How to Make Spray Bottle Silhouette Art

Supplies:

Here are the supplies you’ll need to make this fun “spray painted” silhouette:

Directions:

To get the paint to spray, I watered it down a little. This was a trial & error process. I would start with a small amount of water and about 4-5 big drops of paint. You want the color to be vibrant and thick enough that it won’t drip. (Note: washable paint would be much less messy than what I used and should still work fine.)

You will also need either a computer & printer or a die-cut machine. You could actually do this project without either using a simple hand-cut shape.

I just Googled (I love that it’s a verb now) an image I wanted—in this case a Mickey Mouse silhouette. If you’re using an electric cutting system, you could find some really fun shapes. A one-piece silhouette shape works best for this.

I cut out the shape and used straight pins to pin it onto a piece of white construction paper. The white paper was pinned and ready to go inside a cardboard box to keep the paint from getting all over. I had the box leaned up against the wall so my cute little helper could get a straight shot!

Get a good amount of paint on the paper, but not so much that it’s dripping a lot. As you can see, you don’t need every inch of the paper covered.

Let it dry for a few minutes, take off the silhouette, and that’s it! Isn’t it so fun?

The possibilities with this are endless! We tried a B (my daughter’s initial) and it turned out just as great!

How cute is this in a frame? My 3-year-old had so much fun with this. Hope you get to try it with your kids as well!

What fun crafts do you enjoy doing with your kids? Please share your ideas.

Here are some of our favorite kids projects from our blog: (click the pictures for full tutorials)

We are sisters and best friends, living 462 miles apart. We only get to see each other a few times a year, so in the meantime, we share everything on our blog: My Sister’s Suitcase. We feature Home Decor, Printables, Upcycling, Kids Crafts, Seasonal projects, and more.

We hope you’ll join us in our LDCR {long-distance crafting relationship!}.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest for more tutorials and original ideas!

How to Keep Safe While Riding Bikes

Wear Helmets

Make sure your kids have a helmet that fits snug around their head. Not too big or too small. Make sure the strap is always buckled and pulled tight so it can’t fly off.

Keep Your Bike in Good Repair

Make sure the breaks work well and you have good air pressure in the tires. Prevent the chain from becoming worn out by oiling it regularly. Mount reflectors to the back and front of the bike.

Ride a Bike That Fits

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, when standing over your bike, there should be 1 to 2 inches between you and the top bar for a road bike and 3 to 4 inches for a mountain bike.

Wear Fitting Attire

Dress your kids in bright colors that can easily be seen. Avoid pants that can get caught in the chain and always have them put on their shoes. Sandals and flip-flops don’t have a good grip, so lace up the sneakers!

Tell Them When and Where

Inform your kids about where you want them to be riding and how far you want them to go. Avoid areas with busy streets and stay on the sidewalk. Always walk your bike across the street and don’t ride at night.

Teach Them Why

Make sure your kids understand why they need to take precaution when riding their bikes and that it is dangerous to ride without doing these things.

Make it Fun

Get your kids excited to wear their helmets by letting them decorate them however they want. Teach them how to care for their bikes, so they feel like they can do it themselves.

How do you keep your kids safe when riding their bikes?

How to Build Strong Relationships with Your Kids

• Start when your child is young.
• Give your children privacy. They appreciate it when you knock instead of barging into their room. Or you could ask them about their day instead of sneaking to read their journal while they are at school. (A small amount of privacy is good for even younger children.)
• Show them respect. You are the parent, but that does not mean you should talk down to your child, embarrass your child or initiate an argument.
• Open lines of communication with your child. Show them you are trustworthy; don’t tell your friend, who will tell her friend, until it gets back to your child. Do not blow your top about everything; pick your battles.
• Spend time with your kids. Let them know they are important! It does not have to be all about spending a lot of money. Rent a movie, have family game night or family cooking night.
• Encourage your kids to invite their friends over, then get to know your kids’ friends. Reach out even more by allowing your child to invite a friend along on a trip or vacation. Make your home and family appealing to be around.
• Show your child you trust them. Give them responsibility and privileges appropriate for their age.

These are just a few ways that we, as mothers, can build a happy, healthy relationship with our children that will last.

