Easy egg garland for Easter }{ crafting with kids

 Ah, March. You're such a lovely month with so much to celebrate. There's Easter Sunday this year on March 31st, and the Vernal Equinox (the first day of Spring) on March 20th. And if those two weren't enough, you're national craft month.

With so much going on during March, how could I choose just one theme for the month? Impossible. So, we're doing them all. Since this is my crafting blog, national craft month is celebrated every month around here. Then there's Easter and Spring. I'll be alternating crafts related to both this month.

The first tutorial I want to share is for a very easy and fun craft to do with the kids. These are rough guidelines and you can do so much with it - change the materials, the presentation, the educational content. Start with this blueprint and let your imagination run wild. 

Materials:

1. felt (cut up in egg shapes)
2. glue
3. tapestry needle and twine or string
4. buttons, ribbons, glitter, or anything you want to use to decorate

Steps:

1. If you haven't yet, cut up the felt in the shape of eggs. Place all the decorations and the stack of egg shapes on a tray for the little ones to have easy access.

note: if you want to add some fun education activities here, cut up the decorations in different geometric shapes and ask the kiddos to identify them as they decorate for example. Or have them count the eggs, or sort them by color. The possibilities are endless.

2. Give them the glue and let them go wild. Always remember that with kids it's the process, not the product that matters most. Having said that, you'll be surprised at how cute these turn out even with a 4 year old.

3. Once the eggs are dry, thread the needle with the string or twine and connect all the eggs into a garland.

note: you don't have to make a garland with these eggs. You can keep them as an activity to do over and over, just don't use glue. Or make a big collage on poster board with all the eggs and display that on the wall. Again, the possibilities are endless.

4. Display the garland somewhere everyone can see. In our new apartment, it was over the fireplace.

What are your plans for March?

Valentine's wreath }{ tutorial

My daughter's favorite color is pink. No surprise then that she goes crazy around Valentine's day, specially if we happen to stop by Joann. And we did.

She begged me to buy half of the seasonal decor on display at the store, but instead I promised her we'd do our own. Lucky for me, she loves to do craft projects. Thus, today's post was born.

As I mentioned in the last post, this month's themes are organizing and re-purposing. After unpacking quite a few boxes we're surrounded by empty boxes, so I decided to use some cardboard for the project as a way to recycle it and save some money as well.

Materials

• cardboard (or whatever you have that's easy to cut but still sturdy)
• scissors
• gesso/paint (optional)
• paint brushes (optional)
• glue
• tissue paper (or other decorations like pom poms or buttons)
• ribbon

Steps:

1) Draw the heart shape on the cardboard. It doesn't have to be neat since it will get covered up.

2) Cut out the shape. If you'd like a wreath like backing, cut out the middle as well. We ended up using both parts.

3) Paint the backing with gesso/paint. We did this in case some showed through the tissue paper. It turns out you need a couple of coats and my little one was not that patient, so some of her heart has the box' original paint showing through. It didn't matter to her (reminder: crafting with kids is all about the process, not the product).

4) Dry it with a blow dryer (much quicker, helps the wee ones stay with the project)

5) Spread some glue on a medium sized area (~4 inches), rip tissue paper a little at a time, scrunch it up and attach it to the backing. This will go a little faster if you use larger pieces of paper, and if you don't put them super close together. I did (so it took much longer), but the little miss did not. She also decided to cover her middle with the tissue paper.

6) Repeat step 5 until the whole wreath is covered up. This is where you can let your creativity run wild. Use buttons, combinations of colors, glitter, pom poms, whatever. See what you come up with.

7) Cut a piece or ribbon and glue each end to one bump on the back of the heart (to hang it up). Done! After it's dry just go hang it up. The little miss' went outside for everyone to see, but I took a picture of both so you can see them.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Do you make projects inspired by what you see at the store? I'd love to hear examples.

Salt dough ornaments }{ tutorial

Dear friends, I'm beat. I wish I could tell you all that's going on. Soon.

