Today, Rene shares a roundup of 11 easy craft projects for kids, perfect for National Crafts Month!

Whether you're stuck inside on a rainy or snowy day, or are just looking for a fun project at home, get little hands busy with cute and simple craft projects that will entertain and engage them. These 11 projects are easy for kids to tackle with minimal parental involvement, so enjoy another cup of coffee while your kids channel their inner mini Martha's!

1. Colored pasta necklaces will help develop fine motor skills in little hands.

2. Toilet paper tubes are a great base for kid-friendly crafts, such as these sweet and simple toilet paper tube owls.

3. Popsicle sticks and washi tape pair with your child's imagination to create endless possibilities in these craft stick dolls.

4. Fallen leaves become animals in this easy leaf alphabet craft project.

5. Science meets craft with 5-minute gak.

6. Repurpose all of those discarded coffee cup sleeves into bracelets for budding fashionistas.

7. Mom wields the glue gun while the kids are in charge of creating their bug magnet masterpieces.

8. Kids can create beautiful mosaics or scenes with minimal mess for mom to clean up with this tissue and contact paper craft.

9. DIY snow globes are a great way to whittle away at a snowy afternoon.

10. Help lonely, unmatched socks find new lives as snuggly snakes.

11. Evoke springtime with cheerful and colorful coffee filter butterflies.

Image credits: all images sourced via links above

Given that it's early February and many of us are wrestling with the "what do we do now?" question as the snow days stack up (if the 10-day forecast is correct, we may have more forthcoming...SORRY!), I thought it would be a perfect time to roundup some ideas for Valentine's Day. It turns out there are some really great ideas swimming around in the archives; enjoy these free printables, crafts, treats, and relationship lessons.

1. The core of everything is relationships! These 4 simple love lessons are a really good place to start.

2. Isn't it amazing that the world is filled with so many beautiful free printables? I used #1 and #5 last year and will return to these 14 awesome free Valentine's Day printables for the girls!

3. If you have a kid who loves to focus on projects, these rosebud Valentine's are simply adorable (sorry, old photo skills don't do it justice!).

4. Here's a fun roundup of 10 lovely Valentine's Day craft and treat ideas.

5. Here are 3 easy Valentine's Day treats you can make with kids; I think I'm going to make the cake this year. YUM. CAKE.

6. If you want to create a treat that's a little fancier, try these Valentine's fudge cakes. YUM.

7. We keep things simple and don't really do Valentine's gifting in our house, but here's a cute idea for Valentine's Day color themed card kits -- you may be able to assemble this from craft scraps in your home (what's old is new!).

8. And here's an article I wrote a while back on creative ideas for celebrating Valentine's Day.

My sweet Laurel is a maker and around the holidays, she's always asking me about projects ideas. The Minimalist Parenting community loved this post on 14 kid-crafted gifts, so I figured -- what with the weekend coming up -- it would be fun to share 10 more ideas. And given my deep passion for clutter-free gifts, I've rounded up a collection of ideas that are CLUTTER-FREE. YAY! These items would be adorable for family, friend, and teacher gifts.

Click on the links below for the full tutorials, more images, and further creative content. And props to these amazing bloggers for sharing their DIY brilliance!

1. I've been obsessed with plants lately (and finding ways to bring more into our home). These DIY paperwhites would be such a lovely gift.

2. Homemade bath bombs in cute shapes = adorable. Extra awesome add-on: a coupon for solo tubby time to the recipient.

3. Kids can help mix ingredients and fill jars for this honey brown sugar scrub. Perfectly timed for desperately-need-to-exfoliate season.

4. Help your kids practice their knot tying skills with these ribbon tree ornaments. I'm a huge fan of the "use all the scraps" mentality!

5. I love clipboards for simple command centers and had never thought of how awesome it would be to give your kid creative freedom to create decoupage clipboards as gifts. So awesome.

6. Laurel became obsessed this year with homemade lip gloss. And why not? Just two ingredients and you're ready to roll. (Little baby food jars would find a great new life for this project.)

