10 Beautiful Gifts Kids can Make with Seashells

Going to the beach for our family always results in lots and lots of shells.  Just finding them is reward in itself (like a treasure hunt!)  but since they're so pretty, we often finding ourselves wishing that there was something we could do with them.  

So this year, before we head to the beach I've done a little research and found some great ideas for how kids can transform shells into beautiful gifts to give away. 

Also, at the end you'll find a list of bonus activities that aren't gifts, but could still be a lot of fun.  Enjoy!

Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows

I've never been a huge fan of marshmallows (I'd rather do a sink full of dishes than eat a Peep), but for some reason the idea of making them myself fascinated me from the first moment I heard it was possible.

Since so many imitations of processed foods are mediocre at best, and me not being the most careful of cooks, I half expected my marshmallows to turn out a puddle of white goo on the counter that I would reluctantly allow my girls to lick up and sicken themselves upon (so it wouldn't be a total waste).

I was definitely encouraged when several of you on facebook mentioned having good experiences with marshmallow recipes, and the girls and I promptly set off to make our own.
Peppermint Marshmallows
(adapted from Martha Stewart)
Ingredients

•  cooking spray
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 4 packages (1/4 ounce each) unflavored gelatin
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 teaspoons red food coloring
• powdered sugar for dusting

 Directions

1. Coat a cookie sheet  with cooking spray; line bottom with parchment paper. Coat the parchment with cooking spray, dust with powdered sugar and set pan aside. 
2. Put sugar, corn syrup, and 3/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Stop stirring; let mixture come to a boil. Raise heat to medium-high; cook until mixture registers 250 degrees on a candy thermometer.
3. Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatin over 3/4 cup water in a heatproof bowl; let stand 5 minutes to soften. Stir in extract and set aside.
4. Beat egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until stiff (but not dry) peaks form. Whisk gelatin mixture into sugar mixture; with mixer running, gradually add to egg whites. Mix on high speed until   very thick, cool and glossy, 15 minutes or longer.
5. Pour mixture into lined pan. Working quickly, drop dots of red food coloring across surface of marshmallow. Using a toothpick, swirl food coloring into marshmallow to create a marbleized effect. Let marshmallow stand, uncovered, at room temperature until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight. Cut into squares, using a pizza cutter or sharp knife.   Roll in powdered sugar.

Thoughts:

1.  Definitely tasty.  Lighter and creamier than storebought marshmallows.

2.  The red marbling did not work out so well for me.  You can see that rather than artistic red swirls, I ended up with what looked a bit like a snowy battlefield.  

3.  Very fun process!  It was fun to watch the sugar mixture foam up when we added the gelatin, fun to watch the Kitchen Aid poof up the glossy white marshmallow fluff.  The girls also enjoyed cutting and rolling the marshmallows at the end.  

4.  Ever since we made them my mind has been racing, thinking of useful variations of this recipe.  I've heard that coconut flavored marshmallows are very delicious roasted over a campfire.  Apparently, cookie cutters can also be used to make fun shapes.  We gave out these marshmallows as a gift to some friends and family along with some homemade White Chocolate Peppermint Hot Cocoa.  

Everyday Life "Portraits"

I found this idea for creating personal "portraits" out of everyday life objects. I love the idea! This morning I gathered objects to make little portraits for M, G, and myself. They turned out only so-so, but it was a fun process.
Honestly, I enjoyed making the one for myself the most. Something about trying to artistically arrange the simple objects from my life into a pleasing collage felt profound and healthy. It was something of an exercise in thankfulness.

It might be neat to make these collages every couple of years as a unique kind of journal.Works form Me Wednesday

Magnet Fishing Game

Over Christmas my mother and M had fun playing a magnet fishing game that my mother made. The "fishing pole" was a ruler with a string. The "hook" was a magnet tied to the end of the string. On the table was the "pond," a number of cardboard circles cut out of Christmas cards with a paper clip attached to each one.

M's job was to catch the circles one at a time. On the back of each circle was a number (one, two, or three). When she caught the "fish" she would look on the back, identify the number and then got to take that number of candies (my mom used the tiny dot candies that are stuck to a paper). Great fun!

Colorful Scratch Craft

My mom recently send M a fun craft in the mail. It was a sheet of cardboard that she had entirely colored with different colored crayons. She then painted over it with black tempera paint.

