When I was a kid Crayola was simply crayons.  Crayola has taken crayons and creativity to a whole new level in recent years.  Thanks to MyBlogSpark and Crayola, we received Crayola’s 150 count Crayola Crayon Tower, Crayola Glow Book, Crayola Ultimate Art Supplies, and the Crayola Jewelry making Boutique.  Coloring is so much more now than it was when we were growing up, and both of my kids have had a blast with these Crayola products.

Inspire hours of wonder, adventure and dreams by giving a child more than presents for the holidays. Crayola brings colorful ideas to life and allows kids to express everything imaginable by making it super easy for parents to find something that will unleash all kids original ideas with their Holiday Gift Guide at www.crayola.com/gifts.

Crayola Telescoping Crayon Tower

The Crayola CrayonTower puts an astounding 150 Crayola crayons at your child’s disposal.  The Crayon Tower, has a telescoping design, which enables your child to see their color choices more easily than when they are in a box.   No more having to pour  a bunch of crayons onto the table or floor, which we all know turns into a huge mess!  The crayons in the Crayon Tower are much easier for a little hand to grasp than when they are in a box.  The Crayola Tower comes with a crayon sharpener.

Recommended for children 4+, the Ultimate Art Supply Kit contains 24 crayons, 8 washable broad line markers, 12 colored pencils, 8 washable watercolors, 1 paint brush, school glue, scissors, and colored paper and retails for $16.99.

Crayola Ultimate Art Supply Case

The Crayola Ultimate Art Supply case makes coloring on the road or at Grandmother’s house so much easier.  I no longer have bags of Crayons in my purse.  When the case is open, your child is presented with a neatly organized portable art center including crayons, markers, colored pencils, scissors, glue, and there is even a little space for paper.

The Crayon Tower retails for $17.99.

Crayola Glow Book

Really bringing coloring to another level is the amazing Crayola Glow Book. Not only can your child use their imagination but they can also make the pictures move and honestly, what’s better than that when it comes to coloring?  I think the Glow Book builds confidence too.  When my 5 year old first played with the Glow Book, she left the room with it and a little bit later she came back with the adorable animation of a seed sprouting into a flower that she had created all by herself.  The look of accomplishment on her face, was priceless.

Using special glowing-ink markers to draw on each of the four clear pages, kids can choose one of the four tracing guides to create original scenes, signs and messages, and arrange them in their desired order. Then, just hit the lights and allow your kids to wow you with wildly colorful, glowing animated scenes. Variable light settings create colorful, multi-layered effects. The Crayola Glow Book wipes off easily so kids can use their imaginations to create endless glowing artwork! A simple wet cloth will do.

Recommended for children ages 6+, the kit includes one Glow Book with 4 clear pages, 4 animation tracing guides and 6 glow markers and retails for $24.99.

Crayola Jewelry Boutique

My daughter had such a great time creating beads and jewelry with the Crayola Jewelry Boutique.   She was so proud to be designing her own jewelry and even created some beads and pieces for other people!  Crayola put a unique “spin” on jewelry making with a special “jewelry spinner” that creates multi-colored beads using Crayola Model Magic. As kids spin their beads into shapes, they can string them together to create original bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and pendants that reflect their own personal style. Let the designing begin!

Recommended for children ages 6+, each Jewelry Boutique kit includes 8 packs of Crayola Model Magic to mold 160 beads, 5 bracelet charms, 3 pendant charms, 2 shape cutters, a bead dryer rack, 5 toggle sets, 4 earring posts and ear wires, a bead punch, 18 gems, 2 necklace cords, 1 elastic cord, bead glaze, and the Jewelry Boutique Spinner with storage areas and retails for $24.99.

 Connect with Crayola

• Crayola Holiday Gift Guide Website 
• Crayola on Facebook 
• Crayola on Twitter

GIVEAWAY!

We are giving a lucky reader a Crayola Innovative Holiday prize pack containing:

• (1) Jewelry Boutique
• (1) Glow Book
• (1) 150-ct Crayon Tower
• (1) Ultimate Art Supplies case

Crayola Innovations, Just in Time for the Holidays – A Crayola Giveaway Too! #MyBlogSpark #Giveaway is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!

Are you looking to have some fun scrapbooking summer fun vacation memories? Why not try an online scrapbook service? Online scrapbooks take away sticky fingers and trying to remember where you placed the photo you’ve been looking for, for the past half hour.

