Lego Week- Lego Building Challenge Game

I love a challenge. When I was on a cruise last year, there was a Lego Building Challenge activity that we participated in, and I thought it was so fun! 

I decided I wanted to make a Lego Challenge Game of my own for my son and his cousins. First, I collected the scraps of Lego packaging that I saved. I know, I'm silly, but I love to cut out the pieces of packaging I think I can use on a project. I do it with every single super hero tag off of the clothes I buy. Obviously - it's buy a shirt get an embellishment free!

I used a tag punch to punch out some of that yellow cardboard, which is actually a yellow Lego background. I then cut each red square logo and inked the edges. I found some cute kraft envelopes in my stash and decided I'd use those to hold the challenges.

Next, I put red numbers on the yellow tags, punched small holes in the top of the yellow tags, and put twine through the holes. I attached the tags to the yellow journal cards using red washi tape. 

Lastly. I added some challenges. I thought that the kids could go through each challenge and whoever successfully completes each one wins. They can also roll a dice and just complete the one challenge that matches the number, too! The best part about the washi tape is that it is removable and you can make new journal cards with new challenges. 

The challenges in my game are make a garden, build something you find in the city, make an animal, build a house, build a car, train, or airplane, and make a boat. 

Lucky for you, I have created a Free Printable for you to make one of your own!

I hope you enjoyed! If you're looking for other fun Lego games to play, check out Creationary, this printable lego board game, DIY Lego Land Game, Lego Tic Tac Toe, and Lego Hangman. 

Lego Week- Lego Card & Gift Card Holder

I am loving Lego Week! Today I wanted to share a birthday card I made for a little boy who loves Legos. It was a super simple card to make.

The card is a 5 x 7 black card stock card. I cut a 4.5 x 6.5 piece of white card stock and adhered it to the black base. I then took some bright colors of card stock in red, yellow, green, and blue. I cut different sizes- 2 x 2, 1 x 2, 1 x 4, 2 x 4. I then used a 3/4 inch hole punch for the circles. I love to ink the edges of all my papers so that they pop off the page. I added pop dots to the circles so they would have dimension. After that, I added the "4" and stamped "happy birthday". It was surprisingly fast, after I knew what I wanted to do with the card. I'm happy with it! 

Here is a gift card holder I put together, too. 

I cut a piece of cardstock at 8 x 4.5. I folded one end over so that it was about 2 inches short of the top, then I folded the top over so it overlapped a bit. I cut out another cardstock at 10 x 1.5. I put it against the card and folded both sides around the whole card, using adhesive to tape the strip together. I added the circles to make both pieces look like Legos and used a Lego logo from some old packaging. Now all I need is a gift card for a local store selling Legos to attach to the inside! The sleeve helps keep the card holder closed. 

Do you have any Lego Inspired crafts to share? Add your link to our comments! 

Lego Jewelry!!!

I was inspired to make Lego Jewelry since it is Lego Week!! We are celebrating the upcoming Lego movie this week and it has so far been loads of fun.

I was more of a Barbie girl than one who played with Lego growing up. I am totally not the best builder. In fact, I would have to say my son is much better at it than I. Making jewelry is my passion and it was super easy for me to come up with Lego jewelry designs! I hope you like them!

We sell some items on Etsy ourselves. Currently, we do not sell Lego Jewelry, but there are many people who do. For our local fans, we will be selling Lego Jewelry at craft fairs!

Our first craft fair will be at Holy Cross in Springfield, PA March 1st! If you live in the area, be sure to come and check us out!

Here is a little of what I have been working on. Hopefully, it gets you inspired!!

Lego Week: Lego Man Crochet Patterns

One of the first things I started looking for when I found out I was pregnant was a treasure chest to hold dress-up clothes. At the time, it didn’t really occur to me that dress up would not be happening for another two or three years but... we all focus on strange things when our hormones rule.

For me, it was playing dress up. 

