Tag Archives: arts and crafts

DIY Reindeer Ornaments

Leave a reply

It’s the time of year for Christmas crafts. Buddy always makes a gift for his grandparents and other family members, and I’m always looking for new inspiration. Buddy made these two years ago, but I didn’t blog about it at the time so as not to ruin the surprise for our family.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

We started by buying blank wooden ornaments similar to these. I also bought Sharpie paint pens and acrylic paint. The package of ornaments came with the wooden circles with a prepunched hole and some twine for hanging. The only thing Buddy and I had to do was paint them.

I painted the background of the ornaments white and let them dry completely before asking Buddy to help. When Buddy was ready to work, I put some brown paint in a paper plate. Buddy dipped his finger into the paint, and then he did three or four fingerprints on each circle. Then we let the ornaments dry completely. Once they were dry, Buddy wrote his name and the date on the back of each ornament. Then I used the paint pens to decorate the fingerprints to make them look like reindeer. We had two fingerprints that ended up smearing together, so I made that one to look like a full reindeer instead of the head.

The great thing about this craft is that it is very easy to do, and it doesn’t take a long time for kids to complete. Another great thing about these ornaments compared to others we’ve done in the past is they aren’t fragile. Since we usually mail our ornaments to family out of state, it’s nice to have the peace of mind knowing they won’t break. I thought they turned out well, and I love to pull mine out every Christmas.

Rock Painting Ideas for Kids

Leave a reply

My family has had a crazy spring with everything shut down and trying to do remote learning at home. We’ve also traveled a little bit once summer started. Now that we’re home and school is over, we’ve finally got some time to try some new activities.

*Disclaimer – This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

When we were on vacation, our cottage had access to a beach filled with stones. Of course, quite a few of them came home with us, so I had the idea to paint them. We looked through Pinterest for ideas, and tried a bunch of our favorites.

Our first step was to paint a base layer of color on each rock. We used acrylic paint instead of washable paint since I wanted the paint to last. For many of the rocks, we did a base coat on both sides. There were a few that Buddy only wanted one side painted. Make sure your paint is really dry before turning them over. (Side note – even though Buddy is wearing a smock, he did somehow get paint on the back of his clothes. Make sure you double check clothing immediately after painting, and get the paint out before it dries!)

Once we had a base layer of paint, we came back after an hour to decorate. We used small paint brushes, Q-tips, and paint markers to decorate the rocks. Buddy was actually able to do a lot more of the details than I thought he would be able to.

We used small paint brushes to do the dinosaur rocks and the alligator one that Buddy is doing below. We used paint pens to add details to the dinosaur rocks as well. The monster rocks and hedgehog rocks were also created with small paint brushes followed by paint pens for the smaller details.

We used Q-tips to do the dot rocks. They actually turned out better than I thought they would! We also used Q-tips to do the dots in the polar bears eyes/nose, the lady bugs, and the watermelon. Both the polar bears’ ears and the lady bugs’ eyes needed paint pens for the small details.

When we did paint pens, Buddy wanted to write his name and make his own drawings on some of the rocks. It was very easy for him to use and write neatly. We used Sharpie paint pens and Uni Posca paint pens on the rocks. Both worked very well.

After we added our details, we let everything dry again. Then we coated our rocks with two coats of Mod Podge. We turned our rocks a little too soon and a couple stuck to the newspaper. So make sure you wait a long time before you Mod Podge on the back side of your rocks. We applied sticky google eyes to our monster rocks after the Mod Podge step.

Once the rocks were finished, we picked a few to hide at a park near our house. We had so much fun making the rocks, and even more fun hiding some for others to find. It was a great activity, and I’m sure it will be a summer craft for years to come.

DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Leave a reply

Buddy’s always enjoyed drawing pictures with sidewalk chalk. Now that he’s a little older, I thought this summer was a great time to try a variation on traditional sidewalk chalk. So when I saw the idea for sidewalk chalk paint on The Kitchen Table’s Classroom’s blog, I was excited to try it.

The recipe calls for a 1:1 ratio of cornstarch to water, with food coloring added as needed. So we started with two tablespoons of cornstarch, a little food coloring, and then two tablespoons of water. Buddy tried to stir the mixture, but it was very firm. So we added more water until it was a nice liquid consistency. It was a fun little science experiment before we got to the art activity.

Once we were all ready to paint, we grabbed two paintbrushes and headed outside. We both had a blast painting on our driveway! After the paint dried, it really did look like sidewalk chalk. And when we were all done, it washed away as easily as sidewalk chalk too. It was a fun and easy activity, and I’m sure we’ll try it again next summer.

Do you have any other fun, outdoor activities for kids? Share your ideas in the comments section.

