Crafts

We always knew we wanted to have some sort of sand or rock box for Trent once he was old enough for one. We also knew we want to “build” one, but we debated over which type of sand or rocks to buy.

We initially thought sand, but did you know that regular play sand is carcinogenic? Me either! You can get non-carcinogenic sand, but then we thought about how messy it could get and what a pain it would be to clean up.

So then the question was which type of rocks to get. We LOVED the rocks in the children’s fossil dig area at the T-Rex Restaurant in Downtown Disney, which were African Ivory Coast rocks…very small and almost sand-like. We looked for them online and found them to be very expensive for each bag…and seeing we would need at least 12 bags, we reconsidered.

We ultimately decided on Pea Pebbles/Gravel. It was like $3 a bag and we could get them at Home Depot. We are very happy with decision, as there were a variety of sizes in each bag…some as small as the African Ivory Coast rocks that we initially wanted!

Also from Home Depot was a 4×4 cedar raised garden bed kit that we got on sale for $35.

It was very easy to set up and fit perfectly in the corner of our back porch.

We had some leftover white pvc liner that we put on the bottom to have a layer between the floor and the rocks….which, as you can see, Trent the chalk artist used as his canvas one day.

The one thing with bags of rocks is that they can be pretty dirty, so each bag needed to be dumped and rinsed before going into the rock box. Brett drilled holes into a plastic concrete mixing basin to help with this (about $5).

He dumped a bag or two of rocks in at a time and then sprayed them with the hose.

Trent was such a good helper, too! He wanted to hold the hose and move the rocks around to get them all clean.

Brett initially laid out a tarp to spread the clean rocks onto for them to dry before transferring them to the rock pit…

But that process was taking too long and not worth the extra effort, so he just started letting them drain a bit in the basin and then put them into the rock box.

We ended up with about 4-6 inches of rocks in the rock box.

I don’t know who the bigger fan is, Trent because he’s in it all the time and can see it from inside the house and begs to go out to play in it all the time? Or us because it keeps him entertained without an iPad while we clean or relax?

Either way, it is definitely a hit. Sometimes Trent will still be in his jammies when he just can’t help himself and has to get in and play.

Even Sheepy likes the rock box apparently.

Trent likes to fill all his containers with rocks, if there is a toy that has a space for rocks to fit, it probably has rocks in it right now…trucks, buckets, you name it. Sand toys work great in the rock box.

He also likes to grab handfuls of rocks and put them on his head and let them roll off. Bath time is a necessity!

A rock box is an amazing addition to any household with a toddler!

 

 

 

Here is a fun craft with some beautiful flowers to enjoy and even display your love for Mickey. When it came time to contribute to WDW Magazine recently, we took inspiration from our baby shower 2 years ago, which was Mickey-themed, and decided to recreate a Mickey Flower Pot that was the centerpiece of the food table.

 

Here is what you’ll need to get started:

1 flowerpot

Acrylic paint

Paintbrush

2 White Buttons

Hot Glue Gun / Glue

Skewer Stick

3 Styrofoam Balls (1 medium, 2 small)

Pretty flowers

I was lucky enough to find a red flowerpot, so I didn’t have to paint it, but you can use any flowerpot you have or find and just paint it red using acrylic paint or spray paint.

To make the flowerpot look like Mickey’s shorts, just hot glue the 2 white buttons on the front of the flowerpot towards the top.

Place the flowers into the pot, adding additional dirt if necessary. Viola…you’re done with that part!

Poke the skewer stick into the medium Styrofoam ball then remove it, put some hot glue in the hole and then reinsert the stick. This will help the Styrofoam ball stay in place. Then, make the Mickey ears by attaching the two smaller balls to the medium ball using hot glue. By using hot glue, it allows the two balls to mesh together.

Paint the Mickey head and the stick black.

Then, finish up by sticking the skewer stick with the Mickey head into the dirt.

Place in a spot to enjoy your own little Flower & Garden Festival at home!

