Playing House

Color Mixing with Shaving Cream

2012-02-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

Some days I don't mind getting messy with paint and watercolors, but some days I would rather keep everything nice and clean and mess free!

This activity turned out to be completely mess free and loads of fun for my girl!

Supplies needed:

Shaving cream

Ziploc bags

Food coloring or liquid watercolors

Fill your ziploc bag with shaving cream and add a few drops of your colors.

Then let the smashing begin and watch the colors mix!

(We made green!)

And purple!

Finger Painting - Color Mixing

2012-02-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sweet Girl wanted to do some finger painting today so I decided to throw in a little learning lesson.

I set out a plate of blue paint (teal because that's all we had) and a plate of yellow paint.

She played around with the colors for a while.

Then she made some hand prints.

And she painted herself.

And made more hand prints.

While she was playing and having fun we talked about how you can mix two colors together to create new colors. Painting yourself is always fun!

Bubble Painting

2012-02-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sweet Girl and I did some bubble painting today and it was awesome! Who doesn't like blowing bubbles in their drink???

Supplies needed:

Cups

Straws

Dish soap

Paper

Paint (we used liquid watercolors)

Combine dish soap and paint in a cup and stir together. Then add your water in about a 2:1 ratio.

Add your straws and blow your bubbles! Be sure to remind your little one not to accidentally drink the soap/paint/water mix. Sweet Girl is almost three and she had no problem understanding not to drink it.

Make lots of bubbles and then top the cups with your paper.

Here is a picture of one of our creations. We plan on using these to make some cards.

Stamping with Household Objects

2012-02-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

Here are some ways to use your ordinary household objects for some stamping fun!

Stamping with the top of a laundry detergent bottle.

The top of the bottle is perfect for little hands. It's easy to hold and you don't have to get messy if you don't want to.

Stamping with an egg carton

This made fun little shapes and also was pretty mess-free.

"Look mom...it's a circle in a square" was Sweet Girl's comment.

Stamping with a fork.

Weekend in Pictures

2012-02-19T10:12:00.000-05:00

Making Heart Faces - Toddler Craft

2012-02-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

This is the last heart related activity....I promise!!

These were just too cute not to share!

Nothing says "love" like a heart smiley face!

Heart Butterfly Craft

2012-02-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

This is a fun Valentine's craft we did earlier this week. Like all our crafts, super easy!!

Supplies needed:

Cardstock of various colors

Scissors

Googly eyes

Glue

Popsicle sticks

Cut out large and small hearts from cardstock.

Glue your popsicle stick down on your paper and then add glue to the pointy end of your heart.

Glue the pointy end of the hearts together (to make a butterfly shape) and then glue on your small hearts onto the larger hearts.

Add the googly eyes and draw on your antennae (or you could use pipe cleaners).

Hang up and enjoy!

Marbled Hearts

2012-02-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

We are big fans of shaving cream art at our house! You can click here and here to see some of our other activities with shaving cream.

If you haven't tried it yet, you have to!! It's so fun, so easy and oh so pretty once it's dry.

To celebrate everything "love" this year, Sweet Girl and I made shaving cream heart art.

All you need is shaving cream, a pan or cookie sheet, cardstock and your choice of food coloring.

Start by spraying your shaving cream all over your cookie sheet or pan. Then add several drops of your food coloring.

Have your little one mix it up and make swirls. We used the end of a grill brush, but you can use anything...even fingers and hands!

Press your paper (or heart in this case) into the shaving cream. Then just pull it up slowly...let it sit for about 5 minutes or so and then scrap off all the extra shaving cream. (I used a plastic knife to scrap).

Once it's dry, you have some beautiful artwork!!

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T08:38:00.000-05:00

(template from Swoone)

Valentine Heart Bird Feeders

2012-02-13T13:04:00.002-05:00

Sweet Girl gets a subscription to High Five magazine from her Mimi (we love you Mimi!) and these heart bird feeders were featured as the activity this month. They were fun and easy to make!

Start by cutting out a heart from a piece of cardboard. Make a hole for your ribbon towards the top of the heart.

Then spread shortening over your cardboard hearts. You can also use peanut butter if you don't have shortening.

Then press birdseed all over your heart. (Quick clean up tip: cover your cookie sheet with saran warp.)

Shake off the excess birdseed.

Tie on your ribbon and hang in your tree!

Weekend in Pictures

2012-02-12T17:43:00.000-05:00

Valentine's Tot Trays

2012-02-10T10:39:00.000-05:00

Sweet Girl and I finally pulled out all our Valentine's Day stuff. She had lots of fun looking through all our things and I really enjoyed having her help me make our trays. These are the trays she requested.

Uppercase and lowercase heart matching

This is from a Time for Tots set from last year.

Attaching heart close pins to a heart bowl

Heart color matching

Heart counting and placing the appropriate number inside each heart container

Letter writing and a mailbox

For this activity, I just wrote out some words for her to trace and then place in the mailbox.

Making Hearts - Toddler Crafts

2012-02-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm always trying to think of activities that both my son and daughter can do during our craft/art time. Making these hearts was a fun little activity for both my almost three year old and my one year old.

Using the Do-A-Dot markers we made Valentine's Day cards and some heart pictures.

Here you can see where I cut out a heart shape and gently taped it down onto the cardstock so we would have a nice clean heart on the paper once the shape was removed.

This is my one year old getting into the action. He really enjoyed playing around with the dot markers. And they are chubby enough for his little hands!

These are the finished pictures and cards....

Happy heart making!!

Valentine's Tot Trays and More!!

2012-02-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

I thought I would share our Valentine's Day tot trays and sensory bin from last year! I'm in the process of putting some new and updated trays together for Sweet Girl, but will likely use some of these as well. Just click on the link underneath each picture to be taken to the original post and more ideas!!

Valentine's Tot Trays Part I

Valentine's Tot Trays Part II

Valentine's Sensory Bin

Goodbye January, Hello February!

2012-02-07T07:00:00.001-05:00

I can't believe January has already come and gone. In addition to my personal goals for this year, I am also trying to set some monthly "objectives" for myself. I love, love, love having a list of creative things to do and feel sort of lost if I don't have anything on my plate. But I'm not locking myself into anything nor will I force myself to do something if I'm just not feeling it.

My January "to-do" list consisted of:

DIY Love Wall Art

Finishing our 2010 and 2011 family albums

Organizing our art supplies

Re-learning how to knit

I managed to check everything off my list. Yay me!!

And here is my February list...