7. These cookie cutter bird feeders give your holiday cookie cutters another purpose while making for cute, clutter-free gifts for loved ones (and their backyard birds).

8. Attention partners of moms, print this World's Best Mom newspaper sheet and have your kid decorate it. Perhaps also enclose tissues. This will be a flat keepsake for your archives. Or you might want to frame it.

9. I love the mess-free nature of duct tape crafting! Have your kid give old frames a new life by duct taping them! You could also apply the decoupage approach of #5 to frames.

10. These citrus stamped tea towels are so cheerful, and totally doable for the younger crafting crowd.

So fantastic, right? Which project would your kids love? I'm thinking that the cookie cutter bird feeders are where we'll start this weekend.

Image credits: all images via linked websites above.

OK you guys. After posting that roundup of no-sew Halloween costumes, I said to myself, man, if someone can make a no-sew UNICORN, surely I can handle Laurel's request to be an M & M! So on Friday I decided to give it a try since we were heading to Boo at the Zoo Saturday. This was the first time in craft history that I made up a project on the fly that turned out just as easy as I had hoped in my mind! Here's the DIY:

For supplies, you will need:

• Craft paper
• Two yards of felt (M & M color), for a max 36" diameter M & M
• One 8.5 x 11 sheet of white felt
• Fabric scissors
• Glue gun + glue sticks
• Pins
• Batting (totally optional)

1. Make paper templates. For the M & M, I taped together two large sheets of craft paper (I have a big roll in my office) and had Laurel lie down so I could figure out a size that would have impact but not be overwhelming; for Laurel's 10-year old body this was about 32 inches. I measured out a circle old school style, by taping a string to two pens, holding one pen in the center, and tracing out the circle with the other pen. Then I cut out the circle. While I was doing this, Laurel freehand drew the "M" and cut out that paper template.

2. Cut fabric. With your M & M color felt folded in two, lay paper template on top and cut out circles. If you use a sharp pair of fabric scissors you'll have no problem cutting both pieces at the same time. Do the same for the "M" (lay paper template on top and cut out).

3. Pin glue zones. Pin areas shown be red marks in the below image to guide your glue zones. You want the head, arm, and leg holes to be big enough to get in and out of easily while being closed enough so the M & M holds it's circle shape.

4. Glue pieces. Glue "M" to front of circle. Remove pins (I just in pins to mark the end of each zone to help guide me, then removed) and glue seams shut. Wait for glue to cool then test fit on your kid and glue openings a little more shut if necessary. Again, the more you can close the seams, the better the M & M will hold shape.

And you are DONE! This took about a half hour! I did buy batting thinking we might need to stuff the M & M, but we didn't need it. And no stuffing made the costume easier for Laurel to negotiate (and easier to fold up and put in my bag!). If you want, you can have your kid wear white pants, shirt, and gloves but we didn't have any of that. And it didn't matter -- based on the number of comments and excited squeals Laurel received at the zoo from other parents and kids, the costume clearly translated! 

The only hitch with this costume (which Laurel and I discussed before starting) is that it's obviously not comfortable to have your arms sticking straight out the sides. So, she had her arms inside the costume, holding her treat bag, and she'd just reach a free hand to get a treat when it was time. If you want to avoid this problem, you could make a peanut M & M, which is a more oval shape. If Violet had been interested, it would have been cute to make her a peanut M & M companion for Laurel!

Images: Christine Koh

As I said last week in my roundup of adorable free Halloween printables, I am so, ridiculously grateful for the creative people online who share their how-to's. Case in point, though I do own a sewing machine, it is, in fact, another piece of gear and another step if you're trying to DIY a costume. Today I wanted to share a roundup of 10 clever no-sew costumes, where your primary tools generally will be scissors and a glue gun. AWESOME.

I'm feeling less intimidated now to riff and attempt Laurel's desired M & M costume! Click through on each of the below links for the full tutorials. And thank you, fellow bloggers, for being so awesome!

