They enjoyed decorating foam egg shapes with self-stick Easter themed foam stickers, we're going to use them as place cards for our Easter Sunday family meal. What fun, to include ER in the decorations Grandma. This is a simple and fun craft for even the youngest, it's so nice that all the innovations in crafting material make things fun without the mess.Meanwhile, Brad and I escaped for a few hours to go shopping for my birthday present! What fun and it's all Noelle's fault, as she did a post on the new fabrics at Vera Bradley. Ever since seeing them, they've been on my mind. I just had to have something in the fun purple punch print, I got it in the mailbag style which doesn't look that big online but is quite roomy. I love how it has multiple zippered pockets, one of which as slots for your credit cards so I can use that hidden pocket as my wallet and eliminate one thing I have to carry, and how the strap can be adjusted so I can wear it across my body. Can't wait to get it on the 13th!
Today when Grammy, Papa, and Uncle Dave came over I decided to recruit them for craft time. I was joking about how many adults it took to help one two year old, as all four or us were standing around watching her, no wonder she thinks the world revolves around her! Grammy helped her with the tissue paper, gluing everything down. Our tissue paper collage is still drying, but she's excited for me to cut it out in the shape of an elephant so we can hang it up. 
Then it was Papa's turn to supervise stamping. Can I just say I LOVE these 
Cut a piece of fabric to the same size as your piece of felt, I just used the very inexpensive felt sheets that come pre-cut. They are the perfect size for rolling up and keeping in your bag without taking up too much room.
Cut piece of iron on vinyl to the same size as your fabric. Follow the directions on the package and iron onto the right side of the fabric. Let it cool off before moving on.
Pin and sew vinyl covered fabric to felt, with vinyl covered side facing the felt. Before beginning attach ribbon.
Now that was easy, but for an even simpler way to get one, come by 
It's just a piece of foam core board cut down into a rectangle, mine is 15X19 but any dimensions will work. I've also seen felt boards made by covering a stretched artist canvas using the same technique. Foam core is sold by the sheet, often the size of poster board but is thicker. Both foam core and stretched canvas can be found at craft stores and both go on sale regularly.
I covered it in blue felt, wrapping it around and hot gluing it into place on the backside of the foam core. I didn't attempt to miter the edges because I planned on covering the back up.
I ended up hot gluing two sheets of felt to the back to help cover up the yuck. I was going to just cut another piece of the blue felt to cover up the backside, but then I realized I could use different colors of felt to represent different sorting areas and get two activities out of one. For example, she could put all the circles on one side and all the triangles on the other.
We're using it to learn our basic shapes along with colors. I used my Sizzix die cuts to help cut out felt shapes, and save me some work! I gave her all the shapes and let her make a shape picture. She likes doing this a lot, then when it's time to collect them I'll ask her to hand them by a specific attribute such as all the red shapes or all the circles. We also count the various shapes to work on counting and 1:1 correspondence.
She made the 
I am also thrilled to have been awarded a Cute Blog award from Christine at 
To prepare for this activity: Tape a small box together to form a cube or "dice" shape. Cover with neutral paper. Cover each side of the dice with a piece of colored paper representing the target colors. To give you an idea of the size of our box, I cut the colored paper to about 6x6 inches and then trimmed a bit to fit each side. I did not choose to include pink, as this is the one color my daughter can identify and name consistently - go figure!
Green Play Apple
Orange Pumpkin Photobook
To create the inside pages I wanted to use up more of my large scrap pile from other projects. For some reason I always seem to have long strips of patterned paper left over. So I made a template that incorporated them, for the recipes in MS Word with a text box, I can change the color easily to match my paper scraps - cute huh, with space for a picture. I also added a bit of the this recipe's history at the bottom.
I also decided to organize my growing collection of templates from various projects like the letter pillow and felt peony. Once I've used them, if I think I might need them again, I'm going to store each one in a sleeve like this. I've got yet another paper scrap, the title and a picture of the project, where I got it from, what I did with it, and room for notes. The templates are behind it. This is especially helpful if you've taken the trouble to enlarge a template, which can be frustrating and require several attempts - at least it is for me. Well who wants to repeat that experience, now I can just save them for next time.
I started with an 8x8 scrapbook and then made pockets, by folding in and up a 12x12 piece of cardstock, one for each month. Instead of glue, I used flat brads to hold the pocket together on the outer sides so it could expand to hold the cards. The other side is held in place by the posts in the post bound scrapbook. The month title and reminder card I created on my computer, printed out, and attached to each pocket.
To complete the gift I made twelve cards and put one along with an envelope in each pocket. Now my family can send a handmade card, made with love - even the one's who aren't cardmakers!
Ashley at Domestic Divas Fancy.jpg)
Procedure:
Have you child graph how many of each color he or she has.
The girls were busy the whole time they were here. We started with a conversation heart color sorting activity and color graphing activity for the oldest, as she finished quickly - being an expert from preschool and all! For prizes, we gave them the 
Then it was time for some crafting fun, princess style! I had every intention of making little kits myself until I found foam tiaras and wands at the dollar spot in Michael's. What a find, the girls were so happy I think there might have been squealing:) Plus this made it a lot easier for me, one less thing to have to do. I set out the crafts and the girls went to town decorating them with self adhesive foam hearts and swirls. We also embellished mailboxes I got at the Target dollar spot with their first initial and more foam hearts.
By that time we'd worked up quite an appetite. Pizza making time! Each girl got a Pillsbury biscuit, the kind from a roll that you twist and it pops open, to mash down into a heart shape. Then they covered them in sauce and cheese. The meal was rounded out by cut up veggies with Ranch (a special cause it's a party request from my kiddo), apple slices, and white chocolate covered strawberries. Kaylee at 
Pizzas were always a favorite activity during classroom activities, in fact the kids would only want to make pizza as their party food. I've tried various different ways: with mini pita rounds, English muffins, roll out dough, and hands down the kids liked the biscuits from the can best. Which was fine by me, they are easy cause they come already proportioned in the can and to make them you just follow the directions on the can, it's a good party activity for a parent volunteer to do.
After lunch there has to be...cookie decorating! What kind of party would it be without an excuse to lick frosting off our fingers?
Then it was time for our last game, sticker bingo. It's another favorite activity from my teaching days. Each girl got a sheet of stickers and bingo board grid I made on my computer. They made their own board by sticking on the stickers, one in each box, as they liked. I made up a set of calling cards, by putting one of each sticker on a small piece of construction paper. Then they took turns picking up one card at a time and holding it up. A candy conversation heart was used to cover up the matching sticker on each player's board. This is a simple and fun game, because all kids love stickers! It only involved matching picture stickers so even young kids can play it. Each of the girls got a little bag with the 
