Throw Me Something, Mister!

Mardi Gras is coming up soon and many of us are out buying masks for the occasion.  Instead of buying the same mask for your little one that every other child will be wearing, have them make one.  After the holiday is over you can put it away for for them or place in a Scrapbook for safe keeping with pictures for the occasion.

For this project you will need the following materials:
2 pieces of card stock paper; colors of Purple, Green, and/or Yellow (Gold)
Glue (stick glue, liquid school glue, or hot glue will be fine)
1 wooden dowel or pencil
Gems or Glitter glue

Have your child trace his or her hands onto the pieces of card stock and cut out. Draw and oval in the middle of the cut out palm around where their eye would go and help them cut it out.  Next, glue the two palms together as they have done in the photo above.   Allow the glue to dry and then place gems or glitter glue dots along the fingers and thumb.  You may also have them decorate with markers or other materials to make it even more of their own.  If you used glitter glue, allow it to dry before adding the pencil or dowel.

Suggestions:
To adhere the pencil or dowel use strong clear tape or hot glue.  I also suggest gems over glitter glue if you do not want a big mess.  Add ribbons to the top of the pencil using hot glue or a straight pin through the tip of the ribbons and eraser.  This makes it look even more authentic and CUTE!!

I hope you enjoy this project and I hope to see your pictures on my Facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jesstastic-Creations/153125974709984?ref=ts&fref=ts

"If your creations aren't Jesstastic, they aren't Fantastic!"

Our "Dirt" Cake Experience

The girls and I finished our first "dirt" cake today.  It looks great and tastes awesome!  The girls had lots of fun making it.  They got to add all the ingredients while me or another adult mixed.  This helped to keep the mess to a minimum.  The girls really had fun just putting the ingredients in the bowl and then helping make the layers.  I didn't have a pail or trowel to use so we used a 9 x 13" dish.  In between the layers I let them add gummy worms.  They also got to add a few to the top and of course no one is a chef unless they taste what they make.  :)  They got to lick the bowl with the pudding cream layer in it and eat a few of the gummy worms.

Also, instead of using the rolling pin and a ziploc bag, I used my Ninja cutting machine.  Any blender will do just as good.  I found that the cookies wouldn't stick together as bad if I chopped them.  Rolling the cookies just crushes and compacts them together so they stick together and make them hard to spread over the pudding.
Some recipes for this "dirt" cake suggest using chocolate pudding to add to the "dirt" effect; however I chose to use vanilla pudding to give the cake a little more variety.

I hope you all enjoy making your "dirt" cake as much as we did.  If you have an other suggestions or comments please feel free to leave them or ask.

Fun Foods for Kids Oreo "Dirt Cake"

I've been looking for fun thing for my nieces to do all Summer. We have cooked, done crafts, played new games, and even had a movie day. The next idea I wanted to do was to make a FUN dessert for them after dinner. My sister and I were talking about a neat dessert from our childhood that we remembered, Oreo cookie "dirt cake".

Just to help you understand how well your children will love this creative dessert, I have researched a little of the history and a few statistics about the Oreo cookie sandwich.

According to the Scribd website for Market research on Oreo, "The Oreo chocolate sandwich cookie was first introduced in Hoboken, N.J. in 1911.  Oreos today are far and away the world’s most popular cookie.  The Oreo family accounts for approximately 10 percent of all store cookie sales – a $3 billion market…The current target market for the original vanilla filling Oreo is children."  

Now that you understand the wonder of this cookie and the love your children have for it, lets get on with the recipe.  

Oreo Dirt Cake

Ingredients:

Kid's Sand Pail & Shovel Set OR 1 New 8" Flower Pot
1 1/2-2 lb. Oreo cookies
1 8 oz. tub Cream Cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 Stick Softened Butter
3 1/2 cups milk
2 small pkg. Instant Vanilla Pudding
12 oz. Cool Whip

Method:

Cream together cream cheese, powdered sugar and softened butter.

Mix 3 1/2 cups milk and instant pudding for 2 minutes and add 12 oz. Cool Whip.

Add liquid mixture to creamed mixture.

Place Oreo cookies in large ziploc bag and crush to desired "dirt" texture with a rolling pin.

Put 1 1/2 inches of cookie crumbs on the bottom of the sandpail or flower pot(lined with aluminum foil) and layer the pudding mixture and crumbs. End with pudding mixture.  Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Just before serving, add 1 more inch of cookie crumbs and decorate with gummi worms. 
 

 I found this recipe on the Kids Party Paradise website.  They also have many other creative ideas to add to this recipe or other fun recipes to try.  I hope you all enjoy. 

Sparkless Sparkler Experience

My nieces and I just finished with a set of Spark-less Sparklers.  It was a fairly easy craft to complete with my small group of 6 year olds.  They did need a little help but not much to not do the project ever again.  The only thing I did a little different than the original directions was used black electric tape.  I just used what I had around the house.  Also instead of chopstick I used the small dowels that are used to make shish kabobs.  They turned out really cute and the girls are so excited about the 4th of July so they can play with there "sparklers".  I'm really glad they enjoyed making them and I hope you enjoy looking at ours.

I hope you all have a safe and Happy 4th of July.

Independence Day

Okay 4th of July is coming up in just another 2 weeks. Yay!  Time to find more fun crafts to keep the kids busy on their summer break.  So today I was looking up fun crafts for the kids to decorate the house for the 4th of July and I found a few other projects that they might enjoy also.  Here is one that I thought was easy for children and I really liked.

This one is the Sparkles Sparkler.  I found this project on the Merriment Design website.  It can also be found on the Daily Candy Kids website.

Supplies Needed:
2 Chopsticks (or 2 thin dowels)
Red, White, Blue, and/or Silver Ribbon and Party Garland
White 3/4" electrical tape
Scissors
Optional:  Personalize with Wooden Letter

For full instructions on how to make and manipulate this project visit Merriment Design website by clicking on the link.

Change this project up a bit by making them for birthday party's, decor at showers, center pieces for gatherings of all sorts.  Merriment Design says "This project can be easily adapted to making fairy and wizard wands, birthday party shakers or pom poms in your school’s colors."  So you can make this design even when the kids are at school.  Sounds like a plan to me. 
 
I can't wait to try this with my nieces.  I'm gonna post my own pictures of this project after my nieces make a few. 

Almost Easter

I'm so excited that Easter is just around the corner.  Fun with the family and lots of food!  :)  Also, this is a great time to find some crafts to do with the kids while they are on their Spring Break.  We all know that kids can't wait to get messy with the egg dye so after the dying of the eggs is over, find something new for them to dye.  Use some coffee filters, or tissue, and have them very lightly dye that and make beautiful Easter bouquets for a center piece for dinner or place as decor in you house on any table, in any vase and add some ribbons to make them really stand out.  Also make sure to have some colorful pipe cleaners on hand (I know that the picture shows straws, but pipe cleaners work better.)  There's no glue involved in making these just and imagination and fun!

Picture found at http://blog.teaching-tiny-tots.com/tag/coffee-filter-flowers/.  Enjoy!