Rainbow Collage Craft

I have vented my frustration with this winter, and I am now ready to move on to spring! Here is a recent project that we did that looks very cheerful hanging in my now winter craft-free home. I am hoping that this will at least brighten my outlook on things since it doesn't appear that spring will actually arrive for a bit yet.

Materials:

• construction paper (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
• paper trimmer (optional)
• scissors
• glue stick
• box board (side of cereal box)
• large bowl, pan, or lid (for tracing)
• pen/pencil

{Rainbow by Mia, Age 7}

Directions:

1. Cut one inch strips of colored paper. Trim each strip into smaller squares, about one inch in diameter. (Note: Older kids can also use this for scissor skills practice and cut their own. I chose to have materials ready in case my little dude also wanted to make a rainbow.)
2. Cut away one side from a cereal box. Using a large bowl, pan, or lid, trace around it to make an arch, starting from one end and going to the other. Using one side as the base, you will end up with a semi-circle. Cut out the semi-circle. (If desired, you can do some additional cutting to the center section to make it into a true arch. Mia wanted it as-is, so I didn't do that.)
3. Give child the box board semi-circle (or arch), paper squares, and a glue stick and let her create a rainbow. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Mia did it very carefully, laying out the red partway, and then starting each other color, until she knew how it would look. She discovered that she had to overlap some tiles to work with the curves. I was really impressed at how she handled this with so much skill and dexterity! (Optional note: You can first draw lines to make the rainbow into sections. This may be helpful to younger children.) Tip: Another fun addition would be to add cotton ball clouds. Regular school glue or tacky glue works best for that. 

   

   {Mia was systematic about laying the collage tiles.}

4. Once the glue is dry, display the rainbow collage -- perfect for St. Patrick's Day or any rainy day!

DIY Doghouse Photo Prop

This is the type of project that I debate whether or not to share. Not because I don't want to share. I do! I just don't want people to feel like they should be able to make this themselves. (Not that you can't. I'm sure you're very crafty!) You know what I mean, right? This is not the type of easy-peasy kids' craft that I often post here. That said, it really wasn't that hard to make, so it's totally do-able if you are planning a puppy paw-ty of your own.

{Ritzy and I get a turn in the doghouse.}

This photo prop turned out nicely and helped set the theme for Mia's 7th birthday paw-ty. Besides being fairly simple to make, it was virtually free! (My favorite kind of project, in case you didn't know.) All I had to buy was a 59 cent bottle of paint since I ran out after the first coat.

As soon as guests arrived, they received a pair of puppy ears. Once they were ready, I had them pose in the doghouse. The photos will be used in the thank-you cards (more on those later!).


Materials for Making Doghouse:

• large cardboard box
• scissors
• pencil
• ruler
• hot glue gun
• black Sharpie marker
• red acrylic paint
• white acrylic paint
• black acrylic paint

Directions for Making Doghouse:

1. Deconstruct the box and lay it flat. Using a pair of sharp scissors (or a box cutter, if you are more intrepid -- and less accident-prone than myself), cut along a seam so that you now have 2 pieces of cardboard. Each one is two sides of the box. Trim away the smaller flaps from one piece. (In case you are wondering, my cardboard measured 35 1/2" wide by 43" tall at that point.)
2. Using a ruler, find the center point of the piece of cardboard. Mark it with a pencil. Next, use the ruler and pencil to make vertical and horizontal lines, dividing the cardboard into quadrants. (This is not necessary, but I found it helpful). Tip: Make all marks on the "outside" of the cardboard: the part that has printing on it. Then, when you flip it over, you will have a perfectly clean piece of cardboard to work with.
3. This was the point when I decided how the roof line should look. I decided to make a horizontal line about 1/3 from the top, all the way across, because that looked right visually. Then I used my ruler to draw angles from the outside edges of that line, meeting at the top. (Remember, I already had a center line, so this is why it was handy.) I used scissors to cut along the lines and ended up with a triangular point on top of the house.

   

   {The basic shape}

4. Next up, I made the doggie door. I decided the top of the door would be my center point. I didn't want it to be very wide, just enough for kids to pop their heads through, otherwise there might be clutter in the background of the photos. I measured 10" for width, 5" on either side of the vertical center line, and then drew lines. To get the curve at the top, I traced around the rim of a large plastic bowl. Then, I cut it all out with my scissors. Tip: Since I wasn't worried about how the part I was cutting away looked, I was free to cut it into smaller chunks. For some reason, I have found small triangles to be easier to work with rather than one large semi-circle.
5. After getting the basic doghouse shape, I flipped my cardboard over to the "clean" side and laid in on a layer of newspaper. I used a foam paintbrush to apply a coat of red acrylic paint, let it dry, and then added a second coat of paint. 
6. Once the second coat dried, I took a strip of cardboard (one of my discarded pieces), which was the same width as my doghouse and about 2 inches tall and used this as a straight edge to make lines across the entire house with a black Sharpie. This made it look like wooden boards. I added two "nails" per board along the outside edges. These were just small black hand-drawn circles. I also outlined the rest of the doghouse with black Sharpie for a more finished look.

   

   {Adding the "boards"}

7. It didn't look finished, so I took two more strips of cardboard (again about 2 inches wide) and cut each one at a 45 degree angle so that they would meet up to make the roof. These, I painted with black acrylic paint and once they were dry, I adhered them with my hot glue gun. 
8. To personalize the doghouse, I cut an oval out of some scrap cardboard and painted it with white acrylic paint (two coats). After the paint had dried, I outlined it with black Sharpie and then added another oval set about 1/4" in from the outline. Then I typed "Mia" using this free font and printed it out, trimmed it to size, and glued it the the placard. Lastly, I hot glued the oval to the front of the doghouse.

   

   {Finished!}

9. Before displaying the photo prop, I took two extra scraps of rectangular cardboard and hot glued them to the back of the doghouse on either side of the door. I had noticed it was a bit flimsy (likely because I used more then one side of a box to create it), and this served as a necessary reinforcement. To hang it, I used twine which was not elegant, but it fit with the theme just fine. I cut two lengths and used plenty of masking tape to adhere them "stitches" fashion. Then, I taped both lengths of twine to the mantel with clear packaging tape. It had just enough distance between the prop and the fireplace for the kids to kneel behind it for photos. (Note: I had taped a small section of white plastic table cover behind the opening to the doghouse, and I later wished I had covered the whole area the way I did for the Care Bear photo prop from last year. Despite not thinking of that sooner, it looked pretty good.)

DIY Lightning McQueen Halloween Costume

When my little man asked me to make him a race car costume for this past Halloween, I was secretly thankful that he didn't request something that required sewing! It's like he somehow knew that this was not exactly one of my best strengths, and he instead chose to play to a particular skill that I possess: making cool stuff out of cardboard. More likely, it was just that he really wanted to be his favorite character, Lightning McQueen. My inspiration was the Lightning McQueen pinata that I had made for his third birthday party. Having already accomplished that, I was pretty sure I could pull this off. After many hours, I had created a costume that we were both pretty excited about (and it only cost me $3 for two cans of red spray paint)!

{The finished costume!}

Materials:

• cardboard box
• pencil
• scissors
• masking tape
• red spray paint
• acrylic paint: black, white, red, orange, yellow, turquoise
• paint brushes/paint trays (old Styrofoam trays)
• black Sharpie marker
• hot glue gun
• wide red ribbon
• craft knife
• Mod Podge
• computer/printer
• scratch paper (optional)
• tracing paper (optional)
• clear spray shellac (optional)

Directions for Making a Car Costume:

1. First I found a box that was in good condition and was large enough. A clerk at Meijer happily gave me this when I asked about boxes.
2. Then, I removed all of the tape. I also took off the labels as best as I could.
3. Next, I cut off two of the four flaps from the bottom of the box and set them aside. (This was so that he could easily fit his legs through the bottom, but it would still have some cardboard to give it structure.)
4. I flattened the box and drew a car shape on one side like I had done when I made the Lightning McQueen pinata. Then, I cut around the lines, leaving the other sides of the box in tact. I used some scratch paper, traced the car shape, cut it out, and then used it for a template to draw the same same on the reverse side. I cut that out and then I had two sides of the car that matched up.
5. After that, I measured my son to determine how big of a hole I would approximately need for the center. He's pretty thin, so I just ended up tracing around a big bowl and cutting out the circle from the top of the box.
6. Next, I re-taped the bottom of the box, using many strips of masking tape along the seams. This made it easier to do the next step. To make the taping stage go more smoothly, I tore off many, many strips of tape and then draped them along the edges of my table before starting.
7. To shape the car, I started with the back section of the body (the flat side that I had drawn on) and I bent the top panel of the box down (easily) to meet the side. Then, I taped it, first with many short pieces of tape going up and over, then with longer strips going lengthwise over the top. A way to describe this more visually would be that it resembles stitches. I did the same to the opposite side of the car.

   

   {Shaping the side}

8. For the top of the car, I taped the flaps together around the cut-out circle, making adjustments with my scissors as needed. 
9. Then, I reinforced all of the inside seams with tape "stitches" and added another layer of tape "stitches" to the outer seams.
10. For the front end of the car, I cut about 3 inches off the flap (that would be the hood section), and this may have been slightly more than I needed to trim. Then, I folded it down to meet the top and sides and taped everything in place using my "stitches" method.

    

    {Shaping the front end}

11. To make the tail fin, I flipped the box over and used the blade of my scissors to score the inside of the flap, about 2 1/2" inches in. I did this along the entire length of the flap and then flipped it right side up and easily pushed the section of the box down along the scored section, making a peak. Then, I just taped the rest of the rear end of the car in place, again using my "stitches" technique. (Note: This was the end of shaping the box into a car. I would have liked the front end to be more rounded to look more like Lightning McQueen, but given time constraints, I decided this was good enough. Plus, it was still reasonably sturdy and I didn't want to tamper with that aspect considering it would be worn several times by my 4-year-old and I needed it to hold up!)

    

    {Shaping the tail fin}

12. I took the box car outside and spray painted it red. Once the first coat was dry, I applied a second coat. After that, I finished it with a third coat of spray paint. In all, this was more than one can, but less than two cans of paint. This was enough to get good coverage, hiding any writing on the box, and filling in all the taped areas which were initially much lighter than the cardboard. By this point, it was looking more like a race car, but it definitely needed some special details to be transformed into his favorite character!

Directions for Decorating the Costume:

1. The front end: I traced a plastic bottle cap for the eyes and a button for the pupils. The rest of the eye area I drew freehand. I painted this with white acrylic paint and turquoise acrylic paint, and outlined it all with black Sharpie, including filling in the pupils. I drew the mouth freehand and painted it white and then outlined it with Sharpie. The Rust-eze logo on the "hood" is one I printed from the Internet and just sized the way I wanted in Microsoft Word. I applied it with a foam paintbrush and Mod Podge.
2. The sides: I drew the side windows freehand and painted them gray by mixing black and white acrylic paints. Then, I went around the outsides with black Sharpie. The lightning bolt I also drew freehand, and then I used tracing paper to trace it and reverse it for the opposite side of the car, which was a big sanity and time saver! I painted these with a gradation of color from orange to yellow, with the two blended in the middle. Then I Mod Podged my number 95 "decals" on. Again, these were copied from the Internet and pasted in Microsoft Word, where I could size them the way I wanted. After applying the "decals," I outlined the lightning bolts with my black Sharpie.
3. The tail fin: This Rust-eze logo was found online and printed off. I cut it out with scissors (and a craft knife for some of the smaller spots) and then decoupaged it on the front of the fin.
4. The back end: Admittedly, by this point, I was getting worn out, so I simplified the tail end a bit. I included another Rust-eze logo like the one on the tail fin. Then, I drew "tail lights" and painted them orange and yellow, outlining them with my black Sharpie.

   

   {The rear view}

5. The tires: Deciding it wasn't worth my time or energy to reinvent the wheel, I pulled the two rear wheels from this party game. For the front tires, I traced a pan or a bowl onto one of the flaps of cardboard that were left over from step 3 for shaping my box car. Whatever it was, I chose it because it was the largest round object in my kitchen that would fit onto that cardboard flap. After cutting out both circles, I painted them and added details just as I had done for the Pit Stop party game (and if you need directions, just click the link). I used my hot glue gun to adhere all four tires to the car.
6. The straps: I used two lengths of 1 1/2" wired red ribbon that I had on hand. I had him wear the costume so I could tell wear to place the straps, and I made pencil marks where I would put holes. To make the holes, I used a craft knife to make a small "x" in each spot I had marked. Then, I pushed the ribbon through the tops of the holes and knotted on the underside. I used masking tape to hold the extra ribbon on the insides of the car, rather than cutting it, just in case I needed to adjust the lengths on Halloween night. (In Michigan, we never know if it will be 60 degrees or if they will be wearing snowsuits!)
7. Finishing the costume: For good measure, I applied a coat of clear spray shellac. (Again, this was something I already had on hand.) It turned out that was a good precaution because it was a very, very rainy Halloween! Once he put the costume on, we realized it was hanging slightly funny, and we decided it was because the straps were spaced slightly too far apart for his narrow shoulders. (Remember, I had to make the opening kind of big in case he was going to wear five layers!) I fixed this problem by grabbing some red and white bakers twine and tying the twos straps together in the back. He was able to slip in on and off without adjusting anything, but it stayed in place well while he was wearing the costume.

{Don't they look so happy together?}

{Everyone agreed that this was a very cool costume!}

Homemade Photo Prop for a Shark Birthday Party

This was the first project I started making for Logan's shark-themed birthday party, and once I saw this fellow swimming on my kitchen floor, I knew that I was track for a pretty "jawsome" birthday for my favorite little boy! (This was good news because scrounging up the appropriate amount of cardboard had been somewhat challenging, so once again, it pays to plan ahead, folks.) I found inspiration for this project here, but as always, I tried to figure out how to do it myself for as cheaply as possible. Note: While this project cost me next to nothing, (Proof positive: the best things in life are free!) it did take about 3 hours to complete, and that actually shows that I am getting faster at these cardboard constructions as I make more and more of them.

Materials:

• corrugated cardboard
• scissors
• pencil
• ruler
• tape: clear packaging, masking, Scotch
• Sharpies: black and red
• paint brushes
• white acrylic paint
• gray primer
• two white plastic bottle caps
• hot glue gun
• 2 blue plastic table covers

Directions:

1. First, I cut apart two of the largest boxes I could find to produce flat sections to work with.
2. Then, I laid them out and found the center with my ruler and pencil. I sketched out the shark's head, followed by the fins and tail section.
3. Next, I cut out the different parts of the shark's body, using scissors. I also used my scissors to cut out the inner part of the open shark's mouth.
4. I taped each section to the next, using lots of clear packaging tape. This was on the back (printed side) of each box piece, meaning that the front of my shark was plain brown cardboard.
5. I laid a vinyl tablecloth (used only for crafts) on my dining table and then painted the shark using gray primer that we already had on hand. A large foam paint brush worked very well for this, and since I got such great coverage, I only applied one coat. (This right here saved me lots of time. Normally when I make this sort of party prop, I need to do at minimum, two coats of acrylic paint.) I let this dry completely before moving on.
6. For the teeth, I used white acrylic paint and a smaller paint brush.
7. Afterward, I used a red Sharpie marker to draw in the gum line around the teeth. I followed that with a black Sharpie marker, which I also used for all of the outlining to make the shark look more finished.
8. The finishing touches were the eyes. I took two white bottle caps from apple juice containers and used the black Sharpie to make slit-like pupils. Then, I hot-glued each one to the top of the shark's head.
9. For the background, I used two blue plastic table covers from Dollar Tree. (So if you're keeping track, this project cost me a total of $2.12.) I folded them both in half and then I used lots of rolled masking tape to adhere the shark on top of the two table covers, which were held together with Scotch tape. After it was taped down, I cut away the inside of the shark's mouth so that there was no blue backdrop in that part. 
10. Displaying the photo booth was the hardest part to figure out. Luckily, Brett was able to help with the logistics. After trying several types of tape, we settled on clear packaging tape (and plenty of it!) to secure the layers of plastic table cover to the top of our mantel. (Failed attempts included Scotch tape, blue painter's tape from Dollar Tree, and masking tape.) I added some red table cover (left over from a previous party) to the inside of the mouth area by taping it to the fake fire place with Scotch tape.
11. The kids, and some brave adults, too, were then able to stand or kneel behind the backdrop, put their faces inside the shark's mouth, and let me take pictures (which were for the thank you cards). It stayed up for many days before I decided to take it down, and I think it was picture perfect.

{Say, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"}

{You can't say I never post photos of myself!}

DIY Shark Party Decor: Warning Signs and Land Sharks

Logan's 4th birthday party turned out to be pretty "jawsome" and these homemade decorations helped set the tone right as guests were arriving. I was inspired by these signs that I saw online. So, I set out to make my own, using my cheap, go-to-party-decor material: cardboard. After the past couple of birthday parties -- Care Bears for Mia's 6th and Cars for Logan's 3rd -- I have decided that I can make just about anything out of cardboard! So, these signs and shark fins were not very difficult or time-consuming for me, and I was able to make them almost entirely with items I already had at home. (The only thing I had to purchase was another small bottle of yellow acrylic paint, which I believe was 53 cents at Wal-mart.)

{CAUTION: Shark Sighting!}

Materials for Fins:

• corrugated cardboard
• pencil
• scissors
• gray primer (or paint)
• large foam paintbrush
• Styrofoam tray (to hold paint)
• cereal box liner (to protect work surface)
• wooden skewers (2 per fin)

Directions for Making Fins:

1. Draw a shark fin onto the cardboard and cut it out. (I made three because odd numbers always make sense from a design perspective.)
2. Lay the cut-out on a flat surface. (Mine was the dining table protected by the cereal box liner.)
3. Cover the first side with gray primer (Paint would work as well, but Brett pointed out that we had primer already. Score! I didn't need to mix paints or buy any extra. This provided very good coverage, quickly and easily.) Let the primer/paint dry completely before moving the fin.
4. Now, flip it over and paint the other side. Again, let it dry completely, or you will end up with smudged paint. (Note: I also painted the outside edges of the fin, as best as I could. This is best left until the end of the painting process.)
5. Insert two skewers into the bottoms of each fin. These will fit directly into the spaces of the corrugated cardboard. Mine were placed about two inches from the outside edges. Tip: I found it tricky to insert the blunt ends into the cardboard, so I first expanded the openings by sticking in the sharp end of each skewer. Then, I removed the skewers, and flipped them around so that the sharp ends were pointed down. 
6. Stick skewers into the ground to make the sharks "swim" in your lawn. The skewers may end up poking up through the tops of the fins, so push them down and re-adjust as needed until they look the way that you want.

Materials for Warning Signs:

• corrugated cardboard
• pencil
• ruler
• scissors
• shark stencil
• black Sharpie marker
• yellow acrylic paint
• large foam paintbrush
• Styrofoam tray (to hold paint)
• cereal box liner (to protect work surface)
• 2 wooden skewers (for yard sign)
• masking tape (for hanging on door) 

Directions for Making Warning Signs:

1. Using a ruler for assistance, draw a rectangle shape from a piece of cardboard, to the dimensions that you would like. (Note: I decided on smaller signs than I have made in the past, for Logan's 2nd birthday which had a construction theme. This made things go faster, which was perfect, in my opinion. My "DANGER" sign is just 9" x 9" and my "CAUTION" sign is about 8 1/2" by 10 1/2".) Cut out your sign. Repeat as desired.
2. Protect work surface (and clothing) and then cover sign/s with yellow acrylic paint. Let dry, and add a second coat.
3. Using a ruler and a black Sharpie marker, create a black border for each sign. (On the "CAUTION" sign, this is set in about 1/2" and on the "DANGER" sign, it's only about 1/4".) 
4. Decide on the placement of the shark for each sign. Set the stencil down and then trace around the inside with your black marker. Fill in the entire shark outline. (Note: I used the Great White shark stencil from the set.)
5. Add your lettering. I chose to hand-letter the signs, but you could also use black letter stickers as a time-saver. I suggest using a ruler and a pencil to lightly block these in. First create a space for each word with a lightly-penciled line to show the tops of the letter and a lightly-penciled line to show the bottoms of the letters. I had three such lines for each sign. Then, find the approximate center of each word or grouping of words, and pencil in that central letter. Work your way out toward each side. Once the lettering looks the way you like (Remember, it doesn't need to be perfect! Mine certainly aren't.), go over it with black Sharpie. You can make corrections as you go. When in doubt, make the letters thicker. Note: The "CAUTION" sign also has some waves that I drew by hand so that the shark appears to be swimming near the top of the water.
6. Post your warning signs. I used masking tape to hang the "DANGER" sign on the front door. For the "CAUTION" sign, I used two wooden skewers, inserted with the same method as mentioned above for the shark fins. Then, I stuck it into the front yard near the "shark sighting" area with the three visible fins. 

Earth Day Recyled Crafts Round-Up

In celebration of Earth Day, I thought I would create a round-up of some recycled craft projects that we have done over the years. This list is by no means comprehensive, but here are more than 60 projects that we have made using recycled materials. Pulling craft projects together is easier (and cheaper!) than you might realize when you just start to think inside the recycling box. The best things in life really are free. Many craft materials are readily available in your home so now's the perfect time to get creative.

Bubble Wrap:

• A-Corny Printmaking Project
• Bubble Wrap Indian Corn Print Making

Cardboard Tubes:

{Homemade Sidewalk Chalk}

• Advent Wreath
• Butterfly
• Bird Feeder
• Bunny
• Chick
• Christmas Tree
• Holly-Day Wreath
• Indian Corn
• Octopus
• Rainbow Pom Pom Chutes
• Reindeer
• Scarecrow
• Sidewalk Chalk
• Turkey
• Wind Sock

Cardboard Boxes:

{Rainbow Pull-String Pinata}

• Cars Party Pit Stop Game
• Cheer Bear Photo Prop
• Horse Diorama
• Lorax Moustache on a Stick
• Lightning McQueen Pull-String Pinata
• Rainbow Pull-String Pinata
• Sandpaper Letter Rubbings
• Welcome to Care-a-Lot! Sign

Egg Cartons:

• Bat
• Caterpillar (I never wrote a post about when we made these, but they were just like what you probably did as a child. We dressed ours up with torn pieces of colorful tissue paper that were glued onto the caterpillar's bodies.)
• Paint Trays/Organizers (Even if you don't make the egg cartons into something, you can use them for holding paint. You can cut them apart if you are just using a couple of colors or keep them whole if you are using lots of colors or if you need space for mixing. They also are handy for sorting out beads, dyed pasta, buttons, beans, sequins or any other collage material you are working with like we did with the spices for making turkey cards.)

Glass Jars:

{"Sand" Art Jars}

• Centerpieces
• Crystal Snowflakes
• Jar-o'-Lanterns
• "Sand" Art
• Sidewalk Paint
• Snow Globe

Milk Jugs:

• Berry Buckets
• Ghostly Greeters
• School Bus with Working Wheels

Paper Bags:

• Gingerbread Men Paper Dolls
• Indian Corn
• Pumpkins
• Reindeer Paper Dolls
• Rudolph Puppet
• Turkey
• Turkey Puppet

Plastic Bottles:

{Seek 'n' Find Bottle}

• Bottle Cap Stamps
• Bubble Blower
• Seek 'n' Find Bottle
• Turkey Leg Maraca
• Wave Bottle

Styrofoam:

• Pot 'o Gold
• Print Making 

Tin Cans:

• Bat Treat Cup
• Cat Treat Cup
• Rudolph Treat Cup
• Snowman Treat Cup
• Valentine's Day Heart Bouquet

Tissue Paper (saved from gift bags):

• Apple Tree
• Autumn Tree Collage
• Sun Catchers (Easter Eggs are just one example. We've made sun catcher for most every holiday and season.)
• Yertle the Turtle

Various Other Materials:

{Paperback Pumpkin}

• Angel
• Drum
• Frog Craft
• Headband Organizer
• Magnet Craft
• Newsprint Flowers
• Owl
• Paperback Pumpkins, Apples, and Pears
• Tree Frog

We Don't Horse Around Here

I was pretty surprised when Mia came home from school one day with the news that she was doing an animal report. She's in kindergarten, after all. I had no idea that the projects started so soon, but we were told that it was a "family project," which made it sound less overwhelming. First of all, she was really thrilled because she had "won" the subject of horse. Apparently, there were at least two other girls in her class who wanted to do a report on horses, and Mia was chosen by pure luck of having her stick drawn first. To get started, we took a trip to the library to pick out some books and then she was very excited to immediately begin doing research and writing. (I need to make a note of this because I imagine some day this enthusiasm will have waned. Hopefully, I am wrong, but I am trying to be realistic here.) Of course, I helped her, and obviously, I am biased, but I think she did a fantastic job on her written report.

Mia's teacher encouraged the kids to do something extra as well, and after I made a few suggestions, Mia decided she liked the idea of doing a diorama. Again, she wanted to get started right away. Thankfully, I had waited a few days to start making suggestions. I didn't want her to get overwhelmed, so we had spaced out the report writing over a couple of days and then waited until the following weekend to start work on the diorama. We made this out of whatever we had on hand. We started with a white US Postal Service mailing box and she decided to cover the inside and outside with construction paper: red for the outside, just because; green for the grass, which she cut with a fringe; and blue for the sky. I helped her by showing her how to get it to fit, folding it, and cutting to size with my paper trimmer. Then, she did most of the gluing. She made a yellow paper sun and a drawing of a horse and rider going over a jump. She cut that out and glued it in the background. Then, we placed a toy horse in the right foreground. (I hot glued the hooves, but discovered this morning, that it had come loose on the way into school.) She told me she wanted a hay bale and an apple tree to show some things that horses eat so I helped her figure out how to make these. For the apple tree, we used a craft stick trunk. I cut off one end to make it flat, used the scissors to poke a slot in the bottom of the box, and made sure it fit. Then, she drew fluffy leaf shapes on green felt. I helped her cut them out and she glued them in layers onto the trunk. Then, she added red pom poms for the apples. When the tree was done, I added hot glue to help it stay in the slot cut into the box. The hay bale was a bit more work. I made a box by cutting six rectangles (four of one size and two, slightly smaller) out of a side panel from a cereal box. The paper trimmer was helpful. Then, I used masking tape to assemble the box, affixing it to the inside and outside seams. Lastly, Mia cut some pieces of raffia and glued them to the outside of the box. Then, it really looked more like a hay bale. I hot glued this to the bottom of the box, next to the apple tree, and the diorama was complete.

{She is proud of her horse diorama!}

While I was at Meijer yesterday, I happened to come across a horse shaped metal cookie cutter for 99 cents, and decided to buy it. Tomorrow is Mia's turn to be the Child of the Day at school, which means she is the line leader and that sort of thing. Also, she can bring a snack for the class. I felt that horse cookies would be fun. Logan helped me mix up a batch of chocolate cutout cookie dough, which had to chill for two hours before we could cut out the horse shapes. I did most of that since it can be tricky. There were a few casualties during the process, but luckily no horses were sent to the glue factory. I just rolled out the dough and started over, adding more cocoa powder as needed, in place of the suggested flour. Once the cookies were baked, they looked and smelled wonderful, but they didn't seem complete. I had the idea that chocolate frosting would make good manes and tails, so I found this recipe and made a half batch since I didn't have enough cocoa or confectioners sugar for a full batch, and I felt that a half batch would be plenty for what I wanted to do. To decorate the cookies, I just put my frosting in a zippered bag, snipped off one corner, and piped out squiggles. It wasn't fancy or technical, but it worked well. I was worried that Mia would complain that they didn't have eyes, but I didn't think I had anything that would work. Mini chocolate chips would have been huge and red jimmies would have looked kind of evil. Fortunately, she didn't notice or care. In fact, Mia was so happy with the cookies that she announced that she wants a horse/cowgirl themed birthday party for her next party. (This is perhaps the fourth theme she has suggested and we just had her birthday at the end of January, so we shall see how long this lasts...) I am just happy that I tried two new recipes and one kind of off-the-wall idea and it all came together beautifully. I love when that happens.

{I am happy with how the cookies turned out.}

The toughest part for Mia will be that she needs to give an oral presentation of her animal report. We have practiced this at home twice now, and she knows her teacher will help her if needed. I know what it's like to be extremely shy, so I know this is a big hurdle to overcome, but I told her once she does it, it will just get easier.

Feed the Birds...

Anybody else hear that old lady from Mary Poppins singing now? Okay, good. My work here is done. But seriously, this mama decided that a good snow day activity would be making bird feeders. Since it's me we're talking about, good old-fashioned pine cones were not enough. We had to make three more varieties in addition to the pine cone bird feeders. So, I think you can trust me when I tell you which ones are easier and less messy to make. I have ordered them from my personal favorite to my least favorite.

#1 Here is my top pick for a simple, mess-free bird feeder project that even a young child can do. We learned about this one from the story time lady at the library, and it is too good not to share. All you need is a pipe cleaner and some Cheerios or similar o-shaped cereal. Have the child string the cereal onto the pipe cleaner, leaving at least 1/2" on each end, twist it together to make a ring, and hang on a tree branch.

#2 The next best option is the cardboard tube bird feeder, which I had seen on Pinterest some time back. I took a cardboard tube that was left over from an empty aluminum foil package and used a serrated knife to cut it into two pieces (mainly because I have two kids, but also this makes it easier to work with since it was a tad on the long side). I gave each of the kids a piece of wax paper, a small bowl of peanut butter, and a knife to spread the peanut butter on the tubes. After I had to help both of them, Mia informed me that they had done this last year at preschool, but they had rolled the tubes in peanut butter on a plate. Had I known that beforehand, I would have had them do it that way. Once the tubes were coated with peanut butter, I gave them some birdseed to sprinkle/roll onto the tubes on a plate. This was a bit messy, but still very doable, especially now that I know the rolling trick. Plus, most people can scrounge up an empty toilet paper tube or paper towel tube without too much searching.

{Bird Feeders from left to right: pine cone, cardboard tube, cardboard cut out}

#3 Here is an old stand-by that I am sure everyone remembers doing as a kid: the pine cone bird feeder. This one is not at all complicated, but it is pretty messy. Mia tied her own yarn on first, and I tied Logan's yarn onto his pine cone. Again, my kids, ages 6 and 3, were frustrated by using a knife and these don't roll the best. Plus, the yarn got gloppy with peanut butter. We would not have even used pine cones if Mia hadn't located the pine cones that I had stashed away months ago in the event that we needed them for a craft project. (The pine cones would have all been buried under the new snow so you do need to plan ahead for this one.) So, this is definitely not the best option out there for home-made bird feeders.

#4 The last one is not something I would try again any time soon, to be perfectly honest. It was inspired by the latest issue of FamilyFun Magazine ("Birdseed Cafe" on page 18). They used corrugated cardboard cut in a star shape, with a circle cut in the center. Mia chose to make a (thankfully) simpler circle, which she did all on her own by tracing a bowl and cutting it out. We used a lighter weight cardboard, somewhere between boxboard and corrugated cardboard, but I don't know if there is a name for it. Logan chose a square, which I cut for him. We used baking sheets to hold the cardboard while I spread one side with peanut butter and then the kids sprinkled them with birdseed. Then, we flipped them over, I did the peanut butte again, and they did the birdseed. When we hung these outside, they immediately started spinning in circles since it was windy. Maybe the heavier cardboard would have been a better choice, but I still don't see how the birds are supposed to eat from this very easily. I guess that is why they cut a hole in the middle, but that seemed like a pain to me. I wanted a project the kids could mostly do on their own, and this is not it. The best tip I got from this one was using the baking sheets to help contain the mess.

Cheer Bear Photo Prop

I started doing photo props for birthday parties two years ago when we first started having little friends for guests. It works triple-duty as party decor, as a party activity, and as a cool souvenir to include in the thank-you cards. Plus, following the party, these end up as bedroom decor, so they definitely serve their purpose and make it worth the time invested in making them. Two years ago, it was a stand-up Ariel that I ordered online and painted. Then, last year, it was a bit less work for me because I got enlarged color copies of Fancy Nancy and did my own version of home "laminating." This year, however, Mia chose the theme of Care Bears, which I couldn't find anything for anywhere I looked, and I tried many stores: Dollar Tree, Michael's, Jo-Ann, Target, Wal-mart, Meijer... The only place I saw any Care Bear items was online, and since I wasn't interested in ordering anything, I realized I would have to make it myself. Here's how I did it.

Materials:

• good sized cardboard box
• scissors/X-acto knife
• Care Bears image for inspiration
• pencil
• black Sharpie marker
• acrylic paint (I used white, hot pink, fuchsia, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
• paint brushes
• plate/tray to hold paint
• ruler
• about 50 cotton balls (optional)
• Aleene's Tacky Glue or white glue (if using cotton balls)
• turquoise plastic table cloth (optional for photo back drop)

Directions:

1. I cut the side off of a good sized corrugated cardboard box. I re-used one that had been used for shipping Christmas presents to our house.
2. Then, I found the image I wanted to use. My picture was from a coloring book that Uncle Ryan sent Mia as a birthday present.
3. Next, I drew the Care Bear onto the cardboard using a pencil. My Cheer Bear is about 25" tall and 17" across at the widest point.
4. After that, I cut out Cheer Bear. I used mostly scissors for this, but switched to my X-acto knife for tight corners and curves.
5. Then, I gathered my paints, brushes, and a palette. (Okay, my "palette" was a plastic take out lid that I am re-using. It washes cleaner than the Styrofoam trays that I frequently use for painting, and since I switched colors often, this was helpful.) To get the pale pink of Cheer Bear's fur, I made an approximately 50/50 blend of white and hot pink paint. Of course, her belly, eyes, and snout are white. The rainbow is pretty self-explanatory: red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. I don't know why there is no purple, but that's her belly badge. Accents include the red heart tush tag and hot pink heart nose, freckles, eyes, and eye brows. One lollipop is painted fuchsia and purple mixed with white. The other is painted purple and hot pink mixed with blue. The sticks are white. Apply as many coats of paint as desired for the coverage you want, and allow all paint to dry completely.
6. After the paint was dry, outlined it with a black Sharpie marker. This made it look more finished.
7. To make the Care Bear stand up, I took another side of the box (this time a thinner side) and folded it in half so I had two equal size pieces. I used a pencil and a ruler to find the center of one, then I made it into a semi-circle shape. I cut it out, traced it onto the other piece of cardboard, and then cut it out. My semi-circles are about 12" wide at the base and about 5" tall at the center.
8. I painted both of the semi-circles white, let the paint dry, and then flipped them over and painted the other sides white as well.
9. Next, I used my scissors to make a small wedge-shaped notch (the smaller point faces the straight edge of the semi-circle, which is the base) into each of the cardboard semi-circle. At the widest, they are about 1/4".
10. I took another thinner side of the box, drew a cloud shape onto it, and cut it out. Again, I painted it white, but only on one side.
11. I fluffed out some cotton balls by pulling them apart with my thumbs and forefingers and then I glued them onto the cloud shape and both of the semi-circles (one side only) using Aleene's Tacky Glue. This added a lot of dimension and made it more cloud-like.
12. To set up the photo prop, I slid Cheer Bear onto the two wedges of the semi-circle shapes so that the fluffy sides faced out. After that, I just propped the fluffy cloud against the front. I took a bit of extra cotton ball and glued it to the tops of the semi-circles that were showing a bit just to make it more cohesive. I set Cheer Bear in front of a turquoise plastic table cloth (97 cents at Wal-mart) that I had doubled over and taped to our fake fireplace. As the guests arrived, I took their photos next to Cheer Bear, and I once I get them printed, I will include them in the thank-you cards.

Welcome to Care-a-Lot! Sign

It only just dawned on me last year with the Fancy Nancy party: the front door is the perfect place to set the tone for the party, right as guests enter the house. So, for Mia's 6th birthday with a Care Bears theme, I decided the welcome sign should be a rainbow with clouds that read "Welcome to Care-a-Lot!" in rainbow colors. I think it looks nice and cheerful, plus I can imagine it being on her bedroom door for quite awhile following the party, so I think that makes it even more worth my time.

Materials:

• cardboard
• pencil
• tracing paper (optional)
• scissors/X-acto knife
• acrylic paint in rainbow colors
• paint brush
• something to hold paint
• word processing software
• scrapbooking markers in rainbow colors
• clear con-tact paper 
• Mod Podge (optional)
• double-stick adhesive
• masking tape

Directions:

1. On a piece of cardboard, draw a rainbow shape. I noticed that the semi-circle window at the top of our front door looked a bit like a rainbow, so I used a pencil and tracing paper to help me with this. I had to trace just one half, cut it out, draw it onto the cardboard, flip it over, and then trace again. It didn't look exactly how I wanted, so I did some additional drawing, erasing, and more drawing until it was more like I envisioned. I cut out my cardboard rainbow with scissors mainly, using my X-acto knife when things got tricky around the curves.
2. Then, I drew in lines to divide it into six bands, one for each color. Then, I got out my acrylic paints (first making sure I was wearing my old paint clothes) and painted it red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The yellow required more coats to cover the brown cardboard.
3. After the paint dried and I felt it looked good enough, I sealed it with a coat of Mod Podge, which I applied with a foam brush. (Tip: If you are not familiar with Mod Podge it's an awesome, multi-purpose tool that you must have if you like to do crafts, serving as both an adhesive and a protective sealant.)
4. For the lettering, I downloaded this free font called Care Bear Family. In Microsoft Word, I used the word art function to make the lettering in outline style using the largest possible font size, 96 point. I did this in landscape format and dragged the margins to adjust the lettering so that it was even bigger, as large as could fit on one page. After printing it, I folded the paper in half (like a hot dog) so that "Welcome to" was on top and "Care-a-Lot!" was on the bottom. Then, I took my scissors and cut out cloud shapes. (If you want, you can draw them first, but I just started cutting.) 
5. Next, I took my scrapbooking markers and colored all of the letters so that they had all the colors of the rainbow, from top to bottom: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. When I was done coloring, I cut four pieces of clear contact paper so that they were about 1" larger than the paper all the way around. I "laminated" the clouds, each one between two pieces of clear con-tact paper, so that the sticky sides were pressed together. I trimmed off the excess so that they were cloud shapes once more, leaving about 1/2" border. Lastly, I used strips of double stick tape to adhere the word clouds to the cardboard rainbow.
6. The day of the party, I used masking tape to put this on the front door, and it looked very colorful and cheery.

