Thanksgiving Gratitude Lanterns

 With Thanksgiving approaching we have been talking a lot about the things we are thankful for. I wanted to somehow capture my children's sweet answers and also to sit and create with them while talking is always a great way to feel connected as a family.

 I wrapped a piece of wire around a basic jar making a loop on one end and leaving the other end long for beading.

 The kids added beads to their lantern handle. If you are using plastic beads I would suggest only adding beads to the sides since you will be placing candles in these lanterns. Once we added a few beads, I slipped the wire end through the loop and twisted it close.

 On small pieces of lightweight paper we wrote down things we are grateful for. We set these aside while we got a mixture of school glue and water together. I also pulled out a bag of tissue paper squares to add to our lanterns.

 We chose some pretty fall colored tissue paper for this. Any color you have on hand will look beautiful. Just cut the tissue into small squares. We gave our jars a good coating of the glue mixture using a foam brush and started adding the colorful squares.

 Lastly we added our words right on top of the tissue with some more glue. These took a couple of hours to dry.

Once our lanterns were completely dry we added candles and went on an early Thanksgiving lantern walk. The kids love going on lantern walks and I have to say I might enjoy this special tradition even more than they do! There is something about walking as a family and singing songs while holding our beautiful lit up creations that makes you feel a little magical.

Corn "COB" Doll

Don't you just love when you create something on accident?! These corn cob dolls were not at all intentional or planned. It was just one of those magical creating moments that always makes you wonder why it took so long to discover.

 We grabbed some Indian corn from the market to make our traditional November Indian corn jewelry. It's actually a lot of fun to pop the kernels off the cob. Look how beautiful that corn is! It amazes me every year.

 So, back to the dolls. When G started running around the house with his now naked cob and talking like of course any corn cob would--I got an idea!

 We pulled out a few knick-knacks and the hot glue gun and got to work. Em got silly by giving her doll a pony tail.

With some fabric scraps and buttons these corn cob dolls were turning out pretty adorable. Again, why did I not think of this before?? Oh, all those sad cobs that got tossed into my compost each year. 

 Here is Em's creation! It is one of my favorite things she has made. I love that she used a rubber-band as a mouth. It's a keeper!

**Stay tuned for our Indian corn jewelery, coming soon!!

What I am Thankful for and Thanksgiving Day Prep

As I head to my kitchen (where I will very happily spend the next 24 hours) I will leave you with my last few details for Thanksgiving.

 A simple place card stamped with a wine cork to create a turkey. Fun. For. All. I tell ya! And I tell you this with my ink stained hands!

My kids table is set! It's pretty much the same each year. The art options just grow with the kids! We have our popcorn turkey, pumpkin pie play dough and markers galore. I cover the table with packing paper and make it inviting for all to color, draw or write a little note.

Gobble gobble! We made a turkey waddle tonight with some pipe cleaner and yarn. Cute, right? Confession: I always thought that red blob was called a gobbler....until my five year old corrected me tonight. So make a waddle and take some photos of your guests wearing their waddle!

 And lastly, my baby...my tablescape. Oh how I love a good tablescape, especially when my day to day life is filled with play dough, crayons and gluing q-tips to construction paper. Oh yes, I love the one day I get to have my grown-up table.
By using things around the house (and found in the yard) this beauty came together. Tip: just throw anything on there and see what happens!

This year I am so very thankful for faith, our new home, new town, new friends and having family here that welcomed us with open arms. Spending more time with them has been a blessing. I am thankful for my best-friend who makes me laugh and smile on a daily basis and I am so very thankful I get to call him my husband. I am thankful for my other best-friend who really does complete me, my sister. She knows how I feel before I do and for that I am grateful. I am thankful that my mom still worries about me when I am sick (and that I still call her when I'm sick) and that she gave my husband her manicotti recipe (with measurements) that I thought was only in her head! I am thankful for all of my family in CA that truly make me feel closer than I am. Which leads me to skype...oh how I am thankful for you.

 Oh so much to be thankful for (my brothers, in-laws, nieces, nephews...oh and my art cabinet!) But, of course my sweet babies--that bicker from sunrise to sunset, refuse to poo on the potty (the two-year old that is,) dirty more clothes than I own and make my heart feel more love than I ever imagined. For those two, thankful is no way close to how blessed I feel by them.

Happy Thanksgiving
xo
green owl mama

Popcorn Turkey

 Over the past couple of years we have started a new tradition to have a popcorn turkey that the children carve on Thanksgiving day. They love it and...I love that they love it! It's special and fun and something I have a feeling they will one day have their children do. When it's time to carve (usually as soon as family arrives because they just can't wait any longer) everyone gathers around the children and watches as they carve their turkey. Those proud smiles get me every time!

To see how you can join us in this fun tradition and make your own popcorn turkey, head on over to The Studio, by Kiwi Crate  where I show you step-by-step instructions.

Letter Block Holiday Decor

Join me over at The Family Sponge today and see how I toned down some letter blocks to make them a beautiful (and easily changeable) holiday block set. Great to involve kids in a literacy fun activity that you can celebrates all holidays with or just leave each other fun messages on any day!

Corn Husk Doll

 I think I always felt a little intimidated to make a corn husk doll--until I actually made one! Then I couldn't stop myself. They are really simple once you get the basic formula down and the kids love decorating and naming these festive friends! For my very simple instructions head over to The Studio, by Kiwi Crate.

