Shouts to the wonderful blog My Friend Amy for running an interview about PLAY THESE GAMES, which you can check out here:

http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/2012/05/heather-swain-crafty-cheap-eco-minded.html

On Amy’s site you’ll find tons of great book reviews to keep you happily ensconced in summer reading while you’re kids are off playing games. “I’ll be right there, honey…just as soon as I finish this chapter…”

Happy reading!

 Today, Budgie asked if he could cut his own hair. At least he asked, right? Instead of having him look like Moe from the Three Stooges with a home cut, we whipped up this balloon barber shop so he could snip away to his heart’s content.

Materials

• cardboard cereal box
• permanent markers
• balloon
• yarn
• transparent tape

Open up the cereal box so you have one large, flat piece of cardboard. Cut out and decorate a pair of 12-inch shoes from the cardboard. Then, cut a slit from the heels to the center of the feet.

Blow up and tie a large balloon then slip the knot of the balloon into the slit in the feet so the balloon stands up.

Draw a goofy face on the balloon with markers. Tape long pieces of yarn to the top of the balloon to make hair.

Cut and style your balloon’s hair.

Extra Fun:

Spread shaving cream over the cheeks and chin of the balloon and shave the customer with the smooth edge of the plastic knife. Wipe the knife clean with a damp cloth between strokes.

Even More Fun:

When the shave and the hair cut are done, spread extra shaving cream over the surface of the table and draw pictures with your fingers.

Inspired by those kooky New Years Eve 2012 glasses the kids saw in January, we made our own Goofy Reading Glasses this week with different funny words.

Materials:

• toilet paper tube
• ruler
• scissors
• three flexible drinking straws
• stapler
• heavy cardstock paper
• utility knife*
• markers
• transparent tape

*Utility knives or box cutters are very sharp and should be handled only by adults.

Cut two 1-inch segments from a toilet paper tube.

Cut a 1.5-inch piece from one of the flexible straws so that the accordion fold bendy part is centered in your segment.

Staple this part between the eye rings to make the nose piece of your glasses.

Trim two flexible straws so that they’re the right length for the flexible tip to wrap around your ear and the rest of the straw to reach your temple.

Staple the nonflexible end of the straw to the outside edge of each eye ring. These will be the arms of your glasses frame which will wrap around your ears and hold the glasses in place.

Center the glasses on a piece of heavy card stock paper and trace the eyes by running a pencil around the inside of each toilet paper ring.

Use a ruler to draw a cross in the center of each eye you just traced. Then, on a safe cutting surface, run your utility knife over the crosses you drew so you end up with four triangles in the center of each eye ring.

With a pencil, write a word around the eye holes in big blocky letters so that they touch one another. For example, we wrote LOOK, using the eye holes as the Os in the word. Decorate your word with markers.

Cut around the word, so that all the letters stay connected.

Gently push the triangles in the center of the eye circles backwards, so they open through the back of the word.

With the word face down on your work surface, lay the glasses over the word so that the paper triangles are sticking up inside the eye rings.

One at a time, hold a triangle against the inside of the eye ring and attach with a 2-inch piece of transparent tape. Helpful Hint: Start by sticking about 1/4″ o f the tape to the front of the word paper, push it through the eye ring, then wrap it over the edge of the toilet paper ring to secure. Repeat for each triangle until the word is held securely to the glasses.

Wrap the flexible tips of the straws over your ears and see what funny looks you get!

Got a cardboard box laying around? Before you break it down for the recycling, make this easy, electricity-free homemade version of table hockey which uses wax paper instead of air to make the puck slide.

Materials:

• large corrugated cardboard box*
• large sheet of foam board*
• roll of wax paper
• medium sized buttons (1” – 2” diameter)
• 2 mini-size (½ cup / 4 oz) disposable plastic round food storage container**
• glue
• masking tape
• clear packing tape
• scissors
• utility knife
• permanent marker

*NOTE: For this project you will slip the foam core inside the box. You will want a box that has a footprint that is at least 24” x 18” and piece of foam core that can be cut to these dimensions.

**NOTE:  Such as the mini size of disposable Gladware.

Prep Work:

To make the rink, you’ll need to trim the sides of your box down to 3″ from the base. To do this, measure and mark 3” up each side around the perimeter of the box. Then connect these dots with a straight line using your yard stick as a guide.

 Use a utility knife (box cutter) and your yard stick as a guide to cut along the line you drew around the box.

