Tulip Face Paint!

When I was asked to do a tutorial about Tulip's face paint, I was worried for two reasons-- 1) I can't draw to save my life, and 2) we are definitely Halloween 'cute' and not Halloween 'scary'. No fake blood in my house!

We made a Face Paint Picnic one of our Halloween Countdown activities.  We decided to test a bit on her arm to get started. Tulip is non toxic, and cosmetic grade, but I still wanted to make sure she'd be ok with it, before putting it all over her face.

 I was a little worried that all the stencils would be creepy, but there were so many girly-girly cute designs. I was also suprised by how many stencils came in one package-- you could do an entire girls party with one of these!

 She picked a butterfly and I snipped it out of the adhesive sheet.

 The stencils stick on like a sticker, so they aren't reusable; but you do get an extremely clean image.

 I was so impressed when I pulled of the stencil-- there is no way I could have free handed that on a wiggly 3 year old. You can even see the tiny antennae!

 I added some dots using the back of the brush, and of course, glitter.

 Afterword we were left with this beautiful 'tattoo' that washed off completely at bed time!

Although I hadn't seriously considered face paint before, I think this would be a great activity for any day-- not just Halloween. With the stencils, the paint was so quick and easy to put on, that I won't hesitate to whip it out at our next birthday party or play date.

This post was sponsered by Tulip and Blueprint social. In addition to the paint, Tulip also has other body art products like glitter, hair products, and black light products. You can check out their offerings on their website or connect with them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and the I Love To Create Blog.

Mini Sock Muppets

Muppets! I'm a child of the 80's and grew up watching the Muppets, Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock... etc. That's why I was so excited when Muppets Most Wanted came out! A movie that I can actually enjoy watching with my kids. (When do you ever get to watch Tina Fey with your kids?)

To celebrate, I decided that we should make our own sock puppets-- err I mean sock muppets! These Mini Muppets are adorable, and would make a great project to do with your kids.

To make your own Mini Muppets, grab your scissors, hot glue gun, stuffing, a needle and thread, craft supplies, and some fun ankle socks.  I will admit that bought a brand new high-temp hot glue gun for this project. It worked so much better than my old glue gun.

I will admit that I don't own brightly colored socks like these. I'm a white crew sock girl myself. I bought these new for this project for just a few dollars.

 Snip off the ribbing and heel of the sock. You can make taller or smaller muppets based on how how far up the sock you make this cut.

 Now stuff the sock. I used Puff and Stuff, and I loved how easily the sock filled out with out being clumpy.

Now for the only sewing you'll have to do. Just make a large running stitch around the opening of the sock...

 ... and pull the thread tight to gather.

 For a clean finish, push the ends back into the muppet.

 Knot off your thread (you may have to pull the threads a little tighter after pushing in the excess fabric). You'll have a perfect muppet bottom.

 Once you start-- it's hard to stop! I made all of these in about 15 minutes. With the middle, I didn't cut the sock at all, but instead gathered the top without pushing in the extra fabric. Get creative with it!

 Now for the fun part. Gather all the pom poms, googly eyes and felt that you can find, and use your hot glue gun to decorate each muppet. For a baby safe puppet, use embroidery thread to embroider faces on the muppet.

 When you are done you'll have a pair (or more) of adorable puppets to share with your kiddos.

Here is my tall puppet where I simply gathered the ribbing portion of the sock.

Get inspired! Muppets Most Wanted is available on Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital HD August 12th at Disney.com.  You can keep up with the Muppets Most Wanted on social media:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/muppets
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/MuppetsStudio
• Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/Disney/muppet-mania/

This post was sponsored by Disney and Blueprint Social. 

Simple Projects

Sometimes the simplest projects are the best. Yesterday while my son was at school, my daughter asked me to make an outfit for her ratty, grungy, beat up and very much beloved teddy bear.

A few minutes later we'd picked out some scraps (from last week's perfect pouch) and sewn up a simple drawstring skirt.

The bow is a simple two minute bow. The whole process just took a few minutes, but resulted in so much joy! Sewing has always been 'me' time... but I'm so glad it's becoming 'us' time as well.

Spring...

Sometimes I think spring is the most beautiful season of all. The wonder and beauty of clean, fresh and new life surrounds us all.

 and then sometimes I get brought back to my senses.

This is Amaani after a few hours hard at work on her 'mud farm' yesterday. I hope you all have a wonderful (and messy) weekend!

Learning To Love Pink and a DIY Ballet Skirt

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know that Amaani loves pink. You've also probably figured out that I'm not a big fan. The truth is I'm not remotely interested in anything girly, and I'm honestly surprised to find that my daughter is quite the opposite.

My daughter has been asking to go to ballet class for the last few months, but I've been hesitant. Visions of buns and strict dance teachers and drama and pink frills (literally) danced in my head. As a compromise  I finally decided to put both kids 'creative dance.' We got to our first class a bit early, and a I realized the class before ours was beginning ballet. No less than a dozen tiny toddlers in leotards and frilly skirts walked by us as we waited. Amaani looked at me and asked "Mama, where's my skirt?"

