heymomblog

Make lego shaped crayons!

2016-04-23T13:20:00.002-07:00

My son was asking for a crayon maker the other day and I told him we didn't really need one. We could melt all the little pieces of crayons we have into molds and make cool new colors and tie dye like ones.

I recently got these cold lego molds from Amazon and thought they would be perfect to use:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

2. Remove all the paper from the crayons. If you take a razor blade and cut one line straight down each one, it's very easy for kids (and adults) to remove the paper. I usually cut the paper and let my kids remove the paper.

3. Cut or break the crayons into smaller pieces. I usually use a knife. Be careful because they'll go flying when you chop them up sometimes.

4. Place molds on cookie sheet (pizza pan works great) and place in oven for about 10 minutes (or until the crayons have melted completely and you do not see any lumps).

5. When done, carefully remove from oven. Careful not to shake too much when pulling it out or the wax will spill. Allow molds to cool completely. Uusally after the pan has cooled, I set the whole thing in my freezer for about 10 minutes. It seems like this helps to remove them from the molds and prevent breaks. (It's important to fill the molds as thick as possible - thinner ones break easily when removing from molds)

6. You're all done!

Inexpensive Christmas gifts for coworkers / teachers / neighbors

2015-11-23T21:51:00.000-08:00

Right click to download and print

What Is It?

A set of six luscious lip balms. Flavors include:

Make-Out Magic
Caramel Cray Cray
Ra-Ra Raspberry
Hello Hazelnut
Guilty Pleasure
Pout About It

6 lip balms for $25 shipped! That's just $4.16 each!

www.ocperfectlyposh.com - search "set" when you get to the home page to locate the set quickly. Make sure you choose Mara Cohen in NM as your rep! :) I don't rep but I get points I can use on my orders if you order through my link. :)

Get a FREE letter from Santa Claus!

2015-11-09T11:59:00.001-08:00

Have you ever heard of Santa Claus, Indiana? It's real and since 1914 children have had the joy of receiving letters from Santa Claus for FREE from them!

To receive a written letter from Santa Claus, send a stamped letter with an eligible return address to:

SANTA CLAUS

PO BOX 1

Santa Claus, IN 47579

Every letter received by December 21, 2015 will receive a letter back from Santa Claus himself! The earlier you can send in your letter, the better! So get started on those letters to Santa!

I created a template if you would like to help the younger ones write their letters!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

ADS

Perfectly Posh - Product Reviews

2015-10-01T13:15:00.003-07:00

I found out about Perfectly Posh from a friend who reps for it, Mara. I'll tell you the three main reasons it caught my eyes:

1) Everything they sell is under $25
2) Every order ships for $5
3) Natural products all made in the USA

With three kids, I don't usually like to spend a lot on myself that is unnecessary, so it's kind of nice to see some pampering products that I can trust on my sensitive skin that won't break the bank. Before Mara sent me samples, I ordered one of their soap chunks, Viva Senorita. It smells pretty amazing like lemons and the chunks are huge. They're like the size of two regular bars of soap.

So I decided I was pretty happy and excited about Perfectly Posh and asked Mara to send me some samples so I can try a few of the products. Two of the product I absolutely love, one I'm not a fan of. Another needs more time to be used for me to decide - but I'll tell you about them!

FACE SCRUB

For about two years I have used St. Ives Pink Lemon and Mandarin Orange Scrub on my face - top reasons being it's cheap but also a trusted brand made in the USA. I like how it smells but haven't really noticed any difference since using it. It's a soap that scrubs, so it cleans my face and that is about it. One thing I dislike about it is the exfoliants in it are hard to rinse off. I almost always rinse my face but then realize while applying lotion that there are still some exfoliants on my face.

Mara sent me the BFF: BEST FACE FOREVER EXFOLIATING FACE WASH from Perfectly Posh. At first I was a little disappointed because the sample seemed like a very small amount and I thought it wouldn't be enough to wash my whole face. Surprisingly though, a small amount goes a long way, which is nice to see because I know I would end up using way too much and wasting it. It smells pretty amazing too, very fresh scent. It's a really nice scrub, it's not too harsh at all but seems to get the job done. My skin felt amazingly soft after using it and the exfoliants washed off easily and did not stick to my skin. I am 100% sure I am switching to this as my nightly face wash now. The price is a bit higher than the St. Ives but I see it as worth it because I got results - and I feel a tube will last a while since you need very little for your face.

