Candy Clay

The girls were excited to try out their candy flavorings. I made up a batch of candy clay and we went to work. We each tried out different colors and flavors. this turned out to be a big hit. The kids didn't even eat any of their clay until after playing for quite some time. It was rather strange eating it as it was brightly colored and we had been playing with it like play-do.
It was really easy to make. just melt a bag of candy melts and add a third cup of corn syrup. Stir and let sit over night to harden.These are my cherry flavored flowers.
Trekker's candy candy.


Addie created an Easter basket full of candy.

Rapunzel let your hair down.

Addie got several Rapunzel dolls for her birthday. She has enjoyed their long hair. Today we were making Cheerio necklaces and she decided to create a Rapunzel braid. It's nice to see something a little outside of the box.

Fall Trees

Over our vacation our tree lost many many of its leaves. I had the girls pick them all up off the floor promising a project. I drew a tree trunk out for them and let them go at it with glue sticks and their leaves. A perfect project for fall even though all of the leaves came from inside.

Edith really enjoys using the glues stick so she glues and I stick leaves.

Cooperative Painting

The three girls set-up to do a cooperative painting. We taped some paper to the table and then put small bits of tape on the paper. This was especially challenging for Addie and myself because as we worked adding tape, Edie worked removing tape. Once we were satisfied with our tape we each got a color paint and a brush. Then we played simon says with the paint. Simon says, "paint fast, paint circles, have the paint brush dance, pass your paint, ect." Addie was absolutley thrilled when we removed the tape. Edith on the other hand wandered away doing her own thing.

We all had fun and enjoyed making a project together. No fighting. Peaceful.

Thanks Artful Parent as usual.

Sand Harmonograph

I had kept this super expensive box from moving because I knew it would be useful one day. I finally found a great use for it, making a simple and contained harmonograph. I found a great idea perusing the Internet of making one with paint. After many failed attempts at getting paint to make lines instead of drops and splatters I asked my Dad for advice. He suggested sand. We have a few jars of colored sand and a plethora of contact paper so I tried that. It worked wonderfully.

The box has a built in bar that I hung our applesauce cup from using yarn and gimp(rexlace). I poked a hole through the applesauce cup using a screwdriver. I taped a few pennies around the cup to weight it down a bit. Then I cut contact paper to fit and placed in the bottom of the box. I had cut an access panel in the side of the box so the girls could see what was happening. I should have made this a tad bit bigger to aid in removing the projects easily. Place sand in the cup and let the girls swing away. Two colors of sand worked great. After a few swings we spooned some white sand over the entire drawing so it would not be sticky. This helped keep the design because I had to fold the contact paper to get it out of the access panel and I didn't want the extra colored sand moving around and wrecking the design.

The girls loved it and I will probably attempt to figure out the right paint consistency. Edith did need some prompting to let go of the string so that it could actually draw a pattern. Overall a big hit.

Addie's is pictured first and then Edith's.

Fish Tank

Here the girls are working on making fish tank drawings. Addie did not like it when I said "lets make fish bowls." I guess in her world fish only live in tanks. The girls drew their fish and tanks with crayons.

Then they layered on some blue tissue paper covering up all the fish. They painted the tissue paper with water and then removed it. Now they had some lovely fish swimming in their tank.

Colored Cupcakes

I found several examples of rainbow cupcakes across the web. I decided to tackle the challenge for Addie's preschool show. I loved how they turned out and one of the best parts is how great the wrappers look when you take them off the cupcakes. Addie even asked to save them because they were so pretty.

Here are a few pictures from baking them. I guess I was too tired when I finished them to take any more pictures. They looked and tasted great but did take probably 2-3 hours of work to get them all made. Spreading out each layer takes a long time. Then after they were all baked I had to make some fluffly although much too sticky frosting.

Enjoy.

Edie Sweetie

Edith is turning into a real sweetheart. Here are two examples from today.

