A couple of weeks ago, I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw @toysaclock traced her child’s hand onto cardboard and let her paint the finger nails. This got me thinking. My daughter loves to paint but is always waisting paper. She paints one thing on a page, doesn’t like it, and wants to start over. Sound familiar to anyone else? So…I thought if I drew different scenes onto cardboard, put tape over it so that she could erase the paint and start over, then my daughter could paint the same scenes over and over again without waiting paper. If she messes up, no big deal, just erase it!
Thankfully, my daughter was all about this idea. She loves that she can paint the same picture over and over until it looks just the way she wants. If you think your child would like this activity too, keep reading.
What You’ll Need
Cardboard
Sharpie
Heavy Duty Scotch Tape
Paint
Paint Brushes
Paper towel
How To:
Use your sharpie to draw a scene onto the cardboard. Cover the entire cardboard with tape and starting paining and erasing and painting again. We haven’t been leaving the paint on the cardboard for too long to make sure we can erase it easily.
Have you tried this or are you planning to try this? Comment down below!
*Adult supervision is required*
I think making craft stick dolls to bring along with us to the beach each weekend is going to be our thing this summer. They are easy to make, they keep my daughters entertained, AND they take up almost no room in the suitcase.
Last week, we made a craft stick family to bring along with us, (see here). My daughters had so much fun with them. They took them to the beach all weekend and built them sandcastles to live in. It was great… until we realized we lost some at the beach. So… this week, we decided to make some superhero craft stick dolls to bring along with us so that they could go on a search and rescue mission. Do you think the superhero’s will find the dolls we lost? I’m hopeful… sort of. I’ll keep you posted.
If you’d like to make your own superhero craft stick dolls, keep reading.
What You’ll Need
Popsicle sticks
Markers
Sharpie
Scissors
Construction paper
Glue
Googly eyes
How To:
Use your markers to draw your superhero’s shirt, pants, mask, hair and mouth right on the popsicle stick.
Glue on the googly eyes.
Cut a triangle out of construction paper and glue it to the back of your popsicle stick.
That’s it’s, it’s as simple as that. If you’d like to see a video tutorial, head over to my Instagram @thiscraftygirlmom.
Thanks for stopping by.
*Adult supervision is required*
My daughters and I spent a great deal of time making this Father’s Day poster for my husband. A GREAT DEAL OF TIME! I really hope he loves this poster. I mean LOVES. I want him to want to frame this poster that is how much he appreciates and adores it after how much time it took us.
Now… it should not have taken hours. It should have been a relatively quick project. BUT, I couldn’t find our sticker letters so I had to cut little strips of washi tape and form the letters myself. If that wasn’t time consuming enough, I kept leaving letters out of one word and would have to remove the washi tape and start over. Maybe subconsciously I wanted to spend hours making this poster. Doubtful, but that is the only theory I have for why I kept leaving letters out.
Anyway, I finally had all the letters right (or so I thought), and we painted our poster, let it dry, and removed the sticker letters to reveal our sentence. And what do you think I see? Did you guess correctly? I left out a letter! AGAIN! Are you kidding me! I then gave up on the washi tape and searched my house from top to bottom and found our sticker letters.
Once we had those, we were able to complete the project quickly and I didn’t misspell the word OFISHCIAL. In my defense, this is not a real word. I shouldn’t know how to spell it. Anyway, you must be so excited to make this project now, so scroll down to see how it’s done!
What You’ll Need:
Poster board
Spong
Paint
Sticker letters
Coffee filter (6)
Markers
Pipette or spray bottle
Water
String
Tape
Scissors
Googly eyes
How To:
The first thing you will need to do is place the sticker letters down on your poster to form your sentence. Look it over and make sure everything is spelled correctly before moving on.
Next, cut up a sponge (we used a new one) and choose your paint colors. Sponge paint the entire poster.