1. Use adorable pajamas as a Halloween costume base (that they can then go right to sleep in....WIN).

2. Turn baby into a popcorn box with felt and a glue gun.

3. Literally. Time to make the donuts.

4. You won’t be saying Let it Go to this easy no-sew Elsa costume.

5. Is it weird that I want to make myself a pair of these mermaid leggings?

6. OMG family of Care Bears!

7. Create a unicorn in under an hour.

8. Every dreamer needs a jet pack.

9. Get spooky in a hurry with these easy bat wings.

10. Take your pick of any of these adorable super hero costumes.

Image credits: all images via linked sources above; click through full the full DIYs!

The internet is overflowing with Halloween adorableness right now and as someone who loves holidays but is short on bandwidth for from-scratch projects, I'm immensely grateful to the awesome and clever people who make it easy for busy parents to make the house festive in a matter of minutes. So, fire up your color printer, go visit these amazing creatives to download a free printable (or 10!), and get your home Halloween ready in a snap.

1. How cute (and tasty) is this Halloween bingo game?

2. Build in a little learning with this Halloween scavenger hunt.

3. There's still plenty of time to countdown to Halloween.

4. Inspire spooky play with these Halloween shadow puppets.

5. Everyone will love these adorable (and yummy) mummy bars. (These remind me of the DIY mummy minion door!)

6. Even fingers need costumes.

7. Be the ghost and BOO! your neighbors.

8. Enjoy instant costumed cuteness thanks to these mask printables.

9. You'll be sure to have the most charming treats on the block with these treat bags.

10. Inspire a few lunch time laughs with these Halloween lunch box jokes.

Image credits: all images per linked sites above

What a gorgeous, gorgeous day! It was wonderful to feel the amazing Boston Marathon energy downtown, enjoy some self-care (definitely call my friend Honey Jo if you're looking for a stellar hair stylist!), and watch Laurel and Vi hunt down eggs with a gaggle of kids. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, and also these great reads and visuals via Hey Internet, Keep Being Awesome:

- The world if there were only 100 people.

- 3 meditation techniques for beginners.

- Stick or twist: the postdoctoral dilemma.

- Lemon burst cookies. Yummy.

- Can’t afford organic? 10 foods you can eat anyway.

- 15 beautiful indie posters that could pass as fine art.

- The crossroads of should and must.

- 36 genius ways to hide eyesores in your home.

- Portraits of reconciliation.

- College ROI: The value of a college education.

Image credit: lemon burst cookies via Pinterest

March is National Craft Month, and given how much I love crafting + the fact that I have some seriously crafty friends, I thought it would be fun to share a roundup of awesome craft/DIY books. The amazing thing? When I queried these creatives, they all shared different recommendations across different craft types. LOVE. I can't wait to add all of these titles to my craft library!

1. Decorating Cookies by Bridget Edwards. “I love a DIY book where I can learn something completely new. When it comes to the most adorably decorated sugar cookies you've ever seen and the best step by step instructions to help you get it right every time, this book rocks! Bridget is the Michael Jordan of cookie decorating.” -Kami of No Biggie

2. Fabrics A-Z by Dana Willard. “This sewing and fabric book from the lovely Dana Willard of MADE is the perfect guide for choosing the right style of fabric for your project!” -Marie of Make and Takes

3. Hand in Hand by Jenny Doh. “This book includes gorgeous and doable projects that parents and children can craft together. The photography is beautiful and colorful and the projects are inspiring.” -Caroline of Salsa Pie

4. Knitting New Mittens & Gloves by Robin Melanson. “A great option for when you're ready to try something more advanced. The patterns are gorgeous and reflect different ethnic and cultural traditions, including Icelandic, Celtic, and German. The patterns are sized for adults and children, and include a good range of mittens, gloves, fingerless gloves, mittens with fold-over flaps, and and even arm warmers. I've made several patterns from this book and wear and enjoy them all.” -Kate of Boston Mamas

5. Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. "This book is replete with adorable and stylish projects ranging from quick (coasters) to more involved (quilts). It's one of my go-to inspiration points when I'm thinking about starting a new sewing project." -Christine of Boston Mamas

