knitting needle placecard

This placecard idea from Real Simple uses a wooden knitting needle to skewer a printed card. Might be fun for a craft party....

canvas presents

Love this simple holiday decor idea from Real Simple. Take blank white artist canvases and wrap with ribbon to create faux presents.

pumpkin turkey centerpieces

After Halloween, I bought several small pumpkins on sale with the intent to use them in some way for Thanksgiving dinner table decor.  I'd been thinking about painting them white and letting the kids color them at their tables, but tonight I had an idea to create a "thanks" turkey where the kids could each write things they are thankful for on paper feathers and add them to the pumpkin to create a turkey.  I did a quick google search and found a lot of pumpkin turkey ideas.  If you still have pumpkins around, here are a few links. I'll post what I end up making after Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Turkey Centerpiece at Make and Takes

Pumpkin Turkey Craft at Kaboose

Pumpkin Turkey Centerpieces

Dora's Pumpkin Turkey at Nick Jr.

handprint turkey pie

I love this idea from Family Fun....such a fun way to let your kids help out in the kitchen for Thanksgiving.

[kids focus] thanksgiving coloring pages

While searching for some Thanksgiving images for Elle to color, I came across a great site -Artists Helping Children.  The site has a ton of arts and crafts project ideas.  I loved these coloring sheets for a few reasons - the actual artwork wasn't cheesy and they required some thought and interaction.  Elle had a great time coloring and thinking about what features and color crayons to use on each face.

[kid focus] pasta necklaces

For our Indian theme week, Elle and I made pasta necklaces.  I naively thought it would be a great activity to entertain two 2 year olds while their moms had a meeting...not so much. It worked much better as an activity with just Elle and I.

She probably had the most fun helping to make the colored pasta.  We put the pasta in a ziploc bag, added a few drops of alcohol ink (we used Tim Holtz inks by Ranger) and then shook the bags until the pasta was evenly coated.  The alcohol inks dry quickly so it was fast and easy. We then used clear elastic thread to make the necklaces.  Elle is really into matching and colors so she had a great time mixing up the pasta and then separating it back into color groups. I think this would also be a fun activity to use for teaching patterns.