Mini Easter Treat Baskets

We've been raiding the recycle bin again, and just in time for Easter fun. The boys and I put together these simple little Easter treat baskets for giving away sweets. We love turning boxes into all sorts of wonderfulness - especially for giving away.

These Mini Easter Treat Baskets are made out of tea boxes.

These Mini Easter Treat Baskets are just perfect for giving out your favorite Easter cookies, candies, and goodies.

Paper Poinsettia Ornaments

The boys and I have Christmas fever. We can barely focus on our school work these days. Luckily, I had planned out this Christmas ornament craft ahead of time. We make homemade Christmas tree ornaments every year - usually out of scrapbook paper. This year we're making these gorgeous Paper Poinsettia Ornaments, both for our tree and to give away as gifts. The boys are so excited to give them out, and working on them a little each day is scratching that Christmas itch - along with copious amounts of Christmas music and the eating of many a Christmas cookie. 😊

Our Paper Poinsettia Ornaments turned out fabulous!

We mixed and matched different shades and patterns of red paper to really make the ornaments pop.




Here's what you'll need:
several sheets of various red colored and patterned paper (one scrapbook sized page will make about 2 flowers)
a printer
a pencil for tracing (see note below template)
sissors
a glue stick
red and/or yellow pipe cleaners (1 per flower)
red curling or mylar ribbon (6 to 8 inches per flower)
glue gun (optional)

Start by printing and cutting the template below. Trace the cutouts onto the back of your pretty red paper and cut 'em all out. Each poinsettia will require 6 large petals, 5 to 6 small petals, and one circular base.

For each petal, cut an inch up from the bottom, put a generous amount of glue on the back of one end and glue it over the other end to create a pucker at the bottom. Hold that pucker closed for several seconds to secure while also bending the petal back at the middle. Poinsettias are an open flower and you'll want the petals to tilt out instead of in. Allow the petals to dry.




To the base, glue a six inch piece of curling ribbon to make a loop for hanging. Let dry.

If you have smaller children, you'll want to do this preliminary glue prep for the petals and bases beforehand. It's a little tedious.




To prep the center of the flower, cut a pipe cleaner in half and then in half again to get 4 equal pieces. Curl in the ends of each piece. Then, twist all four pieces together at the middle and separate out the little tendrils.




To put the flowers together (this is the fun part), glue the large petals, one at a time, onto the ribbon side of the base overlapping them a little as you go.




Now glue the smaller petals in the center, also, overlapping them a little as you go.




Glue a pipe cleaner center smack dab in the middle. This is where you may want to use a glue gun if you have one. Pipe cleaners need a lot of glue to stay secure.

These paper Poinsettia Ornaments turned our little fake Christmas tree (we call it our "humble" tree) into something spectacular. Aren't they just gorgeous on the tree?

Here's that template:




Note: If you're using 8 1/2 x 11 inch colored paper, you can load the paper right into your printer, making sure to print the template on the back side, and then cut out the petals for use. No tracing! If you're using scrapbook sized paper, you'll need to print out the template (card stock is best) and cut out 1 large petal, 1 small petal, and the base to use for tracing.

Happy Christmas crafting!

Summer Fun: Art Camp

This was SO MUCH FUN!!! I was texting a friend of mine about arts & crafts when all of a sudden I had a brilliant idea - an arts & crafts weekend. She has a little girl around Mateo's age who also loves creating, so we set a date and got to planning.



Some of the projects we ended up doing were simple and straightforward and only required the purchase of supplies. Others took a bit more prep and organization.



We decorated pillowcases and hand towels with fabric paint, made our very own comic books, and hammered nails into wooden boards for string art. We also did a directed multi-media project, photograph reproductions, and a segmented watercolor poster. These projects may sound overwhelmingly artsy, but they aren't as complicated as all that - especially in the hands of 7 year olds.

I also had a box of simple art supplies, and a sketch pad, for each child to use if they finished projects early and needed something to do.

You'll need an assortment of fabric paints for the fabric painting project. I found some at the dollar store that were easy to use. I also picked up some solid colored pillowcases and hand towels. You'll need to insert a piece of cardboard inside of the pillowcases as the fabric paint can sometimes bleed through. You could do aprons, cloth napkins, or t-shirts too. White is nice, but as long as it's a solid color, you're good to go.

For the comic books, I simply printed out some comic book pages from Kids Activities Blog and gave each child a stack. They used supplies from their art boxes to write and draw their stories. They also made covers out of folded 11 x 17 inch sheets of paper and then stapled everything together.

