Halloween Finger Puppet Ghosts

Hellooooooo September!

I truly thought that with BOTH kids being in school it would free up a lot of my time, but not quite. I volunteered to be "room mom" for my daughter's kindergarten class only to be promoted to grade level mom. They have been keeping me busy!

As the grade level mom one of my responsibilities is to come up with crafts to do for the big "celebrations" throughout the year. This includes all three kindergarten classes, so approximately 65 or so kids. While our first celebration isn't until the end of October I thought I would get a head start and start brainstorming some ideas (thank goodness for Pinterest!) 

Besides being fun there are some things that I have to consider when planning an activity. The craft must: 

1) be age-appropriate and doable by kindergarteners; 

2) be completed in an allotted amount of time (in this case, one hour); 

3)be budget-friendly (doing the crafts via donations by the parents...either asking for supplies or cash) and;

5) meet the core standards for the kindergarten grade level. (The core standard for this particular art project is to create a 3-dimensional object.)

At the suggestion of a girlfriend (Thanks, Betsy!) my girls and I tried making some finger puppet ghosts. The end product turned out adorable! We showed our samples to Momo's teacher and she loved them as well! So I guess you can say this craft is mommy, teacher, and kid-approved! I am looking forward to sharing this with the rest of the kindergarteners in October!  

Here are our little ghosts:

The total time to make the ghosts? Less than 30 minutes! (Allow for more time if working with more kids.) Here are some more pics of the process:

Important note! While the supply list shows "Plaster of Paris" you need to have plaster STRIPS/cloths/bandages.  The packaging I bought looks like this:

There were other brands/sizes to choose from (please note, these are Hawaii prices - hopefully you can find the plaster cloths cheaper where you live!):

Hope this helps! Now go and make some little ghosts! :)

Linked up with:

Happy Peepster!

Or rather.....Easter! And belated at that!

I knew my oldest would be coming home from school with TONS of Easter candy so I decided not to send any to school.  Instead I made some felt Peeps as seen on "MADE." Ever since I saw laid eyes on them last year I made a mental note to eventually make them. I'm so glad I remembered this year!

And here they are:

Talk about cute to the maximum!

Kailani passed them out to her classmates and to my surprise (I thought the kids would be bummed not getting more candy) the kids were not disappointed. Some of them tied it to their backpacks and a few more took out a permanent marker and drew faces on them. I was mortified for a second but then had to admit it was quite clever!

It was a fun project and will definitely make more again! I'm thinking of making the Peep bunting next. I've already cut out more Peeps......

Question is, do I make it now or next year?

Be sure to check out "MADE" for the free tutorial! And for more homemade gift ideas check out:

DIY Ribbon Wands

If you saw my post about Momo's party you may have noticed the ribbon wands that I made for party favors. They were super easy to make! The hardest part was deciding on what color ribbons to use!

I found the tutorial via The Ribbon Wand Shop. The only change I made was I used 3ft of ribbon versus 4ft. and the ribbon was still really long and pretty! My girlfriend helped me out by sealing the edges with glue to keep the ribbon from fraying.

Now, if I were to make these again for 3-5 year olds I think I would use a smaller dowel - one that was just large enough for a small hand to wrap around. Possibly 4-5" (versus the 12" that I used.). Why? The ribbon wands quickly turned into ribbon SWORDS. How on earth I didn't see that one coming I have no idea!

It was a fun project and I look forward to making these again for another occasion! 

For more homemade projects or gift ideas check out "this & that" and "Tip Junkie."

Barbie Clothes!

I'm back! Well, kinda sorta. I won't bore you with the reason for my blogging absence! Just a lot of stuff going on all at the same time, if you know what I mean! Luckily during the craziness I did get some sewing done.

I had some special requests via my Etsy shop -  nursing cover, burp cloths, camera straps, aprons etc. I am certainly grateful to those that have seeked me out! <3  

This morning I finally got around to making a belated birthday gift for one of Momo's special little friends. Barbie clothes!

Can I just tell you that I secretly enjoyed taking pictures of Barbie modeling? Made me laugh!


I got the FREE tutorial from "Craftiness is Not Optional." Check her out!  


For more handmade craft ideas check out: "this and that's - I Made it Tuesday"  and Tip Junkie's - "Tip Me Tuesday."

Glow-in-the-Dark Circle Skirts

I finally made the circle skirts with the glow-in-the-dark fabrics that I recently bought (which REALLY DO glow-in-the-dark!):

Awhile back I saw similar skirts being sold in the stores for much more than I was willing to pay. I studied the skirts and made a mental note on how I thought it was to be done. Coincidentally a little while later Dana over at "MADE" did a whole blog post about circle skirts and provided a FREE tutorial!  YES! YES and more YES!  (And no, no, and more no....I wouldn't have figured out the whole mathematic equation. No way!)

I went ahead and made all three skirts the same size as my girls pretty much wear the same clothes (WOW, I know!) One is just taller than the other! I also put my "Happy Hapa" labels on them which confused Kailani as she knew I made the skirts for her and her sister. "So why put labels on them?" Well, just because...(because Dana did it over at "Made" and since she is a crafting rockstar I am going to do the same. That's why.)

And they TWIRL! Boy do they twirl!

And they get you into the "CREEEEEEEEPY spirit for Halloween!

Thanks to Dana for an awesome, FREE tutorial!