Let Kids Create

Writing a story

2012-03-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

Maisy is at the age that she wants to start writing books. She is learning to read and is so excited about writing and making up her own stories. I love the simple story lines she and her sister come up with.

What I think I love even more is that Lou and Maisy wanted to work together in writing their stories. When Maisy writes, she tends to leave out all vowels so it's a little tough for me when she asks me to read it and I have to ask her what it says. She wanted me to write the words for her, but when Lou came home from school she wanted to be Maisy's scribe.

Here's a glimpse of one of the stories Maisy came up with. If you can't tell, we are a little obsessed with cats at the moment.

What stories do your kids like to tell?

Cat in the Hat Paper Bag Puppet

2012-02-29T08:56:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to share what my seven-year-old daughter has been working on. Her book report assignment this month for school is to create a paper bag puppet of your favorite Dr. Seuss character. She chose The Cat in the Hat {obviously}. If I had had more than one paper bag around this place we would have definitely done more, but this is what we have now. I hope to do more soon so we can have some puppet shows.

We started out by cutting construction paper to the measurements of the bag. I helped her measure and make the appropriate marks on the paper to serve as guiding lines. She did all the cutting, drew on the face, drew and cut out a bow tie, glued it all to her bag and trimmed the overhanging edges with her scissors.

She added the final touches with a marker and glued on a cute paper mouth.

This guy is ready to act out a scene or two.

Dr. Seuss play group

2012-02-28T22:10:00.002-07:00

This past Monday was my turn to host another play group for some 3 year olds in the neighborhood. Since Dr. Seuss's birthday is coming up, I decided to try and build a theme around that. I had set up a road mat and cars for them to play with as they arrived, but not one child wanted anything to do with it. And no one was about to sit down to read a story.

While the group was running a few laps around the house screaming, I decided to start off with a game I had planned for a little later on. I got their attention by asking one of them if they thought they could balance one of these items on their head like the Cat in the Hat does in the story The Cat in the Hat.

Pin It

They were all in a giggly sort of mood, so this activity was the perfect attention grabber. They all tried several different combinations. This also grabbed their interest enough to look at the book a little bit so I could show them how many things The Cat could balance. I should have had them try to do it while standing on a ball ;-)

Then we tried another game - musical hats. I had the kids sit in a circle and take turns putting on this hat and passing it along until the music stopped. The child who had the hat on their head when the music stopped got to have a turn being the one to control the music for a round. I think pushing the pause button on the music may have even been more fun than passing the hat around.

Pin It

After they had all had a turn to be in control of the music, they just wanted to try on a bunch of different hats.

By now they had settled down enough to do a craft. I had cut out some egg cartons and gathered some glue, pipe cleaners, pom poms, googly eyes and bingo dot markers. The idea was for them to make a "Seuss creation" of their own. Once again, the glue was highly popular. I let their own imaginations go to work for these- I didn't give them any expectation or guidance on what to create. I wanted to see what they would come up with on their own.

Pin It

I kept snack time simple- we just had mandarin oranges and crackers. I also popped some popcorn they could munch on while we sat down to read through a couple of the books.

Even though our play group started out a little on the wild side this time, I think it turned out to be a success in the end.

What kind of Dr. Seuss fun are you having?

Tips to build your art and craft supplies {on a budget}

2012-02-20T22:58:00.001-07:00

One of my main goals as a blogger is to help others think outside of the box and be more creative. As long as I can remember, I have always tried to repurpose things or make do with what I had. So when I was asked the other day what supplies I would suggest to have on hand, my first thought was to just look around. I hate to spend a bunch of money on supplies when kids art really is mostly about the process, not the product.

Where should you start with art and craft supplies? Building up your supplies does not have to be expensive.

I love my local dollar store. My favorite things I've found include:

bingo markers (like the more expensive Do-A-Dot Markers)
tissue paper
craft sticks
pipe cleaners
paper plates
glue sticks

You can even find cute aprons that can be used for paint smocks if you don't have an old t-shirt for the job already. But beware, just because you're at the dollar store does not mean you cannot overspend.

Here's a peak into one of my craft supply drawers (I should have organized it a bit before I took this shot, but you get the idea).

Pin It

Start looking at your trash in a different light. Think about other ways you could use something before you recycle it:

egg cartons
cereal boxes
shiny foil wrappers
toilet paper and paper towel tubes
shoe boxes
magazines
bubble wrap
magnets from all those phone books that get delivered to my doorstep, etc.

I am starting to look like a hoarder, but here's a little peak at my "trash supply". Honestly, the possibilities are endless if you have scissors, glue, paint and garbage.

Buy glue, crayons, markers and paint in bulk when they go on sale for back to school. These basic supplies can be used in so many different ways. My favorite paint to use is Crayola Washable Kids Paint because it really is washable (unlike some of the other washable paints I have tried).

Turn to your pantry: you can dye rice, pasta and salt to a rainbow of colors with a little food coloring and vinegar or rubbing alcohol. Glue can also be dyed with food coloring and used as paint. You can even make homemade paints using flour or cornstarch.

