Disney Surprise Scavenger Hunt

My husband and I had so much fun surprising our kids this past week with a Disney scavenger hunt. They been asking for years to go and for years we have been savings to go and we are finally doing it. We are so excited and yes, I think my husband and I are more excited than the kids!

 Here is how is how we decided to do it.

 I made these clue cards with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme.

After printing off the cards, I read card 1 and card 2 to them. After saying the magic words (Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse) from card 2, they were given clue #1, This is when they started the actually Disney scavenger hunt. 

The last thing the kids had to do as part of the Disney scavenger hunt was use a Mousekatool from clue #6 and then use it on a Mickey Mouse scratch card that I handed to them to reveal the secret. For our Mousekatool, we attached a penny onto Toodles using a glue dot. 

There are several tutorials on how to match your own scratch card. The tutorial I used was from Artmind.

The template for the Mickey Mouse scratch card and the Disney surprise scavenger hunt can be DOWNLOAD HERE. There are three options for the Mickey Mouse scratch cards: You are going to Disneyland, You are going to Disneyworld, and You are going on a Disney cruise.  

I thought I would get a bigger reaction from them but I think it took awhile to sink in. After we told them we were going to the beach as well, they got really excited. Ha, we should have just skipped Disneyland right? Now that we have talked about it and shown them pictures, they are very excited!

Free Child's apron pattern and tutorial

My boys love to help me in the kitchen. They often borrowed my aprons that were two sizes (or more) to big. Back a few years ago, I decided to surprise them with their own kid size aprons.

With the holidays, many people spend more time in the kitchen cooking and baking all the holiday goodies, so I thought this would be a good time to share my child's apron pattern and tutorial and let your kids have some fun in the kitchen!

This apron pattern is simple and it even has an option for to have a adjustable neck strap. All the details on how to make these aprons are below. 

My boys two years ago in their aprons. 

These two aprons are my favorite that I recently helped my 

sister make them for her two kids.

 

Aren't they adorable?

Are you ready to make your own? You will need to make a few decisions on the design of the apron before you can begin. 

First decision is deciding if you want to add a pattern or design to the front of your apron.

In this tutorial has the option of having a adjustable neck strap or continuous neck strap. So this will be your second decision.

If you look closely at the aprons pictured above, an adjustable neck strap was made. The neck strap was attached using either buttons and snaps. You will need additional fabric and materials for these options. See the tutorial for more information and the what you need to make this apron!

DOWNLOAD the child's apron pattern and tutorial here. 

Fun Halloween target game with Nerf guns

We are getting excited for Halloween and put together these Nerf targets for a fun Halloween activity. The sweet payoff of this activity is it takes little time to put together but provides hours of entertainment. 

DIRECTIONS:

I started by downloading and cutting out these 3 pumpkin carving templates. 

-Frankenstein

-Ghost

-Pumpkin

Next I used milk boxes and glued one piece of construction paper to the front of the box and then glued on the templates. 

Then decide what parts you would like to use as the opening for the target and then use an X-ACTO knife to cut out.  

That is it and now your are ready for target practice!

Fall decorating idea with free printables

Fall is my favorite season and is just around the corner. I am ready to welcome Fall with this wooden sign. I love the simplicity of this sign and seeing all the autumn colors make me smile.

These pictures can be displayed so many different ways. Stick them in a frame, make a door sign, or make a wooden panel for your porch like I did. The good news is each picture can be downloaded individually and can be used any way you would like. 

Here are the details on how I put together the wooden sign panel

I first cut my panel down so each square is 8 x 8. 

Next you download what picture you would like to use.

 Just click on each image below, and then right-click and save. 

Open it in a program to re-size it to what you want it to be, and then print. 

Cut it out and use Mod Podge to glue it onto the panel. 

I love cute and simple decorations and hope you like it just as much as I do. 

Mini photo booth props

I did this post a few years ago and let me tell you, this is still a favorite activity at our house. I didn't realize how entertaining this activity would be. This idea originally came from Get Creative Juice and was called Magnetic me but in our house it is known as mini photo booth.

Both of my boys play with it all the time and it was time to update these mini photo booths. My youngest son didn't have one of his own, my oldest son grew up and his picture was outdated, and I wanted to add more props to give them some variety.

So I updated the covers

Added more mini photo props and compiled all of them into one document.
AND YES THIS WILL BE ALL AVAILABLE FOR YOU TO DOWNLOAD!

To get the a full tutorial on how to make these, visit Get Creative Juice tutorial here.

Click here to open the mini photo booth props document.

For the covers, you can right click and save. 

You can add text in a program of your choice 

Warning: There may be explosions of laughter but your kids will have so much fun with this activity!

DIY Baymax shirt

Do you have Baymax fans? I have two in my house and they love Baymax. I can't count how many times we have watched the movie and lost track of how many times a day they say quotes from the movie. I even them made them a Baymax costume.

I really liked this template I found from Koalipops and knew it would be a perfect template to use and make it into a shirt. 

I was able to take Koalipops template and make it into this template. 

I am so excited about the end result and the shirt turned out 

better than I had hoped. 

This Baymax template is available for download here. 

