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Cardboard first! Today I’m guest posting on one of my all-time favorite blogs, ikatbag! All about cardboard and lights! LiEr sent us a string of ten LED lights and asked what we could do with them. We made a light-up carboard space shuttle – and I’ve posted a full tutorial on her blog! Check it out – I know I’m looking forward to rest of the series! Don’t you want to make one? It was (nearly) free!
Click on over so your kids can have adventures like this!
On to sugar – and a post from the vaults that has just been waiting for the right time of year to roll around!
We brought back all the leftover gingerbread candy last Christmas, but I was too lazy to bake gingerbread – especially since, having made a gingerbread house from scratch before, I knew just how much work I was signing up for! So I made some royal icing, and let the kids shape the candy into little villages:
My then-4-year-old, 3-year-old, and 1-year-old didn’t produce particularly impressive results, but they had a fantastic time, and – in their eyes – these were legitimate villages! They felt like they had used a TON of candy, but it’s actually much less than you would find on your average gingerbread house. I let them eat a few pieces of candy, and then their villages mysteriously vanished!
I would love to see what older kids (or adults) could do with the same materials – it’s even gluten free! If anyone has given this a serious try, let me know in the comments – I’d love to see your masterpiece! Of course, if I were trying to do a gluten-free gingerbread house, I would probably just cut the house shapes out of cardboard and let the kids add candy. If only there were a way to make the cardboard smell like gingerbread…
Sharing this post at the NurturStore Play Academy!
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mmmm, gingerbread-scented cardboard… I’m imagining it now.
Anxiously awaiting your post to go live on ikat bag!
Visit Elisa | blissfulE … Nikki plays “Click Go the Shears”
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maryanne Reply:
December 16th, 2011 at 9:28 am
It should be up around noon my time – 3.5 hours =)
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A candy village sounds perfect! We never eat our gingerbread houses and they always mysteriously disappear after Christmas. :)
Visit Jen … hanging in l.a. with the chipmunks
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A candy village sounds like a great compromise. Maybe we could use the rest of our Halloween candy that way…….
Visit Ticia … Kentucky: Daniel Boone
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How neat that you are guest posting on ikat. A shuttle sounds like an excellent idea to me.
Visit Natalie … Pins and Sequins Ornament
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This looks like it was so much fun for them. Thanks for sharing. I am a new FB follower visiting from Play Academy. Vicky from Mess For Less
Visit Vicky … Food Fun Friday – Cranberry Bread Tradition – Guest Post from Minivan Diva
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How fun! I’ll have to go check out your post!
Visit Jenny … Christmas Countdown: Days 8-14
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I bought a Dancing Deer house kit at the co-op this year and we are going to attempt a house. But not until after Christmas during the break! I very much like how easy your village was to make! :)
Visit Mom and Kiddo … Lussekatter
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There is so much fun going on at your house!!!
Visit sherri … Turning 38…Was Royal Treatment!
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I love that picture of them together in their cardboard space shuttle. That is so cool!
I always enjoy seeing Lily alongside Emma and Johnny. Your kids are so sweet together and I swear you have the ‘patience of Job’ with the crafts and activities you pull off with them–LOL! You’ve got me beat and I admire you, Mary Anne!
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maryanne Reply:
December 27th, 2011 at 7:52 am
I think with the crafts it has more to do with their personalities than anything else! Your kids do amazing structured crafts!!!
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If you want to make a cardboard house smell like gingerbread you could probably just add gingerbread spices to the icing. Would work for your cute village idea too.
Visit Katherine … One Yard Wonders Fabric-By-Fabric (Rambling & Giveaway)
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maryanne Reply:
December 28th, 2011 at 7:46 am
Brilliant!!! Thanks for the tip!
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