Roadtrip Ready: Elastic Bookmarks

Hi Friends...I'm (the other) Kelli and I am honored to be over at THE Kelli's spot today.

I blog over at Outside My Kitchen Window where I randomly talk about my life...my walk with Christ, my hubby and two kids, crafting, and my attempt at organizing my life :)

Today I'm sharing something neat that I discovered a few years ago...simple elastic bookmarks.

On road trips I read a lot in the car and so does my oldest child.  Since we have enough stuff to keep track of on a road trip it is nice to have something that we don't have to worry about losing.  These bookmarks stay in place all of the time...so Jamison and I don't have to worry about losing our place in our book if we happen to fall asleep while reading.  This also eliminates having to search the already-crowded car for a bookmark.

Here's what you'll need:

Charms, rings & elastic string.  All of these things you can find in either Michaels or Hobby Lobby in the jewelry making section.  I found all of this at Hobby Lobby (one of my favorite places).

There are usually a wide variety of charms to choose from...I'm using this one for Jamison's teacher.  The one I made for Jamison has a cupcake charm :)

Here's another charm and that thought was really cute.

Once you have all of your materials you will measure your string...you need 15 inches.

Depending on which charm you have will depend on whether or not you will need the ring.  This apple charm already has an extra ring so you can just slide the string directly through the ring of the charm.

This charm has a smaller ring and does not have an extra ring so you will need to take one of your rings and attach it to the charm...like you would attach a key ring.

Now you are able to string your charm.

See...

*Please excuse the blurry picture*  You will make a knot to secure the charm.

Then make a knot at the top.

Finished product!

You will then simply loop the bookmark around the book to hold your spot.  You can leave the bookmark in the book while you're reading too because it doesn't get in the way.  This way you never have to take it out of the book...you just move it to the next place that you stop.

See...doesn't fall out!

So there you have it...a simple bookmark...leaving you with one less thing to worry about and allowing for more joy on the road.

Thanks for having me Kelli :)

Roadtrip Ready: Make Roadtrip T-shirts

Today's Roadtrip idea is one that is SUPER fun and really easy to personalized for your trip: Roadtrip T-shirts! I've made vacation shirts for my boys before, and we always get so many complements on their shirts. Plus having a cute personalized shirt for the trip makes it that much more fun for the kiddos, and saves you a little money because you won't have to buy those expensive and not very cute touristy t-shirts!

You can really make almost anything into a cute shirt for almost any kind of roadtrip:

Mickey {here's my version} or Minnie {here's Amanda's cute version} for a trip to Disney

a silhouette of the Statue of Liberty for a visit to New York City

a surfboard with waves for a trip to the beach

your kid's favorite animal for a trip to the zoo

******

I decided to make camper {aka Airstream} shirts for my boys since that is going to be our mode of transportation for this roadtrip, and I think they turned out SUPER cute. I especially love the silhouette of the Airstream on the tie dye shirts...kind of has a hippie feel:) You can also make a girly version of this shirt, but since I don't have any girls to make shirts for you'll have to check out my friend Liz's cute camper shirt.

I didn't do a step by step for this shirt {mostly because I have a million things on my to do list and I didn't have time to stop and take pictures at every step} so you can check out my other crafty T-SHIRT tutorials to get more detail on how to make cute Roadtrip T-shirts for your next trip!

Roadtrip Ready: 10 Tips to Survive Disney with Small Kids

Hi!  I'm Jill, the Mom from over at the Barnes Yard and I am so excited to be here today at RTSM!

My friend, Kelli, is going to have so much fun road trippin' with her family this summer!  I'm totally in love with her Airstream!

So the Barnes Yard doesn't do road trips.  I know!  We are super wimps!  I've got two kids that get barf-a-rama the minute we leave our town! 

Last month we went to Disneyland via plane.

I do have some great tips for staying (somewhat) sane while doing Disney with small children!

1.  Make lists 

Making lists is actually one of my favorite pastimes...Anyway, each day before we headed to the park, I made a list of things I would like to accomplish, i.e. picture of kids with Mickey ears on, ride on It's a Small World, meet Rapunzel, etc.  That way I could stay focused whilst being pulled in a million directions by over-excited children.

2.  Bring Grandparents

Honestly, there is no way we could have pulled off this trip without the Grandparents in tow.  They were there to push strollers, wait with the "too shorts" while the bigger kids went on rides, and take anyone in the middle of a meltdown back to the hotel for a nap.  We LOVE them! 

3.  $$ saving tip: Buy your Mouse gear before you get to the park.

I knew I wanted to dress my kids Disney every day so I stocked up months before our trip at Target, Old Navy, WalMart, and disneystore.com

 I also swiped Kelli's idea of making our own autograph books!

4.  Wear bright colors

This is what my daughter was wearing the day we lost her.  Yep, we totally lost her for about ten minutes.  Luckily my eagle eyes spotted her bright skirt from a mile away!

5.  Bring your own stroller and rent one

We brought our own strollers for the babies but, let me tell you, it was nice to have something to push around all of our drinks, snacks, cameras, purses, and purchases in, plus have a place for the big kids to sit when they got really whiny.  

6.  Don't eat too many Oreos the first night.

My husband made fun of me for leaving a note, but seriously, I would have felt really bad if the maid had put her hand in that black mess.

7.  If they love Princesses, give them Princesses!

You better believe that I rode on that Ariel ride 50 times too!

