Handprint Advent Tree

02 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by Sara in Family, Kid's Crafts, Tutorials

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Well, it’s the beginning of December and around here that means the beginning of Christmas crafts! We did a fun and easy one today that included some paint – always a winner with little kiddies!

First, I painted everyone’s hands green and stamped them on watercolour paper to make trees. I definitely recommend Tempera paints for this, they easily wash off surfaces, clothes, and skin!

Once the trees were done everyone got a paintbrush and were told to paint a bunch of colours without mixing them into mud – and they actually did it! Mud colour is the norm around here for some reason…

Although the paints dry quickly, a lot of water was flowing on these so I gave them a quick blast with my heat gun to speed up the process. Then, with “help”, I punched 1″ and 3/4″ circles from the paper to make ornaments.I also cut a star from some of the yellow painted sections. All in all, we had 23 circles and one star per child which they then stuck to a sheet of glue dots. We started with this:

and this:

And ended up with these:

And these:

And now we’re all ready for the countdown! Since today is the second they got to pick out and stick on two ornaments, saving the star until Christmas Eve.

Cute, hey? He insisted on making a funny face – no way was I getting a reasonable picture out of him today!

There’s still plenty of time to make your own – it might even be fun for the whole family to have trees!

Handprint wreath (activities4kidz.wordpress.com)
Advent Tree: Completed Tree – First day of Advent (makingandcreating.wordpress.com)
Easy handprint Christmas wreath for kids (nurturestore.co.uk)

Bats and pumpkins and mess – oh my!

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Family, Kid's Crafts, This & That

≈ 6 Comments

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Crafts, Halloween

On Monday we made our last Halloween decorations – we are now officially walking into and through creepy crawlies as we go through the house!

The first was pretty straightforward – pumpkins!

They were easy and pretty much mess-free. I simply painted glue onto a paper plate, cut orange tissue into squares and told them to cover all the white. I then gave them three triangles, a mouth, and a green stem and they glued them on. That’s it!

The next craft was a little messier – we painted. My biggest tip when painting is this: go naked.

Now, to be honest, the kiddies weren’t exactly naked, they just took their shirts off to keep them reasonably clean. I have a very cute painting picture but I’ll save that for the parents only!

I told them we were going to paint bats (I already had eyes, fangs, and wings cut out of black paper) and they immediately piped up with the colours they wanted to use – no black mentioned! So we ended up with red, green, and blue:

Cute, hey? After they painted and glued on eyes, I drew a mouth and they glued on fangs and added some bling to the eyes. Then they helped me staple on the wings.

My house (and I hope all of their houses) looks very festive now but I do have one problem – they’re already asking about Christmas!

Such cute feet…

22 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Family, Kid's Crafts, This & That

≈ 4 Comments

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Crafts, footprint ghosts, memento luxe ink

… shouldn’t be scary!

Yesterday was another art day here and it seems Halloween has its claws in me. We did stamped feet – one of the kiddies faves – and turned them into ghosts!

footprint ghosts

I used Memento Luxe ink in Wedding Dress and it stamped perfectly plus wiped off skin like a dream; a quick swipe with a baby wipe and the mess was gone. Genius!

Each child picked their own set of letter stickers and stuck on the eyes, mouth, and “boo!” alphas. I added the “halloween” once everything else was done.

To make this a keepsake, we framed them so they could take them home and keep them for next year (“That’s really, really far away!”) <— hahaha!

footprint ghosts - gabe

Aren’t they cute? Super easy, simpler than the ghosts from last week even, and an awesome tradition for each year. It’s an easy and devastating way to see how much they’ve grown! 🙂

Creative Leftover Halloween Candy Recipes (wholesalecostumeclub.com)
Spooky-Cute Ghost Boxes (funbunfitness.com)

Tuesday Techniques – Glossy Accents

24 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by Sara in ScrapBook, Techniques, Tuesday Techniques

≈ 9 Comments

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Crafts, Glossy Accents, ScrapBook

First, let me say big Thank You to everyone for the great welcome! I felt pretty special! 🙂

I participated in an online crop this weekend and, in the process, rediscovered an old technique that I love. And so Tuesday Techniques was born! On most Tuesdays (you’ll notice I didn’t say all!) I’ll show you a technique that I love to do. It may be an oldie but goodie, or it may be new to me. Whichever, I hope it will inspire you to try it out, play, and have fun!

Today, we’re pulling out our Glossy Accents!

What??? You don’t have Glossy Accents??? Run, run I say, to the nearest Scrapbooking store and buy it up! And if you’re here in Newfoundland, head on over to The Paperie and support our local LSS! Go on, I’ll wait…

Have you got it now? Good! This will become one of your favourite liquid adhesives (I may or may not have glued together everything from chipboard to children’s toys to broken appliances with it…) and, my favourite part, it’s an amazing dimensional glaze. With Glossy Accents, just about anything can be made to look like an epoxy embellishment. The way I use it the most? Little letter stickers. They just pop right off the page when they’re raised and shiny.

Ok, here goes…

Get your supplies together. I like altering basic chipboard so I started with old Maya Road chipboard letters and some Studio Calico Mister Huey’s.

Supplies

Mist away, let the letters dry a but, then cover each one in Glossy Accents. Just squeeze a generous layer on there and smear around with the tip of the bottle. It stays where you put it so no worries about a big mess. Also, it will look cloudy but don’t worry about that either because it dries completely clear.

Covered in Glossy

Now go away. Leave your letters alone, don’t even think about touching them. Just be sure that little children and cats cannot get anywhere near them – I suggest the microwave. Really.

Come back again in a hour or so. My letters are pretty big, and I put a heavy layer on, so they did take quite some time to dry. Little letters or embellishments with a lighter layer will dry pretty quickly.

Finally, use your Glossy Accents to adhere them to whatever project you’re working on (great glue, remember) and you’re done!