Summer Camp Series

Design Dazzles' Summer Camp Series is officially over for this summer. A HUGE thank you to our Summer Camp Counselors. If you have missed any of the posts, you can check out our Summer Camp Series below. We are still having our Link Up Party. Come back to link up YOUR summer fun ideas with kids.

Summer Camp Link Up Party!

The Link Up Party is for ideas and projects for summertime fun for kids that you've created! The party starts Friday 12:01 AM (EST) or if you're PST  - 9:01 PM Thursday. Come back and share your awesomeness!  I will choose my favorites to 

highlight and feature : ) 

{Summer Camp} Tutorial: Make A Toad House

Hello Design Dazzlers! I'm Stephanie Lynn from Under the Table and Dreaming and I am thrilled to be here today with a fun camp craft to engage the little ones.





I love crafting projects and when I can get my little guy involved it is even better. He is pretty fascinated with all the creatures that pop out in the summer, especially the toads; so with a few supplies we had on hand, we put together a cozy home for our little friends.



Materials Needed:

Recycled Plastic Container - preferably a tall one

{we used an old bulk Twizzlers container}

A Large Bowl

Craft or Wood Glue

Dirt or Potting Soil

Spray Paint or Acrylic Paints

Clear Spray - Sealant

Scrap Vinyl or Stickers



Tools Needed: Scissors, Foam Brush





Begin by cutting a door into the plastic container - make sure you turn the container upside down so the opening is on the bottom. I used regular scissors and they worked perfectly on the plastic. If there are any sharp edges left behind simply cover them with electrical or masking tape so no one gets scratched - {the little ones or the toads}.





Spray the container with a shade of brown paint. My guy is still quite young so I used spray paint. You could also let the kiddies paint it with acrylics as well. This step is optional, though it makes for a finished looking house in the end.





Working with one side at a time, squirt out a good amount of glue and smooth it out with a foam brush ensuring the entire side is covered.





Sprinkle dirt or potting soil over the glue and shake off any excess.





Once all the sides are covered, let the glue set for a couple of hours and go play!



After it is dry spray a clear coat over the dirt to seal. This will help adhere any loose dirt and protect the house as much as possible from the elements.





While the clear coat is drying, prepare the bowl for the top. Make sure the bowl you are using fits nicely on the top of the container and hangs over the sides - this will aid in protecting the bottom of the container from the elements as well.



Decorate the bowl as you wish. It can be sprayed or if you still have the attention of your little helpers - letting them have free range with a brush and acrylics would work too! {If you do opt to use acrylics make sure you seal them with a clear coat}



Our bowl was already white so I used scrap vinyl to cut out a few circles to place on the surface before I covered it with red spray paint.





I made a little pennant banner for our home - I'll be posting that tutorial on my blog this week. To attach it to the container, I simply poked two holes into the top and fed through the wires to hang.





Place the bowl upside down on top of the container and wait for the toads...of course our toads are camera shy and have been no where to be found for the past couple of days.



Even though I did most of the work on our toad house because my guy is younger, he still had fun helping along and being involved - which is what it is all about.



Hope you are having a wonderful summer ~ Enjoy!



For more creative do-it yourself ideas, visit Stephanie Lynn on her blog,

Under the Table and Dreaming

You can also connect with her on facebook and twitter

My Favorites: From The Link Up Party

Homespun with Love shares how to create a cool t-shirt with a bleach pen. Easy peasy - great idea!

Check out Moore Minutes to learn how to make these glow stick lanterns.

Fruit and yogurt cones created by Come Together Kids - yummy yet healthy snack!

Alice in Wonderland un-birthday party by Kidspired Creations

Sweeter Than Sweets makes this adorable art smock.

Fancy Frugal Life shows how-to make Cat in the Hat snacks - perfect for a Dr. Seuss day.

Make a darling bunny completely out of marshmallows tutorial by Stixn Pops!

Thank you everyone who linked up to our party. This is our last week of Summer Camp. We've had some amazing Summer Camp Counselors share awesome posts on Design Dazzle. We will still be featuring our link up party every Friday with a  couple of changes :)

{Summer Camp} Candy Gram and Link Up Party

We have a fun tradition in our family - candy gram posters! When my kids were baptized I made a sweet candy gram poster to celebrate the special occasion. Our daughter graduated last month from high school and my other daughter and I made this candy gram for her. I wrote a special message to her and substituted some candy for the words. It reads:

To our Sweetart we are so proud of you! You Pop Rocks!! You've Skor'd a high school degree! And have shown you're not an Air Head or Dum Dum but quite the Smartie. While at college study Extra hard concentrate on having Mounds of Fun and stay away from Big Hunks and Nerds. You'll always be our Bit-O-Honey.

