Make a 4th of July Fireworks Painting - using a Fly swatter!

The other day my son and I made a trip to the Dollar Store. Being that the 4th of July was right around the corner, I was keeping my eyes open for craft materials for a fireworks painting. I am happy to say that I hit the jackpot!

Materials used for fireworks painting

I found these unusual fly swatters with flowers affixed to one side of them, a "can strainer", and also inexpensive black poster board, and voila! An idea was born for the Fireworks painting.


Full list of materials we used: 

• Black Poster Board (to represent the sky) (50 cents - Dollar Store)
• 2 Fly swatters with ornamental plastic flowers on them ($1 each- Dollar Store)
• Can Strainer ($1 Dollar Store)
• Tempera Paint (Colorations, from Discount School Supply)
• Bronze "Activity" Paint (Colorations, from Discount School Supply)
• Meat packing trays to hold paint
• stencil brush
• glitter
• sequins stars

I spread blue and red paint onto trays. My son pressed the fly swatter (flower-side down) into the paint and proceeded to swat away onto the black paper. WOW! I was impressed with how the splattered paint looked a lot like fireworks!

Soon he mastered double-fisted swat action! He was having fun!

Originally, I had just planned on him using 2 colors, but he insisted on me adding more (which, I must admit, made for a much more exciting picture in the end)! He then added green fireworks...

 
...and yellow fireworks to the painting. It all came together looking like the an explosion of color against a night sky.

After he was done using the fly swatters, I had him use the can strainer as a stencil to paint a different looking firework to the mix. With a stencil brush, he "stippled", or tapped bronze paint through the holes and onto the paper.

This was the result.

He placed the new fireworks all over the page where he saw fit. 

And then — to add even more pizazz — he sprinkled on glitter...

...and metallic stars to make it glow. 

I love how the painting looks abstract...

...but yet still looks like the beautiful lit-up sky of a 4th of July night.



Thanks for coming by and checking this out. Remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page if you want to stay informed of more kid craft ideas I post or find around the blogosphere! Have a fun holiday! Stay safe!

Patriotic Ice Cube Painting and Kids Co-op Linky Party

Yesterday my son and I made a trip to the Dollar Store and found star shaped ice cube trays for, of course, only A BUCK! What a score!

When we came home, I filled each star with red, white, or blue tempera paint, and stuck a dibble stick in each. Then I placed the tray carefully in the freezer.

Today we pulled the iced paint cubes out of the freezer, and took them out of the tray.

We (both!) had fun playing around with them , moving them around on a piece of paper and watching the marks that they left as they warmed up. Of course as time passed the iced paint melted more readily and more distinct marks were made.

Because I didn't dilute the paint with water (which I usually do when I freeze paint) I found the texture was creamy and moved smoothly on the paper.

This is a fun activity that I think children of all ages would enjoy!

Happy 4th of July everybody!

Thanks for coming by and checking this out. Remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page if you want to stay informed of more kid craft ideas I post or find around the blogosphere! Have a wonderful day! 

Now for our weekly link-up! This week Mama's Little Muse is linking up our Glittery Fireworks Craft post, our Seahorse post, as well as our Patriotic Ice Cube Painting Post.

Dramatic Fireworks Display Craft: a Fourth of July Activity

Here is a super fun 4th of July craft to do with the kids. YES it requires the dreaded glitter, BUT the end-result is SO well worth it!

Materials needed:

• black construction paper
• glitter in all different colors
• Elmer’s glue thinned down with water and mixed well.
• container for thinned down glue
• water
• a spoon
• a straw
• a tray for paper
• optional: Folded piece of paper (for clean-up)

1. Take a spoonful of thinned-down glue and place blob on construction paper.

2. Have child blow air through the straw onto the glue. Encourage the child to blow the glue blob in all different directions. This part can be a little challenging. I had my son actually touch the straw to the glue to make it easier. Also tip the tray so that "gravity" helps the glue go in the direction you want it to go. Rotate the tray and the direction of the air being blown. I think a lazy susan would be helpful for this, but we didn't have one around.

3. Have child pour glitter (one color) onto the glue.

Adult job- For easy clean-up pour loose glitter onto folded paper and pour back into the container.

Repeat steps 1 to 3 with different colors of glitter. Don't worry about the new glue being blown onto the other glitter shapes. It ends up being interesting that way. 

 

Have a safe and enjoyable 4th of July!

Thanks for coming by and checking this out. Remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page if you want to stay informed of more kid craft ideas I post or find around the blogosphere! 

Have fun!

Make an Ocean in a Bottle & Kid's Co-op Link up Party

I personally love this craft! I made this with my son about 2 years ago, and thought that we would revisit it. The materials are easy to gather, and the bottle takes minutes to put together.

