Turkey Pinecone Gobble!

We went on a pinecone adventure!  First we grabbed our magic buckets and took a stroll down the road.  We found the BIG pine trees and searched all around for pinecones.  We filled out magic buckets with little and big pinecones. Once full, we continued our adventure to find any other good objects for future projects. Pinecones can be used for many projects, including some upcoming Christmas ones!

Since it was unseasonably warm here in Pennsylvania, we decided to paint outside so there wasn’t as big of a mess. Besides using a variety of paints, we used glitter of all colors! Some of the trees we purposefully painted blue and green for Christmas tree pinecones!

After allowing the pinecones to dry overnight, we found some googly eyes, construction paper, and leftover foam pieces from an owl project!  The kids cut out feathers and showed mom where to glue them.  Mom used the hot glue gun to glue everything on, however you can use regular glue but it will be more challenging to stay and dry.

You can of course decorate your turkey any way you like with any materials! Get creative and enjoy!

Gobble Gobble!!! Happy Thanksgiving!  Be safe and stay home if you can (quarantine)!

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Fall Fun!

Make a beautiful fall collage with leaves from around your yard or neighborhood! My 3 year old LOVED it!

Our family likes to take walks and LOVE to collect things from nature for crafting. The other day we decided to find some colorful leaves.

To make a collage you need:

-various leaves

-contact paper

That’s it! It’s very simple, but so much fun! We made 3 of them so far and gave them as gifts!

First, cut a piece of clear contact paper and take off the sticky side. Lay it on a flat surface.

Lay the leaves on the sticky side of the contact paper and arrange them in any way you like. When you are happy with the way your leaves look, cut another contact paper sheet the same size as the original one. Lay it flat on top of the leaves and smooth it out with your hands. Then boom, you are done! Hang it in a window to admire it or give it to someone as a gift! Madison gave some to her cousins, grandparents and her family!

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Turkey paper puppet!

Gobble gobble!  It’s almost thanksgiving time!

Since it’s getting cooler (or it is suppose to!), thanksgiving crafts are a great activity for your kids, especially with covid keeping us home!

The first craft we have is a turkey paper puppet.  It is simply, easy, and many of you may have all the materials at home already!!

 

What you need:

-Paper lunch bag (or if you do not have it, brown construction paper and a popsicle stick can work)

-Googly eyes (or you can use a marker or construction paper)

-Construction paper (for the beak, feathers)

-Colored feathers (or construction paper)

-Glue or Gluestick

 

Then all you do is have your little one glue the eyes on, cut a beak out of construction paper and glue it on the front. Put the little gobbler underneath the flap of the bag, glue the feathers and WA-LA! You have an easy turkey!  Enjoy!

 

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Leaf tracing fun

Leaf tracing is easy, fun, and inexpensive! I might even enjoy it more than my kids!

All you need is white paper, crayons, and leaves!

 

Go outside and collect all different fall leaves, even strawberry plant leaves, tall grasses, any leaf will work!

 

Then, place the leaf underneath the white paper and use the crayon to rub on it! Make sure you hold the paper down and leaf with one hand while you are coloring.

I also find the stems and veins of the leaves show up much clearer if you flip the leaf to the back and trace it.

 

Enjoy this easy creative craft and post your pictures below! 

 

 

 

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Crayon candle making!

As a child I remember making many candles from crayons at my grandparents house. I also remember how much fun we had making candles from crayons.  So, during the quarantine, I decided why not try it?

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Of course the kids are still young and can’t work with the melted wax, but they can find broken crayons or pieces of crayons too small to use.  I put them hard at work finding these crayons and then taking all the wrappers off of them.  Next, they categorized them by colors.

Crayon Candle Supplies

Next, I had little jars I had previously saved from baby foods that we could use for candles.  Make sure its a glass jar and not plastic!  We also had Popsicle sticks, wicks, and a boiling pan and thermometer for melting the wax. We have small holes in the Popsicle sticks, but you can also wrap it around the stick if needed.  Have your container and wick ready.

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Next, decide if you are going to do just one color candle or multiple.  If you choose to do multiple you have to let the candle wax dry in between which can take a while.  I ended up getting a big pan of ice and putting it around the outside of the candle after pouring the wax in order to cool it quicker.

Another factor is if you want a scent.  If you have different scents you can add them, or you can use essential oils to add a scent.

Now, you do need some regular wax as well!  I happened to have some white wax shavings from a long time ago we used and added the crayons for coloring.  You can also use the small tea candles that are cheap at the store and take them out of the tin wrapper.  Depending on the size of your jar you are filling, you will need a different amount of candles.  We melted the wax and coloring in the special candle pot we have and poured it out into the containers.  Some people also like to put the wax and crayon right into the jar and put 3 inches of water into a pan and place the jar in the pan and let it melt.  Warning–your jar will get very hot this way!  Also make sure u have your wick in when you do it this way.  If you want to try that method I found a great website for you to follow Click here

Crayon Candle Melt and Dip

I tilted the candle wax pan for you to see.  As you can see the pot below has water in it and it melts the wax and crayon.  When its all liquid you can pour it directly and carefully into your jar and make sure your wick is centered.  Then you allow it to dry!

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Following that, if you are doing another color, repeat the melting process and make sure the bottom layer is completely dry before adding the next color in the candle.

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After its all dry you can cut your wick to the proper size and enjoy your candle!  Of course you should light the candle and not the kiddos!

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Enjoy!

