The Shopping Mama

I Saw It On Pinterest {DIY Easter Crayons}

by Shannon on April 3rd, 2012 | 5 Comments | Crafts with Kids, Life

I Saw It On Pinterest… And Made It Myself!

Like many, I’ve been so inspired by the images, recipes, products and creativity I see on Pinterest. But, because I hear so many comments from friends about how much time they waste on Pinterest, I’ve decided to challenge myself to DO SOMETHING with the inspirational things I see on the wildly popular site. My goal: Each month I must act upon two different things I see on Pinterest. I have to make it, buy it, cook it, craft it or do it twice per month…and report to you how it goes. If you haven’t joined Pinterest to see what all the buzz is, check it out. And if you are inspired to action by what you see, let me know how it went for you!

Easter Crayons

I still have candy from Halloween 2011. The only reason I don’t have candy from 2010 is because I threw it in the trash when 2011′s arrived. Piled on top of the peanut butter pumpkins is Christmas candy, Valentine candy and some jelly beans from “who knows when.” So, I’m that mom that refuses to give candy at special occasions. Pinterest has been such as wonderful asset as I search for small gift alternatives for my children’s friends and classmates.

I absolutely adored these heart crayons I saw back in February and I knew I wanted to try them, but ran out of time at Valentine’s Day.

This project was so super simple. It really is just as simple as the “Pinned” picture indicates. We started by gathering our broken, peeled crayons and many others from our “big box o’ crayons.” We chose to use pastels for spring and will save our bolder colors for other holidays. Preschool girl loved peeling and breaking the crayons while toddler boy loved loading them into the silicone baking pan we purchased from the local big box store. Of course, mom handled the knife for chopping the crayons into smaller pieces.

After loading the tray with crayons, I placed the silicone baking tray on an aluminum baking sheet for stability. While it may not seem necessary before placing the crayons in the oven, it is absolutely necessary as you pull the melted, liquid wax from the oven. While the original Pinterest post indicates baking at 230 degrees for 15 minutes, I found that I needed an extra five minutes for each baking session. Ovens vary, so don’t fret if yours take longer.

We couldn’t wait for our crayons to cool, so we placed them in the refrigerator to speed the process and free our baking form for the next batch. You will know it is too soon to remove the crayons if they start to crack when removing. Once cooled, the silicone sheet makes it simple to remove the crayons. Just push up on the bottom of the bunny shape and pop up the cooled crayon. We made 48 crayons in less than two hours. So, why do I only have two to photograph?

I only have two to photograph because I forgot to take a picture of the entire batch before giving them away! I gave mine away in a little Easter bucket with egg-shaped chalk, and Easter bunny colored pencils so that our little friends could “color their eggs” and to show them that “somebunny loves them!”

I absolutely loved this project and plan to do it again for upcoming holidays. I’m thinking of new variations for this coming Halloween.

Now, to dump some more candy before the new jelly beans arrive.

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See all my Pinterest-inspired crafts and follow me on Pinterest.

Easter Goodness & Goodies at Chasing Fireflies

by Kate on March 9th, 2012 | 5 Comments | Reviews

One of my favorite catalogs to browse and admire and “ooooh and aaaah” over is Chasing Fireflies. Without fail, the catalog is always full of gorgeous clothes, adorable personalized goodies for kids and clever ways to celebrate holidays. In fact, Chasing-Fireflies.com is one of the first places I looked when checking out Easter outfits for my kids – and I even started my Easter Pinterest board when I found these adorable personalized Easter pajamas. I’ve always had good luck shopping Chasing Fireflies and we simply LOVED my son’s King Cobra Halloween costume so I was delighted with the opportunity to check out the great selection of Easter products.

Meet Chasing Fireflies

We offer a world of treasures that will cultivate childish creativity. A menagerie of adorable play pals. A tempting array of treats. Fresh spring sundresses and twirly holiday confections of silk, velour, satin and ribbons. We celebrate every special occasion such as Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christening and that first wiggly tooth. At Chasing Fireflies, we believe in magic, so don’t be surprised when you find a little fairy dust, too.