Measure the bottom of the rink then use your utility knife to trim the foam board to these dimensions. (Helpful hint: Cut along the inside of the lines so that your foam will slide easily but snugly into the bottom of the rink.

Next, cover the foam board with wax paper. Since most wax paper comes in 12” rolls, you will use two long pieces with a seam down the center of the board. First unroll a piece of wax paper that is 10” longer than your foam board. Lay the waxy side face down and the papery side face up on the work surface. Put your foam board on top of it so that you have 5” of wax paper beyond the ends and one side of the foam board. Wrap the wax paper up and around the edges of the board and secure with masking tape.

Flip the board over and run a line of clear packing tape along the edge of the wax paper in the center of the board. Then, turn the board upside down again and attach another piece of wax paper to cover the other half of the board.

With the waxy side of the wax-paper-covered side facing up, use the permanent marker to draw the center circle and center line on rink. (Helpful Hint: Use your yardstick to find the center point of the foam board. Use your masking tape roll as a stencil to draw the center circle at this point.) Then draw a straight line across the width of the board.

Now, you will make the goals on either end of the rink. Lay the wax paper covered foam board with the waxy side face up in the bottom of the rink. Draw a straight line across the inside edge of the box where the cardboard meets the foam board. Measure and mark a 4” wide by 1” tall rectangle centered on the end of the box. Turn the box up on its end and use your utility knife to cut out this rectangle. Repeat on the other end.

To protect players’ arms from getting chaffed by the rough cardboard, run strips of masking tape around the top edges of the rink and reinforce the corners with extra tape.

Make the puck by covering the flat side of the button with a layer of glue. Put a small strip of wax paper (with the waxy side face down) on your work surface. Press the gluey side of the button onto the papery side the wax paper. Allow the glue to dry, then trim the wax paper around the edges of the button. No your button should have a waxy bottom!

How to Play:

Give each player one of the little food storage containers without a lid. These will be the puck pushers. Hold the bottom of the container in your hand, turn the container upside down and place the open end on the rink. It will slide easily across the waxy surface to hit the puck back and forth.

Rules:

• Players can only use their pushers to propel the puck around the rink, i.e. no hitting the puck with your hands, elbows, toes, etc…
• Players’ pushers may not cross the center line
• If the puck is on the center line, either player may push it
• A point is scored if the puck goes through the opponent’s goal
• After a point is scored the player with the puck serves from his/her half of the court

Put the button (wax paper side down) in the center of the rink and yell Go! Players hit the puck back and forth to score goals. The first player to 10 wins!

 Ground Control to Major Tom….There’s something unmistakably fun about launching things in the air, but who can afford rocket fuel these days? Rubber bands and toilet paper tubes to the rescue! (Even Congress would fund that.) Put together this nifty little flyer for an afternoon of (don’t say it, don’t say it, can’t stop it, pun escaping…) out of this world fun.

Materials:

• toilet paper tube
• egg carton
• construction paper
• small paper clip
• large rubber band
• transparent tape
• masking tape
• scissors
• markers, stickers, glitter glue (optional)

Trim a piece of construction paper so that you can wrap it around the toilet paper tube then secure with transparent tape.

Next, cut one cup from the egg carton.

Use one of the scissor legs to poke a small hole in the bottom of the cup. Loop the rubber band over the paper clip then push the paper clip through the hole in the egg cup so that the rubber sticks out of the bottom and the paper clip lays flat across the inside bottom of the cup.

Use masking tape to secure the paper clip to the inside of the cup.

Place the egg cup on one of the open ends of the tube then secure with a double line of masking tape around the perimeter so that the rubber band is sticking out of the top of the rocket. If you want, decorate your rocket with markers, stickers, glitter glue, or thermal protection tiles to shield the rocket from the heat of atmospheric re-entry.

Put the rubber band on your finger like you’re going to flick it at some one. Pull back on the rocket and watch it fly!

Got a lot of empty bottles and cans in the recycling from your latest cookout? Before the recycling trucks come, send the kids outside with a broom and ball for a rousing game of Bottle Alley.

 

Players

1 or more

Materials

• sidewalk or driveway
• chalk
• many empty plastic bottles and/or aluminum cans
• broom
• ball (such as a rubber playground ball)

Prep Work

With chalk, draw a curvy course that is 3 feet wide along the driveway or sidewalk then line the edges with empty bottles and cans.

How to Play

Take turns guiding a ball through the course with a broom without knocking over the bottles or cans. Time players as they go through the course, then add 1 second for every bottle that falls over. The player with the lowest time wins.

