Rainbow Art Party Loot Bags

Delightful DIY with Dutch Mill Delight

Art In Island 3D Art Museum

I've already been to a 3D Art Museum in Korea about 2 years ago, which I enjoyed very much. My kids loved looking at all the silly pictures of their dad and me, so I jumped at the chance to visit Art In Island so they could experience it for themselves.

DIY Rainbow Crayons

Do you have a lot of broken crayons which you end up just throwing away? Well, this easy craft can help you recycle those pieces in a snap!

Summer classes at LUNA Art Workshop

I'm sure most parents will agree that summer is usually more busy and hectic than when the kids are in school. We end up taking them to different camps or workshops, plus they're always begging to be entertained when they're at home! Aside from swimming, I made sure to enroll my 6 year old daughter in art classes since I can see that she's very creative. We're from the south so I found a couple in the Alabang area, but they were quite expensive. Good thing a fellow mom recommended this place, LUNA Art Workshop, which is located in Phase 1 of BF Homes.

DIY: Popsicle Stick Characters

Now that it's the summer break, I sometimes feel like I'm busier than when the kids were in school. Between driving and accompanying them to their different activities/workshops/playdates, I also have to think of ways to keep them entertained at home.

Blow Painting for Kids

I've been looking at Art Workshops I can enroll my daughter in this summer, but honestly they can be quite expensive. And for her age (she's 6), most of the activities are still for beginners like finger painting, collage making, paper folding, molding clay, etc. So I figured, why not just do art activities with her at home? So off we went to National Bookstore and bought a bunch of materials (which cost a fraction of what one class would have cost!). And for our first activity, we did blow painting!

How to make your own playdough (no cook recipe)

My 5 year old daughter: Mom, I'm bored. What can I do?!

Me: Your homework!

Her: What???!!! I want something fun!

Haaay good luck to me when she gets to big school! Anyway, it's getting harder and harder to entertain her these days so I'm thankful for blogs and YouTube for giving me lots of ideas. My daughter loves mixing ingredients and as you know, I need a lot of help in the kitchen department. That's why when I saw this video she was watching, I knew instantly that we can make it since 1) it looked super easy, 2) all the ingredients were something I had on hand, and of course 3) who doesn't love playdough?

Crafternoons: Napkin Decoupage with HEISL

I was invited by Patty and Michelle, the ladies behind Crafternoons, to a preview class to learn all about decoupage. For those not familiar, decoupage is the art of decorating an object by gluing paper cutouts onto it.

Make your own colors with the Crayola Marker Maker

My kids have so much toys already that whenever someone asks me what they can give them as a gift, I immediately think of arts and crafts stuff. So for Miley's birthday, we gave her this Crayola Marker Maker. She loves to draw and write using markers (not so much crayons) so I knew she would love this.

I love the whole DIY concept and creating your own custom colors. And if you ever wondered how markers are made, I can now tell you that it's so simple and fun! :)

The kit comes with only 3 ink bottles - red, yellow, and blue. But you can make so many colors by using the mixing guide provided, or just creating your own.

Here's the "core" of the markers which will be filled with color later on. It's like a sponge so it absorbs the ink really quickly (reminds me of a tampon lol! ;p).

And there are all kinds of wacky tips to choose from!

Here's the assembled kit with all the parts:

At first, hubby and I were the ones putting the ink in the measuring tubes. But it really is so easy to do that after a while, Miley was the one doing all the steps!

look at that intense concentration

Our favorite part was putting the core in the tube and watching the ink get absorbed. You can see the ink quickly spreading upward the entire white core which was pretty cool hehe! ;p

After, you just use the tweezers provided to transfer the core to the plastic barrel. Then use the machine to snap it shut inside the pen.

You just have to wait a few minutes for the color to completely spread out, then the markers are ready to use!

I also love how the markers came with labels which you can write the color you made on. And there was also a box which you can further color and personalize.

