Space Week Part 3: Aliens

I'm not sure what the fascination is with aliens but they can be fun to imagine! I love the green aliens from Toy Story ;)

I LOVE this Alien and spaceship craft from ikat bag. Especially because you can play with it afterwards!

This little guy is super cute too and may be easier for younger ones from A Little Delightful

If it's just the aliens you're after you can craft some up with pipe cleaners just like Craft Jr.

May the Fourth Be With You!

Happy Star Wars Day! Are you planning any fun activities to celebrate? Barnes and Noble and Toys R Us both have activities going on and your local libraries may as well!

StarWars.com has some crafts and printables like this Admiral Sackbar puppet

How about some new tees? at iLoveToCreate

How about some glowing balloon lightsabers from Filth Wizardry

Love these Tie Fighters out of cardboard and egg carton from Glory Laine

You can always make our Star Wars pillowcases (or tshirts or onesies)

Here is a post with some of our favorite Star Wars crafts

Star Wars costume (that's easy to put together) from Dana at MADE

And I still love the downloadable PDF Star Wars activity set from Star Wars Reads

If you're looking for a snack there are lots of Star Wars food ideas at Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons

Link up in the comments if you have other ideas! Happy Star Wars Day!

St Patrick's Day Inspiration

St Patrick's Day is on Sunday and whether you do anything special or not - here are some fun ideas to add to your "I'm bored bank".

Fiskars made up some props for a St Patrick's themed photo booths. My boys love set up photos

Sassy girls shares how to make ShamROCK glowing glitter jars

Love this green pepper shamrock stamp from Family Fresh Meals

A Mickey themed St Patrick's day printable from Spoonful

A rainbow rice treasure box at Modern Parents Messy Kids

And I love seeing all the fun leprechaun traps!

from How Does She

from Tips N Tidbits

from Lovely Lovely Things

Do you do anything special for St. Patrick's Day?

See last year's inspiration HERE

Celebrate Spring with Crayola - Giveaway

Crayola is probably one of the first brands I ever loved. I STILL love the smell and usually have my own fresh box for coloring (don't tell the boys). They wanted to celebrate spring with you and get some Easter basket ideas from Crayola lovers.

They sent us some fun Crayola products and asked us to make up a fun Easter basket with them. Here's what we came up with

--------------> CLICK HERE TO READ MORE and enter to win your own Crayola goodies

Recently Pinned

I pinned a few thing recently that I wanted to share here!

This oragami heart page holder might be fun to make for the class or teachers! from How About Orange

And these printable Valentine Tic Tac Toe would be fun for class Valentines but also for printing out and keeping in the car for longer than usual car rides! from Sally J Shim

And these Lil Love Monsters from eighteen25 are too cute not to share! Maybe to go with your Love Bug?

and I love these shoe boxes houses for cute storage and/or play from The Gold Jellybean

Climbing Love Bug

The one thing I look for in a craft with my boys is interaction. If the craft is fairly mellow to put together (usually means no mess or loud noises) and just hangs on the wall they probably aren't too interested. However if they can play with it afterwards that increases the interest a bit. Today we're sharing a Climbing Love Bug - (a spider in this case) that can climb up it's string. Note: I am using the word "bug" here loosely I realize that spiders are arachnids not insects which most people refer to as bugs. Just wanted to get that out of the way. ;)

You'll need construction paper, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, a straw, string, scissors, and tape.

Our friends at CraftProjectIdeas were so awesome to send us some craft supplies in case we wanted to use them on a project in the future so we had the pipe cleaners and googly eye on hand from them but you can find the same ones at Walmart (they have a huge selection)

Cut out two circles for the body (or one or 5 - the fun part is making this your own)

Tape or glue the pieces together. I'm using washi tape so that you can see how we put it together but scotch tape will hold better for you.

Next you'll form some legs from the pipe cleaners

Turn him over and admire your work

Give him some eyes - I tried to give him more but my boy was having none of that.

Next we gave our spider a heart

You could add some antenna or decorate him/her however you like but at this point your bug is finished - now to make him mobile.

Cut 2 - 1" pieces of straw and place them about 1" apart on the back of your bug. If you have younger ones playing with this you may want to make sure these are on well so you don't have to keep fixing them while they are playing - a couple extra pieces of tape or hot glue maybe?

String a piece of string through the top of each straw so there is a loop at the top of your spider.

Tie off your string or add a button, paperclip etc to the bottom so they don't pull through the straw. I happened to have some wood veneer hearts on hand to use.

Hang the top of the string on a doornob or other secure spot

Have your child gently pull the strings apart and watch your bug/spider climb up the string!

Have fun!

Thanks to CraftProjectIdeas for sending us some supplies! We were not required to use them for anything in particular but we very much appreciate them for inspiring us to create!

Airplanes from Leftovers

Piikea street make airplanes from Take-out containers. You know those styrofoam ones?

It's pretty easy and can be made in many different shapes!

Go visit Piikea Street for the complete instructions. Have fun flying!

New Year's Eve!

Instead of a "best of" post I thought a few New Year's Eve ideas for kids would be fun. We've always spend New Year's with our kids and I love some of these ideas I've seen.

I love the idea of countdown bags. First seen on Hoosier Handmade - Organize and Decorate Everything shared some of the things she put in her bags!

Tatertos and Jello has some fun game night ideas!

If you haven't already started might be hard to make this big of a spread but I love the inspiration from this party at Tabletops for Tots

I think I'll surprise my Disney fans with this quick and easy Mickey New Year's ball from Spoonful

Actually Spoonful has TONS of New Year's inspiration I love the idea of a wish jar for kids. No more puppies in this house though! lol!

A fun balloon pop every hour from Real Life, Real Estate, Real Dana

 I REALLY love these New Years Resolutions kit just available from Run Lucas Run

Visit Run Lucas Run to download your own!

How will you ring in the new year?!