Life Love and Allergies: 2012

7/11/12

T-shirt Bracelet

I love when the kids can make things with their hands and when they figure out how to do something, it won't be long until there are 25 of them in my house. After I showed them how to make this jersey knit bracelet for a friend's birthday, they continued to make them for the next 2 days, until I had seen more bracelets then I cared to see.

We used a set of jersey knit sheets and cut them in strips as instructed, but they were a bit too long for the kids and we only needed 2 strips instead of 3. The first one was a bit tricky to get the hang of, but once you get the general idea of the loops, you can fly through the bracelets like no body's business. The kids made bracelets, and necklaces and had a blast doing it.

Melted Crayon Project

This was so fun! We have seen it circling around the net a few times and just knew we had to do it this summer.

MATERIALS USED:

CANVAS - Any size will do, we used a 16X20.

CRAYONS - Will depend on size of canvas, we used a 64 box and a 24 box.

HEAT GUN - I have seen some use a hair dryer, but it is a bit harder to melt the crayons.

HOT GLUE GUN - and some glue sticks, we went through about 4 sticks.

First I had B separate the crayons from the boxes and put them into color piles.

Then we put the crayons in order of the rainbow (ROYGBIV), and took a before pic.

There were a few extras that were removed as we went along.

Then we hot glued the crayons to the canvas board.

Then we were ready to "heat it up!"

So we set it up outside and got the "heat on"...

The crayons started melting INSTANTLY.

Then you just run the heat gun back and forth on the canvas as they melt. The longer you hold it in one spot, the quicker it will run down the canvas.

Then when you have melted as much as you like, your done!

That's all there is to it!

6/28/12

Big Prints for Cheap

This week we finished these awesome prints and wanted to share them with you. I keep seeing tutorials for them all over the web and could not wait to try it myself.

They are giant size prints (2x3) that cost me about $25 total for both of them.

First I went to OfficeMax.com and ordered the ENGINEER PRINT from their online printing services tab. It is only available in black and white - but it still looks awesome! I am sure that you could get these from other offices places or local copy places as well, but Office Max was super easy and convenient for me. It was available the next day for pickup at my local store and it cost me $4.25 for each print.

Then I went to Home Depot and bought a Foam Insulation sheet. I believe it was about 4X8, and I had to have them cut it in half to fit in my car, which they were happy to oblige. It cost me $19.00.

I also used Spray Adhesive, which I already had on hand, but I believe it is costs about $4.00 for a can of it.

And lastly you will need some black acryllic/craft paint for the sides of the foam. A bottle of it cost me $1.00

First, I cut the foam to fit the photo.

On my daughter's photo I sprayed the adhesive on the photo first, attached it to the foam and then cut around the foam.

It doesn't matter, which ever way you prefer to do it.

Then I used a rolling pin to smooth it out.

Then I painted the edges with the craft paint.

And that's it! Easy peasy!! The kids love them and I will definitely be making more!

OfficeMax

6/27/12

Summer Bingo - Beat the Boredom Blues!

I don't like my kiddos to stare at a screen all day or any day for that matter, so this year we decided to make a poster of some fun activities they could look forward to this summer. They can do most of these without parent intervention, and since they helped create it, they were more than excited to begin checking off the list of things to do instead of relying on electronics to amuse themselves.
-----------------------------------------------
First they prepared their poster, this was a 2 day project in itself.