Tag: fun kid’s things

Junky Pumpkins!

My goodness, I cannot believe it is almost November!

I feel as if I blinked and missed September and October.

Today I want to share a fun wood project using various 2 x 4 pieces.

“Junky Pumpkins”.

My son cut the 2 x 4 we had in our garage, I sanded, painted all orange, using a sponge brush and simple craft paint.

Now the fun begins!

I gathered up all the small junk drawer pieces I could find, buttons, tacks, screws, washers, handles, knobs, to create whimsy, quirky, and maybe a bit scary, faces.

Played with all the pieces, moving them from one wood piece to another, until I found just the face I loved.

Simply glue the pieces in place, using wood glue, or in some cases, for the heavier pieces, E6000 glue.

Here they are, my “Junky Pumpkins”!

As I say when sharing most of my projects, “love them”, so much fun to put together!

These two are my favorites.

Just simple!

I used thin wire, curled, a knob, and also a stem from an old plastic pumpkin, on the tops.

Love the smile made by using an old handle.  So cute!

What a great project for older kids on a cold rainy weekend day.

Just a happy simple project!

Have fun with your junk drawer finds!

Love you folks!

 

 

Our Summer Family Gathering

Last weekend our family gathered at a local park for a picnic.

The occasion was the visit of my sister’s oldest daughter and granddaughter from Florida.

It was terribly hot that day, the temperature was well into the 90’s. We picked a shady area and tried to stay as cool as possible.

A watermelon pinata, purchased at Target, kinda gave us a theme, and a fun activity later for the kids.

Loved the cute, whimsy watermelon tablecloths, plates and napkins!  So festive!

The yummies were fried chicken, baked beans, fruit salad, and my brother-in-law’s famous mac and cheese.

I made a banner with family photos, tied around a large tree in the picnic area, our “family tree”!

There were many very old photos, and more recent ones, I wanted to include everyone!

My niece loved it!

Later, I gave her a small box to hold the photos, along with a note, as a keepsake of our gathering to take back to Florida.

We played games, of course.

Stenciled letters on cardstock and we played a version of “Bananagram” in the grass.

A hula hoop contest…

I remember the day when we all could “hula hoop”, not anymore!

We gave out simple gifts to our winners, wrapped in colorful tissue paper, tied with twine.

Made some silly tags to highlight which gifts were for men, women, or kids.

The pinata was filled with treats, a fun time for the kids.

Love those wonderful smiles on those beautiful faces!

I would like to end this post by saying a bit about families.

None of us are perfect, no family is perfect.  I think that is something we all should remember.

Ours has so much drama at times, and there are times when forgiveness is hard, but oh my gosh, how we all love each other.

We were all together for love, sharing our time together, to be with each other, making a wonderful memory!

I am so very emotional writing of my family, they, each and every one of them, mean the world to me!

Gather.

Love the imperfections of your family.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

 

 

Spending Time with Ana!

The leaves are falling in my part of the world like crazy, so before the snow falls, I want to share a special time I had at the end of summer with my niece Ana.

Ana with water dropsI have written before on the joys over the years of spending special time with all my nieces.  Since God blessed me with only one son, my nieces were gifts that allowed me the fun of shopping, buying dolls, dresses for special events, crafts, all the things you just don’t do with boys!

During our few days together we shopped, for clothes, some extra school supplies, including a silver glitter notebook, and some neon colored pencils.  Ana loves “bling”.

I let her pick out her favorite treats, cereal, donuts, Sun Chips, nothing healthy of course, I did say treats.  This is something my Grandma would do when I would visit her as a little girl. Such a sweet memory for me even to this day.

We played “Crazy Eights” until I thought I was going crazy, decorated a large wooden “A”, painting it glow in the dark hot pink with black glitter dots, and put together an outdoor place for Ana.

Our days were perfect, warm and sunny, so we set up our “swimming pool” in the backyard.

Ana with beachballCartwheelsWe came up with a game where I gave her actions to complete around and over the flowing water, so many cartwheels, jumping jacks, and such.

The morning we decided to build Ana a special outdoor place, we first needed to shop for fabric. Ana picked a black and white zebra like print.

Once we were home, we found a rope in our garage, attached it to two branches on the large maple tree in our backyard, and using some bricks we secured the fabric across the rope.

Ana's Crazy EightsWe added a quilt and lots of pillows, and finished up with a chalkboard paper banner, “Ana’s Place”, which added the final touch.  Perfect!

Just Ana

Our finished placeWe did laugh together and enjoyed our creation all day. I felt like a kid again.

Although Ana also loved time spent on my tablet, playing games, and working with my touch screen computer, watching movies, listening to music, I thank her for spending time with me doing creative things and spending silly time with her aunt.