Of course, this is so much cheaper in the States (almost half the price) but it is also available here for P1,700. I even saw a girl version in Toys R Us, which I wish was the one I had bought for Miley. But either way, I really think this is such a great gift idea for any kid since it's something the whole family can enjoy too. And don't worry if you finish up the ink or made all the pens already. You can buy refills as well! :)

Updated Family Silhouette Art

I made a DIY silhouette art of our family back in 2012 when it was just me, hubby, Miley and Sabe.

read more about this DIY project HERE

I've been meaning to update it last year ever since Skyler was born, but never got around to doing it until a few days ago. I was thinking whether to just keep our old silhouettes and just add another one for Sky, but decided to just redo everyone's artwork. And it was nice to see the difference after a couple of years. :)

LEFT: Miley in 2012, RIGHT: Miley in 2015

LEFT: Sabre in 2012, RIGHT: Sabre in 2015

Skyler's silhouette at 1 year old

I bought my frames in SM also a few years ago and if I remember correctly, they only had those 4 colorful ones (aside from white and black). Good thing I had the white one and also some yellow spray paint lying around. In just a few minutes, I had my new frame ready! :)

Now here's our updated silhouette art on the wall (and the new arrangement of the frames). So happy Skyler's now part of it! :)

Nesfruta Make it #RealNaReal Promo

My daughter loves to doodle, color and do all sorts of arts & crafts activities. Lately, I’ve noticed that her drawings have become more detailed - from all kinds of animals, to houses, and of course different types of characters.

I just love how she uses her imagination to create all these drawings. She even gives them names and tells me stories about them.

her very own princess drawing

And since Christmas is just around the corner, NESFRUTA has found a way to make it extra special by bringing your kid’s imagination to life! Just watch the video below to see how:

So mommies and daddies, you too can have your kids’ drawings come to life by simply joining the NESFRUTA Make It #RealNaReal Promo. 

Just visit http://bit.ly/nesfrutamakeitreal for more details and complete mechanics. And who knows, your child's drawing on paper can become a real, actual toy for him or her to play with!

So just keep encouraging your child's imagination and what are you waiting for? Join now! :)

DIY: Getting Creative with Chalk

Like every other parent, I love taking pictures of my kids. I love dressing them up in costumes or cute little outfits and teaching them how to pose (my daughter Miley has mastered the hands-on-hip, beauty queen stance at 4 years old).

We’ve had our family portraits done by a professional photographer about 4 times already (basically once a year). And one thing I can say is that these photoshoots do not come cheap these days. It really is an investment, especially if you choose to go with the more well-known studios around town. 

But really, there’s no reason not to have beautiful pictures even if you just take these by yourself at home. I love searching for inspiration online, and if I can recreate something with my kids, I’m all for it! One of those ideas I’ve been wanting to try is sidewalk chalk photos.

I love this whole concept since it’s so easy, inexpensive, and creates a big impact. All you need is chalk, an area where you can do your drawing, and a huge imagination.

To find out more on how I did this, please head on over to Cerelac & Gerber's #ParentingNerd blog, where I (along with other mommy bloggers) give lots of cool tips and ideas on Food, Fashion, and Arts & Crafts.

Sige Sabado with Breeze

I used to be a full-time working mom back when Miley was still our only child. I worked in advertising and it was a very demanding, hectic life. I barely had any time to spend with Miley since I was really tired when I got home (overtime galore!) and sometimes I also had to work during the weekends to attend events.

That’s why I consider myself so lucky that I was able to leave that life behind to be a full-time housewife now. Being able to spend every day with my kids and be there for the milestones is such a blessing.

As a stay-at-home mom, I try to find lots of activities the kids can do to keep them occupied throughout the day. That’s why I was so happy when I received this Sige Sabado Playbox from Breeze!

The playbox is filled with different materials for making fun activities like a tie dye kit, harlequin mask, raise a monggo plant, dinosaur egg bath soaps, popsicle names and pen holder, slime, animal balloon papier-mache, and chocolate drawing.

instructions

It encourages moms to bond with their kids over fun, simple activities. We also shouldn’t be afraid of our kids getting stains since these can easily be removed anyway. What’s important is the experience, the lessons, and the memories we are able to create with our children.

