homemade slime
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Homemade Slime… A Great DIY Kids’ Craft (she: Carmella)

ByCarmella

Hello there! It’s Creative Carmella here with you again to share homemade slime with you, which is a simple and fun kids’ craft!

October is here already, and that mean making lots of creepy crafts at our house. This quick kids craft is sure to get lots of oooohhhhs and ahhhhhs!

You will only need a few ingredients to make this super slippery, slime too! To make it even more interactive, I got out a bag of creepy, crawly bugs for the kids to use once the slime was done. Liam has a big fear of bugs of any kind, so I was happy to see him having fun with these. Fingers crossed he realizes that bugs are kind of fun…. well, at least we can hope that he won’t scream whenever he sees one!

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Personalized Name Art – Creating Meaningful Art (she: Amy)

ByAmy Lee

For the past few months, I’ve been in the process of re-decorating Elle’s room. I want to make a place for her growing book collection as well as create some meaningful art to display in her room.

One of the things I really want to display is her new skill of writing her name.

I know children writing their name is such a simple thing but for me it’s a big milestone. It was only the other day I witnessed my girl write her name all by herself for the first time!

We were at a community event and stopped at a booth where kids can paint their own frisbees. The girl operating the booth gave Elle (almost 4 years old) a white frisbee along with a black sharpie and told her to write her name on the back.At the beginning of the school year, her teachers taught her to trace her name written in dotted lines. Her tracing was everywhere and the letters had a life of their own! Then a couple months later her tracing got tighter and neater. Then she was writing straight lines and later her tracing was right on the dots. Up until a few weeks ago, she was able to write her name if she sees a sample of it.

So you could imagine my surprise when I saw her take the Sharpie from the girl and began writing her name. E-l-l-e she wrote, with the 4 letters filling up the width of the frisbee.

I was so proud of my girl! I cheered and we high fived. I commended her for her diligence which lead her to her accomplishment.

And so as I’m decorating her room and filling up a bunch of empty picture frames with meaning art, I want to frame her name written by her at age 3.8.

children's book and activity
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Children’s Book and Activity… A House Is a House for Me (she: Brooke)

ByBrooke

Hey, Or So She Says readers! It’s Brooke from Blissful Roots. How was your 4th of July weekend? Fun, and festive, I hope!
I’m sure if you’re not sick of hearing it by now, you might be soon, but I pulled this children’s book and activity from my first grade teaching files. I’ve been wanting to share it for quite some time, and finally have gotten around to it. It’s the perfect activity for a lazy (or bored) summer day, and you can actually add to it all summer long!
This is the book you’ll need. It’s called A House is a House for Me (click here to listen to it on YouTube). Have you heard of it? If not, it’s one you need to add to your collection as soon as possible. It talks about all of the different houses in our world. A hill is a house for an ant, a web is a home for a spider, the sea is a house for a whale, a husk is a home for a corn cob, etc. So many clever ideas in this book! It makes your children (and you!) realize how many things house things in our world.

Personalized Initial Letter Art on www.orsoshesays.com. A fun project to do with (or without!) the kids. #initialart #letterart #lettering #homedecor #DIY #crafts
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Personalized Initial Letter Art (she: Darleen)

ByDarleen

I love anything with a personalized touch, and you can see that in many of the jewelry pieces I design. We recently moved, and I have slowly been decorating my youngest daughter’s bedroom–making the transition from crib to bed. I have wanted to add a little something to personalize her room. Usually for wall decor in my other children’s bedrooms, I have displayed a piece of their artwork in their room. So, since my youngest daughter is at that toddler’s age and she loves to make “messy” artwork, I thought it would be a fun project to create an abstract piece together using a large canvas initial letter.
This is just your basic painting project–paint brush, acrylic paint and canvas painting board. But the one who is making the personalized initial letter art is your child.

$1 picture frame makeover
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$1 Picture Frame Makeover (she: Carmella)

ByCarmella

Hey there! I’m Creative Carmella, and it’s great to be back here with another crafty project!

Today I am sharing a simple stamping technique that will give this $1 frame a whole new life… and guess what I am using for my stamp??
Yes… that’s a toilet paper roll! I love how easy it is to get this perfect circle pattern!

For this $1 picture frame makeover you will need just a few things : Small wooden frame, {you can find these at any craft store for $1}, two colors of acrylic craft paint, and an empty toilet paper roll.

