saturday afternoon crafting

Amelia painted a bird house and Elsa did some printmaking. I love having space for messy projects.

candy cane playdough

The girls (and camel) had fun making playdough for friends a few weeks ago. We made half the batch red (turned out pink because I ran out of red food color) and kept half of it white. Then rolled each and twisted them together for the candy cane look. We also added peppermint flavor to the playdough so it would smell like a candy cane. Then packaged them up in jars and attached some cookie cutters and a candy cane.

Fabric, twine, and gift tags from Ikea.

Valentines.

It had been a few years since I made cake pops so we decided to make some Valentine-themed cake pops on Monday after school. We put them in flower pots for teachers. The girls had fun assembling their school Valentines while we were staying at a cabin on Saturday. Elsa's fishbowl Valentine came from here and Amelia's owl Valentine was a recycled idea from a few years ago.

Each year we put out small mailboxes around the first of February so we can leave each other little notes and treats.

the magical world of shrinky dinks.

We have been having a crazy warm winter so far. The last few days have been in the 60s and heavenly. But a few Saturdays ago we had a cold day and kept busy inside with Shrinky Dinks! Some friends gave us these awesome fairy-themed Shrinky Dinks for Christmas and they kept me and the girls busy for a few hours. Shrinky Dinks are fascinating. (And did you know they were invented in Wisconsin?!)  

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Oliver was keeping himself busy elsewhere.

monsters.

The most requested activity for family night on Monday is the classic silly monster game. (Draw 1/3 of a silly creature, fold it under, then pass it to the next person until the grand unveiling of the completed monster.)

A few of our monster creations from last week:

Peter and the Wolf

I loved listening to Peter and the Wolf when I was a kid so I immediately fell in love with this build-your-own paper puppet theater from Sarah Jane Studios. This was the perfect project for our musical instrument theme week. I made most of the puppet theater since it involved a lot of intricate cutting and Amelia and Elsa had fun performing the show. Oliver was an attentive spectator. They loved listening for the different instruments in the music (with the french horns representing the wolf AND Scott Farkus).

We finished off our week with a living room marching band tribute to John Philip Sousa and the discovery of this crazy YouTube video. We also watched Fantasia, The Music Man, and Mary Poppins.

Valentine Scratch Cards

We had a lot of fun making the Valentine scratch cards that I saw here. They are really easy to make and we're already scheming about lots of other non-Valentine uses for scratch cards.

Chalk Puzzle

Teacher Gift

As part of a gift to my daughter's preschool teachers, we made these personalized soap labels. They were very easy and fast. The original idea I saw used a silhouette of the child and had their name on it. Instead, I had my daughter draw pictures. I printed the labels, had her draw something on each one, and then had it photocopied onto transparency paper. We cut them out and slipped them inside the soap bottles. The transparency paper just kind of sticks to the inside. I suppose you could also make clear labels to stick on the outside, but the transparency photocopy only cost $1. We did soap and hand sanitizer.



You can find a free template and instructions for this project here.

Valentines: Part 2

We're on Day 6 of being snowed in. Yesterday we finished up our cards.

There is a free printable card to use with the heart crayons at The Long Thread which you can download here. But we wanted to do our own thing and Amelia wanted to use a colorful peacock so I made this card:


I thought it would be fun to include a picture that the kids could color with their new crayon so I used Photoshop to remove all the color from the peacock and included a black and white version on the back of the card.

Then we attached the hearts to the front using foam dots:


Instead of using envelopes, I found some clear bags and we packaged them up:


Inspired by some fun owl pencils found at the dollar section in Target, we also made some owl cards for friends:




You can find a template for the owls, along with many others, at Family Fun.