This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered. Congrats to #121 SAJ. You’re the winner of a new dreamy collection! Have fun make believing!
Are you ready for the most Dreamy Girl Collection ever? Ready to play, make believe, and head off on an adventure to a new land? Your little one is going to love this giveaway for a fun collection from Make and Takes sponsor, Total Class Creative.
There are so many fun creative things to be had, they are right up my “make and takes” alley!! Craft kits, holiday crafts, and fun furniture. You can also check out their blog where they share all kinds of crafty creative ideas.
Here’s what’s up for grabs for today’s giveaway: Dream Girl Collection:
It comes complete with the dream house play structure, dream house fashion doll furniture and girls dress up kit! All I can say is “hours and hours of playtime fun”!
And for an added treat, Total Class Creative is offering a coupon code for 25% off your entire online order. Offer valid July 16- July 31, 2010. Redeem at totalclasscreative.com. During checkout use coupon code: MAKENTAKES.
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Giveaway Entries: For your chance to win the above Dream Girl Collection from Total Class Creative, leave a comment on this post by Thursday July 22nd @ midnight, stating how you and your family stay creative. I’ll announce the winner chosen from random on Friday morning July 23rd. Good Luck!
Extra Entries – enter a new comment for each extra entry telling what you did:
- Tweet about the giveaway and follow @TCCCrafts
– Like (aka become a fan) of TCC on Facebook
Written by Marie LeBaron
Marie LeBaron is the founder and managing editor of Make and Takes. Always having a love of crafts, she enjoys getting messy with glue and glitter. There’s always some sort of project going on, her kitchen counter is often cluttered with crafts. When she’s not crafting and creating with her kids, she loves to run, read, and blog! Read other posts by Marie
{ 133 comments }
We certainly go through spurts of creativity, but I like to find things for them to do or create to break up our routine.
unplugged the TV :) and started collecting a huge bucket of art supplies.
My girls frequently wear some sort of dress-up attire out of the house and my youngest daughter has dubbed herself “Sparkleworks” pony. Imagination keeps us on our creative toes!
My girls would LOVE this!
Creativity in our house is nurtured by turning off the tv and the computer. I keep lot of craft supplies on hand and a file of projects I think my kids would like to try.
we stay creative by watching 1 hour of TV weekly. checking out amazing blogs. and simply just following my children’s natural creativeness.
my little girl, turning 3 next month (as well as becoming a “big sister” next month!) would adore this. in fact, and in secret, so would her 2 older brothers. hehe.
I have to agree with Joanna…when I pull them away from the video games/tv, they seem to be the most creative kids! That’s when they’ll make stuff, and play “make believe”. The internet’s great for finding “creative” things to do w/ your kids as well! :)
I follow & tweeted! :)
FB fan! (TCC)
We follow your blog! :-) We also are outdoors a lot — there is nothing better then a classroom w/o walls.
We scrapbook and color often and love getting ideas from your site!
Follow you on FB! Thanks for entering me!
We let our kids choose a craft theme for the week, and set out a box. All week we collect items according to that theme. On Saturday we get the box, and create projects and activities with what we have collected.
In my family creativity is important to us. We’ve made our own halloween costumes, we do crafty stuff together, paint, pretend play, draw and love to take photographs.
My girls would love this. I love to sew and my daughters are always grabbing up bits of fabric scraps to make things with, sticking them to paper, tying them around dolls you name it those scraps come in very handy.
I always encourage my family to try to make something first instead of buying it. I love the satisfaction of making and creating something yourself and I’m proud to say my girls and husband does too.
YES please. So we have been staying creative during the summer with our neighborhood art group! The kids have A BLAST it is so much fun.
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My family loves to play dress up and act out all sorts of things. The kids also love any crafty endeavor that involves getting messy!
Love this cute little house! So would the little one!
What fun! My daughter is almost always in imaginationland. So keeping things creative isn’t too difficult, but we try to keep art supplie and recyclable items on hand and think outside the box when playing with toys, waiting in the car or at the store.
