A Collection of Random Ideas and Little Crafts

I was looking for some art for the  girls playroom. I didn't really want to spend any money. Lying around my garage was an old cheesy painting of of a women playing the guitar in a cool old green frame. I had some chalkboard paint lying around. I painted over the guitarist with 2 coats and turned it into a chalkboard. Using colored chalk I wrote on it what you see below. I worked out perfectly. It's placed somewhere the girls can reach it so it will remain like this for awhile. Eventually I can take it down let the girls use it or draw something new. Easy to do, less than $5.
Lydia is loves butterflies so I cut a paper plate up to look like one. I let her use the glitter glue and pom poms we had. It was an easy craft. Quick to do but tough to finish because we had to wait for the glue to dry repeatedly to be able to do the next part of it. So we had to let the head pom dry before we added a face which also had to dry before we added the antlers. It's a tough task for a 3 year old to wait.


Obviously you see what I mean about butterflies. I bought these a while ago at the dollar store. I believe there were 4 in a packet. I let both girls (ages 1 and 3) paint them as they saw fit, but then there was nothing else to do with them. I could have added them to anything really, but I chose to glue them to clothes pins. I use them to close chip bags and to hang kid art on our display line provided by Ikea.

The last completely random mom artsy moment was this set of dice. Eliot brought home a couple of boxes that were almost perfect cubes. I taped them up and spray painted them white. I used sharpies to make them sort of like dice. Instead of the normal dots I made each side with different shapes. So we can throw the dice and count the squares, then the circles and then all the shapes. I found a couple of dice games with fun printables, so Lydia can practice counting and then match the total with the actual number. We play bingo with them. She counts, finds the right correlation and then place a coin on it. We fill the sheet. It's easy. And fun and once we get bored of the giant dice we will recycle them, a nice Earth Day project for sure.

Permission to Make a Mess with Cheap Preschool Halloween Crafts

Last week we went on a family walk and passed a house in our neighborhood is that is vacant, falling apart and on sale. The nosy neighbors that we are we  peeked in the windows and did not see much however on our way off the property I saw a pile of rocks, so I grabbed a couple with these projects in mind.

First I let Lydia paint the rocks. I set her up only orange paint for the big rocks and then let her paint a couple of the smaller ones any way she liked. We had to let the rocks dry before phase 2 began. The transition activity I picked up at Michael's for a dollar. They are little watercolor pages which have the paints on the bottom that are activated by the water and brush. These are by Creatology and were Halloween themed.
  After the rocks were dry I had Lydia glue faces on the rocks.  She loves to use real Elmers glue. She feels like she's a big girl. One rock was a pumpkin, the other a cat. I used scraps of paper to make the parts of the face, I also had googly eyes which Lydia really enjoyed. She attached them all on her own. On the smaller rocks I used a regular sectioned plate and placed random items in it like sequence, buttons, pieces of ribbon, scraps of crafty things I had or had been given. So she could decide to make faces however she wanted.
I love the way her projects turned out this time. They are certainly fun and creative. I was thinking about my approach with her during these times and for almost all of this activity I was making dinner, so I would set her up and let her just do it. I have no fear of her making a mess, because well that is part of it. She spilled water, so we moved her to the other side of the table. She got paint on herself, so before dinner we washed it off. She wanted the stick buttons on random places of the rockfaces and I certainly didn't stop her. She got glue on the floor, we wiped it up.

I truly believe that part of the process and purpose is to let them have a creative outlet and be guided by their own whims. This is not to say that all of these endeavors always go perfectly, but I try to pick times that I am willing to be a gamer about it, meaning I am in a state of mind that is patient and open-minded and prepared to redirect the preschooler. Some may wonder where was Vivi? Well she was napping. Gluing is not quite the right toddler task, so timing does have  a lot to do with a successful kid craft experience.

 

Another Halloween craft which was very simple and a lot less prep I gave Lydia a wooden Bat mask to color with markers, also a dollar at Michaels and she wanted to color it pink and purple. I let her use the glitter glue squeezers and she decorated it with glee and for a long time. Once again, I just gave her the tools and the directions and waited to see what the result was.

Freedom Crafts

Eliot has been working a series of evenings shifts this week. I always plan activities when this happens partly because I am a camp counselor and teacher through and through and I like to have my little campers focused. Last night we made crafts in honor of the 4th of July.

Lydia has been working hard on using her scissors and so I had an old pack of calendar pages from on of those page a days. The whole week before Independence Day had various festive images. I let her practice her cutting and then glue.


