Valentine's Day Bath Fun

Making bath time fun for Valentine's Day is easy with this activity. You can get all the details over at my new blog Inspired by Familia here.

Creative Valentine's Day Crafts for Kids

We are slowly but surely moving all of our post from here over to our website Inspired by Familia.  You can get the details on how to make this fun craft here.

Edible Chocolate Play Dough Recipe

This is definitely a win-win recipe not only do you get hours of fun with play dough and you also get to eat it. I will be sharing with you two activities to have fun with this play dough at Inspired by Family our Play Dough in a Jar Cupcake Fun and at Spanglish Baby our Your Very Own Chocolate Factory craft.

Now you don't have to tell your kids not to stick that in their mouth or not to play with their food. They can actually eat this and play with it.

Edible Chocolate Play Dough
Ingredients:

3-4 cps powdered sugar
3/4 cp cream cheese
3/4 cp powdered milk
1/2 cp Cocoa powder (baking kind)

Mix ingredient in a bowl. You don't want it to have a sticky consistency so start with 3 cups of sugar and if it's still sticky add a some sugar or milk powder.

My son is two and we made it together. He got to put the ingredients in and mix it and of course make a mess.  Note he wass wearing an apron and the bowl we used was large.

DIY Valentine's Day Treat Favors: Sewn with Love

 You can find this super easy and inexpensive craft over at my new blog: Inspired by Familia here! 

Tooth Fairy Printables in Different Languages

In the past month we have had quite the dentist appointments for my boys so this got me thinking about the Tooth Fairy.  It's looking like one of them will have metal in his near future.

I shared about our Tooth Fairy Traditions here and how we not only celebrate the Tooth Fairy but we also get our little mouse friend from my Hispanic background. Since reading The Tooth Fairy Meets El Raton Perez by Rene Colato Lainez, a fun read for children, it has inspired me to bridge both of our cultures with the tooth fairy tradition. We shared with our boys that "we" are the tooth fairy just like we did with Santa Claus but in both situations they still want to play along like there is a Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus and we don't mind playing along with them.

When it finally dawned on me, that not everyone has the tooth fairy (duh), I wanted to make a neutral printable to fit with any culture and one for those who have the Tooth Fairy and El Raton Perez (Latin America and Spain celebrate with El Raton Perez) and the French also have a mouse but his name is La Petite  Souris. I know many countries just throw their tooth up on the roof or place it in interesting places so hopefully one of these printables will be able to work with your tradition.

Tooth Fairy Receipts in Different Languages

Here's one for those who are in bi-cultural English speaking families: The Tooth Fairy and El Raton Perez. To print just right click on image and copy and paste into your document.



This one is blank so that you can fill it in with what corresponds to your own traditions:

For our Spanish speaking friends whose tradition incorporates El Raton Perez:

For our French Speaking Friends whose tradition incorporates : Le Petit Souris

Does the Tooth Fairy visit your house or do you have another tradition? I would love to hear about your tradition?

Recycled Snowman Tin Can Party Organizers

This recycled Snowman Craft is perfect to make ahead and use to place forks, spoons, straws for a party. Or fill them up with new pencils and pens for your child's teacher.

We used it for our Neighborhood Tree Decorating Party. Our neighborhood has a tree decorating party for all the kids every year. They decorate the GIANT Pine tree located in the neighborhood park.  Each child is asked to bring a recycled ornament to add to the tree. This was our first time doing this so I had no idea that we were decorating a GIANT Christmas tree and that we would ride a crane up to hand our ornament. It was a lot of fun for the boys and even more fun to see it hanging everytime we go by.

You can follow along via: Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook and our readers preferred way via email.

Told you it was huge. The crane is over to the left.

You will need:

• empty canned goods
• spray paint
• foam: orange and black
• ribbon
• hot glue

1. Spray paint your empty and cleaned out tins.

2. Add the face. Cut out nose from orange foam and a hat from the black foam.

3. Place ribbon around the bottom for the scarf and glue.

Other post you may enjoy:
Christmas Party Games
Handmade Stocking Stuffer Gifts

Christmas Paper Bag Crafts

You can follow along via: Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook and our readers preferred way via email.

Paper Bags are so wonderful and versatile. I especially love using them for crafting.

This post is now stored at our new website Inspired by Familia here! 

Frosty the Snowman Party Treat in 5 Minutes

I am fascinated by snowmen crafts, ornaments and figurines. But who can pass up an adorable Frosty the snowman treat at a holiday party?

This is perfect to make for a party of one, your little one or for a holiday gathering. If you can find white chocolate dipped cookies already covered that is even better. This is what I use and this party treat is whipped up in less then 5 minutes.

You will need baby food jar, punch or milk, ribbon, chocolate covered cookie, chocolate morsels for the face and candy corn for the nose or any other kind of soft orange candy.

