We are really a family of watercolor painters. Once we sit down with that beautiful polka-dot palette and a piece of thick, toothy watercolor paper, we dive in excitedly. And that’s why I so adore this Valentine’s Day project that I did for the 2020 February issue of Parents Magazine.

This is a great project to do with even the littlest of hands and then a grown-up can help cut, punch, and tie ribbon through. But just start with a big ole piece of paper and you’ll be amazed at how many Valentine’s Day cards you can get out of it!

(Fun fact…my kids actually painted this paper and doodled these hearts for me so that they really looked kid-made! And yes, they each got paid, because, hey, it’s work!)

Here are the instructions from the magazine:

Have your child draw hearts all over a sheet of thick paper using an oil-based marker, like Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Markers. (Note: These markers are permanent, so protect your work surface.) When they’re dry, have her paint over the hearts with watercolors in contrasting shades. (Because the pen is oil-based, the hearts will not bleed.) Let dry. Cut 2×6-in. strips from the page and punch holes in the top of each. Thread 3-in.pieces of thin ribbon through the holes and knot. On the back, write, “I’ll always save a place for you!”  pieces of thin ribbon through the holes and knot. On the back, write, “I’ll always save a place for you!”

Seeing a row of clear jars filled with colored sand gives me all the feels. The rainbow joy, the craft potential, and the throwback memories to when I used to layer colored sand in little glass bottles.If you want to give sand art a more 2020 vibe, try this fun project that I made for my friends at Oriental Trading. Head over to Fun 365 to add the project to cart and purchase everything that you need to make these!

The sand assortment that I used comes with enough sand for oodles of projects (twelve 22-ounce jars!); this would be a great activity for a play date or birthday party! Make sure to cover your work surface or use a tray, or your table will look like a colorful sandy beach!

Here’s what you need:

Here’s how you do it:

1. Cut white cardstock down to the size you want your cards to be. We made 5″ by 7″ and 6″-square cards.

2. Stick foam letters or shapes onto the cardstock. Remember that you are going to eventually peel these off, so tape them down with medium pressure.

3. With a paint brush or foam brush, spread Mod Podge® around the stickers. Try not to let the Mod Podge® pool around the sticker edges, as that will create clumps of sand that might accidentally get pulled off. You want to paint a light coat, but enough so that your sand will stick into it.

4. Using a spoon, generously sprinkle the sand color of your choice over the wet Mod Podge®. This set comes with a dozen colors so the possibilities are endless!

5. Press sand down with your hand or the back of the spoon. This helps the sand stick to the glue. Then dump, shake, or tap the sand off the card and let it dry.

6. Pull the stickers off carefully and slowly.

7. Hang up your new sand art notecards or write on them and give them to friends!

We had a backgammon set growing up in the 80s. It was brown pleather with tan and white triangular spaces. I loved everything about that set…I loved the snap of the clasps, the smell of the felt interior, and the smooth perfection of the playing pieces. Mind you I never played the game (I didn’t know how), but I loved to carry the set around like a briefcase holding important papers.

I finally learned to play the game during my senior year in college and gradually all of my roommates and close friends learned to play as well. We took our board everywhere…to the quad, to bars, on spring break, and to this day we still play when we’re together.

But now I’ve passed the love of the game onto my daughter Sommer. At only 7, she doesn’t have the most strategic moves and whenever I roll doubles, she declares that she’s going to lose. Whenever she sees a board at a friend’s house or restaurant, she insists on playing. And I’m always down.

I’ve seen lots of gorgeous backgammon boards, and I’ve always thought it would be the easiest of the classic games to make. Since the board itself is a lightweight bag, this DIY version is a perfect travel set. Your pieces can be virtually anything, but as I was crafting I wondered why I had never seen pieces that weren’t solid-colored circles. I thought about making ombre pieces, or patterned pieces, but then I settled on these charming, smirkish faces. And why Shrinky Dinks®? Basically because I am obsessed with them!

This is a great project to make as a gift or for yourself before a trip of any sort. Once the playing pieces are shrunk, they have a slightly rough texture which grips nicely to the felt board so no sliding.

What you’ll need:

• 4 colors of felt
• 8×10” drawstring bag
• Scissors
• Hot-glue gun
• Inkjet shrink film
• Circle paper punch (optional)
• Matchboxes (optional)
• 2 sets of dice

1. Cut a piece of felt about 1/4” smaller than your bag on all sides. Hot glue it in place.
2. Download and print this template and cut 24 triangles from felt, 12 in one color and 12 in another.
3. Cut the strip that becomes the center “wall” of the game from a fourth color of felt.
4. Glue spaces into place, alternating colors with the center wall down the middle.
5. Print the pieces onto inkjet shrink film (here’s a free download!), and let the ink dry before cutting out.
6. Use a 1 3/4” paper punch to cut out the circles, or just cut with scissors.
7. Shrink the pieces in the oven or toaster over according to package instructions.
8. Glue the 16^th extra piece, to the top of a matchbox—use the matchbox as the receptacle for the backgammon pieces.

