I was in the awful place of Walmart today ( no not ranting on walmart lol ) and we go down all the beautiful isles of kids toys and outdoor play things... and there is so many things that I never had as a child and I was content, happy to play outside. And all this stuff just breaks in 3 days anyway...

I was looking for a big bubble wand, could not find one. Then I thought maybe I could make one out of a wire coat hanger or something around the house.

If you have any homemade things for kiddos, post them! I am looking for ways to reuse things so she can play with them, and also save money not buying all those toys.

I have a homemade play doh recipe and gloop recipe I will post here after I find it ( baby is nursing now )

__________________
married 8 years to a crazy Brit, mommy to a banana, she is 4 and a pineapple who is 1 year, mommy to 3 ~angel~ babies

I have a book called "Sticks and Stones and Ice Cream Cones", a kid art and craft book I bought years and years ago. I'll dig it out and flip through it; if there's anything neat, I'll come back and post

__________________

The boys got a bubble wand for Easter and it broke the first day. Maybe you would be better off making your own, lol. I have to think about this. I know I have some crafty ideas for kids!

__________________
"It's time to move from what we can do, to what we must do, to what we will do." ~Hillary Clinton

This works but from when we made it, it makes very tiny bubbles. Take 4-6 straws and tie them together. Dip them in bubble solution and blow.

flybygrace, is that book good? I found it on ebay for under $5!!??

__________________
married 8 years to a crazy Brit, mommy to a banana, she is 4 and a pineapple who is 1 year, mommy to 3 ~angel~ babies

Have you checked out FamilyFun.com?? I went there and there are too many cool "recyclable" crafts to list! They look really fun!

__________________
"It's time to move from what we can do, to what we must do, to what we will do." ~Hillary Clinton

Oh, I LOVE FamilyFun!! It's a great mag and a great site!

__________________
Alicia (Tree-hugger wannabe)
mom to Shawn, Jake, and Toad
"Chick" out the Scrapbooking Forum for great handcrafted Occasion Ideas!!

I am not sure how old your kids are so some of these may not be age appropriate, but: take a string and loop it through a large button. Put one finger through the string on either side and swing the button round and round to wind it. Then pull your fingers apart and quickly bring them towards each other again. The button should make a whizzing noise (I forget what these are called, but we used to play them when we were kids). Clean, unused fly swatters make lots of little bubbles. Remember games like hopscotch, freeze tag, kick the can, hide and seek and duck, duck, goose. Homemade puppets from socks, paperbags or felt. Ragdolls or stuffed animals made from material. Tin can stilts, jumpropes, marbles and hula, hoops. Homemade puzzles using magazine pictures glued to cardboard or paper dolls using catalogs or magazines. kazoos made from a toilet paper tube with a piece of wax paper attached to the end with a rubber band, an oatmeal container drum or a shoebox guitar with rubber band strings. Just a few cheap and easy ideas. Hope your kids have fun

This is not homemade but I found a pop-up bubble blower at the grocery store for 1.99. When you squeeze it, the bubble blower pops up. My 5yo loves it. It is refillable and seems resiliant so far.

We've had the spill-proof bucket w/3 wands for 3 years (Walmart & Target have them). We had a casualty because one of our foster dogs chewed up one of the wands. Other than that, it has been great.

We've had all our plastic sand toys for 3 years (from Target). I look through the kitchen to see if I have anything for the sandbox (cups, spoons, bowls). Their favorite is a plastic bundt cake pan (it was here when we bought the house).

How old are your little chickadees? Here are a couple of ideas that I want to try soon. You may want to try if you like crafty things and if your kids like puzzles like mine do.

You can create a wooden block puzzle by buying a pack of plain, solid wood blocks at a craft store like Hobby Lobby. Find interesting pictures in old magazines or books (Goodwill is great place to find old books!) to decoupage onto the blocks. Each block has six sides so you can use up to six different pictures and have 6 different puzzles. You can slightly sand the edges of the blocks after the glue dries and then clear coat them. They'll last for years and may even become one of those kinds of toys that are passed down through the generations! Here is a link for better instructions: Decoupaged Blocks

The same idea can be applied to old puzzles that your children have tired of. With this idea, I like the thought of actually using completely different pictures for each puzzle piece for a very interesting, eclectic puzzle which would probably be better suited for older kids who want a little more of a challenge. Or how about first putting the puzzle together , priming it, then let them paint a picture on it to create their own artful puzzles?! The ideas are endless!

__________________