With online digital scrapbooks you don’t have to worry about your photos getting soiled or the fading of its color. Your photos will look the same years from now as they looked the day they were taken. It helps you to add your own personal touches that you may have taken hours to do if you were doing it manually. With over 1000 designs to choose from and the ability to create your own videos using your photos it helps bring your memories to life. The outcome look so professional that you would never believe how quick and easy it was to explore your imagination and create a scrapbook that would last you a life time.

Most online digital scrapbooking websites allow users to upload photos to their service from your existing Flickr photos, Facebook photos, Picasa photos and more online photo sharing services.

Throughout the summer this could also be an activity that you share with your children and could lead to hours of fun. If you don’t have the time to create your own online scrapbook you can request your book to be made for you.

The best part about it is that online digital scrapbooking can be done absolutely free. You don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars printing your photos in order to share your most cherished memories with family and friends. Now you can share your scrapbooks via the internet which is cost effective and you can reach a lot more persons at one time.

So if you are looking for a way to preserve your fun, summer memories seriously consider using an online scrapbook which can enhance your most memorable and unique moments that will be long lasting.

Online Digital Scrapbooking Resources

A few online digital scrapbooking services that I found to be easy to use, mostly free, and full of great layouts and scrapbook ideas are MixBook.com, BeeClip.com, CropMom.com, Shutterfly, Inkubook, and ScrapBlog.com.

Online Photo Sharing Resources

There are dozens of great online photo sharing websites that allow you to store your photographs on their servers free of charge.  Then when you log on to a digital scrapbooking website, you are able to pull those photographs from the photo sharing websites in directly from the photo sharing website of your choice.  Here are a few of the most popular photo sharing websites: Snapfish.com, Facebook.com, Picasa, and Flickr.

Did we leave your favorite photo sharing or digital scrapbooking service out of our list? Let us know what your favorite online scrapbook and photo sharing services are in the comments below.

Scrapbooking Summer Fun Vacation Memories w/ Resource Links is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!

My husband and I and the kids just spent 45 minutes sitting together at the kitchen table (almost a record time!) coloring our personalized Crayola StoryStudio printable coloring book pages.   We had such a blast and my husband even said “We need to have a coloring night every week.”.  No kidding, that’s what he said!  You too can try Crayola’s StoryStudio!  Use code access code PRY4DBJJ on Crayola StoryStudio‘s page to get free access to Crayola’s StoryStudio for 48 hours.

Here is one page from each of the kids' Crayola StoryStudio coloring books

There’s still time to order for Christmas delivery!

* Before you read further, note that as of today, December 23rd, you can still have some Crayola items delivered in time for Christmas from Amazon.com.  Here is a direct link to Amazon.com’s Crayola page.

Crayola is offering more than 30 ways to give the gift of imagination for under $30  this holiday season with a lineup  of gifts to inspire wonder, adventure and dreams in toddlers to tweens.

Crayola has created an on-line gift guide making it easy to select the perfect creative activity for the child on your list. It´s available at www.Crayola.com/gifts. You can search the Crayola Gift Guide by age, gender and type of product, like mess-free and washable products and activities that offer surprising experiences. Who wouldn´t be surprised to watch their artwork light up in the dark in multiple colors!

Top picks from the Gift Guide include:

Never before has paper been a surface for creating glowing drawings! Glow Explosion Spin Magic is a revolutionary activity toy that lets kids create multi-colored glow-in-the-dark art with markers that light up like glow sticks on paper. The spinning base lets kids create magical mobiles and whirling lanterns for a never-before-seen “glow show” that will wow the entire family when the lights go out. Colorful, glowing shapes like planets or hot air balloons appear as if they are spinning in mid-air. The base unit doubles as a lantern with five different scenes that create cool shadow-effects as they rotate around the radiant, glowing designs created on Glow Explosion paper. $19.99, 6+

The Crayola Color Wonder Sound Studio makes coloring a magical mess-free adventure for little eyes and ears! Kids can add fun, action-packed sound effects like dinosaur roars, motor cycle engines, giggles and even the voices of Buzz Lightyear, Woody and the Disney Princesses to their coloring pages. Sounds play back when they color their pictures. Just choose a sound and add it anywhere on the coloring page to create one-of-a-kind coloring stories with surprising sound effects. Kids can also play back all the sounds they experienced while they were coloring. Sixty sounds can be matched to any image on any page for hours of colorful fun! $29.99, 3+ Buy here

