DIY wooden baby age blocks

I love making these for family and friends - check out my adorable little nephew below using his baby age blocks! I received a set of baby age blocks when little miss was born and since then I have been obsessed with them. They are so cute as baby photo props or just as nursery decor.

So far there are 2 different designs you can purchase in my shop to make your own. More designs will be added in the spring of 2017! Let get started!

 

DIY BABY MILESTONE AGE BLOCKS SUPPLIES

• 4 - 2inch cubes (You can get them at Michaels or on Amazon HERE)

• Mod Podge Glue Matte Finish

• Super Glue

• Large paint brush

• Cutting board or scissors (I LOVE my Fiskars Cutting Boardand highly recommend getting one!)

• Paint or stain

• Baby age blocks design you want to make 

To purchase a design please visit my shop here ----> BABY AGE BLOCKS PRINTABLE DESIGNS

Please note the instructions below are to make the monthly baby age blocks but the designs have additional graphics so you can make ones for the first day of life, first few days, weeks, months, years, and school grades. You will need 10 wooden blocks to make the complete set if you want all the extras.

STEP ONE 

Once you have purchased the design you want send the JPEG files to print at any photo lab like you would any other photograph. The JPEGs are 8x12 in size and I recommend printing them on the MATTE finish not the glossy. Once you have had the JPEGs printed, cut out all the squares and rectangles.

STEP TWO

Gather your wooden blocks and take two of them and super glue them together like the picture below.

This will create your rectangle need for the base of your milestone blocks. Let them dry for at least an hour.

  

STEP THREE 

Depending on which design you choose you will either want to paint or stain the age blocks. For the Lumberjack design baby age blocks I stained the blocks a dark stain I had in the garage. Since these are not toys, but decorations and photo props do not let your baby play with them if you choose to stain or paint the wooden blocks. For the Blue, Green and Yellow baby boy design I painted the wooden blocks with just white craft paint. You can leave the blocks unfinished but I prefer to paint or stain them.

STEP FOUR

Take one of the single blocks and start Mod Podging the numbers on. You want to make sure that on each block there is a number 0 and a number 1 and then the rest of the numbers can be spread between both of the single blocks. To see how to mod podge the design squares onto the wooden block if you have not done this type pf craft before please visit my post DIY PHOTO ORNAMENT CUBES ( *** NOTE - If you plan to make these into pregnancy weeks blocks then you will have to print out 2 of the JPEG designs and make an additional single block with another a 3 on it. Which would also be a good time to add on that block the grades K, TK, ST, RD, TH (for 1st, 2nd grade etc) ***) 

STEP FIVE 

Once you have Mod Podged on all the numbers onto the single cubes its time to work on the bottom rectangle. For the Baby age blocks you would put the design rectangles on which are - Week, Weeks, Month and Months. But you can glue together another 2 wooden blocks and finish them with stain or paint and put the design rectangles that say - Just Born, Day, Days and Hours too.

STEP SIX

Then the blank square designs are for the ends of the rectangles to give it that finished look! Then your done! 

Here is the complete look of the Lumberjack Design Baby Milestone age Blocks. 

 

and the Blue, Green and Yellow Baby Boy design. 

Such a fun and personalized gift for any new mom! Remember to check our shop in the spring for several new designs to make your own baby age blocks!

       

To check out more of my printable design visit my shop ----> SugarPickle Designs

Halloween Non Candy Class Treats

Halloween time is here and I always find it challenging to think of something for Ace to bring to school as a class treat. With all the rules about food and allergies finding something that is not a pencil, sticker and eraser like every other parent sends in. It definitely tests my creativity each year so I thought I would put together a list of what we have done in the past. Hopefully if you landed here on this page you find one you like!

VAMPIRE TEETH
This year Ace brought in plastic vampire fangs. These were great and cost less then $12 CAN to put together. The Vampire fangs I bought at the Dollar store and the tags were printed at Staples. The tags are available for purchase here ---> Personalzied Halloween Treat Tag

MINECRAFT SNACK CONTAINER

The year before Ace brought in such a cool item that I still get asked about it. I can't take all the credit on this one as I had a friend of mine make them for me. I had seen some minecraft tumbles she had made and thought it would be awesome to make a minecraft snack container. So for only $28 CAN she made enough for the whole class. The students in Ace's class still use their containers to this day! To make these, the snack containers were purchased at the Dollar Store and she used food grade vinyl to cut out the shape of the mouth and the eyes.

MONSTER MAKING BOO DOH
This one Ace didn't give to his class but I made them for another student in his class to hand out when they were in kindergarten. The kids just loved getting their own play doh to take home and the total cost to make the home made play doh and print the tags was under $20. The editable Halloween Treat Toppers are available here ---> Halloween Treat Topper They are an instant download you edit in Adobe Reader making them quick and easy for when you totally forget about the Halloween class party until the last minute.