DIY Stenciled Pillow

Knit a blanket...this will likely take me FOREVER to finish

Bake two loaves of bread (Cinnamon Pull Apart , Rosemary Olive Oil)
Make some sort of picture wall in our craft room (maybe this..)
Complete an indoor triathlon

So, here's to February!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2012-02-06T07:00:00.003-05:00

My mom would have been 64 years old today. Not one second of one day goes by that I don't miss her sweet smile, her happy laugh and her amazing personality. She was the best mother ever and I strive everyday to make my children as happy as she made me. Being a mom has made me appreciate her more than I ever thought possible. I know she is smiling down on us today, and every day.

Weekend in Pictures

2012-02-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

DIY Love Wall Art

2012-02-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

I saw this during one of my many Pinterest puruses and really want to try to make my own. I couldn't find all the letters I needed for my little saying at our craft store ( I wanted lowercase letters) so I used some of my alphabet stickers I had on hand instead. They worked out fabulously!

I adhered my stickers onto the 12x12 canvas with some Mod Podge and then painted over the whole things with some white craft paint. I'm loving how it looks in our kitchen!

Our Family Albums

2012-02-02T07:00:00.001-05:00

One of my projects for January was to work on and finish our 2010 and 2011 family albums. They are both officially uploaded, printed and happily sitting on our coffee table right now. It was a long process, but so worth it!!

Both albums are 12x12 and were printed through Shutterfly. I thought the pictures came out great, especially for the larger size. For my pages, I created some templates in Photoshop, used a mix of some templates I had, as well as Pasilee Press Curated collection. I really tried to keep my pages pretty simple and only use a few images for each layout. All of my digital word brushes are from Ali Edwards.

This the cover of our 2011 album.

And this is our 2010 album cover and a few page samples.

I'm so glad I finally was able to check this off my list. I still have 2009, 2008 and 2007 in the works but I'm taking an album break right now.

Our Favorite Valentine's Day Books

2012-01-31T07:03:00.000-05:00

For Valentine's each year, I try to add new books to our bookshelf. These are our current favorites, but I'm still on the lookout for some new ones this year.

Kisses, by Barney Saltzberg

Love Splat, by Rob Scotton

Love and Kisses, by Sarah Wilson

These last two are actually "Valentine's Day" related books, but they are so sweet and all about love so I threw them in the mix!!

Kiss Kiss, by Margaret Wild and Bridget Strevens-Marzo

Someday, by Alison McGhee

(Just try to read this one without crying...I dare ya!)

What about you??? What are your favorite Valentine's Day books??

Valentine's Day Crafts

2012-01-30T08:10:00.000-05:00

Bring on the pink and red!! Valentine's Day is just around the corner! Can you believe it?? I have lots of fun crafts and activities planned for us this year, but here are some of our favorites from last year.

Valentine's playdough cupcakes

Supplies needed: "chocolate" and "vanilla" playdough, cupcake wrappers, heart cookie cutter and glitter (or sprinkles)

Heart suncatcher

Supplies needed: red, pink, white tissue paper, contact paper and a piece of cardstock to cut your heart shape out of

Marshmallow heart

Supplies needed: mini marshmallows (enough for the heart and for snacking!!), glue and construction paper

Heart sponge painting

Supplies needed: red and pink paint, heart shape cut from sponges (I use the dollar store sponges because they come three to a pack!)

Heart thumbprint magnets

Supplies needed: salt dough, red and pink paint and some cute little thumbs

Weekend in Pictures

2012-01-29T19:33:00.001-05:00

This little guy....

2012-01-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

Melts my heart in so many ways.

He...

loves to cuddle

fits so nicely on my shoulder

is so laid back and easy going

has the funniest little laugh where he scrunches up his nose

He completed our family.

Daily December - Days 16-25

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

As I was sadly packing away my December Daily album I realized I forgot to share my remaining pages. I just loved this project. Every.Single.Minute. I actually went through a little camera and Photoshop withdrawal on December 26th. Luckily, I had my good ole Project Life album waiting for me.

Here are my days 16-25.

I love looking through this album. It already brings back so many fun memories. Documenting everyday life is such a wonderful thing.

A great big thanks to Ali Edwards for all her inspiration and dedication to this project. Don't tell my husband, but I am secretly counting down the days until December 1, 2012.

Read with Me: Corduroy

2012-01-26T07:00:00.002-05:00

We all read lots of books at our house. I love when I find Sweet Girl all curled up surrounded by books. Last week we read Goodnight Moon and did some activities focused on the book and letter M. Sweet Girl really loved doing all the fun things and asked to play with all things we made several times throughout the week. So...I ran with that and am trying to incorporate more of these reading activities into our daily routine.

This week has been all about Corduroy. This is such a cute, sweet story and I really love reading to her.

To go along with the book we did several of the activities found at Homeschool Creations.

I also brought out our buttons and Sweet Girl worked on some shadow matching, matching, color sorting and counting.

We finished off our day with a little "bear game". These little guys are definitely a favorite in our house...especially the purple ones.

(click here to be taken to this printable)

My life in six words...

2012-01-25T08:30:00.000-05:00

I'm embarking on Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers class this year. It's 52 weeks of encouragement, motivation and inspiration revolving around photography and Photoshop. It's been a great learning experience so far and I'm excited to get my creativity flowing over the next year.

For this week we were to think about and write a six word memoir. The inspiration for this is from Smith Magazine which supports a huge movement of these six word memoirs.

So here is my life right now, in six words...

my cup is full of love

I took the photo above on Sunday after my husband made me the sweetest cup of coffee.

DIY Thank You Cards

2012-01-24T13:33:00.000-05:00

I searched and searched for photo thank you cards to send out after Little Man's birthday and Christmas but I just couldn't find any that I felt like were worth what they would cost. I mean, it's just a card with a picture... So I decided to make some instead. Now they aren't as fancy as the ones found at online photo stores, but they are homemade and I love that.

Not to mention that they were super simple to make and basically free (minus the postage, obviously).

I created a 3.5x5 file in Photoshop, layered our pictures on top of the file and printed. Then I just rounded the corners and stamped "A note of thanks" using a stamp from my collection. (I just love rounded corners....sigh)

Super simple, super cheap and super homemade.

Easy peasy!

Weekend in Pictures

2012-01-22T07:00:00.002-05:00

One Little Word

2012-01-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

I'm participating in Ali Edward's One Little Word class this year and I am so looking forward to growing with my word.

This year, I've chosen the word balance to carry me throughout 2012.