Use objects other than a paint brush to paint. I have seen toys (cars, marbles, Legos, balls), forks, food, old credit cards, toilet brushes (I'd go with new ones from the dollar store here), cookie cutters, scrub brushes, straws, etc.

What other tips and ideas can you share to build up your craft supply without breaking the bank?

Finger painting with shaving cream

2012-02-14T22:11:00.003-07:00

Pin It

Last week we did some experimenting with paper bags when we decided to take the Creative Challenge over at TinkerLab. Before we made our paper bag purses, we actually tried using the paper bag as a canvas for some fingerpainting.

Can you believe we have never fingerpainted in our home? Well, except once when Lou was 2 (she's nearly 8 now!) . That was enough for me. I was a bit too worked up over the mess that was made and have never revisited the technique . . . until now. But this time I decided we would try tinting some shaving cream with food coloring and use our hands to paint with it.

I cut out our paper shopping bags to fit into some baking trays so we could somewhat contain the mess. The thickness of the paper bags held up well to the moisture of the shaving cream and didn't wrinkle much.

I squeezed out some shaving cream onto the paper bag and added a few drops of color. Mina was a little apprehensive about putting her fingers in it at first.

Oh, but once she felt the soft and smooth consistency of the stuff she was hooked.

If anything, this was more of a sensory experience than anything. She had a good time mixing the color throughout the shaving cream.

Maisy was so excited to get her hands into it also.

And soon enough, Lou was home from school and joining in the fun. They loved mixing the colors together and feeling the soft squish between their fingers.

And working the shaving cream in their hands. If anything, I can say they ended up with very clean hands that day.

Oh yeah, and they smeared it around on the paper also.

We ended up with a couple of unique pieces of art.

I let them dry over night and then again for another day. The foamy pictures never really dried completely. I think the next time we try this, we'll use just a little shaving cream and add paint to it for color {like we've seen from Quirky Momma}. Then maybe it will dry? I guess we'll have to see.

Or maybe we can try one of these other fabulous methods:
Swirling paint in the shaving cream and making prints {Little Wonders Days}
Simply playing and drawing in the shaving cream {Keeping Life Creative}
Mixing the shaving cream with glue {Juggling with Kids}

What kinds of art projects have you done with shaving cream? I can't wait to try something else now that we've gotten our hands into it.

Valentine shortbread cookies and blog hop

2012-02-07T09:25:00.001-07:00

What is a Valentine's holiday without baking and decorating cookies? The other day at the library we came across this fun cookbook for kids. It is fully illustrated and the recipes can be altered to your liking. The first thing we decided to make were the shortbread cookies. What's fun about it is that it gives a totally hands-on way of making the cookies.

Now, I have to admit that I don't always jump on the chance to bake with my girls. 3 girls and 1 mom baking in the kitchen ~~usually~~ sometimes sets the scene for complete chaos. This afternoon, Mina (age 3) had decided to take a rare nap and I had some rare one-on-one time with Maisy since Lou was still at school. On top of that, my kitchen was already a complete mess- who wants to start baking with kids in an already-clean kitchen? Not this mama.

All you need is 3 ingredients and then you can mix in whatever else you like.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter

All the ingredients go into the bowl at the same time. Then the fun begins. The next step is rubbing in the butter, which means you rub the butter between your thumbs and fingertips until the dough is in a bunch of chunky crumbs. Then you can add in any flavorings you would like. We just used sugar sprinkles (we shook it until it looked about right). You can use chocolate chips, coconut, cinnamon, candies, peanut butter, raisins, nuts, etc.

Here is Maisy adding in the sprinkles.

After the sprinkles were all mixed in you need to squeeze the dough together into a ball to get ready to roll out if you are cutting shapes. You can also just roll into balls and flatten them onto the cookie sheet. We had to add a touch of water to our dough because it just wouldn't roll out at first. It just kept crumbling. The dough should be rolled out on a floured surface until its uniformly about 1/4 inch thick.

Find your favorite cookie cutters and carefully transfer the cut-outs to your baking sheet. The oven should be preheated to 325° F.

Bake for about 15 minutes. My cookies didn't brown very much in the oven, but were still cooked through. You can adjust the time to your liking.

We also prepared the icing suggested in the book. It was simply a mixture of 3 tbsp. powdered sugar and 3 tbsp. water. This mixture seemed thin, so I ended up adding about twice the powdered sugar that was called for. We added a drop of red food coloring as well, then I saw that the recipe suggested adding the coloring with a toothpick. Oops. I should have read more carefully and the color wouldn't have been so brilliant, but it was also fun to have such a bright cookie.

Maisy spooned the icing over the cookies once they had cooled. The icing wasn't enough to cover all the cookies, so next time I'll remember to double the amount. I loved how easy it was to apply the icing compared to spreading frosting with a knife.

Enter a well-rested Mina. She was ready to help add some sprinkles to the tops of the cookies.

Finally, a taste test! We had to remember that these are not sugar cookies, they are shortbread. They have a completely different taste; a more buttery taste. This made for some happy girls, and some much needed one-on-one time with the middle child.

