Itsy Bitsy Spider Craft

If you spend a lot of time listening to preschool music like I do, you are going to LOVE this easy Itsy Bitsy Spider craft that I made with my kids. This was so easy to assemble and so much fun to make. This is suitable for preschoolers and my 8 year old enjoyed it too... even though that is a baby song.



The Itsy Bitsy Spider House

You will need one full sheet of colored paper 
one 4x6 inch square of paper in another color
one triangle in another color (to make a roof)
2 2x2 inch squares of paper that are the same color.
One 2x2 inch square of paper in another color
One 1x3 inch strip of black paper
One Straw
One spider ring
2 strips of tape
Glue Stick




First Glue your 4x6 inch square of paper onto the full sheet.





Then glue on the triangle for the roof, and the 2 squares of paper that are the same color for windows.

Next add your door and your chimney.

Tape your straw to the side of the house on the bottom.
Slide the spider ring onto the straw from the untaped top.
Tape the top of the straw.




You can sing the itsy bitsy spider song with your kids, and have them move the spider up the spout! How cute right?





We had a lot of fun with this super easy Itsy Bitsy Spider Craft. I love that with such simple supplies we were able to create something so entertaining. 

This is not the only craft we have that  makes use of straws . You can give used straws a hot water soak and reuse them too to help reduce waste!

You might also like

Straw Necklaces; bling made for kids, by kids.
Straw Flutes; hey, why not?


11 Cheap and Effortless DIY Vase Filler Ideas



Whether you’re decorating for an event, a house gathering, or a reception, it can be a little intimidating what kind of ornaments to put up. On top of that, it can be pretty expensive too if you expect a lot of guests who have their own tables. That is why decorative table centerpieces always come in handy in situations like this.
If you ever find yourself scrambling to make last-minute additions to decorations or looking for cheaper alternatives, consider buying glass vases in bulk because they’re cheaper and there’s a lot you can do with them. You can easily customize glass vases to make centerpieces and have them fit into the theme of any party as you like.

Looking for ideas? Take a look at the list below.
Stones, Water, Candles


This sounds easy enough because you only need three things: stones, water, and a candle. You need to check the size of your glass vase if you want to achieve this because it can get crowded pretty easily. This is ideal for parties that are held outdoors and at night because, as a centerpiece, it can provide extra illumination once the candles are lit up.
Corn Kernels

This is a perfect DIY centerpiece for autumn because it fits in beside the general color theme of the season, which is reds and yellows. Corn kernels are one of the easiest and cheapest vase fillers to find because, if you love eating popcorn, you may already have some in your kitchen.

For this, you can display the kernels all on their own or add candles and maybe some ornamentation like dried maple leaves and some string. If you’re curious, here’s how the finished product should look like.

Coffee Beans

If you’re a coffee aficionado and have coffee beans lying around, consider getting a handful and turning them into vase fillers. It doesn’t matter what kind or grade you have. They’re perfect for any season, and you will be greeted by that wonderful coffee smell whenever you walk into the room.

Acorns

One of the best ways to save up on money when decorating is to use what nature has to offer. If you have a lot of acorn trees around your place, you can pick up some to use them for your own table centerpiece. This is perfect for autumn, and if you want the acorns to fit with the theme of your home or a party, you can paint them in any color you want.

Wine Corks

Show off your love for wine by using the corks as vase filler. Not only does it look like it was bought from a store, but you also recycle used items and help the environment. If you don’t have a lot of corks, you can buy a pack in bulk instead. Or you can simply fill out the vase slowly with each new wine bottle opened. You can find a simple tutorial online.

Snowflake Ornament

If you want seasonal centerpieces, snowflakes look great and would be perfect in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can make use of snowflakes from your collection of Christmas-tree ornaments if you plan to get new ones for this year. Instead of throwing them out, give them a second life instead as a table centerpiece.

Fresh Citrus Fruits

For an eye-catching pop of color, you can actually use fresh citrus fruits as vase fillers. This is great for any outdoor party. All you need to do is slice up some lemons, for example, and put the slices in the vase, along with some water and some flowers. If you want to get a beautiful effect,  

make sure to use bigger glass vases.

