Stick Flowers

Here's a little spring project I did with Ben last week. We called these "stick flowers".


Here they are on Ben's sorry excuse for a nature table. This is the shelf on which he displays some of his crafts and also his "collections" of shells, rocks, pinecones, acorns and other assorted nature finds. You can see our apple tree experiment in that vase on the window sill (Yes! That's an apple tree growing from an apple seed!)


This idea came from a discussion that Ben and I had after the last snow, about how winter was going away and spring was going to come. We had been saving some sticks to make a snowman. Unfortunately, the last round of snow didn't stay long enough for us to make a snowman, so we were left with this nice little bunch of sticks. We decided to bring spring into our home a little early with some felt flowers!

I simply cut out circles of bright colored felt with pinking shears, in two sizes (about 1.5 inches diameter and 2.5 inches diameter). I handled the glue gun (with many bad words that Ben was thrilled to hear every time I burnt my fingers) and he selected which circles of felt should go together and which little balls should adorn the center. We hot-glued these "flowers" to the sticks, and ta-da, our stick flowers were done!




This was a total spur of the moment project and was over and done with in about 30 minutes. Ben and I had a great time making them and they look pretty nice on the nature shelf!

Mug Rug with Kid Drawing

I mentioned the other day that I've been looking for projects that keep Ben and me busy for a few days' worth of activity this winter, and here's another one.


I forget how exactly I came up with the idea of a mug rug involving a hand drawn panel by Ben. I'd been wanting to use fabric scraps to make mug rugs (aka coasters for your coffee or tea), a fun quick-and-easy project to get back in tune with my sewing machine. I'm thinking the inclusion of a drawing on fabric was probably inspired by SouleMama's books. To entice Ben to participate, I told him these would be gifts for whomever he chose.

The first step was getting him to draw some pictures on fabric. I started by taping some white cotton fabric scraps to a large piece of oil cloth-covered cardboard. My local fabric shop didn't have any fabric markers when I called but she suggested either trying one of the other fabric shops in town or using permanent markers -- which I could get at the drugstore that is walking distance from my house. We went with permanent markers (much easier than loading both kids in the car for a trip to a further fabric store!). Plus, permanent markers now come in a great array of colors!



Ben had so much fun drawing these panels. A couple of them tell a very convoluted story (one is an under the sea adventure, the other one is a Christmas story), and others are more abstract (a part of a rainbow, a pink box).


Drawing took a couple of days. 3-year-olds have the attention span of a flea. The day after that, I gave Ben my fabric scrap box and asked that he pick 4 pieces to frame each picture and 1 piece for the back of each mug rug. It was hilarious to listen to his commentary on the fabrics he recognized ("Dis one is from Henwy's burpcloth!" "Dis one is from dat thing on our dining woom table!") and to hear his very specific and opinionated choices for each mug rug ("Dis one will have polka dot", "Dis bee fabwic is great for the back of dis one" "Dis yooks POH-fect!"). Good times.



While he was napping the other day, I sewed the scraps onto the drawings in a simple log-cabin fashion and squared them off as best as I could.



Ben then helped me sew the layers together, flip them around and poke the corners with a chopstick (apparently a super cool trick!) then sew them shut and quilt them with a couple of squares. Needless to say, the stitching is quite a bit off-kilter on these little things but it adds to the kid-made charm!

Here's the front:



And here's the back:


Now, I need to get to the post office and mail these off (along with our Valentine thank you cards, ahem). In the meantime, I am loving my own little mug rug! When it's not in use, I've found it makes great art on my bulletin board, hung with a clip.




Jenny I love this project, especially how involved Ben was in the whole process! They really turned out great.

Valentine Collage Cards

Happy Valentine's Day!! Unlike you, we didn't have to make a bunch of Valentine's cards for classmates this year. However, Ben still owed thank you cards to friends and family members for Christmas gifts (shameful, I know), so I finally decided to combine the two occasions: hearty Valentine-y thank you cards.


We've had so many snowy and rainy days this winter that I've been jumping on any project that requires several steps to complete. This ends up keeping us busy for several mornings at home. In this case, we decided to make collages to then use in making cards. The first step was to cut a bunch of different papers into little bits. Fun!



We used some of Ben's paintings that I'd saved up for months (years?), as well as catalogs and magazines. The best magazines for getting some good paper bits are gardening, food and travel magazines. You get so many fantastic textures in the images: flowers, beans, landscapes, maps, tiles, polka dots, etc.



Once we had filled up our box (formerly housing fabulous almond shortbread snowmen cookies from Trader Joe's!) with a bunch of paper bits, we lathered some construction paper in Mod Podge and went to town covering it with these paper bits.




Once the first layer was dry, we went over it with Mod Podge to sort of secure all the paper bits into one solid layer. I love the look of these collages!



A few days later, I cut cardstock paper in half and folded those pieces in half to make cards. I cut hearts out of the collage sheets, and rectangles (slightly smaller than my cardstock cards) out of construction paper. With Mod Podge, again, we pasted red rectangles and then hearts cut from the collage onto the cards.



And there you have them. Fun little cards that kept us entertained for several mornings, cutting, gluing, arranging...



I apologize to our family and friends who will see these cards here before receiving them. I am on an alternate schedule called Baby-wakes-me-up-200-times-per-night-and-I-no-longer-know-which-day-it-is Time, and thus our cards will be late!



Jenny, what a creative way to use paper scraps! The collages look great, and it is so fun for 3 year olds to use scissors! I love the way the cards turned out. How do you organize all the paper scraps you collect? I get overwhelmed by the piles sometimes, and end up recycling it all instead.