This image can be resized. 

To make this shirt, all you will need is a t-shirt and t-shirt iron on transfer paper. On the back of the iron on transfer package, there are directions for how to print your image and transfer your image onto the t-shirt. There are two different kinds of iron on paper. One for transferring onto light colors and another for transferring onto dark colors. Buy the appropriate iron on transfer paper for the color of shirt you have choose. 

I know your Baymax fans are going to love this shirt just like my fans love theirs!

Tutorial on how to make a Birthday Calendar Display

Keeping track of family birthdays can be difficult but with making a birthday calendar that you can use year after year will help you remember upcoming birthdays. 

I had an old cooling wire rack that was rusting and almost threw it away. I am glad I kept it because it was perfect for making this adorable birthday calendar! 

The best thing about this calendar is it can be customized and printed from your own computer. And if you need to add birthdays, you just print out a new month sheet and swap it with the old sheet.  

Follow the instructions below to make your own birthday calendar display

• Begin with a 10 X 16 cooling wire rack. I bought my black and so I used spray paint to get it white. 

• Use this template to fill in your birthdays. Then print it off onto white card stock and cut out all the sheets and birthday letters. 

• Attach the sheets by using glue dots and then attached the birthday letters with string.  Tape each letter onto the string and the tie the end of the strings to the top of the cooling rack. Then to hide the knot, you can add mini clothespins for decoration. 

I hope you will enjoy this birthday calendar display and it will help you to never forget a birthday again. 

Felt flower door wreath tutorial

While I was making felt flowers bows for my little girl, I kept thinking how cute it would be to make a wreath with felt flowers. And I think I was right, this wreath turned out pretty darn cute.

 I love the bright colors and how the colors pop. 

Making the felt flowers is a little time consuming just because there is a lot of cutting and gluing but putting the wreath together takes little time. 

The wreath is a 18" straw wreath wrapped with decorative burlap  all the way around. After making my felt flowers from this tutorial and before I glued them to the wreath, I played around with the arrangement of how I wanted the flowers placed. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I hot glued each one in to place, starting at the top and working my way down. 

For the felt flowers I used 3 different sizes. I used the template below to trace and cut my circles. The sizes I used for this project was 2.5", 2" and  1.5."  Click here to download.    

                                                        

I hope you enjoy this colorful wreath and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Tutorial on how to make a spiderweb shirt

I love Halloween time but usually opt to wear a Halloween shirt vs. a costume. For the last 6 years, I have worn the same Halloween shirt so I decided this year, it was time to upgrade. I saw this idea on pinterest but there was no pattern available so I tackled the task of making a spiderweb pattern. I didn't turn out exactly how I wanted but I decided no spider web is perfect so my shirt didn't need to be either.

To make this shirt, you can download and print the spiderweb pattern here. Then follow these steps:

1. Line up the spider web pattern and tape together.

2. Cut the paper pattern out,  then place it on top of your shirt, and trace the pattern onto the shirt using a white fabric pencil or white chalk.

3. Then I cut the pattern out on your shirt.

Free tutorial on how to make trick or treat bags

 

I made these cute trick or treat bags last year for my boys but never got around to sharing a tutorial on how to make them. They were really easy to make, even your kids can get involved and there are are so many different ways to design and personalize your child's bag. I choose to do my children's first initial of their name and a Halloween silhouette. I let my oldest choose the font of his letter, his silhouette, and fabric and he also helped with little brothers, since my youngest was too little to know what Halloween was all about.

Here is what you need.

• Canvas Tote bag
• Rit Dye, any color of your choice
• Fabric of your choice
• Heat on transfer

1. Color your bag using Rit Dye

There are easy to follow instructions on the box or you can go here to get instructions of different dyeing techniques. After you dyed your bag, you can either dry item in the dryer or air dry. I recommend you dry item in the dryer so you can complete this project more quickly.

2. Choose your bag design

For my children's first initial of their name I used Halloween font in Word and then did a Google search to find my silhouette. Once you have chosen the size of design, print them out on regular paper.

3. Cut out your fabric

Place the your design on top of the fabric and cut out. 

4. Heat on transfer your design to the bag

Decided where you want to place your design and then follow the directions on the back of the heat transfer package for how to transfer your image onto the bag.

And you are all done! 

City and State Wall Art

I have only lived in two states but I still wanted to create something showing where I have lived. I had this grand idea of taking the outline of cities and states I have lived in and placing an image  within the outline that represents each specific city or state. After 2 1/2 hours on Adobe, I finally figured it out! Here are my creations. Each city and state are 8 X 10 photos.

Just to get more practice, I did a couple of places where some of my family members have lived as well as my boy's first Disneyland Trip which was four years ago.

 

I am including this attachment with instructions on how I made these images. I did my best creating this tutorial and I hope the instructions are clear. I also included in the attachment a website of free chevron Photoshop patterns that you can download. I hope you have just as much fun with this project as I did!

Baseball themed family reunion shirts

This summer we had a family reunion with my family. It has been about 2 or 3 years since all the siblings have been together. My older sister joked about making matching t-shirts but I thought it was a great idea. I had already made matching skirts for my niece so I decided it would be fun to have matching shirts not only for them but for everyone. We also bought matching basketball shorts for all the nephews.

