Fun, Rainy Day Project with Your Kids

Today, we got out the Crayola clay and some food coloring. We squirted some food coloring onto the clay and then "kneaded" it until the color was all over the clay. Then I gave the kids some different things to put on their creations! This was a great activity today. The kids experimented with making colors and just being creative! Great rainy day project! The food coloring did "stain" their hands a little so if that would bother you or your child, you could always have them wear some gloves or wrap the clay in plastic wrap while they are "kneading" it.

Have the kids work with a cookie sheet so you don't get the mess on the table.

These are great little creations that will dry with time!

St. Patrick's Day Rainbow Project for Kids

Grea activity to do with the kiddos around St. Patrick's Day! I used crayons to make a rainbow on paper. Then, I took my circle hole punch and punched out circles from colored paper for each color of the rainbow (this takes a little while). Then, I had the kids glue the circles to the correspoding color on the rainbow I drew. At the end, we glued cotton balls to the ends of the rainbows for clouds. This is a great activity to work on fine motor skills and also finding and identifying colors! And what kid doesn't love to make rainbows!

 

 

 

Homemade Leprachaun Trap

I have been making "leprechaun traps" with my kids every year. This year, my kids are getting older and so I didn't know if they would want to do one. To my surprise, I went down to the art table the other night and they were both working on their traps! I was so thrilled! I love it when they are creative and to know that all these years, making the traps with them, they still wanted to do them. Check out what my son made!!!!!

We are all hoping that this will be the year that we catch these little guys!!!!



Here is my daughter's trap:

It consisted of two "rooms" that were connected by a tunnel.

She made a table and chairs out of paper and gave them some mini marshmallows and Lucky Charms to eat.

The second room consisted of a bathroom and a bed.

St. Patty's Day "Magic" Project for the Kids!

This is a real easy one to do and it will teach the kids that by mixing colors, you can come up with new colors (good primary color lesson)!

Have your child cut out a shamrock shape that you have given them (or do it for them if they are too little). Then, put some yellow paint and some blue paint on the shamrock. Give your child a paintbrush and tell them to mx the colors together! The kids will love this! It is like a magic trick! A new color will appear and the other two colors they started with will disappear! AMAZING!

Homemade Spider Pinata - Save Money and Make Your Own!

A friend has asked me to make a spider pinata for her son's birthday party in March. I have posted how I make pinatas before, but I thought this would be another opportunity to show you the steps so you can do them at home. Pinatas are so expensive in the stores and making them is easy (but they can be time consuming) and you can customize them to whatever theme you need!

Items Needed for This Pinata:

• Regular sized balloon
• Newspaper cut into long strips
• Flour and water (to make "glue")
• Bowl to mix flour and water together
• Black paint
• Strong paper or light weight cardboard (for legs)
• White card stock or regular paper
• Fishing string
• Popsicle sticks (3)
• Candy/Small toys to fill pinata
• Black Duct tape (three small pieces is all)

(you might also want to cover your work station with newspapers or scrap paper because it gets pretty messy as you can see from some of the pictures below)


Pictures of the process:

The strips of newspaper and the balloon.

Blow up the balloon and then set it in something that will hold it up while you work (I used a box this time).

Mix equal parts flour and water in a bowl. You want it a little thinner then pancake batter, but not too thin.

Put the newspaper strips in the bowl and then run your fingers down the paper to get all the excess "glue" off the paper.

Start putting the newspaper on the balloon.

Keep layering the paper until you have at least 4 layers. The more layers you have the stronger it will hold up. Make sure you leave some space around the tie of the balloon that is not covered with paper (this is where you will add candy and also cut the balloon when it is all dry).

It is a messy project! ;0)

My balloon is covered with many layers so now it is time to let it dry



I hang up the balloon (by the end where it is tied shut) with a clothes pin. I just hung it from the basketball hoop my husband put up in our back room. It will take a few days to dry completely.



I popped the end of the balloon with a pin (it just shrivels up inside the balloon and then it can fall out). I took some black craft paint and painted the outside of the pinata.

 

I painted a piece of heavy cardboard paper black on both sides (I will cut this up and use for the spiders legs).

I cut the painted cardboard into 8 strips (legs).

