Star decorations

This was a New Years decoration but could be used for anything with any shape. Fun and versatile idea.

What we used:

Star cutouts from a poster board (could use any shape)

Paint

Ribbon

Hole punch

What we did:

After cutting out a TON of stars, I divided them amongst the boys and set them to work with some paint. We got some great looking stars. Some were messy, some were neat, some were just weird...but that's ok. After they were dry I used a star shape hole punch and punched holes in the top and bottom of every star. I tied 3-4 stars together with ribbon and hung curly pieces of ribbon from them. Then I hung them randomly around the house. It's February, they are still up =)

This is one of them-

Painted pumpkins

Who doesn't love painting pumpkins?!?! 

What you need:

Pumpkins

Paint

something to cover the table

 Note to self (anyone else that might this this is a good idea): 1 year olds should not paint pumpkins

 Ok...maybe 3 year olds shouldn't either =)

What we did:

Very easy, be creative. Paint faces, paint designs, just paint!

We did this in the fall, obviously when there are pumpkins around. Just took me awhile to upload!

"fossils"

Some of my pics are missing but I'm sure you'll get the idea.

What we used:
plaster of paris
shoe boxes
shells, leaves, pinecones, plastic animals, etc.

Be careful to follow the directions for the plaster of paris very carefully. Please! And don't dump any down your drain, you'll be very sorry.

Pour prepared plaster of paris into a shoebox. While it's tacky, press objects into the surface. Work QUICKLY!!! It will harden quickly and it will all be over very fast! So plan what you are going to use and have it handy. Press fast. Let it harden for a day. Then you can remove it from the box and you have a "fossil". The boys LOVED this. I didn't love the mess...but loved that they were happy =)

Painted magnets

Yes, sort of cheating, but a fun craft anyway! I bought a magnet painting kit. The kids thought it was great. It was great for all ages...except Abbie, she's only 1, 1 year olds should not paint....lesson learned when painting pumpkins last fall!

 Pretty messy...but fun! What kid doesn't like to paint?!?!

Honestly this was great for a 6, 4, AND 3 year old. Granted the 3 and 4 yr olds weren't as pretty as the ones above. But I still love them and will hang them proudly on my fridge =)

Crystal art

I'll start off by saying I think this was a flop only because the finished product really didn't look like much. BUT the kids had a blast doing it, and I have ideas how to make it better.
This is what we did:

You need:
salt
a couple small bowls
a couple different colors of food coloring
water
paper
paintbrushes

What to do:
Put about 4 ts of salt in each bowl. Pour in about a quarter cup of warm water. Stir but don't let the salt dissolve all the way. Put 2-3 drops of food coloring in each bowl. Use the paintbrush to scoop up the salt and use it to paint. As it dries it will have a crystally effect on the paper.

What I learned:
More salt is better so that you can just scoop up mushy salt. Also, don't think you're going to paint anything in particular...once the water dries you just have a salt, sparkly paper. I think this would be nice to accent something to make it sparkly....without having a glue and glitter mess.
So here's what it looked like....yeah doesn't look like much...but now I have tons of fun ideas for it! Sparkly fronts of cards. Backgrounds to banners. Etc!

Oops...an apology

So sorry to all my loyal followers =) I'm sorry I have not posted any awesome crafts for months now. For one I found out I was pregnant and got a little distracted to do crafts. Then we went on vacation for a couple weeks and I just never got back into the swing of things. But I will!! Nate has been begging me to, so I'll be back!

Dominos

Today we played with dominos
Check out the videos below