Summer Craft Project & Happy Birthday

Once a week I do a craft project with my nephew and niece, while my niece was a little too young for this project my nephew was really into it.

It is my wife's birthday today and I thought a macaroni necklace would be a fun lacing and pattern project for him.

I let him pick out the dry noodles he wanted to use and he picked two colors of food coloring. My nephew picked 10 noodles and placed 5 into two separate zip lock bags. Then I poured a little rubbing alcohol into each bag and about 5 drops of food color. Make sure the noodles are covered in the rubbing alcohol and food color mixture. We let it sit about 15 minutes, the longer it sits, the darker the colors will be. I drained the liquid into the sink and placed the wet noodles on paper towels to dry. To make sure they were dry, we let them sit for 1 hour.

I then let my nephew pick out the string he wanted to use, out of everything I had (yarn, ribbon and string), and he picked a really nice ribbon.

So this is his final creation, a beautiful pink and purple necklace for his aunt's birthday.

And a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful wife.

Last Minute Father's Day Card Project

Father's Day is tomorrow and here is a unique way for the kids to make their dad, grandpa or any special man in their life a special card. I wanted to do something special with my niece and nephew for their dad. A card is nice, but i wanted something a little different. I made salt dough (the kids helped to mix the dough), and they made hand print impressions into the dough. We cooked it and waited about two hours for it to cool. I painted the entire thing white and then let the kids select a paint color to color the imprint of their hand. This is such a cool and unique gift for dad. Since the back of the hand print is flat, use a marker to write a special greeting to that special person from the child. If the child is too young to write, like my niece and nephew I let them color on paper and when they were done, I used the sheets they colored as wrapping paper for their greetings.

Great project to do with the kids today, and one that dad will love.

Finished painted project

Salt Dough Recipe

Heat oven to 225 Degrees

1. Make the salt dough recipe (recipe at bottom of this post). Mix the dough with your hands, it will not be sticky, just knead until smooth.

2. Roll the dough out on wax paper. With a heart cookie cutter cut out heart shapes. I let my niece and nephew make little imprints with their fingers, kids can also write their name in the dough with a toothpick. And then poke a hole near the top with a straw.

3. Place the hearts on a cookie sheet and place into the oven. They should cook for about 50-60 minutes. Once hard they are done.

4. Let cool for at least an hour. Kids can paint them, and even add some glitter if they want. After they have dried, tie a piece of ribbon or yarn through the top for a homemade Valentine's Day decoration.

Butterfly Art Project

Here is a fun project to do with kids of any age, but really the young kids love this one. It's so simple you only need a few items:

• Clothespin for each child
• Washable markers
• Coffee filter, one for each child
• Magnets, one for each butterfly
• Glue

Kids can get creative with this and there really is no way to mess this project up. Give each child a plain coffee filter and let them color it with the markers. They can add as may colors as they want and the entire coffee filter does not even need to be colored. When the coffee filter is how they would like it take it to a sink and wet it with a little water. The water will make the markers run and in turn give the coffee filter a beautiful color. Lay the coffee filter out to dry on some paper towels. When it is dry attach the coffee filter to the top of the clothespin, and attach with glue (hot glue works best). After that has dried let the kids draw some eyes onto the butterfly. Then if you would like glue a magnet to the bottom of the butterfly. This is such a great project for any child; it would even work for a project at a kid’s birthday party.

Simple, fun and creative.

Happy Birthday

14 years ago today my wife gave birth to our beautiful daughter Julia. Where does the time go? We made a really beautiful cake today for her and got a little creative with decorating it. Not bad for a box of cake mix and frosting. Happy Birthday Julia, we love you.

Mom & Dad Visit

My parents finally visited us this week from California, and it was such a nice visit. They got really lucky, since just a few days before they arrived we had temp's in the mid 80's, and then once they were here our temp's dropped to the 60's.

My dad, wife and my mom.  Feb. 2012

My dad, me and my mom

My dad, my wife Michelle and me

 

Valentine's Day Craft

The first of February is this week, so why not start a Valentine's Day craft project with the kids. This is also a great project for teachers to do with students in their class. If you are a teacher, just bake the hearts ahead of time at home.

Heat oven to 225 Degrees

1. Make the salt dough recipe (recipe at bottom of this post). Mix the dough with your hands, it will not be sticky, just knead until smooth.

2. Roll the dough out on wax paper. With a heart cookie cutter cut out heart shapes. I let my niece and nephew make little imprints with their fingers, kids can also write their name in the dough with a toothpick. And then poke a hole near the top with a straw.

3. Place the hearts on a cookie sheet and place into the oven. They should cook for about 50-60 minutes. Once hard they are done.

4. Let cool for at least an hour. Kids can paint them, and even add some glitter if they want. After they have dried, tie a piece of ribbon or yarn through the top for a homemade Valentine's Day decoration.

Fun for kids of any age.

Salt Dough Recipe

1 cup of fine salt
1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of water (may add more)

Around The World In One Minute

I love this video. This guy shot one second of video for every place he visited and edited this short 1 minute video. Very cool.