Snow is fun but even the best snow bunnies like to come inside.
Here are some easy stamps you can make with your kids where it’s nice and warm (with a mug of hot cocoa).  No need for a run to the store, these are items you may have around the house.

Toilet paper rolls

 Easy Fireworks Painting
Danya Banya

Fringe some left over toilet paper rolls to create cool fireworks.

Toilet Paper Roll Stamps
Mama Papa Bubba

These simple stamps are easy as pie, and you can get more than one stamp out of each roll too.

Toilet Paper Roller
Who’s Who and Who’s New

Use foam stickers or try string, bubble wrap or textured fabric.

Corks and bottle tops

Wine Cork Stamps
Design Mom

Go ahead and open another bottle… for the sake of the children.

Sponge Painting
Boy Mama Teacher Mama

Use bottle caps to keep hands clean(er)

Bottle Top Stamps
Paging Fun Moms

These use foam stickers and bottle tops to make a bunch of cute stamps.

Cherry Blossom Art
Alpha Mom

Or, just use the whole bottle.

Food

Apple and Celery Stamps
A Beautiful Mess

So cute you might use them for yourself (check out the gorgeous celery stamped scarf!)

Okra Stamps
This is Love Forever

I used to love celery stalk stamps, but okra may be the most adorable stamp I’ve ever seen.

Potato Stamps
Homemade Serenity

The potato stamp is a classic, but the way she cuts the pattern out of this potato stamp is brilliant.

Junk Around the House

Pipe Cleaner Snowflake Stamps
Sugar Aunts

Perfect when you’re stuck inside on a snow day.

Spool Stamps
Richmondmom

We made these DIY stamps last year and found they are perfect for little toddler hands.

Get creative with stuff around the house
Play Based Learning

Got some old junk? Gather up buttons, foam, toothpicks, wire, string… whatever you got an have a cool stamp competition.  You might come up with some really creative patterns!

Have fun stamping and show us what you made!

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Find more fantastic craft ideas on our Pinterest board.

We’ve partnered up with HandsOn and will post the DIY for the month here on Richmondmom, but you want to get out and about you can find more volunteering opportunities for you or the whole family on their website.

November DIY:

Welcome Home Soldier

Richmond Fisher House, Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medial Center

The Richmond Fisher House opened on the campus of the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Hospital on July 21, 2008 and provides no-cost lodging to the families of veterans receiving treatment at the McGuire VA hospital. Having family members nearby provides significant benefits and advantages to patient treatment, rehabilitation and recovery. By offering cost-free living quarters for patient families, the Fisher House provides an immeasurable benefit to patient care, in addition to the care and well-being of our veterans’ family members.

In honor of Veteran’s Day, DIY Volunteers will be creating Welcome Home decorations for the families staying at Fisher House, to welcome home their family member with style, dignity and gratitude.

Supply List*:

Burlap/canvas/felt fabric or cardstock paper

Pinking shears/ Scissors

Red, white and blue paint

Paint brushes, foam brushes

Twine

Letter and star stencils

Craft glue

Gallon-sized Ziploc bag

*DIY Volunteers are responsible for purchasing any of the materials needed for DIY volunteer opportunities.

How To:
1. Express Interest in the project to HandsOn. HandsOn will send you instructions and schedule a time for your delivery.
2. Every person who plans to volunteer (including youth) must express interest. You can create a volunteer team to sign up your group or family members. Read about how to create and manage teams.
3. Plan the time and place to DIY! Invite guests (optional).
4. Once you’ve expressed interest, complete instructions will be sent to you. We ask that you donate a minimum of 1 complete banner. There is no maximum. Expect the total project to be done in about 3 hours depending on the number of banners made and the number of people you have volunteering with you.

Confirmed participants will receive 3 service hours for submitting a finished project prior to 4pm, Monday, December 15.

Express interest here.

Everyone has their favorite vacation spot. Whether it’s OBX or Smith Mountain Lake, Atlantic City, Key West, or Myrtle Beach, you know that certain place that makes your soul happy every time you visit. That spot for me is New York City. As cliche’ as it is, I really do heart NYC. I love the architecture, the distinctly different feelings that each borough and neighborhood convey, the food – holy wow the food. I love spending time in the City, and want to remember those feelings, the tastes, sights, and smells (most of them) long after I’ve come home. Each time I go to New York, I take my camera, I shoot photos to my heart’s content, and then come home and forget about them in the hustle and bustle of getting back into the groove of non-vacation life.
It wasn’t until I was doing research for 5 Ways to Display Vacation Photos back in July that I realized that I should be doing something with all of those vacation photos.

That realization was the inspiration for a new series on my blog that starts this month. We’re going to go room by room throughout the house and determine the best methods for displaying photos at home. We’ll talk about the different factors that go into deciding what to hang where, and tips for planning and hanging for each room.