Guest Post: ShisoMama's child sized apron tutorial!

Readers, we are so lucky today: Mimi from ShisoMama just sent us a fabulous guest post, a tutorial for a child's apron!  This is a perfect last minute Christmas gift idea, especially if you have some experience sewing and have the supplies on hand already.  If you aren't familiar with her blog (and I am sure that lots of you out there already are!) be sure to check it out, as well as her wonderful shop.

My son just started kindergarten this year, and there has been a
steady onslaught of birthday parties! I usually try to make something
for his friends instead of buying something, and I've been making
these aprons/art smocks as gifts. I guess it shows my own biases, but I figure every kid likes to cook or make art every once in a while,
right? After a few different designs, I've decided I like this one
the best, because you can adjust it to fit a variety of sizes (it
works well for my 2 year old and my almost-5 year old). It's so fast
and easy you can even try to make one as a last minute Christmas
present! I use coated cotton - it's water-resistant and there are so
many great designs out there now for boys and girls (I just saw some
great Echino today at the fabric store that would make such a cute
apron!)

Here's what you need:
2/3 yard of fabric will make at least 2, depending on the width of your fabric
2 yards of 3/4" twill tape - did you know it came in all kinds of
exciting colors now?
1" single fold bias tape
1/4" double fold bias tape (optional, for your pocket)

Link Love: Big Brother activity ideas (and a shout out to Kids Craft Weekly)

Hey there!  Here are the links you asked for.  I located the notebook I made for Ian when I was pregnant with Silas.  I wanted to prepare some activities ahead of time that would be easy to grab whenever I had a few spare minutes to do a focused activity with him.

I used a large three ring binder and those clear plastic page protectors to separate projects, but you could also use manila folders, one for each craft.  When I put the supplies into each folder, I assumed that things like glue, crayons, watercolors and brushes, tape, scissors and other basic supplies would always be available (because obviously nobody has 12 pairs of scissors to put individually into these pockets, for instance).  We use this art caddy for most of Ian's stuff, and I also have these IKEA containers for small things I don't want Silas to get into like pompoms, chenille stems, popsicle sticks, etc. 

Almost all the crafts I included in the notebook came from Kids Craft Weekly. That site is an amazing resource (as you know) and we have used projects from there MANY times.  In some cases I printed out brief instructions and/or one or two photos from each project to spur my memory and to give Ian a visual, (only for personal use, of course) because I knew if I had to walk to the computer and find the project I'd waste most of the time we had to make things.

I also have a copy of the Kids Craft Weekly book Everyday Craft, you can buy a printed copy or a PDF here!  The site has a pretty active Facebook page, too.  Oh, and also a great list of printables (both free projects and book PDFs you can purchase) and some wonderful articles about kids and art.  (I think I might have to do a post just about Kids Craft Weekly after this!)

Here's a list of what I gathered (the link will take you to the newsletter the project is in, you may have to scroll down but you will enjoy every minute of it!):


Make A Night Skyscape

(I included star stickers, glitter glue, iridescent colored pencils and black construction paper)

Spangly Sun Bugs

(Cellophane, contact paper and stickers for the dots)

Glittery Fish

(You could either cut out the fish shapes ahead of time or trace the shapes onto the cardboard ahead of time and let Ben cut them out himself, whichever you think would work best, I added sequins and googly eyes to the envelope as well)

Concertina Fold Butterflies

(Watercolor paper and chenille stems)

Simple Robot pictures

(Pieces of felt (precut into different sized squares or not, depending on what you think Ben would like) plus buttons, paper clips and any other doodads I could find that would work as eyes/mouth/hair/clothes/etc.)

Space Shuttle Picture

(Printout of space shuttle--free download from site, black cardboard, cellophane in yellow and red, star stickers to decorate space shuttle, glitter glue)

Some other ideas:  embroidery hoop with wool thread and large needle, note pad and new package of colored pencils/crayons/special markers,  threading beads and string, natural objects in a bag to use as a "still life" drawing or painting project..........

I reserved a LOT of books from the library at that time too, so I could just run in and pick them up off the shelf without too much bother.  New stories are always a great distractor!

Do any of you out there have tips and tricks Jenny can do now to prepare for the imminent arrival of baby #2?  Leave them in the comments if you feel inspired!

Painted Thank You Cards

Good morning! It is a beautiful Monday in Seattle and I'm going to write this quick, quick post before taking the kiddo out for some fresh air and sunshine!

Here is a paper craft I did with Ben last week. As you know, he had a birthday nearly a month ago, and we are well overdue for sending out thank you cards. I always love making thank you cards with him, it has become a bit of a tradition after birthdays and Christmas. I like to think that the handmade aspect adds a personal touch to the sentiment of gratitude. In any case, it makes for a fun arts-and-crafts activity with a little one.


I started by having Ben paint with some of his new watercolors on simple white cardstock.




When the painted paper was dry, I cut them down the middle and folded them.



We then stamped "thank you" on some colored cardstock. I did most of the stamping, but kept it intentionally rough around the edges, so as to keep some consistency with the 3-year-old-made look of the cards.




I also cut some color drawing paper to the size of the inside of the card. The paint kind of came through some of the cardstock, so I wanted a clean surface on which to write our notes. Out came the glue gun, and I pasted the "thank you" on the top of the cards and the color paper on the inside.



Ta-da! It's nothing fancy, but they're made by hand and with love. Now, to finish writing and mailing them... But not this morning! We're off! I hope you have a wonderful start to the week.




I am amazed at how well this project turned out! It seems so simple, but the end result is quite beautiful. I have some of Ian's watercolors saved for this very thing!