Supplies:

• Candy/Chocolate Molds
• Cake Pop Sticks or Wooden Skewers
• Parchment Paper
• Baking Sheet

Ingredients:

• Chocolate Melting Wafers
• Strawberries 

Directions:

• Rinse strawberries and pat dry. Cut the hull and discard.
• Insert cake pop sticks or skewers into strawberries and set aside until ready for dipping.
• Melt chocolate according to directions on the package.
• Dip strawberries into chocolate, ensure they are fully coated.

• Spoon chocolate into candy molds and place strawberries into molds.
• Place molds on a baking sheet and freeze for 15 minutes or until hardened.
• Remove molds from the freezer and carefully remove the strawberries from the molds.
• Place strawberries on a parchment lined baking sheet.
• Assemble your bouquet
• Enjoy!

Make your Valentine feel extra special with these homemade treats. You can also create your bouquet by placing your strawberries in a cute vase or heart shaped tin.

Find Out More with My Military Savings and Food & Drink!

Terms:

• TR = Treble Crochet
• DC = Double Crochet
• Ch = Chain = the stitch used to increase the height for new rows or rounds
• MC = Magic Circle = how to crochet a round
• SS = Slip Stitch

Supplies:

• Worsted weight yarn in your color choice (I used a 4, but larger hearts can use thicker yarn)
• 3.0 mm hook (this can be adjusted depending on how big you want your heart and the yarn you choose)
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Magic circle (MC) (this will stay open until the end), Ch 4
2. 3 TR into the mc, then 3 DC
3. Ch 1, 1 TR, Ch 1
4. 3 DC, 3 TR
5. Ch 4, SS into the circle; pull the yarn tail tight to close the circle
6. You can tuck the tails in OR use the tails as a loop for a keychain type of heart.

Remember, this pattern can be expanded to make a bigger heart as well. So enjoy it, make a bunch of hearts, and spread your homemade love! 

Find Out More with My Military Savings and DIY & Crafts!

Supplies:

• 14 oz. Glue
• 1 Cup Hot Water
• Food Coloring
• Glitter
• 3 teaspoons Borax
• 2 Cups Hot Water

Directions:

• Put glue in a tub.
• Add in 1 cup of hot water.
• Add in your food coloring and glitter.
• Stir until smooth.

• In a separate container, dissolve 3 teaspoons of Borax in 2 cups of hot water.
• Slowly add the water into the glue mixture and stir together.
• It will goop together almost immediately.

• You may not need all the water, so pour slowly.
• Once it’s mostly gooped up, begin mixing with your hands. (This is the fun part!)

• We started with red and black food coloring, because that’s all I had, and it turned more into pink and purple, which was pretty perfect for Valentine’s Day.
• As you can see, the slime is a HUGE HIT.

My family loved making this slime recipe and I hope your family will too! Have fun getting messy!

Find Out More with My Military Savings and DIY & Crafts!

No-carve pumpkin decorating is definitely a cool thing because the pumpkins don’t rot and fall apart within a week, like they do when you cut them open. Even dipping them in bleach concoctions and whatever else you may find on Pinterest won’t save them long enough to last the entire holiday. Plus, with little ones, carving anything sounds fun but completely ends up being a project for Mom or Dad. I wasn’t doing all that this year. These are both my Halloween AND Thanksgiving decorations, wham bam thank you ma’am!

Supplies:

• Pumpkins
• Paint
• Paintbrushes
• Foam Board or Thick Paper
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
• Pencil
• Scrap Paper

Directions for the Fox:

• Use a piece of scrap paper and trace out the shape (lightly with pencil) that you want painted around the eyes. This way you can flip the paper over and make the other side identical without too much hassle.

• Paint that section white.
• Apply second coats as needed.

• Outline the white around the top edges with dark red.
• Color in the nose brown
• Add brown eyes.
• Use a drop of black for pupils.
• Make a simple mouth.

• Cut out ears using foam board. I rounded the bottoms so the foam would sit flush on my round pumpkin.
• Outline the tops of the ears with dark red.
• Hot glue to the top of your pumpkin!

These are just so cute together! Now, it is time to create our owl pumpkin!

Directions for the Owl:

• Sketch out the basic shape of your eyes like the photo below in pencil (it will be very light to see).

• Sketch in the pupils and nose and belly.