Starting us off will be the dining room, the new home of my NYC vacation gallery. There were some practical reasons why I chose the dining room, and why I chose the sizes of the photos I did. The dining room already had two big blank walls, which I had been struggling to do anything with (for the last five years). At some point after we moved in, I had hung a large 16×20″ print, framed and matted in a 20×24″ frame, of New York, New York, the theme hotel in Las Vegas. At the time, I hung it to make the dining room seem less empty, because I already had the print sitting around the house. So, it made sense to continue to fill this massive wall in the dining room with my New York photos. Because I wanted to add some variety to the gallery, I looked for some New York-inspired art prints by other artists. I went to Etsy and ordered a print called “The Big City” and a 1950’s Braniff Airways print, which add graphic elements and a pop of drama to my photo gallery.

In determining the sizes of the photos I wanted to print, I first went through the house and gathered up the frames I already had that weren’t in use, and that fit my decor (a crystal wedding-themed frame would not have fit my décor. I went for simple black frames). I had several 4×6″ and 5×7″ frames that would work, but I didn’t have enough for all of the photos I wanted to include, so I went to Michael’s and searched their frame department for sales and clearance items that would work. I found a handful of frames for a steal, including some unfinished frames for $4 a piece that I can easily paint the color I want with some glossy acrylic paint. Even if I don’t use them all in the dining room, there are lots of other rooms where I can use them – or I could even use them for Christmas presents in a couple of months.

I then ordered the photos I wanted to hang, in the right sizes, from an online photo lab. My favorite lab for prints is Richmond Camera, because the color and tone is nearly identical to what I see on my computer monitor, and I can count on the pictures to come back looking how I expect them to look. Plus, they’re a local small business, so I feel better giving them my dollars than a big chain store like Walmart or Walgreens.

Once I had my prints and my frames, I needed to determine the layout on the wall without knocking a ton of holes in my dining room wall. I pulled out a couple of paper bags I had saved from the grocery store, cut them down one seam so they laid flat, and then placed the frames flat-side-down on the bags. I traced around each frame, cut out the shapes and then started arranging them on the wall in the dining room around my focal point, which was the large print of New York, New York. I used blue painter’s tape with the cutouts so I could take them off the wall and rearrange them easily without damaging the wall paint.

Once I was happy with the layout, I added a very small amount of tape to the back of each photo and hung them on the cutouts so I could see how the pictures and prints all looked together on the wall.

Then all that was left was to add nails, put the pictures in the frames, and hang. Voila!

You might notice in the above photo that A) I switched the top and bottom frames on the left of the gallery – it felt more balanced with the landscape-oriented print on the bottom; and B) some of the frames are crooked. We’re going to address how to fix that in December’s post, when we move to the family room.

A couple of tips for making your own mixed-print gallery:

1. Choose how formal or casual you want the gallery to be. We’re not super formal in my house, and our decor matches our attitude. Galleries with frames that are exactly the same in every way feel very formal, and wouldn’t go with the rest of my house very well. By choosing some frames that are a little different, I added some texture and visual interest for a more casual, “found” feel. Because the frames are the same color, the gallery still feels cohesive.
2. Larger walls typically call for larger prints. While I could have filled all of these spaces on the wall with 4×6″ or 5×7″ prints, because the wall is so wide, the gallery would have looked busy and cluttered, with your eyes trying to find a focal point. By having one print that is larger than all the others, your eye is drawn to that first, and then move out to the other photos, which allows you take in the gallery in smaller chunks. When we do a kitchen gallery next week, we’ll talk about the exception to the “one huge photo to rule them all” rule.
3. Stay grounded. Remember your audience when you’re placing your gallery on the wall. If you’re hanging your gallery in the dining room (like me), where most people will be sitting, you don’t want your gallery to go so high that viewers can’t see it without having to uncomfortably lean their heads back and look towards the ceiling. (Plus, then you have to continuously watch out for cobwebs along your ceiling line, because they’ll be really easy to see by people looking up.) Go eye level or just slightly above for rooms where the viewer will be sitting, or in small rooms where you can’t see the art from farther away.

I hope my rundown and tips are helpful if you are looking to update your dining room or add a photo gallery to your home. It doesn’t have to be hard, and if it means bringing a little more personality into your space, then I call that a win-win.

Now, go forth and create your own special-place gallery. Where is your favorite happy-soul vacation spot that is worthy of a gallery of memories in your home?

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Allison Patel is a lifestyle family and maternity photographer, and loves using Allison Patel Photography to meet new people and explore new places around Richmond. When she’s not working or taking pictures, she enjoys cheering for the Rams and the Hokies, and blogs weekly at allisonpatelphoto.com.

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Website: www.allisonpatelphoto.com

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When we moved into our little house it had a bold red door.  Really a lovely color, but done very quickly with thick globs of paint, so the paint on the side door is beginning to peel away (much to the delight of my children who like to pick at it piece by piece).  Underneath, we can see layers of light blue and black.

