NYE DIY Scratch-Off Activity Countdown - with Printable

This year, I'm doing something new with my boys...

New Years Eve Activity Countdown

with DIY Scratch-off Cards!

I've been dying to try these and figured this would be the perfect time to do it!

to make the cards you need:

printable cards - I'm sharing mine at the end of the post, or you can make your own

white cardstock

liquid dish soap

acrylic craft paint - any color should work

clear packing tape OR laminate your cards 

painter's tape - if you want to tape off a nice, clean rectangle on your card

DIY scratch-off:

Print and trim your cards.

Cover scratch-off area with clear packing tape OR laminate your cards (this is what I did)

If you want your scratch-off coat nice and tidy, square off the area with painter's tape.
If you want your activities in a certain order, mark the painter's tape with a number 
so you'll know what order the cards go in after the activity is covered up with scratch-off paint.

Mix one part dish soap to two parts paint and stir (gently, to make as few bubbles as possible).

Paint a thin coat on top of the clear packing tape or laminated card, to cover up the activity.

Let dry and repeat - a few additional thin coats will be needed.
Remove painter's tape, fill in your times, and you are good to go!
You can do your activities hourly, or in half-hour increments like I did, 
to get the fun in before my Little Men crash.  I wrote the times on with dry-erase marker, 
then put each card in an envelope with the time written on the outside.

This New Years Eve 
Activity Countdown includes
(any or all of the following):

Family Motto 

Put your heads together and choose a phrase to focus on as a family in the coming year. 

Use a canvas, board, scrapbook page or frame, and create a visual reminder of your family motto - 

paint, scrapbook stickers, book pages, stencils, printed words, string - anything that you can create with!

Then display your family motto art through the new year, as a reminder and goal.
Maker Mama used a distressed door and each child painted a word of the motto onto it.  Beautiful!

Balloons

Easy peasy - a few bags of balloons and you are good to go with this one.  Kids don't need much organized prompting to have fun with balloons ; ) Volley them back and forth, blow them up and let them zip around in the air as they deflate (this always brings my boys lots of giggles), sit on them and see who can pop theirs first, rub them to make static and stick them in your hair, bop each other, stuff them in your shirt, see how many hits can keep them from touching the ground, draw silly faces on them...need more ideas?  

Check out this Balloon Games post at Play with Your Family.

Glow Sticks

You can get these in packs at Dollar Tree and in most dollar spots at Walmart or Target.

My boys usually just run around like maniacs waving glow sticks around, 

but you CAN do some really fun things with them.  

Check out this post from Play at Home Mom on Glow Sticks...Thinking Outside the Box.

Ice Cream Sundaes
Get some fancy fixin's and set up a sundae bar!  Syrups, sauces, sprinkles...don't forget the whipped cream!

Year to Remember Jar

I shared this idea in my 5 for Friday - Family New Years Eve Ideas post and I would like to do it this year with my boys.  So we will be decorating our jar together and getting slips of paper ready to fill it with gratitude, achievements, milestones, special moments...the whole year through.  
It will be so fun to read through it next New Years Eve!

Goals & Resolutions 

Another from my 5 for Friday post is this cute resolution printable from 30 Handmade Days to fill out with your kiddos.  I have mine from last year and it's cute to read what my boys wrote.
Mique now has a version for grown-ups, too.

Board Games
A great way to pass some hours of your New Years Countdown is to drag out the board games!
Our faves are Zingo, Hi Ho Cherry-O, Chutes and Ladders, Monopoly Jr, and Uno.

Living-Room Disco

Turn up the tunes, turn down the lights, and let loose.  
We frequently do this even when it's not a late-night holiday ; )

Noisemakers

I picked up a couple packs of misc. party blowers to wrap up in a goodie bag.
You could also make some!  Like these, these, or these.

