Golf, neckties, BBQ, and fishing. You know what those four things have in common. Someone once decided that all fathers around the country are represented by these categories. While I love a good rib and some kicked-back fly fishing, I kind of refuse to make this holiday, and the DIY gifts, all about these cliches.
What it’s really about is kids, love, and the appreciation of the men in their lives. With some help from our friends at Kid Made Modern, we made these very simple photo holders, using materials from the Metal Mash-Up Craft Kit and some stones from the backyard.
Set it up with some of your favorite photos and leave it on his desk or bookshelf, or switch out the inserts from time to time with notes, homemade coupons, or new photos.
1. Cut out 2 semi-circles and a triangle, about 1 1/2-inches tall, from the adhesive-backed metallic paper. The semi-circles are upper-case Ds and the triangle is the A…all to spell DAD! Set these aside.
2. Cut a 12-inch piece of wire and wrap it 2 to 3 times around the rock. Twist the end tightly to secure. Use a pencil to make a small coil at the opposite end.
3. Trace the Ds and A onto scrap paper. Peel off the backing of the adhesive-backed metallic paper and adhere it to the wire. Use the scrap paper letters to help hold the letters onto the wire by sticking them on the back.
4. Insert notes or photos into the small coils and surprise dad with a beautiful display next to his Sunday morning coffee!
This post was sponsored by the always fabulous Kid Made Modern.
I think we can all agree that the best Mother’s Day gift is the handmade kind (or a professional massage). I love writing about Mom’s Day craft projects because, if you didn’t know, I’m a mom. And there is SO much beyond the macaroni necklace in the craft space these days. Of course I will wear anything and hang anything proudly, but we can’t keep it all. Eventually I snap a pic and the object either goes to recycling or, if it’s super sweet and my nostalgia gets the best of me, it gets put in a drawer to look at when my kids are heartless teenagers.
So basically, Moms, I have your back. That’s all I’m saying here. And I think we can all agree that a painted basket purse throwing it back to the 1960’s would make the cut.
This basket comes from the brand-spanking-new Paint-a-Picnic Craft Kit by Kid Made Modern. The kit comes with a wooden picnic basket, wooden picnic food, paint, brushes, glitter, and a sweet gingham bandana to use as a picnic blanket. The sweetest sentiment about this project is that you can literally share this with your kids. You can carry it to a springtime barbecue and they can use it to play picnic on the floor of your living room.
We added one special twist to this basket that makes it so right for moms everywhere…a place to put a flower. Because honestly, who doesn’t want to carry a fresh flower on their handbag?
1. Paint your basket. We took a photo of the basket and printed it out so we could try out different designs. Once your basket is painted, you can stop here and be done or keep going to step 2.
2. Paint your beads or use ones in the color that you need. Hot-glue them onto the basket following your pattern (a grown-up should most definitely do this).
3. Dip an eraser in paint and add polka dots if desired!
4. Add some colorful tape stripes to an upcycled plastic bead or button tube and hot glue to the side of the basket as the vase.
This post was sponsored by the always fabulous Kid Made Modern.
This post was sponsored by Tobacco Free New York State as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. All opinions expressed in my post are my own.
Nothing warms my heart more than when my healthy, active kids, now 6 and 7 years old, ask “what’s that awful smell?” when referring to cigarette smoke. My super-smeller son Oliver, who can smell a fresh chocolate-chip cookie baking from a mile away, is especially sensitive to it.
As a child of the 80’s, smoking was so normal to me and candy cigarettes were a common site in the candy aisle of our favorite stores. (We used to love to puff away at them, blowing out the powdered sugar like smoke.) Even though I knew tobacco was unhealthy and my parents said not to do it, there were so many people in my life that actually did—uncles, aunts, cousins, my parents’ friends, and even our babysitter! So I grew up with a curiosity about it more than a revulsion to it. (Full disclosure…I smoked from high school and into my twenties.) But my kids have never seen anyone that that they know with a cigarette in his or her hand, and rarely see smoking in our health-conscious Brooklyn neighborhood.
When I read that the average age of a new smoker in New York is 13, and that 11.9% of high school students in the state of New York smoke, I immediately assume, well not my kids. But that kind of thinking is so naive, as I’m sure my parents thought the same exact thing. Tobacco companies spend so much effort specifically focusing on how to market to kids and how to get kids to take notice of their products with bright colors and compelling imagery. How crazy is it that 52% of pharmacies—retail operations that are considered healthcare facilities—continue to sell cigarettes behind the counter?
It’s so, so, so important to talk to your kids about the dangers of smoking early—at age 5, they can understand what it means to be unhealthy, so start the conversation now!
Take action and sign the Seen Enough Tobacco pledge to make New York a healthier place to live, work, and play.
3. Trace the Ds and A onto scrap paper. Peel off the backing of the adhesive-backed metallic paper and adhere it to the wire. Use the scrap paper letters to help hold the letters onto the wire by sticking them on the back.