Join in the Valentine's idea blog hop along with these great blogs:

Mama Pea Pod, My Creative Family, Hands on: as we grow, La Dolce Vita: The Sweet Life, AngeliqueFelix.com, The Golden Gleam, Teach Preschool, Critters and Crayons, Living at the Whitehead Zoo, The Iowa Farmer's Wife, Nurturestore, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, The Chocolate Muffin Tree, Jamie's Jumble, The Outlaw Mom Blog, Mama Smiles, The Mommies Made Me Do It, Dinosaurs and Octopuses, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, Toddler Approved, Messy Kids, Rainy Day Mum, JDaniel4sMom, Glittering Muffins, Red Ted Art, Mommy and Me Book Club, Putti Prapancha, Dilly-Dali Art, Creative Connections for Kids, Mommy Labs, De tout et de rien: Activités pour le Préscolaire, Imagination Soup.net, Rockabye Butterfly, Classified: Mom, Kids Creative Chaos, A Mom with A Lesson Plan, PlayDrMom, RainbowsWithinReach, Living Montessori Now, Curly Birds, Growing A Jeweled Rose, The Home Teacher, A Little Learning For Two, Sun Hats and Wellie Boots, The Imagination Tree, Mummy Mummy Mum, Critters and Crayons, La-La's Home Daycare, Come Together Kids, Tinkerlab.

Monday Madness 19

2012-02-06T00:37:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all the amazing link-ups last week. There were some incredibly unique posts I want to share with you in case you didn't see them from the link party.

Egg carton painting from ArtClubBlog
What a beautiful way to create 3-D art.

Rockin' tangerine owl from Bleak 2 Unique.
This is a MUST see tutorial, go check it out!

Fingerprint dove from Busy Kids = Happy Mom
Is this not one of the cutest ideas you've seen?

I have had such a great time hosting this linky party with Laura at Art for Little Hands, but the time has come for me to be able to focus a little more on other things around home. I'm so glad that you have taken the time to share your ideas here, but I needed to re-prioritize and realized I needed the time back that I have been spending on this linky party. I hope you'll stick around and visit my blog from time to time.

Paper bag purse

2012-02-05T22:20:00.004-07:00

Pin It

A few weeks ago, we heard of the Creative Challenge given by Tinkerlab. The material for this challenge was to be paper bags. I had a few paper grocery bags stashed away for who-knows-what and they were perfect for the challenge. We tried a couple different things with them, but I am deciding to share this one with you today.

It was difficult while brainstorming to get away from the idea of using the bags to hold something. And because Valentine's Day is so close, we decided on making a heart purse. I helped the girls to cut out two identical hearts from the paper grocery bags.

Then the girls got busy decorating them with their favorite Bingo Dot markers. Mina, who just turned 3, loved making faces on the hearts. She ended up making 2 purses in the end with these cute faces.

Lou, who is nearly 8 years old now, went for a "designer bag".

After the paint dots had dried, which didn't take long, I punched some holes around the edges of the hearts and tied a piece of yarn to one end so the girls could stitch them up.

I began helping Mina out with hers, but then Lou needed a little assistance getting her holes punched.

After a couple of minutes, Mina'a purse looked like this. She did much better with me guiding her along once I was able to get back to her.

Lou zipped right along with hers.

And Mina was thrilled to have a new purse to carry her little treasures in.

Now I invite you to join in this creative challenge.

Join Tinkerlab and these other bloggers and get crafty with paper bags!

Paint Cut Paste, Imagination Soup, Hands On: As We Grow, Child Central Station, Putti Prapancha, Irresistible Ideas for Play-Based Learning, Teach Preschool, The Chocolate Muffin Tree, Nurture Store, Small Types, The Imagination Tree, Toddler Approved, Red Ted Art, Sun Hats and Wellie Boots, Come Together Kids, Mommy Labs, Kids in the Studio, Rainy Day Mum, Glittering Muffins, Sense of Wonder, Mom To 2 Posh Lil Divas, Come Together Kids, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, A Mom With A Lesson Plan, Angelique Felix, The Golden Gleam, Share and Remember, Clarion Wren, Living at the Whitehead’s Zoo, De tout et de rien, PlayDrMom, Rainbows Within Reach, No Time for Flash Cards, Creativity My Passion, Messy Kids, Kiwi Crate, Tinkerlab

The Heart Project: a collaborative fundraiser

2012-01-31T22:24:00.001-07:00

It's been nearly eight years since I got the news that every parent dreads hearing. My two month old baby had a congenital heart defect. She had a ventricular septal defect [VSD] as well as an atrial septal defect [ASD]: she had holes in her heart. My husband and I were devastated. We had waited so long to get this child here and finding she had a serious health problem was tough to swallow.

We had to press forward, she needed to gain weight. At two months old she weighed only 6 pounds [birth weight was 5 lbs., 2 oz.]. We did all we could, the doctors wanted to at least wait until she was a year old to do the surgery, but she was just not thriving. The only answer was open-heart surgery to repair the holes in her heart. At 5 months old, she went in for the procedure. There were some bumps in the road; she went into cardiac arrest during recovery, but miraculously she is still with us today. And she is thriving.

