Winnie the Pooh Crafts & Fun Foods Roundup

Winnie the Pooh returns to theaters tomorrow, so here's a little roundup of some fun crafts, foods, and parties from around the web:

First up, Disney is sharing a family activities file with you! Download the file here. You'll get directions for a whole series of adorable Pooh activities--some of them edible too!  

In addition, if you head over to Disney's Family.com, you'll find a whole round up of cute Pooh inspired ideas there too, like these adorable paper bag puppets! 

And, if you're planning a Winnie the Pooh party, or just want to whip up some cute treats, these parties are a must-see:

Pooh inspired sweets table on Hostess with the Mostess

Adorable bee-hive cake!

 Winnie the Pooh Party on Celebrations at Home

Have fun celebrating that willy, nilly, silly old bear! :)

DIY Splash Balls

With it being SO crazy hot in most of the country right now, (seriously, I can't believe that it's been hotter in many places than it has been here in Phoenix!) water play is almost a MUST if you're going to play outside. And, these DIY splash balls are perfect for playing in the water!

 

We actually learned about this fun little craft at Chick-fil-A a few weeks ago. They have family-themed nights on certain days of the summer and it just so happens to that the night we went was "craft night" and made these fun water sponge balls--great for the pool (or the bathtub)! 

I knew they would be perfect for our summer fun playdate, so I headed off to get supplies. I was SO pleased to find all of the supplies I needed at Dollar Tree--this one is not only super easy, but super inexpensive--a true dollar store craft! :)

Here's what you need:

 - sponges and zip ties!

I found 10 packs of colored synthetic sponges and 2 packs of colored cellulose sponges, so decided to do a mix. Then, there were packages of colored zip ties that almost perfectly matched the synthetic sponges. Perfect! The amount I got was enough to do at least 8 balls (making them less than $1/ball)

To make:

1. Cut sponges into approx. 1" strips

 (you will have A LOT of strips)

2. Set up an area to do the craft & make sure 1 year olds are not left unattended.<oops!>

 

 3. Let the kids pick out 9 strips (in this case, 3 cellulose and 6 other the other) and line them up.

 

4. Gather up all the sponge strips and place a zip tie in the center. Pull tie as tight as it will go, then cut off the excess.

 

That's it! Super easy & then the kiddos can have tons of fun splashing around a toy that they made! Love it!

 They were so eager to go try them out and had so much fun learning how the balls worked by soaking up water! There's a good science lesson to be had there too! :)

What are YOUR favorite water play crafts/activities?

*Linked to: Hookin Up with HOH, *I'm Lovin' It , *Get Your Craft On, *Show and Share Saturday

American Flag Photo Collage Frame

If you want a festive way to display your favorite 4th of July photos, making this frame is perfect! It's a fairly quick, easy, and inexpensive project that makes for a nice patriotic display! I've shared all the directions for creating this little DIY photo collage frame over on the Happy Housewife! Hope you enjoy! 
And, if you missed it, but are looking for more patriotic ideas for this weekend, you can check out the 4th of July round-up post! 

What are YOU doing for the 4th?

Elmer's Craft & Tell Party Recap + GIVEAWAY!

I had the pleasure of hosting a fun craft night this past weekend. And, not just any 'ole craft party, but an Elmer's Craft and Tell Party!!

This means that a few weeks ago, the UPS guy dropped a HUGE box at my door, filled with enough fantastic Elmer's and X-ACTO products for me and 10 friends to have an amazing craft night!!

After sorting out products, filling goodie bags, setting up tables, and putting together a few yummy eats, everything was ready for our night of crafting fun!

Such a great group of ladies came! In addition to "in real life friends", quite a few are fellow bloggers or hand-made business owners who all live on this same side of town. Please check them out! Rebecca {Roots & Wings Co}, Allison {All for the Boys}, Amy {Pink Bow Bath Boutique}, Trisha {Night Owl}, Laura {Pink Cake Plate}, Amy {Dealusional}, Sara {Super Saving Sense}, and Samantha {A Little Simplicity}.

Everyone stood around chatting and sampling all the wonderful food that everyone brought for quite sometime. Then, for an additional bit of fun, we even skyped with Katie from Sweet Rose Studio who hosted the same party on the other side of town!  She and I planned the parties together for the same night so ladies from both sides of town could join in the fun while not having to drive as far (when you live in a place as big as the Phoenix area, a drive across "town" can be well more than an hour)!

