Handprint Spiders & Golf Ball Painted Webs

10 / 23 / 129 / 17 / 13

Today Gracen and I did one of our favourite things… We had a little mama and babe crafternoon. A Halloween crafternoon to be exact!

This is by no means a new idea, and it’s nothing fancy, but it is something I’ve always enjoyed doing with my kindergarten students. It’s fun, messy, and personalized with wee little handprints. Perfect for Halloween cards for grandparents, teachers, or a special friend. Here’s a quick run down of how Gracen created this little masterpiece.

First, start off by drawing a large asterisk on a piece of black construction paper or card stock (we use a hand over hand technique for jobs like this).

Next, connect the tips of the asterisk with concave lines in order to create a web shape.

Then, cut out the web. (This is tricky for little hands. Gracen tried, but our poster board is was so thick that it was next to impossible for her… This may be more of an adult helper sort of job.)

Place a small roll of tape in the centre of your web.

Tape the web down in the centre of a box lid, baking pan, or plastic paper tray.

Next, put some white paint in a small bowl or container and plop a {very scuffed} golf ball, bouncy ball, or large marble inside. (While I find golf balls work best because they’re big and heavy, marbles and bouncy balls make a more solid, web-like lines.)

Shake and swirl the container so that the golf ball is well coated with paint.

Next, gently tip your golf ball out of the container and onto the web.

Swirl and roll the paint-coated ball over the black paper web by tipping the tray back and forth.

When it’s sufficiently spider web-y, remove the paper from the tray and set it aside to dry.

Now for the spider… Gather up some brightly coloured paper, black paint, and a foam brush.

Using a foam brush, paint a good, thick layer of black paint on your little one’s palm and fingers (not the thumb).

Help your little one press their hand on the paper a couple of times to create two spider bodies and half of the needed legs. Allow the prints to dry for a couple of minutes while you wash hands.

Next, rotate the page so that the fingers are pointed downwards.

This time around, paint just the four fingers of your little one’s hand. (I like to use the opposite hand for this part so that the fingers are angled the same way, but that’s just the crazy in me. ☺)

Stamp them on the other side of the palm print in order to complete the spider’s body.

When the paint is dry, attach some googly eyes to the spider’s body using white craft glue.

Then, cut the spiders out, leaving a small border of coloured paper around the edges.

Attach the spider to the web with glue or tape, or if you want the spider to have a little wiggle to it, glue a small pompom in between the web and spider. And voila… All done!

And if handprints are still too tricky for your little one, here’s what we did last year using a footprint instead:

♥

Cupcake Colour Matching Felt Board Game

10 / 20 / 123 / 22 / 14

After seeing how Lindsay from The Little Red Horse turned my felt board DIY into an awesome birthday gift (check it out here), I decided to *borrow* her idea and whip up something similar for one of Grae’s little friends whose party we attended this weekend. (Thank you, Lindsay!)

I liked the idea of a creating a colour matching game, but wanted to try something different than ice cream cones this time around… Something a little more October birthday-ish, so cupcakes it was!

All I did was cut out cupcake tops (with a candle attached for gluing purposes), cupcake liners and candles in coordinating colours, and little yellow flames.

Then, using Aleene’s OK To Wash-It glue, I attached the coloured candles and flames to the cupcake tops.

Voila! An easy little felt board game that allows munchkins to practice colour matching by pairing up the tops and bottoms of the cupcakes.

Sadly, I didn’t take a photo of the finished product, but the felt board looked exactly like Gracen’s, said “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” across the top, had two of the felt cupcakes in the middle (because the little boy was turning two) and said “JACKSON” (the little boy’s name) across the bottom. We also included the rest of the alphabet, the other cupcakes, and a jack-o-lantern face designing game each in a little bag separately.