This game is based on Curling, an Olympic sport in which teams take turns sliding large smooth stones across an ice lane toward a target while a sweeper brushes the ice to help the stone move closer to the target. Curlers used to look like this:

If only we had knickers and a beret we could be this awesome.

Does anyone else find acorns ridiculously cute? Maybe it’s their jaunty little hats or the thunking sounds they make when they plunk down on a wooden deck. They’re even more delightful as they tumble through the air with this acorn catapult game.

Materials:

• jumbo craft stick
• thread spool
• 1 large rubber band
• 1 small rubber band
• 10 acorns
• empty egg carton
• markers
• scissors
• masking tape
• ruler

First make your target. Cut the top off the egg carton and the flap on the front that holds it closed so you only have the section with the egg cups left. Next, write point values in the cups.

To make the catapult, slip the large rubber band through the center hole of the spool so that you have a loop sticking out of either side. (You might need to find something to help you guide the rubber band through the spool like a chop stock or a knitting needle.)

Turn the spool on its side and lay the craft stick across it perpendicularly [A]. While holding one rubber band loop steady, pull the other loop up and over the craft stick to the opposite side of the spool then down and around to secure it to the spool [B]. Now pull the other loop up and over the craft stick to the opposite side then down and around to secure [C].

Take the small rubber band and wind it twice 1” from the end of the craft stick. Criss cross it underneath the stick and then wind it twice a ¼” from the end. Now you have a resting place for your acorns so they won’t slide off.

Place a masking tape line 6” in front of the egg carton. Put the catapult on the line with the acorn rest facing the carton and touching the table.

Place an acorn on the rest. Position the catapult along the line to aim it toward the cup you want to hit. Smack the other end of the craft stick to shoot the button in the air toward the egg cups. Add up points for any buttons that land in the cups.

When I catch a whiff of pine and gingerbread, I want to stick an antler headband on my noggin, start decking the halls, and belt out a few carols at the top of my lungs. For the past few years, we’ve had a gingerbread house party with our good friends. I baked all the gingerbread and made the icing and our friends would bring the candy for decoration. Each family made and decorated a house, which usually turned into the grown-ups cursing under our breath while trying to get the darn sides to stand up and the roof not to slide off while the kids shoveled candy and icing into their pieholes as fast as they could before we got wise. This year we’re getting bold and letting each kid build and decorate his or her own mini-house.

Now, before you start hemming and hawing about how you don’t bake, give this recipe a read-through. The only thing that’s hard about it is messing it up, so it’s a great way to get your kids measuring and mixing. Also, you’ll notice that the recipe has no butter or eggs, but not because I’m a vegan. (Seriously, if I could figure out how to put bacon on one of these babies, I would do it.)  I don’t include butter and eggs because a) they’re expensive, b) I figure anything that’s going to sit around the house, collecting dust for a week, doesn’t need them, and c) this gingerbread is sooooo yummy without them.  For real. It’s delicious. I got hip to vegan baking from the amazing Isa Chandra Moskowitz from Post Punk Kitchen. Check out her vegan cookie recipes at theppk.com and tell me if you don’t swoon.

Building the houses is super easy because you’ll use small juice cartons as the frame, so nobody’s house will end up looking like a tornado plowed through Gingerbreadville.

If you absolutely cannot bring yourself to bake fresh gingerbread, buy a package of good graham crackers, make the quick powdered sugar icing recipe, and follow the directions below. Your kids can build and decorate pre-fab houses!

Materials

• Construction paper
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Ingredients for gingerbread and icing (see below)
• Mixing bowls
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Whisk or electric mixer
• Cookies sheets
• Cooking spray
• Spatula
• 14 oz empty milk or juice carton (clean and dry inside and out)
• heavy-duty paper plate
• cutting board
• rolling pin
• pizza cutter or sharp knife
• lots of candy
• flour sifter (optional)

To Make the Homemade Gingerbread

(This recipe makes a generous amount for one house plus enough to cut out some gingerbread cookies)

• 1 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup any kind of milk (cow, soy, hemp, mother’s)
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 3 cups flour (I like 2 cups white + 1 cup whole wheat), plus extra for rolling out the dough
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking power
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp each of  cinnamon and ginger
• 1/2 tsp each of cloves, nutmeg, and allspice

Mix together the canola oil and brown sugar for a couple minutes until the sugar is almost dissolved. Add the milk and molasses and mix well.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.

Add half the flour mixture in the wet ingredients and mix. Then add the other half and mix well until blended.

