Crafts for Kids Archives - Page 6 of 9

American Flag Luminaries #kids #craft

July 1, 2013 by Melissa

4th of July is coming up and in our home that means, time spent in the pool, bbqing with friends and family and of course fireworks. On clear night we can stay home and see some the fireworks shows in the town a few miles away and then the show put on by the University.

Shae and I made these patriotic luminaries to light up the night while enjoying the show right from our deck.

Supplies
paper bags, white or brown will work
kid friendly paint
paint brushes
sand or rocks
battery operated tealight or glow sticks
knife or sharpened pencil

Prep your space to protect against paint stains. I use washable paint so I didn’t worry to much about it. Also make sure you start painting on the correct side of the bag. Don’t paint on the flap that sits on the table

Directions
Using a spare paper bag or plate or palate pour out enough paint for your flag or other design you prefer.

Starting with blue paint your square background then proceed with your red and white stripes. I wasn’t going for accuracy with the order or number of stripes. This was a freeform activity.

Let the blue thoroughly dry before adding stars. Again, didn’t go for accuracy in the number of stars.

After the white stars dried I used a pen knife to poke some holes to let the light shine through. I filled the bottom of the bag with about a handful if river rocks and placed a glowstick inside. The rocks help keep the bag in place while the winds blow.

While working on this activity I read little tidbits of information about how our flag became what it is today and what the stars and stripes actually mean.

One of my favorite books is The Flag We Love by Pam Muñoz Ryan.

It’s written for children but offers so much information about the heritage and history of the United States of America in small doses that kids can absorb. This book has been floating around our family since our 17yo was little.

How are you celebrating the 4th of July this year?

Homemade Rock Candy #FAIL #KidsintheKitchen

June 13, 2013 by Melissa

I was never a great student in science. I mean I did enjoy it but it didn’t always make total sense to me. Maybe that’s why I completely botched our homemade Rock Candy experience.

Shae wasn’t too sure what rock candy was until I showed her a picture of it online. I asked if she wasn’t to make some and she was excited. I figured this was something she was going to be able to see results over a few days making it really fun and interactive. I was wrong wrong wrong.

Shae was a great help with the stove work. She poured the water and sugar and helped stir but when it came to pouring I was in charge.

The gorgeous blue color reminded me of the Caribbean Sea and I thought we would have some pretty Rock Candy to eat afterwards.

Something happened. The day after pouring it into the jar there was NOTHING to see.

According to everything I read I was supposed to reboil and add sugar, so I did. I knew from the looks of the mixture after the reboil and sugar addition it wasn’t going to turn out well. I was right. Within an hour it had turned into a solid block of sugar with skewer sticking out of it.

Oh well.. Shae had fun helping to make it and had a few laughs when it didn’t turn out so well.

Did you have fun in the “kitchen” this week? Did you try a new food or a new kid friendly restaurant? Did your littlest ones use their snacks to count to 10? We invite you to share your experiences, photos, stories or recipes that include your #kidsinthekitchen.

Come join me and my co-hosts, Paula at Frosted Fingers and Sara at Sensibly Sara, each week linking up a post, new or old, that feature the theme Kids in the Kitchen. It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it together, enjoying it and learning something along the way.

preparing healthy snacks
having a tea party
counting skills with m&ms
pouring from measuring cups
discovering a local restaurant that your kids love
creating new family friendly recipes

Don’t have a blog? Share an instagram photo or Facebook update instead.

Popsicle Stick People #kids #craft #KidsintheKitchen

June 6, 2013 by Melissa

Craft staples in our house include glitter glue, scrapbook paper, buttons of all shapes and sizes and paints. You can also always find popsicle sticks in our house too. We’ve built houses and frames and made shapes using velcro with popsicle sticks in the past.

This week we made Popsicle Stick People using markers, tape and ribbon. I used Pinterest to show Shae for ideas but what she came with was all her own.

I found that using ultra fine tip Sharpies worked best for small details like eyes and hair ribbons.
Shae used washi tape and other similar products to dress her dolls and even used ribbon as trim.

She really wanted to make sneakers for her doll’s feet but the sticks were too thing. I might have to look into tongue depressor size sticks next time.

preparing healthy snacks
having a tea party
counting skills with m&ms
pouring from measuring cups
discovering a local restaurant that your kids love
creating new family friendly recipes

Don’t have a blog? Share an instagram photo or Facebook update.

Making Homemade Play Dough #kidsinthekitchen

May 24, 2013 by Melissa

I’ve been seeing them for years; different colors, scented, mixed with herbs and flowers. I’m talking about Homemade play dough. I consider myself pretty crafty but this isn’t something ever attempted on my own. I was always intimidated. This week after seeing a couple more gorgeous activities and simple recipes I knew we had to give it a try.