Last month, Jamie at hands on: as we grow began recruiting bloggers to join in a fundraiser for the American Heart Association. I knew we had to be a part of this. I owe so much to the doctors and technology that saved my daughter's life. It is personal for Jamie as well. You can read about her husband's cousin Ellie here.

70+ bloggers from around the world have now joined to bring you a book full of creative heart projects! The book includes 100+ projects that are heart and kid related. There are projects to create, cook, play with and put on display.

By making a small donation of $5 to the AHA, you will receive this extraordinary collection of photographed heart projects. We hope you will join us in our efforts to raise $1000 by Valentine's Day for the AHA.

This eBook contains a link to nearly every heart project contributed in the book. The link will take you to a tutorial on how to complete the project. The printed version has a index to each blog so you can check it out that way as well.

Are you dying to see what's in the book? Here's a sneak peak:

Plus we have contributed our stained glass hearts and heart flakes to the book.

Make a donation of $5 to the American Heart Association
and receive The Heart Project ebook as a free gift!

U.S. $5 donation to AHA for eBook

This book will only be available through the month of February, so don't wait!

And as a bonus, craftprojectideas.com is donating another $1 for each book that is sold! That means that in addition to your $5 donation, craftprojectideas.com will donate another $1 on your behalf [up to $500]!

Please hop on over the Craftprojectideas.com Facebook page and give them a big thank you for being so generous!

There's a printed version of "The Heart Book" also available! It's beautifully printed, 8.5 x 8.5", full color, paperback. Five dollars (US $5) of every book sold will be donated to the American Heart Association.

US $20.00

Order the Printed Version
♥ $5 of every sale of the book will go to the AHA ♥
This book only available through the month of February.

If you'd rather just donate without receiving the eBook, feel free to do so!

In addition to the book, we're raising funds for the AHA in several other ways too!

Fundraiser Auctions:

♥ All proceeds of each auction will go to the AHA ♥

Melissa & Doug - 4 Trunki with Teddy Bear Auctions!

Fudoo Boards - 3 Fudoo Board Kits for Auction!

Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10
Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10
Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10

Giveaways are going to be happening every day from now until the 14th! There's more than one some days, so be sure to check them all out! These giveaways are from The Heart Project Bloggers who are very generously donating their projects (from The Heart Book!), or something related to their heart project.

There are also a couple special giveaways from Melissa & Doug, Fudoo Boards and CraftProjectIdeas.com!

The Heart Project Contributing Bloggers:

hands on : as we grow	♥	A Little Learning for Two	♥	Among Many Blessings
Angelique Felix	♥	At Home with Ali	♥	Broken Treasures
Busy at Home	♥	Busy Kids Happy Mom	♥	Carrie Saindon's Photo Journey
Child Central Station	♥	Classified: Mom	♥	Classroom Magic
Creative with Kids	♥	Creativity My Passion	♥	Critters and Crayons
De Tout et de Rien	♥	Dilly-Dali Art	♥	Dinosaurs & Octopuses
Excited 2 Learn	♥	Hand Over the Cookies	♥	Handprint & Footprint Art
Happy Hooligans	♥	Heart Journey	♥	Imagination Soup
Jamie's Jumble	♥	Kitchen Counter Chronicles	♥	Kreative Resources
Let Kids Create	♥	Little Illuminationss	♥	Living Montessori Now
Loudness of the Lambs	♥	Love and Lollipops	♥	Mama, hocemo nesto da pravimo
Mama Pea Pod	♥	Mama Smiles	♥	MemeTales
Messy Kids	♥	Mindful Meanderings	♥	Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
Mommy Labs	♥	Mommy Perks	♥	Mum Paints Lives
Mummy Mummy Mum	♥	My Creative Family	♥	NurtureStore
One Artsy Mama	♥	Peace Love & Rainbows	♥	Play Dr Mom
Putti Prapancha	♥	Rainbows within Reach	♥	Reading Confetti
Ready. Set. Read!	♥	Red Ted Art	♥	Sense of Wonder
Share & Remember	♥	Stacy Molter	♥	Sun Hats & Wellie Boots
Teach Preschool	♥	The Artful Child	♥	The Chocolate Muffin Tree
The Craft Barn	♥	The Educators' Spin on It	♥	The Golden Gleam
The Imagination Tree	♥	The Iowa Farmer's Wife	♥	The Joy of My Life
The Kids Fun Review	♥	The Outlaw Mom Blog	♥	The Preschool Toolbox
The Seeds Network	♥	Toddler Approved

A big THANK YOU for your consideration!

Pass the Pigs Balloon Toss

2012-01-31T05:54:00.003-07:00

Last week we had our 3 Little Pigs themed play group and ran out of time before playing our game. I had seen this fun balloon activity from Toddler Approved and adapted it to fit in with our theme.

I drew a pig face on each balloon and made a paddle with a paper plate and craft stick. However, we quickly ditched the paddle and just started coming up with other ways to play with the balloons.

It was a classic game of "don't let the balloon touch the floor" as we passed it back and forth between us. Then we tried to juggle with the balloons.

And then Maisy made up her own game of trying not to use her hands to hit the balloon. She had a blast bopping it with her head, shoulder, elbows and toes. I played along and boy did it wear me out. I think the best exercise can come from just playing with your kids.

