T-Shirt Pillow

I've made T-shirt pillows for all of my kids out of their favorite outgrown T-shirts (except the baby).  The one above was made for  my daughter.  That was her fave shirt in Kindergarten (and she wore it for 2-3 years after that).  She's 10 now, and I finally, just a few months ago, stuffed it and made it into a pillow.

Making a T-shirt pillow is super easy.  Googling will give you detailed instructions (and T-shirt pillows that look way better than mine, ha ha!)  First, select a T-shirt.  Small children's T-shirts are easier to use because they are smaller; less to sew and less stuffing to insert.  Turn the shirt inside out, and sew the bottom and the two sleeves shut.  Turn right-side out again.  Insert filling of choice, such as craft polyester fiberfill stuffing.  Make sure to get some in the sleeves.  Pack more in than you think you need.  Sew the remaining hole (neck) closed, and you are done! 

Something I've seen online, but never done, is to use a pillow form for the inside.  Usually you don't use the sleeves when you do this, and I've never done it, so I won't advise.  They look really cool though.

My kids love their T-shirt pillows!  The problem is washing it; I'm scared to, since the stuffing is bunching up already with age.  This is probably when a pillow form would come in handy, instead of just the loose stuffing.  This is why my daughter doesn't actually sleep on hers; just has it on her bed for decoration.  :)

Have fun with this; my husband says now he wants one.  Lol!

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DIY Finger Paint & Crayons

We had fun making these easy projects.  The fingerpaint is best used up the day you make it; a few days after we used some of the paint, mold started growing in the sealed jars!!  Oops.  So we had to toss it after that, but it should be good for a little bit before that happens.  I like the fingerpaint becuase it doesn't have the yucky store-bought fingerpaint smell.  And, if little kids accidentally eat some, it's ok!

The crayons were fun- I took all the broken crayons out of the crayon box and the kids took the wrappers off; then they all helped me fill my mini muffin tin with similar colors.  You have to use a little cooking spray so these can come out easily, and it doesn't make the resulting crayons greasy at all.  Only use good-quality crayons (like Crayola) or they don't really turn out very well. 

DIY Crayons
adapted from Suenos Encantados

old broken Crayola crayons :)

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees.  Place pieces of different colors of crayons in a mini cupcake mold (don´t forget to spray the mold with vegetable oil).  Place the mold in the oven and let it melt for about 10 minutes; they melt very fast, so watch them.

2.  Remove from the oven and let them cool completely before giving them to the kids

DIY Fingerpaint
adapted from here

3 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup corn starch
2 cups water

1.  Combine ingredients in saucepan over medium heat until mixture thickens, constantly stirring.  Pour into individual jars (clean baby food jars work well).  Use food coloring to create desired colors; let cool. 

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Cornstarch Sidewalk Paint

I'm so glad I came across this "recipe" for sidewalk paint.  It's just equal parts cornstarch and water, mixed with food colorings.  You paint it on the sidewalk, and the rain washes it away.  After it dries, it looks pastel, and like sidewalk chalk.  My kids LOVED it!!  They painted with it for over an hour.  Just don't let it sit too long, or it kind of turns to that Ooblek stuff, but a firm stir with a wire whisk can make it right again. 

BTW, this paint is a good thing to occupy my rusty old dollar-store muffin tin, lol!  Yes, I do use it for baking cupcakes in sometimes, IF my normal one is filled, but ONLY with paper liners!  ;) 

Cornstarch Sidewalk Paint
from Sophistimom

1 cup water
1 cup cornstarch
food coloring

1. Combine water and cornstarch with a whisk. Pour the mixture into separate muffin cups. Add food coloring to each. We made purple, orange, yellow, green, pink, blue and gray (not shown).  Mix each paint color with a paintbrush and go paint outside! 

Easy Homemade Playdough

My mom made us homemade playdough growing up, and I've always meant to do so for my kids, but just never got around to it.  Until my daughter needed a medium with which to sculpt a school project, and I don't even know if they sell playdough around here.  Not wanting to venture to the store that day to check, I just looked up a recipe quickly and went for it. 

I ended up making four batches (the 4 colors shown above) because making one batch was SO easy and took only a few minutes!  Not only is this easy and cheap, the kids LOVE it!  It keeps them entertained for one to two hours each time they play with it, and they all sit and play with it together, which is nice.  I keep this in a cheap plastic container like Gladware, and it stores very nicely.  I've heard homemade playdough lasts forever.... we've only had ours about a month, but it's still good as new! 

Easy Homemade Playdough
adapted from Musings of a SAHM

1 cup flour

1 cup water

2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/3 cup salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

food coloring (I used Wilton Gel food colorings)

1.  Mix together all the ingredients, except the food coloring, in a 2 quart saucepan (non-stick is best for this). Cook over low/medium heat, stirring. Once it begins to thicken, add the food coloring. Continue stirring until the mixture is much thicker and begins to gather around the spoon.  Remove the dough onto wax paper or a plate to cool.

2.  Once it cools (20-30 minutes), knead until totally smooth and playdough-like.  Store in an airtight container once it is totally cool. 

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DIY Cherry Blossom Branches

After seeing something similar in the library here, I really, really wanted to do this myself.  I googled DIY Cherry Blossoms and a ton of blogs came up.  All you need is tree branches, pink tissue paper, an adhesive (hot glue, regular glue, or tape), and a container to stick them in.  I had to use hot pink tissue paper because that's all I had; very pale pink is what I wanted to use.  The "vase" is a salad dressing jar I have, without the lid.

Cherry Blossoms are one of my favorite things in the world.  I love them so much!  I have these gorgeous blue cherry blossom plates and bowls, and some red ones too.  Cherry blossoms are so beautiful and delicate.

My daughter helped me make these.  In fact, it was her teacher who donated the library cherry blossom tree in the first place.  She was actually better at making these than I was.  We cut out squares of tissue paper, layered a few on top of each other, and trimmed the edges to a round shape.  Then we slightly crumpled the "blossoms", and stuck them onto the bare branches. 

DIY Cherry Blossom Branches

pink tissue paper, preferably light pink

adhesive (tape, hot glue, or regular glue)

bare branches

1.  Cut out squares of tissue paper.  Layer a few (2-5) on top of each other.  Round the edges, if desired.  You can also slightly crumple the paper to add texture.  You may want to secure each sheet to the next one with a tiny dab of glue. 

2.  Attach each blossom randomly on the bare branches.  A hot glue gun would be best; we only had tape around, and that worked out ok. 

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