5 summer activity ideas

I was asked to a summer fun segment on Good Things Utah yesterday and my kids got to come along and demonstrate! :) It was really fun and luckily it all went smoothly but it is "hard" to run a segment and also worry about what 3 other little people are doing or going to say! ha ha ha!

I shared a few ideas and also 1 from Activity Mom and HowDoesShe. Enjoy!

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Summer ideas - recap!

What a fun month it has been "stock piling" my Idea Box with fun activities for me and my kids this summer! 

A HUGE thank you to all the bloggers who took time to create and share their ideas!

I hope YOU have enjoyed this series :)  Just a little recap in case you missed something. Here is a complete list of all the summer projects that were featured this month. Book mark it for easy reference when you need it! 

Summer fun with your kids:
38 kids crafts ideas - Tip Junkie
Mom I'm bored Jar - Somewhat Simple
Swagger Wagon - Sew Chatty
Explore! - Brassy Apple
DIY Window Clings - Trendy Treehouse
100 Free things - Digital Reflections
Kitchen Scientists - Brassy Apple
Create Really Awesome Free Trips - C.R.A.F.T
Outdoor Art Easel - Geeky and Sassy
Family Fun Sack - Oopsey Daisy
Ice Treasures and MORE - The Activity Mom
Summer Activity Board - Sew Dang Cute
Fun with Chalk - Trendy Treehouse
Seed Tape - Mad in Crafts
Flat Stanley - The Country Chic Cottage
Summertime Badges - The Crafting Chicks
Picnic Placemat Tote - Sew Much Ado
Spoon Tune - Brassy Apple
Chalk Paint - Jenerally Speaking
Personalized totes for kids - Truly Lovely
Put me in the Zoo - Fireflies and Jellybeans
Summertime in a jar - Fingerprints on the Fridge
DIY stilts - Someday Crafts

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Summer in a Jar - Fingerprints on the Fridge

Hello friends! I'm so glad Megan invited me on over to hang out for the day!

 If you don't know me, my name is Rachelle and I write the lil' o blog Fingerprints on the Fridge.

These are my two silly girls who are really looking forward to summer fun. 

I wanted to share an idea that my family thought up to add a little spice to our life during the summer. Sure a list is fun but Summer in a Jar adds a little surprise to each day! Love it.

I started by getting a cookie jar, you can get them basically anywhere or even use a vase. I liked the size and style of the jar though, I got it at Wal-Mart for 6 bucks. Score!

Then comes the list, the list o' fun if you will. I asked for my kids ideas and some of my own and made a giant, colorful, some simple and some over the top rainbow list of things that we could do every day to make the whole summer special. Some are free and some cost a bit of money but you could make it however you wanted to make it work for your family. That's the beauty of the Summer of fun in a JAR.

Next I cut out all my strips of paper one by one, and folded them but not too tiny, I still want to see all the colors. :)

Then scramble them up and you can pick one out each morning and have a surprise added to your day on what to do! How freakin' fun is that? Some of my favorites are..

Coloring the whole sidewalk with chalk and making an outside gallery walk.

Riding our bikes to the Root Beer stand.

Going to the "big" zoo (Chicago's is closest to us. Love it there)

Using the baby pool and a hula hoop to make giant bubbles.

Coloring our hair, remember making kool-aid highlights when you were little? So fun.

Those are just a few, but the possibilities are ENDLESS.  

Make a lemonade stand, go to the beach, get out sprinklers, camp out side, camp in the living room, catch fire flies, make s'mores, spend the night at a hotel in town, go minature golfing, go to a water park, Fun stuff! 

Summer comes but once a year, let's make it F. U. N! I know for one my kids are going to be pumped to wake up every morning and pick out of the jar. And, if every day doesn't work for you how about just on Fridays? Or Weekends? Make it work for your family and add a little spice to your life

Summer.

Feel free to stop by and say Hi!

Thanks again to Megan for having me, so much fun!

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Put me in the Zoo - Fireflies and Jellybeans

Hello Brassy Apple! I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am to be here today with all of you lovelies! I adore Megan and all her crafty-ness! To say that is it a complete honor is not even touching the surface!

Let me introduce myself!

I am Fawnda and you can find me at Fireflies and Jellybeans!  I am a thirty-something mom of two{ 3 year old son and 1 year old daughter}!  My Husband is my best friend and biggest supporter {I am every lucky}!

We have all sorts of fun over at Fireflies and Jellybeans! I share crafty tutorials with you, we have the Iron Crafter Competition and a fun Show Off Your Stuff linky party on Thursdays.

I am also so excited to be part of the Save Our Summer series! I need as much help as I can get with my two Little ones... I am also happy to share one idea with all of you too!

Put Me in the Zoo Activity day!

Lets face it... most days I feel like I live at a zoo with all the wild craziness that is my life! I decided to embrace it and make a whole day of fun activities for us all! 

And as any good theme day we need t-shirts!

Here is a quick run down of  how I made the shirts... I used my Silhouette SD (who I loving call, Skyla) to help make these... however you do not need one to make your own. 

