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Fall is here in full force! And as the leaves cover the ground in a beautiful blanket of deliciously warm Autumn colors our leaf collection continues growing (out of control). We've been having a blast doing all sorts of fun projects with our fall treasures. However, the leaf rubbings are getting a little played out. Becky of My Kids Make offers this simple activity for making leaf connect the dots. A few fall leaves, paper and pencil. How clever is that?

Rachelle of TinkerLab has shared an alternative recipe to traditional play dough called cloud dough. All you need is flour, oil and wicked blending skills to whip up a batch of something fun for when it's cold outside.

Rachelle:

Need a last-minute Halloween craft? This tutorial for making wooden peg zombies from Jessica Wilson of Scrumdilly Do is brilliant. The tutorial includes handy tips for adding gory details (like bloody bandages...Ewwww) and making your wooden undead stand on their own.

Check out this Instructable for making Galaxy Playdough by Fairy Dust Teaching. Um, yeah that's the coolest! And here I thought there couldn't be anything better, simpler or more satisfying (ok there are other things more satisfying but go with me on this) than whipping up a fresh batch of soft, squishy, pliable homemade Playdough. Well, I stand corrected! There's nothing better than Playdough with glitter!

Family walks are a whole new level of special when Autumn rolls in to show off it's beauty. And my kids (expert leaf hunters) make sure we arrive home with a baker's dozen worth of fresh leaves on each and every outing. We count them, make crayon rubbings of them, craft crowns, masks and fans out of them. Then, they dry up and become a crunchy mess all over my floor. It's kinda sad to see their demise. Wouldn't it be nice to enjoy their beauty the entire season and beyond?

Time to start filling the ol' summer bag of tricks with a few good ideas (that is if you treasure your sanity). Here's a cool project for making a CD case fimo labyrinth contributed by Teri of Giddy Giddy on Bloesem Kids. It's the perfect go-to summer project when things get hairy with the kids.

What ever good summer needs is the perfect hideaway...A cool place to stash one's self for a while with a few good books and several stuffed pals...A haven from the heat!

I admit our home is overrun with small plastic toys...Boo, hiss!...I KNOW plastic...Don't judge! Despite our best attempts to provide eco-friendly playthings for our kids these bright colored pieces of death are the most popular toys in our home providing hours of imaginative play. However, that doesn't solve/rationalize the unequal toy-to-kid ratio of our already spaced challenged living space.

This tutorial by Christy of From Glitter to Gumdrops for lemonade hand scrub just seems like to perfect starting point into the world of bath goodies. I love, love, love this idea so much and think it would be super-easy to make with the kids! I love how Christy uses recycled jars and tools she has on hand to craft the scrub, proving that it is indeed a truly accessible/thrifty project.

Still looking to add some from-the-heart homemade goodness to your Mother's Day celebration? Cindy of Skip to My Lou has compiled a sweet little list of 10 homemade Mother's Day gift ideas. Most of the projects are easy and kid-friendly (with some parental supervision) and can pretty much be put together last-minute (let's face it the minutes are ticking away fast).