Hopefully these unique non candy class treats help you to decide what to send in for your little ones Halloween class party. If you have any suggestions for a unique Halloween non candy class treat please comment below. I would love any suggestions for Ace & Terror's Halloween class treats for next year!

To check out more of my party printables visit my shop at SugarPickle Party

Seed Bombs for the End of year class party!

This year for the end of the year class party we made seed bombs. Ace wanted to earn one of the earth rangers badges so we thought up this project. Not only was it fun to make but we knew we would be providing more wild flowers for the bees in our area. I am pretty sure Ace enjoyed it only because he got to make mud balls in the kitchen.

What you need to make Seed Bombs

• Crayola Air dry clay
• Newspaper
• Water
• Soil
• Native perennial wild flowers seeds

Before you start you will want to research which native perennial flowers are best in your area. Something that is a high in pollen but that already grows locally in your area.  For North America some of the best ones are Shasta Daisy, Lavender, Purple Coneflower, Poppy and Butterfly Weed. For our seed bombs we used Shasta Daisy, Lavender and Poppy seeds.

First get out an old mixing bowl, pail or container. Mix in 1 cup of water, a golf ball size of the air drying clay and slowly add in one finely shredded newspaper sheet. The idea is to make a sort of thin "glue" similar to paper mache. Mix this all together until the air drying clay is dissolved.

Then add in about 4 cups of soil. Other recipes call for compost or other such things but we just used left over potting soil I had in the garage. Mix all that together and it should be like mud dough consistency.

Once you have done this you can either divide the mud dough into three equal pieces and put in separate containers or you can make this recipe over again for every type of seed your using depending on how many you plan to make. You want to make sure that each seed bomb only has one type of seed in it to help it thrive and survive. If you plan on making this over again or you have three separate containers its now time to add the seeds! We choose to divide the mud dough into three separate containers.

 

 Then add in your seeds and mix it around. We added 3 packets of seeds to our mud dough. Then you can start rolling out your mud dough into little balls!

This was Ace's favorite part as you can tell. We made ours the size of a meat ball but you can make them any size you want.

 

 Once you have made all your mud balls you need to leave them for 24 to 36 hours to dry. They should dry like hard balls that do not crumble apart. Then add how ever you want to a cello bag and add in your double sided printable with instructions on where and how to print and you done! I unique awesome looking year end class gift that also benefits the environment.

We planted some of our seed bombs at the beginning of June, most had bloomed and grown into flowers by late summer. We had a great bee garden this year and hope they all come back again next year!

To purchase this double sided seed bomb printable ---> Seed Bomb Printable

Visit my shop at SugarPickle Party

No Mess Camping Smores!

Our family lives to camp. We would camp all summer if we could. One of our family's favorite foods while camping is s'mores, but the mess little ones makes while eating s'mores is not my favorite thing to clean up. The marshmallows hardens making the mess impossible. So we came up with a way to enjoy them and make them less messy. Here's what you need.

 

• Disposable Grilling Tray or an old cookie sheet.

(I forgot our camping cookie sheet at home so we got tray at the park store)

• Tin Foil

• Marshmallows

• Milk chocolate chips or a Hersey bar

• Waffle Ice cream cones or Bowls

On this night we had the waffle bowls. First put two layers of tin foil over the Grilling tray

or cookie sheet and then place the waffle bowls on top.

 

Then you can get the kids to start putting in marshmallows and chocolate chips and fill them up as much as you want. We learned after making these bowls for the first time you want to put the marshmallows on the bottom or the chocolates burns a little. Once they have added all the marshmallows and chocolate the want break up the left over bowls and add them to the bowls.

Then place the tray over the fire preferably over the hot coals and not the flames. We let ours sit for about 10 minutes before they were all melted. You want to check the bottom of the waffle bowls though a few times to make sure they are not getting burnt and move the tray if needed if they are.

Once they are melted and have cooled a bit, give the kids fork to eat them. I showed my kids how to eat what was in the bowl first and then to eat the bowl last. If you want to use the Waffle Ice Cream cones, just fill the ice cream cone with marshmallows and chocolate chips and then wrap them in tin foil and place them on the tray over the coals. Both are WAY less messy then the original way and they are just as tasty! Enjoy!

 

For those of you with trailers or who just love to camp, check out the FREE camping printable below!

To download visit the FREEBIES page ----> HERE!

First Communion Centerpieces

During this busy communion season I have had a lot of requests on how to use my first communion centerpiece circle printables. After writing out instructions more then 10 times for customers I decided it was time to make a tutorial & here it is!

