How to Make an Easy Nature Bookmark Tutorial

July 2, 2018June 26, 2018 sweetfrugallife1 Comment

I spent a wonderful week with my sister in the mountains. We took walks, watched movies, played games, and enjoyed getting out of our daily routines.

My sister planned such a fun simple nature craft for the kids to do. I loved it so much and felt like it would be perfect for camping or a nature study.

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Easy Nature Bookmark Tutorial Craft

First, you will need to collect flowers, leaves, and any other thing that catches your eye. this made for a really fun nature walk.

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Once you gather your flowers you will need to press them. We laid our flowers on a paper towel and put books on top to help press them. We kept them under the books for about 6-7 hours. I found that this wasn’t enough time for the flowers to dry fully. I would recommend at least 24 hours.

Once your leaves and flowers are dried it’s time to start designing your bookmark. My sister used Self Laminating Pouches to give the bookmarks a nice strong seal.

You will lay your flowers down on the non sticky part of the pouch. This is the fun part! The kids loved spending time getting their bookmarks to look just right! We were able to get 2 bookmarks out of one pouch.

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Once you have your flowers laid you will put the sticky part of the pouch on top. This part was tricky! It is hard to redo any mistakes, so you will want to take your time and be exact. Slowly peel off the backing as you place the sticky side on top of the flowers. Be sure to press and seal as you are peeling it off.

Once you have it all laminated and sealed just right you can cut your bookmarks in half, punch a hole through the top and thread some ribbon through for a nice top.

We learned a lot doing this craft and I am excited to try it again seeing if we can fix some of our mistakes. My kids have been so proud of these and excited to use them.

I hope that you and your littles will enjoy spending a little bit of time preserving nature.

Easy Fourth of July Craft: Fireworks Stamping

June 25, 2018 sweetfrugallifeLeave a comment

Is their really any holiday better than the 4th of July???? Sunshine. BBQS. Parades. Family. Friends. Fireworks. I love this holiday.

We have started celebrating a few weeks early with a couple of fun and easy Fourth of July crafts. A lot of our crafts revolve around toilet paper tubes….because you really can’t get any cheaper than toilet paper tubes, right?!?! This craft is one that we do every year. It is so simple and easy!

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You will need to collect a few toilet paper tubes. I used three toilet paper tubes so that I could have one for each color of paint: red, white and blue.

Once I ~~dug the toilet paper tubes out of the trash~~ collected three toilet paper tubes, we began to cut around the bottom. We cut thin strips, about half way up all around the tube. Once your strips are all cut, fan them out so the bottom is flat.

Dip each toilet paper tube in paint and begin stamping on your paper.

Once our sky was full of fireworks we decided to sprinkle glitter on the paint to give it a little extra sparkle. I used what I had at home, blue and gold. I really liked the way the glitter helped the firework stamps to stand out.

We have our firework stamps hung up on the fridge. It is a fun reminder of the Independence Day we get to celebrate soon!

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Crafts · Family · For the kids · Free Fun · Frugal Life · Good Ideas · Homemade · Parenting · Recipes

Peanut Butter Play Dough Recipe

June 20, 2018 sweetfrugallifeLeave a comment

My kids LOVE making play dough, and it is something we do often. But, when we make Peanut Butter Play Dough they REALLY REALLY love it.

Peanut Butter Play Dough is such a great sensory activity for kids. They can touch, see, smell, and even taste it. That is my kids favorite part! They love that they actually get to EAT the play dough.

It is so so easy to make peanut butter play dough. It only takes three ingredients and a few minutes of your time.

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Peanut Butter Play Dough Recipe

2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

Mix all ingredients in bowl. Stir well and knead until smooth.

That’s it! So easy! Let your kids play and enjoy! We get out cookie cutters and knives and forks. My kids can spend hours playing.

Crafts · Easter · Holidays · Parenting

Easter Egg Sun Catcher

March 12, 2018March 24, 2018 sweetfrugallife5 Comments

I made the cutest Easter Egg Sun Catcher with my son the other day. We have it hanging up in our window right now and I love seeing the bright colors of it every day. This project is so easy and I just used items I had around the house. The colors of the egg can easily be customized using any of your favorite colors. I did this craft with my preschooler, but it would also be great for a toddler!

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First, I gathered all of my supplies. You will need:

Tissue Paper: I just grabbed all my spring colors from the tissue paper I already had at home.
Contact Paper: I buy this at Walmart. A roll will last a long time and is fun for laminating things by hand or other fun little craft projects.
Scissors
Paper Hole Punch
String, yarn, whatever you have on hand to hang the egg on

Cut squares out of your tissue paper. I didn’t use very much from each color, it will just depend on how many and how big you are making your egg.

