DIY Custom Mod Podge Necklaces

The summer boredom buster activity of the day is quite easy and inexpensive. I made a little necklace for Allison with one of her favorite One Direction band members pictures one day, and it suddenly became the hit of all the girls that saw it. I don’t know how many requests I got to make them one. Instead, I did what any crafty mama would do- went and bought the supplies and told them to make their own.

Supplies Needed:
 

Necklace Chain

Square Bales (I bought these and the chain at Hobby Lobby for 1/2 price, so this whole thing cost less than $2.50 to make)

Mod Podge

Printed out picture of your choosing

Directions:

After you find the picture you want, resize it, print it out, then clip it down to the same shape and size of the bale.

Place a thin layer of Mod Podge on the bale, then cover with your picture.

Once it is dry, brush another layer of Mod Podge over the picture to seal it.

And there you have a custom necklace. Cheap, easy and something the kids will get a kick out of because it’s a one of a kind :)

On a side note, I am starting to think I should be getting a commission for all the One Direction mentions on here lol.

Patriotic Pops

I am a huge magazine recipe tearer outter. I have this massive folder jammed full of recipes I have ripped out of magazines over the years. I was digging through it the other day and found this recipe I ripped out of Better Homes & Gardens almost 10 years ago that I just got around to trying. I figured it would be fitting to share since 4th of July is quickly approaching us. What's a better time to serve these than at an Independence Day party?

Ingredients:

2 Cups Milk

1/2 Cup Whipping Cream

1 4 Serving Size Instant White Chocolate Flavored Pudding Mix

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, chopped strawberries, or whole Raspberries

5-8 Drops Blue or Red Food Coloring (optional)

Directions:

In a blender container combine milk, whipping cream and pudding mix. Cover and blend until smooth. Add desired food coloring. Cover and blend until combined.

Transfer to a medium bowl. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in berries.

Pour or spoon mixture into eight  to ten 3 oz paper or plastic drink cups or frozen pop molds. Cover cups with foil; cut a slit in the foil and insert wooden sticks. Freeze 4 hours or overnight.

Serve. Makes 8-10 3oz pops.

DIY Popsicle Stick Puzzles

I've been trying to think of things the kids can do to curb summer boredom. My kids love puzzles, so making popsicle stick puzzles were great fun for them.

What you need:

Popsicle Sticks
Printed out picture of your choosing
Mod Podge
Exacto Knife

Print out any picture you like, but make sure it is at least as long as your popsicle sticks. Clip your picture a little larger than the sticks. Lay out popsicle sticks and line them up flat end to flat end.

Brush Mod Podge over all the sticks. Carefully lay your picture over the sticks, then firmly press down, making sure it is completely stuck to the glue on the sticks. Brush Mod Podge over your picture.

Allow all the glue to completely dry. Once dry, using your exacto knife (adults only here!) cut each stick away from the others. Flip the stick over on the side without the paper. Cut the excess paper from around the corners.

There you have your very own custom puzzles! Cheap, easy and fun!

S'mores Popcorn Balls

We love Smore's in the summer, but sometimes it's raining, the mosquito's are out in full force, or we just aren't in the mood to get the fire pit up and going. Thankfully, my kids also love popcorn, so this recipe is perfect for those days when we just can't get out there and make that ooey, gooey treat.

Ingredients:

1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/2 tsp baking soda

10 cups fresh popped popcorn. *DO NOT use air popped popcorn. It is too delicate for the hot syrup*

1 10.5oz pack mini marshmallows

2 cups mini graham cookies (teddy grahams)

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Combine brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup in a medium pan and cook over high heat for 5 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and stir in baking soda.

Thoroughly combine popcorn and marshmallows in a metal or heat resistant glass bowel. (Do not use plastic. The hot syrup can melt it or cause damage to your bowl.)

Drizzle syrup mixture over popcorn to coat it, then gently stir in the graham cookies and chocolate chips, making sure it is all evenly mixed.

Let the mixture set until cool enough to handle. Then, using sandwich bags sprayed with cooking spray, shape mixture into balls.

Store in an air tight container.

Birthday Party Games For Teenagers

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Since Mariah's birthday falls in the summer, we usually have an easy time planning out party activities to do. This year, after getting everything planned out, we were hit with rain. So, this meant that I had to start brainstorming on fun party games that teenagers would actually like to play. I'll admit, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to pull it off, but under pressure, I got it done!

Here are some of the games that we ended up playing, and the next day all the kids were raving on their Facebook pages about how this was the best party ever! So, I guess these aren't too lame for the teenager set :)

Balloon Pop- Cut up small strips of paper. Write "winner" or "loser" on each piece. Roll each strip up, place 1 piece each in a balloon. Blow balloon up, tie it closed. Have each guest take turns popping the balloons. If they pop a “winner” they get a small prize (I used candy bars). If they lose, nothing.