Sealed with a Kiss Shirt:

1. Cut out a seal applique, and sew it on

2. Add your "Sealed with a Kiss" lettering (I used Iron on vinyl from Silhouette but you could freezer paper stencil the words on too! )

3. Add your "XOXO" rhinestones (also from Silhouette)

1. Cut out felt shapes-

1 circle for face

several bigger strips (about 3/4 inch wide)

several smaller strips (about 1/8 inch wide) some long some short.

2. Pin your wider strips to your circle and sew in place.

3. Pin your smaller strips in place (random with the short and long) and sew.

4. Hand sew the face.  I used 2 buttons for eyes and a triangle piece of fleece for the nose.

5. Pin in place on your t-shirt.  I sewed around the face and then also out side the circle a couple inches to keep the mane attached to the shirt.

6. Add your lettering (I used iron one vinyl from Silhouette but you could a freezer paper stencil)

Put Me in the Zoo Activities:

Here are some fun books to read that we love and have to do with zoos and animals!

Polar Bear, Polar Bear What do you Hear?

Put me in the zoo

Goodnight Gorilla

I wish that I had Duck Feet

Animal Follow the Leader:

The leader picks and animal to mimic and everyone follows along.

Take several turns being the leader.

What do you hear?

This is a great activity to go along with Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear?

You start out saying "Mommy, Mommy what do you hear?  I hear a {pick your animal here) in my ear"  then all make the animal noses... then move on to your kids "Johnny, Johnny- what do you hear?"  then have them pick an animal and say the rest of the rhyme.  You can do several rounds until you make LOTS and LOTS of animal noses!

Make your Own Zoo:

We had a rainy day so instead of going to a zoo, we made our own!

I was quite surprised at how many stuffed animals we had... we had a FULL Zoo!

I had the kids help me set it all up.  It was a great sorting activity!  Once I had some groups established,  I would pull out an animal and ask "Where do you think this should go?"  The kids LOVED making the zoo... almost more then playing with it!  If you have older kids have them make signs for the zoo. 

Here is a tour of our zoo:

Tigers Exhibit

Elephant Habitat  Our Elephant has a baby!

Giraffe and Zebra exhibit

Wolf/Dog Exhibit - we had some rare species of wolf- pink, purple and green... not what you see an just any zoo!

Penguins (with a baby!)

Petting Farm zoo

Aquatic animals

Monkey playground

Our zoo also has a very special exhibit! 

The Monsters exhibit! 

Of course here are the WILDEST animals of ALL! 

I made them pay $$ to enter the zoo... and they had to wait in line for the zoo to open.  We had a friend over what I watch once a week... she added the phone as a prop.  My son HAD to have a wallet to keep his money in!  My youngest is trying to sneak in early!

I also had them bring a camera to take pictures of the animals!

In the second picture my son is looking at the picture he just took and saying "Ohhhhhh, Cuuuuuute!"

Snack/lunch:

Here is our zoo themed lunch.  I used turkey lunch meat for the face, cheese stick for the mane, blueberries for the eys and a strawberry for the nose.  Easy and very kid friendly!

We love Put Me in the Zoo Day!!

Thanks for letting me share today!  We had so much FUN! 

Stop by for more fun ideas!!

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Personalized Totes for kids - Truly Lovely

Hello all you LOVELY Brassy Apple readers!!!

My name is Kassi and I am THRILLED to be sharing my Summer Fun idea here with you all!

I, along with my sister, Kayli, blog over at Truly Lovely!

We blog about all things we consider to be lovely including crafts, recipes, personal stories, you name it!

Right now I am in the midst of planning my summer wedding, so what better kiddo craft then something for my flower girls! This is one that you can do together with the kiddos and it doesn't cost much!!

It's directed more towards little girls of course, but you could tailor it to boys by changing a few things...
Watch for my Kid Friendly Tips along the way! :)

Cute Little Personalized Totes!

The items needed for this kid friendly craft are:

Little totes (I got mine at Hobby Lobby $2.99 for a packet of four)

Fabric Paint
Small paint brush

Name stencil

Iron on decals

Iron

Old newspaper
Large paper plate

First, be sure to lay newspaper down on your table or other work surface!

When working with kiddos and paint, covering everything that might get painted is a must!!

Lay out your totes on the newspaper.

I used my hand dandy Silhouette SD to cut out the girls' names in vinyl.

The Kristen font is a great one for a girlie but fun touch!
If your making a toy bag for a boy, Bradley is a more "manly" font for your little man!


Vinyl, makes a PERFECT stencil!

It's already sticky on the back, so peel away the backing, smooth your stencil over your little tote and your ready to paint.
Make sure if you have any a's, o's, or other letters with holes in the middle, that you peel the little circle cutouts and stick those in the center of your letters as well. More on this in a minute.

Kid Friendly Tip:

You could cut out your stencil a little larger so it's easier for the kiddos to stay inside the "lines" when they're painting.


Next, choose your paint color, then squirt some fabric paint onto the large paper plate.