I was in full baby-mode in 2011 and I'm looking forward to adding a little more "balance" to my life. My goals for this year were set with my word in mind. I also have some other personal goals that revolve around my word.

I've decided to document my word with a simple 6x6 mini book using supplies I already have. Below are a few images from our January prompt.

Painted canvas cover

(The label is just laying on the cover for now. I can't decide if I like it enough to keep it...)

Title page

Self portrait on left and a transparency on the right

Tag stamped with "balance"

My journaling

For these pages, I included my take on "balance" and a picture of my running shoes.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this word takes me this year!

Matching Mittens

2012-01-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

To go along with our Goodnight Moon and letter M week I cut out some mittens from felt. Sweet Girl carried them around, played with them, matched them and hung them up to "dry". We haven't tried any activities recently using clothespins so I was shocked to see how easily she was able to hang them up on our drying rack.

ABC Fun - Letter M

2012-01-19T10:39:00.000-05:00

We've started back our ABC fun, but have changed it up a little. Sweet Girl is really loving sitting and completing activities and tasks so I tried to add some more challenging things for her. I'm also trying to correlate our activities to a book that we will read throughout the week.

This week we worked on letter M using the book Goodnight Moon.

I printed off some Goodnight Moon activities from here.

Coloring balloons

Practicing writing the letter M

Finger painting a picture of a moon

Cutting practice

I really think Sweet Girl is loving this set up. She definitely loves to cut, color and write. I'm hoping to continue this in addition to our tot trays, but I will likely only make trays once a month. Since they are only used when Little Man is down for his nap, I figured we could keep them out for a longer period rather than changing them out each week.

My First Book

2012-01-17T11:18:00.000-05:00

Sweet Girl has been on quite a coloring and drawing kick recently. The other day she drew so many pictures we decided to laminate her work and make a little book. We are so proud of her and she is quite proud of her book. It was such an easy little activity.

Here are the pages of her book..

(These are the images I dropped into a template so I could include them in my Project Life album.)

And here the book is all laminated and bound with rings.

Monoprinting for Toddlers

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

This idea is from Jean over at The Artful Parent..one of my favorite sites for finding fun and unusual activities!

Start by painting onto your acrylic frame. We used a foam brush but Jean recommended a rolling brush, which would probably cover a little better.

Then make designs on your frame. Sweet Girl chose to use her little fingers.

Then press down your paper onto your frame and you will have a resist of your image on the paper.

We did about a million of these, but here are my favorites.

Letter A

A seal

A smiley face.

Fun Winter Crafts

2012-01-04T07:00:00.002-05:00

After an incredibly warm Christmas and New Years, it's finally starting to feel like winter around here. I'm not a huge fan of freezing cold weather, but I do look forward to winter and snow!

Here are some winter crafts we did last year and will doing in the next couple of weeks!! Welcome winter!!

Ice skating craft

Sweet Girl loved using salt to make the "snow" on the ice skating rink!!

Snowmen using cups

I've seen this craft on a number different sites. All you need is some white paint, two different sized cups and some snowmen accessories (we used buttons, googly eyes, pipe cleaners and a piece of black foam).

Marshmellow snowflakes

I think this was her absolute favorite!! I had to convince her to 'put one on and THEN eat one'....otherwise we wouldn't have had any marshmellows!!!

Snowman blocks

This is from No Time for Flashcards. It was really easy to make and Sweet Girl loved stacking them. I highly recommend using sticky-back foam and sticky googly eyes rather than glue....Sweet Girl was ready to play with them as soon as we were done but had to wait a little while for the glue to dry.

Tot Trays Are Back!!

2012-01-03T14:27:00.000-05:00

We've missed our tot trays around here!!! They have definitely been missed. Sweet Girl still asks for them, but I haven't been able to figure out the best way to keep them accessible to her, but away from Mr. "I like to eat everything". Now that my little guy is on a more predictable sleeping schedule I have decided to bring those good ole trays back out for Sweet Girl to play with while he naps. For now, I am keeping the trays in our guest bedroom closet (which also has slowly been transformed into my craft room). During his nap time, we usually go up and she can play with the trays while I do some of my crafts.

It's working for us so far! I'm hoping to keep up with the trays because Sweet Girl sure does enjoy them!

Here are our trays for this week!

Coin drop

Open and close activity

I've included little trinkets inside each container.

Playdough

Color matching

This is from a Time for Tots set. It's probably Sweet Girl's favorite little activity.

Kumon coloring book

These are fun little books and seem to hold Sweet Girl's interest for a while.

Snowman matching

Happy New Year!!

2012-01-01T08:52:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!! We are welcoming 2012 with open arms and an open heart. 2011 was a good year for us, but we are looking forward to what 2012 has to offer.

I don't usually make resolutions, but this year I've decided to set some personal goals for myself. 2011 was all about baby, baby, baby and I often neglected doing some of the things I really love. Here are my goals for this year....all written down for me to reflect on throughout the year!!

Personal Goal 1:

Run 365 miles

I truly miss running so I've decided to set a goal of 365 miles for myself this year. I'm not being too strict on myself either. I know some days might involve walking or using our elliptical instead of running, but I'm okay with that. My overall goal is to stay active throughout the year.

Personal Goal 2:

Read 12 books

Here's another favorite of mine I wasn't really able to find the time for in 2011. I'm in a book club that meets once a month so the opportunity is definitely there for me. I'm just going to have to make time this year.

Personal Goal 3:

Try 52 new recipes

This goal will probably be the easiest for me. I love to cook and I love to try new recipes. Recently, though, I've stuck to my old favorites and have rotated them throughout the month. I'm excited about trying new recipes and hope to compile a cookbook of my favorites by the end of the year (thanks to my hubby for the great idea!)

Personal Goal 4:

Take a family photo each month

My husband isn't too excited about this one, but I really want to give it a go. I love taking pictures and I wish we had more family pictures. I got an awesome tripod for Christmas and I look forward to trying it out each month....we'll see how that one goes!

So there you have it! My goals for 2012. Nothing too crazy, but definitely something to work toward all year long.

What about you? Any goals or resolutions?

December Daily Days 9-15

2011-12-16T08:13:00.000-05:00

I'm still so in love with this project!! I most likely will have some type of withdrawal once Christmas arrives (besides the obvious post-holiday depression). I've tried to keep it simple in order to keep up with each day. Using Ali's layered templates and full page photos are the way to go for me!!

Here are days 9-15.

Day 9

Our Christmas book tradition

Day 10

I took my daughter to see The Nutcracker. Totally amazing watching the ballet through a two-year old's eyes!

