Arm Knitted Scarves

We are now on day number 6 of snow and we are getting more creative (and crazy) by the minute. The girls found some yarn that I  had hiding in the closet. We decided since it was so cold today, we would try arm knitting. We used this great tutorial on You Tube:Arm Knitting Tutorial

It explains it better than we ever could. It makes great scarves in less than 30 minutes! 

This is how the girls' scarves turned out: 

Supplies: 

Two skeins of yarn- you want to get some that is very soft 

Thumb Print Heart Charms

The girls have loved having numerous snow days in a row, which has provided us with lots of crafting opportunities....otherwise known boredom busters. We started with something simple that later morphed into beading necklaces and kept us occupied for quite some time. Since paint was not involved in most of it, I was able to take pictures of the steps. So this is for all the moms who have crafty kids home with them on snow days!

Supplies: 

Sculpty Clay (the kind you can bake to harden)

BBQ skewers

Parchment Paper

Acrylic Paint and brushes

Beads

Strings

Wire (optional)

Step one: Flatten out a  small section of the clay on parchment paper. Take one of the child's thumbs and press it into the clay. Take the other thumb and match it up to make a thumbprint heart. 

Step 2: Take your BBQ skewer and trace around the thumbprints to make a heart, while trimming away the access clay. (I helped the kids with this part).

Step 3: Pat down the rough edges of the clay and reform if necessary to make a more defined heart shape. Take the non pointed end of the skewer and poke a hole through the heart. 

Step 4: Preheat the oven to 275 and bake the hearts on parchment paper for 15 minutes. 

Step 5: Allow the hearts to cool for 10 minutes and then paint. Acrylic paint worked well on ours. 

Step 6: After the paint dries, string the heart with beads to make a necklace or bracelet. I noticed that the hearts were not quite hanging flat, so I used some wire to fashion a loop through the hole of the heart. It was easier to string and laid flatter. I liked the project so much I had the girls imprint their thumbs into a heart for me. I put their names and the date on the back. It could also be a good grandma or Mother's Day gift too. Hope you give it a try!

Our Family Rocks

I know..another cheesy title... what can I say. So, the girls wanted to go into the woods and find rocks to paint. They came back with about 6 rocks a piece, but I helped them narrow it down to 3 each. So we just got out all the paint, glitter, yarn, pom poms and anything else we could find. I didn't bother to add a materials list since anything goes!

                                                             This was the result:

This was a great project. It got the kids outside (which gives me 5 minutes of alone time...), and of course the rocks were free! What could be better? Here is a word of warning though, I did find the left over rocks that we didn't paint in with all of Z.'s hair bows. I think she was trying to still dress them up. So, you might want to throw your "extra rocks" back outside :)

More with Maps

First it was V. and me, but now we have another one..Little Z. She just came to live with us this week, so we haven't had much crafting time. I have to admit, this craft I did on my own because it took a little more attention to detail (and my two mini divas are very random). I hope to do something crazy with paint and glitter this weekend....we'll see how much stamina I have on Saturday.

I still had lots of maps and wanted to do one more project with them. This was the end result:

Supplies: 

Block of wood

Paint

Modge Podge

Letters -I got these at Michaels for 50 cents a piece

Old Maps

Scissors

Glue Gun

Steps: I found an old block of wood in the garage and painted it blue. While the blue paint was drying, a put the letters on the maps and traced them. 

Step 2: I used the Modge Podge and glued the maps to the letters. 

Step 3: After the letters dried, I painted the edges a dark blue color. 

Step: After everything dried, I glued the letters to the block of wood and Voila! 

I display this next to our travel pictures frames. It was fairly easy and is a great memory of our various travels. 

Valentines Around the World

I am so sentimental about our travels as a family that I keep every map as a souvenir. I found them in a box at the back of my closet and tried to think of a creative way to use them. Since Valentine's Day is coming, I thought maybe I should use them to make Valentines from Around the World...(well sort of...at least that's what I'll call it). It was quick, easy, and not very costly.

Supplies: 

A piece of scrapbook paper (aqua worked best for my design, but any bright color would work)

Scissors

A piece of construction paper

Old Maps

Glue Stick 

Picture Frame- ( I used 8x10)

Step 1: Cut your scrapbook paper to fit the inside of your picture frame. 

Step 2: Cut a heart out of construction paper to use as a pattern. 

Step 3: Trace the heart pattern onto your maps, and cut each heart out.

Step 4: Glue the hearts to the scrapbook page and place it inside of the frame. 

Voila! You now have a fun Valentine for your significant other and a great memento of all your adventures. 

Let It Snow!

