Christmas Gifts!

So in my initial blog post I promised to share some of my Christmas presents with you, so here it goes.  

1) Sensory Bags:  I lead a story time at work and thought it would be really cool to send the kids home with sensory bags!  I first saw the idea over at Growing a Jeweled Rose!  She has some great messy play ideas.  

So I found some ocean animals, shells, easter grass, floral rocks, and body gel 

I told all the mom's at story time that if the bag broke or if the kids got "over" them, they could dump the contents in to the tub, turn on the water and have a sensory bath! 

We had a great time with ours!

2) Glow stick ring toss:  I was a little bummed that I didn't get to see this one in action as it went back to Kansas with my sister to some great family friends of ours.  They have a three year old and a two year old.  I found a sturdy dowel rod at Michaels and asked the hubby to make me a ring toss.  Voila!  

We picked up some bracelets at the dollar store, painted on the base (some old scrap wood we had lying around) and presto!  Apparently they enjoyed it!  

3) Animal Butt Magnets:  I talked a little about these during jungle week but this was one of the gifts I gave to my co-workers.  I found some STRONG magnets at Michaels.  They are smaller, silver, and more expensive than the standard black ceramic magnets you get, but if you want your butt to hold up more than a piece of paper I would invest in the expensive ones.  Again, called on the husband to cut the animals in half, super glued on the magnets and you're done! 

4) Bath fizzes:  This is one of those awesome "nailed it" posts!  I used Jill's recipe  and I/it failed miserably.  I had to add about three times more water and about 30 times more witch hazel than her and mine still crumbled to pieces.  

I mixed together all my dry ingredients:

1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup citric acid (I used pectin which is what is in her picture)
1/2 cup corn starch

It appeared promising as after I slowly drizzled in the wet while mixing: 

2 1/2 Tbsp sunflower or other light oil (almond oil would be good too.)
3/4 Tbsp water
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of Lavender essential oil (depending on how strong your oil is)
1/4 tsp Vitamin E oil (optional, but recommended – an antioxidant which preserves the oils)
1/4 teaspoon borax (an emulsifier)

I added an additional 1/4 cup of water too as I mixed them.  
witch hazel in a spray bottle (it doesn’t come in a spray bottle, you will have to put it in one)
food coloring

I felt even more optimistic as I pressed them in to the mold, but after setting for over 24 hrs.....

75% of them were a crumbly mess

So I mixed all the crumbles together, added more water and then put it back in the mold and tried again.

The final project wasn't terrible......

5) Bottle cap everything: I helped my sister create this Colorado pride masterpiece for her friends.

I smashed the bottle caps and she pressed them on to foam core shapes, we did an S and a W. 

This wind chime took me FOREVER, but mom already hung it up and it's looking pretty good.  

I also made some bottle cap coasters that I forgot to take a picture of.....bummer!

I should mention, we have a few different hook-ups for bottle caps, we didn't drink all that beer ourselves!

6) Pallet wine bottle/magazine shelf:  I hope that one of the two people who received these for Christmas will send me a hanging on the wall with stuff in it picture I can share but until then.  I again ask the hubby to help, snatched some pallets from work (with permission) and cut them off just above the second board on the front, did a messy job of staining and you have a pretty shelf.  

Happy gifting people!