Teachers do so much for our kids throughout the year.   They deserve a special thanks.

These adorable homemade teacher gifts and homemade teacher appreciation cards are perfect for Teacher Appreciation Week, the end of the school year, and all year long.

Homemade Teacher Cards

Handprint Fish Card —  Don’t you just love handprint crafts?  Turn your child’s handprint into a cute teacher card with this idea.  After all, that teacher made “school cool!”

Ladybug Teacher Thank You Card —  This homemade card is so stinkin’ cute and perfect for Teacher Appreciation Week in the spring. 

Apple Stamping —  Apples have long been associated with thanking teachers.  Fold a piece of card stock in half and turn the classic fall apple stamping craft into a cute card for a teacher.

Handprint Flower Pot Card — Simple and perfect card for teacher appreciation week in the spring.   Turn your child’s handprint into a pot of flowers and thank that teacher for “helping them grow.”

Printable “Tea Chair” Card —  Who doesn’t like a good play on words?  This adorable printable card is a play on the word “teacher.”  Add a small box of stress-relieving tea for the perfect gift.

Yoda Card — Here’s another printable teacher card with a fun play on words.  “Yoda best teacher!”  Perfect for teachers and students that are big Star Wars fans.

Superhero Teacher Card — Here’s a cute homemade teacher appreciation card that the kids will love putting together.  For even more fun have them personalize the hair and eyes to look more like their teacher.

Pencil Card — No time for crafting?  Print out the card and have your child color it.  Quick, simple, and cute.

Fingerprint Balloon Card — This is an adorable idea to use as a card from the entire class.

Homemade Teacher Gifts

“Hands Down” Best Teacher — Whether you turn the idea into a simple handprint card or you add the suggested goodies and make it a small gift, this is a cute idea.

Potted Plant Gift — We have done this for teachers several times and it is always a hit.  Usually we just add the note “Thanks for helping me grow!” on card stock, glue it to a craft stick, and stick it into the flower pot.  If you want to dress it up a bit more, check out this idea.

Crayon Picture Frame — This would be perfect for a preschool or kindergarten teacher!   The colors are bright and cheerful, and you could even include a photo of the class if one is available.

Highlight of My Year — Has your child’s teacher been the “highlight of their year?”  Here’s a fun way to show them just how special they are.

Extra Special Thank You Gift — Another fun play on words.  This one could be used for teachers, postal workers, doctors…so many people you just want to give a special thank you too.

Surprise your child’s teacher with one of these homemade teacher appreciation cards or a homemade teacher gift this school year.

You may also like these ideas:

• 15 Homemade Gifts Kids Will Love 
• 40+ Hands-On Learning Activities for Early Learners
• Fun Ways to Practice Sight Words at Home
• 15 Ideas to Make Math Fact Practice More Fun

The post Homemade Teacher Cards and Gifts first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

The American Girl Wellie Wishers doll was just what she wanted.  And can you blame her?  She is just so adorable!

Santa even brought a couple extra outfits for the doll.  There was just one thing missing — shoes.

My daughter is a shoe girl, and she was pretty sure the pretty pink dress needed sandals to go with it.

The fashion emergency inspired a quick kid craft to make these simple DIY American Girl Wellie Wishers doll sandals.

Affiliate links have been used below, meaning I may earn from qualifying purchases.  See my full disclosure here.

These DIY Wellie Wisher doll sandals are so easy to make that my 9 year-old was able to do it all on her own after I had the pattern made.

The shoes fit a 14.5 inch (36.8 cm) doll, but you could easily follow the directions and enlarge the basic pattern to fit the larger (18 inch) dolls.

DIY American Girl Doll Sandals

Materials Needed:

• 1/16 Inch Thick Craft Foam
• Hot Glue Gun
• Sandal Pattern 
• Scissors
• Decorations (Mini craft foam shapes or craft gems look cute.)

Start by downloading and printing the free sandal pattern.  (Find it here.)

Cut out the pieces and trace them onto 1/16 inch thick craft foam.  It is important to use the thicker craft foam, as most craft foam is too thin to make doll shoes that are going to hold up to playtime.

Carefully cut out the craft foam.  Since my daughter was crafting with me, we used scissors for this project, but a small X-acto knife will make the rounded cuts more precise.