First thing you do is pick out which centerpiece printable set you want, I have quite a few in the shop to choose from and then purchase it here ---> COMMUNION CENTERPIECES

Once you have purchased the design you want, edit it in adobe reader to say your child's name and then print it out at a third party printers for best results like staples or office max. I suggest printing it on cover stock vs card stock. Its thicker and sturdier but be warned its harder to cut with out having a really good pair of scissors. So unless you have a great pair of craft scissors then just get the communion centerpiece circles printed on 100 lb card stock. Decide how many Communion party centerpieces you will need and print out how many you need.

Now for the fun part, head to the dollar store! All the supplies in the picture below I bought from the dollar store. Its spring time so the dollar store is packed full of things you can use for your centerpieces. Here is a list of what I purchased there.

• Shish Kabob sticks
• Light blue pail (One for each centerpiece you plan to make)
• White shredded tissue
 

























Once you have all your supplies together, cut out the Communion circles and tape them or glue them to the Shish Kabob sticks and fill the pail with the shredded white tissue paper, make sure its packed tight so the Shish Kabob stick will stick firmly into it.

























Then place the Shish Kabob stick with the communion circle on it into the pail. Trim the Shish Kabob stick at the bottom to the desired height you want the communion circle centerpiece to stick out of the pail.

You can use one of the circles from the printable set to make a centerpiece like in this example below.


or you can use all three communion centerpiece circles in the pail and make a centerpiece like in this example below.


Here are some examples of the other designs I have in the shop to give you some first communion centerpiece ideas! Hope you enjoy my little tutorial!

Rainbow Loom Printable Organizer

I designed something new in the shop a few weeks ago for all the Rainbowloom crafters out there. The idea for this came from my Husbands little cousin out west who a year ago when we went to visit was drawing on a piece of paper out little boxes marked A or B or C in each of the boxes. Then she had 3 or 4 different piles of sorted colors and she put one color pile in box A and another in box B and so on. When I asked her why she was doing this she said to keep her color bands organized so she didn't screw up the pattern of colors in the bracelet she was making. For the whole week we were visiting every time she started making something with her Rainbow loom she would go through this process again of drawing out the boxes and writing out the letters. At that point I thought I should design something so she didn't have to do this each time, put it in my to do list and forgot about it for a while.

 

Then a few months ago our 6 year old Ace started getting interested in Rainbowloom and asked for a Rainbow loom for Christmas. So we got him one and all of a sudden these boxes on paper with A or B or C started to appear again but made by him this time.

 

So I asked Ace if I could make something that he could use over and over again instead of wasting paper each time he wanted to make a ring or bracelet to organize his rainbow loom elastic bands colors would he like that. Ace replied "yes as long as you make it for boys" So I designed a double sided band organizer for the rainbow loom bands to keep the colors organized when working on patterns and tutorials! Here is the design I made for Ace.

Now Ace can choose as many colors patterns and easily place them on the Rainbow Loom in the correct order using his own personalized band organizer! This picture shows both sides but what I did after I ended up printing him one was putting them back to back and laminating it so that it would last a long time even through his wear and tear.

Each design in the shop can be personalized easily in Adobe Reader by you int he comfort of your own home instantly! Once you purchase and download, you open it in Adobe Reader and type in your child's name in the highlight text field save the file and print! Here are some of the other Rainbow loom organizer designs in the shop available. Happy looming!!

Easter Egg Hunt Ideas

In our house my kids are either BFFs or they are fighting about everything. Certain days like holidays and such I really don't enjoy playing referee. So I try and come up with ways to set my kids up to succeed and get along. From the beginning after our second child Terror came along Easter was one of those days where all the kids did was fight about who had more eggs and who stole each others eggs etc. Of course the oldest Ace would get the most and Terror would scream and cry cause he was not as fast as Ace. When little Miss arrived and there was three of them fighting over Easter eggs I knew I had to change the dynamics of the day to make it enjoyable, instead of a screaming, crying day. So for the last two years I have color coded the eggs in the house. I put the jelly beans or chocolate eggs into those plastic color eggs from the dollar store and then hid those around the house.

Everyone gets the same amount of eggs to find and they can find their eggs at their own pace with out the worry someone is going to steal their eggs and ruin their fun. Less fights everyone is happy its a win win for me. Even though Little Miss does not know her colors very well yet Terror and Ace will let her know if she touching on of their eggs and because the "Easter Bunny" set the rules they all seem to comply with grace instead of screaming about it. After Easter is over we leave the plastic eggs out on the porch for the Easter bunny to pick up for next year. (really I pack them away in the garage)

To purchase this printable for your own kids following this link ---> Easter Egg Hunt Printable