Our neighbors came over to play and then had to leave. They were getting into their stroller for the walk home. Meanwhile Edith was inside racing to get her shoes on as fast as she could. I asked her why she needed shoes and she hurriedly told me "I need to hug my friends goodbye." After she got her shoes on she ran outside to give them a goodbye hug.

Later in the day another little girl came over to play. We were all outside and she fell into the toy bin reaching for a ball. It was filled with rain water so she was completely soaked. I ran inside to get her some dry clothes. Meanwhile Edith starts taking off her jacket to offer it to her friend.

Sweet little Edith. She also had a blast tagging along on Addie's school field trip to the hospital. She did everything with the big kids but with a whole lot more enthusiasm than any of them. To be two and have no self-consciousness must be a wonderful thing.

Touchy Feely Art

This week for school one of our projects was to make our own feely page like in so many picture books. Here are the steps.

1. Pick out a desired fabric. Draw a picture on cardstock that the fabric will go into.

2. Cut out a hole in the picture. I used my handy dandy ceramic cutting tool for this.

3. Use an embellishment glue stick to stick down fabric to the back and then glue a second sheet of cardstock over this. Use staples for thick fur fabric.

4. Seal edges with colored masking tape.

Trekker made a cat, Addie made a circle/egg, and I helped Edie make Cookie Monster. Trekker was definitely the most excited about this project.

Valentine Wreath

Addie loves to cut anything and everything. She had some cutting workborks and was quite disappointed when they were all finished. I found a neat book of cutting patterns and have had Addie cut out some of the simpler ones. She does great. I do fin on the folded patterns that tissue paper is a lot easier for her to cut through than regular paper. Her are the two Valentine wreathes she made.

Presents: Snowball Soap

The girls made two presents for their family this year. First we made Snowball Soap. This was a big hit. The girls absolutely loved making the snowballs. I guess the dough felt wonderful in their hands. Although the ingredients were only soap and water, Brian complained it was hard to get the soap out of the food processor. However the girls were easy to clean up.

Directions.

1. Grate up 3 bars of Ivory soap. (using the food processor)

2. Empty out and a a tablespoon of water.

3. Form into snowballs and snowmen and let dry.

The soap was a big hit with all the Grandparents and smelled great. Even Mabel wanted to eat it.

New from the Old

I have been reading lots of ideas about decorating stained clothing and I finally tackled one of Edith's shirts. I like how it turned out. I just stamped with acrylic paint and let dry. It was amazing how easy it is. I have another shirt in mind of Addie's that I think will get a different treatment.

Making Adelaides

Yesterday Addie informed me of her plan for the day. It included making cookies. She wanted to make chocolate chip of course. As I looked for the recipe I noticed one for Adelaides. I thought that would be fun to make Adelaide cookies, so we just substituted the chocolate chips for the dates and walnuts. They are delicious.

Fall Mosaics

Since we are in the process of moving I have been keeping messy art projects to a minimum. I decided that making mosaics would not drive me too crazy with mess. I drew a leaf and showed the girls how to glue down tiny pieces of cardstock inside the shape. I drew a leaf for Edith and then as requested a garbage can for Addie. We busily worked on our mosaics. Addie ended up requesting a second leaf one to "do right" because she basically just dumped the pieces onto her garbage can instead of placing them down. All in all a good project for all three of us. Edith really enjoys art projects and is pretty good at following instructions for them considering she is just shy of two. It is nice that she can participate in the same project as Addie.

Paper Bag Pumpkin

We got an art book out of the library. Addie chose to make a paper bag pumpkin. We stuffed some old newspapers inside a grocery bag and then let the girls paint. After it dried I drew some shapes on black paper and Addie cut them out and pasted them on to her pumpkin. I think it came out pretty well.

glue, paint, and yarn

I gave each of the girls some glue colored with watercolors. Then we painted and added yarn. Addie was skeptical but Edith thought it was fabulous. The top one is Edith's and the bottom, Addie's.

