Make Your Own Baby Towel { DIY Baby Gift }

I received a neat gift shortly after having my baby a few months back. It is a towel with ribbon sewn on one end, so when you are getting the baby out of the tub to dry them off you have a towel handy and ready to go. I love the towel! I use it every night after bath time so I decided to make one myself. It is SO easy!

{Pin This}

HOW TO USE IT: Simply tie the ribbon around your neck and let the towel hang length wise. After you are done bathing your baby, simply pick them up and put them against your chest and grab the bottom part of the towel and bring it up so it covers the back side of the baby. When you are ready to put your baby down to dry and dress simply un-tie the ribbon and set your baby on the changing table

{Supplies}

-Full size towel {Towel’s on Amazon}
-Thread
-Ribbon
-Sewing needle
-measuring tape or ruler

First, I measured my ribbon at 29″ and cut two pieces. Then, I burned the edges lightly with a lighter so they won’t frey in the wash

Begin by measure 9″ from the outside edge of the towel (you will want to sew the ribbon on the short end of the towel-where the binding is). Mark with a pen and place the ribbon in the middle of your mark

Begin sewing your ribbon on. I stitched back and forth 5 times over the entire ribbon before knotting and starting on the other side (if you have a machine, this will take a few seconds to sew both sides-I wanted to demonstrate without so everyone could make this craft, even without a machine.)

Before I started using this towel, before getting my baby out of the tub I would lay a towel on the bathroom floor. Once she was all clean and ready to get out I would lay her on the towel on the floor. With this awesome towel, I can now get her right out of the tub with the towel tide around my neck and immediately wrap her up in it to get her dry and warm. Much better then laying her on the cold bathroom floor. After I get her to her room and put her on the changing table all I need to do is un-tie the ribbons and set her down. While we are dressing her the ribbons usually keep her occupied… even better!

such a frugal and handy baby gift to give and get!

If you are not crafty, but still frugal find baby towel deals here!

{Pin This}

Pin It

Food Painting Activity For Kids

Looking for a fun indoor activity?

Food painting main

Try Food Painting!

Any craft that involves both paint AND snacks is kid approved at our house! This fun frugal craft requires few supplies and minimal clean up… making it mother approved as well :)

Food Painting Gather

Gather any foods you’d like to paint. We used marshmallows, popcorn and bread. Make your edible paint by mixing milk with food coloring. I really like the McCormick Neon Food Colors, they’re nice and bright! For a thicker paint, try mixing sweetened condensed milk with food coloring. It dried really pretty and shiny!

Food Painting Marshmallows

Let kids be creative and paint away! It’s also a great opportunity to teach kids about colors and counting too!

Food Painting Done

The best part… it’s all completely edible when you’re done!

Have fun!

Pin It

Marbleized Easter Eggs

Want a fun way to dye your Easter Eggs?

I bet you have everything you need in your stockpile!

1-Supplies

Ingredients

  • Neon Food Coloring
  • White Shaving Cream (or Cool Whip-Thanks Reader Anna for testing this!)
  • Hard Boiled Eggs, pre-dipped in vinegar to make the colors vibrant!

Tools

2-Shaving Cream

Step 1

Cover Cookie Sheet with Shaving Cream and smooth down with the back of a spoon.

4-Food Coloring Drops

Step 2

Add food coloring drops, and mix into shaving cream with knife or toothpicks.  I like the knife because it’s fast to clean (so the colors don’t mix) and fast to mix with the colors.

5-Mixed Colors

Step 3

Roll your hard boiled eggs in the shaving cream.  It doesn’t take much, one tray will cover about 4 dozen eggs.

6-Drying Eggs

Step 4

Allow eggs to dry for 10-15 minutes.
Gently wipe off Shaving Cream with paper towel.  Don’t wash them off, because then even the color goes away :)

7-Finished EggsPS-Thanks FAB reader Lori for pointing out that not everyone knows that eggs are porous   You probably won’t want to eat these ones :)  Don’t believe me?  Open ‘em up!  They are marbleized on the inside too! :)

 

Pin It

Craft: Baked Cotton Balls

Baked Cotton Balls Broken Open

These Baked Cotton Balls are probably the most fun the Bee and I (and Auntie B) have had with a craft.  Ever.  They combine Finger Painting, Baking, Smashing, and Mess Making, all in one easy to clean up activity!

