Fun with Marbles

Thanks to Pinterest for the inspiration for our Marble Day.

Marble Painting

Need: baking dish, paint, marbles, paper.
To Do:  Put a couple small blobs of paint on your paper, in the dish, and roll the marbles through to make some artwork. You can also discuss how the colours mix with older kids! :)

Counting Marbles / Dumping Marbles

Need: spoon, marbles, ice cube tray
To Do: Using the spoon to scoop up one marble at a time, place them in the ice cube tray. You can use this for fine motor control, counting, or just a little something to preoccupy your little one while you set up your craft (which is exactly what I did).

Marble Race/Marble Drop

 Need: cereal box, tape, marbles
To Do: Cut the front off your box, cut the front into 4 sections, cut a marble sizes opening on one end of 3 sections and tape into your box, use the 4th section to prop up the back of your box!
**Note: I found that our marbles kept flying off the track, so I made a guard rail out of masking tape

Penguins

This is a hard time of year for crafts. Christmas is over and the oodles of Christmasy stuff has been put away, you've already done 2 months worth of wintery crafts and it's starting to get boring. So last week I busted out some penguin facts and we made penguin mosaics out of torn paper. Pretty easy for older kids and younger ones will still enjoy it with a little help.

What you need:

• Glue stick
• Blue Construction paper for background
• White construction paper, torn into little squares
• Black construction paper, torn into little squares
• googley eyes
• small bit of orange paper

WHat to do:
Draw your penguin outline on the blue paper - an oval with a flat bottom and then feet sticking out. Put a smaller oval in the middle for it's belly. Have your child glue little pieces of paper onto the outline. You rip out an orange triangle for it's beak and even a pink or red bow for it's hair or a bowtie.

Penguin Facts (for little dudes who don't really care a whole lot)

• Penguins eat seafood - mostly fish, squid and krill
• Penguins are birds, but they don't fly in the air - they swim so fast though, that it looks like they are flying under the water
• A large group of penguins is called a "Waddle"
• They like to use their bellies like a toboggan
• Baby penguins are called chicks.
• As soon as a chick hatches it "sings" loudly for it's parent so they will recognize it's unique voice.
• When it's really cold penguins will all huddle together and 'cuddle' to stay warm

Pretty Initials

This fun project was easy and pretty quick to do on a sickie/cold days. All you need is paint, paper/canvas and scotch/painters tape.

Tape the child's first initial (or their name) onto the canvas/paper. Then have them fingerpaint over it. Start with one or two colours and then allow to dry before adding more so you don't get a huge mud coloured mess. Once dried, remove the tape. If your paint bled though the tape a little you can touch it up with white paint if you want or outline your letter(s) with glitter glue for a little sparkle! Super fun, Super easy!

**Tips: I cut my letters out of tape - it took a bit longer to do, but I wanted something a little fancier than the straight lines of using masking tape alone. I also used acrylic paint (and especially watched the 1 year old with it) because it goes on nicer and thicker than finger paint, IMO.

Crafting With Kids

I don't seem to update this blog as often as I had planned. This doesn't mean we aren't getting ooey and gooey in our craftiness. Lately it seems we just do spontanious crafts, I forget to take pictures, or I totally plan to do up a quick blog, but then tantrums, fights, playdates, lunch, snack, nap or pretty much any other aspect of mommydom happens and the last thing on my mind is blogging about our craft. It happens.
Instead of this being an excuse blog about why I haven't posted, here are some tips that I have found totally useful while crafting with my monster(s).

Home made smock: Little dudes get messy. It doesn't take a lot of time or effort to get completely disgusting, especially while crafting. Take an old shirt of dad's and cut out the back (look at the picture below for a 'template' - you want to cut out all the red). Then your little one can slip their arms in and you can tie up the back so it's not flopping all over the place.
You can add velcro or a ribbon to tie the back in place. You can also flip up the bottom and tie it around your little one's waist and then they have a pocket in front.

Finger Paint Sponges: Finger paints, especially with an eager little artist, get mixed together and turn a gross looking colour pretty quickly. Instead, soak small sponges in paint (you might need to add a little water). Voila! No more paint swamp. This works really well for fingerprint or handprint crafts since you do get saturated in paint.  

Time: if a craft says it'll take about 20 minutes to complete, give yourself an hour. Plan on giving yourself at least half an hour of clean up time after - some projects (glitter projects!) you will be cleaning up over the next few months, after some projects require a bath, and yet others you'll only need to do a quick wipe down and you're on your way. But always plan on the worst - it'll quickly ruin your fun if you have a toddler covered in paint from head to toe (and every crack in between), but not enough time for a bath.

Don't Aim for Perfection: We'd all love to cover our walls and/or fridges in beautiful artwork from our kids, but the reality is that sometimes what they make isn't all that pretty. But I bet you they had a heck of a lot of fun making it. Let them take the reins and make what's in their head - this will help develop their own creative juices.

