"Love makes the world go 'round" Hanging Mobile

As a salute to the highest state of being there is in life, may I present to you the Love Mobile...

This idea came to me a couple of weeks ago and it was too perfect and fitting for the Valentine Holiday not to follow through on. I made the Earth early last year out of paper mache' and it has been floating around the house ever since waiting for me to do something more with it.

Turns out I'm so glad that I never got around to it until now.

I 'm refraining from posting a tutorial on how to make this as my construction was haphazard at best (the slippery fishing line I used and my rudimentary knot-tying ability worries me, for one). But here is a list of the materials I used.

• embroidery hoop
• fishing line
• beads
• paper
• electrical tape
• tacky glue
• Glitter hearts (I bought 2 packs of 12 at Michael's for 1.99 each)
• paper mache' Earth

Proceed at your own risk if you must!

May you all open your hearts to giving and receiving love on this Valentine's Day Holiday. Have a good one!

Easy Pop-up Valentine's Day card: Kid's Craft

This is a very easy card to make, and the pop-up feature makes the card that much more special. Children of all ages will enjoy constructing this precious Valentine.

Inside Card- Three-quarters view

 Materials needed: 

• construction paper
• scissors
• glue stick
• doilies (optional)
• stickers, markers, glitter etc. 

 Directions:

1. Fold one sheet of construction paper in half. 
2. On another piece of paper cut a thin strip 4 inches in length. Fold this paper in half. Fold up little tabs on each end. 
3. Attach strip of paper to card by gluing tabs to each half of card.
4. Cut out and decorate a paper heart.
5. Glue heart onto paper strip.
6. Voila! Done! Have child decorate the rest of card with stickers, glitter, markers, stamps or whatever! Have fun!

Front cover of card

Inside card - front view

If you liked this post and you want to stay informed of more kid activity ideas I post or find around the blogosphere, remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page! Thank you! Have a wonderful day!

"I love you this much" Keepsake Valentine Card Idea

I thought a personalized Valentine featuring my son would be the perfect gift for his grandparents this year. There is a popular Valentine craft circulating Pinterest that features 2 paper hands with an accordian paper strip between them that says "I love you this much" (check out the craft here). Feeling inspired, I thought I would put my own twist on it, using a picture of my son — and a real banner made up of string and hearts.

Materials needed:

• camera, computer, printer
• Tacky glue
• string (for banner)
• scissors
• construction paper
• doilies
• pen or print-out of inscription
• mod podge and brush (optional)
• stickers & glitter (optional)

First I snapped a couple pictures of my little man posing for me stretching his arms out on each side of his body as far as he could. I then uploaded the pictures to my computer. I chose the best picture, opened it up in Photoshop, set the PPI to 300 (in Image Size) and traced and cut out the body with the lasso tool. I then created a new white fill layer and pasted on his cut-out body, turning off the visibility of the old layers. If you don't have PS you can print out the picture and cut around the body with scissors.
Print out the picture and cut it out, leaving a small white border around body. 

Next, I measured my child's "wingspan" on the paper (7 inches). I then typed up on my computer and printed out the phrase "I love you this much" making sure it measured the same. (I used mom's typewriter font) I typed the phrase multiple times just in case I messed up a letter.. (I'm not a big fan of having to go back and do things all over again!). I then very carefully cut each letter out in little heart shapes and lined them up in the order I wanted them.

I then flipped the entire phrase over horizontally (so that now the letters are lying face down, and the "I" letter is on the right side). I dabbed glue on the backside of each heart using scissors to press down the hearts so they "unstick" to the glue bottle tip (believe me you don't want to use your hand for this, it will get sticky and things will get messy real fast - take it from me I know!) Then I pressed the string down onto the glue, again using the scissors to push the string down into the glue. Leave enough tail on each side to tie into knot.

 
While the banner was left to dry, I then mounted and glued my son's body onto background paper that in some way represented "Valentine's Day" (I made 2 cards — one of the background papers was cut in a heart shape, the other one was a red piece of construction paper, see below). I then glued down the writing I wanted to include inside the card: "Happy Valentine's Day", and "Love, Carolyn and Bode". Of course you could handwrite whatever you want to say. Have your child decorate with stickers and glitter if you want. Put a layer of Mod Podge on if you like (if you don't know about Mod Podge you should! It is an incredible glue, sealer, and finish all in one. And it is water-based so pretty easy to clean up). I had my son help glue doilies to the back side to frame the cards. Doilies represent Valentine's Day to me (I seriously don't ever remember using them any other time other than this holiday) so I kind of feel they are an absolute must in Valentine crafting.

