The Chaos and the Clutter

Crafts and Activities

Road Trip Gift Basket

By

This past Christmas, my brother and sister-in-law gave us a unique and wonderful gift. They knew that we were planning a family road trip so they made us a road trip gift basket. It was full of everything we could need for the long drive and even had some funny items added such as earplugs to drown out the kids fighting!

Family Road Trip Gift Basket

They packaged everything in a sturdy box which was the perfect size for setting on the floor behind the front console, within easy reach of the passenger front seat.

Included in our gift basket:

  • bottled water
  • soda pop
  • wet naps
  • hand sanitizer
  • headache medicine
  • sunscreen
  • hand lotion
  • lip chap
  • mints
  • candy
  • chewing gum
  • Munchies
  • band aids
  • kleenex packets
  • car air freshener
  • ear plugs
  • huge pack of chocolate bars
  • McDonald’s gift card
  • gas gift card
  • Travel Bingo
  • Barnyard Squiggle On the Go
  • pens

road trip gift basket ideas

This type of gift basket would be a welcome gift for any family planning a trip. I know that when we are on the road, we are going to be appreciating the care that went into putting together our basket! With so many kids, we may appreciate the ear plugs most of all!

Road Trip Gift Basket squareHere are some other ideas that you could include in a road trip basket:

Road Trip Gift Basket

You could even make your own binder full of games, puzzles, mazes, and activities using printable pages and plastic sleeves and add some dry erase markers. I gave each of my kids a clipboard for the printable sheets that I gave them on the trip. Each time we crossed a border into a new province or State, I gave them new printable sheets pertaining to that State or province. It was a fun way to mark those border crossings.

These are some free printable pages that you can use to create your own road trip activities:

Road Trip Drawing Prompts from Picklebums

Road Trip Drawing Prompts

Road Trip Bingo from Housing a Forest

Road Trip BingoRoad Trip Activity Pack from Playdough to Plato

Road-Trip-Activity-Pack

Car Games from 123Homeschool4Me

The License Plate Game (Canada and the U.S.) from Makeovers and Motherhood

Road Trip Journal Pages from Peace But Not Quiet

In the coming weeks, we will be traveling through British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, and Montana.

Looking for another unique and fun gift basket ideas? Click below.

Spy Secrets Gift Basket

This Spy Secrets gift box is perfect to make for the hard to buy for man (or woman) in your life!DIY Sensory Gift Basket

Christmas Toilet Paper Roll Crafts

12 Christmas Toilet Paper Roll Crafts

By

In a large family like ours, there is never a shortage of empty toilet paper tubes. We like to use them for crafts and activities year-round and we especially like to make Christmas toilet paper roll crafts.

I know that toilet paper rolls are recyclable, but it does seem a shame to just always throw them in the blue recycle bag, especially when I remember making crafts with our paper tubes as a child. It’s funny how the memory works.

In my mind, my brother and I made something out of every empty toilet paper roll in our childhood, but I’m sure that can’t be true. It was probably only a handful of times that we used them for crafting. I’m sure my mom threw the rest away, but I only have memories of the things we made with them and of the bag she used to collect them in for future projects.

It is precisely because of those memories that I feel a small measure of guilt in getting rid of empty toilet paper rolls, so I am always on the lookout for craft ideas that use them. They are also a very inexpensive craft supply!

This Christmas season, we have made a few new t.p. roll crafts and we will be making our annual homemade Christmas crackers with empty toilet paper rolls. All the great craft blogs out there make it so much easier to come up with ideas.

Christmas Toilet Paper Roll Crafts perfect for doing with kids #Christmascrafts

 

Christmas Toilet Paper Roll Crafts:

Cardboard Tube Gnomes from Crafts by Amanda

Toilet Roll Reindeer from Happy Hooligans

Santa Going Down the Toilet Paper Roll Chimney from Crafty Morning

Toilet Paper Roll Christmas Trees from Reading Confetti

The Three Wise Men at Red Ted Art

The Grinch Toilet Paper Roll Christmas Craft for Kids from Crafty Morning

Homemade Christmas Crackers from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Toilet Paper Roll Advent Calendar from Danya Banya

Snow Owl Ornaments from Pam’s Party and Practical Tips

Adorable Toilet Roll Snowman over at Red Ted Art

Toilet Paper Roll Holiday Elves from Kitchen Counter Chronicles

Cardboard Tube Christmas Tree Ornaments from I Heart Arts and Crafts

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ornaments from Happy Hooligans

Easy DIY Christmas Ornament for Kids from DIY Inspired

Cardboard Tube Children and Snowmen from Crafts by Amanda

Cardboard Tube Painted Poinsettia from The Preschool Toolbox

Christmas Candle Craft for Kids at Happy Hooligans

Toilet Paper Roll Angel at I Can Teach My Child

Fabric Scraps Nativity from Jessica Lynette

Toilet Paper Roll Advent Wreath from Easy Peasy and Fun

Toilet Paper Roll Christmas Tree Craft from The Resourceful Mama

With all of these ideas and easy access to the main material, the hardest decision will be which one of these Christmas toilet paper roll crafts to make with your kids or students first!

