Painting with Marshmallows

I had seen this on a pin from Pinterest and thought it would be interesting to try out.  My mom always buys the girls various marshmallows that we don't manage to actually eat much of for holidays, so it was a good way to use them up!  Alex had a great time both painting (and eating) with them!

Things you'll need:
 - marshmallows (various sizes / shapes)
 - washable paint
 - paper

 As you'll see in the picture, I picked up these neat little paint trays for $1 at ACMoore which have worked out great.  I put a bunch of different washable paints in the tray spots and then gave my daughter a hand full of marshmallows.  We had Easter flower shaped ones and the mini-ones on hand, so that's what we used.

After popping a few in her mouth, she started to use the marshmallows as stampers.  This quickly turned into more of a 'smearing' technique which you see behind her arm and eventually lead to her entire hands being covered in paint and making hand prints (we've done too many hand print crafts that she absolutely has to do hand prints whenever there is paint around).  We used tons of paper and pretty much everything turned brown since she also enjoyed dipping each marshmallow in every color before using it to paint!  I love that she just goes and runs with these activities to think of new ideas and make her own art out of them.

Here are a few pictures of some of her end result creations; the first one is what the one above ended up turning into.  What I find cute is that there are some smashed pieces of marshmallows stuck on some of the pieces of paper! :)  She enjoyed squishing the paint soaked marshmallows too, so good extra sensory learning!!

Clay Pot Christmas Tree

A friend of mine did this craft with her children and I thought it was the cutest idea to make a Christmas tree out of small clay pots, so I headed to the craft store and made my purchases.  The best part about this is that I think the biggest pot was only $1 and they went down from there, so it was really inexpensive!  These are pictures from my trial-run with Alexandria to see how it turned out and it came out so well that I bought an extra set of materials for her and Emma to make another one while we're on holiday next week.  We gave this one as a present to the woman who watches Alexandria during the day and she loved it!

Things you'll need:
 - green and red paint (with or without glitter)
 - paint brushes
 - glue or glue gun
 - bag of various sizes of glitter pom-pom balls
 - 1 big clay pot (1st level or bottom of tree)
 - 2 medium clay pots (2nd level of tree and tree stand)
 - 1 small clay pot (3rd level of tree)
 - 1 extra small clay pot (4th level or top of tree)

First things first are the clay pots.  I was afforded this being easier for me in the store since there was an example of this craft on display right with the clay pots.  All you have to do is stack them up with the various sizes to make sure everything fits just right.  They pretty much should only sit about an inch or less of overlap when you stack them up.  The one for the red base shown above should be sized so that it hits directly on the ridge of the pot that is sitting upside-down on top of it.  It didn't matter if the pots were different colors since you're painting over them anyway.  Keep in mind that the base and the second layer of the tree are the same size pot.

I had Alexandria paint all of the clay pots while they were still separate so that she wouldn't get drips of paint stuck under the ridges that would drip down and dry that way.  We only did one layer of paint (green or red depending on what pot) on each pot and then I actually used a colored glitter paint as a second coat to add some shine.  Below you can see the pot on the left that has only a layer of green paint (I used Crayola washable paint) and then next to it is another pot that has a layer of green paint and another layer of green glitter paint.  I really liked the shine that the glitter paint gave to the pots, so I'd definitely recommend using it!  I did let the pots dry for quite awhile in between coats and before I moved on to the next part.

Next was the trickiest part; stacking the pots and figuring out a way to glue them together!  I used a glue gun for this and after a bit of trial and error, I found a way that worked.  First I'd stack two of the clay pots together and see where on the inside of the one sitting on top was rubbing the other so I knew where I had to place the glue.  Then I applied a large dot (size of a dime) of glue with the hot glue gun at 4 various points around the inside of the clay pot going on top where it was going to hit pot that it was stacking on top of.  Hold the pot so that you can see the inside while you're applying the glue and then quickly flip it over onto the other pot it's stacking on top of.  Because of the large dot of glue, it doesn't dry right away and will drip down to hold the two pots together once you stack them.  Make sure to quickly make any adjustments if it's crooked or sitting odd before the glue dries!  I tried other various ways to put the glue onto the pot and try to get them to stay together and nothing else worked.  Again, I let the tree sit for awhile to make sure that the glue dried fully before moving on to the final step.

