activities/games

April 10, 2013 No Comments

earth day activites for kids

Hi everyone! It’s Bridget! Kim is busy with lots of exciting things, including packing to speak at Bloggy Boot Camp in Phoenix this weekend, so I’m sharing a bit today!

Earth Day 2013 is April 22, so I’ve been on a kick to find Earth Day activities for kids to celebrate our great planet! Here are a few of my Earth Day 2012 favorites!

Reusable snack bags via For the Love of Skinny are a great simple sewing project
This Sensory Garden for Kids from Little Wonders’ Days is a fabulous way to indulge your senses and do a little something for the Earth (I will definitely be making one!)
Very Hairy Caterpillar via Spoonful is a lovely way to make indoor gardening fun!
Globe Luminary from Twig and Toadstool is an great way to light up your world {wink}
Plantable Paper via Alphamom is not only adorable, but super Earth-friendly, too

Of course, I couldn’t stop with just a few Earth Day activities, so let’s keep going.

Tin Can Flower Pot via The Celebration Shoppe {of course!}
Stained Glass Planet Earth via Mom on Timeout is perfect for any age group
Earth Mosaic lid via Kiwi Crate – I {heart} the felt heart addition on this one
DIY Bird Feeders via East Coast Mom blog are just too tweet to pass up!

As always, we hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate!

Join The Celebration Shoppe on facebook, sign-up for the daily ideas to come right to your inbox (never miss an idea, giveaway or free printable!), follow Kim on twitter, pinterest and on instagram. And don’t forget to shop the party store for birthday, baby shower and holiday party supplies. Follow Kim’[s blog with Bloglovin.

Looking for art activities for the kids?! When we photographed my art birthday party supplies collection for the store we came up with these kid crafts ~ have the kids make cupcake art with supplies including:

cupcake liners (cut in half),
tissue paper,
pom poms,
felt,
ribbon and more!

Included in the art party supplies we designed four whimsy frames for the kids to create on: red/blue, orange/yellow, purple/chartreuse and black/white.

We also created ”award badges” that you can give to each guest. They say things like most creative, best in show, most artistic, best design, most colorful and best color palette. A great way for every child to feel special. The awards are rectangle tags and then we created the crepe ribbon backer. (You can see how to create a similar idea with our graduation collection.)

And last but not least, here’s a look at the Art Gallery entry sign that is also part of the printable collection. We printed it at Costco for $5.99 and embellished it with yellow crepe paper. Can you tell I’m loving crepe paper lately?! It’s inexpensive, comes in a variety of colors and so simple to manipulate. LOVE.

You can see more details from my Art birthday party supplies collection in the shoppe: Invitation, Thank you notes, Art birthday party supplies (available as sets or you can buy individual items).

And as always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate!

Photography by Angie Arthur Photography.

Join The Celebration Shoppe on facebook, sign-up for the daily ideas to come right to your inbox (never miss an idea, giveaway or free printable!), follow us on twitter, pinterest and on instagram at @thecelebrationshoppe. And don’t forget to shop our party store for birthday, baby shower and holiday party supplies

loving the LEGO YouTube Channel

Anyone else have a LEGO® obsessed kiddo… or two… living with them?! You’re going to love the new LEGO® video channel on youtube. It is amazing and kid-safe! (And if you may want to checkout my son’s eighth birthday LEGO® party too.)

So our school is 30 minutes away… I know what you’re thinking and I think it almost every morning. BUT, it’s a fabulous school and I’m committed to my kiddos getting a great education. Anyhoo, we have a long drive back and forth each day. Many mornings we’re reviewing spelling words or taking a few timed math quizzes (some great apps out there), but the afternoons are different. My boys want to unwind and be entertained.

Those are the times when our new LEGO® playlist on YouTube is going to come in! When the boys were making their playlists they laughed so hard and so loud they made me giggle.

Lego-City-Collage-615

My oldest is really into LEGO® City right now so he’s all about the LEGO® City videos. I have to admit, the robbers are hilarious.

And a very cool side-effect of the videos, my sons were inspired to build a few of the things they saw.

Just follow these steps and you can create your own LEGO® video playlist from over 500 videos that your kids… or you {grin}… can watch from anywhere: in the car, at an airport, waiting in line at the craft store (they hate that), around the house, etc.

And do you see that last building block point in the picture, “Build Playlists using only LEGO® videos, to keep non-LEGO content from being recommended during playback.” As a mom of two LEGO® loving boys, this part is critical. My guys are 8 and 6 and some of the things that others create and place on YouTube are just not appropriate. But with the real LEGO® team, your kids are safe and giggling.

Here’s a link to our LEGO® video playlist to help get you started!

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate! Happy Sunday everyone!