But the Christmas/holiday season is here and if that doesn't inject a hefty dose of energy into a crafter, I don't know what does. The princess and I have been doing small little projects almost daily. On the weekends we go a little crazier and do more involved crafts, like this one. It can be done in one day, but why would you want to put more rush into your holidays?

Materials for the dough ornaments:

• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of lukewarm water
• cookie cutters
• chopstick or a pencil
• rolling pin
• cookie sheet
• parchment paper
• aluminum foil

Materials for decoration:

• white craft paint
• sharpies
• glitter paint
• brushes

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 250F.
2. Mix the ingredients in a bowl. It quickly becomes a pliable but firm dough. It's super easy to manage this one.
3. With some flour on the rolling pin and surface, roll the dough until it's about 1/4" thick. The thicker you make it, the longer it takes to dry (believe me, the princess didn't want to roll it and ours came out very thick)
4. Cut shapes with the cookie cutters. Make a hole for the string with the chopstick or pencil
5. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the ornaments carefully on the sheet. Cover them with foil and bake it for 3-4 hours (depending on thickness).
6. Let them dry for a while (we left them alone overnight).
7. Paint them with the white craft paint and let it dry. Our dried quite quickly because we used a blow dryer on the paint.
8. Draw designs with the markers, add glitter, or finish whatever look you want to give them. This part is up to your imagination.
9. Cut some string and put through the holes. Tie a knot and voila, you have ornaments ready to hang on your tree.

I don't know why she's so serious. She was smiling a second before.

We had so much fun making them, and the princess is so proud of hers she took them to school to share with her friends. This is an easy but fun way of making ornaments with the kids.

Felt Christmas tree }{ Crafting with kids

A while back I came across this project from Olives and Pickles on Pinterest, and I knew I wanted to try it with the princess. We love Christmas projects and this was easy and fun.

I also had this tray frame that I got on sale and that begged to be used for framing something fun. I put the two together - let the princess make some art and then frame it with the tray. My plan is to use it for different seasons and holidays. Simply change the background and the art piece as the year goes by.

Materials:

• green and brown felt
• yellow felt or gold card stock
• buttons of several colors
• glue
• silver glitter
• a large piece of card stock in a color that contrasts with green and gold
• a frame

Steps:

1. Draw a Christmas Tree on a sheet of green craft felt (or you can use a template) and then cut it out.
2. Cut out a small square of brown felt to be the tree trunk.
3. Draw and cut the yellow felt or gold card stock in the shape of a star.
4. Gather some buttons, the glue, and the glitter. 
5. Let the child decorate the tree. With older kids they could actually do the previous steps as well, but I decided to have it all ready for her to make it a quicker activity. She can get tired quick if it's too hard and involved.
6. Add the tree and the trunk in the frame facing down.
7. Place a contrasting card stock sheet on top of the tree for a background. I chose silver since it's sparkly for Christmas and out of the card stock I have it provided the biggest contrast.
8. Close up the frame and place it somewhere where everyone can see, and show your kiddo how proud you are of their work.

So I did turn the original project into a little art project rather than math play. The great thing about inspiration is that you can turn something you find into something entirely different and have two activities instead of one.

 

Halloween Lunch Bags }{ Tutorial

With the 31st of October just around the corner, I feel like everything is excuse to do some cute Halloween-y craft. This one is easy, perfect for the little ones in your life, and made with simple materials you can find in almost everyone's home.

So let's get crafting.

What you need:

• paper lunch bags
• construction paper in white and black for the mummy (and for the vampire as well)
• glue
• scissors
• crayons and markers for adding details (optional)

What you do (for the mummy, the easiest one):

1. fold the open end of the lunch bag down about 1/4 of the full length (see picture)
2. fold the bottom so that both sides are going down (see pictures)
3. cut out shapes from the constructions paper: white and black circles for the eyes, a crooked mouth, some longer strips of white construction paper.
4. Glue the strips of white paper all over the bag with the top folded down; lastly add the eyes and mouth. 
5. For other characters like the vampire or the owl, this is where you'd add some extra details with crayons or markers (e.g. blood on the fangs).