For my two year old a glue stick is like magic. You wipe it and things stick to it. This could entertain her for hours. This project is also a great Earth Day project because everything involved is recycled even the sheet she is gluing on is a random piece of found paper.

In between crafts, I always have an activity. I love the Melissa and Doug reusable sticker pads. They work sort of like window clings. The first packet we had was various animal habitats and animals, now we have acquired the Play House! and Make-A-Meal. As she has gotten older she has enjoyed these more and more, last night was definitely a success.
I was trying to get ready the next activity which was making a cotton ball flag.  I took a piece of red paper, drew a square on the upper left hand corner and added stripes. I cut a blue square for her to glue in the corner. She added glue spots to attach cotton balls onto every other row. Later we had stars of many colors she glued onto the blue square.




Finally our last craft was simple. We have been working on letters. I made the letters USA for her. We traced them with our fingers. We looked at each one and talk about what it started with. She then used the magic glue stick and we were done with our USA poster!

She called it a house when she put it on her head. I took this as a teachable moment to tell her Yes, the USA is a house for all people. We live in Florida which is apart of the USA. She wasn't quite ready for the civic lesson.

So what was the 10 month old doing? Well at this stage it's all oral and it's all sensory. So I collected a bucket of stuff that I put on her high chair. As she threw things on the ground I put something new on there. She touched it all and put it all in her mouth and it went well.
I have a set of measuring cups that bend down and pop up. I would occasional stack these, she would push them down. Somehow she almost seemed to be stirring and playing kitchen.
I also put the items in a clear container I normally use to storage stamps and she enjoyed taking them out. We did this several times.


Eventually it was time for some milk and she played with the frig magnetic mini-puzzle. This has been great for both the kids.

No doubt there is some juggling going on in these moments, however, we all had a good time developing our senses in different ways. Tomorrow Freedom Cake.

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Failed Crafty Moments

For Easter I made Vivian her own finger paints. I bought Vanilla pudding and used just one drop of  natural food coloring for each little cup. After stirring it around the color easily took and put them in to little glass jars. They looked cute and I put them in her basket.
With all the excitement, colds and to-dos, we hadn't gotten a chance to use them yet. I happen to glance at the inside of her basket which was still sitting on our buffet and noticed aqua ooze splattered all over. Not really processing what had happened yet, I grab the jar to see that all the jars had ooze seeping out the lids. Apparently the pressure somehow caused it to implode, and then come out.

So I toss them out, assuming that if it combusted I couldn't in good for my baby. I did however, buy more pudding and I figure when we are ready to do it, I will mix it and let her play.



My other failed project was this giant large floral chair and a funky 80's giant ottoman that were both given to us and are both super comfy. Since they are atrocious we got chair covers. We got a green color because we found the ottoman and chair cover in the same shade. Now we have a beautiful new gray couch in that lounge library type room and this green ottoman and chair situation. Instead of getting another expensive cover I decided to dye it. I figured a darker shade of gray would be nice but the Rit Dye folks only had one gray option so that is what I got, a pearl gray that from the moment I saw it against the share, I knew it was likely not going to take, but I still had to try.
I boiled the water, added vinegar as instructed, gloved and stirred ferociously. I let things soak for over 30 minutes. I looked at the instructions repeatedly and I had followed them to the tee. I did notice that in small writing it said, will not dye polyester, rayon or wool. I looked at the cover label and it is 95% polyester and 5% spandex. I poked and stirred my bucket filled with material some more and then rinsed it in defeat.
I tried. I failed. It's still green, well like a greenish.

Rainy Night, Energetic Kids

Last night was a very rainy and my husband was at work, therefore it was my responsibility to entertain the girls. I will admit that I might have over done it last night but I really would rather stay busy than plant them in front of the TV. I started with letting her create a scene from the Melissa and Doug removable sticker books. These are great. I pull the stickers off the sheet and put them in the Tupperware container you see next to her. That way she can grab them as she likes.


The idea is that she had something to do while I got the more complicated art project ready. This QTip painting project was on Pinterest and I was even able to print out a couple of pictures. The pictures have tiny circles inside of them where the child is suppose to place the tip of the QTip. This is great to work on small motor skill development. Lydia started out strong but afterwards was over it. It was too much to do. I should have picked a small or simpler image. When she was done, I transitioned her to play do, which she could do forever and it gave me time to clean up and feed Vivi who was playing in the high chair nearby.