Mina had a fun time just tossing her balloon around and giggling. Balloons are pretty fantastic. And it was a great energy burner on top of all the fun.

What do your kids like to do with balloons?

Hands on : as we grow has a wonderful list of 30 ways to play with them.

Monday Madness 18

2012-01-29T23:39:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you who linked up to last week's party. I have the hardest time deciding which posts to feature so I am letting the numbers do the talking this week. These are a few of the most clicked-on links shared last week:

Tree of Hearts from Putti Prapancha

DIY Foam Stamps from Make, Do & Friend

If You Give a Moose a Muffin activities from Crayon Freckles

If you have been featured here go ahead and grab the "featured at" button from my side bar!

And don't forget to go and see what my co-host Art for Little Hands is featuring this week.

Now on to this week's party! Art for Little Hands and I would love if you would share something to brighten our day and start our week off on the right foot. Go ahead and link up one (ok, maybe 2 or 3 if it's fantastic) blog post: new or old posts welcome.

Don't worry if you don't have a craft to link up, it can be absolutely anything to help brighten our day! One of us will be by to comment on your post and each of us will share some of our favorites next week.

Feel free to add this button if you are submitting:

*with your link you give me permission to use pictures from your post to share with others.

Don't forget to share some comment love while you are checking out some of the other great posts linked up this week.

3 Little Pigs {Play group}

2012-01-27T05:52:00.005-07:00

Back in November I shared our activities from hosting a 2 and 3-year-olds play group. Some moms in my neighborhood and I take turns each week hosting our little group which consists of 4 little girls who are now all 3 years old. Contrary to what you may think, this is a super fun and easy thing to host. These kids get along so well and are so well behaved. Of course, it helps that activities are planned for the whole amount of time. If only a birthday party could go this smoothly.

I am just getting around to hosting it again in my home. This time I decided on a 3 Little Pigs theme and set up the activities and crafts accordingly.

As the kids arrived, they came in and began to play with the Little People village I had set up. This was a huge hit, I think they could have played with just these toys the entire time.

After the kids had all arrived, I was able to coax them over to the table (really, they just wanted to play with the Little People). I had found these little plaster pigs on clearance at Michael's for only 19 cents a piece. The kids had a great time painting these.

Mina's finished pig

While we were letting the pigs dry, we sat down and read some pig books: The Three Little Pigs, Olivia the Princess, This Little Piggy, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, and If You Give a Pig a Party. I am truly amazed at how these kids can sit through this many books. Well, there were a few who were still playing with the toys.

By now, we were running out of time. We barely had time to get started on these Little Pigs houses and parents were arriving to pick up their kids. I also had a game planned that we entirely didn't get around to.

I opted to do the craft instead of the game because I had prepared all this stuff and didn't want it to go to waste. The kids got to glue straws, sticks and bricks to the three houses. I think that any craft involving glue is a hit with kids.

The first house pictured here is just a shot of how I had envisioned the craft to turn out- just to give you an idea of what it was "supposed" to look like. The middle shot is one my 7 year-old put together the night before when I was prepping. She used shredded paper for the straw house, but I opted to use drinking straws the next day purely for the purpose of having less of a mess. The third set of houses pictured is the one my 3 year-old put together and pretty accurately resembles how the other kids put their houses together as well.

My girls and I ended up playing the game later in the afternoon. . . stay tuned. We had a lot of fun!

Linking to NurtureStore Play Academy.

Melted Crayons on Canvas {3 ways}

2012-01-25T05:20:00.001-07:00

Last week was my hubby's birthday and I wanted the girls to be able to give him something extra special this year. I wanted it to be something he could really keep and possibly even take to work to brighten his office a bit. I had seen this awesome way to do melted crayon dot art on Pinterest and thought my 7-1/2 year old would be able to do that technique. But I had to figure a different way for my other younger daughters {ages 5 and 3} to do something similar.

I had the girls start out by making a drawing. Maisy and Lou both decided they wanted to make their picture of our new cat Lolly. They like using this Usborne drawing book to help them out when drawing animals.

Maisy wanted to draw a sitting cat and Lou opted for the sleeping cat. They just used regular white copy paper to make their drawings and then we transferred them over to the canvas.

To transfer the drawing onto the canvas, I laid the drawing face down onto the canvas and rubbed over the back of the image with the side of my pencil.

The transferred image was very faint so I lightly traced around the image. I didn't want it to be too dark since I didn't really want the pencil to show through on the finished product.

We didn't actually start on this part until the next day. Maisy was at a friend's house playing and it was the perfect chance for me to supervise Lou with her crayon melting and dotting. While Lou started on her crayon dotting, I was busy doing an outline on Mina's drawing with melty crayon so she could just do some painting over the top.

Mina had drawn a picture of Daddy. She wanted to paint it red. I had added a few crayon dots at the bottom of her picture so I could show Lou how to make dots and fill the area in.

Melting the crayon over the candle was frustrating to say the least. I think I had to light and re-light the candle about 20 times. The flame just kept burning out when the crayon wax would drip down. It wasn't even dripping directly on the flame. Maybe it was because they were dollar store candles, I don't know.

