Kids Going To College? Save $$$ On College Textbooks!

 

I remember purchasing textbooks for college last year for my son and was in sticker shock! Wow, was I surprised at the total price for just 4-5 books. When I found out about CampusBookRentals.com,  I thought this is brilliant. For the past several years, CampusBookRentals.com has been renting textbooks to thousand of students. Instead of purchasing textbooks for college rent textbooks and save 50% or more! What a concept! And you can even write and highlight in the books.

Renting books from CampusBookRentals.com helps save a lot of money for students (& parents) : ). Some interesting facts and benefits...

• Books shipped FREE.
• Largest book rental selection in the nation.
• Simply search for your books by entering the ISBN, Title, Author, or Keyword into their search field.
• You can rent books for summer, quarters or full semesters.
• Any book returned within the first 30 days after the order date will be refunded 100%.
• Returning your books is FREE and easy. They even provide your return envelope (with pre-paid postage)! 
• After placing your order, it only takes 24-48 hours for processing (excluding weekends and major holidays). 
• If you decide you would like to keep the book, you can purchase it at a reduced price.
• Campus Book Rentals has served thousands and thousands of college students on more than 5,000 different college campuses. 

So not only do you save big $$$ renting books from CampusBookRentals.com - but their company supports Operation Smile. This service organization performs life changing cleft lip surgeries for kids whose families could not otherwise afford the surgery. Operation Smile has not only provided healing (emotionally and physically) to kids and their families, but has also given them hope with a bright future.

Thank you to CampusBookRentals.com for this review opportunity and for providing a product discount for this review.

{Summer Camp} Candy Gram and Link Up Party

We have a fun tradition in our family - candy gram posters! When my kids were baptized I made a sweet candy gram poster to celebrate the special occasion. Our daughter graduated last month from high school and my other daughter and I made this candy gram for her. I wrote a special message to her and substituted some candy for the words. It reads:

To our Sweetart we are so proud of you! You Pop Rocks!! You've Skor'd a high school degree! And have shown you're not an Air Head or Dum Dum but quite the Smartie. While at college study Extra hard concentrate on having Mounds of Fun and stay away from Big Hunks and Nerds. You'll always be our Bit-O-Honey.

Hugs and Kisses.  We love you to Pieces

Instructions:

Write what you would like your candy message to say. Bring the message with you to purchase the candy. Sometimes when you see the candy it will help you formulate the message. Finding the candy you need is the hardest part.

I purchased a memo board ($2) at the thrift store and sprayed it with spray paint. I used the silhouette machine to cut out the wording on pink vinyl. The trickiest part is figuring out the size of the words and where to place everything. Glue the candy on the memo board with a hot glue gun. You can also use foam board or poster board to make the candy bar poster. The sturdier the better!

Making one of these could be a fun summer project to make with kids! How about making one for grandma or grandpa or dad?  It could be a "just because" or for a birthday.

Candy to use for candy grams:
Sweetarts
Uno ("You know")
Good & Plenty
Extra special {gum}
Symphony  {candy bar}
Mounds
Sugar Daddy
Hugs & Kisses {chocolate kisses}
Lifesaver
Pieces {Reeses Pieces}
Hot Tamales
Now & Later
Pop Rocks
Smartie
Bit-O-Honey
Starburst
Airheads
Whoppers
Treasures (Hersheys}
100 Grand {candy bar}

Various candy gram wording

you are "mounds" of fun
do "uno" how special you are?
"skor" another birthday
Do your best and "skor' high
You are my "lifesaver'
"whopper" of a birthday
to my "big hunk"
You're worth more than "100 grand"
I wanted to give you "100 grand" for your birthday.
There was a "symphony" in heaven the day you were born.
I "treasure" you more than you'll ever know
You'll have "good & plenty" times ahead

Design Dazzles' Summer Camp Link Up Party!

No linking to selling sites or giveaways.

Have fun and leave some love (comments) and visit some amazing bloggers.

Summer Camp ideas - crafts, games, art, recipes, parties, sewing, summer activities, books, recipes - all of the link-ups should be related to fun with kids (babies, kids or teens)!

Enter your project description in the "name" section of the link form.

Please, please, please link back to Design Dazzle so others can share in the awesomeness!

This Summer Camp link-up party will be open until August 1st. By entering our link up party, you are giving Design Dazzle permission to use any part of your post including pictures.

Giveaway: Build a Dream Playhouses & HearthSong!! CLOSED

For today's giveaway we have two wonderful companies Build a Dream Playhouses and HearthSong offering one lucky Design Dazzle winner a gift certificate from each company!

HearthSong is a company who is committed to helping parents follow their instincts to provide their children with age-appropriate, wholesome, quality playthings. How about this sweet Fairy Garden Hideaway shown above? HearthSong offers this style and a Rose Garden Hideaway - perfect to drape over a bed or hung outside for a cool hideaway.

I would love one of these zip lines from HearthSong in the backyard!

How fun does this look... Incred-a-ball

 Playful apparel such as super hero capes.