Once the material is cut, fold the strap over and crease it a bit.  Then apply a small amount of hot glue to the free end of the strap and attach it to the inner portion of the shoe.  (Hot glue can get very hot.  Children should not use them unattended.)

After your doll’s sandal strap is secured in place, it’s time to choose a small decoration.  My daughter picked pink craft foam flowers to glue on.  For a little bling you could use pretty craft gems as well.

I certainly didn’t expect to be crafting before lunchtime this Christmas, but these super simple DIY American Girl Wellie Wishers doll sandals helped avoid a fashion emergency and brought a smile to my daughter’s face.

In fact, she started crafting all kinds of accessories for her new doll, and I enjoyed watching her creativity come alive.

You may also enjoy these other posts:

• DIY Doll Camp Fire
• 15 Homemade Gifts Kids Will Love
• How to Turn an Old Lunchbox into a Dollhouse 

The post DIY American Girl Wellie Wishers Doll Sandals first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

The stockings are hung on the gate that surrounds our wood stove, just waiting to be filled.  There’s a Santa stocking for our son, and a cute snowman for our daughter.  This year there is a fuzzy red one as well, just waiting to be stuffed with goodies for the dog.  One of the presents she’ll be enjoying is a simple homemade dog toy made from an old t-shirt.

To make this DIY tug-of-war toy for your family pet, you just need an old t-shirt.  If you want to make it multi-colored you could use a couple different colored t-shirts.

Once you have the t-shirts you’re going to use, cut them into 1 inch thick strips.  Tie six strips together at one end.

Separate the strips into pairs and braid them.  Finish it by tying it off at the opposite end.

For a thicker tug-of-war toy try using nine strips of t-shirt instead.

Our family dog is going to be so excited when she pulls this homemade dog toy out of her little red stocking on Christmas morning.  I bet your dog will love it, too!

And, if you have a family cat, be sure to check out our simple DIY cat toys.

The post Stuff Your Pooch’s Stocking with This Homemade Dog Toy! first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

This year surprise them with something they will treasure for a lot longer than the most recent toy craze.

These homemade gifts for kids are fun to make and will be loved for years to come.

Don’t you just love gifts that are homemade?

At Christmas time we love to make and give these homemade ornaments.  These homemade kids gifts are sure to make any child smile.

Homemade Gift for Kids

Know a little girl who loves baby dolls?  She will be thrilled to receive a doll sling to tote her baby around.

This stuffed animal medical kit is perfect for any young doctor to fix their stuffed lovey’s boo-boos.

Give them a gift that will enable them to create their own gifts in the future with this beautiful child’s sewing kit.

Budding scientists will have fun learning with their very own science kit.  (Complete with printables to include in your kit.)

Recycle an old lunchbox into this adorable take along dollhouse.  Perfect for Lalaloopsy or Littlest Pet Shop lovers!

Beat the “stuck indoors blues” and get kids moving with a pair of these classic tin can stilts.

Kids of all ages will have fun trying out this simple DIY balance board.

Felt boards are always popular with young children.  Make your own felt board and they can act out their favorite nursery rhymes.  (You can buy Felt Board Sets online or create your own to go with the felt board.)

Younger children can work on fine motor skills and basic geometry with this DIY geoboard.

With this felt pizza kit kids will have fun taking orders and pretending to bake up pizzas for hours.

Here’s a fun twist to that store-bought puzzle:  create a magnetic puzzle!

This reversible tic-tac-toe and hopscotch mat is sure to be a huge hit when the kids are stuck indoors.

These treat soaps would make the perfect stocking stuffer.  Plus, they will encourage good hand washing!  (Have a dinosaur fan at home like I do?  Try these mini dinosaurs inside.)

This mini doll house is a great stocking stuffer idea, and it fits easily into a purse or pocket to keep kids entertained when out and about.

Finally, create your very own I-Spy game.  These would be great when traveling in the car.

This year give them something they will treasure for years to come with one of these homemade gifts for kids.

You may also enjoy:

• Awesome Engineering Activities for Kids —  An introduction into the world of engineering, complete with 52 fun and engaging project your child can build.  
• Math Games They’ll Love — These math games will have them begging to work on math skills.
• Mermaid Gifts for Girls —  The ulitmate collection of mermaid gift ideas for girls of all ages.

