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!