Drawing on Windows

Leave a reply

My husband is working abroad this summer, and Buddy and I recently flew to Colombia to see him. I knew before we left that we’d have a lot of down time in our hotel. When I was looking for ideas, something that made me very excited was Coffee and Carpool’s blog on hotel activities. I especially loved the idea of drawing on the windows with dry erase markers.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Before I offered the idea of drawing on the windows with dry erase markers, I tested it on a small part of the window, to make sure it would erase easily. We used Crayola washable dry erase markers. All dry erase markers should work for this activity, but I like the peace of mind with washable markers in general. If they get on something else besides the window, I know it will be easy to remove the stain.

Buddy and I both took a marker, and we looked out the window. We drew pictures of what we saw outside, such as cars, busses, trees, and bicycles. Then we drew everything else we could think of. I offered to play tic-tac-toe on the window, but Buddy just wanted to draw.

Buddy is not always into artsy things, but he had the best time with the activity. He drew happily for 50 minutes the first time we did this activity. The next day he wanted to do it again, and it lasted 30 minutes. Both times we did this, we erased our drawings with a Kleenex when we were done. Some parts took a little effort to erase, but overall, it was pretty easy to clean up.

Dry erase markers will be a regular part of our travel activities in the future. They take almost no space to pack, and they are so much fun! Do you have any other fun ideas for travel activities? Please share in the comments.

Bead Snakes Fine Motor Activity

Leave a reply

Buddy isn’t always interested in making crafts. However, I like crafty activities, so I always look for ones I think he’d like too. When I saw the pattern snakes idea on Frugal Fun 4 Boys’ Blog, I knew Buddy would love it. As soon as I suggested it, Buddy wanted to do it right away!

To start, I pulled out some pony beads, pipe cleaners, and some sticky google eyes. I twisted the end of each pipe cleaner to make a knot. Then, Buddy and I pulled out the beads we wanted to use for our snakes.

Buddy’s concentrating so hard – look at his tongue sticking out!

The original activity was designed to practice patterning, but Buddy wasn’t interested in doing his snake in a pattern. We did have some patterning discussions with my beads though. Buddy liked finding the next color for my pattern, but he didn’t want to do his own snake that way.

A close up of my snake.

It was really fun and relaxing putting beads on our snakes. We both genuinely enjoyed the process! Plus, it was a great way for Buddy to work on his fine motor skills. Once our snakes were full, I twisted the end to make a head. Then we added two google eyes. I wasn’t sure they would stick, but they did!

Making snakes is fun!

Buddy’s enjoyed playing with his snake this week! The google eyes did fall off after a week – I might try hot glue next time to make them stay a little better. Buddy enjoyed this activity so much that he wants to make them at his birthday party!

Do you have any other fun craft ideas for preschoolers? If so, please leave your suggestions in the comment section.

Christmas Marshmallow Painting

Leave a reply

Buddy and I have been having a lot of fun doing Christmas activities this week. Our first activity was making a gingerbread train, and when we bought the candy, Buddy begged me to buy jumbo marshmallows. He promised me he’d use them on his train, and he then he only used one. So when we finished and had a full bag of marshmallows left over, I realized I needed to find something else to do with them. Buddy heard me comment about finding a marshmallow activity, and he specifically asked to paint with them. And that’s how we came up with Christmas marshmallow painting. 

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

I grabbed a piece of painting paper from our paint pad, and I drew a large triangle. Then I grabbed our Crayola washable paints, and put some colors on a paper plate. Finally, I pulled out a few jumbo marshmallows and Q-tips to use as paint brushes, and I found Buddy’s painting smock. 

Buddy was so excited to start painting with the marshmallows. I showed him how to stamp with the marshmallow, and I told him to stay inside of the triangle to make the tree. He did a great job of very carefully covering the area of the triangle with green paint. 

Once he had finished the tree, Buddy got a new marshmallow to make the trunk. I told him to make straight lines down to make the trunk. 

After Buddy made the tree, I did a new plate of paint with colors for lights and ornaments. He did one large marshmallow yellow stamp to be a star at the top. The rest were small dots made with Q-tips. We couldn’t decide if they were Christmas lights or ornaments. Buddy said they were both. 

Buddy had so much fun with this activity, he asked to do it again the following day! So I cut up the painting paper, and we made Christmas cards. This was such a simple idea, and it was so easy to clean up! I just threw away the marshmallows, Q-tips, and paper plates, and it was done.  I’m sure we will be doing marshmallow paintings again soon. 

Cinnamon Applesauce Thumbprint Ornaments

Leave a reply

Buddy makes ornaments to give as Christmas gifts every year, and this weekend we worked on this year’s ornaments. Because our family reads this blog, I don’t blog about the ornaments before we give them to keep them a surprise. So while I won’t go into detail about what we did this weekend, I do want to share the ones we made last Christmas.

I made cinnamon applesauce ornaments as a child, and every Christmas I pull them out and they still smell amazing! The previous two years, I made salt dough ornaments with Buddy, so I thought cinnamon applesauce ornaments would be a nice change of pace.

