DIY Flower Fairies

I first made FLOWER FAIRIES with my youngest sister when we were kids. They are just so sweet, I couldn't wait to make them again with my girls! L and I made these fairies this past week and we plan on making more tomorrow...I'm thinking garlands, magnets, and of course, just flower fairy dolls for playing pretend! 

Materials needed:

-florist wire

-fabric flowers

-wooden beads

-other beads (wooden, plastic; colorful, plain)

-acrylic paint

-embroidery thread

-scissors

-hot glue gun and glue

First, paint simple, little faces on your wooden beads.

While your beads dry, take the artificial flowers apart. All you'll need is the fabric petals. If you have any tiny flowers, set them aside to use for head decorations. 

Cut a 14-inch piece of wire, and an 8-inch piece of wire. Fold the 14-inch piece in half. 

With the smaller piece, bring both ends towards the center and twist the wire, leaving a little loop on each side for the fairy's "hands." Set aside.

Select the colors of embroidery thread you'd like to use for the fairy's hair. Wrap the thread around all four of your fingers.

Place your looped, embroidery thread into the fold of the 14-inch piece of wire. Twist the wire, once to secure it in place. 

Next, thread a "head" onto the wires (the large wire folded in half), followed by a couple small or medium-sized flowers.

Take the small wire piece (already folded and twisted into arms) and place it under the flowers, but in-between the two wires. If you like, you can fold each arm over once to secure the arms in place a little more. 

Next, thread a bead onto the wire, followed by 2, 3, or more large flower petals. 

At this point, separate the long wires into two legs. Fold each one in half and twist the wire, leaving a little loop on each end for the fairy's "feet."

Time to style some hair! You can twist the hair and glue it on top the fairy's head. You can simply cut the thread loops and let it hang wild and free. Get creative with it!

To finish each flower fairy, glue a small flower on top of the hair. Too cute!!! 

To host a tea party for your flower fairies, be sure to check out our "It's Tea Time! Tea Party Ideas" page! 

DIY String Bowls

Before we packed up our Easter stuff, I decided to make some fun and funky STRING BOWLS with L...we used the bottoms of our Easter eggs for molds. How cute are these? And even better, all the materials needed we already had lying around the house...you probably do too! If you don't have Easter egg bottoms to use, any small or medium-sized bowls will work for molds. 

Materials needed:

-small plastic bowls or Easter egg bottoms

-yarn or string

-white glue

-water

-plastic wrap

-scissors

-glitter (optional)

-hair dryer (optional)

First, cover your molds with plastic wrap.

In a small bowl, mix a little bit of water into some white glue. If you like, mix some glitter into the glue as well.

Next, cut your string into small pieces and stir it into the glue. You can experiment with this step...we did one bowl using 1-inch pieces of yarn, another using 2-3 inch pieces, and one bowl using one long piece of string. 

Remove each piece of string from the glue, one at a time, and lay them across your mold. If the glue is thick on the string, you can squeeze some of the excess glue off. 

Once all your string is laid out across and around your molds, lay them aside to dry. It may take a couple days for the glue to dry completely, or you can speed up the process by using a hair dryer. 

After the glue has dried, turn your bowls over. Remove the molds and the plastic wrap.

Using fine-tipped scissors, you can trim any string or glue that you may need to off the edges. 

Beautiful and fun! Perfect for rings, hair clips, buttons and trinkets!

April Fools' Jokes to Play on Your Kids, Spouse and Coworkers!!!

APRIL FOOLS' DAY is just around the corner! What a delightful day of the year -- one of my favorites!!! Many of these harmless pranks are quick to throw together and result in silly fun and laughter had by all! Enjoy!

For Little Kids:
1. Fill your little ones' shoes with buttons, beads or poof balls. 

2. Stick googlie eyes and mustaches on pictures and objects around your house...cups, the front door, bathroom mirror, backpacks, shoes.

3. Serve your kids food on teeny, tiny, doll dishes.

4. Switch your kid's socks with your spouse's the night before April Fools' Day. 

5. If the head of your sink faucets are removable, unscrew the head and place an Easter Egg dying tablet inside. Screw the head back on. When the kids turn on the sink, orange, blue or green water will come rushing out! 

For Teenagers or Your Spouse:
6. Take an empty water bottle and using a pin, poke 10 holes in the bottom. Fill the bottle with water and quickly screw the lid back on. Dry off the bottle. Ask somebody to help you open the bottle and watch as water falls out the bottom!

7. Using safety pins, pin all their underwear together in one long line. Carefully replace the underwear back in their drawer, so when they go to remove the top pair the next comes out too, and the next, and the next, and the next...

8. Short-sheet their beds -- Remove all the sheets from the bed. Using one sheet, lay it out over the bed and tuck it in at the top. Fold the bottom of the sheet up to the top and tuck the sides in. Cover with their quilt or comforter. The bed looks normal from the outside, but when they get into bed their feet will only go in halfway! 

9. If their bed is messy, unmade or lumpy, put a bristly hair brush into their bed. When your kids feet touch the brush, it'll feel like a prickly animal or giant bug!

10. If your spouse is heading to the grocery store, add some "extras" to list: 2 lbs of banana peels, a dozen robin's eggs, 1 loaf of bread crumbs.

For Coworkers:
11. Write "April Fool!" on a sticky note. Stick it to the bottom of your coworker's computer mouse. Not only will the mouse not work, when they flip it over, perplexed, your message will be delivered. 

12. If you're wearing a blazer to work, take a spool of thread and thread a needle onto the end of the string. Poke the needle through near the shoulder of your jacket, from inside out. Remove the needle, leaving a couple inches of string showing on your jacket. Place the spool of thread in the inner-pocket. Just wait for your coworker to notice and remove the string for you...then wait for the horrified look on their face as the string pulls longer and longer and longer!

Rainbow-Shaving Cream Sensory Play

This is such a fun activity for kids and even more fun if you surprise them with it! I prepared our RAINBOW-SHAVING CREAM SENSORY PLAY activity beforehand and when I called L to the kitchen to play, draw and discover she was delighted! She kept saying, "Hey, how'd the rainbow get in here!?!" Like many of our crafts and activities, this one is done with things we already had around the house...so no need to go to the store to buy supplies! For what it's worth, a can of cheap shaving cream equals hours of fun for kids...we always have one on hand! 

Materials needed:

-large, oven-safe pan

-aluminum foil

-broken crayons

-sharp knife & cutting board

-oven

-shaving cream

First, line your pan with aluminum foil. Spread it out as smooth and flat as possible.

Cut your crayons into shavings...we did the colors of the rainbow, but you can do any combination of colors. 

Sprinkle the crayon shavings out on the foil-lined pan.

Bake in the oven at 200 degrees F for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, careful not to tip or shake the pan, and let the pan and crayons cool completely. 

Next, squirt shaving cream onto the pan and spread it out evenly...about 1/2 inch thick.

Here comes the fun part...time for your little ones to play!!! 

They can practice drawing shapes, writing letters and numbers in the shaving cream. 

We had fun taking turns, playing "pictionary" too! Enjoy!!!