Gracen loves her felt board, so she was very proud to give one to her little friend come party time. ☺

♥

Heart Stamping with Paper Rolls

10 / 17 / 1210 / 17 / 13

For one reason or another, I began saving toilet paper rolls a while back. (Don’t ask me why, because I don’t remember. Probably something Pinterest related?) So with a collection of 10 or more paper rolls just sitting around, I decided it was time to do something with them. I don’t know how I came up with the idea for this project actually… Maybe I’ve seen it somewhere before? I don’t think so, but it’s certainly a possibility given my tendency to snoop around the internet in the wee hours of the morning. Either way, I’m probably not the first person in the world to think of using empty toilet paper rolls to create heart-shaped stamps, but since I’ve scoured the web and I can’t find paper roll heart stamps anywhere else on the internet, maybe I’m the first to post about it?

(Disclaimer: While I wouldn’t have my students bring in tp rolls to use for crafts in my classroom, I’m {semi} okay with using rolls from our house in our house. If you’ve read the same article I read as a beginning teacher about tp rolls being covered in fece particles, you can always opt for paper towel rolls, craft paper rolls, or wrapping paper rolls instead. ☺)

To get started, you’ll need two things: paper tubes and some rubber bands.

First, flatten your paper tube and press down along the two creases.

Next, invert one of the creases in order to begin creating a heart shape.

Play with the shape of the heart by squeezing the tube until you’re happy with it.

In order to help the heart keep its shape, wrap an elastic band around the tube once or twice.

Make one heart stamp for each colour of paint you intend to use.

Lastly, pour out a few dollops of paint (we used crafter’s acrylic) and place one stamp in each paint puddle.

Then set your wee one loose!

We started on the easel, and ended up on the floor using the stamps to make some homemade wrapping paper, but the stamps would also be perfect for making beautiful homemade cards or some art to hang in your little one’s room.

♥

Painting with Cookie Cutters

10 / 4 / 1210 / 7 / 12

At one of Gracen’s recent Strong Start classes, Teacher Sonika had a painting station set up that used cookie cutters in place of paintbrushes or fingers. Gracen really enjoyed dipping the different shaped cookie cutters into the paints and then onto her paper, so today we decided to try the same activity at home.

Grae chose to use our alphabet cutters, so to have a manageable number of cutters to work with, we picked out just the letters in her name. We lined the tray of her beautiful easel (a special Christmas present from her Uncle Gary) with foil, mixed up some paint in colours of her choosing, and pulled down some paper for her to stamp.

She knew exactly what do to, and got to work dipping and stamping her letters right away.

She worked on the bottom half of her art piece for a while, then requested a chair so she could stamp the top half of her paper too.

This is her masterpiece once declared finished.

The other bonus? Clean up was a breeze. I filled a sink full of warm, soapy water, Grae walked each cutter to the kitchen and plopped them in, I crumpled up the foil, and we left the painting on the easel to dry.

♥

Homemade Rain Sticks

9 / 19 / 129 / 1 / 13

After stumbling upon this post from The Imagination Tree a little while ago, I knew we had to try making rain sticks of our own. We had a few really heavy duty cardboard tubes already on hand (two from rolled art paper and one from our Stuck on You parcel – review to come soon!) and since we’ve recently been collecting and making instruments for Gracen’s collection, it was the perfect project.

To get started, we collected a bunch of things from around the house… An assortment of pantry goods (beans, rice, and popcorn seeds to be exact), a hammer and some small nails, these duct tape sheets Grae picked out on our most recent States trip, some fluorescent dot stickers for decorating, and the cardboard tubes of course. (We also got out a Sharpie, a pair of scissors, and a small tin can out part way through the project.)

Here’s a better look at just how sturdy our tubes were. Like mentioned on Imagination Tree, ordinary paper towel and toilet paper rolls are not thick enough and won’t work for this project. Basically, you want your tube to be sturdy enough to withstand nails being pounded into it, and sturdy enough to hold the nails in afterwards.

Although this next part was a little too tricky for Grae to do on her own, she sure enjoyed helping. Using flat-headed nails that were almost as long as the diameter of the tube, we pounded them into the cardboard roll at random intervals. What worked best for us was hammering the nails in together using a hand-on-hand technique or having Grae hammer nails that I’d already put halfway through.

Here’s what the inside of our tube looked like once we’d finished with the hammering job. Of course, the more nails you add, the slower the beans or seeds will move through the tube, meaning a longer ‘rainfall’.

