13 Nail Polish Hacks You Need In Your Arsenal

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I’ve always loved having my nails painted — it just gives you a little extra something, kind of like your favorite earrings. I’m not so good at doing it though. I make a mess, smudge it, and it always chips by the end of the day. Which makes me really excited about these nail polish hacks I just found. I can’t wait to try some of these!

13 Nail Polish Hacks You Need In Your Arsenal

This manicure hack is awesome if you are a messy painter like me. Use Elmer’s glue for a fast clean up! via Today

Get the perfect ombre coloring by using a makeup sponge. via All Women’s Talk

Keep tipping over your nail polish? The Tweexy is such a cool little gadget to cure this problem.

Do you love glitter polish but it never looks right? Guess what – you’ve been doing it wrong! I had no idea, but here is the tip you’ve been looking for.  via Teen Vogue

Oops! Made a little mistake? Here is a great way to fix polish mess ups. via Bobs Rogue

If you want a more vibrant color, do a base coat of white! via Makeup and Beauty

Cracked a nail? Use this tutorial to make a miniature nail band-aid to keep it from breaking completely.

Striped nails are super tricky to do, here is a great hack tutorial to teach you how. via xo Jahtna

If your favorite polish has become dried out, don’t worry. Add a little acetone to the bottle, shake it up, and it’s like new! via The 15th District

Get your nails dry quick with this air and LED light portable dryer.

If you spill your polish on the ground (tile, hardwood, etc. – not carpet) pour sugar over it immediately to clump it up, then sweep. via PopSugar

An easy way to make your polish last longer is to clean your cuticles with vinegar prior to polishing. So simple! via Cosmopolitan

And of course, finishing with a great top coat like Seche Clear makes a huge difference as well.

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Paper Plate Birds with Movable Wings

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Making crafts from paper plates, like these colorful paper plate birds, is an inexpensive and fun activity for kids. Let them choose the patterned paper and the color of paint to truly make this craft their own. When you're done, try out some more paper plate crafts for tomorrow afternoon!

Paper fasteners are inexpensive and you get a lot of them in a box! You can find them at dollar stores, discount department stores and office supply stores.

Paper Plate Birds with Movable Wings

You ™ll want to protect your table with newspaper or a plastic table cloth. Have kids wear smocks and put water into heavy mugs for cleaning brushes as there's less chance of them tipping over than a lightweight plastic cup.

You will need:

• 2 paper plates
• Scrapbook paper
• Craft paint
• 3 googly eyes
• 1 brown pipe cleaner
• 3 paper fasteners
• Tools: scissors, paintbrush, glue stick, white craft glue

Two paper plates will make 3 birds. If you only want to make one bird, that's totally fine! You will just have scrap pieces of paper plate left over.

Cut both paper plates in half. Take one of the halves and cut it into six equal pieces. Set the six small pieces aside.

Paint the three paper plate halves and set them aside to dry.

Place scrapbook paper on the table face down. Apply glue stick to two of the small plate pieces then turn them over and press them to the back side of the scrapbook paper. Repeat for the other small pieces and set aside to dry.

When dry, trim off the excess scrapbook paper but cutting around the triangular shaped plate pieces. These are your wings. Set them aside.

Now that the paper plate halves are dry, paint an orange beak onto one corner of each one. Glue on a googly eye.

Use a craft knife or pair of scissors to poke a hole in the center of the paper plate bird body. Also poke a hole into each wing, about about 1.5-inches above the pointed end of the triangle wing.

Insert the paper fastener through one of the wings (on the scrapbook paper side) then through the plate, and finally through the second wing. Secure the fastener at the back of the bird.

Looking for another fun paper plate craft? Try these colorful paper plate tropical fish – great for decorating your playroom!

Have fun!

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Color Matching with DIY Domino Sticks

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Getting kids involved in nature is always a great way to keep them stimulated! This simple activity is a lot of fun and helps to encourage creativity.

Today we decided to make our own DIY domino sticks! We took a walk outside and collected sticks of different sizes to prepare them for our game of dominoes.

Here are more nature activities for kids to create, explore & learn!

Making the DIY Domino Sticks

To make the stick dominoes, we painted the tips of the sticks using 2 different colors of non-toxic paint (affiliate link) on each stick.

We also picked a few sticks and painted them all in one color. They were our “doubles” in the game.

Painting only the tips took a lot of concentration and practice in fine motor skills!

Play the Stick Dominoes Game

After leaving the sticks to dry overnight, we were ready to play the game!

We divided the sticks between us and had a turn of rock paper scissors to see who would start with the first stick.

We took turns choosing and placing our sticks, matching the colors on each tip. It took some stretching, balancing and coordination to put the tips together.

This created some great “big art” on the floor!

Get moving with even more Big Art projects for kids!

She decided to connect the colors of the sticks in different ways and ended up making new patterns!

I love it when kids come up with new ways to do an activity all by themselves!

What other fun ways do you play with sticks?

Color Matching with DIY Domino Sticks on handsonaswegrow.com

Color Matching with DIY Domino Sticks

Hands On As We Grow http://ift.tt/2iLi3J5

Getting kids involved in nature is always a great way to keep them stimulated! This simple activity is a lot of fun and helps to encourage creativity.