I use corn syrup as my edible "glue" when making fun treats. Add a dab of it on  your mouth, nose and eyes. Then cut out a hat from black construction paper and tape on to the back of a straw. Fill your jars up with your drink and tie ribbon around it. Place the straw behind the cookie to hold it up.
Enjoy!

Christmas Ornament Craft: Easy Peppermint Candy

You can follow along via: Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook and our readers preferred way via email.

You can get this fun and easy Christmas Kids Craft at our new website Inspired by Familia!  For the details on this easy kid craft go here.

3 Ingredient Rich & Creamy Hot Chocolate: Homemade Gift Idea

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This was a big hit when we gifted these to my sons teachers.  It's easy to make and it's super yummy! The packaging was also really easy, see below for instructions.

My husband loves rich hot chocolate. I prefer my hot drinks in form of coffee or tea but when I had a taste of this I seriously wanted more in a large christmas mug.

So what's in my yummy 3 Ingredient Rich & Creamy Hot Chocolate: Sweet Condensed Milk, Low-fat milk and chocolate chips.  See recipe here.  When you see how easy this is to make you will want to whip up some Hot Chocolate Baskets to everyone: neighbors, school staff, teachers....

For the packaging I cut out a heart from newspaper. I used bakers twine and wrapped it around a juice bottle and added some bling bling with the LOVE sticker.  Fill your bottle with some hot chocolate yumminess and your set. 

You can also make a basket out of this by adding a mug and some homemade chocolate dipped marshmallows that they can stir into the hot chocolate.  If you're making this for yourself fill up a mug with this hot deliciousness and top with cool whip and crushed candy canes!

 

Thanksgiving: Last Minute Turkey Ideas

Looking for some Thanksgiving Turkey Ideas?  These are all super simple and fun, especially if you have a little crafter who needs some thing to do over Thankgiving break.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway below for your chance to win a Melissa & Doug toy from their top 20 List!

 

1. Cute Turkey Sandwich- This adorable sandwich was featured in the Celebrate Fall Issue contributed by Meet the Dubiens.

 

2. Turkey: Paper Bag Treats - Perfect for the kids or if you're a teacher for your class. It was stuffed with this deliciously healthy caramel popcorn ball.  

 

3.Turkey Fruit Display- Looking for ways to get some healthy food in your feast! This will get everyone's attention.

4. Pine Cone Turkey- So easy and fun, you can find this at Spanglish Baby. You can also use paper for the feathers and write what you're thankful for.

 

There are so many great and easy activities to make this Thanksgiving break fly by!

 

Holiday Gift Guide for Kids

Many of you know that apart from this blog I am the founding editor of Inspired by Family Magazine.  Today is our 1 year anniversary so we want to share with you the fun.
A year ago today I kicked off our e-zine on my birthday! (Keep reading for the fabulous giveaway)

Seriously, I had no idea what I was getting into when I kicked off our e-zine but God gave me the courage to move forward and so I did. Twelve months later, I am so thankful that I did. This journey has stretched me beyond belief. I have crossed paths with many beautiful and creative bloggers. It has blessed me to read your comments on how something you saw here encouraged you.

I have also had many challenges along the way. Computer problems that have made me want to throw my laptop out the window with frustration (I am not computer savvy). I have had the challenge to learn how to juggle life: family time, me time, God time and writing time. Learning how to rejoice with other bloggers in their accomplishments and not to be overcome with envy. Learning about working with brands and get noticed by them. Trying to figure out all the social networks out there, which there are too many for this old lady to keep up with. Also, trying to figure out magazine page layouts, photography, website design and so much more. All of this has stretched me in ways beyond my imagination and I have grown in leaps and bounds as a person, a mother, a wife, a friend, a counselor, a missionary, an entrepeneur, a photographer....

So I am thankful for this journey I have embarked on and I am mostly thankful that I don't walk it alone! I encourage you to dream and live out your hearts passion that honor your family, God and yourself. Sometimes our dreams are put on hold because the phase of life we are in and the responsibilities we have but whatever you do, don't let that keep you from dreaming. Instead baby step towards your dream and find small ways for your creative outlets. You can stop by and read it in full over here.

Now onto the celebrations!

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary, I want to share TWO things with you:

1. Our Holiday Issue: The Spirit of Christmas. It's our online flip-page magazine and it's filled with recipes, kid crafts, home decor, fashion tips, inspirational articles, Holiday gift guide, handmade gifts and so much more. The handmade gift items above are featured here. All FREE for your viewing pleasure, Winter Issue.

2. Giveaway! Our fabulous Melissa & Doug Giveaway! You can choose from any of their top 20 toys if you win. Stop by here and peruse their wonderful collection. You can also stop by their Facebook page and enter to win daily.

How you can enter to win!

On November 27th we will announce the winner. Please leave a legit email so we can contact you. The email from us will say: Melissa & Doug Terrific Twenty . You must have a U.S. shipping address to qualify.

Click here to go to the a Rafflecopter giveaway