• Begin painting, starting with the blue outline
• Fill the inside with white.
• Apply second coats as needed.

• Color in the nose yellow.
• Color the belly brown.

• Fill the pupils in with black.
• Add a little drop of white in the eye.
• Add little white “V” shapes to the belly for feathers.

That’s all there is to it!! Find the perfect spot to show your beauties off! Let your imagination soar and have some fun with these no carve pumpkins!

Find Out More with My Military Savings and DIY & Crafts!

This is the perfect fall craft, and you can incorporate it any way you want! Make a timeline for a deployed loved one (just add twine and hang), include in boxes for friends, or mail to grandparents…the list could go on and on! We created these to hand out to our neighbors, and it made for a fun afternoon!

Supplies:

• Construction Paper or Fall Paper
• Leaf Template
• Scissors
• Glue
• Chocolates

Directions:

1. Print off template.
2. Cut out template.
3. Trace template on fun/fall paper.
4. Cut out colorful leaf.
5. Write fall greeting leaving room for candy.
6. Glue candy down onto leaf.
7. Allow to dry.
8. Deliver some fall fun!

Super easy right?? I used construction paper I already had at the house, and the candy was left over from my last chocolate binge session. There are tons of cute papers in the stores now, and you can create so many different patterns and shapes with these! We choose colorful leaves to celebrate the changing of the seasons!

Find Out More with My Military Savings and DIY & Crafts!

Where am I getting at with this, you ask? Well… I currently have no yard, I have a very awkward shaped porch, and the gorgeous Halloween and fall decor that I’ve collected from around the world is either completely missing or hidden away in the dark corners of our attic that neither my husband or I can locate. I refuse to buy new decorations (at least until they are all 75% off after this Halloween season) so, we have been winging it with a ton of DIY crafts this season. I do have a fun inflatable, 5 foot witch for the yard that was tucked into our Easter decoration box!? However, we have no yard to set it up in! So I’ve got a porch. A funny looking porch. That’s all I have to work with. So what’s a milspouse to do?!?! You make your own spider webs out of yarn, that’s what! It’s easy, cheap, and you can build it to fit any space that you have.

Supplies:

• White Yarn
• Heavy Duty Tape
• Fake Spiders

Directions:

•  Start out by taping pieces of yarn into an asterisk (*) shape.

• Add more strands through your “X” base diagonally and horizontally, going every which way. Make it as full as you’d like.
• Build the inside of the web
• Cut a decent size of yarn and start doubling your yarn up to start the circle.

• To begin creating the circle, hold the folded end of your strand under one of the pieces of yarn that you already have taped up, towards the center.
• Take the tail end of your strand and feed it through the loop where you folded it to tie itself around the strand that you have taped up.

• Move your double strand from each piece of the web to the next piece, just wrapping around each web strand as you go without securing with any knots.
• When you get to the end and have completed a little circle, just tie off in a knot.
• Repeat with larger and larger circles until you are satisfied with the size of your web!
• Add some fun spiders and just entwine the legs into the yarn. No glue or tape necessary!

Notes:

• I’d suggest taping the yarn to objects that stick out from your porch to give the web some dimension – I taped the yarn to a bench I have instead of taping it straight to the wall, so it would *pop* out at ya!
• When trying to figure out the yarn length, it’s better to have too much than too little.
• I got my spiders from the dollar store!

Find Out More with My Military Savings and DIY & Crafts!

Supplies:

• Plastic Pumpkin
• Spray Paint
• Mums or Fall Plant

Directions:

1 – Remove the handle.
2 – Spray paint the pumpkin.
3 – Plant!

Best of all, this decoration doesn’t have to come down once Halloween ends. This is perfect to use through Thanksgiving, too!!

Find Out More with My Military Savings and DIY & Crafts!

Materials Needed:

• Hot glue gun
• Glue sticks (clear)
• Watercolor paper
• Pencil
• Watercolors
• Paintbrush

Get your Workspace ready:

• Place watercolor paper on your workspace
• Plug in your glue gun and allow it to heat up.

Create the Web Design:

• Start by drawing the basic shape of the spider web with the glue gun. Create a small dot in the center, then draw straight lines out from the center to form the web’s spokes.
• Connect these lines with curved lines, forming the circular web pattern. Start with small circles close to the center and gradually make them larger as you move outward. 
• Here’s a printable spiderweb to get you started.