The steps are the same no matter what character you make, but the shapes you cut out and the construction paper colors are different obviously. I can also imagine how easy it would be to do a Frankenstein one, or a skull. What Halloween monster/character would you make?

Glittery Spider Webs }{ holiday crafting

Ready for a "why didn't I think of that" moment? At least that's how I felt when I saw this idea on Pinterest (originally on Redbook). So easy. Why didn't I think of that?

We did this with a 4 year old and a 7 year old, and it was a hit with both. It was also messy and a bit hard for them to get it just right. So we helped. The hardest part is waiting for the glue to dry.

Materials:
glue
glitter
wax paper
patience

What to do:

1. Cut a piece of wax paper larger than you want the web to be and place it over some cardboard.
2. With glue, draw a spider web on the wax paper - start with 8 straight lines, like you're cutting a pie into 8 equal pieces; then draw curved lines connecting the adjacent straight lines to each other. Look at the picture to see what I mean.
3. Cover the glue in glitter. This was hard for the kiddos to do thoroughly, so we helped by shaking the cardboard and wax paper around a bit until all the glue was covered.
4. Wait until it's dry (3-4 days) and carefully peel the web off the wax paper.

The cool thing is that you can use the technique to make all kinds of designs. Sooo many glittery possibilities...

Are you ready for Halloween?

Model Magic and plastic lid "cakes"

Before talking about our latest crafting adventures, I wanted to announce a little change in my blogging: Mrs Ricefield is now Mrs Ricefield Crafts and Mrs Ricefield Illustration. 


This blog was getting cluttered with too many topics, no focus, and just too much variety. I decided to separate my illustration and photography side from the sewing, crafting, etc. So, from now on, this blog will feature the latter, while Mrs Ricefield Illustration will focus on the former. 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

It's no secret that I have a girly-girly-girl with a very unique sense of fashion. This child sometimes makes Pinkalicious seem colorless.

And yes, she's obsessed with pink.

I've also mentioned before that I like to recycle household items. Put those things together and you've got this project: little doll cakes made of modeling clay and plastic lids + beads.

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, linking to a post on Love and Lollipops. We did make our own homemade clay using a recipe I had, but it dried quickly and it was breaking so easily that we remade everything using a small bag of Model Magic.

the original homemade clay

tea time with our friends

cakes made with Model Magic

It was a hit. She still loves playing with her little cakes, although all the beads have been taken out by now. I tried gluing them back on, but nothing seemed to stick well enough to prevent her from taking them off. So I just let it go and the cakes are still popular during our "tea" time.

Happy Easter! (And musings on drawing with kids)

Happy Easter everyone!

I try not to bring in religion to the blog too much, but I do hope you don't mind me celebrating some of the more important holidays for me. Easter is of course a big one, so I'd like to wish you all a blessed weekend.

I wanted to do a little illustration with an Easter theme, and N. of course wanted to join in. She never misses an opportunity to draw with me. In fact, it's one of her favorite things to do.

Here are a couple of things that I noticed when it comes to doing that:

1. No matter how stocked her crafting station is, as long as my supplies are out they're the only thing she'll use.
2. She will finish her work first, and then she absolutely must help me with mine. 

I used to worry and fret about her using some of my more expensive materials, but then...

I want her to feel free to experiment with art supplies and have fun with them, not feel like they're so precious she can't use them. She should also enjoy doing it, not worry about what I'm going to do if she adds something to my picture or spills some water on my watercolor.

So, with a herculean effort, I let go of it all. I let her use any and all supplies she wants (unless it's dangerous of course - no hot glue gun yet!), however she wants to, including on the picture I was working on. If it's something I really want to do alone, I wait until after she goes to sleep.

