Idea Queen Tips & News

When I was a kid, I had a very crafty aunt. I couldn’t wait to go to her house for the day, because I knew she would always turn me loose in her craft room with paint and other supplies. It didn’t really matter what we made, painting was half the fun.

Now that I’m all grown up and have my own kids, we do lots of crafts together. Sometimes we go in search for specific crafts depending on the holiday or season, but other times we just get out the paint and have a good time.

Just today I started to tell my daughter we’d do something crafty tonight with paint, and she was running for craft drawer. She didn’t even care what as long as it involved painting.

Here’s a few ideas of what you and your kids can do with paint.

1. Paper Pictures
What could be more simple? You’d be amazed how much this can entertain them. Shake it up a bit with different types of paint like water colors, finger paints, or just regular craft paint. Kids have a wonderful imagination, so let it shine!

2. Paint Shirts
One of “coolest” things I ever did with my aunt was painting shirts. You can either buy kits that have designed already printed on the shirt, or you can just let the kids make their own designs. You’ll need special fabric paint for this project, so do keep that in mind.

3. Paint Purses or Totes
Another craft that requires fabric paint and similar to the shirts. You can either make your own designs or use stencils. Kits are also available if you are looking for something specific. Don’t stop at the paint though - you can really get crafty with items like this!

4. Paint Glasses or Jars
To paint glass items you probably want to have paint that works for glass. It’s not very expensive and you can get some pretty cool looking paint as well (check for paint that gives a stained glass appearance).

5. Picture Frames
Have some popsicle sticks? Make some picture frames! One of the easiest crafts for little hands to make and get creative with.

6. Decorated Toy Boxes
If you have a few spare boxes, get the paint out and let them decorate them for toy boxes. This one is pretty popular since it’s not only useful, but fun as well.

These are just a few craft painting ideas for kids. Look around the house and see what else can be painted to entertain them!

Alright, so Free Kids Crafts is not a “new” site, but it’s got a new layout and focus. We decided keeping up with the newsletter was just too much, so now the site focuses just on free crafts (just like the name says, imagine that!).

You’ll notice on the navigation the crafts are broken down into types of crafts, seasons, and holidays. We’re also adding a list of places online to buy supplies (and a few tips for offline shopping), plus an easy way to submit your own crafts.

Over the next few weeks you might not find exactly what you are looking for, but we are doing our best to get the site redesigned so that it becomes an nice resource for those looking for free kids crafts.

If you have a minute, stop on by and let us know what you think!

Growing up I never cared to be in after school activities. Aside from a few choir-related things, I just never got into sports or anything else. The only thing I wanted to do when the bell rang at 3pm was get HOME.

Because it never interested me, I tend to not push my own kids into things. In the summer they take swimming lessons, and my daughter is in dance (enjoying it much more than I did, but then again she’s quite a girly-girl where as I was not). My son has also taken Tae Kwan Do in the past and wants to take it again (we’ll be getting him in that again in a few weeks). But aside from that, they really aren’t involved in much.

So the question here is, what’s too little? Most parents worry about getting their kids into too many activities, but here I am worrying I don’t have them in enough. My son I especially worry about, since I’ll most likely be homeschooling him this fall. I hear about all these clubs and sports homeschooled kids are involved in, and think maybe I *should* be getting them involved in more stuff. Maybe I’m projecting my own dislikes on my kids and preventing them from getting involved in activities they’d really like. But if they really don’t express interested in wanting to get involved, maybe I shouldn’t push it?

What’s your thoughts?

I came across this site some time ago, and absolutely fell in love with the idea behind this site. I’m sure most of you have seen craft kits of some type, but just in case you haven’t you’ll have to check out the ones at KraftyKid.com.

Since there focus is on monthly craft kits, they have lots of options for their craft club and several different types of crafts to choose from. If you do a lot of crafts with your kids, you’ll have to check out this site!

There’s a new game on BigFish I’m addicted to. It may seem a little cheesy, but I absolutely love games like this. You really have to use your head to make the right moves.

If you haven’t played the first Westward, I suggest you download that one first. Trust me, you’ll be hooked before the free hour is up. I completed that one quite a few months ago and loved it.

Then just the other day they came out with Westward II: Heroes of the Frontier, which I knew I’d be hooked on just as soon as I tried it out. I had some saved credits from my club membership to use, so of course I bought a full copy. It’s SO much fun figuring things out and doing all the mini-quests within the game while building up a town.

When you download games from BigFish, I highly recommend buying a club membership where you are charged monthly for credits. When I get in the mood to play, I use several at a time, then leave it for a few months. It’s much cheaper doing it this way instead of buying the games individually at full price. They’ve got such a wide selection of entertaining games you WILL be able to use all those credits in a year. Plus they have quite a few games the kids love too, so it’s more for the whole family instead of just one person.

Have fun and good luck playing Westward!

Need something to do with the kids online? How about a few Lego game downloads? These come from BigFish games, which is a safe download site. They are each free downloads and you have one hour to play before you decide to buy. Several options are available for buying the full games, so be sure to check them all out.

Lego Chic Boutique
Isn’t this one cute? A Lego game download for the girls! It’s a match 3 type game, which means you have to match three of the same color to clear them. Several fun additions to this basic type of game make it very fun to play.

