If you haven’t given making homemade moon sand a go, hopefully this post will spur you on!  There are several different recipes out there in blogland right now, but the one I had everything for was a flour and baby oil recipe.  I mixed together 9 cups flour and 1 1/2 cups oil to make this stuff:

I’m loving the texture and consistency – it’s very soft, and is easy to form into towers and walls, then break down and start again.  Both my kids loved it.  I put it in our turtle sandbox and let them have at it.

Emma made a fairy castle, but what they’ve really enjoyed has been scooping, pouring, and touching.  It’s just irresistible!  Even I want to get in there.  :)

Definitely something we’ll be doing again, and so far we’ve been playing in the same moon sand outside for 3 days so it’s worth saving for later, too.  I bought some extra cheap flour today so I can add more tomorrow.

The only downside to this is that it is messy to sit in, especially if your little one is wet at all (obviously).  But totally worth it in my opinion!

Have you ever made homemade moon sand?

 I’ve discovered the joys of painting on fabric and there are very few solid t-shirts left in the house as a result.  Hm, what else can I stencil?  Hand towels? Socks? Sheets?  John had better guard his t-shirts with his life because eventually I’m going to run out of things to stencil and I’m going to be eyeing his dresser.  ;-)

The How-To:

Here are the supplies I gathered:

♥  Retro Tulip Soft Fabric Paint
♥  Sponge Pouncers
♥  Crafter’s Square 4-Pack Stencils (I grabbed mine at the Dollar Tree and can’t find them anywhere online but these look pretty cute, too!)
♥  Paper or cardboard
♥  Tape

1.  Pre-wash fabric/shirts.
2.  Tape your stencil to the area of fabric you want to paint.
3.  Place paper or cardboard underneath the area you’ll be painting so it doesn’t bleed through to the back.
4.  Using the sponge tip brush, apply paint.  The instructions on my paint said to apply four coats.
5.  Let dry for four hours or more.

I really love the colors that came in the package of paints I bought – so vivid!

Stenciling Tips:

- Different types of fabrics will absorb the paint differently.  I had to apply more paint to Emma’s shirts with a bit of stretch in them.
-  Depending on the fabric, you might want to iron it before painting.
-  You can set the paint by ironing it (with a press cloth) 24 hours after it dries.
-  For very small details, use q-tips.

Tell me you don’t want to give this a try!  :)

First, and one of my favorite ideas – sort the crayons by color, then melt them in a homemade double boiler…

Pour the melted crayon into molds (we used a chocolate mold)…

Let it cool completely, then when it slides out easily you’ve got cute shaped crayons!

Here’s the horse head mold we used!

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Here’s another idea from momtastic – use pill bottles to make rainbow crayons!

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Make a crayon candle!  Tutorial at No Time For Flashcards.

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This is a really popular one around the blogosphere… melted crayon canvas art!

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Remember my melted crayon dot art poster?  Both kids love to touch and trace the letters and numbers. :)

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Melted crayon suncatchers – cool idea from The Artful Parent.

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Decorate Easter eggs with melted crayon (SO doing this in a month!).

Are you inspired to try one of these?