Another popular citrus fruit choice is oranges. Take a look at this tutorial if you’re curious.

Colorful Cereals

Cereals are one of the things that you can always find in the kitchen, but not everyone realizes that they make good vase fillers as well. Colorful ones make a vase look good without you needing to spend anything. They’re great for birthday parties and other kid events.

If you want to use them for this kind of purpose, it is up to you whether you want the vases to remain as centerpieces or whether you want to use them to hold treats to give away other than the cereals.

Loose Toys

Suppose you want to tidy up your child’s room but it is hopelessly filled with a lot of random loose toys and small knickknacks that you can’t seem to place or put away. Instead of putting them in a box somewhere to be forgotten, why not display it as a centerpiece?

Put little plastic army men, bouncy balls, Lego blocks, and puzzle pieces in a vase to make it look stylish. You can add flowers, faux or real, to make it look deliberate.

Dyed Rock Salt

Substitute fake gemstones with rock salt if you want to make a centerpiece with tea candles. Rock salt is cheap, and for just a few bucks, you can actually use dyes to paint the salt grains in different colors that you like.

What’s more is that they’re biodegradable, so if you feel like changing decors or using another batch of colored rock salt, then you don’t have to worry about polluting the environment. If you’re unsure how to dye rock salt, this little tutorial will help you out.

Beans

They’re the first beads of any kind, and that is why they make great vase fillers. Depending on the occasion and look you’re going for; you can easily find beans for the task. If not, you can always spray-paint them in batches and choose to put them in the vase by themselves or with other baubles.

Get Creative

There are a lot of cheap, easy, and free things you can use for vase fillers. You only need some  
imagination and maybe a little DIY here and there to make it happen. In terms of decorations, centerpiece vases are one of the easiest to do, and their beginner-friendliness makes them a top choice for those who want to try out small DIY projects for their home.
What do you think are other vase fillers that you can easily find and use? Share what you know in the comments section below.
     


Whether you’re decorating for an event, a house gathering, or a reception, it can be a little intimidating what kind of ornaments to put up. On top of that, it can be pretty expensive too if you expect a lot of guests who have their own tables. That is why decorative table centerpieces always come in handy in situations like this.
If you ever find yourself scrambling to make last-minute additions to decorations or looking for cheaper alternatives, consider buying glass vases in bulk because they’re cheaper and there’s a lot you can do with them. You can easily customize glass vases to make centerpieces and have them fit into the theme of any party as you like.

Looking for ideas? Take a look at the list below.
Stones, Water, Candles



This sounds easy enough because you only need three things: stones, water, and a candle. You need to check the size of your glass vase if you want to achieve this because it can get crowded pretty easily. This is ideal for parties that are held outdoors and at night because, as a centerpiece, it can provide extra illumination once the candles are lit up.

Cheap Writers vs Affordable Quality Ones

Life is tough for students these days. Whether it’s a college assignment, piled up lab reports, or a surprise tests, students may feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work. But that’s the way it goes. We can’t change it. In fact, the current educational system does not seem to care that students have personal lives too, besides academia. But we do!

If you are looking for some help for your essay, it is very important to do some research before committing to a particular service. In a business transaction, one of the most important things to pay attention to is the price that a service charges its clients. Cheap paper writers may get you incur more loss than you fear even. “You get what you pay for” does not strictly work here because both overpaying for a simple essay and being cheap are equally bad things. That is why we recommend a sensible and affordable solution, a sweet spot between expensive and cheap services. So what differences between the cheap and affordable writers you might name? Here is the list of key points that make a huge difference between those two.
Plagiarism
Arguably the biggest difference between cheap and affordable services is their attitude toward plagiarism. Nowadays, schools take plagiarism very seriously and if your paper is suspected in plagiarism you would be in trouble.