Kid Friendly Tip:
Large paper plates are great for corralling different colors of paint and keeping it from seeping through thin newspaper onto your table. They also make a good spot for mixing paint colors!





Now, use the small paint brush to fill in the stencil on your tote.
Since I used white paint on dark colored totes, I painted on several coats, allowing for some drying time in between.
Once you've painted all of the names, allow to dry for a few hours so the paint will set well.

Kid Friendly Tip:
This a great time to grab a snack, or head outside to play for awhile!


Once the paint has dried help your kiddo peel the stencil off the tote.





Remember I mentioned earlier making sure you stuck the centers of your a's, o's and other letters with holes onto your tote? Well, here's why...
If you stick those on, you can paint right over the top of those, like here on Taylor's tote:





Then when you peel them off, your letters have holes in the middle instead of a completely painted in blob for those letters.
And that makes them look nicer! :)

Once you've finished your painting and removed your stencils, it's time to fancy up your totes!

A SUPER easy and inexpensive way is with iron on decals.

The flower ones I used came from Wal-Mart for a few dollars a packet.

Follow the directions for ironing your decals on.
Mine included placing a cotton towel over the top, then iron to tack.
Turn the fabric inside out and iron to adhere.

Here you can see, I used a tiny little craft iron.
It was perfect for this craft because it was small enough to stick inside the tote without the need for turning it inside out!

Be sure to help your children with the ironing part!!!
A hot iron is not exactly kid friendly!

Tada!!
A cute little personalized tote for your little lady to carry around this summer!!!

Thanks to Megan for having me over at the Brassy Apple!! It was a pleasure!!!

We would be thrilled if you would pop over to Truly Lovely sometime and say hello!!

Happy crafting friends!

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Spoon Tune - Brassy Apple

Hi! It's Me today with an experiment to allow your kids to make some music!

I took a little inspiration from the Minute to Win it Spoon tune game and created a game for my kids. 

You will need: 

# of glasses

spoons

Large pitcher of water

Instead of having the cups already full of water and trying to arrange them to make the tune of Row, row, row your boat - I had my kids fill the glasses to the right level to get the right sound. 

They drank some of it when they got them too full or poured it into other cups. But it was really fun to see their eyes light up when they "found" the sound they were looking for. My little guy (2 yrs old) had a great to hitting the glasses with his spoon while my older 2 kids got "technical" and serious with the experiment.

Our ending result wasn't perfect but we also didn't all the same type glasses. BUT my kids didn't seem to mind or care at all! 

Have fun!!! and hopefully you aren't singing "Row, row, row your boat" all day.

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Seed Tape - Mad in Crafts

I’m Jessica Hill, the slightly-unbalanced blogger from Mad in Crafts. I used to spend my days teaching Shakespeare and Longfellow to high school students; now I spend my days saying things like, “Try to make some potty come out.”

I am a stay-at-home wife, mommy of two little munchkins, and caretaker of one stinky basset hound. I am also addicted to television, ichthyophobic (look it up, kids), and almost 30. On Mad in Crafts, I exercise my creativity by writing craft tutorials and exorcise my inner schoolmarm through my Mad Writing Skills series.

I am so excited to be able to share this project with all you wonderful readers here at Brassy Apple!

This year I am looking forward to doing a little planting with my 3 year old son, but the weather has NOT been cooperating! Since we haven’t been able to get outside to do any gardening, we needed a good indoor gardening project.

Making homemade seed tape is a good way to get a head start on your backyard garden and to involve your little ones in the process.

Seed tapes are useful because they:

ensure that your seeds are planted at the correct intervals, reducing the need to thin your mature plants.

eliminate wasting seeds.

make sowing tiny seeds much easier.

allow you to sow seeds from the comfort of your kitchen chair, instead of on your hands and knees!

With a few household materials, you can make your own inexpensive seed tape with your children.

To make birthday streamer seed tape, you will need:

a small saucepan,

cornstarch,

water,

white birthday streamers,

a measuring tape,

a washable marker,

and seeds.

First, the responsible (hardy har) adult will need to cook up the “glue” for the seed tape.

Seed Tape Glue

1 cup water

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent lumps. Once it starts to boil and make a gel, remove it from the heat. Cool to room temperature.

While the glue is cooling, unravel the streamers to the width of your garden plot. Lay the streamer next to an extended measuring tape. Using a marker or felt pen, make small dots on the streamer at the intervals recommended for your seeds. We spaced our cucumber seeds out at 3 inch intervals.

If you have preschool age children, practice counting or number identification using the measuring tape or the seeds. If your children are older, you can use the measuring tape like a number line to practice addition and subtraction.

Dab a small amount of cooled glue on each dot and place one seed on each dot of glue.

Continue until each of your dots has a seed.

Fold the streamer in half and press to enclose the seeds.

After the glue dries, the tape can be rolled up and stored for whenever the weather gets nice enough to get outside and plant!

Seed tapes also make thoughtful Mothers and Fathers Day gifts! Make seed tape “rosettes” and use them in place of a bow the top of a present!

I hope you give making seed tape with your kids this Spring a try!

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