We haven't had any real snow around here ...yet. It doesn't look likely either, but since V. and I both love snow, we decided to make our own blizzard. The only problem is, I am horrible at making snowflakes. I was the kid in elementary school that always make the ugly square ones, or mine just ended up in pieces on the floor. I did however, find a fool proof way to make awesome snowflakes that anyone can master, and they end up looking like this:

The secret is coffee filters! At the dollar store you can buy a pack of 100 to start making your own blizzard!

Supplies: 

Coffee Filters

Scissors

Since this project didn't involve any glue, paint or glitter, I actually took pictures of each step. 

Step 1: Flatten the coffee filter and fold it in half. 

Step 2: Fold it in half again so it looks like a fan.

Step 3: Fold it in half 2 more times. 

Step 4: Cut designs only on the closed, folded crease. You can also cut the bottom edge of the triangle (just don't cut anything on the open fold). 

Step 5: When you are finished cutting, unfold the filter to see your beautiful snowflake!

If you want to hang the snowflakes, ornament hooks or paper clips work really well. We put them all over V.'s room!

*I think I might make snowflakes with my students and have them write compound words on the flakes and hang them up in the classroom. We'll see....

Easy Winter Tree Decor

Christmas is over and V. is so sad that the tree is gone and the decorations with it which caused us to get creative with winter decorations. Since my little explorer loves to play in the woods, I gave her a task... go and find some cool branches and bring them back to the house. As usual, she went above and beyond the call of duty and brought back what looked like several small trees. Although we couldn't use all of them, a few worked rather nicely. We fashioned them into the winter decor you see below. It was a completely free project and added a little more ambiance to our bare "after Christmas" decor. For those of you that are like us and need a little post Christmas fun..this is the project for you!

Supplies: 

Twigs

Epsom salts

Glass bottle

Step 1: Send your energetic child to get some dry twigs or branches.

Step 2: Fill a bottle 3/4 with Epsom salts

Step 3: Shove the twigs in and arrange them to your liking

 Step 4: Find a fun shelf or mantle to put them on!

After seeing that we had a stack of Christmas cards that we had no idea how to display, we took it one step further. We punched a hole in each card, tied a loop with some twine and hung the cards from the tree. It was a nice way to display the photo cards for at least a little longer! 

"Can" We Build A Snowman

Cheesy title, I know. So I hate throwing things away...especially if I can reuse them. We had a huge sweet potato can and a smaller condensed milk can. They seemed like the perfect pair to make a snowman. We also used a toilet paper tube to make his hat. I have to admit that this project took a little bit of time because all the paint had to dry, but it was pretty easy. I also had all the materials laying around so I didn't have to make trip to the store.

Supplies: 

2 cans

two tubes of white paint

1 orange tube of paint

3 small foam brushes

1 tube black paint

black construction paper

toilet paper tube cut in half

buttons

scrap of material

2 twigs

glue gun

1 kabob stick

Step 1: We painted both cans. They needed a thick coat. If you can see the silver through the first coat, it may require a second one. 

Step 2: While waiting for the cans to dry, we painted the t.p. tube black. I then broke the tip off of the kabob stick and painted it orange.

Step 3: After everything dries, glue the small can on top of the large can. Decorate the rest of your snowman by gluing on buttons and the orange kabob stick. I tied the scrap of material around the small can. It could be glued, but I didn't think it was necessary. I then glued on the twigs for arms. 

Step 4: To make the hat, cut the black construction paper to fit the top and a large circle for the bottom of the t.p. tube. Glue both circles on the tube. Next glue the hat on. 

Now you have an amazing recycled snowman that will never melt!

Kickin' Winter Blues with Crafts

This is that time of year when my daughter, V. can't play outside as much as she would like....so we have to find other fun projects and activities for us. Since we both love to paint, we created this simple snowman canvas. It took about 15 minutes to complete and 2 hours to dry. I have to admit that I am terrible at taking pictures of all the steps of the process since we are usually up to our elbows in glue, paint, or glitter. So, I will briefly explain and I think you'll get the idea.

Supplies:

8x10 Black Canvas- A.C. Moore $8.99 (We used our weekly 40% off coupon)
1 tube of white acrylic paint
1 tube of black acrylic paint
Small twig
2 -3 colorful buttons
2 Small foam brushes
1 artist's paint brush
Glue gun

Step 1: We painted the snowman with the foam brush. We did not trace it or anything fancy, we just painted 3 circles.

Step 2: We used the artist's brush to paint the word "snow". We did it free hand, but you could always print letters from the computer, cut them out, trace, and paint.

Step 3: I dipped the end of the artist's brush in the white paint and dabbed on the canvas for the snow.

Step 4: After letting the paint dry, I used the glue gun to put the twig for the arm and the buttons. I then dabbed the end of the foam brush in the black paint and painted the snowman's eyes and mouth. Buttons could be used for the eyes and nose as an alternative.

All done! This was an inexpensive and easy project. We put it in our living room, but it could also be a gift.