After commenting on the previous post… I decided to pull up some project notes of a seed project Bug did a couple years ago… prior to my blogging. I can’t believe that this was TWO YEARS AGO (he was four at the time). Wow… has time flown. If nothing else, it should make up a bit for my non-creative blogging as of late.
We sprouted three different seeds on a wet paper towel in a plastic baggie. We hung it on the fridge and made sure the paper towel stayed damp. Bug kept a journal of which day roots and stem were visible.
He also measured the sprouts to see which one "won" (in his mind… the bigger the better). We used 1" blocks as his standard of measurement.
This was a really fun project… great for preschoolers. They get to see the magic of the seed unfold right before their eyes… unlike when it is stuck in the dirt. I think it is time I redid it with my girls.
This week’s Unplugged Challenge was Junk. For this activity we dug into the recycling bin and the box I keep in the back of the craft shelf filled with “useful junk” like toilet paper rolls and old magazines. We didn’t do anything fancy… definitely an all about the process sort of project but the kids had fun.
An hour and a half later… the older two had finished, bathed and moved on to other activities but the Pixie girl was still going strong. I don’t know if she was cleverly avoiding bed time or what but she was quite intent on gluing fuzzy pompoms to her favorite cereal box. I only removed her from the activity when I realized that she was no longer content gluing the pompoms to the box and had moved on to gluing them to her chair. 😉
We tried a new technique this week with our water color painting… adding salt crystals to create an interesting texture.
NOTE: setting down a bowl filled with salt then immediately walking away to answer the phone is NOT a good idea when a 2 year old is completing said craft. This produces the “It’s SNOWING in the Dining Room” effect.
We started by choosing a picture in our book “In November” to use as inspiration. The kids picked a page with 2 cardinals on a bare branch. Then we drew outlines in crayon. We applied the watercolor paints. Over some of the wet areas of paint, we sprinkled kosher salt. I highly suggest you place a tray under your painting first – unlike us! Our intent with using the salt was to make it look like it was snowing in the picture. Once the paint dried we brushed off the salt. It created a tie-dyed looking background and left some sparkly, glittery salt residue (can’t see in the photos) that looks like ice crystals on the page.
Drying with the salt still on.
Close up of texture.
We have been working really hard on our Spoon Dolls which is this month’s Wee Folk Art Crafting Club free pattern. I figured since the base of the dolls was a Wooden Kitchen Utensil it would work nicely for our Unplugged Challenge kitchen theme tie in as well.
For the body pattern and step by step directions, visit Wee Folk Art.
We started by drawing what we wanted our spoon dolls to look like. I made photo copies of a spoon outline and the kids made several renditions. After several tries on the girls’ parts I ended up having them dictate what they wanted and jotted down the sketch for them. Bug wanted a knight with a helmet, Fairy a princess with a crown and Pixie pink with hearts. I decided to make a Native American inspired doll.
We took our drawings to the fabric store and everyone got to pick out their base fabric.
The following day we raided Gammy’s craft room for trims, laces and buttons.
I cut out the fabric from the pattern and ironed under the hems. Then each kid got a turn to sit on my lap and helped me sew their doll (even the Pixie girl). They love getting to “use” my sewing machine and learned some key safety rules.
Once the base of the dolls were sewn we picked out and added the final trim.
Now for the faces… I had the kids tell me what they wanted. They were very specific. Fairy wanted pink checks, gold hair and big, red lips. Bug wanted angry eyebrows and a Not-Smiling but Not-frowning face… very serious.
We used yarn to make the hair.
They aren’t 100% done yet. Bug’s still needs a better sword, helmet and shield and Fairy’s needs a crown but I wanted to share them anyway. These are going to make great puppets for their puppets shows.
To go with this week’s story The Ox-Cart Man, our craft for the week was making our own candles. Since working with hot wax really isn’t an option with young kiddos, I ordered a Natural Beeswax Candle kit from one of my favorite stores… A Toy Garden. I could not find anything local but fortunately Sonya ships super quick 🙂 and we got our supplies in just a couple days.
The kit came with 6 sheets of beeswax and wicks. The project was simple enough. Cut the wick slightly longer than the width of the beeswax. Place the wick along the edge at one end and carefully turn over the edge of the wax to hold it in place. Roll the wax slowly and tightly. You want room temp or slightly warmer wax to avoid cracking. The directions suggested using a hair dryer to warm the wax slightly. Our wax was fine at room temp in the sunny dinning room. Once rolled, hand press or roll the top edge firmer to tapper the top. Trim up the wick and tada… your very own candle! A Toy Garden also sells colored wax sheets that you can use to cut out shapes and such to decorate your candles if you would like. For our first go we were happy with au natural. They are the perfect candles for our nature table.
The girls really liked the smell of the beeswax… hence the silly photos. BTW – we were left with a waxy residue on the table. I would suggest using painting boards or maybe wax paper on the table if you would like to protect it.
This week we used a broad interpretation of the Unplugged Challenge theme FLAG… and went more Stars and Stripes as inspiration for these Star Ornaments. We had so much fun that even Gammy joined in and made her own. You can visit WeeFolkArt.com for her pattern.
