!! Aren't they Spooky Creepy?! My daughters are going to love all this Halloween stuff! Sometimes scary stuff freaks them out because they are still young but I'm thinking that if I let them help me make the scary stuff then they won't be so afraid of it. It will be great family fun time and there is no telling what kind of stuff will pop out of my daughter's mouths while making scary Halloween Party props! (My girls can be really silly sometimes!) 

I also found 2 cute props that are pretty much just for show but I fell inlove! One is a Book Pumpkin! That looks kinda simple and kinda hard...

And some really cool Potion Ingredient Bottles at squidoo! My fiance's mom gave me an old spice rack a few months ago with lots of spice jars in it so this project will be perfect for them!

Now that I found a few decoration ideas, it's off to food prep!

 I'm not really wanting to serve up a full dinner and meal for the party-goers so a few spooky snacks should do the trick. Maybe even a creepy juice!

 While soaring through some blogs I found the perfect blog post that is full of Halloween Style finger-foods and party treats! It even has the sites that the ideas came from!! The blog is called Cute Food For Kids?, the post is named "41 Cutest Halloween Food Ideas". The Spider Lollipop from Party Frosting blog is adorable and would be great for classrooms and I may make a few to pass out to the kiddo's at the party. Just pipe-cleaners, googlie eyes and a Blow Pop!

 I even like the idea of the spider lanterns, also from Party Frosting even though they ain't food :0)

I found some Marshmallow Zombies that are awesome!!! 

How cute and creepy are they?!?! I'm pretty sure that they are just jumbo white marshmallows with the smaller colored marshmallows and use some editable markers to draw the faces! SIMPLE AS PIE! (even though pie is NOT always so simple!) 

I found this next idea on Pintrest (Such a wonderful site!) It's a Creepy Cool floating hand Ice Cube!! Make some Red Kool-Aid or other red punch (red for blood) Turn a rubber glove inside-out (so you don't get the powder from the inside of gloves in your ice cube) Fill up with water and Freeze! Don't put it into your punch until your ready to serve because the fingers will melt faster than the palm due to them being smaller so you will slowly have a fingerless hand floating around in your punch!! :0)

Look how cute!!!!!!

Mummy Juice Boxes from Parents

From the looks of the picture, you can use the Waterproof Adhesive Tape and wrap up the whole juice box. Add the googlie eyes about half way through and over-lap a piece like a mummy :0) I LOVE IT!! (Once I read the directions it says that they used white electrical tape. I like the Adhesive Tape idea better, it's water-proof and will stay on longer.... atleast I think it would, but what would I know? I haven't tried it...yet!)

I think my daughters would enjoy making a Halloween paper Village for a center piece! I can always find scrap paper and small boxes! All I need to buy is paint.

I found this idea at claudinehellmuth.blogspot.com also!

And the Nutter Butter ghost from The Hob- bee Hive are adorable! Just add some iceing and a stick to some Nutter Butter cookies and your good to go!! WOW! All this Halloween searching is making me ober excited! I'll update with all the new things I find and the crazy ideas that fall out of my head!

If you have any ideas on how to make my Homemade Halloween please feel free to let me know in the comments! I'm hopping that this Halloween is the best one yet!

Here are a few of the sites that I found the above ideas at:

www.cutefoodforkids.com

www.claudinehellmuth.blogspot.com

 www.moneycrashers.com

www.diynetwork.com

Written on September 14, 2012 by a crazy stay at home mom of 2 beautiful little girls. With 2 step sons that come over every-now-and-then, and a pretty decent fiance! Very crafty and don't like to leave the house without a camera!

Mini Lightning Bug Jars

Outside Summer Fun

Whats more fun than running around outside on a summer night chasing lightning bugs?? Catching them and putting them in jars for safe keeping! Most of the time you would use one of the gallon mason jars... I have a new idea for you. How about Mini Lightning Bug Jars? Easy to hold in small hands and not likely to be dropped when running thru the yard. These can be made by the child, with your help with the knife, or you can make them for your kids yourself. The choice is yours!!!!!!

All you need is :

• Baby Food Jars
• Knife (Adult help/supervision is needed for putting the holes in the lid with knife.)
• Permanent Markers *I used black and orange for stars and fireflies*(optional)
• Stickers (optional)

Instructions :

Step 1 -->  Make sure the jars are clean and dry.

Step 2 -->  Get an adult to poke holes in the top of the lid so the lightening bugs can breath.

**If you would like then your jar is finished. Or you can go on to Step 3**

Step 3 -->  Write your name on your jar if you would like and decorate with stickers or draw fireflies with black and orange markers.

**Our Finished Lightning Bug Jars!!!!**