Day 11

"Around the house". Completely copied Ali's awesome layout for the most part.

Day 12

Building our gingerbread house.

Day 13

My letter to my little guy.

After seeing the block stamp Ali used for this layout, I tried to re-create it using her Christmas Boxes brushes. Love the way it turned out!!

I added a few pictures in the page protectors in the middle. Totally love it!

Day 14

Visit to a train garden and lunch with some friends

Day 15

Our Christmas cards

Cardboard Gingerbread House

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

We are planning on putting together our gingerbread house tonight and Sweet Girl has been eyeing the box for a few days. She is anxiously waiting to build it and asks about one-zillion times a day if we can "do it now"! To try to appease her until this evening I put together a little cardboard gingerbread house for her to color, decorate and play with. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun (and a lot less messy)!

I used one of the random boxes we had in our recycling bin. I basically just filled a box inside out and cut a little door.

Then I used two other boxes and shaped them into a point for a roof.

Sweet Girl colored it with markers.

And then added some "gumdrop" stickers and windows.

I pulled out our stash of Christmas stickers which actually included a lot of candy stickers.

Then we added two little candy canes made from pipe cleaners.

And a gingerbread man....

Oh...and even the princess got a chance to visit the gingerbread house. What gingerbread house is complete without princesses??

Peppermint Playdough

2011-12-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

We've made homemade playdough before but have never used any type of scent or extracts. With Christmas being in full force at our house, I thought it would be fun to try and make playdough.

I originally had planned to make red and white "candy cane" playdough, but Sweet Girl had another plan in mind. She reeeeeally wanted to add pink and red candy sprinkles to the playdough so basically we ended up with pink playdough that smells like peppermint. Regardless....it was still fun!!

The playdough recipe I use is from here and really seems to last for a while.

There she is....adding sprinkles to the cooled playdough.

And here is our pink "peppermint" playdough.

Totally recommend using sprinkles in playdough. We both had a blast!! And our hands smelled like peppermint for the rest of the day!

December Daily Days 1-8

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

I am so stinkin' excited to share my December Daily pages. I am absolutely.in.love. I am having so much fun with this project. I've tried to keep it super simple for me and really have been trying to keep my OCD self from getting in the way. One thing I'm really loving is the full page pictures and Ali's layered templates. Love. Them.

So here they are!!

Day 1

Advent calendar and birthday

The left side is Ali's layered template and pictures of my daughter opening our advent calendar. The right side is Ali's overlay and picture/journaling of my son's first birthday.

Day 2

Nativity

Pictures of our nativity scene of the left side and some journaling on the right side. I had a hard time adding just journaling to the right page, but am so glad I did. I included a conversation my daughter was having with the people of the nativity.

Day 3

Breakfast with Santa

The left side of the page has two pictures from our Breakfast with Santa with one of AE's Christmas Twill strips in between. The right side (with the overlay) isn't completed yet because I'm waiting for the picture we had taken with Santa. I also include two 4x6 pictures adhered back to back of my son's birthday party.

Day 4

Christmas tree and letter to Santa

Full page picture of our tree with AE word art and a some written journaling (quote was stolen from AE's page). Right side is AE overlay with another full page picture.

Day 4 (continued)

I added two 5x7 pictures adhered together in between my day 4 pages. On the left is my daughter writing a letter to Santa and on the right is her putting the letter in Santa's mailbox at our post office.

Day 5

Christmas crafts

The left side is another one of Ali's awesome layered templates (seriously in love with these) and the right side has the overlay with some journaling printed directly onto it.

Day 6

Sigh.

My favorite day.

Love my kiddos! The left is a full page picture of them cuddled on the couch watching The Polar Express. I used AE December date overlay and some of her word art on the picture. For the right side I printed the journaling directly onto the cardstock and then printed out a picture from The Polar Express.

Day 7

Twinkle, twinkle!

It may have taken us a few days, but we finally decorated our tree. The left side is a bokeh picture I took of our tree with AE word art. I really had fun playing around with my camera. On the right side I included two pictures taken of our tree (again...I was playing around with my camera!!).

I had a hard time trying to figure out which pictures of our tree and kids to use on this day so, again, I decided to add two 5x7 pictures adhered back to back.

Day 8

Making cookies

The left side is a full page picture in one of AE layered templates. The right side is also one of the layered templates, but I just modified it to fit my page and pictures.

So loving every single minute of this project. Thank you Ali for creating this project and sharing all your amazing ideas!!

Oh Christmas Tree

2011-12-08T20:29:00.002-05:00

I saw this and this on Pinterest several months ago and bookmarked them immediately! I've been counting down the months until I could try them out for myself. Totally love playing around with my camera!!

This truly is the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas Tree Craft

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

Here's another fun and easy Christmas tree craft for you!!

Start by cutting out a tree shape from either chipboard or cardstock.

Then let your little one color the tree green. (Sweet Girl got tired of coloring it so she asked me to finish it for her.)

Next, add some glue for your ornaments.

Then add your ornaments and a tree topper. We used sequins, buttons, pom poms, and yes....googly eyes!

The finished tree!

Christmas Pom Pom Crafts

2011-12-07T07:00:00.002-05:00

Here are a few fun Christmas crafts to make with pom poms.

Start by cutting out your shapes from chipboard or cardboard (it holds up a little better than cardstock or construction paper.)

I cut out a candy cane and a Christmas tree shape.

Then either let your little one add glue or you can add it for them. Sweet Girl didn't want to do the glue so I just did it for her.

Then let them add the pom poms.

Candy cane!

I did them same for the tree. Sorry it's a blurry picture! She was done before I knew it!!

DIY Wrapping Paper

2011-12-06T07:00:00.001-05:00

Sweet Girl and I made wrapping paper today and it is so perfect for wrapping little gifts!

Here's what you need if you want to make some too:
Glossy white wrapping paper (finger paint paper works great too!)

Christmas cookie cutters

Red and green paint

I poured the red and green paint into two different plates so the colors wouldn't run together.

Then Sweet Girl dipped the cookie cutters into the paint and pressed them onto the paper.

(Can you tell she hates to get her fingers dirty???)

She stamped all the different cookie cutters over our paper and we ended up with some pretty wrapping paper!

Guess it's time to get wrapping!!

25 Books of Christmas

2011-12-02T07:00:00.004-05:00

Welcome December!! What a wonderful month for us! Full of first birthdays, holiday traditions and Christmas!

