Craft Archives - Page 7 of 11

{Christmas Craft} Candy Cane Reindeer

December 12, 2013 By Deirdre

I saw candy cane reindeer like this in the hall at my school. I knew immediately that we need to try to make one at home. They were just too cute. I am not sure if it was the hand print antlers or fact that it combined to wonderful Christmas elements. Candy canes and reindeer are such a fun!The ones I saw at school had paper noses and paper eyeballs. Ours needed more of a 3-D effect I decided. Thankfully we have giant wiggly eyes and red pom-poms on hand. Actually, we had everything we needed on hand. I love when things work out that way.

Christmas Craft- Candy Can Reindeer: Kids will love having their hands become reindeer antlers.

If you want to make one at home, here is what we did.

Trace two hands (One right and one left will work best)
Hand tracing will need to be cut out.
Then cut out a red candy cane shape
Next cut out white stripes for the candy cane
Glue the white stripes to the red cane
Cut the extra white paper of the edges of the red cane
One wiggly eye will need to be glued onto the red cane
Glue the brown hand antler in place on the top of the cane
Glue a red pom-pom in place if you want a Rudolph like candy cane reindeer ( A brown pom-pom could be used if you want to make a non-Rudolph reindeer.)

I think our candy cane reindeer Christmas craft is as cute as the ones I saw on display in hallway at school. Our little deer herd has only two deer as opposed to the large herd that is displayed in the hall at school though. Maybe you could make some candy cane reindeer at your house and we could have a virtual herd.

If you decided to make candy cane reindeer, let me know on the Facebook post featuring this craft. You can paste an Instagram link to a picture of yours if you like.

Are you looking for other reindeer Christmas craft and snack ideas?

Handprint Reindeer created for Hands On: As We Grow.

Creating a Reindeer Lunch

Treats for Santa and the Reindeer

Christmas Craft- Candy Can Reindeer: Kids will love having their hands become reindeer antlers. They will also love the pom pom nose and the wiggly eye.

Follow JDaniel4’s Mom on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Kid Made Ornament – Branch Bracelets

December 11, 2013 By Deirdre

The idea for branch bracelets came to me as we were decorating our Christmas tree last week. When we came to a kid made ornament that JDaniel had created himself, he face just lit up. He was so proud of each kid made ornament he had made in preschool or with me at home. It occurred to me that we hadn’t made any new ornament this year and we really needed to. I remembered creating spider web ornaments last year with him and how much he enjoyed weaving the yarn up and down though Christmas cutouts that had been punched with holes. This year’s kid-made ornament needed to have weaving be a part of it.

When I went to school the next day, the kids were all wearing homemade bracelets. Why not my brain thought make branch bracelets for our tree what incorporate JDaniel’s interest in weaving through hole punched holes.

When I go home a noticed a small pile of empty paper towel tubes, they were just waiting to be taken out to the recycling bin in the garage. (I take care of sorting through what we recycle and what could be possible craft item.) Sections of an old paper towel tube would make wonderful branch bracelet Christmas tree ornaments I thought.

With the materials and idea decided on I set everything we would need out on the kitchen table for JDaniel to find. He instantly understood that the craft idea was to randomly punch holes into the section of tube and then weave ribbon through it.

Kid Made Ornaments -Branch Bracelets

I explained that there wasn’t a right or wrong way to make a branch bracelet ornament, but I did show him the one I made. He was thrilled about using the hole punch and quickly had holes all over the tubes. It took a little longer to decide to which holes to weave through. Honestly, I don’t think there was a plan.

After Constructing This Kid Made Ornament More Constructing Was Done

After creating two branch bracelets, he declared the remaining tubes sections and ribbon needed to be used to create a sculpture for under the tree. Who knew that we would end up with kid made branch bracelet ornaments and a free form sculpture by the time our crafting time was done. (To see what the sculpture looks like you will need to visit our Facebook page.)I explained that there wasn’t a right or wrong way to make a branch bracelet ornament, but I did show him the one I made. He was thrilled about using the hole punch and quickly had holes all over the tubes. It took a little longer to decide to which holes to weave through. Honestly, I don’t think there was a plan.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock.

Turkey Craft and a Thanksgiving Book

November 15, 2013 By Deirdre

We have a large supply of magazines at our house to look through and search for pictures in. Recently we searched through the food related magazines for pictures we could use to create a food full turkey. It was a little challenging to find large pictures of food. Why large pictures? I had created feather templates out of an old cereal box that was the size we were going to need to make the turkey’s feathers for our turkey craft and they were pretty large.

