Family, Food, Travel & Fun!
It's Turkey Time - Toilet Paper Roll Craft
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we figured it is time to do some turkey themed crafts and projects for the kids. With the help of fellow Atlantic Canadian bloggers, we have put together a Turkey themed blog hop of projects you will want to try out this year!
St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner and we have put together a list of projects and crafts for kids and adults.
These projects are all from Canadian Bloggers, show them some support and try some of these out. Give some a try and be sure to let us know what you tried below in the comments!
St. Patrick's Day Painting from Pickle Planet Moncton
Shamrock Hat from East Coast Mommy
St. Patrick's Day shirt from Frugal Mom eh
Green Pasta Necklace from Pickle Planet Moncton
St. Patrick's Day Treat Bucket from Tales Of A Ranting Ginger
Rainbow Scavenger Hunt from Pickle Planet Moncton
Easy St. Patrick's Day Decor from 5 Minutes For Mom
Gratitude Door from East Coast Mommy
Free Printable from the Flying Couponer
Edible Rainbow Necklace from East Coast Mommy
Crafts, Food & Fun with Pickle Planet Moncton
Leprechaun Bait from East Coast Mommy
These are just a few ideas to help inspire you to celebrate and have fun this St. Partick's Day!
Here's an easy craft for the kids to do. My little guy loved making these.
What you need:
For little kids, I simply put some glue on a plastic plate or sandwich bag and let them dip the pompoms in it. (It washes off the plate no problem when done)
This craft is so easy for little hands and makes them very proud they made a craft all by themselves (with a little guidance).
Adults can make the star for the top, or if you have the foam stars they can even do that part themselves.
Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
Busy Bag: Felt Board Ideas
There are times when you need an activity to keep the kids busy, while you either have some quiet time, get supper under way or need a bathroom break! You know those times, right? I have started putting together "Busy Bags", for just those occasions. These are activities or toys that are not readily available to my child all the time, but are brought out when mama needs a few minutes to get something done.
You can create so many variations of these bags, and today I am sharing my felt board.
Simply pick up felt sheets at the dollar store, and glue 2 black pieces to a rectangle of cardboard (an old box cut up).
Next, decided on a couple themes you will use to guide the shapes and designs you will make.
I have the following:
Kids Craft: Egg Carton Spider
Do you keep Egg Cartons, thinking you will use them in a craft project, and they are piling up? Here is a cute or creepy little craft you can do with the kids. Great addition to Halloween decor.
Creative Kids: Some Days They Decide What To Do!
I usually do up craft kits to have on hand to do a project with my 3 year old. I have slacked off and haven't made any up lately. I do them up to make it quick to get out and not let my son see all the supplies (or he would want to play with it all).
Yesterday morning, Clayton asked if he could paint. Immediately my mind started coming up with excuses why we couldn't. Bad mommy attitude right there! I caught myself being negative and realized, why am I worried about mess when he just wants to be creative. After all, it is washable finger paint. We have a table I can cover and lots of paper to paint on. So, my reply to him was, "Sure, what do you want to paint?". Fully expecting a nonspecific reply, I started getting the paint ready. Then he says, "Yoda, I want to paint Yoda, mommy!".
Yoda, really?? Okay, so here I am thinking, he's 3, maybe I can make a circle with pointy ears and a drapey robe. That would be great for most 3 year olds, but next thing I know, he passes me THIS colouring book and tells me, "like this one".
My quick sharpie version of Yoda in Sharpie marker on Finger Paint paper. Not bad for a quick sketch (remember, 3 year olds are not very patient).
I am so glad I changed my attitude towards his request to paint. He had so much fun!
Here are the results and a few other paintings he created. Oh, and must share the video as well, he LOVED getting messy!
It was a quick clean up, washing paint brushes, fingers....hands, okay, arms! We hung the paintings out to dry and then he had another request. "Mommy, can I cut paper?"
Clayton has not been one to sit for long and practice colouring, cutting, gluing, etc, so I thought this was a great chance to help him learn. Well, I was shocked. He did great, and I was able to capture some pretty cute faces he was making while concentrating! Check it out.
So, all this to tell you, it is really fun to let the kids decide what they want to do sometimes. We enjoyed about an hour of creative play with some fun artwork to show for it. PLUS, by letting him decide, he was happy and super proud of all he created.
Happy creating!
