Day 164: Paper Airplanes

Why didn't I think of paper airplanes before today?  I mean, really, how simple, and FUN!  I only know how to fold 1 type of paper airplane- you know, the kind that you fold in half long way, then fold 2 edges together in the center, give it "wings" by folding the long edges over an inch and flying it.  They have a tendency to either fly straight up and crash or sort of flip over and not do much.  Iris made her own airplane too, then she wanted to "cut it" for some reason, so, her plane just sort of flipped and flopped and fell over.  Unfortunately, no pics of Iris' plane, because we re-used it by accident when mike got home to make more planes.  Thankfully, Mike knows more about paper airplane making than I do, so he made a few.  And the girls had a lot of fun soaring them through the house.  Penny just took a piece of paper, folded it in 4s and threw it around the dining room... yup, that's penny!

ok, i told the girls to put Mike's planes on the table, but they aren't there, so you get a pic of my purple plane and Penny's orange plane... how does one go about appropriately photographing a paper airplane?  Because I know i did not do it well!

Day 148: Princess Dream Castle, take 2

Ah, today was a much bigger success than yesterday!  I started off by giving the kids each a piece of construction paper and paper punches as I glued the walls and towers together.  As you can see, they are just tubes of construction paper, and i literally just placed the cones on top, they aren't held on by anything.

After the castle was constructed, we spent a good deal of time gluing the pieces the girls cut out all over the castle.  Mike even got involved.  At some point, they began calling it their "dream castle" so, it stuck.  When we were completely done, they each got to choose a glitter glue pen and I wrote their names on the sides of the castle and on the front, we named it "Dream Castle" haha.

Very Girly!

But, to hold you over, this is the risk you run of doing craft with the big girls while the baby is awake:

Day 138: Paper Tube Airplanes

Another craft I can not take credit for... yet again, pinterest.  However, this was cute and something the kids found fun too, especially since they are so enamored with airplanes.

The original instructions called for using finger paints to paint the tubes a solid color, i really didn't want to get the finger paints out, so we used markers, which worked well, just the kids aren't old enough to completely cover a canvas (so to speak) in marker.

After they colored their tubes as much as they wanted, we cut 1 1/2 inch strips of construction paper for the wings.  The rear wing/tail, was simply creased to make the upward fin thing.  We applied glue and here are the girls' airplanes.  oddly, Penny's is the purple and pink one and Iris' is the blue one... go figure!

Days 135 and 136: Turtles

I saw this idea on Pinterest (i think?) a few days ago.  Basically, you take an oval roaster, paint it green and turn it into a turtle shell.  Well, i decided to take it one step further and make turtle masks as well.  The girls LOVED them.  Iris wants to wear hers for Halloween.  Let me tell you, if she still wants to wear this in October, it will be a $2 craft WELL worth it!!!!

All in all, it was a very easy craft, just LONG.  First, we had to paint the "shells" green, which by far took the longest.  Do NOT attempt a craft like this on carpet, I am SO thankful that we have hardwood because not only did Iris knock her paint on the floor and I had to clean it up, but Penny dropped hers on the ground and instead of picking it up or telling me, she stepped in it and walked all over the dinning room/kitchen!  Gah, that child sometimes!!!

One the shells were dry, I used a small pairing knife and cut hols on the side walls for ribbon to go through.  Then I simply fed the ribbon through and tied a knot to keep it in place- instant turtle shell!!

Part two of this craft was to make the turtle masks.  They were simple, but time consuming, green construction paper and an accent color for the bandanna.  Iris chose red, Penny chose Orange- after they both originally asked for Pink, go figure! Simply cut out an oval face, draw a smile and a nose with black marker, then glue the bandanna across where the eyes will go, cut out eye holes and punch a small hole for some string to hold it on.  Tie a knot in your string and done! I am not an artist, so the masks are a little um, wonky if you will.  Maybe I'll enlist Garvin next time I need to do something like this :-p

Penny wanted to wear her shell to bed tonight, i think it was a hit! haha

Days 119/120

The days are getting longer and nicer, I can see that blogging is quickly taking a backseat to everything else we are doing... like repairing/replacing our lawn mower.  (know anyone with a good lawn mower for under $100, let us know!!)

Day 119:

Yesterday, I finished up the fish crafts with the girls.  Each time I give them free reign to design as they see fit, it makes me wonder more and more when they will "get" where pieces belong... like a mouth, fin, and tail fin should not all be in the center of a fish... but hey, they enjoy it, so really, in the end, that is all that counts.

The Fish:

Day 120:

Remember a few weeks ago, when we decided to plant some seeds and see if they grew?  Well, have they ever grown!  Today, I finally decided that the time had come to transplant two of our squash seedlings into their permanent homes... very large planters next to the deck..

Mike helped the girls pour the dirt, and he allowed them to break the clumps of dirt up, and then helped them plant the squash seedlings.  After they were planted, the girls and I watered them and with a hope and a prayer, they will be just as happy in their new, larger, homes and grow just as well, if not better, than they did before!  Hopefully in about 2.5 months, we will have some summer squash... now lets hope it doesn't decide to freeze one night, because those pots are not coming in the house!