LOTION/BUTTER

I don't use a body butter but I do use lotion. I use the Vaseline Aloe Fresh lotion. Same reasons I use the St Ives face wash, it's inexpensive and a trusted brand. It smells great but I have not noticed any benefits of using it and the smell is short lived.

Mara sent me a sample of Snarky Butter as well. It smells so great, without being over powering. It leaves your skin soft and the scent stays with you all day it seems. I really really love it which was unexpected. I read the ingredients and it didn't really sound like a kind of scent I usually go for (I like fruity/citric smells).

OTHER:

I tried the It's Da Bees Knees salt body scrub. I don't use a body salt scrub so I don't have anything I can compare it to. I wasn't a fan of this one. I didn't like the smell much and the salt was a bit big and even in a bath seemed to wash off before it could even scrub much.

NOTES:

I also received a few more samples I will review in the coming weeks once I've had a chance to use them.

WISH LIST:

I want to try the Kale Face mask next, it has bentonite in it which is a pretty popular ingredient that is getting great reviews for use on your face. It's better known as the Aztec healing clay.

WRAP IT UP:

Please explore the site here and see if you see anything you might be interested in. Mara's sample stash changes up periodically so contact her to request samples during her next shipment.

Contact Mara on Facebook with any questions or to request samples!

FREE Printable Sight Word Matching Game Printable

2015-09-30T14:12:00.002-07:00

If you have a kindergartner learning sight words, what really helped with my oldest (and am attempting with my 5 year old now) was creating a matching game with their word lists. We play it like a normal matching game, except when you flip the card over you have to say the word on the card before flipping another card. Eventually they learn the word because it helps them win. I feel like it helps them learn it faster and in a more fun way. It doesn't feel like homework, because it's playing a game. Even my two year old likes to play a long - although I don't know how much information he is retaining.

I'e attached the PDF files for the word lists I made for him. Print the 4 page file out and glue the flash cards to the colored pages, let dry, and then cut it out and you'll have your own deck to play with each night. (NOTE: If you want to save on ink, you can just cut the flash cards out and glue to construction paper).

~~I will add more words soon (he has a total of 60 on his list, in sets of 10)~~. All 60 words added!

You can download the PDF files at each link safely from DropBox:

RED SET

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qq5fzi41yqwzjm9/red-flash-cards.pdf?dl=0

ORANGE SET

https://www.dropbox.com/s/88x91vx3su47xkd/flash-cards-orange.pdf?dl=0

YELLOW SET

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jymc862uil4tl8l/flashcard-game-yellow.pdf?dl=0

GREEN SET

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b6dpiq6s8my052z/flashcard-green.pdf?dl=0

BLUE SET

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7kzgfalj05h0mb0/blueflashcards.pdf?dl=0

PURPLE SET

https://www.dropbox.com/s/04rr0hmx5dz4nln/flashcards-purple.pdf?dl=0

BLANK SET

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tha7ybmzdkjkrly/blank-flashcard.pdf?dl=0

Get $20 FREE from Bing! in as little as 3 months!

2015-09-01T09:05:00.001-07:00

I joined Bing Rewards exactly 3 months ago yesterday. I've already redeemed four $5 gift cards! As soon as you have the credits you can redeem your reward instantly. I've gotten my rewards emailed to be within minutes each time. No waiting, no cash out levels - just simple, easy, and fast!

There are a ton of gift cards you can choose like:

Toys R Us
Hulu (I've heard you could pretty much pay for your Hulu subscription 100% with Bing Rewards)
XBOX Live
Burger King
Starbucks
Amazon
Fandango
Chipotle
IHOP.... and more!

JOIN HERE!

Make Money Online - With Bing!

2015-06-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late joining this band wagon because I really do love Google and prefer Google...but I also like free money for doing stuff I already do.

Surprisingly Bing makes it pretty easy to earn points toward rewards (like Amazon & Starbucks gifts cards) quickly. I joined less than a week ago and already have 36% of my goal for my Starbucks card. All for searching with Bing every day. Click here to join!

Free Domino's Pizza today! First 20k!

2015-06-10T11:21:00.001-07:00

Head on over to to MLB's website at 3pm Eastern Time today to see if you can be one of the first 20k to score a free pizza!

Free stuff from Kmart/Sears with Surprise SYW Points!

2015-06-10T10:49:00.001-07:00

I got an email from Kmart today saying I had $40 in surprise points - surprisingly! IN the past it's been $3, $5 and maybe $10.

So I clicked to see if 1) it's a real email from them, and 2) what the deal is.

Pretty nice amount of deals. I used the bottom one, which was originally $15 in surprise points and got my son a backpack he's been wanting (which was also on sale, so even better...). With the left over points I got my youngest a cute outfit! And it's all free, I just have to pick it up in the store!

You may not have the same as me, but go on over and check yours out to see if they added any surprise points in your account!

Free Domain Names

2015-01-26T09:51:00.000-08:00

Looking for a free domain name? They do actually exist but it's not going to be a .com or a .net. You can get a free domain under the following:

.tk
.cf
.ga
.gq
.ml

They can all be registered for free at http://www.freenom.com/

This is great for having an easy quick domain for easy memory but also be advised - if you want high rankings in Google go with a paid domain. Since these are free, a lot of sites register them and abuse them with use for spam, and so Google doesn't trust these domain names as well as it does the normal ones.

I liked to use them as a way to create a short URL. I use one for my spoonflower account, and it simply masks the real address.

www.maggiethecatfabric.tk

Homemade Perogies (Perogi)

2015-01-26T09:28:00.003-08:00

Growing up my mom always cooked us perogies from the frozen section at the grocery store - they were delicious and we all loved them. I finally decided I wanted to take a stab at making them homemade after seeing a recipe on Facebook posted. Looking at the dough ingredients, I mentioned to my mom it had sour cream in it. She said she didn't think her grandma put sour cream in her's - so I tried to find a more traditional recipe, and ended up with this blog post here.

First I peeled and cut my potatoes and started them to cook. While they were cooking I prepared the dough. After figuring out how to convert 500gs of flour into cups (I was lucky, my flour bag did it for me, and had it listed on the bag at 3/4c equaling 100gs, but I've been told it differs with each brand so you can see if your brand is listed here.)

The blogger says this amount of flour probably needs around a cup of water, and that you can added an egg or egg white to the dough for a richer dough. I added 1 egg white and a bit over a cup of water. I just slowly added water as I was kneading and mixing it with my hands until it became a good dough texture. After I finished, I placed it in an oiled bowl with a damp towl over it for about 30 minutes and continued making my mashed potatoes. I made them as normal and then mixed shredded cheddar in them. If I knew the kids would eat it, I would have added pepper jack cheese to it, and may next time.

When the dough was finished, I took small portions out at a time and rolled them out. I found a lid that was maybe 5-6 inches in diameter (I wanted them to be about the size of the frozen ones). This dough was incredibly easy to work with. After cutting out the circle I placed a small spoonful of the mashed potatoes in the middle, and then folded it over and pressed the edges with a fork (I find it easier and prettier then using my fingers).

After I did this with all the dough (made about 15 at this size), I dropped them in boiling water. You let them boil until they float to the top. After they float to the top they are done and can be eaten, but I like mine fried in butter with onions, so mine went directly into a skillet that was ready. I fry them until they have a little brown on them and then take them out and eat them.

Next time I'd like to try some sweet ones and maybe some with meat.

Easy & Quick Chocolate Chip Cake

2014-12-03T11:16:00.000-08:00

I spotted this delicious and easy recipe on Facebook by Tijuana at Po' Man Meals today and decided it would be a nice recipe to try with the kids, without the fuss of making cookies.

The batter is very creamy looking! It looks like chocolate chip cookie dough heaven lol. I cut the batter in half after preparing it, and added 1 tablespoon of dark chocolate cocoa powder to one of the halves. I also used mini chocolate chips instead of the normal sized ones.

Instead of buttering and dusting the pan with flour, I just lightly greased them and I didn't have any problems with the cake sticking.

It's pretty good! The top is flaky almost like a cookie. Alex & Max liked it!

ETA:

After tasteing both cakes, the kids and I all like the one with cocoa powder in it. It doesn't taste very chocolate-y - but it's almost like it balances out the flour/biscuit taste I think sometimes happens with flour cakes. It tastes sweeter but not overpowering.