Another stumbling block was using cheap crayons. I finally had to pull out some nice Crayolas because the dollar store crayons were just gloppy. The Crayola went on so much more smoothly.

After Lou was done with the crayons, she painted a background. What do you think? The texture of it is so fun - almost like oil paints.

Maisy was able to finish her painting when she got home. Instead of doing the melted crayon outline like I had done on Mina's, I just made a bold outline with the crayon closely following her outline. Then I had her choose her paint colors. I did take pictures, but didn't realize that they all came out blurry so all I have is the picture of her finished painting.

I think the girls really enjoyed doing a piece of art on canvas - we had never done that before. What "masterpieces" have your kids done on canvas? I would love to know.

Monday Madness 17

2012-01-22T22:04:00.007-07:00

Welcome to Monday Madness. Thanks for all the great link-ups last week. Here are a few of my favorites:

Love bugs from East Coast Mommy

Hand and Footprint Dragon from Classified: Mom

Glue Paint from My Barrel of Monkeys

If you have been featured here go ahead and grab the "featured at" button from my side bar!

And don't forget to go and see what my co-host Art for Little Hands is featuring this week.

Feel free to add this button if you are submitting:

*with your link you give me permission to use pictures from your post to share with others.

Don't forget to share some comment love while you are checking out some of the other great posts linked up this week.

Stained glass hearts

2012-01-20T05:27:00.007-07:00

On Wednesday, I shared our heart flakes and this is what we decided to do with our scraps. Mina {nearly age 3} was busy snipping away at tissue paper while the other girls were busy creating snippets of their own while creating their project.

I don't think there's anything this girl loves more than cutting. While I wasn't looking, she even made some nice snips in her pants :-( Oh well.

I would have to say her second favorite thing to do would be gluing. I mixed some Elmer's glue with an equal part of water and set out a piece of wax paper on the table. She was able to paint the glue mixture onto the wax paper using a sponge brush.

Then she very delicately dumped a bunch of scraps on the paper and left the table. Hmmm. . . I though this would hold her attention a little longer than that. She was done.

Lou came over to finish the job. She helped spread out the snippets of tissue paper and patted them down with the brush. After most of the sheet was covered, I brushed a little more of the glue mixture onto another sheet of wax paper and applied it to the top. We let it dry overnight.

The next day I was able to show Maisy how to fold the sheet in half, draw half a heart on the fold, then I let her cut it out. It is a great addition to our big window decorations.

What other ways do you like to use your scraps?

This craft is part of The Heart Project headed up by Jamie at Hands On: As We Grow. This collaborative project, involving more than 70 bloggers is a fundraiser for the American Heart Association [AHA]. Look on my sidebar to receive a complimentary eBook [containing more than 100 heart project ideas] when you donate just $5 to the AHA.

Valentine Craft: Heart {snow} flakes

2012-01-18T00:41:00.020-07:00

I came across this Valentine's themed snowflake craft last year in Family Fun magazine. My girls loved doing them so much last year, and again this year. We used sheets of tissue paper since that is what we had on hand to get the color we wanted and to be able to cut through the layers with ease.

I pre-cut the tissue paper into about 8-inch squares.

Start by folding the tissue paper as you normally would when making a regular paper snowflake - folding to make opposite corners meet, then repeating until it has been folded 4 times. Then you are ready to cut.

I drew the pattern for the girls to cut so that the snowflake would come out in heart shapes. The pattern is done by drawing half a heart on the fold, but the outside edge of the heart needs to come off the edge a bit so that it will all stay connected when cut. The bottom point of the heart does not come all the way back to the fold, but juts back out to the outer edge making a triangular shape. {Hope that makes sense}

And Lou thought it needed a bit more design so this is what she added.

Mina is too young (almost 3 now) to understand how to make the snowflakes, but she loves to cut. I let her snip away at her own piece of tissue paper while my older girls worked on their project. A little later on, she was able to do something else with the scraps that I will share with you on Friday.

This is how one of the heart flakes looked after it had been cut and unfolded.

After many heart flakes and snowflakes had been cut {yes, I got a bit carried away as well} we taped them to our window. They look so pretty with the sun shining through them.

It was so sunny that Mina had to go and get her sunglasses to look at them. I love the reflection in her glasses.

Lou insisted that the heart flakes she made be hung from her ceiling. They worked well this way, too.

After the older girls were done cutting, I felt the need to finish with the stack of tissue paper. Maybe I got a little carried away with the heart theme. . .nah.

Monday Madness 16

2012-01-15T21:42:00.005-07:00

It's Monday already! Thanks to all of you who shared last week. It was really hard to choose which posts to feature, but I narrowed it down to these three:

Creative Connections for Kids shared a fun DIY game to get the kiddos moving and work on hand-eye coordination.

Juggling With Kids showed us how to make this cute and healthy snack that would be terrific for so many occassions.

Rainy Day Mum had some fun doing small world play - but you'll have to go check out her post to see how she did it.

If you have been featured here go ahead and grab the "featured at" button from my side bar!

And don't forget to go and see what my co-host Art for Little Hands is featuring this week.

Feel free to add this button if you are submitting:

*with your link you give me permission to use pictures from your post to share with others.

