Crafting while camping is always on our agenda.  Coming up with another project for the girls was simple with this fabulous crepe paper flower kit from eeBoo. The girls basically ripped into these kits before I could get enough pictures!

You can find these fantastic little kits in the eeBoo shop by clicking here: Arts & Crafts eeBoo Shop. eeBoo offers a number of amazing craft kits that are perfect for gift giving or Christmas presents. Make sure to take a minute to check out the variety of items they offer!

This is the kit and what it looks like, minus the wrapper. I am telling you the girls were excited about making these flowers and dove right in!

Follow the instructions on the back of the package. It is really easy. Start by separating the pieces of crepe paper. They do cling together, so look carefully to make sure you have them pulled apart.

Layer the crepe paper colors in the order that you want. Fold the paper accordion style. Wrap a pipe cleaner around the folded crepe paper. Pull the crepe paper layers apart and open to finish up your flower.

Aren’t these flowers gorgeous. They look pretty in a vase too, or my kids were using them to play outside.

(This is a sponsored post. See my disclosure policy here.)

The post How To | Crepe Paper Flower Kits appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

I love these small chenille chicks and bunnies; oh and of course I LOVE these mushroom birds. My kids and I thought it would be fun to create these cute scenes using egg cups as a pedestal. These egg cups are kid friendly and make fun and festive Easter decor! This post first appeared for Darice on their blog – Live.Craft.Love

Supplies:

• Wooden egg cups
• Mini polyester chicks
• Pom pom bunnies
• Petaloo flowers
• Mushroom bird
• Acrylic paints
• Tacky glue
• Decorative paper or paper doilies
• Decorative edged scissors
• Easter grass
• Paint brush
• Pencil

How To:

Step 1: Paint your egg cups and let them dry.

Step 2: Choose a patterned paper and draw a circle on the paper by tracing around a cup or lid. Use decorative scissors to cut out the circle. Another option is to use a paper doily.

Step 3: Glue the cut paper piece onto an egg cup. Center over the top. Next, glue Easter grass to the paper. Let dry.

Step 4: Arrange bunnies, chicks, and flowers in place and glue them onto grass. Create your own fun spring scene.

Another option is to use a mushroom bird and pearls for eggs in a nest made from crinkled paper.

Step 5: To finish off the egg cups, glue gemstones or other embellishments to the pedestals.

And you’re done!

The post How To | Egg Cup Pedestal Display appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Warm weather is finally here! Planting flowers is my favorite way to celebrate Spring’s arrival. My daughters and I worked together to create this fairy garden in hopes that we get some magical visitors this summer. Do you think they will like the tea we left for them? This post first appeared for Darice on their blog – Live.Craft.Love

Darice has tons of miniatures and garden decor that are just perfect for fairy garden supplies. These are the supplies I used to make my fairy garden, but the possibilities are endless – get as creative as you’d like!

Supplies:

• Mini Garden Tin Bench
• Wire Mini Garden Arch with Door
• Wire Tin Mini Bird Bath
• River Rocks
• Painted Butterfly with Wire
• Miniature Potted Roses
• Miniature Tea Service
• Moss
• Assorted Flowers
• Gardening Tools
• Large Flower Pot with Soil

How To:

Step One. Place the bench, bird bath and arch in the large flower pot.  Arrange them where you would like them to sit.

Step Two. Place the river rocks on top of the soil to create a garden path.

Step Three. Add the preserved moss along both sides of the rock path. We used toothpicks to hold our moss in place because it was a windy day.

Step Four. Plant your assorted flowers in the dirt.

Step Five. Add the mini butterflies and tea service so your fairy friends feels welcome! Fill up your bird bath with water, and you’re done.

Now, how fun was that?! It’s so pretty and magical!

To make the fairy garden even more enchanting for your children, move the tea set around and remove some water from the bird bath. They will be surprised and so happy when they notice the fairies had a visit to their garden!

The post How To | Magical Fairy Garden appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Today I am sharing another easy hair accessory project using supplies from the Sunshine Shoppe. The darling satin rosette hair clips can be worn alone or paired up together (as shown above) to create the cutest accents for your daughter’s wardrobe! Today I am using these beautiful Satin Rosette Puffs, which you can purchase here: Sunshine Shoppe – Satin Rosette Puffs and they are only $0.85 apiece!

You can also purchase these supplies as a kit, with all the matching ingredients already picked out for you! Find those here: Sunshine Shoppe – Flower Headband Kits.

Supplies:

• Sunshine Shoppe – Satin Rosette Puffs
• Sunshine Shoppe – Silly Grips
• Sunshine Shoppe – Lined Alligator Clips
• E6000 or Hot Glue Gun
• Beads and Embellishments

How To:

1. 

   Gather ingredients. You can use hot glue or E6000. Add a line of glue to top of clip. Stick felt pad on backside of flower to glue. Let dry.

2. Adhere Silly Grips (they are already sticky) to top inside of clip. These are a silicone pad the size of the hair clip that keep the clips from slipping while being worn. Genius!!!
3. 