Crayola Model Magic Presto Dots received “Toy of the Year” honors from Good Housekeeping, Parenting and Parents magazines. The “magic” behind Presto Dots comes from Model Magic´s – a truly different modeling material that doesn´t crumble. It´s not clay, it´s not dough – it´s Crayola Model Magic. Kids can create 3-D, bumpy characters with the easy-to-use “Pop-Dot” tool that grabs just the right amount of Model Magic for building an original creature. A quick press and pop covers characters with presto dots. Pop away with different colored dots, or pop dots on top of dots to create original 3-D creatures that air-dry in 24 hours. $19.99, 5+ Buy here

So why are Crayola crayons, a holiday classic and a perennial stocking stuffer on the list? This year, specially-marked Crayola crayon boxes (48, 64, 96, 120-ct. as well as the 150-ct. Crayon Tower) include a free code that provides 6-month unlimited access to the Story Studio custom coloring book maker. What a great value! Available at Crayola.com, Story Studio allows kids to transform themselves into a cartoon character from a digital photo or web cam image, customize their character with hats, sunglasses, costumes and other fun accessories and then select a theme to create a custom story book they can print and color. Story Studio was named “High Tech Toy of the Year” by the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio. $5-$15, 3+

If you are planning on shopping Crayola for the holidays, be sure to download a rebate form at www.crayola.com/promos/holidayFSI/. You could save over $20!

For the complete Holiday Gift Guide, visit www.crayola.com/gifts. Also, be sure to “Like” Crayola on Facebook and follow them on Twitter to keep up with the latest news from Crayola and special holiday deals!

GIVEAWAY!

We are giving a lucky reader a Crayola Glow Explosion Spin Magic, Crayola Mess Free Color Wonder Sound Studio, Crayola Model Magic Presto Dots and a 64 Box of Crayola Crayons!

To enter, leave a comment below telling us how you plan on giving the gift of imagination this year or what Crayola gift you think their child would most enjoy.

Entries accepted through 12/28

Disclosure: Crayola provided you with the free Crayola products for yourself and to give away through MyBlogSpark.

Enjoy!

There’s still time to order for Christmas delivery!

* Before you read further, note that as of today, December 23rd, you can still have some Crayola items delivered in time for Christmas from Amazon.com.  Here is a direct link to Amazon.com’s Crayola page.

Crayola StoryStudio, 48 hour Access Code, and Gift Guide is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!

Halloween evening came to a halt about 14 minutes ago, it’s 12:14 am here. But I still have candy and chatting with friends on my mind.

The kids and I were very prepared for Halloween this year thanks to Pumpkin Masters‘ carving kits and Monster Pieces kit.
Madelyn, shown below, absolutely loved Pumpkin Masters Monster Pieces. I had thought that she could just paint a pumpkin this year but when these kits arrived in the mail I knew that Madelyn would be all over the monster pieces.
Sure enough she transformed her pumpkin from a dull, standard small pumpkin into a three-faced bilingual (Madelyn’s says so) pumpkin and one that is
clearly full of emotions. If the pumpkin’s three faces is any indication into his emotional health, you should be ware.

We gave 3 lucky Atlanta Moms readers a set of pumpkin/Halloween products at a recent get together/contest..

A Giveaway for you!

And now.. if you share a link to your creatively carved pumpkin from this year, we’ll enter you in a drawing to win $10 worth of Pumpkin Masters products for next Halloween. Gotta love being proactive, right? Tell us the age of the primary carver and helper (if any) when linking to your photograph.

Enter to win:

REQUIRED – leave a comment below telling us where we can find your pumpkin photograph (link, Facebook, twitter)’ and the names and ages of the carvers. Full names not necessary.
REQUIRED – also tell us why you want win a Pumpkin Masters carving kit for next year
REQUIRED – sign up for our weekly Insider newsletter. Subscribe
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
- follow us on Twitter (@Mommyinsider) then send out this tweet to your twitter friends (up to once per day!) I just entered to win a Pumpkin Masters carving kit from TheMommyInsider.com. You can enter to win too! Link: http://ow.ly/32lFA

Prize & Contest Details

- Entries accepted through 11:59 November 15
- winner will be notified via the email address the winning comment has
- make sure to use the same email address every time you complete an ‘extra entry’ task.
- we will retain right of use for the photographs submitted for use of this contest (if you are not comfortable with your pumpkin achieving celebrity status then don’t enter this contest!

Pumpkin Masters saved the holiday in the Hagan house is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!

Madelyn comes up with the most interesting ideas when I won’t play with her she’s bored.  I love it!