Today, we did these -

A long-haired girl on an egg hunt:

A bunny on a field:

Did you notice her addition to the bunny? She said it was a girl bunny and she needed a hair bow (which N. promptly supplied):

This hair bow makes me so happy. How could I ever say no to adding a hair bow to a bunny?

What are your plans for the weekend? 

Little ghost garland }{ tutorial

Do you know one reason (among many) I love Fall? There are so many excuses for crafting and inspiration kisses your face as soon as you walk outside. I'm glad my husband isn't a jealous guy.

With a little one in my house, Halloween is one of these excuses to go crazy creating stuff, costumes, decorations, what have you. We can always use a new item to put up for the season, right? And we do end having so much fun doing it together as a family.

This project I'm sharing is a quick and easy one that we did last weekend - a garland of little ghosts that you can hang anywhere.  N. had a great time with this one. The ghost faces were easy enough that she could do some of them on her own, and she loved the results. She actually kept a few of the ghosts to play with.

What you need:

• scraps of muslin
• styrofoam balls
• string
• brushes and paint

Steps:

1. Fold the scrap in half (or a piece of rectangular muslin you cut), then paint the face near the fold.
2. Place a styrofoam ball under the top, behind the face you painted. Tie the fabric tightly just under the ball with the string.
3. Repeat with as many little ghosts as you want. 
4. Once you have your ghosts, place a long string through the knots under their heads and voila. Now all you need is to hang it up anywhere you want.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Swan mask }{ Tutorial Thursday

Today's tutorial was inspired by Angelina Ballerina, one of the few cartoons N. actually watches once in a blue moon. (we gave up the tv years ago, but that's a story for another post)

At the end of each episode of Angelina, she narrates a short segment called "Little Stars" where they show young girls in ballet classes doing all sorts of activities. In one particular segment they were showing the little ballerinas making costumes and playing in character for a short while. N. was fascinated by the costumes - and one of them I figured I could actually make! This is my version of the mask they had for the swans in the "Little Stars" Swan Lake.

Materials

• paper or styrofoam plates
• ribbon or elastic
• markers
• orange and white construction paper
• scissors or craft knife
• glue
• feathers (or any embellishment you want to add, we kept ours simple)

How to make it

Step 1: cut the plate across where your nose will be.

Step 2: cut a small triangle to fit over the bridge of your nose.

Step 3: draw and cut the eyes.

Step 4: cut a medium triangle of orange construction paper and fold 1/8" of its base. Make a half cone shape and glue the folded part over the nose triangle on the plate. 

Step 5: trace the outside of the plate on the white construction paper. Cut the paper about 1/2" below the shape you traced (so you'll have paper to glue on the plate). Cut triangular shapes of different sizes and directions around the line you made on the paper. These will be the swan "feathers."

Step 6: Glue the paper under the line all the way around the edge of the plate. At this point, make one small hole on each side of the swan mask to hold the elastic or ribbon.

Step 7: using a black marker define the edges of the eyes, then using a pink or red marker make swirly "eyelashes" or any shape to make the eyes stronger and more interesting.

Step 8: glue feathers (or other embellishments) to the paper feathers on top of the head. warning: the feathers I used to do this made a mess in my workspace! Even after vacuuming I'm still finding little pieces everywhere. They're taking over my craft area. *sigh*

Step 9: add a piece of ribbon to each side of the mask ti-eying it through the holes made in step 7. These will secure the mask on the wearer's head. I prefer using ribbon because then I can adjust the size depending on who's wearing it, but elastic works wonderfully too.

Here's the finished mask.

We had a lot of fun pretending to be swans and "dancing ballet" around the living room today.

Have you ever been inspired by a show your kids watch? Where do you find your inspiration?

A pen holder for father's day }{ Tutorial Thursdays

I know, I know, we still have some time to go before Father's day. I just figured I could give you a head start on making something for dad. This particular craft is inspired by my husband's desk, which is much, much more organized than mine.