As this second part of my life is playing out, and Ana is growing up, I thank her so much for being with me for a few days this past summer.

Life has a way of keeping us from our love ones, jobs, relationships, just life and living it our way, good or bad.

I so regret the years that passed and I did not keep in touch with Marissa, Amanda, Dawn, Amber, Carrie, and now Ana.  Those years are gone.

Please make time to connect and be with your family as much as you can, even if it is just a call, or text.   “I love You’s” mean so much, especially the unexpected ones!

Blessings and love to all!

 

The Wannabe Art Teacher is “in”!

Do you all remember Lucy’s psychiatric help booth?

Love the “Peanuts”!

So cute!

Well, I have always wanted to be an elementary school art teacher, so when I post a kid’s art project, it will show as the “Wannabe Art Teacher is “in”!

Silly, but cute to me!

Lot’s of summer left for our kids and grandchildren, so I have an art project to help them show their creativity.

"30 days of drawings" “30 days of Drawings”

I typed out a list of 30 things to draw, printed them from my home printer on colored card stock paper, and used my circle punch to cut each one out.

You can do several things with the colorful circles. Above I glued them to a piece of poster board, and to add some extra fun to the project I used arrows, dots, and squiggly things to lead the child to the next day drawing instruction.

"30 days of drawings"

If you didn’t want to use the poster board idea, you could place the colorful circles in a jar, or as shown below I used a little plastic bucket.  Having the child pick a circle out for each day.

"30 days of drawings" Another idea would be to glue the circles to each page of a small tablet.

Below I used a $1.00 tablet from Michael’s.  It has a cute summer theme and also has a magnet on the back to place on your frig door.

"30 days of drawings" If you do not want to print out the things to draw on card stock, using your printer, you could buy a small pack of colorful post-it notes, hand print, and place them on the poster board or tablet.

"30 days of drawings"

I used simple things to draw.  Many were summer related items such as a piece of watermelon, an ice cream cone, fireworks, hot dogs, etc.

I believe kids need to get away from TV, electronic games, and tablets, be creative, and also read every single day during the summer.

Hope my idea becomes yours.

It was so much fun to put together.

Enjoy!

Love to all, especially the kids!

 

 

 

“A Day With No Crayons”

As a child I always loved crayons, still do!

In several other posts I have mentioned my love of children’s books, so today I want to share a wonderfully delightful picture book, “A Day With No Crayons“, written by  Elizabeth Rusch.

A Day With No Crayons!

The story is about the day Eliza’s mother took her crayons away!

With her crayons gone, Eliza’s imagination takes over and magic begins.

Her creativity shines anywhere and everywhere!

Chad Cameron, the illustrator, made the story come alive.  It is so very cute.

There is something about Eliza, the way she stands, and her enthusiasm, that reminds me of my niece Amanda, when she was small.  She would visit me quite often, and brought so much joy, love, and happiness to my life.  Love you Amanda!

From "A Day With No Crayons"!

If you have children, especially “little artists”, buy this book for them.  They will love it and so will you!

I feel like there is an “Eliza” in me!

Have a great colorful weekend.

See ya!

 

 

Our New Swimming Pool!

Summer is beginning and the temperatures in Ohio are rising!  Near 90 this weekend.

As I have mentioned before, we are on a budget, and really cannot afford to waste money, but we wanted a pool to sit by, have a few drinks, and cool off.  Well, today we found it!

It is a round one, above ground, and very colorful!

Here it is…………………………………..

A beach ball sprinkler!  Our swimming pool!Don’t you just love it?

We have plans to sit in our lounge chairs, with our pool in the center, spraying us, and keeping us cool.

We can move it here and there, and it is low maintenance too!

We are not young but we are so excited with our purchase.  Who says it’s just for kids!  We will always be young at heart.

Oh, did I mention the price?  It was $12.88 at Wal-Mart.

Just blow it up, and add the hose to it!

What fun!  I think I will get a new beach towel, and maybe a new swimsuit.

What do you think?

I bet you are putting your shoes on right now and heading to Wal-Mart!

Happy summer, stay cool!

Remember………..

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A Perfect Day to Blow Bubbles!

Finally, a beautiful day!

In the upper 60’s today and full sunshine.

I have been wanting, once again in my life, to work on “Bubble Art”.

So much fun for kids on a sunny day and a project that will certainly be welcomed this summer.

Bubble Art

Bubble Art

All you need is a bottle of bubbles, with wand, some food coloring, and paper.  I used pastel food colors. but the primary colors would be more vibrant.

Bubble Art!I put around three tablespoons of bubbles, with a few drops of food coloring, in small bowls.  You can experiment with the amounts for the look you want.

Simply blow bubbles on the paper.  As the bubbles pop, they create fascinating works of art.  The designs that you get are really awesome.  The bubbles hit the paper in so many different ways which causes all the many designs.