Photo Booth

You don't have to have fancy equipment to set up a party photo booth - a blank wall and the timer setting on  your camera work great!  A tripod helps, but it's absolutely necessary.  You could also just swap turns pressing the button and let everyone get a shot at some silly posing.  We LOVED doing this at our Ninjago Party, so I'm going to whip up some photo props and do it again for New Years Eve.
Thanks to Brassy Apple, this will be a cinch!

You can put these in any order you like by writing in your own time on the cards.
Use them all, or just a few...scratch off on the hour, or go to half-hours to keep things busy.
Start it early in the day and have a NOON Year's Party if you have young Littles, 
then party grown-up style for the real deal at midnight ; )

printable cards 
for New Years Eve Activity Countdown
You may notice that the printables don't match the cards in the tutorial pics - that's because the blue polka dot I used initially, printed out as full blue and I could barely see the pattern. 
 So I went back into My Memories and switched up the colors later.
Click each image to view larger, then right-click to save and print as an 8x10 photo from your computer.

Happy New Year!!!

5 for Friday ~ Family New Years Eve Ideas

Family New Years Eve Ideas

Christmas merriment is settling and we are approaching the beginning of a new year.

I rounded up my favorite five activity/tradition ideas for a fun family new years eve.

1) A Year to Remember Jar

from Keepers Ministry
This is such a sweet idea ~ decorate a jar and add little slips of paper to it all year long,
recording favorite memories, milestones, special events...then read through the papers
on the following new years eve to remember what a wonderful year you had!

2) Balloon New Years Tree

from Our Best Bites

I came across this idea last year and ended up doing it last minute for a spontaneous party that we had with neighbors.  It was so fun that I swapped my Christmas Tree for a New Years Tree again this year, too.  I think I started a new tradition!  I pack up all the red and green Christmasy ornaments till the tree is bare with just white lights, then I cover it with gold and silver tinsel garland, wire star garlands, mardi gras beads and plastic icicles (all of which I got at Dollar Tree or on super post-Christmas clearance at WalMart).  It's so different than our regular Christmas Tree.  On New Years, we will add balloons : )

3) Resolutions Printable

from 30 Handmade Days
Here's another one from last year that I plan on doing again this new years eve with my boys -
A printable review of the year to fill out with your littles, courtesy of 30 Handmade Days.

4) New Years Family Motto

from Make and Takes
"Word of the Year" has been popping up in my blogosphere since last year.  I think it's a really neat idea, to choose a word to focus on for the coming year...I REALLY love the family motto version of this,
where you come up with a phrase together for the entire family.
Make and Takes made theirs into a typography board.  How awesome is this?!
I'm hoping to convince the Craft, Interrupted family to do a motto for 2013.

5) Sequin Disco Balls
from Backstitch Baby
It wouldn't be a holiday without some kind of craft activity, right?  This one made me smile,
so I'm including it in my top five - styrofoam balls, sequins, and straight pins.
How pretty would these be on a New Years Tree?!
Good fine motor skills workout, too ; )

5 for Friday Bonus - 
New Years Posts From Last Year

Fun New Years Ideas for Kids
Here's a huge roundup of fun activity and food ideas for littles to enjoy on new years eve.

New Years Eve ~ Craft, Interrupted Style
And a quick account of my last-minute New Years Party from 2012

Do you have a family tradition for New Years?
I'm going to whip up a fun hourly activity countdown with DIY scratch off cards.
Hoping to get it all together and posted for you in the next day : )

Fun Jar Friday #30: New Years Party Hats

This week on Fun Jar Friday ~

New Years Party Hats!

Fun Jar Friday is back! The boys and I had a great time doing the Christmas Book Countdown, but we were missing us some Fun Jar!  So now we are back and I am super excited about this activity.  We have put together some easy, cute, fun hats to ring in the new year with!

What you will need

felt scraps of various colors

hot glue

needle and thread

bells

sharpie

ruler

First off, cut your material.  Place your two felt colors together and cut.  For my 6 year old, I cut a 4"x24" rectangle.  For my 3 year old, I cut a 4"x22" rectangle.  You want your length divisible by two.