We officially kicked off our month by opening our first book of Christmas on December 1st! I started the tradition of wrapping 25 Christmas related books last year with Sweet Girl and I'm so excited Little Man is old enough to participate (that is if my little lady would let him!!).

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!!

Happy Birthday Little Man!

2011-12-01T21:23:00.000-05:00

A year has come and gone....

Where did it go???

Happy birthday to the sweetest and cutest little guy I know! We love you sweet boy! You have brought so much love and joy to our lives!

December Daily Cover - Tutorial

2011-11-17T06:00:00.005-05:00

Thank you for all the super sweet comments you all left yesterday and the day before!! I just loooove getting comments!! :) And I'm so loving this December Daily!! I can't wait for December to begin!

I received several questions and requests for how I made my white circle paper so I decided to put together a simple little tutorial. Really...it's that simple.

(Click here and here to see my cover and album)

Here are the super easy directions!!

Supplies:

You'll need two pieces of white paper, white metallic dimensional paint (I used fabric paint since that's what I had on hand), Mod Podge or something equivalent and some type of round lid.

I found my paper at JoAnn Fabrics. It has a little bit of a texture to it and it has these really pretty flecks of gold and silver throughout. The tag on my paper said it's from The Paper Company and is called Celebration White. You will need two 12x12 sheets if you are trying to cover the album included in the Studio Calico December Daily kit.

So the first thing you do is stamp your paper using your lid. I just squirted a little bit of my white dimensional paint on a plate and laid my lid down in the paint to coat the edges.

Then "stamp" your paper.

This is what it looked like when I removed my lid. You can see where the lid moved a little while I was "stamping", but that's what I loved best about the circles....how they weren't perfect.

Then just stamp all over your paper. I left a little space in between each circle because I knew I was going to go back and stamp them several more times.

Continue stamping your circles until you are satisfied with how they look! I tried to overlap them a little.

Here is what it looks like after 4 stamps. That's about how many times I stamped each of my circles.

Your next step is to cover your album.

I didn't take pictures of this part, but basically I just painted my album white, trimmed my paper, rounded the corners and adhered with Mod Podge.

One 12x12 sheet (with about 3 inches trimmed from the bottom) will cover the entire front, spine and a little of the back of the album. I trimmed the second 12x12 sheet to fit the back perfectly and then Mod Podged that on.

And that's it!!

Happy crafting and please let me know if you have any questions!!

December Daily - Foundation Pages 14-25

2011-11-16T06:32:00.002-05:00

Thank you so much to everyone who left sweet comments yesterday!! I had so much fun putting these foundation pages together and I'm so happy I have a blog to share them on!!

Here are pages 14-25!

(Click here to see the cover and pages 1-13)

My goal is to try to keep up with my pages daily, but with two little ones, we'll just have to wait and see. My "plan" right now is to try to upload my completed pages on the weekends!!

Thanks again for visiting!!

December Daily - Cover and Foundation Pages 1-13

2011-11-15T06:25:00.002-05:00

I am so excited to share my December Daily album cover and foundation pages. I've anticipated this time all year long and it's a little bittersweet that the making of the album has already come and gone. For those of you not familiar with December Daily, you just have to go check out Ali Edwards and her amazingly inspirational December Daily posts. Basically, it is a month long project documenting the 25 days leading up to Christmas (which just happens to be my most favorite time of the year)!!

The cover of my album is completely inspired by Ali's cover from last year . I loved the look of the white circle speciality paper she used so I decided to try to make my own. I just love how it turned out!!

The felt poinsettia with the "December 2012" button is inspired by Nicole Reaves amazing December Daily album.

And here is the "base" of my album. It's prepped and all ready for December 1st to roll around!! I decided to go with 6x8 transparencies inbetween my pages. I had originally planned to make them the same size of the page protectors, but I would have had to use one transparency per page and that was just too costly for me. Using the 6x8 size I was able to get two per transparency. Most of my inspiration came from looking through different albums on Pinterest.

If you made it this far, thanks so much for looking!! I'll be back tomorrow with the remaining pages.

Update: Click here to see pages 14-25

Baby Fun - Finger Painting

2011-11-14T07:00:00.001-05:00

Now that Little Man is almost ONE (can you believe it??) and isn't putting EVERYTHING in his mouth now-a-days, he is able to play along with us during our craft time!

He loves "finger painting" with yogurt and puddings.

He was a little hesitant at first, but quickly got the hang of it and enjoyed playing around!

(Look at those chubby little fingers!)

I used construction paper and yogurt here, so the paper easily soaked up the water from the yogurt and the paper was super easy to rip. I'm pretty sure this was his favorite part.

Then the paper had to go because he was ready to eat it, so it was he ended up just using his highchair tray.

It's obviously a little messy, but it's great for introducing textures and temperatures to little ones.

Painting Leaves

2011-11-11T07:00:00.001-05:00

We went out for a little nature walk yesterday and Sweet Girl gathered some leaves. She asked to paint them, and although they were already dried, I decided to let her go ahead. She really enjoyed it and spent quite a while painting them. I would have never thought to paint dried leaves, but I'm so glad we did!!

I taped the stem and top half of the leaf onto the paper so it wouldn't move around. Sweet Girl still isn't much of a fan of getting her fingers dirty so I thought that would help.

Happy Fall!!

Fall Button Tree

2011-11-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sweet Girl and I made the cutest little Fall tree branch today. I had some extra buttons lying around that were "Fall-ish" in color and she asked to make something with them!!

I cut out a branch from some brown cardstock and had her glue it onto the white paper. Initially, she added the glue dots for the buttons, but I think she got tired of doing it, so she asked me to help.

This simple little activity turned into quite a fun little learning experience. Sweet Girl sorted all the colors by shades (there were some lights and darks of the same colors) and sizes.

She was adamant about grouping all the same color "leaves" together. And I really think she was a little disappointed when she used up all the pinks. This would have been an all pink tree branch if she could have her way!!

Ah....the colors of Fall!

Family Thankful Board

2011-11-09T07:00:00.006-05:00

This month my husband and I wanted to be sure to remember all of the things we are thankful for in our lives. Originally, we had decided to just make sure we talked about what we were thankful for each day, but after seeing this gratitude board I knew I wanted to keep a running list all month long!!

I used a piece of poster board and a frame we had sitting in our basement. I added the word "thankful" at the bottom of the frame and our pictures at the top.

We talk daily with Sweet Girl about what it means to be thankful and ask her what she is most thankful for that day. The first day she said "privacy"....yes, privacy....as in, "would you like some privacy (while using the bathroom). I'm pretty sure she didn't really understand the meaning, but it was a great start to our board!! The second day she said she was thankful for our neighbor's playground. I think she's starting to get it!!