Now it is time for the coffee filter fish. You will need six coffee filters to make three fish. Stack your coffee filters, two in each group. You will have three groups. Color three of the coffee filters with markers. Spray them with a spray bottle, let them sit for a bit, and then separate them and allow them to dry fully. Once the coffee filters are dry, cut a triangle out of three of the coffee filters to form a mouth. Add the googly eyes. Take your other three coffee filters and cut out three tails. One from each to match the fish. Glue on the tails.
If the paint on your poster is fully dry, you can remove the letters. Go slowly. Sometimes part of the sticker stays behind.
Time to hang the fish onto the poster. Cut three pieces of string. Tape one end of the string to the back of your fish by the mouth. Tape the other end of the string to the back of the poster. Because this poster has string I wouldn’t leave it within reach of children.
You’re all done! Despite the amount of time this took us, I am so please with the result and think my husband will love it. Comment down below and let me know what you think. Looking forward to hearing from you!
*Adult supervision required*
Our family loves a good countdown. And I mean LOVES! We make them for just about every holiday… ok, we make them on any old day, but especially on holidays. That said, we have never made an hourly countdown for Father’s Day. When I suggested to my daughters that we make one for their Daddy they were so excited. They couldn’t wait to get started on creating the perfect countdown.
What We Used To Make Our Countdown:
Construction paper
Scissors
Tape
Paint
Paint brushes
String
Clothespins
How To Make The Shirt & Tie Card
- Fold the construction paper in half.
- Make a small cut in the center of the front of the card.
- Fold down both sides where the cut is to make the collar.
- Draw a tie onto a white piece of paper and cut it out.
- Decorate the tie. We used the back of the paintbrush to create the dots that you see on our ties.
- Write the time you would like the card to be opened at the top of the tie.
- Glue the tie under the collar of a shirt.
- In each card, have your children write a special message to Daddy, or write down different activities you can do as a family.
- Once you are ready to hang them up, add a piece of tape to the inside corner of the card to keep the cards closed.
We decided to make 10 shirts. Our countdown will go from 8:00 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Here’s Is What We Wrote In Each Card:
8:00 a.m. Sit back and relax, we are going to make you breakfast.
9:00 a.m. Let’s Go sit in the screened in porch together. Bring your coffee and relax.
10:00 a.m. Daddy, lets go take a walk on the beach and collect shells.
11:00 a.m. Sit down Daddy, we have a special garden poster to read to you. See here. Father’s Day Gifts
12:00 p.m. Us girls are going to cook you lunch. Sit back and relax.
1:00 p.m. Let’s go swim in the pool!
2:00 p.m. We challenge you to a card game. Your choice.
3:00 p.m. Let’s go build sand castles. I’ll race you to the beach!
4:00 p.m. Time for presents!
5 p.m. Go relax, Daddy, we’re cooking you dinner.
Comment down below and let me know what you think of our countdown.
*Adult supervision is required*
Let me start off by saying, these dolls were so much fun to make. My daughters loved creating their doll family (ok, I enjoyed making them too), and they played with them for hours… I may have joined in. I’m telling you, they are fun! They got quite attached to their new dolls, and when it came time to pack for our weekend at the beach, they couldn’t fathom leaving them behind, so we put them in the suitcase and brought them along!
We brought them to the beach and my daughters built them sandcastle homes to live in.
And of course, the dolls sat poolside as they swam.
If you want to make these craft stick dolls, all you need are some popsicle sticks, washi tape, markers and scissors.
It has been nice to have a change of scenery. We hope to spend every weekend at the beach. We will have to think of another fun craft to bring along with us next weekend. And of course, these dolls will be joining us again!
Comment down below with your thoughts, and let me know how it went if you make some craft stick dolls. Looking forward to hearing from you!
*Adult supervision is required*
If your children are anything like mine, they spend a great deal of time pretending to be wizards from Harry Potter. Recently, one of my daughters lost the Hermione wand she was given last Christmas. It just magically disappeared… see what I did there! Well, I thought it was funny.
