No bored kids, see our latest craft projects

Almost two years

2010-06-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

I just opened my blog and realized that it has been idle for almost two years. Where did those years go and what did I do with them? Well I am back and ready to start entertaining my children again. In addition to listing children's crafts I think I will begin to list mommy tips and ways to stay sane! That is definitely something that I struggle with as a stay-at-home mom of two girls.

Watch for my new postings over the summer.

Super Hero Popsicle Stick Puppets

2008-07-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

The creativity of children continues to amaze me.

Yesterday I opened up the craft box and just left there for the girls to have fun with.

My 5 1/2 year old came up with these and made them all herself, I wasn't invovled until I took the pictures.

They used:
Gem stickers (2 for each)
a popsicle stick
a pen to draw the mouth
a piece of foam paper(We had some in our box from a previous craft. They were pre-cut into the shape of feathers. We used them on our pumpkin turkeys last year. That craft is shown on this blog)
a few flower felt stickers

These are so cute and I cannot believe how easy they are to make.

4th of July Flags

2008-07-03T11:05:00.001-07:00

This is a fun craft and you can take the opportunity to teach you child about the flag.
We used these items for each flag:
red, blue and white contruction paper
4 pipe cleaners red, white and blue
1 bead
glue stick
a hole punch

Pre-cut the shapes:
1 large white rectangle
1 small blue square
14 red stripes

I let my girls use a small hole puncher to punch out 50 stars. This is a great opportunity to pratice counting and talk about why the flag has 50 stars.
Next they glued on the blue square and the stripes.
Then, we braided three pipe cleaners together. Slide one large bead on to the top of the pipe cleaner. Fold the pipe cleaner back uder the bead to hide the sharp wires and keep the flag from falling off.
Punch two holes in the flag (top and bottom) and slide the flag through them.
Fold the bottom of the pipe cleaner up a bit to hide the sharp ends and wrap the last pipe cleaner around it to make a handle.

Now your kids will have a fun and safe flag to wave at the parade or 4th of July celebration.

Box monsters, mini toy box

2008-06-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, my girls came up with this one on their own. They took these boxes out of the recycling bin. They liked the fact that they opened up and thought it looked like a mouth. They asked for google eyes and decorations. This is what they came up with. For about a week they carried them around the house and would eat up the toys as they went around. Hey, a good clean-up trick. I got tired of looking at them and now they are recycling. Fun and cheap

Polly pocket cardboard dollhouse or toy car garage

2008-06-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

Here is another idea for a polly pocket or small dollhouse. My girls have actually been using it as a house for their Cars(Tow Mater and McQueen). We recycled the last dollhouse. I love disposable toys.

This was a very sturdy box that we received. I cut a large hole in the back and top for easy access. A few windows and a couple of doors that can open or close. Then the girls decorated it with markers.

Cardboard Box Castle

2008-06-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

We turned a delivery box into a fun afternoon craft. I quickly cut holes for windows, a mail slot and a few peep holes. You'll notice that I spent very little time on the design, but the girls didn't mind at all. I brought out a bag of markers and the let them color to their hearts content. We later added a plastic bag to the door so that the doors would stay closed. We've had this in our backyard for 3 weeks now and both of my girls still play in it.

Toilet paper roll people

2008-02-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

Items used:
toilet paper rolls
pipe cleaners
google eyes
feathers
tissue paper
misc craft items

This craft took about a half hour to complete all items used were found in our craft supplies.

These are quick and easy. Poke 4 holes through the toilet paper roll, 2 on each side and slide the pipe cleaners through. Curl up the ends of the pipe cleaners to cover the sharp points. Then let the kids get creative.

Valentine's Heart Family

2008-02-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

Today we used the great craft kit that Aunt Julie gave us to make these fun projects.

Items used:
construction paper
foil paper
google eyes
sequins
foam pieces
tissue ribbons
thin ribbon
glue and markers

I cut hearts out of the foil paper and we all let our creative juices flow.

Have fun. We spent 1 1/2 hours on this project

Foam stamp art, kids thank you cards

2008-01-31T15:50:00.000-08:00

We got this idea from parents magazine. We cut up a foam packing piece into a square. Had my daugther write thank you on a piece of paper. I held it up and traced the letters on to the back in reverse. I then placed the paper on the foam and traced over her letters. That left her writing in the foam. I used a pecil to make the inpression a little deeper into the foam. Then she sponged washable paint onto the foam piece and stamped it on the card stock. Cheap and easy, this projet only took a 1/2 hour and we had all of the supplies at home.

items used:
foam packing piece
card stock
scissors
sponge
washable paint

Tea Hats, Party Hats, Fun Tea Party hats

2008-01-07T13:49:00.000-08:00

These are easy fun hats that you can make for a birthday party or just for a fun day of dress-up at home.

Items needed:
2 sheets of gift wrap or 2 pieces of newspaper
masking tape
hot glue
decorations (flowers, feathers, pom poms, etc.)

Place the paper on you childs head, wrap tape around just above the ears. You can style the hat by rolling the edges up, leave it loose for a floppy hat.

Use hot glue to attach the decorations.

Tea Time Clock, invitation or craft

2008-01-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

My daugther wanted to make a clock for her birthday party invitation this year. This is what we came up with.

items used:
*card stock two square pieces for each clock
*paper fastners
*puffy craft tape
*various pieces of crafting paper
*number stickers
*glue stick
*flower stickers

The hands on the clock are able to turn because we used the fastner to hold them on. We glued the second sheet of card stock on the back to hide the hardware. The flower sticker hides the fastner on the front of the card.

Snowman snack, kids edible craft

2007-12-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

Today our craft was also our afternoon snack.
we used:
round wheat crackers
cream cheese
blueberries (eyes and buttons)
raisins (mouth)
baby carrots (nose)
red pepper (scarf)
olives (hat)
pretzels (arms)
These were quick and easy to make. 20 minutes and we had everything in our house already. I love that they became our snack. I almost missed getting a picture, the girls were desperate to eat them. My five year old even ate the red pepper.

Get outside and build a real snowman, complete the look with a snowman kit

2007-12-06T21:57:00.000-08:00

We have had contractors working on our house this past week. We weren't able to get many crafts done with the all of the mess.
We did manage to decorate store bought (refrigerated dough) gingerbread cookies. The girls had a great time decorating and eating their gingerbread men.
Over the weekend my husband went outside with the girls to enjoy our new layer of snow. They used one of our favorite Christmas gifts. A few years ago our neighbors gave us a snowman kit from Restoration Hardware. We love to use it and the girls have fun repairing snowman each day as he melts. The kit has a hat, eyes, carrot nose, mouth and buttons. If you need a inexpensive idea for neighbor kits this is a great idea. You could easily make your own by going to the thrift store for hats and scarves, get creative with the eyes nose and mouth materials. It will be fun to see your neighborhood decorated after the next snow storm.

learning shapes collage, kids educational craft

2007-11-30T15:06:00.000-08:00

Todays project was very easy but kept my 5 year old entertained for almost 2 hours.

I needed any easy project today, that didn't require much mom help (it was cleaning day). My 2 1/2 year old was sleeping so this was the perfect educational craft.

items needed:
Large piece of paper
glue stick
scissors
marker
old newspapers or magazines

Divide the paper into columns or a grid. Label each box with the a small drawn picture of a shape. I used triangle, square, rectangle, circle, cube, star, cylinder and cone.
Have your child search through the magazines or newspaper ads to find pictures that they think represent each shape. Then have them cut out the pictures and glue them in the appropriate box.
It is a simple project, but my daughter had alot of fun looking for the shapes and worked on her scissoring skills at the same time.

This project was 2 1/2/ hours start to finish (set-up and clean-up), was free and required only about a half hour of parent involvement. This would be a great group project.