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4th of July Fun Banner Craft

Whether you are celebrating in quarantine or with a small group of people, this banner will be a hit! You can use this activity to make cards, artwork, or even use the stamping to make paper headband hats!

Materials:

Large piece of paper for the banner (we used her easel paper)

Red, White & blue paint

Pipe cleaners

Star cookie cut out (or you could cut a sponge or potato in the shape of a star)

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I put paint on a plate and used a star cookie cutter. Madison dipped it in the paint & had fun doing red, white & blue stars!

If you don’t want to make a banner, you can do this on a paper, card, or cut a sheet of paper in half and tape it to the other half to make a “crown” or stars for 4th of July!

 

 

After doing the stars we decided to make fireworks. We bent pipe cleaners around each other to create a firework shape, then added a handle for easy dipping.

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She had so much fun! I wrote “Happy 4th of July” to complete the banner. If your kiddo is a little older they could write it or you could do bubble letters they can paint!

 

Have a happy & safe 4th of July!

 

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Tree Prints!

Madison loves painting and gluing, so this craft is the perfect combination! I wanted something that we could easily mail to grandparents and this fit the bill!

Materials:

  • construction paper in the color of your choice for the “trunk” of the tree
  • white paper
  • paint in various colors for the “leaves”
  • assorted markers or crayons
  • glue

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Trace your child’s hand and arm for the branches and trunk of the tree.

 

 

Next, cut out the trunk and branches and glue them to the white paper.

 

 

1 - Copy

 

Choose different colors of paint and have your child use their thumb or fingers to make “leaves.” Madison liked making the leaves all over the place. You can vary the colors based on the season you are creating.

For summer, use lots of different green colors. For fall, use browns, reds and yellows. For winter ,use a different color background like blue and do white snowflake prints. For spring, choose colors like pink, purple, green, and yellow!

 

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If your child is a little older then they can draw different scenery, animals and clouds. Your child could also add stickers. We sent these to her grandparents and they loved them!FollowFacebookpinterestrssyoutube
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Face painting fun!

It all started with my daughter using a marker on my son’s face. She said she simply wanted to paint his face! Well, obviously, this wasn’t going to work. So I searched for face painting supplies. At first I thought face paint would be way too messy and not worth the money. However, I found that face paint is super fun, easy, and the kids just love it!

An easy and fun activity is face painting! My daughter loves painting faces and my son loves having his face painted.

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We got this easy set from amazon. Bowitzki Face Paint Kit

Bowitzki Face Paint Kit with 10 Colors,32 Stencils,2 Brushes,2 Chunky Glitters,2 Sponges,1 Body Glue

When we first started I had to remind my daughter not to go near the eyes, but since then no problems at all!

Daddy even got his face painted by Cece!

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Grammy did a little face painting as well…

They love this activity and it’s fun, easy, and inexpensive! I hope you try it too!!

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Salt dough wreath, ornament, or garland!

So we have done the salt dough ornaments before, but this time we made garland and a wreath out of our painted Easter ones!

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All you need to make salt dough ornaments is flour, water, and salt. So, start with two cups of flour, 1 cup and salt and mix. Then add water slowly until it is a play dough like consistency.  We ended up using our hands to mix it up. If it is too sticky, add more flour, too dry add more water.

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Then we rolled out the dough to a 1/4 inch thin, and used some Easter egg halves, including a bunny, chick, and jelly bean shape. You can of course just use cookie cutters as well. Use a straw to make a circle hole at the top of each ornament so you can add string later.

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Turn the oven on at 200 degrees and put parchment paper on the tray and leave in the oven for 2-3 hours. If you don’t have parchment paper just move the ornaments with a pie lifter to make sure they don’t stick about an hour in. Time depends on how thick the ornaments are. Once cooled and dried, paint them as you wish.  You can add sparkles if you want. Once all dried, use string or ribbon through the hole and tie.  After that hang them up!

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Or, you can make garland by putting one ornament through the string and then tying it in place and continuing until desired effect.

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If you want to make a wreath, we just used 2 paper plates glued together and cut out the inner circle then used a hot glue gun. Of course you can use cardboard or other material, but this is what we had on hand with the quarantine.

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We used the glue gun to glue on some ribbon and add pom poms.

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Mixing fun

If you’re looking for an activity for your little ones to enjoy and also learn try this mixing fun. You can also use whatever you have in your kitchen! Just as an update, the kids ask to do this almost daily they love it that much!

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You need a container, preferably a tall see through one such as a large mason jar as shown. Fill the mason jar half way up with water.

Then you will need something to stir with (we grabbed a chopstick!)

Lastly, you need items to put in this mixture, so food coloring or natural coloring (we also used washable paint one time!

Coloring from beet juice etc.

Sprinkles can be used to see if they float or sink!

Ice cubes

Salt versus sugar-do they dissolve

Olive oil or any type of oil to see if it mixes with water

Croutons, cereal, some scraps from the compost bucket, lettuce leaf, onion (although you may want to hold off on too many food items with the quarantine right now!)

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We even tried jelly to see if it would sink or mix into the concoction. Then have your child mix it real fast in a circle and see a cyclone happen!

Dish soap and the bubbles it causes is fun as well!

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Pretty much try anything!

 

Vinegar and baking soda which you want to save for last! The acid base pair will cause a volcanoes explosion! We did those outside then to have a huge overflow!

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You can keep adding more vinegar to make it continue exploding!  Just bring it outside lol. img_2709

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ENJOY!!!!

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