Nature-al Gift Wrap

As much as I had planned having all the gifts wrapped and stacked by now, it just hasn't worked out that way. So, to get the little ones involved with the task, we put a little spin on the standard potato stamps with our own nature-stamped gift wrap. It was simple, fun, and has that "imperfect homemade charm" to it! My daughter, who loves to help wrap presents anyway, really loved wrapping presents in paper she made herself.

I took some blank paper that came as packing material with a shipment I received this week (hence the wrinkled look) and some acrylic craft paint. Add unused snippets of boughs and a few of our tree blocks from Christmas trees past, and we went to work.

I just love the way the grain from the wood shows through the stamped paint!

Roo found that by rolling the log instead of stamping it on one end only, she could recreate the look of an entire tree trunk imprint:

Such a fun way to spend a morning: Christmas carols playing in the background, cookies baking away in the oven, and stamping our own gift wrap. This day turned out to be one of the few times this Christmas season I actually felt like we had captured a quintessential holiday moment! Even though my youngest wasn't willing to get his hands dirty, he directed his big sister as to where to stamp and generally enjoyed the process as a spectator-sport only.

The wrapped gifts, complete with bows and tags look just precious as they wait to be placed under the tree on Christmas Eve. I think that this just might become one of our new holiday traditions!

Painting with Marbles

If you are looking for a mess-free way to incorporate painting into your preschooler's week, I have just the thing: marble paintings. They are fun, easy, and the results are quite lovely.

We love painting around here. And, usually, I am a good sport when it comes to the messes that inevitably come along for the painting ride. Lately, however, I've been trying to conserve my energy for little things like feeding my family and basic hygiene. Enter the marble paintings. This technique allows my daughter an outlet for working with paint, but requires minimal set-up or clean-up on my behalf. Win-win, I'd say.

First, find a shallow box (a shoe box is fine, even a pizza box lid would work here. But do try to keep the box size manageable for your child to hold). Place a blank piece of paper in the box. Round up some marbles and paint (we used tempera).

You can either squirt the paint into individual cups, as we did, or you can paint the marbles with the desired paint. As I mentioned, I wanted a relatively mess-free experience, so we opted for paint cups.

Drop your marble into the paint and swirl it around to coat the entire surface of the marble. Then remove from the paint (we used 2 forks, to drain the excess paint and to keep fingers clean) and drop onto the paper. Pick up the box and tilt it side to side, forward and back. Go on, really give it a good wiggle! The marble makes a neat trail as it rolls around on the paper.

Once the paint has worn off the marble and it stops leaving much of a trail, you can re-dip it in the same color or move on to the next marble and the next color (this is assuming you are meticulously neat and have one marble per paint color, and go to great lengths to keep them separate, as we did. Well, I did, anyway).

As we did painting after painting, my daughter pretty much scrapped the 2-fork method of removing excess paint and used her fingers instead. She really got a kick out of plopping a heavily-coated marble on the paper. It made such a pleasing "plop" and puddle of paint in that spot before being rolled around the box.

Children love doing a familiar activity in a new way. It's fun to take paint and use objects other than a paint brush or fingers to make a picture. We've experimented with using combs, forks, sponge pieces, etc. and get different (but great) results every time.

Best Playdough Recipe

When my daughter asked to do playdough in the past, she was met with reluctance on my behalf. Maybe it had something to do with a classic rookie mom mistake: I let her play with it on our coffee table, which is located in our carpeted family room. And I did this for years. Rather than finding a more appropriate place, I finally chose to ban the playdough play altogether. Truly a shame, because she loves playdough.

Nowadays, I am the one to suggest playdough as an activity. Why the change of heart? It boils down to two things:

1. I wisely contrived a plan to spread a vinyl mat/tablecloth on our ceramic tile hall. So, even if playdough bits stray from the mat (which --who are we kidding-- they will), they fall on the tiles instead of getting embedded into the carpet. Embarrassingly, this hard floor=easy clean-up concept took me years to grasp.

2. While strolling through the blogosphere, I found a recipe for playdough that is perfect. I have tried no less than half a dozen different playdough recipes in the past. Sure, the ingredients are all similar to some degree, but the results have been anything but similar. We've had: too wet, too dry, too stinky, too much, too short-lived (dried out in record time), etc. etc.


