Thanksgiving Placemats for Children: Tutorial

I've been posting a lot of food recipes on here, but I also promised some craft and DIY projects too and I've been skimping on that promise.
Sorry.

As it is, I'm a Pinterest addict. Seriously. Ask my husband or any of my friends.
But last year, I posted a little project I did with my daughter and her friend (whom I was watching at the time) and I've had a really good response to it.
So, I thought that I would spread the holiday cheer to you as well, and also for those who follow me on Pinterest, a little bitty instructional on how to do the actual project.

By the way, you can follow me on Pinterest here!

Anyway, back to the tutorial.
This was crazy simple to do, especially since I was doing it with a 10-month old and a 1-year old.
Other than a little prep (unless you want to try to wrangle kids and write at the same time, which I don't recommend), this really takes no time at all. Just a lot of patience.

Please excuse my terrible handwriting.

First off, you're going to need some supplies!

• Card Stock - I used patterned card stock for scrapbooking
• Washable paints
• Paintbrush
• Marker
• Pencil
• Egg carton (cut in half_
• Lots of patience and wipes

Now comes the prep! I did a lot of my prep work during nap time, but whenever you can find the time to do yours, do it!
Using a black marker, I wrote out the poem "You've Made A Difference" by Joanna Fuchs (which you can find a copy of it here. You can add your child's name like I did along with the "First Thanksgiving" and their age, if you want.
Then, using a pencil, I freehanded the outline of a tree. With my tree, I made a few branches and stuff, but I didn't worry too much about details because your kiddos are going to go crazy around the edges of the branches so they'll be pretty well hidden.
Once satisfied with the tree, I used a brown paint to paint within the lines of my tree.

Then the waiting time. Depending on the time of the year at your home, this can take anywhere from a few hours to dry to overnight.

Here's the fun part!
Aprons, bibs, being naked - whatever works to minimize the damage of getting paint everywhere, go for it. I also found it a lot easier to do each kiddo one at a time and have them sit in my lap so I could control how much of a mess we made.
With my daughter and her friend, I cut an egg carton in half and filled each place with a different color paint. Green, Brown, Red, Yellow, and Orange. Then I let them go crazy by dipping their fingers into the paint and with some careful instruction, had them dot like crazy all over the tree branches. They seriously had a blast with that.
Whether your tree comes out looking like something from Charlie Brown or something out of a Life photo-shoot, it doesn't really matter.

Lastly came the frustrating part (at least for the kiddos). After cleaning off their hands, I painted the palm and thumb of their hand with the brown paint (make sure to wash your paintbrush each time you switch colors!). Then their pointer finger with green, middle with yellow, ring finger with orange, and lastly, their pinky with red. You can do whatever color combination you like too!
Then it's time to press their hand onto the paper!
You might have to help a bit here by making sure their palm and all of their fingers touch the paper to transfer the paint.
As you can see in the picture, my daughter wanted to wiggle her fingers a bit. That's fine too!

With that, you're pretty much done! Make sure to wash your kiddo's hands and repeat for any remaining kids, and clean up your mess!
Once all the paint was dry, I used a marker to draw in the turkey's legs and eye, as well as his waddle.

You can choose to laminate your pretty little placemat or leave it as is - card stock holds up pretty well as long as you don't get it wet.

And that's it for the Thanksgiving placemat tutorial!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Placemat

Supplies:

• Card Stock - I used patterned card stock for scrapbooking
• Washable paints
• Paintbrush
• Marker
• Pencil
• Egg carton (cut in half_
• Lots of patience and wipes

Instructions:

1. Write out poem "You've Made A Difference" by Joanna Fuchs (or any other fitting poem)
2. Write our child's name, age, and "(First) Thanksgiving (year)". (Optional)
3. Draw out a tree using a pencil and paint within the lines. Allow to dry.
4. Using an egg carton, or any other method of holding paint, allow children to finger paint the leaves on the tree using green, brown, yellow, orange, and red.
5. Wash hands
6. Paint child's palm and thumb with brown paint, then painting the remaining fingers with the remaining colors.
7. Press child's hand onto paper, ensuring that the paint is spread evenly on paper.
8. Wash hands and allow to dry.
9. Draw in legs, eye, and waddle on handprint turkey.
10. Laminate. (Optional)

Oh Snap! Gingersnaps!

Crinkly, cracked, sugary perfection.

All wrapped up in a pretty brown bursting-with-fall-flavor package.

This is the recipe for Gingersnaps that i've been using for years, and it's my most requested cookie during Fall.

Every year, friends and family know that Fall is here when I start doling out the Gingersnaps. I bring them to family functions, holidays, parties, you name it; they're always devoured.

What makes these little flavor-packed cookies so scrumptious? Some say the smell or the amount of flavor packed into each little cookie. Others say it's the soft and chewy inside with a crispy, sugar-coated outside. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter.

Another wonderful thing about these little treats are that they leave your whole kitchen smelling fantastic. Also, these are super kid-friendly! My daughter loves to help me in the kitchen and she loves making these cookies because she gets to roll them and shape them to her heart's content.

Personally, I think that what makes these cookies is that you completely coat them in sugar and then bake them. My daughter likes to flatten them on the baking sheet, but I leave them completely rounded and let them flatten naturally as they bake.




Not to mention, I'm probably the worst blogger ever. Seriously? It's been almost two months since I've last posted something?
It's not that I don't cook. I do. All the time.
But, I find it so hard to edit photos and then post the recipes and stuff while chasing an (almost) two-year-old.

Forgive me, world.

Gingersnap Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of shortening
• 1 cup brown sugar (packed)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• sugar

Directions:

Mix thoroughly your shortening, brown sugar, egg, and molasses until creamy. Blend in the remaining ingredients, except for the sugar. Cover and chill for up to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Shape dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into balls. Roll dough in a bowl of sugar until completely coated (I've also done the plastic bag method, where you fill a plastic baggy with sugar and shake the dough around until it's coated. This works too, but you'll have to reshape your dough after you're done).

Place balls of dough onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, up to 3 inches apart. Bake for about 10-12 minutes depending on how crispy you like them.

Remove immediately from baking sheet onto a cooling rake.*

*With these cookies that they may feel like they're undercooked when you take them out of the oven, but they will firm up as they sit. I bake mine for 10 minutes. If I leave them in for the additional 2 minutes, I find that they become more crispy on the inside and I'm not a fan of crispy cookies.

Photos taken with iPhone4 and edited with iPhoto.