As expected, my kids were really excited with the Sige Sabado Playbox. They were always opening it up like a treasure box at different hours of the day, checking to see what activity they can do next.

I asked Miley what she wanted to do first and she chose the harlequin mask activity.

We cut up diamond shapes out of the felt paper and glued it to the mask. We also placed glue on the other areas and then sprinkled glitters on it for a sparkly look! :)

We love how our mask turned out!

We also did the DIY slime activity and I didn’t expect it to be so much fun! The kids loved mixing the ingredients and feeling the gooey texture of the slime. We kept laughing and pretended to be aliens with our green hands! ;p

I knew it would be messy but as Breeze says, sige lang sa mansta!

You too can share your Sige Sabado Moment with Breeze and get a chance to win a trip to LEGOLAND Malaysia Resort for 2!

Here’s how the promo works:

1. Users must LIKE the facebook fanpage: www.facebook.com/BreezePhilippines

2. Once a fan the user may access the Sige Sabado app

3. Go to the Breeze Sige Sabado application tab

4. Read the mechanics

5. Fill-up the form

6. Complete the Breeze tagline with your child's name: Sige Sabado moment with _________.

7. Create a photo showing your Sige Sabado moment

8. Upload your photo

9. Post your photo on the Breeze Sige Sabado app

It’s that simple! The promo runs from April 5 to May 31 so mag Sige Sabado bonding na with your kids! :)

*sponsored post

Real Living Space Tea Party & Walkthrough

I have been an avid reader and fan of Real Living magazine for so many years now, so I was beyond happy when I received an invite to their Real Living Space tea party. During the event, Associate Publisher Tom Castaneda and Editor In Chief Rachelle Medina personally discussed and showed us the spaces that some of Manila's best interior designers have created at the Trion Towers in BCG.

This was the lovely office / craft room set-up that greeted us, with furniture from Heima. The free DIY workshops during the weekend were also held here. Out of all the spaces, this was probably my favorite since I just love all the colors, prints and patterns. Everything just looks so happy and girly! Gosh, I wish I could have a room like this at home where I can do all my DIY projects. Heaven!!!

This is the living area styled by Van Acuna. Hubby was with me and he instantly gravitated towards the aquarium on display (he's been wanting to get an aquarium for the house ever since before). Well, we found out that the aquarium was from ADA Nature Aquariums and it costs a whopping P140,000! That's because all the plants used are real (and imported), the glass of the aquarium is some kind of special crystal (it was so clear!), and the best part is that someone comes to your house once a week to clean the whole thing! So sulit naman pala hehe! ;p

This is the dining space designed by Wilan Dayrit, which is where cocktails was also held.

We then headed upstairs to check 2 of the condo units that were styled for the event. In the first unit, the living / dining area was by Wilmer Lopez featuring furniture from Space Encounters. I really loved the whole vintage, retro, funky style of this area.

The bedroom inside the unit was styled by Pam Tan. My favorite part in the room was probably the butterfly decals on the wall from Dimensione. According to EIC Rachelle, the designer placed them there to cover paint chips on the wall (great idea!).

In the next unit, the living area was styled by Kristine Neri-Magturo. I really like the mix of feminine and masculine elements in the space. If you noticed, there are a lot of antlers used as decors in the room, just like in the other unit, which was purely coincidence from the designers. ;p

The bedroom in the unit was styled by Elle Uy. This room is also one of my top picks since it has that whole bohemian vibe (very Urban Outfitters!). I especially love the curtains and the wall gallery.

It was such a great afternoon and the whole time, I felt like I really stepped inside the pages of Real Living. I love how all the spaces have their own distinct style - there really was something for everyone. Now, I'm even more inspired to start redecorating! Although I need to wait a couple more years before I can start placing breakable accent pieces anywhere around the house with my toddlers running around hehe! ;p