(sorry for the low picture quality.. cell phone camera + night= bad pictures)

Day 119: Coffee Filter Fish part 1

Well, we are revisiting the coffee filters.  I found a ton of crafts I wanted to try with them yesterday, so here we are, making coffee filter fish!

I gave the girls coffee filters and markers and told them to have fun.  The colored quite a bit, lots of scribbles, lots of colored hands :-p  I made spirals and stripes, just to see what happened when I spritzed it with water. .. Water, that is where part 1 of 2 comes in.

It was such a beautiful evening today, that we took the girls to the park to fly their planes, and for Mike to fly his RC plane.  But, that brought us home late, so Mike bathed Coraline while I did craft with Iris and Penny. At the very end, I filled the water bottle up and spritzed mine with water, I failed to account for the fact that my water bottle is an industrial sized thing that sprays about an oz of water per squeeze (ok, maybe i'm exaggerating a bit, but it definitely doesn't "mist" it downpours on things :-p) Well, when it was already 8 p.m. and I doused my filter in water, and the girls both wanted theirs sprayed too, I knew then that I would not be able to put the fish together with them tonight.  It was just going to have to wait, because our coffee filters could have been rung out!

Once bath was over, I finished making one of my fish just to have a pattern for the girls to see tomorrow, so here is what you will see tomorrow, hopefully x 2 or 3 hehe.

Day 113: Crafting After Dark

Ok, so 7:00 isn't really AFTER dark, but it is a solid 45 minutes after the girls' normal bedtime.  But, tonight was a special night, and it was just us girls home, so I made it a special craft.  To celebrate/commemorate (?) the meteor showers last night and tonight, we made our own constellations!

I came up with this idea because the girls have been FASCINATED with my telescope that we just found buried in the basement, and I decided that it would be cool to let them see stars, since they are always in bed before dark.  I laid out a big piece of polyester batting on the dining room table and gave the girls each a piece of construction paper.  I put an assortment of double pointed knitting needles on the table for them, and told them to poke holes in the paper with the needles.

We spent probably 15 or 20 minutes poking holes in the paper.  I wrote each one of their names and made shapes (even the big dipper!) on my piece of paper.  When we were done, we took our construction paper up to our closet (again, the only place in our house that doesn't have windows lol) and grabbed Mike's MagLite.  I turned off the lights, shut the door, and put the paper over the flashlight.  Instant constellations on the ceiling of our closet.  We spent some time finding the different shapes, their names, moving the paper up and down, back and forth, just to see what changed on the ceiling.  Then we put each of their pictures over the flashlight.  Of course, we couldn't do a craft about stars without singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Honestly, I think it was probably one of the more special crafts, at least for me, that we have done to date.

I am sure there is a camera out there that could have taken a picture of the "stars" on our ceiling without totally washing everything out, but my camera is not one of them, so you will just have to use your imaginations to think of what our constellations looked like on our closet ceiling :)

Day 98: Flower cutouts

So, a few months ago, I saw this really cute paper punch craft done with paint samples from a hardware store.  I had been thinking about it and thinking about it, and thought it would be a super easy, fun craft to do with the girls.  On Friday, we went to Jo-Ann's and picked out a paper punch (daisy) that they liked, and then on Saturday, after making our bird houses, we went to the paint department and they picked out paint swatches that they liked.

That is where it went south.  I didn't quite know where to go with this craft.  The picture I had seen, they had used a brown paper back as a gift bag for someone, well I had no need for a paper bag, and I had no real direction to go.  Mike suggested just gluing them onto a piece of green construction paper, but we had a lot of green paint swatches, so I went with black.

I really wanted to make something as well, but I spent the entire time punching daisies out so that Iris could hoard them only to pile them all up on her paper at the last possible second and declare craft "done".  Penny did actually enjoy gluing her pieces on the construction paper.  I got a P glued on before the kids lost total interest and craft was effectively OVER.

Day 95: Butterflies

why is it that ALL over Ohio it was 50-60 degrees today, but in Cleveland it only hit 41??? Have I ever mentioned that I hate Cleveland?  Oh well, we had a lot of shopping to do today and then we came home still needed to do craft while dinner was in the oven.  Iris had asked to make "circle" butterflies a few weeks ago- are we noticing a trend with Iris' craft requests yet???- and I saw these really cute toilet paper roll butterflies on Pinterest earlier this week and thought that they would be PERFECT for a craft, and it fit the "circle" butterfly request.

I have been trying to break in all of our new craft supplies that I got this week- I don't think I told you all this, but I got a gift certificate to Fat Brain Toys, and I stocked up on craft supplies and musical instruments for the kids.  We got a big coloring book, new construction paper, new paint brushes, watercolors, finger paint paper, doodle paper, and maybe one or two other things, as well as some bells, and other musical instruments.  Needless to say, we have been having a lot of fun this week!