Using the glue gun, Alexandria would point to where she wanted to place a glitter pom-pom ball on the tree, I'd put a small spot of glue on the tree and she'd stick the ball to the glue.  Obviously, be very careful with this since the glue is extremely hot; you may just want to have your child point and then apply the ball yourself.

I was stumped for what to put at the top; I considered trying to find a small ornamental start to put on top, a snowflake pin, and various other ideas.  It ended up that the first place Alexandria wanted to place a pom-pom ball was smack in the middle on top!  I thought she had a great idea, so I found the largest yellow glitter pom-pom ball and we used that as the topper; worked perfectly!

We both really enjoyed making this craft and Emma is extremely excited to be making one of her own next week.  For how inexpensive this is, it would make a great long-lasting decoration or even a good Christmas gift!

Q-tip Snowflakes!

Do you have a big box of Qtips in your house that need to be used up in places other than ears?  I ran across this craft in my Disney Family Fun magazine that I received this month and was intrigued.  In the least, it got Alexandria to use some new craft tools and items in addition to teaching me a lesson to read directions!!!

Things you'll need:
 - Q-tips
 - Glitter Glue (or regular glue and glitter separate)
 - Paper (or plastic wrap if you want to follow Disney's directions)

Using the pattern for a snowflake that you can see in the picture to the right, start in the middle by putting a big circle of glue in the middle of the paper or plastic wrap.  I chose to create my snowflake on paper because I didn't read the directions, but Disney tells you to create the snowflake on the plastic wrap.  The advantage of paper is that it's more sturdy and you can cut around the edge of the snowflakes to get rid of the extra paper around the outside; the advantage of plastic wrap is that at the end you can peel the snowflake off and easily hang/display it without any paper in between the q-tips.  To each is own...whichever you'd like to proceed with is fine.

OK, so back to the big circle of glue in the middle of whatever medium you've chosen to create your snowflake on.  I trialed a few ways to place the q-tips in the glue.  One way was just by setting them in and adding more glue on top; the other was by placing the q-tip in the glue and rolling it around so that it was then covered with glue on all sides.  I ended up sticking with the rolling method and then adding glue on top as needed when there wasn't enough coverage.  Add the q-tips to the middle placed in the appropriate direction and then continue outward with your design by adding more circles of glue at the new 'joints' or 'junctures' until you finish the pattern.

If you used regular glue, then you'll need to sprinkle the glitter on the spots where there is glue; if you used glitter glue then you're done!  I'd suggest leaving the excess glitter on the paper/plastic until it is dried and then shaking it off to put away once the design is more stable.  I added an extra line of glitter glue to both sides of all of the q-tips to add some more color to the design.

After it's dried (I'd give it overnight at least), if you used paper you can either leave it as is or trim around the edge of the snowflake with your scissors to cut it out.  I considered using a exact o-blade to cut out in the middle of the designs, but I felt it would make it too flimsy.

So there you have it, a beautiful quick and cheap snowflake decoration for the winter! 

Here's a picture of the original snowflake craft from the Disney Family Fun magazine.  They used the plastic wrap as a backing and different colors of glitter & glue to hold the q-tips together.  This would be neat to hang with string from a light or the ceiling for the holidays!

Or if you have younger children who are not quite ready to follow these types of directions, you have a beautiful glitter glue, q-tip, and glitter pom-pom piece of artwork! :)

Crafting with Leaves

In an attempt to integrate the multitude of fallen leaves into our crafting, I picked up a few on my way home with the girls to use in a craft.

Things you'll need:
 - Leaves (recently fallen so they won't crumble)
 - Different paint colors
 - Paintbrush(es)
 - Paper
 - Crayons
 
The first thing we tried was your typical leaf rub by placing a leaf under a piece of paper and then rubbing the side of a crayon on the paper over top of where the leaf is under the paper.  This picks up the veins and stem of the leaf showing up darker with color.  Emma had much more success with this than Alex who quickly stopped paying attention, so we moved on!

My next idea was to use the leaves as stamps.  The girls painted one side of a leaf of their choice and then pressed the painted side down onto the paper pushing with their hands on the leaf and then picking it up by the stem.  This again was much easier for Emma and she got really creative with it and made a flower out of the leaf prints which is the first picture you see in this post and below is a picture of the work in progress.