Next, we traced the end of our tube onto the backside of a duct tape sheet together two times and cut the circles out.

Then, using a small tin can, we traced and cut out two larger circles too.

In order to seal off the end of the tube without having our seeds stick to the duct tape, we placed the smaller circle in the centre of larger circle (sticky sides together).

Then carefully placed and sealed the larger duct tape circle over one end of the tube.

Next, my little helper chose her filling (popcorn seeds) and added a few handfuls to the tube. (She wanted the tube to stand on its own without falling over and was having no luck, so she quickly went and retrieved this mason jar from the kitchen… Of course, being her mama, I thought this was quite brilliant.)

With our seeds added, we created another double-layered duct tape circle and sealed off the second side.

At this point, you could really decorate the outside of the rain stick with anything, provided you ensure the nails are covered and cannot be removed by curious little fingers. We decided to use our duct tape sheets since they secure the nails and look pretty all at once. The bonus was that they were also the perfect width to fit the length our small tubes, so all we had to do was cut them in half to avoid wrapping around the tube more than once.

I positioned the tube onto the duct tape paper and Miss G gave it a good roll.

And there you have it – a fluorescent pink and leopard print duct tape rain stick!

Of course, nothing in this house is complete without being plastered with stickers, so on went a bunch of fluorescent dots.

Here’s our finished collection.

♥

Homemade Puffy Paint

9 / 11 / 129 / 27 / 13

7 times out of 10, if you ask Gracen what she’d like to do, she’ll answer “Bike ride!” or “Park!” Guaranteed, the other 3 times you’ll get a very enthusiastic “Paint!” So that’s just what we did today. With G on my lap, we browsed my Toddler Activities Pinterest board looking for a fun and new painting method to try. There were many options – wellie boot painting, muffin tin painting, fizzy sidewalk painting, salad spinner painting, bubble painting, and more – but the pin she selected? This homemade puffy paint recipe.

Though we stuck to the recipe fairly closely, we used a slightly different method to make it. Here’s what we gathered to get started… Water, salt, self-raising flour, food colouring, a zip-close bag, an ice cube tray, and some paint brushes.

I of course had the help of this monkey too. (I asked her to do something funny and this was her immediate reaction… Good to have a solid go-to funny face on deck for moments just like these.)

Puffy paint

Though you really don’t need it, we used a mason jar to hold our bag upright and open for us (a cup would work just as well) so that Grae could add ingredients without having to hold the bag open at the same time. First, she added the salt and flour to the bag.

Then we zipped it closed and she gave it a good shake.

Next, we added the water…

Zipped it closed again {making sure all of the air was out first}, and she smushed everything together until it formed a goopy paste (this was her favourite part).

Next, we cut the corner off of the bag.

With just a tiny bit of help, Grae squeezed the mixture out of the bag and into our ice cube tray.

Then she added several drops of food colouring to each compartment.

Using our paintbrushes, we stirred the colouring into the paste.

Then it was time to paint!

Although most posts about homemade puffy paint instruct you to microwave your artwork, we rarely use ours and I really didn’t want Grae sitting in front of the microwave peering in while each of her pieces ‘baked’. Instead, we popped ours into the oven for a few minutes on the lowest setting, and it seemed to work just as well (putting them in the sun to dry would probably work too and may give the paint more of an opportunity to rise also).

The result? Fully dry, yet slightly squishy paint blobs that can easily be hung or added to a art portfolio without crumbling apart.

Want to try for yourself? Here’s our recipe…

Homemade Puffy Paint

2 1/2 tablespoons of self-raising flour
2 1/2 tablespoons of salt
3 tablespoons of water (you can add more or less depending on your desired consistency, just be sure to not make it too thin, otherwise it won’t ‘puff’ well)
food colouring
1 zip-close bag
1 muffin tin or ice cube tray

Place the flour and salt into the bag, zip closed, and shake well. Add the water, zip close, and smush around until the mixture forms a smooth paste. Cut the tip off of one corner of the bag and squeeze the paste into your muffin tin or ice cube tray. Add food colouring and blend. Create your puffy paint masterpiece making sure to lay the paint on thick. Bake your artwork in a 150 degree oven for 2 to 4 minutes.

