While that adults-only activity was in progress on our back porch this afternoon, the kids and I played around on the bottom step. We painted wooden letter cut-outs that will be our magnets. We’re planning to glue small but strong magnets on the backs when the time comes, but for now, we were just coloring and painting. The craft was a hit, and the letters look great.
Supplies
- wooden letters (approximately $3 for 36 letters)
- oil pastels (though you could try regular crayons if you want)
- water color paint, brushes, water
The Three Steps: Unpainted, drawn on, painted.
Finished Product
Materials:
- One piece construction paper. We used black.
- a single sheet of several different colors of tissue paper.
- glue
- scissors
Step 1: Fold construction paper in half (and maybe in half again as we did) and cut out the shapes you want.
Step 2: Fold layers of tissue paper together and cut to the size and shape necessary to cover one of the holes in the construction paper. Glue into place. Repeat until all holes are covered on one half of construction paper.
Step 3: Spread glue around the holes on the other half of the construction paper and fold that side over onto the covered half.
Step 4: Tape to window and enjoy the warm glow of your tissue paper stained glass.
After we made our dough, we scavenged for clay toys. If your kids are like mine, they have too many toys already and don’t need a collection of dedicated clay toys. Look for anything with texture, particularly anything rolling pin-like. Next, take a peek in your kitchen drawers. Obviously cookie cutters are a great choice, but think beyond that. One big hit for us today were icing piping tips. The kids used a finger to extruded worms and snakes. Parents Brand blocks are always a hit for stamping impressions into our play dough. An empty fishing line spool made great flowers and pizzas, and an old wooden foot massager that had been re-purposed as a musical instrument make an amazing rolling pin that rolled stripes right into the dough. Last but not least, I finally tossed out some old, dried out Moon Sand that made a huge mess every time I ever got it out and reused the container, which is perfect for keeping our play dough fresh.
Knitted Cupcakes: I could probably manage one or two of these, and I think she’d like them.
Farafel Pasta: I read in a blog recently about crafty moms sniffing at expensive stuff and saying that they could make it for 30 cents. I think i can make this for 17 cents, which is what a sheet of felt costs at my craft store. 
Tulip and I planted some chive seeds in empty egg shells tonight, and they are so cute. She can’t wait to give her little egg heads hair cuts. When we were finished, she asked if she could sit at the table forever to watch their hair grow, so I know it was a hit.
Here’s what you need:
- Eggs that have been cracked at the pointy end, drained and rinsed out
- Dirt
- Seeds (we used chives, but wheat grass would have been nice as well)
- A baby spoon for shoveling the dirt into the small hole in the eggs
- A baby medicine syringe for watering
- Markers to draw on egg faces
- Foam shapes for the bases
- Hot glue
What you need to do:
(Kids can do everything but the parts that require hot glue.)
- Have eggs for breakfast, and open them with a spoon whack on the pointy end.
- Rinse the eggs out and save them.
- Decorate the eggs with silly faces.
- Glue a few foam pieces together with a hollowed out circle on the top of the stack. (See picture below.)
- Glue the egg onto the foam base.
- Shovel dirt into the egg using a baby spoon.
- Sprinkle seeds into the egg.
- Squirt water gently into the egg using a syringe.
- Water daily and watch your egg head’s hair grow.
- Trim hair as needed with safety scissors.
My first act of selfish knitting is a cute pair of fingerless gloves called Fetching from Knitty, a site I love to check out for inspiration. I’ll get pictures up when they are finished. They knit up fairly quickly, as the pattern says, but it’s still slow going with a baby sleeping on my lap. I finished the left one today, and I hope to start the right one tonight. The gloves may not compare to Tulip’s five mommy-made sweaters, four of which fit her this winter, but they are my first attempt at cables. I’m excited to wear them, maybe as early as this weekend, assuming that I manage to keep them. I can barely finish a row without mentally giving them away to one of my sisters. (Girls, if I try, tell me no, please.)
While I am fairly sure that I’m going to keep my gloves on principle, I know I won’t be able to keep from knitting stuff for at least my kids this winter, even though they don’t need anything. Tulip is the most excited recipient of hand-made gifts I’ve ever met. I know absolutely that she would rather have something I made her than something from a store that is far more likely to catch a 3 year old’s eye, so I will take a little break from selfish knitting to make her something next. Maybe some cute little socks. Maybe a stuffed animal. Definitely a tiny carrot. All she says she wants for Christmas is a basting brush (go figure), tiny horses, diapers for the tiny horses, and a soft carrot to feed the horses. I’ve found a cute carrot pattern, and I think I’ll felt it down to the size she’d like it to be. Pictures to follow. 
Option 1: Felt Turkey
These are pretty self-explanatory. All you can’t see is that I used hot glue. We don’t like to wait for glue to dry.
Option 2: Vegas Turkey
Again, you can see most of what Tulip did. I helped with the tracing, cut the popsicle sticks in half, and encouraged Tulip to use a paint brush to spread the glitter clue around like paint.
One type of project that I particularly treasure is anything involving kids’ hand prints. They are both art project and time capsule. I love the idea of repeating a project year after year and eventually displaying a collection.
Here’s the first installment:
Materials:
- 1 brown paper bag
- 3 sheets of construction paper, one each yellow, orange, and red
- child-safe scissors
- glue
- tape
Instructions: Ask child to help as appropriate.
- Trace child’s hand on one sheet of paper. Stack the sheets and cut.
- Open and flatten bag before sketching a simple tree shape. Cut out.
- Color the trunk.
- Glue hand prints randomly over the appropriate area of the tree.
- Rip or cut up scraps of construction paper to glue at the base of the tree.
- Hang up with tape when dry.
Tulip’s Tree