 

This article was included in the March Issue of WDW Magazine. You can find out more about WDW Magazine, including all the fun stuff in each month’s issue and how to subscribe, by going here!

 

 

When looking to make some home improvements, or if you want to try your hand at some DIY craft projects, the internet can be a fantastic place for a source of inspiration and tips. When looking for ideas as to what you can do with your favourite photographs, displaying them on canvases is a popular choice on trendy sites like Pinterest, and it’s one of our particular favourites.

We’ve taken a look at some of the best ideas we’ve found for your photo canvases and included some tips and tricks as to how you can achieve the looks yourself.

Hanging small canvases on string or ribbon

A great alternative to multiple hanging photo frames that are quite popular at the moment (but are quite fiddly as you have to find photos to fit the little frames) are letting the photos do the talking on their own by mounting them on canvases. You can then line them up and hang them vertically using pretty ribbon, and can tie a bow at the top to hang it from…simple!

Photo booth style canvas prints

Another personal favourite we found pays homage to the old school photo booth style photos, where you have a strip of 4 similar photos in a vertical line. Mounting these on a canvas gives a great retro yet modern feel and can make for some really romantic and sweet results, especially in black and white.

Photo colour and shape effects

Why not play around with the actual photos when uploading them onto a canvas by changing the colour settings? Black and white effects in particular look great and really vintage and classic and with therefore never go out of style and will suit any interior. Or you could even use different shapes and sizes, such as heart shapes for your favourite family photos.

Using quotes for added effect

It doesn’t have to be just images on your canvas; you can even use quotes that sum up the photos or have a special meaning to you, too. Lines from songs or poems work really well, but to make it even more personal to you and your family, you could even use direct quotes from the people in the photos! Names and dates look lovely too and can be a great reminder or great wall art for a nursery.

Creating a timeline or a mosaic of photos

Some sites that allow you to create photo canvases give you the option to upload multiple pictures to one canvas, like personalised canvas prints at myphotogifts.co.uk. This is perfect for capturing the true essence of a specific moment, such as a mosaic of pictures from a wedding or from a family holiday. They also look great as a timeline of a baby’s first year; you could use a main photo of them now in the middle and position pictures of them from their first year all around it in chronological order to showcase their transformation from baby to little person

 

This is a sponsored post from My Photo Gifts. Thanks for reading!

 

I am definitely a lip balm person. I prefer it over lipstick, although I totally understand the need for more color on certain occasions. But for every day, I like a nice moisturizing, lightly colored lip balm.

Confession time: I had this amazing idea to make my own lip balm. Well, not only to make it, but to create lots of different flavors to sell them on Etsy and my own website. I had over 20 flavors planned out that revolved around a theme very near and dear to me. I made my logo, set up my website and Facebook page and ordered EVERYTHING I would need. Then I changed my mind. Womp, womp

Anyway, since I bought everything I would need, I did make a few batches just to see what it entailed…and it was SO EASY!!! And SO MUCH CHEAPER than brands in the store.

I would highly suggest it if you are a lip balm/lip gloss/chapstick addict of any sort. You can make so many tubes out of a single batch and can customize the flavor and color as your heart desires. Why be limited to only what you can find in the store? And if you decide to sell your creations, even better, as Etsy is a great place to sell homemade items and lip balms have proven to be quite popular.

Well, that’s enough talking, here’s how to do it!

What you’ll need:

There are hundreds of lip balm recipes out there. Maybe even thousands. They all center around the need for a wax (typically beeswax), a butter, and an oil, then you can use essential oils or flavor oils for smell, and mica for colors.

Main Recipe

I decided on a basic recipe (fills about 15-20 lip balm tubes):

1 part White Beeswax (1 tbsp)

2 parts Shea Butter (2 tbsp)

2 parts Sweet Almond Oil (2 tbsp)

Flavor Oil (as desired)

I got the first three items at Bulk Apothecary, but you can also find them on Amazon and other websites.

