all ears snack time!

my boys love their veggies, but little rabbits and bears and other creatures love them even more ;)!

 just one piece of construction paper and tape (we used washi tape ;)

optional - coloring the ears or even drawing some eyes on the headband

.....but trust me, even plain, uncolored ears are loads of fun!

 yes, even animals like to play with their food :)!

...a growling bear!!!

spring planter-animals

we glued a piece of felt onto the same size piece of paper,

drew the outline on the paper side and then cut it out,

then glued on the paper eye and beak(to the back).

tip: felt/fabric is so much easier for kids to cut out when glued to paper!!!

glued some wooden veneer crafting shapes together,

then glued on some cutout paper features - eyes, nose, cheeks. 

.....cardstock is great for this too! :)

p.s. instead of popsicle sticks we used coffee/tea stirring sticks

christmas fish :)

the traditional christmas fish...

 

  

...cut out of paper, colored, sprinkled with glitter, made by Ji :)

 

(we were inspired by the fish Ji and his classmates made at his preschool :)

wooden bead garland

 

just string them on and tie a double knot...

stick and bead tree mobile

cut sticks to desired lengths,

drilled a hole in the center,

and Ji stringed them

(altering with xl wooden beads)

 

 ...and St got to play

 

 zorro ? :)

stamped wrapping paper

we did some stamping with the boys :)...

 

 

...just some ordinary erasers, ink/paint and paper

i cut the tree out of an ordinary white eraser with my exacto knife, used a pencil eraser for the dots and stamped onto ordinary brown packaging paper

tip: make sure you have suitable ink/paint and paper - test it out first...so that the ink/paint soaks into the paper and doesn't smear. usually really smooth or glossy paper doesn't work well...
p.s. ikea has this really cheap brown paper, but i haven't made it to the store yet, so i can't tell you how well it works.

fabric stamp designed by Ji

no, i'm not still on "vacation". we have been home for almost month already and i haven't posted because i have been busy with mainly...uh hum...spring cleaning (especially organizing winter and outgrown boys' clothing into boxes and then up into our attic).

we did this with Ji about a year ago and i use the bag for grocery shopping every week ;)!  

the idea came from this wonderful book: Printing by Hand by Lena Corwin.

you need:

- have your child draw a design,

- pen and paper,

- craft foam paper,

- piece of cardboard,

- piece of fabric,

- fabric paint

- roller or a sponge 

directions:                                                  

1. trace drawing onto craft foam paper    

- first trace the original drawing onto another

piece of paper, then trace onto the foam paper

making sure it indents through onto the foam, 

btw - the paper will tear...                                 

2. cut out and glue onto cardboard               

3. using roller or sponge apply fabric paint to the stamp

4. have your child do the printing (we used this IKEA fabric)

5. and you do the sewing ;)

p.s.  it's supposed to be a flower :)

at first he drew one stem, then he looked at it, drew another,

looked at it again and said "and now i need to connect it here..."

it was so cute to watch him draw it:)

it reminds me of a little cloud with a ladder.

simple paper daffodils

tools:

- color paper

- glue stick

- scissors - straight and zig-zag

- cylinder of some sort - pencils

   or markers work well

- wooden skewers (optional)

directions:

- cut out yellow flower leaves - the easiest is to cut out circles and then cut triangle wedges :)

- cut strips of orange paper (one edge zig-zaged) long enough to wrap around your marker, having the short edges overlap a little. apply a "stripe" of glue to one short edge, wrap paper around the marker (zig-zag end to the center of the tube) and press overlapping edges firmly to let the glue set. then move your paper roll so that the end sticks out and start folding the end inward as i started on the photo to create the bottom of the "cup" - start with the overlapping glued edges). before you fold the last part, apply glue to it and then press to a flat surface to set glue and have it as flat as possible. then apply glue to the bottom of the "cup" and glue to the flower :)...when you glue it on, it should slip off of the marker.

- then make stems and leaves of your choice! - cut strips of green paper and tape daffodils to your windows and walls, or glue onto skewers and put them in a vase or for areas with low chance of rain (this is especially for my sis ;)!) "plant" them into your lawn :)....careful if you have sprinklers ;)

for green skewer stems:

- cut a strip of green paper, apply glue to the top end and start rolling it onto the skewer - use an angel similar to the one on the photo. tip - i use my bottom hand to hold the paper in place and the top hand to roll it.

- before you get to the end, apply glue to the end and roll the end on.

- cut up little yellow squares, and with the skewer in the center of it¨, glue it on to the flower.

ice-suncatcher

this is for my sister :)

i was planning on making an ice-suncatcher this winter, but my sister really urged me to do so, since she would have loved to make one, only arizona weather doesn't get quite cold enough to make any sort of outdoor ice project...

all you need is: a plastic container, piece of twine and some leaves/flowers/twigs - Ji and i used some rose hips and dried: lavender, flax bulbs and heart grass. 

- pour water over arrangement and loop of twine and let freeze overnight. and hurry up before winter ends :)!!!

simple paper wall art

the other day i stumbled upon some really cheap red and yellow wrapping paper and when i got home i found out, that it was double sided - red/orange and yellow/green - great :)!

it really came in handy today, since Ji is sick with the flu and i've been trying to cheer him up with some quick and cheerful projects.

                                        

                                             tools:

                                             - large pieces of paper

                                             - scissors

                                             - masking tape

this took 5 minutes! - just cut paper strips in different widths and folded

down the top corners and then taped it to the wall with masking tape.

 then i cut up rectangles of different sizes and Ji taped them on to his
liking. and we added a silhouette of Mates into one window :).