 

  Then, finally, we got around to crafting!! 

 

There was quite a variety of projects, from jewelry making, to birthday party invitations and decorations, Father's Day cards & gifts, scrapbooking, etc. and all of our Elmer's products worked great! 

In addition to the fun goodie bags filled with products (which I can't believe I didn't take a picture of--sorry!), we drew names out of a bag and each person got to pick an additional fun craft supply from the big 'ole Elmer's box!

Here's Sara, Amy, and Samantha showing off some of their favorite new things! 

 

So, doesn't that all look like fun?! It totally was, and here's the BEST part.....

Elmer's wants a couple of you to be able to have a similar crafty night with friends in YOUR area! So, TWO lucky readers will each win an Elmer's Craft and Tell mini-Party Pack, complete with the following items:

3  X-ACTO Retract-a-Blade knives

3  CraftBond Extra Strength Glue Sticks

3  CraftBond Tape Runners
3 Mini Bi-fold 9x12 Foam Board packs
1 Painters Markers pack

1 X-ACTO Decorative Edge Scissors pack
1 Circle Cutter
1 X-ACTO Self-Healing Mat
1 Glue Dots pack

2 Photo Corners packs (various colors)
1 Gel Pens pack

1 Tacky Glue bottle

Super great, huh?! Especially great that TWO of you will win!!! 

WINNERS: Lucky commenter #9, Kassandra, and lucky #33, Stephanie!  

Congratulations ladies! 

Can't wait to see what you do with your mini Craft and Tell Party packs!! 

Please email me at momendeavors(at)gmail(dot)com with your mailing addresses!!

TO ENTER: Giveaway now CLOSED!
1. Simply leave a comment telling me which of the above listed Elmer's/X-ACTO products you are most excited about!! 

Get extra entries (leave a separate comment for each. If you're already following, THANK YOU!, just be sure to let me know in the comments!):

2. Follow Mom Endeavors on Google Friend Connect (see widget on the left side bar)

3. Follow Mom Endeavors on facebook &/or twitter (1 entry, even if you do both)

4. Follow Elmer's on facebook &/or twitter (1 entry, even if you do both)

5. Share about this giveaway with a link on facebook or tweet the following (copy & paste): @momendeavors is giving away TWO @Elmers #CraftandTell party packs! Enter to win: http://bit.ly/lSc1oU

 

(up to 5 entries per person)
Limited to US residents only. Giveaway will end on June 20th at 10pm PST. Winner with a valid entry will be selected at random using random.org. I will email the winner and post the winner on the blog. They will have 48 hours to claim their prize (make sure you leave your email address or that it is attached to your profile).

Thanks to Elmer's for sponsoring such a great night & giveaway, and thanks to all my friends who came over for such a fun evening!! 
Disclosure: As noted in the post, Elmer's provided the free products shown for the party & is providing the giveaway items.  No compensation was received.  All opinions and experiences are my own.

3 easy DIY projects under $5!!

Since February, I've been the DIY contributing writer over at The Happy Housewife. Since then, I've shared a few quick and easy projects--each a little different, but with the right supplies, all can be done for under $5!! How nice is that?! They'd make great gifts or just quick summer projects! 

Click any of the titles or pictures for full details and tutorials.

Floral Flip Flops

Perfect for summer--such an easy way to spruce up your Old Navy (or any other) flip flops!

DIY Cake Stand

You'd be hard-pressed to find a DIY or craft project easier than this one!  I think I may need to make one for 4th of July! :)

Wire Photo/Recipe Holder 

There are so many different things you could do with a little wire holder like this one! Other embellishments, colors, different shaped wires, etc.

What are YOUR favorite types of inexpensive projects?

X-TREME Table Makeover: #GlueNGlitter Edition

We're in the midst of doing a little mini patio makeover and setting up for a BBQ get together (stay tuned for details on that soon). One of the new items is this little folding patio table.