We are mostly crafty during the summer months. Always creating with art supplies and goodies from the great outdoors.
We like to hike, swim, make art, sing, dance, and share silly stories with one another.
We have tons of art supplies at our house! We often can’t eat dinner at our kitchen table because it is covered with are supplies or crafts or creations that are drying!
We try to stay creative by making up songs! I’m getting pretty good at making up rhymes on the spot!
We have a lot of artsy supplies at our house, but with very little kids (oldest is only 3), we are starting small. We like to cut out shapes with our paper cutters and glue them to pages. We also like to make houses out of boxes (we just moved, so lots of those) and we also like to make fun creations in the kitchen!
I’ve started leaving out more art supplies and now we have TONS of drawings. I also try to plan one or two projects per week, usually based on things I’ve seen online.
We try to stay creative by having plenty of creative items on hand at all times, to create with! Beads, feathers, googly eyes, foam, paper, pipe cleaners, stickers, fuzzy balls, felt, you-name-it! When my little ones see these items sitting on the table, they definitely get creative! It’s so much fun to see!!!
At least twice a week we turn off all the electronics and pull out the art supply box. Then we sit around and make things. I really enjoy this time with my kids because it lets them be creative. It also makes them realize that they do not “need” the computer and TV to keep themselves entertained!
Just found your site and it has some amazing ideas! We love all things creative – some recent projects include painting wall murals, baking and decorating cakes and cookies, planting a windowsill herb garden, decoupaging some old kids furniture…
I try to make sure that the toys we get our children allow for open ended play.
We stay creative by starting each day with a craft immediately after breakfast. We have a craft nook in our dining room and the kids can choose their materials and get crafty. I find mornings are the best crafting times because we are still in our dreaming state of mind. :)
Looks like so much fun! We stay creative by keeping a box of craft supplies in the pantry handy that are always on hand when we want to make something. I am always in the pantry so I sometimes get inspired when I look at the supplies!
I start by reading blogs like this one for great ideas! My daughter and I try a lot of new projects while the little guy is napping, including recipes and crafts. Having the supplies on hand makes a big difference, so I stock up when I see items cheaply.
We don’t watch TV and play all day! Scotty especially loves playing make-believe with his space shuttles.
We stay creative by doing as much as we can outside (all seasons) and by doing things with our hands. I also make sure I play with them, to help inspire or to join in on the fun, as well as keep back so they can make up their own things and play without me.
Handmade costumes. My daughter is currently wearing a lady bug costume in honor of our favorite books, Ladybug Girl.
Right now our creativity is making cards for grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins with stamps, crayons and stickers with my 2 yr. old.
My daughter is 2.5YO and is just starting to really use her imagination while she plays. She loves dolls and babies. She also loves to color and paint.
With two daughters, I keep lots of art supplies around. We search the internet for ideas and then go to town. My older daughter also scrapbooks with me sometimes.
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This is amazing! With a toddler, we are constantly using our imagination in our house. Blankets become tents. Hats become mixing bowls. Spoons double as microphones. You name it – - we’re repurposed it!:)
How do we stay creative? no tv and leaving art supplies out were the kids can get to them. They are always coming up with something to cut, draw color or glue.
We do a lot of make believe and pretend play. With a 4 year old boy and a 3 year old girl we have played everything from Dragon family to Space explorers. They can come up with the craziest ideas sometimes, I love being their mom.
#1: We don’t watch TV at our house. Just check out occasional videos from the library/Netflix.
#2: We give them free access to basic craft supplies, i.e. unlimited glue and tape. Set them loose with whatever is in the recycling bin…
Check out these Newspaper Sandals our 9 yr old came up with!
http://bit.ly/bvGN5I
We stay creative with a lot of dress up and a lot of paint and chalk and scissors and glue! With three girls (and a boy) under tow, this beautiful blue (!!) house would be quite a hit — for dolls and cars alike. Love the site, will be putting that 25% coupon to good use over there…
Just added them to those I “like” on FB. Thanks for the giveaway!
