I recently developed a slight obsession with Shrinky Dinks. It was one of my favorite crafting activities as a child, and now as a mom, my daughter is having fun with it too. If you’ve never used it, it’s basically thin sheets of plastic that you can cut and color and then bake in the oven, […]

I've been thinking about how to execute this explosion book tutorial for a while now, and this afternoon I got down to it. It looks a little crazy, but it's actually very easy and when you give it as a gift the result is always "Wow!" I promise. The book is constructed of three equal squares, folded in quarters and then once diagonally. A 12x12" piece of cardstock makes a nice 6" finished size. {For the purpose of this tutorial I used an 8x8" square so I could photograph it more easily.} After you have folded each of the three squares, you fold the diagonal folds inward like this: {I'm sure there's a proper origami term for this type of fold...but I'm at a loss...} So here are my three squares, folded and ready to assemble. Easy so far, right? Ok, this was tricky to photograph on my own. And wouldn't you know it? A nice cloud cover for today's otherwise sunny Arizona skies... I use a glue stick to assemble the pieces. The center square gets flipped over so that the diagonal fold parts go backward. The first and third squares have the diagonal parts going inward. I hope you can you tell by this photo: You just overlap the squares to attach all three folded pieces together in a row... Then you scrunch it down to create the book: Now it's time to embellish your book. Here's a helpful tip: cut your patterned paper (or photos) slightly smaller than the base area. You want the book to be able to fold back together easily, so avoid gluing anything close to the creases. See how I've left a little space around the edges? Now you can add photos or phrases and let your imagination go wild. Attach your cover piece to the front: And a ribbon to the back: Tie it up and give it away. :o) Maybe? And as if that wasn't enough photo overload, I'm going to close with a few pictures of explosion books from my past. These were made a few years ago and the photos aren't the best, but it will give you an idea for different ways to play with this mini-book pattern. . Here's a book I made for my sister documenting her black Friday shopping trip with Carrie and our niece, Britny: An explosion book I made for my niece Britny for Christmas a few years back: And a Christmas explosion book I made for our friends documenting our Christmas tree hunt excursion: I do hope you'll give this design a try! And do let me know how you like it. :o) ♥ PS: I really hope this tutorial makes sense. If you have any questions please let me know and I'll do my best to clarify. PSS: Paper used in my tutorial example is "3 bugs in a rug" - Bee Mine. :o)

Once again, it's thanks to Pinterest that I was able to do a fun little project with my kids. Several weeks ago, Pinterest led me to these ...

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By Emily. Oh man, we’ve been laughing about this DIY since it was hatched. Hayes loves to be creative with me and plan out projects. We were talking about what kind of Valentine’s Box he’d want for hi

This is a wonderful, easy – and fun! – fold to do, but it LOOKS like it was hard. Your friends will be so impressed! Here’s how to do it! 1. Cut two pieces of card stock at 5 1…

Last year the cup stack was one of my FAVORITE team building activities (see post here). So, naturally, I wanted to give it another shot! The Cup Stack is a fun, yet challenging activity that promotes team work. The supplies are basic: cups, string, rubber bands. I go ahead and tie the string to the rubber bands so it is ready to go. I make a few for groups of 4 and a few for groups of 5, this way no matter what the numbers are in the classroom I can make it work. I start by asking students what teamwork is. What does it look like? sound like? feel like? We brainstorm a list of ideas that I hang in the classroom for students to refer to. Each class comes up with a variety of ideas, but they all center around the same theme. Then I introduce their challenge. I start off my admitting that this will be a frustrating activity. We discuss ways to handle our stress and feelings that arise when others make a mistake or don't do what we want them to do. I model that they will each be given 6 cups and a rubberband with strings attached to it. Their job is to stack the cups into a design by only holding onto their individual string. I demonstrate that when everyone pulls on their string the rubberband opens wider, and vice versa. I also show them the challenges of picking up a cup that has tipped on its side or fallen on the floor. No matter what happens, they must follow the one rule: YOU CAN ONLY TOUCH YOUR STRING. No touching the rubber band, no touching the cup, and no touching other group member's strings. I reinforce how communication is so important in order to reach the goal. Then I set them off. Here are some videos and pics. After about 10-15 minutes, we pause and reflect on our experiences. I ask them to rate their group on how well they worked together using the ideas we wrote at the beginning of the lesson. I ask them what went well for their group. I also ask them what didn't go well for their group. We talk about different strategies and ways we an handle ourselves when things don't go the way we want them to. Throughout the activity I walk around and facilitate positive communication, so I usually have a few examples to help springboard the discussion.

and it's made from this: I'm part of the Floracraft® Make if fun team...and I get fun boxes filled with things like FloraCraft® Make It: Fun® Foam Eggs and I love it cause it makes

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Last year the cup stack was one of my FAVORITE team building activities ( see post here ). So, naturally, I wanted to give it another sh...

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