HearthSong offers all sorts of playthings for outdoor activities, indoor activities, creative play, games, arts and crafts and more!

Our other wonderful sponsor is Build a Dream Playhouses. They offer an assortment of white cardboard playhouses and vehicles that are durable and can be fully customized by your aspiring artist! 

 Build a Dream Playhouse’s Pop n’ Play Kitchen™ships flat and simply unfolds and the kitchen comes alive as cabinets, countertops and appliances appear before your eyes.

 Kids can spend hours on the wonderful activity of coloring. This is genius!

Here's the list of very cool play structures they offer:

The Snack Shack

Pop N' Play Castle

Pop N' Play Kitchen

The Cosmic Cruiser

Imagine Wagon

Dream Machine

These playhouses are the perfect activity for a large gathering or party. The kids can color the playhouses and then help put it together. The easy-to-follow directions and the well labeled parts and pieces (i.e. slide notch A into cutout A) made the assembly quick and easy. It takes approximately 10 minutes to assemble with no glue or tape : ) The cardboard is very sturdy.

One lucky reader at Design Dazzle is going to win the product of his or her choice from Build A Dream Playhouses (up to a $69.95 value) and a $50 gift certificate from HearthSong! 


How to enter:

Mandatory Entries

• "Like" Build a Dream Playhouses on Facebook.
• "Like" HearthSong on Facebook.
  

Extra Entries:

 * 3 Extra entries -  become a Design Dazzle follower ( Facebook page, Twitter or blog).
 * 1 Extra entry -  Follow Build a Dream Playhouses on Twitter.
 * 1 Extra entry -  Follow HearthSong on Twitter.

Leave a separate comment for each entry. If you entered all entries, you would leave 7 separate comments. 

Giveaway contest closes August 4th at 9:00 PM (PST). The winner will be announced on this blog post and will be chosen using Random.org.  If winner fails to respond within three days, a new winner will be chosen. You need to be at least 18 years old to be eligible for this prize. Winner responsible for any applicable taxes.  Winner cannot exchange any products won.  Open to US residents only.  I received compensation for hosting this giveaway. Giveaway is now CLOSED.

WINNER:
Casey of Kidspired Creations

{Summer Camp} How to Make a Sit Upon

 Hello to all the Design Dazzle campers out there! My name is Amanda Formaro, I blog over at Crafts by Amanda. I was excited when Toni asked me to be a camp counselor during this fun summer camp and knew just what we were going to make together. So let's get started shall we?

If you ever participated in Girl Scouts, then you know what a "sit upon" is. A sit upon is usually made from some sort of waterproof fabric, like a fabric backed vinyl tablecloth, and filled with some padding. The padding can be a stack of newspapers, crumpled newspaper, foam squares, scraps of fabric, or even a preformed throw pillow. Everything is sewn together by using some yarn and a hole punch and when used it will protect a child's backside from the wet grass or dirty ground.

In my version of the sit upon, I recycled an old, ratty bed pillow to use as the innards. You know the kind. Those yucky looking pillows that your kids have been drooling sleeping on for ages. So you go out and buy new pillows for the kids, but what to do with the old ones? Feel guilty about throwing them in the garbage? Then remove the outer fabric casing and make a sit upon with me!

you will need:

water resistant fabric (I used a roll of heavy duty shelf liner)
recycled pillow
hole punch
scissors
ruler
yarn
tape

These items are optional for the shoulder strap:
wide ribbon
needle
clear thread

what you do:

You'll want to start by measuring your fabric to be two inches wider than your pillow. Because I used an actual bed pillow, I used my scissors to cut the pillow to approximately 13" square.

Now take your fabric of choice and fold it over the pillow so that you have 3 open sides.

Trim the 3 sides so that they are 2 inches of fabric overlap on all three sides. Now remove the pillow and set aside and fold the fabric so that the right sides are facing out. Use a hole punch to create holes 1-inch apart about 1/2-inch from the three open edges.

Cut a piece of yarn about two times the length of one side of the fabric. Tie a knot in one end and wrap a piece of tape around the other end (to make it easier to thread through the holes). Starting near the folded end, sew up one side of the fabric using a blanket stitch. I started my stitch at the first hole, but taped the end of the yarn inside the fabric so that the knotted end didn't come loose and come through the large hole, which could have unraveled the entire thing.

Repeat this process on the other side, leaving the top open. Insert the pillow into the opening.

If you plan to add handles you will need some clear thread and a needle. First, to measure the correct length of ribbon, have child stand comfortably and drape the ribbon over their shoulder. Cut the proper length based on where you want the cushion end to be. You will need 2 equal lengths of ribbon. Place the ribbon inside the opening and hand sew the ends inside the fabric. Finally, finish the stitching across the top opening.

This is a fun project for kids that involves only a little help from a grown up. You can skip the shoulder strap to simplify this project even more.

By using a water resistant fabric, you will be able to easily wipe the sit upon clean with a damp cloth.