DIY Christmas Ornament Cards Make 54 cards for less than $15!

2014-11-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

I'm always interested in trying new and creative things. For our wedding we sent them out as treasure maps in plastic bottles - we literally sent plastic bottles in the mail with a stamp slapped on. It was awesome and everyone loved receiving them.

This year for Christmas I decided I wanted to send my card as those cute little round ones that can be hung on trees. I however did not want to spend almost $4 a piece on them!

So I designed my look, and uploaded it on artscow.com, under the product 'Multi-purpose Cards', in circle format. These are custom cards you can make. I've used them in the past to make a homemade card game, and flash cards for my kindergartner. It's printed on a nice card-stock, and shiny and perfect. They're about 3 inch in diameter, which is a good size in my opinion. You get 54 of them for $13.99 - but do a quick search for current coupons and you can probably get it cheaper. I got mine for $10.49 shipped with a code for 25% off and free shipping.

So $10.49 for 54 cards isn't bad! I got cute red envelopes on eBay for $5, but you could use regular envelopes. I punched a hole in each one at the top and strung cute ribbon through it.

Homemade Laundry Powder

2014-09-23T20:06:00.003-07:00

So I first gave the idea of making my own soap when I saw a friend post about her personal experience making it on Facebook. I hope I remember correctly (because this was over a year ago I think), but I believe the recipe she got was from here.

I hate buying laundry detergent. I feel like I have to buy it too often and because it's so expensive I would buy the cheap stuff like Sun. It always went too fast.

While visiting with my mom, we made it for her first. We bought ivory soap and shaved it with a cheese grater. It didn't work well for my mom though because she only washed with cold water. She tried soaking the soap in hot water before the wash and it seems like the ivory soap still had problems not completely melting away; however, we were amazed at the first loads we washed. Clothes looked whiter, stains came out easily. It's really good despite being 'homemade' and inexpensive to make.

When I got back home I decided I wouldn't use Ivory soap (despite the fact I do love the smell of it). This isn't a recipe that you need down to the T I've realized. I don't need exactly this much baking soda, and exactly this much borax - you get the point. So when I went to Walmart for my supplies, I got the best value for each product. I also spent over $20. More into $30 and something because I did purchase the Purex Crystals. Honestly next time I might save up some coupons and buy TWO instead. It seems like there can always be more in each load. I found Zote preshaved - and I highly recommend it! No shaving or work on your part and it dissolves easily in hot and cold water - and it was still only around $2 for the box.

I made this in April. It's the end of September now and I can probably make it till the middle of October with what I have left. So the original blogger was right on when she said it would last a family of five about 6 months. I wash almost daily as well. I've even used it to spot clean my carpet! So at approximately $60 a year on laundry soap, that's quite a deal!

Whipped Cream Banana Frosting out of pudding and cool whip!

2014-04-03T15:23:00.002-07:00

I made this for my son's first birthday. He loves bananas so this was perfect for him. You can really use any flavor of instant pudding you have. I usually use chocolate, but have also used the almond joy flavor and the Oreo flavor too - both were great!

Since it's made of cool whip, it doesn't keep as long as your normal frosting - so it's best to make it the day you plan on eating it.

Whipped Cream Banana Frosting

- 1, 5.1 oz box of instant banana pudding

- 1/4 cup of milk

- 1 large tub of cool whip

In a large bowl, with a mixer mix the pudding with the milk until the pudding is dissolved.

Slowly add the cool whip and continue mixing it until all of the cool whip has been mixed in.

Refrigerate for at least ten minutes to allow for it to stiffen up some.

That's it! Frost it as you like.

My favorite quotes from Frida Kahlo

2014-04-01T16:48:00.001-07:00

These are my favorite quotes from the artist Frida Kahlo.

Carseat Canopy Review plus Promo Code for a free one!

2014-04-01T12:55:00.001-07:00

These are pretty great and I wish I would have had one for my first two kids. I purchased one (along with the complete kit) for my third son and it was my favorite purchase. The canopy itself works great for shade when the baby is in his car-seat, but I also used it to cover when breastfeeding and as a blanket. The smooth minky fabric is super soft.

Since I purchased the complete kit, my son was styling! Again it was also super soft for him. The covers have kept my car-seat looking brand new during it's one year of use so far. Too bad there isn't really market for reselling used carseats!

