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

Balancing Butterfly

What we used:
Cardboard
2 coins
tape
scissors

What we did:
Fold a paper in half and trace half a butterfly. Make sure the bottom wing is larger and hangs lower than the top. Cut it out. Then trace on cardboard and cut out. Color the butterfly. Tape a coin on each of the bottom wings. You may have to play with them to make sure it is even. Balance the butterfly on a pencil, finger, even your nose.

Guitar

What we used:

Box
rubberbands
scissors
pencil

What we did:
Cut a hole in the box. Stretch rubberbands around box. Slide pencil under rubberbands. Play music!!!

Fingerpaint

What we used:
To make the paint...
1 cup flour
2 TB salt
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 1/4 cups hot water
food coloring

Combine in a pot, cold water, salt, flour, beat with a whisk.
Heat at medium and then slowly stir in hot water.
Keep stirring until it thickens.
Remove from heat.
Beat until smooth with a whisk.
Divide into small bowls and add food coloring.
When cool, PAINT!

Obstacle course

We made an obstacle course today. This occupied the boys for hours!
We used random items we found around the house:
small chair
yoga blocks
bucket
stool
floor mat
hula hoop and twine to tie it up
sit and spin
circle shapes
an edge to a rubber mat (straight line)

They started by running circles around the chair and then the bucket. Balance on the yoga blocks and then up and over the stool. Mats were set up on the other side so they could jump off. Jump through the hula hoop. Spin on the sit and spin. Step on each circle and then balance on the straight line. Jump off the end of the line over the edge of the hallway and you're done!

This was great. They want to do another one tomorrow! You can could use anything. Anything you can step on, climb on, crawl under, jump over, run around, balance on. I was thinking couch cushions would be great....maybe we'll use those today. This is fun and great exercise. Great for winter days when it's too cold to play outside!

Keepsake boxes

So sorry to be MIA! Spent the week with the kids rotating a stomach virus between them, and my husband. Ick! Luckily I made it through healthy, it's never good when mom is sick!

What we used:

box
construction paper
scissors
glitter
glue
puffy craft balls (no idea what they are really called)
Optional: Anything small that could glue to the box. We were going to use beads, but I was afraid the glue wouldn't keep them stuck forever, and with a one year old that would pick them off and eat them....yeah, didn't use them.
Paint: we didnt use paint, but you totally could.

What we did:
We started with cutting out a bunch of shapes out of the construction paper. We (and I mean everyone, this was a great craft for everyone) glued the paper and the balls to the box (and you can glue whatever else you want to use) After they were done gluing I wrote their name with glue on the side (good for name recognition and learning to read) and they covered it with glitter.

This (semi) finished product
(the boys want to add more on, and we will, just not today)

Birthday Cake

It's my birthday...so the boys frosted a cake for me. They had a great time!

The Finished product, lol

Car Face

Does this count?
My Car Face
(ok, my Van Face...)
CarFace...isn't that a movie?Oh, no, that wasn't it.

Snowflakes

What we used:

Paper
Scissors
That's it!

Fold paper in half each way a few times (the more folds the more "holes", but the paper does get tough to cut, think about that if you have little ones cutting) Make an assortment of triangles, half circles, squares, etc around each edge. Make sure to leave a little space between each shape so your paper has something to keep it together! Unfold and reveal your beautiful snowflake.

And in the spirit of things, a picture I captured tonight of a perfect snowflake.

Coffee Sculptures

What we used:

Equal parts:
Ground coffee
Flour
Salt
Water
(I used 2 cups of each but we ended up with way too much poop colored clay, So start with 1 cup each if you want)

Mix it all together. Add the water last a little at a time to make sure you get a good consistency. After sculptures are done, they can either air dry or put them in the oven for an hour or so at 200 degrees. I noticed the taller ones started to slump over and I had to fix them a few times before they hardened. This was fun and cheap, and the boys could mix it all up themselves. But be warned it does come out looking like poop! haha

Pudding pie!

What we used:

pie crust
box of pudding
milk
chocolate chips

Make pudding according to box. Pour into crust. Top with chocolate chips. Put in fridge for a few hours. Yum! Nate made the pudding all himself. It was great! Sadly I didn't get a picture of the finished product before it was all eaten up!

Noise makers

What we used:

2 cups
Assortment of rice, beans, pasta, etc (different sizes and shapes for the sound)
Electrical tape
Stickers to decorate

Fill one cup with a handful of assorted items. Place the second cup on top and tape together. Decorate! If you use paper cups you could paint it or use markers. We used plastic, so we used stickers. Shake it all around. Great for parties or sporting events!

Pom Poms

What we used:

Paper towel rolls
glue
sparkly streamers (these were for gift baskets)

Put a circle of glue on the inside of one end of the tube. Stick streamers to glue. Let dry. Decorate outside of tube. Shake!

Air freshener ball

What we used:

Orange
Cloves
Ribbon
Cinnamon (optional)

I know this has a name, but I don't know what it is. So it's an air freshener ball =)
Cover the orange with the cloves. Optional: sprinkle cinnamon all over it. Then tie ribbon around vertically and horizontally, leaving enough for a loop to hang from. Eventually the orange will harden. I'm told this will last for years....but this is the first time I've done this, so I'll let you know in a few years ;)