The Nutty Squirrels Game

November 14, 2008 – 9:08 pm

Family Fun posted a really cute and fun craft for kids: the Nutty Squirrels Game. All you need is an egg carton, brown felt and pipe cleaners, googley eyes and some paint and you are on your way! Ok, plus a single acorn (just wander outside and grab one) to place underneath the squirrels.

Really it’s 3 card monty for kids with squirrels, but as long as the betting is kept in check, this should be a fun game for everyone!

While your little squirrels are playing, how about creating some cookies with nuts? (Provided no one’s allergic of course.)

Kellog’s Rice Krispy Pecan Clusters. Combine the treat, nuts and chocolate!

About.com’s Brown Sugar with Walnuts cookies.

Betty Crocker’s Classic Peanut Butter cookies

Cooks.com Almond Macaroon cookies

Very Best Baking’s Pumpkin Walnut cookies

Turkey Handprint Decorations

November 10, 2008 – 7:38 pm

It’s an oldie, but a goodie, the turkey Thanksgiving home decoration created from handprints from children of all ages. But, it’s also a great economical way to decorate, keep kids busy and create a turkey family of your own!

The concept is pretty simple, you’ll need construction paper in various turkey colors, like brown and feather colors like red, yellow and orange. Where the fun comes in is the additions and embellishments like real feathers, google eyes, glitter and felt!

There are a couple schools of thought on how to build the basic turkey before you get all fancy. Check ‘em out and find the one that’s right for you!

eHow Turkey: One traced hand print for the body and then feathers are cut separately in a feather shape for a side view turkey.

DLTK Turkey: Uses both hands to create the tail feathers and a front view of the turkey.

Free Kids Crafts: Uses many hand prints for a large and colorful tail feathers and a front view of the turkey.

Family Corner: Shows you how to make a turkey with finger paints, a hand print and construction paper!

Once all the painting and creating is done, treat yourselves to some hand print turkey cookies! Courtesy of Family Corner.

By craftingqueenbee | Posted in Projects with Kids | Tagged crafting, crafts, crafts for kids, fall decor, kids crafts, thanksgiving, thanksgiving crafts, turkey | Comments (0)

Create Colored Sand for a Fun Party

November 4, 2008 – 7:14 pm

Colored sand is great fun to play with and economical to boot. All you need is sand, food coloring, paper towels/newspaper and a large space to layout the sand to dry while the color infuses. Obviously if you’re throwing a crafting party that plans on using colored sand, you want to do this ahead of time. But, this is a great idea for kids, especially now that the county fair season is over, to layer and create sand jars to take home, or make pictures using the sand with glue. Be sure to vacuum really well when it’s all done though or you’ll be dealing with gritty floors for weeks!

The recipe for creating colored sand is pretty simple and standard across the board. Fill a container with the amount of sand you want to dye. Cover with water, just enough so that it covers the sand and add lots of food coloring until you get the desired color. Let it sit for a bit, say an hour and then drain away the water. Pour the sand out on the paper towels or newspapers and spread around to dry. Repeat for each color.

For a colored sand party, you want to try and have at least 4 different colors, more if you can!

Don’t have time to create all that sand from scratch? Kit Kraft has a large selection of colored sands by the pound!

A great party food item to serve at this event would be sugar cookies covered in sanding sugar. Of course, you don’t want to mix those two up! Sanding and sparkling sugars make for great decorative and colorful fun, yet are great to crunch your teeth on.

Check out these recipes for classic sugar cookies.

All Recipes Rolled Sugar Cookies

Alton Brown’s Sugar Cookies

Love to Know Easy Sugar Cookies