handprint santa

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On to the Christmas crafts! We've been crafting away like crazy here and I'm so excited to start sharing some of our Christmas creations. These cute little Santa's were very fun to make. The kids stamped their adorable little hands in white paint and then stamped them to make Santa's beard. Really easy, really cute, and a great Christmas keepsake for year's to come. Here's how we made them:

What you'll need:

Cardstock - 1 base piece, and then pieces in red, white, peach, and pink
googly eyes
sharpie
white paint
glue
scissors

Directions:

1. cut a circle out of your peach cardstock for Santa's face and glue it on your main piece of paper
2. cut Santa's hat out of your red cardstock and glue it on your main piece of paper
3. cut a white circle and white strip out of your white cardstock for Santa's hat and glue on main piece of paper
4. cut some circles out of your pink cardstock and glue on Santa's cheeks
5. glue some googly eyes on Santa
6. dip your child's palms in white paint and have them stamp a beard for Santa
7. using your sharpie, draw on a mouth





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this week in bento boxes

Pin It I hope all my American readers had an amazing Thanksgiving. I'm excited to start making some Winter and Christmas theme bento boxes. I might even start some this week for Kirsten's lunches. For now, here's some of the bento's we've made recently.



This one is just adorable. I never knew cutting babybel cheeses could be so easy. A couple tips for cutting them are that they are easier to cut at room temperature and to heat up your knife or cookie cutter under hot water before you cut. Just wipe it off first. I turned this babybel into an adorable ladybug by slicing the wax with a knife. I then used my food safe marker to draw dots and eyes on the ladybug. I finished her off with a cute flower sprinkle. There's also some crackers with the ladybug cheese. She also got half a multigrain bagel with rotisserie chicken and cheese and a container of blackberries.



This was for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. She had a frozen blueberry, apple, cherry smoothie that was nicely defrosted in her lunch bag by her break. She also had a container of sliced dragon fruit with a cute pick and a container with a sliced cereal bar.



I call this one "O Canada." Kirsten had half a chicken sandwich with an adorable moose on top. I made the moose with fruit leather, graham cracker, icing eyes, and sprinkles for the nose. She also had a container of raspberries and a container of unsweetened applesauce with maple leaf sprinkles.



This is supposed to look like a face. I'm not quite sure if it does. Oh well. She had half a multigrain bagel with rotisserie chicken and cheese. She also had a container of baby carrots and a container of babybel cheese and crackers. I then put 2 sliced cucumbers with a craisin on top of the containers to look like eyes.



I just love how bright and colourful this rainbow bento turned out. She had a rainbow of sliced fruit, a container of cheerios, and a container of yogurt. It made for a perfect morning nutrition break meal.

Here are some supplies I used to make these lunches:





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fun food friday: bunny love

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I made this one a long time ago but thought now would be a perfect time to share it seeing as I did an egg mold tutorial this week (see post below). The kiddos thought this lunch was really cute, and so did I. To all my American friends doing their black friday shopping today - have fun! I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving yesterday. Here's how I made this lunch:

2 bunny cheese quesadillas cut with a bunny cookie cutter - icing eyes and heart sprinkle nose. A silicone container of baby carrots with a cute bunny pick, a silicone container with a bunny egg, and a tiny bunny silicone container of ranch dressing to dip the carrots in. Yum!



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egg mold tutorial

Pin It I'm sure some of you have seen hard-boiled eggs shaped into adorable little shapes and wondered how it was done. They make these awesome egg molds at most bento supply stores, and what most people don't know is that they are so simple to use. Here's a really quick tutorial on how to use these egg molds so you can make your kiddos a really healthy and fun snack or meal.

See, aren't they cute? Here's a cute little bear egg in a bento for Kirsten's lunch:



And this is what I used to make it:



See all that writing on the packaging?? It's written in Japanese. It took me a bit to figure out how exactly to use these things since I definitely do not read or speak Japanese. Here's what I did:

Step 1. Hard boil some eggs. I used large eggs.

Step 2. Peel the eggs immediately. You'll want to do this as hot as your little hands can handle. The hotter the egg is when it goes in the mold, the better the results you're going to get.

Step 3. Get your egg mold wet with a little water. This will help the egg not stick to the inside. I just dunked them in a bowl of ice cold water.



Step 4. Place your hot egg in the egg mold. You can tell whether to place your egg in horizontal or vertical based on the shape you're trying to make. Close your egg mold and close the clasp.







Step 5. Place your eggs in a bowl of ice cold water for at least 10 minutes. Longer if you desire.



Step 6. Take your egg molds out of the cold water and open them up.





Step 7. Like magic, your eggs now look like adorable little creatures. Aren't these easy and awesome?!?!





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this week in bento boxes

Pin It Kirsten and I had some more fun creating her lunches again this week. Although I must admit, it's starting to get hard coming up with new, original ideas everyday now. I may have to start doing some repeats. Here's some of her lunches from this week:



This one I call "Thank heaven for little girls." That was Kirsten's dance recital routine last year and she still loves it. She got half a sandwich with an adorable little girl on top. I made the little girl using some small bento cutters and used ham, cheddar cheese, mozza cheese and food safe markers. Isn't she cute? She really didn't take that long to make because of the small cookie cutters. It's too easy. She also had a container of baby carrots and a container of cherry tomatoes.