A few hours later I got an inquiry about doing a post for Disney's newest Tinker Bell movie-- The Pirate Fairy-  and one of the themes was "nurturing your children's talents." It made me think... I always thought that my little girl would be nerdy and bookish like me, that we'd spend our time building with legos and perfecting our marble runs. She does all that and more... so shouldn't I embrace her pink? After she went to bed, I got to sewing. And when she woke up the next morning, she had a pink tutu waiting for her.

The skirt is a simple circle skirt made from 4 layers instead of one. The best circle skirt tutorial on the web is this one from Dana of Made, so if you run in to trouble, you can check that one out as well.

I used about 2 yards of tulle, and elastic the size of my daughters waist. I created a pattern using Dana's tutorial above, and cut out 4 "donuts" out of the tulle.

 Then I pin basted the 4 layers together and treated them as one piece of fabric.

Then just slap some elastic around the waist and omit the hem. It was finished in less than an hour.

After I showed it to her we did our hair...

and danced...

 and danced...

and danced!

Sometimes the first step in nurturing your child's talents is fully embracing them for who they are... pink and all.

You can learn more about The Pirate Fairy on the Disney Fairies Facebook Page! You can also own it on Blu-ray and DVD on April 1st (order here). Maybe it will inspire you too :

Key Chain Kids Craft

Last year I wanted my kids to make Christmas gifts for our family and friends. I wanted it to be something that could be made mostly by my kids, and would be at least some what useful and not end up as clutter or tossed in the trash can.

I finally settled on beaded key chains-- they are useful and my kids had a blast making them. They get a little thrill each time they see one of their beloved aunts, uncles, parents or grandparents pick their keys up off the counter. (Admittedly, I do too!)

What do you need? Pipe cleaners, key chain findings, beads, and a little patience.

I had trouble finding pony beads at my local craft store. You can find a big selection of pony beads as well as key rings for cheap on Amazon!

Although older kids could do this whole craft on their own, I prepared the keychains by wrapping the pipe cleaner around the key ring...

 ...and twisting it to secure.

 I used a pair of pliers to mash down the little bit of wire in the pipe cleaner that stuck out. I didn't want any little fingers to get poked!

 Then I hand it over and let the kids string the pony beads onto the key chain. Please be advised that the small beads can be a choking hazard.

 Once they finished with a key chain, They hand it back to me to close off.

 Using the pliers, I just twist the free end of the pipe cleaner around the key chain and tuck it in to the beads.

And that's it! My kids made dozens of these over our 'winter break' to give to friend and family. We had so many that some people even got 2! Do you all have any suggestions for next year?

Starting Seeds in Egg Cartons

Spring as sprung! Well, at least it has in my neck of the woods :). Seed starting is a great way to shake those winter blues and let the sunshine know that you are ready!!! If you've been following along with this blog (and my family blog) for a few years, you'll know that we make a small 'attempt' at gardening each year, mostly unsuccessfully. But with kids and gardening, I believe it's the process that's most important. I always feel like I'm earning a few 'awesome mom points**' each time I see my kids digging in the dirt, and asking questions about life, science, food, sunshine and how it's all connected.

This year, I thought the kids were old enough and had the patience to start some plants from seeds. We used cardboard egg cartons because it was something that the kids see every day, it's cheap, and totally biodegradable. Since you can plant the egg carton, it makes it easier to transplant seedlings without disturbing the roots.

What else do you need? We also went to our nursery and picked out a few seed packets and grabbed a small bag of sterile seed starting soil.

To get started, I cut apart the egg carton bottom and top. We'll be planting in the bottom, and the top will make a good tray for catching drips and spills from watering.

Using a knife, I punched small holes in each well from the bottom.

Now it's time to put away the sharp tools, and let the kids have fun! Fill each well with the seed starting mix. (Yes, it will make a mess!)

And then put a few seeds in each well. I wish I had saved half the seeds from each packet because we planted waaay to many. It was hard to stop the kids once they got started!

And more mess :) . Cover the seeds with a light dusting of dirt, and water well.

We had good luck with putting the seeds on top of the fridge until they germinated. (Seed starting pro's use a heating mat to increase the soil temp for germination). Once they germinated, we put them in the sunniest window in our house.

Look at all those hopeful sprouts! In case you are comparing, these are tomato seedlings, and the seeds show above are squash seeds.

These pictures were taken a few weeks ago-- I'm happy to say that the squash has already started showing 'true leaves', and have been potted up. The tomatoes still look a lot like the photo above, but I have my fingers crossed! I'll keep ya'll updated!

*On 'awesome mom' points. I don't want anyone to think you have to do silly crafts with cardboard egg cartons or toilet paper rolls with your kids to earn awesome mom points. You should give yourself points each time you spend time with them, care for them, listen to them, and love them. See, you already have a perfect score :)