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!

Color Hunt Activity and Color Wheel Craft

Okay, even though I am labeling this "rainy day fun" it has not actually been raining here. Instead, it's just been so hot that it feels like the flesh is melting off of my bones whenever I set foot outdoors. No joke! Heat index of 102 degrees today! Ugh... Anyway, that means that I we have been cooped up inside (God bless whoever invented central air, am I right?) pretty much all week except for when we were running errands (and a 9:00 am park play date today -- glad we didn't start that one any later). Only problem is the cabin fever aspect of things. Fortunately, this mommy keeps all sorts of lists of possible things to do.

One activity we did yesterday afternoon was a color hunt around the house. This was nice because the kids worked together instead of, you know, trying to kill each other and driving me insane in the process. Ah, reprieve! I gave them the muffin tin that I had added colored inserts to for this color sorting activity and told them to find small toys and what-nots that would be lightweight enough to glue onto paper and that they wouldn't miss after the items were glued to the paper. (Note: This ended up being a great way to have them herd up all those things that I get sick of finding everywhere like plastic ring toppers from holiday cupcakes and little goodie bag items from birthday parties.) After they found all the little toys and other odds and ends from their bedrooms, I suggested we look at the craft bins where they found plenty of sequins, beads, buttons, pom poms, foam letters, bottle caps, and the Styrofoam tiles left over from this craft. By the time they had filled up the 6 cup muffin tin, I felt that we had enough colorful finds to create our color wheel, inspired by this blog (and found on Pinterest).

{From Color Hunt...}

{To Color Wheel}

Materials for Color Wheel:

• 1/2 piece of white poster board (with grid lines, if possible)
• pencil or pen
• black Sharpie (optional)
• large frying pan (or whatever you have that's big and round)
• ruler
• scissors
• acrylic paint (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) OR markers
• something to hold paint (I used a Styrofoam tray.)
• foam paint brushes (1 per color)
• something to protect work surface (cereal box liner, vinyl table cloth, newspaper)
• hot glue gun

Directions for Color Wheel:

1. Using a pen or pencil, trace a large round object (I used my biggest frying pan) onto a half piece of white poster board. Tip: If your poster board has grid lines, I recommend keeping them visible.
2. Cut out the circle.
3. Find the center of the circle and make a dot. I used black Sharpie for this. (This is very easy to do if your poster board has grid lines. If not, you will probably want to use your ruler to help.)
4. Using a ruler, draw 3 lines across the circle. You should now have 6 pie wedges of approximately the same size. Tip: I first did this with a pencil, and then followed with a black Sharpie, correcting the placement as I went. It does not need to be perfect, but I was glad to have used pencil the first go round. I didn't bother erasing my stray pencil marks because I knew I would be painting on top of them anyway.
5. Once my circle was divided into 6 segments, I used acrylic paints to fill them in. I started my primary colors: first red, then I skipped a wedge, filled in the next with yellow, skipped a wedge, and then filled in the final part with blue. I had hoped that this would dry fast enough that the paint wouldn't touch the next corresponding part of my color wheel. (This would have worked better, though, if I hadn't immediately started painting the rest of the segments.) I finished up with secondary colors: orange (in between red and yellow), green (in between yellow and blue), and purple (in between blue and red). Make sure paint is dry before continuing to the next step. This shouldn't take more than 20 minutes or so. Tip: Protect clothing and work surface before using acrylic paints. I wore an old shirt and covered my table with a cereal box liner, which I use in place of wax paper for craft projects. Tip: I only used one coat of paint, and I didn't worry about streaks or uneven coverage at all. I knew it would get covered well enough to not matter, so save yourself some time by not trying to make it perfect. Tip: If you would like your child to fill in the color wheel, I suggest using washable markers in place of acrylic paints.
6. Using a pre-heated glue gun (adults only!) start adhering the colorful items to the corresponding sections of your color wheel until it is as full as you would like. You can have your child tell you where to place things, if desired. Tip: Self-adhesive craft foams shapes and letters will save you some glue, if those happen to be among the items your kids have scrounged up! Tip: Start with the largest items and work your way down to the smallest items, that way you can squeeze them in as needed. Tip: If you want to be sure things will fit, lay them out prior to gluing. Allow hot glue to dry completely before moving the color wheel.

Rainbow Pom Pom Chutes

Over spring break, we went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum, which is wonderful! There were lots of great activities there, and many of them were different from other children's museums that we have been to before. This activity is somewhat inspired by this rainbow shaped ball drop at the museum, which I looked at and wondered, How can I take this idea and replicate it at home? I had seen this idea on Pinterest, and decided to take the tubes and try to make more of a rainbow shape with them.

{This was my inspiration...}

{and here is what I came up with.}

The idea is to do color matching and drop the pom poms down the corresponding colored tubes. This is not how it always turned out, in actuality, of course! This did get messy as the pom poms didn't always land in the bin. Plus, my kids got wild and pom poms ended up all over the living room. They also had to learn not to cram too many pom poms into the tubes at once or they would, of course, get stuck. However, this triggered some problem solving as well. Logan was excited when he was able to poke a marker into a tube and get the pom poms unjammed. Even though my chutes don't really look like a rainbow as I had hoped, they were simple to make with items from the recycling bin and a bag of Dollar Tree pom poms. More, importantly, it was fun for both kids. And it's held up so far...

Materials:

• 6 cardboard tubes
• paint (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
• paint brushes
• boxboard or cardboard
• hot glue gun
• something for tubes to dry on (I used the liner from a cereal box.)
• clear tape
• pom poms (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple; small enough to fit inside tubes)
• container to drop pom poms into
• Chopsticks for Kids (optional)

Directions: 

1. Collect 6 empty cardboard tubes. I used paper towel rolls, but toilet paper rolls would work also. Your chutes will just be shorter. This might actually be better in that it may help prevent log-jams, but it's up to you what size to use.
2. Protect your work surface before painting. I used the liner from a cereal box, which is basically free "wax" paper. You could use newspaper, but sometimes tubes stick to this while they are drying, so I prefer to save the cereal box liners for paint projects.
3. Paint each tube one color of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. I used powdered tempera paints for this. You could also use acrylic paints, but be aware that they will stain fabric. I believe I just did one coat of paint, but you could apply more coats if you want it to look better. I just wanted it to be functional. Allow paint to dry completely. Tip: Foam paint brushes work very well for painting tubes.
4. Use hot glue to affix the tubes to the boxboard or cardboard. I used the side of a cereal box. Allow glue to dry. I tried to arch mine to resemble the rainbow ball drop that we had seen at the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. I don't know how successful this was. You could glue them in a straight line if you prefer.
5. Use clear tape to adhere the the boxboard to a wall.
6. Place a container underneath the tubes and let kids drop colored pom poms into the corresponding colored tubes. They can use their hands, Chopsticks for Kids, or tongs for this. Note: This is not a mess-free activity, but it's not difficult to clean up.

{See the yellow pom pom dropping?}

{Look! The marker worked! Tube = unstuck!}

Pom Pom Color Sorting Activity

I am not sure where I originally came across this idea for a color sorting motor skills activity. Possibly this, which I pinned almost a year ago? I think there are probably several versions of it posted on Pinterest. Anyway, it's simple fun for little ones, especially on days when the weather just won't cooperate so you can make it outside to play.

Since we were running low on pom poms, I found a bag of 80 assorted colored pom poms in the craft aisle of Dollar Tree during our spring break shopping trip. This provided plenty of pom poms for doing this activity. Our muffin tin, which I have had for awhile, came from Salvation Army, and I believe it was 99 cents. I have used it when we have made bathtub paint and it would also be perfect for holding sidewalk paint. If I haven't mentioned it before, Salvation Army is a good source of craft materials, especially if you think to look in the kitchen section.

{Here is what you need}

Materials:

• 6 cup muffin tin (I have seen this done with ice cube trays also.)
• paper (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
• clear Con-tact paper (optional)
• scissors
• clear tape
• pom poms (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
• Chopsticks for Kids (you could also have child use tweezers, tongs, or his hands for this)
• colored pasta (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut out 6 circles of colored paper. I used my card stock scraps for this, but construction paper would work, too. Want to know my super fancy simple method for making circles? Place paper into a muffin cup. Use your finger nail to trace the inside edge. Then, use scissors to cut around indentation made by your finger nail. Do this for each color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Tip: I then, cut my circles a little smaller (free-hand since they don't need to be perfect) since I was planning to "laminate" them.
2. This next step is optional. For extra sturdiness, I "laminated" the colored circles with clear Con-tact paper. I used my scraps that I have saved from making sun catchers. I cut squares a bit larger than the circles, sandwiched the colored paper circles between two pieces of the Con-tact paper (sticky sides facing in), and then trimmed the excess so that they were back to circles. Tip: Leave a little outside edge of clear Con-tact paper, at least 1/8" to 1/4" inch to prevent it from coming undone.
3. Next, I rolled pieces of clear tape, stuck them to the "laminated" circles, and placed a circle into each muffin cup. Tip: For the sake of looking sort of rainbow oriented, I did it in this order: red, orange, yellow on top and green, blue, purple on bottom. That's it.
4. Let your child play, explore, and have fun sorting pom poms into the muffin cups. Logan and Mia have both enjoyed doing this using our Chopsticks for Kids. (I thought this would be something more for him since he is still working on color recognition, but she surprised me with her interest in this. So, don't discount this as a good rainy day activity for kindergarten kids, too!) Tip: As an alternative to pom poms, we also have done color sorting with dyed pasta in bow tie and corkscrew shapes. 

{Cool Whip tub = fine container for pom poms or pasta}

DIY Colored "Sand Art" Jars

I had originally found this idea online while searching for rainbow crafts to possibly do for Mia's Care Bears party. I decided it wasn't a good activity to try with a large group of kids in my small dining room, but it was a perfect spring break activity for my own two kiddos. These turned out really pretty, and you would never know that they aren't even made of actual sand, but rather, colored salt. The most notable benefit to using salt instead of sand is that it is way, way cheaper. The cost was the only thing that had prevented us from making colored sand art jars in the past. Making your own faux "colored sand" is not difficult to do at home, but it is kind of messy. I think the process was fun, and the end results are beautiful, so it is totally worth a small amount of spilled salt, in my opinion.

One thing I did learn is that craft is better suited to school age kids rather than preschoolers, especially if you are using somewhat large jars as we did. Mia, at age six, had more patience for this than her little brother did. That's really a no-brainer, but I was hopeful that Logan would be able to fill his jar. He only managed 3 layers before he started being kind of naughty and salt was flying all over the place, and I decided to cut him off. Then, I packaged up Logan's left over "colored sand" in baggies in case he decides to try again tomorrow. Mia, on the other hand, ended up with 6 layers. Maybe the rule of thumb is that kids can make one layer per year of age? Okay, I'm not sure that is true, but that is how it turned out at our house.

As usual, they had different ideas for how to do things. Logan produced 3 layers in 3 distinctly separate colors, and Mia made her six layers alternating just two colors: pink and purple. However, she didn't make the layers all look the same. She colored for different lengths of time to produce different intensities of pigmentation so there is a gradation of color from darker to lighter as she went. I don't know if this was intentional or if it was the product of getting tired with the process and trying to speed things along. Either way, she was pleased with her finished "sand art" jar.

{"Sand Art" Jars by Mia, Age 6 and Logan, Age 3}

Materials:

• colored chalk
• paper
• salt
• glass containers with lids or corks
• cookie sheets (optional)
• Super Glue/hot glue (optional)

Directions:

1. Pour some salt onto the center of a piece of paper. We used black construction paper, which will later be re-used for chalk drawings, but any paper will work for this. Tip: To contain the mess, we first laid our papers on cookie sheets. I highly recommend using cookie sheets. The rim helps keep the salt from ending up all over the table and floor. (It's not perfect, but it helps quite a bit.)
2. Rub colored chalk back and forth over the salt until it is the color you want. We used sidewalk chalk for this, but you could use the smaller chalk that is intended for use on chalk boards. Tip: Show younger kids how to color with the sides of the chalk to make this process go a bit faster. Tip: You may want to re-center the salt occasionally during the coloring process since it tends to spread outward. To do this, just slightly fold up the edges of the paper until the salt slides back to the center. Then, add more color as desired.
3. Once the chalk is the color saturation you are looking for, carefully roll the paper into a funnel, and slowly pour the colored salt into your glass container. Older kids may be able to do this on their own, but adults should help little ones. Tip: We used these fun square glass bottles with cork stoppers that I found at the Salvation Army for 99 cents apiece. I had searched high and low for my old set of glass spice jars because I thought they would be perfect for this, but I have yet to come across them. You could also use baby food jars or small canning jars or any other glass container that has some sort of lid. Tip: If you want, you can turn and twist your container as you pour for different layered effects. Mia did this while I poured each layer.
4. Turn the paper over for the next color, and repeat steps 1 through 3. Do this as many times as needed to fill your jar or bottle. Tip: While filling, make sure not to shake the container or you may end up with a muddy brown mixture instead of vibrant rainbow colors.
5. Once your container is filled, place your lid on top and make sure that it is secure. Tip: Since we were using corks, I added a small ring of Super Glue to them before inserting them. You could also add Super Glue even if your container has a screw-on lid if it gives you peace of mind. Hot glue would work as an alternative if you do not have Super Glue.
6. Find a nice place to display your colored "sand art" jars. Ours look lovely on the sunny kitchen windowsill.

{Demonstrating the "proper technique"...}

{And here's Little Man's method. I love how her look seems to say, "You are sooo doing that the wrong way! He did switch after seeing a demonstration of "proper technique."}

Rainbow Cupcakes

This is not an original idea, but it went along with the Care Bears party theme. I used this photo for inspiration. There are lots of variations all over the internet, but here is how I made these cupcakes for Mia to take to school on her birthday. I briefly flirted with the idea of making the inside layered with rainbow colors like I had done last March, but I decided that the work I was putting into the outside was more than enough for something that was going to be served to a bunch of kindergarten kids. They looked nice, and they were tasty, too.

1. First, I made a double batch of my favorite white cake recipe, which yielded 28 cupcakes. I made them in rainbow striped cupcake liners which I had gotten at Jo-Ann. (Of course, you can use store-bought cake mix. This is just how I did it.)
2. Next, I made a batch of buttercream frosting. (Again, use store bought if that is your preference, but in my opinion, you cannot beat homemade frosting.) I added 5 drops of neon blue food coloring and mixed it in with my hand mixer, which I had already used to make the frosting. I used an angled spatula to frost my cupcakes.
3. I bought two packages of Airhead Xtremes Sweetly Sour Belts candy from Wal-mart. The flavor is called "Rainbow Berry" and they were about $1.28 a package. (I actually had to go back to buy a second bag after discovering that one bag has only 20 strips, so use this information to plan accordingly.) These come in strips that are about 5" long, and I cut them to about 3" and inserted each end into the frosting. Keeping them longer meant that the rainbows caved in on themselves, and just did not work to make the rainbows I was hoping for. I then saved the extra cuttings for snacking.
4. I made the clouds by putting Cool Whip (left over from the layered rainbow Jell-O cups that I served at the party) into a baggie, snipping off a corner, and piping it onto the frosting.

Welcome to Care-a-Lot! (A Care Bears Themed Birthday Party)

As soon as Christmas was over, Mia was asking me when we were going to start making things for her birthday party, which was last Saturday. This gave me about a month to get everything ready. She had chosen the Care Bears theme, and it didn't take me too long to discover that it wasn't something I could find in any stores. There were a few things on Amazon and eBay, but nothing that seemed worth the cost. I wasn't too concerned, though, because Mia agreed that we could do a lot of "rainbow" colors for decorations and such instead of focusing just on Care Bears.

Plus, I love a creative challenge. I think that is why I do parties in kind of a crazy-big way, not that I think it isn't important to celebrate my kids' milestones. I do, of course, or we wouldn't do it. Truly, though, this mama loves herself a good project, and doing themed birthday parties allows me to express myself creatively with quite a few of them. Thankfully, Mia's desire for advanced planning helped me pull it off without getting getting too stressed out. In fact, I feel pretty fulfilled for making her 6th birthday party a success.

The Invitations:
I designed a fairly simple invitation in Microsoft Word that would allow me to print 4 per page. At the top, I centered this "Have a Rainbow Day" image. For the wording, I used this free "Care Bear Family" font that I downloaded. (This is fun because the punctuation includes hearts.) I used different colors of the rainbow to set apart the key words: red for "What," orange for "When," yellow for "Where" (Note that the where is "Care-a-Lot" and I added our address in parentheses.), green for "RSVP," blue for "Cell," and purple for "Home." After the important information, I typed "Please help share in the birthday cheer!" emphasizing the words share and cheer because they related to the Care Bears theme. I also added "Your presence is your present," which didn't make too much difference, but it was worth a try. I included this image of Cheer Bear, which I made smaller and flipped in my word processing program. After printing, I cut them apart with my paper trimmer, used scalloped scissors to add decorative trim to the top and bottom edges, and then adhered them to red card stock.

The Decorations: 
I tied together some Dollar Tree balloons (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) and had my husband put them on the mailbox, but they must have blown away at some point during the party.

Guests were greeted at the front door by a fun "Welcome to Care-a-Lot" sign that I made from a cardboard box and acrylic paint. The wording is again done in Microsoft Word with that same free font. You can find complete directions for the sign here.

I made these super simple and very inexpensive zig zag streamers following the directions I found on this blog. My only change that I would suggest is to specify that I used construction paper that was first trimmed in half (like a hot dog). Then, I saved myself some time by cutting several pieces at once. They don't need to look perfect. I used Scotch tape to hang them from the entryway to the dining room, three of each color: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. I had one extra streamer per color, so I hung them at the end of the hallway going into the kitchen, so that when people came in the front door, they saw the same rainbow: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

The buntings on the ceiling were probably the most annoying thing for me to do for this entire party. I am not sure I even would have done this if Mia hadn't caught me looking at the picture online (which did not include any directions, by the way) and announced that she really wanted it for a decoration. I knew it would be inexpensive, so I decided to give it a try. I purchased some 97 cent table cloths from the party aisle at Wal-mart (red, orange, yellow, and green -- plus I already had the blue one that I had found at a garage sale over the summer -- for 10 cents). I cut the table cloths in half, and then folded each one in half again, length-wise, so that they were not as transparent. I used pieces of double stick adhesive that I had cut prior to getting started. They were about 1" squares, and I used at least 3 or 4 per section. (And then, I was climbing up again the following day to apply a bit more since some were falling down...) The white balloon cloud came from that same Dollar Tree bag of balloons (There were really quite a few in there, maybe about 45, so it was a pretty good deal.) and is tied together with light blue curling ribbon (also purchased from Dollar Tree two years ago). I also had a purple table cover from Wal-mart that I trimmed to fit our dining room table and our card table, taping down the ends so it didn't slip.

The Food:
Since we were having a party with the most of the girls from the kindergarten class, and then having some family afterward, I wanted to keep the food simpler than I have in the past. (Basically, I told myself I am not serving a full meal, and I made myself stick to it.) I didn't even make a "fancy" themed drink; I just offered milk, apple juice, or water. I am kind of proud of myself for this. And they ate and drank from our regular kids' plates and cups from IKEA, because I hate buying stuff that would just get thrown away. For food, I offered crackers and heart shaped cheese. I took some sliced deli cheese that I already had and then used my little metal heart cookie cutter (actually, I think it's meant for fondant, but you get what I mean). I thought about doing a rainbow veggie platter, but my kids are not huge fans of peppers so I just did red grape tomatoes, orange carrots, and green cucumber slices so it wasn't truly a rainbow.

One of my only big to-dos for food was making the rainbow fruit kabobs, which were inspired by this photo. I used bamboo skewers, which I broke about in half. On each one, I threaded a whole strawberry, an orange slice, 3 canned pineapple pieces (note for future reference: buy something larger than tidbits), a slice of kiwi, a couple of blueberries, and a couple of purple grapes. Then, I cut off the sharp end of the skewers, and arranged them on my tray.

My other kind-of-a-big-deal food was 6 layered rainbow Jell-O cups, which were inspired by this blog. I used 5 ounce clear plastic cups that were left over from my failed chocolate business (waste not, right?). I did this as inexpensively as possible by getting Kroger brand gelatin for as many layers as possible, and I also bought as many sugar free varieties as I could get since the kids wouldn't likely know the difference, and why give them more sugar if I didn't need to? I bought the small 3 ounce boxes (0.3 ounces for sugar-free varieties). I used the quick-set method involving ice cubes, so each layer set up for about 20 minutes before I was adding the next layer on top. (I actually had this almost down to a science by the end: put Jell-o in refrigerator, set timer for 15 minutes, wash bowl and spoons, put water on to boil around when timer went off, repeat...) I guesstimated that 2 tablespoons of each flavor would be about right, and it was nearly perfect for making 16 cups. (I had determined that 16 cups was the max amount that would fit in my cake pan, and I planned to put the Jell-o cups in the pan to make it easier for all the in-and-out of the refrigerator. It was a great tip I had picked up here.) My layers from bottom to top were: Grape Jell-O, Berry Blue Jell-O, Kroger Sugar-free Lime Gelatin, Sugar-free Lemon Jell-O, Kroger Sugar-free Orange Gelatin, and Kroger Sugar-free Cherry Gelatin. I topped the rainbow cups with Cool Whip "clouds" and served them with the cake in lieu of ice cream. One good thing about this was that I didn't have to dish up any ice cream.

The Cake:

I promised Mia a Care Bear cake, and I used this photo for my inspiration. I used my favorite white cake recipe and tinted the batter pink with Wilton icing color, purchased from Jo-Ann with my coupon. The head is a 9" round and the body is a 10" round. Plenty of cooking spray and waxed paper cut to fit the cake pans helped ensure that the cakes came out without breaking apart. I also used my cake knife to trim them so that they were flat before frosting them. The neck looked a bit skinny, and my cake, overall, was quite short since I should have doubled my recipe. I made 6 (short) cupcakes. One is the muzzle. One is cut in half and used for the ears. The other four are the paws. All are covered with plenty of frosting to keep them glued together.

For frosting, I made the Wilton buttercream recipe, which I again, tinted pink, and applied with an angled spatula. The center of the ears, the belly, and the mouth/nose area of Cheer Bear are all done with plain white buttercream that I had set aside.

It is fortunate that Valentine's Day is around the corner because that meant that seasonal heart-shaped candies were easy to find. Cheer Bear's nose is a red cinnamon jelly candy, which came in a bag for $1 at Kroger. The foot pads are pink marshmallow Peep hearts. I cut one in half, and placed the sticky sides down on the frosting. The eyes are a regular marshmallow, which I cut in half, and again, placed the sticky sides down. Then, I used black decorating gel to make the pupils. The freckles are red non-pareils (which I got for $1 at Target last Christmas). I used red decorating gel for the mouth and eyebrows. The most important part of Cheer Bear is her rainbow belly badge, which I made using red, orange, yellow, green, and blue mini M&Ms. (Note: The leftovers made delicious cookies, and I think I will buy the mini size for baking from now on.)

My cake display was a piece of cardboard that I cut to the size I wanted. Then, I took some colored tissue paper from Dollar tree, and folded it so that the 5 bands of color: pink, red, yellow, green, and blue all fit in approximately equal amounts. I used Scotch tape to affix the tissue paper to the back side. I used more wax paper circles on top of the tissue paper to try to avoid having the buttercream completely soak the tissue paper. It didn't work perfectly, but I am sure it didn't hurt either. I found these tall rainbow colored candles at Wal-mart for about $1.50 and the birthday girl was quite happy with the whole cake presentation overall.

The Activities:
When guests arrived, they each got a party had that I made from colored cardstock using this template and directions. I made 2 hats of each color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Brett helped me assemble them, since I was struggling with getting the tabs into the slots correctly. Then, I found images of Care Bears online, put them in Microsoft Word, adjusted them so that they were all the same size, and printed them. I cut them out, leaving about a narrow white border. Then, I applied them to the hats with Mod Podge and a foam paint brush. After they dried, I added the ribbon ties. The directions didn't say how much ribbon to use, or even what kind of ribbon to use. I used narrow ribbons, about 1/8" wide, most of which I already had at home. I needed to buy orange and blue, so I got those at Wal-mart for about 50 cents each. (I actually got more of a turquoise shade because I planned to use it as hangers for the sun catchers they were going to paint.) It turned out that this project was kind of a waste because the hats wouldn't stay on the girls' heads, and when they were all leaving, there were some disagreements on who had which hat since I had used a different Care Bear for each, and apparently some are more desirable than others. Anyway, they looked great, but I am not sure I would take the time to make my own hats again, unless I used elastic cord, perhaps.

After they got their hats, I took their photos with my Cheer Bear photo prop, which was placed in front of yet another Wal-mart plastic table cloth. This one was a turquoise, which I thought would make a nice "sky" backdrop. It was doubled over and taped to our fake fire place.

Another party activity that we had was painting rainbow sun catchers that I had found in the craft aisle at Wal-mart for 53 cents each. To prepare before the party, I tied a narrow turquoise ribbon hanger to each one. I attached a piece of masking tape to each ribbon and folded it over to make a flag, which I wrote each child's name on. Then, I poured small amounts of sun catcher paint (which I borrowed, but you can get it from Oriental Trading) into small plastic cups with lids. These were also left over from my failed chocolate business so I didn't have to go out and buy them. I used 2 cups per color so they would have enough to share without having to wait for a color, or at least that is what I figured. Each kid got a paper towel and a small paint brush to use. This worked fine. The girls were very neat and put the lids back on without even being asked. We just left them on the paper towels on the counter to dry during the party and sent them home flat at the end. The most interesting thing, to me, was that none of them looked anything alike even though they started with the same sun catchers.

The home-made rainbow pinata was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I don't have any useable pictures of the game itself seeing as how it takes 3 hours to make something and it ends in about 5 seconds. The good news is that it was a pull-string, so it was not destroyed in that 5 seconds. My plan is to hang it in Mia's room.

Another game that I created was "Pin the Cupcake on Birthday Bear." I taped Birthday Bear to the same table cloth we had used for our photo back drop. This one lasted a bit longer than the pinata, and everyone was anxious to have their turn. We used Mia's winter scarf for a blindfold and that was very effective.

All in all, this was a great party. Things went smoothly. We had a nice turn-out. Everyone had a great time. Most of the things I planned came together almost exactly the way I imagined them. It didn't cost me very much. And most importantly, there was one very happy little girl. That's enough to validate all the time and energy I spent pulling this off.

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.

Shaving Cream Rainbow Paintings

{Shaving Cream Rainbow Painting by Mia, Age 5}

I associate rainbows with St. Patrick's Day, so I decided this would be a good craft for the month of March. After we finished making these yesterday, we saw a rainbow in the sky, which was fitting. When my dad saw the paintings, he asked, "Where's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?" Feel free to add a pot of gold if you want to, but I decided the rainbow itself was enough for my kids.

{Shaving Cream Rainbow Painting by Logan, Age 2 1/2}

Materials:

• cereal box
• pencil
• scissors
• newspaper
• Styrofoam tray
• shaving cream
• paint in rainbow colors
• paintbrushes (or Q-tips)
• bowl for tracing (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut a cereal box apart into separate panels. You will need one large side panel per rainbow. Save the narrow side panels for this fun craft.
2. Draw a rainbow onto the cardboard. I started my arc by tracing part of a bowl, and then just added lines onto it until I had six sections, one for each color of the rainbow. I then drew clouds below. Cut out your rainbow shape (and clouds if you are adding those).
3. Protect work surface with newspaper. Have kids wear old clothing or protect clothes with a paint smock or old shirt. (I have mine wear my old t-shirts with a clothespin at the back of the neck to make it fit more snugly.) Pour rainbow paints into a Styrofoam tray (ours is re-used from meat packaging; a bowl, plate, or plastic microwave dinner tray will also work). Add a squirt of shaving cream.
4. Let kids mix paints with shaving cream using paintbrush, fingers, or Q-tips, and then paint the rainbow as desired. (Mia's doesn't look the way I imagined it, but that is okay. It's her project so I let her do it her way. Of course, I was thinking of a rainbow being in the order of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. I had also envisioned white shaving cream clouds, but she mixed in red paint and was so excited to discover it made pink. This just goes to show how limited adult thinking can be.)
5. Allow paint/shaving cream mixture to dry completely before moving it and hanging it up. This takes awhile -- up to 24 hours. The final result will not be as puffy, but it will still have texture to it. You can display your rainbows along with some shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day.

Froot Loop Rainbow Craft

{Rainbow by Mia, Age 3}

Here is a simple, but cute rainbow craft we made last year.

Materials:

• Froot Loops cereal
• paper plate
• scissors
• glue

Directions:

1. Cut a paper plate in half.
2. Cut a half circle out of the bottom of one half of the paper plate to form an arc. (In order to get the size correct, you might want to lay out one of each color Froot Loop along the left side of the paper plate half and them trim accordingly.)
3. Glue a row of red Froot Loops along the top edge. Follow with a row orange Froot Loops. Repeat with yellow, green, blue, and purple.
4. Once glue is completely dry, you can hang up your rainbow.

Other Ideas:

• Instead of gluing cereal onto a paper plate, use construction paper. Then add cotton balls or mini marshmallows to make clouds.

• Make a mobile by hanging paper or aluminum foil raindrops from the rainbow using fishing line or embroidery floss.

• Skip the glue and just arrange the cereal rainbow (and mini marshmallows clouds, if desired) onto a plate. Let your kids enjoy a yummy snack for St. Patrick's Day or any other day.

End of the Rainbow Craft

I saw this St. Patrick's Day craft and was inspired to try it, making a couple of changes. In place of a terra cotta pot, we used a Styrofoam cup (which was leftover takeout container). I didn't have green Easter grass (and I wondered why a pot of gold would have grass in it anyway?) so we substituted yellow tissue paper for the lining. I think these small changes make the craft more kid-friendly and I am pleased with the result.

{Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow by Mia, Age 4}

Materials:

• Styrofoam cup
• black paint
• paint brush
• newspaper to protect work surface 
• yellow tissue paper
• rainbow colored pipe cleaners 
• gold foil wrapped candy (optional)

Directions:

1. Paint the outside of the Styrofoam cup and about the top half of the inside black. Allow paint to dry completely. (We used acrylic paint which dries fairly quickly, but will stain clothing so take care. For painting, Mia wears an old t-shirt of mine, which covers almost all of her clothing.)
2. Crumple some yellow tissue paper and stuff it inside the cup.
3. Bend a red pipe cleaner into an arc, insert one end into one side of the cup and the other end into the opposite side of the cup. Repeat with orange, yellow, green, and blue pipe cleaners. We didn't need any tape or glue to hold them in place because the tissue paper did the trick, but you could use something else if needed.
4. Fill your pot with some gold foil wrapped candies and enjoy your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! (We used Dove peanut butter chocolate Promises.)

Pot 'o Gold Door Hanger

We don't have very many St. Patrick's Day decorations so I came up with this project today. Mia, age 4, and I made this door hanger together. I did the cutting and stapling and she did most everything else.

Materials:

• 2 small black paper plates
• scissors
• stapler
• yellow tissue paper
• pipe cleaners in rainbow colors
• clear tape

Directions:

1. Bend two black paper plates so that the black eating surface is facing outward. (Or color the back, non-eating side of two regular paper plates black.)
2. Lay one plate on top of the other so that they line up and then use scissors to trim off about 1/3 of the plates.
3. With the cut side of the plates facing up, cut a notch into each side of the plates to make the lip of the pot.
4. Hold the two plates together so that they form a pouch. Staple the two plates together along the inside circular indentation. 
5. Place a piece of clear tape onto one end of a red pipe cleaner, affix to the inside of the plates on the left, bend into an arc, and then use tape to affix the other end inside the plates on the right.
6. Repeat step 5 using orange, yellow, green, and blue pipe cleaners, keeping each color as close to the previous color as possible. You may wish to trim the pipe cleaners to fit as you work your way inward.
7. Stuff the pot with yellow tissue paper and hang on a door knob or wall to display. If you wanted, you could substitute gold foil wrapped chocolate coins or similar candy in place of the tissue paper.