Super Tissue

Apparently, you can do some pretty super things with a mere piece of tissue paper:

It's a Party Hat!

In the summer, it seems like there are a lot of birthdays to celebrate. Mine is one of them. It was today. My older son informed me (when he woke me up early to tell me it was my birthday and to get up!) that it was not a birthday unless we made hats and a cake. So I got to make my own hats on my birthday. But at least my kids colored them.

Party hats as it turns out are very easy to make. Even easier if somebody makes up the template for you! And here's one now! A good old printable party hat. Print it up on some cardstock, cut it out, decorate it, put it together and add string. Easy as cake, which incidentally we did have. So I guess I achieved birthday success!


The printable:

Hats + Cake= Birthday Success!

Dozens of Cupcakes

Today is my baby niece's first birthday. One WHOLE year old! I made these cupcake stickers in her honor, but you can use them too. Decorate birthday cards, wrapping paper, gift bags, goody bags- all things birthday. Just print up the printable on label paper (I know Avery makes sticker paper) or plain paper and stick them using a glue stick.

The Printable:

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Printable Game: Match and Spell Booster

Just got around to making another page of words for the Match and Spell game from the previous post. Print, cut and play! And let me know how it goes, I'm curious and if something needs fixing the perfectionist in me wants to know!

The printable:

Printable Game: Match and Spell

This is a Spiff-Approved game I came up. It's kind of like Memory meets Polar Bear ABC (by the Cranium folk- if you don't have it, it's a good spelling game for the little ones!) and it's good for the age range that plays those. Just print up the printables on card stock and cut on the dotted lines.

To Play: Have your kid pick out a word card, then you pick out one that doesn't have any letters repeating from his. Lay the letter cards face-down on the table in a 4x4 grid. Then take turns picking up letters. If your letter is in your word, keep it, and go again. If it's not, put it back and the next player goes. First to spell their word, wins.

You can also use the word cards as flash cards.

I realize there's an E and no words with E in them. That's because I'm working on another set of words to go with these. :-)


The Letter Cards:


The Words:

Printable: Theatre Tickets

Enjoy the Show!

Collapsible Theatre or Diorama Playboard

Dinosaur Diorama Playboard:

A while back, in the midst of our winter doldrums, we built a collapsible diorama of sorts to pretend play with our plethora of toy dinosaurs. Along the same idea, we soon built a theatre/tv . It's the same design except there's a hole in the middle and you turn it around to use and decorate the outside. When you use it for a dinosaur playboard, you don't cut out a hole and you decorate the inside with colorful Jurassic scenery.

Puppet Theatre:

Each were different dimensions suited to the cardboard I happened to find in my basement. The printable here is a plan with the dimensions we used for the theatre. You can really take a lot of liberties with the dimensions, based on what supply you have, but this is a good place to start. I thought given the cruddiness of this week, it was a good time to finally post the plan for some indoor fun. So here it is.


What You Need:

Big Honking Piece of Cardboard 30" x 28" ( but it can vary a lot based on what you've got.)
Yard Stick
Craft Knife
Markers, Paints, what-have-you
Fabric if you feel like putting up a curtain in your theatre. We were in a rush, we didn't.
Tape



What You Do:

Print up the printable and then draw out the design on your cardboard. With the knife (and no children near-by) cut out the solid lines (the tabs, the wings, the big honking hole if you're making a theatre, don't cut it if you're not.). Recycle the bits, you don't need them anymore. With the craft knife, score the dotted lines without going through the cardboard and the bend the pieces in (if you're doing the theatre do the scoring on the right side of your theatre to make mountain folds, with the diorama the wrong side to make valley folds.). Now you have two sides, a back and a bottom. Slip the tabs on the bottom of the wings into the slits on the bottom and now you have a standing theatre. While you use it you might want to tape the tabs on the bottom so they don't slip it out, untape it and take out the tabs to fold it up and store. (Ours in conveniently stored where the couch arm meets our living room wall and forms a nook. ) Now decorate it and hang a curtain if you like using glue along the top inside of the window. Make some paper bag puppets and I'll make some tickets and then on with the show!


The Printable: