Colorful glue suncatchers

My kids have been begging me for a long time to do this project again.  We did it the first time to make some Halloween decorations, but this time it was a little more of an open-ended project. 

To make glue suncatchers, all you need is:

• School glue 
• Food coloring to tint the glue 
• Wax paper, plastic wrap, or cellophane (make sure all wrinkles are smoothed out)
• A cookie sheet, so that the creations can easily be transported to a drying spot

To begin, lay out your wax paper (or plastic wrap) on a cookie sheet.  We used wax paper for this project, but it can be a little tough to peel the final product off.  A couple days later, we tried using plastic wrap.  The only problem we had was getting all the wrinkles out, but if you can get it smooth I would say that plastic wrap is the way to go.

To color the glue, add a few drops of food coloring to your glue and shake or squeeze it around in the bottle to mix it up.  It's ok if it's not completely uniform, the color will gradually blend itself in to the white glue.

Maisy started out wanting to use some cookie cutters and fill the shape in with the glue. She was happy with simply filling in the shapes, but once the cookie cutter was removed the edges were smudged a bit.

Since the wax paper is translucent, I thought I could place a simple drawing or block letter outline underneath and the girls would be able to trace it and fill it in. The girls preferred this method since it was easier to create exactly what they wanted to.

Mina was happy making her "M", but was even more thrilled to make her Mickey Mouse head.

Once the art is complete, allow the glue to dry overnight .  The top will feel dry in an hour or two, but to be completely dry and ready to peel off, it will take several more hours or even a full day (or two if the glue applied super thick).   Lucky for us, it was a sunny day and leaving them outside for a few hours worked wonderfully.

Once the glue is completely dry, the figures can be peeled off and strung with a thread and hung on the window, or simply stuck on with some clear tape.

Spring Tulip Paintings

It was my turn this past week to host the weekly playgroup that my 4-year-old Mina participates in.  Spring flowers are finally in bloom, so it was the perfect chance to try out this clever art project I saw on Blog Me Mom.  I quickly showed the kids how I could get some paint on the back of my fork and stamp it onto my paper to make a tulip shape.  I handed them each a fork and a paintbrush (to paint on the stems) and let them have at it.

Each child's artwork was completely unique.  I loved all the extra color and detail one of the girls decided to give her painting.  

And in the end, what all 5 girls had really been dying to do was slather their hands in the wet paint.  I had to hurry and grab a clean sheet of paper to stamp those handprints onto, or else those beautiful spring paintings would have been destroyed!

 

Painted washer necklaces

This post is way overdue since my girls made these necklaces back in December to give to their friends as gifts.  But these spunky necklaces would make a great gift any time of the year, and also make a great rainy day activity.  I came across this idea in Family Fun magazine and instantly knew my girls would not only love to make these, but I also loved how inexpensive these would be to give as gifts.  

To make these colorful necklaces you will need:

• metal washers (between 10 and 20 cents a piece at the hardware store)
• a spool of skinny ribbon
• nail polish in a variety of colors (we headed to the dollar store and bought colors we didn't already have)

The magazine article suggested doing a coat of white or yellow for a background, letting that dry, and then painting a design on top.  My 9 year old daughter understood that process a little better than my 6 and 4 year olds, but it actually didn't turn out to be a necessary step.  Most of our necklaces ended up with a top coat of glitter nail polish for the finishing touch.

Here's a quick shot of what some of our necklaces ended up looking like in the end.  My two younger girls just didn't know when to stop.  They were having such a fun time using the nail polish that I had to tell them when enough was enough, and swap out their colorful creations with a new blank washer.  We had to let a few of them dry overnight because of all the layers of paint.

My 9 year old got the idea to create a double-layered look by using two different sizes of washers.  I love her coordinating patterns on this one:

My girls really loved using nail polish to create their own wearable masterpieces.  While my 4 year old had a blast doing this, it was definitely better suited for my 6 and 9 year old girls.

Owl Valentine Mailbox

This is the first year my oldest daughter (in the 3rd grade) has had the chance to make her own Valentine's box to take to school for their Valentine exchange. In past years, the class has simply decorated a bag in class for Valentines. We went to Pinterest for some inspiration and found this cute owl pinata which Lou fell in love with. It was so easy to convert this idea to make her Valentine mailbox. She is in love with this little guy! I had to share because I'm in love with him, too.

She simply used a cereal box, crepe paper, patterned cardstock, and some googly eyes.  I especially love his heart-shaped ear tufts and feet. 

What fun Valentine's creations have your kids been doing? 

Decoupage pumpkins

It was Sunday afternoon and I really needed a little peace and quiet.  This was the perfect little project to keep my three girls quietly engaged as they created these colorful pumpkin decorations.  This project can easily be done with real pumpkins of any size (which I had done a few years ago).  The only problem with real pumpkins is that you have to eventually throw them out.  Who wants to do that?  I found these fabulous foam pumpkins at the dollar store - they were a perfect pie-sized pumpkin and will keep indefinitely!

The prep for this is so easy.  All you need is:

• a pumpkin (real or fake)
• mod podge (I made my own by using 1 part Elmer's glue to nearly 1 part water because I didn't want it to be too runny)
• brightly colored tissue paper cut into small squares (mine are 1 to 2 inches in size)
• a sponge brush to apply the glue

I briefly showed the girls how to brush a section of their pumpkin with the glue, then start applying the tissue paper squares.  I let them go for it until this point:

It's OK for the pumpkins to look this shabby because once the girls were all done gluing, I was able to brush over their work with another coat of the mod podge.  That top layer of glue soaks right through the thin tissue paper and also gives the pumpkin a nice durable coating on top.

I love these brightly colored pumpkins!  The great thing about them is that they're a great decoration to last clear through Thanksgiving.

Spelling tree

A few weeks ago I saw this fabulous idea over at No Time for Flashcards and wanted to use it for the play group I was hosting.  Unfortunately, my group of 3 and 4 year olds didn't want to spend much time on this activity...but when my 3rd grader came home from school she had other plans for the tree.

Lou had plans to use the tree to practice her spelling words.  I quickly made up some paper leaves with her words on them and put them face down in a little pile.

She picked a word at random, read it out loud to me, then had to spell the word without looking at it.  If she was able to spell it correctly, she could attach the leaf to the tree.  If it was incorrect, the word went back into the pile with the other words for her to review again.  I don't think spelling practice has ever been so much fun.

We've still got the tree up on our wall just waiting for more fun learning activities.

Apple trees: using rice and pasta

 Since my two older girls have started school again, Mina's old playschool group is back together.  This week I hosted and the kids made these apple trees to go along with our theme.  In preparation for this project, I made sure I had enough colored rice and pasta by dying it this way.  This time I used rubbing alcohol instead of vinegar and had similar results.

To do this project you will need:

• colored rice (green for leaves)
• colored pasta (I used shells and wagon wheel pasta dyed red)
• glue
• toilet paper or paper towel tubes, cut into thirds lengthwise
• sturdy paper or cardboard 

 We started by first attaching the cut paper tube with glue.  Then, added the "apples" first since they would stick better to the board itself instead of trying to glue them on top of the rice.

 I planned on having the children lightly pencil in an outline for the tree top, but forgot to grab pencils before hand, so they just put glue where they pleased and attached their rice (shaking off the excess into a pan I had in the center of the table).  One child commented that this was the best craft ever.  So I think they were pleased with the whole process.  

A sampling of the childrens' art (ages 3-4):  

Each tree was so unique.  Some kids wanted apples falling from the tree, while another wanted leaves to be growing down the trunk.  

While the art/craft project was drying, they did a little apple tasting.  I made up a chart so they could observe the color of each apple, along with whether or not they liked the flavor.  The chart really wasn't necessary with this age group, but it was fun to try.     

They all loved trying all the different flavors of apples.  And I have to say, I was impressed that most of the kids (minus my own) even ate the skin.