M's job was to scratch off designs onto the sheet with a spoon, fork, or just her fingernail. Very colorful, fun results!

Musical Glasses

I don't know about you, but I find that my toddler gets particularly restless around dinner time. Of course, this doesn't work well for making dinner...

Here's something I did one evening that helped keep everyone happy: gathered the glasses that were going to go on the table that night and filled them with water to different levels. I gave M a small metal instrument to ding the cups (along with strict instructions not to touch the water itself) and let her serenade me with "water music" while I worked. Fun!

Pocketful of Spring

Did you know that you can make your own "lickum" stickers with household gelatin? It's true! Here's the recipe:
1 packet of knox gelatin (1/4 ounce)
1 TB cold water
3 TB boiling water
1/4 teasp corn syrup
flavoring extract
1. Combine the cold water and gelatin. Allow to soak until the gelatin is soft
2. Add boiling water and stir until completely dissolved
3. Stir in corn syrup and flavoring
4. Use a brush or sponge to cover the back of whatever you would like to turn into a sticker.
5. Allow to dry

I used cut-outs of flowers from a magazine. Once they were dry I put them into an envelope and mailed them to a friend who lives in the still-snowy North. Hopefully it will bring a little extra anticipation of Spring into her life!

Older children could do this craft, cutting out whatever pictures they liked. Also you could use fun flavorings like lemon or root beer extract. Once made, you could have them fill envelopes with the stickers and mail them to shut-ins. It could be fun, service-oriented craft!

Choo Choo Chair Train

Do your kids look a little bored this afternoon? Maybe you could suggest they build a train out of chairs! Send them scouting around the house for as many as they can find so it can be really long.

Then of course, they'll need to round up some passengers; stuffed animals and little siblings work well!

Kids can take turns being the engineer- tooting the whistle and leading the others in the chugging sounds and of course, announcing what they see up ahead on the tracks. Maybe they would like to sing along with a Thomas the Train CD after they have made up their own fun for a little while!

Apple Puzzles

Here is a puzzle you can make for your kids that takes no more than 5 minutes- and it tastes good too!

With a sharp knife cut deep and jagged around the middle of an apple.

When you have cut all the way around, you should be able to easily twist your apple into two pieces. Now you have your puzzle!


Let your child see if he can put the apple back together again. If he is older, you can challenge him to put it back together on the first try (without touching the two pieces together until he has made his guess)
Apply a little lemon juice to the pieces and it would make a fun bagged lunch item for school!

For more great ideas today visit here!

Cleaning Pennies

Some cleaning jobs are particularly satisfying because they make such a noticeable difference. (I think washing mirrors fits into this category). Washing pennies is so dramatic that it's actually fun!

If you want a fun rainy-day activity to do with your kids that makes them feel that they are doing something (semi) useful- try this:

1. Send your kids on a mission to find all the dirty pennies in the house. (Have them look in the car, the bottom of your purse, under seat cushions, etc).

2. Find a big glass or plastic bowl and have your kids measure 1 cup vinegar and 10 tablespoons salt into it.

3. Let a younger child mix the salt into the vinegar with his hands.

4. Drop the pennies into the bowl and have your kids mix them around with their hands.

5. Watch as the pennies "magically" lose their tarnish and become wonderfully shiny. For older children, you can even turn this into a science experiment. Why did they become shiny?

--Pennies get dull over time because the copper reacts with the air to form copper oxide. Salt and vinegar form an acid that erodes the copper oxide (but doesn't hurt hands in case you were wondering)--

6. Make sure you take before-and- after-pictures that they can show their dad when he gets home!My toddler and I did this activity this morning. She isn't old enough to appreciate science behind it or to measure out ingredients, but she thoroughly enjoyed mixing the vinegar and salt together and dropping the pennies into the bowl (Of course, closely supervised because the pennies might be a choking hazzard).And yes, she does smell like a pickle right now, but it was worth it! :-)

Old Electronics

Have an old radio or computer that you are planning to toss? Before you do, maybe you have a son or daughter that would enjoy doing a dissection on the thing with a screwdriver. Besides keeping your child occupied for a good hour or two, you might be nurturing the mind of a future engineer!

For more good ideas visit here.

