DIY Canvas Art

 

I have seen some really cool canvas art in stores and thought I could do something similar myself. I have also seen some cool ones on Pinterest and posted them on my Pinterest boards and some of my favorites are found here. I went out to hunt some local thrift stores to find some canvas (because buying a canvas at a craft store is SO EXPENSIVE!) and this is what I found:

Cute, but not what I am going for.



I painted over the picture with a blue/green paint.



I then added a word and some branches and a little birdie! Cute!

"Learn Your Colors" St. Patty's Day Activity

To do this activity, you will need:

• paper plates
• each color of the rainbow streamers (or ribbon, or even colored construction paper would work)
• glue
• cotton balls
• stapler

First, cut the paper plate in half. Have your child glue cotton balls all over the paper plate (this is the cloud). Then, cut each of the colored streamers the same length. I had the kids sit in a circle with their  "cloud" and their streamers. I told them that we had to put the rainbows together in order. I would then say - "find your red streamer"...... they would bring up the red streamer with their cloud and I would staple it on there. They would sit back down and I would say - "find your orange streamer", etc. until the rainbow was complete. It was a great craft activity that incorporated the holiday and also helped them work on color recognition!

Easy Santa Ornament Craft for Kids

I bought clear glass ornaments because the ideas and crafts you can do with them is ENDLESS! For this craft, I took the hanger off the top of the ornament and had the kids fill it with white beads (this would be Santa's beard).  Then, I had them roll a small, square piece of red felt and we glued it so it would hold together (this is his hat). Then, I had them glue a white pom pom on the top of the hat. We glued googly eyes on the face and then I added the mouth, nose and rosy cheeks! Add a hook on the top (or a bent paper clip) and you have a cute ornament for the tree!

HO! HO! HO!

Merry Christmas!

Easy "Wacky Mac" Turkey Project

I made a pasta salad last night with Wacky Mac and thought the colors of the pasta were perfect fall colors! So today, I thought we could incorporate them into a project! Wacky Mac Turkeys! I found a template online and cut out the shapes from thin cardboard. We added glue all over our turkeys and then put the "pretty pasta"on our turkeys! Fun, easy and perfect for Thanksgiving - food and turkeys!!

You need:
Wacky Mac or any colorful pasta
Tacky Glue (This is the best glue for little ones. It makes things stick instantly for the kids)
Turkey Template
Thin Cardboard or Paper/Cardstock (whatever you have)

HAPPY TURKEY CRAFTING!

Shape/Halloween Learning Activity

The other day, we were going over our shapes and I decided that I would draw some different shaped jack-o-lanterns on our big piece of paper. The kids loved this and they had a fun time looking through our "pumpkin patch" (that is what I called the drawing of all the pumpkins) to find the different shaped pumpkins. We read a pumpkin story and then headed to the art table to do our activity (pictured below).

I took an orange piece of paper and make dots in a pumpkin shape around the paper. The kids counted all the dots first.

Then, they took an orange marker and followed it along each dot.

I told them to take their time so they didn't miss any of the dots!

This is what it looked like when they were done.

Then, to add more "shape" review, I had black triangles cut out and a rectangle for the stem (and of course a mouth). They took their shapes and glued them to make their jack-o-lanterns face.

Aren't they cute! And,  it was a great learning activity as well! Love those!

Turkey - Fall Craft For Your Kids

This is a fun craft to do with your kids. With all the colorful leaves that are out right now, this turkey makes for a great craft.

Cut a turkey body (peanut shape) out of brown paper. Collect some colorful leaves. Glue the turkey's body to another piece of paper and then glue the "feathers" (colorful leaves) all around the turkey's body! We added googly eyes, a beak and some feet. They turned out really cute!!!

Cute, Easy, Fall Craft For Kids!!!!!

This was a great little acorn craft we did today. I cut an acorn shape out of some thin cardboard. Then, I had the kids crumple up little pieces of brown packaging paper (stuff left over from a package that came in the mail). They glued the crumpled paper onto the top of the acorn and then painted the bottom half brown. We taped a stem on the top and viola..... an acorn!

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!

Upcycled Tool Box to Craft Carrier

These little carriers are so popular! I see them everywhere. I picked this one up at a yard sale for $2. It was an ugly color so I spray painted it yellow. I then used it to house all my glue and glitter at my craft table. Cute and functional!

Scrabble Coasters - Great Gifts for Any Occassion

I have seen the Scrabble coasters on Pinterest and I thought it would be a great gift for someone for a wedding. I found that I liked the size better of a 5x5 tile coaster. I had just seen them with 4 letter words. So, I came up with some "wedding" words and made a set of six for a friend of mine who is getting married. I had my husband cut small squares out of thin board to glue the tiles on. I painted the backs of them black.

The words I used for the wedding tiles were:

• their names, first, last, their kids' names
• date and year of the wedding, bride, groom, loved
• share, kiss, talk, relax, often
• boy, meets, girl, the, end
• happy, cozy, ours, heart, home
• toast, laugh, dance, smile, dream

(for the words that weren't five letters, I just used a blank one or turned a letter tile over).

I loved the way these turned out that I made a set for my sister because they just moved into their new house.

The words I used for the new house were:

•  party, times, games, food, drink
• paint, blood, sweat, tears, house (they built a lot of their house themselves so that is where these words came from)
• plant, grow, weeds, trees, path
• home, cozy, quiet, place, woods
• relax, enjoy, toast, dream, laugh
• I then used their last name, zip code, town they live in and state

I will be making these again. I think they are a great handmade gift that can be personalized for any occasion! Happy Tiling!

Cute Valentine Craft That Teaches Colors!!!

I made this book to help teach colors! It was very easy to do and the kids loved to "hunt" for the colors they needed. I stapled papers together to make a booklet. Then, on each page, I drew a colored heart. I cut little squares from construction paper. I put the squares in a pile so the kids had to "hunt" for the color they needed for each page. They glued the squares inside the hearts to fill them up. This way, they are able to keep the booklet and go back through it and learn the colors! Fun project!