With your ruler and sharpie, start one inch in and mark every two inches on the edge.

Move your ruler down about 1-1.5 inches and start at the very edge, marking every two inches.  If you connected the dots, you would have a zig zag.

Next, cut out the triangles you just made with your marks.  

With the two colors still together, cut off one point section of the top color.

Flip material over and cut off one point section of the top color on the opposite end.  One color should hang over on either side now.

Without moving your fabric, glue the pieces together a little at a time.  

Once the two colors are together, bring the ends around so that the overhanging sections overlap each other.  Glue together.

Glue any loose or open ends down and trim any uneven areas.

Test your crown to make sure it fits at this point.  

With the sharpie, draw your year on the third color of felt. 

Cut out the numbers and glue onto the crown.

Finally, stitch the bells onto the ends of the points.  Stitch through about 4-5 times to assure a secure hold.  And you are done!  

You are ready to jingle the night away into the new year!

Currently {v.23}

obsessing, looking, improving, learning, remembering 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jaimee is...

CURRENTLY obsessing... on maintaining my status as High Score Holder of the Craft, Interrupted household - for the Bop It Smash that my boys got for Christmas.  Ha!

CURRENTLY looking... for a library book from our Christmas Book Countdown that has mysteriously disappeared in the happy mess of Christmas here.  Of course, it's the one book on my library list that has maxed out its renewals.  So it must be returned....but first it must be found!  WHERE is it?!?!  Aliens Love Panta Claus, come out, come out, wherever you are!  You are due back at the library today!

CURRENTLY improving... my logic and spacial skills, on the many educational puzzle toys and games that our house acquired this Christmas.  I'm determined to get some of the intermediate cards of Lab Mice, and pass that one tricky part of the Perplexus ; )

CURRENTLY learning... to take a deep breath and a step back, for awhile, and let my boys enjoy their Christmas holiday without so much hovering from Mom.  If they want to spread new Lego sets near and far, for a few days, that's ok.  If they want to eat crackers and marshmallows for breakfast, well, once in awhile is ok for that, too.  I'm learning that the world won't end if they break the rules, a teensy bit, and that letting them BE kids is a good thing...even if it means me biting my tongue and sitting on my hands to give them a little more freedom ; )

CURRENTLY remembering... Christmas past, when my Grandparents would come join us for breakfast Christmas morning and stay to watch my sister and I open our gifts.  This year, my Gramma is in a home, and Grampa is probably not far behind her.  I am far away, geographically, and hear the updates and feel the tension and stress from my immediate family as they are thrust into this new chapter - caring for our elderly who cannot care for themselves any longer.  It makes my heart ache, and I've been reminiscing about all the years we were able to have Christmas together.  Gramma always wore a Christmas sweater and pretty necklace to breakfast.  Grampa always sat on the bottom step of the stairs to watch the gifting mayhem in the living room.  I remember, and I wish they could know that I remember and am thankful for their presence in my life. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tiffany is...

CURRENTLY obsessing... over my new camera.  Years ago (approximately 6) I got a Canon Rebel XT DSLR.  DSLRs were just starting to be cool and the XT was pretty bottom of the line, but I loved it.  Millions of pictures later and several drops from high places from children, and a broken lens has made that camera very frustrating for me.  I could no longer take pictures close up.  Focus was all off.  And lighting was deteriorating.  My lovely camera was making me very sad.  So my mom and my husband went together this year to buy me a Canon Rebel T3 DSLR!  Still  pretty bottom of the line as far as DSLRs go, but such a vast improvement over my old camera that I am over the moon!  And I also got two new lenses with it to play with!  So get ready for more, and improved pictures from me!