Have fun!

Summer Fun: Sand Casts

9 / 8 / 129 / 9 / 12

We’re hanging on to every last bit of summer we can around here, and have spent the last two days at the beach. Today, I packed along with us a few simple materials to try out a very cool beach project I saw long ago on Honest to Nod. It went surprisingly well for our first attempt, and we’ll definitely be trying it again before the summer’s vanished completely. Here’s how Miss G and I made our very own sand casts…

First of all, we retrieved a few buckets of ocean water and created a little plot of firm, mouldable sand. You could easily do this project near the shoreline where you normally find perfect sandcastle sand, but since the tide was high and the shoreline was littered with seaweed and shells, we opted for this method instead. (You can also do this project at home by mixing play sand water in a baking pan or shallow dish of some sort.)

Next, using the bottoms of our sand buckets and a plastic cup, we made several wells in the sand approximately 1 to 2 inches deep. (You can also use drift wood, feet, hands, and beach toys to make wells of different shapes and sizes.)

Then, using shells we collected around the beach, as well as a few glass stones we brought from home, we created designs and patterns in the bottoms of the wells. One thing we did learn about this is that in order to show up well in the finished product, the decorations need to be pushed down quite firmly into the sand – otherwise they just get completely buried in plaster. (At this stage, you can also use your finger or a stick to draw designs in the wells. Just remember that if you choose to write something, you need to write it backwards so that it faces the correct way on the cast.)

Next, using a container from home, a couple of cups of plaster of paris powder (readily available at art supply and hardware stores), some ocean water, and a piece of drift wood, we mixed up our plaster according to the directions on the box (2 parts powder, 1 part water).

Then we filled our wells almost to the top. At this point, we experimented with adding a couple of straws to two of the wells in order to have a hanging hole at the end. Turns out, it worked great. The only thing we’ll do differently next time is add the straws before the plaster (much easier when you can see the stones and shells, rather than digging around trying to avoid them ☺).

Easiest step? Playing and eating snacks while waiting for the plaster to set.

After about 30 minutes, I gently poked the plaster to find out that they were dry and hard, so I gently scooped up one of the casts, along with some of the sand below it. Sure enough, it was fully solid. Grae helped me scoop up all of the casts and place them gently in a bucket.

Next, we took the casts down to the ocean for a quick bath to remove the excess sand.

Here’s what we ended up with.

These two are Grae’s favourites… The octopus was made with the bottom of one of her Melissa & Doug nesting pails and ‘happy face guy’ was made with glass stones and a chunk of a shell.

Grae and I are hosting a messy play date this week and this just may have to be one of our outdoor crafts for the day. Fun, simple, and the perfect way to hang on to summer long after it’s gone.

♥

Fall Fun: Apple Stamping

9 / 6 / 129 / 11 / 13

After our awesome magic milk paint experiment today, Gracen and I took advantage of the overwhelming amount of apple pears our tree has this year and did something that reminds me of making homemade gift wrap as a child… Apple stamping.

Needing to dedicate a day (or an afternoon at the very least) to picking the ridiculous amount fruit our tree is currently carrying, much of our backyard currently looks like this. Sadly, once they’ve fallen to the cement pad, most of the apples are left badly bruised, a little mushy, and not all that great for eating purposes.

So today, while we were picking them up and putting them in the compost, we saved a few of the better ones to use for stamping purposes. Grae picked two “baby” apples and one “biiiiiiig” apple for the project, and then we collected a roll of art paper, some paint, and a knife (for Mama’s use only of course).

I chopped the apples both vertically and horizontally, trying to get rid of the really yucky parts and keep the more decent parts all at once. As you can see, some of these are still pretty yucky, but that doesn’t really matter when you’re just using them for stamping.

Grae got started right away – dunking and stamping, dunking and stamping, again and again.

Stamping of this sort often has better results when the paint it brushed onto the object, but since dunking the apples into the paint is much easier, and let’s face it – more fun, we just went with that technique. Grae didn’t seem to mind one bit.

