With Spring-like days becoming more and more common, we’ve had some especially blustery days. On a whim, I decided to “try” to make a kite with the girls. It was very spur-of-the-moment and I had no idea how it would turn out, but it ended being a wonderful way to spend our morning.
The photo at the top is the original kite. I took pictures of a step-by-step later using a brown paper bag…both flew just fine, but I think I should have made the width a little longer on the latter.
Materials Paper (I used cardstock and brown paper bag) Scissors 3 Straws Ruler Twine Tape
First I marked the same distance from the corner to either side of the paper (7-8 inches is probably best). Then I used the ruler to meet both marks down to a point. It figures I don’t have a picture of this step…but you’re making a diamond, so I think you can figure it out.
Then I taped two of my straws end to end.
And attached the last straw with tape and twine. Eyeball on your diamond-shape to see where the straws should intersect. Leave a long tail on your twine…this is how you are going to hold your kite.
Tape to your diamond shape….and you have a kite!
Now wait for some good wind to come along and watch your children delight in the physics of nature!
That was Annabelle after my first demonstration of the kite…dying to have a turn!
And the kite DID fly…although it was hard to get a picture.
Of course, nobody wanted to come inside after such a fine morning, so we had a picnic!
And then I pretty much had to drag two very reluctant toddlers inside for their naps.
But, the kites have held up and they still ask for them sometimes when we go outside…we just need some more windy days!
Last week, The Toby Show posted about a domino game she recently purchased for her son and mentioned how easy it would be for someone to recreate it. I’ve been wanting to put something together with textures ever since I saw this, and I happened to already have some pre-cut wooden boards cluttering up my crafting area. So, I set forth to see what other textures I could gather.
It probably took me less than an hour to find the supplies and glue the pieces onto the wood.
For the textures, I used:
red craft foam
green felt
corrugated cardboard
corkboard
rubbery shelf-liner
chenille stems
I just cut the pieces into 2 inch squares and hot-glued them onto the wood….soooo simple!
I only had six boards, but it ended up being just right for my toddler. Enough to be fun without being overwhelming. She can play by herself or with a friend (aka Mommy) and she can finish the game quickly with a feeling of accomplishment. As she gets better and is no longer challenged, I’ll pick up some more wood and add more textures to the mix.
Sandpaper would be nice. Maybe something spongey. Really, there are so many possibilities. Any other ideas?
I came across this activity in a book that I had totally forgotten about until I found it while cleaning up before our trip. The original idea is to make little hats and mark faces on the child’s hand, but I thought a glove would be fun, too!
Here’s the rhyme:
Five little elves trimming the tree
getting Christmas ready for you and me.
The first little elf whose hat was red,
said “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”
The second little elf whose hat was blue
went to hide in Santa’s shoe.
The third little elf whose hat was yellow
went to the kitchen to eat some jello.
The fourth little elf whose hat was green
was sent to his room because he was mean.
The fifth little elf whose hat was purple
was very rude and made a burple!
It’s a silly little number, but it worked out great for both of my wee ones. I use the glove with Charlotte (the little one) and let Annabelle put the little hats on her fingers and take them off as I go through each color.
They both love doing this over and over again and I love it because I can engage both of them in the same activity and know that each child is getting something out of it!
For the hats I cut semi-circles using a play-doh lid as a template (cut circle then cut in half). I used a glue gun on the overlap to make ‘em stick. I also used the glue gun to attach the hats and embroidered faces to the glove.
Here are some more elf poems that you could also use:
This little elf went to the workshop, (point to thumb)
This little elf stayed home, (point to index finger)
This little elf ate a candy cane, (point to middle finger)
This little elf ate none, (point to ring finger)
And this little elf cried, “Ho, Ho, Ho,” (point to little finger)
All the way home!
Five little elves trimming the tree,
Getting ready for Christmas full of glee.
Santa said, “You must help me!”
And one little elf ran from the tree.
Four little elves trimming the tree…
Three little elves trimming the tree…
Two little elf trimming the tree…
One little elf trimming the tree…
Five little elves jumping on a sled, one fell off and bumped his head. Santa called the doctor and the doctor said, “No more elves jumping on the sled.”
