5 Minute DIY - No Dye Easter Eggs

I didn't grow up celebrating Easter (religious or non-religious way) so I don't have to follow any tradition. I create my own tradition-our tradition with my family. 

I bought some dye-egg kit last year from their Easter clearance sale. I'm just not ready for the vinegar smell and stained fingers yet so I found three fun ways to decorate eggs without using dye.

1. washi tape

Can you tell my recent obsession? It's washi tape. 

The thin strip one is pretty straight forward. If you don't have a thin strip in hand, you can cut the standard washi in half with a X-acto knife.

I got the butterfly shape paper puncher from local Michael's. It costs around $5. If you are looking for a cheaper option, I believe The Purple Alphabet recently shared a kid's activity post in her Instagram where she showed a puncher that is from the Target Dollar Spot. 

2. Sharpie

No drawing technique needed. A google image stencil and dot the dots using your sharpies.

3. Temporary tatoo

This is the easiest way! The eggs turned out to be so so cute. 

Which no-dye method is your favorite? Or do you have other non-traditional ways to decorate Easter eggs? Let me know. 

Happy Easter!

Easy Valentine Cards that Kids Can Make

This is another easy DIY project for Valentine's Day. This is the one you can get you little ones involved. The kids will do sorting beads, threading, cutting, gluing all these fun activities in this project. 

I know you can go to Dollar Tree and find two cards for $1. Wouldn't it be more fun if you and you kiddos can make some?

Pipe cleaner + Pony beads Heart Card

You'll need

pony beads and pipe cleaners, both from Dollar Tree

washi tape, Micheal's

cardstock, Dollar Tree

Heart shape Cards

You'll need,

Scrapbook paper, Michael's

Washi tape, Michael's 

Cardstock, Dollar Tree

Here is the tutorial.

A picture of my 3 yr making these cards.

We made these for the teachers at my elder daughter's class. 

Have fun crafting with you kids.

Valentine Decor - Easy DIY Wreath for under $5

Having a decorative wreath on your front door is a good start to decorate for different seasons and holidays. I know how easy it is to grab a cute wreath from Target or Homegoods or even Thrift Stores. The question is where I am gonna store the cute wreaths and what if I don't like them anymore after one season (donation is always a good choice). I want to mention the work MINIMALISM here. I am not a minimalist and I assume I will never be but I quite fancy the idea of MINIMALISM.   I only have one wreath form so I can decorate them for different purposes. I don't need to worry about the storage issue or spend extra money. 

Enought being said, now material you'll need to create your own wreath,

wreath form, I got mine from Dollar Tree. you can find it in the aisle with the fake flowers

burlap ribbon or yarn

felt hearts, different colors. They can be found in any craft store or craft aisles of Walmart.

twine, I got mine from Target dollar spot

I would say the total cost is less than $5.

Here is the tutorial

I did use any glue so I can reuse the wreath and the felt hearts. For more ideas, check my other posts.

Heart Patched Toddler pants

http://cis4crafting.blogspot.com/2016/02/heart-patched-toddler-pants.html

Hair Clip 

http://cis4crafting.blogspot.com/2014/06/felt-bookmarkshairclip.html

Final look of this wreath on my front door. I love it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

5 Min Christmas DIY - Tea Light Snowman

This effortless tea light snowman makes a great goodie for Christmas goody bag for the kids. It takes almost no time to make.

You'll need,
LED tea light, from Dollar Tree (2 for $1)
ribbon, check your stock
black permanent marker
super glue, from Dollar Tree
felt, black, I got mine from Walmart

Happy New Year!

Easy Christmas DIY -- Decorate Dollar Tree Napkin Holder

You'll need,

clear napkin folder (Dollar Tree)

pencil, 

construction paper (Dollar Tree), I used the sparkling gold, red colar can also be cute for Christimas

scissors and exacto knife

template

I found the Sleigh Template from Pinterest that lins to this website http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=281887.0#axzz36xQCuK2T

Here is the tutorial video.

Hope you give this a try!

More easy Christmas DIY posts are coming. See you soon.

Thanksgiving Craft for Preschooler -- Family Handprint Turkey

It is a easy fun craft for toddlers. Just some basic constraction paper. We used brown bag for color brown. 

The first day, she cut the hand-prints. My elder daughter is three. She just likes cutting activity.

The next day, she cut the brown turkey body, then glued everything on the big piece of scrapbook paper and drew the turkey eyes.

The final day, the glue was dry. She picked the numbers from two sticker sheets and mark her artwork "2016" on the right bottom corner. We hang it up on her art display wall together.