 First we gathered up the materials:

• Oil (I like to keep on hand the cheapest oil I can find at the store specifically for crafts like this, or playdough, etc)
• An empty plastic bottle with cap
• Blue Watercolor (ours is from Discount School Supply), food dye would work fine too
• Glitter
• Other objects that represent the ocean (sand, shells, a shark)
• Funnel
• Liquid measuring cup (only because it is easy to pour from, we didn't use it for measuring)

First, I had my son pour water into the bottle to about the half-way mark, and then I had him put in the watercolor.

 Then I had him add the glitter.

We squeezed the rubber floaty shark in, and then poured some oil in. Next time I will remember not to use ocean creatures that float, and use instead the solid plastic ones that sink to the bottom — that way the sea creatures stay in the ocean part.

Before the oil reached the top, we put the sand and the shells in. 

We then poured oil as high up as it could go to the top and capped it, turning it as tightly as I could. Last time I think I put special glue inside the cap to make sure it stayed sealed. I didn't do that this time, as I felt secure that I screwed the top tight enough that it wouldn't come loose.

Voila! My son had fun putting it up to the light and watching the waves tumble back and forth. Such a gratifying easy craft that I highly recommend!

Things Bode learned:

• Oil and water don't mix
• Oil is actually lighter in weight than water and floats to the top.
• The watercolor mixes with the water and not with the oil, because it is water-based.

Thanks for coming by and checking this out. Remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page if you want to stay informed of more kid craft ideas I post or find around the blogosphere! Now onto the Link-up Party! Have a wonderful day!

Quick Butterfly Craft from magazine pages

I thought I would write a post on a very easy and simple butterfly craft you can do with your children. All you need are scissors, magazines, a pipe cleaner, and fishing line (optional). At the time of this writing a Butterfly Blog Hop just went live at Plain Vanilla Mom and I wanted to submit this tutorial. You all should hop on over there and see what other ideas people came up with pertaining to butterflies.

I like this project because:

1. Children of all ages love it  
2. It reuses magazines that might otherwise be tossed  
3. It requires minimal preparation.

Children under 5 may need one-on-one assistance in helping with the folding and the cutting.

First have the children choose 2 magazine pages to use. I encourage them to look for pages that are brightly colored, or that have an interesting repeating pattern.

On the Paper #1 (the bottom set of wings) fold the paper in half. With scissors cut the corners so they are nice and rounded.

On Paper #2 (the top set of wings) Fold a triangle down and cut bottom strip, so that when it is unfolded it is a square.

When the pages are unfolded they should look like this.

Take Paper #1 and make an accordian fold going all the way up to the top of the paper.

 On paper #2 turn the paper diagonal and fold as shown.

I like to fold the resulting folded papers in half so I know where the center point is on each.

This is so easy! I like to attach a short length of fishing line to the butterflies with a loop on the other end so that the kids can "fly" them on the playground. This craft is always a big hit!

Thanks for coming by and checking this out. Remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page if you want to stay informed of more kid craft ideas I post or find around the blogosphere!

Book made out of one sheet of paper and scissors

I am a Member of the Weekly Kid's Co-op. I feel so fortunate to have found an incredible group of friendly, creative bloggers. If you have a fun kid friendly activity that you would like to link up to our Weekly Party, see below for details. Also be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post to see what other bloggers have come up with. The following is my blog post that I am linking up:

I think it is important to set up environments for our children which invite them to engage in creative play in a natural organic way. That being said, I do let my son watch TV and play video games, but only a very limited amount per week. He does plead for them at times, and it has reached a degree where my patience wears thin. Instead of being the bad guy all the time, saying "No, no, no!" I realize that it is my responsibility as a parent to offer him alternatives that will engage him.

Partly inspired by Screen-Free Week which happened a couple of weeks ago, and also my feelings surrounding my son's media obsession, I came up with the following idea: I set out on his drawing table all of his markers he enjoys drawing with. In addition I set out a large blank book for him to draw in. He loves drawing pictures and making up stories to go along with them. Often he has me write down words to accompany his pictures. However, in the past his pictures were on single sheets of paper, never in multiple sheets in book form! He would love this!

My hunch was right, when he saw the blank book and the markers he wanted to dive right in. And dove right in he did! He worked on the book in one sitting for about an hour, and that is huge! We also took it with us to places he otherwise might get bored and restless, so that the time would be enjoyable to him.  With each completed page, I was sure to write in my neatest handwriting in bold black ink the story he recited to me. I made sure that he signed his work, as any author or artist would be sure to do; and, of course, I had him give the book a title.

I was lucky because I scored gargantuan (I mean GARGANTUAN) sheets of quality paper from our local material exchange store called M.E.C.C.A. (check it out here) for a song. I'm talking $5 per inch of stack! That's a deal if I've ever seen one! Thanks M.E.C.C.A. The paper makes for a great book, but you can use any size rectangular sheet (I have even made itty bitty books with 8.5 X 11" sized paper!) Here are the directions:

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you like what you see here on my blog and want to keep abreast of more posts in the future, as well as links to other fun ideas that I have found around the internet, I would love it if you liked my Facebook Page here.

Have fun!