Have Fun!!: If crafting with your kids isn't fun, if it's too stressful, or too messy, or too time consuming - don't do it. It will just turn into an unpleasant experience for everyone. When your kids go to school they will be coming home with more crafty/artsy projects than you know what to do with. So stick to what you and your family is comfortable with.

Easter Eggs

This one's a little late - sorry. Easy craft, but needs adult supervision. These are fun AND if kept in the fridge can be eaten (if you like hard boiled eggs)

What You Need: Eggs, food colouring, crayons.

What To Do: Hard boil your eggs (I boil mine for about 10 - 15 minutes), run the eggs under cool water until they can easily be handled and then completely dry them. Mix up some food colouring and water in small dishes (the more colour, the brighter it'll be on the egg). Have child, carefully, draw on the egg with crayon - older children can draw faces or repetitive designs. Dip the egg in colour (a quick dip will give you lighter colour, than letting it soak). You can do single colour eggs or you can dip multiple times for fun colour combos and colour mixing (this is good for teaching that two colours make a whole new one!).

**Hard boiled eggs can be kept for up to a week, if they are kept in the fridge.

Spring is Springing: Rainbows

So this rainbow is not totally correct, but it's a starting point to teach little ones about them.

What You'll Need: Dyed noodles, cotton balls, lentils, markers, cardboard or thicker paper.

What to do: Dye your noodles with food colouring at least a few days before (soak noodles in colour for a few minutes and then lay out to dry on a cookie sheet), draw the lines of your clouds, rainbow, grass, flower, ect as a guide line for your little artist. Keep an eye on things as your little one glues everything into place. Allow lots of time to dry!

Spring is Springing: Butterfly

Spring may be springing everywhere, except in Central Alberta! That's not stopping us from getting started on our fun spring crafts. It may still be snowing outside, but inside we've got butterflies and flowers and rainbows! 

What You'll Need: Coffee filters, washable markers (permanent ones don't work), clothes pin or pipe cleaner, **optional; googley eyes, magnet**

What to do: Colour in big bold blotches on the filter, spray a bit of water in the center of the filter and watch as it seeps towards the edges and blends the colours. Let it dry completely (about 1/2 hour). Fold filter in half and scrunch together, you can use either a clothes pin (like we did) or use a pipe cleaner cut down to size. Glue on or draw eyes and fluff out the wings! Voila, you have a beautiful butterfly.

Tips: Don't use too much water as it can take a long time to dry.

If you use a pipe cleaner for the body make sure you twist it tightly and cut enough that you have a little extra at the top for antenas!

If using a pin, glue a magnent on the back and you can hang stuff on your butterfly!

Make a bunch of butterflies and hang them in a window to let the light shine through!

Magic Paint

What you'll need: Paint, water, paint brush/sponge, white crayon, white paper
Have child draw on the paper with white crayon. Then paint over it with watered down tempura paint or water colours. Watch as the childs drawing or scribbles or name or whatever 'magically' appear!

Lovey Hearts

Sorry, it's been awhile! Although late, here is a sweet little (easy) Valentines day craft. This can also be used for Mother's Day or Grandparent Day or any other day you want to show a little love!

 What you need: Construction paper, scissors, markers/crayons, glue stick, sparkles (if you're daring enough!).
Have Mommy cut out some hearts in different sizes and colours. Either glue to the paper and decorate or decorate each heart before you stick it on. You can even use the scraps from cutting out your hearts, to make something extra special! Toddlers love to be independant - this is a great one to just let them go with the glue stick, hearts and crayons!

Handprint Wreath

My little booger and me are getting into the holiday spirit! Today we made this super cute handprint wreath.

What You'll Need:

• green construction paper
• two small paper plates
• glue
• **optional: green paint, glitter, bows, stars, stickers, picture of child**

What To Do:

• Cut center out of one paper plate - you can paint the plates if you like (I didn't) - glue plates together (face to face) - I stapled some yarn in between the plates for a hanger
• For little hands: take construction paper and fold into quarters (I folded and cut 4 pieces of paper, I think 5 would have been perfect)
• Trace and cut out hands
• Glue hands, slightly overlapped, around the plate with the middle cut out and decorate as you like.

We used star foam stickers to cover up any little bits of plate that were showing through. I think this would like really cute with the childs picture in the middle too.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

We had our first big snowfall this last week. My son was so excited to get out in the white stuff to feel it, taste it, run and jump in it. He quickly discovered that Mommy was was right about keeping gloves on in -15 weather. He also got a big kick out of having a snotcicle. The cold weather (and a cold/flu that doesn't really want to leave our house) has had us couped up a lot more than usual. On top of our regular colouring, playdough molding, and general mess making - yesterday we started making SNOWFLAKES! My little guy is way too young for scissors (I'm not sure if he'll really ever be coordinated enough for me to feel comfortable letting him use scissors on his own), so I put him in charge. He would point to the spot he'd want me to cut and he'd help me carefully unfold our unique creations. We also just had to wear our elf hats for this wintery wonderland!