If you want to display your kid's artwork or all the cards you get for this holiday season. You don't have to make a trip to Ikea or Target and spend 15 or more dollars. Here is how http://cis4crafting.blogspot.com/2015/06/organization-monday-display-kids-art.html

If your kids are still too little to do the cutting, still trace their cute little hands and do the easy work by yourself. It takes five minutes. This is the one we did when we were a family of three. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

DIY easy butterfly wreath

I always look for things I can declutter in the house. I came across these paper butterflie I made a while ago for a project (Butterfly Pens). 

If you are interested in making these paper butterflies, click HERE.

Feels like a waste just to toss them. I really like them. Also my dad got me some butterfly foam stickers. 

I roughly arranged these butterflies on my old wreath I used for Easter wreath. I liked the look.

So I used white thread for foam butterflies and wires for bigger paper butterflies.

There, cost me nothing. I got this beautiful spring/summer wreath for my front door.

DIY Easter Wreath for under $5

Really easy DIY. I just took a look at what I have in my "easter" storage bin and made a trip to Dollar Tree.

Wreath form $1, Dollar Tree

Burlap ribbon, $1, Dollar Tree

Easter eggs, from last year

fabric bunny, from last year

Ribbon and washi tapes, already have them at home

Twine, $1, Dollar Tree

VERY IMPORTANT, HOT GLUE. It is not shown in the picture above, because I ran out of glue sticks when I made this wreath. I used thread instead. I just really wanted to get this done when kids were napping. Trust me, hot glue will make this project even easier. 

 The burlap ribbon started to fray a little when wrapping. I kind of like this "organic"/"natural" look.

 Bunny hopped in.

 The pink ribbon just added a little bit color to the burlap.

 Don't forget the Easter eggs.

The top part of the wreath looked empty so I added a tiny bunting using the washi tapes and the twine.

It goes to the front door.
Happy Easter!

5 min DIY - Dry Erase Chore checklist

Finally, I've got this DIY checklist board set up in the kitchen. 

The advantages of having this board,

1. With two kids in the house, sometimes I just lost track of what I was doing.

2. husband won't keep asking me what chore needs to be done. He can go to the board and pick the things he wants to do

3. Finish things at night so I won't be in the hurry in the morning.

I used,

picture frame (Dollar Tree),

Printer,

Optional - Spray Paint

I bought the black frame from Dollar Tree. You can leave it black if you want to. I prefer white so I spray-painted white.

I created this chore checklist. You can download and modify it from here. routine checklist
I printed it out and put it in the frame. Hang it on the wall.

Easy like that.

Then it's time to grab my dry erase marker and check off the ones I finished so far.

DIY Paracord dragonfly

I spotted this Youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRvvl1zk2W0 a few months ago and knew for sure some day I'll make tons of these adorable dragonflies. This day has come-I'm making everyone a dragonfly. It can be for their back packs, diaper bag, key chain or luggages.

I am so lucky to have my parents staying with us this past 6 months. They fix dinner everyday and help me take care of the kids. They are leaving in three weeks. I already got them tons of gifts over the holiday but felt like I need to give them something handmade specially for them. 

I got the pony beads from local Dollar Tree and paracord from eBay. The green paracord is a spare shoe lace.

Please see the link above for the easy-to-follow tutorial.  

I chose the brightly colored rainbow paracord to make their luggages easier to spot on the conveyor belt.

Organization Monday - homemade wine storage upgrade

My husband likes buying tons of cheap fruits and turn them into jam and wine. Recently, he made quite a few bottles of pineapple wine. It smells amazing, but as a 36 week pregnant lady I didn't get the chance to try any.

Anyway, he usually saves a few bottles for our family and brings most of them to group parties during holidays. The next holiday should be Labor Day (???). These bottles of wine will have to stay with us for a month and half. My hubby just store them in the cardboard box that comes with the wine bottle purchase and put the box in the corner of our dinning room. Last week, I just couldn't tolerant that anymore.

I would like to purchase something fancy, like a metal wire basket to store the wine bottles. Something vintage looking like this.

Picture from http://www.houzz.com/photos/25885805/Metal-Wire-Basket-Wine-Holder-3-Bottle-Home-Kitchen-Bar-Decor-industrial-wine-racks

It costs a lot of money. So I decided to make the storage functional and semi-beautiful.

First of all, I'd like to make a chalk label since it is so trendy now. Here is my inspiration from a ETSY shop.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/169435493/personalized-stickers-chalkboard-like?ref=market

Here is my much simpler version.

Chalk board labels and chalk pen (not shown in the picture above) are both from the Dollar Tree.

Next, instead of the cardboard box, I recycled a clear and sturdy filing box. The filing box is another organization story. I used this filing box for my family files-mine, my hubby's, my marriage, my work, my daughter, our investment, tax, etc. Then I realized I can actually fit all of theses file into one poly filing folder which takes way less space. Anyhow, the box ended up doing nothing in the house until now.

Now these wine bottles sit on the bottom of a shelf we have in the dinning room, not an eye-sore anymore.