Handmade toddler friendly Christmas gifts.

Before I get into this- let me apologize for the crummy photos! I am using my phone for this post and my mom's house is kind of dark at the moment!!

Hi everyone! It is that time of year to spread joy and love. I really have been stumped on what to do for my in laws who live out of state and don't get to enjoy the kids year round. Opal is finally at the age to really be creative and she just LOVES to paint and color, so I figured we'd pull out some of my art/ craft stuff and see what we could put together. Here's a little list of things we've created together and what you need to make them. Almost everything you need can be found at the dollar tree so this really is affordable too. 

First off- these really easy snow globes!! I bought everything at target in the dollar bins. You will need a hot glue gun.

The mason jars are in 2 packs for $3 each. 

The little "snow" was $1 and I still have half of a bag left. 

I bought a 3 pack of ornaments for $3 in the Christmas section too. 

Glitter, stickers and Pom Poms were all $1 each there too. 

I hot glued the ornament down and used tongs from the kitchen to place them in the jar. I let Opal tell me where to place the stickers and then I let her go crazy filling them with everything else.

 It's a really easy dry snow globe that is safe to ship cross country or wrap and deliver on the special day. Easy least and I got 4 made for under $15! What a deal.

Next up are some really easy cards.

Now, I already had fingerpaint on hand so I used that. You can buy it at the dollar tree or a craft store or even Walmart or target. I have a big box from target that I got for probably less than $10. 

I also already had the gold paint pen in my junk drawer. 

Thick card stock or small poster board from dollar tree.

I helped her keep her hand flat and not to smear- but she was LOVING this one. She did such a good job. I let her decide pink for rudolphs nose was cuter. 

Cut them out and decorate the trees however. I was thinking of adding some sequins and Pom Poms but ran out of time. 

Next up are these cuties. Ornaments!! 

All you need for these guys are thin foam sheets (Michaels, joanns, dollar tree, etc) in black and white.

Pipe cleaners- even target has these in the dollar bins right now..

Googly eyes

String, ribbon, etc

Hole puncher 

Hot glue gun- because I'm impatient and hate to wait for glue to dry. I hot glue everything!!

After I glued these guys together for Opal I let her color on them. She decided to keep them simple and refused to use any other color but red.. But- that's okay! It's her project! 

Next were these cute little photo ornaments. 

I had the sticks on hand, you can use Popsicle sticks. 

I also had buttons. I kept these mess free and let Opal pick the buttons. I hot glued them down and glued their Christmas photo down in the middle. 

SUPER easy, SUPER cheap, SUPER cute.

Next- a painted canvas! I had a bunch of these from a huge sale Michaels had a while back, so I figured why not? I let Opal go to town on this. I had more of them but I don't want to spoil the surprises for those people so you get the simple one as an example! 

This can be done on paper and framed too! How cute and special would that be!!

Last but not least- salt dough ornaments. I still have to paint these and add a string or ribbon- but don't want to spoil that surprise either. I'll update this post with extra photos later on. 

So there you have it! 5 super easy and cheap toddler crafting gift perfect for their grandparents or your spouse or even for decor for your home! Happy crafting!! 

Opal's camp out second birthday party!

This weekend my sweet baby girl is turning two! A few weeks ago we threw together a last minute birthday party for her because the weekend we originally planned to host a get together ended up getting scheduled for work for Dillon and I. So- we sent text message invites and hoped that our family and friends would show up so last minute!! 

THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO DID. Love Y'all!

So here is a little recap from everything that I worked on, we did, and how the party turned out.

:)

I made several banners for this party. I honestly wish I got some better photos of JUST the items I made. But they're already stuffed in a box in our storage unit until we move. :( I'd love to get some of these handmade felt banners into my Etsy shop. They were so much fun to make.

The green tray from the thrift store was perfect! I used a christmas hedgehog ornament from Walmart as my topper, along with one of my "2" toppers that I sell in my Etsy shop. The antlers are also ornaments. 

Here's a little family shot with the birthday girl before we sang happy birthday!

She ended up getting into the singing and was licking frosting off of her cake the whole time.

Funny story: I made a homemade super fluffy banana cake. I also made a homemade cream cheese frosting. Well, I forgot to pull the frosting out from the fridge so when we put the cake all together the banana cake got super dense and the frosting was a disaster. Luckily I bought pumpkin pie so that is what we ate instead!!! HAHA! Now I know for next time- let the frosting be room temp!

I made this giant fringe "2" sign out of poster foam board and a pack of tissue paper. Luckily Target had this cool plaid and copper pack at the time. It was definitely one of my favorites.

I bought these hats on halloween clearance!

I got all of them for ONE DOLLAR! I glued flowers to some and left the rest plain jane.

This "Hot Potato" is made of felt, swewd together and filled with beans.

This game was super fun to make. I used an old sturdy box and wrapped it in kraft paper. I then drew out the bodies of my 3 bears. Cut out their heads and then cut out some felt bodies and ears. I made 5 little bean bags (also out of felt) and filled them with beans. THE KIDS LOVED THIS GAME.

