One of my favorite parenting magazine is Disney's Family Fun. They offer all sorts of great advice and share a lot of advice from other parents. This month, one mom wrote in and shared and idea that I love because I have a princess who refuses to wear anything that isn't a dress.
The idea is simple: take a large piece of white paper, fold it over and trace your child's outline. Cut the pieces out for your child then let them decorate. Use paint, markers, curling ribbon, stickers or anything else you (or your child) desire. When the dress is decorated, use a hole punch along the sides of the dress and string the two pieces together with yarn or curling ribbon. The dress is now ready for your child to wear.
This can be done with two pieces of large colored cardstock found at Dollar Tree stores or you can purchase a roll of butcher paper at IKEA or we found one a few years back at Albertsons.
The thing I love about this is it would be a great play date or birthday party idea. If you had a few helpers you could pre-cut the paper and have a few helpers oversee decorating while all of the girls made dresses and maybe even crowns for a tea party birthday.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Pen Pal Project
So I had a friend the other day complain about having to throw away (or recycle) her daughter's artwork. Her daughter was distressed every time any paper she drew on had to disappear. This gave me an idea. I'm going to be setting up folders for different members of my family and friends who live out of town. The folder is going to have a few letters stamped and addressed to that specific person.
I can now have my kids write a letter (or for the little ones draw a picture) to one of these people. When my kids are done with an art project, they can select an envelope from a folder and mail it to a friend or family member. This will help buy me enough time to get dinner done, a load of laundry folded, or anything else I need to do in 15 minutes. My friends and family will be so excited to receive their letters, and my kids will have time to practice their writing (or drawing).
I can now have my kids write a letter (or for the little ones draw a picture) to one of these people. When my kids are done with an art project, they can select an envelope from a folder and mail it to a friend or family member. This will help buy me enough time to get dinner done, a load of laundry folded, or anything else I need to do in 15 minutes. My friends and family will be so excited to receive their letters, and my kids will have time to practice their writing (or drawing).
Monday, March 29, 2010
SCRAP as only Portland can!
This weekend we found a great little treasure in Portland...SCRAP. SCRAP stands for School & Community Reuse Action Project. It is a non-profit that collects clean, reuseable materials and organizes them in their shop for resale. You can come in and join a workshop where you work in their space or you can just shop.
The stuff they have is pretty amazing. There are tons of fabric scraps, yarn, half-used bottles of paint, glitter, and glue, velcro pieces, magnets, greeting cards, and electronic components. My favorite was actually a box of photos that people had taken of celebrities and athletes autographing stuff. No joke! You could buy a picture some random person took of a random famous person signing their name. If you wanted more than just one, you could have a whole box full! This is why I love Portland!!!
My kids had a great time. I gave them each $2 and they spent 2 hours pouring over the items trying to make a great purchasing decision. They grabbed things then found other things. They put stuff back and went back for more. In the end, we paid about $8 and I found stuff for my entire high school class to use to make hoover crafts and my kids each ended up with about 3 "creations" worth of stuff. We were all very satisfied and spent the rest of the afternoon inventing at the kitchen table.
SCRAP is located at the corner of MLK and Scranton in NE Portland. Their phone number is 503-294-0769 and they are open daily from 11 am until 6 pm. There are all sorts of events and functions offered there ranging from adult-only events to kids summer camps. Check out SCRAP's website for more details.
The stuff they have is pretty amazing. There are tons of fabric scraps, yarn, half-used bottles of paint, glitter, and glue, velcro pieces, magnets, greeting cards, and electronic components. My favorite was actually a box of photos that people had taken of celebrities and athletes autographing stuff. No joke! You could buy a picture some random person took of a random famous person signing their name. If you wanted more than just one, you could have a whole box full! This is why I love Portland!!!
My kids had a great time. I gave them each $2 and they spent 2 hours pouring over the items trying to make a great purchasing decision. They grabbed things then found other things. They put stuff back and went back for more. In the end, we paid about $8 and I found stuff for my entire high school class to use to make hoover crafts and my kids each ended up with about 3 "creations" worth of stuff. We were all very satisfied and spent the rest of the afternoon inventing at the kitchen table.
SCRAP is located at the corner of MLK and Scranton in NE Portland. Their phone number is 503-294-0769 and they are open daily from 11 am until 6 pm. There are all sorts of events and functions offered there ranging from adult-only events to kids summer camps. Check out SCRAP's website for more details.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Origami
Today I was looking for something that would be a fun adventure for me and my kids but something that would keep us at home. My son is learning about birds in his first grade class so we decided to try and learn how to make an origami hummingbird. Online we found some websites that were really good but I had a hard time following some of the instructions.
