I’ve been part of the Chick-fil-A Mom’s panel for several years now.  We were recently challenged to upcycle a soup container from their delicious tortilla soup into something new!

I totally wasn’t feeling like being creative so I put my 10 year old son in charge of this project.  He got out his sketch pad and started drawing out some ideas.  His ideas ranged from a jewelry box for his little sisters or using it for a science project.

In the end, he added in one of his favorite things – LEGOs!  He enjoys taking his LEGOs with him when we are in the car or especially if we are waiting at the car dealership for work to be done or a doctor’s office.  The problem is that when you take LEGOs on the go, it’s hard to transport the creations back in one piece.  Now he can put a few LEGOs in his new upcycled LEGO box from the soup container!

All he did is simply use permanent markers to decorate the lid and then place the LEGOs that he wants to take with him in the box.  I think this would also work well with one of the salad containers, too.

How would you upcycle a soup container from Chick-fil-A?  Search the hashtag #chickfilamomsDIY on your social media networks for more great ideas!  You won’t believe how creative some of the moms are in the group!

This is a sponsored post, written for Dixie Crystals.

It’s feeling like fall outside and the kids were itching to do something fun!  With the North Georgia wildfires blowing smoke our way, we needed something to do that was indoors.  I took a look at the Dixie Crystals Kids in the Kitchen website and found something fun and easy to do!  As a bonus, it made our kitchen smell great!

We decided to make the Sugar & Spice Turkey Handprint Artwork, featured under their Thanksgiving Craft section.  You may already have the supplies laying around your house!

Supplies:

• Dixie Crystals Cinnamon Sugar Shaker
• Ground cloves
• Ground nutmeg
• Glue
• Paint brush
• Blank piece of white paper
• Black sharpie
• Cookie sheet

We decided to do my 1 year old’s hand print first since Daddy was on hand to help out.  I took his little hand, brushed glue on it, and then we stamped it on a piece of white paper.

Before the glue dries, sprinkle it with a Dixie Crystals Cinnamon Sugar Shaker, followed by ground cloves and ground nutmeg!  Afterward, we simply shook off the excess and embellished it with a beak, eye, and legs.    Oh goodness it smells like Thanksgiving in my house!  Such wonder scents and a cute handprint keepsake.

For more fun ideas to do with your kids during the holidays, be sure to visit Dixie Crystals’ Kids in the Kitchen website.  There are recipes and crafts both available to check out.

We’ve been busy with the Kids in the Kitchen again with our friends at Dixie Crystals.  This time, we are making the Holiday Fabric Ornaments!  This was a rather simple project with minimal mess and a lovely keepsake for Christmases to come.  The kids really enjoyed making them and are hoping to make a few more as gifts.  Now that we see how simple it is, we can definitely work making more into our busy Christmas week.

Supplies: 

• Small strips and squares of holiday themed printed material, brown muslin or burlap.
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup Dixie Crystals Extra Fine Granulated Sugar
• 1 teaspoon oil (grapeseed, olive, etc.)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• Styrofoam balls
• Paint brush
• Pins
• Twine or ribbon

First up, you need to make the decoupage glue. Simply mix flour, sugar, oil and water in a pot over low heat until well combined and smooth in texture to make the decoupage.  I used half of the ingredients listed and we had plenty of glue.

Next, cover your styrofoam ball with a generous amount of decoupage glue.

Layer the fabric strips however you wish and allow them to overlap each other for maximum coverage.  After each strip, cover it with another layer of decoupage.  My kids found it easiest to have one of them hold the ball while the other layered the strips and glue.  The ball was easier to make when they went hands on and smoothed out all the strips and glue.

Once the styrofoam ball is completely covered, make sure there is a final coat of decoupage glue over the entire ball.

Using a few inches of ribbon and a craft pin, attach the ribbon to the styrofoam ball.  Hang somewhere to dry before adding it to your tree or gifting.  We hung ours on the back of our patio chairs.  It took a few hours to dry and then was tree-ready!

For more fun recipes and activities, visit Kids Kitchen.

