Time for School!

The time has arrived... school starts this week! M1 is starting to show small signs that she's a little scared, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that her first day starts with a smile. We'll see...

To celebrate the beginning of school, we created a pencil. This is a project that I often created in my classroom. Upon completion, we hung them from the desks to display the students' names.

Supplies- *Yellow Paint, *6 Craft Sticks, *Glue, *Paint Brush/Sponge, *Tape, *Cream, Red & Black Construction Paper, *Scissors, *Ribbon

1. Begin by painting five of the craft sticks yellow. Allow to dry.

2. Cut out a large cream colored triangle & a much smaller black triangle to use as the tip of the pencil. (I used a manila folder for the cream color.)

3. Glue the black triangle to the large cream triangle.

4. Cut out a large rectangle. This will become the eraser.

5. Tape the yellow sticks together for a quick hold.

6. Use the 6th (unpainted) craft stick & glue it to the back of the yellow sticks to hold them together. We glued at a diagonal.

7. Glue the triangle onto the end of the craft sticks & the rectangle to the other end.

8. Tape a small piece of ribbon onto the back to hang the pencil.

Done! It turned out to be a great start-of-school craft. Afterwards M1 added stickers to her pencil spelling out her teacher's name. She's so excited to give it to her tomorrow when we go in for Open House. Hopefully Mrs.B enjoys it as much as we do!

 

Enjoy! s.b.

Cork Stamped Flowers

Notice the tiny hands.. M2 did this project with me all by herself without M1. She felt so special, just a taste of what's to come when M1 starts preschool next week. It will be quite a change not having her around for a few hours two mornings a week! M2 walked around carrying her picture saying, "I made it!" She is always so proud when she does a craft. I love it...

Supplies- *Wine Cork, *Blue&Green Construction Paper, *White Paint, *Cup or Bowl for Dipping, *Glue Stick, *Scissors.

1. Cut out 2-3 stems & a few leaves using the green construction paper. (I did this myself since m2 is a bit too small to be cutting. If your child is a bit older they could do this on their own.)

2. Have your little one glue the stems & leaves onto the blue piece of paper.

 

3. Pour a small amount of the white paint into a bowl.

4. Dip the cork into the paint & begin to stamp the white circles at the top of each stem. (Below-M2 w/ my assistance.)

5. Continue stamping until the desired amount of circles create a flower appearance. I love that each flower looks like a hydrangea. They are my favorite.

                                               6. Allow time to dry.

Enjoy! s.b.

Canvas Painting...

What a cute project. I've seen this done a few times & I look forward to having M1 & M2 create some masterpieces of their own for our new house in a few months. These pictures are of a friend of mine & her two little ones "A" & "E." How cute are they painting their canvas?! She purchased all of her supplies @ Michaels for pretty cheap...around $15.00. You can't find art that inexpensive & personalized by your little ones! Thanks for sharing your pictures ladies!

Supplies- *Clean White Canvas (there are so many different sizes to choose from...your choice.), *Colored Paint (She was able to fine kid-safe acrylics too!), *Paint Brushes/Sponges, *Paper Plate/Bowl, *Some sort of polycrylic finish. (Also found @ Michaels.) *Some sort of paint shirt to prevent stained clothes.

1. Pour a small amount of paint, one color at a time, onto a paper plate or bowl.

2. Give your little ones some time to get creative & create their paintings.

(Working so hard!)

3. Once they are finished allow them to dry completely.

4. *Optional... Apply a coat of polycrylic finish over the top of the painted canvas to "lock" in the paint. (I've used both a brush on kind or a polycrylic finish that comes in a spray can which seemed to be a bit easier. You can apply more than one coat of polycrylic finish, just be sure to let each coat dry completely before adding another.)

So cute! I can't wait to see what M1 & M2 create for our house. "A" & "E's" will look fabulous in their newly remodeled bathroom.

Enjoy! s.b.

Contact Paper Kites

These cute kites require many steps, but they are all fairly simple. M1 & her friend "A" loved making them. After the project was finished I decided to add a string to the top of the kite so she could run with it while holding on to the string. Definitely gave her the feeling of flying her kite.

Supplies- *Contact Paper, *Construction Paper, *Scissors, *Sequence, *Stickers, *Feathers, *Thin Ribbon, *Markers, *Coffee Filters, *H2O Spray Bottle

1. Cut out an outline of a kite using the construction paper. (Seen Below)

 

2. Place the kite outline on the contact paper with the sticky side up.

3. Give the little ones time to decorate the kite by laying sequence, stickers, etc. on the sticky contact paper. (Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the girls decorating... lots going on & M2 was not happy during that time!)

4. Once it's all decorated, place another piece of contact paper over the sticky side to seal the decorations in. Trim off the extra around the edges of the kite.
5. Punch a hole in the bottom of the kite & attach a 2 1/2 foot piece of string.

6. Now the ties... use washable markers to color all over a coffee filter, pictured below.

7. Take the colored filters outside & spray with water.
8. Allow them to dry.

9. Once the filter is dry, cut out 3-4 oval/rectangular pieces. Discard the scraps.

10. Pinch each piece together in the center & tie onto the kite string as shown below.

11. Done & ready to fly around the yard!
As I mentioned earlier, I did fasten a string to the top of the kite also. M1 & A had a great time flying their kites around the yard!

Enjoy! s.b.

Juice Bottle Bug House

If M1 wasn't so afraid of bugs this would be a great project.

I may have to craft it with her & give it a try because I think having bugs in a container to watch would be right up M2's alley. She's not nearly as girly as M1 is. My hope is that if the bugs are contained M1 won't freak out as much. It is ridiculous how much she hates bugs...definitely takes after her mom, the only difference is the bugs I'm terrified of are much bigger & much uglier (centipedes)!!  Fingers crossed... I have yet to see one here in our new town. Sounds like they aren't as big of an issue here... Hooray!

Here are the directions...Juice Bottle Bug House

I'll post pics once we actually make ours...Bugs aside, I think the girls will enjoy collecting all the bug "food" and sticks to create the bug home.

Have fun & enjoy! s.b.

Handprint Flowers

Today was one of the first days that I really had to beg M1 to do a craft! She's usually so excited to create something. We're all a bit under the weather this week, so maybe that had a little something to do with it! (Also why you'll see she's still in her pj's!)
Supplies- *Colored Construction Paper, *Scissors, *Glue, *Green Pipe Cleaner, * Pencil

1. Trace your little one's hand on one of the pieces of construction paper. (I traced one hand & then cut 3 pieces of paper @ once to speed it up.) You can make as little or as many flowers as you wish.

2. Cut out the "hands."

3. Glue each of the hands onto the base piece of paper. We chose to use blue.

 

4. Cut the pipe cleaners to size so they fit onto the piece of paper.

5. Glue them onto the bottom of the flowers.

6. Cut out a handful of leaves using green construction paper.

7. Glue the leaves around the stems & allow some time for the picture to dry!

Enjoy! s.b.

100 Followers!

I'm so happy to have reached 100 followers! I truly hope that many of you have found some fun things to do with your little ones through visiting s.b.creatively now & then. I enjoy doing the crafts with M1 & M2 & look forward to doing oodles more in the future. Thank you to all of my followers & don't be afraid to share s.b.creatively with LOTS of others!! THANK YOU!!!!