Recycled Train

The other day when my two oldest were at school and the baby was napping I decided my three year old and I needed to spend a little one-on-one time together doing something special.  It isn't that often that we do crafts so we pulled out the paints and some recyclable items and make this cute little choo-choo train.

This little guy loves to paint!  He was in heaven.  He had so much fun picking out what colors he wanted to use to paint his egg carton, and then when he was all done, mixing all the colors on his paint-pallet-plate together.

Once everything was painted we placed a toilet paper tube at the front to make a smoke stack with some cotton (or smoke) coming out of the top.  He was so pleased with his special creation that he made all by himself and we had so much fun spending time together.  It was time well spent.

Race Cars

It was one of those days.  My seven year old was at school, my baby was down for a nap, and my four year old needed something new to do.  It had been a while since we worked on a project together and after thinking about it for a minute I decided on this little race car craft.  My four year old loves cars and he loves to paint so it was perfect.

We hunted down a wrapping paper tube, cut it into pieces, and got to painting.  Then came the bigger task of cutting out all those wheels and the steering wheels. 

After the tubes dried my four year old decorated them with markers.  We then attached the wheels with brads and taped on the steering wheels.  Then they were ready to play with!

It was a good project that left us both happy.

Have you done any popular crafts with your kids lately?

Super Hero Portraits

For my son's birthday last year he had a super hero party.  To decorate for the party I printed out some super hero logos to make a banner. 

When the party was over I saved the logos.  I guess you can say that I'm a little conservative with my printer ink . . . okay, really conservative.  All that ink I used to print them out . . . I didn't want to just throw them away.  There had to be something else we could do with them. 

Well, they ended up becoming the perfect craft for a gloomy cold day.  With some large sheets of construction paper we used the logos to make some super hero portrait posters.  My son loved the project, and it was fun for me to see his artistic side come out and how interested he was in getting the details right.

These posters make for some fun art to decorate the walls in the basement playroom.

And my son is so proud of the super hero posters he created.

On-the-go Coloring Case

Ready for a super simple, super successful, on-the-go activity to make for your kids?

I'll be forever in debt to my sister Elise for pointing this one out to me from Simply Frugal Mom.

My kids love this!

Target has these perfect little first aid kits located with the travel items in the health and beauty section of the store.  I picked up two of these, one for each child, and emptied the contents into a Ziploc bag to keep in my car.

Then I filled the case with crayons . . .

And taped a pack of post-it notes to the inside lid.

Ta-da!  The perfect on the go activity to keep in your purse for emergencies or great to bring along when traveling.  I can't tell you how much my kids have loved these.  A special little coloring case just for them.  And what kid doesn't like to peel off post-it notes?  I know mine do!  That's half of what makes this so much fun--peeling off the post-it notes.

And when the post-it notes run out just add a new pad.  Perfect!

Cardboard Box Washing Machine

OR . . .

Place your cape in the tub . . .

Close the lid . . .

Set the dials . . .

Wait . . .

Admire your super clean cape . . .

The other day I was browsing through Pinterest and my son noticed this cardboard washing machine I had pinned.  He thought that looked pretty cool and asked if we could make it.   Occasionally over the next few weeks he brought it up again and again until I finally realized he was serious about wanting to make this washing machine.  So we headed down to the basement and found a box.  We worked on our machine over the next two weeks, a little here, a little there. Cutting cardboard and paper, taping, cutting out dials, coloring and gluing.  It was fun.  A special project for just the two of us.  And then we were done. . . .  And the washing machine sat. . . . Apparently little boys don't really like to pretend to sit and do laundry all day.  We did have fun working together but the next time we have a box to spare we'll use it for something like a race car or a rocket ship.  I think we'll get a lot more use out of something like that.

What kinds of things have you created out of a box with your kids?

Book Review, Kids Craft, and Giveaway

I recently received a few craft books from Stackpole Books, Painting with Mixed Media, Christmas Crafts Scandinavian Style, and Artful Collage from Found Objects  I've always enjoyed art and had fun looking through these books.  There were a ton of inspirational ideas.

I love the Scandinavian style Christmas decor.  This book, Christmas Crafts Scandinavian Style, is full of beautiful and festive ideas.  Handmade fabric bags make a perfect touch for delivering a special gift, darling embroidered motifs, dainty Christmas ornaments, and one of the classiest advent calendars I ever did see were a few of my favorites.  I love that the book includes templates in the back so you can easily duplicate each craft.  There is even a guide for the different embroidery stitches for people who like me who have no idea about those kinds of things.  I really want to incorporate some of these ideas into my decor come Christmastime.  They'll go perfectly with the look I'm trying to create in my family room.

My kids really loved looking through Artful Collage from Found Objects with me.  On just about every other page my daughter would tell me, "Ooooo.  I want to make this one!"  This book is all about giving new life to what's inside our junk drawers and believe me I have plenty of "scraps" left over from previous projects that I'm happy to use for crafts like this.  It was a tough choice but she declared this Under Water project her favorite.

This project made for the perfect afternoon activity one hot muggy day a few weeks ago.  My daughter and I brainstormed together how we could recreate a similar scene using items we had on hand.  She decided to make seaweed by water coloring some packing paper.

She then cut it out into strips and crinkled it up.

We gathered a blue poster board, the water colored sea weed, some green tulle, and made shimmering fish out of aluminum foil.  Then everything was ready to be glued together.

My daughter had a blast with this project.  She mentioned over and over again how this was the funnest fish project ever! 

She was proud of her artwork and had a so much fun using her creativity to put it together.  Artful Collage from Found Objects was great inspiration for this craft and I think we'll be using it for many more.

The kind people over at Stackpole Books have offered to giveaway one of these books, Painting with Mixed Media, Christmas Crafts Scandinavian Style, and Artful Collage from Found Objects to three lucky readers.  Enter through Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Good luck!

*Giveaway open to U.S. and Canadian residents only

Oatmeal Canister Drum

My son loves Little Golden Books.  For whatever reason if the book has a golden spine it's listed among his favorites.  Whenever he picks out a book for me to read to him it's a golden one.

The other day we read The Boy With a Drum and afterward my son told me that he would like a drum.

I  wasn't about to go out and buy one for him but I told him that the next time we had an empty oatmeal canister we would make a drum together. 

After a few weeks we had an empty oatmeal container and I excitingly showed my son.  The look on his face was one of disappointment.  This "trash" was not what he had in mind at all.  But then we got out the scissors and markers, peeled off the wrapper, cut it down to size, colored it, punched some holes in the sides, added a strap, and hunted down some pencils to use for sticks, and I had one boy who was so proud of the drum he had made. 

He has had a great time playing with his new toy.

And so pleased that he made it himself.

And now my daughter wants one too.  It looks like we'll be eating a lot more oatmeal.  Good thing we like it so much.

Exploring Magnetism

I've seen a lot of ideas over the years for discovery bottles and have always thought my kids would love them but I guess I've never had enough gumption to make some up.  When I ran across this idea from Pre-school Play I couldn't pass it up though.  It looked like too much fun! (And there are many more great ideas over there.)


I gathered up an empty tennis ball canister, some cut up pipe cleaners, scissors, and a couple strong magnets from off the fridge.

My kids had a great time maneuvering their magnets around the bottle to pick up the pipe cleaners.

After a while they took off the lid and discovered there was more fun to be had.

They took turns using their magnets to maneuver the pipe cleaners up the side of the jar and out.

It was easier said than done but after discovering the right technique they got quite good at it.  The pipe cleaners were then sorted into colors and they had a great time seeing which color was in the lead.

I don't think we'll get tired of this one for a long time.