Anyway… I thought of a quick fix this morning. Since we have a bunch of sticks, leaves and flowers in our backyard, we decided to make some nature wands. We quickly went onto Pinterest, typed in nature wands, and of course it’s a thing. We got a few quick tips and then got to work collecting all of the materials we needed to make this happen.
What You’ll Need
Stick (make sure it is smooth so your child doesn’t get hurt)
Masking tape
Flowers & leaves
Rubber band ( if needed)
How To:
Wrap your stick with the sticky part of your tape facing out. Don’t cover the entire stick, you want to leave part of it showing. That will be the handle. Press the leaves and flowers onto the masking tape. If it is a larger flower, as shown on two our ours, you can wrap a small rubber band around it to keep it attached. And that’s it! It is quick and easy. We had fun looking around for bits and pieces to add to our wands, and my daughters have been casting spells all morning.
Comment down below with your thoughts or let me know how it went if you give these nature wands a try. Looking forward to hearing from you.
*Adult supervision is required*
My daughters are really interested in ocean life and can not wait for our first trip to the beach this year, which is happening at the end of the month. While I love the ocean, and enjoy going to the beach, I am a bit weary of what lies beneath the waves, and rather sit on the sand. The last time I went into the ocean ( a few years back), something rubbed against my feet and I jumped onto a strangers back to get away from it. Turned out to be seaweed… In my mind, jumping on that stranger was totally justified. They didn’t mind, they found it rather funny actually. I’ll just keep my toes in the sand and out of the ocean this year.
Anyway… since summer is around the corner, and our first beach trip is upon us, I thought we could make some ocean themed crafts.
Paper Plate Fish
This adorable little fish was quick and easy to make. I had everything we needed in the house which is an added bonus. It is always great when I don’t have to order materials.
What You’ll Need:
Paper plate
Paint
Paint brush
Cupcake liners
Googly eyes
Glue
- Cut a triangle out of your plate. Save the triangle.
- Paint the plate any color you would like. Let it dry.
- You can use the triangle you cut out as the tail of your fish. Glue it to the back of your paper plate. Pointy side in.
- Glue on the googly eye.
- Fold each cupcake liner in half and then in half again. Glue them down onto the plate. You can make any pattern you would like. Cover the tail with the cupcake liners as well, and add a top fin.
Paper Plate Octopus
While I love making this octopus with my daughters, you have to watch the pointy ends to the pipe cleaners. I usually cover them in some way when my daughters are using them. Also, make sure an adult is always present when your child is making or playing with this octopus as the uncooked pasta noodles can be a choking hazard. Aside from that, this craft was so much fun to make and my daughters spent a great deal of time placing and removing the pasta noodles to create different looks.
What You’ll Need:
Pipe cleaners
Paper plate
Google eyes
Construction paper
Paint
Paintbrush
Uncooked pasta
Food Coloring & Vinegar (optional if you’d like to dye the pasta)
Single hole puncher
How To:
- If you are dying your pasta noodles, prepare them a couple of hours before you start this project so they have a chance to dry. There are so many different methods online to follow if you’d like to do this. I do suggest finding a method that uses vinegar instead of alcohol in case your child licks the pasta.
- Paint your paper plate and let it dry.
- Once your plate is dry, punch 8 single holes into the bottom of the plate.
- Push the pipe cleaners in the holes and tie them around the back of the plate. Make sure the pointed ends stay around back and doesn’t make their way to the front.
- Glue two google eyes by the octopus’ tentacles.
- Cut out three circles from construction paper and glue them to the top of your octopus.
Now you can let your child put the pasta onto the tentacles. They can try out different patters, they can count, whatever you’d like. If they lift the plate the noodles will fall off. You can secure them if you would like. We like to keep them loose so that we can keep trying out different looks.
