MonkeyGeorge

The Cutest Giveaway EVER!

2010-06-03T22:35:00.001-07:00

http://rufflesandrosescrafts.blogspot.com/2010/06/tank-dress-giveaway-active.html

I can't even begin to tell you how badly I want to win this Dorothy dress! Check it out and take a minute to enter the giveaway yourself (you know...so that you can send it to me when you win it LOL!). :)

Salad Spinner Spin Art

2009-07-16T11:16:00.001-07:00

This is a fun idea for creating art using the salad spinner that I picked up from Goodwill the other day for 99 cents. I've been wanting to try this project for a long time, but I never wanted to spend full price on a salad spinner, so I was really excited that Goodwill had a stash of four or five of them for super cheap! This idea came from Chasing Cheerios, but we modified it a bit and used washable tempera paint instead of food coloring.

We chose three colors of paint and watered it down a lot. I'd say it was probably a 50/50 mix of water and paint or maybe just a little less water than 50/50. I made sure that the boys chose paint colors that would still look nice when they were all mixed together.

First and foremost, I have to remind everyone that if you're going to try salad spinner art COVER YOUR WORK AREA because it gets messy! We used a kitchen sized plastic garbage bag under us, and it made for easy clean up later. I cut circle shapes from regular computer paper (I didn't try any other paper, but I'd guess that construction paper would be too absorbent to get a nice spin on the paint) and put them into the spinner basket. I had the boys use old medicine droppers to drip on the paint, so they also got a nice refresher lesson on how to use the droppers since we hadn't used them in awhile.

We started out with just a few drops of paint, but the results were actually better when we used more paint. I'd say that we used about 5-6 full droppers on our prettiest paintings.

The first few times we spun the art I let the kids do it, but as more and more paint started to build up in the basket and on the work area, I took over spin duty to keep it a little bit cleaner.
I also found that you don't want to spin it too fast/too much or your watery paint will just fly off the paper, and you'll end up with lighter and more washed out results.

Ha ha, he's actually saying "Wow, LOOOOOK!" here, hence the funny face. This is also a fantastic lesson on color mixing. The boys were beyond thrilled that they created an entire rainbow of colors with only three colors of paint.

Teamwork is also a good lesson when there's only one salad spinner!

See, I told you it gets messy!

Shower Curtain Play Mat

2009-07-16T11:02:00.001-07:00

This idea has been shown on a few different blogs that we like to read; however, we first ran across the idea at Filth Wizardry (who also gave us the brilliant idea of taping two markers to the sides of an empty crayon box to create symmetrical lines for our roads!). I picked up a shower curtain liner at the dollar store, grabbed two Sharpie markers and some crayons and we were ready to create our own little town!

First I taped the shower curtain to the concrete using colored duct tape

Then we drew roads (using the handy box, tape, and Sharpie method) and started to fill in other aspects of our city. Sutton requested an ocean, Sawyer wanted Home Depot, and Hattie wanted houses.

After I drew a few of the basic outlines, I let the kids start coloring in all of the roads/buildings/etc. with crayons. The texture on one side of the shower curtain is perfect for crayons, and because it was warm outside, the crayons glided on smoothly and easily.

Sawyer's favorite part ended up being the city skyline that he helped me create.

Here it is about halfway finished (and before we added the requested Target and Home Depot, I might add). Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like when we had completely finished it :(

Sutton's favorite part ended up being this car wash. He washed every single monster truck he could find! The boys' cars and trucks definitely had a lot of fun driving around the roads all over our new town!

So, for a whopping total of $1 we had an entire morning full of fun in the backyard. We left the playmat outside for a few days, and the kids colored some more of it off and on. After a few days in the sun and being subjected to sprinkler overflow; however, the Sharpie marker did start to fade and rub off a little bit.

Re-Purposed Mini Vases

2009-06-30T15:49:00.001-07:00

I just adore these sweet vases that the boys made the other day. I think they're especially cute when filled with the fistfuls of dandelions brought to me by my favorite 3 year old, who has become quite obsessed with picking every single flower he runs across for his Mama.