Yankee Swap- Have a wrapped gift for each child. The first person gets to pick a gift off the prize table and unwrap it. The second person then gets to pick and open a gift. They then decide if they want to keep their gift or exchange it for the gift the first person opened. If they want the other gift, that person must trade. 
Keep going down the line until all the kids have picked a gift and kept or traded them. The game ends when the person who opened the first gift gets to decide if they want to keep the gift they have or change it out for any of the other players. *I used dollar store items. I had a mixture of good and bad gifts to keep it entertaining. It was quite funny when a boy would end up with hair ties or princess stuff. I also told them before anything was opened, there were good prizes and not so good prizes, so they wouldn't expect all great things.

Here is a picture of the prizes that we used:

Who Am I?- Write a name of a famous person or character and attach it to each persons back, without letting them see it. They then have to ask each other player 1 question trying to get clues as to who their character is. Then they all have to say who they think they are. We used names like President Obama, Spongebob, ect. The sillier, the better.

Silly String Fight- This one is quite messy, but the kids have a blast with it. You can pick up cans of silly string at the dollar store for a buck a can.

How Well Do You Know Your Friends?- Make up printed sheets and write down categories like favorite toothpaste, shoe size, favorite color, etc. Have the same categories for each person playing. Then everyone must guess each answer about each player. See who knows their friends best.

Good Old Fashioned Board Games like Taboo, Apples to Apples, Scattergories and Mad Gab will keep your guests cracking up!

Balloon Pop 2

Each player ties a balloon to their ankle. They have to try to pop everyone else's balloons by stomping on them. The one with the last balloon still in tact wins. (Kids will try to be smart and blow their balloons the size of a fist so it doesn't pop easily. We made rules that if there are 2 people at the end of the game and it is taking more than 5 minutes for a winner, the one with the smaller balloon loses- Or, you could just have them all blow up the balloons the size of a head for the rules.)

Candy Bar Game

This is a matching game, like Memory and a guessing game too. Buy some candy bars. Make sets of cards for each candy bar. Write out a word or phrase on 2 cards that describe that candy bar. For example- Snickers we wrote out "A little giggle". When a player matches 2 cards with that description, they then guess which candy bar it is referring to. I found this idea on Family Reunion Helper. They have a ton of ideas for phrases to use with many different bards. You can find their list HERE. (I also threw in some non matching cards and wrote funny teen pop culture on there like "Team Edward or Team Jacob?" Different book and movie quotes that had them laughing made the game more fun too.) When they make a match and guess correctly, they get to keep that candy bar.

Scavenger Hunt 

If they are old enough and responsible, a neighborhood scavenger hunt is fun. I split the kids into 2 teams and gave them each a list and 30 minutes to find things on the list from around the neighborhood. Instead of treasures for them to collect, I had them take a picture of their finds, then I verified they found those items when they got back. We had things like "a mailbox with a photo on it, a white house with black shutters, a grill, etc. The team with the most items found wins.

Make sure you give them time to just hang out with their friends too!

13th Birthday Party~ Zebra Themed!

While Mariah's birthday was on Saturday, we ended up pushing the party ahead to Friday night. We've had her parties on Saturdays before and it's always a toss up on if guests will show or not. This year I am happy to report, every guest came, except for 1. While it was a great party, I am still exhausted from all of the energy 10 teenagers bring to a celebration!

Mariah is into zebra stuff lately, so I knew the decorations had to be black and white. We started out making these paper pom poms using black and white tissue paper.

 

She is also a fan of purple, and I wanted to add just a little bit of color to the decor, but finding a purple zebra striped Happy Birthday banner locally was hard. So, I bought a multi colored one and mod podged purple zebra scrapbook paper over it. It was a nice quick fix!

     yes, it's a little off center, but this got hung when tired laziness started to kick in :)

We found some zebra themed goodie bags at Hobby Lobby, as well as some purple zebra ribbon to dress the bags up with. 

We also made sure to wrap up the treats with a bit of zebra themed scrapbook paper.

And if you are a regular reader of this blog, you will see that no party I now throw will not be complete without cotton candy. Tied shut with the remaining goodie bag zebra bow ribbon, of course!

We decided to pass on a zebra cake, since the new thing taking up all of my child's free time lately is One Direction. We ended up having a family member make this fabulous cake for her. This was truly the highlight of her party among all the teenage girls in attendance. The only problem being there are 5 boys in the band, they fought over which boys face they were going to eat. Oh yes, the joys of being the mother to a teenage girl! Insert big, fat rolly eyes here!

Overall, the party was a huge success! We did hit a snag in party games when all of our plans were ruined by the threat of rain. I'll let you know what we came up with in tomorrow's post.