I love making dress-up clothes and accessories for my daughter and her cousins. As you can see from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and Thor hats, I also like to design my own items. My theory is: if you can’t find what you are looking for—make it! 

Who wants to be a Lego Minfigure? Any takers? I know our kids would!

We have been pretty busy this week at the MMM mines coming up with some new and fun ideas for you to celebrate the universal love of Lego.

Today, I am premiering my new Lego Man crochet patterns on sale now in our Etsy Store!
 I set out to make the essentials—a hat and hands. These are the first pair of gloves I have ever created. I am thinking about making some of the Lego man accessories now too! A cowboy hat? Perhaps a WyldStyle wig? The possibilities are as limitless as legos themselves!

I included a number of pictures for the construction so the pattern is very user-friendly. Check it out and let me know if you have any questions! I am happy to help in any way!!

Now, go! Make some too so your child can pretend to be a Lego Man hero too!

Lego Week: DIY Lego Table

Welcome to Lego Week! Today I'm showing off a super easy Lego idea. I wanted to share my Lego Table with you. After gathering materials, it took less than five minutes, and my son has already been playing with it for over an hour... quietly... in his room. :)

I found this amazing, short, yellow, plastic table at a yard sale. It was $.50. YES! Fifty Cents! Right away I knew I would use it for a Lego Table for my son. 

We are lucky enough to live 20 minutes away from a Lego Store. You can find a whole list of store locations on their website. Check out our post about their store here! That is where I found this Building Plate. You can also find them at Toys R Us, Target, Amazon, etc. They sell them in the Duplo size if you have little toddlers in your home, too.

I used super glue around the edges and used Scotch Super 77 Adhesive Spray all over and just centered it on the table. It dried quickly and is the perfect size for my 4 year old son.

A quick search for Lego Tables will show many selling for around $75. I made mine for $15. I've also seen people use those Ikea Lack side tables for Lego Tables. The tables are $7-$15 depending on the color and you can add 4 building plates for $5 each. Those are slightly bigger than this one and will cost you around $35 to make! I hope you get to try this out for your Lego loving kids! 

Lego Week: Creationary Review!!

The geniuses at Lego created a game titled, "Creationary."  It is just like "Pictionary" but you build objects with Lego blocks instead of drawing pictures.  This game is for ages 7 and up and is definitely fun for the whole family!

Inside the box, you will find several shapes and sizes of Lego pieces!  There is a variety of colors as well.  There are also three difficulty levels you can play.  For the easiest creations, choose the single question mark cards to play with. 

Some of these cards and categories are quite challenging.  The categories seem to be transportation, buildings, nature, and tools.  Depending on your skill level with the use of Lego blocks, your results will vary greatly!

 My seven year old made this creation:

He drew a "?" card (which is the easy cards) and rolled the dice that chooses your category.  The dice gave him the "building" category in red.  He thought the greenhouse SOLD plants.  The "man" is working at the register.  Those little buttons are plants :)

Just for fun....I looked on Instagram under #creationary.  You should check that out!  There are so many creative builders out there that really know how to use Lego bricks and build masterpieces.  Way to be crafty!

Personally, I am a fan of the game.  You can only improve on your building skills and people of all ages will have fun playing together.  You can't take yourself too seriously with this game.  I am not as skilled as many "Creationary" players, but it was nice to be creative while spending quality time with my son laughing at how silly I made a row boat look with Lego pieces. Good times and family fun!  Enjoy!

(Preparing for) Lego Week: Lego Store Outting!

Living near a major city graces us with the chance to shop at all kinds of neat stores. A few of us took the 20 minute drive to head to our local Lego Store in preparation of the coming Lego Movie and all the fun crafts we are bringing you this week. Well, we needed supplies and the kids wanted to have some fun.

Our local store has a lot of cool features that the kids (and adults) enjoyed.

 

There are several build-stations all over the store. You can build a Lego Man just like you at the Build-A-Mini Tower or you can use the tables and create a home-- there are such a variety of bricks to choose from and work with!