I'll be honest, I did not expect these to be the greatest quality, but I was wrong. They are nicely made and mine has held up pretty great! Plus, now they have ton of new designs and styles I love and wish I had a need for.

You can get one free (plus shipping) here: https://www.carseatcanopy.com/

Heading home from the hospital!

Minecraft Valentines

2014-02-13T09:28:00.000-08:00

I was a little late this year in coming up with an idea, so we did our own artwork this time around. The cards are simple business card size flash cards that we use to study spelling words each week (I make a match game out of his ten words, and we play each day). The bags you can get 100 pack for $1 at Walmart. We made the bracelets with the rainbow loom. Pretty simple this year. :)

Creepers & Pigs

Free Fonts! Cute Handwriting you can easily add to your computer!

2014-01-12T14:23:00.000-08:00

I really love fonts and I guess I collect a lot of them. Below I've created some cute ones you can use for free. It's actually pretty easy to install them on your computer. A quick way I do it is save all the font files I want in a folder (make sure they are unzipped if they came in a zipped folder), then I search FONTS in the start menu and pull up the FONT folder that is in the Control panel. I have the folder with the files I downloaded open and on the other side of the screen I have the Font folder open, and I simply drag and drop the new font files into the Font Folder (located on the control (panel) - and that's it! If you have a program up, you will need to close it out and reopen it to use the new fonts.

If that doesn't make sense (because I tend to not make sense), Microsoft says you can do it this way as well:

To install a font

Open Fonts by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Fonts.

Click File, and then click Install New Font.

If you don’t see the File menu, press ALT.

In the Add Fonts dialog box, under Drives, click the drive where the font that you want to install is located.

Under Folders, double-click the folder containing the fonts that you want to add.

Under List of fonts, click the font that you want to add, and then click Install.

FREE FONTS

Sweetie - Download

Boxy - Download

These fonts were created for free using this ap! http://www.font.my/

Happy Halloween!

2013-11-01T00:18:00.002-07:00

I'm glad we decided to do homemade this yea, for the first time. It was a lot of fun putting everything together and we're happy for our friends that helped in making the Tardis hat. The kids loved their costumes and we got a lot of Dr. Who fans excited while out and about tonight too!

He broke his red tie so we had to use an alternative, and he didn't like his Fez enough to wear it. BUt he's a cute little Doctor.

testing out the hat

our pumpkin lady (used a mannequin I use for photo shoots)

Doctor Who Tardis Costume for Child - Part 1

2013-09-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

My kids are big Dr. Who fans. My three year old decided he wanted to be the 11th Doctor. This is an easy do. I purchased an inexpensive child's bow-tie and suspender set on eBay in red, and really all I am doing for that is trying to hunt down a brown blazer in his size that isn't too expensive (since he'll most likely wear it just for Halloween).

My oldest son, who is 6, wants to be the Tardis. He gets to wear a costume to school, so I wanted to make it something comfortable and not obnoxious to wear, so I was thinking felt would be a good option since it's stiff, but not too stiff - as well as inexpensive (got mine for $2.99 a yard at Joann's, don't forget to get coupons online!).

I purchased three yards, and had a ton left over. It really depends on the size of your child to determine how much you will need. I eyeball measured it up next to him, cut out my four sides (I made the actually sides small, so it's more of a rectangle than an actually square all around), and then I sewed up the sides and made a giant blue felt bag, ha.

For the windows, I used 9x12 sheets of white felt (about $0.35 each at the store) and cut them to be more squared and to fit better. I then trimmed it simply by gluing black construction paper around it.

The printed signs I purchased from Etsy, on fabric. But honestly, I could have easily of just printed it myself on paper and had the same effect. I'm sure you can Google the images you need and then print them on paper, you could even have Staples print them for you relatively cheap.

This is how far I have gotten. My plan is to build a light-weight wooden frame to slip the costume over that he can wear. We will see how they turns up and I will update with another post when the costume is completed!

Any advice/ ideas welcomed! =)

Cat Bed Made out of an old Suitcase - Book Worm Themed!

2013-06-16T19:33:00.001-07:00

I've always really liked old suitcases. I don't know why. Three years ago when I was visiting home (Tennessee) I purchased two older ones at the Goodwill. I live in California and it's not as easy to find them here at a cheap price. The one I am showing off today I paid $7 for! I let it sit around until a few weeks ago, when I decided I would made a bed for my kitty Boo.

