Craft Time

I don't consider myself an artistic person--my Mom and my sister have very good drawing talent and actually spent some time in their lives being trained in "arty" stuff.  I never took an art class or a painting class, but every once in a while I like to do something artsy fartsy.  Now that the kids are getting older, I try to do a craft or an art project with them at least every other week.  Here is a smattering of our "crafts" we have done over the last month.  Sometimes we do them while Nicolas is awake, and sometimes we wait until he is napping.

Note:  I babysit a little boy named Kyler.  He is 12 days younger than Laurel, and they have been in the nursery together at church basically since they were born.  He does all the stuff we do when he is here.  I just want to clarify that I babysit him, we have not adopted him or anything like that!  Sometimes when I post pictures people ask...I don't think his Mom would appreciate us taking him away permanently!  :)

Mother's Day Sun Catcher

The week before Mother's Day I decided to do a craft that all three kids could do and give to their Mom's.  Actually, my kids ended up giving theirs to their Grandmas.  I cut tissue paper into squares and cut out the middle of paper plates in advance.  I also wrote "Happy Mother's Day 2015" on the plates in block letters in advance.

At craft time, I first let the kids color in the writing with markers and crayons.  Then I put a piece of clear contact paper on one side of the plate, and let them put the tissue paper squares on it.  When they were done with that, I put another piece of contact paper on the other side, so that the tissue paper was trapped between contact paper and nothing was sticky any more.  Then I threaded a ribbon on it, and it was ready to hang in a window!

Kyler making his Mom a sun-catcher.

A craft so tidy and easy, even a 1 year old can do it!  I usually put him in his high chair for crafts to keep him contained.  He put all the tissue paper on, then tried to peel it all off again.

It is really hard to get 3 toddlers together for a nice picture!

Key Holder and Painting

Scott mentioned that he wanted something with hooks to hang in the garage and hold his car keys.  Laurel had been given a really cool hanger for Christmas that consisted of old barn wood with 3 clothes pins on it and held up by a ribbon.  We had it in her room, but she kept pulling the clothes pins off, so we weren't using it for anything.  I decided to convert it into a key holder.

I did this while Nicolas was napping.  As soon as I got out the craft paint, Laurel and Kyler asked if they could paint!  I usually put a clear shower curtain over the table for painting, but I already had everything out, so I figured since the paint was washable we'd just do it on the table.  The kids did a good job keeping the paint on their paper.  By the time they were done, Laurel's painting was just a grayish-greenish-brownish blur over the whole sheet of paper.  

Kyler and Laurel painting

My finished key holder.  If I was selling these, I would have used matching hooks and actually measured distances between and leveled them.  But it is hanging in our garage and I didn't have time to go to the store (plus a kid was napping), so I used what I had on hand and eyeballed it.  It works.

 Butterflies

One afternoon after Kyler had gone home and Nicolas had just fallen asleep, I asked Laurel what she wanted to do.  She said, "Make butterflies!"  She had never asked that before, so I did a quick "butterfly craft" search on Pinterest, then got out the watercolors and some coffee filters to make butterflies.

First you flatten the coffee filter and use watercolors to paint them.  Laurel has used watercolors quite often, so she didn't need a lot of training.  She wanted me to paint also, so I did paint a couple butterflies as well.

When the paint dries, you fold it up like a fan or an accordian.  I had pipe cleaners on hand, so I cut them in half, and wrapped half of a pipe cleaner around each coffee filter to be the body and antenna.  Then you open up the wings, and voila!  Butterflies!  I tied yard to each one and we hung them from the ceiling above Laurel's bed.

Laurel intently painting her butterflies.  She was really liking the color orange that day.

Laurel and her butterflies in her bedroom.

Sun-catcher Round 2

On Memorial, Scott's sister-in-law and cousins came over for the day.  That morning when Scott talked to her, he though Aunt Audrey sounded a little sad--it's been almost 8 months since Uncle Shawn died, and holidays can still be sad.  Laurel wanted to make something to help make Aunt Audrey happy, so we got out the craft supplies and made a couple more sun-catchers and another butterfly. 

This time I picked some violets from my flower bed and we put those in the sun-catcher as well.

More Painting!

Today I was working on a project (it's not quite finished yet, you will see it when it is completed!), and the TV show the kids were watching finished before I finished.  Laurel came into the kitchen, saw the paints, and wanted to paint as well!  She painted a few popsicle sticks, then I gave her a piece of paper to paint.  I have been teaching her letters, and she is starting to recognize them when she sees them.  Today she was trying to paint letters--she got some of them, but I think we need more work on most of them!  :)

Look Mom, I painted a D!