Easter Fun at Chasing Fireflies

I had such a blast checking out all the Easter products at Chasing Fireflies. With everything from personalized clothes and pajamas to Easter decorations to goodies for easter baskets, the selection is fantastic. I decided to focus on the Easter fun products to find some activities for my older kids to enjoy. I love the idea of spending some special time with the older kids to get them in the holiday spirit – and the fact that it’s some quality time sans baby is a bonus.

Is it bad that we’ve never dyed Easter eggs with my kids? Well, we are this year! The Egg Coloring Kit has all-natural materials and animal cut outs. The kids are beyond excited, but I’ve explained that the eggs would be a little stinky if we decorated them now.

Another Easter activity we’ll be doing is the Easter Pizza Kit. Didn’t you know the Easter bunny likes pizza? Who wouldn’t like this sweet treat? This pizza kit includes ingredients to make a sugar cookie crust, cream cheese topping and candies to decorate. My daughter is particularly excited to make our Easter pizza.

We won’t lack for anything to do with the awesome book 50 Easter Things to Make and Do. The book includes crafts – from basic to more involved – so you can create all sorts of Easter decorations for your home. We’ll definitely be making the fingerprint sheep, Easter garland and colorful butterflies. I did think the book would have more activities (hence the “Do” in the title), but it is mostly things to make and create with kids.

Chasing Fireflies has everything you need to get in the Easter spirit. Stay tuned to see how our adventures in celebrating and creating Easter treats turns out.

Shop! Have fun browsing and admiring all the Easter products at Chasing Fireflies. Keep up with the latest holiday goodness and other information on news and sales with Chasing Fireflies on Facebook and Twitter.

This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own.

Why Didn’t I Think of This Before?

by Shannon on February 29th, 2012 | 5 Comments | Birthday Gifts, Crafts with Kids, Life

Cutlines & Captions on the Back of Photo Frames? Genius.

Okay, maybe just genius to me.

Whenever my daughter and I attend a birthday party, I like to take photos of the birthday child and present them to mom & dad as a “thank you” for inviting us. Often, I frame one photo for them.

As I was doing this ritual tonight, I had difficulty getting the price tag and “made in…” sticker cleanly off the back. I wanted a way to hide the messy sticky film left behind from the stickers and realized I could print a caption for the back of the frame and attach it with double-sided tape.

As I was working on this project, I realized how much I would love it if I had done this for all my framed photos from ten years ago. There are so many for which I cannot remember the dates, location or all the people present. I WILL be doing this from now on. Just remember the journalistic rule for a caption – the 5 Ws and H – who, what, when, where, why and how.

I Saw It On Pinterest {Plates on a Wall as Art}

by Shannon on February 24th, 2012 | 5 Comments | Crafts with Kids, Life

I Saw It On Pinterest…And Made It Myself!

Plates on the Wall as Art

I’ve seen Sarah Richardson do it. I’ve seen it in magazines. I saw it on Pinterest (pinned from Decor to Adore). I could not resist any longer. I’ve always LOVED plates and ceramics and feel terrible that they’re usually stacked behind kitchen cabinetry, so when I saw plates hung on a wall on the hugely popular Pinterest, I knew I finally had to try it myself.

And I had the perfect wall for the display. Regular readers of The Shopping Mama (which I hope you all are) may remember my dining room wall from September. Remember this?

After watching Sarah Richardson’s “Sarah 101″, I knew that I could use epoxy on the back of the plates to attach D-rings for hanging. I didn’t fell comfortable with this for the heaviest of plates and platters, so five of my hangings still have traditional plate hangers that you can find at any hobby store. After all the work with the plates, the wall looks like this:

DIY Tips

I did learn a few things while completing the project. First, the kind of epoxy you choose can make the project easier or more difficult. I used several kinds in a trial and error process. Choosing an “instant mix” epoxy that mixes while you dispense it will make the project much easier. You simply point and and apply. I don’t usually recommend one particular brand over another unless I’m really pleased, so I’m recommending Loctite’s Instant Mix epoxy. I used it after using an 2-part mix yourself version and much preferred this brand/applicator.

Second, after applying epoxy and setting the D-ring in place, you need to monitor the drying and setting for a small amount of time. I didn’t realize the weight of the “D” portion of the ring was such that it would fall before the epoxy could set. Therefore, upon first try, I ended up with D-rings glued to my plates at ridiculous angles that would never hang on the wall. I had to break them off (aaack! I was so afraid of breaking my beautiful plates!) and start the process all over again.

