children – kerricreates

DIY Lemonade Stand

Published on July 20, 2018February 10, 2022 by kerricreatesblog3 Comments

My daughter has been asking to have a lemonade stand since last summer, so it was a must on our 2018 Summer Bucket List. I saw some cute DIY ideas using wooden crates and thought that we would give it a go. I found the best deal for wooden crates at our local Michael’s Store. My husband had a 36″ x 10″ board cut at The Home Depot. I purchased two different sizes of nails, 1-1/4 inches for the thicker parts and 3/4 inches for the thinner wood slats, and went to work. You can watch my video tutorial for more details on the building process. #CommissionsEarned

Hobby Lobby recently had a huge clearance on their summer stock, so I was able to get two giant yellow pinwheels for just $4 each. They made the cutest sides to hang a LEMONADE banner on. I used my Cricut Expression 2 to cut out the letters for the banner and hung it with twine. A few material scraps cut into triangles made for a mini pennant banner to hang along one of the crates. I created an “Ice Cold Lemonade” sign, a price list for some treats that we made, and lemon cupcake toppers that you can print off here Lemonade Stand Printables PDF

My daughter loves to dance, and every summer her dance studio holds a week long dance camp. We decided that selling lemonade & treats would be a great way for her to earn the $125 tuition for camp. On a Friday evening, we made a batch of cupcakes and marshmallow pops. I have included the lemon template I used for the candy melt lemons. Lemon Template pdf (See some of my marshmallow pop videos for instructions on how to create themed mallow pops)

On Saturday and Sunday, my girl held lemonade stands in our driveway, and not only did she have the best time selling lemonade and sweet treats, she earned $129 in two mornings thanks to the generosity and support of our amazing friends and neighbors. I will never forget the joy on her face when she walked into the dance studio on that Monday morning and paid her entire tuition in full with money she had earned herself. Lemonade stand success!!!

I am so pleased with the way our DIY Lemonade Stand turned out, and have been thinking of other uses for it. Of course she can always use it for imaginary play, but I’m sure we will also use it for birthday parties in the future, bake sales, donuts and juice during our garage sale, and of course, many many more lemonade stands.

Dr. Seuss (Cat In The Hat) Birthday Party

Published on February 20, 2017February 25, 2017 by kerricreatesblog1 Comment

Dr. Seuss’ birthday is March 2nd. When my boys were little, they LOVED Dr. Seuss books. The Cat in the Hat was one of their favorites! Several years in a row I made cupcakes for my oldest son’s class for Dr. Seuss’ Birthday. Then when Jacob turned 7, he decided to have a Cat In The Hat Themed Birthday Party.

Jacob will be 15 in May. Time sure flies! But sometimes I look at him and I still see that sweet little 7 year old running around in his Cat in the Hat, red and white, striped hat. Thankfully he’s still just as sweet, almost 8 years later, but we are well past the age of themed birthday parties.

So today I am taking a few minutes to reminisce. With Dr. Seuss’ birthday just a few weeks away, I decided that I would look through our archives of photos and share some of my memories with all of you. The quality of photos isn’t the greatest. I had no thought of starting a blog back then…just of keeping up with two busy little boys, but I’m sure there are some fun ideas for those of you who are thinking of hosting a Cat in the Hat Party or just looking for something fun to do on Dr. Seuss’ birthday.

For Jacob’s party, he wanted to watch some classic Dr. Seuss cartoons, so we made our house into a mini movie theater including a “red carpet” entrance made out of a red plastic table cloth. Our snack bar included popcorn, red vines, water bottles, and m&ms. We gave each of the kids some pretend money to “purchase” their snack items and ushered them into a curtained off room, lit only with white lights around the perimeter of the floor. We projected the movie onto a wall to make it feel like a movie theater and set up some cozy seating along the other wall.

I decorated with a display of our own Dr. Seuss books and some cardboard cut outs that I purchased online. For the cake, I bought a white plate and turned it upside down for the base. I made 5 cake rounds and stacked them one on top of the other. I frosted every other white and red and piped a bit of black frosting for the lines.

The cupcakes featured are the ones I brought to Jacob’s class. For the toppers, just layer white lifesavers and round cinnamon hard candies with frosting in between to “glue” them together. Place the candy toppers in the refrigerator to harden before putting them on the cupcakes. Frost the cupcakes blue and then add a circle of white in the middle before placing the candy hats in the center. The white frosting becomes the base of the hat.