Other Christmas crafts you may like:

Paper Plate SnowglobeSimple Pipe Cleaner OrnamentsSimple Pipe Cleaner Candy Cane Ornaments

Winter Wonderland Sensory Bin

Winter Wonderland Sensory Bin

By

For the start of our holiday season this year, I thought I would create a sensory bin with a winter wonderland theme. It’s a stark difference from our usual Christmas sensory bin with bright holiday colours, but the kids were delighted by it.

Winter Wonderland Sensory BinI used a large foil roasting pan as the bin because I thought the silver looked best with what I was planning. For the bin’s base, I used shredded snow. I bought a bag of it from the dollar store and when I examined it once I got home, what it looked like was shredded bubble wrap, so it would be easy enough to make your own.

I added silver candles, silver puffy snowflakes, large clear plastic snowflakes, silver beads, jingle bells, silver ribbon, small white pompoms, a clear plastic ornament with white and silver detailing, and a white poinsettia clip.

Playing with Winter Wonderland Sensory BinMy kids have been enjoying the bin.Dancing Queen gravitated towards exploring the sounds by listening to the jingle bells and the crinkle of the beads. Granola Girl was initially after a more tactile experience and found the texture of the clear snowflakes very appealing. She kept touching them to her face as well as running her fingers over the ridges.

The boys were most interested in the feel of the fake snow and they may have had a small “snowball” fight with the white pompoms! Such funny creatures boys are! They can even find a way to make a sensory bin an action packed adventure!

If you are looking for more sensory ideas or information, you may be interested in my book and by following my Sensory Bins board on Pinterest.

The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bins

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Winter Sensory Tray

Gluten Free Candy Cane Playdough

Winter Sensory Bin

Gluten Free Candy Cane Playdough

By

Growing up, one of my neighbours had the Playdoh Barber Shop, you know the one where you could make their hair grow by pushing play dough in and then cut it with really dull plastic scissors! We played it almost every time I was over. I also had a friend from school who had the Playdoh McDonald’s set and I had fun playing it when I went over to her house. My parents didn’t have extra money for things like play sets, but my aunt used to make us play dough that was perfect in its consistency and I had just as much fun playing with a rolling pin and cookie cutters with homemade play dough as I did with their fancy play sets!

Gluten Free Candy Cane Playdough

My aunt’s play dough recipe has been my go-to for making play dough for my kids. I’ve altered the basic recipe to create a few of our own favourites such as our calming lavender playdough and our delicious smelling chocolate playdough.

Usually for the holidays, I make the kids gingerbread playdough but I thought I would change things up this year and attempt to make gluten free playdough, something I’ve never tried. We have a lot of different gluten free flours because Einstein is on a gluten free diet so I reasoned that I could adapt my aunt’s recipe and make some scented candy cane dough.

Gluten Free Candy Cane Playdough Recipe:

1 cup rice flour
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup salt
3 Tbsp. cream of tartar
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. or more peppermint extract or 10 drops of peppermint essential oil
1 cup boiling water
food colouring or food paste
optional: glitter

Mix the dry ingredients in a pot and stir in the oil, peppermint extract, water. Note: If you are only making one colour, you can add your food colouring to this step but if making multiple colours, knead the colour in at the end.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, being sure to scrape the sides and the bottom. Cook until the dough forms a ball. Remove from heat. Place it on a piece of wax paper. Knead. If you are adding glitter, this would be the time. Let cool. Store in an airtight container or in a resealable bag.

Working with the gluten free dough was quite different than regular dough. I made one attempt at a non-cook version and ended up having to repeatedly heat it up in the microwave so went back to the stovetop method. The rice flour doesn’t bind the same way regular flour does so if you find it is too sticky, try adding more cornstarch.

Scented Gluten Free Candy Cane PlaydoughI only made one recipe and split it into three sections. I left one white, made one red and the other green. Between the colours and the peppermint scent, this dough is perfect for shaping into candy canes, candy sticks and holiday wreaths.

Looking for other playdough recipes and ideas? You may be interested in following my Playing with Playdough board on Pinterest.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board Playing with Playdough on Pinterest.