After you have a nice pile of tissue paper squares it’s time to get your contact paper ready. I cut two pieces of contact paper both large enough for our egg. Set one of the contact pieces aside and pull off the backing of the other piece and lay it sticky side up on the counter top. My son then started placing the tissue paper all over the contact paper, making sure to overlap and fill all the holes.

Once you have your contact paper covered with the tissue paper you will need pull off the backing of your second sheet of contact paper. Carefully lay the two contact sheets together with both sticky side on the tissue paper.

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I printed an egg template off my computer just from clip art. I traced the egg onto the contact paper and then cut along the tracing. Once the egg is cut out you can use your hole punch to poke a hole in the top of the egg. Loop your string through the hole and your Easter Egg sun chatcher is ready to hang in your window!

My son has a short attention span so he loves doing these quick and easy projects with me. Now if only the snow would melt and then spring would really be here!

See my post How we are going to help our kids remember the TRUE meaning of Easter for a fun activity to help the kids learn about Christ’s Resurrection and the true meaning of Easter.

Crafts · For the kids · Parenting

5 FREE activities to do with Kids using items you already have at home

March 2, 2018March 17, 2018 sweetfrugallife2 Comments

I’m all about finding easy ways to entertain kids at home. ESPECIALLY with items I most often have around the house. Where I live the winters can get LONG and we all tend to get a little stir crazy. If I can keep the kids entertained and happy without needing to spend money, I am feeling pretty good!

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1. A Box and a few markers and scissors

That’s it. Whenever you get a box–SAVE IT! Large boxes are best, these can be a little hard to come by, so if you ever get one make sure to hold on to it! We turn large boxes into secret hideouts, spaceships and cars. We have used our “box car” to make our very own drive-in movie. Decorate the box to look like a car and put some pillows in it and sit in it to watch a movie. My kids love this! Save your small boxes too, shoe boxes are really fun. We like to turn the inside of a shoe box into a scene, it could be a mountain scene, a castle, a race track anything your kids are interested in will work! Make your scene using construction paper, markers, glue and then your kids can use their toys to play inside of the box. Once you’re done put the lid on it and save it for another day. We love this!

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2. Magazines and scissors

My kids love to cut out pictures in my magazines. We store them in a container and my kids will get them out and make stories using the pictures. We will glue these onto papers and make a story book out of it, or other times my kids will just play with the pictures like paper dolls. Either way, this is something they really enjoy doing.

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3. Play dough

There is no need to buy play dough. It is so easy to make and kids love to help! I posted the instructions for my favorite recipe here: Our Favorite Play dough Recipe. We get out cookie cutters, butter knives and rolling pins to use for even more play dough fun.

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4. A piece of wood and paint

My husband is a wood worker, so we always have extra junk wood around. Sometimes I will pull out a junk piece of wood and a few of my craft paints for my preschooler to paint on. He loves when I do this! He likes painting a picture on paper, but the wood and craft paints entertains him for a long time and he is always so proud of it when he’s done.

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5. Science Experiment

My kids love when we do science experiments. I have a few favorites that we do quite often. I shared one of these here: Magic toothpick science experiment. This experiment is so fun for the kids because the toothpick almost really does seem like magic. The designs it makes are always different and so pretty and fun.

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What are your completely FREE activities to keep your kids entertained at home?? Share them with me in the comments!

Crafts · For the kids · Holidays · Parenting

Easy St.Patrick’s Day Craft for Kids

February 23, 2018March 17, 2018 sweetfrugallife1 Comment

This St.Patrick’s Day craft for kids is so easy, so simple, and oh so fun for preschoolers and toddlers. I love finding fun crafts for kids that are actually helping their little bodies develop. I am a fan of multi tasking BTW! This craft is fantastic for helping the little ones develop their fine motor skills. It requires a lot of tearing, or cutting, which will strengthen those little finger muscles….all while having a little fun!

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I gathered up all of my random green paper I could find around the house, most of it came from the scrap pile I keep from other other projects. I printed out a shamrock by finding a clip art shamrock on Microsoft Word. (yes, I am so fancy 🙂 )

Now let your sweet little get to work. Encourage them to rip the papers into small pieces. My son got a little tired of ripping and decided to get his scissors out and cut pieces. Do whichever works for you and your littles.

Once you have a nice pile of green shredded paper have your child glue the pieces onto the shamrock. We decided to turn this into a group effort, I glued and he stuck the papers on. It was fun to spend some time together crafting and discussing St.Patrick’s.

This was such a fun activity. I love doing things these simple craft projects, especially when I already have all the supplies on hand. How are you prepping for St.Patricks day with your kids?