Disclosure: This is an unsponsored post.  All opinions expressed are my own. 

Surprise! I love salt dough (chuckle).  It’s true, I have used it a million times, and it’s a great cheap medium for preserving those little miracles.  Why else?  When little (E) puts it in her mouth (and of course she did) I don’t have to freak out because of something being in it.  It’s just flour, salt and water…

 Last year I made Valentines out of their feet in the shape of a heart.  Then for St. Pats I made Clovers out of their hands.  This year I made Hand Print Mittens, and now this!

Let’s review how I do it.

• 1 cup of fine grain salt
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of lukewarm water
• Cookie Sheets
• Stepping stone imprint letters, numbers and shapes
• Oven at 250 for about 4 hours.

Our new first step is to brainstorm together the shapes that we could make.  We needed something Easter Themed so we had an issue.  I had one idea and he had another… so we did both!  (A) wanted to make eggs and I wanted to make Bunnies…. Here is how it went.

As always, they mixed the beginning and I finished it up.  Once mixed each kiddo was given some to play with, some stamps, and a tool to use.

During their play time I make the shapes.

Then we add foot and/or handprints.  For the Bunny we also used the kiddos fingers for the eyes and nose.

Bake in the oven as always 250 for about 4 hours, and prepare for paint.

We painted both shapes white as a base.

The kids got to pick the colors to paint on top and we were off to the races!  Here are our finished products!!

Thanks for reading!!!  Love it? Pin it!!!

Disclosure:  This is an unsponsored post, just a fun, inexpensive craft that also makes a fantastic decoration around the house. 

I love using old ideas.  One idea that I love and actually seems to be making a resurgence on the decorating circuit are silhouettes.   I have recently seen them pop up everywhere.  You can order laser cut ones made from wood and painted (beautiful but super costly), you can send an email with a photo to a professional.  If you are great with Photoshop you can create one there. 

I use an old school method, I have been super happy with so I thought I would share.  I have another project coming up that I plan to make for my mother for Mother’s Day that I will share as it gets closer.

I start by attempting to take a profile picture of the kiddos.  (A)’s has been up for years since I did it when he was super young.  I had made one for (E) too but didn’t like it so I decided to redo it this week.

Once I have it (and it doesn’t have to be good quality a quick cell phone pic will do the trick).  I print it out in the size I desire (both of mine are 8×10).  I trace the outline of the object I am making a silhouette of with either a marker or in this case I used a red pen.

The picture I am using.

All Traced to cut out. 

I then tape the photo to a piece of cardstock in the color I want to use.  This paper is available at ANY craft store, I have packages that I keep on hand that have pretty much every color.  I use special paper crafting scissors that are small, have a nice pointy top and are super sharp (Amazon affiliate link here).

Here I am attaching the photo to the cardstock I am using.

Here is the profile half done, and the scissors I use for paper crafting. 

Once its cut out I use a standard glue stick to adhere the silhouette to a piece of scrapbook paper that I have chosen (12×12 in this case).

All Cut out and ready to attach.

Attached to my chosen background.

I put it in the frame and hang.

Here are the silhouettes of my kiddies hanging in the dining room at home.

Here are the silhouettes I made for the kids room.  They share so I have both themes at play (flowers that we grow in our gardens and our chocolate lab).

Disclosure:  This is an unsponsored post.  All opinions expressed are my own.

I am not going to lie, I was caught off guard by our snow day.  I always have a craft or something prepared.  This time I was convinced that we were going to have a delay.  My guys are still a little young to be outside all day, especially since today wasn’t nice fluffy snow.  So I had to rummage to find something to make with the kiddos.  I am actually super pleased and we can check one more item off of our never ending “to do” list.  

I prefer to make our Valentines for family than to purchase gifts.  Last year everyone got a Valentine’s Day Salt Dough project.  This year would have to be a little different.  I rummaged around and love what I came up with.  Love that I was able to incorporate a few super important teaching areas as well (the teacher in me never sleeps either).  Here we go.

We started by brainstorming a word associated with Valentine’s Day.  (A) came up with the word “LOVE”.  We sounded it out (Mr. Ric would be so proud of us) and then we spoke about how to write the letters.  He then wrote it at the top of each paper. Since (A) doesn’t love practicing his writing this is a great way for me to get him to do it.

We of course used a hand print.  Which was great because (A) and (E) both pretty much know the deal and how to do this by now.  (A) used red and then we used red and white to make pink, I was out so we had to figure it out.  (A) knew how to do it so it was all his idea ;o).

I had a bucket of buttons in the office (what? doesn’t everybody?).  I pulled them out and some containers as well.  (A) brainstormed the favorite color of each of their “Valentine’s”.  He then sorted the buttons into the containers.  (E) was in on the action too.

Once the prints were dry we drew a heart and glued buttons in the shape.

As they dried we added the year and then put them into 5×7 frames I purchased at a craft store (with a 50% coupon of course).

Yeah those are our creative snacks too, brain food!!

As I thought about it I was impressed at how many teaching points we were able to hit in this small and fun project.  We did colors (and mixing), fine motor writing, crafts of course, sorting, pincer grasp, sizes (of buttons), and literacy.  Super proud of my kiddies, and of their home made Valentines!