I used the simplest recipe I could find.

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup cool water

I added the flour and salt to a bowl and let Shae add the water and mix mix mix. It took her about 10 minutes to get everything incorporated enough to turn out onto the table. She played and rolled and kneaded, creating different shapes and designs. She ended with a strawberry and star. The next step is to bake them and paint them.

Playing with play dough is a great way to let little hands explore. It’s a fantastic medium for endless ideas like jewelry, ornaments, figurines and more. Trust me this process was simple, the cleanup of the table afterwards was way more work.

preparing healthy snacks
having a tea party
counting skills with m&ms
pouring from measuring cups
discovering a local restaurant that your kids love
creating new family friendly recipes

Don’t have a blog? Share an instagram photo or Facebook update.

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Making a Forever Flower #kidsinthekitchen

May 16, 2013 by Melissa

By now hopefully you realize that #kidsinthekitchen is about more than just letting the kids mix cookie dough or slice strawberries. In our home the kitchen in the backdrop for just about anything we have going on. Homework is done there, conversations about our schedule are discussed there, we eat meals as a family there and ofcourse we prep those meals there. The kitchen is also the place where we educate, create and play. Crafts and activities are HUGE in our home. They aren’t always blogged about but there is usually something happening each day.

This week we are playing with our food again. Colored Rice is an incredibly popular medium to stimulate sensory awareness, work on color recognition and work on fine and gross motor skills. In our house we play with it because it’s pretty and fun to run our fingers through it.

While sitting at the kitchen island this week Shae was admiring the flowers Sabreena gave me for Mother’s Day. Each day I sort through them, throw away the dead ones, change the water and re arrange them. Shae then decided she wanted to make me flower that would last forever. This is when the colored rice comes in.

We pulled out a piece of heavy cardstock, school glue, colored rice, popsicle stick, markers a couple fabric leaves from previously dismantle fabric flowers. I drew out flower shape on the card stock and let her create my flower.

The trick to getting a nice layer of rice is to go heavy on the glue. Shae used a paintbrush to fill each petal with lots of glue and then over poured the rice so it would stick in every nook and cranny.

The clean up was simple, rice is easy to sweep up. This needs to dry overnight at the very least.

working on a craft
playing pretend restaurant
counting skills with m&ms
pouring from measuring cups
discovering a local restaurant that your kids love
creating new family friendly recipes

Don’t have a blog? Share an instagram photo or Facebook update.

Kids in the Kitchen with LookWhatMomFound…and Dad too!

I can’t wait to see the fun you worked on this week.

Sea Shell Crab #kids #craft

May 15, 2013 by Melissa

Our visit to Ocean City, MD a few weeks ago produced more than just fun memories: we came home with a bucket full of seashells of all different sizes, shapes and colors.

These shells have been taking up residence in the garage waiting for a craft or activity to utilize them. Found One!

Supplies

3 red pipe cleaners
2 small black beads or buttons
1 large scallop or clam shell, cleaned and dried
glue (we used school glue and Quik grip adhesive)
red poster or acrylic paint & paint brush

Prep your work space to protect against paint and glue

Start with painting your shells. A trick for getting the snail shells completely covered in paint without getting paint all over your hands is to take one of your pipe cleaners cut it in half then fold each piece in half. Insert the folded end into your shell. This acts as a holder to and the crab legs you’ll later glue to the body shell.

Once your shells are painted and drying take the remaining 2 pipe cleaners and cut them into equal fourths. Crabs have 8 legs.

When your shells are dried proceed with gluing the legs and claws to the underside of your scallop/clam shell. This may take another round of drying time depending on the type of adhesive you use.

Once your legs and claws are set go ahead and flip your crab over glue on your eyes. Beads, buttons, googly eyes or tiny painted shells would work here too.

You crab now deserves a special place in your home.

Let Them Be Creative, No Matter How Odd

May 6, 2013 by Melissa

You’ve already witnessed the talent of Sabreena and Shae when it comes to drawing. It hasn’t stopped. Not even a little. They’ve started creating thesewarped, awkward creatures and naming them. They literally will sit together and spit out character after character. I have a pile of these drawings.
The names are the best!
Stinky and his sidekick Satern

Dilbert

Kanoli

Button (love the feathers on his head)

Del Rio ( I think he’s giving me the finger)

Broccoli

Burt (he’s made a great stuffed animal)

Buckey (he reminds me of the Natty Boh dude)

Saffron

My girls are really creative. This isn’t even all of them. The pile gets bigger each day.

