Big Bird Bonnet

What can be sweeter than a yellow, fluffy, adorable chick bonnet for your little angel to wear on an Easter afternoon?

How to make it

1. Put blobs of glue all over the hat and cover with feathers, including under the edge of the brim. Poke a couple of feathers through the hat for a tail, holding in place with sticky tape.
2. Stick an eye on two pom-poms and glue on the front of the hat as eyes.
3. Cut a gold card in half diagonally to make a triangle. Fold it in half, score it then stick it on the hat below the eyes.

Funk Monster Sock Puppet

Funk it up with crazy monster puppet, who can make anyone laugh with his quirky sense of humour & lovable personality!

How to make it

1. Put sock onto one hand, pushing in the end between thumb and your other four fingers to form a mouth. Using a Needle Darner, sew into place with pink cotton thread down each side.
2. Cut a semi circle of yellow felt to fit inside mouth and glue into place. Add a tongue cut out of red felt as shown.
3. Cut out 2 nostrils from fuchsia pink foam and glue on the top of the sock at the front, for her nose.
4. Glue two small pink pom poms on as shown and affix a wiggly eye on each.
5. Cut two pieces of grey chenille stem for her eyebrows and glue into place above the eyes.
6. Group 3 pink feathers together and glue into place on the front of the heel of the sock. Cut out a crown from the remaining yellow felt and affix into place in front of the pink feathers.
7. Finish by gluing 3 pom poms down the back of the sock.

upcycled notebook...

upcycled notebook...

the holiday crafting has begun...

not as feverishly as last year, considering we have a little bundle to think about...

but it's still going on...

starting with this...

i used an old t-shirt and some fabric scraps to cover up a composition notebook...

and added a little crayon holder on the back...

covered the insides with scraps, as well, to hide the fabric edges...

a portable drawing kit!

a puppet theater...

a puppet theater...

this was a tough one to give away...

so i'm sure there will be another one being made soon.

after getting inspiration from here...

i thought my three little nieces would get a kick out of having a puppet theater of their own...

so i used a thrifted sheet for the main part, a t-shirt for the curtain, and some on hand fabric for the border of the window.  a curtain rod keeps it in place, and a dowel in the bottom of the window frame keeps the opening from sagging.

and here's what they got...

along with some sock puppets.

leo tried it all out, just to make sure all functioned properly :)

and then off to nj it all went!

building a rainbow...

building a rainbow... again...

things have been a bit quiet over here...

with st. patrick's day coming up, i thought i'd repost a rainbow activity we did awhile back...

enjoy!

Ball maze... Kids enjoy this..

ball maze...

we've had two large cardboard tubes sitting around the house from some oilcloth i purchased a few months ago...

they've gone from room to room, inside and outside... serving as tunnels, ramps, amplifiers...

i started wondering what else we can do with them.

leo was a little concerned at first, since he wasn't quite sure he wanted to cut it up.  but once reassured we still had one left that wouldn't be cut, he was intrigued.

we gathered some materials... (i think i went a little overboard with the saw... a utility knife worked just fine.  better, even.)

cut the long tube into smaller sections...

and then cut those sections in half...

then hot glued them onto a large piece of cardboard.

we gathered random things we thought might roll... (i had a pretty good suspicion that one of the things in that bucket wouldn't roll, but leo just wanted to make sure...)

climbed up onto the stepstool, and tried it out!

in the end, the ping pong balls and the wooden balls worked out the best...

some larger things needed to be pushed along...

once leo added the tunnels, the ping pong balls were the only ones to make it through.

a great activity for shape identification, predictions (will it or won't it roll?), gross motor (we eventually tried to throw the ping pong balls onto the ramps from a distance), and just some general fun!

Lightning Bug Glowing Magnet

Lightning Bug Glowing Magnet

Summer nights usually bring around lots of lightning bugs to catch in a jar or watch lighting up the sky! Make your own Glow in the Dark Lightning Bug Magnet that you can stick on the fridge and light your way for a late night snack!

Materials

Shimmer Sticks 12 Pack

Magnetic Tape Strips 18 pack

Rainbow Poms Medium Size 125 Pack

Pony Beads Glow In The Dark

Wood Clothespins

Craft Glue

Scissors

Instructions

Step 1. Gather your supplies.
	Step 2. Let’s first create the wings of the lightning bug. Thread (15) Glow In the Dark Pony Beads onto a Shimmer Stick. In our example, we used all of the same color, however you are welcome to use different colors if you want!
	Step 3. After stringing the (15) beads, twist the end of the Shimmer Stick to form one side of the wing.
	Step 4. Repeat with (15) beads on the other side of the Shimmer Stick. Make sure to leave a 1/4-inch gap of Shimmer Stick in between the two wings. Trim any excess Shimmer Stick material.
	Step 5. Open the Wooden Clothespin and notice the small notch in the clip pointed out here.
	Step 6. Insert wings into mouth placing the gap of the Shimmer Stick down at small notch. This will allow the wings to sit more comfortably in the Clothespin for the craft but still allow you to use the Clothespin to hold items.
	Step 7. Glue (5) small black Poms onto the Clothespin, beginning at the top mouth area. This is the body of the lightning bug.
	Step 8. Glue (3) yellow Glow In the Dark Pony beads at the tail end of the lightning bug’s body.  In a real lightning bug, this is the area that you usually see flashing at night.
	Step 9. Once dry, adhere a Magnetic Strip to the other side of the Clothespin to complete your Lightning Bug Glowing Magnet. Tip: as we have added a lot of weight to this clothespin with the beads, you may need to use glue to adhere the Magnetic Strip for some extra adhesive support. Now your lightening bug is ready for display!

Magnetic Pencil Holder

Magnetic Pencil Holder

Recycle your cardboard cereal boxes, decorate and turn into a fun pencil holder! Add super strong Magnetic Neo Buttons to the back and you have created a great locker accessory.

Materials

Paint Brushes 30 Pack

Magnets Neo-Buttons

Acrylic Paint Jars 24 Pack

Skinny Sticks

Recycled cereal box

Heavy Duty Scissors **May require adult assistance

Ruler

Pencil

Craft Glue

Instructions

Step 1. Gather your supplies.
	Step 2. Cut a cereal box bottom down so that you have a 2” half box as shown. Begin gluing Skinny Sticks horizontally across the bottom left of the box. Continue to attach skinny Sticks until you reach the top of the box.
	Step 3. Using your ruler, measure the length of the remainder of the box that still needs to be covered. Next measure the sides of the box.
	Step 4. Use heavy duty scissors to cut your sticks to the size needed.* Ask for assistance from an adult for this step.
	Step 5. Glue the cut sticks into place on the front and sides of the box. Tip:you will not need to cover the back of the box as it will be hung with magnets and hidden from view.
	Step 6. Cut (3) 2 inch pieces of Skinny Sticks. Glue the pieces vertically along the front corner edges and the middle seam where the sticks meet as shown.
	Step 7. Paint your pencil holder with Acrylic Paint.
	Step 8. Glue your Magnetic Neo Buttons to the back of the pencil holder. Place (3) magnets evenly across the back. Once dry choose a magnetic spot -such as a locker to keep your pencil holder!