Remove the dough from the bowl. Form it into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, if not two.

NOTE: I’m the laziest baker in the world. When recipes tell me to put dough in the fridge and wait 2 hours, I’m like Fat chance, Rochester. But you really do have to let this dough hang out in the fridge for at least an hour or up to 3 days. Otherwise you’ll end up with a gingerbread housing crisis on your hands. And nobody, especially little gingerbread men and women wants that.

To Cut Out the Houses

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Work with half the dough at a time. Generously flour the cutting board and put a disk of dough in the center. Sprinkle flour over the dough so it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin.

Roll the dough out to 1/4″ thickness.  Lay out as many template pieces as will fit on the dough and cut them out. (A pizza cutter works great, but you could use a sharp knife.) When you run out of room on the dough, gather it into a ball again. Knead it a few times so it’s smooth, then put it on the floured board and roll it out to 1/4″ thickness again. This dough rerolls almost endlessly, so don’t worry that it’ll get tough if you keep working it. Add more dough from the other half as needed. You should cut out two of each piece (front/back, sides, roof) for each house you’ll make.

Use the extra dough to cut out gingerbread people, animals, trees, etc…

Place the pieces 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the pieces are cooked through. Remove from the oven and let them rest until cool.

You can make these up to a week in advance and keep them in an airtight container, or freeze them.

To Make the Icing

For each house, you’ll need 1 cup of powdered sugar and a few teaspoons of water. Use a fork to slowly whisk water one tablespoon at a time into the powdered sugar until you have the consistency you want. I like to start with very thick icing  which works well for constructing the house. Then I add a bit more water to make thinner icing which works better for decorating.

To Construct the Houses

Put a blob of thick icing in the center of a heavy duty paper plate. Place the clean and empty juice carton on top of the icing and press down. This will keep the carton steady on the plate.

Next, spread some icing on the back of the front piece of gingerbread. Press it against the front of the juice carton. Do the same for the back.

Then, add the sides.

Spread icing across the peaks of the front and back pieces as well as on the edges of each roof piece where they will join together. Lay the roof on top.

Hold the house together for a minute to let the icing set. (If the roof slides, poke some strong toothpicks down through the sides to hold them in place.)

To Decorate the Houses

Put out lots of bowls of small colorful candy (gumdrops, licorice, M&Ms, gummies, etc…) Dip each piece of candy into the thin icing and press it onto the house.

When you’re done decorating, put a little left over powdered sugar into a flour sifter and make it snow over the house!

No matter what you’re celebrating in December, chances are it’s going to involve giving your kid something. And while I’m all for letting Santa do the work in my house (hello Amazon.com!) some of my favorite gifts I got as a kid were handmade by my mom or grandma. But since most of us (including me) don’t have the mad sewing skillz of our grandmas, here’s a super cute and totally easy Tyvek doll you can whip up for your kids.

Materials:

• 10″ x 13″ Tyvek envelope*
• permanent markers
• scissors
• stapler and staples (mini-stapler with colored staples work well)
• polyfill

*What the heck is Tyvek, you say? You know those funny half-fabric/half-paper priority mail envelopes? That’s Tyvek. And the stuff is great for crafting because it’s easy to cut but hard to tear. You can draw on it and it’s water resistant. If you don’t want to “borrow” one from the post office, you can buy them at office supply stores.

Cut open the envelope, removing one side, then fold that in half. (If there is print on one side, make sure to fold it to the inside.) On the plain white side, draw the outline of a baby or a monster or whatever creature you want to make.

Cut out the doll, going through both layers of the envelope at once. Use permanent markers to decorate the front and back of the doll.

Place the front and back together. Starting just below the head, staple around the edges of the doll, until you get to the other side below the head.

Stuff the doll with polyfill, using the capped end of the markers (or an unsharpened pencil if your markers are too fat) to work the stuffing into the body. When the stuffing reaches the neck, stop because that doll has had it up to HERE! (Oh wait, that’s me at around 7:30 pm on a Thursday.)

Staple around both sides of the head, leaving a small space (about 1 inch) open on the top of the head. Stuff the head with more polyfill, working it down with the marker or pencil.

Once the head is full, staple the top of the head closed.

Some other fun ideas:

• Have kids make dolls as presents for their friends or sibs.
• Outline the features of a self-portrait doll for your kids and let them color in the face, hair, and clothing to create dolls of themselves
• Make characters from your kids’ favorite stories
• Try other shapes such as monsters, animals, or holiday related dudes like elves.