• Make sure the lines of the web are thick so they will stand out once painted.

Paint your Web

• Once the web lines have dried you can start painting your web. 
• Use a few dark colors alternating between different shades. Bright colors can work too!
• Allow the paint to dry. 

Voila! A cute thing your kiddos made that you will proudly display!

Find Out More with My Military Savings and DIY & Crafts!

Sending your kids off to school after a long summer break can be bittersweet. I’ll be the first to admit to mixed emotions – a little bit of jubilation, a fraction of loneliness, a lot more relaxation (you don’t realize how relaxing walking through the grocery store ALONE can be!), and a fair amount of nervousness, for your children’s sake. I just want to bottle up every memory of them, every cuddle and laugh we share, because it all happens way too fast. Next thing I know, we are going to be filling out college applications. So, while I’ll be enjoying going shopping with my cup of iced coffee through every aisle that I want to go through, but once my little ones get off that school bus, I am going to soak in as much as I can.

Speaking of school buses and memories…I love documenting these different phases of life. I keep little notes my children write, meaningful projects from school, I have them fill out self-interviews at every birthday, and I have a collection of little hand and footprints from their birth up until now. Those little hands and feet will never be this small again! So, as we kicked off this new school year…you guessed it! I had to put together a footprint craft to mark the occasion.

This was a craft for my youngest, but there’s nothing wrong with slapping some paint on those big kid-sized feet, but just know you will just end up with a much larger school bus.

Supplies:

• thick, white paper (like acrylic paper, or card stock)
• yellow paint
• paintbrush
• black and red permanent marker

Directions:

Step 1) Paint that little footsie and plop it down on the bottom portion of your paper.

Step 2) Allow the paint to dry and then add 2 black wheels with your permanent marker (photo 1) and a set of doors and window (photo 2).

Step 3) Add a red hexagon or octagon for the stop sign. I couldn’t draw 8 sides without my shape looking like a red blob, but I am aware that a true stop sign is indeed an octagon! Then, add an additional 4 or 5 black windows down the length of the footprint (photo 3).

Step 4) Add the year and your child’s name, or “1st day of ____” as I did (photo 4).

A final suggestion that is totally optional, but I like to laminate our crafts so it will last a while. At least through all of my tears as they are leaving for college, anyway.

You can also check out how we made that name tag pencil to make your collection complete! I hope everyone has a smooth start to the next school year. Remind your children: “You’re off to great places. Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!” – Dr. Suess

Find Out More with My Military Savings and DIY & Crafts!

I decided to put together little back-to-school projects to do with my daughter to give us a chance to talk more about what she can expect in school and to touch up on some of the skills that she has previously learned. This fun pencil craft was one of them! It reviews the basic shapes, allows practice with scissors, includes a bit of handwriting, and requires following simple directions. Plus, it’s very similar to the name tags we saw taped on everyone’s desk. That’s actually what sold my daughter on this project! Let’s gather our supplies and get started!

Supplies:

• Yellow, brown, black, pink, and white construction paper
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Glue Stick
• Small Sheet of Aluminum Foil

Directions:

• Depending on your child’s skill level, either create shape templates to allow your little one to trace and then cut or draw the shapes yourself onto the construction paper and instruct your child to cut them out.

• You need a large rectangle from the yellow paper (the pencil itself), a small rectangle from the pink paper (the eraser), a brown triangle (the wooden pencil tip), an even smaller black triangle (the lead of the pencil), and a thin rectangle from the aluminum foil (the metal that holds the eraser).

• Using the white paper as a base, the shapes should then be glued down into the form of a pencil!
• Then, cut the excess white paper off.
• ***NOTE*** I folded the aluminum foil over into the shape we needed so it wasn’t flimsy.

• Ask your munchkin to write his or her name to finish it off!

You can even take it a step farther and laminate this to preserve a memory or milestone of whatever grade your child is entering. Don’t forget to write the date on the back! Here’s another idea…how about creating a larger version of this to give to the teacher as a back-to-school gift? I think it’d look pretty nifty hanging from the classroom door! What are you waiting for? Grab your supplies and start creating!

Good luck with the new school year and may it be an easy breezy, smooth sailing one for both children and adults alike.

Find Out More with My Military Savings and DIY & Crafts!