After one failed attempt at the hummingbird we packed in the car and headed to the library where we found a shelf full of origami and paper airplane books. I was really impressed with the books and the pictures in the books. My first grader was able to follow some of the instructions for the basic folds and he figured out a pinwheel on his own. The other two needed help but loved decorating the finished paper products. I have a whole bunch of 12x12 inch paper left over from some long-lost scrap-booking projects so we used those and the kids had a wonderful time. We never made it to the hummingbird but a dog, two cats, a flower, many paper airplanes and many snowflakes later I think we managed to spend about 2 hours around the kitchen table.
Some of the books I really liked were Easy Origami by Didier Boursin and Totally Cool Origami Animals by Ann Kristen Krier. We also found Paper Airplanes: Models to build and fly by Emery J. Kelly to be a lot of fun (although I think I'm going to be finding crashed airplanes in my house for years to come now!!).
Overall, I think this was great because the cost was nominal with borrowed books and left over paper. We had a great evening and rediscovered the kitchen table in time for dinner!
After one failed attempt at the hummingbird we packed in the car and headed to the library where we found a shelf full of origami and paper airplane books. I was really impressed with the books and the pictures in the books. My first grader was able to follow some of the instructions for the basic folds and he figured out a pinwheel on his own. The other two needed help but loved decorating the finished paper products. I have a whole bunch of 12x12 inch paper left over from some long-lost scrap-booking projects so we used those and the kids had a wonderful time. We never made it to the hummingbird but a dog, two cats, a flower, many paper airplanes and many snowflakes later I think we managed to spend about 2 hours around the kitchen table.
Some of the books I really liked were Easy Origami by Didier Boursin and Totally Cool Origami Animals by Ann Kristen Krier. We also found Paper Airplanes: Models to build and fly by Emery J. Kelly to be a lot of fun (although I think I'm going to be finding crashed airplanes in my house for years to come now!!).
Overall, I think this was great because the cost was nominal with borrowed books and left over paper. We had a great evening and rediscovered the kitchen table in time for dinner!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
How to Make a Gift Bow from Recycled Materials | eHow.com
This is something that someone else showed me. The bows turn out ADORABLE and they are great to use for Christmas wrapping. Turn your child's artwork into great wrapping decor for your holiday gifts. The blog has pictures of each step so I won't be able to do justice in giving instructions so just click here for the link to the other blog with complete instructions and enjoy!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Snow Cream
Since snow is on the horizon I had to ask a friend about this because I heard it was something she did as a child when she lived in a place where snow came by the yard, not the inch. Her family would either leave a bowl out while it was snowing or they would gather fresh snow. Add a little sweetened condensed milk and vanilla then stir it all in together for a cold but delicious treat.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Cinnamon & Applesauce Ornaments
This is a great and simple recipe that I have used before very successfully and it makes some really fun and great-smelling ornaments.
In a large bowl mix together equal parts applesauce and cinnamon. If you want to make them a little more durable you can add about 1 tablespoon of white school glue for every cup of applesauce. Mix these together until you have a ball of dough. place a piece of wax paper on the table and put the ball of dough on top. Mush the dough out with your fingers to spread it out. Place another piece of wax paper on top and use a rolling pin to finish evening out the dough and making it smooth. Roll it until it's about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.
Use cookie cutters or your own design for cutting out shapes. If you are going to use these as ornaments be sure to poke a hole in the top to string a ribbon through. A pencil does a good job of making a neat hole.
To make these ornaments hard place them on a cookie sheet and you can either bake these for about 3 hours at 150 degrees or you can let them air dry overnight. Use a nice ribbon or string to tie through the hole to finish off this ornament.
In a large bowl mix together equal parts applesauce and cinnamon. If you want to make them a little more durable you can add about 1 tablespoon of white school glue for every cup of applesauce. Mix these together until you have a ball of dough. place a piece of wax paper on the table and put the ball of dough on top. Mush the dough out with your fingers to spread it out. Place another piece of wax paper on top and use a rolling pin to finish evening out the dough and making it smooth. Roll it until it's about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.
Use cookie cutters or your own design for cutting out shapes. If you are going to use these as ornaments be sure to poke a hole in the top to string a ribbon through. A pencil does a good job of making a neat hole.
To make these ornaments hard place them on a cookie sheet and you can either bake these for about 3 hours at 150 degrees or you can let them air dry overnight. Use a nice ribbon or string to tie through the hole to finish off this ornament.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)