The following aspects make my new favorite playdough recipe a winner:

*it makes just enough. I'm not stuck with cups and cups worth of playdough that required the emptying of every salt shaker in the house and left me with no flour to make muffins later on.

*the recipe is so simple and straightforward that my daughter can make it all by herself (okay, she needs me to give it a good stir to smooth the lumps, but the rest is all her).

*it keeps in the refrigerator for quite some time as long as it's in a sealed bag.

Best Playdough Recipe

(found here, which is a delightful blog in many ways, so check out the non-playdough related posts too!):

4 Tbsp white flour (on humid days, I find that I have to increase the amount by another Tbsp or so)

2 Tbsp salt

A splash of vegetable oil (the original recipe calls for a dropper-full, as it is intended as a Montessori activity. I didn't have a dropper on hand, so I guesstimated here)

2 Tbsp water (if you want to color your playdough, add food coloring of choice to the water before mixing it into the rest of the ingredients)

Combine in a bowl and stir. Then knead to really incorporate the color (if used). We kept our first batch in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. We found that subsequent batches kept fresher longer if stored in one of those plastic snack-sized baggies (which, on the whole, I try to avoid using, but one little baggie can be used indefinitely for playdough storage).

We made bracelets and watches. Now we make a new batch of playdough on a regular basis. Throw in some cookie cutters, a garlic press (to make hair/grass/worms/spaghetti), spoons, forks, butter knives, plastic cars, or any toy that makes great tracks and is easily washed and have some fun. Just make sure you have the fun on a non-carpeted surface (ahem). Although, I'm probably the only Mom out there who needs a reminder like that! ;)

Watercolor Resist: Magic Pictures!

Watercolor resist technique is so simple that I can't believe I haven't thought of doing it earlier. I've seen it done and have done it myself, but have not introduced it to my daughter prior to yesterday. For those who don't know, watercolor resist involves marking white paper with a white crayon or candle, and then painting a wash of color over the paper, bringing to light the crayon design. The wax crayon repels the paint, thus exposing your picture. In fact, it's the same technique we used on our Batik Easter eggs this year.

First I gave Roo a white crayon and had her make a picture. But, since it is white crayon on white paper, she was less than thrilled with the results. I encouraged her to keep at it and fill her paper in as much as possible, so we would see a good design. Since she wasn't aware that we were going to go over it with paint, she couldn't understand my enthusiasm for what seemed like a lackluster art project. However, once we washed watercolor paints over the paper, she was a little more interested (a little, but not much).

Wanting to step it up a notch and grab her attention, I drew a few pictures of familiar objects: animals, trees, little girls on swings, etc. I didn't have the easiest time because it is pretty difficult to draw "blindly." I couldn't tell where one part of my design ended and another part began. It was like playing Cranium or Pictionary when you pick the card that says you have to draw with your eyes closed. I suppose I could have taken my white paper and white crayon into better lighting, but my 4 year old isn't picky and I didn't feel like getting up to hunt down more agreeable light. To her, the semblance of any object was better than scribbles.

Then I had her use the darkest colors from the watercolor set and "uncover" the magic picture hiding on the paper. Once I put the whole "magic" spin on it, she was game! And we made (or shall I say, I made and she painted) a dozen pictures. She loved the anticipation of waiting for me to come up with my idea and draw it while hiding behind a "wall" of books at the table, ensuring that she wouldn't see what the magic picture was going to be until it was unveiled with watercolors. The more secrecy and excitement I displayed while drawing a picture for her (shielding it from her eyes from every possible angle), the better!

When my sister came over to visit with her six year old son, we tried the activity again. I handed my nephew a piece of paper onto which I had drawn a farm picture (I did this before they arrived). I didn't tell him anything about it, just handed it to him and said, "Here's a brush. Go paint." He wasn't in the mood to paint, but once he got started and saw an emerging picture, he enthusiastically declared this a winner. My sister and I churned out drawing after drawing for them to discover.

Normally, I don't like to play such a major role in art projects. I don't like to impose the idea on kids that art has to look like something specific or recognizable. Generally, to me, the more abstract, the better. But, since 90% of the art projects we do around here are free-form and child-led, I think a diversion from that is perfectly acceptable once in a while.

An art project that requires only 3 materials and lasts more than 5 minutes? I'm all for that!

Coasting Along in the Craft Room!

