Sensory Car Wash

Sensory Car Wash

I came across this cool sensory car wash on Pinterest  and thought my kids would love it!  It's made for occupational therapy but my kids love going to the car wash and I wanted to make them something like it.  I ended up using a large dish pack box we still had from the last move and the first station in the car wash was "rinse"...which you can see below is the shimmery silvery stuff hanging down.  I found it at the Dollar Tree in the Christmas section, it was some kind of garland.  I hot glued the garland to the inside of the box.

The next station inside was "soap". I used embroidery thread and threaded packing peanuts onto several strands and then at the end of each strand, poked the needle up through the top of the box and tied the thread.  It's held up really well through lots and lots of car washes.

This is a view from the end of the car was looking in. You can see the soap suds better and then you can see I used 2 dusters from the Dollar Tree next.  I tied embroidery thread through the ends and again poked the needle up through the top of the box and then tied it on top so they hang nicely.  When the kids crawl past them they spin/twirl...since I used the thread to tie them up, it allows them the movement to twirl and reminds them of being at the real car wash.

The last station was the drying station.  I used the fake imitation sham wow car wipe thing from the Dollar Tree, cut slits in it and then hot glued the top to the box.  I tried to pick things that would have different sensations as they went through to make it a more sensory experience.  I wanted to find one of those small battery powered personal fans that people carry around in the summer and attach that at the very end so they would have a little blow drying too, but I couldn't find any at the time.

Sometimes when the kids are having fun going through, I pretend to be the car wash attendant and I give them a quick squirt with a water bottle before they go through, just like they do at the real car wash we go to.  They love it!  And their friends ask me to take it out when they come over too, they all love it.  And it's nice because when we are not using it I just pick it up and the box folds flat and put it in the storage room.  When we use it we set it up with one side against a wall and then put a magazine rack or  something else sturdy on the other side to keep it standing upright as both ends are open it has no support to stay open otherwise...but makes it easy to fold flat and put away when you're done playing.  It was super easy, cost $4 in supplies from the Dollar Tree and has gotten a LOT of playtime over the last few months!  

Isn't it funny how you can spend so much on toys your kids say they really want and then they barely play with them?  And then you can make cheap things like this that get tons of repeat play?  I love it!

Glowing Rapunzel Hair Tutorial

Glowing Rapunzel Hair

Just like in Tangled!

"I have magic hair that glows when I sing!"

Rapunzel is one of our favorite movies...that's right "our"...I can't help but sit and watch it with my 4 year old!  Up until about a week ago, she planned on being snow white for Halloween, which I thought was great because she was snow white last year so we already had the costume.  Well, when she decided to be Rapunzel, I got kind of excited.  At first I wanted to get the Rapunzel costume and wig from Costume Express when I won their giveaway recently but they had already sold out for the season.  I found this rapunzel braid on Amazon Here for about $30

And then saw this awesome glowing Rapunzel hair party decoration on Etsy Here

And then knew exactly what to do for J's Rapunzel costume.  Make a glowing long Rapunzel braid that glows.  This was rather quick and easy to make and cost less then $5!

What you need

Battery powered short strand of mini lights

(found at hobby lobby for $1.99)

Purple ribbon

yellow yarn 

(more of a buttercream yellow and the thing of yarn is 355 yards, buy 2 packs if this is for a teenager or adult)

3 ponytail elastics

scissors

 Measuring

 Take the end of the yarn and measure around your child's head creating a crown and then let the yarn hang down to the floor, notice where the yarn touches the floor then add a bit more length for good luck, and snip.  This is your guide piece for measuring out all the strands of hair.   (or however long you want it)

 Making Sections of Hair

Lay the guide strand out across the floor nice and strait.  Then, hold then end of the yarn and just unroll it till it gets to the other end, then hold it down on the opposite end and loop it back the other way, working your way back and forth, until you get a nice thick row of hair.  I made each section of hair about the thickness of a quarter when you grab it.  So Once you get a row of thick hair, repeat that process 2 more times till you have 3 rows of thick long yarn (hair).  Remember you are just rolling the yarn back and forth, not cutting out individual strands

 Braiding it

Carefully bring all 3 sections side-by side.  Come down about 3 inches from the top and secure with a hair elastic or rubber band. Slip your purple ribbon in there with the elastic next to one of the sections of hair.  Start braiding the hair all the way down, Incorporating the ribbon as you go.  When you get a couple inches from the bottom, secure with another hair elastic or rubber band. 

