Cereal Box Project

aka:
Everything you ever wanted to know about PLUTO on a cereal box....

Ashlynne had this solar system project and her planet was Pluto (which isn't even a "planet" because it's now called a "dwarf planet" but whatever) Anyway, she had to find a creative way to display facts about her planet...ideas were Write a Travel Brochure, Make a Book Cover, or Make a Graphic T-shirt. Ashlynne decided to make a Cereal Box with all the facts.

It came out super cute so I thought I would show you all...(sorry the pics aren't better, my camera was dying)

Christmas Countdown...

I love doing little projects with the kids. It makes them smile, it makes me smile, we make other people smile...it's a SMILING event for all involved. I especially love the Holiday season because it gives me a reason to go arts and crafts crazy with the kiddos. This year I thought it would be totally fun to make an Advent Calendar, or a Christmas Countdown calendar to help build up the anticipation of the upcoming holiday. My other reason was to stop the almost constant "HOW MANY DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS?!?!?" whining which occurs atleast 1,353,876,543 times between now and Christmas day.

Initially, I really wanted to make this one. But I couldn't gather enough tins and it seemed a bit labor intensive for what I was hoping to accomplish. Then I found this one It's made from little terracotta pots and it has a tutorial video...I know...cool huh?! But again with labor intensive and the not having all the supplies at my disposal. So I looked at this PHOTO CALENDAR, these DIY mini envelopes, and these cute little calendar made with TAGS. Let's just say if you Google "homemade advent calendar" or "Christmas countdown calendar" you come up with A LOT of ideas...I went to bed with visions of advent calendars dancing in my head.

In the morning I realized what was missing from all those totally awesome advent calendars....the kids!! Just like that I had the coolest idea for our advent calendar....Christmas trees made out of my kids hand prints!!! Right after breakfast we got to work tracing everyone's hands then decorating each one like a mini Christmas tree. My kids had the best time and it really built up the excitement for the upcoming holiday. I then mounted each hand to red cardstock and matted that onto patterned Christmas paper.





We decided to fill our advent calendar with a family activity for each day. I made 25 little tags and tied them with ribbon. On each tag the kids, Jeremiah, and I came up with activities to write on the back. Each day we will take a tag out of the corresponding day and do the activity.


When we are done with the activity I have a little jar for each of the tags.


So there you have it...LET THE CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN BEGIN!!