Tweeted and followed!
Thanks!
http://twitter.com/andreagerlach
I like to get a box of odds and ends craft stuff and a glue gun and let the kids go wild. The tell me where to glue and we have a good time.
I have a 2 year old and am due in Nov with my second. Since my daughter was born I have been saving craft ideas I read about on blogs or come up with on my own and putting them in a cute box for rainy days. It includes making clay, tye dying, and other such crafts. She is still too young to enjoy most of them but it will be a godsend one day when they say “mom, I’m bored!”
Most of our family creativity is in cooking. We love to cook together and try new things.
We love making up stories and songs together! Both my girls would love this!!
My little BOY would love this. But don’t enter me.
We stay creative by doing paper projects that we create or print from online:)
My kids keep me creative! We love the outdoors and the kids always find treasures along the way. When we bring them home they are always trying to figure out what to make with them.
We keep plenty of glitter and glue on hand at all times!
We stay creative by bringing out a huge bag of odds and ends for them to make whatever they want. We also stay creative by creating stories–my girls love to tell stories and then write and illustrate them.
just letting them have fun..trying not to stifle it with too many rules and letting them try to do the same things that i enjoy.
We turn on the music, get out the crayons or paints, or break out the sidewalk chalk. Anything to be creative!
I have to be vigilant about encouraging creativity around here. Hoping that when my 21 mo old gets beyond the crayon/marker eating stage, moving the supplies down to kid-level will make it more natural.
Great giveaway – thanks!
I “like” Make & Takes on Facebook.
We stay creative by being creative! As much coloring, drawing, dancing, singing, sewing, playing, claymaking we can do! :)
So cute! My kids and I do art projects almost everyday. My 4 yr old has been very big into cuting lately so I had her cut lots of pieces of tissue paper and we glued them to a piece of wax paper and then cut it into a heart and hung it up for a sun catcher. The day before we found an old stick in the yard so we made it into a wind chime. We live at the beach so we always have a basket of shells. We found all the shells with holes in them and she threaded them on some fishing line and I tied knots then tied them to the stick. Walla…wind chime. Art is all around!
We keep all our markers, crayons and pens and pencils in an easily accesible cubby, along with a bucket with glue sticks, scissors and lots of TAPE. There’s a drawer of scratch/junk/construction paper, and the kids are always drawing and creating.
We makes lots of crafts and go to the local Childrens’ Museum.
We read lots of websites and magazines to find creative ideas to try in our own home.
Wow! This is very cute!! My kids love to tell stories and I write them down in a sketch book. Then they illustrate their stories. So much fun go back and read their stories later. My two year old and four year old would love this…thank you for the chance to win!
We got rid of all the coloring books and now use blank (recycled) paper and stencils, stamps, crayons, and markers to make up our own drawings without being limited to the pictures already drawn in a book.
Our community ed dept has a big room where companies (and individuals) can donate misc.items that might otherwise be thrown away. Anyone can go there (but families,teachers and daycares are the ones they would like) and take home materials to use for art/craft projects. My granddaughters and I have gotten ribbon, different kinds of paper, fabric scraps, frames,and tons of other goodies. Every Wed. I babysit for them and it is our craft afternoon. We have so much fun.
We stay creative by constantly using our imagination….to come up with silly songs, games and projects to work on together as a family!!
My oldest has a wild imagination and can make anything out of anything. She walks around wherever we go wearing her fancy costume jewelry and rainboots and makes up stories on the spot.
I have been hitting the garage sales in the area for art supplies. It’s amazing what you can find to get creative for really cheap! Right now it is all about glitter glue in our house!
I started an idea book about 5 years ago and tear out or print fun things to do with the kids from blogs, magazines, etc. I have them categorized for easy access. Once a month or so, the kids and I go through that months section and select crafts/projects we would like to do together.
We always try new things and as my little girl says- at least I tried, good for me :) My little guy is all about being funny and a comedian and dressing up
We stay creative by trying new things–we check out a lot of books from the library and then improvise. We also like to experiment when we cook.