OPTIONAL: If you want the lights to be in the hair permanently, then see the step below for where to put the battery pack, and then incorporate the strand of lights into the braid as you do the ribbon, being sure to keep the wires and lightbulbs from showing as best you can.  If you want to be able to take the lights off, continue below, leaving the lights for last.

 Model and Fit

Get your child and wrap the braid around their head like a crown and then secure in place with an elastic, making sure to tuck the loopy ends under the braided part so you don't see it.  Tie a piece of ribbon around the elastics at the top and bottom to hide them and make it pretty :)  I left the end of the braid as is, but you can trim the ends if you like.

 see the loopy ends on the underside of the braid where you connected it with elastic?

Make it GLOW

Lay your Rapunzel braid on the ground upside-down so the you are looking at the loopy ends that are hiding under the braid...Put 3 fingers through the loops and try to line up the loops of frabric as much as you can...mine weren't all perfectly even so I didn't get all of them, but enough to hold the battery pack.  Tuck the battery pack inside those loops.  Now, turn the switch to one and start spacing out your lights and tucking them into the braid to light it up.  Once you have all the lights placed in the corrects areas, you can either use strands of yarn to tie the lights in place which can be snipped for easy removal later or use some small hair claws/clips to secure the lights and wires in place.  

The reason you may want to make the lights removable and not incorporated into the braid is it is a little heavier with the battery pack and your little one may not always want to have that in there when playing, but for halloween and other special dress-up events, the lights just take this long Repunzel hair accessory to the next level of coolness while also making your kid more safe and visible on Halloween night!

This Repunzle braid is super fun without the lights too!

You can add fake flowers to the braid to make it more like the movie, I plan on doing that I just haven't picked up any yet.  I did have one that I stuck at the top of the braid as you can see... 

Let's see the battery lights were $1.99 and the yarn was $3.99 but I had a 40% off coupon so this fun repunzel braid cost less than $5 to make!

I picked up some fabric and plan to make an actual repunzel dress using the cinderella dress tutorial from make it and love it.  But if I don't end up having time at least she'll have this purple dress or maybe borrow a repunzel dress from a friend and make the handmade one for Christmas....HOPEFULLY I can get it done for Halloween though!

UPDATE!

While linking this up to parties I found this awesome RAPUNZLE DRESS TUTORIAL by Me Sew Crazy!  Can't wait to try it!

(and apparently there are already lots of braided yarn tutorials out there, I didn't realize!  Well, hopefully I inspired some new ideas by adding the battery powered lights :P)

I also saw this cute flynn ryder costume by crazy town welcomes you...I was thinking maybe my 18 mo little guy could be either Flynn Ryder or Pascal...

PopEye the Stick Man

Meet PopEye the Stick Man

no relation to spinach sucking sailors

Today we had a BIG mess on the table of all our random arts and crafts supplies.  My 4 yo daughter and I decided to make a little puppet toy for her baby cousin when we found this red Popsicle stick and one big googly eye....hence the name....Popeye.....

J glued the eye on and then we were looking around out stash for some hair...hmmm..this blue octopus foam sticker turned upsidown looked fun and then all we needed was our pipe cleaners.  

He makes a really fun pet

Popeye loves the outdoors

He knows how to drive

He's popular with the ladies

 He's housetrained

 He's on top of the fresh breath thing

And he's very.....

studious....

He can teach your kids all about the number 8

Now he will make a very low maintence first pet for our baby belly dancing Rainbow Gotters.  J says her mommy and daddy will play peek-a-boo with him while Rainbow Gotters is in the crib and do puppet shows for her.

Who is Rainbow Gotters? (my newborn niece)  And yes she belly dances...

Milk & Cream for Play Kitchen - Upcycling

Let's Make a Cake!

we'll need some milk for the cake...some cream for the frosting...

I'm such a dork sometimes...I get compelled to save all kinds of packages and containers because they could potentially be used to make something cool.  Before our move, I was sorting through everything and found quite a bit a "trash" that I had saved around our apartment...and forgotten about...just adding clutter and I tossed it rather than packing it...albeit it wasn't easy....so when my husband was about to throw these two honey containers in the recycle, I stopped him and said "I could use those for something!" and he put them back on the counter...but I promised myself I wasn't going to let the junk sit around this time so without any further ado...I quickly used them for something...TADA...gotta love those projects that provide instant gratification!

Milk & Cream 

for the play kitchen!

Those green baskets were also rescued from the recycle bin, our local grocery store sells strawberries in them.

soak the container in some soapy water so the label is easy to remove...

 Get your stuff...
modgepodge and brush
white paper
scissors
stick on craft letters (or use a marker to write the letters, or cut them out with construction paper or use your cricut or silhouette if you are a spoiled crafter! :P)

I trimmed a long strip of paper to fit the container to make a new label.