What do you do to strengthen your relationship with your children?

Robin Greene is a mom of two teenagers and has enjoyed watching her children grow and mature.  She enjoys spending as much time with them and their friends as possible.  Robin teachers Kindergarten and is a freelance writer for mybabyclothes.com.  Get your little ones dressed in the most unique baby clothes, beautiful baby tutus and dapper baby hats this Spring.

How to Plan a Party When You Have No Time

This is what I’ve learned about planning parties when I’m pressed for time:

• I always ask my children what they’d like to do and whom they’d like to invite. I’m often pleasantly surprised by their creative ideas. Over the years, I’ve found that it’s really nice to invite all their classroom friends so we can get to know the parents and the children all in one go, but this does make the party quite large—usually 25-30 children.

• Because we often end up with large parties, I’ve found hosting them at a venue other than our home is much less stressful and easier on the budget. To date, my boys’ favorite parties have been:
• Ages 4 – 6: Chuck E. Cheese, BounceU, and pony riding parties
• Ages 6 – 8: laser tag (They just LOVE Laser Tag!)

• Being organized is critical, even when you’re hosting at an outside venue. Besides creating the guest list, sending out the invitations, planning games, remembering to bring the party supplies, and being prepared to record the memories made, I always make note of our guests’ allergies as well. The new release of AboutOne will make all of this easy to do.

• Party favors can be a frustrating and expensive topic. Children love them, but I’ve found that the items are often thrown away, so I try to make our favors educational or useful activities that occupy children’s time. Some of our more successful/popular favors have been bubbles, play-doh, small boxes of Legos, or coloring books and markers. I recently stumbled upon Target’s dollar section (Who knew?!) and it’s been a great source of packs of coloring books, crayons, and other nice favors.

• As my boys have gotten older, parents have started to drop their children off. Since I’m then responsible for taking good care of all the children, I always make sure we have enough adults present—usually at least one adult to eight children. Because I don’t always know the children or their parents, I use sticky labels to make name-tags when the children arrive and I include the parents’ names. I also bring a guest list, so I can check their names at drop off and pick up and I can keep track of the children during the party when they are moving between activities or taking a bathroom break.

Do you have some great party-planning tips? Please share!

Joanne Lang is a mom of 4 boys, a wife, and the founder and CEO of AboutOne, an online family organizer that turns your phone into a remote control for your life, working with your existing calendar and contact tools so you can automatically organize, store, and share family memories and household paperwork. Through web and mobile apps, AboutOne guides you along the path to organization, rewarding you along the way for meeting your organizational goals.

Featured image courtesy of Flickr. Photo from flickr.

1. Understanding the realities about child predators
2. Empowering our kids with safety tips in a non-fearful way

How to Keep Your Kids Safe

Here are some tips to keep your kids out of dangerous situations:

Reality Check:

• 90 % of sexual abuse happens by someone the child knows, not by a stranger.

Does that mean we should suspect everyone who interacts with our kids? Absolutely not. Most adults are safe and don’t want to harm children. But there are red flags when someone is a “tricky person” and may be unsafe around our kids.

Most Common Red Flags:

• Someone who continually suggests “alone time” with your child, uses lots of flattery, affection, or attention to catch you off guard.
• Someone who insists on always being physical (too much hugging, tickling, touching) especially when the child says “Stop” or is visibly uncomfortable.
• Someone who is all too eager to “help out” with your parental duties, i.e., suggesting they’ll: babysit for free, take your child on special outings that exclude you, especially overnight.
• Someone who gives “special gifts/treats” to your child and tells them it’s a secret.
• Someone preoccupied with one child.
• Someone with no age-appropriate friendships, preferring to spend all their free time with younger kids.
• Someone who just seems “too good to be true.”

DO’s & DON’T’s

If you notice a Red Flag or your child tells you about one:
DO: Listen to your instinct – it’s the clearest indicator when something isn’t quite right.
DON’T: Minimize it or try to talk your child out of it.
DO: Take action. It may mean confronting the person who is blurring boundaries, or maybe finding a new coach. Or paying closer attention to certain relationships and ensuring that person does not have alone time with your child.

Use common sense!