Baa Baa white sheep, have you any wool? This was a really fun bento to make. Kirsten got half a sandwich with an adorable little sheep on top. I made the sheep using mozza cheese, fruit leather and icing eyes. I used a flower cutter for the sheep's body and other small bento cutters for the other details. She also got a container of sliced strawberries with a little sheep pick and a container of baby carrots.



I am lion, hear me roar. This was a really fun bento for her afternoon nutrition break. She had half a turkey bologna sandwich with a cute little lion face on top. The lion face was made using a whole wheat tortilla, food safe markers and matchstick carrots. She also had a container of sliced pears with a lion pick and a container of crinkle cut cucumbers.



This was a really simple bento for her morning nutrition break. She got a double serving of fruit salad with a cute little pick, a cereal bar, and some yogurt with red sprinkles. I always wrap the yogurt in tinfoil before I pack it in her lunch bag.



And finally, another super easy morning nutrition break bento. She got a frozen strawberry smoothie (defrosted by her break), a container of goldfish chocolate grahams, and a container of sliced strawberries with a cute pick.

Here are some of the supplies I used to make these lunches:





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fun food friday: a dog day lunch

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This was a really fun and colourful lunch I made for the kids. I found an adorable Little daschund cookie cutter and scooped it up immediately. There's just something about little wiener dogs that is too cute. The kids loved this lunch and gobbled it right up. Here's how I made it:

daschund made using a whole wheat tortilla and lunch meat, icing eye. Fruit leather dog bones, a silicone container of applesauce with dog bone sprinkles, a sliced orange sun, and sliced apples and baby carrots on the bottom of the plate for added colour.



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Meet the Dubiens ultimate DIY holiday gift guide for kids

Pin It Christmas is coming in just over a month! I can't believe it. Now's the time to start preparing. Are you looking to make your kids something special this Christmas? Well, look no further. I scoured the archives of my blog and came up with an awesome list of things that parents can make for their kiddos this Christmas. Maybe money is tight, or maybe you want to give your kids something extra special made from the heart. Hopefully you see something you like on this list. Without further ado, here's the Meet the Dubiens ultimate DIY holiday gift guide for kids - wow, that title is a mouthful!

Just click on the title to link to the page and get the tutorial.

1. tea party table





What little girl wouldn't love their very own tea party table for Christmas? My daughter absolutely loves this and plays with it all the time with her tea party sets and play food. This was super easy to make and really cheap. It also looks fabulous in her room because I used matching fabric to make the table. Your little girl will love this. I promise you.

2. play food dessert tray and cake stand





If you're going to make the tea party table above, you're going to need some dishes to go with it. What's a tea party without cute tableware? Again, these were really easy to make and really cheap. I got cheap plastic dishes from the dollar store and just glued them together. Easy and done. They look fabulous with Kirsten's adorable felt play food.

3. lego and car table





I couldn't make a special little table for my special little lady without making one for my special little guy too. My little Cam is obsessed with cars, so it was a no brainer that we would absolutely adore a cars lego table. Cam plays with his lego cars and table daily and it's probably one of his most favourite toys. How special do I feel that I was the one who made it for him? Let me tell you, it rocks!

4. button rings and/or ring pop rings







Do you have a little girly girl like me? My little girly girl loves all things girly and this includes wearing adorable jewelery. Here's 2 kinds of rings that were really easy to make and she just loves playing dress-up with them.

5. play make-up





Of course if your little girly girl has adorable little play jewelry to play with, she's going to want some play make-up too. I hated that regular kids play make-up was actually real makeup. Talk about messy. This idea is just brilliant because it uses dried nail polish in empty makeup containers. No mess and uses full imagination. Perfect.

6. kool-aid lip gloss





My kids get very chapped lips in the Winter. It goes hand in hand with our cold Canadian winters. Kirsten and I decided to make our own lip gloss with just vaseline and kool-aid and we loved the results. It was easy to make and keeps our lips nice and smooth all Winter long. This would make a great stocking stuffer too.

7. kool-aid play doh





Not only can you use kool-aid to make awesome shiny lip gloss like the stuff above, but it also makes amazing play doh. This stuff is so colorful and smells awesome. Make batches of lots of different colors and package it in small containers. This would also make a great stocking stuffer for the kiddos. What kid doesn't love playing with play doh?

8. shaving cream bath paint and/or bubble bath paint







Kids need to bathe, so why not let them have a little fun while they're doing it. Both of these bath paints are awesome although I think I prefer the shaving cream one. My kiddos love when I whip up batches of bath paints and they have a blast painting the walls and themselves in the tub. It cleans up beautifully and it has never stained my white tile and grout, I promise. Whip up some batches of bath paints and package them in small airtight containers. Makes a perfect gift.

9. I-spy bottle





These I-spy bottles are awesome. They're great to take on car trips, to take to restaurants to amuse little ones while you wait for your food, to take to the doctor's office to help the wait go a little easier, and the list could go on. I've made several of these because they're really cheap and easy to make. As soon as the kiddos get bored of their current one I can easily and cheaply make another. They're pretty awesome.

10. recycled crayons



And lastly, some recycled crayons. Who doesn't have millions of little crayon bits in their kids colouring basket? I know we do. If you have a shaped silicone tray, you can easily recycle those crayons into cool shapes. I personally prefer the star shape because of the points. My kids prefer to colour when there is a sharp point on the end. This too, would make a great stocking stuffer for your little ones.

Hope you found some inspiration on this list and happy crafting. Your kiddos will love it!

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