I had some extra time this week to finish my coasters. I've made fabric ones in the past, but I wanted to try paper ones. I have oodles of cute scrapbook paper that I thought would make nice coasters. For these, I chose greens, yellows, and browns -- the main colors in our living room, where these coasters will be put to use.

They were really easy. Just some scrapbook paper, corkboard, Mod Podge, and 1/8" ribbon to go around the edges (I originally painted the edges a matching green paint, but I thought it looked sloppy, so I glued ribbon over the paint instead). The most time-consuming part was getting the ribbon around them. I had to glue one side at a time and let each side dry (and I'm not patient enough to hold the ribbon to the cork, so I had to rig a contraption to hold it for me so I could go do something productive while it dried) before continuing around the corner to the next side.

I finished them off by painting several layers of Mod Podge over the top and sides, to protect the decorative paper from becoming soggy from water rings. Here is one of my coasters at work :) :

"He's Got the Whole World in His Hands..."

In celebration of Earth Day tomorrow, we made Earth Day eggs: dyed hard-boiled eggs decorated to look like mini planet Earths! It was fun and quick to do (we were able to dye all 7 of our eggs during Rascal's morning nap -- he takes a speedy 25-35 minute one). Had I known it would turn out so well, I would have boiled more eggs to dye.

The supplies are simple: vinegar, oil, and food coloring (well, and hard-boiled eggs, of course). I followed the instructions from this website. And it wouldn't be complete without step-by-step pictures, would it?

First, dip your egg to make your "oceans"

Aren't they pretty? I was tempted to stop at this point, for fear we might ruin them! :)

Then, add your "land" (some with green, and some with green and yellow):

Once Rascal woke up, he was drawn to them like a magnet, making my photography session quick and painful ;)

Reaching...reaching....just a bit more.........

A-ha! We have contact!
Needless to say, we will be eating these eggs sooner rather than later, as they all suffered some major damage after being investigated by Rascal (no name ever seemed more fitting!).

I think they turned out pretty cool. I think it would be really neat to add this technique to Easter egg decorating next year (I'm thinking some pinks, purples, yellows, greens). If you decide to try this yourself, make sure you follow the instructions on the website to create "whirlpools" in the cup before dunking your egg. This whirling, swirling action is what makes your egg look "earth-like" rather than an all-blue egg that was dipped in green. Found that one out through first-hand experience (patience is a toughie with 3 year olds!).

Spring is (literally) in the air...

Spring makes me think of rebirth, new life, and ....... butterflies!

We did an Easter/Spring craft yesterday that was easy and took very little time (my kind of craft during a busy week like this one). The best part was that my daughter could do 90% of it all by herself. Which is very important with the 3 year old crowd, don't you know? :)

If you would like to fill the air in your home with butterflies, you'll need the following:

*paper coffee filters

*markers (use the real ones (you know, the ones usually reserved for grown-ups, not toddlers. But the washable kind won't "bleed" as nicely, so I don't recommend those for this project)

*spray bottle filled with water

*pipe cleaners

*string, yarn, or floral wire to suspend your butterflies in the air

Start by decorating your coffee filters: the more "blobs" of color used, the better.

Then, use the spray bottle and lightly spray all over the filter (don't worry if they get a little too saturated--my daughter loves water and was a little heavy-handed with the sprayer):

But it's all good, because they just need time to dry:

Once dry, fold each filter accordion-style. Bend the pipe cleaner in half and wrap it around the center of the filter a few times (I don't have a picture of this, but basically you are gathering the filter in the middle and splaying each side out like a fan). Don't forget to curl each end into "antennae." Tie string or wire around the base of the antennae and hang around the house for a festive Spring touch. They look especially nice hanging in front of a window!

Pajama Lamb-a!

This little gal is Lambkins. I made her for my daughter two Easters ago. I followed this easy pattern. For the fabric, I chose to use my daughter's first sleeper PJ's (you know, the kind with the feet). She practically lived in that pajama sleeper all winter and I was so sad when she outgrew it. I couldn't bear to part with it, so I wanted to make the pj's into something "permanent." The soft muted colors and fuzziness (from being washed every other day for months!) looked just right for a little Spring lambkin.



It was my first attempt at making a stuffed animal, and I think that is evident by looking at the picture above! ;) Not quite sure what happened to the poor thing's nose, it seems to be non-existent. But, my daughter loves it anyway.


