Jenn Tries...

For the first post of 2017, I thought I would pick it up where I left off, by sharing the next page to my activity book. I actually liked the idea of making 'I is for Ice Cream' for a while now, but I just felt like it was a too simple for the book. So I decided to search Pinterest to see what others had made. And I stumbled upon this page: Photo from All The Quiet Things It instantly assured me that an ice cream page could work in the activity book. And it also gave me an idea on how to make my own as well. Here's What You Need: Assorted Felt Fabric Glue Needle and Embroidery Thread Scissors Here's How You Do It: Step 1: Setting Up The Page I kept the set up for this page very simple. I cut out a capital letter I out of felt and sewed it on the bottom left hand corner of my page. Next I cut out a felt ice cream cone; sewed it into the middle of my page. And to complete the ice cream theme, I added an ice cream container to the right h...

So when I was deciding what kid craft to try for December, I knew I wanted something Christmasy. You know to get the kids in the holiday spirit, but I had tried salt dough ornaments before and they didn't turn out that well. I just couldn't get them to dry all the way. And when I set them outside to dry, a raccoon (or some other night creature) ate the salt dough away from the paint. So I wasn't sure I wanted to go through that again But the more I looked at Christmas kid crafts, the more I knew I had to give salt dough ornaments another try. The Project Make Salt Dough Ornaments Idea and Recipe from  The Imagination Tree The Results (most links are affiliated, So if you like the product please buy from them. The blog gets a kickback at no cost to you!) If you search Pinterest for salt dough ornaments there are a couple different recipes to choose from. I think the first time I tried making salt dough I used the recipe that was 1 part salt, 1 par...

Some how November came and went and in the midst of writing about pumpkins, I forgot to plan out my next activity book page. So last night, while I was trying to sleep (and feeling all right about missing one Friday in December, since there are three of them I have activity books scheduled on), it finally hit me on how to make the cover pages.  After all what is a book without a cover? The Page Front and Back Cover Pages Great Instructions from  Still Living Here's What You Need (All links are affiliated. So if you like something please buy it using the links below. I get a little kickback at no charge to you) Cardboard (or Pellon fabric if you know which one to pick) Thicker fabric (for the outside cover of your book) Thinner fabric (for the inside cover) Hot Glue Gun Spray Adhesive Here's How You Do It Step 1: Make The Cover Since my pages are about 9x9 inches, I decided to make my cover 10x10 inches. After figuring this out was to measure...

So after taking a little break, I found a little bit of creativity to help finish off the rest of the book. And naturally it all happened after a trip to the craft store. I went intending only to get glitter, but in the same row as the glitter there were also craft pom poms. I knew I needed white ones for a future project, but decided to pick up a multicolored package because I knew it would be perfect for the activity book. The more I looked at the package, the more I knew that they would be perfect to create a texture page. And I created a Reef page for Blue, so I knew that to be fair I needed to add a Lion page for Lion. So that's exactly what I did! The Page L is for Lion Here's What You Need: Assorted Felt Sheets Lion Pattern Craft Pom Pom Balls Needle and Embroidery Thread Scissors Stuffing (or cotton balls) Here's How You Do It: Step 1: Create and Sew Down the Lion To create my lion, I searched Lion Coloring Pages on Pinter...

Recently Blue has become fascinated with the moon. So every night he, after we put Lion to bed, we take him out and let him see the moon. He often comments on how how the moon is and that he needs a rocket ship so he can get up there. And he also loves looking at the stars. And as hard as it is to get him back in the house and settled in for bed afterwards, I love every minute of it. And I want encourage his new found love of space. So I was very pleased when I stumbled upon sensory bottles, that are supposed to simulate the night sky. I just thought it was perfect and a great way to look at space, even when its the middle of the day. So here we go with my first attempt at a sensory bottle! The Project Make a Galaxy Bottle Instructions from  One Little Project Results So to start I used a 10 oz bottle and used my homemade goo gone to get the stickiness from the label off, (It was leftover from a Ocean Spray six pack ) and used Johnson's Baby Oil...

So I've made it about halfway through my activity book. And I seem to have lost my drive to continue working on it. Its frustraing and I really want to continue through the other half, but I'm just at a crafter's block. (Like a writer's block only for crafters? I may have just made that up, but I assure you its different than my project add I have. I want to work on pages, I just can't seem to work out how any of them will work out, yet.) So I thought instead of forcing some half assed page in to the book this week, I would take a brief break and start putting my pages together. So here we go The Project Putting Activity Book Pages Together Here's What You Need Scissors Needle and Thread Filling Straight Pins Here's How You Do It Step 1: Prep Work For my filling, I decided to use post office boxes. (I originally wanted to use cereal boxes, but I found they were a little too flimsy and I wanted something stiffer. You could also ...

All right I know, I'm a day late (and a dollar short!), but we're still having trouble with the wifi and I attempted to write this after work last night, but I just couldn't settle in properly and come up with how to write this. So I put it off until now. Anyway I'm really proud of this page. I've been wanting to do this for a while now and I'm so excited that I finally got around to making it. So without further ado here it is The Page P is for Puzzle   Here's What You Need (All links are affiliated. So if like something please click the link to buy it and help support the blog at the same time!) Assorted Felt Sheets Needle and Thread Scissors Felt Marker Optional: Velcro or Snaps Here's How You Do It   Step 1: Setting Up The Puzzle I knew from the start that I wanted my puzzle to be two layers of felt. A neutral bottom layer and a colorful top layer. (And leave the top abstract so it wouldn't really matter if ...

So I something completely different I was going to try out, but I just couldn't find any motivation to actually try it let alone write about it. So at the last minute I decided to search Pinterest to see if I could find anything quick and easy and also something that would also be fun to try. And luckily I stumbled upon a recipe for "wonder dough". Its supposed to be like play dough and magic sand mixed together. So I knew instantly I had to try to make it for my boys. Project Make Wonder Dough instructions found at  Growing A Jeweled Rose Results So since the instructions are kind of vague on the washable paint you should use (Growing A Jeweled Rose just says try different paints to get different textures in your wonder dough), I decided to use the left over finger paint  I have from our  birthday painting project . And at first it seemed like it was working just like magic sand. So I tried adding a little more paint to the mix to see if I could turn...

I always do such a long intro for my activity book pages, but I'm not really sure why. They all say about the same thing. Its Friday, its my new page and here's where I found my inspiration from (and why I still haven't gotten back to k is for kitchen). So for this week's page, I decided to just simplify it and just put everything listed below. The Page E is for Elephant inspiration page you can find it at  The Quiet Book Blog Here's What You Need Assorted Felt Sheets Needle and Embroidery Thread Scissors Pattern Paper (Or whatever scrap paper you have around) Here's How You Do It Step 1: Create the Elephant If you can free hand an elephant, then go ahead and draw your own for your elephant. I cannot, so I had to turn to pinteret and search for coloring page elephants for my pattern. And after sorting through a lot of the coloring pages, I settled on this one: (The website this from is currently unavailable, but here's the ...