Gifts Littles | A Joyful Riot

OUR FIRST VIDEO! DIY Balloon Animal Soft Toys | A Joyful Riot on Youtube, Crafting (or at Least Trying to) with Our Kids

October 15, 2018 ·

Our first foray into YouTube is silly, frustrating, and very mommy-relatable! Make DIY Balloon Animal Soft Toys with your kids (tugging at you) and our easy-to-follow Spoonflower designs!

We did it!! After the Party Starters videos we shot last year for food.com we had the desire to get into making our own videos. But, like everything else this last year, it’s been really hard to get done! We’ve had a hard enough time just completing our blog posts, let alone learn a whole new medium and website!

I finally had the idea to try and incorporate my kids into the videos because heaven knows that it would be near impossible not to! I also thought this would just be fun! As moms, our kids are always right around wanting our attention and to “help” with projects.

I think there is a tendency to see things online and wonder if that mom has a lot of help. Maybe the kids go to daycare? Is here a nanny? Could she be so lucky that her kids play by themselves? The truth is, those things are the case for many blogging mommies out there. I’ve heard stories of bloggers who send their kids to daycare all day, and bring them back just to pose for pictures. But that’s certainly not the case for me. While it would be so nice to have even a couple hours a day, it’s not something we’re able to do.

DIY Pretend Makeup Kit for Kids

June 20, 2016 ·

Stella LOVES to play with my makeup. When I’m getting ready sometimes she will swipe a carton of brow shadow without me noticing and it will take a minute of her being extra extra quiet before I see that she’s created a big ol’ mess on her face! Its adorable but also messy and wasteful and can be a pain to clean off. So I’ve always wanted to get her some pretend makeup to play with and keep her entertained.

However, I already feel like I don’t want my $40 chemicals on her face so I cannot imagine wanting whatever is in those $5 kits to be on her precious, soft skin. Plus, just because it’s “play” and “washable” doesn’t mean it won’t create a mess for me to clean up. So that really doesn’t solve any problems for me! The solution was to create this kit that’s full of all the essential makeup components but without any of the mess or chemicals!

That’s right, this kit has fake lipstick, fake eyeshadow, fake blushes and bronzers, fake mascara and even fake nail polish! None of it leaves the carton at all but her little two-year-old self is just as happy playing with all of this as she is with the real thing! She doesn’t even seem to realize that none of it goes on her (or my) face.

Piñata Stockings

December 15, 2014 ·

We teamed up with Mom’s Best Network to share 7 fun holiday crafts! Be sure to visit the link to check out some adorable DIYs.

I think the stocking is one of the most fun parts of Christmas. I remember feeling like my stocking was almost never-ending when I was little and of course candy is always my favorite part of any holiday! But this year my little family didn’t have matching stockings so I was thinking I really needed to sew some up! I love sewing, I used to do it all the time but lately it just hasn’t sounded as fun to me. Probably mostly because my machine is making a loud squeaking noise and it’s in the room right next to Stella’s so if she’s sleeping I am NOT going to turn that thing on. It’s probably just a matter of oiling the right part but I can’t seem to figure out what that is…anyway! The stockings I did end up making satisfied both my want to not sew, my need for matching-ness and my desire for fun! I give you, The Pinata Stocking!

That’s right, it’s already one of the best parts of your Christmas morning because it’s a stocking but now it just got even better cus this version is a little mini piñata that can be broken open right in your hands!! Right in your little one’s hands!! Right in the middle of your festivus Christmas morning, you’ll feel like you’re having a mini party because piñatas will be breaking left and right!

If you’re on the ball and have all your stocking fillings already then you can whip these up and hang them full to taunt your family (hehe) or they can be made ahead of time with a removable top and filled Christmas Eve just like normal stockings! You ready for this?

DIY Gift Idea | Crayon Box, Shaped Crayons & Photo Coloring Pages

December 11, 2014 ·

I love DIY gifts! But not when they’re super time consuming. The holidays are already busy enough without having to worry about intricate gifts that your receiver may never even use. This gift, however is super simple to whip up! You could make tons of these in a short amount of time for basically free and it’s personal so it’ll make the giftee feel super special! This would be perfect for your child’s friend gifts and it’ll be fun for them to help make too which makes a lot less work for you! Yippee!

I have a free printable template for these awesome little boxes for you! They have a sort of goofy trapezoid shape that I love and one of our favorite patterns {triangle confetti!}. They’re perfect for your holiday gift but pin this one for later too cus this pattern is a-ok for really any occasion!

Pair these cuties with some handmade shaped crayons (there’s about a million tutorials for them online but really just cut up crayons, fill silicone mold half way and slip it in the oven at 250 for 10 minutes) and you have a worthy gift right there!

But you can really take it to the next level by turning some photos of the person being gifted or people they love into one of a kind coloring pages!

This is also something you can find a bunch of tutorials for online using various photo editing programs. Or there’s a few websites where you just upload the photo right there and they do the conversion for you! Try this one.

Grab the template here:

I think it’s pretty easy to figure out folding without the guidelines so I would only print the first page on card stock paper but if you’re uncomfortable with that, simply turn the paper over and re-insert in your printer and print the second page on it! Follow the guides, glue the flaps inside and then poke a hole through the top big pieces and string something through it. I also think the boxes look super cute with the flaps just glued down flat and that method is better for transportation.

Your receiver will be super excited at the thoughtfulness you put in to this gift and probably won’t be able to wait to begin coloring them! And that isn’t a problem, cus you gave em the crayons to do that with, you expert gifter you!

Teepee Gift Wrapping

December 4, 2014 ·

We love teepees and arrows and all Native American-ness as much as the next person so I thought “hmm it wouldn’t be too difficult to make my presents look like teepees. And that’d be delightful.” And it is. Don’t ya think?

If you’re thinking that this is much too involved for wrapping gifts, you are so dead wrong. Sure, it’s not as quick as some methods but if you’re anything like me you’ve probably tried a bunch of things you saw on Martha Stewart that took way longer than this will. Way longer. And then didn’t turn out like her pictures at all. Frowny face.

So you see, my teepee gifts are a must cus they’re really easy and they WILL turn out like the pictures. I can almost guarantee it. Yours will probably even be better than mine! It may look like there’s a lot of steps but once you do it, you’ll quickly get the hang of it! I have also decided that using a glue gun to wrap presents is a total win. Way prettier results. So let’s bust out some mini little paper teepees, mmk?