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!

Clothespin Butterfly Craft

 We've been doing a lot of crafts recently since we're home so much. My girls frequently ask me for new crafts and one day they wanted to make butterflies. So, we present to you our Clothespin Butterfly Craft!

Gratitude Wheel (free PDF)

 I was looking online for Thanksgiving/gratitude crafts for my kids to do during Thanksgiving break (since they are losing interest in our gratitude tree that we've done for several years) and found the idea to order Thankful Wheels or Gratitude Wheels. I wasn't sure if they would get here in time and spent way too much time designing my own with my limited photo shopping skills and thought I would share it here for anyone else who needs something to entertain their kids during Thanksgiving break...

Leaf Letters

Here's a fun way to work on letter recognition with toddlers while using nature...Leaf Letters!

Corona Virus crayon craft

Why not have a little fun with the fact we're all trapped in this Corona Virus phase of life and make a craft out of it?

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!

Rainbow Watercolor Salt Eggs

Across the globe people are stuck at home during this Corona Virus Pandemic and we're all looking for ways to keep our kids entertained. One of the crafts I've done with my kids (ages 12, 10, 5 and 3) was these Rainbow Watercolor Salt Eggs...

Pom Pom Caterpillar Craft

Spring is coming and this is the perfect craft to do with your little ones! A Pom Pom Caterpillar...

Sea Shell Crab Craft

We will probably never use all of our sea shells from Florida two summers ago, but it's fun finding different ways to re-purpose them...like making cute little Sea Shell Crabs!

Paint the sea shells red and let them dry.

Cut some red pipe cleaners (aka chenille stems) into 6 legs, and use two more to make the pinchers.

Hot glue those on, and add some googly eyes. Once the glue is hard, you can bend the legs so that your little crabs can stand!

Thank you Parents for the fun idea! I'm linking up to Creatively Crafty Link Party,

Hand Print Unicorn

My girls are into unicorns and love pretending they are unicorns every day! So, I knew this hand print unicorn would be the perfect craft :)

I loved how simple this craft was because I just painted my 2 year old's hand pink, stamped her hand print on a paper and let it dry.

Then I used a marker to add the tail, mane, face, horn, and hooves! Easy peasy :).

Thank you The Resourceful Mama for the inspiration!

Popsicle Stick Boats

Our library recently had a "Water Ways" exhibit, and as part of the excitement, they hosted a contest for making boats out of Popsicle sticks! My 10 year old and I each made one to enter, and we both won in our age categories :). Here are the final products (I made the pirate ship, and my son made the other boat):

My son's ended up being a bit more complex than the boat we built a couple of years ago. What have you made out of Popsicle sticks lately?

Five Little "Thumbkin" craft

Fall is one of the funnest times to do crafts with kids...the possibilities are endless! Have your kids make a Five Little Thumbkin craft, and the plus side is that it's so easy to customize to your kids' age and ability level.

Paper Plate Dinosaur Craft

Paper Plate Dinosaurs are the perfect craft for toddlers...especially if you have a friend over to play. They allow for creativity, individuality, and they aren't too frustrating for little hands to finish.

All you need is:

• Paper plates
• Scissors
• Paint or markers
• Construction paper
• Glue stick
• Googly eyes

1. Cut the paper plates in half and hand each kid a half. 
2. Get them painting or coloring and cut out legs, tails and heads in coordinating colored construction paper. I just free-handed these.
3. When the plate is dry, have them glue the head, legs and tail to their dinosaur.
4. Add googly eyes and draw on a mouth.
   
5. You're done! Admire the cute little dinosaurs :)

Thank you I Heart Arts and Crafts for the fun idea! I'm linking up to the Happiness is Homemade link party.

Recycled Turtle Craft

My boys got a pet turtle last fall, so turtles have been a popular topic here. One day, my 4 year old asked if we could make a turtle craft so I looked through my stash and we made these:

Here's what you'll need to make your own cute little turtles: applesauce cups (washed and dried), green craft foam (or construction paper), googly eyes, scissors, permanent markers, glue sticks.

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.

Cheesecloth Ghost without Starch

I love the cute cheesecloth ghosts that everyone makes, but most of the tutorials I read required using starch to give the ghosts their shape. I didn't have starch on hand, so I was thrilled when I found a different technique that uses corn starch (which is still probably technically starch, but not the stinky spray kind)!

I found the idea at Love and Laundry...and I'm so glad I did. My kids had a blast making these ghosts.

Popsicle Stick Craft: BB-8

I never know what to expect when my 4 year old says she wants to do a craft...some days she wants to color a picture, and other days she wants to make a BB-8 from Star Wars out of Popsicle sticks!

I thought it turned out well. We started by making the bottom of BB-8. It's just a simple hexagon, with two layers. We alternated which stick was on top. Then we made the head out of two layers of Popsicle sticks, and glued the antennae in between those layers.

Pom poms were added for some extra flare and BB-8 proudly hangs on my daughter's wall.

I'll be linking up to Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie. What fun crafts have you made lately?