I used the recipe for cinnamon applesauce ornaments from Mc Cormick. Buddy and I mixed together 3/4 cup of applesauce with 5 ounces of cinnamon. I loved the look of the glittery cinnamon spice ornaments on Simply Notable’s blog, so we poured in some glitter into our mixture.

Buddy had a lot of fun pouring in the ingredients. Then we took turns stirring them together. Buddy was able to stir a little to start, but once it started to become dough, I needed to stir it. Once the dough was formed, I sprinkled more cinnamon on a piece of wax paper and on my rolling pin, and I rolled out the dough. Then I gave Buddy a small heart cookie cutter. We cut out the hearts together, and then I moved them to a cookie sheet.  After they were moved, I had Buddy stick his thumb in each one. Then I used a straw to cut a small hole at the top of each one. 

The ornaments baked in the oven at 200 degrees for 2 and 1/2 hours. Once they were cool, I used a silver paint pen to outline Buddy’s thumbprint. I finished the ornaments by tying a piece of red ribbon through the top. Everyone loved these ornaments! They were so cute and smelled great. I’m looking forward to pulling mine out again once I set up this year’s Christmas tree.

 

Fall Tree Pom Pom Painting

Leave a reply

I love doing seasonal activities, especially in the fall. When I first saw the idea of doing a fall tree painting on Crafts on Sea’s blog, I loved it. They did several paintings using different items as paint brushes. I liked the pom pom idea the best, and so did Buddy. There is a printable tree template on the blog, but I ended up just creating my own.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

During Buddy’s nap time, I got the painting materials set up. I used a marker to draw a tree trunk and branches on painting paper. Then I put washable paints on a paper plate, and put a pom pom on the end of a clothes pin. I also pulled out Buddy’s paint smock.

Buddy was so excited to start painting. He loved the idea of using a pom pom instead of a paint brush, and he was very careful with it. At first, Buddy put one dot of paint at the end of each branch. But eventually, he started adding more and more paint everywhere. 

After awhile, Buddy wanted more leaves on the paper. I suggested that he put some on the ground. However, Buddy thought it would be more fun to make them falling from the tree. So there are a lot of leaves everywhere on the paper. 

Here is Buddy’s final picture. 

Buddy had a lot of fun, and it was so easy to clean up! I threw away the paper plate, and the pom pom clothes pin, and we were done! Since we didn’t use a real paint brush, I didn’t have to clean it out at the end of our activity! We both loved this activity, and I know we’ll try pom pom painting again.

Heart Stamping Valentine

Leave a reply

Buddy’s school asked every student to make a Valentine for his or her classroom. I decided that we would do the heart stamping activity from last Valentine’s Day (read about it here). Once Buddy finished his painting, we made it into a valentine.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

I started by pulling out a sheet of painting paper, which I taped down with painters tape. Then I pulled out a couple of paper plates, washable kids’ paint, a heart cookie cutter from the dollar store, and two toilet paper rolls. I poured paint on the plates, and I creased the toilet paper rolls to look like hearts. Finally I pulled out Buddy’s smock to keep the paint off of his clothes.

Buddy started with the cookie cutter. I liked using this in addition to the toilet paper hearts because it gave us a different size of heart. 

Once Buddy was done with the cookie cutter, we switched to the toilet paper hearts. We did these in two different colors. 

We let the picture dry for a couple hours. During that time, I asked Buddy about all of the things he loves about school. Once the picture was dry, I wrote his responses into some of the hearts with a black felt tip pen. Then we added a Happy Valentine’s Day and Buddy’s name at the bottom. 

I’m really happy with how this turned out! It was a lot of fun and very easy.

Fall Tree Foil Painting

2 Replies

I love to do activities related to the season. When I first saw this fall tree painting idea on Munchkins and Moms’ blog, I knew it would be a perfect fall activity. It has been awhile since Buddy and I have painted together, and I knew that we would both enjoy this project.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Buddy was so excited when I told him we’d be doing a fall tree painting. I showed him a picture of what the final painting would look like so he could understand what to do. Then, I put brown paint on one paper plate, and red, yellow, and orange paint on another paper plate. We always use Crayola washable paint because it is so easy to clean up. My favorite paper for painting is this paint pad, which never gets soggy.

I gave Buddy a brush to paint the tree trunk, and I helped him make the lines for the trunk and branches. 

Next, I rolled up a ball of foil, and Buddy dipped it into the red, yellow, and orange paint. Then he tapped it all over the page to make the leaves. He really wanted to make smeary lines, but I was able to convince him that tapping looked better. When the paint started mixing enough to look brown and gross, I got a new ball of foil to use.

While Buddy’s painting wasn’t perfect, I thought it was pretty good for a two-year old. He had a lot of fun, and he was  very proud of the final product. 

SaveSave

SaveSave