My friend Rebekah sent me the absolute cutest photo showing me what her and her little man were up to today.  They made these adorable baby footprint Christmas trees!  I am definitely going to do this with Simon!  I asked her to do a write up for you guys so you all could see!  This is a cute idea to give as a gift or make for yourself as a keepsake of your little one’s footprint!  See below:

Supplies you will need:

• Green ink pad – make sure it is washable and non-toxic!
• Card stock paper – I used a nice ivory color. Cut the paper down to your preferred size.
• Red & brown paint
• Gold calligraphy pen
• Thin paint brushes
• Clothespins
• String or twine
• Baby wipes 🙂

Steps:

1. Pick a time when your baby is happy and lying down. Have lots of wipes handy! Press the ink pad onto your baby’s foot a couple times to get a good coat of ink. Then press your card stock paper onto your baby’s foot, centering the foot where you want on the paper. Repeat as many times as you want (or baby will allow), adding more ink each time you do a print. Once you are finished, wipe all the ink off baby’s foot and tell him or her what a good job they did!

2. Now wait for your baby to go to sleep, or be happily entertained by someone else.  🙂 Using the brown paint, make a small “tree trunk” at the bottom of the footprint.

3. Next, using the red paint, make small dots to look like ornaments throughout the tree. Wait for the paint to dry. Then use the gold calligraphy pen to draw streamers of tinsel going up the tree.

4.  With the gold calligraphy pen, write whatever message you’d like above and below the tree. Make sure that you leave space to put the clothespin at the top! I made personalized ones for grandparents, great-parents, and auntie, as well as one for us with the year on it.

5. Cut a piece of string or twine, about 4-5 inches long. Make a loop with it and then use a clothespin to attach the string to the picture. Alternatively, you could just use glue to attach the string, but I thought the clothespin looked cute. The picture can hang on the tree, or be framed if you take the clothespin off. Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving is just days away and we are cleaning, prepping, and trying to keep the kids busy so they won’t mess up the house.  I was looking for some fun ideas to take up time and decorate the house and found these Thanksgiving Turkey Sun Catchers on the Dixie Crystals Kids in the Kitchen website.

After a quick trip to the dollar store to grab some tissue paper, we set right to work making our sun catchers.

For starters, I gave each child a piece of wax paper and taped it to the table so they would stay in place.  Next we made the decoupage glue.  Note that the recipe listed on their site gave us a TON of glue.  Unless you are making these for a classroom, I recommend halving or even quartering the recipe so you don’t end up with too much.

Decoupage Glue:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Dixie Crystals Extra Fine Granulated Sugar
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups water

Next, “paint” the glue on half of your wax paper.  Tear the tissue paper in strips and lay on the glue.  My kids had fun making their own designs with the tissue paper so that their turkeys were unique.  Once you have glued down the tissue paper on half of your wax paper, apply glue to the top of your tissue paper and fold over the rest of the wax paper on top.  Smooth it out to rid it of air bubbles.  Now set it aside to dry completely.  We did ours before nap and then put them outside to dry so we can finish after nap.

Next we folded the wax paper in half and I drew the feathers so the kids could cut them out.  Then we added a body, beak, and eyes and hung them up in the window!  They look great with the light shining through!

For more great craft ideas for Thanksgiving, visit Dixie Crystals Kids in the Kitchen website.

This is a sponsored post by Dixie Crystals.  

We’ve had so much fun making ornaments this year.  We made blue line ornaments for my husband’s shift and then was looking for more homemade ornament ideas.  I was browsing on the Dixie Crystal’s Kid’s Kitchen website and came across these adorable melted snowman ornaments!  Since we live in Georgia, snow isn’t an often occurrence, so I thought these were pretty funny!  They would also be great for a Frozen fan, decorated as a melted Olaf.

The kids and I ran to the store and grabbed some clear ornaments so we could get started on these.

To make, simply pour Dixie Crystals sugar in a funnel to fill up the ornament about 1/3 of the way.  If you don’t have a funnel, just fold a piece of paper into a funnel shape and pour through the paper into the ornament.  Then add in 2 tiny twig pieces, eyes, nose, ribbon, and you’re done!  The Dixie Crystals website recommends using fondant for the eyes and nose, but we used construction paper.

They were really easy to make and perfect for gifting!

For more fun recipes and activities, visit Kids Kitchen.

This is a sponsored post, written for Dixie Crystals.