Brush modgepodge on container

Apply paper and press

stick on your craft letters...I had these stick on craft felt letters lying around, i bought them to make my halloween banner, but they were too small and I ended up cutting my own.

That's it! :)

I love when my daughter gets excited over stuff like this...a kid sized milk jug...I mean it was free and recycled and she gets new stuff to play with without being spoiled! lol!  WIN!

Click here to see post about the homemade Cake, Strawberries and Cake Stand pictured

No Mess Finger Painting

So my daughter is 3 and had never done finger painting. I always shied away because it just seemed like too much of a mess...especially if I want a chance at getting my damage deposit back! However, I came across this great idea in my recent issue of Family Fun magazine for no mess finger painting! To make the finger paint, all you need is some non-toxic tempura paint and a big ziplock bag. I put some tape over the zipper part so she can't open it. She has had a lot of fun with this drawing lines and making impressions in it. I let her use the eraser part on the pencil to draw with too. I added white and blue paint thinking it would be extra cool to see the colors mixing together...but don't do that. It just made it harder to see the more subtle impressions. I think I may have added a little bit too much paint too..but it works good enough. We've had this bag of paint laying around for about 2 weeks now and it's been a great activity to pull out real quick without making a mess.

tip: make sure your kids dont have sharp fingernails or use other sharp objects that could make a snag or leak in the bag...otherwise it won't be no mess finger paint anymore!

(a great way to recycle a used ziplock bag! and when your done with it, you could recycle the paint too. When she doesn't like playing with this or wants a new color, I think I'll draw a picture of a cake or something, then snip off the corner and let her squeeze the paint out to decorate a piece of paper.)

Cake and Strawberries! Plus Cake Stand Tutorial!!!

So I had previously posted a picture and a link to these adorable ideas I found through V & Co. featuring a strawberry shortcake and set of fabric strawberries. This was something on my to-do list that I ACTUALLY got done! I made these for one of my daughter's 3rd Birthday gifts. I used THIS free tutorial for the fabric strawberries and could have bought the tutorial for the cake HERE, but I was too cheap and just stared at the picture instead and decided to figure it out. If you decide to make this cake, maybe buy the tutorial...you'll save yourself some time and frustration. Mine is REALLY "fudged" but with the frosting on it looks decent. I decided to make my frosting reversible so my daughter could have strawberry shortcake or a lemon cake! Anyways, it was a hit! She has really been enjoying this play set, and it goes perfectly with her new tea set! I also made the cake stand, it only took about 10 minutes...if you include waiting for the glue gun to heat up! My daughter loves switching the frosting around and piling on the strawberries....then pretending to take a great big bite right out of the cake!

Fabric Strawberries

I found the little yellow basket for the strawberries in the Easter Section at Hobby Lobby for 50 cents! I thought it was PERFECT!

Strawberry Shortcake

Lemon Cake

Super Easy Cake Stand Tutorial

To make the play wooden cake stand, here is what you'll need:

glue gun
foam brush
acrylic craft paint
wooden candle stick
wooden circle-
(found mine near clock making supplies at the craft store)

Pull out the metal thing that holds the candle. (my husband used a butter knife to pry it out).

Decide which way you want to use the candle stick, I actually used mine upside down, it looked better f0r the cake plate design.

Heat up your glue gun.

Find the center of you wooden disc/circle

Apply hot glue to the end of the candle stick and carefully aligned and attatch to center of wooden disc.

Using your foam brush, paint an even coat of craft paint. That will quickly dry and you can do a second coat if needed.

THE END!

And if you need a real cupcake stand that can be thrown together in a jiffy and on the cheap, check out my super easy, frugal cupcake stand tutorial.

Another great bargain seen here? I got that dress my daughter is wearing last year from Gymboree on Clearance for under $10, it was originally around $40. I bought the next size up and now it fits her perfect for this spring/summer season! I LOVE getting a good deal!

Double Sided Puzzle

I thought I had a good idea when I started saving cereal boxes to use for making puzzles. My plan is to modge podge some pictures my daughter would like and then cut up into puzzle pieces. Well, I just received this in the mail from my Mother-in-Law the other day. She was having a similar idea and recycled an old calender and made this cute double sided puzzle for my daughter! She used the front cover of the calendar, which had a picture on both sides, cut it up and then covered both sides in contact paper! It looks really great and we just store all the piece in a ziploc baggy. Another great way to reuse what you have lying around the house into free new things for your child to play with!