• Grandma wants to take your child overnight to Disneyland as a birthday treat – fine!
• Your soccer coach suggests the same thing – No thanks!

TOP 5 TIPS FOR KIDS:

1. You’re the BOSS of your BODY. You have the right to say NO to any kind of touch, no matter who it comes from.
2. Private Parts are Private! Use anatomically correct words for body parts. Teach children that no one should try to play a “private parts” game with them.
3. NO Secrets. If anyone says they have a special secret you can’t tell your parents, it’s not OK. Especially if it makes you feel weird or yucky.
4. It’s Always OK to Tell: I’ll Believe You. It’s not your fault if someone else tries to break the rules or gives you an “uh-oh” feeling. You won’t get in trouble for telling.
5. The Affection Rule: You can decide how to express affection. If you don’t want to hug or kiss someone, that’s ok. You can high-five, wave goodbye, or use your words if you want to.

What steps have you taken with your kids to keep them safe from potential predators?

Pattie Fitzgerald is the founder of Safely Ever After, Inc. and is recognized as a leading expert in the field of child safety and sexual abuse prevention education. She is a children’s author, and is certified as a Child Safety Educator and Child Visitation Monitor. A former preschool teacher, Pattie blends her expertise as an educator, and more importantly as a MOM, to teach families the most effective safety strategies WITHOUT using fear tactics. Admired for her positive approach and child-friendly concepts, Pattie’s unique brand of “Safe-Smart curriculum” is used in schools throughout southern California. As a highly respected keynote speaker, Pattie brings compassion and common sense parenting skills to her audiences as she addresses the difficult topic of sexual abuse prevention. She is the author of “No Trespassing…This is MY Body!” which has earned strong praise from parents, educators, and pediatricians across the country.  Pattie has been featured on Good Morning America, CNN Headline News, CNBC, and MSNBC, as well as countless Los Angeles television news and radio programs. For more information, please visit: www.safelyeverafter.com   

How to Make Butterfly Footprints

This craft is super simple, easy and is great for all ages. Although with the younger ones, you will definitely need to provide assistance.

Supplies

• Non-Toxic Washable Finger Paints
• Paper or Canvas Boards
• Fuzzy Sticks/Pipe Cleaners (optional)
• Glue (optional)

Directions

The first step, for me, was to strip down my 20 month old son; your older children will probably not need it. But with the younger ones, it’s easier to do this right before bath time. I squirted different amounts of paint onto a board and let him mix them around with his fingers. (He seemed to enjoy this part.)

After he had a pretty combination of colors and before the paint could dry, I took his foot and applied it onto the paint. You will definitely have to help the younger children with this, but they will love the feeling.

Then take a fresh piece of paper or a canvas board and apply the footprints. You will put them on opposite sides, so the left print will be on the right side and vice versa. You also want to make sure they are relatively close, as they will be the wings of your butterfly. Then have your little one celebrate because the messy part is done! He immediately went into the tub before our next step.

After you have the wings, you can have your child paint on the body and scenery if they want to. Since my son is younger, he was done after he got messy, so I created a body with Fuzzy Sticks (pipe cleaners). I took two pipe cleaners, any color, and twisted them until there was about an inch left. Then I twirled the top to make it look like antennas. Since my son’s foot was half the size of the pipe cleaner, I fold it in half before I applied it to his painting with glue.

And voila! You are finished! You can display these beautiful butterflies anywhere! I did ours on canvas so I can put them on easels. And I highly recommend all you parents out there to participate also! Here is our finished artworks:

When was the last time you and your kids did crafts together? What did you make?

I am a full time housewife and mother to one boy. My blog is According to Dee, and I share my family photos, crafts, recipes, and freebies. In addition to blogging, I am also a photographer/graphic designer/artist. You can view my photography work at DSisk Photography and my designs at Artied Designs. I am self taught and have always had a natural knack for anything involving creativity and am so happy to share my passion with the world.I am a full time housewife and mother to one boy. My blog is According to Dee, and I share my family photos, crafts, recipes, and freebies. In addition to blogging, I am also a photographer/graphic designer/artist. You can view my photography work at DSisk Photography and my designs at Artied Designs. I am self taught and have always had a natural knack for anything involving creativity and am so happy to share my passion with the world.

