Miss G and I made several little portable craft kids for her friends in Kuwait, but when we got back to Canada last summer and wanted to create something similar for she and her cousin to take along on our house boating trip, we had zero luck finding carrying caddies like the ones we’d always found easily in the desert.
Oh my word… Gracen and I had such a great time making these silly embellished photo portraits this week. I can’t even tell you how into it she was. {Not to mention how into I was!}
Today before starting on our stamped leaf garland of thanks, Miss G and I did a classic kid project – leaf rubbings! Although we’ve tried rubbings once before while still in Canada, Grae was only 2 then and the process was still a little tricky for her. At 4 though? She rocked it!
With Brad leaving the house as the sun comes up each morning and me leaving for tutoring the moment he walks in the door 4 days a week, sometimes it feels as though we don’t get enough time as a family. Luckily, this weekend we’ve done a pretty good job of making the most of our time together. After yesterday’s movie afternoon and family sleepover, this afternoon we decided to crafty with a simple life-sized self-portrait project.
I absolutely love all of the gorgeous flower crowns I’ve seen floating around the internet lately, but thought it would be fun to come up with a kid-friendly version that Miss G could pretty much create on her own. That’s when I remembered the pretty poppy wreath we made last year for Remembrance Day. The flowers we created out of cupcake liners turned out beautifully and Grae loved putting them together, so a cupcake liner flower crown it was.
While we’ve painted with frozen watercolour ice cubes many times, today we decided to try something a little bit different… Instead of freezing our usual concoction of water and food colouring, we simply froze children’s paint. And just for fun, we decided we’d create frozen paint wands instead of the usual cubes!
Some of my very favourite moments with Miss G happen when we’re sitting side-by-side creating. Whether we’re working on a collaborative project or each doing our own thing, I feel like we do some of our best bonding while creating beside one another. Sometimes we sit, hands busy, in silence, and other times we have in-depth conversations about serious / random / ridiculous things.
I had actually planned spice painting as an open-ended activity for my Crafty Kids students today, but between making senses books, creating squishy sensory balls, and exploring the magic that is slime, we didn’t get to it. Not to worry though, between Gracen and a handful of friends, the paint got plenty of use down in the courtyard this afternoon.
Miss G and I finally got around to putting some of our {bordering on out of control} toilet paper roll stash to use today. Making paper roll dolls with Grae is something I’ve been wanting to for a long while now, and I’m so glad we finally got to it because it was a lot of fun {and these insanely cute little dolls came of it too}.
Have I mentioned how much we love visiting Bright Minds each week? It’s something both Grae and I look forward to… She gets to see her little friends and play with all sorts of fun toys, I get to see my mama friends, and we get to do a fun project {or two} together.
We had such a good time making our heart resist art the other day, that we decided to do a similar project for today’s Wednesday play date. Since I eventually want to create a large canvas that displays a favourite quote using this technique, I decided that we’d try using letters this time around. And what better way to use letters than to spell the munchkin’s names?! Name resist art it was.
Gracen and I had so much fun with today’s art project that we actually ended up doing it twice! It’s the simplest technique, but the results are absolutely stunning and in this case, perfect for Valentine’s Day too! {Though my original thought was to use the pieces as art in Miss G’s bedroom…}
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After seeing Buddy & Buggy’s awesome 3 dimensional felt trees, I went in search of styrofoam cones {again with the styrofoam, I know…} Lo and behold, I found some at our beloved City Star in Egaila. I came home excited to cover them with felt, but when I spotted our star-shaped buttons in our crafting closet, a new project took shape.
Okay, I fully admit it… Between the yearly handprint canvas we did just a couple of months ago and the paper strip handprint art we did just a couple of days ago, we may be a teensy bit handprint obsessed. I can’t help it. I don’t know if it’s the Kindergarten teacher in me or the mama in me, but having these little handprints frozen in time just makes my heart happy.
These keepsakes are a favourite in our house. Miss G and I have made variations of this project many times in the past, some of which have become decor, some heartfelt gifts, and others Christmas tree ornaments.
No matter what they become in the end, we always make them out of our very favourite homemade baking soda clay. This stuff is a dream to work with and is super easy and inexpensive to make {plus you most likely have erything you need to make it in your kitchen at this very moment!}
How you decorate them is up to you, but we went with GLITTER this time around, which both Miss G and I loved. So pretty, right?! {Not to mention that it’s super forgiving when it comes to little cracks and imperfections along the edges of the keepsake… Add glitter and consider them gone!}
For all of the details of this project, as well as our simple baking soda clay recipe, pop on over to CBC Parents and check out our Baking Soda Clay Handprint Keepsakes post.
FYI: With the recipe in the link, we made our handprint keepsake, plus 20 small cookie cutter ornaments, which is probably equivalent to 3 or 4 handprint ornaments {depending on the size you make them of course}.
Admittedly, baking soda clay can be a little finicky sometimes… For tips and tricks we’ve learned over the years, click here.
While you’re at it, check out some of our other favourite handprint projects here.
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While we’re all set up in our new place with the day-to-day essentials, we’re still working on making our house feel like home. So far, Gracen’s room seems to feel the most homey, largely in part to the fact that it’s the only space in the house with anything on the walls. It’s still a work in progress, but we’ve framed several photos and a couple of my favourite downloadable prints, and we’ve been working on adding a few homemade pieces too.