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See all my Pinterest-inspired crafts and follow me on Pinterest.

Valentine Card Crafts

by Shannon on February 11th, 2012 | 5 Comments | Crafts with Kids, Life

‘ve created monsters. Crafting monsters, that is. Preschool girl can sit for hours with paper, scissors and glue. Toddler boy is perfecting his scissor skills with our Faber Castell “My First Scissors” and, when he gets his sticky little hands on it, will tuck the bottle of glue like a football and run.

There was never a question that we would make Valentines for exchange at their preschool. However, I have to admit that I was lacking inspiration for this year’s cards until reading Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond. As I was reading, I saw that Mouse makes Dog a valentine with all their friends drawn from heart bases.

I started thinking of all the animals we could make from hearts. And because I’m lazy, I knew I would use my heart craft punch. And because I’m cheap, I knew I would get all the colored paper for these animals from the paint samples at the home improvement store. I nabbed green for alligators, brown for monkeys, gray for elephants, pink for flamingos, yellow for ducks, etc.

From there, I just had to come up with cute sayings. Here are two I made for toddler boy’s class:

In addition to the hearts, I drew a few lines and added some eyes. You could also make other animals with the expressions “I’m not LION, you’re my valentine!”, “Valentine, OWL love you forever!”, or “You’re the CAT’s meow, my sweet valentine!”

I also thought of a cute card for preschool girl’s classmates using the heart craft punch and paint samples:

She decided to go another direction.

That’s a flamingo holding a valentine. I absolutely love her cards better than mine!

It’s not too late for you and your child to make valentines; you just have to survive the glare of the home improvement store employees.

Todd Oldham Partners with Target to Create Kid Made Modern Art Supplies

by Kate on January 31st, 2012 | 5 Comments | Shopping

Target is at it again with another innovative celebrity partnership. This time, our favorite store is teaming up with designer and jack-of-all-trades Todd Oldham to create a collection of art supplies and activity kits. Inspired by his children’s book Kid Made Modern, the goal is to provide affordable and accessible craft projects for kids and parents to enjoy together.

According to Target’s blog, A Bullseye View, Kid Made Modern is “a collection of art supplies and activity kits to give kids and parents fun, yet affordable creative design tools, only available at Target. The colorful and thoughtful projects for kids of all ages provides a hands-on form of creative imagination and joy.” The collection will include “kid-approved supplies like crazy crayons, neon-printed ducktape, jewelry kits, art papers and more.”

Kid Made Modern Video Preview

Shop! Kid Made Modern by Todd Oldham will be available at Target stores and Target.com on May 20. Can’t wait to do some Todd Oldham modern art inspired kids crafts? The book Kid Made Modern is available now from our affiliate Amazon for $15.60.

I Saw It On Pinterest {Free Exercise Motivation Printable}

by Shannon on January 16th, 2012 | 5 Comments | Crafts with Kids, New Year New Mama

I Saw It On Pinterest…And Made It Myself!

New Year, New Mama

I’m going to begin this post with a few excuses. Yep, I’m admitting right up front that I’m making excuses. My son is more than two years old and I have not lost an ounce of weight from having him. I was doing well with nursing and slimming down a little, then hubby was deployed to Iraq for a year. My greatest comfort on particularly hard days while he was away? Chocolate pie from a local restaurant. Aaaaand here comes all the weight I lost while nursing (and plus some, probably). Hubby has been back now for four months and I’m running out of excuses. And like most, I set a New Year’s resolution to lose weight.

If you also have a resolution to lose weight, Pinterest has all sorts of exercise charts and images of bodies to inspire you. To be honest, images of chiseled women don’t really inspire me, but the many “before and after” images do. To find your own inspiration, just click the tabs “everything – fitness”.

Now, it’s one thing to be inspired. It’s quite another to lose your mind and think you can do 100 chin ups on Day 1 of your new exercise regime. So, I chose to be judicious and was inspired by the following post of a totally doable set of exercises:

I knew these were all exercises I could do at home without purchasing any special equipment. I just thought the printout a little…ummm…ugly. So, I retyped it in InDesign and printed it on embossed paper to frame for my exercise area (which is also the kids’ craft room, guest room and “mama’s time-out” room).