The end result {besides a toddler with multicoloured hands}? A beautiful masterpiece that could be hung and displayed or used to wrap a fall gift.

♥

Raised Salt Art

9 / 3 / 129 / 5 / 12

After pinning this post by One Perfect Day on my Toddler Activities board a few days back, I knew Grae and I had to try it very soon.

So today, Grae and I gathered up our materials… White glue, table salt, food colouring diluted with water, black card stock, and an old baking pan.

The first step was creating a design out of glue. After a quick demonstration, Grae went to town creating squiggles, zigzags, and loops.

Here’s her masterpiece.

Working quickly, Grae generously cover the entire design in salt.

When the glue had been fully covered, we carefully shook off the excess salt into a little bowl to save for later.

Next, Gracen used an old medicine dropper to blob drops of the food colouring/water mixture onto the salt. Although the results looked cool, I quickly realized two things. First, the glue/salt lines had to be much thicker in order absorb more of the colour mixture, and second, more of the paper had to be covered in glue/salt in order to up the chances of the dripped colour actually hitting it.

We tried again, this time with Grae and I creating the glue pattern together so I could add pressure to the bottle and ensure the glue lines were good and thick. The immediate finished product looked better, but once dry, it looked much like the first attempt… Faded, clumpy, and flaky.

Though this project. like most, is definitely about the process rather than the project, we tried one more time with another two changes put into play. First, we allowed the glue to dry completely before adding any colour to it, and second, we used the food colouring as is, straight out of the bottle.

Not only did the finished product remain bright and intact even once dry, but the process was way more fun too. Letting the glue dry first allowed the colour drops to move much further along the salt lines… And it was indeed magical!

If you want to try making a raised salt masterpiece with your own toddler, here’s what I’d recommend…

1. Select a thick piece of cardboard or card stock as your background (regular paper is too flimsy and the salt design will crumble when bent) and place it on a large baking pan.

2. Together, create thick glue designs that cover as much of the page as possible.

3. Have your toddler very generously sprinkle salt over the entire page. Shake the salt around to ensure good coverage, then empty the extra salt into a bowl for your next picture.

4. Set aside and let the glue dry fully.

5. Using food colouring straight from the bottle, have your toddler squeeze drops of colouring onto the salt lines. Watch closely as the colour runs along the salt.

6. Let dry again.

♥

Handprint Canvas: A Yearly Tradition

8 / 28 / 129 / 22 / 13

Today Miss G and I continued on a little birthday tradition we started last year when she turned one – painting a handprint canvas together. This year was even more fun than last because Grae was really able to get into it and participate in the process.

After picking out our colour combination, we gave the canvas a few coats of pink paint, letting it dry in between each one.

Then, once it was completely dry, I brushed a thin coat of teal on Grae’s hand and together we carefully stamped in the middle of the canvas.

With the project finished almost as quickly as it was started, Grae wanted to continue painting, so on she went…

As she worked on her own project, I sketched out a number two on the canvas’ corner…

Then carefully outlined it and filled it in with a paint pen.

Tada! A very simple art project that forever saves those little handprints I always have such a hard time wiping away from our mirrors and windows.

And here it is next to last year’s. Pretty amazing / heartbreaking to see the difference 12 months makes…

♥

Kid’s Art Gallery Door

8 / 22 / 124 / 25 / 14

{this post contains affiliate links}

As a mama, I’m always looking for unique ways to showcase Gracen’s artwork without our little house looking like a cluttered mess. One of the places we love to hang multiple pieces is on her bedroom door. So much so, that over time, it’s become her little art gallery of sorts. For the longest while we were just taping things up using masking or scotch tape rolls, then I jumped on the washi tape bandwagon, which took it up a notch, but neither were overly toddler-friendly. I wanted Grae to be able to hang her artwork and switch around the pieces without having to muck around tape or ask for assistance. So today, we put together a little gallery door that she can update and add to all on her own, with just a press of a clothespin. Here’s what we did…

Yesterday, while Grae splashed in the wading pool out back, I painted a handful of regular wooden clothespins. She’d come out, dripping wet, help me with some painting, and jump back into the pool, splashing my table in the process. With a couple of base coats dry, we used the eraser side of pencils, dipped them in white and black paint, and polka dotted our way along each pin. The result was very handmade looking clothespins with a charm all their own.