DIY Rainbow Pull-String Pinata

Mia requested a Care Bear pinata for her upcoming birthday party. While I had successfully made a Lightning McQueen pinata for Logan's most recent birthday party, so she felt she should get one, too. The car was pretty boxy, which lent itself well to using a cardboard box. It only seemed fair to make her a pinata (before hopefully retiring from making pinatas), and I planned to work with cardboard again. However, I didn't think I could pull off something with some much roundness for my second-ever home-made pinata. So, I convinced her that a rainbow was perfect, and thankfully, she agreed. We had already decided that rainbow colors would be used for our decor since Care Bears are hard to find. This pinata took about 3 hours total to make and it isn't something I would recommend for craft novices. It is a pull-string pinata, because after spending all that time, who wants to see her creation beaten to a pulp in mere seconds? I'm not completely crazy, after all. The best thing, besides that it looks exactly the way I want (unlike the kind that I would have had to order online), is that it cost me nothing but my time since I already had all of the supplies at home. After the party, I plan to hang it from a hook in a corner of Mia's room. Mama's on a roll planning the Care Bear party.

Materials:

• corrugated cardboard
• boxboard
• scissors
• X-acto knife
• masking tape
• crepe paper in rainbow colors
• glue stick
• string (I used bakers twine)
• light blue curling ribbon 
• Scotch tape
• paper trimmer (optional)
• pen/pencil
• push pin

Directions:

1. Find a large, flat piece of corrugated cardboard. Cut it in half. To start the arc shape, I traced the top edge of a frying pan on one piece of cardboard. Then, I free-handed the rest of the rainbow shape. I cut it out and then traced it onto the other piece of cardboard, and then cut that out, too. The base of my rainbow ended up being 13 1/2" in diameter.
2. Draw a vertical line to find the center of your arch. A ruler helps with this. Then, I decided that my rainbow would be 4 1/2" wide. I used a ruler to help make lines (for the straighter parts only; there was free-hand drawing involved with the curved sections) to divide it into sections for each color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, so 6 altogether. I started at the bottom left and worked my way over to the center. Next, I cut out half of the inside arch (not the whole rainbow), flipped it over on top of the cardboard, and traced it to get the mirror image for the bottom line of my arc. Then, I cut out the second half of the inside arch. I now had a rainbow shape, which I traced onto my second piece of cardboard, and then cut out for a total of two complete rainbow shapes for the sides of the pinata. (Tip: It was easier to cut this if I used my scissors first on the straight sections and then cut into them with small pieces using whatever angle was handy. I just pulled away little bits at a time until I was finished rather than trying to cut it all out in one, long line.)
3. For the bases of the rainbow, I used a ruler to measure 2 cardboard squares measuring 4 1/2" x 4 1/2". I cut these out with scissors.
4. For the top and bottom arches of the pinata, I used boxboard (mostly cereal boxes, but there was some Barbie packaging involved since it was after Christmas and this was handy). I used my paper trimmer to measure strips that were 4 1/2" wide and then scored the boxboard with the trimmer. This gave me an easy line to follow with scissors. I think I needed a total of 3 boxes to get the amount I needed.
5. To assemble my rainbow, I started with my square bases. I used masking tape to adhere the bases to the cardboard arches -- 2 strips of tape per side on the outside and 3 strips of tape per side on the inside. I laid the arch flat on the table upright to make this easier. (Tip: Tear off several strips of tape prior to starting and have them near your work station. I just taped them along the edges of my table. My 3 year old helped by handing them to me one at a time.) You want each piece of tape to be folded horizontally so that about half of the tape is at the top and the other half is at the bottom of your cardboard seam. It doesn't have to be perfect, just sturdy enough to hold.
6. Next, I used my strips of boxboard to cover the top of the arch. Again, I used masking tape, both inside and outside. When I would get the the end of one strip, I would slightly overlap the next strip to the first and secure them with more tape. Working around curved sections required shorter pieces of tape. (Tip: Make sure that the inside of your boxes is facing the outside of your rainbow so that you don't have printing showing.)
7. I decorated the rainbow pinata with strips of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple crepe paper, all of which I had already, amazingly enough. (The red, yellow, green, and blue came in twin-packs from Dollar Tree. The purple was purchased at Target for her birthday party last year, and I have no clue about the orange, unfortunately.) I folded the crepe paper in half length-wise, cut strips, and used a glue stick to adhere them. I just started with red, and worked my way to the end, overlapped as needed. (Tip: As with the tape, it was easier to work around the curves using smaller lengths of crepe paper.) I did both sides like this as well as the top arch, which in retrospect, I could have made all red and saved myself some time. Oh, well. The inside (bottom) of the arch I did all with purple because I was tired by that point and wanted to be done. It looks just fine. (Tip: Do NOT use any other type of glue. It will be too wet, which will make your colors run and tear your crepe paper.)
8. To make the trap door, I cut away 3 sides from the underside of one of the bottom squares. The 3-sided flap is set in about 3/4" all the way around. Then, I used an X-acto blade to make slits in the bottom square, about 12 around the outside edges, and 6 in the center (on the flap). I cut lengths of light blue curling ribbon, inserted them into the slots, leaving an inch or so on the inside, and then carefully curled the rest. One length of ribbon was taped securely to the inside of the flap to actually open the pinata. All the rest are for show. I may have added extras to fill it in, but I don't remember now. On the other side of the rainbow, I added several more curled blue ribbons and just taped them on with Scotch tape.
9. For hanging, I poked 2 holes in the top, first with a push pin, and then I enlarged the holes with a pen. I struggled with getting my bakers twine in there and finally figured out a system that worked. I put the un-knotted bakers twine through the tops of each hole, pulled it through until it came out the bottom (luckily I could reach my hand all the way in), tied the ends together to make a secure knot (I had to knot it a few times to prevent it from slipping through the holes), and pulled it back through the top for a hanging loop.
10. The pinata only opens on the one side. Before the party, I will fill it with goodies and close it up, probably adding a little tape just so it stays closed long enough.