10 Simple Ways to Teach Your Kids Important Life Skills

1. Play one of the games at InventionAtPlay.org with one of your kids to teach them that creativity is a good thing, and that trusting in one’s creativity can sometimes lead to great inventions.
2. Watch Raiders of the Lost Ark and see if you can make a home-made version of one of the booby traps Indiana Jones faces, with the clues to a successful escape from the trap being provided by your kids’ completion of some spelling or multiplication problems. See if you can teach them that homework can be fun.
3. Take your kids on a walk through a favorite park or mountain trail. Arm them with long-handled grabbers and plastic bags, and look for any trash along the way. Teach them about how litter can end up in our water supplies, and why that’s a bad thing.
4. Teach your child strategies for making their school day more interesting; maybe by doing a role-reversal role play where you are the student and your child the teacher.
5. Teach your kids your home phone number, cell phone numbers of both parents, a grandparent’s phone number, etc. Make sure they commit them to memory so that they are prepared in case of emergency.
6. Make some bookmarks with your kids and have them hand them out to friends or neighbors, reminding others to read a good book. This will teach your kids to think of creative ways to help others.
7. Offer your kids one treat now or two treats in five minutes to teach them to delay gratification, a necessary skill for a successful life.
8. Check the website of your local hospital to see if there are any opportunities for your teenagers, if you have any, to volunteer (with or without you) to help with patients or siblings by playing games, making crafts, reading stories, or taking a walk. This might teach them empathy.
9. Host a one-time Makers’ Club to teach the satisfaction that comes from making things with your own hands.
10. Buy and serve one new fruit or vegetable this week to teach your kids that healthy eating can be tasty eating.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• Have you ever done any of these things? How did it go?
• What other acts of service have inspired you?
• How have others given to you this week and what difference has that made in your life?

How Else Can You Make a Difference This Season?

• Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week’s challenge.
• Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week’s challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.

We’re hosting an online book club at Mom It Forward to discuss ways to teach your kids and teens better manners through games and fun activities. It’s called, “365 Manners Kids Should Know: Games, Activities, and Other Fun Ways to Help Children and Teens Learn Etiquette” by Sheryl Eberly and Caroline Eberly.

Book Club Details

• What: Join us for an online live chat all about parenting. We’ll be discussing the book 365 Manners Kids Should Know: Games, Activities, and Other Fun Ways to Help Children and Teens Learn Etiquette by Sheryl and Caroline Eberly.
• When: Wednesday, February 29 from 2-3 p.m. EST (1 p.m. CT, 12 p.m. MT, & 11 a.m. PT).
• Where: Party with us in our very own MomItForward Chat Room. (Click here to go to the MomItForward Chat Room.)

See you then!

When I reached adulthood, I discovered that adding color to your Rice Krispy Treats wasn’t the norm and that my mom did that to make that experience special for us.

Wanting to give my kids this same thrill, we made Rice Krispy Treats in the shapes of autumn leaves, using a Wilton cookie cutter (the same one we used for this pastry). We divided the Rice Krispies and colored each section a different, bright color and ended up with an array of colorful autumn leaves both beautiful and delicious.

This is a simple and fun activity and one that your kids are sure to remember!

What is your favorite after-school snack to make with your kids? How do you make simple activities like cooking and crafts veer from the norm?

You heard me right. My 14 yearold daughter is gracing the halls of her new charter high school with a Spiderman backpack. Her cousin, who is going with her, chose Phineous & Ferb.

I am amazed at how brave these two kids are. They decided to walk into a new situation confident, self assured, and unafraid of the unknowns.

At registration, instead of hanging back and being afraid, my daughter immediately ran up to people she knew an gave them all hugs. For people she didn’t know, she stuck out her hand and said, “Hi, my name is Jessica!” I was so proud of my daughter in this moment. People gravitate towards happy, positive people. All the times I told her that she was smart, kind, and beautiful had prepared her for this moment.

Since school began, more and more high school kids are sporting new action figure back packs. This is because two kids stood up for what they wanted to do, and didn’t care what other people thought of them.

 What are you doing to build your child’s self esteem? How are you trying to raise future leaders?