Cheap writers tend to template their work, where they might reuse the same sentences, examples or even paragraphs to finish your paper faster. Moreover, they might even copy some text from the internet without modifying and pasting it in your essay. Imagine if your professor reads the same paragraph in your and your classmate’s essays… things would likely go bad for both of you.

On the other hand, affordable writers take your requests responsibly and write unique papers with proper citations. Whether it is MLA or APA citations, affordable writers will take care of your paper and make your professors happy with the bibliography section. In other words, paying a few dollars more would go a long way for you and keep you out of an unnecessary trouble.
Variety of Services
Students might need more than just an English class essay. For example, students may need help with a book review, history paper, technical case study, admissions essay and what not. Every different genre has its own specific requirements, format, content, etc. and every assignment may have own specific requirements. As a result, an individual approach is necessary to guarantee a quality result that you want. Cheap writers tend to have a vague understanding of your requests, as their goal is to write something fast to move on to another cheap client.

On the other hand, affordable services offer specialized help with any request you have. For example, AffordablePapers.com offers a wide range of affordable services to help you with the specific paper you need.
Professionals
Just because somebody offers many specialized services does not mean that they are good at writing the papers that would satisfy your requirements. Cheap services rarely have the required skill to write personalized and good quality papers. Moreover, cheap writers may make contextual and grammatical errors because they do not specialize in a particular subject you need. Research and careful usage of examples is crucial for making any paper successful. For example, somebody who has never written a history essay may misplace dates and events rendering your paper ridiculous. While such lapses are common with cheap writers, affordable writers are professionals, who know what they are talking about. We recommend students to choose affordable services to guarantee the quality of the content as well as the adherence to the genre.

We hope the students understand the importance of choosing the right service to fulfill their needs. Luckily there are affordable solutions for you that will guarantee quality results to achieve whatever goals you have. Custom essay writing service www.affordablepapers.com with cheap prices is the optimal solution that would cater to your writing needs.

15 Things for the Classroom on the 100th Day of School

The 100th day of school is near! This is important for my kids, and if you are an educator, I am sure it signifies something important to you too! I found a ton of really fun and totally affordable items on amazon, and I think you might want to order a few of these things for the 100th day festivities at your school!

I am a participant in the Amazon affiliate program, if you order from these links, I will earn a small commission at no cost to you.




100th Day of School Wristbands

Whirling "100" Decorations

100 Days of School Paper Crowns

100 Days Paper Glasses

Glitter Boppers for the 100th Day of School

100 Days Smarter Badges

100 Days of School Dot Marker Sheets

100 Days Smarter Stickers

100th Day of School Pencils

100th Day of School Pete the Cat Bulletin Board Accessories

100 Days Ribbon Badges

100th Day of School Activity Kit

100th Day of School Dog Tag Necklaces

100th Day Headbands

100th Day of School Erasers


If you have a fun idea for the 100th day of school I want to hear about it! Leave a comment or share a photo with me on facebook!

15+ Chinese New Year Books for Kids

Chinese New Year is right around the corner, and this is such a fun opportunity to to explore another culture and add some excitement to the winter, which can seem so monotonous after Christmas has passed. This year, I found 15 awesome books to share with my kids to help them learn more about Chinese New Year.

I am a participant in the amazon affiliate program. If you make a purchase I will earn a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for helping to keep the site running!



Ruby's Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year for Kids
Ringing in the New Year
Dancing Dragon: A Lift the Flap Book
My First Chinese New Year
Chinese Zodiac Animals
Happy Happy Chinese New Year
A New Year's Reunion 
Celebrating Chinese New Year
The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale
Lanterns and Firecrackers
Curious George's Dragon Dance
Po Po's Lucky New Year
Peppa's Chinese New Year
Emma's Chinese American New Year
Home for Chinese New Year
It's Chinese New Year!

I found a few fun craft ideas for the occasion too!




 You might want to make these Chinese New Year Dragons by Happiness is Homemade.


These paper fortune cookies are so easy to make too!


If you have any favorite traditions or activities for kids for Chinese New Year I hope you will leave a comment or share a photo with me on facebook!