I do recognize that the frame next to the chart is empty. I have many amazing photos stored digitally that would look great in there; however, the errand fairy has not yet taken my digital media to the local kiosk to make prints. I’m thinking of filing a complaint.

If you like my version of the exercise chart, you can download it to print for yourself as well. Simply print on any 8.5 X 11 paper you like and trim to fit an 8 X 10 frame.

Click the image to download and print.

I have strategically placed the chart next to the treadmill so that I can perform the exercises after a brisk cardio workout. It should be noted that the chart is also equidistant to the adjacent chair-and-a-half that folds out into a twin bed. That’s a tough choice some nights…treadmill or chair?

At least I’ve set myself up for success. We’ll see if it translates into a “new mama.”

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See all my Pinterest-inspired crafts.

I Saw It On Pinterest… And Made It Myself!

by Shannon on December 14th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Crafts with Kids, Life

I wanted to start this post in so many ways:

After all the expenses of moving (that continue to this day), how on earth am I supposed to afford gifts for my daughter’s preschool classmates this year?
“I could spend HOURS on Pinterest!” is all I hear from friends. This is true for me, as well. However, with the approach of the new year, I want to challenge myself to actually DO something with the things that inspire me.
Oh my word, this is such an easy craft to make with (and for) preschoolers!
I’ve used store receipts for bookmarks my entire adult life, but as preschool girl is starting to read chapter books (hurray!) I’d like for her to have a cool bookmark to use each night when we close “Because of Winn-Dixie” or “The Happy Hollisters” (terribly outdated, but I clean up the bully and gender stereotypes).

So, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m starting a new series of posts in which I recreate something I saw on Pinterest for my home and family (or as gifts). Haven’t heard of Pinterest? It’s a relatively new online forum for sharing and storing everything found on the internet. And by everything, I do mean everything.

How to Use Pinterest

Here’s how it works:

1) Visit Pinterest.com and create an account for yourself.
2) Once you have an account, a “Pin It” tab will appear in your internet favorites bar.
3) Anytime you see anything on the internet (in a catalog, on a blog, on a professional site, etc), you click “Pin It” and it pins to “your page.”
4) When you are finally ready to craft or make a purchase, you can visit your page and view all the items (with links to the original site intact).

Gone are the days of “Now, where did I see that snowman made of popsicle sticks?” or “Who had the best deal on red corduroy pants?” Simply visit your page to see all your inspiration, or compare products at a glance. I love my Pinterest page, but have heard more than one person I know complain about the amount of time they spend on the site. It can be overwhelming because, in addition to seeing your pins, you can see all of your friends’ pins as well. You can even view pins from general categories.

I often see more inspiration than I can stand. Which brings me to my challenge for the new year. I am making a resolution to “take action” on the things I see on Pinterest at least twice per month. Whether it be a craft, recipe or home decor idea, I want to do something with the ideas generated in this forum.

Project Inspired by Pinterest

I’m starting my resolution early in the month of December with some really cool, quick, easy and inexpensive bookmarks that inspired me. They are incredibly relevant gifts as my preschool daughter, and many of her friends, are starting to read chapter books (she can’t read yet, but I read to her) and will be perfect to give to her classmates at preschool. And as with any craft you create yourself, you can customize them to any color or pattern you wish.
This is what I saw on Pinterest:

The original post can be found at Altered to Perfection and the original creator sells these items on Etsy if you find yourself short of time. The originals are created with jumbo colored paper clips, but I couldn’t find any large ones in various colors. I purchased a package of ten really large brass paper clips at Staples. As for ribbon, this project is perfect for using your scraps. Each piece is small and you use multiples, so you can clean up your ribbon drawer and cut costs while creating these super-cute stocking stuffers!
Here’s my version:

The pen is there to show scale. These are some very cute, sturdy bookmarks. I made several more that don’t appear in the photo because my children have absconded with them. I did find that I need to purchase some additional ribbon that will appeal to the boys in preschool girl’s class. Total cost for gifts for an entire preschool class? Less than $10.00, even with an additional ribbon purchase.

January? Of course, it will include exercise. Stay tuned to see what’s getting done, or better yet, share with me what you are doing with the things you find on Pinterest! You can also follow me on Pinterest to see what’s inspiring me.