Hairbows for Sale

I am always buying hair bows for my daughter- and it seems you can never have enough (they get lost, broken, you need lots to coordinate outfits!) and they are EXPENSIVE when you buy them from most shops! I thought I'd give it a try making my own- they are no where near professional, but they are cute and I have a lot of extras. I'm selling them for $1 a piece. Email me for more information: davisfamilydining@yahoo.com

Thanks!

Easy Halloween Crafts

My kids are still both under 3- so crafts for us means something that we can assemble and clean up very easily- they don't have much attention span and weren't not good with small pieces or multiple steps. 

Here are two crafts we did this year that were right up our alley- easy and not expensive!

Sucker Ghosts! We took Tootsie Pops, wrapped a kleenex around them, tied with a little piece of ribbon and added the eyes/mouth with a black marker. Super easy and cute! I'd recommend using a quality kleenex or doubling it up so it's thick enough to not tear easily. We handed these out at my son's preschool's Trunk or Treat!

Spider Web: They had this at our local state park Halloween party- I thought it was super cute! Just take a paper plate and cut slits in it all across. Take a long piece of yarn and tape one end to the back of the plate and then weave it in throughout all the other holes. Tape the last piece on the back. To assemble your spider- we used the 'gumballs' that fall off sweet gum trees- but you could use a pinecone or piece of a stick, etc. that you find outside- and hot glued pipe cleaners to it for the legs. Then we glued the spider to the plate.

Another version with other colors!

Marble Magnets Craft

We made this craft at our last MOPS meeting- so easy and so cute- would be a great Christmas gift!

DIRECTIONS:

Use a hole punch the size of the circle magnet to punch out paper (3/4 inch worked for this project). You can use magazine pictures or wrapping paper for pictures or patterns, as well as scrapbook papers or stationary.

Use a toothpick to put silicon glue on the magnet and lay the picture on top of the glue. Using the toothpick again, dab a bit of glue onto the middle of the picture.

Lower the marble down onto the glue and press down in the center. You can see the glue spreading out to the corners, making a nice seamless magnet.


A couple ideas for making these for other projects: with a tin and some colored tape, you could make a tic-tac-toe travel board for kids, or put them in an old altoid box for a cute gift idea.

Bath Bombs

INGREDIENTS:
4 ounces Baking Soda
2 ounces Citric Acid
2 ounces Corn Starch
2 ounces Epsom Salts

2 tsp water
1/2 tsp essential oil (I used lavender!)
1 TBL olive oil

METHOD:
1. Add dry ingredients into a Ziploc Bag and Mix them well.
2. Now measure your wet ingredients and mix them all in a plastic bowl. They won't mix perfectly, don't worry about that. You should have a little less than 2 TBL total of wet ingredients. You might not need the entire amount.
3. Start adding the wet ingredients to the dry mix one teaspoon at a time, don't add more than that amount at once because the mix will start reacting. Continue to mix at the same time you're adding the liquid- you'll have to release the air that builds in the ziploc bag as you go.
4. When you have added two teaspoons, test the mix by pinching a little in your hand. If it stays together and feels damp, your mix is ready. It should feel like damp sand.
5. Get ready to mold- you can fill an easter egg, cookie cutters, or any mold you may have. Wait until it's completely dry until you remove the mold. (We just shaped these with our hands and put them in cupcake papers).

Enjoy in your bath!

Candy Clay

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb Powered Sugar

1/2 cup Corn Syrup

1/2 tsp Salt

1/3 cup Margarine (softened)

1 tsp Vanilla Extract (or Orange)

5-7 drops of food coloring

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl until blended. If the mixture is too sticky, add more powdered sugar.

2. Sculpt with your Candy Clay to create different animals, pretend fruits, and other sculptures you can eat- looks great on cakes or cupcakes, too!