Baggie Painting

February means oodles of birthdays; today I gathered my assembly line (aka kids) for card making day. Hayden did great finger painting, for oooo...two minutes, and then began eating the paint. It just didn’t seem fair that he couldn’t join in on card making day; I remembered hearing or reading about a fun activity for little hands, unfortunately I can’t give credit where it is due since I can’t remember where I heard about this activity. Take a plastic sandwich bag, fill it with paint, seal and let your little one mush the colors inside the bag together with their fingers.

My little artist

Apparently paint is yucky!

Honest mommy, I wasn't eating paint!

Baggie Painting

Birdhouse- Day 25

Birdhouse- Day 25
Hayden's first painting project...ending in Hayden's first paint eating experiance ;-).

Materials:
Premade unpainted wooden Birdhouse (I purchased ours at A.C.Moore).
Paint Brushes
Acrylic Paint
Cup of Water (for rinsing paint brushes)
Wire

Instructions:
Attach wire to birdhouse(s) so it can be hung, paint the birdhouses and let it dry.


Benjamin and Hayden each painted a small birdhouse for our Christmas tree; Benjamin painted two large birdhouses for each of the grandparents for Christmas.

Halloween Activities

Pumpkin Taco Biscuits

Ingredients
1 lbs Ground Beef
Taco Seasoning Packet
Canned Corn
Taco Cheese
8 Refrigerated Buttermilk Biscuits

Instructions
Prepare ground beef according to taco seasoning packet directions. Roll buttermilk biscuits until approximately 1/8” thick; place one biscuit into a small round dish (such as a ramekin dish), place a few spoonfuls of taco meat, corn and taco cheese on top of biscuit, top with another biscuit. Cut a jack-o-latern face out of the top biscuit. Cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until biscuits are no longer doughy.

Craft Foam Pumpkin

Materials
9”x12” Orange Craft Foam
Craft Foam Stickers, Crayons, Markers, Paint…

Directions:
Using a pumpkin stencil I designed, I traced the shape onto orange craft foam, cut out the pumpkins and had the kiddos decorate their pumpkins however they chose.

Template

Pumpkin Painting Party

I have the boys signed up for a playgroup; October 12th one of the moms hosted a pumpkin painting party. The children each brought their own pumpkins, art smock or old shirt; the host provided the painting supplies, snacks and apple cider.

Cat Hand Prints

Materials
Construction Paper
Googly Eyes
Crayons, Markers, Paint…

Directions
Trace child’s hand print onto construction paper, cut out. Make a face shape on construction paper and cut out; you can use a circular object such as a cup and add two triangles for ears. Glue cut out hand print and head together, add googly eyes and let your child color/design their cat.




The designs we used to carve our pumpkins; I found these silhouettes on Google.

Very Hungry Caterpillar

Very Hungry Caterpillar
by Eric Carle
Very Hungry Caterpillar

Materials
Finger Paint
Brushes
Empty Toilet Paper Rolls
Googly Eyes
Pipe Cleaners
Headband
Aluminum Foil
Any other “crafty materials” you have lying around


My neighbor and I are both stay-at-home moms and though we love being home with our kiddos, she and I will admit-we sometimes NEED A BREAK! My wonderful and smart neighbor came up with a terrific idea, kid swapping; for one day I’ll watch her daughter and the following week she’ll watch my oldest son for a day. It’s an amazing, wonderful, relaxing… experience being able to grocery shop, run errands or clean without a “helper” or the horrendous three temper tantrums (yes, as of yesterday my “baby” is a three year old, but more on that in another post). The last time I watched Little Miss Alexa I had a theme day planned for the kiddos, Very Hungry Caterpillar; I made caterpillar antennas for each child using a headband, pipe cleaners and aluminum foil. We read “Very Hungry Caterpillar”, then headed outside where I had the kiddy table setup with materials for the kids to make their own caterpillar. Once their caterpillar works of art were complete I reminded them that the Very Hungry Caterpillar turned into a butterfly, I painted their hands and using their handprints we made butterflies. For lunch I served frozen peanut butter & jelly in the shape of a leaf (okay, it was actually a spade cookie cutter but the kids didn’t know that), ants on a log (peanut butter celery with raisins), strawberry shaped fruit gummies and for dessert autumn leaves.

Father's Day

Craft projects have been nonexistent lately due to summer outings; WE LOVE SUMMER and BEING OUTSIDE! I’m a little late on this post seeing as how Father’s Day came and went; however this project can be useful for almost any special occasion. As much as I’d love to show you an awesome Father’s Day gift craft project, it just didn’t happen this year…we resorted to (gasp) store bought gifts!

Card

Materials:
Card Stock
Crayons, markers, paint…
X-Acto

Instructions:
Using Adobe Indesign I set up a document that that was 8”x6” (card will fold to 4”x6” fitting into an A6 Envelope [4-3/4” x 6-1/2"]) for the grandfathers and an 8 1/8”x9 1/8 (card folds to 4.0625”x9.125” fitting into #10 envelope [4 1/8" x 9 1/2"]) for daddy. Page one on the right side I created a star burst with a 1/2 point rule, on page two on the right side I added a photo in the exact same coordinates as the starburst on the front cover and added text above and below the photo. Printed out page one, flipped the card stock over printing page two on the backside. I then Folded the card in half and let Benjamin color on the front of the card, once he was done I used an X-Acto knife to cut out the starburst allowing the photo to show through. I saved the starburst cutout for a name tag on the wrapped gift.






Wrapping Paper

Materials:
Large roll or sheet of paper
Crayons, markers, paint…

Instructions:
Let your child finger paint, glitter, markers, crayon…whatever his/her preference of the day on the paper, then use decorated paper to wrap gifts.

Paint Pallet

Paint Pallet

I often use “Athens® Mini Fillo Shells” for quick desserts; the shell packaging is a plastic container with small wells. Having a feeling the containers would be useful I saved them…ta-da, one use for them is a kid friendly paint pallet! I pour a little paint into each of the wells, let my little artist go to town, when he’s finished I rinse the container and stick back in the paint basket. Sorry for the pour image quality, I had to use my camera phone.

FYI- Crayola smocks are great; inexpensive and washable.