Don't forget to share some comment love while you are checking out some of the other great posts linked up this week.

DIY Felt Birthday Cake

2012-01-13T07:16:00.002-07:00

My house is still somewhat in shambles from the holidays. I am trying to get it together, but I just am not quite there yet. Baby steps. Organization will abound.

I literally stumbled upon this toy today as it's many pieces are strewn across the floor. So today I want to share it with you. I saw the idea in Family Fun magazine and thought it would be something Lou and I could make together for Maisy's 4th birthday. Family Fun had covered paper boxes with felt and then cut out felt shapes and made candles to use as decorations. Felt on felt- so simple.

But, I happen to have way too much scrapbook paper that I am never going to use. I wanted to try and use up a bit by applying mod podge to attach the paper to magnets and using tin cans {also decorated with the paper} as the base of the cake.

I found this great set of nesting cans at the thrift store for around 50 cents a piece and got to work. I completed the whole project and realized the magnet sheets I was using were not strong enough to actually stick to the cans through all the glue and paper. It was so cute, too. Instead of finding stronger magnets, I resorted to felt.

At least I still had the cans and I did have a bunch of felt left over from Halloween costumes. I glued the felt right over the paper and used my paper magnets as templates to cut the shapes out of the felt.

Yes, I can still recall the tingling in my hand and fingers as I finished cutting out my last pieces. Of course, my then 6-year-old Lou had gotten tired of cutting pretty early in the game.

Lou was so thrilled about seeing the completed project though. It was a tough secret for her to keep for a couple of days. She begged me to make one for her, too. I had to remind her that she lived with Maisy and we can all share our toys. It was a hit.

This play cake has been played with just about every day over the last year . And those little felt pieces can be found just about anywhere in my house :-) But the girls love it.

What gifts have you made for your child? I would love to hear.

It finally snowed- let's play!

2012-01-11T06:53:00.002-07:00

There is something magical about snow. It doesn't matter how many times in a season it snows, kids never seem to lose their fascination with it. Back in November we got a good snow storm and I was able to capture this small moment of snow play.

It started out on a Saturday afternoon. The girls were really working together well to get their snowman made. In fact, there were two snowmen being built. Lou had her own going while the other two girls and I worked on this one. I was pretty impressed that Lou would work so hard on her own since she sometimes seems to think the task is too big for her to do alone.

Maisy began putting the finishing touches on hers and Mina's snowman while Lou was finishing up her (wish I had a picture of Lou's before the following chain of events occurred).

There is a bit of competition between my two older girls, and Maisy decided she would sit down on Lou's snowman. She may not have liked that Lou had made her own and decided to "squash" the competition.

Here's what was left of Lou's snowman. If you look closely, you can see those snowman arms sticking up.

Needless to say, Lou was not thrilled. Now that I'm writing this in January I can't remember all that ensued after this, but I do remember a huge tantrum. And a girl who had a hard time forgiving her sister for this one.

Well, it finally snowed again this Saturday. The girls once again worked on building a snowman together. The snow wasn't exactly ideal for packing and rolling, but we all did our best. When the face wouldn't stay on the snowman and I decided to go inside for a bit, a snowball fight resulted.

Sometimes these girls can be pretty ruthless with each other, but as I watched them through the window I realized they were actually enjoying this. Each one was taking part and really having a good time.

You can begin to see the look on Maisy's face though when she began to lose her temper a bit. I'm not sure if it's because she had noticed that I was watching and taking pictures of this. She came running up to me after this to tattle on her older sister. I reminded her how much fun she had been having and she snapped right out of that grumpy mood, luckily. I wish it was always so easy.

Here's a few more pictures from a couple years back of my two older girls and their snow creations. I had a huge supply of dum-dums and wanted to get rid of them. They were so easy to use to decorate the snowman.

Maisy added a plastic bowl to his head and said he was an astronaut.

And Lou made a snow worm. He is a happy little fella.

Does it snow where you are? What ways do you and your children like to play in the snow?

Here are some fun ideas of "snow play" without real snow:

Monday Madness 15

2012-01-08T23:06:00.004-07:00

It's been a week trying to get back into the swing of normal life after the holidays. It has flown by and I must admit, I have been feeling a little burned out. My creativity level has been very low . . . And then I read through all the posts that were linked up last week. I am feeling rejuvenated and ready to go this week thanks to all of you who shared on this linky party. Here are some of my favorites from last week:

Happy Whimsical Hearts made these fun sprout heads. Head on over to see what plants she has grown.

Toddler Approved shared a fun game to play to get some of that cabin-fever energy out.

Dinosaurs and Octopuses made this great dimensional snowman- but you'll have to hop on over there to see what they used.

If you have been featured here go ahead and grab the "featured at" button from my side bar!

And don't forget to go and see what my co-host Art for Little Hands is featuring this week.

Feel free to add this button if you are submitting:

Watercolor Snowflake Resist Art

2012-01-04T04:49:00.002-07:00

I had this grand idea {I thought} to use up some old gouache that had been sitting in my art drawer for quite a while. I bought this gouache several years ago when I actually had time to do a little of my own art. I was introduced to it in my calligraphy class I took in college. It is similar to watercolor, but produces a more opaque finish than watercolor.