Materials:

• empty (also clean and not smashed) toilet paper rolls; paper towel rolls also work, but you have to cut them down to a smaller size
• scissors
• cardboard
• strong glue (I used a hot glue gun, but it's not necessary as long as your glue is strong enough)
• scraps of fabric, felt, and/or graphic paper (I took the cover of a mail catalogue)
• embellishments

Steps:

1. Make the bottoms - draw a circle on the cardboard using your toilet paper roll for measure. I circled very close to the sides but on the inside of the roll to make the bottom a little smaller than the roll.
2. Cover it with fabric/paper/felt - spread glue on the circle and place it on your choice of covering, then let it dry.
3. Cut the fabric leaving a little extra around the circle.
4. Attach bottom to roll - spread glue on the inside of the rolls at the bottom. Carefully push the bottom with fabric from the top to the bottom, with the fabric side facing down. The extra fabric will get glued to the sides of the roll and attach the bottom more firmly.
5. Cut a strip of paper of fabric and glue it around the roll in whatever design you'd like. I'm going to describe the suit design only. 
1. First cut a white felt triangle and glue it to the roll with the bottom of the triangle going along the top of the roll. 
2. Then measure and cut a rectangle out of the felt for the suit that will cover the entire roll, but only as wide as it takes to cover it without leaving an empty space. However, do make it a little bit longer, so you can fold the fabric in and glue a bit of it on the inside.
3. Take some spot around the middle of the rectangle and attach it with pins to the white felt on the spot where the triangle was cut. Cut carefully a matching triangle out of the top of the felt rectangle around the middle. Basically you are matching the opening of the suit to match the triangle you already cut (the shirt).
4. Glue the rectangle to the roll, matching the missing triangle section on the suit to the white felt triangle already on the roll.
5. Measure the length and cut a tie shape, then glue it to the white shirt/triangle. 
6. Measure the length and cut two strips to glue alongside the shirt triangle and make a suit lapel.

steps 2 and 3

steps 5.1- 5.4

steps 5.5 and 5.6

I also made one with a baseball-themed cover of a catalogue we received in the mail, since my husband loves baseball. All I did for that was cut a rectangle out of the cover with the pitcher and his team positioned in the middle of the roll. I also covered another roll with fuzzy yarn and added some buttons, but that one's for me. :)

Once you have the bottom, you and your big or little kids can really decorate the roll however you want. You can even put an "I love you dad" or "#1 dad" in there. I ran out of old rolls....

What are you planning on doing for Father's day?

Fun with Drums }{ Tutorial Thursdays

Bring the noise! Pa rum pum pum pum, we're making a drum!

If you don't like kids making noise (and there's nothing wrong with wanting a bit of peace and quiet), do skip today's post. If, like me, you make a lot of noise yourself, read on and enjoy.

Materials:

• empty coffee can, or any medium sized, metal (some cardboard is ok) can.
• a balloon
• disposable chopsticks (if you order Chinese take-out, keep a pair clean)
• duct tape
• scraps of fabric
• glue

What do to:

1. Clean the can and take off labels. Throw the lid on your recycling bin (or you can save it for more recyclable crafts...).
2. Glue some fabric to the outside of the can. Cut out the excess on the top and bottom.
3. Cut the funnel of the balloon close to the wider part.
4. Stretch the balloon over the open end of the can so that the balloon is completely stretched out and taught.
5. Take the duct tape and wrap it around the wider end of the chopstick repeatedly, making sure you bunch it up at the top. You're making an oval at the top basically. 
6. Glue fabric to the duct tape.
7. Voila, you have a drum! 

step 1

step 2

step 3

Add caption

The finished drum!

Of course, you can really use any embellishment you want on the drum. Since I was making it for N. and she likes flowers, I used a flowery patterned fabric. 

By the way, either side of the can works as a drum. In fact, N. much preferred the metal side/bottom as you can see in this video:

How much noise can you stand around the house? Do you make music with household items?