   Use glue to add embellishment to center of hair clip. Let dry.

   Make sure you visit the Sunshine Shoppe for purchasing all of your hair accessory craft supplies! Tell them Alanna George sent you

The post How To | Satin Rosette Hair Clip appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

I love the look of flower headbands and so do both of my daughters! We were so excited to receive a fun box of goodies in the mail from the Sunshine Shoppe. If you haven’t ever visited the Sunshine Shoppe and you are a crafter, you need to pop over there and see all the gorgeous flowers, beads, ribbons, trims, etc. they have available for you to purchase at EXCELLENT prices. If you have little girls you will really love all the things you can easily make for them using the supplies available at the Sunshine Shoppe. I am excited to have time today to share with you one of the things I made using their “Shabby Chic Flowers” which you can find here: Sunshine Shoppe – Shabby Chic Flowers. Keep reading to see the full DIY instructions and then come back later in the week for more inspiration using supplies from the Sunshine Shoppe.

Supplies:

• Sunshine Shoppe – Shabby Chic Flowers
• Felt
• Buttons or embellishments
• Sunshine Shoppe – Skinny Elastic
• Hot Glue Gun
• Fabric Scissors

How To:

1. Assemble all the items you will use to create your headband. Trim elastic bad to the needed size and knot the ends together.
2. Cut a long strip of craft felt.

3. 

   Glue felt to back of flowers using hot glue. Glue on buttons or other embellishments.

4. Trim corners of felt as needed.

5. 

   Place a line of hot glue on the back of the felt and glue on the elastic band.

6. Wear with your favorite outfit!

Make sure you visit the Sunshine Shoppe for purchasing all of your hair accessory craft supplies! Tell them Alanna George sent you

The post How To | Easy Shabby Flower Headband appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and I am sure you are searching for a perfect handmade gift for mom. Am I right? What about a small gift for Grandma? These tiny little windowsill planters made using recycled lids or a domed vending machine container are just the perfect project for Mother’s Day. You may already have the plants you need in your yard.

I recently attended SNAP! (a blogging conference) and my roommate Cynthia taught a class on making a DIY terrarium necklace with succulent plants. She has an amazing tutorial you can find here, you will want to look at her tutorial before making this little windowsill planter. Her class and knowledge inspired me to make these windowsill planters to give as gifts for Mother’s Day.

Supplies:

• Floral Adhesive (I bought it from my local flower shop)
• Assorted Succulents (You may have enough in your own yard or visit Lowe’s)
• Dried Moss (Michaels)
• Toothpick or Bamboo Skewer
• Paper Plate
• Assorted Sizes Lids from Recycling Bin (Baby food lids are the perfect size)
• Scissors

How To:

1. Gather succulents you want to use. I purchased mine from Lowe’s. You may already have some in your yard, succulents like Hen and Chicks work perfectly for this project.

2. Using a scissors, clip off a small piece from each of the succulents you want to use.

3. Squirt a small spot of floral adhesive onto a paper plate.

4. Use a toothpick or bamboo skewer to pick up some adhesive and spread it around the inside of your lid. Floral adhesive does not harm the plant tissue.

5. Adhere moss to the adhesive. The moss will provide a place for your succulents to grow new roots.

6. Use your toothpick to pick up adhesive and dab the adhesive on the ends of the succulent cuttings. Glue the succulents into the moss. Above I layered two different size lids to make a unique mini-planter.

7. Be sure to read Cynthia’s maintenance tips for caring for your succulents in her post here. The basics are that you will need to mist your plants with water about once a week and be careful not to over water.

The post How To | Mother’s Day Recycled Windowsill Mini-Planter appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

We didn’t go anywhere for Spring Break this year. I decided we should focus on exploring new things that are nearby during break. Since we just moved back to the area where my husband and I both grew up, everything is familiar to me, but new to my children. I have been waiting for the right time to try out Geocaching and thought our week of exploration was the perfect opportunity.

Don’t have the faintest idea what Geocaching is? Here is the definition I took directly off of Geocaching.com – “Geocaching is a free real-world outdoor treasure hunt. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using a smartphone or GPS and can then share their experiences online.”

I was really surprised to find a lot of geocaches within 2 miles of our house. With 4 young children that is the perfect little outing for us. It was a simple and fun outdoor activity for our family and we will definitely be doing it again soon!

Geocaching is also a great learning tool for teaching your children about technology, maps, latitude and longitude and how to explore outdoors. The Geocaching.com site also offers great information in the forums for how to integrate geocaching into lesson plans for the classroom or for youth groups and clubs. You can find the forum HERE. If you want to try Geocaching read my steps below for what to do.