 While the kids got busy making mini creations, the mamas went brick hunting at the Pick-A-Brick Wall. This wall is covered with little bins. You can buy a small or large size cup and fill it up with anything your hearts desire. We made sure to pick up all of the elements you need to make cars. I took a handful of pink bricks (since we only own bricks from the 80's in my house) and flowers -- you can never have too many lego flowers.


While we were in the store, the staff gave us the latest copy of Lego magazine and a WyldStyle poster for the upcoming movie! We will be making it a point to go back the week they are giving out Lego Batman posters-- we are BIG Batman fans in our household.

As Caitlin has already pointed out in our Kid's Crafting post-- there is a free Lego build on the first Tuesday of every month. Search for your local store to see what events are coming up!

Lego Week is Here!

In case you haven't heard yet, The Lego Movie is coming out on February 7, 2014.

We are very excited about this movie - so excited that we have planned an exciting week for you! Each day this week, you will see some Lego inspired crafting. I hope you will join us as we get ready to celebrate this new movie!

Check back later today for our review of the Lego Store and the game Creationary - both a great time for the whole family. Then be sure to visit our blog each day for some goodies and tutorials. 

Scrapbooking with a Sketch

If you've never scrapbooked before but are interested, there are so many ideas and inspiration to get you started. Sometimes, I get stuck or have scrapper's block and I'm not sure where to start. I like to find a sketch to follow so I can scrap faster without thinking too hard about where things should go! 

I made this scrapbook sketch for a 12 x 12 layout with 3 pictures, lots of paper, and embellishments. 

What I love about sketches is that you don't have to follow them exactly each time and you can end up with completely different layouts each time you use them! Below, I followed the sketch almost exactly, making sure I had the size of each paper just right. 

 Then I used that same sketch for the layout below, and it looks completely different! Also, these layouts won't be in the same album because they are in chronological order and these pictures were taken months apart. This time, I used Instagram pictures I printed from Origrami, my Canon Selphy, and my Polaroid Instant Camera. 

If you make a layout based on this sketch, be sure to add a link in the comments below so we can see all the varieties of pages!

Ice Marbles- Cool Project!

This has been a cold winter for those of us in Southeastern PA! We are about to have some very cold days coming up and so I had to try this out! 

I began by getting some food dye and balloons. I put a few drops of dye in the balloons and then used my sink to fill up the balloons with water. I put just enough in to make it a round ball. 

Then I put them outside to freeze. It had just started snowing when I did this!

The snow ended up covering the balloons so they weren't freezing well. I had to move them and wait patiently for them to freeze.

After being too impatient and accidentally ruining one, I decided to wait overnight to open the rest of the balloons. I flipped over the balloons to make sure the bottom was freezing, too. 

I took the balloons off the next morning and got these cool frozen colored balls! My son loves them. 

I hope you give it a try! They look so cool!

Super Hero Tower Part 2- Dollhouse Furniture

Here is the latest on the Super Hero Tower that is in progress. I have successfully found wooden furniture at my local thrift stores, craft stores, and Tuesday Morning store for decent prices. I wanted to be able to paint and put stickers on the furniture so I didn't want any plastic or girly things. Here are some of the things I've done so far!

I painted all of the furniture in colors I thought reminded me of different heroes.

I used mod podge over stickers on some of the furniture.

There happened to be little slots on this book shelf, allowing me to put some plywood in to look like a door. I covered it in chalkboard paint so the kids can decorate the door and add windows. It's easily removable and works on the bottom two "floors" of the tower.

Why yes, that is Cyclops in the mirror of that vanity. 

And Thor in the mirror in the bathroom, with a Captain America bathtub and something from Mr. Freeze's Imaginext set. 

The BatCave isn't quite finished yet. I'm planning to attach fabric to the front to hide the cars underneath using Velcro. 

Here's a peek at what it looks like so far, without all of the Super Heroes and accessories from the play sets.