 

Many of the styles I like aren't always the most kid friendly--you know, pokey corners, glass table tops, breakable, etc. So, I find myself compromising a bit on appearance in favor of being kid-friendly. This little folding table (found at Kmart) is a good solution for us--much sturdier than the plastic ones, no glass, no sharp edges, etc. But, I didn't like the look as much--especially being able to see all the underneath folding table legs and such.

My solution? A mini X-TREME table makeover!

What I used:

- Fabric (outdoor or vinyl that could be wiped down would be great!)

- part of an Elmer's tri-fold foam board (the 1/2 left over from our zoo project)

- Elmer's X-TREME glue stick 

- X-ACTO knife

- ribbon

- pencil

- scissors

(You can see all the details of my X-TREME shopping mission and a sneak peak at another project here) 

What I did:

Traced the table top on the foam board and then cut it out with the X-ACTO knife.

Once the foam piece was cut, the fabric was cut to the needed size.

Then, I flipped it over and started gluing the fabric to the board with the new X-TREME glue stick. In the past, I probably would have used a hot glue gun for a project like this. But, this was so much better!! No chance of burnt fingers, no stringy glue-gun "hairs", and no bumps in the fabric. Perfect for this!

 

I continued gluing and sticking the fabric down all around the board, even using the glue-stick to adhere fabric to fabric at the rounded corners. 

 Once that was done, I cut any excess fabric from the corners and then added ribbons to secure it to the table. I wasn't sure if we would ever want to take it off or what, so I decided to make the table top removable. To do this, I glued ribbon under the fabric to the center of each side.

So, the underneath side ended up looking like this:

To attach the new top to the table, I laced the ribbons through the holes of the table top.

.

Then, I tied the ribbons together as tight as possible (just like tying a bow tight to a package).

 After flipping the table over, then, voila--a much better looking table top! :)

X-TREME Table Makeover a success! 

Linked to:  Skip to my Lou,

Disclosure: This project has been compensated as part of a craft recipe project using Elmer's #collectivebias. #gluenglitter #xtremeschoolglue All opinions & experiences are my own. For more information, read my disclosure policy.

Make an alphabet zoo display #gluenglitter

We've had some great outings to the zoo lately and so Big Brother asks almost daily if we can go! Since there's no way we can do that, I decided we could make a zoo display board featuring some of our favorite animals to have here at home. Then, we took it one step further and made it an "alphabet zoo". 

If the zoo isn't your thing, this project could adapted for any favorite place--museums, art galleries, theme parks, botanical gardens, etc.

Here's what you need (you can see photos from our shopping trip here):

 - Elmer's tri-fold display board (the cardboard or foam varieties are both fine)

 - Cutting blade

 - Paint & paintbrushes

 - Elmer's glue spots or other photo-safe adhesive

 - Zoo materials (photos, maps, stickers, etc.)

 - Letters (I cut mine out with my Cricut)

The Elmer's tri-fold display boards are quite large (36" x 48"), giving you a lot of space to work with (perfect for adding lots of photos).

But, since the board was for Big Brother, we decided it would be easier for him to handle if it was a bit smaller. So, "B" cut the board in half! 

This worked out great as he not only has a board he can handle better, but we have another board to use for another project! :) 

As soon as we had our cut board, Big Brother and I went right to work on painting it!

The tiger was the big favorite from our zoo trip last week, so we did a tiger painting.

*a note about painting the board--it caused ours to curl a bit. The board still stands on it's own, but won't fold flat. Not sure if that happened because of the type of board (foam as opposed to cardboard) or the type of paint, but the board does have a bit of a bend to it. 

Once the board was dry, Big Brother and I decided where the animal pictures should go and started sticking them on with our Elmer's glue spots.

Then, next to each picture, I attached the letter the animal's name starts with and wrote the animal name underneath.

Big Brother has loved looking at all the pictures and going over the letters! When it's not being used, it can be a cool poster in his room (which is animal themed). But, he's really enjoying that he can use it when he plays with his animals.

 

This morning, it served as the  backdrop for playing zoo! And, once again, I've been asked about 10 times today if we can go to the zoo again! :) 

Do YOU have any favorite zoo projects?

Linked to: *Show & Tell, *Show Me What Ya Got, *High Paw-Show Us Your Best

Disclosure: This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Elmer's #gluenglitter #collectivebias. All opinions & experiences are my own. For more information, read my disclosure policy.