Newest Crafts

For this craft you need two bandanas, scissors or shears, You should cut off a one-inch border, in one piece, around the edges of both bandanas, and set them aside. Now put the bandanas together with the wrong sides together. You can take some scissors and cut slits every ¾ inch of the bandana on three of the four sides. You then take the slits ... Continue to Bandanna Purse.

This is a fun craft. One of the things you can do is get plain bandanas, white or a different light color. You are going to find a stamp of some kind that you like, and get fabric ink. Then, stamp and design your bandana however you would like. You can decorate it to say a name, or depict a theme you are interested in, ... Continue to Stamped Bandanna.

This is a fantastic craft because it does not require much. You need two bandanas, and some filling or a pillow slightly smaller than the bandanas, and some scissors. To make this craft, start by laying out the two bandanas, put them together with the darker sides facing out, so the inside is the side that you would wear down if you were to wear ... Continue to Bandanna Pillow.

This is a fun craft that you can use to hold your sunglasses, reading book, and sunscreen, etc. for those lazy days of summer spent at the beach. Because bandanas come in a variety of patterns and colors you can make a beach bag to suit your personality. Here is what you'll need: 2 bandanas A sewing machine A piece of rope To make this ... Continue to Bandanna Beach Bag.

Your family photos are more than just captured images, they are captured memories. The look on a child's face, the mischief in their eyes and the grass stains on their clothes, captured in photographs, tell a story. So, how do you preserve precious memories that live in family photos? The following are a few ideas:

Digital Options

If you want to preserve your family photos digitally to avoid wasting the space you would need to store boxes of prints, you have a lot of options. When your goal is preserving your family photos, it is a good idea to use at least two of the following options, as you may need a back up method in case something happens to the first, such as a fire or flood.

Hard drive storage: Many people download their pictures onto their computer and store them on their hard drive. This is a great option as it offers the convenience of having the photos on hand at the click of a button for easy sharing or use in other projects. However, it's important to consider another option for backing up your photos as hard drives do crash irretrievably, virus can eat or destroy files and spills and accidents that could harm your computer do happen.

CD or DVD: You can always burn your individual albums onto CDs and DVDs as an alternative storage option. A CD will hold a few hundred photos, and does not require more storage space. In addition, it is easy to burn multiple events onto different discs for easy use and organization.

Online storage: There are a number of websites and companies that will store your digital copies of family photos for you. Shutterfly, Kodak and Snapfish, among other photo websites, allow you to create albums, create gifts using your photos and share them, too. While some sites limit the number of pictures you can upload, many do not. You can also pay for some bandwidth on a storage site to keep your pictures safe and usable in case something happens to your computer. However, some sites require you to make a minimum purchase once per year in exchange for allowing you to keep your photos on their site.

Backup driver: You can use portable storage devices and backup drivers to store all of your precious family photos. They are fairly inexpensive and can hold thousands of images.

Physical Options

When you are preserving family photos, keeping actual photos is another great option. There are a few options for keeping and storing them.

Photo books: Shutterfly, Heritage Makers and MyPublisher.com will create a photo book from your photos. Wal-Mart does so as well. Apple offers this option with their installed photo software. You can preserve family photos in a book form, with professionally printed and bound pages. You can make it yourself and input stories, or you can have them input your photographs.

Albums: Traditional photo albums are binders with plastic pages that keep your pictures in place, and allow you to flip through events. These are great for preserving photos as well as fun to look at. However, they take up a lot of space, especially if you are an avid photographer.

Scrapbooks: While scrapbooks are a lot of work and take time to create, they are a great way to preserve family photos, as they often include other memorabilia, such as event tickets, to go along with the photos.

Does your child need to learn their ABCs? Does he or she struggle to remember the letters and the sounds they make? One great, classic way to teach your child the alphabet is to match them the ABC song. The following are some great examples of alphabet songs that will help your child remember the letters and the sounds they make.

Here are a few examples of alphabet songs that will help teach your child letters and give them a word to associate with each letter:

A is for Actor
B for Ballerina
C is for Clown - So let the show begin!
D is for Daisy
E's for Evergreen, and
F is for Fuzzy peach skin!
G is for Gumball
H is for Hyena
I is for Inchworm
J's for Jellybean!
K is Kitten
L is for Lion's last in line,
M is for my Mom who thinks I've lost my mind!

CHORUS:
But that's how I practice my ABC's
Easily as 1-2-3!
C'mon let's practice our ABC's
All you have to do is sing with me

N is for Nacho
O is for Onion rings
P is for Pizza-- Let's have lunch!
Q is for Quite delicious
R is for Root Beer
S is for my Stomach that's much too stuffed!
T is for Trumpet
U is for Ukulele
V is for Voices singing, "Come On Home, Bill Bailey!"
W is for Whistle
X for Xylophone
And Z is for Zigzag!

Another great version of the ABC song that gives you not just the letters, and their order, but also a word that goes with them goes like this.

It's A for apple.
B is for ball.
C is for candle.
D is for doll.
E is for elephant....
... M is for monkey.

Chorus:
Hands up. Words are made of sound.
Hands down. Words are all around.
Hands clap. Each letter makes a sound.
Let's get together and learn the letter sounds.

N is for nickle.
O is for otter.
P is for pickle...
...Z is for zebra.

Chorus:
Hands up. Words are made of sound.
Hands down. Words are all around.
Hands clap. Each letter makes a sound.
Let's get together and learn the letter sounds.

If you simply want to teach your child the ABC's you can always go with the traditional ABC song that ends with the phrase "next time won't you sing with me?" This is a common way to start off the learning of the ABC's and you can then later progress to the more complicated songs that also give examples of words that go with the letters.

Christmas is a special time of year. Christmas is a time to show the people in your life how much you love them and it's a great way to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and to celebrate with loved ones. Christmas decorations are one thing that makes the Christmas season so amazing. From watching your children's faces light up when they see the Christmas tree go up to hanging the stockings, Christmas decorations truly make this a wonderful time of year.

Outdoor Christmas decorations are important to the holiday season. Christmas lights are wonderful whether strewn around your home or on trees, or both, to celebrate this wonderful time of year. This year, make some homemade Christmas decorations with your kids. Here are a few fun suggestions:

Plastic Snowmen

Have you been wondering what to do with all of those old shopping bags? Now you have something to do with them, you can create snowmen with them. You will need several shopping bags as you need to create three different-sized balls with them. You also need some extra shopping bags to stuff inside the snowmen. You can buy some wiggly eyes, red and black cotton balls and an orange nose for the snowman at your local craft store. Don't forget to get a miniature top hat for the snowman along with some metal string so you can hang it. Create several snowmen and hang them from a string of white or colored outdoor lights. This is a simple outdoor Christmas decoration that you can create with the kids during an 'indoor' day.

Wooden Candy Canes

While you are at the craft store, purchase some wooden candy canes that you can decorate with paint and lights. You can get small or large candy canes. Some candy canes are about 3 feet tall; they are great for the entryway to your home.

Santa Claus and His Reindeer

Creating Santa Claus and his reindeer with craft wire is another simple outdoor Christmas decoration. You'll need wire and white and colored Christmas lights. You will need a string of green, red, yellow and multi-colored lights. Shape the wire into a sleigh with a long straight line where you will glue the wire reindeer to it. Now, wrap a string of green lights around the straight line, this will be the reins that hold the reindeer together. Use red to line the sleigh. Once you have the sleigh and reins, attach the reindeer and Santa Claus; use white lights for Santa's head and beard and red for his body. You can use multi-colored lights for the reindeer. This outdoor decoration does take awhile to create, especially if you want it to be large enough to fit across a couple windows.

Candles

You can make candles out of some red and yellow lights, some wire and your trees. If you have 3-4 trees in a row, you can easily create candles and it will look spectacular. Wrap some red lights around the stump of the tree. Once you are about 3 feet high on the tree. Attach some wire in the shape of a flame. Wrap some yellow lights around the wire section and place it over the top of the red lights. This will appear to look like candles burning on the trees. If you want to make the flames look like they are burning, get some twinkle lights and set the timers to go off at different speeds. This will definitely give your candle trees a cool effect.

There are hundreds of craft projects you can do with some Christmas lights and little creativity. Include your kids in the decorating process as this is a magical time of year for them.