Frozen Inspired Party Theme, featuring Snowmen, of course! (she: Adelle)
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Frozen Inspired Party Theme, featuring Snowmen, of course! (she: Adelle)

ByAdelle Belnap

We are seriously loving Disney’s Frozen Movie and its amazing soundtrack. One of our favorite songs from the show is “Do you want to build a snowman?” Who doesn’t love building snowmen? We put together a fun frozen inspired party theme to celebrate my cute little girl and to have some snowman Frozen fun!
Do you want to build a snowman party too? Here is what we did:

Set up an invitation to play using pasta an beads on sticks.
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Simple Invitation To Play (she: Amy)

ByAmy Lee

As much as I love hanging out with Elle the 3 footer, sometimes I need a few quiet moments to myself. Whether it’s to make dinner, do laundry, go to the bathroom by myself, upload a picture to Instagram…all these little alone moments keeps me sane.

To get these snippets of alone time, one of the best ways I’ve found is to occupy the kids with something fun.

An invitation to play is simply setting up something really simple for your children to engage with and create something with no boundaries. They are free to do as they wish with the materials given.

In this simple invitation to play, I set out a tray of ‘stuff’ for Elle to put on a stick.

I went through our craft cabinet and pulled out anything I can find with holes in it. I gathered 2 bowls of pastas in different shapes that we dyed recently, some wooden beads, some small plastic beads and some caps from those squeezable baby/kid puree in a bag (is there an actual name for these?).

family night idea
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February Family Night…Sending the LOVE! (she: Tonii)

ByTonii

I am so excited to be back and sharing a great family night activity for one of my MOST favorite holidays…Valentine’s Day! Now I don’t know about you, but in our house Valentine’s Day has become a family affair 🙂 Don’t get me wrong, I love a romantic date with my hubby, but I am also not about to pass up a chance to spend the month of February teaching my kids how they can better show love in our family and to those around us!

Every year for Valentine’s I put out some cute little mailboxes I got from Target in the Dollar Spot. Once a day starting February 1st I put a little something in each of the kids’ mailboxes, anything from a note telling them something I love about them or a pencil and notepad. It has become one of our favorite traditions, and as I got them out this year I thought maybe we could use them to not only focus on receiving love…but SENDING some love out as well!

disneyland vacation countdown chain
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Disneyland Vacation Countdown Chain (she: Adelle)

ByAdelle Belnap

Are you planning a family trip to the Magic Kingdom this year? Well then you’ll love this Disneyland Vacation Countdown Chain tutorial and free download that I created to make the time counting down to your vacation full of magic at home! These magical countdown chains include special activities that you can do before your vacation to help the time fly by. You can make one for your whole family, or one for each child – there’s a Mickey version and a Minnie version, just for fun.

Thanksgiving Name Card, DIY Kids Craft (she: Carmella)
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Thanksgiving Name Card, DIY Kids Craft (she: Carmella)

ByCarmella

Hello there! It’s Creative Carmella and I am so happy to be here to share a fun project for your crafty kids! These super sweet Thanksgiving name cards are going to make your family smile so much… well, here’s hoping anyway 😉 Possibly the best part about this craft {beside how cute they are} is that you…

Handmade Christmas Ornaments - Snow Globe Ornament Tutorial on www.orsoshesays.com #ornaments #christmas #diy #christmasornaments #snowglobe #snowglobeornament #snowglobediy
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Snow Globe Ornament and DIY Ornament Roundup

ByJessica

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house! When you’re a crafter (especially a craft blogger), you have to get a head start. Don’t worry, I haven’t put up the tree or anything… yet. Anyway, I’m so excited to show you this snow globe Christmas ornament that I made. Doesn’t it just make you want to light a fire, snuggle up, and listen to Christmas carols?

I made it using a clear plastic ball ornament that I found at Hobby Lobby. Unlike a regular ball ornament, this one splits in half so you can fit bigger things inside of it. So many possibilities! The little house ornament and the fake snow came from Michael’s.

Read all about how to make this fun snow globe ornament and get 9 other ornament crafts from my blogger friends!

Felt Feather Headband (she: Anne)
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Felt Feather Headband (she: Anne)

ByAnne

Hello everyone. I’m Anne from Circus Berry. I am very excited and honored to be a part of the Or So She Says team, sharing some fun crafts and DIY with you each month!

I am a perpetual crafter, decorator, and inventor of reasons to have celebrations everyday. I live outside of Buffalo, NY with my husband, two kids, and dog. My professional career began as a Speech-Language Pathologist, but I have had a flair for DIY, decor, crafts, entertainment, food, and drink for as long as I can remember. After a few untimely layoffs in the past couple of years I took lemons and made lemonade, taking my other passions to the next level and starting my own party-styling and design business. The Circus Berry blog is my natural extension of that business, where I share inspiration for food, drink, party, DIY, home style, photography, and all around fun. Stop over to see the crazy, the creative, and the spark-tacular!

I have always enjoyed making hair pretties for my daughter…heck, for myself. With Thanksgiving coming and the very trendy feather being so popular right now, I crafted a quick felt feather headband that I am excited to be sharing today.