Hugs and Kisses.  We love you to Pieces

Instructions:

Write what you would like your candy message to say. Bring the message with you to purchase the candy. Sometimes when you see the candy it will help you formulate the message. Finding the candy you need is the hardest part.

I purchased a memo board ($2) at the thrift store and sprayed it with spray paint. I used the silhouette machine to cut out the wording on pink vinyl. The trickiest part is figuring out the size of the words and where to place everything. Glue the candy on the memo board with a hot glue gun. You can also use foam board or poster board to make the candy bar poster. The sturdier the better!

Making one of these could be a fun summer project to make with kids! How about making one for grandma or grandpa or dad?  It could be a "just because" or for a birthday.



Candy to use for candy grams:

Sweetarts

Uno ("You know")

Good & Plenty

Extra special {gum}

Symphony  {candy bar}

Mounds

Sugar Daddy

Hugs & Kisses {chocolate kisses}

Lifesaver

Pieces {Reeses Pieces}

Hot Tamales

Now & Later

Pop Rocks

Smartie

Bit-O-Honey

Starburst

Airheads

Whoppers

Treasures (Hersheys}

100 Grand {candy bar}

Various candy gram wording

you are "mounds" of fun

do "uno" how special you are?

"skor" another birthday

Do your best and "skor' high

You are my "lifesaver'

"whopper" of a birthday

to my "big hunk"

You're worth more than "100 grand"

I wanted to give you "100 grand" for your birthday.

There was a "symphony" in heaven the day you were born.

I "treasure" you more than you'll ever know

You'll have "good & plenty" times ahead

Design Dazzles' Summer Camp Link Up Party!

No linking to selling sites or giveaways.



Have fun and leave some love (comments) and visit some amazing bloggers.



Summer Camp ideas - crafts, games, art, recipes, parties, sewing, summer activities, books, recipes - all of the link-ups should be related to fun with kids (babies, kids or teens)!



Enter your project description in the "name" section of the link form.



Please, please, please link back to Design Dazzle so others can share in the awesomeness!



This Summer Camp link-up party will be open until August 1st. By entering our link up party, you are giving Design Dazzle permission to use any part of your post including pictures.

{Summer Camp} How to Make a Sit Upon

 Hello to all the Design Dazzle campers out there! My name is Amanda Formaro, I blog over at Crafts by Amanda. I was excited when Toni asked me to be a camp counselor during this fun summer camp and knew just what we were going to make together. So let's get started shall we?

If you ever participated in Girl Scouts, then you know what a "sit upon" is. A sit upon is usually made from some sort of waterproof fabric, like a fabric backed vinyl tablecloth, and filled with some padding. The padding can be a stack of newspapers, crumpled newspaper, foam squares, scraps of fabric, or even a preformed throw pillow. Everything is sewn together by using some yarn and a hole punch and when used it will protect a child's backside from the wet grass or dirty ground.

In my version of the sit upon, I recycled an old, ratty bed pillow to use as the innards. You know the kind. Those yucky looking pillows that your kids have been drooling sleeping on for ages. So you go out and buy new pillows for the kids, but what to do with the old ones? Feel guilty about throwing them in the garbage? Then remove the outer fabric casing and make a sit upon with me!



you will need:



water resistant fabric (I used a roll of heavy duty shelf liner)

recycled pillow

hole punch

scissors

ruler

yarn

tape



These items are optional for the shoulder strap:

wide ribbon

needle

clear thread



what you do:

You'll want to start by measuring your fabric to be two inches wider than your pillow. Because I used an actual bed pillow, I used my scissors to cut the pillow to approximately 13" square.

Now take your fabric of choice and fold it over the pillow so that you have 3 open sides.

Trim the 3 sides so that they are 2 inches of fabric overlap on all three sides. Now remove the pillow and set aside and fold the fabric so that the right sides are facing out. Use a hole punch to create holes 1-inch apart about 1/2-inch from the three open edges.

Cut a piece of yarn about two times the length of one side of the fabric. Tie a knot in one end and wrap a piece of tape around the other end (to make it easier to thread through the holes). Starting near the folded end, sew up one side of the fabric using a blanket stitch. I started my stitch at the first hole, but taped the end of the yarn inside the fabric so that the knotted end didn't come loose and come through the large hole, which could have unraveled the entire thing.

Repeat this process on the other side, leaving the top open. Insert the pillow into the opening.

If you plan to add handles you will need some clear thread and a needle. First, to measure the correct length of ribbon, have child stand comfortably and drape the ribbon over their shoulder. Cut the proper length based on where you want the cushion end to be. You will need 2 equal lengths of ribbon. Place the ribbon inside the opening and hand sew the ends inside the fabric. Finally, finish the stitching across the top opening.

This is a fun project for kids that involves only a little help from a grown up. You can skip the shoulder strap to simplify this project even more.

