DIY Lego Storage Container

If you’ve ever stepped on a Lego you know the importance of having easy Lego storage for kids.  I made these large Lego mini figure head storage jars out of plastic snack containers. They are easy and inexpensive to create and you're kids will love them.

STEPS TO DIY LEGO STORAGE HEAD:

1. Find a large container similar to a Lego mini fig shape. Empty the food.
2. Rip off label.  It leaves a sticky residue, you can’t paint over this well. I used detachol, soap and water to get it clean enough to paint. I recently saw some adhesive remover on the glue isle at Target you could try.
3. I used Krylon Dual Paint + Primer, Sunshine Yellow. I spray painted the outside of each container and lid (2 coats). Then I used a clear gloss to help protect it (1 coat).
4. I cut out vinyl using a silhouette machine using this method after finding a sample Lego face image online. These are simple enough shapes you could print a large face on paper and trace onto vinyl or onto the container and use sharpie markers to fill in the black. If you try the vinyl you’ll want a little black and white to complete the look. I also used vinyl to create a LEGO sticker on the back of the container to label it.
5. The containers with food cost $5-$8 then I spent $8 on spray paint (1 yellow, 1 clear can). I was able to create 3 containers for under $25 (and got to eat the food).

Before & After: Snack Containers into Lego Storage Box

 I think the Red Vines container looks the best.  I also liked the taller rounded shape of the Cheese Balls container too so I tried both. Look around for other containers at your local bulk food store or bulk food isle in the grocery store.  I really can’t stand cheese balls so we threw them away. We easily ate the Red Vines though so you may as well buy something you’ll eat so you don’t waste the food.


I love how they look in my son’s room. All three heads on his Lego style shelves. He can easily pull them out and find the Legos he needs then put them back away by himself.


 You may remember these baby food jars I turned into Lego party favor jars a few years ago.  See how I made them here.  One of my readers Mama Max made these jars and tried a larger pistachio plastic jar. She inspired me to make these larger jars so see her tips here.


 Here is my son with his 3 Lego storage heads.

Crochet Lego Blanket
His aunt made him this crochet Lego style blanket for his birthday last year and he sleeps with it every night. She lined the back with fleece. If you look closely you can see 6 bumps on each block that pop up to look like Lego bricks. I’m not positive where she got the pattern.


 We love all things Lego. See my LEGO Pinterest board for more inspiration.
If you don’t want to hassle with the mess and time to search for containers and paint them you can always buy them from the official LEGO. They have a head that sorts the bricks too. (disclosure *If you buy from these links I earn a very small percentage from the sale.)

Have fun and go play Legos with your kids today.

This post is not sponsored by or affiliated with the official LEGO. It is inspired by Lego because we build them every day at our house.

Grinch Craft Round-Up {App Review & Giveaway}

I’ve been finding a lot of fun Grinch crafts, activities, treats and apps online lately. ‘Tis the Season! I thought I’d share a few of my favorites with you so you can all have a Merry Grinchmas!


GRINCH CHRISTMAS BOOK COUNTDOWN
I actually got around to wrapping 25 of my Christmas books to do a Grinch countdown advent for Christmas. After seeing several versions floating around on Pinterest I've been wanting to make my own.  We have 70+ Christmas books so I still have 3 baskets out for the kids to browse but they sure do love having a present to unwrap every night. Even though they have read the books in years past, they love the excitement of a surprise gift. (I really should have wrapped them all because the three of them have a hard time taking turns.) The Grinch protects our books and I move him around like a puppet and make him say "only one book a day." He's such a Grinch.

GRINCH GIFT BAGS:
This past year I made Grinch gift bags that we leave out for Santa to fill. I found the red Santa bags at a Pottery Barn return/outlet store in Salt Lake City for $3-8 a bag. Some had embroidered names on them so I ordered Robert Kaufman Grinch fabric on ebay and sewed them on the bags as pockets so you can fill the pockets too. All those bags under the tree were made with scrap Christmas fabric. We use them every year.



GRINCH CHRISTMAS TREE
I found this fun Grinch Christmas tree on a friend’s facebook page. It is from a Festival of Tree fundraiser in Wyoming.

GRINCH CRAFT ROUND-UP
Here are some of my favorite Grinch crafts I’ve seen on Pinterest, Instagram and Etsy.

• I saw this Grinch Knit Hat on instagram and found out Anna makes these and sells them for only $10.00 + S&H at Mama’s Lil Monkeys. Her Christmas order cut off was this past Monday but you can always order one for next year. 
• You can buy the Grinch Knit Hat pattern with ear flaps for $2.00 at Ravelry if you have the ability to make it yourself.
• The kids will have an afternoon of fun with the Grinch Goo Sensory Bag by Crystal at Growing a Jeweled Rose.
• How cute are those Grinch Photo Booth props? For only $4, you get the pdf files to cut out. Just add sticks and you’ll be ready for your Grinch party. By Chela Williams on Etsy.
• Kids can use Pearler Beads to make the Grinch. You could turn this into an ornament. Made by April Hannah as seen on her Artwork Pinterest board.
• Try making delicious, cute and healthy Grinch Grape Party Poppers by Amy at Creative Kid Snacks.
• Find out how to make these simple furry Grinch Gloves by The Crafty Scarlet Raven.
• If you have a fireplace, make the Grinch Hands stick out by Rachelle Yakubu Photography.

GRINCH LINKS:
Click on pictures below or blog name above for more details on each project.

