Homemade Gift #3: Candy Cane Playdough

Today's mission was to make the Candy cane playdough found on The Artful Parent (here is the link to the playdough post). I loved the idea and thought that would be a perfect addition to the little gifts I'm giving my day care kids. They turned out super cute. I used a playdough recipe that I've had for awhile and have never tried. It turned out a little too oily so I'm not going to post it (I have a few more I want to try so I'll post one when I find the perfect one). I used peppermint extract for the scent and I love it. Then added a little glitter for fun, twisted it up and stuck it in a jar. How fun!!!

I started off twisting them all cute like this...

...then got lazy and finished them off like this.

Homemade Gift #2: Child-made Books

My kids are so lucky to have 2 sets of wonderful grandparents who they spend lots of time with. With my husband being gone as often as he is (this last time it was 2 1/2 week straight!), I don't know what I would do without the help! For Christmas, my kids make all of their gifts for their grandparents. One of the gifts to my parents is a book about all the fun things they do when they spend the night there. It turned out cuter than I imagined it would and I can't wait for my mom to open it. I wrote what my son told me and then they colored the pages. I laminated it and then had it bound into a book at the office supply store. Here's a few pictures of what it looks like.




Cinnamon Ornaments

So I was trying to think of a cute way to label some family gifts and thought it would be fun to make ornaments and then it's not only a tag, it's a gift! What better than an cinnamon ornament. Super easy and they smell amazing!

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What you need:
1/4 cup of applesauce (and then a little more just in case)
1 cup of ground cinnamon
1/2 cup of glue (note: a typical bottle of kids glue is 4oz so you will need a full one of these)
Cookie cutter in desired shape
Rolling pin- I add this because, as embarrassing it is to admit, I do not own one. This would have been MUCH easier if I did. It is now on my shopping list!










How to:
1) Mix together the ground cinnamon and applesauce
2) Add the glue and mix to make thick dough (add more applesauce if too dry)









3) Roll out on a flat surface, approximately 1/4 of an inch thick. Too thick, they wont dry, too thin, they will crumble
4) Cut out shapes and move to cookie sheet











5) Using a straw, make holes













6) Bake at 200 degrees for 2 hours, flip over half way (or air dry for 24 flipping over every 4-6 hours)
7) Add ribbon and enjoy.





Oh Noodle Tree, Oh Noodle Tree...

Last minute effort to throw together a craft project resulted in these:
(Hubby is home this week-Yay!! But our schedule is WAY off)


We call them "Noodle Trees".  :) Thankfully I had a bunch of random pasta in my pantry! Then I just drew a tree (not the best but they worked) and the kids decorated.






Now we're off to dance for Christmas parties. Should be fun! :)

"Hand"-made card

I again, found this on Pinterest and knew that I just had to make them sometime. I figured Christmas was perfect since we are trying to do as many hand-made gifts as possible. And what's more hand-made than a "hand"-made card. :)



Process not Product

One of the things I have been learning over and over in my classes is how art should be about the process and not the end product. Process Art. I've got a few great books with tons of fun ideas that I can't wait to try out. Here's today's:

What you need:
Paper
Ruler
Something to color with (we went with markers)

How to:
Draw lines all over the paper (lines must go all the way to edges of the paper)
Color in the areas

Pretty simple huh?

My son did this one on his own. Next time, I'm going to do all the lines and then have all the kids help color it in. 


My 3 year old's attempt

My 5 year old is having fun with it!

Another Process Art idea:

Put a few dots on the paper and using a ruler, draw lines going out to the edges of the paper from the dot. This is my son's. This one was his favorite (mostly because he likes using a ruler). :)


Homemade Gift #1: Scrub

So I've seen ideas all over pinterest about homemade stuff to give as gifts. I found a bunch of body scrub ones and after researching a bit, I've discovered it is super easy to make. We don't really go all out exchanging gifts with the other adults in my family so I thought this was something that would be simple and inexpensive to make for all the special woman in my life. This literally cost me under $5 each. I picked up the cute little jars at the local craft store (Michael's) for $3.99 and had most of the other ingredients.

I used 2 1/2 cups of sugar (plain white sugar), 3/4 cup of olive oil and a few drops of essential oil. I decorated the jars with paper, mod podge and some ribbon. :)





My son and I tried it out before he went to bed and we both could not believe the results. My hands are beyond smooth and 3 hours later, they still smell amazing!!

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More Snowmen

To go with the snowmen theme from yesterday, today we made snowmen with cotton balls.
Nothing too crazy but the kids had fun with it. We used skittles for the eyes and buttons and glittery snowflake stickers.

I drew a template with pencil to help.

Yes, my child is always naked. Well, except for when she's in a princess or Tinkerbell costume. Today it was Cinderella which came off for the project so she didn't get glue on it.

Apparently this one's eyes and nose flew off when the snowman sneezed.