Madelyn and I were relaxing on the front porch yesterday and because I refused to play with her (oh no!) she got creative with the sand in her sandbox.  By creative I mean she got water, plastic containers, and really messy.   I sat in my chair and read Wired magazine (the actual paper magazine, not on my iPhone) while she delivered  sand-cake, sand-soup, and other deliciously messy sand-snacks for me to enjoy.  Yum!

After playing in the sandbox for about 20 minutes she got bored.  She asked for a juice box.  So, I gave her the juice box that we snagged from her Halloween party at school earlier in the day and she drank like she was parched.

After she drank the juice, she got creative with the juicebox and made a juicebox rocket out of it!

Madelyn flew her juicebox rocket all around the front yard, initiated some pretty serious launch sequences complete with sounds and some crazy spinning action!  :)  Needless to say, I wasn’t paying much attention to my magazine anymore.  I followed Madelyn around the yard as she flew her juicebox rocket into infinity and beyond!

Supplies needed:

• 1 juice box – unless you’re on a serious mission in which case you’ll need more juice boxes
• 1 regular size drinking straw per rocket
• 2 paint brushes per rocket
• About 1 cup of moistened sand

How to make your juicebox rocket:

• Have your child drink the juice until the juice box is empty
• Cut a hole in the bottom of the juicebox
• Fill the juicebox with moistened sand (so the sand doesn’t fly out as your child fly’s it)
• Stick a straw in the sand
• Strategically place two paint brushes in the sand – for what purpose, I don’t know.

Get in on the fun and make your own juicebox rocket with your kids!   What is the most creative thing your child has made from a juicebox?

How to make a Juicebox Rocket – a fun and cheap craft is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!

The history of SINGER dates back to 1811.   Their newer electronic sewing machines with computerized embroidery units however are nothing like what was introduced in the early 1900′s.  We found that with almost endless design possibilities and good features both the beginner and novice sewer, the SINGER Futura CE-250 sewing & embroidery machine is a great product for the money and is perfect for those just starting to explore the world of sewing, embroidery and quilting. 

Our tester, Elouise, is an experienced sewer but had not used an embroidery machine before and is not very computer savvy.  Much to my surprise, she handled the transition from her very old sewing machine (at least 35 years old… a SINGER ) to the Futura hooked up to a computer, very well. 

Free designs are available for download online.  Just go to Google and type in what you are looking for.  You can purchase design cards and CD’s for anywhere from <$20 to >$150 with each design card having about 10-20 designs on it.  One great website where you can download individual embroidery (most less than $50) designs or packs of designs is Dakota Collectibles.

"The Futura was easy to get used to", Elouise said. "For the price, the SINGER Futura CE-250 has a lot of versatility.  Everything from set up to choosing one of the 100 stitches to advanced embroidery is easy to accomplish quickly and with less effort than expected."

 Elouise recommends taking a class at a local sewing machine store so owners can learn to use the machine to its fullest potential.

A good example of embroidery is on this toddler tee from SewCUTE, reviewed on our site here. The SINGER Futura CE-250 machine includes designs which are transmitted to the machine via a USB cable hooked up to your computer.  If you aren’t up to embroidering fancy teddy bears, or creating your own design to be digitized, you can embroidered your child’s name using one of the many fonts included on the machine’s software, on a pillow case, t-shirt, or cloth purse for example.  The possibilities really are endless. Besides the embroidery functions, the SINGER Futura CE-250 can be used as an everyday sewing machine and a quilter.

In summary, "the SINGER Futura CE-250 is a great quality machine with a lot of versatility and features good for beginners and advanced users," says Elouise.  "The only issue I had with the machine is its awkward size.  I haven’t been able to find a standard size tote or rolling bag to put the SINGER Futura CE-250 in, but instead had to buy a an XL rolling tote.   A tote is only needed if you plan on taking your machine with you to classes or on trips, so buyers shouldn’t let that hold them back from buying this affordable, multi-tasking machine. Embroidery is a great hobby to take up as there are so many items you can embroider on such as place mats, clothing, towels, and pillow cases.  Embroidery as a hobby can be as affordable as you make it, with designs available for free or for up to or over $50 a piece.  On the other hand, embroidery can make for a wonderful and profitible home business with personalized baby and children’s clothing being in such high demand these days."

There are several models available to choose from so be sure to research the different models carefully before buying so you get the machine that best suits your needs.

SINGER Futura products

I’ve got great news!  We have a SINGER Futura CE-250 to give away to a lucky reader! Stay tuned for giveaway dates and how to enter by signing up for our weekly or daily newsletter using the ‘email updates’ or ‘subscribe’ link above.

SINGER Futura™ sewing & embroidery machine is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!