I used a $1.00 pack of children’s watercolor paper (Target).  It works best and dries faster.

Pick a warm sunny day so the kids can do this outside, since the food coloring stains.

The works of art could be framed, and given as gifts, I used an inexpensive frame from Michael’s Crafts that already came with the mat.

A child's framed "bubble art".You might even have the kids sign the right hand corner of their original artwork before framing for a really special touch.

How proud your kids or grandchildren will be if their artwork is framed and displayed for all to see and enjoy!

You could also use some of the bubble art to make note cards.  I cut the sheets in half and folded over to make the cards, that simple!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERATie with ribbon, add some envelopes, and you have another sweet gift using the kid’s artwork.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAYou could also use any cut off pieces to make gift tags, or bookmarks, again a gift made from your kid’s bubble art.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI stamped sayings on the samples above, but the kids could print something on the tags making them extra special.

This is a kid’s art project, but the fun I had doing this today made me realize that I may never grow up!

Go outside and blow some bubbles and be a kid again!

Kid’s Easter Napkin Rings Made With Scraps of Card Stock!

If you are having Easter dinner, making a table just for the kids can be so special for them and fun for you at the same time!

Chicks and Bunny Napkin Rings

Since I used my scraps of paper card stock these napkin rings cost me nothing to make.

Here is what is needed to make these cute napkin rings:

– card stock scraps (white, pink, yellow, and orange)

– a 2-1/2″ circle punch or you can trace around a can or cup the size you want

– tape and glue

-black acrylic paint or a black marker

– sticky glue dots (optional)

(All products can be purchased at Micheal’s Crafts or Hobby Lobby – don’ forget to use your 40% off weekly coupons)

Chicks:

Chick Napkin RingsAfter you have cut out all the pieces needed from the card stock, simply glue the pieces to the round head piece.  The “feather” top piece is glued to the back of the chick’s head, glue the feet pieces to the lower front part of the round piece and the beak piece somewhere in the center.

Add two small dots for the eyes, and something I always do is to add some blush cheeks.  I use a stencil brush with very little paint, almost dry to do this.  Practice first!

The long paper strip is 8″ long and about 1-3/4″ wide.  Tape or glue the paper strip together to form the napkin ring, and then glue the round piece to the strip.  I used sticky glue dots which have sticky on both ends to raise the round piece up from the strip.  I like the look, but if you do not have sticky glue dots just any paper glue will work.  See photo below.

Glue dots are only $1.00 a pack at Micheal’s.

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Bunny:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAs with the chicks, after you have cut out all the pieces you need from the card stock, simply glue them to the round piece.  The small piece shown in pink, which is the inside of the bunny’s ears, should be glued to the front side of the ears, and then the ears should be glued to the back of the bunny’s head.  Glue the nose piece somewhere in the center.

Add two small dots for the eyes, and again something I always do is to add some blush cheeks.  I used a stencil brush with very little paint, almost dry to do this.  Practice first!

On the bunny also add whisker lines and a line for the mouth, as shown in the photos. Add the head piece to the round napkin ring strip (8″ long and 1-1/2″ wide) using the sticky glue dots or just any paper glue.

For fun you could make these with your kids to put on the plates of everyone coming for dinner.

The cute dot plates were under a dollar at Walmart.

So cute, so easy, and so much fun!

Happy Easter!

 

Kid’s Easy to Make Easter Favors!

Today I will be sharing some kid’s Easter favors that were inexpensive and easy to make.

Kid's Easter FavorsThese cute chicks and bunny hand held masks are made of a thin wood which I purchased at Joann’s Fabric and Craft store for $1.00 each.

They were unpainted and were intended to be painted by kids with a pattern already stamped on the masks.  For my purpose it was better for me to paint them, since I wanted to add to the kid’s dinner table as favors.

Bunny Wood Mask

Here are the things you will need to make the masks:

– purchased wood masks (Joann’s Fabric and Crafts)

– acrylic paints

– sponge brush

– small stencil brush

– raffia or ribbon

– pen or marker

– stencil brush (optional)

I had to give the masks several coats of paint since I was covering up the stamped pattern.

I made a simple template from card stock and stenciled on the noses and used a permanent pen or marker to add other simple details like lines for whiskers and eye lashes.

I also stenciled blush cheeks on both the bunny and the chick using a small amount of acrylic paint dabbing the brush on a paper towel until almost dry before applying.

As a tip, adding cheek blush has always added the extra special touch when painting on wood or on paper when making cards or tags.

After the masks were dry and all the extra touches added, I tied green raffia around the chick and I glued a ribbon on the bunny.

So cute, and don’t you think they will add a bunch of fun to taking great Easter photos?

Enjoy!