Gingerbread Playdough Station

Free Printable Playdough Mats

Calming Lavender Scented Playdough

Holiday Jingle Bell Slime

By

This Jingle Bell Slime is one of the first slimes we ever made. It’s a pretty basic slime recipe, but the holiday twist makes it extra fun.Jingle Bell Holiday Slime #slime #christmasslime #holidayslime #sensoryplayWe love trying out all different kinds of slime recipes. When I came up with the idea to make holiday theme slime, the kids were all in!

When I was out shopping for the ingredients (a very short list!), I had trouble locating liquid starch. I googled “where to find liquid starch in Canada” on my phone while in the laundry aisle at the grocery store and found an awesome article. She writes about an alternative to liquid starch for those who live in places where it is hard to find.

Jingle Bell Slime Recipe:

*Important note: don’t bother trying to make slime with cheaper glues. Elmer’s is the most consistently reliable when it comes to slime success, so just stick with that. making holiday slimePour the glue into a bowl. Add some drops of green food colouring and mix it well. With slime, I like to use wide craft sticks for mixing so that I can throw them out after.

Add some liquid starch into the glue mixture about a Tablespoon at a time while stirring. Continue to add liquid starch until the slime doesn’t stick to the side of the bowl. This will be about 1/2 cup total, but may be a little less or a little more.

Once it’s pulling away from the sides and forming a bit of a ball, knead it by hand to finish mixing. Once it’s been stretched and pulled and pushed and folded until it has reached slime consistency, add in some jingle bells and start playing. It adds a bit of difference and texture interest if you use different sizes of jingle bells.

When the slime isn’t being played with, store it in an airtight container. If you’re a “slime mama”, chances are all of your Tupperware containers are full of slime already so in a pinch, a resealable plastic bag will do.

After playing with it for quite awhile, the kids asked me if it was the same as the Flarp Noise Putty that they get every year in their stocking. When I thought it was similar, they decided to put it to the test and sure enough, it makes the same noise. (I guess we won’t need to buy Flarp this year since we can now make our own!)

Once they made this discovery, there was a lot of laughter going on at our house! I had to tape this short video five or six times because the other kids were laughing so hard that it was impossible to hear the noise of the putty!

Check out these other holiday theme sensory activities:

Peppermint Scented Christmas Playdough Christmas Sensory Bag 

5 Things Kids Can Make with Old Christmas Cards

By

It always seems like such a shame to throw out old Christmas cards. Sometimes I cut out the message inside to keep in a scrapbook if it’s something especially personal and I keep the family pictures that are often sent with cards in the same scrapbook but often even the front of a card is pretty enough that I don’t want to just throw it away.

Last year, the kids and I made ornaments using old Christmas cards and they turned out so well that we gave them as gifts to many of our friends and family. I was looking for ideas of what we could do this year to use the pile of cards that is sure to come in and some of my blog friends were happy to share their ideas.

Here are 5 things kids can making using Christmas cards. These projects are also a good way to talk about reusing items that we might otherwise have thrown out.

Projects Kids can Make with Old Christmas Cards

Christmas Card Ornaments (The Chaos and The Clutter)
Christmas Card Gift Boxes (What’s Up Fagans?)
Handmade Vintage Diorama Ornaments (KC Edventures)
Recycled Cards Fine Motor Skills Tray (Little Bins for Little Hands)
Make a Holiday Collage (the Jenny Evolution)

What have you done with old greeting cards in the past? I’d love to hear your ideas!

I’ve partnered with 30+ fabulous bloggers to bring you a special holiday series packed with crafts, activities, and festive family traditions. We’ve put together a phenomenal giveaway to help knock out your holiday shopping. From 11/3–11/17, you will have the opportunity to win 1 of 4 prize bundles for men, women, kids, and babies! The 4 prize bundles, valued at over $1,800, include gift certificates, toys, jewelry, and more!

Check out these Creative Christmas Posts from other Festive Family Bloggers:

5 Easy Christmas Crafts You Can Make from Bare Feet on the Dashboard

Christmas Art Projects for Kids from Handmade Kids Art

7 Simple Lego Gifts Your Kids Can Make from Lemon Lime Adventures

Simple Things to Put in Clear Plastic Ornaments from P is for Preschooler

Paper Winter Village from Planet Smarty Pants

Christmas Countdown with Wooden Blocks from Adventure in a Box

Pinecone Angels from Peace but not Quiet

Transitioning to a Make-Your-Own Christmas Tradition from Multicultural Kids Blog

Fine Motor Christmas Crafts, Activities and Games for Kids from Still Playing School

Healthy Holiday Baking from Gypsy Road

Bottle Cap Christmas Craft from Sugar Ants