After the art portion of the evening, the rain was down to a drizzle for a bit, I decided it was time for puddle jumping. I put on her a little too big, but were on super sale rain boots and rain coat. It took her a little bit to get into the puddle jumping but our super sweet older neighbors to the left came over and played with her while Vivian and I camped out in the garage. She was soaked but had a great time.


After the puddles we had a little dinner and made some banana bread. I have very basic recipe that I use that my mom loves and I usually give her the loaves. The mashing of bananas is super fun and easy for Lydia at this stage. This type of recipe you just pour everything into the same bowl stir, grease the loaf pan, heat over to 350 and cook for 60 minutes. By the way, I did pour the batter into the pan myself and then posed her for a picture. She is a great help, but she is 2.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of bananas
2 cups flour
3/4 brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs

After the baking we took a group bath. They played in the water for a long time and then we got into pjs for a group story time. These days story time is Lydia and I paying keen attention to the story and Vivian crawling all over us until the end.



You may wonder where Vivian was during so many events. Usually she was very close by, so during art she was in the high chair eating and during puddles she was being held by either me or Emma, the 10 year old neighbor. For a bit I dragged the high chair to the garage and gave her some baby favorites like straws to chew or cold teething items both which are a hit. But she had time to play on her own with the music table and host a little tea party.





It was great fun. Once they were both in bed asleep, I had to go through all the stations of the house and completely clean up our various messes. I was a pooped out mama, but it was a great, educational at times, completely free night, even though it was rainy. Both girls fell asleep instantly.
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Removal Blackboard

Almost a year ago I was thinking about all the things I wanted to do in our new house. One of the things that I thought I would definitely do was paint a portion of a wall somewhere so Lydia would have a chalkboard. It is super popular now a days and there are zillions of chalkboard colors now and tutorials to make your own chalkboard paint. However, when we bought the house there were so many things to do that this project fell off the radar. Then I realized that the play room had very textured walls and it wouldn't quite work.

In my search for alternatives I found chalkboard contact paper on Amazon. My actually thought on this was that I could cut this into shapes and stick it on things for sorting. I also thought it would be cute during Christmas for gift tags. Neither of these projects happened.

Yesterday, I thought of the roll and figured I should just use it. What was I waiting for? When I was little I loved little nooks and crannies. I would build tents and tuck pillows underneath to read. I wanted Lydia to have a little hideaway space too. The best one is a mini hallway that connects her room to the bathroom. I simply cut the paper, and stuck it on the wall. Eventually, I think I will get an inexpensive canopy at Ikea for that space too.

The contact paper worked out perfectly. The chalk was great. And Lydia was thrilled with this new addition. The best thing about it is that it peels right off without damage to the wall. It was cheap and so I don't feel badly for using it and tossing it whenever we may be finished.
 

It was a fast and easy project and Vivian I think loved it the most. She played with the back side of the contact paper sheet for ever. She loved the sound and crackle it made. It's hard to tear and doesn't dissolve easily in a little mouth, thus it was an instant sensory toy! She was so thrilled it was even hard to get a picture that wasn't blurry.

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Decorating the Nursery

I had the great joy of having two little girls. When decorating their nurseries I completely embraced the pink and I am totally glad that I did. Now that I think about all the reasons that I didn't want pink, all I can remember was thinking it was too girly girl, princess-y or that it saluted Barbie. All of which, now doesn't seem so bad, because at the end of the day I am the parent who gets to teach. I get to have a say on how princess-y they behave and what type of role models they have, so now it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. It really just a color. Pink is fabulous.

When putting together Vivian's nursery we wanted to be sure to make it was a room that was hers, and even though we were going to reuse the furniture that we managed to make it special for her. I had seen on different occasions the alphabet wall and fell in love with it. Eliot and I had a good time coming up with ideas of what how to make the letters and I ran across a fantastic sale at the company store. All in all we spent less than $40 on the entire wall. We wanted to an extra special "V" for Vivian which came to us as a gift from my second mom down in Ft. Myers, it was the perfect addition. Some took real ingenuity, like the "Q" I wrapped in fun yarn I had lying around.

Another pinterest idea was the canvas collage of the book covers. We are children's book lovers (I collected some even before we had kids) and like everyone with hard covered books we had the sleeves that were usually in various stacks around the house. We picked out our favorites and made this extra large canvas. It was very easy to make once we decided which covers to put on there and how to cut them.

For some reason, I obsessed about the bedding with Lydia and as soon as we knew it was a girl, I put in the order for her bedding. Literally on the way home in car in between texting our family and friends, "It's a girl!" Hoping to be fair, we wanted to pick out something for Vivian that could also last and be pretty. So I order from Pottery Barn kids Daisy Garden Bedding, even though it is really nice and good quality, it just reminds me I need to learn how to use my sowing machine.