LEGO Builder Bots
Build your own creations with falling LEGOs in this awesome game. Two different settings for play, with lots of cool features. Free play for one hour.

LEGO Fever
Turn a boring gray world back to a world full of color in this awesome adventure game! Solve different puzzles to advance. Great for all ages with different skill levels included.

Have fun!

This particular craft is something we do every year with our Easter eggs. I mean you spend that time decorating them, you want to KEEP them, right? Well this idea is perfect if you want to transform them into something that won’t go bad in your fridge a week later….

Basically all we do is save all the shells from the eggs. Yes they crack and we have several pieces, but that just makes it more fun. We take the shells and arrange them on a black sheet of construction paper. Then we take clear packing tape and place it over the shells to keep them in place (We’ve tried glue in previous years, and that didn’t turn out so well). If you want it without the lines, you can laminate it if you want. We don’t have the supplies for that though, so we use clear packing tape.

Here’s a snapshot of the pictures we’ve done in previous years with two different background colors. You can see the black looks a lot better. Have fun!

Can’t get enough of Dora the Explorer? We absolutely love her in this house! Luckily there are several free Dora the Explorer games to download on BigFish. We have a membership, so each month we can get a new game to play. Below you’ll find a few we have and play on a regular basis, with a few others we want to try soon. Enjoy!

Candy Land - Dora the Explorer Edition
The classic game Candy Land meets Dora the Explorer. It really needs no further explanation. Try it out for an hour and see what you think!

Dora’s Carnival Adventure
This game we do own, and we absolutely love it. My daughter plays this one on a regular basis, and it really keeps her busy. There’s several different games within the game to play, all which give tickets. The tickets are used to buy prizes, which it takes quite awhile to be able to buy all the prizes.

Doras Carnival 2 - At the Boardwalk
The second version of the popular Dora’s Carnival. New games and prizes featured for hours more play.

La Casa De Dora
This one we haven’t tried out yet, but it’s on our list of games to buy. This Dora the Explorer game features 8 different educational games all in one. Kids learn Spanish (of course), math, and music. I absolutely LOVE educational games!

If you find any more, let me know. We’re always looking for fun games to play together!

Spring break is approaching, and you’ll need some ideas to keep those kids busy. It’s hard to predict how nice the weather is going to be this year, so we’ll be sure to list indoor and outdoor activities. If you can get outside you should!

Craft Ideas

If it’s still cold and wet outside, you’ll of course need some indoor activities. Crafts are a wonderful way to keep kids busy. Idea Queen has several different crafts, including how to make your own stickers and crafts for kids rooms (decorations they can make specifically for their room).

Also be on the lookout at the grocery store in the checkout for little booklets. A few weeks ago we picked up a book that cost less than $5, and is filled with craft ideas. The best part of this booklet is the crafts are made from household items such as cans, bottles, and paper towel rolls.  You can let the kids raid the recycling bin for various items to use.

Indoor Activities

So the weather isn’t great, and you’ve got to find things to do inside. Not a problem! You can always spend some time on the computer with them (see game sites for kids and game sites for toddlers).   We’ve been pretty hooked on the Webkinz for the last several days, so all other game sites don’t seem to matter right now. There’s just way too much to do there!

If you need a break from the computer, there’s lots of other things you can do inside together. Try a few board games, or maybe cooking in the kitchen. What better way to spend the afternoon than making a batch of cookies? You might also think about cooking up some playdough to use that day as well. If you make it edible, they can eat it after they are done playing.

Outdoor Activities

Hopefully over spring break the weather will be nice enough you can actually get outside for awhile (I know I’m more than ready for the snow to be gone!). Take your first trip of the year to the local park, or to somewhere special (we have a wild life park and learning center right outside of town - check your area for places similar to this).

To stay closer to home, you might think about working on your garden or just spending the day in the backyard playing a few kids games. Try some different versions of tag, or play other childhood games if you have enough people. No matter what, try to get involved with the kids (Although we’ve learned mom is just too good at baseball and we lose balls over the fence if we try to play that in the backyard, so it can’t be played at home). If you play with them, it’s good exercise and you’ll have a blast spending time together!

This list should get you started, and at least give you several options depending on the weather. It’s so hard to predict what the weather will be a week ahead of time this time of year. I hope we’ve given you enough ideas either way though!

While there are a few free craft projects for Easter listed on Idea Queen, I thought it would be fun to post a few kits for sale at one of my favorite online craft stores. These are some REALLY cute projects and worth looking into. This site really does have a lot of neat stuff.

Flower Pot Bunny (pk/24)
How cute are these? Plus they come in a pack, so they are really great for group projects with multiple kids. You can even save the leftovers for next year, share with your local daycare, or use as a birthday party activity. Very inexpensive costing less than a dollar per bunny.

Bunny Purse (pk/12)
Another VERY adorable bunny who makes a very cute purse. Another great activity for multiple kids to do. Share this project with some friends!

Bunny Pen with Egg Stand (pk/6)
Alright so if you couldn’t tell, I really like the bunnies. They are just too darn cute! This one looks extremely fun to decorate, and is useful as well (holds a pen).

Maybe if we all think spring with these craft projects for Easter, we can chase away the cold weather. I know I’m more than ready for it to be spring!