Edible Peanut Butter Play Dough

During the school year, I have a job as a nanny of three boys under the age of six. While I absolutely love playing with the boys, I can only run so much and I only have so much energy. So when my energy has depleted, I like to try to come up with creative arts and crafts projects for the boys while I recover from our last game of "a boy and a girl walking through the jungle".

 

The other day, I decided I wanted to make some play dough for the boys. For some reason, they have no actual play dough in the entire house. There are SO MANY recipes for edible play dough scoured through pretty much every source imaginable. On a whim, I decided I wanted to make peanut butter play dough, because who doesn't love peanut butter? The boys I watch constantly ask for a spoonful of peanut butter as their treat for the day.

 

Looking throughout recipes and recipes, I finally found the golden one. It tastes pretty darn good and molds to shapes just as normal play dough would. The only downside to this recipe is that it tends to crumble if gone unused. Other than that, this recipe is perfect to kids to play with- and for adults to eat!

 

 

Edible Peanut Butter Play Dough

 

2 c. confectioners sugar

1 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. honey

 

Place all ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Stir until all ingredients are combined. Use hands to combine crumbs into balls.  Now you're ready to play!

Decorating: Halloween

I'm usually big on decorating for special occasions, especially holidays. Sadly, since I've settled into college life I've struggled a lot to find the right balance of size, quality and how expensive decorations are. In many college dorms or apartments space is extremely limited, so creativity is a key element in decoration because as amazing as something might be, sometimes there just isn't enough space for it (a full size Christmas tree for example). Another thing I strongly consider when browsing for decorations is (of course) how much it costs. Being a college student, I want need to buy something that is extremely cheap. At the same time though, I don't want whatever I buy to look so horribly made that a five year old made it in ten minutes. That being said, as you've probably (or not probably, I don't really know if you would have guessed this) guessed, I do a lot of my shopping at Walmart and Target. Let me say, they have some pretty cute stuff there!

Interested to see how I decorate my room on a college budget? Well, here you go!

In the interest of full disclosure, my mother bought me these items for Halloween this year, so I did not personally pick them out. They're all cute nonetheless though!

 Okay, this last one isn't TECHNICALLY Halloween, but it's Fall! I feel like a lot of times Fall and Halloween decorations kind of mesh together, so I felt it was appropriate for me to include this one also.

DIY Calendar

It's already October. I know people say time goes by quicker the older you get, but this is getting ridiculous. I swear it was August two days ago. So I know it might be a little late to do this post, it being October and all. However, I loved doing this project so much that I just had to share it.

Last year, I saw that one of my friends had a homemade calendar hanging up in her room instead of the generic white and grey wall calendar I had in my room. I instantly decided that I was going to make a calendar for the next school year instead of buying a generic, ugly and expensive wall calendar. So that's exactly what I did. I was very surprised how easy and quick it was to make it. The best part? I didn't have to buy a single thing.

What you'll need:
  
Cardboard
Scissors
Tape
Paper
Printer
Stapler 

Instructions:

1. Find a piece of cardboard (there's probably empty boxes somewhere around your house, I used a box from something I recently ordered online). Make sure it's sturdy and in good condition. It can be as big or as little as you want. Next, decide how big you want your calendar to be and cut it to that measurement. To make things easier, I just cut the sides and top off of my cardboard box, so I was left with a piece that measured 14x19.25 inches.

2. Find a calendar template online that you would like to use, or if you are feeling particularly crafty, make your own. I found one online, but I can't seem to remember where I found it (I even looked online for about an hour trying to find the template I used before finally giving up). Print out the template.

3. Find a background to match your calendar design. Again, you can either search for one online, or you can make one yourself. I looked online and found a cute design within minutes. Print out your chosen background. You'll need to print out multiple pages and that number depends on how big your piece of cardboard is. Be aware though, that you'll want to have enough paper for it to hang of the edge of the cardboard. I printed out four copies of the design just to make sure I had enough.

4. Flip the background papers on the off side (the side of the paper that is blank and has no design on it). Bring the papers together and arrange them to fit the cardboard. Tape the sides of the paper together. Be careful to ensure there are no gaps and the design lines up if applicable.

5. Once all the papers are taped together, place the on side (the side of the paper with designs on it) of the paper facing the surface it is on, with the off side of the paper facing you. Place your cardboard on the center of the papers. Taking one edge of the paper, flip it up and tape it on the cardboard. Repeat with all sides until all sides of cardboard is covered. If this sounds confusing, just tape the paper to the cardboard just as you would as taping wrapping paper to a gift.

6. Flip the cardboard over. Make sure the design looks good on the cardboard and was done correctly. Next, take your printed calendar template. Make sure all the months are in the correct order and place them where you would like them on the cardboard. I placed mine in the center. Next, grab a stapler and staple the top of the papers to the cardboard.

And you're done!
*Please ignore what I wrote on the calendar*