Supplies:

• Smartphone or GPS
• Appropriate outdoor clothing and footwear
• Pencil

How To:

1. Visit www.geocaching.com and start out by finding if there are any geocaches in your area. On the website home page you can enter your postal code or country and click on the spy glass to start your search. A list of geocaches will come up with the distance from your location.
2. If you are interested in finding a geocache you will want to become a member of Geocaching.com by clicking on the sign up link in the upper right area of the home page.
3. To find out more about geocaching you can also watch two short videos about it that can be found under the Learn tab along the top of the Geocaching.com home page. I watched these videos because I had no idea what to expect.
4. You will want to either have a GPS device or download the full Geocaching.com app to your smartphone, which is what I did.
5. Once you have the app downloaded to your device open the app and log in. Next press the “Find Nearby Geocaches” and a list of geocaches will appear.
6. Select the cache you want to find and click “Navigate to Geocache”. That will start the GPS part and show your location on a map and the location of the geocache in relation to where you are.
7. Before or during your search you may want to read the information listed under the Description, Recent Logs or Hint buttons. We were stuck on where to actually find the container and the Recent Logs helped us out.
8. Know that the GPS will bring you close to the hidden geocache, but you may have to do some searching around. The geocache will be hidden out of plain sight so a general passerby won’t see it. You can see what the geocache container we found looked like in the picture at the top of the post. Sometimes the container is larger and contains a small treasure and you are welcome to take a treasure and leave a treasure.
9. Don’t forget to write in the log for that geocache after returning home!

The post How To | Geocaching with Kids appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

This is the treat my daughter took to school to hand out on her birthday. Homemade brownies layered on top of edible Easter grass and topped off with a bunny Peep on a toothpick. We put each one in a cello bag and tied them with a ribbon. A cute treat, don’t you think?

After photographing this I started to think how perfect this could be for an Easter dessert, a bunny themed birthday party, a baby shower (you could change the color of the bunny to be blue for a boy!), and any sort of spring celebration. And who doesn’t love a good chocolate brownie?

These homemade brownies are ooey gooey delicious. If you want a good from scratch recipe I am here to share. It is actually right off of the Nestle Toll House Cocoa powder label. My bestie from college made these once when we were visiting and it was love at first bite!

Nestle Toll House Chewy Cocoa Brownies –

Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter melted
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (I actually substitute wheat flour and it works fine)
• 3/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 13×9 baking pan. (I like to use a pan that is smaller to make the brownies thicker and more gooey!)

Combine sugar, butter, and water in large bowl. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread into prepared baking pan.

Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.

The post Recipe | Peep Bunny Brownies appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

I had to share a picture of what my daughter made for me for Mother’s Day. You might already know that I really like Bluebirds. She sewed me a stuffed Bluebird softie for me to keep. Isn’t that so sweet. I love it!

How To | Sew a Softie

Supplies:

• Muslin
• Felt
• Pencil
• Sewing Straight Pins
• Fabric Markers
• Fabric Scissors
• Needle
• Embroidery Thread
• Poly-fil Stuffing

How To:

1. Carefully draw your design in pencil on your piece of muslin.
2. Use fabric markers to color in your design.
3. Pin your piece of muslin to a coordinating piece of felt.
4. Cut out around your drawing, cutting through the muslin and felt at the same time.
5. Keep your pieces pinned together.
6. Thread your needle with embroidery floss and sew a whip stitch around your softie. Leave an opening so you can fill it with stuffing. Remove pins as you go.
7. When you are almost done sewing, stuff it with stuffing. Continue sewing the rest of the softie closed. Trim thread.
8. Wrap in pretty paper and give to a friend or your mom!

The post How To | Sewing A Softie appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

I’ve had this idea for using a handprint to make a bird kickin’ around in my head for awhile. I finally pulled out all the supplies to make this project with the kids yesterday. The kids love getting their hand painted and seeing their freshly made print on a piece of paper. Even Calista sort of cooperated, it’s hard to hold her little fingers together to make a good print.

We are giving our cards to Grandma for Mother’s Day. On the inside I am thinking of writing something like this:

I love you,

You love me,

I’ll always be your little chickadee.

Happy Mother’s Day

****************************************************************************

(Keep up to date by following The Craft Nest on Facebook – click here or follow me on Google+ click here.)

Supplies:

• Paper
• Acrylic Paint (Bird Color and Yellow for Beak)
• Paint Brush
• Paper Plate
• Googly Eye
• Glue
• Paper Lunch Bag
• Scissors
• Diaper Wipes

How To:

1. Have your card all ready and lay it off to the side. Squirt some paint on a paper plate. Use your paintbrush to paint your child’s hand with acrylic paint. Hold their hand and press it in place on the front of the card. Slowly remove their hand. Use a diaper wipe if you have a small child and need to get the paint off their hand quickly!
2. Paint your child’s pointer finger with yellow paint and have them make a finger print for the beak. Let the card dry.
3. Use a paper lunch bag and cut out small strips of paper for the nest. My kids used a deckle edge craft scissors to cut out their nest pieces.
4. Use school glue and glue on your paper nest pieces. Let dry.
5. Use glue to add a googly eye to your bird.
6. Write a sweet message inside.

The post How To | Mother’s Day Handprint Bird Card appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.