Today, we took some small 3M poster hanging strips and sliced them vertically using a utility knife and a ruler. (This can be done using scissors, but trust me – use a utility knife. It’s much easier.)

Next, we peeled off the protective paper backings and stuck the strips onto the backs of the clothespins, leaving just the tiniest touch hanging over the top edge (hoping it might make the job easier when we want to remove them one day).

As a last step, I removed the other side of the protective paper and adhered the pins onto the door. I put them on very gently at first, and once I knew my {random} layout would work, pressed them down quite hard to ensure a good stick.

The result was a gallery door where Grae can proudly display her favourite creations without needing much help to do so.

♥

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I Love You… This Much!

8 / 16 / 1210 / 26 / 13

Earlier in the week, Miss G and I put together an adorable little Pinterest-inspired card for her Gido’s (grandpa’s) birthday. (Gido if you’re reading this right now, you shouldn’t be! Back to preparing/enjoying your bike trip!!!) The original post comes from A Day in the Life, and although we stuck to the basic plan, we made a few little changes along the way too. Here’s our version…

First up – materials… A couple of pieces of card stock, some crayons, a pencil, a black Sharpie, a glue stick, and some scissors.

To get started, we traced Grae’s hand onto the card stock in pencil (her favourite part – the girl loves having her hand traced).

Then I folded the card stock in half, and cut out the hand, giving us two identical copies. We did try to ‘team cut’ the hand shape, but it was pretty tricky, so Grae became the recycling collector/depositor for this part instead.

Next, using our black marker and the hand-over-hand technique, we printed “I love you…’ on the front of the left hand.

Then it was time to decorate both hands. Everything is better with colourful baby squiggles, is it not?

Next, we cut two strips of our white card stock, glued them together to form one extra-long strip, and wrote “this much!”, plus a personalized message, along the length before Grae added her special touches to it.

With the decorating complete, we folded up the strip accordion-style…

And attached each side to the palms of the hands using our glue stick.

Here’s the finished result.

♥

DIY Felt Board {and an Ice Cream Colour Matching Game}

8 / 3 / 123 / 22 / 14

When we were on vacation, all of the old-school toys Grandma Charlotte has saved from her boys’ childhood got me thinking about favourites from my own childhood. While it’s not really a toy, one thing I LOVED growing up was the felt boards teachers would use during carpet times in elementary school. You just knew that if you sat down to listen to a story and the teacher reached for her felt board and a bag of felt pieces, it was going to be a good one.

This then got me thinking about all of the cool things Miss G and I could do with a felt board of our own. From matching games, to sorting activities, to building funny faces, and learning about shapes and colours… The options are endless really.

Now, we probably could have bought a pre-made felt board and coordinating pieces, but what fun is that?! Especially when making one of your own is so easy. The best part is that this entire project can be done over the course of a nap time if your little one sleeps for at least an hour.

We picked up this square poster frame from IKEA, grabbed a package of felt from the craft store (you can also buy it on a roll from fabric stores), and gathered up a glue gun (I later changed my mind and used Tacky Glue but I think either would work), a pencil, and some scissors.

To get started, I took the cardboard backing out of the picture frame, lined it up with the corner edges of the felt piece, and traced the other two sides onto the felt in pencil.

Next, I cut the felt square out. (Make sure you’re using really sharp scissors here. Your sanity and straight line with thank you.)

Next, because I chose to use white felt, I took the paper insert that came inside the frame, flipped it over, and glued it onto the cardboard insert to create a white backing for my felt. (You can use your glue gun or Tacky Glue here, but you could just as easily use white glue or a glue stick too.) See the difference? Much better with a little help from the insert.

