Lady Liberty.

These Lady Liberty Cupcakes are love at first sight....!

I saw them on the FamilyFun website and thought they were a perfect treat for the kids when they learn about the Statue of Liberty.

All I did was fill the cones with batter about 3/4 of the way up and baked.

For the tops, I used Tip 32.

To get the red in the frosting....

In the decorating bag, I put a stripe or two of red piping gel-then- scooped the frosting in. It gives it that 2 dimensional look.

 
God Bless America....my home sweet home.....!

{Ice} Treasures

If you've read my Summer Bucket List, you probably saw "Ice Treasures" on that baby.

What is an Ice Treasure.....? Some of you must know? My husband has been doing it for a few years now in the summer... so I don't know really how it came about? Maybe it's an Urban Legend of some sorts?

Basically, you make a giant ice cube and freeze treasures inside of it.

 The trick is......

you do it layer by layer. 

So, add a layer of water in a bowl. You can add food coloring if you want and stick some treasures in it. Freeze it...!

Then repeat. Get it out of the freezer, add another layer of water on top of the last layer, food coloring if you want and some treasures. Freeze it...!

Then repeat. Until you fill up the bowl with water and treasure.

When you want to take it outside for the kids to play with, fill up your sink with some hot water and place your bowl in it, to unfreeze the Ice Treasure around the edges.

Dump it upside down now outside.

 Give the kiddos some waterguns and have them keep spraying it until treasures come out.

 

 

They absolutely look forward to this every year.

This year, Noe accidently dumped my Lemon Extract into the water thinking it was food coloring, so it was lemony smelling and the kids kept licking it like a popsicle...!

It's summer fun, who cares....no rules....!

Our Very Hungry Caterpillars.

The very first project we did for our Eric Carle Week, was our Hungry Caterpillars.

I found a link for them here at Not Just Cute....!

They are Texture Caterpillars.

The first thing they did was paint on another piece of paper using green paint and a little section of red paint for the head. They used whatever we could find in the house to paint with.....sponges, Q-tips, toothbrush, cottonballs, etc.

Once dried, they cut them out into circles for the caterpillars body.

I gave them large pieces of construction paper and they used Dot Paint Rollers to get the bottom "Eric Carle" look.

While they were doing that, I cut out antennae, eyes and noses for them. 

 Once the dots were dried, they glued all the pieces together.

My perfectionist children said we had to add the feet and hair on his back....!

So, they drew it on with marker.

 

These Textured Caterpillars were a great addition to the reading lesson.....!

It was a fun week reading.
It put us over the top for the Summer Reading Program at our Library....big plus...!

Panda Bear Bread.

We have the book "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" and wanted to step outside the craft box for something to do with it.

I saw this recipe on tablespoon.com and thought it was totally awesome...!

So.....her bread is on the top.

My bread is on the bottom. {LOL} Poor beat up Panda. Well, we tried. I think next time I'll start it off with my bread machine. The bread was delicious though. We had it with our meatloaf and veggies tonight....hot out of the oven.

It was an interesting process and once I figure out some tips on how to do it....I'm thinking I can make basically any type of shape out of bread. Maybe a Minnie Mouse would be easy?

Try it though.....it was fun to bake with the kids.

Brown {Beans} Bear

Eric Carle is one of my favorite children's authors....right after Dr. Seuss.

He has some fun and creative books that are just so catchy.

There are a ton of projects out there to celebrate his birthday. Teach Preschool has a post with linkys up that various parents and teachers did with their kiddos this week.

I decided to do projects with the books we already own since our library here in town isn't open that often...even though I fell in love with some of those other projects..!

 Want to know why I love this book so much?

When my daughter was 3 years old, she knew every page word for word of it. So, even when we read it this week....she could tell me the words on the next page before I turned...and she's 4 now....so still doesn't read yet.

For this project, I traced the Brown Bear cover with computer paper because it's nice and thin.

 The girls used Pinto Beans and filled it in.

This is defintely a project that takes awhile, so perfect for summer when they have time to spear.

 {8 year old}

 {4 year old}

{6 year old}

Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?

I see awesome bloggers looking at me...!

Grouchy Lady Bugs.

We celebrated Eric Carle's birthday this week by doing a few fun things.... crafts, having snacks, wearing cute shirts....!

 We had some Grouchy Lady Bugs during our movie night this weekend.

Ritz Crackers, Pepperoni and Olives.....some had Cream Cheese {we have a couple non-cheese eaters.}

Delicious grouchiness...!

Clowning Around.

This project was so much fun for the kiddos.

They keep showing everyone the pictures of them being clowns.

We started off with tissue paper, small red pom poms, photos of the kids, cardstock, markers and glue.

 The first part, I did for them.

With an X-acto Knife, I cut their hair out of the pictures.

Since my littlest daughter had her hair back in the picture I had of her, I made it bigger like clown hair.

 For Maelyn's picture, she glued her picture on first to the cardstock.

She then crumbled up her paper and glued it inside the missing hair. She was going for a curlier haired clown look.

Lastly, she glued her clown nose onto the picture. 

 For Carmendee and Patience's pictures...