I was thinking about making a second Lambkins for my son this Easter. Goodness knows, he has a plethora of sleeper pj's to choose from (it seems to be my go-to outfit during winter with my little ones). But, so far he has not shown a fondness for cuddly objects. When he sees his sister's Lambkins, he tries to stuff (no pun intended) as much of the lamb's head into his mouth as possible. That seems to be the extent of his enjoyment for stuffed animals. So, rather than add one more thing to my To-Do list this week, I think I'll skip making Lambkins: the Sequel! I do have some ideas floating around in my head with regard to projects made with his clothes, though. Hopefully, something will come of my ideas and I'll have something to show here before long.

From the craft room...

This week I cleared the clutter from my craft room long enough to get some sewing accomplished. These were just two of many projects in my head that I've been longing to do.

The first was a cloth fabric ball filled with jingle bells for my son. Since he chews on everything, I would feel better if he slobbered on something I made myself: thereby knowing where it's been, what it's made of, and who's handled it. Squishable wool and cotton seemed just about right.

Now, I've never been what one would call detail-oriented when it comes to crafting. I almost never pin, measure, or follow directions (unless I'm attempting a technique/style/etc. that's brand new to me). Normally, I know I'm at point A and I have a rough idea of what I want point B to resemble. I plunge into a project and hope for the best. Am I the only one who thinks sewing pattern instructions are completely foreign, written by someone who has never even looked at a sewing machine, let alone sewn anything?!?

I find I'm much more successful if I make it up as I go, or ask an experienced sewer (why does that look like I am talking about a drainage pipe that carries away waste? I mean the other kind: one who sews, a seamstress). As a result of making up my own directions, my seam-ripper has gotten quite the workout over the years and my husband's tag-line every time I start a project is: "I'm predicting tears" {As in crying--boy, conveying intent is really difficult in writing, isn't it? First it was sewer vs. sewer, now it's tears (sobbing) vs. tears (as in rip apart)}. Anyway, I usually end up huffing, sighing in exasperation, muttering about how I will never sew again, and, yes, sometimes crying when something doesn't turn out as I envisioned.

Well, how hard could it be to make a ball? I looked at a couple online tutorials, saw their templates, and forged ahead. I wasn't sure if there was some sort of mathematical component to the template, so I just drew a "petal" shape and made six of them. I wasn't at all sure if the ball would turn out round or more like a football. I got this:

Which definitely resembles the round variety, so I am pleased. :)

I also got to work on sewing a slipcover for a hideous pillow that came with our couch when we bought it. With our son toddling all over the house, we need to cover the fireplace hearth (which is tiled) with something soft to break the inevitable falls soon to come. If there's one thing I've learned about kids, it's that they naturally gravitate toward all things dangerous, inappropriate, or something you've neglected to childproof. When our daughter was in that just-starting-to-walk stage, we covered the hearth with an ugly, albeit functional, egg-crate/foam mattress pad thingy. We taped it down on the hearth with clear packing tape. Hair and dust would collect in the tiny little egg carton "holes." Oh yeah. It was a beautiful sight, my friends. Beautiful. Martha Stewart would have been proud of that decorative display of form meets function.


So this time around, I decided to go with large throw pillows. The first cover is finished, except I still need to stitch around all the appliques (which I adhered with Heat'n'Bond lite) with the sewing machine. This will give it staying power when I wash it and also help it withstand the picking/rubbing/tracing of little fingers. I have a kind of tree, twig, natural, outdoorsy theme going on the main level of our home. I love owls and birds (which I understand are "hot" right now). But, I've always had a thing for them. Honestly, I think it's an inherited trait from my Grandma C. She had a forest right behind her house in New Jersey. Her feeders nourished countless birds, squirrels, chipmunks...most of them "regulars" with names and unique personalities. I was always amazed at her ability to tell them apart, because to me they were always "those brown birds" or "that pretty black and yellow one." But, I've come a long way since then and even have my eye on this book to help me learn more.


But, back to sewing! Here is the newest slipcovered pillow:

I have a couple other ideas for the remaining pillows I'd like to cover. We'll see what snippets of time I can steal in the coming weeks to get those finished. Hey, at least it's not a foam, egg-crate mattress pad full of hair and dust, right??