Snowman craft, winter kids craft

2007-11-29T15:18:00.000-08:00

Today we made our third project from our halloween pumpkins. Yesterday I cleaned the pumpkins and spray painted them white.
This project was about an one hour and fifteen mintues from set-up to clean-up
(that includes the time to spray paint the pumpkins the previous day). This project was free for us today, we already had all of the items in our house.

Items used:
white spray paint
3 mini pumpkins
3 remant pieces of fabric for the scarf
push pins
glue
google eyes
colored sticky foam board (you could use colored paper)
3 buttons
markers

First we cut large circles out of the black foam board for the hat brim. a small circle was cut out of the center so that it fit over the stem.
We cut a long strip of foam board with slits on the bottom to made the hat. folded the top down a bit and stuck another small circle for the top of the hat.
We used push pins to hold down help hold the hat the hat down on the pumpkin
We glued on the eyes, used glue and push pins to hold the nose in place.
Cut a mouth and checks out of the foam board and stuck them on
I tied the scarf around the bottom of the pumpkin and held it on with push pins.
The final touch was to let my girls color on them with markers.

The results were very cute.

One mini pumpkin, 3 holiday crafts

2007-11-28T11:46:00.000-08:00

We used mini pumpkins for Halloween this year. They were easier for our kids to do on their own.
We painted them with washable paint (which can flake off), glued google eyes on them and decorated them with markers and stickers.
Once Halloween was over we washed the paint off put the eyes back the craft box and made the turkeys featured here in my blog.
Now that thanksgiving is over we have pulled the turkeys apart, saved the feathers and google eye for future projects. And washed off the washable markers we used to decorate them with.
We started with 4 pumpkins for Halloween, 2 were dispalyed outside on the porch and two were on the mantle. Only one of the pumpkins had to be thrown out (it became soft). Displaying the crafts outside helped them last longer.
Our next project will be to turn these into snowmen, I am figuring that project out today and will post our craft as soon as we put it together. My plan is to paint the pumpkin white.

I am excited to experiment with reusing items from our previous projects. I am trying to teach my kids to recycle and be eco friendly. They enjoy watching their items turn into something new.

Thanksgiving turkey craft, pumpkin kids craft

2007-11-27T23:13:00.001-08:00

Here is the craft that inspired this blog.
Pumpkin thanksgiving turkeys
We were bored one day in early November and decided to make turkeys.
We washed the paint off of our halloween pumpkins, cut tail feathers, a circle for the head, beak and wings out of foam paper from our craft box.
We used paper fasteners to stick the head, tail and wings into the pumpkin.
then we glued the eyes and beak on.
They were adorable, we made four of them. They added a festive touch to our porch and fireplace mantel this year.

holiday santa craft for kids

2007-11-27T23:12:00.001-08:00

Today's craft is a Santa Claus head made out of a butternut squash. I love to use items that we eat in our crafts.
Items I used:
3 butternut squash
3 old socks
cotton balls
glue
straight pins
foam stickers
google eyes
pipe cleaners
3 pom pom balls
This craft took about an hour from set-up to clean-up.
The butternut squash cost $5.50 and the rest of the items were already in our craft box.
we used the glue and straight pins to hold everything on. I had the girls hold the items while I pushed the pins in. they were able to fluff up the beard and hair once pressed on. The beard was two cotton balls under the mouth and 1/2 a cotton ball stretched out above the mouth.
We used a blow dryer to help dry the eyes so that they didn't run down the face.
I had to help my daughters quite a bit with this craft, but they choose all of the colors and helped with each step. They were proud to display their work on the mantle. I hope to use the squash again in another future craft.

snowman cookies, winter kids craft

2007-11-27T18:33:00.001-08:00

Today we attempted to make snowman sugar cookies. I am not a great cook, so we bought refrigerated sugar cookie dough. We used sprinkles for the hat and snow on the bottom and round decorative candies. We used pieces of dried spaghetti for the arms and hat brim. This was a simple and fun craft the girls loved it and were great for the entire time, they couldn't wait to taste their creations.
The snowmen grew a bit in the oven, but they tasted great.