Card number one completed

After the card was decorated and mod podged, I attached the banner, tying knots at each end and putting a big glob of glue on each of the hands and pressing knots down. Don't worry the glue dries clear.

Banner up close

Card number two

We then sent off to grandparents! I think they will like this one!

Homemade fingerpaint recipe and making repurposed hearts

I recently checked out this super cool book from the library called Recipes for Art and Craft Materials, by Helen Roney Sattler. It is jam packed with instructions on how to make an array of fun crafty concoctions to use with your children or students, such as pastes, modeling compounds, paper-mache, and paints, etc. Making these common craft materials at home from scratch cost way less than buying the finished items from the store...I like that!
On this day, I thought that it would be fun to try my hand in making fingerpaint using a recipe from the book as a reference.

Ingredients needed:

• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
• 2 cups boiling water
• small air-tight jars
• poster paints

Step one: Mix cornstarch with 3/4 cup cold water in a saucepan.
Step two: Soak gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water. Let sit.
Step three: Pour boiling water into cornstarch mixture pouring slowly and stirring constantly.
Step four: Cook cornstarch mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, letting mixture boil until it becomes pretty clear in color.
Step five: Remove from stove; stir in gelatin.
Step six: Let cool and then pour equal amounts into jars. Add paint and mix well.

Store in refrigerator. The paints will last for a few days. Be sure not to let them sit out for too long as the paints will thicken up and lose their "slippery" quality.

Stirring up gelatin and water mixture

Cornstarch on stove: boiling and clearing...

Fingerpainting? Bode decides it is more fun for Gumby to be ice skating on the rainbow pond than to actually fingerpaint. LOL. Soon Pokey the horse was to join in also...

The finished paintings after they dried

This proved to be such a successful, fun project, for my son, who enjoyed helping with making the fingerpaint as well as the actual fingerpainting itself! The paint took a long time to dry — a good 24 hours — but once it did, it was glossy, hard, able to bend (it only cracked a teeny bit).

 

In honor of Valentine's Day, I turned the paintings into repurposed puffy hearts.  I think this was such a sweet idea from Scrumdillydo. You can find the directions here. 

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! 

Thanks for visiting!

String Art Heart

String Art Project

Last weekend I went on a mini road trip and visited an old friend of mine, Jenny, in her new house 2 hours away from here. She is one of those friends that, despite distance and time, our friendship always takes off again where it last left off. I love friendships like that — no initial shyness, just being-ness. She has always been a crafty soul and this is one of the reasons why I think we have always connected so well.

Jenny's String Art Star

While sitting in her front room, I spied a precious little treasure on a shelf nearby (pictured above). The hand-crafted object looked like one of those antique relics one might find in a colonial arts museum.

Inscription on back

After further investigation I discovered that this object — made up of nails, wood and string —  was actually made by my friend when she was young. Flipping it over and reading the words on the backside I realized that it was a present to her "Mumsie", AKA, Grandma. How cool! I can only imagine how touched her grandmother felt to receive such a thoughtful gift from her. I knew right away what my next project would be with my son. Because Valentine's Day was right around the corner, I thought positioning the nails to form a heart shape would be just perfect.
This project turned out to be a great way to introduce my 4-year-old son to using a hammer and nails. I do, however, think that it might be better suited for older kids (7 and up) as they will be able to do more of the steps by themselves (like holding nails, hammering them in, and tying knots).

Materials needed:

• 2x4 piece of wood cut into a square
• medium grain sandpaper
• hammer and nails (I used an 1.25" length nails with a head on them: "bright nails")
• paper
• scotch or masking tape
• scissors
• string
• ribbon

Step one: Sand down edges of the wood block. I had to show my son how to do this by placing my hand over his and showing him the back and forth movement.

Step Two: Cut out a symmetrical paper heart that fits well on block. Center and place tape on the back and secure it down on wood.

Step Three: Hammer nails down around the edge of the heart spacing them about a half inch apart. I had to hammer in the nails first so they were secure and then I let my son hammer them in more. He was afraid to hold the nail at its base but I encouraged him to, explaining that if he focuses and he is careful he won't hit his hand. He was able to for awhile and then just ended up wielding the hammer with both hands.

Heart shape finished

Step four: Remove paper heart. Tie string around a nail leaving a tail so that you can tie the other end of string to it when done. Wrap the string around the heart a few times to define an outline (I did this part). 

