Coffee Filter Flowers

What we used:

Cone coffee filters (we only had brown, I suggest white!)
pipe cleaners
coffee stirrers
food dye
bowls
1/4 cup water for each bowl

What we did:
Put water in each bowl and add food coloring. Fold up the coffee filters in fourths and dip in the colors. You can do all one color or dip each edge in different colors for multi colored ones. Unfold and lay flat on a rag to dry. When dry, take three filters and put them one inside the other. Scrunch up the pointed end and place coffee stirrer against the end. Wrap pipe cleaner around the filter and stirrer tightly.

The finished product:
(colors would be much brighter had white filters been used)

Easy craft in a package

What we used:

One Martha Stewart Pop Pom Insect kit

Very easy! But, for cheaper you could probably buy your own pom pom's and make up some fun things. But this was very easy. Glue the pom pom's together and attach other objects (eyes, antennas, wings) Let dry and you're done.

Good ol' hand outlines

What we used:

pen or pencil
paper
markers or crayons

What we did:
I intended to do turkeys (yes I know Thanksgiving is long over) but the boys thought it was just fun to color in the hands. So we outlined their hands and they colored them in. Pretty easy, and amazingly kept them occupied for almost an hour! That's a successful craft in my book =)

One of the finished products:

Easy glitter drawings

What we used:

paper
glitter
glue

What we did:
Make drawings and designs with glue. Sprinkle glitter over glue. Let dry. Easy sparkly creations! We did a ton of fun pictures!
Here are a few...

Twirly sticks

What we used:

Unsharpened pencil
thumbtack (I do recommend the ones with the flat tops, I didn't have any)
Strip of thin cardboard 1/2 inch x 12 inches
glue

What we did:

Cut the strip of cardboard. Place the thumbtack through the middle. Then stick it in the eraser and add a drop of glue. Twirl the pencil between your two hands and release. Watch as it flies through the air! For added fun, color your cardboard strip.

Floating "flowers"

What we used:

Construction paper
Scissors
bowl of water

What we did:
Cut out flowers with four petals. Ours were about 6 inches across. Fold the petals up so it looks like a flower bud. Place in a bowl of water and watch as the flower "blooms".

Ok the boys thought this was really cool. They were amazed at how they bloomed. Nate was easily able to cut out the flowers after I traced them.

Glue "stencils"

What we used:

paper
glue
pencil (we used a pencil, I don't recommend that)
crayons with the wrapper taken off (we found this to work better than the pencil)

What we did:
Use the glue to make shapes and words on one piece of paper. Let dry. Place another piece of paper over it and rub the crayons (laying flat on their side) all over. The shapes from the glue stencils will show on the top paper.
Sorry, didn't get a good picture of the finished product but here is a picture of the craft in action, before we changed to crayons =)

Ball blasters!

What we used:

2 toilet paper rolls
tape
2 rubber bands
4 paper clipes
plastic wrap
ping pong ball
scissors

What we did:

Cut one tp tube lengthwise. Tape the cut making it slightly smaller so it will fit inside the other tube. Tape plastic wrap to one end of the smaller tube. Place the smaller tube inside the other tube. Place a 2 paper clips on each tube, across from each other. Attach a rubber band on each side. Place ping pong ball inside tube. Pull smaller tube back and release to launch the ball.

The finished product in action:

This was really fun, once we figured out the paper clips and rubber bands. I kept launching the entire inner tube out. But that worked out with a little switching around.

Colorful sketches

What we used:

paper
crayons-black and other random colors
or markers for the colors
paper clip

What we did:
First make a rainbow type design with different color crayons (but we discovered that markers actually work better)

Then cover the colors with black crayon. Press hard and cover up the colors as much as possible. Unfold a paper clip and use it to draw a design. The paper clip will scrape away the black to reveal the colors underneath.
I used to do this as a kid and thought it was great. The boys thought so too!