CURRENTLY looking... for fun things to do in north Utah.  My husband was perusing our credit card and realized that we had several vaca points that expired the end of the year!  So we are putting together an impromptu stay-ca in north Utah.  Not far from our house, but weather is bad for travel and our boys struggle enough with road trips.  There's fun things to do up there though so we should have lots of fun.  The thing is, we decided all this yesterday and we leave, well, tomorrow!

CURRENTLY improving... my house.  Christmas has destroyed my house beyond acceptable living conditions.  It happens every year.  It's bad.  My craft room gets the brunt of it and I got fun new scrapbook stuff that I would love to play with but have no place to do so!  So I am cleaning, organizing, and repairing all the damage Christmas has done to my house!  That around planning our trip.  I thought I was allowed to relax after Christmas.

CURRENTLY learning... Furbish.  Santa blessed my family with not one, but two furbys since my husband helped make the app.  My oldest loves his and my youngest borders on unhealthy obsession.  He takes it to bed with him and jabbers long into the night.  We've already had to change it's batteries.  It jabbers uncontrollably and has no off button.  The only way to make it stop is to have it go to sleep.  My kids hate when it's asleep.  As you play with it, depending on how you play, its personality changes.  My oldest boy is quite happy with his furby being a valley girl so there is alot of OMG, like, and no way in all his jabbers.  My youngest on the other hand prefers his furby to be a nice, loving furby.  Thing is, he's three and likes to shove his finger in it's mouth nonstop.  This makes furby angry and he changes to evil furby which upsets the little guy.  The only way to change him back to a nice furby is to pet it for like 2-5 minutes.  I am petting that furby a lot these days.  Sigh.  Furby.  

CURRENTLY remembering... Christmas past as well.  As a child, many members of the family would spend the night at my grandparents house.  My grandpa, always the child, would wake up at 4 and wait impatiently for the rest of us to wake up.  I would always wake shortly after, sneaking whatever peeks I could of my stocking while I waited.  My uncle was always the last to wake and we would all sneak into his room and sing Christmas carols to wake him up. With around 10 people in a small house, we would sit amongst a sea of wrapping paper, no where to walk.  And after that the rest of the large family would trickle in for Christmas dinner.  These days, it's just me and my little family on Christmas.  No family to visit.  And it never quite feels the same.  I hope it's because I have grown up and that my kids still feel the joy and wonder of Christmas that I did but it makes my heart sad that they don't get to know what a Christmas with lots of people is like.  But I am super happy for technology like facetime which allows me to see some of my family open the presents I gave them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sharing @

CBC Day #24 - Monstrous Paint Ornaments

Book #24 - Christmas Present

by Joel Schick

35 years ago, this book was given to my husband as a gift from his dad.  Today, it's an all time favorite of my boys.  It's unfortunate that it is so difficult to find these days, even in the library because it is a really fun book.  Joel Schick was an artist for Jim Henson and that fun style is shown in this book.  

It tells the song of the 12 Days of Christmas, but everyday the true love presents a number of monsters who happily devour the house.  Each page is delightfully illustrated as the monster destroy more and more of the room.  Your kids will fall in love the the six sneeds a slavering and five moldy things!

It's Christmas Eve!  And the final day of our Christmas Book Countdown.  I wish I had a more representational activity for you, but I suppose I didn't plan well.  And to tell you the truth, my original activity was a flop!  it happens.  So I came up with a quick last minute one and made it versatile so that you can make it whatever you want.

Our Day 24 Christmas Book Countdown Activity

Monstrous Paint Ornaments

So, your options for this ornaments are to make a Fun Painted Ornament, a Monstrous Painted Ornament or a Monster Ornament depending on your supplies.

For a Fun Painted Ornament you need: a plastic (highly suggested) clear or frosted ornament, paint, string

For a Monster Ornament you need: and old solid color ball ornament (preferably plastic), craft foam, hot glue gun if craft foam doesn't have a sticky back, string

For a Monstrous Painted Ornament you will need a plastic (highly suggested) clear or frosted ball ornament, paint, craft foam, hot glue if craft foam doesn't have a sticky back, string

Notice how I have mentioned the idea of a plastic ornament several times?  Yep.  That's because all we had on hand were frosted glass ones and there were some casualties and a lot of tears.