They put the picture on top, not gluing it down and traced where the hair goes {easy enough for all ages.}

They removed the picture and where they traced, put glue.

They tore little bits of tissue paper into strips and put it where the hair goes.

Then, we glued the picture on top of the hair.

If the kids have access tissue paper coming out of the top or sides of picture....no worries....the X-acto Knife took it right off.

Have them add a nose.

The very last thing they did was choose their clown names and we wrote them on their pictures when they dried.

My Clowns.....Giggles, Bubbles and Juggles.

Earring Make-Over.

Craft-o-manic totally inspired me to makeover some of my jewelry.

I haven't worn some of my pieces lately. They either look old and dingy or don't fit my style as of now.

In both of these sets of earrings below, they were turning dark and discolored.

So, I decided to spray paint them and give them a makeover.

It gave them new life...!

I'm going to be wearing them again.

Kid Summer Necklaces.

Need something for the kiddos to do indoors without them making a disaster in the house?

How about making Straw Necklaces?

Materials needed....

 Prima Flowers or Luau Flowers

Yarn

Masking Tape

Straws

 Have them cut up a bazillion staws.

Put masking tape on the end of yarn so they can easily get the straws and flowers onto the necklaces.

String them.

Tie them.

Easy fun.

 

 

They love their Straw Necklaces.

Sewing Completed.

Complete Sewing Projects {Check} on my Summer Bucket List.

Crossed that off.

BTW....I now know why it took me so long to read that book, I'm just not into it. I'm forcing myself to read it because I hate wasting money...!

I had some projects in mind that I wanted done.

Basically, I searched in etsy.com for some ideas to things that I wanted to make.

Once I found the idea, I tried to figure out how they did it...!

This is my Sewing Machine Cover.

 It's Reversible. The colors match my bedroom since my Craft Room is in there.

Out of all the projects, so embarrassing, but this was the hardest for me to figure out. I had to use the seam ripper a couple of times.

 I made an IPOD case for my daughter and a Camera case for our camera.

 The last sewing project that I tackled was a Camera Strap.

This picture isn't that flattering, but it's actually pretty cute...!

Noe bought me a Sewing Machine for Valentine's Day.

I'm just getting the hang out it...! It is so user friendly and I love it.  He had made the cutest card that said "I love you Sew much..." and all the reasons.

The only problem with a new machine is I'm figuring out...maybe it wasn't my other machine that messed up....maybe it was just me? LOL

Recycled Clip Board.

My hubby is a big Frisbee Golf man.

When he wants to do something fun for exercise, him and his co-workers head to the park and play.

  For Father's Day, I bought him a Disc Bag to carry his Disc's and a special disc that he's been wanting.

I also printed out some of these{CLICK} Score Cards.

I then got to thinking of an easy way for them to use the score cards like a little clipboard.

 I started off with an old cardboard book that really has seen better days.

 I was going to throw it one time but decided to keep it for something.

 I then cut some scrapbook paper to the size of the cardboard.

Using a thin layer of Mod Podge, the paper was added to the clipboard.

I did the same thing with the back side.

Another thin layer of Mod Podge was applied on top of the paper on each side to seal it.

 I cut the paper a teensy weensy to small for my liking, so I painted the edges so the cardboard book didn't show.

Let it all dry...!

Lastly, I hot glued a clip onto the front side of the clipboard.

 I slipped it in the bag and it's ready for a game of Frisbee Golf.

A Clipboard made out of everything that I already had...!

I hope Noe likes it...!

Clown Cupcakes.

Clown Cupcakes are fun for a Circus or Carnival Theme....except if you are terrified of them of course.

My husband said they are creepy, but I think they're fun...!

Despite the alleged "creepiness" I decided to show you how to make them anyways.

When I took my Wilton class, one of the very first things they taught was the Building Up technique.

First, frost your cupcakes.

{I used a 12 tip on these}

 Using a 21 Tip, start in the middle and Build your mound. Squeeze alot of frosting at the base to support your mound....then gradually let go as you go up. This is your clown body.

{The cupcake in the bottom right was not centered and is going to eventually tip over.}

 Using the same 21 Tip, start at the bottom....squeeze a little and make a straight line for a leg.....then another.

For the arms, use the same tip, start at the shoulder and squeeze down.

 Next choose a different color to make hands and feet.

{For the body, I usually like a yellow color...however, I had orange frosting leftover in the fridge and just went with it}

Use a 3 Tip.

Make some feet, hands and buttons.

 Lastly, put your Wilton Clown picks on the top.

 

The Circus is so much fun...!

Sit back, relax and look at the awesomeness.

It looks so much harder than it actually is...!

Pie WAR....!

One, two, three four....

I declare a Pie War....!

  So maybe it's not Carnival-y, but I thought a Pie War would be awesome.

I asked the grocery store if they would give me their old pies and the price wasn't as reasonable as I wanted....so we just did some whipped cream in pie tins.

3 bottles was good because we got really sticky in the sun. For more fun though, double the amount...!

{I don't mind looking horrible for the world to see. It's all about having fun!}

Pie War was as awesome as we thought it would be...!