Mommy Crafts A....

Thanksgiving Kitchen Towels

When the kids were making their hand print turkeys earlier this week I had them stamp an extra turkey on each of these kitchen towels I picked up at the Dollar Store.

After they were dry I added fabric paint over top of their hand-y work ;) And added the words. What a great keepsake to pull out fall after fall!

Mommy Crafts...

Thanksgiving Tee Shirts




Looking for another activity to distract your young (not so patient) pilgrims? Whata cool idea I found....let them color their own shirt!!

The easy way? Coloring page + iron on transfer.
The way you do it without a printer? Hand tracing! Whew! But, they loved them.

I let the kids use regular markers, only because I kept forgetting to stop back by Ben Franklin and pick up the fabric crayons.

Now here's a tip: if you use regular markers and let them wear them for the day, you will find that they will spill everything they touch on them and the colors will smear! But on the up side, you can wash them and put them away for next year!

Thanksgiving Table Deorations From My Table

I don't usually do much as far as decorating the table for holidays and such (I've got two kids who know how to break things!)--but when I found this idea from Fiskars for a kids Thanksgiving table-- I HAD to do it for our family table!!

I absolutely love how it came out!

Now, they had a tree centerpiece with leaves, but I had found an idea on another site for a Mayflower centerpiece (made from wood--I used heavy paper and an empty tissue box) that I thought fit the theme better.

If you want to see all the how to's you can click here.

**Click the picture to make it bigger so you can see all the details. I LOVED how it came out!***

Paper Bag Turkey

Mommy Craft

These are the treat bags I made for the kids and added the turkey pops, the Indian corn and some printable thanksgiving activities.

To make this craft you will need:

• Brown paper bags
• Colored construction paper
• Glue Stick
• Stapler
• Googly eyes (optional)

This craft really just uses your imagination. Cut out the turkey's beak, a waddle, and long strips for feathers. You could cut out the eyes, or use googly eyes (we got these huge eyes from a mix bag o' eyes at the Dollar store).

Fold down the top of your bag (like you were packing a lunch) AFTER you put your treats in, or stuff with newspaper for a decoration. Match each end of your strips of paper (feathers) to the top fold and staple.

Viola'!

**I forgot to snap a picture of the treat bags before I let the kids open them Thanksgiving morning--so this is the best I have of them :) **

Candy Indian Corn Treat

Mommy Craft

This was another cute treat idea I found. I used these and the turkey pops and made treat bags (you'll see that idea next) for my kids and another special little boy.

To make this treat you will need:

• Reece's Pieces
  
• Snack sized baggies
• Tissue paper in yellow and green
• Tape (clear)

I fell in love with how cute this was, and how wonderful it turned out! I found the idea here.

First, put Reece's Pieces in a snack sized storage baggie and zip shut. Get ALL of the air out. Cut lengths of your yellow and green tissue paper about an inch longer than your baggie, and half the width of your baggie. I used two cut peices of yellow and two pieces of green for each Indian corn treat.

Roll your baggie up as tight as you can. and make sure that the zipper part of the bag is not showing when you assemble the corn.

Stack your tissue paper up green, green, yellow, yellow. Put your baggie on top and middle of the pile. Gather all the layers at one end of your corn--tape the end together. Do the same at the other end.

Mommy Tip: If you wanted a different look you could roll the candy with just the yellow tissue paper and then add construction paper shucks to the corn as well.

I always say--use your imagination and make it your own way! :)

Turkey Pops

Are these not adorable?!!

To make this craft you will need:

• Felt in a shade(s) of brown
• Scissors
• Rubber Bands
• Googly eyes and whatever scraps you want to finish him off, I used:
• Orange felt
• Orange pipe cleaners (cut in half, one half per leg)
• Red pipe cleaner (cut in thirds--1 per waddle)
• Craft Glue
• Tootsie Roll Pops
  

Cut 8" circles from your felt. Now, fold your circle in half, and in half again. Make a SMALL snip at the bottom, this will provide the hole for your sucker stick to go through.

Put your sucker through the hole, and gather the felt at the top back (like you were giving the lollipop a top pony tail). Secure with a rubber band, and fan out the remaining felt.

Decorate your turkey. The original idea that I found (which you can see here) used foam scraps--but I had extra felt, so I cut out a beak from my orange, added googly eyes, and curled a red pipe cleaner for the waddle.

To make his legs, I cut an orange pipe cleaner in half, then I twisted it around the bottom of the turkey pop making sure to keep it in the middle. I then "curled" each side to resemble legs.

