Days 139/140: Bangles and Bath

Sorry about yesterday, I didn't think about blogging until late.  Mike yelled at me about it, so I guess we're good :-p

We made toilet paper tube bracelets.  They were so simple and a lot of fun.  All I did was take about a 1/2 inch slice of tubing out straight down the center, then i cut each roll into 6 bracelets.  The girls then chose 3 colors of paint and painted their bracelets.  Once they were dry, we decorated them with beads/googly eyes/gems etc.  Whatever they wanted out of the craft box was fair game.

here is what we ended up with, they are really cute.

Today, we brought back an old bath craft.  Remember the one we did a few months ago where the kids got to use the foam and decorate the bathtub with it?  Well, I brought that one back, mainly because we were sooo strapped for time.  We were out of the house ALL day, and got home in time for the girls to eat a few bites of a grilled cheese and get to bath.  It had been awhile, and I knew that they had fun last time.  This time though, their designs were so much more cohesive.  They needed no direction or instructions and they had a lot of fun.  I was proud of them!

Call it cheating, but hey, at the Greenhouse today, they did chalk, they flew kites, played with bubbles, today was full of all sorts of different enrichment so I was ok with bringing back an old craft.

Day 133: Sun Catcher

So, I must give credit where credit is due:  First, to my friend Susie who found this picture and reposted it on Facebook yesterday, and second to Courtney Luper (whom I do not know), that originally posted it to her facebook page.

So, instructions:

Sun Catchers!

So simple! Layer cheap plastic beads in cake pans (no lining required)
Heat oven to 400 and place cake pans on medium shelf. Bake for 20 minutes
Let cool & then just flip them out.
Drill a hole in it to make it a suncatcher! Great "craft" for kids (choose the colors, arrange them in the pans) to make as gifts for grandparents or teachers. You could use smaller ones as coasters. These look like glass but they are not breakable!

NOTE: Keep windows open for good ventilation

 

Yup, that's it... Mike got me a HUGE container of beads at JoAnns for Christmas, and we have used them here or there, but I still had the VAST majority left.  Well, i can honestly say, not any more.  We used most of them today.  But, we have beautiful sun catchers to show for our hard work!

We used 9 inch, non-stick pie pans and I told the girls to just fill the bottom of their pans with beads.  Easy, and surprisingly clean.  Once they were full, i forgot to taken pictures of this step, of course, I stuck them in a 400* oven, and then remembered after about 8 minutes that i didn't take pictures, so i took a picture as they started to melt :-p  After about 20ish minutes, they were melted enough, and 1 bead in one pan was starting to burn, so I pulled them out.  After about five minutes they were cool enough to flip out of the pans.  And all it took was a tip and they just slipped right out of the pan and onto the cooling rack.  After about another five minutes, they were done!

I won't have to drill holes because we only did a single layer and each girls' sun catcher has a couple of places right near the edge that is a small void of melted bead.  I'll just string a piece of fishing line through there and call it.

OPEN YOUR WINDOWS, because dang did it smell! lol
 

Day 132: Train Track Balls

Yup, you read that right.  Train Track Balls.  I am not expecting it to make any sense to anyone, because it doesn't make sense to me, but I feel like this was a HUGE breakthrough for us today.  For at least three days now, Iris has been asking to make Train Track Balls for craft and every day, Mike and I say "what the heck is that?" well, today, Iris asked again.  So I asked her "What do you need to make train track balls?" and she took me to the craft room, and this is how the conversation went:
Iris- Well, a small white circle ball that is in the drawer
Me- You mean a Styrofoam ball?
Iris- Yes, and beads
Me- Square or circle?
Iris- Square.  And we need glue

So, I gathered the supplies and she took me straight to the table and told me that we had to cover the ball in glue and put beads on it.  Well, as you may or may not know, Elmer's glue and styrofoam do not agree very well.  So, we tried that for awhile and the beads would NOT stick.  I ended up giving up for about five minutes, then I decided that I would wrap the ball in paper, glue the paper to the ball and let Iris glue the beads to the paper.  Well, that worked!

Iris took a lot of pride in this one, she used a small paintbrush to paint thin lines of glue on the paper wrapped styrofoam ball, and pressed each bead into the glue so that it stuck well.  This is what we ended up with when it was time for dinner.  I really think that she would have sat there and covered the entire ball with beads if i gave her the time.

But in short, this is a Train Track Ball, created, and executed all by my 4 year old daughter.

Days 115/116

Sorry for the combined post with NO pictures!  Yesterday was one of the longest nights i can remember having!  I ended up driving around for over 3 hours to find a booster seat for Penny for her birthday.  I was so tired by the time I got home at 9:55, that I just didn't have it in me to blog!... the lack of pictures will be explained soon enough!

Lets start with Day 116:

Remember those beads I made last week?  The ones out of the crayola model magic?  Well, they turned out perfectly, so we made bracelets yesterday.  I let the kids use buttons, and beads, and the homemade beads. They sat at the table so nicely, stringing beads onto their craft thread, and they both turned out very nicely.

Iris was so proud of hers, that she wanted to take it to school today to show her teacher.  I allowed her to take it into the van, but made her leave it there, so that it wouldn't get lost.  Well, Penny found it and tore all the homemade beads into little shreds before I realized it.  I was so sad for Iris.  I cleaned up all the traces, and I hope that she just forgets about it, because I know that she will be upset if she finds out Penny broke it. :(

Day 117:

Today, you aren't getting pictures because Iris went CRAZY with glitter glue and every time i touch her craft, i get glitter glue all over me.  So I am going to let it dry first.. like maybe next week :-p

We made Doc McStuffins, Big Books of Boo-Boos today for craft.  It was a lot of fun.  They are REALLY into Doc McStuffins right now, and I've caught them both "writing" in their "big book of boo-boos" and I saw them at Toys R Us today for $7.  I thought that was a little ridiculously, so we came home and made our own.

