A Flower Garden

We made a beautiful flowery garden using cupcake liners and pipe cleaners the other day!  Oh...and glitter.  Anna always asks for glitter....always.

They are easy to make, and other than the glitter, aren't that messy.

Supplies needed:

cupcake liners

paint

glitter (optional)

pipe cleaners

paper

glue

Start by painting the inside of your cupcake liners.

Sprinkle in some glitter if you'd like.

Glue down a few pipe cleaners onto your paper.  (I recommend using a good amount of glue.  The pipe cleaners like to roll around a little.)

Then glue on the tops of your flowers!  

Happy creating!

Face Painting Fun

Want to have an hour to yourself???

Sounds amazing, right?

I have the answer!!  Face painting!!

I picked up a face painting kit at the craft store a while back and totally forgot about it!  Anna wanted to "do something fun" so I pulled it out and she went nuts!  

First she asked for a rainbow on her cheek...

Then she decided to paint a rainbow on her arm...

And then she started to get a little crazy...

And even crazier!!!

Even the poor baby got painted!

So...go pick up some face paint, grab your coffee and a book and let your kiddo have some fun!!  I highly recommend face painting for preschoolers!!

Easy Gum Ball Craft

For some reason, my daughter kept requesting to do a "gum ball craft".  I wasn't really sure what she had in mind, but this is what I came up with.  It turned out to be a lot of fun and she enjoyed it!!

Start by cutting out a circle and a square from card stock or construction paper.  (Have your child do the cutting if they can...).  Then glue the circle onto the square to make your gum ball machine.

Add a little dispenser...because...."mom...where is the gum ball going to come out?" (Love her.)

Then use a round object to stamp your gum balls all over your gum ball machine.  We used a wine cork.

And if you want to have more gum ball fun, check out our gum ball machine post from last year!  We brought it back out after we made our new gum ball machines and got to work adding more colorful gum balls! 

Dancing Ballerinas

I set up a little craft for Anna the other day while little brother napped.  She's completely obsessed with ballerinas (and mermaids too) so she loved it.  We've made quite a few dancing ballerina since.

Click here for the ballerina template and to see where I got the idea from!

We used cupcake liners as the tutus and Anna really loved that!  

Summer Fun: Finger Painting with Shaving Cream

One of the activities on our Summer Fun List is to make shaving cream books.  We've done lots of shaving cream art and it's probably the most requested activity in our house.

Usually we use a spoon or some type of stirring device, but this time we decided to throw caution to the wind and do some finger painting with shaving cream.

After you squeeze your shaving cream into your pan....

Have your kiddo mix it all up with their fingers.  For the prettiest results, try to leave some the swirl-y patterns you see above.

Press your paper onto your shaving cream design and lift up.  Let it sit for about 4-5 minutes before scrapping off all the shaving cream.

You'll be left some awesome colors and awesome patterns.

And...if your sweetie is like mine, she'll probably want to play around some more!!

Happy painting!

Star Necklaces and Bracelets

This was an "invitation to play" that I set out for my daughter one afternoon.  We both had the best time making necklaces and bracelets for pretty much everyone we know.

It's so simple and so perfect for those fine motor skills!

All you need is some pipe cleaners and some beads (I used some star shaped beads I picked up at the craft store a while back).

Check out all our invitations to play here.

Family Memory Game

This family memory game has been on my to-do list since I saw this post from Charla Anne.

It took a while to find all the right pictures, print them and cut them out, but the finished product is so seriously awesome.

My daughter loves playing this game and it's really neat to see all the pictures.  I bet it will be even cooler in a few years when my two kiddos are older.

It would be an awesome birthday or Christmas gift too!