Cornucopia of Art

Last year we started a tradition on Thanksgiving to cover the children's table with crafts and art supplies to entertain our little ones on Thanksgiving. I took this a step further while preparing this year and made a Cornucopia of ART!
To see how we built our cornucopia to fill with colorful fun check me out over at The Studio, by Kiwi Crate where I am giving step by step instructions!

I am so thankful for art.
xo
green owl mama

Cranberry Tie-Dyed Napkins for Thanksgiving

We made some beautiful tea towels and napkins for Thanksgiving this year. No toxic dye needed when you can make your own with cranberries! Head over to The Studio, by Kiwi Crate for my full tutorial.

Every step of this process was an overload of sensory fun for my children. We crushed cranberries with our hands and smelled the amazing aroma as they warmed. It was wonderful, pure joy!

They came out beautiful. Hope you will try cranberry dying this year! Cranberry Napkin Tutorial

Doily Turkey

 Making sweet turkeys with different kinds of materials goes hand and hand with the month of November. I love seeing what my children create and hearing their silly turkey "gobble gobbles" come out! We made this turkey with a clothespin and a doily. To see my full tutorial of our Doily Turkey, head on over to The Studio, by Kiwi Crate and join us for some Thanksgiving fun!

For another fun turkey craft check out the cork turkey we made last year.

Fall Owl Burlap Flag

Did you know I LOVE owls? Surprise, surprise...I know. I just can't seem to get enough of these cute round birds. They make me smile. When Emma and I were looking to make a fall flag similar to our winter snowman flag...an owl seemed like the perfect way to go. Our secret to getting that perfect owl shape, an apple! Who knew? To see exactly how our adorable owl flag came together--head over to The Studio, by Kiwi Crate where you can join us in our full tutorial of this fun fall decor craft.

Corn Dough

Well, it's not quite time for peppermint dough and I am a little over the pumpkin pie dough....what's a mama to do? After finding my old cast iron corn mold (and wiping the dust off) I thought it was the perfect tool for some fun November corn dough!   

Ingredients:
4 cups flour
4 cups water
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
3 tbs. vegetable oil
3 tbs. cream of tarter
1 cup salt
food coloring

Add all ingredients to a large pot except for the food coloring. Mix over medium heat until a soft dough forms. Dump the dough onto a cutting board and let cool.

Once cool, knead until soft and smooth. Next, divide the dough and knead food colors (of your choice) into each ball of dough.

This dough had a fun texture to it from the cornmeal. The kids loved using the cast iron corn molds along with some corn husks I had left over from corn husk dolls! Perfect way to wait for the peppermint dough to make it's first appearance.

Pumpkin Seed Mosaic

 Did you get a little nuts with the pumpkin seeds while carving all those pumpkins last week? Yes, sometimes I get a bit seed roasting happy too and then we have seeds for snacks one too many times. We put our overabundance of pumpkin seeds to good work at our art table this week.
Join me at The Studio, by Kiwi Crate for my full tutorial on how we made this adorable seed owl.

 

Pumpkin Pie Playdough

This will be the last Thanksgiving craft before I have to dive into my kitchen and get to work. If you do only one, this is the one to do. I don't think anyone can resist playing with this yummy smelling pumpkin pie playdough. On Thanksgiving day you can put this festive dough out for the children along with some mini pie tins and fun kitchen tools. I promise you will get a lot more cooking done this way. We made a batch to bring to our school Thanksgiving celebration. I put the dough in mini pie tins, wrapped in a cello bag and printed out recipe cards to tie to each bag.

Pumpkin Pie Playdough
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tbs vegetable oil
1 cup water
orange food color (or 2 parts yellow, 1 part red)

Add all ingredients to a pot. Add food color until you get the desired color. Cook and stir constantly over medium heat until a large ball forms. Knead on a floured surface until smooth. Let cool and pass on to the kids to enjoy!

We are thankful for art and pumpkin spice today! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Pretty Turkey!

The countdown has begun before our house turns into a cooking extravaganza. Before we put our aprons on we have a few Thanksgiving crafts to get to. These turkeys were so fun to make and turned out adorable.

What you need:
contact paper
feathers
scrapbook paper
wine corks
googly eyes
felt
tacky glue

First cut your contact paper into a half circle about 4 or 5 inches long. Peel off the paper so the sticky side is exposed and let your child stick all sorts of colorful things to it. We used scrapbook paper squares and feathers. I think tissue paper would work well too. Once the contact paper is covered you can glue on the cork, eyes and beak. For the feet we cut a piece of felt into a heart and glued it to the bottom of the cork. Enjoy your pretty turkey!

Harvest Wreath

With just a few weeks left until we start transforming our home into a beautiful winter wonderland we decided to make some harvest wreaths to decorate for our big Thanksgiving gathering. I had planned on making a big one for the front door with an old plain wreath I have already and I always like to include Emma in any crafting I am doing, so, I found these cute little branch wreaths that she could decorate. We gathered little fall trinkets, buttons and flowers (I will post how to make those darling little felt flowers later.) I used hot glue and Emma used tacky to attach everything onto the wreaths. I also added a wood A to mine to give it a little personal touch. We used twine and ribbon to hang them. Emma was very proud of this project and she used hers to decorate her room. I think those little wreaths would also make a great base to hold a candle. Happy fall crafting friends!!