What the heck is whoopdwhoop?!

You all know I love to create things.

Well, whoopdwhoop has fed that need.

I've teamed up with my new friend Emilee and a few other ladies to host a give away to try and get the word out to more people about this site.

Emilee tells you everything you need to know on her post, so I won't reinvent the wheel, but the gist of whoopdwhoop is you make whatever your heart desires and trade it with someone and then you, in turn, get to choose from everyone else's creations.  

I've received so many great things.  

Here are just a few -

Cute finger puppets from the aforementioned new friend, Emilee.

(Another benefit of doing this is that I've made a new friend!)

I liked these so much I ordered 2 more for  nieces and nephews!

 

This cute little hat went to my newest nephew. 

My computer 'geek' brother LOVED this keychain I gave him for his birthday. 

Bows are expensive!  No need to buy them now!  Just swap for them! 

I got this vintage pearl necklace for my mom's birthday.  She said she wears it several times a week.  Sounds like a winner! 

Finally got something for me! 

This ADORABLE hat for Malia 

   

And here are a few of the things I swap.

Embroidered stick family's 

Aprons for kids 

 

CTR towels (for when you're favorite kid(s) get baptized.)

This is the apron I plan to give away - in kid or adult size.

So, FINALLY, here's the link.

Check it out to see how you can enter for one of my aprons as well as some other great stuff including a fabulous bag (that I wish I could win!), a crocheted head band and some vinyl chalk board goodies.

emileeschristmasjoy.blogspot.com/2012/02/whoopdwhoop-challenge-giveaway.html

Stick Families (or what I do with the spare time I don't really have)

 It always amazes me how cute these turn out. 

 They're crazy time consuming though!

 I've decided that from now on I'm only going to do them as gifts for family members.

And because I'm really crazy, I'm working on one for my mother in law.  It only has 21 people!  I may finish it in time for Christmas!

And once I finish that one, maybe I should do one for my own family!  You think?!

Name shirt for my little girl

 Malia has long ago outgrown her hand painted name onesie!  It was high time I made her a shirt.
(See side bar for pricing.)

'Friends Forever' Shirt for Japan

 I wanted to do something for the people in Japan and I came across this idea.
(I followed this tutorial at Living with Punks.)

I really wanted the kids to help too.  (Okay, so I did 99.9% of it, and that's if you count that the kids had to go shopping with me to buy supplies!)  This was the perfect solution.  It was something they could do for another child.  Unlike just giving money, this was something they could feel connected to. They were excited to see which kid represented them and which one represented a child from Japan.

I've finished the ones for the children in Japan (one from each kid).

I have 3 more in the works.  One for each of them so they can remember.

Honestly, these were more time consuming than I expected (mostly because I had to keep changing the thread to match!), but they're so cute and I'm glad to be able to help.

Mommy School

 

I have been doing Mommy and 'E' school for a while now. My 4 year old loves it! Now that my daughter is 2, she's been joining us, too. Since I'm an organizational freak, I plan out my curriculum for months in advance. I usually have a theme for each month. We recently did a section on recycling. We made our own paper and even included seeds in the paper. We plan to 'plant' the paper and hope to see some flowers grow!

We also did these little dump trucks. I was surprised at how much the kids loved it! This one is my daughters and was made from a half and half container. We made one for my son using a milk carton. I found the idea at here.

Recently we traced each kids body and then I let them go to town coloring them.  We call them 'flat E' and 'flat M'.  (E and M are their first initials, we actually call them 'flat {insert kids name}).  I got the paper from the Dollar Tree.  It's just the back side of some brown wrapping paper.

Then we talked about dressing themselves.  Both my kids are great at dressing themselves (though I will admit it't not at all uncommon for one of them, especially the 2 year old, to have something on backwards!), but we made if fun by letting them place their clothes on their 'flat' people.  My 4 year old totally got it and did great.  I think my 2 y.o. was a bit confused.  She started trying to put the clothes on herself even though she was already dressed!

I got this idea from a book called 'Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready' by June Oberlander

This is a neat book that has simple ideas for learning activities for kids.  It has one activity for each week from birth until age 5.  They're all easy activities that can generally be done with things from around the house.

I love doing school with my kids!  It provides us with some fun activities together and I love taking an active role in their education.

So, to you other mommy's, what kind of things do you do with your kids to teach them?

Valentine's Tic Tac Toe Board

 

We have a happy camper over this craft.

I was standing in Hobby Lobby the other day trying to think of an idea for a Valentine's craft to do with the kids when it occurred to me:  I already have everything I need to make a tic tac toe board!  Well, I did have to buy one piece of scrapbook paper, but that's it!

What you'll need:

MDF board (left over from this project)

decorative glass marlbles

scrapbook paper- a few pieces of patterned and one piece of black

Modge Podge 

(I really don't use it all that often, but I've used it for nearly every craft I've posted here -weird!)

scissors

 

 Cut patterned paper to fit on the marbles.  I had 12 total with 2 different patterns.  Decopage paper to marbles.

  

Then decopage scrapbook paper to the MDF board.  Mine was 12x12, but we're planning to do smaller for an upcoming Valentine's party we're hosting.  Then cut your 'lines' from the black paper and decopage them on as well.  

And that's it!  Too easy!

  

My 2 year old has no clue what she's doing and my 4 year old just barely gets it, but it's still fun!

  

Can you tell?

 

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!