I hope you are enjoying it so far! I will have a final post up when I finish my last touches. 

Part 1 link here

DIY Eclectic Alphabet Wall Art: Part 1

Let me have an honest moment with you, readers. I have lived in my house for over 5 years now and though I love DIY and art, there is not a single nail in my walls. It is a point of frustration for me that I am determined to remedy soon (and more on that later!).

When I was pregnant with my daughter (2 years ago), I was inspired by all of these lovely images I found all over the internet of eclectic alphabets hung in children’s rooms. My partner is not a fan of eclectic style but to my shock and amazement, he told me it was a great idea when I said I wanted to make letters to coordinate with the baby’s room. Honestly, I think that deep down he thought it would be a project that I would never finish. Well, joke is on him now! I applied my last coat of purple to the final letter last week and hung them all on the walls of my daughter’s room yesterday!

There is some great variety here so take a look! I would love to tell you how I made them—it might inspire you to create a few of your own as well. You don’t have to do the whole alphabet. Consider doing your street name in the front entrance, your family name in your living room, your child’s name in their bedroom, or your favorite creative word in your craft space!

A: Picked this one up at Home Goods. It was originally silver and designed to sit on a shelf. A healthy coating of green and the latticework of the metal shines.

B: I bought the letter and the canvas at Michael’s. The canvas is a part of a 10 pack of 8x10 value canvases. I wrote the uppercase B in pencil lightly and free hand then filled it in with purple acrylic paint. The lower case B was white and I spray painted it green.

C: My mom made this one! First, she used Spellbinder's to cut the flowers out of paper. Taking chalks, she colored the petals and adds a pollen accent on the middle with a Copic Marker. The flowers are hand painted with stickles on the inside for the touch of glitter every little girl needs.

D: This is a cardboard letter I got in the clearance section of Michaels—25 cents! I painted the letter purple then took purple glow-in-the-dark puffy paint and drew the scrolling design by hand. This letter was inspired by this pin!

E : This is a pretty heavy pre-made letter. I bought it at Marshall’s. It’s a dark brown that I did not alter in any way. 

F: This one was fun to do! I started with two different weights of jewelry wire, a print out of the letter “F” in a font that I liked, and a can of purple spray paint. Bend the heavier weight wire to trace the outline of the letter that you have printed. Overlap the ends and twist off. Mine ends in the straight, flat area of the top of the F so that it is in a strong place for support. Next, twist and wrap the thin wire in and around the letter outline. I was going for a "scribbled" kind of look but you can certainly wrap in a more uniform pattern. This step, I used several lengths of wire so that the wrapping was easier. Just do your best to tuck in any sharp ends. Next, spray paint the letter whatever color you desire. This letter was inspired by the string art you see all over the internet these days... just with a different nod to it!

More letters (and better pictures, I swear) to come! Stay tuned...

Check out:
Link to Part 2 (Letters G to M)
Link to Part 3 (Letters N to S)

Link to Part 4 (Letters T to Z)Link to Part 5 (Arranging and Hanging)

 

Snow Day Activity- Homemade playdough!

I woke up this morning to school closings due to the impending snowfall expected where we live today.  Well not only do my plans change with work, but now I need to entertain the kiddies indoors last minute.  What to do?  My one son is 7 years old and the other is almost 2.  There isn't much they like to do together due to the age difference.  I decided to make playdough.  The seven year old can mold the dough into whatever he likes and the other gets to practice his sensory development!  Win-win situation. 

Here is a really simple recipe that took less than 5 minutes to throw together:

Ingredients-
1 cup of salt
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of flour
saucepan
(food coloring optional)

Combine ingredients in the saucepan and heat over medium heat until the dough is formed.  It took like a minute for me!  I was surprised it was that fast.  As the dough cools, knead in some additional flour to make the dough workable and not sticky.

Check out our snowman we made during the snowstorm INDOORS and cozy! 

Have a fun day!!