Bubble Wrap Snow Printing

Our Christmas season is almost over (believe it or not we still have one more family gathering this weekend) but it's never too early to start creating our thank you cards. We love thinking of hands-on ways to create our thank you cards. In the past this has included creating Potato Print Snowmen or Magic Word Thank You Cards. Other times we just like using some of our process art to create thank you cards, like when we paint with Monster Trucks.

This week we were inspired by the newly fallen snow to create our own snow printings. We've painted with bubble wrap before, but this was the first time we created an easy strategy for printing with it. We used our new strategy to print onto tree collages for cards. 

10 Inside Play Ideas for Winter Vacation

In general I find that the winter vacation following Christmas goes by pretty quickly. We usually have family members to see, new things to play with, and some fresh snow to enjoy outside. Not to mention the fun of our Family Focused New Year's Eve to distract us only a week after Christmas.

But, just in case vacation stretches on a little too long for kiddos, it's always nice to have a few things up my "Mama" sleeve. Here are a few of our favorite inside or winter themed activities we may wind up trying this week. Most of them involve materials you probably already have on hand in your cupboard or playroom.

Show Down: Addition Facts Card Game

While my hope is to just have fun and relax over this winter vacation, I also know that it can be good to keep school aged kids thinking at least a little about both math and reading. The best way parents can do that is by keeping the learning fun and playful. (Which does not mean worksheets.)

A few months ago, I came up with this game for Big Brother and I to play and practice math facts at the same time. It's been a big hit on weekends and vacations since then, and he's not even realizing he's building his number facts as we play.

What are number facts? Addition number facts are typically thought of as addition facts with a sum (answer) up to 20. 

The rules to our "Show Down" game are very similar to the traditional card game "War" with a few math twists. The materials are relatively simple: a deck of playing cards, a sheet of paper, and a marker or pencil. 

Chai Spiced Cookies with Egg Nog Glaze

It's that time of the Holiday Season where we focus on baking. We like making treats to share with neighbors, friends, and others. We're always looking for easy and yummy recipes to create with. I'm a big fan of chai teas and I love getting a hot one as a treat while wrapping up holiday shopping.

With that in mind, I tweaked one of our favorite rolled sugar cookie recipes to create these Chai Spiced Cookies with Egg Nog Glaze.

Gingerbread Playdough Kit

As the holidays come up, it's nice to have something on hand for the other kiddos in our life. Even though we don't always give gifts to the adults around us, I do like having something little for the kiddos we play and visit with. It's even better if the gift can be something homemade and doesn't cost a lot.

Last year I had thought about putting together some kind of playdough kit, but couldn't find the right cookie cutters I had in mind. This year I was excited to find plastic gingerbread cookie cutters for 99¢ at our local grocery store. This lead to creating our Gingerbread Playdough Kits. 

Cork Painted Ornaments

We've really enjoyed making ornaments this year! 

We've been experimenting with several new types of ornaments, like these snow white mitten ornaments. But if you've been hanging around this fall, you also know we've been liking using cork as a crafting material.

So of course, why wouldn't we combine the two ideas into these easy Cork Painted Ornaments?

30+ "Go-To" Recipes From Moms for Moms

If your family is like our family, you're finding yourself pretty busy these days with the holidays approaching. Every weekend is pretty full with different celebrations, and the weekdays are blend of trying to stick to routine but balancing interruptions.

It's during busy times like these that I feel like I resort to those tried and true recipes that I love and know pretty well. I know my kids will enjoy them and they won't take too long to put together.

So with that in mind I asked some of my favorite mom bloggers out there what are their everyday "go-to" recipes.

December Monthly Goals: Be A More Proactive Blogger

Hard to believe that almost a year ago I started setting out monthly goals. Throughout the year I feel like the goals have helped me to focus on a variety of house and family related realms. I've loved seeing and feeling progress over the course of the year. With progress in a lot of areas, one area I still need to focus on is blogging.

I love writing this blog and I can't believe that this spring it will have been three years since I began. But it's amazing how quickly time can go by and some of the things I'd hoped to do still haven't happened or become routine. So for the last month of 2015, I've decided to make my focus stay here, on Kitchen Floor Crafts.

Mitten Ornaments Inspired by Jan Brett's "The Mitten"

Mitten Ornaments

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We're really excited to be participating in the 10 Days of Kid-Made Ornaments as hosted by Mama Miss. There are so many amazing homemade ornament ideas being shared by some of the most creative kid bloggers out there. And all of the ornaments are both kid-made and inspired by a different children's books! Of course you can see why we're excited.

For our ornament project we decided to read Jan Brett's "The Mitten" and create our own snowy white mitten ornaments.