1. Start with a square piece of white paper (thinner paper works best).
2. fold paper in half to form a triangle
3. fold triangle in half again
4. now fold into thirds 
5. cut 'legs' off to make it a triangle again
6. cut out shapes on all three sides to make your unique snow flake (if you cut one corner off in a shape then it will define the arms from the middle of your snowflake) 

Decorate with glitter, glue together to form a snowflake wreath, hang from string, tape to windows - how you display your pretty snowflakes is up to you! Since no two snowflakes are the same, you can use it as a lesson for 'being yourself' or ' it's ok to be different'. More winter and holiday crafts to come soon! We're off to make some more snowflakes! ;)

Picasso's in the Park

This isn't something I put on myself (thanks Momstown!) - but it is a super great idea for a birthday party, playdate, reunion or anything where a whole bunch of lil' artists will be.

• line up a couple of picnic tables and cover in paper (roll from Ikea goes for about $5)
• put kids in an old shirt of moms or dads or a smock
• pour kid appropriate paint onto paper plates and put around table
• let the munchkins have at 'er! You can give them sponges, chunky stamps, brushes or just use fingers
• clean up with wet wipes and voila! FUN!

Paint Paint Paint!

One of our favorite crafty-time activities is painting. T is always so proud of his artwork that he will show anyone and everyone who walks by it!

What you need:

1. age appropriate paint (we use Crayola washable, non-toxic paints, but most finger paint is non-toxic and safe for little ones - just double check the label)
2. roll of paper ( we picked one up at Ikea for $5 and it's lasted for over a year and a half and still going strong)
3. **optional (but helpful): paper plates, paint brushes, sponges, stamps, water, paper towels and/or wet wipes

• Pull out your paper and tape to edges of the table - this gives little ones a HUGE work space and you don't have to worry about your table getting painted - altnertatively: lay down newspaper and tape down paper
• Squirt small amounts of paint either on paper plates or right onto your paper (if it's thicker paper)
• Let your little ones creativity flow - give them paint brushes, let them use their fingers and hands (even feet if you're brave), chunky stamps are great for little fingers, sponges give different textures.
• Washable finger paints easily wipe up with just a wet wipe or a damp cloth (although, if your child is anything like mine, having a bath or shower ready to go is helpful.

BEST home made play dough

I made this dough over 6 months ago and it's STILL good!

What you need:

1. 1 Cup all purpose flour
2. 1/2 cup salt
3. 2 tablespoons Cream of Tartar (not to be mistaken for tartar sauce - this can be found in the baking aisle usually near the baking soda)
4. 1 tablespoon vegitable oil
5. 1 cup water
6. *Optional: food colouring, nice smelling essential oils, spices and/or glitter

What to do:

1. Mix first 4 ingredients into a pan
2. add water and mix well
3. cook on stove over medium heat for 3-5 minutes (you will begin to wonder if it'll ever firm up just before it actually forms into dough)
4. once dough has formed, knead for 5 minutes (you can split up add food colouring halfway through kneading)

**Tips**

• if you want to make a big batch of a single colour - add the food colouring to the water before cooking on the stove
• you can add essential oils (replace veg oil) or even sugar free drink mix (jello mix too) to make dough smelly - add spices, like cinnamon or ginger, for a sublte smell
• Store in a ziplock bag or airtight container

Halloweeny Fun

I don't know about you, but it's not very often I can find ANY activity that holds my two year olds attention for more than a couple of minutes. These easy Halloween activities are quick and only a little preparation, they are great for pulling out when you need a quiet minute!

What You'll Need:

1. Construction paper in halloweeny colours
2. scissors and glue stick
3. **optional: stickers, glitter, markers/crayons

Handprint Ghosts:

• pre-cut construction paper into small circles, smiles, pumpkins, triangles (anything really) for eyes, jackolanterns, ect
• Trace childs hand on white construction paper - cut out
• Help child glue hand (fingers down) onto paper for the ghosty - glue on eyes, mouths, or anything else to complete the scene - glow in the dark star stickers might be a nice touch!

Easy-Peasy Jack-o-Lanterns

• Pre-cut orange construction paper into pumpkin shapes, green paper into handles/leaves, and black paper into an assortment of shapes to decorate your pumpkin (triangles, smiles, circles, squares, swirls, anything!)
• help child glue shapes onto pumpkins to create their very own Jack-o-lantern
• ** this one is great for a more independant toddler craft as long as they are good with a glue stick**