We started with a few empty and cleaned plastic yogurt smoothie containers (I think they were Danimals kids smoothies, but I've had them set aside for awhile, so I'm not 100% sure), some leftover tissue paper from Sutton's birthday presents, a couple of foam brushes and some glue.

We spread a thin layer of glue over the entire container. In Sutton's case, we spread the glue over the entire bottle, inside and out, simply because the glue part was way more fun for him than the actual tissue paper part.

We added layer upon layer of tissue paper, being sure to coat the outside of the tissue paper in a new layer of glue each time we added a new piece.

After the boys added all their tissue paper, I went back and made sure that all the paper was glue-coated and firmly adheared.

After the glue was dry, I coated the vases with a couple of layers of Mod Podge just to make them more durable and more water resistant since I knew we would be using them for flowers. Easy peasy, and cute to boot! :)

Marble Painting

2009-05-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

I had seen marble painting mentioned in a couple of different blogs and kids craft magazines, and was really looking forward to trying it out with the boys. Since it was a nice sunny day, and the boys were itching to do a project, we decided to head outside for some painting fun in the sun. Using the backyard instead of the kitchen was a nice change of scenery, and it really kept me from worrying too much about the potential mess.

First, cut a piece of paper to fit in the bottom of a pan, box lid or other shallow dish. You may want to tape the sides down if you think that your little ones will be too interested in taking the paper out of the pan.

Make sure that everyone has on clothing that they can get messy in! My three-year-old was really into this project, but he was also really into taking the marbles out of the dish and cleaning them off over and over and OVER again.

Add a few large swirls of paint to your paper

Throw in a couple of marbles and let the kids slant and turn the dish to roll the marbles back and forth across the paint.

That's all it takes to create a new masterpiece! My little guy was especially enthralled with how the colors all swirled together.

Hang them up to dry in the sunshine. This was especially helpful because we had some thick paper and big gobs of paint, and they were dry SO much faster when hung outside!

We'll be cutting our marble paintings into smaller pieces to decorate our Father's Day and birthday cards :)

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-05-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

We've been slacking on our crafting and art projects these past couple of weeks since I was frantically trying to get everything ready for the garage sale that we held this past weekend. We're ready to get back in gear though! This weekend we're headed up to visit Great Grandpa for his birthday, so expect some kid-friendly birthday and Mother's Day gift ideas later this week!

For this week there was no theme for Muffin Tin Monday, so basically it became "Whatever Mommy Can Quickly Throw Together for Her Impatient and Increasingly Hungry Children" lol.

We had string cheese, star shaped kiwi (and the slices that they came from), bagels with cream cheese, pretzels, strawberries and star shaped bologna. The hit of this week was the star shaped bologna! Honestly, the whole idea of bologna repulses me, and I'm not sure how or why kids seem to love it, but mine certainly do!

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-04-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

Today was our first attempt at a themed Muffin Tin Monday, and this week's theme was "Under the Sea." We had a hot dog octupus, blue "ocean" yogurt with fish graham crackers, "sea cucumbers" with ranch, an apple and bologna sailboat, starfish shaped cheese, and a string cheese jellyfish. The biggest hits were both of the shaped cheeses!

Banana Bundt Cake

2009-04-25T22:02:00.001-07:00

After a big shopping trip to Costco we always seem to end up with a few extra bananas that don't get eaten quickly enough before they start to become overripe, so tonight I decided to try a new recipe for banana cake. I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com and then tweaked it to suit our tastes and ingredients we had on-hand. This cake is lighter and less dense than a traditional banana bread, and it is delicious finished with powdered sugar or vanilla frosting. The recipe is sized perfectly for bundt pans and Nordicware pans. The cake is moist and delicious, especially sliced while it's still warm!

BANANA BUNDT CAKE

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 c. butter
1 c. granulated sugar
¼ c. brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
4 mashed ripe bananas
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 c. vanilla yogurt
¾ c. chopped walnuts (optional)
confectioners’ sugar or frosting for topping

DIRECTIONS:

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in vanilla. Add bananas and mix well.

In a second bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with vanilla yogurt, stirring just until combined. Stir in walnuts if desired.

Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool 10 minutes in pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar or drizzle with vanilla or cream cheese frosting before serving. Yum!

This little guy snuck out of bed at 9:30 because he knew Mommy would be frosting the cake, and he just had to help (taste test the frosting, that is!)

I bet this cake would be fantastic with only a light sprinkling of powdered sugar...but since my 3-year-old was helping me with ours, it was served under a delicious lake of vanilla frosting. :)

Dollar Store Project: Birds Nest Wreath

2009-04-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

We needed some more springtime decorations around this place, so I came up with this quick craft for my boys to make. Everything for this project came from the Dollar Tree, which is my new favorite place for coming up with inventive craft ideas. It was fast, easy, and the grand total for two wreaths was a whopping $4 (and we still have half a bag of moss left!).

Here's what you need to get started...

Wreath forms (these come in three or four different sizes, all for $1 - the ones we used were the smallest ones), a 2-pack of birds, a bag of moss (we ended up only using 1/2 a bag total), a glue gun, some white glue, and a bag of miscellaneous twigs, leaves, etc. that we collected at the park

Start by spreading a generous amount of white glue on to your wreath.

We used the small tubes of Elmer's School Glue, and the boys managed to squeeze every last drop from the tube.

Grab a handful of your moss and start sticking it to the glue, making sure you press hard to get it all to stick. This is the part where I should mention that it would be in your best interest to put down newpaper or whatnot under your work area. Clearly, I learned this the hard way when I had to scrape up glued-on moss off of my glass table.

The kids loved squeezing and spreading around the white glue, but in the end I had to go back and reattach some of the moss with the glue gun.

Time to add the fun stuff! We broke down our large sticks into smaller pieces, and then we got out the hot glue gun. I had Sawyer hand me whichever stick he wanted to use, and then I applied the glue and placed it where he wanted it. If it was a really big stick and he was insistant upon doing it himself, I would put a dab of glue in the middle and let him glue it down himself, making sure he was only holding on to the ends of the stick. I just don't trust my kids with hot glue lol

When you're all finished with the sticks and leaves, use hot glue to attach your little bird.

Sutton & Sawyer's finished wreaths adding some Springtime cheer to our house :)

Best. Cookies. Ever.

2009-03-24T13:14:00.001-07:00

I've been making chocolate chip cookies for most of my life, but I can never seem to master the perfect cookie, especially according to my all-too-picky-about-his-cookies husband. I want my cookies crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle, and packed with chocolatey goodness. Awhile back I stumbled on a recipe on Yahoo claiming to be an "All-Star Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe," so on Sunday, after some ~~whining~~ encouragement from my band of loyal cookie testers, I set about to make the perfect chocolate chip cookies. According to the hubby, I finally succeeded (yay!) in creating a cookie that is both super tasty and the perfect texture. So, I thought I'd share the love and pass on the recipe. It has a couple of unique steps, but I followed the recipe to the letter, and it passed the perfect cookie inspection so I'd recommend doing it anyway, even if it seems strange :)

THICK & CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Ingredients:
2 1/8 c. all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 c. brown sugar (light or dark - I used light)
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 c. semi sweet chocolate chips or chunks

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper and lower middle positions.

2. Melt butter and cool slightly. I melted it in a small microwave bowl and then stuck it back into the freezer for a few minutes until it was opaque and creamy again, but still melty.

3. Either by hand or with an electric mixer (I opted for hand mixing), mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, egg yolk and vanilla.

4. In a second bowl, thoroughly mix together all the dry ingredients. Stir into the wet ingredients until just combined, and then stir in the chocolate chips.

5. "Form 1/4 c. dough into a ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough's uneven surface." That's what the original recipe says. Basically, I ripped the giant dough ball in half and then smushed the sides back together so that the two torn halves made up the top of the new dough ball. Not sure if that's exactly what it meant, but it worked for me!

6. Place formed dough onto parchment lined cookie sheet, about 9 dough balls per sheet (btw, these cookies are HUGE). Makes about 18-20 cookies.

7. Bake, reversing the cookie sheet's position halfway through baking, for 15-18 minutes until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden, yet centers are still soft and puffy. (Mine actually took 18-20 minutes, just keep a close eye on them).