Baked Cotton Ball Ingredients

 Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 cups water
  • Food coloring
  • Cotton Balls (I used one of the 100 ct. ones I’ve gotten from Target.  We could have done probably 200 cotton balls, instead of 100)
  • Baking pan
  • Cooking Spray or Baking Mat

Baked Cotton Ball Stirring Colors

Directions

  1. Mix Flour and Water in bowl until smooth.  
  2. Divide into as many bowls as you would like colors.  We found 7 worked out about perfectly.
  3. Add food coloring and stir.
  4. If your munchkin is old enough, you can give them the 3 primary colors and let them figure out what Mixing colors make (this is the Bee, figuring out that Green and Red make Brown)
  5. Coat cotton balls in “paint”
    Because Mama likes to stay clean, I coated mine with the spoon we used to stir
    My sister and the Bee went to town mixing with their hands.Baked Cotton Ball Messy Fun Excited
  6. Seriously Fun!   Even Clean Freak me got into it!
    (Although I was behind the camera, not in front of it!)
    Baked Cotton Ball Before Baking
  7. Place Completely coated cotton balls on baking tray sprayed with Pam.
    I honestly wasn’t sure what the aftermath would be, so I purposely chose my oldest pan,
    and wasn’t willing to risk my Baking Mats (although the “paint” peeled right off the sprayed cookie sheet)
    Baked Cotton Balls Baked
  8. Bake Cotton Balls at 300 Degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. The colors will change slightly, but they still look cool!  Baked Cotton Balls Smashing
  9. After done baking, smash with hammer.  

If your kids are old enough, let them do this, or give them a play hammer.
This was a VERY therapeutic part of the project.
Especially seeing how far I could get them to fly across the room!

Baked Cotton Balls All Smashed Up

Baked Cotton Balls broken open!

The Cotton Balls are hard and crunchy on the outside, and still soft and silky on the inside!

Pin It

How To Make Homemade Gak (Borax Free!)

Make Homemade Gak For Under $5!

Gak Main

Did you ever play with Gak as a kid?

I did! It was lots of ooey-gooey fun as well as an excellent sensory activity! I decided to make it for my kiddos this week and they LOVED it! I found several Gak recipes around the blog-o-sphere that use Borax as one of the ingredients. I’ve read a lot of mixed information about the safety of using Borax around kids so I was happy to find this recipe that doesn’t call for it. I made a few adjustments and it turned out great!

Gak Supplies

Ingredients:

  • 2 (4 oz.) bottles of Elmer’s Glue (About $.75 each at Walmart in the school supply aisle) 
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup liquid starch (About $3 at Walmart in the laundry aisle)
  • Food Coloring (I had on hand) 

You will also need:

  • glass or plastic bowl
  • spoon
  • measuring cup
  • Something to protect your work surface (table cloth, cutting board, baking sheet ect..)

Gak Glue

Empty all of the glue into your bowl.

Gak Food Coloring

Add your food coloring and stir together until blended. I only used a little bit (4 drops I think) of food coloring so it wouldn’t stain our hands when playing with it.

Gak add starch

Gradually add the starch, A LITTLE AT A TIME, while stirring with the spoon or kneading with your fingers as the mixture thickens. The original recipe calls for a whole cup of starch but I tried that and it turned out really soupy. I made another batch with only 1/2 to 3/4 cup starch and it was just right!

Gak Mix Together

Keep stirring!

Gak Knead

You might need to get your hands in there and knead it to mix in the rest of the starch. You may not even need the entire 3/4 cup. It should look like this when you’re done!

Gak Play Purple

The fun begins!

Gak Play Blue

When your kiddos are done playing, simply store the Gak in an air tight container or Ziploc bag. I’ve been storing mine in the fridge but I don’t think you have to… My total cost to make two batches was $6. I still have lots of liquid starch left so I would only need to buy more glue next time. It was definitely more fun to make it than buy it!

Have YOU ever made Gak? Do you have any tips or tricks?

 

Pin It

DIY: 9 Homemade Valentine Ideas for Kids!

Make Your Own Valentines!

You can get store-bought Valentines for really cheap, especially with a coupon deal. But I thought it might be fun to do a homemade Valentine this year with my little guys, so I tried out a few ideas. A nice little weekend project!

heart crayon valentine

[Read more...]