I knew I wanted to paint it with some spray paint, and then I went looking on etsy for some cute fabric to line it with. When I found the glasses fabric, I thought it would be super cute to make cat nip bags of my favorite books! I had the book fabric printed at www.Spoonflower.com. An 8x8 sample is only $5 and that's all I needed. The four legs I got at Home Depot for about $3 each.

I think she loves it!

My Favorite Quotes about Moms

2013-02-02T22:01:00.000-08:00

I love mom quotes. Here is my collection of some of my favorite ones:

A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take." ~ Cardinal Mermillod

All mothers are working mothers. ~Author Unknown

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever. ~Author Unknown

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love. ~Mildred B. Vermont

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers. ~Jewish Proverb

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden. ~Attributed to Claudia Ghandi

A man's work is from sun to sun, but a mother's work is never done. ~Author Unknown

The phrase "working mother" is redundant. ~Jane Sellman

She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along. ~Margaret Culkin Banning

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mothers are all slightly insane. ~J.D. Salinger

Cute Photo Idea for Valetine's Day

2013-02-02T21:21:00.002-08:00

I love taking cute pictures of my kids. Today I had the idea to turn a cardboard box (we previously turned into a Tardis) into a little stand that I was going to put something like 5 Cent Kisses on it, but my five year old said he wanted to sell frogs. Since we had a crap load over from his Valentines, I agreed and came up with the idea to make the booth a Frog Prince sales booth, with the promise of the frog turning into a prince when you kiss it! (*With the results not typical warning, of course! lol). I think it made a really cute prop. My kids are wearing some cute iron on bows and suspenders I got off etsy too. =)

Make your own sight words memory card game!

2013-01-29T22:10:00.001-08:00

My 5 year old son loves to play games - either it be video games, computer games, or board/card games. When his teacher sent home a list of sight words he needed to learn, I noticed simply going through the flash cards wasn't helping. I grabbed some thick card-stock I had and make a quick hand written memory game with the 10 words. (20 cards - 2 cards of each word). He liked this a lot! We played every day after homework or before bed and he was always eager to win and play. The more we played, the more he remembered the words - to the point now he knows all of them easily and by heart.

I love to design and print things and often I will use a website called artscow, based in China. Since they are a company in China, they offer printing services at prices that cannot be beat here in the US. I've ordered blankets, change purses, books, pillow cases, canvas, cards, prints - etc. Every single thing has been of exceptional quality (NOT something you always see with a company based in China that sells at low price).

They have a product called multipurpose cards, and you can decide what to print on the front and on the back of each card. Each set comes with 54 cards (so you can make two ten word games, and leave the last ones blank if you want. With my first order I did this, and left the last 14 blank. When my two year old was bored of the word one that was too advanced for him, I make him a shape memory game which he really likes too.

I found that the printed ones work really well for my 5 year old, because the words are written in a font his teacher uses and teaches him with. Some people do not realize writing a small "A" differently typed can really confuse a child.

So I designed images in PAINTNET (free program I love) with the sight words on them in a font that matched the flash cards his teacher sent home, then on the back of each card I used a brightly colored digital scrap book image. I stayed away from images, like cute cartoons or things like that. Right now my son associates an Apple with the letter A, so I think putting any kind of image on the backside could cause confusion or distraction.

It's very easy to create the cards at Artcow. You click create, then upload your images and basically drag and drop them onto each card. Cards can come in shapes of rectangles, circles or hearts. I used circles because there are no corners to get bent, and so far they have worked well for us. They are perfectly sized as well for small hands (but bug hands too).

This is the preview the website gave me (of one card):

Cards are usually $10.99 plus shipping - but they ALWAYS have coupons going on. A quick check on retailmenot.com will almost always get you some kind of cheaper priced coupon. They offer free shipping with most deals too. Sign up for their newsletter to get the really great deals.

Currently right now the great deal is $8.99 with free shipping:

Coupon Code:	PLAYCARDJAN
Expiry Date:	2 / 19 / 2013

Multipurpose cards can be found here: http://www.artscow.com/photo-gifts/playing-cards

You can see my design of the sample shown above here (and even order it if you want):

http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/sight-words-ndp3cbkri0oy