By using a water resistant fabric, you will be able to easily wipe the sit upon clean with a damp cloth.

I hope you'll stop by and visit me at Crafts by Amanda where I have quite a few more camp crafts listed! A special thanks to Toni for letting me share with you today. :)

We're having a Summer Camp Link Up Party!

The Link Up Party is for ideas and projects for summertime fun that you've created! The party starts Friday 12:01 AM (EST) or if you're PST  - 9:01 PM Thursday. Come back and share your awesomeness!  I will choose my favorites to highlight and feature : ) 

{Summer Camp} Rock Candy Tutorial

Hi everyone! I’m Heidi from Mom’s Crafty Space where I blog about all sorts of fun crafty things to do with your kids (and some stuff for the grown-ups too!). I am Mommy to three boys ages 5 and under, and we are always in the middle of one creative (and usually messy!) adventure or another. I’m so excited to be over here today sharing how to make your very own rock candy. It’s so easy!

Rock candy is always a fun favorite of children, and it's a fantastic way to disguise a Summer science lesson as a sugary treat! All it takes is a few simple tools, lots of sugar and even more patience!

Rock candy ingredients & supplies: Wooden skewers (cut in half), water, sugar, clothespins and glass jars/drinking glasses. The amount of water and sugar you need depends on how many pieces of rock candy you would like to make and the number of jars you have available (I recommend no more than 2 pieces per jar) - the standard ratio is 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water, but we found that we had to add a bit more sugar than our recipe called for. In the end, we used 10 cups of sugar to 4 cups of water. 

To make our batch of rock candy, we started with 4 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar. Put it all into a large saucepan, because once you put it on the stove it will expand while boiling. I let my 4-year-old mix up the first bit of sugar before putting it on the stove. He was fascinated with watching the sugar dissolve, and it was especially interesting for him to see that we could dissolve even more sugar with the addition of the heat from the stove. Once your pot is on the stove, bring it to a low boil over medium heat, and continue to add sugar one cup at a time until you can no longer dissolve any more of it (making a completely saturated sugar solution).

Turn off the heat and allow it to cool for 15 minutes.

While your sugar is cooling you can prep your sticks. Soak them in water and roll them in a coating of sugar to give the new sugar crystals something to "seed" to. Be sure to let them dry all the way! If they are still too wet when you put them into the hot sugar solution, all of the sugar coating will fall off, and the new crystals will have nothing to grow on.

CAREFULLY pour your sugar solution into your glass jars. If you'd like to add food coloring or flavoring to your rock candy, now is the time to do so. We added color, but we kept the flavor all natural (what kiddo doesn't like the taste of plain sugar?). 

Slowly insert your sugared skewers into the solution. You can use a clothespin as shown to keep your sticks in place. Smaller mouth jars/glasses work best, but only allow room for about two sticks per jar. Be sure that your sticks are not touching the sides or bottom of the glass or each other! They need room for the new crystals to grow!

Set them up in a warm, sunny location where they won't be disturbed, and wait...

...and wait...and wait...and wait (still with me?)...and wait some more...

After about a week you will have made yourself a batch of sparkling sugar rock candy!

Yummy!

So pretty, so tasty and sooooo worth the wait! These would make fantastic holiday gifts to go along with tea or coffee sets (is it crazy that I have Christmas on the brain in July?)!

You can find me over at Mom's Crafty Space and on Facebook and Twitter :)

We're having a Summer Camp Link Up Party!

The Link Up Party is for ideas and projects for summertime fun that you've created! The party starts Friday 12:01 AM (EST) or if you're PST  - 9:01 PM Thursday. Come back and share your awesomeness!  I will choose my favorites to highlight and feature : )

My Favorites: From The Link Up Party

Shindig Parties To Go guest contributor Brittany from Edible Details shared this SWEET tutorial on how-to make a fondant bead necklace.

Rebecca from Simple As That provides a FREE downloadable reading log. I love this!

And Everything Sweet created this Camping Party. Loving the amazing details.

 Firefly Jar is the perfect craft to make for a camping party or evening outdoors. Created by Come Together Kids.

How-to make a colorful walking stick shared by Crafts By Amanda.

Ocean of Notions shares a tutorial how-to make a pinata.

Laura from Come Together Kids made this PVC sprinkler - easy, simple how-to instructions. 

 Drums made of old formula containers from The Life of Jennifer Dawn.

Glow-in-the-dark drinks shared by Come Together Kids. Brilliant!

This parking garage made from file folders is really cool. Quirky Momma shared this last week on our Link Up Party.

Thank you everyone who linked up to our party. This is the last week of Summer Camp. We've had some amazing Summer Camp Counselors share awesome posts on Design Dazzle. We will still be featuring our link up party every Friday with a  couple of changes :)