Fun & Easy Things To Make With Kids At Home

Need some easy fun things to do with the kids?  With everyone having to stay at home right now, simple creative things to keep busy (and keep your sanity) are needed at this crazy time.

I've rounded up some of our family's favorite make-your-own-fun ideas that are easy to do and use items found in most homes.

Fun Things To Make:

A little white glue, liquid starch & food coloring is all it takes to make some super fun 

DIY Silly Putty

Turn everyday items into awesome treasure hunts thanks to used coffee grounds in this DIY Treasure Stones recipe.

 

Grab some acrylic coat paints and get artistic with this Soap painting tutorial.  Added bonus is the kids can use what they made to clean their hands later on:

Looking for fun edible ideas? Make some Homemade Pop Rocks Candy:

Creativity can be delicious with my Sculptable Frosting recipe.  It's been one of my all-time most popular posts and is SO much fun for all ages:

Grab the hot glue gun & a silicone mold and make some fun DIY embellishments that can be used & painted moments later:

Make some fun wearables like these Easy Beaded Stretch Bracelets:

Stay safe & sane at home everyone! 

1 Million Pillowcases Challenge & Easy Pillowcase Tutorial

During the Easter season our family has tried to focus more on giving & charitable work. I've been looking for more opportunities to use our skills in more ways and teach my kids some sewing at the same time.  So the timing couldn't be better to share the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge!

I heard about this charity challenge through Crosscut Sewing Company.  Last month, American Patchwork & Quilting kicked off a donation drive of providing 1,000,000 pillowcases to charities like shelters, hospitals, clinics and missions.  Participating quilt & fabric shops have joined in to promote this charity drive, host classes and serve as local drop off locations for pillowcase donations.  

Crosscut Sewing Company is one of these shops.  This Massachusetts based fabric store and sewing studio (that also has a fantastic online shop for the rest of us), was generous enough to provide me with fabric & directions to make a pillowcase to donate. They even sent me some matching thread and notion goodies as a surprise.  All in the name of a good cause, which was really generous:

I was able to pick out the fabrics from their vast shop offerings, which was fun too.  I choose this happy ice cream and coordinating clock print from the Boardwalk Delight collection by Dana Willard.

The only thing I didn't think about in advance was that this was a directional print, which meant the usual way of sewing a pillowcase up "burrito style" would make the print sideways on the finished pillowcase, which I didn't want.  As a result, I did this handy tutorial variation.  With this, it's just as easy to do with fabrics that have a distinct direction and maximize all the fabric choice options.

How To Make A Directional Print Pillowcase 

Materials:

- 3/4yd main cotton fabric
- 1/2yd cuff cotton fabric
- Optional: 1/8yd small trim cotton fabric
- Rotary cutter/shears, iron

Cut the main piece to be 21 1/2 inches high by the width of the fabric.  Cut two 16 inch high cuff pieces and two 2 inch high trim pieces (also the full width of the fabric for those).



Press each the trim strips in half, wrong sides facing and match up the raw edges with one edge of the cuff fabric (right side up).  Place the main fabric on top, right side down, and sew with a 3/8 inch seam allowance.

Roll up the main fabric and wrap the other end of the cuff fabric over it:

Pin and sew over the original line of stitches:

Pull the main fabric out through the open side:

Repeat these steps on the other end, pressing the trim ends flat:

Now, fold it in half widthwise with the right sides out and stitch along the top and bottom sides with a 1/4 inch seam allowance and trim down the raw edge close to the seam:

Pull the pillowcase inside out and stitch 3/8 in from the seam edge to encase the raw edges for a nice finish inside:

I loved the idea of using craft skills to help others in need and thought this would be a great opportunity to get my kids involved too.  Once I finished mine, I got my kids sewing some with some fabric from my stash to make a couple more:

They were so proud of what they made and in gaining a little confidence sewing.  I sew a lot for my kids, but it felt really good to be sewing with them and doing it all for someone else made it more special.  
  