8. IMPORTANT: Cool cookies on the cookie sheet to make sure they end up with the perfect texture! Dough can be frozen up to 1 month or refrigerated for up to 2 days, shaped or not.

ENJOY!

Ultimate Blog Party '09

2009-03-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

I was browsing some of my favorite blogs last night looking for inspiration and new projects to make with the kids, and I stumbled upon an amazing site called 5 Minutes for Mom. Their site is completely dedicated to everything "mom," and I can say that I browsed their site for quite awhile, and it's AWESOME! I especially love the "Mom Shops" section where they have a directory of everything you can imagine that is Mommy-made by work-at-home moms like myself.

Check out their annual Ultimate Blog Party for a HUGE (thousands!) list of blogs that you can check out - be inspired, make some new friends and maybe score some loot while you're at it (there are TONS of awesome prizes to be won!). Personally, I'd love to win #158 (A KitchenAid Stand Mixer in your choice of colors!), #11 (a $50 package from YouCanMakeThis.com), #19/#20/#21 ($50 gift card to Target - because, really, who wouldn't love free cash to a place I spend so much time at anyway!?), USC#58 (a gorgeous custom apron from boojiboo.etsy.com)...or any of these (Check out the prize list for the specifics!): INTL 41, INTL 61, 41, 104, 76, 89, 8, 16, 106, INTL 2, INTL 8, USC 77, USC 44, USC 16, USC 6, USC 26...or pretty much ANY of the prizes listed lol. What a fabulous giveaway! SO glad I found 5 Minutes for Mom!

Easter Egg Banner

2009-03-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

This Easter egg banner is a great craft for quickly creating a holiday decoration out of little more than paper scraps and glue. First, you'll want to gather up the supplies you need:

This was actually what I gave my kids to keep them entertained while I made my banner, but short of an Easter egg template (I got mine here), this is pretty much all you need. I'd recommend using better scissors than the ones my 3-year-old was using though ;)
If you have an oval cutter and an Xacto knife it will make easier work of creating the inner shapes. Stamp pad and/or ink is optional for a more vintage look.

I didn't think about making a tutorial until I was quite aways along in the project, so I apologize that there are some steps not photographed.

* Print the egg template on heavy cardstock and cut out the egg shape using an Xacto knife. Be careful to cut the egg shape out without cutting through any of the edges as this will be used as a pattern from which you'll cut all your large egg shapes.

* Choose 7 mix-and-match papers (approximately 5"x7") for the large background eggs. Using your cardstock egg stencil pattern, draw the egg shape on the back side of the papers, and cut out.

* Cut seven mix-and-match interior egg shapes. This is the part where an oval cutter really comes in handy.

* Using Microsoft Word or a similar program, print the letters "E-A-S-T-E-R" in any font of your choice. Cut out the individual letters, and use double stick tape to adhere the border of the letter to a smaller scrap of paper. Using your Xacto knife or scissors, carefully cut out your letters using the printed font as your guide.

* Using a coordinating font, print and cut out the word "Happy." Using double stick tape, place the last small egg on top of the cut out word, and then use another piece of double stick tape to adhere both pieces to a brightly lit window. Using the backlighting and a black marker, trace the word onto the egg.

* Assemble and embellish as pictured:

* Now it's time to embellish! You can really go crazy here adding all kinds of trims: glitter, seed beads, ribbons and such. I opted to go for a quick finish since I was trying to complete my craft in the duration of my boys' naptime.

* For my finish I chose to ink the edges of all the layers with a black stamp pad. I only have a large stamp pad, but I don't mind if it gets a little messy. If you do decide to do an ink or chalk edged finish, you'll need to treat each layer before you assemble them together.

* Lay out a length of 7/8" ribbon (approx. 5' long) and space your letters along the ribbon however you wish. When all of the letters are in place, use your Xacto knife to cut a small slit through both the top of the egg and the layer of ribbon underneath it. Use a decorative brad or fastener to attach each egg to the ribbon.

All finished - quick and easy!

I love these little faux chocolate bunnies