Today, my handy paper cutter was the perfect tool for the job.  All i did was slice a 4" piece of construction paper to wrap around the tubes, then four 2" pieces for the wings.  Then we used the super tiny (1/8" i think?) hole punch that I have, to make a spot for the antennas, and used a glue stick to stick everything together.  We fed half of a pipe cleaner into each of the punched holes, wrapped the tops around our fingers and then made faces on them.  Penny wanted nothing to do with craft until I had my butterfly done, at which point she decided it was HER butterfly lol.  Iris did all of hers herself, with the exception of wrapping the paper around the body.  I was really proud of her artistic license with this craft.  And I am SO proud of her artistic ability today!

I threw in a picture that Iris drew today of a Crocodile wearing a hat.  I don't know that I could have drawn a crocodile that well!!!  I have some budding artists on my hands :)

Day 18- Rainbows

I asked Iris what she wanted to make today, and she immediately asked to make a rainbow.  How much easier could a craft be than rainbows?  Construction paper, cotton balls, and glue: check, check, and check. Better yet, I knew where EVERYTHING was! (Double check! haha)
Of course, nothing is every THAT simple when you're talking about a craft with a 2 1/2 and almost 4 year old.. I wanted to just rip pieces of construction paper, glue them down, stick some cotton balls, on the ends, and DONE.   But, little pieces of paper, glue, and penny just don't mix.  So, I ripped paper for Iris and I and cut various sized 1/2 circles for Penny.  Then all she had to do was take the glue stick, slap some glue on it, and stick it to the paper.  That would be easy right?  Except she wanted NOTHING to do with craft time today.

So, Iris and I sat at the table and glued little pieces of paper in the shape of a rainbow.  She was REALLY into it.  Once we had the paper glued, we stuck the pulled cotton balls on the ends of the rainbow.  Then, Iris decided that she had to have a cotton ball on the "head" of the rainbow, so this is what she was left with.  She was proud of her rainbow though, because as soon as +Mike Lustig walked in the door, she ran to show him.

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 6- BIRTHDAY TIME!

And, it's already time for the first birthdays of the year.  Mike's sisters both have a birthday on January 10th, so logically we made birthday cards today, the first of MANY I am sure!  Divide and conquer: one kid for one aunt, one for the other, one adult helping each.  Boy, having that extra set of hands really makes it nice- especially when Penny FREAKS out about everything, I know three doesn't get any better, but this two stuff is for the birds!  I keep hoping that she will get it through her head that screaming and yelling aren't going to do anything productive for us!  But, alas, we still end up with a temper tantrum almost every craft day.

Anyway, I digress, we made cards today, and overall, they turned out really well.  I am already starting to be able to use scraps and left overs from other projects, though I am still buying stuff.   Today's big purchase was a "medium" hole punch to finish the eyes of the owls.  It came in handy for the birthday cards.  Iris is really thriving on making paper crafts.  She is learning how to use scissors now and really enjoyed punching holes in paper.

I am so thankful that my wonderful husband bought me all this crafting stuff for Christmas!  Googly eyes, sequin, beads, pipe cleaners, a paper cutter (which I got to use today, and I LOVE it!), pom poms, ribbon, and much more.  It has come in such handy already, though I am sure that I will be emptying my supply much quicker than I care to imagine this year.  I have a 25% off EVERYTHING purchase @ JoAnns and a 50% off coupon for this week, so, time to hit up the crafting store this week!! :)

   

 The final products, pretty happy with them, honestly!

Peace, Love, and Crafting!

Day 3, a day late.. oops

Well, I failed, a day late on my post, but we DID craft yesterday.  Actually, it was a lot of fun, save the total meltdown Penny had because I wouldn't let her pour the paint :/  Once she got that out of her system, she loved "smashing" the paint.

The Set Up, so clean given what we were doing!

We painted suns, by simply cutting a white circle out of paper, pouring red, yellow, and orange paint randomly on the paper, covering it with plastic wrap and "smashing" and "pushing" the paint around until all of the white paper was covered.  After the paper was totally colored, we pulled the saran off (ok, I did, VERY carefully, and QUICKLY disposed of it in the trash!)  Then, I gave the girls each a toothpick, told them to stick the tooth pick into some paint that I poured onto their plates, and to make "Rays."  I put Rays in quotes because we are talking about a two and three year old.  Penny had a different idea about where the suns rays are.

 But, in the end, I think I can say the turned out awesome.  I love how they each turned out.  I wish Iris hadn't gotten tired 3/4 of the way around the sun, because I still like her sun more than mine.  I love Penny's abstract sun, it looks like the sun is letting off flares.  Mine seems boring in comparison.

I hope that missing yesterday's blog didn't ruin me for the year!  But, I kept up the main part of the goal, I made an art project with the kids!!  The idea for this project came from: http://mrskarensclass.blogspot.jp/2012/01/lets-fly-to-moon-or-jupiter.html with the help of my friend Patty.  Loved they link, THANK YOU!!!