I hope you'll stop by and visit me at Crafts by Amanda where I have quite a few more camp crafts listed! A special thanks to Toni for letting me share with you today. :)

We're having a Summer Camp Link Up Party!

The Link Up Party is for ideas and projects for summertime fun that you've created! The party starts Friday 12:01 AM (EST) or if you're PST  - 9:01 PM Thursday. Come back and share your awesomeness!  I will choose my favorites to highlight and feature : ) 

{Summer Camp} Rock Candy Tutorial

Hi everyone! I’m Heidi from Mom’s Crafty Space where I blog about all sorts of fun crafty things to do with your kids (and some stuff for the grown-ups too!). I am Mommy to three boys ages 5 and under, and we are always in the middle of one creative (and usually messy!) adventure or another. I’m so excited to be over here today sharing how to make your very own rock candy. It’s so easy!

Rock candy is always a fun favorite of children, and it's a fantastic way to disguise a Summer science lesson as a sugary treat! All it takes is a few simple tools, lots of sugar and even more patience!

Rock candy ingredients & supplies: Wooden skewers (cut in half), water, sugar, clothespins and glass jars/drinking glasses. The amount of water and sugar you need depends on how many pieces of rock candy you would like to make and the number of jars you have available (I recommend no more than 2 pieces per jar) - the standard ratio is 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water, but we found that we had to add a bit more sugar than our recipe called for. In the end, we used 10 cups of sugar to 4 cups of water. 

To make our batch of rock candy, we started with 4 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar. Put it all into a large saucepan, because once you put it on the stove it will expand while boiling. I let my 4-year-old mix up the first bit of sugar before putting it on the stove. He was fascinated with watching the sugar dissolve, and it was especially interesting for him to see that we could dissolve even more sugar with the addition of the heat from the stove. Once your pot is on the stove, bring it to a low boil over medium heat, and continue to add sugar one cup at a time until you can no longer dissolve any more of it (making a completely saturated sugar solution).

Turn off the heat and allow it to cool for 15 minutes.

While your sugar is cooling you can prep your sticks. Soak them in water and roll them in a coating of sugar to give the new sugar crystals something to "seed" to. Be sure to let them dry all the way! If they are still too wet when you put them into the hot sugar solution, all of the sugar coating will fall off, and the new crystals will have nothing to grow on.

CAREFULLY pour your sugar solution into your glass jars. If you'd like to add food coloring or flavoring to your rock candy, now is the time to do so. We added color, but we kept the flavor all natural (what kiddo doesn't like the taste of plain sugar?). 

Slowly insert your sugared skewers into the solution. You can use a clothespin as shown to keep your sticks in place. Smaller mouth jars/glasses work best, but only allow room for about two sticks per jar. Be sure that your sticks are not touching the sides or bottom of the glass or each other! They need room for the new crystals to grow!

Set them up in a warm, sunny location where they won't be disturbed, and wait...

...and wait...and wait...and wait (still with me?)...and wait some more...

After about a week you will have made yourself a batch of sparkling sugar rock candy!

Yummy!

So pretty, so tasty and sooooo worth the wait! These would make fantastic holiday gifts to go along with tea or coffee sets (is it crazy that I have Christmas on the brain in July?)!

You can find me over at Mom's Crafty Space and on Facebook and Twitter :)

We're having a Summer Camp Link Up Party!

The Link Up Party is for ideas and projects for summertime fun that you've created! The party starts Friday 12:01 AM (EST) or if you're PST  - 9:01 PM Thursday. Come back and share your awesomeness!  I will choose my favorites to highlight and feature : )

WUSLU Giveaway Winner

A VERY BIG THANK YOU to WUSLU for sponsoring the giveaway! Make sure to check out their daily specials - their products sell out quickly!

Thank you to all who entered the WUSLU giveaway. We do have a winner....

Connie!! That's all I have is Connie. So,  Connie please contact me within 3 business days. I have no way to reach you.....

My Favorites: From The Link Up Party

Shindig Parties To Go guest contributor Brittany from Edible Details shared this SWEET tutorial on how-to make a fondant bead necklace.

Rebecca from Simple As That provides a FREE downloadable reading log. I love this!

And Everything Sweet created this Camping Party. Loving the amazing details.

 Firefly Jar is the perfect craft to make for a camping party or evening outdoors. Created by Come Together Kids.

How-to make a colorful walking stick shared by Crafts By Amanda.

Ocean of Notions shares a tutorial how-to make a pinata.

Laura from Come Together Kids made this PVC sprinkler - easy, simple how-to instructions. 

 Drums made of old formula containers from The Life of Jennifer Dawn.

Glow-in-the-dark drinks shared by Come Together Kids. Brilliant!

This parking garage made from file folders is really cool. Quirky Momma shared this last week on our Link Up Party.

Thank you everyone who linked up to our party. This is the last week of Summer Camp. We've had some amazing Summer Camp Counselors share awesome posts on Design Dazzle. We will still be featuring our link up party every Friday with a  couple of changes :)