I had a dinner party last night and I had no idea that it would have such a profound effect of my kids.  They watched me set the table and this morning set it themselves (think fancy!). Then my daughter told me that she wants to decorate – ok I know that kids model their parents behavior but when my daughter was holding up fabric swatches to our paint color I could see she was serious.

Of course I want to encourage any kind of personal expression – but not at the cost of cleaning all day long.  I have found the solution...cardboard kids stuff.  You can paint it, personalize it, bejewel it, decorate, eventually recycle it, and spare the rest of the house the same treatment.

Here are some great things to test out your decorating skills on...

Here, here, here and here are some great resources.

Just in time for Halloween...

I found this great craft at Target too....ok full disclosure....Target does not ask me, pay me or, in fact, know that I blog about stuff I buy there! I just happen across these amazing things when I am getting laundry detergent or dog treats. I am always looking for projects...everywhere and this one was fun and we ended up playing with it all morning.

We called him Spooky Spidey (original right? I think he became a him because of his footwear). This is an all-in-one deal- everything comes in the bag, just add your own personal touches and you have a fun spider to crawl on everything.

We are gearing up for Halloween at our house and I have to say that everyday the costume changes. The princess costume still come up but I gently try and steer the conversation in a different direction. Armed with the memory of Peggy Orenstein’s great column "Wonder Girl" in the New York Times - I thought 'why not Super Hero Princess?' I love the idea that even though she is a princess it is still her responsibility to save the world. This has also become a very serious on going bedtime story...more on that later. Anyway, this morning I broke out one of the life saving craft packets I have from Target – when I don’t have the morning mojo to challenge myself with an original craft – I have back up.

This project resonated especially well with my daughter – my son decided to skip it in favor of walking the dog – his new favorite activity...

All you need is one “Party Like Crazy” Tiara Kit from Target (sorry it is not online - you have to brave a store trip) – everything you need is included!

We added some stickers we had and the result is worthy of a velvet box. Batman costume optional.

More morning projects....today Mickey was the request.  Sometimes that is all I get for direction – I have begun to feel like the Iron Chef of projects – I have few things at my disposal and I better figure it out. I am not crazy enough to attempt to draw this famous Mouse first thing in the morning so out comes the computer and printer.  I printed some of those great coloring pages available on most sites – I easily found Mickey and Minnie on disney.com.

I pasted them down on the Fresh Direct boxes I was about to recycle -  cut them out and presto you have a great paper doll ready to be decorated.

The total time to get the project ready was about 5 minutes – my kids decorated for 45 (no request for TV at all this morning – am I getting the hang of this?) and the result was fun for everyone.

Every morning my daughter and son wake me up and ask if we can do a project. I mean every morning... A project for them can be anything from making pancakes to dressing up but it usually means arts and crafts. I am always up for it if it means we can stave off the request for TV!  I usually have to execute this task before my morning coffee so it has to meet the following requirements – it’s easy, the elements of the project are around the house and the cleanup is not torturous (this is not only true of the projects but of just about everything in my life from cooking to entertaining to exercise -ok I never get a chance to exercise– make it great but make it easy too.)

We did this project again this morning and it was a hit - I call it the Cardboard Castle. Of course I like the minimal version – so chic – but the fun is in the decorating AND it’s great for play after. Turns out it’s perfect for cars, small animals and dolls.

All you need is:

1 cardboard box – any size will do

Scissors

Decorations – here your kids can do anything from stickers to paint.

Stickers and crayons = easy cleanup

Paint = not so easy cleanup

This morning we used glitter glue and acrylic jewels.

If you make a great one send us a pic!