I took a tack and push a hole into the part of the pinata that I want to hang it by. I strung some fishing line into the "body" of the pinata.

If you hold the pinata up, the fishing string will fall and come down so you can easily grab it (thanks to hubby for helping me show this process and take pictures).

Now, I took three Popsicle sticks and tied the fishing string (the end that will be inside the pinata) to them.

I then add packaging tape to it to make sure it holds well. Then just let this go into the "body" of the pinata. The other end of the string is how you will hang it at the party.

For the legs, I bent one end which is where I will hot glue them to the pinata.

I bent the "leg strips" to make them look more like spider legs.

This is how I glued the legs to the body.

For the eyes, I just cut this shapre from white card stock and then colored in eyeballs with a black marker.

After I filled the pinata with candy, I covered the hole (butt of the spider) with black duct tape. I would recommend using lighter candy pieces and toys. Also, keep lifting up the pinata as you are adding candy to see how heavy it is.

 

Here is Mr. Spider all finished! I think he came out pretty cool and the kids will love him! I was thinking that if this was more geared for a girl, it would be cute to add a bow to the spider's head. I know this is a long process, but I think it is worth it. It saves you a lot of money and you can customize a pinata for any party! I would love to hear your thoughts!!!

DIY Cabinet Redo -

I got my "pink" cabinet that I posted about earlier done! I went ahead and painted over it with Dutch Boy Navajo Turquoise paint. I then went over the whole thing with the brown paint to make it look aged. I do this basically with a dry brush. I dip the very tip of my paint bush in the paint and then I really dab it off on a paper towel. I then apply it to the edges and kind of all around. If I get too much on there, I take the paper towel and wipe it off. It is really fool-proof and I love the outcome!!! If you saw this piece in my previous post it was pink and it also had a hideous silver knob on the drawer. We had this OLD door knob in the garage and my husband was able to make it work for the drawer knob! I use it in my porch to house all our blankets!!!!

Kids Turkey Trivet Craft for Thanksgiving Table

We had white tiles left over and I knew I could come up with some creative way to use them. Since it is "turkey time", I thought it would be cute to have the kids make trivets for their Thanksgiving table this year! I painted the kid's hands and fingers different colors (dark brown for body and neck and then different colors on the fingers for the feathers). We put the hand print on the tile and I added feet, eyes, beak and the "gobble, gobble" (I never know what that thing is called). I used craft paint for this project so it would stick on the tile. I used some puffy paint for the eyes, beak, gobble and feet. When they were all dry, I took Elmers glue and painted the entire tile. This added a "protective" coat so hopefully the tiles will hold up over the years. On the back, I hot glued a piece of felt.

 

 

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

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!

Easy Learning Fall Craft for Your Kiddos!

I have a bag of these foam leaves that we used for this project.

I cut the leaves like a puzzle and then had the kids use bingo markers to put dots on one side of the leaf.

On the other side of the leaf, I wrote the corresponding number.

The kids would count the dots and then have to find the correct number to put the puzzle leaves together!

We did it! We got all our leaves back together!!!

CUTE - Handmade Flowers for Mothers Day... or Any Day

I found this recipe for "glue" to make yarn flowers. The recipe is 1 cup water to 1/4 cup corn starch. You cook that over medium heat until it is combined and glue like. If it is too think, just add more water. Make sure you keep stirring it while it is cooking. I cooked it for about 8 - 10 minutes. When it is done, put it in a bowl and let cool. Meanwhile, cut yarn in to 12" long pieces. Put cookie cutters (I used heart shapes and flower shapes for ours) on a piece of wax paper. Dip the yarn pieces into the cooled glue and set inside the cookies cutters. Make sure you have an even layer and all corners are covered. Take the cookie cutter off and repeat this process as many times as you have yarn for! You can either let the "flowers" set over night or put them in a warm oven (I just set my oven on the "warm" setting) for 2 hours to dry (put them on a cookie sheet). When they were done, we added wooden skewers for the stem and glued on buttons for the middle of the flowers. I also added felt pieces to the backs of them to make them look more "finished". To make our vases, we wrapped bottles (I used empty beer bottles) with yarn! Cute handmade gift that is easy and fun for the kids to make!