I love you SNOW much- Fun Christmas DIY project for kids

Today was my daughter's kindergarten Christmas party and I was in charge of providing fun projects for the kids to make.

The chalkboard ornaments I posted a little while back were an obvious choice, but coming up with a second easy to do project, was a bit more challenging.

I came across the saying "I love you SNOW much" and just had to figure out a way to to use it. So I came up with a paper snow globe project. I found precut circles at Michael's (I used my 50% off coupon that you get via email and the best part is there is no need to print, just show them your phone). Next in Microsoft PowerPoint I wrote the text and inserted a trapezoid shape. A couple of copy and pastes later I had 6 per page and printed them on green paper. I cut them out, hot glued them to the circles and brought them to the class. There each child was told to color a picture within the circle, then take a glue stick and spread glue wherever they wanted snow. Lastly, I placed the the snow globe on a small tray, sprinkled fake snow on top and then shook of the excess.

The result, these REAL simple, REALly cute pieces of artwork to take home to the one they love snow much.

Money saving tip for holiday shoes for the kids

If you are like me you enjoy finding new outfits for the kids to wear for the holidays...But you don't enjoy all of the cost that goes into an outfit, that at most they may wear two or three times. So last year at an after Christmas department store sale we went ahead and purchased the kid's dress clothes for this year. However, not only do the kids not fit into their clothes from year to year, but their shoes too.

So I found myself on the hunt for little boys dress shoes... Would someone please explain to me why little boy's dress shoes have to be so ugly?! They look cheap, oversized for their feet and cost as much as my husband's shoes. I went to one store after the next, searched on Black Friday and even got as far as bringing a pair to the counter to purchase.

In the end, I just couldn't bring myself to do it; spend all that money for shoes that once again have a life span of hours. It was in my most desperate moment that an idea came to me; dye a pair of suede shoes he already has in the closet. I bought shoe touch-up dye (yes, the one that says do not use on suede) for a few dollars to see if my idea would work. Sure enough, a couple of coats of dye and his old, tan shoes are now charcoal and ready to wear for the holidays.

Here is a picture of him wearing is newly reDESIGNed shoes for his school play.

Great ornament for kids to make for school party or teacher's gifts

My mother made these simple ornaments with us as kids and now I will be making them with my daughter's kindergarten class as a Holiday party craft. I searched the internet for ideas, but nothing fit the ease and appropriateness of this old tried and true idea.

Materials:
-Black matte board (use Michael's coupon for large piece and cut to size)
-Popsicle sticks
-White paint pen
-Scrap book stickers (the Christmas ones were included in one of the weekly 50% off pre-holiday sales)
-Thin ribbon (also part of the weekly sales)

Loop the ribbon and hot glue it to the front face of the matte board. Then glue the sticks to the matte board to create the frame. Next have the kids write letters, numbers, words, etc inside the frame and their name and the year on the back. Lastly, glue a decorative accent to the lower corner of the frame.

The kids will love being involved in DESIGN-ing their own gifts and sharing the talents they have learned in school as a gift to family, friends or teachers.