I thought we would do resist art snowflakes using electrical tape. I seem to have an abundance of the stuff lately and have noticed that it doesn't stick to paper very well and might peel off the paper with less damage.

I let the kids put their own tape on so this is how their snowflakes started out.

Mina did not want to put hers in any particular shape so I just let her do it her way. And she is loving the color red lately so she only wanted to paint with that color.

Maisy designed her snowflake shape on her own, I think she based it on the crystal snowflakes we made recently.

Here's how they looked once the girls were done painting. We let them dry before peeling the tape off.

The finished products:

Of course, I had to do my own to let my vision of the resist art snowflake become reality.

Do you find yourself participating in your children's art projects?

Monday Madness 14

2012-01-01T18:10:00.027-07:00

Welcome back to Monday Madness! Art for Little Hands and I are so glad to have you here! I hope you all had a fantastic week of celebrating and playing with your little ones.

Here are some of my favorite posts that were shared last time, and be sure to go and check out what my co-host is featuring today as well.

How did Teaching 2 and 3 year olds do this stamping?

Go check it out!

The Golden Gleam has a great article and upcoming series on why children need to play.

Carrots are Orange showed us how even the youngest of toddlers can make a masterpiece like this one. Hop on over to go and check it out!

If you have been featured here go ahead and grab the "featured at" button from my side bar!

Feel free to add this button if you are submitting:

Best of 2011: my kids' favorite and blog hop

2012-01-01T12:13:00.003-07:00

2011 has been a wonderfully creative and active year for me and my girls. Since starting this blog in May, we have all grown so much creatively and had so much fun together doing it. I asked my two oldest girls what their favorite thing was that we had done this year and they both agreed that making these dollhouses out of shoe boxes was the most memorable:

These were made at the beginning of November and are still getting a fair share of my girls' play time. If there is one thing that we have learned this year, it has been to reuse and upcycle our junk.

What was your favorite creative activity you did this year? Be sure to link it up here on this blog hop and check out these other fantastic blogs who will be joining in:

AngeliqueFelix.com, The Golden Gleam, hands on : as we grow,Toddler Approved, Red Ted Art, The Iowa Farmer’s Wife, The Outlaw Mom Blog, Mama Pea Pod, Come Together Kids, Creative With Kids, Science sparks, Mama Smiles, Rainy Day Mum, teach mama, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, The Imagination Tree, JDaniel Fours Mom, Teach Preschool, De tout et de rien: Activités pour le Préscolaire, Tinkerlab, Crayon Freckles, Sun Hats & Wellie Boots, From Tantrums To Treasure Hunts, My Creative Family, Classified: Mom, Puddles and Gumboots, Art For Little Hands, Creative Connections for Kids, At home with Ali, Nurturestore, The Chocolate Muffin Tree,Critters and Crayons, The Mommies Made Me Do It, Mommy Labs

Go ahead and link up just ONE favorite post from this past year. If more than one is linked up, it will need to be deleted so that the hop will not become overwhelming.

Building with marshmallows

2011-12-30T04:38:00.002-07:00

For one of our activities counting down to Christmas, we pulled out some marshmallows and toothpicks. We had never done this before, but I had seen it here and thought it would be a fun wintery activity since the marshmallows are white and fluffy just like snow.

I started out sticking the marshmallows and toothpicks together to get the girls' imaginations going.

Mina loved making a spiky ball...

She is very happy with her little creation.

Then Mina and Lou began working together. I love to see them help each other out and the rare times when this help is actually accepted on both sides.

Together they were able to create this cool snake.

Lou's little marshmallow snowman.

The snowman now has a little friend.

Maisy and I made a little house and these 4-legged marshmallow creatures that had a nice conversation.

Have your kids tinkered with marshmallows? What creations do they come up with?

Christmas themed pictionary

2011-12-22T05:17:00.004-07:00

I thought I would share one last Christmas activity we did before signing off until after Christmas. This is something that can easily be pulled out to be worked on while parents are getting things ready for the big day.

For day 14 of the Creative Christmas Countdown, Laura at Art for Little Hands shared three fun drawing games to play with a Christmas theme. We decided we would try pictionary first. It was fun to see how each of my girls played along being only 7, 5 and nearly 3.

I had written down several Christmas-themed words on strips of paper and had the girls take turns drawing them out of a tray. My 7-year-old could play completely on her own which was fun for her. I was able to whisper into the other girls' ear what they were supposed to draw.

I didn't have an easel, but thought it would be fun to roll out our big roll of paper and just play it on the floor. Each girl took a turn drawing their word while the rest of us guessed. It was fun to see such a fun variety of drawings.

We got about half way through the strips taking turns and guessing and then the girls just wanted one new word strip after another to keep drawing without having anyone guess. It turned out to be a fun night for us.

One fun thing was to watch Mina draw. Her first thing to draw was the 3 wise men. So with every subsequent word, she drew the 3 wise men. Here she is working on what was her third set of wise men.

Once we were done we had a lovely sheet of Christmas drawings. I think I may use some of this for wrapping paper, and save the rest to pull out next year.