Thursday, September 29, 2011

Update: God's gift to me (and the surfers) this morning

The dolphins came back while I was brushing my teeth.  I thought I'd seen four fins by the pier before, but I only saw three going to and from the pier.  This time I saw three go to the pier but four go back.  I also got a good view of the dolphins (more than just the dorsal fins), and I discovered that they were Common Dolphins.  I got a couple pictures showing the light markings on their sides.  This is probably the best, though I admit it's still not that good.  :o)


Thursday, September 22, 2011

How littles learn

Mikey found a dried leaf and set out to break it into as many pieces as possible

What experiments have your littles conducted?

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Crayon Art Canvas

Thanks to my latest obsession, Pinterest, and my ruthless muse, Jen, I have hundreds of new craft ideas I must produce. Among them are - well, were - these wonderful crayon creations:


The rainbow is totally Jen's fault.  It's one of the first things she showed me on Pinterest and something she's already done, thus propelling me forward.  The flowers are Andrea's fault, again with the help of Pinterest.

Here's the tutorial for the rainbow.  You can see where Ellie started talking to me while I was gluing the last of the crayons to the canvas (on the right).


The flowers were a for-sale item on Etsy, so it was up to me to create this one.  I attached the crayons with hot glue and melted them with a hair dryer, ensuring I had both long and short drips.  I created a template for my flowers, but you could use silk flowers or whatever means of flower making you prefer.  In case you are completely without ideas or just in love with my flowers, here's how I made them.

First, I cut them out, being sure to vary the shape a little for each one.  Be sure to cut the slit to the middle.  I folded the longer side of the slit over the shorter side and used tacky glue to close it, holding it for a minute or so with my fingers until I knew it wouldn't slip.  This way your flowers pop out of the canvas.






Finally, I put a dot of gold glitter glue in the center of each one to add dimension.  I deposited a generous dollop of hot glue on the canvas and put the point of the flower in it.  It dried in no time.


The rainbow will go in Mikey's room, and Ellie requested the flowers go in hers.

Tip Junkie handmade projects

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Under the Sea

Inspired by my BFF, as I so often am, I spent a few days working with the kids on this under the sea piece of artwork.

I couldn't find the watercolors anywhere, so I had the kids finger paint on card stock.  The Crayola washable finger paint is translucent, so it has a similar look to watercolors.

I shopped the clearance sections of a couple JOANN stores and had the luck of finding some perfect punches: a crab, a seahorse, a snail and a dragonfly.  I used the punches on the painted card stock.

After starting another under the sea project, on canvas, which I will show you when it's complete, I let Ellie go to town with the paints and brushes I had out.  I gave her a dark-blue piece of card stock, hoping the light paint colors would pop on the dark blue.  They did!

Tonight I helped Ellie glue the animals on the background.  Ellie's response: "There's crabs everywhere!"


Hand- and Footprint Owls

I wanted to do something with the kids' prints for Grandparents' Day cards.  No doubt because our family has been obsessed with owls for the last year, an owl came to mind.  I had to make three: one for each set of grandparents and one for me!  Here's how these cute feathered friends came to be.  I apologize for forgetting to take pictures of each step.


First, I painted Ellie's feet with brown paint.  (I did one foot at a time, assembly-line fashion, to keep the mess at bay.)  I pressed her feet on the paper with her toes toward the bottom of the paper.  I had the toes, or tail feathers, overlap so the owl's head had enough width, and the blank spot left by the arch of her feet had paint all the way around.  You could fill in the blank spot with a brush if you want, but I like multicolored owls.  :o)

Next, I painted Mikey's hands with the same brown paint, though you could use a lighter brown for more color.  (Again, I did one hand at a time.)  I wanted his fingers together to make more wing-like wings, but he's 22 months old and doesn't like paint on his hands.  I pressed his hands down with the palms overlapping the owl's body.

The next part could be done by an older child, but neither my 3.5 year old nor my 22 month old would have done well with this.  I put white paint just on half the edge of a round sponge brush.



I pressed the sponge into the owl's body to create U-shaped feather accents from neck to feet.  Then I pressed it into each wing feather (finger) with the bottom of the U facing the tip of the finger.

Finally, I cut triangles and trapezoids out of card stock for the beaks and feet.  I glued on those and googly eyes.  I would have had Ellie do the gluing, but she was napping.  Oh, and I used gold glitter glue because I couldn't find my craft glue, but I don't think it looks bad.


  I finished off the cards with recent photos of the kids.