Painting with Magnets

This was a project that Logan did a few weeks ago at the library with Mrs. D., and I am so in love with the cleverness of it! If you have followed my blog for any amount of time, you probably know that I love kids' painting projects, and we have done many, many, many of them, but this was completely new to me. I love that it mixes art and science, too!

Materials:

• round metal cake pan/pie plate
• white paper (card stock works well)
• pencil
• scissors
• magnet
• paper clips
• paint (tempera works well)

Directions:

1. If planning to make more than one of these, you will want to first make a round template for tracing. Place some paper inside your cake pan/pie tin and draw around the inside. Cut out this circle and use it for tracing all your other paper circles. Cut them out.
2. Place a paper circle inside of your cake pan or pie tin.
3. Add some paper clips (Mrs. D. had everyone use two large, plain, metal clips).
4. Next, pour in a little bit of paint. Mrs. D. let each child select two colors. Logan chose yellow and blue.
5. Give your child a magnet (preferably one that is not small enough to be swallowed! Ours were wand-style and were perfect for this.) and show him how to move it around on the bottom of the cake pan or pie tin. (You might need to help hold the pan, too.) This will move the paper clips around. Tell him to move the clips into the paint and then spread them all over the paper, using the magnet. (Help as needed, and make sure that magnets are nowhere near his mouth.) Talk about the process. What do you notice happens? Logan saw that the two colors mixed together to make green.
6. Once the painting is complete, allow it to dry before displaying.

Tool Box Stamping

Do you ever find yourself so far behind that you don't even know where to begin? That's how I feel about blogging. I know I want to, but... It's just so long since I have done these things that I wanted to write about. Anyway, hope they make some sort of sense, because I felt it was worth sharing, once upon a time. This project was something that I found for our Sunday school kids to do as a wind-up for our VBS, which took place ages ago, right after school got out in June! (Don't even get me started on how fast this summer has flown by. I swore that school seemed like it was NEVER going to end, and then once it did... Oh, boy!)

So, I found the inspiration for this craft here. The main difference is that she has used paint and I wanted something less messy for our Sunday school kids (for reasons I am sure you understand). My solution? Stamp pads. We have plenty in our resources at church, so I had my two kiddos test it out at home with assorted nuts, bolts, screws, and nails, and it worked splendidly.

{Finished Tool Box Prints}

Materials:

• paper (we used white card stock)
• stamp pads in assorted colors
• various nuts, bolts, screws, nails (careful about ages of children and whether or not you allow sharp points)
• paper trimmer/scissors (optional, for cutting paper smaller)
• something to clean up with: damp towel/paper towels/baby wipes 

Directions:

1. I used a paper trimmer to cut our 8 1/2" x 11" card stock into quarters, making the pieces about postcard size. This is not necessary.
2. Set out paper, assorted tool box items, and stamp pads.
3. Have kids press nuts, bolts, screws, or nails (flat side recommended, although Mia did discover that the threading on a screw makes an interesting design if you twist it over the paper) onto a stamp pad and then onto paper to make a print. Repeat as desired.
4. Allow ink to dry completely before displaying your projects. These would make fun greeting cards or wrapping paper, should you choose to stamp them on say, a roll of Kraft paper (which can be found at Dollar Tree).

Easter Bunny Nose & Whiskers Craft

Here's a super easy project that you can quickly make with your kids. Older kids can do this on their own and little ones can do it with some assistance. Mia made this all by herself last week when we were at church on Good Friday. It's not exactly a mask, but it's the same idea, and it's way too cute not to share!

{Cute and Simple Easter Bunny Craft!}

Materials:

• craft stick
• pom pom
• three pipe cleaners
• white glue

Directions:

1. Glue a pom pom (your choice of color) to the end of a craft stick.
2. Wrap a pipe cleaner (your choice of color) around the center of the craft stick, below the pom pom, so that there it each end sticking off of the craft stick is approximately the same length. Repeat with two more pipe cleaners, one at a time. You can trim the pipe cleaners if desired. (Alternatively, you can switch the order of the first two steps and glue the pom pom on TOP of the twisted pipe cleaners. Your choice.)
3. Allow glue to dry before modeling the bunny nose and whiskers.

Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to enter to win my giveaway sponsored by Path Publishing, which runs through Monday, April 28, 2014!

Spring Wreath Craft

Mia recently made this wreath at church, and I wondered why we had never made a wreath with tissue paper before. We have made a few wreaths in the past including this hand traced one for fall, this egg wreath for Easter, and this toilet paper tube holly wreath. This version is both beautiful and very simple, making it perfect for even toddlers to help create!

{Pretty Easter Wreath by Mia, Age 7}

Materials:

• paper plate
• scissors
• white glue
• tissue paper (in your choice of colors)
• ribbon/yarn for hanging
• hot glue gun (optional, for attaching ribbon/yarn)

Directions:

1. Cut the inner circle out of a paper plate. Do not discard it because it makes a perfect glue holder.
2. Cut tissue paper into small rectangles. (Tip: If you want your child to practice scissor skills, she may be able to help with this step. If you are doing it with a large group, it is best to do this in advance. Another option is to have kids tear off pieces of tissue, but again, it's often best to prepare in advance.) Our pieces of tissue paper were about 2" x 2" I believe, but you can make yours bigger or smaller, depending upon your preference and the ability of your child. (Tip: Don't buy new tissue paper! Just reuse that old stuff that came in gift bags. If you have to buy tissue paper, though, don't spend a lot. You can find it at Dollar Tree and most grocery stores.)
3. Pour a small amount of glue onto the inside circle. Have your child bunch the tissue paper up, dip it into the glue, and the apply it to the paper plate ring. She will keep doing this until it is filled up (or until she gets bored and decides it's finished).
4. Cut two lengths of ribbon (or yarn). Tie one into a bow and use a glue gun to apply it to the front of the wreath. Ours it at the bottom, but you can place it wherever the child wants. Make the second piece of ribbon into a loop and adhere it to the back of the wreath for hanging. (Tip: If you don't have a hot glue gun or you don't want to use it around young kids, you can also use glue dots or a stapler. I wouldn't recommend white glue for this job, though, since it's not really sturdy enough.)
5. Let all glue dry before displaying the wreath.

Since you're here anyway, please check out my review and giveaway, sponsored by Path Publishing! The giveaway goes through Monday, April 28, 2014, which means that you still have plenty of time to enter to win your very own blank book. With lots of options to choose from: recipes, kidisms, gardening, and more, you will definitely find something to make your life a bit easier. Thanks for visiting.

Easter Eggs for the Birds

I found this idea in the the April 2014 issue of FamilyFun magazine (page 36) and it reminded me of the hanging birdseed treats we had made over the winter. The recipe includes the same ingredients, but in slightly different proportions. I had the idea to make these eggs into hanging treats, but the embroidery floss didn't stick in them very well because when we opened the plastic eggs to take the treats out, the embroidery floss came out as well. Not a big deal, though. We just found places to set them and make an Easter egg hunt for our feathered visitors. (I can't help but wonder if this would have worked with the recipe used for the hanging birdseed treats? We may have to try it some other time.)

{An Egg Hunt for the Birds}

Materials:

• 2 packets of unflavored gelatin mix (We used Kroger brand.)
• 1/2 cup hot water (I used boiling water.)
• 2 1/2 cups birdseed
• cooking spray
• 12 plastic Easter eggs

Directions:

1. Dissolve the gelatin in hot water.
2. Mix in the birdseed. (Kids can help measure, pour, and stir.)
3. Spray the insides of plastic Easter eggs well with cooking spray.
4. Spoon the birdseed mixture into the eggs and press down firmly, filling both sides of the eggs. (Kids can do this step.)
5. Snap the eggs shut and let them set overnight. (We placed ours on a cookie sheet and left it in the refrigerator like we did with the cookie cutter birdseed treats mentioned above, but this may not be necessary.)
6. In the morning, remove the birdseed eggs and place outside where you can watch the birds enjoy them. (Kids will love helping with this step!)

{Happy Easter!}

Don't forget to head over to my review and giveaway to win a free blank book from Path Publishing. (One book that you can win is the Kidisms journal, where you can record all the cute and quirky things that the kids have to say.) The giveaway goes through April 28, 2014, so you still have time to enter!

Recycled Snake Craft

Last week was spring break so I promised the kids a trip to "the big library." We lucked out because we just happened to go during the 1 hour that they had a craft room open! It was toward the end of the hour, so we had to carefully pick and choose how to spend our time. I pointed out that some of the other projects were ones we could easily do at home, but this one in particular intrigued me so I asked them to help me create it.

In just about 5 minutes, we ended up with this friendly blue snake made from recycled materials. I think it's fitting to share this clever craft idea now since today is Earth Day. If you've got some old tights that you were thinking of tossing out, here's a nifty way to re-purpose them into something fun and new. Isn't it fabulous?

{I Ssssssssssssssee You!}

Materials:

• old pair tights (or pantyhose, if you don't mind your snake's body being sheer instead of opaque)
• scissors
• newspaper
• googly eyes (or eyeball stickers)
• scrap of paper, felt, ribbon, or yarn for tongue
• glue

Directions:

1. Cut the legs off a pair of old tights (or pantyhose). One pair of tights will make two snakes.
2. Stuff one leg with crumpled or wadded newspaper. Depending on the size of the tights, it may be helpful to first cut the paper into smaller rectangles.
3. Stuff the nylon full of newspaper, leaving about three inches at the end. Use this material to tie a knot, closing the end. It's stretchy, making it easy to work with!
4. Glue on two googly eyes. We were provided with eyeball stickers for this, but I think googly eyes may hold up better long-term.
5. Glue on a tongue. We placed ours right along the seam, which reminded me of a mouth. The tongue we were provided with was a yellow construction paper rectangle with a fork at the end. I curled it slightly around my finger before gluing it to the tights. If you don't want to use paper, I think felt, ribbon, or yarn would be a more durable alternative. This is resourceful, too, if you already have bits of those items laying around.

Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to check out my review and giveaway from Path Publishing! The giveaway runs through April 28, 2014.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Hat

March is Reading Month, so Logan's preschool class did an author study on Eric Carle. Yesterday, he came home with this cute Very Hungry Caterpillar hat to share with his sister. It's a quick and easy craft to do with little ones.

{Celebrate Reading Month with this Fun Hat!}

Materials:

• construction paper (red, yellow, green, black)
• scissors
• paper trimmer (optional)
• glue stick
• stapler

Directions:

1. Cut two strips of red paper about 3-4 inches wide. Staple one piece to the other, end to end. Wrap the extra long strip around your child's head for size, and then cut off the excess. Tip: A paper trimmer is nice for this, but scissors will work, too.
2. Cut two yellow circles for eyes. Ours are about 2 1/2" wide. Cut two green circles, slightly smaller (Ours are about 1 1/2" wide), and have your child glue them to the yellow circles. Glue the eyes to the center of the red paper strip. Note: Circles do NOT need to be perfect!
3. Cut two narrow strips of black paper, about 1" wide, for antennae. Tip: Again, a paper trimmer is helpful, but you can use scissors if you don't have one. Staple these to the red paper strip, on either side of the eyes.
4. Staple the ends of the red paper together to finish the caterpillar hat, which your child can now wear!

"Magic" Starry Night Painting

{Magic Starry Night Painting}

A couple of weeks back, the story time theme of the week was "Night Sky." Mrs. D., of course, had a great craft project to go along with that: "magic" crayon resist painting. All of the kids got a kick out of seeing stars magically appear when they applied water color paint to what looked like plain white paper!

Materials:

• heavy weight white paper (water color or card stock works best)
• white crayon
• water color paint (black, dark blue, or purple)
• paint brush
• yellow paper
• scissors
• glue stick
• paint shirt/smock (optional)
• something to protect work surface (optional -- vinyl tablecloth, newspaper, cereal box liner)

Directions:

1. With a white crayon, draw stars on a piece of white paper. (Older kids can do this themselves, but you will need to do it for little ones.)
2. Give your child some night-sky colored water color paints and a paint brush. Have him cover the paper to "magically" reveal the stars! Set the painting aside to dry. (Tip: You might want to protect clothing and work surfaces before having children paint.)
3. Cut a moon shape from a scrap of yellow paper. Have your child glue this to the night sky painting using a glue stick. That's it! Your child's "magic" night sky painting is now ready to be displayed.

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!

100th Day of School Shirt

Remember earlier this year when she got to wear a poodle skirt for the 50th day of school? Well, today was Mia's 100th Day celebration at school, and she was very excited to wear a special "new" shirt. We made it last week when school was closed. (Again.) Fortunately, the note had come home the day before so we knew that we were supposed to design a shirt, and this was a great snow day activity.

{Finished Flower Shirt}

Mia found a slightly stained shirt to use, and she told me that she wanted to cover it with flowers. I helped her collect all sorts of flowers from my craft supplies. She selected her 100 favorites, a mix of silk, felt, and paper flowers. Next, she arranged them on the shirt, making various designs, and layering smaller flowers on top of larger flowers. Finally, I hot glued them in place. Very simple.

{Cheese! She was happy with the results.}

This morning she chose to dress herself in flowered leggings, flowered socks, a skirt, and her "special" black shoes. She added a butterfly necklace and butterfly hair tie. Even though we had counted exactly 100 flowers, she felt certain that there were actually a "gazzillion" of them to go with what she called her "garden" theme!

{My Garden Girl}

Less Mess Finger Painting

I am not sure of the origin of this idea, but I am pretty sure it was floating around on Pinterest. The basic concept is to cut up a sponge into smaller pieces and let kids use them as ink pads for finger painting. Here is what I did for this less messy version of finger painting, which could also be considered printmaking or stamping of fingers, depending upon how the child uses the tools. No matter how you do it, this is a brilliant that gets two thumbs (or fingers) up from this crafty mama!

1. I originally cut my sponge (brand new) into six pieces, one per color of paint: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Then, I thought better of that idea and cut each section in half again so that each child would have a set! (Also, cutting it into twelve sections produced segments that were just the right size for fingers so there was little waste.)
2. After cutting the sponge, I began completely soaking each section in a color of tempera paint, before realizing that only the top section of the sponge needed to be saturated with paint. Once I realized that, I added less paint to each piece of sponge. As I soaked each section of sponge, I then set it on a Styrofoam tray which became the paint palette. 

   

   {Sponge Paint Palette}

3. I laid a cereal box liner on my table to protect it (like free wax paper!). Then, I set some finger paint paper on top.
4. Mia put on her paint shirt and dipped pressed a finger or two onto the paint-laden sponge and then applied the paint to the paper. (It turned out that Logan was not interested at this time, but I will have the sponges for another time, and can easily add more paint as needed.) When she was done, she had barely any paint on her fingers, so the clean-up was a breeze! As a bonus, I didn't have a messy tray to rinse off because the paint was contained in the small sponge pieces. Overall, this is brilliant, and gets two thumbs (or fingers) up from this crafty mama.

   

   {A Finger Painted Flower Garden}

Valentine's Projects - 2014

I've recently chatted with a couple other people about how I do not make the kids' valentines. (That may actually surprise you since I like to make just about everything else!) For what they are, though, and considering how little time children actually spend appreciating them, this is not worth it to me. (I do understand what a friend said, though, about a child wanting a certain theme or character that wasn't readily available. It was smart of her, in that case, to make them herself!) For my kids, I just run out after Valentine's Day,-- when stuff is on clearance -- and pick up one or two boxes that I know they will like to set aside for the next year.

This year, for example, Mia had a choice of Disney fairies or princesses and she selected the fairies. (I found her a box of princess valentines that came with suckers to use next year. I figure suckers don't really go bad. Any other candy I would worry about, but suckers should be fine.) Logan chose Cars, so he will have either the Toy Story ones or the Hot Wheels that I just picked up the other day. They still get choices, but I don't have to spend 20 minutes in the store while they debate among a million options. So far, it has worked for us. (And for the record, I'm not knocking anybody's choice to make the cutesy homemade kind. I have seen some really awesome ones! It's just not something I care to do as long as my kids are fine with the current system.)

That said, we did do a few Valentine's Day related crafts this February. Mia's teacher sent home a note a few days before their class party that said they needed to have a valentine holder of some sort. I was trying to figure out what sort of box to use when I remembered the cute felt envelopes featured in the February issue of FamilyFun magazine. We had everything we needed at home, so this was a good choice. I showed Mia the picture, and she loved it, so it was decided. I downloaded the Special Deliveries Envelope pattern and then traced it onto some pink felt that I had left over from making the poodle skirt. (My only complaint is that they don't tell you how much felt you need, so let me tell you. I measured it to be about 41" by 28.5" so allow a bit extra, just in case my measurements are slightly off.)

{Finished valentine holder is 91/2" x 141/2"}

For embellishment, we added a red felt heart, and Mia selected 2" blue self-adhesive felt letters. (We didn't have a "M" so she decided an upside down "W" would work in its place.) I skipped the step for cutting holes and threading ribbon through to make this a chair back valentine holder since I wasn't sure if they would fit the chairs at school, and this seemed like unnecessary effort. It turned out great, and she was very happy. I was also glad that it could easily fit inside her backpack for the bus ride home, which would not have been the case if we had gone with a box of some sort!

{This is the great heart garland!}

As Valentine's Day approached, Mia felt that we needed some extra decorations and I showed her how I had made some heart-shaped chains inspired by this blogger's photo that I had seen on Pinterest. Her directions are great, and I wish I had actually read them first. One important step that I missed was starting with folded paper to get that nice edge at the bottom of the heart. I just gave Mia some 1" strips of red and pink construction paper and showed her how to invert them before stapling (as opposed to overlapping them for traditional chain links). Then, I suggested that she pinch the bottom segment to form the base of the heart. Mostly, she skipped that so her hearts are rounded and sweet-looking instead of crisp and precise. She was happy with the results, so I couldn't have cared less. Besides, they looked kid-made, and that was the point! Mia quickly used up the red and pink and asked me to make more strips out of purple and blue paper. By the time she was done, we had a garland that draped nearly all the way from one side of the dining room to the other. (Some of the chain links were regular circles interspersed among the hearts.)

{Close-up of Heart Chains}

Today was yet another snow day. (Well, technically, it was an ice day.) Anyway, I had some project ideas in mind and one was stamped hearts from toilet paper tubes, which came from this blogger. (I had wanted to try this before Valentine's Day, but then Mia's school needed lots of TP tubes for science night and I sent in all that I had at the time, around 50!) Mia was not interested, but Logan happily created some stamps with the heart-shaped tubes that I made. We had two tubes to work with since I no longer had a big stash of them: one to dip in pink paint and one to dip in purple paint, both of which I poured onto a Styrofoam tray. These stamps were quick and easy to make using the directions found on the Rust & Sunshine blog. My only suggestion would be that you could also cut the tubes in half to make more if you wanted to do this with more kids but were short on tubes.

{Art in Process...}

{Finished Stamped Art}

{Close-up of Tubes, After Stamping}

Toilet Paper Tube Stamping

Today was snow day #3 and this was the second activity we tried since we were trapped indoors. The first one was science experiment. As another aside, just once I wish we would have a "snow day" during which the kids can actually be allowed to go outside and, you know, play in the snow! These insanely cold no-school days are getting quite old.

Happily, the kids were much more enthusiastic about this stamping project than yesterday's potato prints, which we tried kind of late in the afternoon when they were tired and crabby. I was smart enough to introduce this craft earlier in the day before they had a chance to get cranky. This idea (from Pinterest) is super simple and it's a perfect way to use up some of those toilet paper tubes that you have saved up (if you're anything like me you have a large stash of them -- They are such great craft items and they are completely free!) It reminds me a bit of the toilet paper tube octopuses that we made before, but I really love this one even more than those fellows. Plus, this one can be done with any age group from toddlers and up.

{Here are our stamps before paint was added...}

Materials:

• empty toilet paper tubes
• scissors
• paper (finger print paper works nicely)
• tempera paint
• paint trays (or bowls or plates)
• black Sharpie marker (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut notches along one end of a toilet paper tube. They can be any size or shape: rectangles, triangles, rounded "petals," or whatever else you can think of. My cuts were all around 3/4" to 1 1/2" long.
2. Protect kids' clothing and work surfaces, if desired. My children each have their own paint shirts, which are just old t-shirts that used to belong to me. I use a clothespin to secure Logan's at the back of his neck. For the table, they each had a vinyl place mat to work on.
3. Pour some paint onto trays. We used six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, with two colors on each Styrofoam tray. Note: In retrospect, I think this would have worked better if there was more room per color, meaning that I should have only used one color per tray.
4. Have kids dip the toilet paper tubes into the paint and then press them onto the paper to make impressions. Note: They can also invent their own techniques for painting. For example, Logan liked to swirl the tubes around on the paper and Mia discovered that she could used the tips of the cut-outs to make smaller designs. Both of them figured out that the paint was occasionally drippy so they used that in their paintings, as well.
   
5. Let paint dry completely before displaying their artwork. Note: I used a black Sharpie to write their names and ages before they were finished. This is mostly so I won't forget who made each one! Note: Kids may also wish to go back after paint has dried and add more details with markers. I know Mia mentioned adding green stems to the "flowers" and some faces to the ones that reminded her of a lion's mane.

Here are 10 more crafts to make with toilet paper tubes:

• Homemade Sidewalk Chalk
• Toilet Paper Tube Christmas Tree
• Holly-Day Wreath
• Indian Corn Craft
• Scarecrow
• Turkey
• Wind Sock
• Bunny
• Chick
• Advent Wreath

And, if you haven't done so already, please check out the Livingston Parent Journal's crowdfunding page! There are just a couple days left to contribute to a very worthy cause.

Easy Cookie Cutter Potato Prints

Here's an oldie, but a goody: potato prints. I am not sure where I came up with the idea to use cookie cutters to make this process even quicker and easier, but it came in handy today when I was trying to prep for dinner and needed something to keep the kids occupied! Getting some potatoes out for roasting reminded me that I had just purchased some new cookie cutters that I found on clearance at Walmart -- a total steal, 6 of the little ones that are meant for fondant or something along those lines, and they were just $1.50. (Shhh! Don't tell Brett. I'm supposed to be cut off from buying any more.)

Have I mentioned that cookie cutters are one of my most favorite craft items? Really, they have so many great uses! I have always thought the small metal kind were nice for cutting cute cheese and fruit shapes, and, of course, for crafts. It turns out that they are quite handy for making potato stamps with precise edges in no time flat. Yep. Cookie cutters. What's not to love?!

{A finished potato stamp and a stamp in progress...}

Materials:

• potatoes
• small knife
• small cookie cutters (metal preferably)
• Styrofoam trays to hold paint (or plates)
• paper (finger paint paper works well)
• tempera paints
• paper towel/damp cloth
• paint shirts/smocks (optional)

Directions:

1. You may wish to protect clothing and work surfaces. My kids each have an old paint shirt that they wore. Plus, each of their work areas was covered with a vinyl place mat. If messes don't bother you, proceed to the next step.
2. Cut potatoes in half. I used 4 small red potatoes.
3. Press a cookie cutter into each potato half. You don't have to press it entirely into the potato, but you can press it that deeply if you want. Remove the cookie cutter, and use a knife to carefully cut away the outer edges, leaving the shape of the cookie cutter. It's faster and more precise than trying to freehand the shape! (We used a star, some hearts, some fall leaves, and an apple.)
4. Pour some paint onto Styrofoam trays and let kids dip their potato stamps into the paint and then press it onto paper. Tip: You can sterilize Styrofoam meat trays by running them through the dishwasher on the top rack. Tip: If you have more than one child, it is helpful to give each one his own tray. I just sat them next to each other so that they could share paint colors and potato stamps. Tip: It is helpful to have paper towels or a damp cloth handy for wiping the stamps off before switching colors (unless they want the colors to get mixed). Plus, you will need this for wiping hands when they are all done stamping.
5. Let paintings dry completely before displaying them. This technique can also be used to making greeting cards or gift wrap.

Here are 10 More Fun Uses for Cookie Cutters:

• Birdseed Treats
• Birdseed Biscuits
• Cookie Cutter Stamp Art
• Sandpaper Gingerbread Family Craft
• Gingerbread Boy and Girl Puppets
• Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments
• Christmas Sun Catchers
• Easy Foam Christmas Ornaments
• Cookie Cutters as Shark Party Favors
• Homemade Play Dough/Cookie Cutters Gift Idea

By the way, please stop by the Livingston Parent Journal's crowdfunding site and see if there is a way that you can help them with their mission! Thanks ever so much.

Winter Mittens Paper Craft

Here is another cute and simple preschool craft created by our wonderful library lady, Mrs. D.! Logan always enjoys using the paint daubers, so this was a hit. (Note: If you don't have paint daubers at home, you can buy Bingo markers at Dollar Tree that work very well for dot-eriffic projects.)

Materials:

• construction paper
• pencil
• scissors
• hole punch
• yarn
• Bingo/paint daubers

Directions:

1. Draw and cut out a mitten shape. Use this as a template to create a matching mitten, and cut it out. (Tip: If you want a sturdier template to use again and again, consider making one out of boxboard -- like a cereal box.)
2. Punch a hole in each mitten.
3. Cut a length of yarn. Thread each end through the holes and tie knots to secure.
4. Give your child paint or Bingo daubers and let him decorate the mittens. Allow paint to dry before displaying the mittens.

11 more Bingo marker project ideas for the rest of the year:

• Easy Paper Easter Eggs
• Decorated Easter Eggs (Real)
• Spring Butterflies
• 4th of July Mini Flags
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• Paper Bag Indian Corn
• Turkey Table Toppers
• Christmas Trees

Snow Day Craft Fails

Things have been hectic around here these last few days. Sickness, sickness, and more sickness. We're falling like dominoes, and I really hope that I am the last domino in the line. I should probably be resting, but I feel the need to be writing for some reason. (Probably the fever. As you may recall, that's what happened the last time I had a fever.) Anyway, it seemed like a good time to share some snow day activities from last week -- the ones that were less than stellar. (I do try to keep it real so you know that not all of my craft endeavors are home runs!)

First up, we tried something that this website referred to as "Sparkle Snow Paint." For the record, this does make a good homemade paint. In fact, while mixing it up, I thought to myself, Haven't we made this before? Yep, pretty sure we added food coloring and called it "puffy paint." Yes, it turned out to be the very same recipe: 1/2 cup water + 1/2 cup salt + 1/2 cup flour, mixed together and put into squeeze bottles. While this works well for homemade puffy paint, my complaint is that it is not sparkly. Also, if you are using unbleached flour, it's not even white! For future reference, if I want it to be sparkly, I will add some glitter.

{Puffy Paint Snowflake by Mia, Age 6}

The second homemade craft material experiment was making paste. I had never before made any sort of glue, but it was on my mental to-do list for the past few months, so I decided it was time to test this out. I have an older edition (from 1994) of The Little Hands Art Book, which is where I found this recipe for "Flour Paste."

Following the directions, I combined 1/2 cup flour with 2/3 cup water. The problem is that this seemed to be too watery of a consistency. It was wet for glue, and certainly too wet for "paste," which should be quite thick, at least the way I remember it from my elementary school days. The other problem I encountered is that it called for "oil of peppermint or oil of wintergreen," and I was not 100% sure was meant by that. I took it to mean essential oils, so I used a few drops of peppermint essential oil since I had that on hand for the homemade bath salts. I may be entirely wrong, though.

This "paste" smells delightful, but it looks disgusting. I put some into an old glue bottle and gave it to Mia to test out. She found that it did work as an adhesive, but she agreed with my assessment that it was too thin and watery. I hoped that it would eventually "set" but no such luck. There is a layer of putrid looking paste topped by a layer of liquidy goo -- and I have a half-pint canning jar full of this gross-looking "paste" which is supposed to last a couple of months. (Evidently, the oil -- if I used it correctly -- acts as a preservative of some sort.) That's what I call a craft-astrophe. Really, it's so nasty looking, I have decided to not include a photo!

Colorful Ice Shapes

I found this idea here and I had been waiting for the right time to give it a try. While this would probably make more sense if I had done it in February, another snow day (third in a row!) was the ideal time for creating these pretty outdoor decorations. Plus, I had heart-shaped molds, so that was what we used. This was simple and fun for the little ones and for me, too. The finished ice molds are quite lovely, and they seem to sparkle and shimmer in the sunlight.

Materials:

• silicone muffin cups (or a candy/brownie mold -- aluminum would also work)
• water
• food coloring
• fishing line (Dental floss will also do the trick!)
• clear tape
• scissors
• cake pan or cookie sheet (optional, but very helpful)

Directions:

1. Cut several lengths of fishing line (or dental floss), one for each mold. Make each one into a loop and then secure it inside the bottom of your silicone (or aluminum) mold using clear tape. Tip: We used 12 heart-shaped muffin cups, so I placed them in a cake pan for easy transport. If you are using a candy mold, you might wish to place it on top of a cookie sheet for the same reason.
2. Add colored water to each mold. We had snow paint at hand, so we didn't need to do any mixing. I just poured some from each bottle into small paper cups so that the kids could easily fill the molds. If you don't already have colored water, just place some water in each mold and then add a drop or two of food coloring to each one. Tip: I don't recommend filling them more than 2/3 of the way if you are using muffin cups. Full cups were a bit bulky and took considerably longer to freeze than the ones that were only 1/2 - 2/3 full. 
3. Place your molds outside to freeze. (Alternatively, you can put these in your freezer, but with cold winter temps, it just made more sense to use the outdoors.) The shallower ones were set up in about 3 1/2 hours, while the fuller cups were done in about 6 hours.
4. Remove the colored ice from the molds. With silicone, it is simple to just peel the mold away from the ice. For aluminum, it may be easier to run some warm water on the bottom of your pan to help release them. Remove and discard any left over tape.
5. Hang your colorful ice shapes outside and admire them! 

Sandpaper Gingerbread Family Craft

For the past few years we have kept an Advent calendar. In the beginning, I used to put small candy such as Hershey's kisses inside each box, but last year I decided to get away from that. I typed up various activities (make hot cocoa, drive around and look at lights, watch a Christmas show, read a Christmas book, write a letter to Santa, etc.) and put the slips of paper into each box. This way, we are doing things as a family instead of just eating junk food.

Admittedly, my kids are not always thrilled about this. For example, they just plain ignored the slip that said, "make a list of our blessings." Fortunately, they were happy the other day when it said "do a Christmas craft." I didn't really have anything planned, but I had remembered pinning this idea ages ago. So I pulled out my sandpaper (purchased from Dollar Tree for this project) and my cookie cutters and we got to work.

The original craft that I was inspired by involved a lot of puffy paint (cute, but not exactly young child-friendly!) and it was intended to be used as invitations for a cookie exchange. This sounds very cute, too, but here is how I modified the craft to make a more appropriate project for my two kids.

{Gingerbread Boy and Girl by Logan, Age 4}
(Can also be captioned, "why puffy paint should not be placed in the hands of preschoolers!"
Although, his wasn't too bad. It was actually dry by the following morning, which surprised me.)

Materials:

• sandpaper
• gingerbread boy and girl cookie cutters
• pen
• scissors
• tacky glue
• embellishments: buttons, feathers, pom poms, beads, pipe cleaners, craft foam, felt, markers, yarn, sequins, etc.
• puffy paint (optional -- not suggested for preschoolers and toddlers!)
• something to protect work surface (recommended -- I like cereal box liners.)
• old clothes/paint shirts (optional -- strongly recommended if using puffy paint!)

{Our Sandpaper Gingerbread Family by Mia, Age 6}

Directions:

1. Flip sandpaper over to the non-textured side. Place a gingerbread boy or girl cookie cutter on top and trace around it using a pen. Repeat as many times as desired. I found that we could fit 5 gingerbread people per sheet of sandpaper. (2 large and 3 small) Cut out the gingerbread people.
2. (If desired, protect work surface and kids' clothing before decorating gingerbread people.) Allow kids to decorate their gingerbread people by using tacky glue to apply whatever embellishments you have at hand. We used many craft staples that you likely have at home: buttons, yarn, pom poms, pipe cleaners, and regular markers. There are many, many, many possibilities. For example, Mia used buttons in the traditional fashion to make a shirt and Logan used them just for decoration all over an entire gingerbread girl. She also used feathers in more than one way -- to make a skirt and also cut and shaped to make hair. (Note: If you are brave enough to let your kids use puffy paint, remember that it will stain clothing and plan accordingly. Also, it is very tricky to "pipe" it neatly, as you can see from my own example with the blobby outline around the head, so that may be frustrating for little ones.)
3. Make sure that glue dries completely before displaying your gingerbread people. 

 {Brett came home and asked, "Where's Mama's?" Now I have one, too.}

Other Ideas:

• I think it would be cute to string several of these together to make a garland.
• Since we have both boy and girl cookie cutters in both large and small sizes, Mia decided that she would make one gingerbread person to represent each member of the family. This would a cute thing to do as a family or as a class: everyone decorates a gingerbread person to look like himself.
• These could also be made into ornaments by punching a hole and then adding ribbon, yarn, bakers twine, or a pipe cleaner. The only downside is that the sandpaper is kind of flimsy, so you may want to first reinforce these with a layer of card stock. A more durable option would be craft foam.
• In fact, if you don't have sandpaper, craft foam would be fine for this project. You just will not have the textural aspect unless you find a way to create it. One way would be to add a layer of glitter, but this is going to be messier than sandpaper, by far.
• To make these into puppets, add a craft stick like we did here.
• I really do like the idea, too, of using these as invitations to a cookie exchange. In the past, I made my own apron invitations for an exchange, but these would be a bit easier to mass produce.
• If you don't have a gingerbread cookie cutter, don't run out and buy one! (unless they are already on clearance, in which case feel free to share where you are finding them -- not that I need any more...) You could also use a teddy bear or a puppy or any other item that would look good in brown.
• Looking for more ideas of things that you can do with cookie cutters? You might also like: cinnamon applesauce ornaments, gingerbread men paper dolls, craft foam ornaments (page 20), and Christmas sun catchers.

Painted Christmas Tree Craft

Logan started this project at the library last week and then finished it this week. This shouldn't be too hard to do in an afternoon so long as you let the paint dry in between the painting and decorating steps. (Just give your child an empty cardboard box to play with. Those always seem to keep my kids occupied...) My favorite part of this craft is the clever and fun painting technique: using an actual limb from an evergreen tree or shrub in place of a paint brush! I also like that Mrs. D. added a small magnet to the back so that we can display the tree on the refrigerator (or the dishwasher or the back door -- we've got options.) It's definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas around our house!

{Finished Tree by Logan, Age 4}

Materials:

• white card stock (or green)
• scissors
• fresh evergreen branches
• green tempera paint
• container to hold paint (I like Styrofoam trays.)
• brown construction paper
• glue stick/glue
• something to protect work surface (optional -- I like cereal box liners.)
• yellow construction paper
• stickers or foam stickers
• self-adhesive magnet (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut a large triangle out of white (or green card stock) to make the tree. Mrs. D. added simple branches by cutting notches out of the sides, which is simple and quick to do.
2. Cut a trunk from brown construction paper. Adhere the trunk to the base of the tree. (Tip: If doing this project with more then one child, you may want to write names on the back sides of the trees before moving on to the next step.)
3. Collect some fresh evergreen branches.
4. (Protect work surface and clothing, if desired.) Pour some green tempera paint into a bowl or onto a plate or Styrofoam tray. Let your child paint the tree using evergreen branches. Once he is done painting, set the tree aside so that paint can dry completely.
5. Decorate the tree! Cut a star out of yellow construction paper and let your child glue it to the top. Then, let him add stickers, regular or foam, for the ornaments.
6. To make it magnetic, simply add a self-adhesive magnet to the back of the tree. Your child's creation is now ready to be displayed on any magnetic surface. (Tip: If you don't have magnets, you can tape this just about anywhere. Or you can display it on a clothesline style art display. Ours came from IKEA.)

Other Ideas:

• You could make wintry trees in place of Christmas trees. Just substitute white glue "snow" in place of the sticker "ornaments."
• If you don't have stickers, trim the tree with whatever you have at hand: buttons, pom poms, sequins, beads, ribbon, yarn, pipe cleaners, rhinestones, feathers, etc.
• Mrs. D. displayed several plain green trees on the white board to make a winter scene. A few well-placed lines with a black dry erase marker, and it looked like the trees were standing in a snowy meadow -- very simple but pretty for a classroom display!
• Painting with evergreen branches could also be used to make wreaths. Just use a paper plate for the base and have your child finger paint on some read berries. Add a red or gold bow for hanging.
• Or skip the tree altogether, and just use the branches for paint brushes for a tactile experience. My little man is not always excited about crafts, but he loves painting in new ways, so he found this one to be very fun.

Turkey Table Toppers

Here's an easy craft to keep the kids busy this Thanksgiving. Once again, this idea is brought to you by our wonderful library lady, Mrs. D. (I hope she isn't offended that I love her ideas and run with them!) These turkey table toppers are fairly quick and easy for little ones to create without too much parent prep. I think that it would be cute to have child-made place cards for everyone by simply adding names to the tail feathers. That would surely make for a happy Thanksgiving table.

The good news is that most of the items needed for this project are things you likely have at home. The only item you may not have are the Bingo markers. I assume that the library ordered these Bingo daubers, but my suggestion is that you save yourself a lot of money and get some from Dollar Tree! I bought ours there over two years ago and they are still working great. (I normally see these in the school supply aisle.) We have red, orange, green, blue, and purple. The only color I have seen at Dollar Tree that I did not purchase was black since I figured that would have limited craft possibilities. Personally, I think this was a great investment for kids' crafts so I would definitely recommend getting some!

{Turkeys by Logan, 4, and Mia, 6}

Materials:

• TP tube
• small paper plate
• scissors
• tacky glue (or school glue)
• yellow/orange construction paper
• brown construction paper
• pencil
• 2 googly eyes (or eyeball stickers)
• Bingo markers (or regular markers)
• red pipe cleaner (or construction paper)
• something to protect work surface (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut a small paper plate in half. One half is needed per turkey, so if you are only making one turkey, set this aside for another project. (One option is this paper plate turkey.)
2. Cut a toilet paper tube in half. If you want to make lots of turkeys but you are short on TP tubes, you can also cut them into thirds. Using your scissors, make two small notches on one end of the tube, about 1/4" deep. They will be spaced equally apart so that the paper plate will be able to slide into the notches after it is decorated. (If you need a project for leftover tube sections, try making bird feeders.)
3. Make a beak out of yellow (or orange) construction paper. The easiest way to do this is to cut a strip of paper and then cut a smaller rectangle from the strip. Then, fold the rectangle and cut a triangle so that the fold is the base of the triangle. When glued onto paper, this will make a 3-D beak.
4. Draw and cut out a turkey body from brown construction paper. The basic shape is a small circle on top of a larger circle and it should be about 4 1/2" tall. (Note: Mrs. D.'s is thinner and reminds me of a bowling pin and mine looks a bit more like a fat pear, but I think they both are fine. Also, hers is flat on the bottom and mine is rounded, and they both seem to stand up nicely, so take your pick.) Tip: If you are planning to make more than one turkey, use the first one as a template and trace around it to make more.
5. For the wattle, we used a scrap of red pipe cleaner. If you want to use pipe cleaner, you may need to cut a piece about 1" long. Tip: I keep left over bits of them in an old plastic peanut butter jar for times when we need just a small piece. This way, we don't have to cut up a perfectly good pipe cleaner. Tip: If you don't have pipe cleaners, you could also make a wattle from red construction paper, cut into a kidney bean shape.
6. Have your child decorate the half paper plate using the Bingo markers. It doesn't matter which side of the plate gets decorated. Tell kids that they do NOT need to press hard. Tip: If the ink isn't flowing well, make sure the cap is secure, and shake the Bingo markers. If this doesn't work, gently tap, tap, tap the marker until the ink starts flowing. Set aside to dry. Tip: Sometimes markers will bleed through, so you might want to protect your table before starting. I like to use cereal box liners, but you can also use newspaper, an old vinyl tablecloth, or wax paper. Tip: If you don't have Bingo markers, let your child decorate the plate with regular markers.

   

   {Mia made a rainbow turkey.}

7. Have your child decorate the turkey's body. Mrs. D. provided eyeball stickers for a no-mess option. (Logan's make me smile because one is upside down.) Mia used googly eyes and adhered them with tacky glue. (Tip: If you don't have eyeball stickers or googly eyes, use a black marker to draw eyes.) Next, both kids glued down their beaks. Mia then added her red pipe cleaner wattle. (Tip: If you don't have a pipe cleaner, use red construction paper or draw one with a red marker.) Lay flat until glue is completely dry.
8. Kids may need help with assembling their turkeys. Place some glue on the back of the turkey's body and affix it to the tube, making sure that the two slits are on the top of the tube, and are to the left and right of the body. Slide the paper plate, flat side down, into the two slits so that the colorful side is facing the front.
9. Display your child's turkey table topper. You may want to make several for all of your Thanksgiving guests.

One final thought: I know it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but Mia's rainbow tail feathers inspired me, and I could totally see tweaking this craft and making it into a showy peacock. To do this, use pretty blue paper in place of brown. Skip the wattle, and add lots of colorful Bingo marker dots to the body. For a final flourish, add a blue feather on top of the peacock's head, and voila! A pretty peacock!

Have a blessed and safe Thanksgiving!