My husband and I are writing our own, but we are both adding in the kids comments (minus Little Man....we are just "guessing" his...mostly consists of things like Momma, Momma, pacifiers, Momma, Momma, yogurt melts, Momma). We are also using different color of pens since I have our board is going to fill up quickly!!

December Daily 2011

2011-11-08T07:00:00.001-05:00

I'm joining Ali Edwards this season and creating a December Daily album. I am beyond excited and can't wait to document my most favorite time of the year. I've actually coerced my wonderful aunt into doing this project with me and I am so excited to have someone so close to me participating too. As soon as my fabulous kit from Studio Calico arrives at my doorstep I plan to turn on my Christmas music and start assembling my foundation pages.

Anyone else planning on joining in the fun???

Recycled Crayons

2011-11-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

One of the things we made this summer was crayon blocks from recycled crayons. These still get lots of use at our house and I really love how "chunky" they are for little fingers. Sweet Girl tends to gravitate towards the crayons made using a mini muffin tin rather than the ones from a regular sized muffin tin. I guess they are just easier for her to hold and color with. I'm adding these to my "to-make" list for Christmas gifts. I'm hoping to pick up some cute Christmas molds that I can use!

Fall Tree Craft

2011-11-04T07:00:00.000-04:00

I saw this idea several times during some of my peruses through Pinterest (still addicting, by the way)! It's such a super simple and cute idea and I thought Sweet Girl would enjoy it (which she did)!

All you need is two pieces of construction paper, paint and a few leftover corks.

I cut the tree trunks out and let her glue them down. Then I handed her the paint and the corks.

These are some "falling leaves" according to Sweet Girl!

I think they turned out so cute!

Art Box Fun

2011-11-03T09:15:00.000-04:00

I put together an art box for Sweet Girl to play with whenever she is in a crafty mood!! This box gets used a lot and I love that she has everything she needs to cut, paste, glue, lace, etc.

This is a tackle box from Walmart. It was only a couple of dollars, and it's not the sturdiest, but it seems to work for us.

Most of the items in the box are either from my craft stash or the dollar store. Here's what we have in our box:

Pipe cleaners

Googly eyes

Sticky backed jewels

Pom poms

Bells

Pony beads

Popsicle sticks

Feathers

Clothespins

Glue

Sticky backed stickers

Sweet Girl enjoys making all sorts of things from the box and I love how open-ended it is.

She also enjoys using the pony beads and pipe cleaners to make necklaces and bracelets.

What about you all? Do you have an art box or an art station?

These are the moments...

2011-10-14T07:00:00.001-04:00

I want to remember these little moments forever!

There is truly nothing sweeter than seeing your two children play together. The love they have for one another (even at this early age) is unbelievable. No one makes Little Man laugh the way Sweet Girl can!!

Paper Plate Cat and Pumpkin

2011-10-13T07:00:00.002-04:00

Here are a few more fun paper plate crafts we have done this season. I didn't have my camera handy while we were making these, so this is a picture of them sitting up in our kitchen window.

For both of these crafts, I cut the pieces out while Sweet Girl painted the paper plates. Then she glued them on in whatever way she wanted.

We actually ended up making three pumpkins and two cats so our kitchen is quite a sight right now!!

Spooky Spider Craft

2011-10-12T20:30:00.002-04:00

Going with the Halloween spirit, we made spooky spiders the other day. It's amazing to watch my daughter's skills develop over time. She is much better at painting a complete surface, has so much more fine motor skills and really does a great, precise job with the glue.

For this simple craft, we started with a paper plate, which we painted (purple, of course. Aren't your spiders purple???).

Then I let Sweet Girl add the glue for the googly eyes.

While she was putting on the eyes, I finished cutting out the eight legs for our scary spider.

Then she glued them on. This turned out to be pretty tricky because of the rim of the paper plate. It might work better if you used a thicker piece of cardstock or even cardboard.

And there you have it....a VERY spooky spider. :)

Week In The Life

2011-10-05T07:08:00.002-04:00

I've been busy working on our Week in the Life album and I am so in love!!

For anyone who doesn't know what Week in the Life is, you just have to stop whatever you are doing now and go check out Ali Edwards blog! She is absolutely amazing and so inspiring!

I'm not much of a scrapbooker, but I do enjoy taking lots and lots of pictures. Which....has led to lots and lots of pictures on my computer and external hard drive. I struggled for a while trying to figure out what in the world to do with all these pictures. I make an occasional picture book from SmileBooks or something and also have a few baby books in the works, but it was the "everyday" stuff that I couldn't figure out what to do with.

In comes the amazing and talented Ali Edwards.

After stalking her blog and being bummed that I missed this years Week in the Life, I pulled my head up and decided I would just go ahead and do my own Week in the Life book!

The process was time consuming, but the end result is oh so worth it!!

And that's what I've been busy doing!! Now I'm hooked! I have big plans of a December Daily book this year, as well as the beginnings of Becky Higgins Project Life next year. And finally....I feel like I am doing something with all these pictures!! Yay me!!

Apple Tree Craft

2011-10-04T07:00:00.000-04:00

Here's another fun apple craft we did this week.

I cut out the trunk and top of tree and Sweet Girl glued them down to her paper.

Then she added little dots of glue for her "apples". I was so impressed with how much more control she has with a bottle of glue, as well as how focused she was.

Next she placed her apples on her tree.

Here she was adding branches to her tree.

And just like most things we do, she wanted to make a second tree after we were finished so we used red dot stickers as our apples this time.

Her apple trees.

Fall Leaf Wreath

2011-10-03T07:00:00.000-04:00

Fall is by far my favorite season! I love it all....cool weather, colorful leaves, football, sweaters, jean, anything pumpkin... Today Sweet Girl and I made the most beautiful Fall wreath for our house.

We used liquid water colors to paint coffee filters. We used primarily fall-ish colors, although purple did get thrown in there per Sweet Girl's request. I think using water colors on coffee filters is fun for little ones because the water spreads the color so quickly.

After the coffee filters were completely covered we set them aside to dry. It doesn't take long...only about 20 minutes or so.

Then I folded up the filters several times and cut our leaves out. So pretty! Even the purple leaves look pretty!

I cut out the middle of a paper plate and then Sweet Girl helped me glue on the leaves.

Ah....the beautiful colors of Fall!

