DIY – Page 4 – Our Beautifully Messy House

I Spy Bottle and Games

March 3, 2015September 25, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

How many of you grew up loving the “Where’s Waldo?” books by Martin Handford or the “I Spy” books by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick? My brothers, sisters and I adored them and now, L enjoys reading them too! The I SPY BOTTLE is very similar in principal and so much fun! It’s a fully contained game…no pieces to lose or to pick up! We take our bottle with us to restaurants on occasion and always on long car trips. The I SPY BOTTLE would be great fun in a classroom too! Be sure to scroll down, after the “how to” I’ve shared a few ideas of games to play.

Materials needed:

clear bottle with a wide mouth
rice
electrical tape
lots of small objects

First, remove the label from your bottle and clean and dry it completely. Goo Gone always works great for removing any stickiness and label residue! Fill the bottle a little over halfway with white rice.

Next, drop your objects in. We used beads, a bouncy ball, a plastic ring, spoon, animal figures, a marble, dice, a stamp, buttons, a clothespin, a rubber band, a paperclip, a toy car, keys, a wine cork, and although pictured is a crayon, I switched it out with a paintbrush. I was afraid the crayon would melt if left in the car!

Once the rice and objects are inside the bottle, use electrical tape to seal the lid closed. You could always use super glue, but I was afraid a time would come that we’d want one of the objects locked inside!

Now, time to shake your bottle up and play!!!

Different ways to play:

Call out the color of an object…”I spy something green!”…and have the other person find it.
Call out the function of an object…”I spy something that makes art!”…”A paintbrush!”
Things that rhyme. “I spy something that rhymes with ‘moon.'”…”Spoon!”
If your children can read, you could make little cards that go along with the I SPY BOTTLE too. How perfect would that be for a long car ride? Easy entertainment! Enjoy!!!

Homemade Butter in a Jar

March 2, 2015October 8, 2015 Porter 3 Comments

Have you ever been to a restaurant that along with fresh, baked bread served homemade butter? It’s the smoothest, fluffiest, creamiest butter you’ve ever tasted and truly, nothing compares to it! Now you can make your own at home in only 10 minutes! This afternoon L and I made HOMEMADE BUTTER IN A JAR and it was so easy, so delicious, I may never buy butter from the store again!

Ingredients/Materials needed:

heavy cream
jar
marble

While I made butter in a jar, L made some in a small plastic container with a screw-on lid…perfect for little hands!

First, fill your jar half-way with heavy cream. Add a clean marble and screw the lid on tight. The marble speeds up the process, churning the butter a little quicker, but you can make butter with just a jar too!

Next, shake, shake, shake! Shake the jar for a full 10 minutes! After about 5 minutes, the contents will be thick like whipping cream.

Continue to shake! If you get bored, turn some music on and dance while you shake! As the cream turns to butter, you’ll hear the marble clanking less and less and eventually you won’t hear it at all.

Some people end up with thick butter at the bottom and a layer of liquid at top…if that happens, just pour the liquid off the top. That’s the butter milk! Ours never separated and we ended up with just butter, through and through. Absolutely delicious, light and creamy butter!

Spread on top of fresh, baked bread it could’ve been a meal in itself! I think next, we’ll try making an herbed butter or homemade honey butter! Mmm… Enjoy!

DIY Tin Can Bird Feeder #2

February 26, 2015December 3, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

To celebrate the last week of National Bird Feeding Month, L and I made these adorable TIN CAN BIRD FEEDERS! They are really easy to make, look beautiful and cost nothing…just go digging through your recyclables! Not only will the birds love this winter treat, this bird feeder would make a fantastic gift for your children to make for a friend, parent or grandparent!

Materials needed:

tin can w/ lid
wooden paint stirrer
pliers
acrylic paints
hot glue gun
string
glossy sealant (optional)
church key can and bottle opener (optional)
bird seed

First, make sure your can is clean and remove the label.

Using your hands, carefully bend the lid of the can in half. Using pliers, squeeze it flat.

Using the hot glue gun, glue the paint stirrer inside the can. You can break the stirrer if it’s too long. This will be the birds’ perch.

