Do Life Right

See “How to: Make Nifty Book Boxes for Our Triwizard Tournament Task 3” for the first part of this topic.
We made two puzzles for Task 3 of our Tri-Wizard Tournament: a crossword puzzle and a cypher. The cypher gave directions to the Champions of what they were supposed to do in Task 3. [...]

Our Task: Write up four riddles for the four champions in our Harry Potter class’s Tri-Wizard Tournament Task 2. [Here are links to the clue and prizes for Task 1.]
Here’s what we did and how we did it:
Task 2 had the kids (champions) diving into a local public swimming pool in order to [...]

I’ve been enjoying making pillows since I was twelve and received my first sewing machine. I’ve recently shared my love of pillow making with my Girl Scout troops. We made simple 4 square checkered pillows. My 7.5 year old daughter loved it so much, she made one completely by herself the next [...]

Here are the photographs first, then the directions. These photographs are a year old and don’t show the full extent of our dyeing, but they’ll give you an idea of what the possibilities are.

I first got the great idea of dyeing fabric with Sharpie markers from one of my favorite kid’s science catalogs, Steve [...]

My daughter needed dragon eggs. Since dragons are rare and difficult to find, combined with the fact that we’re vegan and try never to use animal products (especially the babies of a species), we’ve been working on creating our own magically made up ones. Here’s how we did it:

Get a large plastic Easter [...]

Antiquing paper can be lots of fun. We’ve done it for maps, party invitations, and, most recently, for making a poem/riddle look like it had been in the Goblet of Fire. My daughter’s Harry Potter class is having a Tri-Wizard Tournament. Being a planner, my daughter elected to help with the planning [...]

I’ve met a lot of people lately who are feeling stifled and uncreative. They’ve been working hard at parenting, other caregiving (of parents, friends, or other relatives), or in their careers. I hear women, in particular, say there is no time for themselves. No time for pleasure or creativity. No time [...]

Our Girl Scout troop just had a lovely “Goop and Goo Day 2008″. Here are some of the recipes we used (you may recognize some of the recipes, but we had to make our own fun names). Of course, making your own goops and goos are super fun, too. Enjoy!
Smelly Gooey Goodness
1 [...]

When I saw CraftyPod’s “Glove Monster Tutorial”, I knew I had to make some with my daughters and with my Girl Scout troop. CraftyPod’s instructions are just perfect, so read them for directions. Here are photographs of just a few of our cute little monsters. As you can see, the photo from my Thanksgiving Day [...]

I’ve always wanted a gemstone tree. I first saw one in a specialty store when I was a child. It was so beautiful, and looked so fragile, I was afraid to touch it. Yet, I did — gently, watching the way the little tree arms moved and the little leaves swayed. My parents bought [...]