Continue counting down to one little elf jumping on the sled.
I know that potato stamping is traditionally a child’s craft, but I’ve also seen some pretty impressive potato stamps out there. With that in mind, I thought that creating a potato stamp for some homemade Christmas cards could be a cheap resourceful and creatively satisfying project.
In case you can’t see it, this is supposed to a star shining over Baby Jesus. After carving it, I envisioned a stack of carefully stamped and thoughtfully composed Christmas cards that would be sent out to our family and closest friends. Upon stamping, however, it became obvious that I had no idea what I was doing. It came out looking terribly gloppy and, well let’s just say Baby Jesus wasn’t exactly looking his best.
What did I do wrong? First, I think I didn’t dry the potato enough before stamping. Second, I didn’t take any precautions to keep the paint on the just the image. I recently saw this video of Martha Stewart making skull potato stamps. In the video, she used a paint applicator which I think would have really helped to keep the print a little cleaner looking. I think my final mistake was not having really clean lines between Jesus and his cradle, so it really just looked like a big blob.
Take 2
My second attempt went much more smoothly. I used a real ink pad instead of paint and carved deep into the potato…probably a good 1/4 inch. I think that made all the difference in the world.
You can see how much cleaner the lines are on my second attempt:
especially when you look at the image.
Potato stamping, and stamping in general, has so many possibilities. I could definitely see myself getting into this more if I had the time to experiment with it in more depth.
If you ever find yourself with a potato in hand and a few moments to spare, go ahead and take a knife to it. It’s more fun than you might think. And, if you’ve read this post (as opposed to just looking at the pictures and moving on) then you should be all set to do it right the first time!
For the past month or so I’ve perused the pages of Etsy, looking for a sturdy Nativity set that could stand up to two toddlers. I wanted something that they could play with, something that would be with us for many years, and something that would be nice to look at…oh…and it had to be affordable (that’s always the kicker, isn’t it?)
I am so thankful that I peaked over there again last Wednesday because I found the perfect set on reserve for another customer. It was made of wood (pine), simple in design, and very reasonably priced. Upon looking a little more into it, I found out that the seller would create custom orders upon request. Score!
Did I mention that was last Wednesday? Right before the Thanksgiving weekend? So guess what I found in the mailbox today?
Isn’t it just lovely? The set was made, mailed, and received all within a week’s time. I can’t even tell you how impressed I am with this seller. Not only are the pieces beautiful, but she was so pleasant to work with. And fast!
Well, I could go on and on, but I wanted to get a few pictures up and pass on the seller’s info in case anyone else was in the market for something like this.
The Etsy shop is called Sawdusted. If you don’t see the nativity set listed, go ahead and convo her and see if she’d be willing to do a custom order (that’s what I did!).
I know that Thanksgiving is supposed to be about giving thanks and all…
but…
but…
turkeys are fun!
Especially when they talk!
We have been having so much fun with our latest project. I saw this turkey noisemaker on the Craftsanity blog and knew right away that we had to make it.
The instructions call for a soldering iron to puncture holes in the plastic cup, but I don’t recall seeing one of those around here so I used a lighter to heat up a nail and worked just fine!
This was one of those projects that both of my girls could get into, which makes it an instant success in my book. They both helped me tear the brown paper and glue it onto the cup.
Then we sponged some paint onto our feathers…just for fun!
I added the face once the paper had dried and then demonstrated to the girls what this little bird was capable of! The screeching ranges from gawd-aweful to chicken-like and tends to send house pets into a frenzy trying to figure out what’s going on.
For your viewing pleasure:
Everybody took turns making the turkey talk, but it takes a little practice to really get him going.
It’s a simple description of the Thanksgiving holiday that includes everything from the Pilgrims to hand-traced turkeys to cooking up a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Both of my girls have enjoyed reading it and Annabelle actually asked to read it twice last night. We have a couple of Tomie dePaola’s books and they always seem to go over well with our kiddos. So, if you’ve got some little ones and you’re looking for an “Intro to Thanksgiving” type of book, be sure to check this one out!
