Dinosaur Planter For Dad :: A Handmade Father's Day Gift

With Father's Day fast approaching, Teddy and I made our Good Man a cute Father's Day Gift. It's important to me that my children grow up knowing that the things they make with their own hands are the most precious things of all.

We thought of many things our dad would love but it was when we suggested a dinosaur planter for Dad's desk that Teddy became really excited... so, this is what we made.

If you have a little boy, chances are you also have hundreds of old dinosaurs lying around. To be totally honest (photo's don't lie), Teddy was rather reluctant to offer up one of his dinosaurs for our craft. It took a great deal of coaxing and sweet talking to get him to agree... but, at last, he chose a large dinosaur that was somewhat soft and rubbery.

And then we performed a little surgery on him with a sharp box cutter.

Making a nice round hole in his hollow body.

Now for the fun part... we used silver spray-paint to spray him silver!

Even I started to like him now that he became a gorgeous shiny silver!

Once the silver spray-paint had fully dried, we filled his body with moist soil.

Teddy planted a nice big succulent plant in the soil of his dino. We chose a succulent as we know how busy A Good Man gets and we have a fair suspicion that his dino plant will receive sparse waterings... no worries, succulents thrive with a little neglect :-)

He watered his dino plant to clean it off.

And was VERY proud of the gift he has made for his dad. In fact, he is going to give it to Dad but ask him if his dino planter can live in Teddy's room.

Have you been crafting sweet gifts for Father's Day? Link to them in the comment section so that we all can see.

Here is what we are giving away for our Weekly Facebook Contest... a lovely feather for a special dad... click on over to my Facebook Page to enter to win.

And, be sure to check out our Fairy Garden Page. If you have made your own Fairy Garden, please enter it into the 2012 Fairy Garden Contest so that we can all share in the fun you are having. Also, check out all the super amazing gardens already entered.

Here are the awesome contest PRIZES!

And, if you'd like a little inspiration on how we put our Fairy Garden together, here a link to our recent post 'How To Make A Fairy Garden'.

For more Fairy Garden fun, check out our Fairy Garden Page at the top of the blog.
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Handmade Christmas Gifts :: Crazy Crayons

Teddy and Kitty will be giving handmade Crazy Crayon Christmas gifts to their friends this year. Not only do these make super cute gifts, they are a wonderful way to get rid of all of those broken crayons lying around. Although the kids don't know this yet, Santa will be bringing them lovely new crayons and so I was eager to recycle the old ones to make space for the new.

Use a fun mold for your Crazy Crayons and make sure it is oven safe.

Your kids will love the breaking part if this project... when else are the encouraged to break their crayons into tiny little bits? Mix all the colors together to make a kaleidoscope of color.

Set them in the oven at a very low temperature (150 F) for about 20 minutes or until they are gently melted.

allow them to cool and then gently pop them out of the molds.

The colors meld together making a crayon of many colors. 

Kitty remarked that she'd like to take one along the next time we go to a restaurant as she will have all the colors she needs to keep her busy for ages :-)

Happy Christmas Crafting,
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Handmade Chirstmas Gifts :: Painted Peg People

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Kitty and Teddy are each getting a set of themselves for Christmas this year. It's sweet (and funny) how they often play 'brother and sister' and now they can play 'brother and sister' with their new peg gnomes.

I made them using the little peg people forms you can get at any craft store... mine came from Michaels.

I used a wood burning tool I've been dying to use to draw the outlines onto the little wooden peg people and write the children's names on the bottom of each but a black fine tipped permanent marker will work just as well. I colored in the details with colored permanent markers and then sealed them with a coat of hodgepodge.

I tried to make them look like themselves... Teddy with his golden hair and blue eyes and Kitty with her new short hair and long eyelashes.

And then I put each set in a little box, wrapped them sweetly and put them under the tree. Under the tree is getting fuller and fuller and brother and sister are having an exciting time trying to guess what's inside each gift. This one is about the size of a Rubik's Cube and Teddy thinks it might contain a pair of rain boots for him. I love how Kitty, who of course knows that rain boots would never fit into a package that small, smiles with him and agrees that rain boots would be nice.

Happy Christmas crafting,
Blessings and magic,
Donni