Putting Together Our Thanksgiving Craft

Turkey Craft and a Thanksgiving Book - Cutting Pictures

We flipped through a number of magazines to find large pictures. Thankfully I had picked up several cooking magazines from the laundry room in my mother in-law’s apartment complex last time we visited her. They are filled with pictures the size we needed. (I had fun just looking through them.)

Once a collection of pictures had been torn from the magazines, the cardboard feather template was placed on the pictures one at a time. JDaniel traced the outline of the cardboard feather onto the picture and then cut the food picture feather out.

Turkey Craft and a Thanksgiving Book - Feathers

With a pile of feathers ready to glue, the turkey body, and its elements were cut out. The eyes, beak, and waddle were glued down onto the turkey’s triangular body. Once JDaniel had finished getting the body together, he added the feathers. A little glue from a glue stick was placed on the bottom of the food side of each feather. Then it was placed on the back of the turkey’s body with most of the feather sticking up past the turkey’s body at an angle.

Turkey Craft and a Thanksgiving Book - Adding a Face

When all the feathers were in place, the turkey was glued onto a large piece of construction paper and declared done.

When people see the food filled turkey, they will probably notice how pretty he is. They won’t know how many wonderful skills JDaniel used to put it together. He had to search for large pictures, trace feathers and cut them out. He had to determine how much of the feather should be glued to the back of the turkey and how much to have displayed. Deciding how to arrange the feathers also needed to be done. A food full turkey craft provided the opportunity to work on a variety of skills.

What would be a good book to go with this craft?

The link below is an affiliate link.

Turkey Craft and a Thanksgiving Book - Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner

Silly Tilly’s Thanksgiving Dinner is a really wonderful Thanksgiving story. Silly Tilly passes out what she thinks are invitations to her Thanksgiving dinner. They really are her food recipes. Boy, is she thankful when she finds that her friends have all decided to bring food of their own to share?

We love books with happy endings at my house. This book had us a little worried as we read through it. A sigh of relief was almost audible when we discovered that the book had a happy ending.

I have decided to ask you to link your posts to the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page instead of running a link up. I hope you will stop by and share your children’s book related activities there

Follow JDaniel4’s Mom on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Veterans Day Craft- Cork Painted Poppy

November 1, 2013 By Deirdre

Veterans Day is a holiday I have worked on sharing with JDaniel since he was really little. Our family has a number of veterans in it. Even if it didn’t this holiday is important to remember. So many have given their lives, time away from their families, and so much more. It is so important to be that they are shown respect along with being remembered. This year we read a wonderful book and created a cork-painted poppy as one of our ways of remembering.

I was contacted by Barbara Elizabeth Walsh the author of The Poppy Lady: Moina Belle Michael and Her Tribute to Veterans. She asked if I would love to preview a copy of the book. Veterans Day is one of those holidays that is often forgotten, but so needs to be remembered. I responded to her quickly that I would love to read this wonderful book and share it with you.

JDaniel and I raced to open the package containing the book as soon as it arrived. We loved looking through the book’s wonderful illustrations. They are filled with images that share the concepts beautifully.

Young children could easily picture walking through the book if they are not ready for the text. There is a lot of text on some page spreads. The illustrations are just wonderful and carry much of the meaning of the text.

We read every word and by the end of the book, we were both teary-eyed. Moina’s mission to have every American wear a poppy to remember the soldiers is very moving. This is a must-have book for Veterans Day.

What did we do to explore The Poppy Lady?

The weather here has been warm and sunny. After reading the book The Poppy Lady, JDaniel and I headed outside. I had set out paint, corks, and paper to paint a red poppy just like the ones Moina passed out.

Veterans Day Craft - Cork Painting a Poppy and The Poppy Lady

The afternoon sun cast shadows on our workspace. You will see JDaniel’s shadow in the pictures. At first I thought about trying to eliminate them. After looking at them, I realized the shadows are a great reminder of the service the veterans gave to our country. The shadows remind me that the veterans and their service are a part of who we are as a country and as a family.

JDaniel was an enthusiastic painter some of the cork-painted spots were light, but most of them were strong and spattered. The white drawing paper we used did a good job of absorbing the paint and yet it lets the paint color stay strong.

Veterans Day Craft - Cork Painting a Poppy

When he finished painting, he went off to play with the next-door neighbor. We needed to give the poppy a chance to dry before JDaniel cut it out. The sun was so bright it didn’t take long for the paint to dry. JDaniel tried to find a spot on the deck where he could cut the poppy out without having the sun in his eyes.