Alexandria is much more of a 'paint my hand and stamp' kind of painter with all of the hand crafts we've done, so she proceeded to move on to that while I tried to get Emma to use the leaves as paint brushes by dipping the edges into paint and then using them as a brush on the paper (below is a picture of Emma leaf painting).  Long story short, a bunch of different ideas and the best one that came out was the stamps.  All in all it was a great time with some natural items incorporated; a great way to keep using the leaves in different ways to keep your children's interest.

 ...wonder if the tongue sticking out helps? :)

Ghost Prints

Alexandria did this craft last year around Halloween at daycare, so I thought I'd recreate it since I thought it was really cute; plus this way I could see how much her foot has grown in a year!  We invited over our neighbor's son to make some ghosts too and they both had a really fun time.  This is an incredibly simple craft that takes next to no time at all.

Things you'll need:

 - Black paper (or orange also works)

 - White paint

 - Tiny google-y eyes

 - Paintbrush

 - Feet with Piggies!

As I said, it's pretty simple.  Paint your child's foot with the white paint; I think thicker you apply the paint, the better the result for this craft.  Stamp their foot on the paper wherever you'd like.  I end up cutting out around the feet so that it's smaller to display, but you could make a row of ghosts using both feet if you want to line the paper with them.  I had Alex do about 4 foot prints so that I could cut out a few of them separately to give as little Halloween mementos.  After the paint dries, add the google-y eyes to the ghost.  You can also add a comment bubble to the craft if you'd like to have it say, "BOO!" or add a little smiley face...and that's that!

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!!!

Hand Print Bouquet

It's unfortunately been awhile since I last did a craft OR posted a not so crafty post, however with all of the holidays coming up, I've definitely been more inspired (in addition to life slowing down just a little bit to afford me the time to even think about doing a craft).  Alexandria and I decided to make some hand print flowers and I think they turned out really cute...although they're probably better suited for spring!

Things you'll need:
 - paper
 - different colored washable paints (flower colors, green for stem/leaves, brown for pot)
 - paint brushes
 - tiny hands, of course!

Pick your colors for the hand prints and decide how many flowers you'd like to do.  Three worked out well on this size piece of paper (normal 8x11), but even one would be cute!  I didn't have much of a method to my madness about which colors should go first, but after doing it, it's easier to do the lighter colors first because the darker colors will cover them eventually if they overlap.  Proceed painting a tiny hand with the first color, make the print, wash, rinse, repeat for as many flowers as you'd like to make!

Always expect some messes!  Alexandria was absolutely thrilled with herself for accidentally getting red paint all over her belly.  As you can see, we try to save the clothing (even though the paint is washable) and we've started doing our crafts on our new coffee table (::cough::cough::) I mean the girls picnic table in the middle of our living room..

After we did the hand print flowers, I free handed the pot for the flower stems to go in.  Leave the pot and hands dry so that when you do the stems, you don't drag any wet paint around the edges of them into the stem (best way to learn is by making mistakes)!  Last thing to do is to draw in the stems and even add a leaf or two if you like.

We ended up repeating this craft with my older daughter and then sending them to a close family member as a 'Get Well' card from the girls.  Much better than flowers that you will have to throw away after a week; these will look really cute forever and are a great idea if you want to give someone something they can cherish!

Butterfly Tootsies

Spur of the moment distraction idea for Alexandria was to make some butterflies in the morning before heading over to Grandma's house.  This was really quick and easy; also came out rather cute!!

Things you'll need:
 - paper
 - two or more different color paints
 - black marker
 - brush or anything to apply paint to feet!
 - tiny feet & fingerprints

First things first, grab a foot and paint the bottom.  You could get creative with this step and paint it various different colors so that the butterfly's wings are more colorful, but for today I stuck with a solid color.  Apply paint and stamp on the paper so that the footprints are on the opposite side than where they normally would be.  Wash, dry, repeat with opposite foot!  A trick I use is to always have Alexandria stand on the non-painted foot while I hold the foot with paint up in the air.  That way she has her weight on the other foot and I can more easily place the painted one onto the paper.

Final paint step (yes, I said this was easy!) is to grab a finger or two, dip them in paint and then have them create prints up the middle to make the butterfly's body.  A thumbprint works great for the head or you can just paint a larger circle with a finger like we did.

Wait for the paint to dry and then you can add the finishing touches.  Two dots for the eyes, a little smile and two antennae!  Quick, but cute butterfly memories!

You're What Ties Our Family Together

For Father's Day, I helped the girls with a craft that we could give Daddy.  I used an idea that I got from my friend Beth's son's art work from his daycare that I saw (and photographed) while I was out visiting her.

