Last Minute Halloween Favors/Spooky Critter Snot! (Slime)

Spider Snot! Euuwwww!!!!

We made spooky critter snot to give away instead of candy! I love halloween but I don't love candy. So I found what gave me this idea and recipe at All Things Simple by Kim. We made several batches and it came out great! 

Kim used a 2oz plastic cup made for salsa also called souffle cup. I used a 4oz cup and I bought it at Smart and Final. They were expensive and the caps come separate. I paid 4.19 dollars for the lids and 5.49 for the cups...I bet you can find it cheaper on Amazon or ebay. 

I added a ring that I bought at the dollar store. I would have also

put eye balls if I would have thought about it earlier. But Halloween is tomorrow and

I won't have time to find them. Maybe next year!

So instead of giving candy I will give them spooky critter snot, vampire snot, or skull snot to the trick

or treaters! I also have little box of stickers I bought at the dollar store.

Have a wonderful and fun Halloween!!!!!!!!! 

Monica

DIY Geoboard

I've been waiting and waiting for my husband to make one of this geoboards for a while. My dear husband is SO busy between work, traveling and all the projects that I bring him. So today I made my OWN geoboard! I got to say that I am very proud of myself for making it...cutting it and all that involved in making it...It was easy. I had the right tools.

So to make your geoboard you need:

- A pegboard that you can get at the hardware store. I had mine left over from another project.
- A jigsaw
- Machine screw nuts and machine screws. See picture below for details.
- Two Clamps
- Sand paper (not fully necessary)

This are the nuts and screws I used. I bought them from Ace Hardware. They cost 15 dollars. I bet if you buy them online they are cheaper. I hope this pictures help you know exactly the kind you need and you can get them online. 

I cut it myself!

Umi helped sanding the edge to clean it a little bit.

I am missing a few pictures that were taken with my fathers phone. I will post them when he sends it to me.

So after I marked the line with a pencil where I want it to cut the pegboard then I clamped the board to the work bench. I used the jigsaw to cut it. I never used the jigsaw before and it wasn't that hard at all. It didn't came as perfectly straight as I wanted to but close enough. So the main part is ready. After that I attached all the screws I had in every other whole. Towards the end I realized that I didn't have enough screws. So I decided to make the small geoboard first to see if they get really into it and if they do I will finish the bigger piece late on. I attached the screws from the back and put the nuts on the front. Umi helped with this part as much as he could. Even Little Princess helped. It was an easy project than even a woman can do!

They liked playing with it! 

Good luck making your geoboard!

Another ideas to make a geoboard: 

1) Use a piece of wood or particle board you may have and use a sheet of graph paper to mark the where the nails are going to be placed. So you can paint the board first or skip it and nail the nails one by one or with a nail gun. 

2) Use a cork board and pins. So you do the same as before mark where you want the pins to go and pin it that way or if your child is little you could use the hot gun to secure them in place.

3) Use a foam board and pins. To use the foam board you may need to glue a few together to make it thick enough got the pin not to stick out. You can find this foam boards at the Dollar Tree store or other 99 C stores. So if you get 2 and cut them in half you will have enough to make it thicker. Once it is cut to the size you want mark where you want the pins and then pin them. You can hot glue them so they won't come out. This option is a good one to take along with you since it is very light and portable.

Make sure to get your children involved in the making of the board. My son is 3 and 1/2 and he helped putting the screws in. He had a hard time screwing the nuts. So I let him help with whatever he could and he had fun learning to make it and math along with it too. I put the screws in every other whole so he had to count and make sure he places the screws in the right whole. 

Well, I can't think about what else to use. Do you have a geoboard you make and you'd like to share it? Please, leave a link in the comment box!

Good luck geoboarding!

DIY No Sew Puppet Theater

It has been a long time that I wanted to make a puppet theater for my children. I found ideas on pinterest and on youtube but even the easiest puppet theaters seemed to me a bit complicated...I just wanted to make something simple, practical and that didn't required sewing. I know how to sew a little bit but I just didn't feel like dealing with an old (and much appreciated) sewing machine. So today I got inspired! And it is so simple and so easy you are going to wonder (like I did) why didn't I think about this before!!

Here it is a VERY easy, not too much time consuming puppet theater and how I made it.

Materials:

- Felt

- Shower curtain tension rod

- Pins

- Measuring tape

- Scissors 

- Hot gun

I used green felt because it was what I had available and also because I thought it could be use as grass. Also before making the puppet theater the way I did I had another idea on how I was going to make it. I will live this idea for another post.

Directions:

1) Cut the felt 47" tall and 54" wide. This hight is good for an adult so you can sit on the ground or a child size chair and also for any age because it is adjustable. To cut it it helps if you use the measuring tape and a pin. Measure the hight then pin it and do this every so often from left to right then fold it s the pins are at the edge and the fabric is the size you want. Measure again then cut it. 

2) In this step we are making the top hem of the puppet theater, so this is the top of the theater but seen on the right. Measure six inches and pin it as seen in the above picture. Do this every so often then fold it upwards and so the left edge touches the pins. Then remove those pins and pin it so it attaches to the bottom part and stays in position for next step.

3) Get the glue gun and glue the sides together.

Here you can see the hem done and glued.

And yes!!!! You have a puppet theater!!!! No need for a sewing machine and it took me about 10 to 15 minutes to make it.

It still not fully ready...It needs some decoration or since is felt you can make different felt decorations and stick them in there or pin them with a security pin so you can change the decoration once in a while.

The tension rod cost about 7 dollars and 50 cents and the felt I can't remember since I had it for a while but it may be about 3 dollars a yard....

If you want you can make a top part for it. You just do the same you did to make this theater but you cut it a little bit shorter. I find this unnecessary, you can't see the children's face anyway. 

What I was thinking is to cut a  square on the center and make a window so puppets can play on top and also come out of that little window. Once the theater is done and ready I will post it.

I hope you guys give it a try. It is fun, educational and didn't cost too much to make.

Umi was using it as an entrance to a forest. So maybe I could make some trees and animals to put on it?

Let your imagination run wild!

If you make one please post a link so I can see it! Some times imagination and inspiration are contagious! 

I am stopping by to say hello!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to say hi and let you know that I am not gone. We've been very busy during the summer and we are still are busy...I have so many projects and ideas that some times it is hard to take the time to post them or other things we are working on.

We had to swap rooms. So our learning room has moved to the our bedroom! At this point everything is a bit messy. The good thing is that our bed room was just a little bigger so we could add a bookshelf that we had in our bedroom which it will be used for my Little Princess's tot school trays. I will post before and after pictures when it is ready. It will take a little while since we have to wait for my husband to finish moving the craft closet that we have still in the bed room.

What I am excited about is that once that closet is gone my husband is going to make small shelves for books for Umi in our bedroom! He LOVES reading. When he is quiet and don't know where he is...there he would be in our room reading a book.

Do you have a school room? or you use any room in the house? I'd love to visit your space! Leave a link and share with me and other if you like!