When the cork-painted poppy cut out, we hung it on the fridge. It will be a great reminder of veterans and their service. We will be remembering them in our mealtime prayers in the days leading up to Veterans Day on November 11th.

On Monday I will be sharing a post on several other ways to remember veterans and Veterans Day. I hope you will stop by and check it out.

You will find more Veterans Day craft ideas and lots of other wonderful craft ideas on my Crafts for Kids board on Pinterest.

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of The Poppy Lady. All opinions and thoughts about the book are my own.

25 Patriotic Activities for Kids

July 3, 2013 By Deirdre

Patriotic activities are some of my favorite to come up with. There have been posts written for Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, President’s Day and the 4th of July that all have red, white and blue theme. I thought I would share 25 of my favorite patriotic activities for kids.

Crafts

Pasta Printing onto a handkerchief and pillowcase. ( There is not a post on these activities. They are displayed in the collage. JDaniel created them in a library art class. Water Gun Fireworks PaintingBald Eagle Craft and Science ExperimentGrandma’s Garbage Truck and Parade FloatMusical Star ShakerAmerican Flag MobileChalk and Bow Fireworks CraftPatriotic LanternFireworks Straw Painting Learning Activities

Static Electricity ExperimentSight Word Match
I Spy 4th of July Words

Kid Friendly Meals

Memorial Day Picnic Foods Meal

Pinwheel 4th of July Snack

4th of July Bento Lunch with Tomato MosaicLabor Day Star Themed MealTwisted Stripe Wrapped Hot Dog Meal

Recipes

Red, White, and Blue Frozen Smoothie StarsRed, White and Blue PopcornPatriotic ChiliFireworks CakeFruit Flavored Watermelon StarsPatriotic Ice Cream Sundae

Other

jdaniel4smom_10_4th_of_July Books_for_kids

10 Fourth of July Books for KidsI hope you found some wonderful ideas in this post that you can enjoy with your family and students.

4th of July Activities- Read.Explore.Learn.

June 21, 2013 By Deirdre

Red, White, and Boom! highlights many of the events we associate with the 4th of July. Parades down main street with flags, batons, and musicians. Time spent on the beach flying kites and picnicking on corn on the cob and melon. Time at a park playing and watching fireworks. Each location and events that take place there are shared in rhyme and with wonderful illustrations.

I confess I had fun reading it to JDaniel. The words flowed easily and so beautifully fit with each picture.

What did we do to explore this wonderful 4th of July book?

Water Gun Fireworks Painting

We final product didn’t come out as well as I would have liked it too, but JDaniel had fun creating it. We placed water, paint, and food coloring into some empty green tea bottles. (Maybe too many liquids was the problem with this project. It was really runny.)

jdaniel4smom_red_white_and_boom_fireworks_painting_bottles

JDaniel dipped his crayon shaped water gun into each of the bottles to gather the colored liquids. He then sprayed one color at a time onto a piece of white drawing paper that I had hung from the fence in our backyard.

He had the best time splattering paint up and down the paper. I thought he used enough force to keep the some of the paint in place, but it all dripped down. Much as real fireworks cascade from the sky after their big boom has sounded.

I Spy 4th of July Words

We have spent a lot of time looking for pictures in I Spy themed books. JDaniel really loves them. Creating an I Spy 4th of July piece of word art sounded like something he would like and hold his interest. I looked through the book Red, White, and Boom for words that would illustrate the 4th of July.

Once I had gathered a number of words I headed to Tagxedo ( a wonderful word cloud site), to create a piece of word art that would display those words. It was such fun to reload the design to find the word display in the star design I selected.

When I found the right word arrangement, I saved the picture. The saved picture was later inserted into Microsoft Word. I added a title above the word art and the words I was going to help JDaniel look for below it.

JDaniel and I worked on spying the words to together. I read him each word, he repeated the word, and then he looked for as many appearances of that word as he could find. Some of the words were really small and hard to read. This was a challenging activity.

How did you explore books this week? If you have a post you would like to share, please link it up below. Once you have added your post, please visit at least three others.

Disclaimer: This post contains an affiliate link.

Follow JDaniel4’s Mom on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Bald Eagle Craft and Science Activity

June 19, 2013 By Deirdre

We have started to talk about the symbols of our country leading up to Independence Day on the 4th of July. I thought a wonderful symbol to start with is the bald eagle. The idea I came up with was that we would create a bald eagle craft and see if we could get him to fly as a science project.