Things you'll need:
 - any color paper you choose
 - paints
 - paint brushes (or anything to apply the paint to hand)
 - scissors
 - marker to write with

First up is to sketch the outline of a tie.  I just did this by eye (imperfection is the best part of home-made memories) and used the picture I took of the craft as a guideline.  Make it as big or as small as you'd like or as you need so that you can still fit a hand print or two (or more!) on the tie.  After you have the outline, use the scissors to cut it out. 

Next up are the hand prints.  You can do these whatever way you'd like; you just have to be mindful making sure they're positioned so that you'll be able to see a lot of each hand, ensure all will fit on the tie, and of the colors so that they will overlap and not disappear.  I picked purple and blue for the girls so that they'd both show up well.

Next is to add some finishing touches.  I added a 'DAD' to the tie knot, some edging to add some color to the cut out tie, and a super cute phrase 'You're what ties our family together'.  Here's the finished product amongst our very full refrigerator door!

Ocean Full of Fishies

I ended up LOVING this piece that we just finished and had to share pretty much immediately (after Alexandria was asleep of course) with everyone.  I got the idea from a website online for the fish and then just got creative while we were doing it to add in some other ocean pieces.

Things you'll need:
 - paintbrushes
 - variety of paint colors (green for seaweed, blue for bubbles, and whatever colors you'd like for your fish)
 - large sheet of paper
 - google-y eyes
 - permanent black marker
 - tiny hands :)

First, and of course the most difficult task, was to apply a variety of colors to Alexandria's hand before she made a fist and mushed them all together (which probably would have also looked neat)!  She was amazingly patient with this and held out her hand while I did the various stripes of colors.  One thing I tried to do was to make a larger part of her palm the same color so it could act as the fish face.  I made hers a little bigger than I would have liked, but it still turned out just fine.

Make the hand print facing either side of the paper.  I had it so her thumb was at the bottom of the sheet, but I don't think it would matter much if it was at the top since the fingers are representing the flowing fins.  Repeat as many times as you like or as many times as your child will let you re-apply paint!  We did two fish with each application of color and ended up with four cute little fishies.

At this point, I was kind of bummed and thinking about what else I could add when I thought about an ocean floor and using her fingers to make seaweed.  I painted only her four fingers with green paint (excluded her thumb), moved the bottom of the paper to the edge of the table and pressed her fingers all along the bottom.  I had to re-apply paint a few times, but I kept pressing until it was all off and then would go over it as necessary with newly paint covered fingers.

Again, I thought it needed something else on the left side.  I originally was going to fill it with a Mama fishy hand-print, but I opted for the easier task of letting her keep green paint on her hand a make a larger sea plant.  I added paint to the rest of her hand for this.  She went a little crazy smearing in the middle, so I added a print to top it off and like magic, we had a sea plant!

Next, I flipped the paper upside-down so that we wouldn't get in the wet paint and used her pointer finger to make blue fingerprint bubbles coming out of all of the fishies' mouths.

After it dried, I went back and added a half oval of sorts to make a head area on the fish and a cute half smile with the permanent marker.  Last, but not least I added a small google-y eye to the face.  You can see the face better in the first photo in the post.  There you have it!  Super cute fish and an ocean scene made all from my little girls hand!

Lobster with Daddy

In an attempt to get some work done, I suggested my husband do a craft with Alexandria the other day since she really calms down while doing crafts even if they don't last that long.  I picked out a really cute lobster idea that I saw and set them on their way.

Things you'll need:
 - Red paint
 - Paintbrush
 - White paper
 - Black marker
 - Google-y eyes
 - Glue

First thing first was to do the hand prints that would act as the lobster claws.  Use the paint brush to apply paint to one hand at a time and make the print on the paper.  Alex really enjoys this part! :)

For your own sanity, be sure to wash each hand after the print has been made!  After that, apply paint to a foot (either foot will work, so whichever is easiest) and make that print so that the toes are at the bottom of the paper and the heel will act as the lobsters head.

Next step is to add the arms and legs to the lobster.  My husband just free handed these with the paintbrush.  The beauty of crafts at home is that imperfection is actually the greatest part of the craft; at least I think so!  (Not that my husband did any part not perfect :-P)  After everything is all connected, then you can glue on the google-y eyes at the top of the head (heal).  Last step is to add the antennae and smile using the black marker as the final touch!