Grinch Hat $10	Grinch Hat Pattern	Grinch DIY Fur Gloves
Grinch Grape Poppers	Grinch Goo	Grinch Pearler Beads
Grinch Photo Booth Props	Grinch Photo Booth Frame	Grinch Cookie Recipe
Grinch Advent Calendar	Grinch Gingerbread Houses	Grinch Pills
Grinch Gift Bags /Roundup	Grinch Fireplace	Painted Grinch PJs

InLinkz.com

GRINCH APPS:

• Have you seen all the fabulous Grinch Apps from Oceanhouse Media in the itunes app store?  All of their holiday apps are on sale 40-50% off from Dec. 5-11th. See the list here. and I am giving away the How the Grinch Stole Christmas book app to a reader this week.  I’m also giving away a copy of Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? (This is my all-time favorite Dr. Seuss book. It just came out as an app this week and I love the message about being grateful for all that you have because you could be much worse off.)

They have the Grinch Book, Camera and Grinchmas Game available on itunes.
{Record your own voice} Grinch Story App Review:
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas has been out for a little while but this last week they just added the feature to record your own voice as the narrator.  My family tried it out this week and had so much fun. We each took a turn reading a page. Even my two-year-old added sound effects.  I like that when you listen back to the story they still have the sound effects with your voice for each page, like wind blowing, music and toy noises too.  I even got my family to sing Fa-who-fores, Da-who-dores with me. The sad part is, I paused it in the middle of recording and tried to re-do a page and from that point on our story didn’t record even though the red-flashing light said it was recording. I’ll have to figure that out next time. It is a long story so if you don’t have a way to go back and fix a page easily it makes it tricky and frustrating after you spent 10 minutes thinking you were recording. I also tried to send the recorded story to my email or to another device (it gave those options at the end) but it froze and I had to exit back to the story several times. These are just glitches I’m sure they are working on fixing.  I did get through recording it once by myself and my kids have had fun listening back to me reading the story to them in my sing-songy narrator voice.

GIVEAWAY:   Closed 12/9/12

I am giving away a code for How the Grinch Stole Christmas! book app and Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? book app from Oceanhouse Media. PLUS a BONUS code for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer book app.  3 Apps total.

TO ENTER: Please leave me a comment below telling me your favorite Dr. Seuss book your first name and email address in the comment. 
Rules: Must be 18 years or older. Must have a valid email address. App codes are for the itunes store and work on apple devices. No purchase necessary. Retail value of prize is $11.97. Giveaway closes Midnight PST on Sunday, Dec. 9th 2012. Winner will be selected by random.org. Odds of winning determined by the number of entries.
*Disclosure: I was given codes for the three apps I’m giving away for the purpose of review and three codes to giveaway to a reader. I am not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

LEAVE YOUR COMMENT BELOW TO ENTER. MERRY GRINCHMAS!
The winner was the #1 comment from Joy.

Sharing these Grinch ideas at JDaniel4's Blog featuring more Christmas crafts.

Mayflower Books, Crafts and My Pilgrim Heritage

My 16th Great-Grandfather, William Brewster, was one of the 102 Pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower ship in 1620.  My mom is a big family history buff and through her research she traced her mother’s family line all the way back to the Mayflower.  This makes Thanksgiving even more meaningful for our family. It has been wonderful teaching my kids about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower voyage.

We brought out all our Thanksgiving books and decided to make a Mayflower book basket to hold our books during the month.

Find an oval shaped basket or anything resembling a boat. You’ll need a dowel stick (about 2 feet tall), some muslin fabric for the sails, yarn, glue, scissors, some pencils or popsicle sticks to support the top and bottom of the sails.

Cut 2 sails out of muslin to the size that will look good with your basket. I poked small holes in the top and bottom of each sail. Then I ran the dowel stick through the holes to become the mast.  I glued sticks to the top and bottom of each sail (you may want longer support sticks for this but popsicle sticks worked fine for our task). Then I tied the mast to the basket at each side.

The pictures below are of my relative, William Brewster, one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. He was a religious leader. These are depictions of him I’ve found online and a tribute marker on the land near Plymouth.  The book ‘Pilgrim’ is a biography of William Brewster. My mom bought a copy at the gift shop at the Plymouth Plantation. We’ve watched several videos on YouTube about the Mayflower and learned that 10% of the American population can trace their heritage back to the Mayflower.

You could also make these fun Thanksgiving puppets and put magnets on the back so they serve double duty.  My sister made these and my kids love playing with them.  Use big tongue depressors and paint them, then add felt, feathers, ribbon, googley eyes, yarn or other crafts supplies to create your own set.



Mayflower on Pinterest:
I've found so many great ideas from other blogs that I've pinned to my Giving Thanks board on Pinterest. If you have a Pinterest account you can click here for more ideas.

Here are the Thanksgiving books about the Pilgrims and Mayflower I recommend:

From National Geographic, Mayflower 1620, A new look at a Pilgrim Voyage, is an excellent visual with live photo re-enactment of Pilgrims on a ship similar to the Mayflower.

Three Young Pilgrims is a retelling of the Mayflower story from a child’s perspective.
There are many more available. Check some out from your library or find several like these on Amazon. (I am an Amazon affiliate and receive a small percentage if you buy from clicking the links. Thank you!)


I hope you share the story of the Mayflower with the children in your life. I’m eternally grateful for the Pilgrims' courage and faithfulness to create a new life and realize I would not be the person I am today without them.  What are you thankful for? Do you have any favorite Pilgrim or Mayflower books? I’d love to try some new ones.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sharing this at Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap Up Party -
See other great autumn ideas here: