National Tie-Dye Easy Crafts with Mess Free Swirl & Style Studio by YULU! Sneak Peek of YULU toys for 2020!

Today is Tie-Dye Day! To celebrate, I made a bunch of cool tie-dye designs using the new Swirl & Style Tie-Dye Studio by YULU! The Swirl & Style allows for a totally mess-free experience making this pop culture art form a cinch to do for kids. Perfect for craft nights, boredom busters, or even to create some pieces for a slumber party, the kids will love how easy it is to use, and parents will love the almost zero amount of clean up! Find this awesome new craft kit at Target for just $19.99!

My first project was for the release of Trolls World Tour! I made Poppy and Branch inspired tie-dye shirts for my boys, and they came out awesome! I used a fun technique where you can tie-dye an image onto your garment. It's very easy to do. You don't need anything else other than a washable marker to draw a mirror image of your design on to folded fabric and make sure you watch the video for step by step instructions. If the image is simple, it can be done! 

For Tie-Dye Day, I transformed a boring canvas tote into a VSCO girl's dream tote bag. I bought plain canvas tote bags off of Amazon. I also purchased white, cotton scrunchies that I used to tie-dye as well, and you can find a pack on Amazon.  I also made a bunch of shirts so far with my Swirl & Style Studio, and I use just plain white t-shirts - you can use any t-shirt that is light enough to take colors. I bought a pack of t-shirts off of Amazon, but you can also get packs of white t-shirts at Target and Walmart. For Tie-Dye Day, I really tried to make a Mickey Mouse tie-dye shirt. I drew half of a Mickey Mouse head on to the shirt and bunched the outline up to make one consistent line to rubberband. It did not come out as I planned, but the shirt looks funky and far out! The possibilities are truly endless with the Swirl & Style Studio - you can turn any plain fabric into a fun art piece!

The Swirl & Style Tie-Dye studio takes this art form and makes it accessible to kids. Tie-dying fabrics can get messy if you aren't a pro, so I love that there is  a chamber to hold the garment and nozzles to administer the dye. The nozzles are self-sealing, so it keeps the die inside the chamber and off of your hands! The crank allows you to swirl the garment around in the chamber allowing for equal distribution of dye. The set comes with dye packets (you have to mix the powder with water), rubber bands, the tie-dye chamber, and instructions.

Channel your inner creative hippie, and turn plain white t’s and virtually any fabric into far-out pieces of wearable art! The Swirl & Style Tie-Dye Studio is available now at Target for just $19.99, this is the ultimate boredom buster! 

Check out brand new toys and games coming out by YULU this year! It's going to be an action-packed year for play!

 

Thank you so much YULU for hooking us up and sending this awesome crafty DIY kit to us for free! Stay tuned for more videos of more mess-free tie-dye creations!

10+ 2020 HOT Summer Toys by Antsy Pants to Promote Pretend Play!

Staying home is fun when you’ve got an arsenal of toys to keep the whole family busy! Thankfully, Antsy Pants inspires the imagination to go farther out than ever with their unique line of toys, games, and builds suitable for pre-schoolers to tweens and big kids at heart promoting limitless play!

Here’s a full list of my top picks by Antsy Pants for indoor and outdoor fun!

Nothing says summer fun like a game of ring toss and a cool glass of lemonade! Antsy Pants has to new versions of the classic game with the Antsy Pants playful twist.

Cactus Ring Toss Set, Target, $24.99, 4+

Make an oasis of play outdoors or indoors with the Cactus Ring Toss set! It includes three cacti and three rings. Perfect for kiddos ages four and up, and can easily be ordered online from Target.com! 

Flamingo Ring Toss, Target, $24.99, 4+

I love this kitschy Flamingo Ring toss game! Flamingoes are just fascinating birds. This set comes with three flamingo stands and three rings. For an added challenge, see who can balance the longest by standing like a flamingo! 

Benefits of play: Ring toss promotes hand-eye coordination and develops motor skills, plus it’s fun! 

 Unicorn Bowling, Target, $24.99

Unicorn Bowling set is just a fun and adorable set! We never put the this Unicorn bowling set away, it is always out and ready for a game — perfect for indoor and outdoor play. The Unicorn Bowling Set by Antsy Pants mixes fantasy and skill together with the adorable kid-friendly unicorn-shaped bowling pins, and a kid-sized pink bowling ball. The pins are easy to set up and are color-coded for easy set up for little kids.

Benefits of play: Bowling improves hand-eye coordination, and helps develop motor skills.

BINGO game, Target, $7.99

Play a game of BINGO with a group of two to four players. It's so easy for kids to play together without any assistance. Flip a card, and match it to the game board. The first to get five in a row wins!

Benefits: Improve memory, hand-eye coordination, learn basic shapes and colors, concentration, and focus with games of BINGO

Stepping Stones, Target, $19.99

Kids will strengthen their balance by hopping from one colored stone to another with the Stepping Stones by Antsy Pants. Call out the stone colors and turn this fun way to strengthen core muscles into a full-body, standing game of twister! Add in that extra challenge of not falling off of the stone into the “hot lava” will keep kids engaged, laughing, and strengthening their bodies all at the same time! Stack them up for easy storage once playtime is over. You can play with the Stepping Stones indoors, too. 

Nothing says summer like a refreshing cup of lemonade, but it tastes even better when it’s bought from an Antsy Pants Lemonade Stand! Easily build one of the many Antsy Pants structures to encourage and promote the power of pretend play! These sets are timeless and will grow with each child. Choose from the Lemonade Stand, Ball Pit, Donut Shop, and more. 

The beauty of Antsy Pants building kits is that you can create different setups to encourage limitless play. One day you can build a pirate ship, a tent, or a farmer's market, and the next day it can be a fire truck. Each set is compatible with one another and is a cinch to build with the Snap and Click™ poles and connectors. $9.99 to $19.99 at Target. Make sure you pair the build kits with their felt foods line!

Antsy Pants also supports KaBoom a non-profit that builds playgrounds in poverty-stricken neighborhoods across America. 

You can also find Antsy Pants products on Amazon!

I participate in affiliate programs, so if you happen to click through and shop through one of my links, I get a small commission at zero cost to you. This helps me and family! I thank you for your support!

 

HARRY POTTER OWL FOR YOU! NEW LEGO HARRY POTTER SETS COMING AUGUST 1!!!!!!

More good news from LEGO® revealed today! LEGO is expanding its widely popular magical Harry Potter sets with six new Wizarding World of Harry Potter builds. I am so excited for these sets as now we have the Room of Requirement and even 4 Privet Drive! You have to see these new minifigures - see a quick scope of retail info below! Thank you so much, LEGO for sharing this information with me!

• LEGO® Harry Potter™ Hogwarts™ Room of Requirement ($19.99) - 193 pieces including 3 minifigures: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood.

• LEGO® Harry Potter™ Hogwarts™ Astronomy Tower ($29.99) - 253 pieces including 3 minifigures: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Dolores Umbridge. 

• LEGO® Harry Potter™ Hedwig™ ($39.99) - 630 pieces, with a wingspan of over 13” and a beak-to-tail measurement of over 7” 

• LEGO® Harry Potter™ 4 Privet Drive ($69.99) - 797 pieces including 6 minifigures: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Dudley Dursley, Vernon Dursley, Petunia Dursley and Dobby.

• LEGO® Harry Potter™ Forbidden Forest ($99.99) - 971 pieces including 8 minifigures: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Horace Slughorn, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley, Lavender Brown and Draco Malfoy.   
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• LEGO® Harry Potter™ Attack on The Burrow ($99.99) - 1,047 pieces including 8 minifigures: Ron, Ginny, Arthur and Molly Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, Bellatrix Lestrange, Fenrir Greyback and Harry Potter

Starting April 30, the sets will be available to pre-order online at LEGO.com, before launching in the US on August 1.

Are you pre-ordering from LEGO? Let me know in the comments!

Looking for ways to play with your Kess Ice Hoops and Kess Drop Dots? Watch this video for some great tips and lots of laughs. Adults! Shop online with Kess.co/shop and use coupon code: PLP5 to save $5 off of your purchase of any Kess curated Activity Set! 

We have been sheltering in place since March 12, and I have been homeschooling since March 23. The transition has been smooth, and we have all been acclimating to our new normal with some ease. My only problem is how to keep a little boy active enough to fulfill the NYC Board of Education required 60 minutes of activity a day with a toddler in tow? Thankfully, with a little creativity and the right tools, you’ll be on your way to the rest of the school year and even summer full of play!

Kess sent us a bunch of Kess Ice Hoops and awesome, super-bouncy drop dots balls. We made our own obstacle course to make outdoor play more exciting, keeping us active, which also keeps us competitive. A little bit of competition and all-around styles of play incorporating abbreviated sports and even obscure items like hoops and tactile toys will keep outdoor and indoor play fresh and fun! All you need is a little bit of creativity and the right tools, and then playtime is off to a great start. 

Kess offers up the perfect recipe for fun, tactile play. Fulfilling sensory needs like touch, you can choose from the Drop Dots balls with tactile tendrils all around, they are also very bouncy making them a favorite for indoor and outdoor play. Squishy Cuties jump rope allows for kids to fulfill sensory needs while exercising. The Ice Hopper includes glitter water for added sparkle, and a trendy look gives playtime lots of pizazz. Kids will not even realize that they are working out and strengthening their minds and bodies! 

Kick it up a notch when outdoors, and drop a few Ice Hoops flat on the ground to create an obstacle course to hop through. Add in some hurdles along the way by giving the kids a Drop Dots ball to toss it into a ring to get clearance to hop to the next hoop! The winner gets to choose the smoothie flavor! Loser has to set the table for dinner!

What will you get with your $5 off coupon? More products will be added! Check out Kess on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.