Beads, Beads and More Beads!!!

The kiddos have really been into beading lately! We can string beads for hours right now! It is such a great small motor/manipulative activity too. You can work on colors, shapes and even letters and numbers (some beads have letters and numbers on them) while you search through them for the "cool ones". I pick up beads whenever I see them on clearance or at yard sales. I thought I would take a picture of the "string" that I have found works the best. It is a plastic string that the kids can grasp easily. It also doesn't "ball up" or come apart at the ends like yarn and some string do. The only down fall to it is that sometimes the smaller beads with smaller holes won't fit on it. You can find it at your local craft store and I am sure Walmart would carry it in the craft section of the store.

Valentines for Classmates

I thought this would make a cute and different Valentines card for my kid's to hand out to their classmates and the best part is that it didn't cost that much!!!

I think that owls are really cute and there is so much out there right now with the owl motif. When I saw these owl bookmark kits at Halloween time at Target, I thought they were the cutest things. I was not going to pay the $5.00 for them, but knew they would be the first thing I snatched up when all the Halloween merchandise went on clearance (if I was lucky enough to get some before they were gone). I was able to grab enough boxes at 90% off after Halloween for my kids to hand out to their classmates!!!!! I didn't know which holiday I would use them for, but in a previous post, you will see that I decided to do the box of crayons for Christmas. So, the bookmarks are perfect for Valentines Day. Previously, I had purchased "library cards" from one of my favorite crafty sites theplaidbarn.com. I thought these library cards would go perfect with the bookmarks!!!!! Brilliant! So, the kids and I sat down and we started putting the bookmarks together. I loved this because it was fun, family time spent together. After we got them done, we had to make them look more "Valentiney" so I cut out little hearts from red contact paper and we stuck them on the owls. Another thing we did was add little plastic flowers (that I also got on theplaidbarn.com) for the girls in each class. This made them look a little more "festive" for the Valentine holiday.
On the library cards, I wrote my child's name under the "author" part and then under "title", I wrote "Happy Valentines Day!" Then, under "date checked out", I wrote "2-14-13". On the main lines of the cards, I wrote this: "Hooty Hoot! You are so wise Valentine!"

We glued foam hearts onto the bottom of the card as well to make them that much more festive. My first grader was getting pretty tired, so I wrote most of hers out, but my third grade son should be able to write all of his (we can spread them out over time so he can do a few each night).

I love homemade gifts so much more then store bought and this little project is something the kids can use and it is not candy! ;0)

These are the kits from Target (Halloween)

These are the finished Valentines. We will put the bookmark on the card. You can't really see it, but one has the pink flower on the head and they both have a red heart by their left wing. I think they turned out cute!!!




Happy Valentine's Crafting!!!!
 

Yarn Art - Great Project for Older Kids!

We started with a foam board. We put glue on the bottom and used green yarn to make the grass.

Closer look at the grass.

We then added some green stems.

I thought it would be easiest to make circular flowers, but the kids wanted to draw some that they would then "fill" with yarn. She was drawing a tulip for this one.

Here she drew the circular shape, but added some petals.

This was one of her finished flowers.

We started with the circular pattern on the inside.

She loved the look of it that she decided to cover the rest of the it with a different color in the circular pattern. Trying to do the petals and the tulip turned out to be pretty hard for their little fingers.


I took a picture of the final board, but I must have erased it. It turned out really cool. She had at least six flowers on it! I thought this would be fun to do for adults too! You could make some pretty amazing artwork!!!!! The possibilites would only be limited to how much yarn you had. Happy yarn crafting!

Cute Valentines Gumball Machines and Mailboxes

These little crafts turned out so cute and they were pretty simple to do. To make the first one, I just spray painted clay pots and their bases red. I then turned the pot upside down and glued (with strong glue from the craft section) a glass bowl to it (the bowl is upright on the pot). The base just "rests" on the top of the bowl. You take the base off the top which enables you to get the "goodies" inside. I added some ribbon on the outside. I made these for the teachers this year for Valentine's Day, but you could do this for any holiday. Spray paint them black and use orange ribbon for Halloween or red and green for Christmas. The possibilities are endless! You can make tiny ones for birthday parties and the guests can take them home! How cute!

This is a picture of them all done and put together. Pretty cute!

With this craft, I took the mailboxes they have in the $1 bins at Target and glued them to a candlestick that I spray painted red. I made a pink one for my daughter and a red one for my son. I will fill these mailboxes for them on Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine Crafting!

Fun Squirrel/Fall Craft For Kids

Kids love to watch squirrels go up the trees, bury their nuts, jump from branch to branch, climb in their nests, etc. so I thought we could emulate that in a craft. The kids painted a paper towel roll brown. We then stood the roll up and punched holes all around the top of the roll with a paper hole punch. We cut brown pipe cleaners in half and then tied them in the holes to make them look like branches. The kids went out and picked up leaves and we punched holes in them too. They strung the leaves on the "branches". We then put glue around the top of the roll and set tissue paper on that to make a "nest" for the squirrel to sit in.

We made the squirrel out of a cork, cotton ball, googly eyes and brown paper. We cut tiny triangles out of brown paper for the ears. We glued the ears and the googly eyes onto one side of the cork and then put the cotton ball up the back side of the cork (for the tail). The kids took a brown marker to mark a little nose under the eyes.

The kids loved to see this craft come to life! They had their own little tree and a squirrel to put up in the tree! I am hoping we can keep these in tact so the kids can see the leaves turn brown and dry just like they do as the season changes. This will give them something really tangible to show them the changes that happen.

Happy Fall Crafting!