Before I tell you what we did to create our eagle and how experiment went, I want to give thanks to those that disagreed with Benjamin Franklin about what our national bird should be. Benjamin wanted the national bird to be a turkey. He felt an eagle was far more respectable and less of a scoundrel than the bald eagle. For my part I am thankful that I didn’t have to try to help JDaniel create a flying turkey for this experiment. (JDaniel was a little surprised to hear that the turkey had even been considered.)The book we are going to Read, Explore, and Learn on Friday is called Red, White and Boom. While trying to decide on activities we could do to explore this book I came across a really cool picture of an eagle in the book. The eagle shown in the parade and being flown at the beach looked really fun. I tried to copy the it freehand onto newspaper. It looks close to the illustration by Huy Voun Lee, but not exactly like it. Hers is much better.

Making the Bald Eagle Craft

I decided on newspaper as my painting surface because it is light weight and I hoped it would allow the bald eagle to fly better. If you look closely at the picture, you will see that the newspaper I used is from a grocery store circular.

JDaniel helped me attach bamboo chopsticks in the shape of an X to the back of the bald eagle craft. When we took him outside and JDaniel through him in the air. Our bald eagle creation crashed quickly to the ground into slumping pile.

As you can see in the picture the bald eagle’s head and wings need some support. We took him back in and taped an additional chopstick to each side of the bald eagle to give him a little more stability.

Then we took the bald eagle to our deck. The eagle took off well when he was thrown off the deck on the back of our house. He drifted a few feet and then plummeted to the ground. We were able to work on lift on our model of the the bald eagle it seems , but not draft. It looks like we will need to do some research on keeping flying crafts in the air. Maybe we will need to adjust his wings or add a tail.

We will have to keep working on it. I would like the bald eagle to really fly before Independence Day.

Do you have any ideas of how we can make our bald eagle craft fly like an eagle?

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.

Taking Time to Play- Christmas Decorations

December 17, 2012 By Deirdre

Sometimes when we craft I just put out the craft supplies and we just explore ways to use them. JDaniel and I sometimes end up with similar end products and other times we come up with totally different ideas. This is exactly what happen when we made these Christmas decorations.

After gathering a small stack of paper plates I cut out several different shapes that we could work with. I cut them out freehand so some of them look a little off. The star really ended up being a little different looking.

Along with the paper plate cutouts, I put out a hole punch, scissors, glue, pipe cleaners, crayons, foam shapes, wiggly eyes, construction paper and some rick rack on the table. Then invited JDaniel to come and create.We had the best time watching each other work. We didn’t copy each other much, but we both were very much aware of what the other was doing. I loved stopping to admire the lasted additions to his creations. He has such great ideas.

Sometimes I leave JDaniel to craft on his own. As he has gotten busy with preschool and with kindergarten looming on the horizon, I have tried to work on craft with him. If we aren’t working on the same project, we are working on parallel projects a lot now.

JDaniel made a wonderful wreath. He loves the hole punch so, it wasn’t a surprise that he punched a number of holes into his wreath. I love the weaving he did through the holes with a sparkly pipe cleaner. The wiggly eyes make me think that this wreath is taking in all that is around it. The spots of color around the wreath are fun too. JDaniel just kept changing crayon colors and coloring one spot beside the other.

I made a torn paper wreath. I asked JDaniel if he wanted to help me tear the paper and he told me he was busy working on his wreath. An artist must have single focus when he is four.

I moved on to decorating one of the angel plates. It was fun to add a wiggly eye or two here and a pipe cleaner there. I didn’t pre-plan this craft as I had the wreath. I just went with the flow. JDaniel inspired me to loosen up a bit.

We both ended up working on trees as our final project. JDaniel noticed that I was just using green crayons to color my tree. At one point I had six or seven different shades of green in front of me. JDaniel decided he was going to use only blue and purple for his. I don’t think he know the song “Blue Christmas” ,but he sure made a wonderful blue Christmas tree.

I had the best time creating with JDaniel. I hope you will take time to play and create with your children today.

Here are some more Christmas decorations:

Ribbon Candy Ornaments

Threaded Tree Ornament

DIY Fine Motor Wreath

Small Hands Creating Hope

June 23, 2012 By Deirdre

I have been blessed to “meet” amazing people that I may never really see in person. They have touched my life and made it better. When an opportunity comes up to reach out and help one of these wonderful friends, I jump at it.

MaryAnne of Mama Smiles is one of those amazing people. When she asked if there was anyone who would like to help her celebrate her anniversary of being cancer free, many bloggers jumped at the opportunity along with me.

