Monsters University Tin Can Party Cakes

This post is sponsored by Monsters University. All opinions and ideas are 100% my own.

With Halloween creeping up on us and all the parties the kids have coming up in the next week, I thought it would be fun to throw a party of our own, Monsters University style...ooh scary! But not just any Monsters-themed party, a viewing party! 

We just love the Monsters Inc. movie in our home and we practically ran to the theaters to see Monsters University when it came out this summer. So we were more than jazzed to find out it was finally being released in a Blu-ray Combo Pack on October 29....just in time for Halloween, y'all!

I thought I'd make some fun Monsters University Tin Can Cakes in Mike and Sully colors for cute party decor and food all in one!

These are so easy to make! And so cute too :-)

Just grab a white box mix and make as directed on the box or use your own trusty recipe and divide the batter between two bowls. Color one bowl lime green like Mike and one bowl aqua blue like Sully. Then wash and rinse out two 15 oz tin cans with lids removed.

Spray them with non-stick cooking spray and fill them each with batter a little over half full. Place your tin cans on a baking sheet in case they overflow while baking. Bake at 325 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. You will want to use a butter knife or something long to check for doneness. 

Once they are done, you will want to let them cool for 30 minutes to an hour before using a butter knife or a bread knife to pop them out.

To frost, use a basic buttercream (or even a store bought frosting) recipe and divide the frosting between four bowls. One you will color aqua, one purple, one white and a leeetle bowl black...I changed my mind from the picture above and decided to use white instead of lime green for Mike's cake as I liked the contrast better.

Then cut your tin can cakes into 3 pieces, slicing off the rounded top, and alternate layers with frosting. YUM!

I made the top of Mike's look like one huge eyeball!

And I made Sully's look all fuzzy by using a star-tip!

Remember, you can get your own copy of Monsters University when the Blue-ray Combo Pack is release on October 29th or you can pre-order the movie online too!

Follow Disney Pixar's Monsters University on Facebook :: Twitter :: Pinterest

 XOXO,

Elmer's Early Learners Academy Kids Project: Tissue Paper Pumpkins

Since my little Ellie Belly turned 3 this summer and she started preschool a few days a week this fall, we have been using her "off" days to do some fun crafts that help to develop her fine motor skills. You know, the fine, precise thumb, finger, hand, and wrist movements involved in writing, cutting with scissors, buttoning up shirts and sweaters. She isn't developmentally delayed but we like to be on top of things so she can be ahead of the game....plus it's pretty sweet that she can button her own cardigans and put on her own socks!


We were sent an Elmer's Early Learners Academy Kit and asked to create an educational craft for the preschool aged set using their new Glue Sticks and Glue Pens designed specifically for preschool-aged children. These products have a unique triangular shape that helps kids develop fine motor skills. Perfect as that is exactly what we want to do with my Ellie!


I love crafting (duh!) but what I love even more is crafting with the littles that ends up being decorations for the house so that is exactly what we did. Our educational craft for Ellie was to make a pumpkin out of small tissue paper squares, a paper plate, a green popsicle stick, and the new glue pen from Elmer's.


She had so much fun! First I drew a small line on the backside of the paper plate where I wanted to to place the glue. She did traced it like a boss.


Then she pressed the green popsicle stick onto the glue...this was going to be our pumpkin's stem!


Then, flip the paper plate around and have your preschooler dab glue in small sections all over the plate. Take squares of tissue paper and scrunch them up and place them all over the glue on the paper plate.

Continue doing this until your paper plate is nicely covered in orange tissue paper.

And soon enough you will have yourself a cute little pumpkin to decorate your house with all the while practicing fine motor skills with your preschooler!

Now for the part where I need your help! :-) Elmer's is having a Pin it! And Win it! contest. I will pin a picture from this post on to my Pinterest account and if my Pin gets the most re-pins one of you will win your very own Elmer's Early Learner's Academy Kit, sweeet!!! 

Each Early Learners Academy kit includes:

·         Elmer’s Early Learners Glue Stick

·         Elmer’s Early Learners Glue Pen

·         Pom Poms

·         Jiggle Eyes

·         Buttons

·         Popsicle Sticks

·         Pipe Cleaners

·         Feathers

·         Construction Paper

·         Colored Tissue Paper

·         Scissors

·         Paper Plates

·         Glitter

·         Foam Cut-Outs

And in honest full disclosure, if I win I will receive a $200 VISA gift card too :-)

Thanks for helping re-pin this project! It is an easy and fun one to create!!