Next up, I carefully gave my felt piece a quick iron. You don’t have to do this, but I found it made it much easier to mount the felt onto the cardboard when the large creases had been removed. Just be sure to use a low heat and keep your iron moving if you do this step. Then, mount your felt onto the cardboard using thin glue strips in order to avoid ripples and bumps in the felt. Also because felt does have some give and can stretch over time, it’s a good idea to glue the middle as well as the edges (I did the edges and a giant ‘x’ across the centre). Once you’ve got your felt piece placed on the glue, smooth it down from the centre outwards to ensure a good stick.

When your glue has had a chance to dry, place your cardboard backing into the frame and secure it.

Voila! Felt board complete.

With Miss G still sleeping and a little time still on my hands, I decided it would be really fun to have a game of some sort ready to go for when she woke up. I had no idea what I would make, but it needed to be something quick and easy. Thank goodness for Pinterest! I searched “felt board ideas” and got all of these great results. Scrolling through, I was immediately drawn to an ice cream cone colour matching game that I knew would be quick to cut out and super engaging for my little lady who loves matching games and announcing the colours she sees around her.

I just cut out my first cone and ice cream scoop freehand and then used the pieces as a guide for my others, but upon visiting childcareland.com later, I saw that she has a printable template available also.

I cut my circles out using a coin as a guide and glued them onto the cones using a little dot of Tacky Glue. And that was it. After a few minutes drying time, the pieces were ready to be put to use.

I love this felt board set because it can be used when talking about colours, it can be used as a matching game, it can used to learn about rainbow order, and it can be used just for fun (think 8 scoop ice cream cones!)

Here’s the finished product.

Miss G was thrilled to wake up to this little surprise and matched the scoops to the cones again and again, naming the colours as she went along.

Can’t wait to make some other pieces for her soon.

UPDATE: Check out our new and improved DIY felt board tutorial!

♥

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Alphabet Photo Book Sneak Peek

7 / 31 / 127 / 31 / 12

I must admit… I started this project in iPhoto long, long ago. So long ago, in fact, that Grae is wearing diapers in a couple of the photos {and we’ve been done with those for nearly 10 months now}. Mama fail. Life gets busy… What can you do? The good news is that I’m back on the project in full force (well, I’ve actually restarted altogether). The motivation? Both Gracen’s nearing second birthday and receiving a promo code for a free hardcover book from Shutterfly (love a free photo book, plus the timing couldn’t be any better).

Here’s a little sneak peek at G’s alphabet book in progress…

I’ve had several questions about how I add text to pictures for the photo books I’ve made previously and I’m happy to say, it’s very easy. Personally, I use Pixelmator, but Photoshop or any other photo editing program you’re comfortable with will work. All I do is open the photo in the program, add a text box, and type in my words (in this case I did two separate text boxes – one for the larger letter, and one for the smaller sentence). Once my photo and text looks the way I want it to, I export it to jpeg format. Then you can print the photos as is and pop them into an album, or import them into an online photo book creator.

Easy, personalized, and guaranteed to be a well-loved book for a long time!

♥

See some of Gracen’s other photo books by clicking on the links:

Grae’s Anatomy / Grae’s Family & Friends / Gracen Loves / That’s Not My Gracen

That’s Not My Gracen Photo Book

5 / 6 / 125 / 6 / 12

It had been a while since I had made Gracen a photo book, so a couple of weeks ago, I selected some photos (the hardest part when you have as many as I do) to make her a knock-off version of the Usborne That’s Not My…. books. If you haven’t come across these books yet, you should really check them out. They’re short, simple stories with strong repetition, touch and feel parts, and bold, colourful illustrations.

I actually first fell in love with them when my friend and teaching partner at the time was selling Usborne and read one aloud at a book party. It was probably the best read aloud I’ve listened to before in my life. Since moving to Vancouver, we started signing them out from our local libraries, and they’ve quickly become family favourites.

Here are some pages from the version I whipped up for Miss G… (Please forgive my made up words in advance. ☺)

Gracen LOVES this new little book. (What’s not to like – it’s all about her!)

The best part is that these books are super easy to put together, can be added to at any time, and can easily be reprinted if needed. Not to mention that they put some of those photos just sitting on the computer to good use too!

You can check out Grae’s Body Parts, and Friends & Family, and Gracen Loves books by clicking on the links.