I also bought the lip balm tubes from Bulk Apothecary. They sell the caps with the tubes, so make sure if you are shopping elsewhere that the caps are included. It sounds silly, but a lot of places make you buy the caps separately. Some places sell colored caps, which are fun too.

For the scent, you’ll want to get flavor OILS, not flavor fragrances. After reading lots of websites and blog posts, the flavor oils are meant specifically for cosmetic use and are safe to put on your lips. I did come across some people who used flavor fragrances, but they weren’t selling their lip balm. When you sell lip balm, it’s best to follow the guidelines on cosmetics so you don’t run into any legal issues.

I found a great deal at TheSage.com for 7 fragrances for a little less than $30 and free shipping. These bottles go a long way and it’s a great way to sample a few scents.

So that is all you need for the actual recipe.

 

Some other items I used or bought:

Glass measuring cup

Measuring Spoons

Small whisks

Small Pipettes

Mica colors (lots to choose from on eBay)

So here’s what you do:

First, lay out all your supplies. The lip balm dries/hardens quickly after being melted, so you’ll want to make sure you have everything within an arm’s reach.

Lay out the lip balm tubes without the caps on, ready to have the melted lip balm poured in. You can also buy a tray to help with this.

In the measuring cup, combine the beeswax, shea butter and sweet almond oil. Place the cup in the microwave and heat until melted.

Take out the measuring cup and pour the desired amount of flavor oil into the melted mixture using a pipette. Most recipes recommend 2-4% Flavor oil in your recipe, but you can modify that depending on how much or how little scent you want. You can also add a Sweetener Oil to increase the sweetness of your lip balm, resulting in a better “taste”. You

A good tip is to put some metal butter knives in the freezer a little before starting your recipe, then you can dip the tip of the knife into the melted mixture to test it along the way without having to pour it into a container. The cold metal will instantly harden the lip balm so you can test it properly. Add a little more of whatever ingredient until you are satisfied. If the mixture starts to cool and harden, just pop it back in the microwave for a few seconds.

Once you are finished creating the lip balm, pour the mixture into your lip balm tubes. You can either use a pipette, pour it directly from the measuring cup into the tubes, or use a lip balm tray. Let dry before putting the cap on.

I found it easiest to clean out the measuring cup, spoons, etc. right away before any of the remaining lip balm mixture hardened inside.

Once the lip balm has hardened in each tube, put the cap on and voila! your very own homemade lip balm.

If these are for your own personal use, you can just leave them as is and you’re done, but if you are selling them, keep reading…

 

Labels

If you are going to sell your lip balm, you can either make your own labels or order them custom made. I was going to use these full sheet labels from Avery, create logos on PicMonkey to print at home, then cut them using a paper cutter. That was the most cost effective way to do it. But there are plenty of companies that will print your labels and you can even get someone on Fiverr to design them for you. There’s plenty of options out there, which you can find with a quick search of “lip balm labels” on Google, just make sure you measure your lip balm tubes to make sure you are ordering the correct size.

As I mentioned earlier, there are guidelines for lip balm labeling. The FDA doesn’t play around with things like this and you want to make sure you follow guidelines when selling to prevent any legal issues. Se read more about these specific guidelines in a language you may or may not be able to understand, you can go to the FDA website.

 

Protection

To finish up, with the cap on the lip balm, use a shrink wrap heat gun to adhere perforated shrink wrap to the lip balm tube. This ensures your customer knows the product hasn’t been tampered with and the perforation allows the cap to come off but still has shrink wrap protecting your label. I found a good deal on shrink wraps on eBay and this heat gun.

Shipping

You’ll want to try really hard not to overcharge the customer on shipping. If they paid $2 to ship one tiny lip balm and the package gets to them and they see you only paid $.50, they are going to feel like they got ripped off.