Pin It

DIY: Homemade Valentines for Kids

Two Sugar-Free Homemade Valentine Ideas!

You can get store-bought Valentines for really cheap, especially with a coupon deal. But I thought it might be fun to do a homemade Valentine this year with my little guys. I have a 2-yr-old and a 4-yr-old, so I don’t know many kids that don’t LOVE a crazy straw or a bouncy ball!

More great DIY Valentine’s Day ideas:

 

bouncy ball planet valentine

[Read more...]

Pin It

Christmas Gift Idea: Brother Sewing Machine $77.99 Shipped!

Woot! The price just dropped on this Sewing Machine!

 

Amazon currently has the Brother XL2600I Sew Advance Sew Affordable 25-Stitch Free-Arm Sewing Machine on sale for just $84.54 $77.99 Shipped! This is a great sewing machine for the price and it comes highly rated by fellow shoppers.

  • Free-arm sewing machine with 25 built-in stitches, each with multiple stitch functions; good for novices and everyday sewing projects
  • Features needle threader, thread cutter, drop-in bobbin loading, and auto bobbin winding; 1-step auto-size buttonholer
  • 110-volt machine operates with foot pedal; light bulb for workspace illumination
  • Accessory storage built into free arm; includes 5 accessory presser feet and bilingual user’s manual
  • Measures 12-1/4 inches long by 7-3/4 inches wide by 9-3/5 inches high; limited 25-year warranty

Go HERE to view this Brother  Sewing Machine

Compare to $85 at Walmart.

See our favorite Amazon Deals!  

Want free shipping?  Sign up for Amazon Mom

Because Amazon’s prices fluctuate so much and some times so quickly, please don’t be mad at me if you miss this great price!  Also, see why we ♥  Amazon Prime for free shipping!  This post contains our affiliate link. Please read our DISCLOSURE POLICY here.

DIY Halloween Banner

Can you believe October is almost here?! This month has flown by.  I love Fall, the cooler weather and all the holidays coming up. I usually just do a little decorating for Halloween. Last year I kept meaning to make a Halloween banner and never did so I got it done early this year. It was easy to make and I love how it looks on my mantle. I haven’t found the rest of my Halloween décor (I moved and have no idea where the box of decorations is so my mantle is a little bare). Here is what you need to make one too:

need for banner

{PIN THIS}

Some decorative Halloween Paper (I found mine at hobby lobby)

Black and Orange cardstock

Glue Gun {get one here}

Mod Podge {get it here}

Black Glitter {get it here}

Pom Pom Yarn

DSC_5213DSC_5214

I used my lovely Silhouette to cut out the Banner pieces and Letters to spell Spooky. If you don’t have one you you can find a shape you want for your banner and just cut it by hand, the same for the letters. I used this fun font for my letters called Biker Bones. You can download it for FREE here.

DSC_5220

Aren’t the letters fun for Halloween? I love how they look like bones. I wanted my letters sparkly so I put black glitter on them. Use a sponge brush to put Mod Podge all over the letter.

DSC_5221

If you use glitter a lot, these trays are awesome! I can’t do glitter without mine, they keep it contained. You can find one here. I just dump a lot of glitter over the letter then shake it off and set it on some paper to dry.

DSC_5222

Then you funnel the glitter back in to the jar!

DSC_5224

DSC_5228

This is a great trick that I LOVE, after the glitter has dried on, it still has a tendency to flake off {which I don’t like} if you take some Clear Acrylic Sealer and give it a light spray over the letters then it will stop the glitter from shedding. It dries fast too!

DSC_5229

While the letters are drying, get to work on the banner. I decided I wanted my edges to look a little distressed so I took a sponge and some black ink and rubbed it along the edges of my patterned paper.

sponge edges

DSC_5239

Hot Glue the patterned paper to the cardstock.

DSC_5241

DSC_5244

Next I place my letters on so I can make sure I spell it right in the correct order

DSC_5245

Then hot glue the letters on

DSC_5249

Then measure your pom pom yarn to see how long it needs to be for your mantle and place the letters evenly apart.

DSC_5253

hot glue the pom poms onto the the banner, be careful not to burn yourself!

DSC_5255

and hang it on your mantle.

spooky copy

{PIN THIS}

I used some of these 3m hooks on my mantle. I love them because they don’t damage my mantle and are out of sight.

Pin It