Have fun and here’s to a lifetime of double 6’s!

This post was sponsored by P-touch Embellish ELITE.

Making Christmas ornaments is one of my favorite craft pastimes…they are like little artful  sculptures, each one with its own personality. Snowmen, angels, elves…when you make these tiny little characters, you have so much opportunity to add little details that make them super special. And that’s why I was so excited when my friends at Brother asked me to use the new P-touch Embellish Elite to make a holiday craft for my blog this year.

When you hear P-touch you may automatically think of just a label. But the P-touch Embellish ELITE is SO not just a label maker…it’s a memory-maker, a craft-maker, and a gift-maker! First it prints on ribbon (from ~1/2″ to ~1″ wide) which is super-innovative. Next, you control it from your mobile device using the free P-touch Design&Print App, so you don’t have to type on a tiny buttoned keyboard. And lastly, you connect via Bluetooth® so it’s super slick, easy, and compact.

Have fun playing with all of the different ribbon and tape colors and printable patterns, fonts, and symbols that the P-touch Embellish ELITE has to offer. Definitely make this project a family affair…while you’re printing ribbon, your kids can be cutting felt or painting. And together you can bring some little elves to life to live on your Christmas tree this year!

What you need:

• P-touch Embellish ELITE
• Felt
• Scissors
• Permanent markers
• 1” raw wood bead
• 2” raw wood bead
• Paint
• Paintbrush
• White pom-pom
• Hot-glue gun

Make It:

1. Paint about 2/3 of the larger bead white. A nice trick for painting a bead is to put it on the end of a paintbrush so it can rest untouched while drying.
2. Once the white is dry, flip the bead over and paint the other half pink (or any color of your choice). Let this dry.
3. Use a black, red, and pink permanent marker to make the face of the elf. 
4. Cut hair from felt and hot-glue it to the sides of the bead. Remember that you’ll have a hat on top, so it doesn’t have to be perfect!
5. Roll a piece of felt into a 1.5 to 2” cone and hot-glue the end to make an elf hat. Glue this on top of the doll’s head. Glue a white pom-pom to the point.
6. Cut 2-by-1/4” strips of felt to match the hat for the legs. Fold the end of the strip over and glue, then bend that folded end up and put a dot of glue to hold that part at a right angle. This creates a foot. Repeat for the second leg and glue to the bottom of the body (the non-white side).
7. Cut two thin 1-inch pieces of white felt for the arms. Cut out a small heart from red felt and glue it to connect the arms. Glue a thin white strip of felt around the base of the hat.
8. Glue the other ends of the arms to the top section of the larger bead. Glue the head to the body.
9. Print the scarf on the P-touch Embellish Elite using the thin ribbon. You can do a pattern, symbols, or vertical text and a frame, as shown here. The scarf should be about 5 to 6 inches long.
10. Print a 7 to 8-inch long wide ribbon on the P-touch Embellish Elite as the hanger. Fold ends over one another and glue the back of the elf’s hat. 

This post was sponsored by P-touch Embellish ELITE.

I have loved stickers for as long as I can remember. As kids of the 80s, I, along with all my friends, carried my sticker binder to and from school, and at any free moment, we would sit in little clusters, trading scratch-n-sniffs for oilies (you know, the ones that had the oily liquid inside?). Some people would organize their collections by color, some by type, some by theme…mine were more chronological; I just liked to organize them in neat rows so my eyes could clearly scan the goods.

When my friends at Pipsticks, a super sticker subscription club that delivers a packet of stickers to your mailbox monthly, asked me if I wanted to collaborate on a winter sticker design, I nearly died. I went to town thinking of all of the ways I could combine my love of crafting with stickers to create a sticker sheet that gave sticker-lovers some creativity to create a design that felt uniquely theirs.

I went through my craft portfolio and thought about what people love to craft in the winter months…and snow globes came to mind. Some people like nature snow globes, some want skaters, and some go for animals and log cabins. With this sticker sheet, you can create the ideal DIY snow globe of your dreams—no hot-glue gun or fake snow required!

To get the Project Kid Snow Globe sticker sheet, subscribe by November 30, 2019…and, because you are a friend of ours, enter PROJECTKID15 at checkout for 15% off your first month! For all the sticker lovers in your life, this is a gift that keeps on giving!