Next, glue the bent lid back into the can as pictured. Try not to make a huge mess with the hot glue gun, but if the glue shows it is no big deal…you will paint over it next.

Paint the can any way you like.

After the paint dries, you can use the can opener to make holes in the can from where you’ll hang it on a string. On one of our cans I placed two holes on the top…this bird feeder will hang from an old clothes line end.

On our second can I made holes in the back of the bird feeder…this one we will tie onto a fence. I was careful to put the holes in the can after we painted it, because I wanted to avoid any sharp edges while L was handling the bird feeder.

If you’d like your bird feeder to have a shiny, glossy finish, spray the can with a glossy sealant. It only takes 15-30 min to dry and will help protect the paint as well!

Thread string through the holes of the bird feeder and fill with bird seed!

Now, find the perfect spot to hang your TIN CAN BIRD FEEDER! We placed one of ours right outside our kitchen window…the girls will love watching their little wildlife friends snack throughout the day! Enjoy!

In case you missed it, here’s the first DIY TIN CAN BIRD FEEDER we made! Another fun nature craft!

DIY Toy Vacuum (that Really Cleans!!!)

February 25, 2015September 26, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

I love showing my kids that with a little creativity and a basketful of recycling materials you can make just about anything! One morning L woke up asking me to make her a vacuum…strange request, but I accepted the challenge. My thoughts immediately went to that toy vacuum from yesteryear with the popping balls inside. Kids love those things because of the noise they make, so I knew ours had to be similar. The only thing to improve upon that vacuum would be to make one that cleans as well! So here you have it — a toy vacuum that essentially costs you nothing (assuming you have all the materials) and it actually cleans the floors while your kid plays!

Materials needeed:

Swiffer sweeper w/ dry swiffer pad
empty milk carton
plastic container (like one berries come in)
plastic beads
duct tape
paper towel tube (optional)
hot glue gun
scissors

First, using scissors or a knife, cut a little window on the front of the milk carton. Cut a piece of clear plastic off of the plastic container to cover the window.

Using a hot glue gun, carefully glue the clear plastic in place over the “window.”

Cover the entire milk carton in duct tape. Make sure you cover up the glued edges of the plastic window as well…this should eliminate any sharp or pointy edges.

Next, have your little one help you drop beads into the carton. A few handfuls will do. Screw the lid back on the carton.

If your Swiffer sweeper’s handle has removable links (which I think they all do), remove the two middle ones to make it a more suitable height for your child.

Now the next step you can do in two ways: you can tape the milk carton directly onto the Swiffer sweeper…it may be more secure, but it may also leave some duct tape residue on the Swiffer. (That would be the more permanent option.) Or, you can glue and tape a paper towel tube onto the back of the milk carton and slide it onto the Swiffer’s handle. We went with the later…I thought it may jiggle more and make a louder, bead-popping sound too!

Now to clean floors…just replace the Swiffer pad as you would normally do and let your child go to work! (I mean play!) I really thought ours would last a couple weeks, but we’re going on 4 months now and every week L asks if she can help “vacuum” the floors. Enjoy!!!

Snow Candles

February 17, 2015January 12, 2016 Porter Leave a comment

Ever since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to try making candles in the snow and today was the day!!! Such a cool experiment! I just love how they turned out! The sides of the SNOW CANDLES have this beautiful texture created by the crystals of snow. Just like snowflakes, each snow candle is unique!

This is definitely a craft that should be done with adult supervision, though it is a fun one for kids of all ages.

Materials needed:

snow
paraffin wax
crayons
candle wicks
med/large pot for water
tin can or candle pouring pot
stick

First, decide what color you want your candles to be. Pick out 5 or 6 crayons all similar in color. L chose purples for our candles. Using a knife, cut a slit down the side of the crayon papers and peel the paper off.

Fill your pot with water about an inch high. Next place your pouring pot or tin can in the water creating a double boiler. (If using a tin can, make sure it is clean and the paper has been removed.) Place 3 blocks of paraffin wax and your crayons into the pouring pot or can. Bring the water to a boil, then turn the heat down to med-low so it’s at a simmer. ***Never melt wax directly on the stove top without the double boiler! The high heat may cause a fire!***

Watch as the crayons and wax melt completely. Turn the stovetop off as you go outside to prepare your candle molds.