Coffee Filter Turtle
My daughters and I love turtles! When we saw a version of these coffee filter turtles on Instagram @kidsactivitiesblog we knew we had to make our own version. They are so adorable, we wish they were real!
What You’ll Need
- Coffee filters
- Markers
- Green and blue construction paper
- Googly eyes
- Glue
- Water and pipette
How To:
- First cut out the legs and head for your turtle. Glue the legs and head down as seen below. Glue the googly eyes to the turtle’s head.
2. Flip your coffee filter upside down and flatten. Draw a pattern.
3. Using your pipette, drip water all over the coffee filter. Let it dry. You can glue the coffee filter down onto the turtle’s body or just place it on top so you can keep changing out the shell. Up to you.
If you would rather your turtle have a raised shell, try out the turtle down below.
What You’ll Need:
- Coffee filter
- Green and blue construction paper
- Googly eyes
- Glue
- Scissors
How To:
- First cut out the legs and head for your turtle. Glue the legs and head down as seen below. Glue the googly eyes to the turtle’s head.
2. Flip your coffee filter upside down so it looks like the raised turtle shell.
3. Cut out green cirlces (or whatever you’d like to add to your shell) and glue them on the shell.
4. Place the shell over the turtles body. We didn’t glue this one down. We wanted to make many different shells and change them out.
That’s it for today. We hope to try out different ocean themed crafts this summer. Do you know any fun ones? Comment down below?
*Adult supervision is required*
We have been busy over here making some Father’s Day gifts. My husband much rather receive something handmade than store bought from our daughters, which is great, since us girls love a good crafting session. We’ve spent the entire morning cutting, pasting and coloring, and can not wait to present these gifts to Daddy on Father’s Day.
YOU’RE FIN-TASTIC
Since my husband enjoys fishing, we made one of our gift ocean themed. My husband will definitely enjoy turning this plate around and around to read all of the lovely messages our daughters have written out for him.
As we were making this gift, I was reminded of the last time I went fishing with my husband. It was a long time ago, before our daughters were born. Instead of catching a fish, I caught a crab. When I tried to release it back into the ocean, it fell into the boat and started running around snapping its little claws at me. Have you ever had a crab coming at you with his snappers up and ready to pinch!? I hope not, but if you have, you’ll fully understand why I haven’t gone back. Anyway, scroll down to see how we made this craft.
Materials:
Two paper plates
Scissors
Paint
Paint brushes
Paper fasteners
Sharpie ( If you choose to write on the plate)
Pencil
- An adult can cut out a fish window onto one of the paper plates. Then, paint an underwater scene onto the same plate.
- Put the paper plate you just painted (when it is dry), on top of your second paper plate, and push a paper fastener through them both.
- Use the fish window to trace the same fish onto the bottom plate. Keep turning the top plate and tracing until you run out of room. We ended up with 4 fish.
- Remove the paper fastener, and the top plate and paint the fish. Once they dry write a message on each fish.
4. Put the plates together again and put the paper fastener back.
That’s it. Now turn the top plate and read each message.
Handprint Flower Bouquet
My husband loves to garden. Our backyard is filled with beautiful flowers and vegetables thanks to his green thumb. We thought it was fitting to give him some flowers on his special day, but since he has enough real flowers, we decided on some handprint flowers. We found this adorable craft on Pinterest, and knew it was the right one to make for his big day. We made a couple of adjustments so we could add some writing, and love the way it turned out.
Materials
Colored cardstock
White cardstock (Large enough to fit the flower bouquet)
Glue stick
Scissors
Black marker
How To:
- Trace your child’s hand and part of their arm.
- Now, trace just their hand onto 5 different colored papers.
- Cut out all of the handprints.
- Cut 5 long strips of green cardstock.
- Glue the green cardstock (flower stems) to the white cardstock.
- Glue down the handprint (with the arm) so it looks like it is holding the bouquet of flowers.
- Glue the other handprints onto the stems.
- Cut out white squares that will fit into each handprint. Write down 5 different messages for Dad on these squares. Glue them down onto the handprints.