Do you have a new use for an everyday object? Please feel free to leave a link to your post on the Mr. Linky below! You don't have to link back to this site (although it would be great if you did!) The only things I ask are that your post be family-friendly and that the link go directly to the post itself and not some other page of your blog. Thanks!

Twice the Fun Tuesday: Boxes

I have a hard time throwing boxes away.

There are so many good uses for them, and I have fun memories of playing with them as a child.

Old refrigerator boxes must, of course, be turned into little houses, complete with windows and doors. Two small children can be set afloat on the high seas of a living room carpet with the right sized boxes and a sail made of a stick and old sheets.Even smaller boxes, when plentiful, made great playthings in our house growing up because they could be stacked ceiling-high into castles like blocks. And then, (of course), they were dashed to the floor by running through them like madmen.

Go here for more great tips today.Do you have a new use for an everyday object? Please feel free to leave a link to your post on the Mr. Linky below! You don't have to link back to this site (although it would be great if you did!) The only things I ask are that your post be family-friendly and that the link go directly to the post itself and not some other page of your blog. Thanks!

Leftover Frosting Use

It's almost impossible to make just the right amount of frosting for decorating a cake. There is bound to be leftover frosting in just about every color. Right?

So...next time, instead of throwing it away, let your kids have a ball "drawing pictures" with your frosting on a piece of wax paper.

You might even find yourself making a little extra of each color next time because you know they'll enjoy it so much!

Toilet paper tubes and an old shoebox

Here's a fun use for old toilet paper tubes and a shoebox: a little photo toy house! Here's what I did:

1. Took full length pictures of everyone in our family. I re-sized the photos to what seemed to be about the right length for toilet paper tubes and printed them off, leaving plenty of blank space on both sides of the photos. I wrapped the photos around the tube and affixed them with a glue stick. I trimmed the tubes where necessary.3. Found an old picture of our living room that my mother-in-law had taken, resized it to the approximate size of the shoe box, printed it off and glued it to the inside of the shoebox.

Altogether, it took me less than 45 minutes to put it together. I wasn't terribly precise and I could have spent more time making it pretty, but really all I wanted was a fun new toy for my daughter to play with during her blanket playtime.

She loves pictures of people she knows- I think I might try to get some full-length photos of relatives over the holidays and add to the set!

Haven't you always wanted to see your name in bread?

Wouldn't your kids be thrilled if the next time you had dinner, the rolls they were served were in the shapes of the letters of their name?

With very little effort or expense you could do just that! Or, if you want a fun afternoon craft, your kids could shape their own names. You can, of course use homemade bread dough, but if you are short on time, use store-bought frozen bread dough. Allow it to thaw and rise; cut in pieces and shape into letters. (Make sure the letter have plenty of room to rise further in the oven and still be distinguishable) Brush with egg whites if you want a nicely browned effect.

Cozy Sleeping Cubbies

Sometimes as adults we forget how exciting something small can be for a child. I remember being thrilled as a little kid when my mother allowed me to sleep in a new place. Here I am sleeping in a closet. What an adventure! :-)

If you have a small foam mattress see how many creative places to sleep you and your child can come up with in your house. The ones that are cozy and snug are the best ones! You can even have fun together packing an "overnight bag" with a pillow, stuffed animal, flashlight, etc.

This kind of fun costs nothing!

Out-of-Control Popcorn Popper!

Here'a fun idea for a rainy day! Spread a sheet on the floor in your kitchen; take the lid off of a popcorn popper (the tall hot air blowing kind are probably best for safety reasons) and gather your crowd of kids around the popper to try to catch the pieces of popcorn in their mouths. Lots of fun!

Cushion Mountain Climbing

These days my fourteen-month old can't get enough of climbing. We've been having fun building mounds of couch cushions and placing one of her favorite toys on top. She gets a sense of accomplishment out of reaching her toy, and even if she slips off it's not a bad thing because we have cushions and pillows scattered about to soften the fall.

Mini S'mores

Fall is a great time for making s'mores, but what if you don't have time or the location to build a big campfire or a fire in the fireplace?

Old Fashioned Taffy Pull

The slumber parties at our house growing up were always unique, and there was one activity in particular that none of my friends ever did anywhere else but at our house. When the night was getting late, things had started to die down, and we were scrambling around for something to do next, my mother would be in the kitchen cooking up a batch of vinegar taffy for us to pull.