Cancer runs in my family. My maternal grandmother had breast cancer in her late sixties. She too was a survivor.

It was in her honor that JDaniel and I created this paper plate bowl with woven ribbons. When she along with many others with cancer spend or have spent time in the hospital, they receive lots of cards filled with good wishes. Some may choose to hang them up on the wall to look at them and remember the people that send them to them. My grandmother loved to read cards. She likes to have them at arms reach.

This bowl made with loving hands would have been a wonderful place for her to store her cards. It could be set on a bedside table for her to reach in and grab a card or two and read the wonderful messages loved ones had sent her.

Our projects have been compiled into an ebook, which we are sending out to anyone who donates at least $15 to the American Cancer society. An email with the download link, as well as a second link that allows you to purchase a hard copy of the book at production cost will be sent once we receive your donation.

If you donate but do not receive this email for any reason, or if you have trouble with the download, email smallhandsproject at gmail dot com. MaryAnne at Mama Smiles compiled this book as a way of celebrating thirty years of cancer survivorship! (Yay MaryAnne!)

We are hoping to raise $3000 by July 4th, and we are running a blog hop from May 14th until July 4th to celebrate and raise funds so that, in the future, thirty years of cancer survivorship will be the norm, not the exception! Learn about each of the bloggers who participated in the book by visiting each blog on their assigned dates – a few bloggers will be running celebratory giveaways, too!

14 May Mama Smiles
15 May Artsy Craftsy Mom and Rainbows Within Reach
16 May B. Inspired, Mama!
17 May Rainy Day Mum and Imagination Soup
18 May Inspiration Laboratories
19 May Experimenting Mom
21 May NurtureStore
22 May Living Montessori Now
23 May Mess for Less
24 May Having Fun at Home and CraftoArt
26 May Angelique Felix
27 May Sun Hats & Wellie Boots
30 May Mommy with Selective Memory
31 May One Perfect Day
1 June The Educators’ Spin On It
2 June Kids Stuff World
3 June Rainy Day Mum
4 June Teach Preschool
5 June Dirt and Boogers
7 June Montessori Tidbits
8 June Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
9 June The Iowa Farmer’s Wife
10 June Scribble Doodle and Draw
11 June Learn with Play
12 June Kitchen Counter Chronicles
13 June CRAYON Freckles
15 June Wise Owl Factory
18 June Lessons Learnt Journal
20 June Growing a Jeweled Rose
21 June Growing Play
23 June JDaniel4′s Mom

{Mother’s Day Craft} -His Fingerprints Are Everywhere

May 8, 2012 By Deirdre

His fingerprints are everywhere. When you look at the television screen or computer monitor, you will find JDaniel’s fingerprints. They were all over the walls until they were painted last week. I try to keep up with them, but as soon as I wash them away they return.

I can track his fingerprints around the house. They leave tell tale signs of his travels during the day. His hands are out touching everything as he walks along the hall and climbs the stairs.

There are fingerprint smudges on inside the passenger side window in the back of the car. They have been left behind after pointing out something exciting he has seen that he needed to put his finger on while he was telling me about it.

Despite putting down newspaper before doing a craft there are fingerprints made of glue, paint or glitter are left when his project is done all over the kitchen table.

For some reason there are yogurt and other food smudges that appear on the kitchen table too. Could it be that he still tries to eat with his fingers?

I know that I can’t leave these fingerprints where they are. As I mentioned above they are quickly replaced with new ones as soon as I clean them. Without cleaning them up and wiping them away they would quickly cover every surface of our house. The walls would no longer be antique white. Table would have mountains of crafting materials and food developing in the places that JDaniel sits beside. The doors crusted with finger carried substances and the windows would become opaque.

There is a small part of me that realizes that down the line there will be no small fingerprints left behind. . He will reach a stage where is eats more neatly and crafts more carefully. (Maybe?) I hope he will still have things he want to point out from windows, but he may stop pointing his finger at them through the window.

JDaniel decorated the mat in the frame below with his fingerprints. The mat surrounds a wonderful poem about fingerprints. This Mother’s Day themed poem was a wonderful reminder to me to pause to enjoy the messy fingerprints I keep finding around the house while I can.

These four year old fingerprints are a reminder of the joy he finds in eating, creating, touching his environment and pointing out wonderful things he sees.

What does the poem say?

My dirty little fingerprint I’ve left on every wall

And on the drawers and tabletops, I’ve really marked them all

But here are some that won’t rub off, I’m giving them to you

Because I’m thankful to have a nana that just likes you!

What has been your favorite Mother’s Day gift to give or receive?