Your flower bouquet is done!
What are your plans for Fathers Day? Have you made any crafts or have you tried one of these? Comment down below!
*Adult supervision is required*
Last year, or maybe it was two years ago… or was it three? I have no idea! I’m loosing track of time. Let’s just say, at some point in the past few years, I read about grass heads on Pinterest and my daughters and I have been making them ever since. We have so much fun watching their “hair” grow and really love when it’s time to give them a trim. You can also style their “hair” when it gets long enough. I think I have been in quarantine for too long, because today, when my grass head’s “hair” was long enough to style, I was so excited. Don’t judge me… ok, judge if you must. My daughters even gave me a sideways look as I gleefully tied the grass into a ponytail.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Plastic plant pots (clear cups work just as well)
Potting soil
Grass seeds
Construction paper
Googly eyes
Buttons and pom poms (optional)
Scissors
Hot glue gun (glue dots also work depending on what your using to plant your grass in)
How To:
First, glue the face onto the plastic plant pot. Next, fill it with potting soil. Don’t go all the way to the top, leave some room. Add a good amount of grass seed and then cover the seeds with soil. Water daily.
If you give this a try, comment down below. I would love to hear how it went.
*Adult supervision is required*
Anyone else’s children really into rainbows right now? My daughters are all about the rainbows. They want to eat rainbow food, make rainbow crafts, and paint their nails in rainbow colors. Even some of their Barbie dolls have rainbow colored hair. FYI, those barbies didn’t come like that. My daughters used markers and gave them a makeover. Better the barbies hair than theirs I suppose. So today I thought I would give them a special treat and make them rainbow pancakes and take them on a rainbow themed scavenger hunt.
Rainbow Pancakes
I’d love to say I made these pancakes from scratch but I didn’t. After being woken up at 6:30am (my daughters are early risers) I was way too tired to make anything from scratch. My eyes were barley open when we entered the kitchen. I just grabbed some Bisquick, and food coloring, and made pancakes the easy way.
We didn’t have all the colors needed to make a full rainbow, so my daughters mixed some colors together to create orange and purple. They told me that they learned all about mixing colors in camp last year so they didn’t need my help figuring out which colors to mix together. They are becoming so independent. I can’t believe they are almost in 3rd grade! I digress, back to the pancakes.
If you are not afraid of a mess, and you think your child is ready for this job, transferring the pancake batter into separate cups and mixing in the food coloring is a lot of fun. My daughters helped out with this today and only got some of the batter on the countertops. It used to stress me out when they helped me in the kitchen because of the inevitable mess, but I eventually learn to embrace the chaos that comes along with children helping out in the kitchen. It also helps that they are old enough to help clean up the mess.
When the pancakes were done cooking, I piled them on a plate and placed them in front of my daughters. They both grabbed one of each color, stacked them in rainbow order, and took a big bite! These were so much fun to make and eat. We will definitely make these again.
Rainbow Scavenger Hunt
After breakfast we got out some paint and paintbrushes and began painting our rainbows. I was a bit apprehensive about giving them paint after last weeks painting project went downhill fast, (they decided to paint each other instead of the paper) but it’s not like I can keep paint from them forever, so I crossed my fingers and handed over the materials. Thankfully all the paint stayed on the paper this time. Do your children do things like this, or is it just mine? Comment down below.
So anyway, while our rainbows dried, we took a walk around our neighborhood and documented everything we saw that was the same color as the colors of the rainbow. I have to say, it was a lot of fun. My daughters were so excited whenever they found something, and loved writing everything down.
Once our list was complete, we typed it up, cut out each word, and glued them to our rainbows. We realized we had some extra space on our rainbows so we looked around the house and found more things we could include. This was such a fun little project. My daughters loved the way their rainbows turned out. Comment down below if you give this a try. I’d love to hear how your scavenger hunt went.
*Adult supervision is required*