Mama

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities! Thank you for stopping by! I meant to publish this on Christmas Eve for anyone looking for a last minute craft, but I ended up leaving my camera at my in-laws and have been enjoying family time, so here it is now. It isn't too late to make canvas art for this year. It would still capture the itty bitty hands or feet of your little one to admire next year. This would also be a great activity for any time of year, or to celebrate another special date, just pick a theme that would fit that date or time of year.  Last Christmas I wanted to make something with Skyler that we could use as part of our future holiday decorations. On Christmas Day, we ended up painting his tiny six month old feet and making "mistle-toes" on a canvas. I finished the canvas with some ribbon and glitter paint. I loved the finished product and it makes me so happy every time I see it on our mantle this year....

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities! Thank you for stopping by! As a kid, my favorite thing to open on Christmas morning was my ornament. Even still, ornaments are one of my favorite things to get. They are so special and capture special moments in time. I love to look back on the ornaments I have received, and being able to put them on my own tree this year was a lot of fun (the very very non-breakable ones!) Last year for Skyler, I bought him an ornament (or two...whoops) and we made an ornament. I wanted to recreate that this year and have both a gift and handmade ornaments. Last year, we got him this hand painted ornament and this hand stamped leaf    And we made a simple salt dough hand print ornament for his first Christmas.  This year, my baby boy is obsessed with anything vehicle related. We read books, play with, and watch out the window for anything that moves! So, for his second Christmas, I bought him a sweet ...

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities! Thank you for stopping by! The idea for these simple jingle bell musical shakers came from our ECFE class. Skyler had a blast this week playing with one as the group sang "Jingle Bells." We had a couple of plastic lids on hand at home, so we went out to get some bells to make some of our own and have had so much fun with these! The shakers in our class used a hole punch, which would be a great way of doing it so older children could string the bells around the lid. I used a knife to cut sets of two slits around the plastic lid and did the stringing of the bells. All that you will need to make the jingle bell musical shakers is plastic lids (one of ours was from happy tot puffs and the other was from a yogurt container), ribbon, bells, and tape (put on the end of the ribbon helped to string through the slits on the lid). Skyler and I had a dance party to "Jingle Bells" and ...

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities! Thank you for stopping by! We went to have pictures taken with Santa when Joe had the day off work last week. While part of me was hoping for a crying picture (I know it is terrible, but they are so cute and funny), we were lucky with great visits two years in a row! I love to compare tiny six month old Skyler to my 'big' 18 month old boy! His smile looks just the same, and it is hard to believe it has already been a year since that first picture! On our way back home, baby boy just wanted to look at his picture. He smiled, pointed, and said "Santa!" the entire drive. I love the hand painted frames from Exposures. Skyler's picture from last year is framed on our mantel and the 2013 frame is on the top of my Christmas list. We also have the Halloween frames from 2012 and 2013, and they looked great on our mantel in the fall!

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities! Thank you for stopping by! I love using contact paper with children. At one childcare center I worked at, we used it all the time. I picked up a roll to use with Skyler, knowing that I wanted to create a play activity on the glass sliding door in our dining room. As we were making the hand print wreaths, I knew exactly how to incorporate the contact paper with another 'decoration' for the holidays. I was able to prepare all of the materials during Skyler's nap, and we played with it when he woke up. It has been a lot of fun, and is getting more filled every day. It is definitely something that Skyler likes to go back to often. For this activity I measured the contact paper to the height of the door, then traced out the shape I wanted, adding some green around the outside to make it look like a Christmas tree. I rolled the cut shape it in the opposite direction so it wo...

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities! Thank you for stopping by! We moved into our home last January, so this is our first year decorating for the holidays. I wanted our home to feel festive while keeping in mind that we do not have to go out and buy all new decorations to do so. One of the things I struggled with this year was a wreath for our front door. I saw many wreaths that I would love to buy, but did not feel like spending the money on one. I thought about getting materials to make a DIY wreath. Finally I remembered an art project I wanted to do with Skyler last year - making a wreath out of hand prints. We used green, red, and white construction paper with green and red paint to make the prints. Instead of doing the prints all on the same page, I mixed and matched the colors and layered them to make the wreaths. When the wreaths were finished, I put contact paper on the front and back, and cut it close to the wreaths to ...