Pin It

Ingredients:

• Pizza dough (I made mine in the bread machine)
• Pepperoni
• Mozzarella cheese (This is part of the problem.  I just used what I had — and it’s not mozzarella!)
• Pizza sauce

1)  Preheat your oven.  Roll out the pizza dough.  Use a pizza wheel or knife to cut out the shape of the hat.

I usually cook my crust for about 10 minutes before I add the toppings, but follow your own pizza dough directions for best results!

2)  Spread sauce on the whole pizza.  Add pepperoni.  Make “stripes” with cheese.

3)  Bake according to your pizza dough directions.

Ever have one of those days where you just feel like the worst mom in the world?

I have them…I’m having one today.

It was a rough morning.  I was unkind and harsh.  And I wish I could take it back.

But instead of beating myself up about it, I asked for forgiveness, and this afternoon, I let myself be inspired by this sweet post.  Over at Creative With Kids, you can find a printable with 100 Ways to Be Kind to Your Child.  So many fun and simple ideas!

Thanks, Nicole!

When CraftProjectIdeas.com contacted me and sent us the Made by Me: Ultimate Box of Wooden Craft Projects, I was pretty excited.  I made sure to pick something I thought all three of the girls would enjoy….

They had a blast painting various projects from the kit.  The two younger ones painted magnets (quite colorfully, I might add), and my seven-year-old made an “elephant pencil holder”.

(My 3-year-old loves to make blocks of color!  Poor lion’s face…    )

This particular kit comes with:

• 4 Wooden Punch-Out Sheets
• 4 Wooden Magnets
• 4 Sticker Sheets
• 2 Metal Key Rings
• 10 Pots of Acrylic Paint
• 2 Paint Brushes
• Satin Cording
• Lanyard Clip
• 2 Punch-Out Sheets
• 1 Glue Tube
• 1 Sheet of Sand Paper
• Instructions

It made a perfect project for a cold, stuck-indoors kind of day!

You can pick up all kinds of Kids Crafts kits at Walmarts around the country (I’m sure you’ve seen them in the kids’ crafting aisle)!  They come with all the supplies you need to start crafting right away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for the fun part!!  CraftProjectIdeas.com is giving one of you a box of your own Made by Me:  Ultimate Box of Wooden Craft Projects.

To enter, simply leave a comment below.  You can also leave up to three extra comments to gain three more entries when you complete the following:

1)  Subscribe to Motherhood on a Dime via email subscription OR Motherhood on a Dime:  Kids (formerly AmazingMess.com) via email subscription.  Leave a comment letting me know you subscribe via email.

2)  Follow CraftProjectIdeas.com on Facebook or Twitter.  Leave a comment letting me know which one you follow.

3)  Follow Motherhood on a Dime on Facebook or Twitter.  Leave a comment letting me know which one you follow.

You may leave up to FOUR comments (for a total of four entries in the giveaway).  This giveaway will end next Monday (February 27, 2012) at 10 PM (CST).  The winner will be chosen via Random.org.

If you’re viewing this via email, please go here to leave a comment.

I’ve compiled several snow-themed activities below.  You can also check out my Pinterest board with winter-themed ideas for kids!

Pin It

Find five simple and inexpensive activities for a snowy day (my very first Fun on a Dime post)!!

Check out these Puffy Snowflakes from Frugal Family Fun Blog!

Here are three winter snack ideas!

Creativity My Passion shows how to make Snowflake Prints from Pipe Cleaners!

Do you have any snow-themed activities to share?  Leave your link in the comments below!

After seeing this post at Celebrate Every Day With Me, I was inspired to make my own “Heart Breakfast”…..for lunch!  My husband laughed when he saw it, but the girls thought it was fabulous!

Supplies:

• Skillet
• Oil (we use coconut oil)
• Eggs
• Toast
• Heart-shaped cookie cutter or knife
• Spatula

Pin It

 1)  Oil a skillet and heat to medium heat.  Use a cookie cutter or knife to cut-out a heart from a slice of bread.

2)  Butter the back of the bread and place on the skillet.  Carefully break an egg into the heart-shaped hole.

3)  Cook and serve!

I did “flip” my egg and bread to be sure it was cooked thoroughly!

I get lots of ideas from Family Fun Magazine! 

Today only, you can subscribe to FamilyFun Magazine for just $2.99 per year from DiscountMags.com.  Use the code 2221 at check-out to get it for this price.

Supplies:

• You Color My World printable
• Coloring book or printable color sheet
• Scissors
• Glue
• Markers
• Red paper

Pin It

1)  Print out coloring sheets (I found ours here), or pull out sheets from a coloring book.  Print the “You Color My World” sheet and fill it out.

2)  Cut-out the hearts, and glue them in the middle of a 3″-4″ wide strip of paper.  Glue the back together to form a tube (hot glue works well and quickly)!

3)  Roll-up the coloring sheet and insert into the tube.

Variations:

For older children, you might want to spin-off this idea!  You could use a crossword puzzle, word search, or origami!

It worked!

Pin It

Supplies:

• 1/2 cup paint
• 1 T.  unsanded tile grout
• Mixing container for paint
• Paint stir stick
• Sponge paint brush or small roller
• Fine-grit sandpaper
• Damp cloth

1)  Stir the paint and unsanded tile grout together.  (Be sure it is smooth — you can see I had a few clumps!)

2)  Paint onto a primed or painted surface with a sponge brush.  Apply several coats.