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Snow Paint

It's time to come to terms with the fact that it is winter. The snow from last weekend did not melt and since it's been in the teens and twenties the last few days, it's time to accept the change in season. The kids keep asking if we can go out and make a snowman. Since there isn't enough snow yet and it's too dang cold, I decided to do some snowman making inside. I have 2 snow paint ideas that I've wanted try and decided instead of choosing one, I would do both.

First is the glue and shaving cream paint but I added glitter to it to make it fun (the little stuff, the big glitter flakes didn't work out as well). You can kind of see the glitter in the pictures if you click on it and see it larger. We just used paint brushes to make snowmen and snow on black paper. I didn't measure anything, just dumped in a bowl till it looked like enough. This stuff has a really cool 3D puffy paint type of look to it.




Leave it to my daughter to turn it into a finger painting project.
Some of the other snowy designs
































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The second recipe I just learned about last week in class and thought it looked interesting. It's equal parts of flour, salt and water. Mix it together (adding a tiny bit of water as needed until it's paint consistency). I then added glitter (both small and large). The kids cut snowflakes (I helped with most) and then they used small paintbrushes and painted the snowflakes. It took awhile for them to dry but once they did, the texture turned out SO cool! I admit, I made a bunch of my own snowflakes like this to decorate my front window.




















Just after painted- still wet




















After it dries, it has a really cool texture!





















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I think our indoor snowmen pictures were a success.

Paper Bag Books

It's my mom's birthday today. We don't give gifts, I just usually have the kids make her something. Yesterday, I told my son it was her birthday and he said "We need to give her something, what does she like?". I quickly replied (before he got some big idea of a gift he wanted me to go broke buying her- knowing him it would be a new car or a house... Oh to be a kid again), "Well, she likes you! How about we wrap you up for her?". He loved the idea. We made these huge plans to decorate a box and put him in it with a bow on top. He did inform me that I can't mail him so I would have to deliver him to her doorstep (oh yea, good call kid). So, that is on our evening agenda. Delivering my son to my mom for her birthday. (I'll update with how it went)

For now, I decided to try out this paper bag book idea that one of my instructors showed me. I made the book and then let my kids go to town decorating it with notes and pictures. I'm sure their grandma will love it.

Materials:
2 paper bags (I used white)
Paper (I used scraps)
Ribbon
Glue or tape
Hole punch
Scissors or paper cutter



 How to:
1) Fold paper bags in half and hole punch (make sure they line up). I suggest making sure the front is the bottom of one of the bags and have that little flap face in so the front is smooth (easier to understand as you do this).
















2) Tie ribbon














3)  Cut paper small enough to fit in the pages of the bag that opens. Put a small piece of ribbon in it for a pull tab. You will have 2 of these.














4) Decorate the rest of the bag with paper. The pages that have a little flap from the bottom, I use those as little secret spots.

















And there you have it. Paper bag books. It turned out even cuter than I thought it would. :)
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Spaghetti spaghetti all over the place...

"...up to my elbows, up to my face."

Shel Silverstein has got to be the best poet alive (that statement is probably why I didn't do so hot in my Creative Writing class' poetry unit). He does have a ton of great poems though. The spaghetti one has been a long time favorite of mine and as much as I hate to admit it, I say it to myself every time I make, see or even think of spaghetti.

Anyways, I'll get to the point. Spaghetti is fun. To eat and to play with. It's especially fun with food coloring and construction paper.


The how to:
  1. Cook spaghetti, strain
  2. Divide spaghetti into plastic Ziplock bags and then drop in a few drops of food coloring. Mix up until all spaghetti is covered.
  3. Put spaghetti back into strainer and rinse well. This will only rinse off the extra food coloring so little hands (and big ones, I had fun with this one) stay clean.
  4. Children then stick spaghetti to paper. No glue needed. Perfect for little ones since it's safe to eat. :) 
Just a heads up, this is not a craft that should be kept for very long. The spaghetti will eventually dry and it doesn't look as cool... And if it cracks, it could make a mess (which is not allowed in my house).
Enjoy!
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And just for fun, here's the rest of the poem in case you haven't heard of it.


Spaghetti

Spaghetti, spaghetti, all over the place,
Up to my elbows—up to my face,
Over the carpet and under the chairs,
Into the hammock and wound round the stairs,
Filling the bathtub and covering the desk,
Making the sofa a mad mushy mess.

The party is ruined, I’m terribly worried,
The guests have all left (unless they’re all buried).
I told them, “Bring presents.” I said, “Throw confetti.”
I guess they heard wrong
‘Cause they all threw spaghetti!

The beginning of "A Craft A Day"

The title says it all. I've got a gazillion of fun ideas for both children and mom craft ideas that I want to try. I figured if I start this, I have to do them. Sad that I need a reason to do them but it's the truth. And then I can share here if they worked (or if I failed miserably). Some will be simple. Ok... MOST will be simple. I would love to say that I have tons of time for crafting but between being a single mom most of the time (read intro to the right), a full time student, doing full time day care, 2 dogs, housework, yardwork, etc... I'm a busy mama.

Now... I'll start tomorrow. :) Just kidding. I'll start tonight. Nap time is just about over and the bus will be here soon.

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