After making the Coffee Filter Earth craft we started looking for other items to use to make crafts. I keep old cardboard boxes cut up and ready to use for crafts, as a surface to work on, or just to build with. Egg cartons are another thing we have on hand all the time. So, we decided to make a recycled tree!
The only paint we had on hand was finger paints in red, blue and yellow. We mixed blue and yellow to make our green, but when I added the red to try for brown, well, it didn't work out! As you can see, I used brown marker for the tree trunk. It actually looks better than the paint would have.
You Will Need:
Another successful, unplanned Earth Day craft. I love crafting with our preschooler. He is sometimes hard to keep focussed, but paint is almost always a winner with him.
Don't forget to check out the other Earth Day Craft we did: Coffee Filter Earth
For more ideas, check out my Pinterest Boards, and be sure to follow me.
Earth Day Craft - Coffee Filter Earth
As a mom who has a closet full of supplies, and every now and then is organized with planned crafts, I found myself on Earth Day with no plan. Wanting to make a couple quick crafts with my preschooler though, I put on my thinking cap and tried to recall some crafts I had seen online, or from playgroups.
I remembered seeing marbled earth crafts using shaving cream and food colouring that looked like lots of fun. Honestly, I didn't feel like dealing with the mess, but will try that sensory craft another day, maybe with rainbow colours! Just as I was reaching for the paint and a paper plate, I remembered an easy coffee filter craft that would be perfect. We used Blue and Green to represent water and land, but this can be a fun craft any day of the year, using variations of colours. You could even make various sizes and colours to create the solar system.
This craft for Earth Day, or any day of the year, is easy and perfect for all ages.
My 3 yr old loved making this Earth Day Craft. It is quick and very simple. Keeping younger children's attention through this project is easily accomplished, as each step in the process is short. Most children will love the last step the most! What child doesn't like a spray bottle with water?
You will need: • Coffee Filters • Blue Marker • Green Marker • Spray Bottle • Water • scrap cardboard or plastic table cloth
Using blue and green markers, draw and fill in the entire surface of coffee filter.
On protected surface, cardboard or plastic table cloth, spray filter lightly with water.
Allow to dry. These look great hung in a window or on the fridge. My son had a great time with this craft and was very excited to show it to his dad at the end of the day!
Don't forget to check out the other Earth Day Craft we did: Recycled Tree
For more ideas, check out my Pinterest Boards, and be sure to follow me. Toilet Paper Crafts: Swirly Snake
With a 3 year old in the house, we tend to keep many items to use in crafts. There is never a shortage of Egg Cartons or Toilet Paper Tubes in my house. Here is a quick and simple craft to do with toilet paper tubes.
Start by colouring a tube with paint, markers or crayons. We made this one with a couple shades of green markers.
Once you have it coloured, you will want to cut the tube in a spiral from one side to the other. Don't worry about shaping the head or tail yet.
After you have your spiral, make one end look more tail like by thinning and shaping the end.
The next part is to make the head shape. You can use my shape as a guideline or make it a simple rounded end.
Add googly eyes and you could also add a tongue. Voila! You are done.
Enjoy and watch for more easy and fun Toilet Paper Tubes crafts!
OKAY, let's face it, when you are trying to cook supper, do up the dishes, fold laundry or maybe just trying to finish a cup of coffee and there is a young child in the house, you need something to divert their attention and hold it for a minimum of 5 minutes. We have what I call "busy bags" in my house. They are zippered bags with various activities in them. Each one is ready to pass to my 3 yr old when I need to get some work done or prepare the family meal. Heck, even going to the bathroom with a toddler - preschooler in the house is a group activity. Sometimes it is nice to just divert and distract them long enough to get things done quickly (rarely done well, but better than not one at all, right?)
Here is one of his favourite busy bags: Velcro Sticks.
You can make a large number of these for less than $3. I picked up my supplies up at the local dollar store.
▪ I cut my Velcro rounds in two pieces in order to fit my craft sticks. You may be able to find smaller rounds.
▪ Attach two Velcro pieces to the sticks, one at each end. They should be the opposite sides of the Velcro.
▪ Do this to various colours and let your child enjoy!
Mine are in a "busy bag", (Ziploc bags or a zippered pencil case work well), and I use them as an activity that my son only has access to when I get it out for him. This allows me to have something new or not so common to keep his attention when I need it.
The Velcro Sticks can be used to learn shapes and colours, or even in a counting exercise. Make some basic shapes or patterns with the sticks, then take a photo of what you made. Print the pictures of the shapes and patterns and include in the bag as part of a matching/building activity.