3)  Allow to dry.  Sand with fine grit sandpaper.

4)  Wipe off the dust.  “Condition” the chalkboard by rubbing the side of a piece of chalk all over the surface.  Remove the chalk with a slightly-damp cloth.

The original directions from Martha Stewart suggest using latex paint, but I used acrylic paint (since I don’t have any red latex paint!!) and put it directly on an oatmeal container to make our Valentine’s Holder!  The acrylic paint is a little thicker, so that may be why I had more clumping.  Next time, I will make sure to break up all the clumps!

After we’re done using it for Valentine’s, I plan to store craft supplies in it!  I can just erase the hearts and write the contents of the container on it!

 Pin It

Supplies:

• Cornstarch
• Water
• Yarn
• Heart-shaped cookie cutter
• Cookie sheet or wax paper

1)  Make cornstarch “glue”.  Mix 1/4 cup cornstarch with 1/2 cup water until smooth.  Heat over medium heat (stirring constantly) until thickened and translucent. (Don’t overcook!  I did the first time and it was too gummy!)  Allow to cool.

2)  Cut pieces of yarn about 8″-12″ long.

3)  Dip yarn in the cornstarch “glue” (remove the excess by running it through your thumb and pointer fingers) and place inside a cookie cutter on a cookie sheet.  Repeat until the heart is filled with yarn.

4)  Remove the cookie cutter and press the yarn down (you may need to reshape it a little bit).  Allow to dry overnight until hardened.

We’re getting close to Valentine’s Day!  If you’re on Pinterest, I’ve pinned a few ideas for kids over there.  If you have any great ideas, feel free to send me the link!  I’d love to add some more fun pins to the board!

I really do.I love to start something new and work on it, but when I get to the end, I procrastinate.  I don’t want it to end.  Whether this is just a personality trait or some irritating defense mechanism I have, I don’t know….

But I do know that things are about to change.

For almost two years, I have shared on The Amazing Mess all my sometimes simple, sometimes messy, sometimes fun, sometimes stupid projects.  And I have loved it, and I have loved you.  And I have loved the name The Amazing Mess.

It suits me…it’s my life. Sometimes amazing.  Sometimes messy.  Mostly both!

But I had to make a hard decision.  I’m moving all of this blog over to my Motherhood on a Dime blog.  It’s been too much for me to have one blog over here (on Blogger) and another blog on WordPress, and I’ve struggled with how to manage both of them.

This decision has been months in the making.  After tons of sleepless nights and tears, I finally came up with the idea that I could find a way to combine them.  This weekend, my sites will be down as we migrate everything over to Motherhood on a Dime.  There will be three sections:  Living (recipes, frugal tips, faith and DIY projects), Deals (all the coupons and good buys), and Kids (all of the posts from The Amazing Mess).

PLEASE!  DO NOT BE UPSET WITH ME OR LEAVE ME!!!  Nothing will really change except the name and the location of the blog.

1)  I will still post 2-3 crafts, activities, cooking or other projects per week.  If you currently get my daily email updates or RSS feed, it will still be the same — just with a different title at the top for now:  MOAD’s Amazing Mess (with MOAD standing for Motherhood on a Dime).

2)  You will still ONLY GET my crafts and activities for kids in your emails or RSS feed!  I’m not forcing anyone to get deals or coupons or anything like that!

I REPEAT:  Everything will be pretty much the same (you’ll even be able to type in www.amazingmess.com and be redirected to my site)!  I’m not changing the content.  I’m just changing the name and location.

It’s still been hard for me, because I love the name so much.  But rest assured, I will not be giving up the name anytime soon.  I have tons of ideas:  maybe a book series, an eBook or two, or whatever else I can dream up to do!  Hmm…the biggest problem will be to actually finish what I’ve started….  ;)

Please feel free to contact me with questions or concerns.  I really hope it will be a smooth transition.  You may not be able to access the site much throughout the weekend, but we should be up and running by Monday!

Supplies:

• Sheets of stickers
• Paper

1)  Place several stickers in a pattern on a sheet of paper.  Ask your child to continue the pattern.  

Older children may enjoy making up their own patterns. (We ran out of stickers, because they were making all kinds of patterns!!)

Here’s a quick tip:  Whenever we do number activities, I always use these Number Rhymes to help the girls remember what each number looks like and how it is formed.

Supplies:

• Paper
• Marker
• Cotton balls

1)  Write the numbers 1-10 on sheets of paper.

2)  Outline the number with cotton balls.

You can either put the cotton balls and sheets of paper in a plastic bag and reuse them again (as a very simple learning bag), use the cotton balls for a “snowball” hunt, glue them on the number, or use them for another art project!

If you have an older PreK-2nd grade student, challenge them to form the numbers without a written guide.

Supplies:

• Ice cube tray or egg carton
• 12 cotton balls

1)  Hide the “snowballs” around the house.

2)  Have your child find them and place one snowball in each section of the ice cube tray!

*Variation:  Pick up the “snowballs” with tongs or tweezers after your child finds them. 

Need a fun (and frugal) way to make a winter memory?  Check out this Ultimate Marshmallow Fight from Celebrate Every Day With Me!

It reminds me of our cotton ball fight last year — the girls thought it was hilarious that they were pelting me with “snowballs”.   The best part is that neither marshmallows or cotton balls hurt like real snowballs!  Yes….I’m a wimp.