8.  Eat at IHOP

Kids eat free with purchase of adult meal.  We had 6 adults and 6 kids so this totally worked in our favor.

9.  Get a special souvenir  

The days were long and super exhausting (we estimated that we walked 10-12 miles each day), but every time I look at this I will remember how magical it was for my kiddos (well, at least the two older ones)!

10.  Act like a kid and HAVE FUN!

Roadtrip Ready: Roadtrip Countdown

A few weeks ago, I started looking for some fun roadtrip games to play with the boys while we are driving. I stumbled upon this really amazing post by The Dating Divas that is full of great roadtrip ideas and even includes a ton of free printables. My favorite idea from that post is their Roadtrip Countdown...as soon as I saw the idea I knew I had to make one for our trip this summer. The Dating Divas have a really cute roadtrip countdown printable that you can write in your different stops on, but I wanted to make something a little different. So with the help of these cute state printables from The Vintage Lemon, I made my own Roadtrip Countdown!

 This was honestly the easiest project, and it is one that I know my boys are going to be SUPER excited about! I started out by printing out all of the states that we are going to visit on our roadtrip. You could easily customize yours by making it with different cities you are driving through, different attractions you are visiting, or even include pictures of family members you may be visiting on the way. I decided to do the states because we are working on visiting all 50 states while the boys are still little:) I also printed out some Airstream clip art to help track our progress on the countdown.

 I punched two holes in the top of each of my states and then strung them onto some curling ribbon in the order that we are going to be visiting them. 

 Then I simple tied the two ends of the ribbon on opposite sides of the car in the backseat. {Make sure that it doesn't hang down too low and block the drivers view...that could be dangerous!} I spaced out the states so they reached evenly across the car and then I used a small clothespin to attach the Airstream clip art to the states. As we move from state to state the boys can simply move the Airstream to the state we are in...from Mississippi all the way to California!

Fun and easy...plus the boys will be getting a pretty great geography lesson too!

Linking up here..

Tatertots and Jello

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Wordless Wednesday: Eli's Camping Trip

**didn't end quite the way he was hoping:)**

Roadtrip Ready: Kid Sized Travel Neck Pillow

One thing that is great about kids and roadtrips is that for the most part kids can sleep anywhere! Seriously, I wish I was like that sometimes...it would make a long boring drive go by much faster. Even though my kiddos can sleep in almost any position possible when we are in the car, they never look very comfortable. They are always slumped over or their neck is bent so much it looks like it might break in half. So I decided that before we head out for our big trip, that all three of my boys {and I may get one too} needed travel neck pillows. But if you've ever shopped for one of those pillows, you know that they are usually pretty plain and kind of expensive. So I decided to try my hand at making some...and they ended up being really easy and really cheap!

I started by drawing out a pattern on a piece of paper. I searched online for a printable pattern, but I couldn't find one that I like...so I kind of just winged it.

{That ended up being a little bit of a problem because my first attempt was a major fail! But then I tweaked my pattern a little and the second one came out perfectly!}

Once you have your pattern, lay it on your material at the fold. This will ensure that both sides of the pillow are symmetrical. You can pin and cut like a normal pattern, but I was being lazy and just used a piece of chalk to trace the outline of my pattern.

Cut out two pieces {both on the fold} and then lay them on top of each other right sides together.

Sew around the edges of the pillow with a straight stitch.

Leave a hole in the pillow on one side. You will use this hole to turn and stuff the pillow.

Turn the pillow right side out and then add in a much stuffing as you would like. I filled mine pretty tight so it would be extra supportive for my boys' big noggins:) Then sew up the hole to finish the pillow.

Now when Eli decides to take a nap in the car he will be much more comfortable...and maybe he will sleep longer too!

Do your kids sleep in the car when you are on a roadtrip?

Linking up here..

Tatertots and Jello

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Roadtrip Ready: I Spy Book

Hey y'all! My name is Kate and I am so excited to be sharing with you all today here at Random Thoughts of a Supermom!

When you get a minute be sure to check out my blog; Embracing Life's Journey. I blog about life after the loss of a child - our 14 month old son Charlie, life with our new son Cannon, DIY crafts, recipes and so much more!

Today I am going to share with you all an amazingly easy project that I first learned about in my moms club in Florida. These are some of the most creative and awesome ladies ever, and I am so excited to share this I Spy Book with you.

Okay, so here we go...

There are 6 very simple steps to the process and depending on how old your kiddo is you can get pretty creative and complex.

Step 1: Gather and lay out on a poster board random toys.

Step 2: Snap a picture of them and don't worry about zooming in perfectly.

Step 3: Remove most of the items leaving only a few for the key side of the page.

Now upload the pictures into your photo editing software. If you don't have one do not fret, there are plenty of free editing websites that do not require registration, like picmonkey.

Step 4: Edit the photos. All I did to mine was use auto adjust and crop since I wasn't trying to accomplish anything fancy. I also just shot them on auto but with no flash...I really don't like flash.

Step 5: Either print out the photos or upload them to a site to have them printed. I did mine through Walgreen's and they were ready in 1 hour. Be careful to remove the auto adjust option otherwise they might cut off your items and change the exposure.

You will repeat these steps for as many pages as you would like to do.

Step 6: Assemble your book.

Of course I had to do a University of Michigan one...

That's it, easy huh? I think some nature ones would be pretty fun too! And if your kids are a little older they can even help you pick out what to use.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and thank you so much to Kelli for having me as a guest blogger today!

embracinglifesjourney.com

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