I filled a basket with Dr. Seuss pencil and eraser sets for each of the kids to take home as a “thank you for attending my party” gift. This was definitely a fun and memorable birthday party for my oldest boy!

Valentine Craft: Cookie Cutters & Paint

Published on February 3, 2017February 4, 2022 by kerricreatesblog5 Comments

Today I’m introducing a new series on Kerri Creates called “Craft Time with Karis.” So many of my crafting inspirations have to do with my kids, so I thought it would be fun to bring my daughter in as my little crafting sidekick! She’s always up for an art project and I love providing creative opportunities for her.

“Craft Time With Karis” debuts with a simple and inexpensive Valentine Craft that we put together with a few things we already had around our house…cookie cutters, paint, and paper bags. Enjoy this little video tutorial we created, and subscribe to our youtube channel for up and coming “Craft Time With Karis” videos. #CommissionsEarned

For more Valentine fun check out the following blogposts:

Valentine Marshmallow Pops

Valentine Paper Garland

Valentine Words of Affirmation for Kids

Valentine Hearts Cake

Valentine Words of Affirmation for Kids

Published on February 1, 2017February 25, 2017 by kerricreatesblog3 Comments

Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to be intentional about expressing our love in creative ways to our children. So why save it all for one day? Take the beginning of February and create an “affirmation heart chain” for each of your children. Hang it on their bedroom doors and write a word or phrase affirming something uniquely wonderful about who they are on one heart, each day, leading up to Valentine’s Day.

I will never forget the first time we did this with our kids. It made getting up each morning a little more pleasant. You could see the joy on their faces as they read the words written just for them. I would even catch them reading down the list several times a day.

To make this a bit easier for me to stick to (as we all know how busy life gets), I like to print out a list of 14 words or phrases of affirmation for each of my kids before February 1st. I cut them up and put them in baggies. Then I just glue one on each of their hearts before I go to bed every night.

Children’s Art Corner

Published on January 26, 2017February 25, 2017 by kerricreatesblogLeave a comment

My daughter loves art! She will sit for hours drawing, writing stories, and coloring pictures. I have several areas set up around our house with art supplies, but I recently decided to put together a more intentional art space for her.

Michael’s was having a huge sale one day, so I headed over (with my coupons of course) and picked up these metal A R T letters, the chalkboard box for crayons, and the off white tray for paper. The rest, I already had around my house.

These adorable chairs were made for me by my brother when I was a child. They were in my childhood room, painted light pink, with dark pink carpet covering the seats. My mom gave them to me several years ago and I repainted and recovered them for my daughter. The wicker table belonged to my mom, who passed away a year and a half ago, so it means a lot for my daughter to have something so special to remind her of her sweet Grandma.

I bought the metal bucket years ago at the dollar store and it has held colored pencils in various locations around our house. Now it has a permanent home. I had used the mini white shutters last year for my Christmas mantle, but realized they were the perfect addition to this little art corner. The finishing touch was this bright and cheerful pennant banner. I had already cut the triangles for another project, so it only took me a few minutes to thread them through a piece of twine.

I absolutely love when I can use what I already have to create an inviting space for my children to enjoy. This little art corner has already gotten a lot of use in our home and is the perfect setting for inspiration to take place!

My Little Pony Capes

Published on June 14, 2016September 6, 2017 by kerricreatesblog1 Comment

My daughter loves My Little Ponies! The thing that makes me so happy about this, is that I loved My Little Ponies as a little girl too! In fact, my mom actually saved several of my ponies and gave them to Karis a couple of years ago. I cannot even tell you how much fun it is to see my own child enjoying the very toys that I so often played with when I was her age.

One afternoon when Karis was playing ponies she asked me if we could make clothes for them. Now I can sew a little bit, but making clothes for tiny horses is beyond my abilities. I noticed that a couple of her newer ponies came with little capes. With a little trial and error, I figured out a simple way to make pony capes by using small hair scrunchies, scraps of material, and various ribbons, buttons, and fabric flowers that I had in my craft drawers. We spent several hours together designing these “outfits” for the ponies to wear. Most definitely time well spent with my girl, and it brings me joy to watch her play pretend while dressing her ponies up in their beautiful capes.

Check out my tutorial to make some pony capes of your own and click here for the printable My Little Pony Capes Template.