6. Make and Takes for Kids by Marie LeBaron. “As much as I love to make things and craft, I fall short when it comes to simple and cute kid crafts, so I love Make and Takes for Kids as a quick go to when it comes to kid crafting...and as a bonus, I happen to love the author.” -Kami of No Biggie

7. Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts by Martha Stewart Living Magazine. “There are so many good ones — most that we keep tend to be very specific and niche and we pick them up as my kids interests change and develop. But if you're just starting to build your crafting library, my favorite general book is Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts. It's the real deal. Great information. Great visuals. All from a crafting team that knows their glue glitter.” -Gabrielle of Design Mom

8. Modge Podge Rocks by Amy Anderson. “The book features more than 40 fun and fantastic projects using the wonder-supply that all crafters adore: Mod Podge!” -Caroline of Salsa Pie

9. New Dress a Day by Marisa Lynch. Marisa is a self-taught seamstress and yet is able to turn thrift store castoffs into covet-worthy & current pieces, like her "As Seen on TV" runway copycats for Hello Giggles & the Goodwill-to-gala pieces she upcycled for the sisters in The Fighter to wear on the Oscars red carpet. Her unassuming attitude and inclusive tips make even a total amateur feel at ease ponying up to her sewing machine for the first time.” -Melissa of Shoestring Magazine

10. Oliver + S Little Things to Sew by Liesl Gibson. “A pleasure just to look at, the patterns in this book are a compilation of the best from the Oliver + S company. Skirts, jackets, backpacks, and wonderful hats, all sized for children but in designs that will appeal to adults. The patterns indicate their level of difficulty, and the instructions are illustrated and pretty easy to follow. A fun book for sewing for kids.” -Kate of Boston Mamas

11. POM-POMS! 25 Awesomely Fluffy Projects by Sarah Goldschadt & Lexi Walters Wright. “I love all the unique and fun tutorials to make yarn poms from this Pom-Poms book. From little creatures to flowers to garlands. It makes me yarn happy!” -Marie of Make and Takes

12. Put Your Stamp On It by Meagan Lewis. “This stamping book is one of my favorites to get project ideas on things to make with my 5 year old daughter Chloe. We love to stamp to make pictures, wrapping paper or cards so it's a great way to try new techniques.” -Natalie of Coquette

13. Sewing for All Seasons by Susan Beal. “I am a sewer at heart and this book has lots of easy year-round small sewing projects you can make such as placemats, aprons, ornaments, slippers and more.  The fabrics used for the projects in the book are just gorgeous so I sometimes just find myself just flipping through the photos when I don't have time to actually sew.” -Natalie of Coquette

14. Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda Jean Nyberg & Cheryl Arkison. “This book is a great beginner's guide to quilting. Pretty patterns, good inspiration, and easy-to-follow instructions that actually make quilting seem within reach. A great place to start out for a first quilt (as I did) or to try something a bit more advanced.” -Kate of Boston Mamas

Image credits: book jackets via Amazon; compilation image by Christine Koh

Happy Saturday and happy March everyone! Between travel, school break, and then some more travel, it feels like a million years since I last posted a Hey Internet, Keep Being Awesome. But it certainly isn't because it hasn't been awesome. I'm glad to get back this week; here are some great reads, visuals, and resources that I found particularly awesome this week. Enjoy!

- My friend C. C. Chapman is awesome; here’s what he’s doing for Mercy.

- As if I needed another reason to eat Ben & Jerry’s.

- As if I needed another reason to love Paul Rudd.

- Different teas and what they help with.

- Incredible paper versions of famous dresses.

- Incredible photos of abandoned places.

- Stunning portraits of the world’s remotest tribes before they pass away.

- Online resources for affordable curtains.

- America’s best cities for hipsters (#14 represent).

- Eight ways to use your smartphone to make your life easier.

- Use old dried out markers to make watercolor paint.

Image credit: homemade watercolor paint