Today we decided to make our own DIY domino sticks! We took a walk outside and collected sticks of different sizes to prepare them for our game of dominoes.

Here are more nature activities for kids to create, explore & learn!

Making the DIY Domino Sticks

To make the stick dominoes, we painted the tips of the sticks using 2 different colors of non-toxic paint (affiliate link) on each stick.

We also picked a few sticks and painted them all in one color. They were our “doubles” in the game.

Painting only the tips took a lot of concentration and practice in fine motor skills!

Play the Stick Dominoes Game

After leaving the sticks to dry overnight, we were ready to play the game!

We divided the sticks between us and had a turn of rock paper scissors to see who would start with the first stick.

We took turns choosing and placing our sticks, matching the colors on each tip. It took some stretching, balancing and coordination to put the tips together.

This created some great “big art” on the floor!

Get moving with even more Big Art projects for kids!

She decided to connect the colors of the sticks in different ways and ended up making new patterns!

I love it when kids come up with new ways to do an activity all by themselves!

What other fun ways do you play with sticks?

Color Matching with DIY Domino Sticks on handsonaswegrow.com

When Your Child Won’t Sleep in Their Room

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Our 2-year-old child won’t  sleep in her room. If we let her fall asleep alone in our room she is fine, but we can’t carry her over later in the night.

It can be so hard when your child won’t sleep in their room. Up all night, in and out of bed, into your room with fears or worries…  sometimes it is just easier to give in.  Today, we have some suggestions to help.

My Child Won’t Sleep in Her Room:

1. Check your routine.  Do you have a calming routine?  Do you keep it the same every night?  This is so important.   (Same time to bed, same routine, etc…)

2. Keep glow in the dark stars on the ceiling and by the light switch in her room.  I even put them around a picture frame, so she can see our family in her room, even in the dark.

3.  Keep the bathroom light on in the hallway.

4. Have a reward chart and they get a star every time that they stay in their room.

5. If they are young, continue to put them back to bed, no need to explain why after the first time.

6. If they are older, have some sort of consequence.  “You need sleep, so every time that you come out, you will owe me 5 sentences about why you need sleep and why it is important.   You will do it tomorrow.”

7. Give them a special toy to sleep with at night.

8. Get a bed-tent and tell them that they are not to leave their tent at night and they can call you if they need you.

9. Give them a set wake-up time, so they know what time to look forward to.

10. If you have more than one child, let them share a room.   They will keep each other company (and keep the other one from having fears at bedtime.)

 

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Make Watercolor Art with Markers

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It is so easy to  make watercolor art with markers. In fact, it’s one of my son’s favorite ways to paint without painting.

You only need three supplies for this simple craft, and your child’s imagination is the limit. They get to create a drawing, then transform it into gorgeous art with science.

Make Watercolor Art With Markers

Here’s what you need to make watercolor art with markers:

• Watercolor paper
• Washable markers
• Spray bottle with water inside

Allow your child to draw on the watercolor paper using the markers. Any design works — scribbles, shades of solid colors. We found that creating colors close together made more colorful watercolor art than elaborate designs.

Once your marker drawing is done, lay the paper on a flat surface and spray with water. Allow to sit and dry, watching the colors run as your new artwork is created!

Make sure to check out our other kids painting ideas or head over to our Facebook page for even more things to do with kids.

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Mud-Like Coffee PlayDough

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This post is in honor of International Mud Day… whoever made the last Wednesday of June “mud-day” does not live in Texas.   The heat index was 107 yesterday and it’s dry, very dry… while we LOVE mud and LOVE playing outside, this is just not the time of year for outdoor play (well, after 8:30 in the morning.     Our neighbors must love us).   So we decided to bring our love of mud inside in the form of playdough, yummy smelling coffee playdough.   I wake up just sniffing this stuff!

Coffee PlayDough Recipe.

This recipe was adapted from the basic playdough recipe found on Anna’s site, The Imagination Tree:

• 2 Cups of Flour
• 1/2 Cup of Coffee Grounds
• 1 Tablespoon of Instant Coffee (when it wasn’t dark enough)
• 1 Cup of Salt
• 2 Teaspoons of Cream of Tartar (she called for more, but this stuff is hard to find, so I cut the amount by a third).
• 1 Cup of very hot water
• 2 Tablespoons of oil

Anna also called for glycerin drops.   We didn’t have any “drops” but I shaved a tiny piece off of a bar of soap.   Glycerin Soap bars are the clear or see-through kind.   A little bit goes a long way.

Mix the dry ingredients.   Add the wet, stir bunches.   Let it sit for awhile to thicken, then stir some more.  

Do you want to win some of my playdough or other stuff we make?   Occasionally, I do facebook-only giveaways (like yesterday) and one lucky facebook fan won a portion of this batch of coffee playdough!   Follow the Quirky Momma facebook page to learn about some of my favorite sites and all the activities that are on my to-do list…   I love connecting with you, my readers, on there!

… And, if you like mud, come back tomorrow!   We will feature a collection of some muddy ideas discovered from some of my favorite sites.

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