The post 15 Awesome Homemade Gifts for Kids first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

He was a little grey ball of fluff, sitting in the middle of the road.  He didn’t even budge when we went around him and pulled into the drive.  If I didn’t move him, a car would hit him.  Batty (so named because it was the day before Halloween) stole our hearts and soon found a home in our garage.

“Mommy, he needs some toys to play with,” was all it took before we were making these 2 DIY cat toys, perfect for the cat in your life. 

What’s great about these cat toys is you probably already have all the items you need to make kitty happy!   And, they are easy enough for a child to make.

Materials Needed for DIY Cat Wand Toys:

• Yarn
• Wood Dowel Rod (or un-sharpened pencil)
• Feathers

To Make the Feather Wand Toy:

• Measure enough yarn to touch the floor when you hold the wood dowel rod in your hand at a comfortable height.
• Tie one end of the yarn around your wood dowel rod.  (We used an un-sharpened pencil for ours.)
• Tie the other end around 2-3 feathers.

That’s it!

Your cat will love chasing the feathers or even just batting at them.

To Make the Pom-Pom Wand Toy:

This one is very similar, the only difference is you will be adding a pom-pom to the end of the yarn instead of a feather.

Don’t know how to make a pom-pom?

• First, wrap yarn around four fingers, as seen in the photo below.   For our pom-pom we wrapped it around 12 times.  For a fatter pom-pom, wrap it more.
• 
• Next, tie one end of your long piece of yarn around the middle of the pom-pom loops.  Make sure to double knot it and make it tight!
• 
• Finally, just use scissors to cut the loops.  And then you have your pom-pom wand toy for your cat.
• 

These 2 simple DIY cat toys have kept our kitten very entertained.  He loves to chase the pom-pom when my daughter runs, dragging it on the ground.  And my daughter is super proud she was able to make them all by herself.

They are the perfect DIY gift for any feline this holiday season! 

The post 2 DIY Cat Toys the Kids Can Make! first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

It was an old, beat-up lunchbox that belonged to my husband years ago.  Somehow it made its way from his parents’ basement and into our home.  Part of me wanted to give it to Goodwill and be done with it.  But then I remembered an idea I saw on Scrappalific.  I decided to turn the lunchbox into a portable dollhouse.

Before I started crafting, I scrounged the house for items I thought could be used.  I found some cute scrapbook paper to use as wallpaper.  After carefully tracing the lunchbox’s shape, I cut and glued the paper to the inside of the lunchbox.

I also found a small piece of felt to use as carpet.  This I glued to the lid.

The lunchbox was large enough that I decided to turn it into a two-story house.

I hit the recycling box and found a thick piece of cardboard.  With a bit of trimming, and folding the two sides down for extra support, I was able to glue the cardboard section into the lunchbox.

A small jewelry box filled with a cut kitchen sponge and covered with floral material became the bed.  The other half of the jewelry box became a bathroom downstairs.  The sides of the jewelry box add a wall between the kitchen and bathroom to give Lalaloopsy some privacy!

Pipe cleaners made a quick ladder so the dolls can go from the first floor up to the bedroom on the second floor.

Bottle caps and a wooden block became a simple kitchen.  For burners on the stove I used a permanent marker.    (I left the “C” visible because its my daughter’s first initial and I knew she’d get a kick our of that.)

I have to give my daughter all the credit for the bathroom.  She glued a small shell on top of an empty thread spool to be the sink.  And a piece of foil behind a broken bubble wand became the mirror.   Isn’t it cute?

When we were finished she had a completely portable dollhouse she can take anywhere.  All the dolls fit inside, making it perfect for vacations or a trip to the grandparents’ house!

Tips for making your own lunchbox dollhouse:

• If you don’t like the outside of your lunchbox you can easily cover it with glue and scrapbook paper.  A cover of clear contact paper would keep it nice.  Or you could spray paint it.
• We used hot glue to glue in our wallpaper, bed, and other small details.
• If you have a metal lunchbox, magnets make cute decorations that can easily be moved.
• Have a superhero fan at home?  Turn that lunchbox into a superhero headquarters!

A portable dollhouse would make a cute DIY gift idea for birthdays or even Christmas.   

The post How to Recycle a Lunchbox into a Dollhouse first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.