Thank you to LEGO and Technorati for being sponsors. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own. You know I would have it no other way!

fall fun: hue hunt with paint chips

I had the best afternoon yesterday with my youngest (big brother was still in class, so we’re absolutely doing this again!). We went for a fall hue hunt around the neighborhood!

A fabulous fall activity, a hue hunt gets you outdoors enjoying the weather, the colors of the season, and it gives you the opportunity to talk about plant life and the cycle of the seasons. Here it was a little brisk yesterday, which made this excursion even more exciting as we look forward to a beautiful fall season!

All you need are some paint chips in fall hues and God’s creations. Our colors are just starting to turn, but soon the trees will be burning bright with oranges, reds and purples and we’ll likely go on a hike with even more paint chips in hand. I can’t wait! {giddy}

My little guy even said, “Mommy, this is just the best afternoon!” {happy momma smile}

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and in this case, celebrate the seasons!

Join The Celebration Shoppe on facebook, sign-up for the daily ideas to come right to your inbox (a box in the right-side navigation bar), follow us on twitter, pinterest and on instagram at @thecelebrationshoppe

end-of-summer bucket list

My boys have two short weeks… just two short weeks before school starts back up and we’re making a plan! We want to squeeze a few more fun days and memories into this summer so we’re making a end-of-summer bucket list!

And since this is their summer and not mine, I’m letting them create the list… with a few parameters. I mean, I too would love to buzz off to Walt Disney World and come back and inspire you to hop a plane with tons of fun and exciting pictures, but it just isn’t in the cards this year. {smile}

Sidenote - We did go to Walt Disney World at Halloween a few years ago for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and if you’re considering it I strongly recommend it. It was so much fun and they even catered to my little guy with food allergies. And not just at Halloween, we’ve been a few times and they are so attentive to his dietary needs. It truly is the most magical place on earth!

So on to the bucket list! These are in no order, and this is only a partial list, but let’s just say I’m going to be exhausted when school starts and gladly so. There is no greater gift than time with my boys!

DOWNLOAD YOUR 2012 END-OF-SUMMER BUCKET LIST now!

Oh, and you can even add your own family name right in the file before printing. No special program needed!

And if you’re not sure what you’d put on your bucket list… just think about fun things, not necessarily expensive things, just things that you can do with your kids to make this the best summer ever! Let’s be honest, they want your time and attention more than any other gift you could give!

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate!

old school dinosaur shadow boxes

Do you remember in grade school when you made shadow boxes for art class or for some school project… or just so your Barbies had a place to hang out?! Yes I did! Well… she couldn’t always be in the dream house, or at her pool, or in her convertible…! {smirk}

So my crew hasn’t slowed down much this summer with swim lessons, tennis lessons, baseball, playdates at the zoo… and on and on, but there have been a few days when we’ve just stayed at home and played. I love to get creative with my boys and there isn’t always a plan.

So on one rainy afternoon… okay it stormed big time… we were looking for something to do when I thought about those old school shadow boxes we used to make. And since we don’t have Barbies (except my old ones that I’ve stashed in a box with my mom’s very first Barbie, yep… that baby should be worth something!) we chose to go with dinosaurs. Those we have more than enough of!

The boys loved stealing my shoe boxes, raiding my craft room and getting to use my “good” paper scissors. My little guy even managed to find a use for my Martha Stewart fringe scissors. See the grass; they worked perfectly!

My favorite elements of what they created was the snake on the rock (top image), you see he’s smiling, the drawing of the volcano and the sun.

So if you’re looking for a fun afternoon project that gets the kids thinking prehistoric, or any theme for that matter (we started to make round two boxes with an ocean theme when Dad came home early and interrupted us… at which time I was abandoned because the storm was over and they could play in the remaining drizzle) consider whipping up some of these old school shadow box crafts.

By the way, stop in the shoppe and see our dinosaur birthday party supplies, perfect for your little paleontologist.

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and celebrate!

Oreo Olympic medal treats

The Olympics opening ceremonies are only a few days away, July 27! Do you have any fun planned at your house for that evening or for a particular game? Well with a runner, two swimmers, a soccer player, two baseball players, two basketball players, four golfers and football player in the house… yep that’s right I only have two kids… needless to say we will be watching the opening ceremonies and a ton of events. {grin}

And one of the treats I’ll be serving on opening night are these super clever Oreo Olympic Medal treats from Deanna of Mirabella Creations.

For these all you need are Golden Oreos and Fruit by the Foot. They’re simple {love that}, creative {love that too} and best of all, they’re dairy, nut and egg free!