A Huge Mess avoided....Paste Painting

I found a neat idea for paste painting in Family Fun magazine. I managed to avoid any disasters even though this involved acrylic paint (not washable) and I did not let Edith do this project. Edith did her own painting project at the same time. Supervising two different painting projects did nearly drive me insane, but we got some good results. I also did this project in a cardboard box lid on a old table cloth.

Step 1: Boil 3.75 cups of water with 0.5 cups of flour and then simmer for 8 minutes. Let cool.

Step 2: Pour paste into several bowls (that you don't care about) and add dollops of acrylic paint. I found a little went a long way. We had tons of paste left over at the end. This could make at least 20 projects.

Step 3: Using a foam brush spread a thick layer of paste over the entire piece of paper. It is important to use heavy paper. I used some scrapbooking cardstock and a cut up cheerio box.

Step 4: Scrap the paste off with various scrapers. I used the sides and top of the cheerio box and made notches in them for the scrapers. The magazine also recommended using old credit cards with notches cut.

Step 5: Wait forever for projects to dry.

Gold on purple on green paper.

Addie did really well, but had to be encouraged to keep working spreading the paste. I had to teach her to use a light touch. On her final piece she suggested using two colors. It was hard getting the second color on top of the first so she said, "I will just glop it on." That method worked well. I also would grab the project out of the box to dry before she had a chance to completely scrape off all the paste. Addie loves to get her fingers dirty so on the last project she could not resist the urge to just smear the paste all over.

I think this would be fun on a really big piece of poster board. That way more experimentation could be done with the scraping.

This one is mine. I quickly made one before cleaning up. This is red and orange on white paper. Lots of fun.

Lazy Art Projects

Addie and Edith LOVE to paint. It does not matter what kind of paints, paper, brushes, etc. All painting is wonderful. Sometimes I am not in the mood to bring out paints, but I feel bad that the kids haven't painted in a while. What do I do. Water painting! This is a mess free way to let the kids paint. I just give the kids a brush and a bowl of water and send them outside to paint the porch. This way everyone is happy. They get to paint and I don't have to clean. I don't even mind when Edith paints herself instead of the porch.

Painting on Acetate

I have a whole bunch of page protectors lying around and thought I would utilize them for a painting project. Painting definitely tops the girls' list of art projects. )I just got some no spill paint cups with matching brushes and was eager to try them out.) For Addie I cut open a page protector leaving it connected on one side. I opened it up and had her paint. Then when she was done I just closed it for easy drying. I thought these might look nice on the window and might later use my die cutter to create some nice window ornaments. For Edith I completely cut the page protector in two and then put it back together when she was done. Both girls enjoyed painting on the slick surface. Addie said she was painting a jungle. Edith just enjoyed the motion of painting.

These trays came from a gift we got when Addie was born. It was a little plastic suitcase filled with baby medicine and nail clippers. Addie had used it for a while as a play suitcase until the hinges broke. Now each side makes a great painting tray. A piece of paper fits inside perfectly and the one inch edges are perfect for keeping the paint off the table. Note: paint still ends up on the children. The trays clean easily and I am quite proud of my reuse of an item that many would have thrown away as soon as the original contents had been emptied.

Welcome

We usually do an art project almost every single day. Even though I try to be careful and cautious using trays and washable materials our table is getting stained. I thought I would create a second blog showing off some of the girls' works. I have a bunch of pictures from recent projects so I will start by catching up with those.

One morning while Edith was still asleep Addie and I made some tissue paper creations with bleeding tissue paper.

Step 1: Cut tissue paper into small pieces.

Step 2: Arrange the tissue pieces on a sheet of white paper.
Step 3: Gently brush water on your paper. Not too dry and not too wet please. Note: bleeding tissue paper does stain tables!

Step 4: Carefully pull the tissue bits off your paper. Addie had a little bit of trouble with this part and made a hole in her white sheet. You really need to be gentle if your paper is wet.

Here are our projects. Usually I don't actually do a project myself, but I was excited about this one so Addie's is the one on top and mine is the bottom one. I was inspired by this blog to make this project. I think they used this method to dye Easter eggs.