Because of this and because the shipping portion of the transaction adds no benefit to the actual product, I tried to find a good envelope to fit 1-5 or so lip balms, while protecting them (you don’t want the product showing up broken and have to refund or replace) without spending a bunch of money. I opted for white bubble mailers and found a great deal on eBay making them cost about 6 cents each. Similar envelopes were being sold for almost $2 at the store! You can also find great deals at Uline.com.

Of course, many Etsy sellers go above and beyond with their packaging, as they feel it makes them stand out in a sea of other sellers. They add pretty business cards, hang tags, fancy return labels….it’s all up to you!

 

As an accountant by trade, naturally I wanted to keep costs as low as possible, but I also wanted to make a good product that people would love. Here are some ways you can save money:

Buy in bulk - the more you purchase at a time, the less it costs per item and you save by not paying shipping multiple times.

Don’t let the up-front costs deter you - if you have absolutely no tools or ingredients, of course it will cost you a bit up front, but most of the costlier items will last a long time and your sales will hopefully pay for them in no time.

Search for promo codes or cash back deals - I use eBates and will search for a company website on there any time I am about to buy something online. It’s so easy (and free!): just type in the company name and if they are offering a cash back deal, just click “Shop Now” and you will be brought directly to the site. Other coupon/promo sites like RetailMeNot are also worth a check.

Offer deals on multiple purchases - Save on shipping, time and materials by getting people to purchase multiple items. The envelopes I had could fit at least 5 lip balms in them, so if someone was enticed to buy 5 lip balms at a small discount, you would save even more by only using one envelope, reduced shipping (as opposed to shipping 5 individual lip balms) and spending less time on sale processing.

 

I know this article is quite lengthy, but trust me, the process was easy…I just wanted to make sure to share all my little tidbits of knowledge with you. If you have any questions, please leave a comment - others might have the same question!

 

I’m really excited to share this DIY project that Brett made for Trent. It’s an absolutely perfect toy for a boy, but also for any toddler to help them learn fine motor skills. He made it a few months ago and Trent plays with it every single day. There are so many different options for latches, doors, locks, handles, wheels, and of course…the must-have “boingy things” that you can make any variation you can think of. Brett got most of the supplies at Home Depot and added in some items we already had at home.

Latch Board Activity Toy for Kids

Here are the specific items on our latch board:

1) Ikea Curtain Wire with Steel rings (You can get this from Amazon too)

2) Bolts and Washers

3) Toilet paper holder with painted PVC pipe

4) Spring Door Stop “Boingy Thing” (Amazon)

5) Bolt Latch

6) Tap lights

7) Spring Door Stop “Boingy Thing”

8) Swivel Caster wheel

9) Doors with Drawer pulls to hide stuff behind (we used vinyl monster decals - a mirror would also be fun)

10) Letter and Number combination locks

11) Flip up trunk handle

12) Fixed Caster Wheel

13) Door Chain Lock

 

For the board, he used a large piece of ¾ inch sanded plywood. To add the design, he spray-painted the entire board yellow and then he used painter’s tape to mark across the top and diagonal lines. He used a small piece of the painter’s tape to guide the spacing of each line.

Once all the tape was in place (make sure it’s pressed down firmly so there isn’t any bleeding), he spray-painted the entire thing black.

Once the black paint dried, he just peeled the painter’s tape to reveal the design.

For the mini doors (#9), he painted two square pieces of wood with spray paint…one red and one blue. Once those were dry, he attached the handles.

After all the paint was dry, it was time to start attaching all the items to the board!

But first, he laid the board down on the floor and created a layout of the items before actually fastening them to the board. This helped him plan out where everything was going to go.

Someone wanted to help too…see, perfect toy for a boy…both to play with AND put together!

So many fun things to play with!

Trent’s first birthday was monster-themed, so we had some of these vinyl monster decals.

He loves opening the doors to see them underneath.

He’ll be picking locks in no time lol

I tried to describe each item (oh who am I kidding, I had Brett write them out for me!), but if you have any questions, please ask!