XOXO,

*This post is brought to you by Elmer's. All opinions are 100% my own.

TUTORIAL: Spooky Snow Globes

So not too long ago one of my favorite stores, JoAnn Fabrics, contacted me about creating something Halloween-y as part of their #SpookySpaces campaign.  I love, love, love everything about Halloween..Trick or Treat, Parties, Pumpkins, Decorating, Dressing up...ummm, hello? how could you not! ;-) So of course this was right up my alley!

Now since I have 4 little ones we can't get too spooky over at our house and well, maybe you feel that way too. So I decided to create something a bit more little kid friendly...snow globes! But not the Christmas kind, the HALLOWEEN kind! And each with a miniature spooky, but not scary, scene inside and lots of fun fall-colored glitter to shake and watch fall to the bottom over and over again. Perfect for decorating your mantel, front room, or hey even a kids' room or two.

Spooky Snow Globes

Clean, empty jars with a screw on lid (small jars work best, ex: baby food, pickle or smaller mason jars)
Spray paint or acrylic paint
1/4" decorative ribbon (optional)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Fine grit sandpaper
Figures from Holiday Inspirations Halloween Decor collection at JoAnn Fabrics
Glycerin (optional)
Fine glitter


To make these spooky snow globes you will first need to wash and dry your jars. Smaller jars work better because your figure will take up more space inside.

*Before you start make sure that the base of your figure will fit nicely inside the lid and that your figure isn't so tall that you can't screw the lid back on!

Grab your sandpaper and scruff up the inside of the lids so that the hot glue will adhere to it better.

Glue the figures to your chosen lids and let cool.

With the witch, I decided I wanted her on an angle so that she looked like she was getting ready to take flight, so I just squeezed the hot glue incrementally into little mounds and let each cool so that I had a small mountain of hot glue at the base. Then I hot glued the witch onto it at an angle!

I then carefully painted each lid black and once they were dry I hot glued some decorative Halloween-y ribbon I found at JoAnn's onto the edges of each lid to pretty them up some more.

Then fill each jar with water. You can add a few drops of glycerin to keep the glitter from falling down too fast but, personally, I found that the glycerin really didn't make that much of a difference when I did a side by side test! Lastly, add your glitter and screw on your lids nice and tight.

Flip them over and have a spooky good time shaking up your new Spooky Snow Globes :-)

Thank you so much to JoAnn Fabrics for letting me be a part of such a fun campaign, as always I had a blast creating these and I hope you do too! 

Use the hashtag #spookyspaces if you want to see more Spooky Spaces from other creative bloggers!

You can also find more fun Halloween ideas on JoAnn's Creativity Made Simple page!

Here is an awesome 50% off coupon to help you get started shopping too!

XOXO,

*I have been compensated by JoAnn Fabrics but the opinions expressed are my own. 

Ikea Raskog Homework Station

With school in full swing now and homework starting to make its way into our house, I thought I would try to be a bit more prepared for all the color this, draw that, cut this, glue that directions that most homework begs of us.

Ya'll remember my love of Ikea's Raskog kitchen cart from my makeover post here, well, that one is for me...and all my sewing and craft goodness, muahahaha. Can I tell you how much I love that cart? So Dang Much. It's so handy to have around that I actually went back and bought another one for the kids. It had the makings for a perfect Homework station...and pretend library cart too! (my kids love piling it full of books and wheeling it around the house, checking books out and slapping overdue fines on each other, ha!)

I thought I'd share what I put in ours in case you needed a bit of "Homework Station" inspiration. Up top I have a simple pencil box full of colored pencils, next to it scotch tape, a white-out pen thing-a-ma-bob, and a pencil sharpener.  I also have little jars with kid scissors, crayons, pencils, gluesticks and erasers...you can never have too many erasers, am I right?

In the middle shelf I keep a big jar filled with fat markers, a small glass jar filled with fine tip markers, a mason jar of thick paint brushes, tempura paint, and a box of craft sticks.

The bottom shelf is for extra notebooks, folders, and paper.  I keep a few of these fun plastic paper protectors I found in the Target Dollar Spot. You just slip a piece of paper into them and write on them with erasable markers...perfect for practicing spelling and writing and math!

So there you have it, a simple Homework Station that we can roll into the kitchen, the dining room, or the porch! 

PS. I think right now a lot of stores are clearancing out their Back to School supply sections (at least mine are!) so you may want to head over and stock up for your homework station! I stock up every year!

