I can just imagine how fun it was for the kiddos to paint with their feet.

They made this picture to give to their other grandmother for Mother’s Day.  Wonderful idea, don’t you think?

I’ve also seen a similar idea using hand prints. When your grandchildren make their “hand” butterfly, have them make their print with the thumbs as close together as possible. That forms the butterfly body.

These two activities would be great and gooey fun for  your grandchildren to make. (I think it behooves grandma to be a good example for her grandchildren and paint a butterfly with her feet, too!)

Enjoy!

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When I first met you as a newly wed back in the Mesozoic Era, I was awed by your vast culinary knowledge and skill. Your recipes were tried and true — and most of the time they were easy to make. You served me well.

I must say, you have kept up with the times. This dinosaur cake is dyno-mite! Cute, cute, cute!

This cake would be so fun to make for my grandchildren. They would absolutely love it.

And, It is within my skill range and my attention span. (I would rather be playing with the grand kiddos than spending all of my time in the kitchen.)

Thank you so much for the simple to follow directions.

Sincerely,

Digi-Gram

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That means it’s springtime.  Soon to be summer.

There’s no better time than the present to spend some time making pinwheels with your grandchildren.

I decided that I would make a pinwheel pattern to share with all of my wonderful grandmother friends so they could make pinwheels with all of their wonderful grandchildren. I made a papa-sized pattern and a baby-sized pattern.

Pinwheels are easy to make. Using the pattern, cut a square from some paper. Cut on along the diagonal lines. With a hole punch, punch holes where the dots are on the pattern. Use scissors to make a small hole in the center of the pinwheel.

With a hole punch, make a hole at one end of a plastic drinking straw. (Preferable an unused drinking straw. But, hey, if you want a pinwheel on a straw sticky from soda pop, that’s your choice . . .)

Bend the corners of the paper with the holes toward the center. Align the holes and push the ends of a brad fastener through all of the holes. Push the end of the fastener through the hole in the straw. Bend back the ends of the fastener. And there you have it. Your fabulous pinwheel.

There. Simple, huh?

Well, that’s what I thought this activity would be. Simple. Quick. Piece o’ cake.

Ha!

After several hours of frustration, let me share with you what I learned.

• Scrap booking paper is colorful and bright and fun to use.  (It’s hard to tell but my red pinwheel has purple tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs on it.) But pinwheels made out of scrap book paper don’t spin easily in the wind or when you blow on them.
• Using a brad on a straw doesn’t work too swell, either. The pinwheel doesn’t freely spin.
• Plain white copy paper (what we grandmothers know as typing paper) spins the best. If you use this, your grandchildren can use their creativity and color their own designs on the paper.
• Using a straight pin to attach the pinwheel (made out of typing paper) to a pencil eraser works great.
• The straight pin might be longer than what you want. If that’s the case, hold the pin with a pair of pliers. Bend it back and forth until the pin breaks (where you are bending it). This will shorten the pin and be better for your pinwheel.
• If you use a colorful pencil, it’s not as drab and boring as a plain yellow No. 2 pencil.
• When taking a picture in my family room that has amber colored light fixtures, the pictures have a yellow cast to them. And, there are tons of shadows in the picture. It would be far better to take the picture using natural lighting (meaning in the daytime — but I’m at work then. Phooey!)

Here is a beautiful flower pinwheel that has curvy edges. There is a pattern and great directions to make this flower pinwheel. But, be forewarned. This is not a functional-blow-in-the-wind pinwheel. It’s just for decoration.

If you are feeling dapper and adventuresome, here are directions for making a pinwheel that uses a grommet in the center of a pinwheel and a thumbtack to hold it onto a chopstick. Interesting variation.

For older granddaughters, say twelve years old and older, here are directions for making a card with a gorgeous pink pinwheel card. It uses pink vellum and you make a small pinwheel and a large one. You put the smaller one on top of the bigger one so it makes a more “full” pinwheel. Way cute!

When you are finished making your paper pinwheels, make some pinwheel cookies.  Milk and cookies. What a great way to end an activity with your grandchildren!

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So what’s a person to do who wants simple photo editing tools but doesn’t want to pay an arm and a leg and give up their first born to purchase Photoshop?

Ah! I’ve just recently stumbled across a fabulous answer that I want to share here. Get Paint.

Paint is a free software (for Windows based machines) that started out as an undergraduate design project for college seniors who were mentored by Microsoft. It was originally meant to replace Microsoft Paint that comes with Windows. It has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editing tool. It is a much, much, much, much, much better program than the one that comes with a Windows machine!

It has some fun effects.  I’ve taken a photo of  my sweetest new grandson and applied ink, oil, pencil, emboss, and soften effects. Take a look. (The original  photo is the top left one.)

I have found a plugin that allows you to do fun things with text. Like this. (Be sure to click on the image below so you can see it in a bigger size.)

If you have a granchild that wants Photoshop but can’t afford it, this is a fabulous alternative. Tell your grandchild to go here to download Paint.

Go here to download the dpyplugin6.1 zip file that does cool things with text. (It does more but the text was the main reason I installed the plugin. When you unzip the file, put the plugin contents in the Effects folder. The Effect folder will be on your C drive, then Program files, then the Paint.NET folder.)

Grandma,  you might  have to stretch your technology muscles and get out of your techno-comfort zone when you install this software. But that’s okay. Leaning new technology is always good. (If all else fails, one of your grandkids could get it up and running for you.)

You’ll have loads of fun playing around with this program. And that’s a guarantee.

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