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love this! we are always making beds and rooms for the dolls!!
Well, we stay busy by sewing. Our poor kids – I love to quilt, so I pass those sewing skills along to them by getting them excited about new pajamas – made by and for themselves – or new quilts – made by and for them as well. My husband gets involved by oohing and aahing all of our creations. :)
Mom will generally find a fun craft or idea on the web (Make and Takes.:) and just has to have some willing volunteers to try it out! The kids must have inherited my genes because they love crafting!
Our family loves making our own greeting cards! Gives it a personal touch!
This website and all of it’s fabulous ideas help us stay creative!!!!!
We stay creative by having supplies handy in the kitchen where we spend most of our time. We love the make and take website too. We made granola bars just the other day and love them. Finding fun blogs with my oldest and having her pick what she wants to do keeps it fun and interesting for her!
I stay creative by looking up ideas on the computer–I love to try things I see online.
My daughter usually has lots of ideas, but if we ever stall in the creative process we consult our wealth of blogs and books.
It is easy to stay creative with my almost-5-year old, Natalie. She loves being creative: in drawing, cooking, playing, whatever! I am always trying to come up with new things to do with her and her sister. Right now, they have a Summer Fun box that they open to find out what they’re doing that day, they love it!
I have a 2 & 5 yr old. We are always trying new crafts. I try to do indoor and outdoor projects to keep them interested. Right now we are enjoying growing our garden and watching it grown.
we stay creative by drawing,painting and making cookies and doing all sorts of fun outdoor activities!
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My clan loves to be creative by making sweets, paper crafting, and painting. We also love side walk calk for outside creativity, by drawing houses and rooms. Great summer fun!
I tweeted and fellow, and like on FB. ;)
We spend hours painting, gluing and glitter-ing!
I try to encourage any kind of project the kids can come up with – no matter how outlandish or messy! I try to say “yes” as much as possible!
We go to the craft section of WalMart and I let my girls each pick an inexpensive project. While they are choosing, I am taking note of the other projects that I could do with all the supplies I have on hand already.
If we aren’t doing an art project, then we like to swim. While we swim, my girls make up their own relay races and obstacle courses. It’s great because it gets them thinking but it also keeps them practicing their swimming skills! :)
We don’t have a TV and make all kinds of crafts constantly. Without a TV, it’s amazing how well their creative juices flow.
Every day is a craft day in my house. We have tons of craft material & buy more almost every time we go to the store. My daughter loves to draw, paint, color, string beads, clue, make things out of paper, rocks, yarn, whatever she can get her hands on. She’s four, so her imagination is boundless & she’s not hemmed in by “rules”.
We are always creating something in our home. The list ranges from pla-doh characters to bird houses. We make our own special molded crayons with bits of old crayons. We LOVE shrinkydinks and everything you can do with them. We like to bake and create something delicious. We garden a lot of the time. The kids love making rainbow rice almost as much as they like making a mess with it. We are a craft and nature loving family.
We stay creative by always having art supplies ready. I also search the web for good ideas (like your site).
I am going through chemo right now, so my time with my two girls is limited and precious…but we LOVE crafting together. We like to use old magazines and make collages, books, cards, etc. We love mod podging papers on old wood things and creating new ones. We make stories…we laugh, and make memories that will be with us forever. Thanks for considering us!
what about the last giveaway ?
We stay creative by doing lots of craft projects and drawing pictures. Star Wars dress up is also a good thing with my boys! Would LOVE to win this for my little and only daughter!
our family stays creative by making sure that all of the basics (paper, glue, crayons, scissors, stickers, paint, etc) are at their fingertips… “all access art” is what we call it. A large cabinet with organized shelves all ready for grab and go creativity.
We stay creative by keeping store-bought, one-use toys to a minimum. By keeping creativity inducing toys around, we try to foster our daughter’s pretend, creative play.
We watch very little TV and keep a box of throw-away items that could be up-cycled (boxes, paper, spools, etc.)