I had my hubby cut up a half inch board into 8 x 8 and 8 x 6 inch pieces for our string art project. Each child sanded their own board with a small piece of sand paper. Then, they traced or drew a simple shape onto their boards. After a brief demonstration, the kids hammered 1 inch nails every quarter inch or so along their shapes. I helped them tie the string of their choice at their starting point and they looped the string around the nails in the style they preferred, tying them up at the end.



I prepped for the directed multi-media project by scattering different art supplies down the center of the table like a runner. I used stickers, ribbons, different kinds of tape, tissue paper, glue and glitter glue, scissors, a stapler, a hole punch, plus the supplies in their art boxes. I gave each child an 11 x 17 inch sheet of paper and gave them simple directions that they could interpret any way they wanted. "Draw a square on your page. Make your square into something. Add something shiny to your picture... ." It was a blast to see what each child came up with.



Our photograph reproduction project started with each child taking my camera phone outside and taking pictures of whatever they liked. We loaded the pics onto the computer and they chose which photograph they wanted to reproduce. They started drawing their reproductions with pencils and then chose which supplies to use to add in the color.

Our last project was a segmented watercolor poster. I showed the kids how they could make different patterns on their poster boards using lines. They could keep the lines from touching to make stripes or intersect them to make squares, diamonds, or triangles. Then they painted one segment at a time with water colors.

For those of you interested in planning your own art camp, here are a few tips. 

1. Gather all of your supplies before hand and have materials prepped - copied, cut, organized, packages opened, etc. 
2. You'll also want to make samples of some projects and print out photos or guides of others. 
3. Make sure each child has plenty of room to create. You can make stations for each child or a station for each craft or just make sure you have large spaces cleared for them to spread out.
4. Leave plenty of time for each craft. Different kids work at different paces and some will be more detailed than others. Have something available for children to do if they finish early. I had an art supply box and drawing pad for each child to use whenever they wished.
5. A dollar store is a great place to get all kinds of supplies.
6. If you notice any of the kids getting antsy or bored, take a break for a snack, a stretch, a game of chase outside, a splash in the pool, etc.
7. Get a plastic table cloth to cover your table for activities involving fabric paint, tempera paint, or glitter glue. This will save you many a headache.
8. Ask others to join in on the planning if coming up with all of the activities seems too daunting. Or, have someone else take care of the snacks. My lovely friend actually did all of the cooking for our meals and snacks. It was so nice not to have to think about that aspect of our time together. Also, her food is spectacular. Thanks Sweet Friend.

If you do decide to throw such an affair, send me a pic or post a comment. I'd love to hear about your experience, what projects you chose, and how the kids enjoyed it.

Living with a Highly Creative Child

Mateo is one of a kind. He's got creativity oozing out of his pores. Ezra enjoys drawing and creating as well, so I have to keep supplies at the ready whenever their creative juices start to flow.



These days I have to buy 2 to 4 drawing pads a week. I keep certain supplies out on our supply cart at all times: stickers, glue sticks, scissors, a hole punch, markers, crayons, color pencils, and drawing pencils. Messier supplies only come out when we are doing special projects and I'm there to monitor their usage. I also have to make the boys ask for tape now as we have spent many an evening peeling tape off of furniture, walls, carpet, etc.

Keeping supplies handy allows the kids to grab what they need and create things like these...

Ezra wants to be a police man if the whole race car driver thing doesn't work out.

Lego Superman

Minion mayhem.

Teo is in the process of making a Frankenstein piñata for Ezra's birthday in four months.

Homemade race tracks.

... without this busy mama needing to stop what I'm doing to pull out supplies for them.

While they really enjoy planned art projects and following instructions to make a special craft, they also need space to themselves to put onto paper or boxes, or wherever (just not on the walls), what is in their minds and hearts.

As the boys grow older I'd like to hone some of their artistic abilities in personalized ways. Giving them some freedom to creatively explore is also important to me. We art together and we art apart. That's just how we do it around here.

Easter Egg Treat Packets

Easter is coming up fast. We're getting geared up to finish our last week of school before spring break and before heading down to spend Easter with my parents. Before we do I wanted to get one last Easter craft in with the boys.



This craft was inspired by some adorable bunny surprise packets I saw on Craft with Mom. For this craft we used an egg pattern instead of bunnies and laced them together with yarn.



I prepped the eggs for the boys and they got started on decorating them with watercolors.



You can decorate the eggs with markers, crayons, or color pencils as well.

After the eggs dried we laced up one side. Then we stuffed them with chocolate eggs and jelly beans and laced up the other side. You can use ribbon if you prefer, but a flat ribbon tends to twist - especially as little fingers are doing the work. I recommend yarn or string.



Here's the egg pattern I used.

Happy Easter!