Above the changing table, we plan on hanging our flying birds that were such a hit with Lydia but still haven't had the time just yet. Meanwhile, I added wall decals of birds because I love them. I wanted them to look like this colorful birds on a wire from my pinterest inspiration, but I lost track of time and finally put them up the other day after finding some I liked on Amazon. I am happy with them.

As all people, there are a few things that now, I may have done different. Next to the glider we have a couple of cubes for storage, but I think I will eventually get a little table or dresser in a funky color with some drawers for additional storage. The changing table drawers don't give as much storage as I think would be best for a baby or even a toddler. Plus it would be nice to have a little more counter type space, to set a drink or stack of shirts on. I may not have worried so much about the bedding, this time it was a matter of fairness, but the bumper comes off at about 6 months, especially for Vivian who would grab it and pull it down. Always afraid she would get stuck on it somehow.

There are also a few things that I really love, for example, in this nursery, we have dimming lights and ability to change the speed of the fan on the switch by the door which is a great idea. We can keep the room dark enough but still have the light on low to go in and check on her without causing a commotion.  I couldn't live without out diaper caddy thing next to changing table that has every possible thing you may need in a changing scenario: diapers, wipes, creams, lotion, blue bulb thing, saline, nail clippers, little brushes, well obviously we don't need all those things for diaper changing but it's nice to have there.

The must haves are really 2 sheets, 2 diaper changing covers and some clothes.We tend to keep all the rooms in the house quiet bedrooms if possible, books but really few to no toys. To be honest, I think it worked out for Lydia who now lays in her room on giant pillows next to bookshelves and "reads" by herself for sometimes a whole hour. As most decorating or parenting, you always have to be willing to change things that don't work or get old.

Easter Crafts

One my favorite things to do with Lydia is to make crafts. I think it's great to help her learn how to follow directions and to be patient with herself while making things. Since on both Saturday and Sunday mornings Vivian slept in until 11am, shocking to many I am sure, (she is a little rocker and stayed up until 11pm, so she slept her required 12 hours) Lydia and I took advantage of the time and got our craft on.

To me it's important to have a transition activity, this keeps her attention while I prepare the next thing we are going to do. I usually find these at the dollar store (which if you have a craft kid is THE place to go.) This time, I had her start with play-do. She loves it and it's easy. And the key is that she doesn't get to do it a lot, so when she does she really enjoys it. I have learned a couple of things about play-do the name brand stuff is the best (no dollar store here usually) and if you keep play-do for years (I mean 10-15 years) it grows stuff.

We started the Easter crafts with a window cling. I bought the contact paper last year for another project that we never go to, so I decided it was time. I cut small pieces of colored paper into squares and triangles. Most folks use tissue paper so it functions like a suncatcher, I did not have tissue paper and never seem to have it when I need it for gift bags, so I went with construction paper. I free hand cut two shapes, one of an egg and the other of a bunny.  It was a little tricky to figure out how to keep it down and have her able to see what she was doing so I just taped it, sticky side up. I put white paper under it which helped but was only marginally helpful. At first she liked it but then she got bored and dumped everything on there. Luckily the extras just shake off. I think it will be a better project for Vivi next year. However, we talked about the colors and shapes which at this point she knows well.

For my transition activity, I dug out a $1 to go cup that she colored the insert and decorated. She thought it was fun to use the cup and that her picture was on the inside of it.

While she decorated her new cup, I was getting the foam eggs ready. She decorated these with stickers (these were extras from last year. She made egg cards for family and friends) which takes her a lot of time. She is very specific about where the stickers go, but doesn't really care what stickers I give her. I then glued them onto a paper plate that I cut the center out of to make a door wreath. We are letting it dry completely before we hang it.

Perhaps the simplest, and the one she enjoyed the most was the bunny mask. Once again just a $1 investment, though this was purchased at JoAnns, not the dollar store. She colored it with markers (which she loves to use) and quickly played with it.

 

 

Vivian finally did wake up and she enjoyed playing in her new play space. Saturday morning while she slept, I put together this corral that we borrowed from friends. We bought alphabet mats as the "flooring." Vivian is on the move and we wanted to be sure that she had her safe play space where she could crawl and play with things without being tripped over by a toddler. Lydia, of course, likes it too. We explained that right now this space was specifically for Vivian but she was welcomed to join her too.