Apple Printing

2011-09-30T07:00:00.001-04:00

I had about three months where both my kiddos went down for naps at the same time and that quiet time I had was soooo nice. Now, though, my little princess has decided she no longer wants to take naps and pretty much only has about 15 minutes of "rest time" before she dances downstairs and tells me that nap time is over. So instead of my quiet time, we have art/craft time together...which has turned out to be great one-on-one time for us (although I still miss that occasional solitude, you know!).

We're all ready for Fall so today we did some apple printing. We tried this last year, but Sweet Girl wasn't really into it that much. She had much more fun this time!

First she stamped red apple prints all over the paper.

Then she added a little green stem and some leaves to the tops of the apples.

And then she just had to experiment with the paint by painting the apple and finger painting.

Finger Painting a Rainbow

2011-09-29T07:01:00.000-04:00

With all the rain we've had recently we have been fortunate enough to see quite a few rainbows. Sweet Girl wanted to see one today, and since we couldn't find one, we decided to make one.

First she started off with just some simple finger painting. She isn't the biggest fan of getting her fingers and hands all dirty so she usually just uses one finger.

Then she started to make her rainbow.

The finished product!

And I always keep some paper towels of a sponge close by for her to wipe her hands off as needed.

Pink Sparkly Playdough

2011-09-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

This pink sparkly playdough is the new hit at our house! Sweet Girl and I had fun making this the other day. As always, anything with glitter is super fun!

I used this basic playdough recipe and just added several drops of red food coloring for the pink color. Sweet Girl helped me mix everything together in the pot and then I "cooked" it on the stove.

Once it reached a playdough consistency, I rolled it out and handed it over to her. Then she added bottles and bottles of glitter.

Playdough is always fun!

Tot Trays

2011-09-27T07:00:00.002-04:00

Color matching

These peg people get used a lot at our house. Usually for pretend play in our doll house. This tray is pretty simple and easy for Sweet Girl, but she enjoys them so I like to leave them out.

Pouring beans

Still a favorite at our house!

Knobbed cylinders

I usually try to just remove one row at a time because they can be pretty tricky to match up if they are all out.

Storytelling

For this tray I pulled out some of our little wooden animal/object pieces. We will take turns pulling out one object/animal at a time and try to "tell a little story" about our objects. Sweet Girl is really into stories right now.

Body part puzzle

Pretend Grocery Store Play

2011-09-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

Sweet Girl is very much into pretend play right now. Most days she is decked out in some elaborate costume of some sort....usually pink or purple, and usually princess. And sometimes that said princess says she needs to go "shopping"....so we made up a pretend grocery store that was so fun!!

First I gathered up a little box, some coins and pretend dollars.

Then I sat out some of our pretend food. I grouped like foods together.

I added some labels to the empty boxes to help with number recognition and matching.

Then my little shopper went to the grocery store with her little baby!!

Once she gathered up all her groceries, I helped her "check out". I made up a pretend amount and we counted out our money. The little activity turned out to be quite a little learning experience.

First Day of Preschool

2011-09-23T07:00:00.002-04:00

Look who started 2-year old pre-school this week??? Granted it's a mom-and-me class, but hey...it's still pre-school.

I can't believe she is old enough to go to school! She had a great first day! As soon as she walked into the room she started dancing around on the rug.

Then, she quickly found the dress up clothes. That's my girl.

We love you big girl!

Alphabet Box

2011-09-22T06:51:00.000-04:00

I wanted to share our alphabet box today!! The majority of the objects I use for our weekly letter sensory bin are from this box! I had so much fun hunting for objects...and I'm actually still on the hunt for a few things!! I found about half of our objects in the drawers, toy boxes and baskets in our house. The rest I picked up at either the dollar store or the craft store!!

All of our objects are stored alphabetically in a hardware box I found at Lowes. I used some alphabet stickers I already had on the front of each drawer.

The hardware box is great because the drawers can be easily removed.

Here are our letter A and letter B objects.

Right now, I keep the box stored in a closet. Eventually, I hope I can keep this box accessible to Sweet Girl so she can play with and sort the objects. She loves playing with it!! But I know if I left it out now, she would just hoard them all in her purse never to be returned!!

Mari-Ann at Counting Coconuts wrote several awesome posts about her alphabet box!! Be sure to check those out for more detailed information!

Rainy Day Fun

2011-09-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

I am a total home body!! I would be in absolute heaven if could just stay inside and craft all week. Sweet Girl, on the other hand, is a go-go-go kinda girl. She loves getting out of the house and running around! But...on rainy days when we're stuck inside, she can get a little stir-cray. Between the hurricane and crazy rains we've had recently, I feel like we have been locked inside. Here is one of our favorite ways to get out some energy!!

The handy-dandy air mattress!

Yup...that's Sweet Girl LAUNCHING herself onto our air mattress. I blow it up right in our living room and let her bounce away. It's kinda like our own cheap version of a bouncy place.

That face says it all!!!

Other indoor favorites:

Kicking around balloons and balls

Blowing bubbles

Red rover

Hopscotch (I make our hopscotch with blue painters tape on the floor)

DIY Quiet Book (Fast & Easy)

2011-09-08T14:01:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago we took a long trip up to New Hampshire to visit my husband's grandparents. We have a short little flight and then a 2-hour car drive so I wanted to make sure Sweet Girl stayed busy and content. I came across this idea for a quiet book using velcro and I knew it would be perfect for our trip! (And yes...I'm still addicted to Pinterest.)

I cut out most of images using a Slice machine, glued them on and then laminated the pages. Then I added the velcro, attached all the pieces and bound it together with book rings.

Here's a look at our pages:

Cover

My name is....

Matching shapes

Big and small match

Five Little Ducks song

Traffic Light

Matching color shades

Dress up

(These adorable dress up dolls and clothes are from Babalisme. She has some incredible free printables. I have printed out most of her dress up dolls! They are just too cute to pass up!!)

Here's a closer look....how adorable!!

The book was great during our flight and road trip, but also turned out to be very handy for quiet time once we were up in NH. Sweet Girl still loves to play with it and I plan on adding more pages eventually!

Counting Cookies

2011-09-06T07:00:00.002-04:00

I originally saw this idea over at Counting Coconuts and knew I wanted to make some for Sweet Girl. They were super easy to make. All you need is felt (I used brown and black), thread/needle, fabric glue and some batting/interfacing. I used a large cup to trace my circles onto the felt. Then I cut them out and placed a piece of batting in between the two pieces. I hand stitched them together and used fabric glue to glue on my "chocolate chips".

