Valentine's Day Creation Station

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching! I made one comment about Valentine's Day to my kids, and that is all it took. They began asking begging to make Valentine's cards and crafts with me. The good thing is I am always replenishing my craft supplies so we have enough art supplies for such an occasion. The problem is that all the craft and art supplies are scattered in different places around the house.

I thought the best way to kick-start our craft time would be to get a little organized first. I wanted to set up all their supplies in a special way, too. Why not surprise the kids with a Valentine's Creation Station? Everything would be at their fingertips and they could let their creative minds go wild!

I raided my own craft containers, pulled out my leftover Valentine's craft supplies from last year, and went around the house to gather their usual supplies. After I had everything I went on to organize and set up a surprise Creation Station for after school.

Organize your children's craft supplies for easy access.

Here is a list of  some of the supplies that can be used to make your own Valentine's Day Creation Station:

• Glue 
• Scissors & craft edged scissors
• Crayons, markers, paints
• Construction paper
• Scrapbook or patterned paper
• Valentine's Day stickers
• Foam stickers
• Valentine confetti
• Stamps & Ink pads
• Twine, ribbon, lace
• Stencils
• Doilies
• Glitter and glitter glue pens

I found these cute, little tin heart containers with lids on sale last year. They were the perfect sized containers to hold small stickers and all those tiny confetti pieces. We just snapped the lids back on for easy clean-up.

I encourage you to pull out your craft supplies and set up a Valentine Creation Station just for your kids! It does not have to be anything fancy, but they will appreciate some (organized) fun options.

DIY Gift Bags with Cookie Cutters

If you're looking for an easy way to dress up a plain gift bag or paper sack this is the way to do it! When I was teaching Kindergarten the children would make gifts (usually like an ornament) for their parents around Christmastime. Then, the children would decorate bags to wrap up their gifts. After all, there is nothing like a homemade gift from a child!

          Materials:

• Plain gift bag or paper lunch sack
• Acrylic or Tempera paint (tempera or washable paint works best for a children's craft)
• Cookie cutters (metal or plastic cutters in different shapes and sizes)
• Paper plate
• glitter or glitter glue (optional)

          Directions:

1. Pour a small amount of paint on the paper plate.
2. Dip your cookie cutter in the paint. Make sure the bottom edges are well-coated.
3. Stamp your paper bag with the painted cookie cutter. Slowly lift the cookie cutter upward. (If the shape of the stamp has a void you can slowly reapply the cookie cutter to the paper and try again or you can leave it like that. I think leaving it alone makes it more authentic and homemade looking.)
4. Continue to stamp with remaining cookie cutters or until your bag is covered with prints. Sprinkle glitter on the paint and dust off for a sparkly look or use glitter glue to add more designs.
5. Allow to dry completely.
6. Place your gift in the bag with tissue paper and tie with a cute ribbon.

*This method also works well with craft paper and plain wrapping paper if you want to wrap a box or gift.

 

 

 

 

This is a quick and simple way to make your own gift bag or wrapping paper. It's also a great way to get your children involved in the presentation of a gift for a loved one!

How to Dye Pasta and Use with Children's Activities

I like to dye pasta of all shapes and sizes to make fun kid’s projects. The best part about colored pasta is it is cheap and easy to make. All you need are a few things you probably already have around the house.

Materials

• Different Shaped Pasta (I used Rigatoni, kid’s shaped pasta, and 2 different types of Elbow macaroni)
• Rubbing alcohol
• Food Coloring
• Paper towels
• Craft tray or cookie tray
• Zipper-close plastic bags

Layer your tray with paper towels. Add 1 Tablespoon of rubbing alcohol and 4-5 drops of desired food coloring to a zipper close plastic bag. Then place your dry pasta into the bag. Close your bag completely. Shake the pasta in the bag and swirl it around until the pasta is completely coated with the food coloring and alcohol mixture. Drop the pasta onto the paper towels to dry. Use a toothpick to spread out the pasta for drying. Repeat with different colors in separate bags. Mix food coloring to make additional colors. Make sure the pasta is completely dry before handling again.

Using Your Colored Pasta With Children

There are endless uses for colored pasta. My kids enjoy making arts and crafts, gluing them, making jewelry, counting, sorting, patterning, building, and making different shapes out of the pasta. Work on fine motors skills when you string and make necklaces and bracelets from the colored pasta. We will use our jewelry when learning more about Native Americans this Thanksgiving season. Colored pasta works wonders in your sensory bins, too. Let the children mix, scoop, and play with them.

Make Crafts and Jewelry

Practice math skills like counting, sorting, and patterning. 

Use in Sensory Bins

Follow these easy steps to make your own colored pasta and use them for all your favorite projects, too! 

Make a T-Shirt Painting Smock

My older daughter’s Girl Scout troop did a painting session led by a local art instructor yesterday. Our troop leader told the girls to wear an old T-shirt so they would not get paint all over their clothes. I had wanted to make a smock of some kind for awhile now so I decided to repurpose an old T-shirt of mine. I needed something easy and fast, too.

I looked through my embarrassingly large collection of old t-shirts and found an old white one with an art picture on it. I was willing to part with it for this project. I turned the shirt over and simply cut a straight line from the bottom all the way up through the collar. I then sewed a seam along each side of where I cut. (This part could have been skipped, but I wanted a little bit of a finished look.) I don’t have a serger so I just used my sewing machine to sew two straight seams.

I cut four 16-inch pieces of grosgrain ribbon (7/8 inch). I sewed two of the ribbons under the collar on each side of the cut. Then I sewed the other two ribbons a little further down the back of the shirt. I made sure to line them up facing each other so that I could tie them together later.

I was finished!

My 3 year-old was the model while her older sister was at school. There was not much to it, and I think it served its purpose. Now the girls can use their T-shirt smocks for everyday painting projects.

Our girl scout troop had a blast painting, and Ididn't have to worry about paint spills!