Handprint Bats

 

Here's a quick Halloween craft you can do with your kids...handprint bats! You can have different sized bats if parents and kids all participate.

1. Trace and cut out two of your child's (or your own) handprints. We did purple construction paper for some more color contrast.
2. Cut out:
1. A purple oval and a smaller black oval.
2. A purple circle for the head.
3. Two purple triangles.
4. Two little feet.
3. Glue the handprints to the purple oval, and attach all of the other shapes.
4. Add on some googly eyes, and draw on a little mouth. We used chalkboard markers, but any marker will work.
5. Hang your cute little creation upside down and admire your work.

Thank you Simple Everyday Mom for the cute idea!

Simple Easter Crafts

 Spring break is upon us, and Easter will be here before we know it! Here are two simple crafts to keep your little ones busy...at least for a little bit:

B is for Bunny craft:

1. On a piece of construction paper, draw a large letter B
2. Along the letter, put some white school glue. If your child is old enough, they can do this part.
3. Have your child place cotton balls on the glue.
4. Cut out some bunny ears and glue those on at the top of your letter B.
5. Add some googly eyes and you have a cute, alphabet Easter craft.

Handprint Bunnies

1. Trace your child's hand and cut it out.
2. Fold the middle finger behind the bunny (or cut it off)
3. Fold down the pinky finger and thumb to act as the bunny's arms.
4. Have your child draw on the face, feet, and inside of ears.
5. Voila! You have a cute little hand print bunny!

Thank you The Simple Parent, and One Little Project for the fun ideas!

Pine Cone Hedgehogs

In an attempt to make life more interesting during Corona Virus quarantine for my kids, I decided to have a hedgehog themed day where we would do crafts, learn about hedgehogs and watch the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie. Well, we watched the movie that day but never did the craft. My daughter wouldn't let me forget about doing the craft so we ended up doing it the next week and our little hedgehogs turned out so cute!

Sea Shell Turtle Craft

We still have a box full of sea shells from our trip to Florida over a year ago, so I've been hunting for fun ways to use those shells. My kids loved making their own little turtles out of some of them!

Halloween Craft: Spider Orb

Here's a fun, simple craft for your kids to enjoy, then you get to display for the holidays: a spider orb!

Scissor skills activity-toy rescue

My 5 year old just started kindergarten, and the one concern her pre-k teacher had for her was that she doesn't have the hand strength to use scissors very well. Over the summer I had her cut paper when we could, but I knew she would love this scissor skills activity...rescuing her toys!

Hand Print Butterfly Craft

When I found out I was having a girl (5 years ago!), I decided to decorate her room in a butterfly theme. Needless to say, it stuck and we have loved butterflies ever since! This butterfly hand print craft was so simple, but she loved making it!

Start your butterfly by tracing your child's hands on construction paper.

Kids Craft: Paper Plate Submarine

This post is entirely dedicated to getting the song "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" stuck in your head...just kidding ;).

This was a fun craft to do with my daughter because it used a few different art mediums...paint, markers, ripping/cutting paper, glue. I found the idea at Red Ted Art and made a few modifications to her submarine.

DIY Wooden Growth Chart

My husband's parents always marked his growth on a door, but when they got rid of carpet, all of the measurements changed. My parents used the door frame, which worked until we moved and couldn't take the door frame with us. I wanted something to keep track of my children's growth that would last a long time, and that we could take with us when/if we moved. That's why I fell in love with the idea of a giant wooden ruler!

Spring Break Target Practice

If spring break is coming up and you're scrambling with ways to entertain your kids, why not review their basic math skills and work on some target practice?

For this activity, you'll need some Nerf guns, balls, some paper towel or wrapping paper tubes, and empty box, and some glue.

Cut your tubes to different heights and glue them to the bottom of the box. Write different numbers on each tube to represent their value.

Have your kids aim and shoot at the tubes. As they play, they have to add up their points. This was fun for my 10, 8, and 3 year old!

Thank you Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls for the fun idea. I'll be linking up to Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie.

Children's scribbles into Father's Day Card

If your kids are too young to color a whole card (or just hate coloring like my boys often do) you can minimize their work and instead ask them to just color or scribble on a small piece of paper. Cut out a tie from their scribbles and glue it to a card...now Daddy has a designer tie by his little ones!

Each tie is "designed" by one of my kids. I made three cards last year...one for Daddy and one for each Grandpa. Simple and cute!
Thank you for the fun idea!

Skee Ball at Home

One of my husband's co-workers gave him an inflatable pool full of ball pit balls. This ball pit has been lots of fun for my kids...especially my 2 year old! But, I have found some other uses for these balls lately...Skee Ball being one of them!

All you need are some balls, laundry baskets, paper and tape.

Handprint Bunnies

Whether you are celebrating Easter, or you just need a fun spring craft, try making these hand print bunnies with your kids!

Hand Print Snowman Ornament

I've seen the ornaments that have children's hand prints turned into snowmen for years and just barely made a hand print snowman ornament with my 2 year old. I love it!

Marshmallow Launchers

I grew up with three brothers and it still surprises me how much my boys love weapons of any kind. These marshmallow launchers were naturally a big hit in our household!

Plastic Spoon Ants

Even though my boys are getting older, they still love doing crafts, and especially anything to do with bugs! They had a blast making these ants out of plastic spoons:

Caterpillar Crafts

I know it's still frigid in many parts of the country, and bugs are scarce, but here's fun craft for your little ones to do while they're stuck indoors: Popsicle stick caterpillars or clothespin caterpillars.

This was a simple craft for my boys, but they loved making their own patterns. All you need is either Popsicle sticks or clothespins, pom poms, googly eyes and glue. We used hot glue, but school glue could work too. You can glue googly eyes to the front, or glue little pom poms on the head.

Have fun! Thanks We Made That for the fun idea.

Felt Light-saber Ornament

Is your house as Star Wars obsessed as mine is right now? Our family dressed up in a Star Wars theme for Halloween, we have tons of Star Wars Legos, and my boys begged me to make them light-saber ornaments this year...

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out! I free-haned the whole thing, but the handle was a grey rectangle, which I stitched the black details on. The blade was cut like so:

Once all the pieces were sewn together, I started sewing it closed at the tip of the blade, and stuffed with cotton as I sewed. I sewed in a piece of yarn to hang it with (my boys picked purple yarn of all colors!), and tried it in various places to find the best balance point. The ornament is about the thickness of a pencil.

I also added their first initial and '15. I hope these are something they enjoy pulling out each year and that these ornaments will remind them of my love for years to come.

Popsicle Stick Reindeer Ornaments

I don't know how I spent most of my life without making one of these Popsicle Stick Reindeer Ornaments before, but somehow I missed out as a child since everyone else seems to have made them. Now, I get to live vicariously through my children's crafts!

Popsicle Stick Snowflakes

We go through a lot of Popsicle sticks in our house. They are so affordable and versatile! Plus, they are easy for little hands to work with. These snowflakes were a breeze for my boys to make and they needed very little help from me.