Outside you’ll need about a foot of snow. If the snow isn’t deep enough, you can use your hands to pile it up and lightly pack it down. Using a stick or a spoon handle, dig a little hole in the snow. We made ours about 4 inches deep and 1 to 2 inches wide.

Back inside, turn the stove back on for a couple minutes to heat up the wax again. Gather your candle wicks. When you’re ready, carefully remove the pouring pot or tin can (using an oven mitt) and quickly go outside to pour the wax into your molds. After a couple minutes, insert the wicks into your candles and hold in place until the wax hardens a bit…about 4-5 minutes.

Leave your candles in the snow for an hour to harden completely. As the wax hardens, the candles take on their funky shape and texture. So cool!

Once they have hardened, carefully dig the candles out of the snow with your hands. Inside, use a knife to shave off some of the bottom of the candles if needed, so they will sit flat. Using scissors, trim the wicks to 1/2 inch high.

Arrange on a dish or in a large bowl, add some decorative “fairy stones” if you like and enjoy!!! Beautiful!!!

DIY Chocolate Orange Sugar Scrub

February 15, 2015September 26, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

As we move towards Spring, I keep thinking of citrus, lemon-blueberry muffins, lemonade and sunshine! Unfortunately though, we’re not quite there yet…wind chills today in the negative digits! I think it was 4 degrees out when we woke up this morning! Brrr… And let me tell you, this cold weather is not helping the chocolate addiction I acquired over the holidays. So with all that stirring around inside of me, I dreamed up this CHOCOLATE ORANGE SUGAR SCRUB and it is divine!!! Just what I needed today! This would be great to use in the bath or shower!

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
3 Tbsp olive oil (almond oil or coconut oil)
~15 drops (1/2 tsp) Sweet Orange oil
1-2 tsp orange zest (optional)

First, mix together the sugars with a fork. If your brown sugar is clumpy, try to mix until most of the clumps are gone.

Mix in the 2 Tbsp of cocoa powder.

Next, stir in the olive oil one Tbsp at a time. Some olive oils are pretty potent…if you have almond or coconut oil on hand you can certainly substitute that for the olive oil. I’m all about using what I already have though…and it turned out great!

Once the olive oil is added, stir in some Sweet Orange Oil. (I found mine in the organics section of our grocery store.) To really bring the aroma up a notch, add about 2 tsp of orange zest to the scrub! Now it is certainly good enough to eat, but even better to exfoliate your skin with in the bathtub! The sugars will scrub away any dry, dead skin and the oil will leave you with just the right amount of moisture.

Spoon your concoction into 2 jars…one for you and one for a friend! Enjoy!!!

DIY Cereal Bird Feeder

February 4, 2015September 26, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

Being that February is National Bird-Feeding Month, I thought we’d make and share a few homemade, bird feeders with you over the next few weeks! This DIY CEREAL BIRD FEEDER may be the quickest and easiest one to make! I remember making similar ones when I was in grade school. So cute!

Materials needed:

pipe cleaners (or other thin wire)
O-shaped cereal (non-sugary)
ribbon

First, bend the wire in half gently, making a V-shape.

Have your little ones string the cereal onto the wire, as you would with beads. Leave about 1/2 – 1 inch of the wire showing at the ends.

Twist the ends together and shape into a heart.

Tie some ribbon in the middle of your bird feeders and hang them outside for the birds!

Notice the hearts are rather light, so hang them up in a bush or against a tree trunk…someplace protected from the wind. Enjoy!

Check out our DIY TIN CAN BIRD FEEDER as well!