Tornado in a bottle

Here's what we used:

2 - 2 liter bottles
duct tape and gorilla tape
scissors
glitter (optional)
dye (optional)
water

What we did:
Fill one bottle about 3/4 full with water. If desired, add glitter and dye now. I used yellow dye and yellow glitter, I suggest using two different colors so there's more of a contrast. Turn empty bottle upside down and tape the two openings together very securely. We first used duct tape and then went over it with gorilla tape. Once secure, turn the bottles over and rotate around a few times. The tornado should form at this point. If not, practice with the rotating and you should get it.

The finished product:

I may try this again with some smaller water bottles. Not sure it will work, will let you know. But these bottles are really heavy and for a 4 year old to flip over and rotate. We'll see if the smaller ones work. I had to show the boys a video of a tornado on youtube first since they didn't know what a tornado was. Then Nate says "Wow, can we see one in person sometime??" Ugh, I hope not!

Snow globes

What we used:

baby food jar
glitter
plastic figures
glue gun (not pictured)
water (not pictured)
ribbon (optional, not pictured)

What we did:
Glue the figures onto the inside lid of the baby food jar (or any other jar). After it dries, fill the jar with water (leave about 1/4-1/2 inch of air). Pour about 1/8 ts of glitter(or more depending on the size of your jar) in the water. Put the lid on the jar and close very tightly. You can use ribbon to decorate the bottom if you wish. Or you could paint it also. Enjoy!

The finished product! The picture does not give them justice. They looked really pretty.

Nate even used the glue gun on this one. We just used random plastic figures we found around the house. But you could buy something and plan better than we did =) Nothing too wide, depending on the size of the jar. We used distilled water. Not sure you have to, I was just worried if we didn't that things would end up growing inside it. You can also use a few drops of dye and color the water, that would be pretty. This was really neat and we will definitely do it again!

Pinecone Turkeys!

Here's what we used:

Colored feathers
Pinecones
Construction Paper
Glue
Scissors

What we did:
Cut out the pieces for the face. I did it freehand but you can find cutouts to print online. I did a brown "teardrop" shape for the head and a small "teardrop" for the beak. Cut out two little white circles for the eyes and put a dot in the middle. Googly eyes would work great here, I just didn't have any. Glue the beak and eyes onto the head. Lay the pinecone on the table and find a side that doesn't roll easily. Glue the head onto the bottom (the wider end) of the pinecone. Now for the feathers...Coat the bottom of each feather with glue and stick in pinecone. Let dry.

I know, a bit late for Thanksgiving! I've been meaning to do this for a month. The boys were very excited to finally do it, we've been talking about it forever. All three boys were able to do the feather part, even Jake! This was a very fun project. Nate was able to help glue the head. Now we have two very colorful turkeys on our table, in December, hehe.

Sugar sculptures/ornaments

Here's what we used:

1/2 cup sugar
1 ts water
glitter
food coloring
cookie cutter (one with one closed end, not the ones that go all the way through)

Mix sugar and water. Add glitter and/or a couple drops of food coloring if desired. Press into cookie cutter. Tap onto a plate. Let sit overnight. Once hardened you can tie or glue ribbon on to hang. Be gentle, they will be hard, but will still break if too rough.

Here is the finished product:

The boys loved doing this. They thought it was a blast! They wanted to do more and more. Unfortunately I only had organic sugar, a little expensive for a craft. So next time I'll buy some cheap white sugar. When picking a cookie cutter, make sure it has wide openings. In the picture above you can see a rocket and giraffe, those didn't work. Couldn't get the sugar mixture out of the small parts. But the big star worked great.

Macaroni Necklaces

Here's what we used:

Pasta with a hole-we used ziti
poster paint
paint brushes
string
something to cover the table

What we did:

We covered the table with newspaper. The boys painted pieces of pasta and left them on the paper to dry. I do suggest maybe putting them on wax paper, we didn't, the newspaper stuck to the pasta. Maybe wax paper would work better. Once dry, we strung the pasta on the string. Easy! And the boys loved it.
Here's the finished product:

Welcome to my craft blog!

Welcome! When I was a kid I was very crafty. As I've aged, not as much, but I aspire to. My kids love doing crafts. So this blog is committing myself to do a craft with my kids everyday. And then I will share it with you! Keep in mind my oldest is 4 1/2, so these will be preschool age crafts. Thanks for checking out my blog!