Day 124: Sea Life Paper Plates

We had a lot of fun making these sea creature paper plates today.  My MIL managed to find these adorable paper plate crafts somewhere (as you have probably noticed, she has found a lot, and we love them all!) and they are ideal for the girls.  We started out making the octopi, it was a little complicated, just because of the number of pieces, 8 strands of tentacles, eyes (three pieces total), then all the "spots" on the faces, the mouths, then the crown ,and the 3 jewels, there was just a lot to put on, but they both did great!  I especially loved Iris', it was so incredibly detailed, and she was so thoughtful about how she put it together. :)

After that, Iris wanted to make a Crab like I had made which was MUCH easier.  A little glue, 6 legs, 2 eyes, and the 2 black dots for the eyes and the mouth were sticky backed.  (i love that her crab has its arms raised, such a cute little touch :) )

Mike made the shark, quite possibly the CUTEST, happiest shark ever!

As promised, we are home now, so here are the pictures of the crafts from the weekend, starting with our twig ribbons and ending with the Planter Pots.

(something is up with the coloring on these pictures because they are REALLY green)

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 92: Whoa, blogger change!

What the heck?  The layout of Blogger changed overnight!!! haha, oh well, same basic set up, just looks really different.

We had such a wonderful day today, I REALLY needed the fun that we had too.  For the last week, my life (and Mike's) has revolved around Coraline.  Making sure that she has meds on time, making sure her fingers are out of her mouth, making sure that she is taking enough fluids, getting enough food, etc etc etc.  Today, Mike's mom called and asked if we wanted to go to Lodi Outlets for lunch and shopping.  Part of me, was hesitant, but the "I need to do something fun" won out.  I loaded the kids up in the car and went down.  I have to say i am SO happy that I did!  Coraline was fine, she even napped while we were on the train.  But, spending the entire day out of the house really ate into craft time.  And, that left me coming home at 5:15, looking through my craft drawers for something to make.
The second drawer I opened i found these little stick things that Mike bought me for Christmas.  Even he told me at the time that he had no idea what we would do with them, but that he thought they were cute.  I figured with some markers, some foam stickers, and a few pom-poms and they could be a really fun craft for the girls.  Very personalized, and individual for them.  Something to really let their imaginations and creativity run free.
We used a TON of glue, but here is what we ended up with!  I think it was a great craft for the girls, it kept their interest and they enjoyed it.

Day 25- Birthday Cakes

Well, We are coming close to the end of Birthday Theme week.  Tomorrow, we won't be doing a birthday craft, we will be at the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh, BUT they have an amazing craft room.  I am really looking forward to going in there with the girls being a year older.  They LOVE the museum and I have been anticipating this day since I decided to do "Craft Year".  There are SO many crafts there that we are going to have a blast.  I can promise, MANY pictures tomorrow.  I will have a hard time picking which to use, I am sure!

So, back to today.  I wanted to make foam cupcakes, but Iris informed me "We already did cupcakes this week!" so, we made foam birthday cakes.

Supplies:

1) craft foam
2) glue

Can't be much easier than that, right?

I know that the girls are so into Princesses right now, that I bought blue foam, pink and white glitter foam, and princess themed stickers.  How much more princess could we get???? Ok, well, I guess I could have gotten purple foam instead of blue haha.  But, It worked better to use the blue foam because the princess themed stuff would have been really hard to see on top of purple "cake".

I simply cut a piece of foam in half, then made icing out of the white glitter foam.  And let the girls go.  They both practiced using Elmer's glue today, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well Penny did.  Iris was a little heavy handed and had a lot of glops of glue.  When I give Penny a blank canvas, she has a blast, as you can see, she still loves to "color" and "marker."  At a certain point, I just say "go for it kid" and let her be.

Iris really enjoyed putting stickers on her cake.  She wanted to cover the ENTIRE thing in stickers, but I finally, after a LOT of convincing, talked her into leaving it like it is because it would be too hard see what she put on it if she covered it ALL in stickers.  I love the top of it, she insists that it is "Santa" it isn't "santa's house" or "the north pole" it is "Santa" :)  I love my kiddos so much!

On a side note, I picked up Iris' birthday cake tonight, and OMG!  I hope that we have an ARMY coming to her birthday because this cake weighs about 25 pounds!!!!!  Tomorrow's blog will be late because we have a CRAZY day planned!

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.