PVC Pipe Ball Drop / Water Run

January 27, 2015January 12, 2016 Porter Leave a comment

We made this PVC PIPE BALL DROP / WATER RUN last Summer to take with us to the beach…beach houses usually have large windows and sliding doors so I knew it’d be the perfect place to test it out. We originally used corn kernels to drop through the tubes, which turned out to be a huge mess, but we had fun!!! As cabin fever set in this week with cold, snowy weather outside I decided to bring out the PVC PIPE BALL DROP / WATER RUN again! This time we used poof balls (as well as plastic fairies and frogs) to drop through the tubes and it worked great! You could also put this up in the shower and dump water through the tubing to make a water run…I think we’ll try that next! The materials for this project only cost about $10 and it provides hours of fun!

Materials needed:

PVC connectors and elbows
suction cups
drill
flathead screw driver
poof balls, beans, feathers, pennies…

We found these suction cups at the craft store and they were perfect…just remove the little, metal hook.

First, drill a hole in the middle of one side of each PVC connector. Compare the suction cup piece with the drill bits to figure out the right size to use…you can always drill a bigger hole if need be, so start with the smaller bit if you’re deciding between two. Using the flat head screw driver, pry and poke the suction cup into the PVC connector.

Now, time to play!!! Press the tubes onto a sturdy glass door or window and let the fun begin! It’s fun letting the kids experiment with placement of the tubes!

If your “Ball Drop” has two starting places, it’s fun to race the balls down…see whose comes out first!

To mix things up, give your kid a spoon or tongs to pick the balls up and drop them down!

Get crazy! Have fun! Enjoy!!!

20 Non-Candy Valentine Ideas!

January 25, 2015January 15, 2016 Porter Leave a comment

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner…time to spread a little love and happiness! Instead of giving out candy this year, why not make some NON-CANDY VALENTINES for friends and loved ones? Here are a few ideas for your kids’ friends and for yours…you may even want to make a “Thumbprint Necklace” for yourself! Most of these are really quick and easy to make too! Enjoy!!!

Just click on the link under each picture for the “how-to!”

For kids:

Homemade Sidewalk Chalk

Hidden Fairy Bath Bombs

DIY Pocket Parachutes

Fairy Folk

Sock Puppets

Melted Crayon Stones…Love Rocks!

Craft Stick Fairy Doors

Scented Play Dough

Story Stones

DIY Capes…Wizard Capes…Superhero Capes

Sensory Bottles, Sparkle Bottles, Glow-in-the-Dark Bottles, and an Ocean in a Bottle!

DIY Flower Fairies

Doorknob Mushroom-Fairy Houses

For adults:

Thumbprint Necklace

DIY Chocolate Orange Sugar Scrub

Semisoft Honeysuckle Soap

Heart Wreath

Strawberry Jam Scones

Cardboard Heart Stamps

Melted Crayon Art with Variations

Melted Crayon Rocks

January 22, 2015November 3, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

I remember doing this craft as a kid and how much I loved it, so today I introduced MELTED CRAYON ROCKS to L. And of course, she loved making them as well!!! It was the perfect way to spend this snowy afternoon!

This is definitely a craft to do with older kids, as the rocks get extremely hot! L was just old enough at 3 yrs of age. I constantly reminded her not to touch the rocks and kept a close eye at all times!

Materials needed:

rocks
crayons
tin foil
towels, cardboard, or newspapers
oven mitt or tongs
oven

First, clean and dry the rocks if there’s any dirt on them. Lay them out on a cookie sheet and place in the oven, set at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes I turned the oven off, leaving the rocks in there until we were ready to use them. I removed one rock at a time as we went along.

As the rocks are heating up, remove the paper from some crayons. If you use a knife to carefully cut down the side of the paper, it comes off in one nice, big piece. Prepare your work area with towels, cardboard or newspapers beneath a sheet of tin foil.

When you are ready to create, remove one rock at a time using an oven mitt or tongs. Obviously, be very careful…you don’t want to burn yourself or have the rock fall, roll and burn anyone else.

Gently press crayons onto the rock and watch the wax melt down the side. Sooo relaxing and mesmerizing!!! You can draw pictures, designs or make them completely random! It’s a fun craft to experiment with!

MELTED CRAYON ROCKS would make sweet little gifts for family and friends…a fun surprise to leave in your neighbor’s garden or on their front steps! I think we’ll be making more this coming month to hand out on Valentine’s Day, because LOVE ROCKS!!! Enjoy!!!