Easy Easter Sign

So hard to believe that Easter is right around the corner. Hover the past 3 weeks I have been working on a project with my niece and nephew for this beautiful time of year.

Items needed:

Wood (or cardboard)

Glue

White paper with a rabbit pattern

Cotton balls

Glitter (any color will work)

String (yarn, ribbon, or string)

I had two small pieces of wood line around I thought would be fun to use for small project.  A few days before I worked on the project with the kids I painted wood black to help make the project that we were going to do stand out a little better.  

After the wood was painted I had the kids each pick out a color of glitter that they really enjoyed luckily I have a huge selection of Martha Stewart glitter but any glitter color work for this, once they pick out the colors I wrote in glue Happy Easter and then they were able to sprinkle glitter onto that part.  

Next I printed out some egg patterns in addition to two plain rabbits I also put out some plain white paper to let the kids choose what they want to color.  I was lucky that the kids each chose rabbits and I let them glue the rabbits and then we added cotton balls on top of the rabbits to make it look like fur. Glue is fun and my two kids really loved it, so our project took a while to dry.  Once the glue dried and the cotton balls secure, the kids drizzled some more glitter on top of the cotton balls.  And the sprinkled whatever color the wanted.  Then the rabbits were glued to the wood.  I used twine to hang our Easter decoration, but you can use anything such as yarn, string or ribbon.

This was such a cute project, even if you don't have any wood, use cardboard.

Happy Easter!!

Halloween Window Decoration

I hang up a skeleton in my kitchen window that lights up from the kitchen light in the evening. My nephew loves it, so I told him we could make one for his window that is similar.

Items needed:

-wax paper

-orange paint and a paint brush

-scissors

-an optional item is glitter

Lay out some old newspaper on the table just in case the wax paper has a tear in it.  Then lay out a long strip of wax paper.  I squirted some paint onto the wax paper and the kids painted the wax paper. Believe it or not, but the kids spent 20 minutes painting the wax paper.  I then let them sprinkle some glitter on the paint.  It took about 2 hours for the paint to dry.  Depending on the kids ages, either they can cut out a pumpkin shape or you can help them with it.  If you want you can even cut out a mouth and eyes.  These look great taped to your windows, you can see them during the day and night they create a spooky silhouette.

Happy Halloween

Easy Sock Puppet Craft

I wanted to create something fun today that inspired the kids imagination.  So I came up with sock puppets, and the night before got a whole bunch of art supplies together that that the kids could use, such as yard, buttons, felt, markers and so much more.

I put a piece of cardboard inside the sock so any glue or marker would not go through.  I cut a slit in the top of the sock as you can see above.  When the kids are done decorating the sock cut an oval piece of cardboard, fold it in half and glue the sock to the cardboard.  This will be where the kids make the mouth move.  The inside of the "mouth" can be colored or glue some felt on it (see picture below).

The kids had a good time working on this and they spent about 30 minutes decorating it.  Depending on how much glue you use, it could take up to 4 hours to dry.

Butterfly Craft For Spring

Spring is a great time to explore nature with the little ones, and after a walk exploring nature why not let the kids learn about the life cycle of butterflies and make one to remember their nature walk.

I printed out a butterfly life cycle chart that kids could color, after we talked about the life cycle I let the kids color a coffee filter, which would become the butterflies wings.  It's up to the kids, but the wings can be colored with paint, crayons, markers or even chalk.  Then attach the wings to a clothespin.

Something fun that I did for my niece and nephew was that I got an empty toilet paper roll and used that as the butterflies cocoon.  Without the kids knowing what I did with the empty toilet paper roll, I placed the finished butterfly in the roll and wrapped it in paper.  We took another walk outside and talked about the life cycle and tried to find some butterflies, when we got back inside, I let the kids find the cocoon and open it to find their finished butterfly.

Such a great learning experience for kids of all ages.  Happy spring.

Ghost Decoration

I usually try and do one craft a week with the little ones. I had an old pillowcase cut it in three equal pieces, with one of the pieces I cut that one in half. My nephew took one of the bigger pieces as the main part of the ghosts body and took one of the smaller pieces and formed it into a ball to use as the ghosts head. Then he wrapped the bigger piece around the smaller one and I connected it with a zip tie. With my help we made a face on the ghost. This was a cute project that made two ghosts out of one old pillowcase. Now if you have an old sheet you can create a giant ghost for your front yard.