Design Editor

EYE CANDY | Photo Fashion

The photography lover in me is pretty darn crazy about this shirt my Mom just gave the girls. High five on the cute factor, Carters.

FREE DOWNLOAD | Dinosaur Book

My girls are obsessed with dinosaurs. Something I didn't see coming, but it's fun. They love the show Dino Dan on Nick Jr. and are now quick to point out a T-Rex or Triceratops. After I bought them a bag of plastic dinosaurs at the grocery store, they kept asking the names of the other dinos nonstop. We really had no clue. At Jim's suggestion, I took some photos and made a flip book identifying their new friends.

It turned out pretty darn cute so, why let the files gather dust on my hard drive when I can offer them all to enjoy? The download is a zipped file of five PDF's. Each PDF includes two 4x6 pages of the book.

Get it for free here:  Download DE_DinoBookPages

BOOK ASSEMBLY | Here's how to put together a simple flip book.  I can also see these in little frames!

• Cut along trim lines. (I rounded the outside corners.)
• Laminate. (I used self laminating paper trimmed to fit.)
• Make a hole with a punch and hold together with a binder ring. (Found at office supply and craft stores.) 

DISCLAIMER | We are not paleontologists, so no guarantee the names are spot on. If you find an error, blame Google images. Enjoy!

CRAFTS | Homemade Crayons

My aunt Jennifer and cousins Paige and Meredith made these festive crayons for the kids at my parents' Christmas party this year. I've seen a lot of ideas for homemade crayons out there--well, really re-purposed crayons--and I think they're too cute. Maggie and Charlotte really love them too-the bigger size is easier for their two year old hands to handle.

Making the crayons is as simple as breaking crayons into pieces and baking them in molded pans. Here's a note from Jennifer on the process:

For the crayons we used a inexpensive metal cookie pan. The girls really did the whole thing themselves other than me taking the hot pan out of the oven.  Paige peeled those wrappers off the crayons for days and days.  She was super focused and that was by far the most time consuming part of the process.

Have you ever made these? I'm going to start saving broken crayons for future melting myself. Such a fun way to recycle!