Now that we've gotten ours done, we're ready to donate.  I'm excited to have the kids help deliver them and update the counter with our contribution.



Last time I checked the counter it was at 715,021, so many more pillowcases are still needed to reach the million goal.  This is such a fun & easy way to do a little something for someone else that could use some kindness at a difficult time.  I hope you'll join us!  To find a participating shop, check the counter, download free patterns and watch a how-to video, visit the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge website HERE.




I was not financially compensated for this post.  I received fabric from Crosscut Sewing Company, to make a pillowcase to donate to charity.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.   For my complete disclosure policy, click here.
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Crazy Crafting: Our Jelly Soap Making Adventure

Today I've got that's a bit different.  Jelly soap.  That's right - it's soap...that's like jelly.  And it's AWESOME.

You can squish it.  

 

You can cut it.  

Mold it into shapes.  Scent it & color it however you want.  And it'll still clean like a regular bar of soap, except it has the consistency of Jell-O.  How crazy is that?  

I like making weird and wonderful things and I've been a long time home soap maker (see my other soapy projects here).  Soap was actually the very first crafty thing I ever made. So when I discovered jelly soap, I was all about giving it a go.  Now I'm sharing what we discovered on our jelly soap making adventure.  It's soapy, soapy jelly time!

Materials:
- Jelly soap base (available online)
- Cosmetic grade fragrance oil & color gel
- Pyrex pitcher or bowl
- Heatproof spoon
- Silicone molds
- Soap cutter/knife & plastic cutting board
- Thermometer
- Rubbing alcohol
- Small scale

You've got to start with jelly soap base.  It's available online from a number of places.  This is not a sponsored post (no hidden sales pitch folks), so I'd recommend just searching jelly soap base.  It's not as cheap as standard melt & pour soap base, but buying a 10lb or larger block makes it pretty inexpensive per pound (I think mine ended up around $4/lb including shipping). There are also some similar shower jelly recipes out there that are totally DIY, but they use gelatin to gel things, which 1.) doesn't work for vegetarians like me and 2.) means it's only usable for maybe a week at most since it's food base will go bad and has to be kept in the fridge because it can get moldy. No thanks!  

The jelly soap base comes in a big tub and it's already a firm gel.  The knife just stuck right in it:

    
You start by cutting out a bit and weighing it to measure out enough for your molds.  It's got a good heft to it.  It'll also seem kind of yellowy in the container, but once it's out it's pretty clear:

It's important to cut it up into small chunks.  This helps it melt quicker and more evenly:

Plop it into a Pyrex container - a measuring cup is ideal:

Now it's time to melt it.  Using a microwave makes it easier to heat in small increments and keep checking little by little. It can be done on the stove as well, but I find it takes longer, the temperature then changes a bit too fast and it requires stirring to prevent scorching.  You don't want to have to stir it more than you have to as more stirring=more tiny air bubbles.

The instructions I had said to only heat it to 150° Fahrenheit (65° Celsius), but honestly that's just not hot enough.  The base will still be too gel-like to mix in the scent & color and pour out.  My first batch didn't turn out very well doing that.  

Then I just did 30 seconds at a time and as I saw it melting I'd keeping sticking my thermometer in at each interval to check the temp. When it was around 175-180° Fahrenheit (79-82° Celsius) it was properly liquified.  Note: covering the top of the container with cling film helps it melt evenly, just keep an eye on it so the film doesn't start to melt when the steam gets really hot.

Then it's time to hustle on mixing in the fragrance oil & color (same quantities as used for regular melt & pour soap).  And I mean work fast - it starts cooling down right away and will start turning back to gel mid-pour if you don't move quick enough.   If you want to make a lot, definitely do a few smaller batches rather than one big one.  Remelting causes separation once it's solidified so the finished soap will ooze a bit of liquid over time, which is messy & looks bad (ask me how I know this).

Silicone molds are ideally suited to jelly soap.  Very easy to unmold and not mess up the shape or detailing.  You can either go with a fun shaped mold like I did with our pony soaps or a standard bar mold like this:

Or pour into a larger square or rectangular mold, then cut out shapes.  For this batch I did a two-tone where I poured a layer of hot pink first, let it cool for about 10 minutes, then sprayed with some rubbing alcohol (it helps soap layers stick to one another):

Then I poured a yellow layer on top:

Once it had fully cooled (several hours) I turned it out onto a plastic cutting board and used some large shaped cutters to do a few:

And cut out a bunch of squares too:

It's funny because the soap seems like it's been stretched out or flattened during the cutting, but then springs right back up and stays firm in it's shape once cut:



Plus all the little remnants can be scooped up and used up too, so nothing gets wasted:

My kids loved squishing and poking their jelly soaps and others I made as gifts were a big hit too.  Handmade soap is always nice, but jelly soap is pretty unexpected and gets a lot of oohs & aahs.  Just use common sense on labeling what it is or the age of the intended recipient (not for under 3yrs folks).  You do not want to scent it like food, have someone assume it's gummy candy and take a bite or spread it on toast.  It's not actual jelly!  

From our experience I'd recommend using them right away or storing in airtight containers so they don't shrink or dry out and stay nice & springy.  Jars look the prettiest, but plastic tubs or bags work too.  

Then share the Jelly Soap love!

The Kind Kids Krate From Kreation Krate: A Crafty Gear Review

Today I'm sharing my review of a new product from Kreation Krate that I think is really cool: Kind Krates for Kids.  Instead of being just craft supplies in a box & more kid-made artwork to clutter the house, it combines learning a new craft with doing some kindness for someone else.  I'd reviewed one of their original boxes for grown-up crafting back in October and thought it was a really neat concept (read the whole review here).  My 5 yr old enjoyed helping with the crafting on that, so it was great to hear that they were starting to offer boxes specifically for kids called Kind Krates and we were lucky enough to get to try one out.
  

Everything came beautifully packaged like the original box I had tried.  We received the Little Box of Sunshine set:

Once again, there was a nice amount of project supplies - we had enough felt, ribbon, cards and boxes to make four sunshines & matching boxes and had plenty of ric-rac and ribbon leftover to add to our stash, as well as a really nice pair of craft scissors with a rubbery grip.  My 12 yr old immediately commented "Wow, they're nice grips!" when he tried them out.  

I thought this theme was really cute:

The project itself was easy for the kids to follow and didn't require Mom doing half of the work for them or have to explain out.  

Even my 5 yr old could do it without me needing to hover over her, so it was a nice, low key project.

And since there was enough in the box for them all to participate, there was no squabbling. I did see that there are sibling add-on options too, should you want more supplies or the kids don't want to share things like the scissors.

My kids also liked thinking up who to gift their boxes of sunshine too.  They gave a few as presents with some thank you cards they made and gave one to someone we know who recently lost her job unexpectedly and needed a little boost of positivity.  The smile on her face when she got it told us it worked.

As I've mentioned before, with our homeschooling needs & real life running around, I usually run short on time for my own crafts, let alone planning stuff for the kiddies.  I tend to not get around to putting together crafting opportunities for my kids, so I see these boxes as a big help in that department.  It also gives the kids their own craft supplies so they don't have to swipe mine.  There are just a few Kind Krates for kids, because they're brand new, but I think this is something we'll be doing more of in 2015.  The Pom Pom Cupcakes set looks fun too:

Plus, the other nice thing about these, is that you aren't required to sign-up for anything or commit to a subscription.  You can just shop for the Kreation Krates you like when you want them.  There's also the option to gift krates (that also ship for free), which could be a great holiday gift idea.  I may have to put a few of these on my list for Santa....;)

I received this Kreation Krate to review.  The opinions are completely my own, based on my honest experience with this item.