We've had fun playing with these in our play kitchen. Sometimes we will count the cookies, sometimes we will count the chocolate chips. Sometimes I'll ask her to bring me the cookie with "just one chocolate chip" or the cookie with "the most chocolate chips", etc.. And then sometimes she will bring them to me and say "hey mom....look it has one chocolate chip".

Toddler Art - Homemade Puffy Paint

2011-09-05T07:00:00.000-04:00

We had so much fun making and playing with our own homemade puffy paint the other day! This stuff totally took me back to my childhood. I completely remember doing this in elementary school!

I followed the recipe on The Artful Parent. Sweet Girl mixed everything together. Then we added our different colors of food coloring and poured them into squeeze bottles.

It's neat to see the diminsion in the paint...for me, at least....I don't think Sweet Girl even noticed. She did have tons of fun squeezing the bottles, though. That's all that counts!

Baby Fun - Stars

2011-09-02T07:18:00.000-04:00

This turned out to be a fun little activity for my guy!! He is soooo busy and into everything so I wanted to try to find something for him to do that would keep him engaged and interested for more than one second!!

I stuck sticky note stars all over our kitchen door and let him go to town pulling them down!! He loves to stand up and grab stuff so I thought this would be a fun activity for him.

Little Man pulled every.single.one. of those stars down. Then I stuck them back up....again....and again...and again. Then I did it for Sweet Girl too. She just couldn't stand to miss out on all the fun!!

Toddler Art - Body Tracing and Coloring

2011-08-24T09:11:00.000-04:00

We had a lot of fun tracing and coloring our bodies the other day!

I taped down some left over packing paper and then traced Sweet Girl's little body. After it was traced, we labeled all of her body parts and then she "colored" them in and "dressed herself".

It was a great little activity for a rainy little day. I saved the paper and plan on doing the same thing again when she is a little older. It will be neat to see how much she has grown and how much her coloring skills have developed!!

Drawing and Writing

2011-08-23T07:46:00.000-04:00

I am in full cleaning and organization mode at our house so I decided to hold off on our tot trays this week. Not to mention that Little Man is constantly on the go and I still haven't found the best method for us and our trays. We've tried the whole "leave them in a drawer" option, but I feel like they definitely don't get used as often as when they were left out on our little table. Still kinda struggling with that. Anyway....we have mainly been doing fun art projects, drawing, coloring and playing with stickers. My little lady surprised me the other day and did some AMAZING drawing and writing!! It's been so fun to watch her scribbles turn into "people" and letters.

This is a drawing of herself.

This just blew me away! This is her name.

And here is her name again. (I made her do it again and again because I was just so amazed!!)

Toddler Art - Exploring Papers

2011-08-22T13:51:00.000-04:00

If I know we are staying home in the afternoon I try to have some new and fun activity set up for Sweet Girl for when she gets up from her nap. I found this idea over at The Artful Parent and knew I wanted to try it out!! Today, I brought out our super fun Crayola Slick Stixs and taped down a couple of different types of paper to her small table.

I used: bubble wrap, tin foil, fingerpaint paper and cardstock.

This activity kept her occupied for quite a while. She really enjoyed coloring on the different papers and she REALLY loved the bubble wrap. I'm hoping to try some bubble wrap painting this week!!

Baby Fun - Discovery Basket

2011-08-19T07:00:00.001-04:00

So....this little guy is keeping me pretty busy these days!! This silly man loves to roam around and gets into everything!! He will play with a toy for a minute or two, but usually quickly loses interest and moves onto other things....usually things that are not toys.

I put together a discovery basket for Sweet Girl when she was about Little Man's age and she really loved it! I pulled out the basket recently and added a few new things to it.

Here's what is in our basket:

Several scraps of fabric with different textures (corduroy, burlap, cotton)

A knotted piece of rope

Bells

Water bottle noise makers

Empty water bottle

Wooden spoon

Two plastic spoons

Bean bag

Plastic container filled with black beans

Paper mache box

Golf ball

Small tupperware bowl

As with most babies his age, Little Man explores all things with his mouth. I've made sure nothing is too small for his mouth and that everything is sealed very well (shakers, noise makers).

Practical Life - Washing Baby

2011-08-17T07:40:00.000-04:00

Let me introduce you to the new favorite activity at our house.....WASHING A BABY!! Seriously...Sweet Girl has done this a ga-zillion times this week. We definitely have the cleanest babies on the block!!

She's really good at undressing the baby and it's getting easier for her to put her clothes back on. Her face is priceless when she is able to do it all by herself!! Little. Miss. Independent!

We actually have this little baby bathtub that she got for her 2nd birthday that works perfectly, but any container or even bowl would work!!

Try it out!! I guarentee your little one will become addicted too!!

Toddler Art - Contact Paper and Watercolors

2011-08-16T07:00:00.001-04:00

Sweet Girl wanted to play around with our liquid watercolor paints the other day so I perused one of my favorite blogs, The Artful Parent, for a fun activity. Since Sweet Girl isn't able to cut contact paper yet, I cut out different shapes for us and then laid out our watercolor paper and watercolors.

While she was removing the paper backing from the contact paper, we talked about what shape the pieces were, if they were big or little, etc.

Then she used several different types of brushes to apply the liquid watercolors. She was quite facinated by how the color would only stay on the paper.

(Couldn't let go of baby long enough to paint, huh?)

Once they dried, I peeled away the contact paper. It didn't come off as easily as I had anticipated....probably because our paper was pretty saturated, but oh well!! It was a fun little learning activity!!

DIY Sticker Books

2011-08-15T08:32:00.000-04:00

Sweet Girl has a fascination with stickers. She usually just uses a piece of paper which eventually gets tossed but I thought that sticker books would be more fun and more useful to her!!

For the cover and back of our books we used some of our shaving cream art. The inside pages are just pieces of colored cardstock. Then we used the sewing machine to bind them. Sweet Girl loved helping me sew!!

I love that they are a little "neater". All those pieces of paper were started to collect in our house!! I've even stashed one in my purse for when we are out and plan on making some new ones to take with us on an upcoming flight to see family!

Baby Fun - DIY Rattles and Noise Makers

2011-08-12T07:00:00.002-04:00

Little Man is actively exploring EVERYTHING these days!! He will play with an actual toy for a minute or two, but quickly moves onto something else. He is in love with water bottles and tupperware for some reason so I decided to make him some rattles and noise makers! They are so simple to make and you can use just about anything!

For ours I used water bottles, small tupperware containers and a spice jar. In our containers I added: pony beads, wooden beads, sesame seeds and black beans.

These have been quite a hit with Little Man!!