Weave the string back and forth every direction using nails as anchors. My son had a great time doing this part as I expected he would (his favorite pastime is stealing balls of yarn from me and stringing up the house). When finished, adult neatens it up by tightening string and pulling stray strings that wound up on the outside of the heart into the inside. Tie the two ends of string together and cut tails with scissors.

Step five: Center and wrap a ribbon around the edges of the wood block. Then tie a knot at the top as close to the wood as possible. Tie the 2 tails of the ribbon into another knot about 6 inches from the first knot. Hang and enjoy!

"Owl Love You!" Heart Owl Kids' Craft for Valentine's Day

This cute little "love" owl is almost entirely made out of hearts. Not only is it a fun craft for kids to do, but it is also without a doubt going to charm anyone lucky enough to be the receiver of such a Valentine.  Children of all ages will enjoy putting this together.


 Materials needed:

• brown paper (grocery bags are perfect!)
• red and pink construction paper
• potatoes
• linoleum cutter and/or paring knife
• scissors
• glue stick
• ink pad
• black marker

Potato shapes cut for: eyes, beak and heart texture

Preparation: Adult carves out potatoes in shapes shown above with linoleum block cutter and paring knife.

Preparation (continued): Depending on skill level of child, either adult or child cuts out 2 large brown symmetrical hearts (for head and body), 2 medium-sized brown symmetrical hearts (for wings), 4 tiny hearts (red paper for ears and talons), and 1 small heart (pink for Valentine note).

Step one: Using ink from ink pad and heart-shaped stamp, child presses pattern all over one of the big heart cut-outs (the body of the owl).

Step Two: Child presses heart shaped potato stamp all over both medium heart cut-outs (the wings of the owl) — this time making the pattern denser as to create contrast between body and wings.

Step three: Taking the other big heart cut-out, child folds it as shown so that a beak shape is formed between what-is-to-be the owl's 2 eyes.

 

 Step four: Unfold and stamp on beak.

Step five: Turn heart over and fold down beak. Stamp on eyes.

Head of owl complete: Beak and eyes stamped on folded heart

Step Six: Fold wings vertically and glue onto body of owl.

Step Seven: Glue down beak. Glue head onto owl's body in placement shown.

Step Eight: Glue on ears and talons as shown above.

Step Nine: Depending on skill level, adult or child writes "Owl love you" on pink heart. Glue on so that owl appears to be holding the Valentine note. Send off to child's Valentine!

I love to hear your comments! Please tell me what you think below!

Valentine's Day Love Banner: Tissue Paper Collage Craft for Children

For the past couple years, I think just about every crafter in the blogosphere has posted a tutorial on how to make a sewn fabric banner (AKA bunting). I think banners are a pretty cool and unique way to decorate a house's interior. I know that I have had my eye on a few projects out there to make for myself (here, here, and here).
Being that Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought a banner spelling out the word "LOVE" would be perfect. I modified this trendy craft so that it would be something that my son could partake in. Replacing the fabric, thread, and sewing machine with contact paper, construction paper, tissue paper plus a few tools of the trade, we were set to go!

Material List:

• Tissue Paper in various colors, cut in 1-2" squares 
• Black construction paper cut in quarters
• Clear contact paper
• X-ACTO knife and cutting mat
• Scissors
• Tacky Glue
• String
• Metal Ruler (optional)

Step one: With the X-ACTO knife, adult cuts out letter shapes from the black construction paper. For straight edges, use metal ruler as a guide. Use cutting mat to protect surface underneath. For the "O", cut out a smaller circle for the center.

Step two: Adult peels the backing off contact paper and places the construction paper FACE DOWN on the sticky surface. Make sure contact paper covers the full surface of black paper. Trim edges so that there is no contact paper extending past the outside edges of the black paper.

Step three: Have child place tissue paper squares one at a time on sticky surface. Encourage them to lay each piece down flat and to overlap the tissue paper so that the entire sticky surface is covered.

Step four: Turn it over to see how it looks. Arrange it in the order that you want it to hang. I decided to add two hearts to each side of the word "LOVE" for decoration's sake.

Step five: Flip up letters vertically so that the backsides are facing up.

Step six: Apply a bead of glue in placement shown.

Step six: Press on string (allow string to be long enough on both ends of banner in order to hang up). Let dry.

Step seven: Hang up in a window or doorway that gets a lot of light shining through from behind. Enjoy your child's craft!