The instructions will be in step to help you with whatever craft you choose.  If you are doing the Monster Ornament, start at step 5.  For the Fun Painted Ornament and the Monstrous Painted Ornament, start at step 1

Step 1: remove the topper from the ornament.

Step 2: squirt a couple Tbsp. of paint inside.  You can use as many colors as you want.

Step 3: swirl and shake the ornament around so that the paint covers the entire inside.

Step 4: If you are making the Fun Painted Ornament, let dry and replace the topper and continue to step 7.  If not, continue to step 5: while paint dries.

Step 5: Help your child design their monster and cut out foam pieces for teeth, eyes, horns, whatever.

Step 6: place the craft foam on the ornament by sticking or hot gluing (hot gluing will last longer but stickers is easier) I used a sharpie to draw the mouth.  Replace topper if you painted it.

Step 7: string a string or yarn to hang your ornament.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Don't forget

You can find all of our posts on my pinterest board 

Christmas Book Countdown 2012

and

You can see pics of our Christmas Book Countdown activities on instagram,

with the hashtag #CBCatcraftinterrupted.  Feel free to tag and share your own!

CBC Day 23 ~ Flying Felt Bird Ornament

Book #23 - Christmas is Here

adapted from King James Bible 

illustrated by Lauren Castillo

The only words in this story are taken directly from the Christmas story in the King James Bible, but the illustrations present it in a beautiful way that modern day children can relate to.  A family goes to see a live nativity, and as the boy peers into the manger to see the baby, we are transported back to the shepherds that follow the star to the stable where Jesus was born.  The illustrations wrap up the Bible story by returning to the Christmas gathering at the live nativity scene, showing cozy snow, caroling, and family togetherness.  It's a beautiful and peaceful rendition of the story of Christmas.

Our Day 23Christmas Book Countdown Activity

Flying Felt Bird Ornament

This activity comes from Spoonful, with a printable template for both cardinal and dove.

for this activity you will need:

one sheet of craft felt per bird - red for cardinals, white for doves

string/yarn to hang

tiny sprigs of fake greens

black sharpie or bead for eye

hot glue or Elmer's school glue

to make your flying felt bird ornament:

You can print the pattern and see the tutorial here at Spoonful.

It's a simple and quick project, but little hands will need help tracing, cutting, and gluing.

TIP - if using sparkle felt, you will have to flip your pattern before tracing the 

second one so that you have left and right sides with the sparkle facing out.

Trace two birds onto your felt (regular ball point pens work good for this), and cut them out.

Loop whatever string, ribbon, yarn you are using for your hanger and 

glue in the center just under the wing on one of your bird pieces.

Then outline the bird's body, beak and tail with glue - make sure you leave the wings free of glue

Layer your second bird on top, matching up the shapes and let dry.

If using hot glue, it's best to go slowly, gluing a few inches at a time

 instead of outlining the whole bird at once.  We were able to glue the top section, 

leave the belly open, and stuff the birds a tiny bit before gluing shut.

You can stuff them with cotton balls or scraps of felt - or leave them flat.

Snip a few pieces off a spray of fake greens (we used holly from Dollar Tree), and glue under the beak.

Add an eye with sharpie, puff paint, fabric paint, scrap of felt, mini pom, button, bead...whatever works.

When you hang your bird, the wings are free to flap open and downward like the bird is flying : )

So pretty!

Our finished bird ornaments

We hung ours on the garland on our stairway.

Don't forget

You can find all of our posts on my pinterest board 

Christmas Book Countdown 2012

and

You can see pics of our Christmas Book Countdown activities on instagram,

with the hashtag #CBCatcraftinterrupted.  Feel free to tag and share your own!

Merry Christmas crafting!  I hope your craft time has less snafus than ours did on this one ; )