We used foam for the front and back covers (about 6"x6"), and construction paper cut to the same size, for the pages.  I used a hole punch to poke holes in the covers and the pages so that once they are done, I can string them together and the kids can have a working book.

I put the "Big Book Of Boo-Boos" letters on the back, but they each got to pick their own inside paper color, as well as decorate the front cover.  Again, Iris went OVERBOARD on the glitter glue, i don't know if it will EVER dry at this point :/  Hopefully, pictures will be added to this one before too long!

Day 89: Ama to the rescue!

So, we decided to go up to Great Grandma's house today, and I was thinking "ok, what kind of craft shall we do?" the entire time we were packing up, well, I never got around to gathering craft, and I knew I was going to be kicking myself for that.  But, then, as we were driving up, I remember my mother-in-law mentioning something about having a craft to do with Great Grandma.  So, I said a silent prayer to the craft god and made the 1 hour trek up to Thompson- the first of two Thompson trips this weekend.... i hope gas stations are open tomorrow, because my light has been on for at least 30 miles!

Well, conveniently, Ama did have a craft for today!  She had pretty purple, pink, and red beads as well as alphabet beads for the girls to string.  Each of the girls got a bit of cording, beads, and letters to spell their names and we let them go, stringing them as they saw fit.  Obviously Coraline didn't get to string beads, but Aunt Kathy made her a necklace.  Iris chose to make a bracelet with pink beads and managed to get IRIS in the right order but the R and S are backward :-p  Penny did really well making a purple necklace and managed to only string the E backward.

I THINK the crafts are in the van, but it is 10:02, I am exhausted to go get them and take pictures, and the Easter Bunny just showed up, so I think that is my cue to go to bed.  Hope everyone has a hoppy Easter tomorrow!

Day 8- wishing for warmer weather

Well, we are in the midst of a heat wave.  It was 39 degrees and sunny today!  That got me in a good mood, so as I started thinking about what craft to do today, I decided to do something that would allow Penny and Iris a lot of freedom again.  We made flowers!  Mike is having eye issues, so he was home the second half of the day, and as a treat, we all got to do crafts together.  It is a lot of fun when he is home for Craft time.
Pulling out a nice smattering of crafting supplies really turned into creative flowers.  We used a lot of beads and I finally broke out the hot glue gun, wow is that easier to use than Elmer's Glue! haha.
Mike cut out big flower shapes that the kids, and he, decorated.  I made a decent a dent in our supply of pipe cleaners.  Good thing Mike bought us a LOT for Christmas!

 I am pretty proud of our flowers.  Iris loved the beads, and Penny still loves buttons.  I don't know if i should be offended that Mike mentioned that mine is "The floweriest of the bunch"

Mike's Alien Flower.

Honestly, there isn't much exciting to say about today's craft.  It was enjoyable to spend the time with the family together.  I love watching the girls focus on something so much having so much fun.  tomorrow, Iris starts school again tomorrow.  I feel like she has been off for an eternity now.  But tomorrow also starts my next venture, learning to knit!  Wish me luck :)

Day 7- Creating Memories

I was talking to my sister-in-law last night about this crafting goal for the year.  I was telling her things that I have done, our failure, and my favorite so far.  She happened to mention that one of her more favorite things to do with some of her younger clients is a memory box to put photos in.  Well, that got me thinking, it would be nice for the girls to have something to keep some of their smaller projects in, as well as pictures of the numerous crafts we are going to do this year.  So, ANOTHER trip to JoAnns (which, I needed some stuff to finish these owl invites) and I had everything we would need, plus some.

The fun thing about this project was that it was truly a free for all.  No paint, but everything else was a free for all, stamps, stamp pads, markers, crayons, colored pencils, marbles, peel n stick foam, sequin, beads, nylon cording, wooden stars, pom-poms, you name it, i let them have it!  And Penny LOVED it!  She had so much fun.  I gave her a glue stick and let her go.  One of the only crafts so far that has involved no fits!  She was free to do her own thing, and she loved it.  Iris enjoyed it too, her tendency for lines was blatantly obvious.  She was more willing to ask for help gluing things on, but she was very particular about how she wanted things done.  She wanted specific colors on specific things in specific places.  The kid knows what she likes!

On a side note, I realized today, I am happier than I have been in quite awhile.  I feel inspired and motivated.  I haven't felt like this in a long time.  I walk into some place like JoAnn's, or Pat Catan's, or Michael's, and I want to try new things.  Yes, my life has begun to revolve around crafting.  I am constantly thinking about, planning, scheming about new craft projects.  Pinterest has become my new best friend.  My hands have all but fallen off from punching holes, cutting paper, gluing ridiculously small pieces, pushing brads, etc, but I am happy!  I am loving the amount of quality time I am spending with my kids.  I love how inspired and excited they are EVERY morning.  They talk about their craft project at breakfast every morning.  They talk about it until we make it, and as soon as we do, they can't wait to show Mike.  And once he sees it, talk turns to the next craft.  It has brought us all together as a family, and I love it... though this blog is KILLING my bedtime!  I just hope that maybe, at some point this year, I inspire someone to sit down with their kids/grandkids and make something.