Recycled Christmas Ornament: Altoid Tin

I was recently given a craft assignment: to make a Christmas ornament using recycled materials. 

Okay, okay. It wasn't MY homework. It was my daughter's first grade homework assignment. Nevertheless, I was excited. After all, it specifically said the project was to be a collaborative effort between the student and his/her family!

Momo and I started brainstorming almost immediately. We searched Pinterest for ideas and pinned like crazy! When we finally narrowed down our choices.....we ended up with a Pinterest fail: 

Trust me. It is NOT supposed to look like that!


More brainstorming. We finally we came up with our own idea of using Altoid tins!

Luckily I have been saving the tins to make more of these:

....but it just hasn't happened yet. Of course being a bit of a craft hoarder I have tons of other supplies, such as bottle caps, fabric, felt, ribbon, etc. After playing around with what we had on hand we finally completed our ornament!

We covered the front of the Altoid tin with red felt and a Christmas bow to make it look like a present:

On the inside of the tin we covered both sides with felt/fabric; glued on some bottle caps; drew a face and buttons on the caps to look like a snowman; attached a gift label to one side and then added a ribbon for hanging!(Note to self: next time put the tag on the front of the tin, so it really looks like a present!) 

Imagine all the possible surprises you can hide in an Altoid tin!

It came out pretty cute and I know Momo is proud of OUR project! :)

If you are looking for more ideas on easy, kid-friendly recycled Christmas ornaments check out my Pinterest Board: "Recycled Christmas Ornaments."

Happy Christmas Crafting! 

Parents' Magazine's DIY Halloween Costume Contest - I Need Your Vote!

After posting pictures of the lovebird costumes I made for Halloween my friend Yong encouraged me to enter Parents' Magazine's "DIY Halloween Costume Photo Contest." At first I was reluctant but then I figured, "why not?" Plus, Yong is the photographer and creative genius behind "True Colors Photography of Las Vegas". Who am I to not take her advice?

To my surprise I received an email today notifying me that my photo is currently in the running to become one of Parent Magazine's weekly Reader's Choice finalists! How cool is that? (Granted, for all I know EVERYONE that entered may be a finalist...but who cares! Ha!) 

With your vote I could win an award certificate, which basically makes me feel better about spending all that time on the costumes. :) 

Grand prize is $250 - but that is in the hands of the editor. 

So if you're feeling generous, go ahead and vote for my costumes and my girls! 

Here's the link:

Parents' Magazine DIY Halloween Costume Photo Contest - Lovebirds

Thanks!

DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint

  

While on vacation we actually managed to do some crafts! My friend, Kim from 4 Crazy Kings mentioned making sidewalk chalk paint and I just so happened to have all the ingredients and supplies needed! Water, cornstarch, food coloring, paint brushes and bowls! The kids painted while on vacation as well as since we've gotten back!

Sidewalk chalk painting - even I got in on the fun!

 

 

 

Painting the steps at home.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the paint dries the colors POP and it really look like chalk! Check out the before and after pictures of Kailani's dragon:

Dragon - wet.

Dragon - dry!

Super easy and super fun! To remove (why would you want to?) just hose it down!

To make the sidewalk chalk paint just mix equal proportions of water and cornstarch then add food coloring. That's it! To make two muffin pans of colors I used two cups of water and two cups of cornstarch plus food coloring. Perfect. We even left the pan outside overnight and painted the next day!