Dollar Store Picture Collage

I bought these at the Dollar Tree for an activity I did with the 8-11 year old girls at church. I had a bunch left over and I kept meaning to take them back, but just never could find the time. So, I started thinking about what I could do with them.
This is what I came up with.
It's soooo easy and I love how it turned out!

This is what it originally looked like. Actually not that bad, but I have grander ideas.

All you do is find some pictures that will fit and cut them to size. You can arrange them horizontally or vertically but be aware that the hanger only works if you do it vertically. You could try to move the hanger, but since I didn't try, I can't promise it will work well. I'm planning to buy one of those thingys you use for displaying plates for my horizontal collage.
Once you cut the pictures to size, all you do is modge podge them in place. I did one layer of Modge Podge horizontally over the pictures and then another vertically. It created a canvas like look that I really liked. Also, I accidentally cut the pictures a bit shorter than I'd meant to, but I liked the way it ended up looking kind of like tile! Serendipity happens too rarely for me!

And since I had so many of these left over I was able to make some for all the grandmas. And for just a buck and some change! Can't beat that!

Valentine Advent Calendar

I was inspired by this idea.

Her's was a Christmas advent calendar.

I waited and waited for the paper mache boxes to go on sale at Hobby Lobby.

Didn't happen before Christmas. They finally went on sale last week - the end of January. (Naturally!) I snatched up enough to do a Christmas Advent and couldn't resist doing a Valentine's Day one as well. They were half price, after all!

Each box is filled with Valentine's Day activities.

(see list below)
Here's what you'll need

Paper mache boxes

frame (make sure it's big enough to fit all the boxes)

MDF board (more on this in a minute)

scrapbook paper

acrylic paints

Modge Podge and foam brush

Number and Letter Rub-onsI painted the (12x12) frame. Then I painted the parts of the boxes that would be visible. It was an exercise in patience as it took about 3 coats. You don't necessarily have to paint it. In fact, I didn't paint my Christmas version. It just depends on the look you're going for.

Then you cut your paper to fit the lids. I simply traced the lids of the boxes, cut them out and modge podged them to the lids.

Once they were dry I rubbed the numbers on the lids as well as 'love' words around the frame.

My base is MDF board. The inspiration piece used sheet metal. When I went to get it at Home Depot I discovered it was kind of expensive and I had no idea how to cut it. So I went over to lumber section. The friendly guy there showed me where the MDF board was. It is sold in giant pieces - much bigger than I needed. So the guy helping me out offered me a scrap piece (I told you he was friendly! :) for free!

Again with the Modge Podge, I adhered the scrapbook paper to the MDF board.

Then, after arranging the boxes to my liking I used E 6000 to glue the boxes to the board.

Finally, I filled each box with some Valentine's activities.

*tell someone you love them

*make a Valentine train out of candy

*have heart shaped pancakes with strawberry syrup for breakfast

*make a list of things you love about someone

*play Valentine's tic-tac-toe (coming soon) with someone you love

*start puppy love (I altered the original idea from a pillow to a stuffed puppy)

*look for love notes in your love letters pillow

*make Valentines

*make and decorate sugar cookies

*give someone a 'heart attack'

*make crayon hearts

*have a Valentines day party

*make heart shaped marshmallows

*Valentines Day treasure hunt

Lift the Flap Family Scrapbook

This is so easy and my kids LOVE it!!!

Go buy a lift the flap book.

(As a side note - lift the flap books can be hard to find. There's no 'lift the flap' book section at the book store. )

I prefer one with lots of flaps (see below) so you have space to add more pictures as your family grows.

Miss M. loves, loves, LOVES this book. She looks at it several times a day. This is saying a LOT because this little girl never sits still.

Anyway, all you do is cut random family pictures to fit under the flaps. Then just adhere them under the various flaps. I like to do all our extended family as opposed to just the immediate family. Though it might be fun to do one of just the immediate family and have them making different faces (happy, sad, etc.)

The awesome benefit of this (besides the fact that it keeps my little live wire still for a few minutes! :) is that even though we live far away from most of our family, my 2 and 4 year old both know all their family members.