Mother’s Day SunCatcher Craft from Plastic Container

May 2, 2013 by Melissa

With Mother’s Day right around the corner I’ve been thinking of what my youngest could make for my mother. She doesn’t need mugs or aprons or vases or flowers. I’ve been told not to buy another frame because their shelves are overflowing already. Personally I love a little something homemade.

This “stained glass” flower was simple enough for anyone to do and best of all it was free, made with materials that would’ve ended up in the recycle bin.

Supplies
Plastic Strawberry or Spinach container (or other produce)
Sharpies
Image of choice (printed clip art, magazine or coloring book)
Scissors
Fishing line for hanging

Directions
Find your largest space of flat plastic from your container, cut it out and clean and dry it.

Find an imageyour want to trace onto the plastic piece. I went for very little detail this time around but more details would look great. Tape your plastic over your image an trace it with a black marker. For more intricate images I would suggest a fine point marker.

Once your image is completely outlined proceed to fill in to. I used brush tip Sharpies for these larger areas.

Once your plastic is dried go ahead and cut along the outline and poke a tiny hole (pushpin) in the top and thread your wire or string. Hang in a sunny window.

As you can see I made this on my own. This was a test before I had the kids work on it. It came out great and I plan to make more with all kinds of designs.

Paper Bag Tree for Earth Day #kids #craft

April 18, 2013 by Melissa

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. Today you can find green efforts everywhere you turn. Brands are working towards reducing their carbon footprint, local recycling centers are charged with reducing landfill piles and everyday people are working towards reducing their waste using more renewable resources.

In our home we actively recycle, plant a veggie garden, use less toxic cleaning products and reuse and upcycle items. Kids Crafts can be done more green too. I try not to buy too many crafting supplies and use what we have or find items that can be recycled. Paper lunch bags are something we keep in the house but don’t really use since the kids pack lunch boxes with reusable containers.

Making this Paper Bag Tree is a great Earth Day craft because one of the best things you can do on this day is plant a tree.

Supplies

lunchsize paper bag
green paper for leaves
colored tissue paper for flowers
glue
kid safe scissors (I also usually keep lefty scissors on hand too in case someone comes over that needs them.)
heart hole punch, optional

Directions

I drew lines a little more than halfway down the bag so Shae could cut to get her branches.

Once all the lines were cut, Shae opened up the the base of the bag to make a trunk and started scrunching up the pieces of bag to get her branches.

Once the strips of paper have softened up it’s time to twist them into branches. Be careful not to twist too hard or you’ll rip them. Take 2-4 strips at a time and gently turn them in your fingers to get a branch-like shape.

Now it’s time to make your leaves and flowers. Leaves can be hand cut or can be made by cutting a heart shape in half.

Colored tissue paper cut into about 2″ squares in your child’s choice of color is all that is needed for flowers. Have them pinch them and add a dab of glue to stick them onto their tree along with their leaves.

Make some final adjustments and twists and your paper bag tree is done.

This can be modified with brown or green paint to give it more dimension. Stuffing the bag loosely with a napkin or ad of paper will give it more standing power if you are worried about it falling over. Pre cutting the strips and tissue paper and leaves are simple ways to make this more toddler and preschool age friendly.

What are your plans for Earth Day this year?

Rainbow Crafts aren’t just for St. Patrick’s Day

March 13, 2013 by Melissa

Despite my maiden name I don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day BUT we do love crafting for any and every holiday. Rainbows are one of Shae’s favorite themes to create, besides portraits of her family. Rainbows aren’t just for Spring and St/ Patrick’s Day so I made a Rainbow Pinterest Board just for them.

Here are some ideas I found while playing around on Pinterest this weekend that will be good for any time of the year.

Rainbow Wand – Icing Designs Online

Source: icingdesignsonline.blogspot.com via Melinda on Pinterest

Crepe Paper Rainbows – Get Creative Juice

Source: getcreativejuice.blogspot.com via Melinda on Pinterest

Stained Glass Rainbows – Mom on Time Out

Source: momontimeout.com via Melinda on Pinterest

Rainbow Pencil Cup – Crafty Crafted

Source: crafty-crafted.com via Melinda on Pinterest

Paint Chip Rainbow Garland – The Chocolate Muffin Tree

Source: thechocolatemuffintree.com via Melinda on Pinterest

Toilet Paper Roll Rainbow – Jane of All Trades

Source: roseleej.blogspot.com via Melinda on Pinterest

I know you crafters out there have your own Rainbow or St. Patrick’s Day Pinterest Boards, please share them so I can follow along for more inspiration.

Come check out all of my Pinterest Boards for crafts, decor, humor, parenting articles and more.

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