Mommy tips: do not do like I did and "eyeball" the circle. The light brown ones are from where I tried to get to circles from one piece of felt. The fluffier dark brown one was closer to the 8" (nope, I didn't measure, just made sure I did it bigger. :)

Mommy Crafts A....

Pilgrim Outfit For Gracie


She was the "belle" of the Thanksgiving feast today. I made all of the accessories for Gracie's outfit and brought them to her when I came for lunch. The other kids loved to see her all dressed up and just made the biggest fuss over her!

Can you believe I made these pieces out of flour sack cloths from the dollar store, white grosgrain ribbon and hot glue?! I came up with the ideas and the patterns very late, late the night before her "event," but the very late hours were well worth it. Doesn't she look precious?!!

Hand And Footprint Turkey

Toddler, Pre-K, K

I won't insult any ones intelligence with the three hand, foot & thumbprint turkey crafts the kids and I made this week. Use your favorite colors and your imagination. And make sure the paint has dried before you add the extra details with a pen or marker. :)

Hand Print Turkey

Toddler, Pre-K, K

I won't insult any ones intelligence with the three hand, foot & thumbprint turkey crafts the kids and I made this week. Use your favorite colors and your imagination. And make sure the paint has dried before you add the extra details with a pen or marker. :)

Thumbprint Turkey

Toddler, Pre-K, K

I won't insult any ones intelligence with the three hand, foot & thumbprint turkey crafts the kids and I made this week. Use your favorite colors and your imagination. And make sure the paint has dried before you add the extra details with a pen or marker. :)

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Mommy Craft

I made these cute little pilgrim hats for Gracie's first grade Thanksgiving feast--and they were a hit. It took me so much longer than I thought to make them--but if you aren't making 30--it is well worth the effort.

To make this snack craft you will need:

• Chocolate chips
• Graham Crackers
• Marshmallows
• Tooth picks
• Paint brush (seriously!)
• Wax Paper
• Icing or candy melts
  

I painted the chocolate on my pieces--it really was a lot easier. You want to melt your chocolate--you can use the microwave or a double boiler.

Paint your graham cracker squares and place them on a plate/pan with wax paper.

Next, stick the marshmallow with a tooth pick. This will make this MUCH easier as well. Dip your marshmallow in the melted chocolate and use the paint brush to cover bare areas if you need (you will when the chocolate starts getting low.

Now, put the marshmallow on top of the graham cracker tooth pick UP. You are just using the tooth pick as an added handle. Once the chocolate on the marshmallow and cracker set, remove the tooth pick. You will likely need to paint the top of the marshmallow to make it an even color.

Using icing (or do like I did and melt some left over colored candy melts and put in an icing bag) and make your band and buckle.

Mommy tips: 1. do NOT attempt to melt the entire bag of chocolate chips at one time (lesson learned) 2. I made my "buckles" ahead of time and made square shapes on wax paper. I let it set and then they peeled off and stuck right to the band that I piped around the marshmallow.

Count Your Blessings

Mommy Craft

I am going to take a break from the owl theme and share with you a great idea I found online.

Make a blessings countdown to Thanksgiving!!

What a great way to countdown to the holiday and remember what it is all about at the same time.

The original crafter had her children read the card each night at the dinner table (which I love!), but I am having my children help fill up the cards.

When making the poster I realized that there were 25 days in November until Thanksgiving, and there are 26 letters in the alphabet. So, I am tweaking the idea and making a letter a day. Gracie is having fun coming up with things she is thankful for that start with that letter.

Since we started a few days late we had to catch up--but not by much and I still very much wanted to do this craft idea.

For this craft you will need:
(well, you should do it your way, but I will tell you how I made mine)

• 13 regular sized envelopes
• Scrapbook paper
• Glue stick
• Index cards (25)
• Sharpie or pen
• Large poster or foam board
  

I sealed all 13 envelopes and then covered them with scrapbook paper. I didn't have any of these on hand like the original crafter, but it wasn't that much to pick up 5 different sheets at Ben Franklin. Plus, I was able to color coordinate them :)

I cut the envelopes in half and lined them up on my poster board in nice rows and glued in place.

I cut index cards down to just slightly stick out of the top of the mini envelope holders.

I added a title, and some added shapes to a few of the pockets for flair.

Now you just have to add your blessings one by one to the "calendar." You could add them day by day, or do as the original crafty mom did and write them and have the children read them at dinner time.

Have fun counting your blessings, I am sure you have many!