I decided on a baseball theme and color coded the shirts.
Each color represents a family. 

I designed the shirts in Word and then printed onto heat transfer paper. On the back of the heat transfer package, there are directions for how to print your image and how to transfer your image onto the shirt.

For the grandchildren shirts, I had their birth order and names on the back.

On the back of the shirts for my parents it says Coach Papa and Coach Monga; these are the names the grandchildren call them.
Then for all the siblings and spouses it says Assistant Coach.

This is the skirt I made for my nieces. 

Click here for my previous post on how to make this skirt.

The family

Papa and Monga with the Grandchildren

The grandchildren line up in birth order

A back view of the grandchildren 

The siblings

The in-laws

The siblings and spouses doing prom poses with my brother being stag.

The grandchildren loved their shirts. I think one of my nieces wore hers almost everyday. It was a great family reunion and was so fun to spend time with all of my family!

Mike Wazowski shirt with free printable

My four year old is very excited for the new movie Monster University. My brother in law manages a movie theater so my boy is even more excited to see it at his Uncle's theater.

In anticipation of waiting for the movie coming out, I made this Mike Wazowski shirt for my boy.  

Then I made this shirt using the monster incorporated logo for my husband.

This project is so quick and easy. I think I made both shirts in less than 5 minutes. All you need is a t-shirt and white heat transfer.  Make sure you have the right heat transfer otherwise you will make my mistake. Mike Wazowski's eyeball is suppose to be white but because I bought the wrong heat transfer, it didn't come out white. Luckily my boy is not picky! 

After you have your supplies, right click on one of the images below and save. You then can open in any application of your choice and size your image. 

Then follow the directions on the back of heat transfer package for printing your image and  transferring your image.

Car Shirt idea for Father's Day

I found this idea  from The Blue Basket on pinterest and made it for my husband for Christmas, though it would be a perfect Father's Day gift. Instead of using fabric paint as the tutorial suggest, I opened the pictures in Adobe Photoshop (Paint program would work as well) and filled in the images with color. I then printed onto iron on transfer paper. Make sure to use the print mirror image on your computer when printing so your letters aren't backwards. It was the perfect gift for both my husband and my boys. Below is how my t-shirt looked. I really like that the colors are bright and vivid.

How to make a King of Hearts Valentine card

Here is our families 2013 Valentines card. I saw this idea and I have two boys so I thought it would be a fun valentine to send to our family members and have both of their pictures on the card. Below are steps of how I made our card. This is my disclaimer, I am sure there are easier ways of  making this card but this is how I figured it out!

1.  I started with finding the pictures I wanted to use and opened them using the Paint program. Then on the top left side, you will click on on the word "select" and choose "free-form select." Next you will outline what you want in the picture. Afterwards, right click in the area you outlined, and click on "crop". 

2. Next I found a free King of Hearts template. Click here for the link. You will scroll down the page and find Queen/King of Hearts Card. Then save the image.

3. I then opened the Queen/King of Hearts Card template in Adobe Photoshop and cropped the image to King of Hearts, then saved as a JPEG image.

4. Now you are all ready to put it together. I choose to do mine in Word.  This will be really wordy but this will be the easiest way for me to explain how I did it. You will want to insert the King of Hearts image and your child's image. First you will want to right click on each picture and change the wrap text to tight. After that, right click on the King of Hearts image and find the send to back link, then choose "send behind text". Then right click on your child's image and find the bring to front link and choose "bring in front of text." This will now allow you to drag your child face onto the King of Hearts image and let you place it where you would like. 

5. I then inserted a text box to add my text in. Afterwards, I saved the page as a PDF. Then reopened the PDF form in Adobe Photoshop so I could save it as an image. Now you will ready to print the Valentines. I hope this was more helpful than confusing!

Christmas Banner

 

I seen various crafts made using paint samples and loved the idea. You get to choose the colors you want and you don't have to paint. I don't have a lot of Christmas decorations so I knew a Christmas banner using paint samples would be perfect.

I found some great Christmas templates from Activity Village and traced them onto the paint sample, then cut them out. I then used my eyelet setter to create two holes on each pattern. Next I got string and a needle and threaded the string through all the holes. And the project is complete. This idea could be easily made for other holidays and I definitely plan to make more.

Magnetic me

I love the idea from Creative Juice and wanted to make one as a stocking stuffer this year. I made one for my son and his three cousins and I am thrilled with the way they turned out. The tutorial was very easy to follow and turned out to be a fun project. You can find the tutorial here.

The containers I bought from here were perfect. They had a clear top so I made a cover with each of their names on it. 

If you would like to use these designs, just right click on the image
and copy over to Word and then add your own text.

I used some photo booth props from the Creative Juice link but also found graphics from other websites.

*UPDATE: 08/07/2015, I have complied all the photo booth props used into one document and have also made new covers. You can found the link on this post.

Below are just a few examples of the props I used.

This project was very easy to do. I made four of them at the same time and it wasn't as time consuming as I thought it would be. It will be so much fun for the kids and I know there will be lots of giggles.