Crayon stars from The Long Thread

Stars and stripes gift pack from 4 Crazy Kings

Boys patriotic t-shirt embellishment from My Little Gems

Live Savor Firecrackers from An Altered State of Mind

(via Ucreate)

Star-shaped pinwheel from Cheeky Magpie

Jiffy Pop 4th of July Party invite from Chica and Jo

Red, white, and blue sun hat from The Purl Bee

Firecracker cake topper from Wisdom of the Moon

(via Craft Gossip)

Party popper from Homespun Threads

Bandana Top from Naptime Journal

Festive baton from Elle’s Studio (via Craft Gossip)

4th of July Ring Toss from Roots and Wings Co.

The first day of Summer is just a couple days away! Here are some fun ideas to help get you through these long days!

Count down the weeks of summer with this Sunshine Patterning Activity from Her Cup Overfloweth!

Make and Takes has a great list of items to keep handy for summer crafting. Bag them up for your own Tub O’ Fun!

Let’s Explore is sharing the contents of their Summer Fun Bags beginning with this tangram kit!

Get the kids outdoors for this fun Backyard Alphabet Hunt from Teach Mama!

Follow along with The Long Thread’s Summer Reading Crafts, beginning with the story of Elmer!

Create a fairy fantasy land in your backyard. Here’s a lovely example from And Everything Nice:

Frame a doorway with the items on your summer activity list written on die-cuts. Then take them off as you complete them! Check out the Doorway into Summer at The Artful Parent.

Indie Fixx shares a tutorial for making this sweet butterfly mobile from gift wrap. I love the natural elements, too. You can view the entire project here!

The Thrifty Chick came up with a clever remake of the classic game of Checkers. Here she shows how you can easily make over an existing Checkers set to make your own set with family photos!

I love this set of personalized name blocks from Melissa at Chasing Cheerios!. These would make a great gift for any child, especially those just learning to spell their name. What a fun way to practice putting the letters in the right order! Older kids could take it a step further by rearranging the letters to see how many words they can spell using the letters in their name, and the younger ones could simply enjoy stacking and playing with the colorful blocks! Go to Chasing Cheerios for the how-to!

If you’re planning a circus party any time soon, be sure to stop by Craft Jr. and take a look at their free printables. They’re offering this favor box as a free download in addition to animal masks, circus letters, coloring pages, and more!

Smart-Bottom Enterprises used a pack of premium scrapbook paper to create this colorful wall covering for her kids’ basement playroom. I am impressed and inspired all at once! Go here to see the before pics and for more details!

Mushy shares a free printable and tutorial for making these fun popcorn bags…perfect for your next movie night!

Or…

Hosting a sleeper for some girly tweens? Make some pink popcorn with this how-to from Jenny Ryan at Craft!

Did you know that you could use cardstock, plastic wrap, and paper napkins to create custom greeting cards? I sure didn’t and I was totally blown away when I saw the results that Mama King had using some leftover Tinkerbell napkins. She mentioned using the newly created cards for thank you notes and I think that is a fabulous way to get some extra use out of your party leftovers. Go visit 4 Crazy Kings to read more!

Lotta Bruhn created these fun space stickers and is offering a free download of them at her blog! You can find them here! (via Ohdeedoh)

Pressed flowers are a beautiful keepsake of these warm Spring days. 5 Orange Potatoes shares a tutorial for making a portable flower press using items you probably already have. Go check it out!

This little play theater from Katherine Marie Photography is totally adorable with all of it’s tiny details. I love how she used photos of her family members on the popsicle sticks, but you could also use images of favorite characters or animals as the puppets. She has many more lovely photos of this project, in addition to a list of supplies to make it, here!

Cake and ice cream are birthday party staples, as are goody bags…so why not combine the two? Mrs. Jones shares a template for making a paper cake (above) that can be filled with little toys and candy. Below, is a paper ice cream cone that can be printed off at Tangarang and used for the same purpose. Choose one or use them both for your next birthday party!

Arian Armstrong created this snazzy reward chart for her son and is offering a printable version for you to use! She has a supergirl as well who is just a cute. You can find both of them here!

Today is Children’s Day in Japan and That Artist Woman has a fun way to share a bit of Japanese culture with the kids! Click on over to learn how to make windsocks from paper or fabric (she has a tutorial for each!).

Minibooks can be used in so many ways! This one is made from one piece of cardstock and yields 15 pages of endless possibilities! Check out the tutorial at This Little Project and make one for your kids!

These shadow puppets kept the kids at Gardening Without Skills entertained for TWO hours! Go here for the how-to and make puppets to suit your own kids’ interest!

Special touches have a way of leaving lasting impressions on our children. I always imagined I’d be the type to send along little handwritten notes along with my child’s lunch, but these lunch bags from Disposable Drawings have me thinking more broadly. There are so many ways to add a little extra something to show you care and it usually only takes a few more minutes on our part.  You can see more these lunch bags here. (found via Twig and Thistle)

Frugal Family Blog has a great idea for field guides that are easy to make and super-handy to take along! Click here for the details!

Clothespins are endlessly fun and surprisingly useful for young children. Painting Pink Pajamas added another element of fun to hers by turning them into little animals! Click here for the details on her alligator!

These DIY pint-sized clipboards are so easy to make and would be great to keep handy for little explorers or budding writers.. See Let’s Explore for details!

Plum Pudding has found yet another use for colorful cereal and snack boxes: bookmarks! Click on over to read about how she makes them!

My two-year-old has been obsessed with learning how to spell her name for a while now. But, with 9 letters in all, she has quite a task in front of her. I think this fun game from Instructables user otterhop.com might be just what we need to help make it stick. Check it out here.

See The Woods and the Trees shows how to make a doll house using pages from a magazine or catalog. What a clever way to make use of your catalogs before you discard them! (via Dollar Store Crafts)

Here’s a fun way to help your kids learn which lowercase letters go with which uppercase letters. Flipflops & Applesauce has the details on the matching game they made *plus* a printable alphabet to get you started on your own!