Obviously, it needs a little paint and this week we’re giving the house a little facelift with fresh mulch and a good power washing.

Deciding on the door color has been much harder than I anticipated.  There are so many options from  bold to classic and clean.  I like bright and cheerful colors but quite frankly I’m bored of the red.

So of course I scoured pinterest but none of these houses look like my 1959 brick and light blue vinyl tri-level.
So I had to see it for myself… This is why I should never be alone with photoshop:

Current front door
Which I am liking much more without the storm door covering it all up.

Possible color variations (including a fresh coat of red)

I’m currently divided between two colors… but I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Which color do you like the best & what color is your front door?
And a bonus question: what would you do with the red painted cement?

Here’s how it works:

1. Check out the cause and supply list below.  If it looks like something you’d like to do, let them know here and the lovely folks at HandsOn will send you instructions on how to do that month’s DIY project.

2. Volunteer at home with your kids, during naptime, or get a group together and volunteer as a team (learn how to create and manage a team right here).

3. Drop it off and feel good about making Richmond a little brighter while doing something really fun.

This month’s DIY:

Summer Camp Treats for Peter Paul Development Center

Create a minimum of 5 decorated snack bags, 5 decorated bookmarks and 1 box of snacks. There is no maximum. Expect the total project to be done about 3 hours.

Purpose:
Peter Paul Development Center is an outreach and community center serving Church Hill and neighboring communities in Richmond’s East End. Its mission is to build a community of learners by engaging and challenging children, families and seniors through programs that enhance academic achievement, provide cultural enrichment, and promote self-esteem and lifelong self-sufficiency. At PPDC’s Summer Institute take-home snacks are provided to every child when they leave every day. Volunteers will craft fun and creative snack bags and bookmarks for the youth. DIY Volunteers are also asked to provide granola bar-type snacks with inspirational or educational messages on them.

We’ve partnered up with HandsOn and will post the DIY for the month here on Richmondmom.com, but you want to get out and about, you can find more volunteering opportunities for you or the whole family on their website.

Now go out there and make some happy campers!
Happy Volunteering!

Which is why I really love how HandsOn Greater Richmond is providing volunteer opportunities for both me and my kids that fit perfectly into my chaotic life.

Each month HandsOn has a DIY project you can do any time, any place (or you can even plan on doing it one day, but then really do it a couple days later).  Find out more about HandsOn Greater Richmond’s DIY Volunteering initiative here.

We’ve partnered up with HandsOn and will post the DIY for the month here on Richmondmom.com, but you want to get out and about you can find more volunteering opportunities for you or the whole family on their website.

The May DIY is for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Check out the cause and supply list below.  Once you express interest in participating, you’ll be given instructions on how to do that month’s DIY project.

This month’s DIY is in honor of National Mental Health Awareness Month and volunteers will be making “thank you” and “thinking of you” cards and stress balls for the families and caregivers of those living with mental illness. (Read more about NAMI here)

 

Supply List*:
• Balloons
• Rice
• Plastic sandwich bags
• Scissors
• Construction paper, scrapbook paper
• Markers, stamps, glitter, stickers, paint, etc.
• Glue

*DIY Volunteers are responsible for purchasing any of the materials needed for DIY volunteer opportunities.

How To:
1. Express Interest here in the project to HandsOn. We’ll send you all the instructions needed to complete the project.
2. Every person who plans to volunteer (including youth) must express interest. You can create a volunteer team to sign up your group or family members. Read about how to create and manage teams.
3. Once you’ve expressed interest, complete instructions will be sent to you. We ask that you create at least 5 stress balls, 5 “thank you” cards and 5 “thinking of you” cards. There is no maximum. Expect the total project to be done in about 3 hours depending on the number of items made and the number of people you have volunteering with you.

Confirmed participants will receive 3 hours for submitting materials prior to 4pm, Friday, June 13, 2014.

How do you teach your children to give back to the community?

Supplies:
– Foam sheet (about 50 cents per sheet)
– Wooden spool (or re-purpose old building blocks!)
– Glue (I had Mod Podge but I think Elmers would work)
-Scissors

Cut your shape out of foam and glue the shape onto the spool.
Do letters, numbers, basic shapes or if you’re good with scissors, cut out something a little more detailed.

If you have a thinner piece of foam, you may want to double up for extra cushion.

Let them dry and you’re ready to go…

Inked up, these stamps will slide a little more than their rubber counter parts, but it’s nice to have something you can make yourself (I was looking for a specific shape I couldn’t find at the store).
I doubled up so I had a stamp on each side of the spool.
If you have blocks at home, this project will only cost you 50 cents but the spools were only a dollar so even if you need to buy one it ends up being a very quick, very easy, very cheap DIY.

Pssst… like this? Don’t forget to pin it!