Last year I started a book club for my 11 year old daughter. We use the American Girl Book Club kit (got it on major clearance), but we don't read American Girl books exclusively.

So far we have made book bags and had a mystery lunch that went along with a mystery book they read. At the last book club we made dragon bookmarks to go along with the book

Dealing with Dragons

This is a great book for girls to read and since it has been out for a while, there are enough copies at the library for all the girls.

I found some cute bookmarks on Pinterest (This link will say it is spam, but it is not. Just click "continue to link"or go to the site directly by clicking here: Page Corner Bookmarks)

and had the girls make them to go along with the book they were reading for the month (Dealing with Dragons).

After book club my other kids and husband made some and this is what they came up with.

I love Pinterest!

Easy to Make Silly Putty

Now that my kids are older they are able to find their own entertainment most of the time. Yesterday my 11 year old son wanted to make silly putty so he looked it up online. We had all of the ingredients, so he made some with his 8 year old sister. I had nothing to do with this project. They found the video online, found all of the ingredients, made the putty, and cleaned up the mess. Today they are playing with their silly putty and having lots of fun with it. The best part is that I didn't have to do anything.
To make this silly putty you need:
Elmer's glue (or other brand)
Water
Borax
Food coloring (optional)

Note: When they are not playing with their silly putty they keep it in Ziploc bags so it doesn't dry out.

Here is the video my son found:


Make Silly Putty (imitation) - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

My kids have been "hooked" on this silly putty all week long. It has entertained them every day and for that I am "hooked" on silly putty.
I am joining Julia's Hooked on Friday's blog party. Check out her blog to see what other people are hooked on and for a stroll down memory lane if you ever read Nancy Drew as a kid.

Personalized Stepping Stones

Giving gifts to my parents is always a challenge for me. They have everything and more than they need. If I give them a nick nack, they will keep it because of the sentiment behind the gift, but they really don't need it cluttering up their space. If I buy them something nice, they feel guilty that I spent money on them. I am always searching for gifts that won't clutter up their house, that don't cost a lot, and will be special to them. Pictures and home movies are always great gifts that they love, but I wanted to do something different this time.

When I was at Joann's buying my kids tie-dye and lip balm crafts I saw these stone kits:
My mom's birthday was coming up and I thought this would be perfect. She loves to garden and she can put it outside and it won't clutter up her house! It will be special because her grand kids will make it and it wasn't really expensive. I know I could have bought a large bag of cement at Lowes for less and I could have used anything for the mold, but I bought the kit. The kit came with alphabet and number stamps, glass decorations, the mold, and cement mix. All I had to do was mix 2 cups of water with the cement and pour it into the mold. So easy! I also bought an extra box of cement so that I could make another stone. Buying a large bag of cement at Lowes, trying to measure it out, find a mold, and write in the names without stamps, would have been a big hassle for me. I would have extra cement left over to store and add to my clutter in the garage. this is why I went with the kit.
The kit came with more than enough glass decorations for both stones and the stamps and mold are re-usable. I was also able to make a stone for DH for Father's Day.
Here is the stone we made for Father's Day. I stamped the date in the corner and the names of each of my kids next to their hand prints (I blocked the names of my kids in the photo to protect them).
Here is the stone that we just finished making for my Mom's birthday. It is still wet and will dry a lighter color (names are blocked to protect my kids again). The blue blocks are the stamps I used to stamp the date and names.

I paid $15 for the kit, but there were smaller ones for less. I needed to make the biggest stone so that I could fit all 3 hand prints. I bought an extra box of cement for around $4, so the second stone was a lot less to make. I also still have the mold and stamps for any future stones I might like to make. I think it would be fun to use the stamps in the corner of a new driveway, patio, or other cement project we may have in the future.

Summer Tie-Dye Shirts

Every summer I tie-dye shirts with my kids. It has become a fun tradition that they look forward to and love. I keep a look-out all year long for 100% white cotton shirts on clearance. I had a shirt for my son that I only paid $1 for and I also had a shirt for my daughter, but she needed it for a school dance earlier this year. So I went to WalMart and found flag shirts for $3 and bought one for my daughter and 1 for my 2 yr. old. I bought a tie-die kit at Joann's on sale and then the fun began.

My daughter wanted tie-dye circles all over her shirt, so we put elastics all over it. We just took small, medium, and large sections of the shirt and put the elastics tightly around. For some of the bigger bunches we used 2 or 3 elastics for a circle inside a circle effect.
My daughter (8 yrs.) completely saturated her shirt, letting all of the colors run together. The kit only had the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) so we were not in too much danger of her shirt looking like a muddy mess. I tried to encourage her to go with a red, white, and blue theme, but she wanted every color and had her own ideas.

I put the shirts in Ziploc bags for about 7 hours, then I cut off the elastics and washed in the washing machine.

I think her shirt turned out pretty neat and colorful.
An original one of a kind shirt!

My son (11 yrs.) wanted a swirl effect. We pinched the middle of the shirt and wrapped it up with elastics.

He saturated his with blue and red dye only, because his favorite color is purple.

He was very happy with his results and loves wearing his shirt.
I got to do my 2 yr. old sons shirt and went with stripes. I scrunched up the shirt and put elastics on it leaving the flag part in it's own space.

Blue was the only color left after my daughter finished with her masterpiece, so blue stripes is what I ended up doing. I think it turned out pretty neat. Note: When I washed the shirt, the white stripes turned a light blue.

Total amount that I spent including the shirts was $13. If you try to tie-dye, make sure you get 100% cotton. Joann's and Michaels sells t-shirts right next to their tie-dye kits, but they are only 50% cotton. I made the mistake of using them a couple of years ago and they don't turn out as vibrant. Also, the box says that it will dye up to 8 shirts, but it really only does 4 if your kids are as heavy on the dye as mine were.

I love to see the different tie-dye effects that people come up with, so if you do any tie-dying this summer, please send me a link. I would love to post it here.

Visit Hooked on Houses to see what everyone else is "hooked on" this week.
Also visit The Inspired Room for her link party.

Rainy Day Crafts

(The plus side to all of the rain were many beautiful rainbows like these. I captured this picture at the Scera outdoor theater last week.)

All month long it has been unusually rainy and my kids have been home from school for Summer vacation. Because they couldn't play outside, they were starting to veg out on the computer and wii. I decided to take them over to Joann's and use my 50% off coupon I always get in my e-mail every week. If you are not on their e-mail list you can sign up here.

They have a whole wall of kids crafts. We bought a lip balm kit with the 50% off coupon making it $9. Their tie-dye kits were on sale so I picked one up. We started the tradition of doing tie-dye every summer 2 years ago and they were quick to remind me to get a kit for this year. I have made lip balm before out of shortening, kool-aid and film canisters, but the kids really had fun with this kit (I also don't have any film canisters these days with digital cameras).

They mixed their flavors and decorated their lip balm canisters with stickers.

What a fun afternoon and so worth the $9 to have them doing something that didn't require electricity.

Today I did the tie-dye with my kids and their friends and am washing the shirts as I post this. I will show pictures of the tie-dye for my next post.

This week I was HOOKED ON rainy day crafts. To see what other people are HOOKED ON, visit the Hooked on Houses Link Party. I love the decals that Julia posted; if you leave her a comment you might win one!