No tv, and always have the supplies out and ready. No excuses.
We do a lot of silly stuff. Making ‘Wipeout’ courses out of furniture cushions is one of our favorite passtimes.
My 3 year old makes sure we stay creative! She’s always asking what project we are going to do today.
I stay creative by scouring the web and being inspired by other creative moms. Their ideas get me thinking…so much so I created a blog (http://jillybeanzthingz.blogspot.com/) to share others wonderful ideas. I also consider my blog creativity. As a family, we limit TV time to 1 hr in the morning and 1 hr in the evening. Beyond that, my daughter has a play room all to herself where she can go and be creative and imaginative and not be led on by some tv characters ideas and thoughts. My husband reads a tremendous amount, which inspires him to be creative in other ways: financial, health, etc.
We stay creative by turning off the tv and limiting the games!
When we have friends over we always try to do a craft or cooking activity. I love to look at your website for great ideas!
As many art supplies as a 2 year old can tolerate.
We stay creative by making sure there are plenty of craft supplies at all times. My little one just discovered the joy of crayons, so there are plenty of pictures on the walls:) Other than that we do lots of outdoor activities!
Love that! So cute!
We show some of our creativity with new recipes. Some are “new” because someone has dumped a little more of something in the bowl… or added something different entirely. :)
We stay creative by making crafts with the kids :)
We sew, we knit, we draw, we read creative blogs. There are so much things to do with a little bit of
We like to stay creative by using our imagination…ironically, my husband is a lot better at this than I am. He can take a box and turn it into anything…next thing you know we are painting it and making a craft out of it!
we like to play with food – like finger painting with pudding – fun and yummy!
Growing up, we didn’t do too many crafty things, and I envied my friends families who were more creative. So I try and always have lots of crafts on hand for my kids whenever the mood strikes, which is pretty often. Crafts rock!
Oh me oh my…to begin with, my front porch is a haven to all the little neighbor kids as well as to me and my daughter. I’ve taught art classes in the past but the area I live in doesn’t financially support art as a “business.” Therefore, I have stocked up my big ol’ front porch and every Wednesday and Friday, I hold creative workshops for any child who feels like getting creative~ often late at night, you’ll find me and my daughter out there painting, coloring, doing sidewalk chalk by the light of the fireflies.
I, personally volunteer to work as an art therapist to the children in state custody in the county I live in. My daughter (age 8) and I volunteer at our local nursing home by taking in art supplies to the alzheimer’s residents and spending time with them doing easy art projects.
Other than all that~ well, being creative is just a way of life for us!
Thanks~
adria and amaris
We always make sure to have plenty of art supplies around, and we love to go outside to get inspired!
My family stays creative by setting aside time to do projects and having family time. We try to keep a craft box stocked with art supplies, too.
I stay creative by drinking a lot of coffee. My kid stays creative by whining until I think of something fun for us to do together. It sort of works. I also keep crayons and paint and plenty of paper around…’cause you never know when the drawing bug might hit you.
We keep creative by laying out a variety of crafty-ish supplies and seeing where our creativity takes us! We also read a book to the dog every night!
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Tweeted it too!
We stay creative by making a list of things that we want to do each month and crossing said items off as we accomplish them. There is always something new and fresh to try!
We do something creative almost everyday, even if it’s as little as drawing or coloring a picture. My daughter just turned four and we both love art time. It’s fun now that she’s able to do a little bit more, but even before when it was experienced based getting messy with the paints was her favorite thing to do.
Our family stays creative by always looking for new things to do and try!
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We come up with mini projects to keep us busy and creative. Today was paper airplanes, complete with stickers and glitter, followed by airplane races through the hallway!
I liked them on FB. Thanks!
We stay creative by finding lots of different crafts on blogs and magazines. The kids can choose different things to create from the saved and printed out ideas!
We go through reams and reams of paper while we paint, draw, color with markers, chalks – anything to make art! This website gives us lots of good ideas too!