For anyone that spends any time with me on the blog, you know that my youngest son has severe food allergies and I’m always looking for ways that we can all share treats… not him have something and the rest of us have something else… the entire family having the same treat! It’s important to him! That sweet little face “Mommy, have one of my cookies! or Mommy, try my milk!” Because you see, he so often has to have his own special something… it breaks my heart! {Thanks Deanna for submitting your ideas for feature!}

I’ll be sharing more of Deanna’s Olympic ideas later today, but for those of you that just can’t wait, hop over right now and see all her creations and maybe a freebie or two!

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, create and CELEBRATE!

summer journaling tips

This collage of images taken with my iPhone and edited in Camera+, PicFix and PicFrame

At the beginning of the summer I took the boys to Target and let them pick out any notebook they wanted to journal their summer. My oldest chose a leather bound notebook, a real… traditional journal, and of course his little brother followed his lead choosing the same book in another color. They were super excited and my oldest even picked up a mini pocket version to take hiking and on other outdoor adventures. (It’s now full of math, pressed leaves and other goodies… although I hope no mushed bugs!)

I was thrilled! I really wanted it to start with the first day of summer and help them capture each day. My primary goal for the project was to keep my oldest from slipping in his writing skills over the summer and to boost my soon to be Kindergartener’s letter formation and spelling before the fall. But as a mom, I really wanted all those sweet little thoughts on paper too!

This collage is from a few weeks ago. My youngest, hat on backwards, hard at work. My oldest on the other hand created a tin can robot to do his journaling that day… {smirk} My little genius only wishes! Ha!

A few tips I’ve found helpful for our summer journaling adventure:

Topic – let them choose their favorite part of the day to talk about.
Visual – we often start with drawing a picture of what they’re going to talk about. It incorrporates a bit of art, plus it gets their creative juices flowing.
Length cooresponds to age - for my oldest, I expect 3-4 sentences and descriptive words. For my youngest, one sentence is acceptable.

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake, JOURNAL, and create!

Oh, and if you’d rather photojournal your summer, you can read my post and follow our adventures on Instagram at TheCelebrationShoppe.

Happy Friday everyone!

DIY fairy garden

Remember my super-talented art teacher friend, Becky? The one that created the patriotic monogram wreath. Well, she has a creative daughter and she put together this bright and cheerful fairy garden perfect for imaginary play this summer!

Since I’m always looking for ways to engage my daughters in my own garden, I thought this was brilliant! What a delightful way to get the girls playing in the dirt and still keep things “girly!”

Round up her fairy dolls, some simple items from your garage (old pots, maybe a toad abode) or take a trip to your local hardware store, and maybe steal a few stones from your fish tank, then let her work her magic making her own Pixie Hollow!

You can find our fairy birthday party supplies in the shoppe.

As always, we hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create!

how to photojournal your summer

My time with my boys is so very precious and they’re always doing funny things or wonderful things that I wish I could remember forever. I do journal (the traditional way) about them. Mostly the highlights of big days, funny little things they say and those {gasp} “they’re growing up too fast” moments. But I also want to grab and save those crazy smiles too.

So this summer I’m photojournaling our entire summer break. But instead of lugging my DSLR around and spending hours in Photoshop, I’m using my iPhone and some really fun and easy apps.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my DSLR. I use it all the time when there are planned outings or when I really want to get those close-up shots, but it’s not always with me and let’s face it, it’s a bit bulky… not to mention they know when mom is taking pictures when I have it with me. With my iPhone I can be sneaky {giggle} and capture them when they’re not expecting it.

I started this project because of my L-O-V-E for Instagram (you can find me at @thecelebrationshoppe). I’m constantly sharing what we’re up to or peeks at my latest craft projects. And by following and reading others I’ve found these fun frame and text overlay apps.

But you don’t have to be on Instragram. You can just create the collages and save them to your phone or e-mail them to yourself. (TIP: If you e-mail the image/collage to yourself from the picframe app, it will be a higher resolution than if you save it to your phone and then e-mail it to yourself. Some of mine are as large as 4MB).

So here are the apps that I use and why:

Camera + – I never take pictures with my regular camera phone anymore. With Camera + I can take pics and edit or delete them before saving to my phone.
Picfx – this app is full of textures. So once I’ve done my basic editing in Camera +, sometimes I go to Picfx to add textures. Light is my favorite texture, but there are over 50 to choose from.
PicFrame – I have a few frame apps, some with and without text overlay, but this one is my favorite and the one I used to do all of the collages in this post.

A few tips to creating great collages AND memories:

capture multiple angles,
get close up,
gain perspective (shoot high and shoot low), and
photograph parts of the story (e.g., water balloons) individually. Alone it might not make much sense, but in a collage they make a real impact.

And if you do start a little project like this of your own AND you’re on Instagram, please follow me at @thecelebrationshoppe and comment so I can find you. You can also tag your post with #photojournaling because I’ll be checking. {grin}

As always, I hope you’re inspired! And I hope you’re enjoying your summer!

earth day activites for kids

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