Kids’ – Mom’s – Gammy’s
Kids’ Stars
For the kids’ version, I made up a quick star template with rounded corners (here is my pdf). Or large cookie cutters work well for making ornament templates. I cut out two piece of felt at the same time to make sure they completely matched. Then the kids went to town decorating the right sides with glitter glue and sequins.
Once dry, I blanket stitched the edges wrong sides together, leaving about a 1″ hole to stuff. The kids stuffed their own stars (I helped get it in the points) and then I finished the blanket stitch and added a loop of embroidery floss for hanging.
Mom’s Stars
For my version, I used the same template to cut out stars from red and white ticking fabric… using an extra 1/2″ seam allowance. I placed the pieces right sides together and pinned.
I cut out about a 7″ piece of grosgrain ribbon and folded it in half. I slid the loop side down in between the right sides of fabric and pinned it so that about 1/2″ of ribbon stuck out the end of one star point. I machine stitched around the whole star leaving a 1″ hole to stuff (I back stitched once over the ribbon). I made a snip from the edge of the fabric to the seam in the concave points of the star (so it would lay smooth when flipped). I flipped the star right side out and pushed out the points all the way.
Then the kids and I stuffed the star. Once stuffed, I hand stitched the opening closed.
Instead of working with wool roving like I had initially intended this week (to go with our Wool Unit) we ended up starting a weaving project. We have not finished them yet but I wanted to share some photos. I will be leaving them out for the next week or two so they can sit down and work at it when they like.
First I cut out approximately a 4″x8″ rectangle of card board (the flaps of an Amazon box actually). I then cut seven 1/4″ deep notches along both the top and bottom… about 1/4″ apart. I taped a piece of yarn to the back and then wrap the yarn from bottom to top through the notches. I cut the yarn and taped down the end to the back as well.
Then I let the kids pull out a bunch of yarn from my stash and cut about 8″ long pieces. I think this is their favorite part… getting to take scissors to my yarn (I did lock away the really good stuff). They love the fuzzy fun furs and the nubby yarns that I have left over from making our farm mat.
Bug and Fairy had no problem figuring out the weaving process. I thought it was going to take a lot more demonstration then it did. One quick example and they were at it.
I will post an update when we finish them.
For this week’s Unplugged Challenge theme hard we made primitive folk art style Barnyard Animal Toys. When we first found out the theme last week, I asked the kids what was ‘hard’ and all of their answers all stemmed around wood. Wood blocks, wood toys, tree branches, etc. I spent several days trying to come up with an idea. Then I remembered a post my SIL, Tina had on her blog last week linking to directions on making wood toys. It seemed like a bit of a stretch to have the kids do it but they thought it was a great idea and were in on it every step of the way.
First I drew up some farm animal outlines based on some toys I saw online (I’ve included my drawings as a pdf if you would like Pig/Horse/Cow & Sheep/Goat), printed them and cut them out. I had each child pick their favorite and then we traced the animals onto a scrap piece of 1" thick pine. Using a coping saw, we cut out the basic shapes. Bug really likes to use a saw (he was lots of help to Daddy when fixing some rotten boards on the deck this spring) and enjoyed getting a chance to cut out his animal. The Fairy girl gave it a try too. In the end Daddy did do most of the cutting as the kids decided it was too hard (does that count as a second theme tie in?).
The step that they thought was the most fun was getting to use the Dremel to smooth the edges. Adorned with safety goggles and mommy’s steady hand they sanded their own animals. You could just use normal sand paper if you would prefer. I finished cleaning them up.
Once they were all smooth we used a light coat of Non-toxic children’s watercolor paints to give a color wash. I used the water colors because it is light enough to still see the grain (which is cool) and most importantly, it is what I had on hand. I still need to get a clear coat sealer or wax to apply over the color, but they are done enough for the kids to start playing with them.
All in all, I would guess this was about a 2 hour project. The kids are very proud of the toys that they made and are really enjoying them because of the process.
For Week Three our focus was on tractors/farm machines and the book Rusty, Trusty Tractor. To go along with this theme, our art project was Tracks in the Mud.
It was a beautiful day so we rolled out a large sheet of paper on the drive way, filled a baking pan with WASHABLE brown paint and then dipped a variety of items into the paint to make mud tracks on the page (you could easily do a scaled down version at the kitchen table but I do think it is important for big, messy art sometimes). This is one of those projects that is all about the PROCESS not the PRODUCT.
It was so much fun. By the end, the kids had gotten so into it… they were literally IN it and left their own tracks in the mud.
This week’s Unplugged Challenge theme was Sand. We made sand candles using the kids hand/foot prints. They were really easy and we used recycled materials… so it was a free craft too.
First I collected up a bunch of random votive candles. I seem to have them in mass, but seldom actually use them. I pulled the stickers off the bottom, then pulled out the wicks and set those aside. I put 2 votives at a time into my potpourri crock pot to melt.
Then the kids and I filled a Pyrex baking dish with sand from the sand box (I would recommend using clean craft sand, but this is what we had on hand). We dampened the sand and each kid got a turn to make an impression. The older kiddos used their hands (I had to help push them down far enough) and for B we did her footprint. I poured the melted wax into the impression (each candle took about 2 votives worth of wax) and set in one of the wicks in the deepest part. Once the candle cooled to the touch, we removed it from the sand, rinsed off the excess sand with cool water and set up the sand for the next impression.
I think we ended up with some really cool Halloween candles.