We’ve been doing so much running around lately there hasn’t been much time for anything at home. I’ve had a few chances to peak over at The Crafty Crow and, my goodness, all of those Thanksgiving crafts are just making my head spin! Turkeys everywhere! So, with turkeys on the brain and straw painting on my never-ending list of things to do, we set forth to paint some turkeys!
I dropped the first small dollop of brown paint on the paper and demonstrated to Annabelle the proper straw-blowing technique. The hardest part for her in the beginning was not getting close enough with the straw.
I’ve had to hold off on doing this activity with her until I knew should could blow out through the straw and not suck in. As it turned out, she proved to me just how big of a girl she is getting to be. Not satisfied with simply picking out her own colors, she insisted on opening and pouring them herself. It blows my mind every time I see just how independent she can be.
I forgot to thin out our tempura paint, which made it a little harder to distribute the paint around, but I like the results. Although, it would be interesting to see how the turkey would come out with a runnier consistency. Let me know if you try it!
Added: I should have known better than to post something when I still had some lingering curiosity about it’s potential. So, I added some water to our paints and tried it again. Here are the results. I actually think I like this one better. I’m going to try it again with Annabelle and see how she does with it, but I wanted to go ahead and get this image up to show you the difference and let you decide which way you prefer.
Just to recap, all you do is drip some paint onto the paper, then point your straw at the paint and blow!
I went into planning this party thinking, “Fall Harvest.” You’ll see from the pictures, however, that my one-track mind kept bringing me back to pumpkins. Lots and lots of glorious pumpkins!
The favors: Pumpkin finger puppets
These little finger puppets were super easy, albeit somewhat time consuming, to create. I made about 10 of them and each one had a different face. I really had fun with them.
By the end of the party the kids were really getting into them, too. One of the kids decided he needed one for each hand!
The Games:
One of the games we played was a pumpkin roll. It was absolutely perfect for the little ones. We have a slope in the back of our yard and they had a blast rolling their pumpkin balls down the hill and then running down the hill after them to bring them back.
Not quite as popular was the pumpkin ring toss. Although a few of the kids gave it a go, it proved a bit too challenging to keep their interest for very long. Perhaps it would go over better with an older crowd. All you need is a pumpkin with a nice long stem and some rings. We made our rings by cutting some rope and attaching them using masking tape (which can be seen partially on towards the bottom of the photo).
The Cake:
For the cake I went out and bought a fancy pumpkin cake pan, which is really just two bundt cakes joined together. It was supposed to look like this:
I should know better than to try something fancy. It was doomed from the beginning. As I rushed around at the last minute trying to get everything together (as usual) I relinquished the task of putting the cake together to my mom. Who then passed it on to my dad. By the time I came back to check on it, my husband’s cousin was putting the finishing touches on it.
The cake was a excellent reminder that setting a picture-perfect, Martha Stewart-esque table is really not that important after all. Plus any attempt at something fancy would have been thrown out the window by all that debris left on the table. Good, grief… you’d think we would have cleared the table before setting out the cake, wouldn’t you? Just FYI, it was a pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese icing.
Decor:
We kept things simple by sprinkling pumpkins, gourds, and acorns throughout the tables and such, and picked up some hay bails for extra seating.
Lastly, we have the birthday girl’s dress. Which I made. Which we did not get one SINGLE good picture of. Which got icing all over it during the cake eating. Which completely fell apart when I washed it. I’ll paint a picture for you: dark green corduroy, a-line jumper, little felt squirrel applique on bottom right-hand side. Very cute. The end.
And of course I have to include a picture of the birthday girl eating her cake.
Janie was conceived from the Wee Wonderfuls Kit, Chloe, and Louise pattern and, after laboring over her for nearly a week, I was happy to introduce her to our family this morning at approximately 10:15. She’s named after my grandmother (Marjane) who turned 74 yesterday. Janie has spent much of her time in the yard and in the kitchen, and appears to be getting along splendidly thus far. She’s pretty quiet, but I think that might change once she really starts getting acclimated to our home.
Welcome to the family, Janie!
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