XOXO,

TUTORIAL: DIY Elastic Headbands

I have a natural wave to my hair that totally frizzes up in the heat and humidity. It, unfortunately, makes for great fly-aways when it's up in a ponytail while I run or when I play outside with my littles.  My girls have the same issue...maybe you do too? This is where those elastic headbands you can buy at the store work great...except that they are always too tight and headache inducing on my head...or too loose and I am constantly having to re-adjust them on my head.  I guess I'm just a goldilocks about elastic headbands so I hate buying them, but I need them sooo badly, and I'm cheap...those things are pricey, a 3 pack for $5...insane!

I was at Jo-Anns a while back I came across a whole array of fun-colored Ruffle elastic and Fold-Over Elastic, they just started stocking it earlier this year, yahoo! Have you ever used this stuff?  It is awesome, fold-over elastic (FOE for short!) has sooo many uses...but we can talk about those in another post.  Anyways, I realized that it had the perfect elasticity for headbands...not too strong and not too weak...so I picked up a bunch of it and promptly made the girls and I a whole bunch of fun hair accessories for less than a dollar a piece! PS. these also make great hair ties too!

You can pick up Ruffle Elastic or Fold-Over elastic in the notions aisle (near the pins and needles, etc) for $1.99 a pack and if you use a 50% off coupon they end up being a dollar. I can get two headbands per pack...BOOM! soooo much better than 3 for $5, no?  Of course you can also find lots of colors and styles on Etsy but if you are more of an instant gratification type person head to Jo-Anns!

To make a headband (this is so not scientific) just place the elastic around your head to get an idea of how much you need to use...easy peasy! Then cut it and using a lighter of some sort sear each end to prevent any fraying and unraveling of the elastic. I used about 20 inches for mine and 18 or so for my girls' ages 4 and 2.

Then just knot the ends together and voila...you have yourself a very inexpensive and easy-to-make elastic headband that fits you juuuuuust right!

Now enjoy getting those fly-aways off your face!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

TUTORIAL: How to Make Water Fireworks PLUS Martha Stewart's Favorite Crafts for Kids Book Review and Giveaway

**This giveaway has ended.  See below for the winner.**

I was contacted at the beginning of summer to see if I'd like to review the new book, Martha Stewart's Favorite Crafts for Kids, and as y'all know of my love for a.) my kids b.) Martha Stewart and c.) crafting well of course I was all, 'heck ya, baby! We are always on the look out for some fun crafting ideas this summer' :-)

I gotta tell ya that I really love this book.  It is right up my alley and just perfect if you happen to have children...grandchildren...maybe teach children...or even babysit children! Hello! It's the perfect summer accessory! 

Check out how thick this book is! It really is an amazing collection of creative and educational crafts that parents as well as kids will love to do. The book focuses on children ages 3-12 and, depending on the craft project, adults may want to help the younger age set with some of them.

The book is full color with detailed photograph instructions.  There is also a photo glossary of items needed to make a well-stocked craft shelf and even a section on basic craft skills (how to make a simple running stitch, etc).

I mean, how fun are these craft projects?!?

I have been dying to get some fun duck tape and now I have the perfect reason to go hog wild in that section on my next trip to my local craft store, yee-haw!

The Water Fireworks project caught my kids' eye when we first flipped through the book so naturally it became our first crafty project!

It is a really neat science experiment and so fun to watch.
Let's make some fireworks, shall we?

Water Fireworks
Supplies
1 tbsp cooking oil (vegetable, canola, olive, etc)
1 clear, glass jar
water to fill jar
liquid food coloring
fork
small bowls

First place one tablespoon of oil to a small bowl.  Then add a few drops of food coloring and mix it into the oil with a fork.  It'll look like the picture above on the right!

Then pour the oil/food coloring mixture into the jar of water and watch as streams of food coloring fall into the water. Neat, huh?

The reason this works is because food coloring is water-soluble meaning it cannot dissolve in oil, only water.  When you first pour the mixture into the water, the food coloring is trapped in the oil.  Eventually it will sink once it makes contact with the water and dissolves.

I love when crafting and science meet!

If you want to see some more projects from Martha Stewart's Crafts with Kids video collection click here.

Ok, so you wanna win this book and some other fun surprises from the Martha Stewart Crafts collection? I thought you might!

Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below of just CLICK HERE now!

**The winner is...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

XOXO,

** I have been compensated for this post. However, all opinions are truthful and my own.  This post contains paid links.