I used my mom's wheel barrel and made the little "Gifts" banner out of felt and green burlap.

I feel like I should be able to add "CAN CUT CURSIVE LETTERS OUT OF FELT" to my resume!!

 I had a lot of activities for the kids in the basket. I also made party favors with these fun little felt totes from the Target $1 bins.

This was the kids' table.

Last year they loved the coloring pages so I did that again but with little forest animals.

You can find the source pinned in my pinterest board!

I had to add Minnie Mouse SOMEHOW. So I made these headbands.

I also made some felt masks of forest animals. This is an owl and hedgehog.

 More ears..

 Here's a close up of the totes. I threw in some candy and small party favors for each kid to take home.

 This is one of the banners I made. I hung this one above the hot cocoa bar.

My picnic site! I made that tent with the help of my mom and grandpa. I bought those blankets at a thrift store and the picnic table was from Target's summer stuff last year.

Whenever I throw a kids' party I like to have a LOT of games on hand. I got these bags from Party City.

Thankyou so much to everyone who came to Opal's birthday party.

We can't wait to spoil her this weekend for the actual big day!!

Fall pretty much came and went. Here's a recap. :-)

These last few months have been flying by. Here's a post that has been in my drafts for a while.

This year for Halloween we let the kids, (Opal) pick out their costumes.

 She chose her favorite characters at the moment- Minnie and Mickey. 

Not sure why she didn't smile- but this is what we got.

I also let Dillon choose our costumes and he chose the Big Bad Wolf and Red Riding Hood.

Dillon's costume was actually really easy to make. We bought the flannel for $1 at a thrift store and got the fur on sale with a coupon really cheap at Joann's Fabrics. I cut holes and slashes into the shirt and simply hot glued little pieces of fur into the holes. I bought gloves at the Dollar Tree and cut the fingers off and just glued fur to the top of them. I left enough fur to create a hood that we sewed to the neck of the shirt. his mask was just a couple of pieces of felt that i hand cut by looking at ideas online. i glued them onto a mask I bought at Joann's.

Oliver was asleep in this photo ^^^^^ hahaha!

Here's my little boy's Fall photo. He did sooooo good.

.............and Opal's. My sweet girl!

Here are some more photos from Halloween. You can follow me on instagram (@chelsgon)

to keep up with us on a daily basis!

me and mama

me, dill, bro in law, sister

sister, oli, mama, me!

My sister and I

Hello November!

I can't even believe that this year has passed so quickly. Can you even believe that a year ago I was hiding my pregnancy, planning a trip to DC and my return there, too?! And here we are at Oliver's 5 month of age mark!!! So mind blowing. 

I have been on a break from blogging and crafting recently for the past couple months. I thought I'd have everything together by now, but truthfully, I do not. I'm not even anywhere close to it. 

When we first got here, we were staying in a super awkwardly shaped room at my mom's house. After a lot of persuasion and pleading I finally talked her into moving her craft studio into that room and letting us use that room. I think this room would be used as a "formal dining room" to normal folks, but right now it is our bedroom. It functions much better than the last room, but obviously isn't all that great for 4 people.

Since moving to California, Dillon had multiple job offers and until last month was employed with one. He liked it a lot but he just was always talking about his dream to own a bakery. So we decided it was time for him to just quit wasting time and go to culinary school. And like a bunch of crazies, we did just that. We jumped feet first into a new school schedule, and found him a new part time job. 

I have been applying everywhere but I'm having difficulties with my availability with working around his schedule. It sucks, but I'm trying. I feel like once we move into our apartment in December that I'll be more on top of my blog, art, and etsy. (did I mention we found an apartment?!)

Well, we did. It is a cute newly remodeled 2 bedroom. We wanted a 3rd bedroom, but we're very aware of our budget and the need to save money is our biggest priority second to taking care of the kids. We move December 1st! I can't wait to unpack everything and decorate just in time for Christmas. I think I might even plan a White Elephant Christmas party if I have time!

Speaking of the kids, Opal and Oliver are getting so big! Opal learned to count to 10 today and Oliver turned 5 months! He has two teeth already! He rolls over like a pro and is soooo sweet. He is huge, too! He weighs a whopping 19 lbs!!!! Oh, and he also broke me heart the other day by saying "da-da." I totally convinced myself that he would say "mama" first..... I may need to have another baby just so I can try once again to have a mama said first!! haha!

 

Well anyways, Opal will be 2 next month...... That might have been the weirdest thing I've said in a while. WOAH BABY- A TWO YEAR OLD. I can't even believe it. It feels like yesterday that I was planning her first party and here we are again with me blogging my way through party planning!! 

My next post will be on the masks. I'm starting that tomorrow. Thank goodness for Pinterest because I have a bunch of great blogs and their tutorials to share with y'all. 

So now you're kind of caught up to speed with me, my family and what is going on. Happy November guys!!

Xoxo, Chelsea.